times the Wolastoqiyik lived in mostly self-sustaining villages living largely off bass, sturgeon, salmon, corn, wild roots and berries. Samuel de Champlain landed at Saint John Harbour in 1604, though he did not settle the area. Saint John was a key area for trade and defence for Acadia during the French colonial era. Fort La Tour in the city's harbour, was a pivotal battleground during the Acadian Civil War. At the end of the Seven Years' War the British took the region from the French. Population grew with immigration from the former Thirteen Colonies and Europe. In 1785, Saint John became the first incorporated city in what is now Canada. Immigration led to the building of North America's first quarantine station, Partridge Island. The city became a shipyard of global stature. The 1851 ship became the fastest in the world, and Robert Foulis developed the automated foghorn. As the city grew in strategic importance to English power and capital, unrest grew among many of its working class. Black Saint Johners were forbidden from trade, fishing and voting, thus the majority of the city's Black community settled in Portland (the city's north end), which later became amalgamated with Saint John. In 1849, Canada's first labour union, the Laborer's Benevolent Association (now ILA local 273) was formed by longshoremen. From 1840 to 1860 sectarian violence was rampant in Saint John, as tensions grew in reaction to poor living conditions of poor Irish Catholics resulting in some of the worst urban riots in Canadian history. The city experienced a cholera outbreak in 1854 with the death of over 1,500 people, as well as a great fire in 1877 that destroyed 40% of the city and left 20,000 people homeless with damage exceeding $10 million (a modern value of approximately $256 million). Geography and climate Physical geography Situated in the south-central portion of the province, along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River, the city is split by the south-flowing river and the east side is bordered on the north by the Kennebecasis River where it meets the Saint John River at Grand Bay. Saint John Harbour, where the two rivers meet the Bay of Fundy, is a deep water port and ice-free all year long. Partridge Island is in the harbour. The city land area is , and the metropolitan area covers . Stonehammer