In 1669, René-Robert Cavelier de la Salle, intent on reaching the Ohio River in order "not to leave to another the honour of finding the way to the Southern Sea, and thereby the route to China", set out on the first of his many journeys of exploration. Accompanied by the Sulpician missionaries Dollier and Galinée, he left Montreal in July and reached Burlington Bay at the head of Lake Ontario some two months later. La Salle continued inland to Tinaouataoua, a Seneca hamlet midway between present-day Dundas and Brantford, where surprisingly he met Adrien Jolliet, an explorer returning from a mission to the Great Lakes. Having decided not to proceed westward, he then left Dollier and Galinée and by 1670 had returned to Montreal.

Location

In La Salle Park, North Shore Boulevard East, Burlington

Themes

• Exploration
• Franco-Ontarian heritage
• Industry and trade
• People