ST. JOHN: SABLE ISLAND. 11 



From Governor John Winthrop's Journal 1 we learn that "Mr. John 

 Rose, being cast ashore there in the [Mary and Jane] two years since 

 [1633], and making a small pinnace of the wreck of his ship, sailed 

 thence to the French upon the main, being thirty leagues off, by 

 whom he was detained prisoner, and forced to pilot them to the is- 

 land, where they had great store of sea-horse and cattle, and black 

 foxes; and they left seventeen men upon the island to inhabit it. The 

 island is thirty miles long, two miles broad in most places, a mere sand, 

 yet full of fresh water in ponds, etc. He saw about eight hundred 

 cattle, small and great, all red, and the largest he ever saw, and many 

 foxes whereof some perfect black. There is no wood upon it, but 

 store of wild peas and flags by the ponds, and grass. In the middle 

 of it is a pond of salt water, ten miles long, full of plaice etc. " 



"In 1634 the island was granted, along with Port Royal and La 

 Heve, by the Company of the Hundred Associates, to Claude de 

 Razilli, brother of Isaac de Razilli, who had been appointed comman- 

 der or governor-in-chief of Acadia, and who had commenced a settle- 

 ment at La Heve." 2 



In the following year, 1635, according to Governor John Winthrop 1 , 

 " Mr. Graves, in the James, and Mr. Hodges, in the Rebecka, set sail 

 for the Isle of Sable for sea horse (which are there in great number) 

 and wild cows. The company which went now, carried 



twelve landmen, two mastiffs, a house and a shallop. 



"[August 26.1 They returned from their voyage. They found 

 there upon the island sixteen Frenchmen, who had wintered there, 

 and built a little fort, and killed some black foxes. They had killed 

 also many of the cattle, so as they found not above one hundred and 

 forty, and but two or three calves. They could kill but few sea-horse, 

 by reason they were forced to travel so far in the sand as they were 

 too weak to stick them, and they came away at such time as they 

 [the sea-horse or walrus] use to go up highest to eat green peas. The 

 winter there is very cold, and the snow above knee deep. " 



Commander de Razilli died that year or the next, and his brother 

 transferred the rights of both to Charnisay, and the French seem to 

 have abandoned the island. 



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

 by James Savage, i. 162 (1825). 



2 Patterson, George: Supplementary Notes on Sable Island. Trans. Roy. 

 Soc. Can. 2nd series, iii. 2, 133 (1897). 



