Pedro da Silva (post courier)
Canadian postman
Pedro da Silva (Lisbon, circa 1647 - Canada, 1717) was the first post courier in New France, in what was to become part of Canada. He was Portuguese born and was known as Le Portugais (French for The Portuguese).
Pedro da Silva is known to have arrived in New France prior to 1673, having worked there as a common courier. Later on he is known to have relocated to Sault-au-Matelot (Québec City's lower town) and involved himself in the shipping of goods in the colony (by boat and cart). There is proof that in July 1693, Silva was paid 20 sols to take a package of letters from Montréal to Québec City. In 1705, he was commissioned by the (co)-Intendant of New France, Jacques Raudot, as the "first courier" in New France.
Stamp
Canada Post issued a stamp (48¢) in June 2003 honouring Pedro da Silva.
See also
Postage stamps and postal history of Canada
Portuguese Canadians
External links
O primeiro carteiro do Canadá era português (November 10, 2007) in Diário de Notícias (Portuguese).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pedro da Silva (post courier)” is canadian postman. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pedro, Silva and post, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pedro da Silva (post courier)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.