page_title: Montreal
section_title: Pre-European contact
hierarchical_section_title: Montreal / History / Pre-European contact
caption_attribution_description: English: Jacques Cartier at Hochelaga Français&#160;: Jacques Cartier à Hochelaga
context_page_description: Montreal is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which got its name from the same origin as the city, and a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. The city is situated 196 km east of the national capital Ottawa, and 258 km south-west of the provincial capital, Quebec City.
  In 2016, the city had a population of 1,704,694, with a population of 1,942,247 in the urban agglomeration, including all of the other municipalities on the Island of Montreal. The broader metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,247. French is the city's official language and in 2016 was the main home language of 49.8% of the population, while English was spoken by 22.8% at home, and 18.3% spoke other languages. In the larger Montreal Census Metropolitan Area, 65.8% of the population spoke French at home, compared to 15.3% who spoke English.
context_section_description: Archaeological evidence in the region indicate that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD 1000, they had started to cultivate maize. Within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. The Saint Lawrence Iroquoians, an ethnically and culturally distinct group from the Iroquois nations of the Haudenosaunee (then based in present-day New York), established the village of Hochelaga at the foot of Mount Royal two centuries before the French arrived. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at other locations in the valley since at least the 14th century.
  The French explorer Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga on October 2, 1535, and estimated the population of the native people at Hochelaga to be "over a thousand people". Evidence of earlier occupation of the island, such as those uncovered in 1642 during the construction of Fort Ville-Marie, have effectively been removed.
caption: Jacques Cartier at Hochelaga. Arriving in 1535, Cartier was the first European to visit the area.
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