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Pierre Biard, Jesuit missionary (b at Grenoble, France 1567 or 1568; d at Avignon, France 17 Nov 1622). After long preparation for missionary work, Biard left for ACADIA in early 1611.
Biard, Pierre
Pierre Biard, Jesuit missionary (b at Grenoble, France 1567 or 1568; d at Avignon, France 17 Nov 1622). After long preparation for missionary work, Biard left for ACADIA in early 1611. Determined and resourceful as a missionary to the Micmac and Maliseet, Biard nevertheless incurred the enmity of French colonial promoters such as Charles de BIENCOURT, whose methods he criticized as selfish and materialistic.
In July 1613, as he was attempting with 3 other Jesuits to set up a religiously based colony on the Maine coast, he was captured by an English raiding party, and subsequently returned to France. Biard's Relation de la Nouvelle-France (1616) was a perceptive appraisal of the problems facing early European colonizers.
