Lessons Learned / Leçons durement apprises

After a terrible winter, Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons, ordered the buildings taken down and the French settlement moved to a mainland site with fresh water. The French had learned important lessons about North America, including the need to build for winter weather, and the new colony at Port Royal succeeded. Its success was due in part to survival lessons the French learned from the Mi'kmaw people there. Some who had come to Saint Croix Island later became leading figures in Acadia and New France, including Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt, who headed Port Royal, and Samuel Champlain, who founded Quebec City and acted as Governor of New France.

Calais, Maine · United States