SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS 



IX 



The Sieur de Monts National Monument 



As Commemorating 

 Acadia and Early French Influences of Race and 

 Settlement in the United States 



George B. Dorr 

 The Sieur de Monts National Monument combines in 

 a remarkable way three separate aspects : It is an ex- 

 traordinary Nature Monument, as such are termed 

 abroad, fitted to exhibit and preserve its regional life 

 in the widest range a single area can, and to set forth 

 its region's geologic history; it is a great Recreation 

 Area, a park in the true popular sense, capable in the 

 highest degree of drawing city-wearied men and sending 

 them away refreshed and stimulated ; and it is a Historic 

 Monument of singularly impressive character whose 

 ancient granite heights, sculptured in bold relief by ice 

 and sea, commemorate as they look out across the stormy 

 wilderness of the North Atlantic the men who sailed 

 across that wilderness in early days from ports of west- 

 ern France to settle on the Acadian shores or fish in the 

 Acadian seas. 



The first commissions that resulted in permanent settle- 

 ment on the American continent to the north of Florida 

 were issued by Henry of Navarre, Henry IV of France, 

 in December, 1603, to Pierre du Gruast, Sieur de Monts 

 and Governor of Pons, a Huguenot of noble family who 

 had served the King faithfully through the recent wars 

 and stood high in his esteem. 



De Monts, then not over thirty years of age and in his 

 prime, was a native of Saintonge, a district facing on 

 the Bay of Biscay between La Vendee and Bordeaux, 



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