Saint Lawrence River

In 1535, during Jacques Cartier's second voyage to Canada, the Natives described a watercourse so long that "no man had ever reached the end of it." When Cartier described its depth and approaches, he spoke of a river "the like of which I have never seen before."

On August 10, the feast day of Saint Lawrence, Cartier gave this name to a bay on the North Shore. A cartographer was later to apply it to the river. In the writings on this voyage it is called the Great Hochelaga River, the Canadian Trail and the Great River. Samuel de Champlain spoke in turn of the Canada River and the Saint Lawrence River.