As the origin of Montreal is bound up so closely with the history of the colonization of La Nouvelle France, it is well to place it in relation with this movement, otherwise Montreal will appear as detached from its mission in the growth and development of Canada. The date usually assigned for the discovery of Canada is April 5, 1409, but the knowledge of Canada begins only with Jacques Cartier. Long, however, before him, the fishing grounds of Newfoundland had seen navigators from Dieppe, St. Malo, La Rochelle, Honfleur and other ports of France, besides those of Cornwall, Devonshire and the Channel Islands. Brave mariners, Normands, Bretons and Basques, besides being familiar with Newfoundland, knew vaguely of the existence of Canada, although that name had not been yet attached to this country. Other nations also were represented in these fishing regions, but it was reserved to Cartier definitely to discover it, and to Francis I of France, to attempt to colonize and christianize it. It must be conceded that the religious policy played a great part, as the commissions granted to Cartier, Champlain, and others, as well as the report of these and the relations of their discoveries, amply testify. Lescarbot, no good Catholic, acknowledges that: "Our kings in enterprising these movements for discovery, have had another end than that of our neighbours (the English and the Dutch). For I see by their commissions that these smack only of the advancement of the Christian religion without any present profit." It is this lofty missionary spirit that we must read into the adventurous motives of the first discoverers and founders of Canada--La Nouvelle France--of Quebec and Montreal in particular, else nothing but a sordid desire for trade, mixed perhaps with adventure, is to be the story of the origin of our great country. Unless the religious character and close touch with the supernatural, possessed by the first inhabitants are appreciated, the romance of the accounts of the early historians will have no attraction for our readers nor will the key to the understanding of the history of Canada till the occupation by the British in 1760 be supplied.