What Canadian province is the centre of the French colonization that began in the 16th century?
French America French America (French: "Amérique française" ) is the French-speaking community of people and their diaspora, notably those tracing back origins to New France, the early French colonization of the Americas. The Canadian province of Quebec is the centre of the community and is the point of origin of most of French America. It also includes communities in all provinces of Canada (especially in New Brunswick, where francophones are roughly one third of the population), Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Haiti, Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Lucia, Martinique, and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean; French Guiana (Overseas region of France) in South America. Also there are minorities of French speakers in part of the United States (New England, Louisiana, Florida), Dominica, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago.
Charles Albanel Charles Albanel (1616 – 11 January 1696), born in Ardes, was a French missionary explorer in Canada, and a Jesuit priest. In 1649, he arrived in Canada at Tadoussac where he spent many winters among the Montagnais Indians. In 1672, at the time when the Hudson's Bay Company was beginning operations, he was a leader of a French party that went by the Saguenay River, Lake Mistassini, and the Rupert River to Hudson Bay. He may have been the first European to reach Hudson Bay from the Saint Lawrence. In 1674, on another journey to the Rupert River he was captured by the English and taken to England. On his journey to England he induced Medard des Groseilliers to return to the French service. After returning in 1688 to Canada, he served at missions in western Canada and died at Sault Ste. Marie.