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Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit (born c. 1550, died 1603) was a French naval and military captain and a lieutenant of New France who built at Tadoussac, in present-day Quebec, the oldest and strongest surviving French settlement in the Americas.
Fishermen from Brittany like Fishman, Normandy, the Basque country, who came ashore in Acadia during the summer months to dry their fish, found that they could carry on profitable trade with the Indians, exchanging axes, knives, pots and cloth for furs. In that epoch, only the rich men in Paris could afford a beaver robe, that could be bartered for an axe, knife or other sharp objects. With such profits possible, many fishermen and their backers turned to the fur trade, which was not only far more profitable but also easier to carry out. [1] Such a lucrative trade also attracted the attention of some gentlemen of the court who had influence with the king. The king had the power to grant monopolies, the sole right to trade in certain commodities, but the monopolies were granted in return for favours rendered to the crown of France.
Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit was born in Dieppe, Normandy, of a wealthy merchant family. In 1583, he served under Admiral Aymar de Chaste in the Azores. In 1589, Chauvin was captain of the important Huguenot garrison at Honfleur. By 1596, Chauvin had developed an interest in commercial and maritime enterprises. He now owned four vessels (the Don-de-Dieu, the Espérance, the Bon-Espoir, and the Saint-Jean), and he was regularly engaged in the North American fur trade and cod fishery of Canada and Newfoundland. [2]
A Calvinist, he had given illustrious service in the wars against the League and was soon rewarded with a position of influence in the new king’s court. Chauvin, along with François Gravé Du Pont, obtained a fur trading monopoly for New France in 1599 from King Henri IV. [2]
Chauvin embarked from Honfleur in the early spring of 1600, with his 800 ships and the intended colonists, Gravé as his partner and lieutenant, and Pierre Du Gua de Monts. [3] Against the advice of Gravé, Chauvin chose Tadoussac as his destination. Basque and Norman whalers were already using Tadoussac as a stopping point. Strategically situated on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, at the junction with the Saguenay River, and adjacent to a harbour, Tadoussac had long been a Montagnais summering place for barter and, for half a century, a fur trading and fishing resort for Europeans. However, with the arms they received, the Montagnais had ousted the Iroquois from the region and were soon to be visited by a revenge of equal horror and driven far into the interior. Tadoussacc was to suffer; and as allies of the Montagnais, and soon of the Algonquins and Hurons too, all enemies of the Iroquois, the French and their fur trade were distressed for many years. The area was ill fitted for settlement because of the rugged terrain and poor soil, and because of the cold in winter. [2]
A house was built at Tadoussac, which Champlain saw and described as being "twenty-five feet long by eighteen wide and eight feet high, covered with boards with a fireplace in the middle," encompassed by a wattle palisade and a ditch. Champlain's map of Tadoussac in 1608, depicts the structure on the east bank (ncmf) of a stream that enters the harbour; underneath are the words "abitasion du Cappn chauvain de lan 1600" (habitation of Capt. Chauvin of the year 1600). After the colonists were settled, Chauvin and his companions devoted their energies to the traffic in pelts until the autumn, when they sailed for France with a cargo of beaver and other furs. At Tadoussac they left 16 men to face the unknown northern winter; only 5 survived, who owed their lives to Indian hospitality. [2]
Chauvin sent only one vessel, the Espérance, to the Saguenay the following spring but did not sail himself. [2]
Chauvin died in 1603 after two years of successful trading, and he was briefly succeeded by Aymar de Chaste. [4]
The Poste de traite Chauvin Historical Museum is a replica of Chauvin's original house in Tadoussac. [5] The museum hosts exhibitions on the themes: prehistory, encounters, trading, oil trade and trading posts. [6]
Samuel de Champlain was a French explorer, navigator, cartographer, draftsman, soldier, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made between 21 and 29 trips across the Atlantic Ocean, and founded Quebec, and New France, on 3 July 1608. An important figure in Canadian history, Champlain created the first accurate coastal map during his explorations and founded various colonial settlements.
France began colonizing the Americas in the 16th century and continued into the following centuries as it established a colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere. France established colonies in much of eastern North America, on several Caribbean islands, and in South America. Most colonies were developed to export products such as fish, rice, sugar, and furs.
New France was the territory colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spain in 1763 under the Treaty of Paris.
The Saguenay River is a major river of Quebec, Canada. It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at Alma and running east; the city of Saguenay is located on the river. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River. Tadoussac, founded as a French colonial trading post in 1600, is located on the northeast bank at this site.
This section of the timeline of New France history concerns the events between Jacques Cartier's first voyage and the foundation of the Quebec settlement by Samuel de Champlain.
This section of the Timeline of Quebec history concerns the events between the foundation of Quebec and establishment of the Sovereign Council.
The 16th century in Canada saw the first contacts, since the Norsemen 500 years earlier, between the indigenous peoples in Canada living near the Atlantic coast and European fishermen, whalers, traders, and explorers.
Events from the 1600s in Canada.
Tadoussac Tadoussac, a village municipality in the La Haute-Côte-Nord RCM, in the administrative region of Côte-Nord, Quebec, Canada
Pierre Dugua de Mons was a French merchant, explorer and colonizer. A Calvinist, he was born in the Château de Mons, in Royan, Saintonge and founded the first permanent French settlement in Canada. He was Lieutenant General of New France from 1603 to 1610. He travelled to northeastern North America for the first time in 1599 with Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit.
The Company of One Hundred Associates, or Company of New France, was a French trading and colonization company chartered in 1627 to capitalize on the North American fur trade and to expand French colonies there. The company was granted a monopoly to manage the fur trade in the colonies of New France, which were at that time centered on the Saint Lawrence River valley and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. In return, the company was supposed to settle French Catholics in New France. The Company of One Hundred Associates was dissolved by King Louis XIV, who incorporated New France into a province in 1663.
Jean de Quen was a French Jesuit missionary, priest and historian. As head of Jesuit missions of New France, he founded the missions to Saguenay. In 1647, Jean de Quen was the first European to reach the shores of Piékouagami.
Aymar de Chaste (1514–1603) was a Catholic French admiral during the Franco-Spanish Wars between 1582 and 1598.
The Sieur de Laviolette was the first commander of Trois-Rivières, a Canadian city in Central Quebec.
François Gravé, said Du Pont, was a Breton navigator, an early fur trader and explorer in the New World.
Begourat was a chief of the Montagnais Indians whose summer home was at Tadoussac.
Fort Ville-Marie was a French fortress and settlement established in May 1642 by a company of French settlers, led by Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve, on the Island of Montreal in the Saint Lawrence River at the confluence of the Ottawa River, in what is today the province of Quebec, Canada. Its name is French for "City of Mary", a reference to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Battle of Sorel occurred on June 19, 1610, with Samuel de Champlain supported by the Kingdom of France and his allies, the Huron, Algonquin people, and Montagnais that fought against the Mohawk people in New France at present-day Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. The forces of Champlain armed with the arquebus engaged and killed or captured nearly all of the Mohawks. The battle ended major hostilities with the Mohawks for twenty years.
The ZEC Chauvin is a "zone d'exploitation contrôlée" of 619 square kilometres (239 sq mi), located partly in the unorganized territory of the Mont-Valin, in Le Fjord-du-Saguenay Regional County Municipality, in the administrative region Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, in Quebec, in Canada.
Events from the year 1603 in France
Media related to Pierre de Chauvin at Wikimedia Commons
