Jacques Cartier was a French maritime explorer from Brittany. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "Canada" after the Iroquoian names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona and at Hochelaga. January 9, 1492 – October 4, 1557; died at 65. Alive at the same time as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Martin Luther, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Michel de Montaigne. Wiki link