sailed upriver toward Montreal, he saw what appeared to be three separate tributaries. He did not know two large islands divide the course of the Saint-Maurice River in three parts where the latter flows into the St. Lawrence River. History For thousands of years, the area that would later become known as Trois-Rivières was frequented by Indigenous peoples. The historic Algonquin and Abenaki peoples used it as a summer stopping place. They would fish and hunt here, as well as gather roots and nuts. The area was rich in resources. The French explorer Jacques Cartier described the site while on his second journey to the New World in 1535. The name "Trois-Rivières", however, was not given until 1599, by Captain Dupont-Gravé, and first appeared on maps of the area dated 1601. In 1603, while surveying the Saint-Lawrence River, Samuel de Champlain recommended establishing a permanent settlement in the area. Such a village was started on July 4, 1634, by its first governor, Sieur de Laviolette. Early inhabitants of Trois-Rivières included Quentin Moral, Sieur de St-Quentin; future governor Pierre Boucher de Grosbois, François Hertel de la Fresnière (father of Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière), François Marguerie, René Robineau, and Jean Sauvaget, and interpreter Jean Godefroy de Lintot, who married Marie, daughter of Michel Le Neuf. Jacques Leneuf de La Poterie, who would become governor of Trois-Rivières, and acting governor of New France, and royal judge Michel Le Neuf du Hérisson, who would be acting governor of Trois-Rivières, brothers, arrived with their widowed mother, Jeanne Le Marchand, in 1636. The Le Neufs were accompanied by Jacques' wife, Marguerite, and her brothers, Pierre Legardeur de Repentigny and future governor Charles Legardeur de Tilly. The city was the second to be founded in New France (after Quebec City, before Montreal). Given its strategic location, it played an important role in the colony and in the fur trade with First Nations peoples. The settlement became the seat of a regional Government of Trois-Rivières in 1665. Ursuline nuns first arrived at the settlement in 1697, where they founded the first school and helped local missionaries to Christianize the local Aboriginals and developing class of Métis. French sovereignty in Trois-Rivières continued until 1760, when the city was captured as part of the British conquest of Canada during the Seven Years' War. Sixteen years later, on June 8, 1776, it was the theatre of the Battle of Trois-Rivières