[ 1534 ]

In 1534, King François I of France commissioned Jacques Cartier to seek out new lands to the west in search of gold and the northwest passage to Cathay.  With two ships and a crew of 61, he explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Gaspé.  On 24 July, he took possession of the territory for the King of France by erecting a 30-foot wooden cross bearing the royal arms (three fleurs-de-lis).  Although Cartier made two more voyages, it was not until Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec in 1608 that permanent French settlement was achieved.  For the next century and a half the white flag of France, sometimes with, sometimes without, the royal arms in the centre, flew over the French colonies in North America.