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French exploration
| | | | The French explorer, Jacques Cartier, made three voyages to the New World between 1534 and 1542. Cartier was looking for the Northwest Passage - a water route through North America to Asia. He found the St. Lawrence River and explored it as far as present-day Montreal, Canada.
French explorers kept trying to find the Northwest Passage. In 1603, Samuel de Champlain explored much of what is now eastern Canada and northern New York State. He claimed this land for France. He set up a settlement at Quebec and sailed across Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. But he did not find the Northwest Passage.
Some French explorers thought that the Mississippi River might be a passage west to the Pacific Ocean. In 1673 Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette travelled down the Mississippi by raft and canoe. Robert La Salle, another French explorer, travelled to the mouth of the Mississippi in 1682. He called the surrounding area Louisiana and claimed the entire Mississippi Valley for France.
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