Giovanni da Verrazano sailed from Dieppe and explored the east coast of America from North Carolina to Canada. Ten years later, Francis I turned to Jacques Cartier, a Breton navigator from Saint Malo. During his first voyage in 1534, Cartier explored the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and, soon after, sailed up the Saint Lawrence to Hochelaga,
a village located where Montreal now stands. The colonisation of New France began in the early 17th century.
