8 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



Many of the early voyagers refer to the herds of cattle to be found 

 on the island, and there is a great deal of conflicting evidence as to 

 how and when they got there. According to Champlain, they were 

 left there about the year 1552 by the Portuguese. "Not only does 

 Champlain mention the fact, but we find the same asserted by the 

 historian of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's expedition. That intrepid mar- 

 iner sailed from Newfoundland in 1583 for the American coast in- 

 tending, after making Cape Breton, to go to Sable Island, as the writ- 

 er says, ' upon intelligence we had of a Portugal who was himself pre- 

 sent when the Portugals, above thirty years past/ consequently be- 

 fore 1553, 'did put into the same island neat and swine to breed, 

 which were since exceedingly multiplied.' Eight days after sailing 

 from Newfoundland, or early in the morning of the 29th of 

 August the largest ship of the three in the fleet, the 'Admiral' of 120 

 tons, with Maurice Browne, captain, and Richard Clarke, master, 

 first ran among shoals, then stroke aground and had soone after 

 her sterne and hinder partes beaten in peeces'." 1 It has been gen- 

 erally interpreted as by Brymner 2 that this happened on Sable Is- 

 land. There are two accounts of the event, one by Clarke, a relation 

 of Richard Clarke, the master of the Admiral, the other by Hayes, 

 captain and owner of the Golden Hinde. These contradictory ac- 

 counts are both given by Hakluyt. All of the evidence has been re- 

 viewed by Patterson 3 who concludes that the wreck of the Admiral 

 could not have taken place upon Sable Island and that it pro- 

 bably occured upon Cape Breton, near Louisbourg. 



"The island 1 and the cattle upon it next come into notice by the 

 expedition of Troilus du Mesgouez, Marquis de la Roche. He 

 was a Catholic nobleman of Brittany, who had from his youth been 

 connected with the French court. He agreed with the King to found 

 a colony in America, and for that purpose received from him a com- 

 mission in which he was named lieutenant-general of Canada, Hochel- 

 aga, Newfoundland, Labrador, and the countries adjacent, with 

 sovereign power over this vast domain. This commission was first 



1 Patterson, I. c. 8. 



2 Brymner, Douglas: Rept. on Canadian Archives, pp. xxv-xxvii (1895). 



3 Patterson, Rev. George: Termination of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Expe- 

 dition. Trans. Roy. Soc. Can. 2nd ser. iii. part 2, 113-27, 2 illustr. and 1 

 chart (1897). 



