We note that the Richibucto Indians were the most powerful of all the
Micmac tribes, and this confirms the opinion that their sanguinary disposition
prevented those early inhabitants from remaining here.
That was then, but now historians in
a more enlightened view realize that the Micmacs were only protecting
their land. However, visitors had arrived earlier without forming a
residential community.
The Basques were on our shores in 1523
and continued for 50 years. They brought with them their red roof tiles
as they came for the mighty whale and his oil.
They were followed by the Spanish eleven
years later and in 1534 by Jacque Cartier.
The first Jesuit Mission opened in Richibucto in 1609. We have it on
the authority of an Icelander named Borjin, that Richibucto over 385
years ago was the largest site of Indian villages on the entire coast
of the American Continent. Borjin also described the Richibucto Indians
as a mighty tribe. Borjin sailed these shores in 1620.
Still, Sir William Alexander, secretary
of King James who came to Nova Scotia in 1621, this was 17 years after
the arrival of DeMonts, was owner of the country. He had a grant of
land given him by King James. Although the French emigrants had preceded
him by 17 years and settled in the northern part of Nova Scotia and
now New Brunswick, they had no legal papers to prove their ownership.
Some of the early European voyageurs
up the St. Lawrence River skirted the north shore of Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick, and became acquainted with the headlands and rivers.
Following Borjin by 20 years was Nicolas Deny`s. In the year 1643 Nicolas
Deny`s received a commission from the company of New France and while
coasting along the shore of what is now New Brunswick wrote his observation
as to the geographical and natural history of the country. "The Richibuctou",
he wrote, "has great sand flats at its entrance which extend almost
a league."
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