Historian and author Lyall Campbell has made a life-long study of Sable Island’s history. He is one of the few authorities on the history of Sable Island - and is probably the world’s expert on Sable of the 16th through 19th centuries. Lyall has prepared the following account for the Sable Island Green Horse Society.

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Sable Island's First People and Livestock

By Lyall Campbell, 2006

Sable Island's history began as an offshoot of Europe's. It stemmed from the pursuit of power and profit in the so-called New World. Sable's lure was distinct from that of its embracing sea. The waters around it spawned a treasure of codfish. But the operative term in ‘Sable Island' was ‘land'. Explorers saw Sable as a place to plant their nation's flag. Discovery created a claim that settlement would confirm. Sable also embodied a safe base for exploration of the mainland.

Discovery of Sable Island

The human story of Sable begins with a mystery. Who discovered the island? First to spring to mind are inhabitants of the nearby mainland. Natives came to settle there after the last Ice Age. These discoverers of Nova Scotia were the forerunners of today's Mi'kmaq Indians. (The Mi'kmaq were called Souriquois by the early French and then generally Micmac. Mi'kmaq is the preferred form today.) Aboriginals have lived in the region for some 11,000 years. Their development rivals that of Sable Island itself. The annual round of the Mi'kmaq way of life has been traced. They spent at least part of every year on the seacoast. There they caught fish, collected shellfish, and hunted sea mammals. Their water transport was by birchbark canoe. The Mi'kmaq could travel along the coast and even make the crossing to Newfoundland. They could ply the waters of Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. There fish, seals, and walrus abounded. But the Mi'kmaq were not sea adventurers. They did not, like the Nootka of the west coast, pursue whales far offshore. They preferred to seek fish, mussels, clams, and lobsters nearer home. Put simply, the Mi'kmaq had no need to go as far to sea as Sable Island. Their culture did not demand such a trip into the unknown. A Mi'kmaq/Sable link is opposed, as well, by two basic facts. 1) No known native tradition refers to it. 2) Sable itself has yielded no long-buried native artifacts. So, Aboriginal discovery of Sable is doubtful. The island was not sighted first by men from this continent.

This brings us to transatlantic visitors. The first Europeans to reach North America were the Vikings. The big question is, How far did they get? Squatters lived at Anse Au Meadows in northern Newfoundland for some time. From there, they might have followed the coast southward and westward. Their skill and hardiness were up to any sea voyage. The same is true of their vessels. Experts have argued in favour of their reaching Cape Breton and even New England. But none has yet claimed that they chanced on Sable Island. Again, no artifact at Sable prompts such a belief.

The 1400s brought a marine renaissance in Europe. Equipment and techniques improved. Ships became larger and more seaworthy. Navigational instruments allowed clearer readings. Maps and charts recorded more extensive data. These changes formed a whole greater than the sum of the parts. Southern Europe led the way in theoretical knowledge. The Italians and Portuguese excelled, the former as chart makers, the latter as explorers. Mariners embraced the means to extend their voyages. The feedback from their ventures enlarged the known world.

The Portuguese explored down the African coast and also westward. Well out to sea, they discovered a number of islands. The Canaries, Madeira, Cape Verde, and Azores all yielded riches. And as bases, they lengthened the range of Portuguese fishermen. Meanwhile the English fished as far west-ward as Iceland and Greenland. Here Norse sagas of long ago told of the Vikings' sojourn yet farther west. And seafolk passed down legends by word of mouth. Some of this lore must have reached English ears. Men employed at Iceland by Bristol merchants would bring stories home. They spoke of far-flung lands across the North Atlantic.

The venturesome Portuguese expanded their trade. Northward it reached Bristol, which became a chief trading partner. So this port was active in both Iceland and Portuguese trades. Two traditions therefore met at Bristol. One was English skill in sailing North Atlantic waters. The other was knowledge of the new techniques from Southern Europe. Each tradition also had a mythical aspect. Both posited islands lying far to the west. (Any land there was assumed to be islands. No continent was thought to lie between Europe and Asia.

The English, it seems, began the new transatlantic quest. Bristol merchants led the way. In the early 1480s, they tried at least twice to find the (mythical) Isle of Brasil. The exact purpose of these voyages is unclear. They may have been seeking a landmark for a new fishing ground. Or they may have hoped to reprise the Portuguese success with islands. Brasil might be a source of wealth in its own right. The ultimate goal, of course, was to find a western route to the fabulous east. It is possible that one Bristol voyage sighted Newfoundland. In any case, nothing remarkable followed

The Portuguese success had drawn budding explorers from Italy. One such was a Genovese named Christopher Columbus. Portugal, however, failed to adopt his vision. So Columbus sailed in the service of Spain. He thought he had reached Asia, but he actually did far more. Columbus opened the Americas for Europe. The Columbus discoveries, though, were too far south to have an impact on Sable Island. That role would go to another Genovese in Portugal. This explorer opted for England as a new base. At higher latitudes, the westward route to land promised to be shorter. The immigrant settled in Bristol and became known as John Cabot. Here he made contact with merchants and fishermen explorers. He also gained access to the king. Armed with royal letters patent, he made two round-trip voyages. The most successful one took place in 1497. Cabot sailed in the bark Matthew under the auspices of Bristol merchants. He made a landing in present-day Newfoundland. Cabot, too, thought he had reached the outskirts of Asia. He envisioned riches in spices and jewels spawned by trade with the east. He was right about potential wealth but wrong about the source. As his voyage reported, the waters off Newfoundland teemed with fish.

After Cabot, ships flocked across the North Atlantic. Most of them came to Newfoundland to fish. England opened the fishery. The first known cargo of fish from American waters came to Bristol, in 1502. But the English were soon superseded. Some Portuguese, yet more French, came to hook the cod. Most ships at Newfoundland were Norman or Breton; others were crewed by French or Spanish Basques. (Some writers have proposed that the Basques found the western fishery before Cabot. So far, the claim lacks proof. Basques later pursued whales and cod in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The route to their prey went around Newfoundland. It took them nowhere near Sable Island.)

A number of explorers also made voyages. (They realized that Asia was still a long way off. But far islands were sought as stepping-stones to the east. When America proved to be a continent, the goal would change. The search for a way through or around it - the Northwest Passage - began.) These adventurers sought knowledge and profits. Portuguese and Spanish efforts dominated. The records of the voyages that survive are mostly on maps. The best maps are works of art. Like art, they are subject to interpretation. They are too vague to pinpoint any landing in Nova Scotia or sighting offshore. Their endless scrutiny by experts has furnished not proof but dispute. They do not answer the question, Who discovered Sable Island?

Portuguese Discoverers of Sable

Two men claimed to have discovered Sable Island. Both were Portuguese. The first was João Alvares Fagundes. Evidence favouring him, though slight, is persuasive. Fagundes was a nobleman of Viana do Castelo, a fishing town in Northern Portugal. His family were rich landowners. They were not engaged in the fishery or commercial enterprise. Several held high office in the clergy of town and province. Fagundes himself may have served as a naval officer. At any rate, his king believed him capable at sea. Manoel I gave him a charter to make discoveries in the west. Fagundes was to pay his own expenses. The time and route of this voyage are not precisely known. Its parameters, though, are clear. It explored off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. And it took place before 15 March 1521. On that day, the king issued letters patent to Fagundes. They granted him a hereditary captaincy over lands he said he discovered. These lands included "the island Santa Cruz, which lies at the foot of the bank." Much later, the French author Lescarbot wrote that the Grand Bank(s) "endeth (by the report of mariners) about the Isle of Sablon, or sand." Fagundes's Santa Cruz, it seems, was Sable Island.

The making of this case brings up problems. They involve the dating of maps, plus changes of name and location for the island. Santa Cruz showed up first in the work of Portuguese mapmaker Pedro Reinel. Two famous Reinel maps are extant, in Paris and Munich. The first is known as Miller No.1; the second, Kunstmann I. The great American historian Samuel E. Morison studied both. Of the Kunstmann, he said: "Although the date generally assigned to this Reinel Map is 1504/5, it cannot be earlier than 1521, as it incorporates some of the discoveries of João Alvares Fagundes." The same applied to the Miller: "It is clearly post-Fagundes.”

Reinel's Santa Cruz was placed at 44°N 51°W. This location is south by east of St. John's, Newfoundland. It is some 450 miles (720 km) east of Sable Island. Later maps placed it as close as 300 miles (480 km). Some of them showed other islands south of Newfoundland with different names. The names included João Alvares and Fagunda. These point to Fagundes as the discoverer. "On many charts of the same period also appears an island named ‘I. de Sablo.’” Eventually, this island was placed at 44°N 60°W. This reading denotes Sable's true location.

The variety of island names is confusing. The different locations are even more so. Yet one scholar argues that all refer to Sable Island. In his view, the misplacements were not mistakes. The deception stemmed from the politics of the time. The basic cause was the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. By it, Spain and Portugal divided the new lands to the west. The line of division was set at 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. It was thought to run between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, at about 60° west. Lands found west of this line were deemed Spanish. Portugual's rights applied to lands east of it. (England's Henry VII had not signed the treaty. So he simply ignored it.) The 60° meridian passes through Sable Island. Portugal aimed to avoid legal conflict with Spain over "this prime piece of real estate.” So Portuguese maps placed the island too far east (under various names). They thus put it well within their assumed zone. Mapmakers in other countries unwittingly copied the fraud. The deceit also had another purpose. The false eastern sites for Sable were in the zone of theGrand Banks fishery. Portugal could claim Sable by right of discovery. So, "The cartographic success of Fagundes^'s voyage assured Portugal of the legal right to a vital source of national revenue accruing from the Newfoundland Banks." Meanwhile, Fagundes and his compatriots could ignore the maps. They had access to more accurate sailing charts. They knew that there were no islands at sea south of Newfoundland. Beyond question, the Portuguese knew where Sable Island was.

As mentioned, a second Portuguese claim to Sable discovery was lodged. It came long after the alleged fact. The claimant, in 1568, was named Manoel de Barcelos. Manoel said that he and his father Diogo had discovered the island. They named it Barcellona de Sam Bardão. And on it, "they have (or he has) been breeding herds of cows, sheep, goats and swine." The next step would be to plant settlers. Which is exactly what Manoel and one of his sons aimed to do.

Westward ventures had a long tradition in the Barcelos family. It began with Manoel's grandfather Pedro. Details of his career are elusive. "We know that Pedro de Barcelos remained until his death in 1507 actively interested in the New Lands.^" Pedro's son Diogo followed his lead. Between 1521 and 1531, Diogo explored to the west. His son Manoel accompanied him. They sailed under a charter from the king. It allowed them to search for lands across the Atlantic at their own expense. They made some unspecified discoveries. At Diogo's death, about 1533, Manoel became leader of the clan. He made several more transatlantic voyages. In at least one, his cousin Marcos de Barcelos went with him. The ongoing quest by the Barcelos argues some success. That they were exploiting an overseas island by the 1560s is quite likely. Equally likely is that their livestock farm was Sable Island.

Scholars have accepted Barcellona de Sam Bardão as Sable Island. This conclusion is based partly on old maps. Noteworthy written records also support it. (For instance, the writings of Hakluyt and Champlain. Both authors refer to Portuguese cattle on Sable. The herd is said to date from the 1550s.) Suggestive, too, are ties between the Barcelos and Fagundes families. The Barcelos family were natives of Terceira in the Azores. A branch of the Fagundes clan moved to Terceira. There they and the Barcelos intermarried. The Barcelos claim of Sable discovery perhaps embellished the facts. The basis for it may have been kinship with Fagundes. Another point, as well, could be relevant. At that time, ‘discover' did not mean only ‘saw first.' It might mean simply ‘explore and reveal.' The Barcelos may well have been the first explorers on foot, so to speak, at Sable. Even so, this would not prove they sighted the island before Fagundes.

A sidelight to these events is suggestive. Azoreans and mainland Portuguese may have tried to found a colony in Cape Breton. The evidence is still inconclusive. But it prompts speculation. Fagundes had explored the coast facing Sable. The king then granted him rights in the discovered lands. "He was authorized to occupy and govern these lands and to manage the soaphouses there." David Quinn, an expert on the Age of Discovery, noted two necessities for making soap. Train oil was a chief ingredient. And plenty of timber was needed to boil blubber and make soap ash. Quinn cited whales and fish as the sources of train oil. Better than fish, however, were seals and walrus. Both of these were plentiful at Sable Island. But treeless Sable, of course, was short on timber.

A possible scenario comes to mind. A party of men might settle on Sable with livestock. They could add to the food supply from sea and lake. They might even cultivate kitchen gardens. To make soap, they would slaughter seals and walrus for their blubber. Driftwood made fuel for boiling some of it down. Extra blubber could be shipped off with the oil. The Sable products would supply soap-makers in Cape Breton.

In the event, the Portuguese abandoned Sable Island. In fact, Portugal spurned all northern new lands. Its rulers pursued empire elsewhere. They looked to eastern Asia and the South Atlantic. But Portuguese efforts at Sable left a legacy. They were among the first attempts to settle the New World. And for Sable itself, their actions were seminal. Sable history began under Portuguese auspices. The Fagundes/Barcelos exploits have a valid claim to fame.

Chance Discoverers of Sable

That an explorer discovered Sable is as likely as it is apt. Still, there is another might-have-been. Some unknown ship in the fishery may have come upon the island by chance. Lack of a record does not disprove the event. Few fishermen's exploits were preserved in writing. But the pattern of their activities in the New World is known.

The western fishery, as mentioned, emerged at Newfoundland. Two types of fishing developed. They were called dry and wet (or green). In the dry fishery, boats went out from shore. They brought the catch right back to salt and dry on flakes. In the wet fishery, cod were caught from a ship's deck. They were salted and stored on board, then taken straight to Europe. (A dressed wet cod looked and felt like a fish. A split and dried cod resembled a triangle of wood.) Wet cod were preferred in the Paris market. So the French specialized in the green fishery. Their ships wandered far from shore. While explorers sought new lands, fishermen surveyed the offshore banks. They discovered the Grand Banks, where the fish were larger and sweeter than inshore.

Cod was the prize fish. Besides abundance, it had two special virtues. It was easily caught, and it preserved well. The first trait appealed to fishermen, the second to all seafarers. Dried cod was ideal food for long voyages. Salt provided a bonus: taste. Salt cod was universally preferred to fresh. Another asset of the cod for this era was its size. North American waters spawned fish larger than any yet known. A full-grown cod was 2 to 4 feet long, 20 to 100 pounds (though a limit of 60 was more common). The usual method for catching fish on the banks was handlining. From the ship's deck, an angler hooked one fish at a time. The larger the fish caught with each pull, the better.

Banks cod often shifted from place to place. Bottom dwellers most of the time, they were not easy to locate. A single-size group might bunch up in one place for a week or more. Sometimes cod would gather in one location but be widely scattered. At other times, a whole formation was on the move. All the fish kept to one course, like an underwater convoy. (Only at certain seasons, in pursuit of capelin prey, did myriad cod come to the surface.)

Little was known of the whys and wherefores of the cod's movements. (They were governed by access to food, water temperature, and the spawning instinct.) The most regular migration was in and out from shore. Winter feeding grounds were generally in deep water. In spring, cod headed toward the nearest coast. They spawned in the shoal waters on the continental shelf. Here the sea teemed with tiny creatures that nourished the newborn cod. After spawning, the adult fish moved on. They sought grounds better stocked with their kind of food. The fishermen observed the general patterns. Still, to them the cod movements were largely a mystery. One fundamental belief ruled their working lives. When cod were scarce in one spot, they were plentiful somewhere else.

The habits of the cod suggest a line of thought. Exactly when the Grand Banks fishery began is unclear. The French were among the first to exploit it. Their ships made two banks trips a season. A ship on the Grand Banks might pursue cod westward. There lay Sable Island Bank, with Sable itself atop the closest part. And just off its east end lay one of the sea's best fishing holes. Discovery of this fact attracted more vessels. The French were fishing near Sable as early as 1539. "Sable Island was known and the fishery there was carried on by hook and line." But Portugal had discovered the island well before then.

The fishery near Sable prompts further surmise. On later maps, names like I. de Sablo (or Sablon), Isola della Rena, and Île de Sable came to the fore. All were intended to mean Island of Sand. The descriptive name became an international commonplace. Its most frequent usage, and likely source, was among fishermen. They knew that no name fit Sable better. For this reason, no one person need have coined the term. And that it found favour is entirely apt. The name rightly outlasted more formal ones aiming to stake a national claim. (The English chose not to translate the expression to Sandy Island. They came to use a corrupted form of the French name. They called the island Isle of Sable(s). Eventually English Canada adopted the ‘bilingual' name Sable Island.)

There is, of course, one more way for Sable to be discovered. It is a time-honoured formula. A ship is driven by stress of weather to parts unknown. Any ship that made a Newfoundland voyage might suffer this fate. Wind and currents might bring a crew to Sable Island. Such obscure Sable ‘discoverers,’ though, were not apt to live to tell the tale. They were more likely to fall victim to the deadly sandbars.

A French claim

One more early contender for Sable renown has been put forth. He embodies France's first claim to Sable. Or rather, he would do so if he existed. The French author Lescarbot introduced him to the world as "Baron de Léri and de St. Just, Viscount of Gueu." (The surname is more commonly spelled de Léry.) Lescarbot said de Léry tried to found a French colony. The passage from France, however, took too long. So de Léry was forced to put off at Sable "his livestock, cows, and pigs, for want of fresh water and pasture." (This wording implies that Sable was not the targeted site.) It follows that de Léry began the herd of Sable cattle.

A Dutch writer, de Laet, adopted, and stretched, Lescarbot's account. He said de Léry commanded a 1518 French expedition. Its purpose was to found a colony on Sable Island. De Léry was attracted "by the convenience of the spot." But after spending time on Sable, he changed his mind. De Léry abandoned his enterprise. The only effect of his visit was the cattle and swine left behind. De Laet said the Portuguese came to Sable after de Léry. Their efforts met with no better success.

Critics have noted a number of flaws in the de Léry story. The chief weakness is that Lescarbot is its sole known source. His Baron de Léry has never been traced. And the time of the alleged event is uncertain. Lescarbot gave two different dates for it. In 1609 he said that it happened "about eighty years ago." But he used the same phrase elsewhere in a 1598 context. Most later writers opted for 1518; some chose 1529. Either date would fall "in the time of King Francis I."

The most extreme claim for de Léry was made by the Québécois writer Taché. He indulged a pro-myth and pro-French bias. De Léry, he claimed, founded the race of Sable horses. To honour the baron, Taché calls the island equines "léris.^"

To Lescarbot may go credit for the first Sable myth. This point is worth noting. In time, the number of Sable legends would rival its mysteries. The odd historian has backed Lescarbot's version. But the scholarly consensus is clear. Portugal, not France, was the source of the first Sable livestock.

Sable Island’s First People and Livestock

Permission for exclusive use on the website of the Sable Island Green Horse Society.

All other rights reserved by the author.

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Notes on the above (ZL, 2006)

train oil Train oil is oil extracted from the blubber of marine mammals (e.g. seals and whales). Derived from words meaning “droplet” or “tear” (i.e. Middle Dutch traen or Middle Low German trān, German tran, related to träne). The oil was originally extracted drop by drop by pressing the whale blubber. From the 16th to 19th century, the oil was important for soapmaking and as a fuel for lamps.

(Sources: The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology; Encyclopædia Britannica.)

flake A fish flake is a platform built on poles and spread with boughs (sometimes spruce) for drying cod-fish. At the start of the drying season, usually mid-August to early September, the cod were spread out to bleach in the sun and air after being cured all summer in stages under a heavy spreading of salt. Such structures were located near the shoreline at fishing villages and small towns in rural Newfoundland. (Source: Wikipedia.org)