Date Published:
June 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Pierre de Gua, Sieur de Monts

Monts, Pierre du Gua or Guast, Sieur de (fl. 1560-1628), colonizer, was born in Saintonge, France, about 1560. He fought on the Protestant side in the French wars of religion, and was rewarded by Henri IV with the governorship of Pons in Saintonge. He seems to have made several voyages to Canada, and was a passenger in Chauvin's expedition of 1600. In 1604 he obtained a monopoly of the trade in New France, and founded the settlement at St. Croix, transferred in 1605 to Port Royal ; but this monopoly was revoked in 1607. In 1608 he obtained, however, a new monopoly, and sent out Champlain to found the post of Quebec on the St. Lawrence. For some years he was the proprietor of the post at Quebec ; but after the death of Henri IV in 1610, he lost his influence at court, and withdrew from active interest in the Canadian trade. He died apparently between 1628 and 1632, not (as has been frequently stated) in 1611.

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., "Pierre du Gua or Guast, Sieur de Monts", in The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 400p., p. 331.