ST. JOHN: SABLE ISLAND. 29 



from the suitableness of much of the soil for grazing and the oppor- 

 tunities afforded for seal hunting, they no doubt hoped to combine 

 profit with benevolence. The 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 maj- 

 esty's government. * * * in the mean time 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, but represents 

 that as the land is, ' low, boggy and sandy soil, with large ponds or 

 settlings of water occasioned by the overflowing 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 settle- 

 ment, by affording relief to the ship-wrecked, and profitable to the 

 proprietors by grazing, fishing, and killing seals for their oil skins. 

 Le Mercier does not even then seem to have received his grant, but 

 he continued to have cattle on 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. " 



In 1753, Le Mercier 1 writes, "When I took Possession of the Island 

 there was no four-footed Creatures upon it, but a few foxes some red 

 and some black (some of which remain to this Day) now there are I 

 suppose about 90 Sheep, between 20 or 30 Horses including Colts, 

 Stallions and breeding Mares, about 30 or 4 % Cows tame and Wild, 

 and 40 Hogs." 



It is said that about this time Le Mercier, failing to find a pur- 

 chaser, abandoned his interests on Sable Island. Even though we 

 cannot substantiate this, we can demonstrate that horses were placed 

 on Sable Island by Thomas Hancock. 



About 1760, according to Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Went- 

 worth, 2 Thomas Hancock, a Boston merchant, desiring to relieve the 

 suffering of those that chanced to be shipwrecked on Sable Island, 

 fitted out a schooner and upon her embarked "Horses, Cows, Sheep, 

 Goats, Hogs and Animals likely to live on the Island. These were 

 landed there and generally answered very well. No great depre- 

 dations were made on them till the commencement of the American 



Boston Weekly News-Letter, February 8 (1753). 

 2 Kept, on Canadian Archives, 86 (1895). 



