The Souriquois.

Among the native North American groups encountered by early European fishermen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence were the Micmacs of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The Basques developed a particularly close relationship with these Indians, whaling, fishing, and trading with them during the yearly visits to the Newfoundland fishing grounds. One result of Basque interaction with the Micmacs was the development of a Basque-based pidgin that spread throughout the Gulf of St. Lawrence and down the coast of Maine. The French, who learned the pidgin and used it to communicate and trade with the inhabitants of the area, came to call the Micmacs the Souriquois, apparently adopting as the Indians' name the pidgin word for the trade language. The term came from the Basque zurikoa (pronounced "surikoa") meaning "that of the whites." It may also refer to the Souris River in...