Who was Mathieu Da Costa?

Mathieu Da Costa was a navigator and interpreter of African descent who likely travelled extensively throughout the Atlantic world in the late 1500s and early 1600s.

As an interpreter, he was sought after by the French and the Dutch to help in their trade with Aboriginal people. Mathieu Da Costa likely spoke French, Dutch, Portuguese and pidgin Basque. This language was a common trade dialect used in dealing with Aboriginal peoples in the era of early contact.

The tradition of Europeans relying on Black interpreters was more than a century old by Mathieu Da Costa’s time. It began with voyages off the African coast and continued as Europeans and Africans came across to the Americas. Mathieu Da Costa probably sailed on many voyages, travelling up the St. Lawrence River and all along the coast of what is now Atlantic Canada. He worked with Pierre Dugua de Monts, a leader in the establishment of French settlements in Eastern Canada, and with Samuel de Champlain in the 1600s. His interpreting skills helped bridge the cultural and linguistic gap between early French explorers and the Mi’kmaq people.

His work in Canada is commemorated at the Port Royal Habitation National Historic Site of Canada in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.