The work, entitled The Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America, remains the leading authority regarding the conditions of Acadia for the years 1632 through 1670.
Simon Denys was a future seigneurial attorney and receiver general for the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, who was appointed to the ruling Sovereign Council of New France in 1664, then ennobled by Louis XIV, in 1668.
French administrators, including nearby Port Royal's lord, the Sieur Charles de Menou d'Aulnay, thought little of the colonists’ reclaiming tidal marshlands.
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.
Before the use of kettles the Mi’kmaq used hollowed out tree trunks in which to boil their unsalted food, dropping in hot stones to heat the water.
[13] 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 (present-day Cape Breton Island).
Sieur Emmanuel le Borgne, a rival with holdings at Port Royal, seized his properties by armed force in 1654 while Denys was at Ste.
[16] Leaving his son Richard in charge of his holdings, he travelled to Paris to publish his Description Géographique et Historique des Costes de l’Amérique Septentrionale: avec l’Histoire Naturelle du Païs.
This work was edited and translated into English by Professor William Francis Ganong and published in 1908 as part of the Champlain Society's General Series.
[18] Nicolas Denys and his work, translated as Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America, remains the leading authority regarding the conditions of Acadia for the years 1632 through 1670.
One example includes the following fraudulent misinformation deleted from this article on July 10, 2017: "Denys' daughter, Marguerite, married her cousin, James Forsyth, who was a captain in naval and land expeditions.
[20] 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.