ON SABLli ISLAND. 11 



wilil cattle, ami a groat many foxes, many of which were black." The number of cattle is 

 perhaps exaggerated; ami we are tempted to ask what the foxes found to live on? At all 

 events his reports so interested the Aeadians that seventeen of them started in a vessel for 

 the island, Rose acting as pilot. He afterward returned to Boston, and, from the information 

 received from him, a company was formed to hunt on the island. (_)n their arrival they 

 found that the Aeadians had built houses and fortiiied themselves, and made such a slaugh- 

 ter among the cattle that only about one hundred and fifty remained.' What became ulti- 

 mately of these cattle we are not informed. Probably they were killed otf by the fishermen. 

 At all events we hear no more of them. Only at a much later period do we hear of cattle 

 upon the island, and then it is of tame ones introduced for the use of residents. 



For about a century we hear nothing more of this island. But at the end of that period 

 we find an interesting attempt made to form an establishment on it. This was by the Rev. 

 Andrew Le Mercier. He was a graduate of Geneva, but of old Huguenot stock, and in 

 1719 became pastor of the French Protestant church of Boston. On the arrival of Governor 

 Phillips in Nova Scotia, in 1729, he made proposals to him to plant a colony of French 

 Protestants in Xova Scotia. The governor recommended a grant of 5,000 acres, but nothing 

 came of the project. 



Le Mercier's attention, however, had been directed toward Sable island, and on the 6th 

 March, 1738, he wrote to Governor Armsti'ong, inclosing a petition for a grant of it, on 

 liehalf of himself and his associates. His design was stated as being to stock it with such 

 domestic animals as might be useful in preserving the lives of mariners who might escape 

 from shipwrecks ; though, from the suitableness of much of the soil for grazing and the 

 opportunities aftorded for seal hunting, they no doubt hoped to combine profit with Itene- 

 volence. Tiie petition was approved, but the grant does not seem to have actually passed. 

 He was unwilling to pay the penny an acre quit rent demanded by the instructions of his 

 majesty's government. The lieutenant-governor and council referred the matter to the 

 board of trade, to whom he wrote on the 10th April of that year. But what answer he 

 received, or whether any, does not appear. But in the meantime Mr. M. sent a stock of 

 cattle to the island, preparatory to removing his family thither. 



In 1740 he again applies for a grant of the island, Init represents that as the land is 

 "low, boggy and sandj' soil, with large ponds or settlings of water occasioned by the over- 

 flowing of the tides, he thinks the penny an acre too much for what cannot be improved." 

 On the 16th August Governor Mascarene writes to the board of trade that it would be to 

 the advantage of the public to encourage the settlement, by afi'ording relief to the shijî- 

 wrecked, and profitable to the proprietors by grazing, fishing, and killing seals for their oil 

 and skins. Le Mercier does not even then seem to have received his grant, but he continued 

 to have cattle upon the island for some years, and also some settlers, and through his efforts 

 many lives were saved. But he complains that evil-disposed fishermen stole his cattle and 

 goods, and in 1744 we find him advertising in Boston papers a reward of £40 for the 

 discovery of the depredators. 



For the next fift}' years we have only occasional notices of this ill-fated isle. In the 

 year 1746 the Due d'An ville, in his celebrated expedition against the British colonies, was 

 overtaken with a severe storm near this island, and lost a transport and a fire-ship. In the 

 year 1761 a vessel with part of the 43rd regiment, returning from the capture of Quebec, 

 was wrecked on the island.- This was curiously brought to light long after. In the year 



' See Appendix, p. 45. ^ Murdoch's " Nova Scotia," ii., 403. 



