In 1542, encouraged by the exploits of Jacques Cartier, the flamboyant and opportunistic Jean-Francois de La Roque, Sieur de Roberval, sailed from France under the sponsorship of King Francois I, bound for a rendezvous with the famous explorer. He met the homeward-bound Cartier in Newfoundland and continued upstream on the St. Lawrence River to Cap-Rouge near present-day Quebec City. Here, along with a motley crew composed largely of French convicts, he established a fledgling colony which he named ‘France Roy’, on the river which he dubbed ‘France-Prime’.

Roberval's forays upstream to the Lachine Rapids at Montreal and downstream to the land of the Saguenay were motivated more by tales of gold and diamonds than by geographical curiosity. But shipwrecks, winter cold, famine and disease quickly drove the would-be colonists back to France. After less than a year in Canada, de Roberval and his sickened, querulous crew sailed back to France on rescue ships provided by the King. Hopes for a new French kingdom faded, along with the value of de Roberval's ‘precious stones’, found to be worthless quartz and iron pyrites.