Loki thanks for the reply. I'm assuming the Portuguese your referring to the João Álvares Fagundes settlement along the Clyburn River in Ingonish Cape Breton. I believe a settlement was attempted in 1521 or there abouts and lasted a year or two until the harsh winters and hostile locals forced them to abandon. But to be fair the winters there were far more severe than the winters in New Ross. They would have been landlocked until mid to late May with first the bay freezing over and then the pack ice moving in. They had too much stacked against them. As for the Basque they had seasonal shore camps and I have on good authority that they were here much earlier than 1500.
New Ross is another story though and I can see that working out. Its on the edge of the Bay of Fundy snow effect so although it gets quite a bit of snow its not as bad as say at Aldersville further inland. If you think of it, it would make a great place to get lost at. Just enough inland so that camp smoke isn't spotted from the bay, surprisingly it has good soil, the river would have seasonal runs of eel and salmon and enough wild game to get by for a few years. The key would be getting along with the Mi'kmaq. If they did they wouldn't have a problem at all. So yes I can see them picking that spot.
So you feel that they stayed for a 100 years or so and then when things got a little dicey decided to move camp and set up in Port Royal. Can I assume that they would have brought women with them? Then I imagine they would have been assimilated into the local First Nation population. Have you done any DNA research on the hapolgroups of the Mi'kmaq or the early Acadian women. Acadian oral and written history tells us that many of the early women were First Nation. However recent MTDNA findings are coming up with European hapolgroups for many of them. But the thing that interests me is how unusual these hapolgroups are. I'm talking about Orkney, Basque Druze hapolgroups. It could be admixtures from these Templars or others entering the local population. Maybe you should look into that.
Here's something else to think about. When Champlain and his crew first touched down in Port Royal he was met by the great chief of the Mi'kmaq Henri Membertou. Its was a cordial welcome and it opened the way for the great friendship between the Acadians and the Mi'kmaq of Port Royal. I don't know but it appears that this seems a bit unusual, almost like a meeting of long lost family. This quote I'm attaching describes the appearance of Membertou.
"Father Biard, one of the Jesuits who came to Port-Royal in 1611 wrote: “This was the greatest, most renowned and most formidable [native person] within the memory of man; of splendid physique, taller and larger-limbed than is usual among them; bearded like a Frenchman, although scarcely any of the others have hair upon the chin; grave and reserved; feeling a proper sense of dignity for his position as commander.”
He looks like a Frenchman eh.
