 By the time of Samuel de Champlain's arrival, the St. Lawrence River valley was essentially uninhabited; the Mohawk reserved it for use as hunting grounds and as a path for war parties.As French missionaries worked in present-day Quebec and central-western New York with native peoples in the late 17th and early 18th century, they established mission villages for converted natives near the colonial towns of Quebec City and Montreal.The Abenaki who converted to Catholicism were allied with the French.