Mathieu de Costa

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Mathieu de Costa (sometimes Mathieu d'Acosta or Mathieu Da Costa) is the first recorded black person in Canada. He was a member of the exploring party of Pierre Dugua, the Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s.

Not much is documented on de Costa, but we know that as a free black man. Many explorers favoured him because of his gift of tongues and his multilingual talent. He could likely speak many languages, such as French, English, Dutch, Portuguese and pidgin Basque, the dialect many Aboriginals used for trading purposes. This gift led him to becoming Champlain’s trusty interpreter in the early 1600s. This job came to be known as un grumete. He not only worked with Pierre Dugua de Mons, but other different nations, like France and Holland. There were even disputes over which country would benefit from his services. His talents helped him bridge the gap between the Europeans and the Mi'kmaq people.

It is not known when or where he was born, but it is know that he died in 1623. But from what is known of him, he must have had to visit Canada before 1603 for him to learn the Mi'kmaq dialect, and he must have traveled up the St. Lawrence River and worked everywhere up and down the Canadian Atlantic Coast. There is a lot of controversy to how he learned the tongue of the Aboriginals. The most practical answer was that the North American context was very similar to the African context, and they had few variations from one another. Because of this, it can be concluded that Mathieu de Costa’s biggest achievement was when he first step foot in Canada. It was a sign that no matter what race, colour, gender, or rank you are, you can accomplish many great things. He spoke a variety of languages, more than Champlain could! But even he demonstrated that he helped connect the link from the Europeans and the Natives.