The leader of this flock was known as St Malo, and he gave his name to the seaport.
But the religious character of the first settlement soon passed away.
St Malo became famous as the headquarters of the corsairs of the northern coast.

These had succeeded the Vikings of an earlier day, and they showed a hardihood and a reckless daring equal to that of their predecessors.

Later on, in more settled times, the place fell into the hands of the fishermen and traders of northern France.

When hardy sailors pushed out into the Atlantic ocean to reach the distant shores of America, St Malo became a natural port and place of outfit for the passage of the western sea.
Jacques Cartier first saw the light in the year 1491.

The family has been traced back to a grandfather who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century.