At the request of Samuel de Champlain, the town of Trois-Rivières was founded by La Violette in 1634, at the point where the Saint-Maurice River flows into the St. Lawrence. It was a traditional meeting place for the fur trade, hence the hostility of the Iroquois, who attacked the settlement repeatedly throughout the 17th century. The town was the seat of a local government, like Montréal. In 1721, it had 800 inhabitants.