BIARD, PETER (1565-1622). A French mis sionary; born in Grenoble. He began to study theology at the age of 9 years, in Lyons, and came to America as one of the first two mis sionary priests sent to New France, arriving at Port Royal on the day of Pentecost, 1611. On June 10, 1011, Biard and his associate. Ennemond Masse. wrote the first letters ever sent by the Je,,:uit Order from the Canadian settlement. Soon afterwards he began the study of the Indian language by questioning the natives on the mean ing of the words faith, hope, charity, baptism, sacrament, trinity, eucharist, and incarnation, a study rendered extremely difficult by the un willingness or the inability of the natives to reply, and by the ridicule and scurrility which his questions frequently encountered. In 1012 he ascended the Kennebec River and established friendly relations with the Indians; and in 1613 he proceeded as far as the Penobscot. and founded a colony on Mount Desert Island, which he hoped to make a permanent settlement. The little ham
let was, however, shortly afterwards destroyed by an English force under Samuel Argall, Deputy Governor of Virginia. One of Biard's followers was killed, and he himself was taken prisoner and transported to England. This attack is memora ble as resulting in the first actual hostilities be tween the French and English settlers in Amer ica. At the instance of the French Ambassador. Biard was subsequently liberated, and returned to Lyons, where, in 1616, he published his Rela tion de la Nourelle France, et du royage des percs. •esuites dans cctte contree, the first of that remarkable series of Jesuit Relations, 40 vols. (1632-1672), which constitute one of the most valuable sources of early American history. Another important work is the Relatio Expedi tionis Angloruni in Canadam smegue ab illis Comprehensionis.