Another name to be perpetuated by history is Acadie, or Acadia as it is
known at the present time. Whether we accept the statement or not that
the Italian navigator, Verrazano, who explored the American coast as far
as New York, called the country "Arcadie", because of the magnificence
of the trees, there will be preference for the Micmac Indian origin of
the name, "Acadie." The country was visited by Breton and Basque
fishermen a hundred years before the settlement of Port Royal in 1605.
From that time the Maritime countries of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and
part of the State of Maine, were named Acadie. Many places to-day retain
their original Micmac names. We have Benacadie, Katakaddy, Shubenacadie,
Shunacadie, with the meaning, "abundance of," or "the place of" certain
things. As we know, Nova Scotia is in truth Acadie.
The Bay of Fundy comes from "au fond du Baie," as the Port Royal people
designated the head of that great tidal stream. The discovery of native
copper and coal led to the naming of the headland at the upper end of
the Bay of Fundy, "Les Mines." This name was extended to designate the
country about the Basin of Minas connected by Minas Channel with the
great Bay.
Grand-Pré and Canard, the original names of the Acadian period, are
still used to distinguish the townships of Horton and Cornwallis. The
Gaspereau River and Valley, New Minas, Habitant and Pereau, remain the
memories of the Acadian period.