ST. JOHN: SABLE ISLAND. 33 



give him access to the records of the Company and it is probably in 

 this way that de Laet gained his information about Sable Island. 



He relates the early history of the island, the attempt to found a 

 colony there by Baron de Lery, of the stocking of the island with cat- 

 tle and pigs, the incident of Marquis de la Roche and the convicts 

 whom he abandoned on the island, describes the series of deeps and 

 shallows, that is the bars which surround the island, and the conse- 

 quent difficulty in making a landing, and he cautions, "nor in my 

 opinion is it reasonably worth while (neque sane, ut opinor, mere- 

 tur)." The absolute accuracy of these other statements about Sable 

 Island by de Laet confirms the value of his statement that at 1633, 

 the time of his writing, or a few years before, there were a very few 

 trees on the island. The botanists of his time were still classifying 

 plants on the basis of their habit, whether herbaceous, shrubby, or 

 arborescent, so there is no reason for thinking that he did not know 

 a tree from a shrub. Comparable regions on the mainland, such as 

 Cape Cod or Plum Island, Massachusetts, have even in many ex- 

 posed parts, clumps of trees in the hollows between the dunes. Of 

 course, as far back as 1633, Sable Island was much larger than it is 

 at present, and its sand hills much higher, so there would have been 

 more sheltered spots in which trees could grow. Taken all in all, every 

 bit of evidence seems to indicate that deLaet's statement can be accept- 

 ed at face value, that in 1633, or shortly before then, there were a 

 few native trees growing on Sable Island. 



From Gov. John Winthrop's Journal 1 we learn that, in 1633, a cer- 

 tain John Rose was wrecked in the Mary and Jane on Sable Island. 

 From the timbers of his wrecked vessel he managed to construct a 

 small pinnace in which he made his way to Acadia. There he was 

 detained a prisoner by the French, and forced to pilot them back to 

 Sable Island in their search for walrus and cattle. Finally, being 

 set free, Rose returned to Boston. He reported great numbers of 

 cattle and foxes and, " There is no wood upon it, but store of wild peas 

 and flags by the ponds, and grass." 



In 1753, Andrew Le Mercier published 2 the next notice of Sable 

 Island that contains any reference to its natural history. "It pro- 

 duces naturally near 20 sorts of Berries, out of which some People 

 suppose very good Liquors and Wines might be expressed It looks 



1 Winthrop, John: The History of New England from 1630 to 1649, edited 

 by James Savage, i. 162 (1825). 



2 Boston Weekly News Letter, Feb. 8 (1753.) 



