Membertou (?-1611)
Mi'kmaq chief Membertou and his people were important allies during the establishment of the French settlement in Port-Royal. Furthermore, when Pierre Dugua de Mons' exclusive rights to the fur trade were revoked in 1607, Membertou and his people protected and maintained the Port-Royal Habitation during the absence of the French. When the French returned to Port-Royal in 1610, Jesuit missionary Jessé Fléché who was part of the expedition, baptised Membertou under the name Henri, in honor of the king of France, Henri IV. When lawyer and author Marc Lescarbot arrived in Port-Royal in 1606, he wrote that Membertou had witnessed the arrival of Jacques Cartier in Canada in 1534, at which time he was in his thirties. However, certain exploits attributed to him by Lescarbot during a battle in 1606 when Membertou would have been over 100 years old, lead us to believe that his age was exaggerated.
