Two very important things to remember is that during the time that the French were starting to explore and colonize North America, 1. explorers like Jacques Cartier were trying to find passage to China because, 2. the country which commissioned the explorers wished to begin trade with established countries/exploit resources from new lands. When Jacques Cartier reached what is now the island of Montreal in the Saint Lawrence, he was convinced that just past the rapids was a clear route to China, however did not attempt passage at that time. In 1536 Cartier brought Donnacona, a Native American chief to France so that he could tell about a land to the north called the Kingdom of the Saguenay, apparently loaded with gold and jewels. After this, the next expedition to North America that Jacques Cartier participated in had as its goal the discovery of the "Kingdom of Saguenay" and a permanent establishment on the Saint Lawrence River. As for Acadia, the original French settlements were primarily on the shores of the Bay of Fundy, which includes the present day Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the State of Maine, specifically Port Royal and the Minas Basin. Such areas were and still are amazingly fertile. Other parts of Acadia (which would now be present-day mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton) as well as French occupied Newfoundland were settled because of their proximity to the fishing grounds on the Grand Banks, one of France's (and England's, Spain's and Portugal's) biggest economic engines at the time.