Mathieu Da Costa, a free black seaman, is believed to be the first person of African ancestry to reach Canada and he is the first recorded black man to visit the region of Port Royal in Nova Scotia. Although little is known of his background before he reached Canada, Da Costa is said to have had some education and was also baptized. Even his actual name is in dispute. He was identified as Mathieu Da Costa in English documents, Mathieu De Coste in French documents, and in Dutch documents he was known as Matheus de Cost.
There is little documentation about da Costa, but he is known to have been a freeman favoured by explorers for his multilingual talents. His portfolio of languages – thought to include Dutch, English, French, Portuguese and pidgin Basque, the dialect many Aboriginals used for trading purposes – led him into the employ of Sieur de Monts in the role of interpreter
There are conflicting stories as to where and when Da Costa was at different time periods. Records show him guiding French explorers through the Lake Champlain region. Between 1604 and 1607 he was a trader with the Acadians — French settlers in early Nova Scotia — when they began commerce with the Micmac Indians along Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast. He was described in those accounts as an interpreter of the Micmac and French languages. Other reports have Mathieu, along with three other men, dying of scurvy during the winter of 1607 in Port Royal, Nova Scotia. Yet he was also reported to be living in Holland in February 1607.
According to those records, Da Costa was kidnapped from the French by Dutch traders who brought him to Amsterdam. In 1608 he was said to have signed a three year contract with the Dutch to act as an interpreter and to return to Canada with, or for, Pierre Du Guade Monts. Apparently Da Costa was captured by the French because by December of 1609 he was imprisoned in La Havre, France.
After that point Da Costa disappears from the historical record.
In short, Mathieu Da Costa was an interpreter and translator from an African background in the Atlantic world during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. As a translator, he was wanted by the English and the Dutch to help in their contacts with the Aboriginal people. The tradition of Europeans depending on such translators was more than a century old by this time. It can be traced back to Portuguese exploring and trading voyages along the African coast and it continued as Europeans and Africans came to the Americas. Mathieu Da Costa worked with Pierre Du Gua de Monts, a leader of French ventures in Eastern Canada, and with Samuel de Champlain in the 17th century. It is said that he obviously spoke Mi’kmaq, which would indicate that he had been to Canada before Champlain. His translation and communication skills helped reduce the cultural gap between early French explorers and the First Nations.His work in Canada is honoured at the Port Royal Habitation National Historic Site of Canada in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. It was unveiled in July 2005
The Mathieu Da Costa Challenge is an annual creative writing and artwork contest launched in 1996 by the Department of Canadian Heritage. The challenge encourages youth to discover how diversity has shaped Canada’s history and the important role that pluralism plays in Canadian society