The Order of Good Cheer (French: L'Ordre de Bon Temps) was originally a French Colonial order founded in 1606 by suggestion of Samuel de Champlain. A contemporary order awarded by the Province of Nova Scotia bears the same name in continuance of the original order. Original order in New France Upon arrival in New France, present day Canada. The Order of Good Cheer was founded at Port-Royal and was originally chartered under the royal auspices of the Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt et de Saint-Just and Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The Order's practices were established by the first Chief Steward Marc Lescarbot. It was after an impossible winter at Ste. Croix Island where many of the first French settlers in North America died of scurvy that the French fur trading colony relocated across the Baie Française (Bay of Fundy), settling the following year in a location they named Port-Royal. At the time it was believed that "land sickness" (now known as scurvy) was caused by idleness, so Champlain organized the Order to include not just food, but also entertainment. The first meeting, which took place on November 14, 1606, included a theatrical performance called "Le Theatre de Neptune en la Nouvelle-France". The play told the story of sailors travelling to the New World, only to encounter Neptune, god of the sea on the way. The Baron de Poutrincourt, Intendant to the King of France in North America, had been on an expedition on the Atlantic coast to the coast of present-day Maine, and, on the occasion of his return to the fort at Port-Royal, the Order was founded at a glorious reception, the preparations for which reportedly involved all those remaining at Port-Royal. His return on the 14th of November, 1606, is a date to remember in the annals of the New World, as the establishment of the first North American order of chivalry and the birth of the Nouveau Noblesse of New France. The feasting of the Order occurred weekly and continued throughout the winter until the last of March, only to recommence annually in the Fall. The first toast of the Order made by the Baron de Poutrincourt: Quoting Lescarbot, the French historian François-Edme Rameau de Saint-Père writes: Poutrincourt returned from his excursion on the 14th November, 1606; Lescarbot, who was always full of ideas, and who knew, no doubt, the useful part to be obtained by