Jacques Cartier

In the words of the commission he was to "discover certain islands and lands where it is said that a great quantity of gold and other precious things are to be found". The men also began collecting what they believed to be diamonds and gold but which upon return to France were discovered to be merely quartz crystals and iron pyrites respectively — which gave rise to a French expression: "faux comme les diamants du Canada" ("As false as Canadian diamonds"). Lawrence River—an indispensable preliminary to French settlement in their lands.

Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River which he named "The Country of Canadas" after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona (Quebec City) and at Hochelaga (Montreal Island).