Stadacona
Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Expand French Template:Infobox settlement Stadacona was a 16th-century St. Lawrence Iroquoian village not far from where Quebec City was founded in 1608. It was the site of the first attempted permanent settlement by French colonists in New France and played an important role in the early exploration of Quebec.
The name Canada, borrowed by Jacques Cartier to designate the country around Stadaconé and the similar village of Hochelaga as well as the Saint Lawrence River (Rivière de Canada), comes from the Iroquoian language, in which the word meant "town". No archaeological trace of Stadacona has been found, so its precise location remains unknown to this day. It is assumed that it was located near the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and the Saint-Charles River in what is now the Vieux-Limoilou district of Quebec City.
History
French explorer and navigator Jacques Cartier, while travelling and charting the Saint Lawrence River, reached the village of Stadacona in July 1534.<ref>Conrad Margaret, Finkel Alvin, Jaenen Cornelius. History of the Canadian Peoples: Beginnings to 1867. Mississauga: Copp Clark Pitman. 1993, p. 92.</ref> At the time, the village chief was Donnacona, who showed Cartier five scalps taken in their war with the Toudaman (likely the Miꞌkmaq), a neighbouring people who had attacked one of their forts the previous spring, killing 200 inhabitants. Despite efforts by the people of the village, Cartier seized some inhabitants and their chief,<ref>Nelles H.V.. "A Little History of Canada". Don Mills, Ontario. 2005, p. 20.</ref> but later released Donnacona, who agreed for his two sons, Taignoagny and Domagaya,<ref>Francis Douglas, Jones Richard, Smith Donald B.. "Journeys: A History of Canada". Toronto, Ontario. Thomson Nelson. 2006, p. 27.</ref> to return with Cartier to France for a year.<ref>Conrad Margaret, Finkel Alvin, Jaenen Cornelius. History of the Canadian Peoples: Beginnings to 1867. Mississauga: Copp Clark Pitman. 1993, p. 92.</ref>
Cartier returned to Stadacona with Donnacona's sons on his next voyage in 1535–1536, where he recorded a word they had used to refer to their home: "They call a town, Kanata" (Canada).<ref>Francis Douglas, Jones Richard, Smith Donald B.. "Journeys: A History of Canada". Toronto, Ontario. Thomson Nelson. 2006, p. 27.</ref> Cartier continued up the Saint Lawrence River to Hochelaga despite resistance from Stadaconans who would have preferred to retain a trading monopoly in European metal goods for the upstream tribes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
When he and his crew returned to stay over the winter, they were effectively saved by the Stadaconans, who knew how to prepare for them a Vitamin C-rich broth as a cure for scurvy that had developed among Cartier's crew, killing a quarter of them.<ref>Francis Douglas, Jones Richard, Smith Donald B.. "Journeys: A History of Canada". Toronto, Ontario. Thomson Nelson. 2006, p. 27.</ref> The same winter, more than 50 Iroquois of the village died from viral and bacterial diseases carried by the Europeans.<ref>Nelles H.V.. "A Little History of Canada". Don Mills, Ontario. 2005, p. 20.</ref> After this, Cartier seized Donnacona, his sons, and seven other inhabitants, and took them back to France, where nine of the ten died. None ever returned.<ref>Conrad Margaret, Finkel Alvin, Jaenen Cornelius. History of the Canadian Peoples: Beginnings to 1867. Mississauga: Copp Clark Pitman. 1993, p. 93.</ref> Five years later, Cartier came back to Stadacona in 1543 to find the village abandoned and destroyed by an unknown enemy, likely due to devastating wars by the Mohawk of the Iroquois or Haudenosaunee confederacy (Five Nations) to the south situated near Lake Ontario.<ref>Conrad Margaret, Finkel Alvin, Jaenen Cornelius. History of the Canadian Peoples: Beginnings to 1867. Mississauga: Copp Clark Pitman. 1993, p. 93.</ref>
Samuel de Champlain later chose the location of the village to establish the colony of l'Habitation, which eventually grew into the city of Québec.