Their adventurers afterward went up to the Sault which became the goal of many of the "free" traders and prospectors who coursed the St. Lawrence during the period, already described, of the temporary removal of the prohibition against private traders. Certain it is that as early as 1610 Lescarbot had remarked that of all the islands in the river St. Lawrence the most suitable for commerce was without contradiction that of Montreal. (Cf. "La Conversion des Sauvages Baptisés En Canada.") But it was reserved for Champlain in 1611 to put this notion into effect and to become the pioneer trader and the first harbour builder of Montreal. His own narration of the events of 1611 may serve to prove these claims.
"In the year 1611, I took back my savage to those of his tribe, who were to come to Sault St. Louis, intending to get my servant whom they had as a hostage. I left Quebec, May 20 (21), and arrived at these great rapids[24] the 28th of the month. I immediately went in a canoe with the savage which I had taken to France and one of our men. After having looked on all sides, not only in the woods, but also along the river bank, to find a suitable place for the site of a settlement, and to prepare a place in which to build, I went eight leagues by land, along the rapids through the woods, which are rather open, and as far as the lake,[25] where our savages took me. There I contemplated the country very much in detail. But in all that I saw I did not find any place at all more suitable than a little spot which is just where the barks and shallops can come easily, either with a strong wind or by a winding course, because of the strength of the current. Above this place (which we named La Place Royale), a league from Mount Royal, there are a great many little rocks and shoals, which are dangerous."
"And near this Place Royale there is a little river running back a goodly way into the interior, all along which there are more than sixty acres of cleared land, like meadows, where one might sow grain and make gardens. Formerly savages tilled there. There were also a great number of other beautiful meadows, to support as many cattle as one wishes, and all kinds of trees that we have in our forests at home, with a great many vines, walnuts, plum trees, cherries, strawberries and other kinds which are very good to eat. Among others there is one very excellent, which has a sweet taste resembling that of plantains (which is a fruit of the Indies), and is as white as snow, with a leaf like that of the nettle, and running on trees or the ground like ivy. Fishing is very good there, and there are all the kinds that we have in France, and a great many others that we do not have, which are very good; as is also game of all kinds; and hunting is good, stags, hinds, does, caribous, rabbits, lynxes, bears, beavers and other little animals which so abound that while we were at these rapids we never were without them."