BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Mathieu Da Costa sometimes d'Acosta is the first recorded black person in Canada. He was a member of the exploring party of Pierre Dugua, the Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain in the early 17th century.
There is little documentation about da Costa, but he is known to have been a freeman favoured by explorers for his multilingual talents. His portfolio of languages - thought to include Dutch, English, French, Portuguese and pidgin Basque, the dialect many Aboriginals used for trading purposes - led him into the employ of Sieur de Monts in the role of interpreter.
An interpreter, translator, and general go-between such as da Costa was known as un grumete in the Portuguese-speaking world. While Mathieu da Costa was hired for three years by Pierre Du Gua de Monts in 1608, he was in Amsterdam, Holland, in February 1607. He had been apparently caught up in a dispute over the seizure by the Dutch of Du Gua's trading ships near Tadoussac. His abduction strongly suggests that his talents helped bridge the gap between the Europeans and the First Nations of Canada.
It is thought that he came to Canada at some time before 1603, using his visit to learn the Mi'kmaq dialect. One source has him coming to Acadie in a Portuguese ship where he learned the Eastern Algonquian language. A Rouen merchant then kidnapped him in Portugal or in the East Indies and sold or lent him to De Monts as an interpreter.
Less speculatively, French documents record him working for the leaders of Port Royal in 1608.However, in 1609, his presence is recorded in Rouen, France, and in a jail in Le Havre, France, in December, leaving the matter of a visit to Canada in that year open to question. Du Gua's activities in Canada only ended in 1617 and a court case involving expenses incurred by Nicolas de Bauquemare of Rouen to support da Costa dragged on until 1619, though there is no positive indication that Mathieu da Costa was personally present.
In Canada, he likely travelled up the St. Lawrence River and worked at various locations along the Canadian Atlantic Coast. There is controversy as to how he had learned to communicate with the Aboriginals, with one answer being that the North American cultural context was very similar to the African one.
Legacy
Mathieu Da Costa was an interpreter and translator from the Benin Empire during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Originally acquired by the Portuguese for his abilities having translated their lanuage so quickly. It was thought that Da Costa's skills would be valuable in future cartography expeditions to the new world. After learning the Language of the L'nug (Mi'kmaq) on a Portuguese expedition Da Costa would later be sought by both the English and the Dutch to help in their contacts with Aboriginal peoples but it would be the French that secured his servivces for hire. The tradition of Europeans depending on such translators was more than a century old by this time. Mathieu Da Costa worked with Pierre Du Gua de Monts, a leader of French ventures in Eastern Canada, and with Samuel de Champlain in the 17th century. It is said that he obviously spoke Mi'kmaq, which would indicate that he had been to Canada before Champlain. His translation and communication skills helped reduce the cultural gap between early French explorers and the First Nations. His work in Canada is honoured at the Port Royal Habitation National Historic Site of Canada in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. It was unveiled in July 2005
The Mathieu Da Costa Challenge is an annual creative writing and artwork contest launched in 1996 by the Department of Canadian Heritage. The challenge encourages youth to discover how diversity has shaped Canada’s history and the important role that pluralism plays in Canadian society.
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