Pierre Maillard
He is noted for his contributions to the creation of a writing system for the Mi'kmaq people of Île Royale, New France (now Cape Breton Island, Canada).
He is also credited with helping negotiate a peace treaty between the British and the Mi'kmaq that resulted in the Burying the Hatchet ceremony (Nova Scotia).
In 1734, the Abbé de L'Isle-Dieu selected Maillard in a group of seminarists lent to the Séminaire des Missions Étrangeres, which was short of personnel.
Maillard was present when Annapolis Royal was under siege, and after the fall of Louisbourg in June 1745, he encouraged Mi'kmaq warriors to mount raids against British forces.
[5] In an attempt to remove his influence from the ongoing events in the area, Halifax Governor Edward Cornwallis tried to persuade Maillard to retire to Minas Basin.
[5] During the French and Indian War, Maillard relocated to Malagomich (now Merigomish, Nova Scotia) to escape the ever-increasing British presence in 1758.
To that officer, Maillard sent a letter detailing the near-hopeless situation of the Mi'kmaq in which he opened "by summing up 23 years... spent in this country in the service of our Religion and our Prince."
Shortly afterward, Maillard accepted an invitation from Nova Scotia Governor Charles Lawrence to travel to Halifax and to assist in pacifying the Mi'kmaq peoples.
[12] Maillard was accorded a state funeral by the Nova Scotia governor; his pallbearers included the Council President and the Speaker of the Assembly.
The government thus recognized his role in negotiating peace treaties between the Mi'kmaq and the British (see Burying the Hatchet ceremony (Nova Scotia)) and his forceful personality.
[16] Reverend Wood wrote of Maillard: "He was a very sensible, polite, well bred man, an excellent scholar and a good sociable companion, and was much respected by the better sort of people here as it appeared.
Le Loutre marveled at Maillard's achievements in his later reports: "... naturalized Indian as regards language.... [he succeeded in acquiring the gift of rhyming at each member of a sentence, being able to]... speak Micmac with as much ease and purity as do their women who are the most skilled in this style.
