138 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



celiers, 1546, 1550; Champlain, 1609; Mason, 1626, and others, are 

 not altogether reliable historical records but are of interest in 

 showing the growth of ideas concerning the form of the islands, 

 and their changes in name, their years of confusion with the 

 Isle St Jean (Prince Edward Island) and their gradual distinction 

 from it. Indeed few if any of the charts to Champlain's time and 

 later made out the Isle St Jean, 50 miles to the west of the Mag- 

 dalens. We do not know how soon after Cartier's discovery the 

 Normandy and Breton men got in among these islands, but by the 

 latter part of the 17th century the stories they brought home of 

 the tremendous number of seals and walruses to be had, reached 

 England, and started English expeditions into this quarter. There 

 was a voyage made in 1591, by a skipper unknown, on behalf of M. 

 de la Court, Pre Ravillon and Grand Pre, for the purpose of kill- 

 ing "Morses" for " traine oyl " (see Hakluyt's Voyages, v. 8, p. 

 150), which of itself indicates previous attempts by the French 

 for the same purpose. Then the English attempts upon the 

 islands began, and George Drake made a passage in 1593, find- 

 ing the harbors occupied by " Britons of S. ]\Ialo and Basques 

 of S. John de Luz." Drake found that " by coming a day after 

 the Fayre " his efforts were put to naught; just as Charles Leigh 

 and Sylvester Wyet, who with Drake were the first Englishmen 

 to sail so far within the gulf, are said on their arrival to have 

 been confronted by two hundred French, who had planted three 

 pieces of ordnance on the beach, and three hundred savages — 

 an opposition which led to a sharp sea fight and seems to have 

 efifectually dissuaded further attempts on the part of the English 

 to fasten their hold on this business. 



These islands were granted in 1653 ^^7 ^^^ Company of New 

 France to Nicolas Denys as a part with the vast region stretch- 

 ing from Cape Canso at the south to Cape des Rosiers at the 

 north, and the next year Denys received from the king letters 

 patent as governor and lieutenant general to all this great terri- 

 tory. Even today the Magdalen islands belong to Gaspe county 

 and the Province of Quebec. In those early days land patents 

 in the world of New France were given easily and conflicting 

 claims to the same territory issued from the same source often 

 resulted. So it happened that in 1663 the Company of New 

 France conceded these islands to Franc^ois Doublet of ITonfleur, 

 who was commissioned to establish a colony on the " illes de 

 Brion " for the cod and seal fishery. Doublet was also given per- 



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