Fort Ville-Marie was a French fortress and settlement established in May 1642 by a company of French settlers, led by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, on the Island of Montreal in the Saint Lawrence River at the confluence of the Ottawa River, in what is today the province of Quebec, Canada.

[3] In his second expedition to North America in 1535, Jacques Cartier observed the indigenous village of Hochelaga in the vicinity of modern-day Montreal.

[5] By Samuel de Champlain's arrival and in 1608, he found no trace of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians and settlements visited by Cartier some 75 years earlier.

Historians and other scholars have developed several theories about their disappearance: devastating wars with the Iroquois tribes to the south, the impact of epidemics of Old World diseases, or their migration westward toward the shores of the Great Lakes.

[6] By the time Champlain arrived, the Algonquins and Mohawks were both using the Saint-Lawrence Valley for hunting grounds, as well as a route for war parties and raiding.

He established a fur-trading post where present-day Pointe-à-Callière stands as part of a project to create a French colonial empire.

He and his crew spent a few weeks clearing a site that he named Place Royale, dug two gardens and planted seed that grew well, confirming the fertility of the soil.

Between 1642 and 1676, this was the location of annual fur-trading meets, as Amerindians brought their pelts to trade for various goods with the French.

When the settlement was being laid out by the Sulpicians in the late 1600s, they reserved a small plot of land along the river's shore for use as a public market, and it was known as the Place du Marché.

Mrs. De la Peltrine, her lady-in-waiting Charlotte Barre, as well as Jeanne Mance, were part of this trip.