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. * * * Jn the mean time Mr. INI. sent a stock 
of cattle to tKe 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^ 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 40 Cows tame and Wild, 
and 40 Hogs." 
It is said that about t])is time Le Mercier, failing to find a pur- 
chaser, abandoned his interests on Sable Tshind. 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,^ 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 \ery well. No great depre- 
dations were made on them till the commencement of the American 
'Boston Woekly Nows-Lettor. Fohniury 8 (1753). 
^ Ropt. on Caiuulian Archives, 8() (181)5). 
