Pierre Dugua de Mons, (c. 1558 – 1628) was a French merchant, explorer and colonizer. A Protestant, he was born in
RoyanRoyan is a commune in the Charente-Maritime département, in south- western France. Inhabitants are called royannais and royannaises in french....
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and had a great influence over the first two decades of the 17th century. He travelled to northeastern
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
for the first time in 1599 with
Pierre de Chauvin de TonnetuitPierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit was a French naval and military captain and a lieutenant of New France.Chauvin, along with François Gravé Du Pont, obtained a fur trading monopoly for New France in 1599 from Henri IV. Although this was seriously amended in 1600, the two built a fort at Tadoussac...
.
In 1603,
Henry IVHenry IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. His parents were Queen Jeanne III and King Antoine of Navarre.As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before...
, the King of France, granted Dugua exclusive right to colonize lands in North America between 40°–60° North
latitudeLatitude, usually denoted by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the imaginary horizontal lines shown running east-to-west on maps that run either north or south of the equator...
.
Pierre Dugua de Mons, (c. 1558 – 1628) was a French merchant, explorer and colonizer. A Protestant, he was born in
RoyanRoyan is a commune in the Charente-Maritime département, in south- western France. Inhabitants are called royannais and royannaises in french....
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
and had a great influence over the first two decades of the 17th century. He travelled to northeastern
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
for the first time in 1599 with
Pierre de Chauvin de TonnetuitPierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit was a French naval and military captain and a lieutenant of New France.Chauvin, along with François Gravé Du Pont, obtained a fur trading monopoly for New France in 1599 from Henri IV. Although this was seriously amended in 1600, the two built a fort at Tadoussac...
.
In 1603,
Henry IVHenry IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. His parents were Queen Jeanne III and King Antoine of Navarre.As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before...
, the King of France, granted Dugua exclusive right to colonize lands in North America between 40°–60° North
latitudeLatitude, usually denoted by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the imaginary horizontal lines shown running east-to-west on maps that run either north or south of the equator...
. The King also gave Dugua a monopoly in the
fur tradeThe fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur.-Russian fur trade:Before the colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur-pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Fur was a major Russian export as trade developed in the early Middle...
for these territories and named him Lieutenant General for
AcadiaAcadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day New England, stretching as far south as Philadelphia...
and
New FranceNew France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534, to the cession of New France to Spain and Britain in 1763...
. In return, Dugua promised to bring 60 new colonists each year to what would be called
l'Acadie.
In 1604 Dugua organized an expedition and left France with 79 settlers including Royal cartographer
Samuel de ChamplainSamuel de Champlain, , , "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat and chronicler...
, the
Baron de PoutrincourtJean de Biencourt was a member of the French nobility best remembered as a commander of the French colonial empire responsible for establishing the first permanent settlement in the North American territory that became known as Acadia...
, a
priestA priest or priestess is a person having the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities. Their office or position is the priesthood, a term which may also apply to such persons collectively.Priests and priestesses...
Nicolas AubryNicolas Aubry was a French priest who accompanied Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts to Acadia in 1604. There were two other clergy on this expedition, a priest who was to minister to the parish of Port Royal and a Protestant minister. This expedition had as its cartographer Samuel de Champlain...
,
Louis HébertLouis Hébert is widely considered to be the first Canadian apothecary as well as the first European to farm in Canada. He was born around 1575 at 129 de la rue Saint-Honoré in Paris to Nicolas Hébert and Jacqueline Pajot...
,
Mathieu de CostaMathieu de Costa is the first recorded black person in Canada. He was a member of the exploring party of Pierre Dugua, the Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s....
: a legendary multilingualist and the first registered black man to set foot in North America, and a Protestant member of the
clergyClergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. The term ultimately comes from the Greek κλῆρος - klēros, "a lot", "that which is assigned by lot" or metaphorically, "inheritence"....
.
Entering
Baie Française (the
Bay of FundyThe Bay of Fundy is a bay on the Atlantic coast of North America, on the northeast end of the Gulf of Maine between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine...
) in June 1604, he and his settlers founded a colony on
St. Croix IslandSaint Croix Island , long known to locals as Dochet Island, is a small uninhabited island in Maine near the mouth of the Saint Croix River that forms part of the International Boundary separating Maine from New Brunswick....
. Numerous settlers succumbed to the harsh winter climate and malnutrition disease as they exhausted the limited natural resources on the island. The colony moved to better land on the south shore of Baie Française at
Port-RoyalThe Habitation at Port-Royal was an early French colonial settlement and is presently a National Historic Site located at Port Royal in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.-The settlement:...
in 1605.
In 1606,
Hendrick LonckAdm. Hendrick Corneliszoon Lonck , a Dutch naval hero, was the first Dutch sea captain to reach the New World.-Early years:...
, the
Dutch West India CompanyDutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx . On June 3, 1621, it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in the West Indies by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and given jurisdiction over the African slave...
sea captain boarded two of Dugua's boats, and pillaged them for furs and munitions. The Port-Royal settlement survived and prospered somewhat until 1607 when other merchants protested the monopoly, which the King had to revoke. As a consequence, Dugua and the settlers had to abandon the colony and return to France.
Dugua then turned his attention to the colony of
Nouvelle-FranceNew France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534, to the cession of New France to Spain and Britain in 1763...
in the St. Lawrence River valley, after ceding Port-Royal to Poutrincourt. He never came back to the New World but he sent Champlain to open a colony at
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
in 1608, thus playing a major role in the foundation of the first permanent French colony in North America.
Henry IV appointed him as Governor of the Protestant city of
Pons, Charente-MaritimePons is a commune in the Charente-Maritime département in south-western France.-See also:*Communes of the Charente-Maritime department...
from 1610 to 1617, when he retired. He died in 1628, in the nearby castle of Ardenne in
Fleac-Sur-SeugneFléac-sur-Seugne is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in south-western France.-References:*...
.