What does “Fundy” mean? Where does the unusual name for the large bay between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, boasting the highest tides in the world come from?
The short answer is that it’s Portuguese, but figuring out what “Fundy” means involves a lost colony, confused explorers, and a perplexing mix up…
Mi’kmaq and Passamaquoddy peoples named the Bay of Fundy Bakudabakek (pronounced Ba-koo-da-ba-kek) which means open way. Meanwhile, Wolastoq peoples named it Wekwabegituk, which means waves at the head of the bay.
Clearly those aren’t the origins of the word “Fundy.”
It is sometimes suggested that “Fundy” comes from “Fond de la Baie” – French for ‘head of the bay.’
However, New Brunswick’s greatest –and frankly, most obsessive– naturalist and historian William F. Ganong, didn’t think much of that suggestion. He sourly noted in a 1930 essay: “I have seen nearly all known early maps of the bay, but have never seen that expression on them.”
In 1604 a fleet of French settlers, including Samuel de Champlain, arrived.
At the time there were no Europeans anywhere from Florida to Quebec. Champlain’s expedition could have chosen to build their settlement anywhere on the continent.
They chose the Bay of Fundy.
They didn’t call it that though. Champlain wanted to call the bay “Norumbega,” but he was overruled by the commander of the expedition, The Sieur de Monts, who named it “La Baie Françoise,” meaning “French Bay.”
The French built a settlement on Saint-Croix Island, on the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy. After a brutal first winter they abandoned the little island, sailing across the bay to build a new settlement in Port Royal, which is now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.
Eight years later, the bay would be renamed “Argall’s Bay” after the British destroyed the French colony, in honour of Captain Samuel Argall, the leader of the raid.
However, the Bay of Fundy had already been visited –and named– by Europeans long before, and their name would outlast the French and English names.
When Champlain was exploring somewhere around Advocate, Nova Scotia, deep inside the bay, he wrote that made a remarkable discovery:
“We found a very old cross, all covered in moss, and almost wholly rotted away, an unmistakable sign that formerly Christians had been there.”
Figuring out who had built the old cross –and where “Fundy” came from– requires going back a century before Champlain’s arrival.
We Maritimers take for granted how massive the Bay of Fundy is. It’s hard for us to believe that people could fail to notice it. Yet several early explorers did just that.
The first European since the Vikings in the Maritimes was John Cabot, in 1497. He explored Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, but didn’t find the Bay of Fundy.
Nearly three decades later, in 1524, an Italian explorer working for France, Janus Verrazzano, mapped The Maritimes.
He usually sailed far off the coast, understandably worried about running aground on unknown shores in a strange new land.
Verrazzano missed the entrance to the Bay of Fundy. He seemed curiously aware of it though, searching the area. However, he was running low on supplies and needed to hurry back to Europe.
Before departing, he found the Penobscot River. On his maps he labelled it “Orambega” – the same word Champlain meant (but misspelt) when he suggested the name “Norumbega.”
Orambega isn’t the kind of name Verrazzano usually picked – he almost always named places Classical Greek or Roman names.
Except when he got mad. Then his names got ornery. Near Portland, Maine he tried to trade with locals, but wrote they were “uncouth and insulting … laughing and … showing their buttocks.” So, annoyed at being mooned, he named Maine’s Casco Bay “Terra Onde He Mala Gente” – Land of the Bad People.
The other exception to Verrazzano not choosing Greek or Roman place names when he was using names from earlier explorer’s maps.
Ganong suggests Verrazzano had already seen both the Bay of Fundy and the Penobscot River on an earlier explorer’s map:
“It seems not improbable that “Orambega” on the Verrazano map may be a misprinted “Gram Baya,” meaning “Great Bay” taken from a descriptive designation for the bay in question on a Fagundes map.”
Ganong was referring to Joāo Alvares Fagundes. Neatly fitting in between Cabot and Verrazzano’s explorations of the Maritimes, Fagundes may have built the old cross Champlain found, and explain where “Fundy” came from.
Unfortunately, much evidence of early Portuguese exploration of Canada was lost in a 1755 earthquake which devastated Lisbon.
Nonetheless, several surviving documents suggest Fagundes attempted to build a colony in Cape Breton. If true, this mysterious lost colony would be the earliest European settlement in North America since the Vikings.
A 1521 Letter of Patent from the King of Portugal awarding The Maritimes to Fagundes still survives. It is clear from this document that Fagundes had already explored Nova Scotia extensively and wanted to build a colony there.
A lengthy 1570 letter by Portuguese Governor Francisco de Souza –possibly a business partner of Fagundes– recounted the fate of the colony.
De Souza wrote that two ships departed, planning to settle Newfoundland. After arriving they decided it was too cold, instead settling by Bras d’Or Lake, in Cape Breton.
After settling, the ships were destroyed. De Souza wrote that the colonists were still stranded there, 45 years later.
Samuel de Champlain remarked that he’d heard a different ending to the lost colony as he sailed past Cape Breton decades later: “The Portuguese formerly attempted to settle upon this island and passed a winter there: but the rigour of the season and the cold made them abandon the settlement.”
After Fagundes explored The Maritimes, the name “Rio Fondo” –Portuguese for “deep river”– appears on maps in Europe. Explorers and mapmakers there –as well as merchants and fishermen– often shared information with one another, and news of discoveries travelled quickly.
Ganong wrote that Fagundes had “explored along the coast of Nova Scotia to the Bay of Fundy, which he was the first to map, though later cartographers bedevilled the subject by mistakenly assimilating his map of the Bay of Fundy with the Penobscot.”
Ganong suggests that Fagundes was the first European to name the Bay of Fundy, which he called “Gram Baya.” Fugandes also named the nearby Penobscot River “Rio Fondo.”
Possibly the names were later mixed up, perhaps by Verrazzano when he found the Penobscot but not Fundy.
These sorts of mix-ups weren’t exactly uncommon.
Verrazzano named the whole Maritimes region “Arcadia,” which means ‘paradise’ in Greek. Champlain inexplicably removed the “R ” –possibly in a spelling mistake– which is where the word “Acadia” comes from.
Over the centuries, “Rio Fondo” had many spelling changes, including “Funda,” “Fodinaru,” and “Fouxdy,” before eventually being named the Bay of Fundy.
