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Jacques Cartier (December 31, 1491 September 1, 1557) was a French explorer of Breton origin who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which henamed "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona (Quebec City) and at Hochelaga (Montreal Island). 2.Samuel de Champlain (French pronunciation: born Samuel Champlain; on or before August 13, 1574 December 25, 1635), "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608. He is important to Canadian history because he made the first accurate map of the coast and he helped establish the settlements. 3.Quebec is Canada's largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division; only the territory of Nunavut is larger. Quebec is Canada's second most populous province, after Ontario. 4.The historic period in Illinois began with the explorations of Marquette and Jolliet. In the summer of 1673, Louis Jolliet, a cartographer and fur trader from Quebec, and Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit priest, left the Straits of Mackinac to explore the Mississippi River. The French had heard about the river and thought it might be the fabled Northwest Passage to the Orient. Marquette and Jolliet traveled down the Mississippi River in a pair of birch bark canoes as far as present-day Arkansas. With no sign that the river would head west, and knowing they were approaching Spanish territory, they turned around. On their return trip, they took a shortcut up the Illinois River. The two explorers kept written records of their journey. Jolliet's map and journal were lost in a canoe accident, but Marquette's manuscript survived. It is the earliest known written record of Illinois. 5. Ren-Robert

Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-1687) was a French explorer. He was sent by King Louis XIV (14) to travel south from Canada and sail down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. He was the first European to travel the length of the Mississippi River (1682). His mission was to explore and establish fur-trade routes along the river. La Salle named the entire Mississippi basin Louisiana, in honor of the King, and claimed it for France on April 9, 1682. He also explored Lake Michigan (1679), Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. He tried to start a settlement in the southern Mississippi River Valley, but the venture ended in disaster.