Pierre Dugua de Mons(orDu Gua de Monts;c. 1558– 1628) was a French merchant, explorer and colonizer. ACalvinist,he was born in the Château de Mons, inRoyan,Saintonge (southwestern France) and founded the first permanent French settlement in Canada. He wasLieutenant General of New Francefrom 1603 to 1610. He travelled to northeastern North America for the first time in 1599 withPierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit.
Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons | |
|---|---|
 Pierre Du Gua de Monsc. 1800-1880 | |
| Born | c. 1558 |
| Died | 1628 castle of Ardenne inFléac-sur-Seugne |
| Occupation(s) | merchant, explorer and colonizer |
| Title | Lieutenant General of New France1603-1610 |
| Parent(s) | Guy and Claire Goumard Du Gua |
Biography
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Pierre Dugua de Mons was born about 1558 inSaintonge,France to Guy and Claire Goumard Dugua. He fought for the cause ofHenri IVduring the religious wars in France. The king later awarded him an annual pension of 1,200 crowns and the governorship of the town ofPonsin Saintonge in recognition of his outstanding service.[2]
De Mons seems to have made several voyages to Canada including in 1600, withPierre de Chauvin de TonnetuittoTadoussac.In 1603, King Henry granted Dugua exclusive right to colonize lands in North America between 40°–60° Northlatitude.The King also gave Du Gua a monopoly in thefur tradefor these territories and named him Lieutenant General forAcadiaandNew France.In return, Du Gua promised to bring 60 new colonists each year.[2]
In 1604, Du Gua organized an expedition, underwritten by merchants in Rouen, Saint-Malo, and La Rochelle, and left France with 79 settlers includingFrançois Gravé Du Pontas senior officer, RoyalcartographerSamuel de Champlain,theBaron de Poutrincourt,a priestNicolas Aubry,andMathieu de Costa:a legendary linguist, the first registered black man to set foot in North America, and a Protestant member of the clergy.[3]
EnteringBaie Française(theBay of Fundy) in June 1604, he and his settlers founded a colony onSt. Croix Island.Numerous settlers succumbed to the harsh winter climate and scurvy as they exhausted the limited natural resources on the island. The colony moved to better land on the south shore of Baie Française atPort-Royalin 1605.
Following the disaster of the Saint Croix settlement in the winter of 1604–1605, the French began to look for a more hospitable location for a colony. During this time, they encountered Native Americans along the northeastern coast of the continent, and also had a pair of Native guides in their party, the man who is named as Panounias, and his wife who came from the part of the country they were exploring. Travelling along the coast, Samuel de Champlain is given to have recounted their meetings with the natives, noting when the languages between the groups began to vary. Also, it was noted that the Natives who lived in this area also practised cultivation, particularly methods of farming that were new to the French explorers. It was from these signs and the trading that occurred between the French and the natives that the explorers felt as though they were on the correct track, for if the Natives were living off of this land, this area offered far more hope than Saint Croix Island ever did.[4]
In 1606,Hendrick Lonck,theDutch West India Companysea captainboarded two of Du Gua's boats, and pillaged them for furs and munitions.[5]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, Du Gua and the settlers had to abandon the colony and return to France.
Dugua then turned his attention to the colony ofNouvelle-Francein theSt. Lawrence Rivervalley, after ceding Port-Royal to Poutrincourt. He never came back to the New World but he sent Champlain to open a colony atQuebecin 1608, thus playing a major role in the foundation of the first permanent French colony in North America.
Henri IV appointed him as Governor of the Protestant city ofPons, Charente-Maritime,from 1610 to 1617, when he retired. He then oversaw the construction of the monumental grand staircase along the ramparts near theKeep of Pons.[6]This 6-level staircase connected the once segregated upper city to the lower city. He died in 1628, in the nearby Château d'Ardenne inFléac-sur-Seugne.
See also
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References
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- ^On July, 3 2007: Unveiling of the bust of Pierre Du Gua de Mons in ding city,on the previous "Mont du Gas" (the local summit, so named by Champlain in 1608), then known as the "Terrasse Saint-Denis", from now renamed(in French)"Terrasse Pierre-Dugua-De Mons"Archived2011-07-06 at theWayback Machine.
- ^abMacBeath, George (1979) [1966]."Du Gua De Monts, Pierre".In Brown, George Williams (ed.).Dictionary of Canadian Biography.Vol. I (1000–1700) (online ed.).University of Toronto Press.
- ^Mancke, Elizabeth;Reid, John G.(2004)."Elites, States, and the Imperial Contest for Acadia".In John G. Reid; et al. (eds.).The "Conquest" of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colonial, and Aboriginal Constructions.University of Toronto Press. p. 32.doi:10.3138/9781442680883.ISBN978-0-8020-8538-2.JSTOR10.3138/9781442680883.7.
- ^Francis P. McManamon:The French Along the Northeast Coast 1604–1607. National Park Service
- ^Vaugeois, Denis; Raymonde Litalien; Käthe Roth (2004).Champlain: The Birth of French America.Translated by Käthe Roth. McGill-Queen's Press. pp. 146, 242.ISBN0-7735-2850-4.
- ^"Pons, a Very Pretty Medieval Town - Cognac Central".Archived fromthe originalon December 9, 2018.RetrievedDecember 7,2018.