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Sometimes what we do not know is even more intriguing than what we do. The story of Mathieu Da Costa and the part he played in the early exploration of Canada is a fascinating case in point.
Stated or implied in the surviving historical record is that Mathieu Da Costa was a free black man who in the early 1600s was hired by Europeans, both French and Dutch, to act as a translator or interpreter on voyages to North America. There was a clash between French and Dutch interests over his services, which led to a court case in France that dragged on from 1609 until 1619. Nothing in the extant documentation indicates exactly where and when Da Costa might have worked along the coasts of Atlantic Canada. Nonetheless, authors regularly go into print with assertions that Mathieu Da Costa was at Port- Royal in the early 1600s.2 Their conclusion is based on the indisputable fact that Da Costa signed a contract to work as an interpreter for Pierre Dugua de Mons (Du Gua de Monts), the leader of French colonization efforts at St. Croix in 1604 and at Port- Royal in 1 605. 3 The difficulty with the contract, however, is that it was signed in Amsterdam in 1608 to take effect beginning in 1609. And there are no subsequent references to confirm that the interpreter subsequently crossed the ocean as the contract specified.
Thus we are presented with a daunting challenge. We have an enigmatic figure who is becoming increasingly prominent in texts, web sites and films about early Nova Scotian history, and yet for whom the evidence is fragmentary. What exactly can a historian say about Mathieu Da Costa? This paper will not likely be the last word, yet it is an effort to reconcile what specific evidence there is about Da Costa and what is known generally about the context in which he lived and worked. The paper seeks to understand how an interpreter of African descent may have made his way to the shores of Atlantic Canada. The starting point is in Africa, a century or more before the birth of Mathieu Da Costa.4
EUROPEAN EXPLORATION AND TRADE ALONG THE WEST AFRICAN COAST
Beginning in the 1440s, Portuguese navigators...