lO EEV. GEOEGE PATTERSOÎJ 



wrecks. In tsprino; tlie lields of ice, Avhieli gathered on the southern shores of Cape Breton, 

 then as now would require the navigator hound for the gulf of 8t. Lawrence, or the iisher- 

 man coming to ply his craft on the shores of Acadia, in approaching land, to run southward 

 and then work up to the coast. They were thus necessarily l)rouglit into close proximity to 

 the island, and amid the winds and currents, treacherous and uncertain then as now, must 

 have often been driven upon it, to their utter destruction, sometimes striking on the bars 

 and being engulfed in the pitiless sea, leaving no trace behind ; or at other times striking the 

 island itself, the vessels scattered in fragments on its shore, their crews perhaps perishing in 

 the catastrophe, or landing to linger out existence on the island, till either death came or 

 possibly in st)me instances they might be rescued by some passing vessel. 



One instance of this kind was brought to light some years ago. One of the men con- 

 nected with the humane establishment on the island having his attention directed to a 

 blackened line on the face of a sand-clifF, the sand was removed, when there was found the 

 site of an old encampment. Scattered about were rusty guns and bayonets, knives made 

 from iron hoops, liroken glass, a tattered English ensign, human bones mingled with those 

 of cattle and seals, and an English shilling of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as sharp as when 

 it came from the die. ÎTothing more could be learned as to who the party were who left 

 these memorials than that they were Englishmen, Ijut the coin and some of the other articles 

 might indicate that they were some English sea-rovers of the days of Good Queeii Bess. 

 But if the weapons were really bayonets, the party must have belonged to a subsequent age. 

 What their f\ite was cannot be known. The bones of cattle showed that from the stock of 

 these left upon the island tliey had been able to prolong life, but tlie human liones seemed 

 to show that at length they had succumbed to the hard circumstances of their lot and 

 perished on the island. How many more met a similar tate can only be known when the 

 sea gives up the dead which are in it.' 



III. From the Removal of La Roche's Colonists till the Establishment of the 

 First Life-saving Station, 1601-180L 



From the time of the removal of La Roche's colonists, for a period of two hundred 

 years, there is little recorded of this island. "We know little more of it than that it was the 

 same scene of wreck and destruction as before, only more extensive as commerce with 

 America had increased. 



There are several notices of it in Winthrop's " Journal," from which it appears that in 

 the early part of the seventeenth century it was resorted to Vjoth by English and French 

 fishermen, especially for the capture of the walrus and the seal. The former were then 

 abundant, and were eagerly sought, their carcasses aftording a large quantity of oil, their 

 skins forming the toughest leathei-, and their tusks being of the best ivory and worth from 

 three to four dollars a pair. 



From the same source we learn that in the year 1633 John Rose of Boston, in his ship, 

 the "Mary and Jane," was wrecked on the island. He was three months upon it, during 

 which he constructed a yawl out of the remains of his vessel, in which he was able to reach 

 the mainland. He reported that he had seen upon it " more than eight hundred head of 



' Some writers liave supposed that it was here that Sir Humphrey Gilbert's principal ship was wrecked. 

 But a closer observation of Haj'es's narrative shows that, while he sailed from Newfoundland intending to reach 

 Sable island, he first directed hie course to Cape Breton, where he lost his leading vessel. 



