In 1604, more than a hundred artisans, soldiers, and gentlemen sailed from France in an effort to establish a European colony north of Florida, building a settlement on Saint Croix Island and coming to the nearby mainland to hunt and garden. This became one of the earliest European settlements in North America north of Florida, and from Saint Croix Island and the hard lessons learned there grew Acadia, New France, and an enduring French presence on the continent. Long before European settlement began, native peoples had lived in the area for thousands of years, and the Saint Croix Island region was home to the ancestors of the Passamaquoddy people, who still live in Maine today.