The Wolastoq (transl. Saint John River; French: Fleuve Saint-Jean) is a river flowing approximately 418 miles (673 km) from headwaters in the Notre Dame Mountains near the Maine-Quebec border through New Brunswick to the northwest shore of the Bay of Fundy. The river and its tributary drainage basin formed the territory of the Wolastoqiyik and Passamaquoddy First Nations prior to European colonization. As the longest river between Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence the Saint John offered one of the best transportation corridors for First Nations refugees to retreat from the English colonization of North America's Atlantic coast. The Wolastoqiyik and their Acadian allies retreated upstream after English victories in the French and Indian War to establish the Republic of Madawaska