Biard, Pierre

Biard, Pierre (pyer byär) [key], c.1567–1622, French Jesuit missionary in North America. He left a professorship of theology in Lyons to head the first Jesuit mission to Canada, coming to Port Royal (later Annapolis Royal) in Acadia in 1611. He was one of the founders (1613) of the French settlement at Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, in what is now Maine. He and all the colonists were soon taken prisoners by Samuel Argall. After a long captivity and a stormy return voyage Biard finally reached France, where he was accused of being in league with his English captors. His Relation de la Nouvelle France (1616), which has been of much value to later historians, embodied his reply to these charges.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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