Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier (31 December 1491 - 1 September 1557) was a French-Breton maritime explorer for France. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and its shores, which he dubbed "The Country of Canadas" after the Iroquoian names for the two major settlements he saw at Stadacona (Quebec City) and Hochelaga (Montreal Island).
Having discovered the entrance to the St. Lawrence on his first voyage, he now created the most important waterway for European penetration of North America. He produced an intelligent estimate of Canada's natural and human resources, albeit with a significant exaggeration of its mineral wealth. While some of his actions toward the St. Lawrence Iroquoians were dishonorable, he did try to establish friendship with them and other native peoples living along the St. Lawrence River at times - an essential prerequisite to French settlement in their lands.
Cartier was the first to use the name Canada to describe the territory on the St-Lawrence River. The name comes from the Huron-Iroquois word kanata, which was misinterpreted as the native term for the newly discovered land. Cartier used the name to describe Stadacona, the surrounding land, and the river itself. Cartier named the inhabitants (Iroquoians) he saw there Canadiens. Following that, the name Canada was applied to the small French colony on these shores, and the French colonists were known as Canadiens until the mid-nineteenth century, when the name began to be applied to the loyalist colonies on the Great Lakes, and later to all of British North America. In this sense, Cartier is not strictly the European discoverer of Canada as it is known today, a vast federation stretching a mari usque ad mare (from sea to sea). The Norse, as well as Basque, Galician, and Breton fishermen, and possibly the Corte-Real brothers and John Cabot, had previously visited the eastern parts (in addition of course to the natives who first inhabited the territory). Cartier made a significant contribution to the discovery of Canada by being the first European to penetrate the continent, specifically the interior eastern region along the St. Lawrence River. His explorations helped to solidify France's claim to the territory that would later be colonized as New France, and his third voyage produced the first documented European attempt at settling North America since Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón's in 1526-1527.
Cartier's professional skills are easily discernible. Cartier may be considered one of the most conscientious explorers of the period, given that he made three voyages of exploration in dangerous and previously unknown waters without losing a ship, and that he entered and departed some 50 undiscovered harbours without serious mishap.
Cartier was also among the first to formally recognize the New World as a separate land mass from Europe/Asia.
