In June 1603, Champlain had weighed anchor by the point of Quebec and admired the site. It was ". . . a narrow part of the said river of Canada . . . At these narrows . . . is a very high mountain, which slopes down on both sides: all the rest is a level and beautiful country, where there is good land covered with trees . . . so that in my opinion, if this soil were tilled, it would be as good as ours."

Fig. 3 - The point of Quebec "A": "The Site where the Settlement is built." Copper engraving (15.2 x 24.8 cm) From Samuel de Champlain, The Voyages of the Sieur de Champlain . . ., Paris, Chez Jean Berjon, 1613.

Five years later, his opinion remained unchanged. He left Tadoussac and headed straight for Quebec, ". . . I looked for a place suitable for our settlement, but I could not find any more suitable or better situated than the point of Quebec . . ."

To archaeologists, the point of Quebec is a lowland where schistose debris from Cap Diamant accumulated and was reworked by water. A humus formed on this debris, becoming gradually richer, and eventually a tree cover appeared. These elements formed a small butte that descended gradually towards the foreshore.

Over a period of about 2000 years, Native groups occasionally camped on this butte. There is evidence that they frequented it from the Early Middle Woodland period (c. 400 B.C.-A.D. 500) to the Late Woodland period (A.D. 1000-1534). However, they must have considered it suitable only for short stays in the summer. They rarely stopped there after A.D. 1200, and by 1600 they most likely no longer used it.

The analysis of the plant matter collected shows that the flora found at the site was more varied than Champlain had indicated in 1608. According to him, the site he had cleared "was covered with nut-trees and vines". White walnut was one of the types of wood Native peoples used for fuel, but it was not the main one. The most common were fir, beech, sugar maple, black ash and various species of birch. Soil samples collected here and there at the site show that several types of shrubs were also found there: vines, hawthorn, American red elderberry, sweet cherry and sarsaparilla.

The Point of Quebec:
A Good Site for Trade

Champlain explained to Du Gua de Monts that the Saint Lawrence region was suitable for a settlement because the fur trade would be more extensive there than in Acadia, a country "sparsely peopled by savages", and it would be easier to protect it from competition. From the point of Quebec, the river gave easy access to the interior, "where live the sedentary peoples". The site was also close to Trois-Rivières, a well-established trading post, and one could reach Acadia by travelling up the "Boisterous River (the Chaudière) leading to the Etchemins" (Fig. 3, M).

The Native peoples who frequented the region at the time spoke Algonquin. The name "Quebec" is derived from their language and means "narrowing of the river". They fished for eel in the neighbouring flats (Fig. 3, T), mainly in the fall. These Native groups were veterans of the fur trade, but the Saint Lawrence soon made it possible to reach new groups to the west.

Quebec presented an obstacle to competitors who wished to travel upriver; however, it was easy to control access to the settlement from downstream and block incoming shipments of supplies. That was exactly how the British managed to gain control of the settlement twenty years later; they cut off supplies, rather than using military force. Champlain had to keep the site fortified to protect it from invasion.

Fig. 4 - The first settlement at Quebec (1608) Engraving taken from The Voyages of the Sieur de Champlain, 1613 Photo: National Library of Canada