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From:
Subject: Re: [Q-R] Three Rivers - Montreal
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 14:29:24 EST


In a message dated 2/11/2006 1:46:17 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
writes:
Even before 1600 the area was called Three Rivers even
in french history books. You just have to go to
www.google.com and type three rivers quebec 1600 to
see. And yes, there are maps before 1600 calling it
Three Rivers. The french changed it to the french
name.

From the Toponomical Commission of the Province of Quebec.

The most important city in the region of Mauricie, Trois Rivières was
established at the confluence of the the Saint-Laurent and Saint Maurice rivers,
between Cap-de-la-Madeleine and Pointe-du-Lac some 140 km north of Montreal.
Its descriptive name "Trois-Rivières" derives from the name "Rivière des Trois
Rivières" formerly given to the Saint-Maurice, and was given to the fort and
to the town surrounding the fort at the request of Champlain. The location
had been visited by Jacques Cartier (1535), by François Gravé du Pont (1599),
as a trading post with the Amerindians. The name is found on a map of
Nouvelle-France drawn up by Guillaume Levasseur in 1601. In his Relation of
1635, Jesuit Father Paul le Jeune writes that the name derives from the geography
of the area: "The French named the place "les Trois Rivières" because a
beautiful river flows into the Saint-Laurent there, through three separate
channels that flow around small islands at the river's mouth. The Abenaki called
the river Madobaladenitekou, which means "river that ends". The Algonquins
called it Metaberoutin, a name which is translated into French as "décharge de
vent", which translates into English as "passing wind".

The notion that the place had an English name before it was given its French
name is, in a word, Metaberoutin.



Fr. Owen Taggart


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