'''Nicolas Denys''', né à Tours, fut gouverneur, lieutenant général pour le roi, et propriétaire d'une partie de l'Acadie et du Canada. 

Ayant obtenu la concession de la contrée qui s'étend depuis le cap Canceaux jusqu'à Gaspé, il partit pour l'Amérique, en 1632. Les propriétés étaient si peu assurées dans ce pays lointain, que Denys, qui avait fait des établissements importants dans ce qui lui appartenait, eut à soutenir une guerre en règle contre ses propres compatriotes. 

Ces divisions lui causèrent le plus grand tort ; un incendie acheva de le ruiner. Depuis cet accident, dit le père Charlevoix, il n'a plus été en état d'entreprendre rien de considérable ; et ce fut un grand malheur pour cette partie de la Nouvelle-France, qui n'a jamais eu un commandant plus capable et plus appliqué. 

Denys de retour en France, après un séjour de quarante ans dans l'Amérique, durant lequel il avait visité une grande partie des possessions françaises, publia le résultat de ses observations sous ce titre : ''Description géographique et historique des côtes de l'Amérique septentrionale, avec l'histoire naturelle de ce pays'', Paris, 1672, 2 vol. in-12. On voit dans ce livre, dédié au roi, que Denys connaissait parfaitement le pays où il commandait, et les vrais moyens d'en tirer un parti avantageux, pour la France. 

'''Nicolas Denys''' (French aristocrat who became an explorer, colonizer, soldier and leader in New France.

==Early years in France==
Nicolas Denys was born in King Henri IV’s Royal Guard.

== Early years in Acadia ==
When Cardinal Richelieu authorized a stronger French presence in the New World, he commissioned Isaac de Razilly to be lieutenant-general of Acadia and Nicolas Denys accompanied the expedition as one of de Razilly’s lieutenants<ref>Faragher, John Mack. A Great and Noble Scheme (WW Norton, New York, 2005) p. 43</ref>.  The expedition set sail in 1632 with 300 hand-picked men, supplies, six Franciscan missionaries and Nicolas’ brother, Simon.

They founded a colony at the LaHave River where Denys worked in shore fishery, lumber and fur trading – a good foundation of experience to prepare him for life in the New World.  French administrators, including nearby Port Royal's lord, the Sieur William F. Ganong (Champlain Society, Toronto, 1908) pp. 123-124</ref>.  It was this extensive system of dikes and drainage sluices (called ''aboiteaux'') that set his colony apart from any others.  It allowed the colonists to reclaim land that the Mi'kmaq nation had no use for.  This greatly aided peaceful co-existence with their neighbors, and Mi’kmaq trade, friendship and intermarriage was and is an immensely important part of the Acadian identity and heritage<ref>Faragher, John Mack. A Great and Noble Scheme (WW Norton, New York, 2005) pp. 16-17 and throughout</ref>.   When de Razilly died in December 1635 the colony broke up and Denys returned to France.  In 1642 he married Marguerite de Lafitte<ref>http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1600-00/Denys.htm for the marriage and return voyage, but http://www.porttoulouse.com/html/the_denys_story.html is more authoritative about the number and names of children resultant from the marriage.</ref> in France, but soon took his new family across to his adopted lands of Acadia.

Denys served as a witness to one of the most unfortunate chapters of early Acadia’s history: the rivalry between the Lords d’Aulnay and Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour, his bitter rival, and the dissipation of efforts to grow the colony.  La Tour had also claimed royal permission to ply the fur trade in the American Northeast.  His rival outposts were in often-open hostility with the budding d’Aulnay colony, competing for resources and markets.  Decades of sparring led to bloodshed.  In the Spring of 1643 La Tour led a party of English mercenaries against the Acadian colony at Port Royal.  His 270 Puritan and Huguenot troops killed three Acadians, burned a mill, slaughtered cattle and seized 18,000 livres of furs.  D'Aulnay was able to retaliate in 1645 by seizing all of La Tour’s possessions and outposts while La Tour was drumming up more support for his cause in the English port city of Boston.  Denys’ letters and journals give vivid descriptions of the drama<ref>Denys, Nicolas. The Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America, ed. and trans. William F. Ganong (Champlain Society, Toronto, 1908)</ref>.

== Governor ==
Once he secured rights to his own lands in Acadia through the Company of New France, Denys continued to seek his fortunes now as the Governor of Canso and Isle Royale (now called Cape Breton Island).  Denys founded settlements at St. Pierre (now St. Peter's, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, home of the Nicholas Denys Museum), Ste. Anne and Nipisiquit (the site of modern Bathurst, New Brunswick)<ref>[http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1600-00/Denys.htm Historical Biographies, Nova Scotia: Nicholas Denys (1598-1688)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>.