In 1626 two Jesuit missionaries set off from Quebec City and Montreal and made friends with the people of the Huron Nation. Their intent was to bring religion to the natives, whose customs and beliefs differed greatly from those held by the Roman Catholic Church. From 1634 to 1649 they traveled the backwoods of Ontario to preach and convert. In 1639 a permanent mission Sainte Marie Among the Hurons was set up consisting of a church, a cemetery, a hospital and several other buildings. From Montreal; to Georgian Bay it was the largest settlement of Europeans with nothing else comparing to it in size. From 1648 to 1649 the mission was besieged with raids from the rival Iroquois Nation and the Jesuits themselves burned the mission to the ground to keep it out of the hands of the Iroquois. Many of the missionaries, along with their Huron counterparts were captured and killed.
The first fort built in Ontario was Fort Frontenac, in 1673 on the site of present day Kingston. Built by the French it was the first in a chain of forts that was built to protect French fur trading interests in the New World from the British.
In 1670 Charles II of England granted a group of traders the right to trade in the areas that could be reached by Hudson’s Bay. Hundreds of years later, The Hudson Bay Company still exists and is the oldest mercantile company in Ontario.