ST. CROIX ISLAND (AP) – Delegates from three nations gathered Saturday on a rain-swept outcropping to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first French colony in North America.

The tiny island settlement lasted only about a year at the confluence of two rivers that form a cross, giving it the name St. Croix.

Explorers Pierre Dugua and Samuel Champlain founded the settlement in 1604, joined by 77 other men. They abandoned it the following year after nearly half of the colonists died during a harsh winter.

“We have to remember that this is one of the places where it all started. There’s a huge French presence in North America,” said Paul Cellucci, U.S. ambassador to Canada. “A lot of citizens in the United States can trace their roots back to this very island.”

During a rain-soaked ceremony, Cellucci and representatives of Canada, France and the Passamaquoddy Indian tribe remembered the arrival of the French on two galleons in Passamaquoddy Bay.

“We remember that the first French to come here were welcomed by the Passamaquoddy Indians, and we want to say that we still share a friendship,” said Xavier Darcos, the French representative.

Underscoring two of the hardships that confronted the settlers – fickle weather and 27-foot tides – the ceremony was hastened when rain began falling and the tide quickly dropped, sending 60 participants and onlookers scurrying for boats to avoid being stranded on the six-and-a-half acre island.

Afterward, festivities continued with plans for a tall ship with actors in period costumes to sail up the St. Croix River. Fireworks and other events were planned in both Maine and New Brunswick.

Although the St. Croix settlement was short-lived, it gave the French credit for beating the English to establish a permanent presence in the New World. Nearly 20 million U.S. residents trace their roots there.

French settlers at St. Croix came three years before English colonists landed in Jamestown and 16 years before the Pilgrims sailed the Mayflower to Plymouth. The Spanish had the first European settlement on the continent, establishing St. Augustine, Fla., in 1565.

Dugua, a nobleman known as Sieur de Mons, chose the island because it appeared defensible and well-suited to his plans. The settlers cleared a site, planted gardens and erected dwellings: a kitchen, a storehouse, a blacksmith shop and a chapel.

The first snow fell that October, not long after Champlain returned from a historic voyage to Mount Desert Island. With the river choked by ice, the settlers lost access to the mainland and ran low on drinking water, food and firewood. They made it through the unusually harsh winter with help from the forebears of today’s Passamaquoddy Indians. Thirty-five settlers died and were buried on the island.

After a ship arrived in June, Dugua moved the settlement to Nova Scotia at a spot Champlain named Port Royal.

The Passamaquoddies took part in the anniversary events after much debate. For their tribe, Saturday’s ceremonies recalled bittersweet events.

Despite generally good relations with the French, the arrival of Europeans put pressure on natural resources and introduced diseases.

“Today is a day of exchanging gifts. In the winter of 1604, we shared the gift of food. Today we share the gift of friendship,” said Hugh Akagi, a tribal leader at St. Andrews, New Brunswick.

The abandoned settlement became known as Bone Island in the 1700s when erosion exposed the remains of many of the buried settlers. Last year, archaeologists and anthropologists reburied the bones of 23 settlers that were removed in 1969.

The island is the only international historic site that is part of the U.S. Park Service system.

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On the Net:

National Park Service Web site http://www.nps.gov/sacr/home.htm

St. Croix celebration www.stecroix2004.org

AP-ES-06-26-04 1718EDT