NOTES ON SABLE ISLAND—MACDONALD. 13 
this Dominion, did not put forth our greatest effort to learn some- 
thing of the causes whose effects are so fraught with destruction, 
and give to the world the benefit of our researches. 
While compiling the wreck-chart of Sable Island which we 
have before us, I have had to examine the early records of the 
Province, from which I have gleaned many facts in connection 
with the history of this Island. Having had the opportunity 
of visiting it on two occasions, and learning something of it 
as it is to-day, I thought it well to place the results before you, 
to form, as it were, a basis for further investigations. 

The first notice of this Island in history, is from the 
voyage of John Cabot, who, in company with his son, Sebastian, 
sailed from Bristol in 1547, in a vessel called the “Matthew.” 
After making the land at Labrador, he sailed south and west- 
ward, coasting Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, as far as Cape 
Sable. Finding here the coast trending suddenly to the north, 
and being short of provisions, with an unknown sea before him, 
he wisely turned his prow homeward. On the third day he 
passed two islands to starboard, which, from their position, 
must have been some of the higher hummocks of Sable Island. 
Viewed at a distance, these might easily be taken for separate 
islands. 
Three years later an expedition, ordered by Emanuel, King 
of Portugal, followed in the wake of Cabot; but meeting with 
reverses, they returned, disheartened, to Lisbon. 
Private enterprizes, however, stimulated by the glowing 
accounts given by Cabot of seas blocked with fish, were continued 
from year to year, and hundreds of Portuguese fishermen resorted 
to the banks. 
To these people the credit is given of having placed cattle 
and swine on the Island for the benefit of those who might be 
east upon its shores. That they were well acquainted with the 
place, there can be little doubt. 
On a chart made by Pedro Reinel, as early as 1505, of 
Newfoundland and this coast, as far as Maine, this island is laid 
down as “Sanda Crus.” 
