Date Published:
June 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Mingan Islands

Mingan islands , a group of islands in the gulf of St. Lawrence, north of Anticosti , on the Saguenay district coast. They are in lat. 50° 10', long. 64°, and cover a distance of about 300 miles. They were discovered by Jacques Cartier, on August 9, 1535 . He sailed into what is now called St. Geneviève harbour, and being there on August 10, the festival of St. Lawrence, he gave it the name of St. Lawrence bay. This was the first use of the name of St. Lawrence in Canadian waters, and it has spread to cover the entire gulf and river known by that name. In 1679, Frontenac granted a concession of these islands, for the purpose of seal and cod fishing, to Louis Jolliet, in partnership with Jacques de la Lande. The ownership changed hands many times from 1679, until on February 8, 1836, the whole fief and seignory of the isles and islets of Mingan was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company, in whose possession they have been ever since. See The Mingan islands (Beaver, March, 1930).

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 400p., p. 297.