It is very likely that Cartier would make the most of his mineral discoveries as the readiest means of exciting his master's interest.
When everything was in order at the settlement, the provisions landed, and the building well under way, the leader decided to make a brief journey to Hochelaga, in order to view more narrowly the rapids that he had seen, and to be the better able to plan an expedition into the interior for the coming spring.

The account of this journey is the last of Cartier's exploits of which we have any detailed account, and even here the closing pages of his narrative are unsatisfactory and inconclusive.

What is most strange is that, although he expressly says that he intended to 'go as far as Hochelaga, of purpose to view and understand the fashion of the saults [falls] of water,' he makes no mention of the settlement of Hochelaga itself, and does not seem to have visited it.
The Hochelaga expedition, in which two boats were used, left the camp at Cap Rouge on September 7, 1541.

A number of Cartier's gentlemen accompanied him on the journey, while the Viscount Beaupre was left behind in command of the fort.

On their way up the river Cartier visited the chief who had entrusted his little daughter to the case of the French at Stadacona at the time of Cartier's wintering there.