New Brunswick could have been the "fourteenth colony"
New Brunswick (Nouveau-Brunswick) is bounded on the north by Québec's Gaspé Peninsula and Chaleur Bay and on the east by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (New France) and Northumberland Strait- in the southern part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in eastern North America. The Acadians (French: Acadiens) are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia located on the northern portion of North America's east coast. Acadians and Québecers are francophone (French-speaking) Canadians, Acadia was founded in a geographically separate area than Québec.
Acadia is home to the first permanent French settlement in North America, which was established at Port-Royal in 1604. This outpost was one of the first attempts by France at year-round colonization in the territory they called l'Acadie. colony moved to better land on the south shore of Baie Française at Port-Royal in 1605. The whole region of New Brunswick (as well as Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and parts of Maine) were at that time proclaimed to be part of the royal French colony of Acadia.
The French maintained good relations with the First Nations during their tenure and this was principally because the French colonists kept to their small coastal farming communities. As part of the French colony of Acadia, roughly one thousand Acadians lived on the island. Acadia (in French Acadie) was the name given by the French to a colonial territory in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Québec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day New England, stretching as far south as Philadelphia.
The first French settlement was established by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, Governor of Acadia under the authority of King Henry IV, on Saint Croix Island in 1604; to colonize lands in North America between 40º- 60º North latitude. Later, the territory was divided into the British colonies which were to become American states and Canadian provinces. The territory's first European colonists, who would later become known as Acadians, were French subjects primarily from the Pleumartin to Poitiers in the Vienne département of west-central France. In 1604, Dugua organized an expedition and left France with 79 settlers, including Royal cartographer Samuel de Champlain, the Baron de Poutrincourt a priest Nicolas Aubry, and a protestant Minister. The French settlers built a fort at the mouth of the St. Croix River which separates present day New Brunswick and Maine, on a small island named Île-Ste-Croix (or Dochet Island became known as Bone Island in the 1700s after many of the graves were exposed by erosion). Saint Croix Island in Maine near the mouth of the Saint Croix River that forms part of the International Boundary separating Maine from New Brunswick. In 1608, Samuel de Champlain and some of the settlers moved from Port-Royal to a settlement on the Saint Lawrence River that later became Québec.
The Port-Royal settlement survived and prospered somewhat until 1607 when other merchants protested the monopoly, which the King had to revoke. During the 17th century, about one hundred French families were established in Acadia. They developed friendly relations with the aboriginal Mi'kmaq, learning their hunting and fishing techniques, living on the frontier between French and British territories. In the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, France ceded that portion of Acadia which is now Nova Scotia without Cape Breton Island to the British for the last time. The Acadians did not want to take up arms against family members who were in French territory, and believed that the oath would compromise their Roman Catholic faith. The group which remained in Acadia the winter of 1610-1611 numbered 24, and all survived. In May 1611, Biencourt, aboard the Grace de Dieu (Grace of God), arrived in Port-Royal with the supplies and the Jesuits. The Jesuit missionaries lived among the local First Nations tribes: one of them at the mouth of the St.John River. Late in the 16th century, the Bourbon dynasty seized the throne, enabling France to overcome these troubles.
