Saint Croix and Port-Royal are founded
The settlement on the Island of Saint Croix. Library and Archives Canada, e010764742
1604
A permanent French presence in North America dates to 1604, when French noble Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, established Saint Croix at the mouth of the Saint Croix River in what is now Maine. The settlement was moved the following year to Port-Royal, near today’s town of Annapolis Royal, in an area the French called Acadia. There, the colonists received a warm welcome from the Mi’kmaq people, whose ancestors had lived in the region for thousands of years. The colony was short-lived, but offered a model for later settlements.
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