Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit

Fishermen from Brittany, Normandy or the Basque country, who came ashore in Acadia during the summer months to dry their fish, found that they could carry on profitable trade with the Indians, exchanging axes, knives, pots and cloth for furs.

He now owned four vessels (the Don-de-Dieu, the Espérance, the Bon-Espoir, and the Saint-Jean), and he was regularly engaged in the North American fur trade and cod fishery of Canada and Newfoundland.

Chauvin, along with François Gravé Du Pont, obtained a fur trading monopoly for New France in 1599 from King Henri IV.

[2] Chauvin embarked from Honfleur in the early spring of 1600, with his 800 ships and the intended colonists, Gravé as his partner and lieutenant, and Pierre Du Gua de Monts.

Champlain's map of Tadoussac in 1608, depicts the structure on the east bank (ncmf) of a stream that enters the harbour; underneath are the words "abitasion du Cappn chauvain de lan 1600" (habitation of Capt.

After the colonists were settled, Chauvin and his companions devoted their energies to the traffic in pelts until the autumn, when they sailed for France with a cargo of beaver and other furs.