People of African descent have been sadly absent from memory and history textbooks until recent years. The documentary series African Canada by Henri Pardo, co-scripted with Judith Brès, aims to raise awareness, from a historical perspective, of the situation of Blacks in the country as well as the importance of their contribution in various fields.
The initiative deserves to be welcomed and it is to be hoped that it will be followed by many others. The history of our fellow black citizens is an integral part of our national history.
In the first episode ofAfrican Canada broadcast on ICI Télé, Mathieu Da Costa is presented as “the first black in Canadian history”. He would have been, we are told, the interpreter of Pierre du Gua, sieur de Monts, and of Champlain in Acadie. Other authors claim that he was at the side of the founder of Quebec in 1608. However, these assertions do not stand up well to the facts.
In 1604, it was as lieutenant general of the country of Acadia that the Sieur de Monts landed on the Atlantic coast accompanied by Champlain and 120 men to establish a colony there. The name of Mathieu Da Costa does not appear anywhere in the documents of the time. In the current state of our knowledge, it is impossible to know where, when and how the presumed interpreter of the expedition learned Micmac, Etchemin or Almouchiquois.
On his list of the 80 people who wintered on Sainte-Croix Island in 1604-1605, the historian Marcel Trudel includes the name of Mathieu Da Costa, while leaving some doubt: “We assume that he accompanied de Monts. Trudel quotes at second hand the historian William Morse, who refers to an article published in 1893 by the French historian Charles de Beaurepaire: “A certain Bauquemare, writes Morse, merchant of Rouen associated with the Dutch traders, had apparently kidnapped a black , Mathieu de Costa […] one of du Gua’s most useful men, for he knew the language of the natives of Acadia. “Would there have been a mistake about the person?
The Black of Port-Royal
In 1605, the colony of Île Sainte-Croix moved to Port-Royal, where a new dwelling was built. Two events recounted by Champlain support the thesis of those who contest the fact that Da Costa came to New France.
In the summer, de Monts and Champlain went to explore the coast of New England and were accompanied by two guide-interpreters, the Micmac chief Panounias and his Almuchiquoise wife. There is no mention of Da Costa, who is supposed to know “the native language” of Acadia.
During their journey, de Monts and Champlain entrust a Frenchman to the inhabitants of Casco Bay to learn the language. How to explain this need to train an interpreter if the explorers have the services of the polyglot Da Costa?
Another disturbing fact: nowhere in his writings does Champlain mention the name of Da Costa or the presence of a black interpreter. Neither is Marc Lescarbot. This silence is significant. As for de Monts, he left no writings.
In 1606, Charles de Biencourt, then fifteen years old, accompanied his father to Acadia to learn Micmac and to serve as an interpreter. “Monsieur de Biancourt,” Father Biard tells us, “understands the savage better than anyone here.” So there were people in Acadia capable of interpreting Aboriginal languages, but no trace of Mathieu Da Costa.
During the winter of 1605-1606, twelve men died of scurvy; among them, an unnamed black man, whose body is dissected. At least two English-speaking historians and possibly also Charles de Beaurepaire believed that this black man was Mathieu Da Costa. However, legal acts prove beyond any doubt that the latter was still living in 1609.
Myth and national craze
The thinness of the information concerning Mathieu Da Costa has given rise to numerous falsehoods and exaggerations. No document of the time allows us to conclude that the interpreter came to Canada with Pierre du Gua or with other Frenchmen between 1604 and 1609, the year in which we lose track of him. Its presence in New France is a myth.
The interpreter nevertheless entered the Canadian Hall of Fame. He acquired the stature of a national hero. It has been raised to the rank of banner of the black community and presented as the symbol of so-called “Canadian” values, among which we like to cite the promotion of human rights and mutual respect in multi-ethnic diversity — what the documentary African Canada question with reason.
From there to making Da Costa an emblematic figure of rapprochement between citizens of different cultures and origins, there was only one step to take, which federal elected officials have cheerfully taken, judging by their declarations in the House of common at the turn of the 2000s.
The black interpreter has already been called Canada’s “father of multiculturalism”, nothing less. This is a very great title awarded to this character, who would certainly be the first to be surprised to be awarded such an honor in a country where he has never set foot… A myth is precisely that: a distorted and idealized representation of a character or real facts.
The case of the interpreter Da Costa reminds us that writing history is not writing “beautiful stories”, even if these serve a noble cause. Fiction, ideology and guesswork cannot stand for historical truth.