PORT ROYAL, CANADA

                          A National Historic Site

At the National Historic Site, Port Royal, a costumed docent joined our group and led us to one of the buildings saying, “The area now known as Nova Scotia, Canada, changed sovereignty frequently, as it was fought over in the 1600 and 1700s by the French and English. In 1603 a Frenchman, Pierre de Mons’ received a fur monopoly for a large area of North America on the condition that he establish a colony.”

            His first expedition arrived on St. Croix Island in 1604. That first winter almost half of the 70 colonists succumbed to scurvy. The following summer, in 1605, French explorer and mapmaker Samuel de Champlain recommended a new site across the Bay of Fundy. This first European settlement in Canada was named Port Royal.

            Just as the settlement was becoming self sustaining there was word that the trade monopoly had been revoked, so the colonists started returning to France and the site was left in the care of Membertou, chief of the native Mi’kmaq.        
          In 1610 de Mons’ returned to Port Royal with a small expedition and was warmly greeted by the Mic Mac. The settlement lasted eight years, then in 1613 while the French inhabitants were away, an English expedition from Virginia looted and burned the settlement. When a French ship arrived the following spring the 22 inhabitants of the burned settlement were found living among the Mi’kmaq who had fed and housed them for the previous five months. The French returned to France on the supply ship and it was a generation later that the French again returned to the Annapolis basin to establish a settlement six miles from the original one.       (Mi’kmaq and Mic Mac are the same people, just different spelling of French, English and Native lamgiuages.)

           The Port Royal settlement was reconstructed in 1939 by the Canadian government from Champlain’s descriptions and engravings.

Seated on wooden benches at tables in the “meeting room”, the docent caught us eyeing the pewter tableware and said, “The pewter plates and mugs once used by the settlers contained 60% lead!” Aha, a good source for lead poisoning and a shortened lifespan!

         Grabbing a beaver tail and top hat, the young docent continued, “The prized fur in the 1600s was beaver tail. The pelts were shaved, then pounded and pressed to produce a felt that was used to make hats all around the world.”

          Because of the long harsh winters Champlain established the Order of Good Cheer---the oldest social club in North America. Two or three times a week a member of the settlement was responsible for providing food and entertainment for the entire settlement of 35-40 men. This not only lifted the spirits of the men, but also provided a better diet, lessening illness. The addition of seafood---dolphin and seal, both high in vitamin C---prevented scurvy.           

       Adjoining the all purpose room was a small chapel, and in 1610 the first baptism in North America took place when the Mic Mac chief was baptized.

        The docent continued, “In those days Europeans were short, averaging just a bit over five feet, and the average lifespan was 35-40 years. Chief Membertou was over six-foot tall and was 100 years old! What was the difference? Well one was that the Indians bathed several times a week compared to the Europeans bathing only once a quarter---if it was necessary. That might have had something to do with it.”

        I was interested in the period dress of the college students working as docents for the summer. What a neat way for these young people to learn their history! Wooden shoes, called sabot in French, were worn over knee high woolen stockings. Black felt, linen lined, knee-length pants were reminiscent of the knickers worn in the 1920-30s. A long sleeve white homespun shirt was topped with a vest.

       When the Frenchmen would get angry at something they sometimes would take off their sabot (wooden shoe) and throw it into the cogwheel fouling things up, thus comes the word sabotage.