In 1606, fourteen-year-old Charles de St-Étienne de LaTour came to Acadie with his sixteen-year-old cousin, Charles de Biencourt, whose father, Jean de Poutrincourt, had been granted the seigneurie of Port Royal. The boys spent a year at the…

Nicolas Denys was born in Tours, France, in 1603. He came to Acadie with Isaac de Razilly in 1632, full of hope. He wanted to develop trade in fish, furs, and lumber, but he was beset by bad luck. He first established a lumber business east of the…

Before the British established the town of Lunenburg in 1753, the site was known to the Mi'kmaq as E’se’katik and to the French as Merliguesche – a name they borrowed from the Mi'kmaw word for the area. Merliguesche was a small Acadian settlement in…

Cliquez ici pour la version française The history of Chéticamp, Nova Scotia, is tied to the Philip Robin Company (later the Charles Robin Company), a firm from the Isle of Jersey in the English Channel that came to Chéticamp in the late 1760’s to…

We know that many European fishermen crossed the Atlantic in the 16th century, soon after Cabot made landfall in North America. English, French, Spanish, and Basque ships came to fish off the coast of what is now Nova Scotia where the waters teemed…

Cliquez ici pour la version française In 1994, the Acadian communities in the Chéticamp region of Cape Breton were in the midst of a crisis: the cod fishery had closed. For centuries, cod had been central to the region's economy, providing jobs for…

Among the passengers on the ship Murdoch that arrived in Halifax Harbour in 1751 was a young officer by the name of Joseph Pernette. The Murdoch was one of several ships bringing German, French, and Swiss immigrants. Known as “Foreign Protestants,”…

Samuel de Champlain is well-known for helping establish a French colony at Québec. What many may not know is that he spent over three years in the French colony of Acadie, which once included Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and…

In early September 1632, the Mi’kmaq who lived along the Pijinuiskaq (the LaHave River) must have been astonished to see two big wooden ships sailing through the narrows between what is now known as Kraut Point and LaHave. They anchored, and 200 men…

Cliquez ici pour la version française The Mi-Carême Centre, located in the picturesque Grand-Étang Harbour on the Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island, promotes the rich tradition of the Mi-Carême fête. The Centre features stunning displays, gives an…