ST. JOHN: SABLE ISLAND. 11 
From Governor John Winthrop's Journal' 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 i.sland 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 lumdred 
cattle, small and great, all red, and the largest he e\er 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 1()34 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 conunan- 
der or governor-in-chief of Acadia, and who had commenced a settle- 
ment at La Heve. "- 
In the following year, 1035, according to Governor John Winthrop', 
" 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 shalloj). 
" [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 abo\e 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 al)o\ c knee dee]). " 
Conunander de Razilli died that year or the next, and his brother 
transferred the rights of both to Cliarnisay, and the French seem to 
have abandoned the island. 
1 Winthrop, John: The History of New iMitilaud from lii;5() to If. 19, rditod 
by James Savage, i. 162 (1825). 
^Patterson, George: Supplementary Notes on Suhlc Islanil. Trans. Hoy. 
Soc. Can. 2n(l scries, iii. § 2, 13:5 (1897). 
