In 1598 the Marquis de la Roche, given a commission to colonize New France, sailed in a small ship for North America with sixty convicts from French prisons as colonists.

He landed them on Sable Island, and went away to look for some good site for his colony.

But then a storm arose, and his little ship was literally blown back to France.

The convicts, abandoned thus, built themselves shelters out of the driftwood of wrecks; killed and ate the cattle and caught fish.

They made themselves warm clothes out of the skins of the seals which frequented the island coast in thousands.