Section IT., 1911. [247] Trans. R.S. C. 
Lescarbot’s Baron de Lery. 
By Louis Dow Scisco, WasuinetTon, D.C. 
Presented by Duncan C. Scorr, F.R.S.C. 
(Read May 16, 1911). 
Modern writers on the subject of early discovery in the New World 
usually mention, in connection with the Canadian region, a certain 
Baron de Lery, who is said to have attempted a colonizing expedition 
to the New World at an early date, and to have met with failure. No 
modern writer tells aught of the identity of this colonizing baron, for 
the reason that his title is the only clue to his place in the 16th century 
world and the title itself has baffled identification. 
Lescarbot, the genial chronicler of Acadian history, is the sponsor 
for the mysterious colonizer. He brings the baron into the world’s 
literature for the first time in the 1609 edition of his Histoire de la 
Nouvelle France. Narrating the experiences of the unfortunate 
colonists left on Sable Island in 1598 by De la Roche, the historian states 
incidentally that their food included flesh of cattle and swine, “of which 
there is a good number in this island, which have multiplied there for 
a long time without anyone knowing in truth who carried them there.” 
This casual statement seems to have caught Lescarbot’s attention 
while the book was in course of printing, for, among some notes inserted 
as a sort of preface he places one that essays further explanation: 
“Tu seras aussi averti (ami Lecteur) que le bestial qui est en 
grand nombre en Vile de Sable, duquel j’ay parlé en la page 18 y a esté 
porté il y a environ 80 ans par le Sieur Baron de Leri & de sainct Just, 
Vicomte de Gueu, lequel ayat fait entreprise pour habiter la Nouvelle- 
France, fut contraint de le jetter en ladite ile, faute d’eau & de paturage. 
“You are also informed, Friend Reader, that the live stock which 
is in great number in the Isle of Sable, of which I have spoken on page 
18, was carried there about eighty years ago by the Sieur Baron de 
Leri et St. Just, viscount of Gueu, who, having made an undertaking 
for dwelling in New France, was forced to cast it [t. e., the live stock] 
on the said isle for lack of water and fodder.” 
Lescarbot’s text thus dates the baron’s venture approximately at 
1529, midway in time between the more famous explorations of Ver- 
razano and of Cartier. Modern writers differ more or less in their 
statements of date, according to the editions of Lescarbot which are 
used by them, for the chronicler does not change his form of stating 
the date in the later editions of his Histoire. -It is always “about 
Sees IE, "1911: 227; 
