Royal Decree"Nicolas Denys"30 Janvier 1654

Hi
Everyone.
I take some time between Christmas and New year, to go at my safety deposit box at the Bank to pull some archive from my Family History but also few others to share with you.

I want to share with you, one of kind piece of archive, i found this document 25 years ago when i visit an antique dealer on the sud side of st-Lawrence River(St-Nicolas).At the time i buy i huge Book with map inside,(some of you maybe know)Atlas book from 1888.Lot of maps inside that book, so i start to retreive them, maybe a month later when i still retreive map from this book, guess what,,,,,, folding 4 time i found this fabulus piece of history.
The description in this ducument was so precised, even more then the history know about what happen at that period.
This is a Royal Decree Louis the XIV, at that time he was not on age for rule(Mazarin till he died 1661)1661 year when Louis the XIV rule take place, this document was sign by is secretary.

The paragrah starting with Governor is the one the document was all about, in more detail.

((King Louis XIII died in 1643. His successor, Louis XIV, was only five years old at the time and his mother, Anne of Austria, ruled in his place until he came of age. Mazarin helped Anne expand her power from the more limited power her husband had left her. Mazarin functioned essentially as the co-ruler of France alongside the queen during the regency of Anne, and until his death in 1661 at Vincennes))

I believe this Decree was place at a specific area where the population of acadia can see it.At the time was give is power back, because of some Individual (Emmanuel Le Borgne (1610 – 5 August 1675)seized his property and land by armed force.

Thanks for Viewing..

Alan

----------------------------Early years in Acadia------------------------------------
When Cardinal Richelieu authorized a stronger French presence in the New World, he commissioned Isaac de Razilly to be lieutenant-general of Acadia and Nicolas Denys accompanied the expedition as one of de Razilly’s lieutenants.[3] The expedition set sail in 1632 with 300 hand-picked men, supplies, six Franciscan missionaries and Nicolas’ brother, Simon.

They founded a colony at the LaHave River where Denys worked in shore fishery, lumber and fur trading – a good foundation of experience to prepare him for life in the New World. French administrators, including nearby Port Royal's lord, the Sieur Charles de Menou d'Aulnay, thought little of the colonists’ reclaiming tidal marshlands. Denys was very impressed with the “great extent of meadows which the sea used to cover and which the Sieur d'Aulnay has drained”.[4] It was this extensive system of dikes and drainage sluices (called aboiteaux) that set his colony apart from any others. It allowed the colonists to reclaim land that the Mi'kmaq nation had no use for. This greatly aided peaceful co-existence with their neighbors, and Mi’kmaq trade, friendship and intermarriage was and is an immensely important part of the Acadian identity and heritage.[5]

When Denys came in 1632 the natives were already using iron kettles, axes, knives, and arrowheads, but few had firearms. Before the use of kettles natives used hollowed out tree trunks in which to boil their unsalted food, dropping in hot stones to heat the water. Possessing kettles, the natives were free to move anywhere and became more mobile, changing their habitations often. Denys had remarked on excessive hunting in his diaries.[6] Moose, formerly in great numbers on Cape Breton Island, had been exterminated by natives hunting with muskets. There were no longer any moose on Prince Edward Island and the caribou were in reduced number. Alcohol, however, not over-hunting, was a major cause of the native decline.[7]

When de Razilly died in December 1635 the colony broke up and Denys returned to France. In 1642 he married Marguerite de Lafitte[8] in France, but soon took his new family across to his adopted lands of Acadia.

Denys served as a witness to one of the most unfortunate chapters of early Acadia’s history: the rivalry between the Lords d’Aulnay and Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour, his bitter rival, and the dissipation of efforts to grow the colony. La Tour had also claimed royal permission to ply the fur trade in the American Northeast. His rival outposts were in often-open hostility with the budding d’Aulnay colony, competing for resources and markets. Decades of sparring led to bloodshed. In the Spring of 1643 La Tour led a party of English mercenaries against the Acadian colony at Port Royal. His 270 Puritan and Huguenot troops killed three Acadians, burned a mill, slaughtered cattle and seized 18,000 livres of furs. D'Aulnay was able to retaliate in 1645 by seizing all of La Tour’s possessions and outposts while La Tour was drumming up more support for his cause in the English port city of Boston. Denys’ letters and journals give vivid descriptions of the drama.[9]

---------------------------------Governor---------------------------------------------
Once he secured rights to his own lands in Acadia through the Company of New France, Denys continued to seek his fortunes now as the Governor of Canso and Isle Royale (now called Cape Breton Island). Denys founded settlements at St. Pierre (now St. Peter's, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, home of the Nicholas Denys Museum), Ste. Anne (Englishtown, Nova Scotia) and Nepisiquit (Bathurst, New Brunswick).[1]

His 'fortunes' had some reversals, however. Sieur Emmanuel le Borgne, a rival with holdings at Port Royal, seized his properties by armed force in 1654 while Denys was at Ste. Anne. Later in 1654, King Louis XIV officially recognized Denys’ claims to the property lost to le Borgne.[10] Le Borgne was thereby commanded by royal decree to restore them to the rightful owner.[11]

The Denys Family made their home in St. Pierre, Isle Royale and dwelt there in relative calm until the Winter of 1669, when Nicolas’ home and business were consumed in a fire. Denys relocated his family to Nepisiquit (Bathurst, NB), just south of the Gaspé Peninsula. It was there that he turned his efforts to writing.[12]

------------------------------------Legacy---------------------------------------------
Denys died in 1688 at Nepisiquit (in the outskirts of Bathurst New Brunswick), a town of his own creation. During his tenure in the New World, he appears to have offered more stability of governance than those other royal appointees around him. Perhaps his greatest legacy is his writings about the lands and peoples of Acadia, especially Description géographique et historique des costes de l’Amérique septentrionale: avec l’histoire naturelle du païs, two volumes written in 1672, after he retired to Paris.[13] Because of this work, he remains the main informant on the conditions of Acadia for the years from 1632 to 1670.

Denys' daughter, Marguerite, married her cousin, James Forsyth, who was a captain in naval and land expeditions.[14] Marguerite and James had their own daughter, Margaret, who in turn married another cousin, Walter Forsyth, a regent of the University of Glasgow and titular Baron of Dykes. Their children inherited from their mother's family the shipping and private armed vessels which were their part in the Forsyth and Denys enterprises on the seas, the same extending even to the French and British Americas and Indies. The Forsyths were in alliance with the Normans of France, favoring the Stuart cause in Scotland, and opposed to English control.[14]