AUBRY, NICOLAS, priest, accompanied Pierre Du Gua de Monts to Acadia in 1604; b. in Paris; d. some time after 1611.

According to Lescarbot, Aubry was a young man from a good family, who had sailed for New France against the latter’s wishes. With him was another priest, sometimes called the priest of the parish of Port-Royal; the latter, whose name is unknown, was carried off by scurvy during the winter of 1605–6. A Protestant minister was also a member of the expedition. Champlain reports a violent quarrel on the subject of religion between the minister and “nostre curé,” which was fought with fists. This “curé” was probably Nicolas Aubry.

Nicolas Aubry drew attention to himself because of an adventure which befell him at Baie Sainte-Marie (N.S.), around 16 June 1604. During a walk through the woods with a number of others he lost his sword. He left the group to go and look for it, but lost his way, and despite the efforts of the French and of the Indians it was impossible to find him. Sixteen days later Angibault dit Champdoré, who had come from Sainte-Croix to fish near Île Longue, noticed him on the shore of the Baie Française (Bay of Fundy), waving his hat and his handkerchief at the end of a pole. The young ecclesiastic had kept himself alive on sorrel and on berries found in the woods. It took him some while to recover from these privations, and he returned to France either in 1604 or in 1605. Nicolas Aubry was still living in 1611, and maintained a keen interest in Canadian affairs.

Lucien Campeau