Lachine

Lachine was a city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is now a borough within the city of Montreal. Lachine, apparently from French la Chine (China), is often said to have been named in 1669 in mockery of its then owner Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who explored the interior of North America, trying to find a passage to Asia. When he returned unsuccessful, he and his men were derisively named les Chinois (Chinese). The na... more

Lachine was a city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is now a borough within the city of Montreal. Lachine, apparently from French la Chine (China), is often said to have been named in 1669 in mockery of its then owner Robert Cavelier de La Salle, who explored the interior of North America, trying to find a passage to Asia. When he returned unsuccessful, he and his men were derisively named les Chinois (Chinese). The name was adopted when the parish of Saints-Anges-de-la-Chine was created in 1678, with the form Lachine appearing with the opening of a post office in 1829. On August 5, 1689, more than 1500 Mohawk warriors raided the small village and burned it to the ground in retaliation for the ravaging of the Seneca lands by governor Denonville and his men. The Lachine massacre left 80 dead and terrorized the other French colonists living on the island of Montreal, and more massacres of this kind were to take place on the island during the following decade.... less