16 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY' NATURAL HISTORY. 



put in boxes, bales of blankets, a quantity of military shoes, and, 

 among other articles, a dog-collar of brass, on which was engraved 

 the name of Major Elliott, 43rd regiment. On referring to the re- 

 cords of the regiment, however, it was found that the party had been 

 taken off the island. The site of the encampment is now under at 

 least five fathoms of water." 1 



In 1774, permission was granted by Governor Legge, and approved 

 by the King, to Michael Flannigan and his associates to reside on the 

 island. 2 We know nothing of their intentions or the length of their 

 stay. 



During the War of the American Revolution, American privateers 

 frequently visited Sable Island and made great inroads on all its re- 

 sources. By the close of the hostilities none of the animals remained, 

 except a few of the horses. 



Moses Gerrish, a Newburyport skipper, was shipwrecked on Sable 

 Island on a homeward voyage from the Banks, November 9, 1787. 

 The provisions which he and his crew saved, and a number of young 

 seal lasted them about 60 days when they "had recourse to the horses 



* * * * we killed and eat 13 of them. * * * Being with- 

 out ammunition, we were obliged to dig pits to betray horses, it be- 

 ing impossible to get them in any other way." 3 He was rescued on 

 the 18th of April by Capt. Nathaniel Preble of the schooner Betsy. 



In the year 1789, a certain Jesse Lawrence, "who lived on the isle 

 of Sable, to receive wrecked people, and to carry on the seal fishery, 

 was attacked by people from Massachusetts, who landed there and 

 wantonly pillaged and destroyed his house and effects, and then com- 

 pelled him to leave the island. He received some compensation from 

 Governor Hancock [of Massachusetts] and his council, which still left 

 him a sufferer. " 4 



During the last few years of the 18th century, Sable Island was the 

 scene of many disastrous shipwrecks, and at this time objects of great 

 value and foreign origin, laces, jewelry, etc., were seen in the cabins of 

 certain Nova-Scotian fishermen, and ugly tales were told about wreck- 

 Patterson, George: Sable Island. Trans. Roy. Soc. Can. xii. 2, 11-12 

 (1894). 

 2 Murdoch, Beamish: Hist, of Nova-Scotia, ii. 526 (1866). 



* Essex Journal and New Hampshire Packet (1788) ; and Boston Herald and 

 Journal, December 28 (1917). 



4 Murdoch, I. c. iii. 78 (1867); and Nova Scotia Gazette, February 10 (1789). 



