Trifter

In 1555, Thevet sailed the entire coast of North and South America as far north as Bacalaos or Codfish Land, as Newfoundland then was called. Upon his return, in 1558, he published in Antwerp an account of his travels, stating that he had set foot on “Isola des Demonias”, and that he had seen how malicious the demons were. He warded them off by repeating the Gospel of Saint John.

This “Isle of Demons” could well be Quirpon Island, located in the icy strait between Labrador and Newfoundland, where French sailors would not go ashore without crucifixes in their hands, because the island was inhabited by devils.

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The Expeditions of Cartier and Roberval

Much of what Thevet wrote was condemned later by historians as showing “excessive credulity” and “suffering from his mendacity”, but he was not the first to claim he had visited an Isle of Demons. In 1540, Jacques Cartier received a royal commission from the French king for his third voyage to Canada. He was given fifty prisoners suitable to serve in the expedition, because sufficient people to travel to New France could be recruited only by beating, bribing or dragging those who had no choice.

Shortly afterwards, Jean-François de La Roque, Sieur de Roberval, would sail with Cartier “for conquest of these lands and to make settlements in the said country”. He would be the real captain of the enterprise and he also would receive complete command over the lands. Roberval however lacked artillery, ammunition and other supplies, and he was unable to accompany Cartier. In 1541, the expedition of five ships filled with mariners, convicted criminals of both sexes, horses and cattle and poultry – and only 25 “persons of quality” – departed without Roberval.

The following year, well armed and provisioned, Roberval sailed out with his own fleet of three ships and 200 colonists. The two parts of the expedition met in the harbor at St. John’s, Newfoundland. Cartier tried to convince Roberval of the uselessness of an attempt at colonisation. He wanted to return to France. But Roberval was determined to continue as planned and set sail toward the St. Lawrence.

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The Lovers of Isola des Demonias

Roberval was accompanied by his niece, Marguerite de La Roque, who entered into a passionate love affair with one of the young officers on board, identified by the Newfoundland storyteller Earl B. Pilgrim as  Pierre de Val Cormier. This was such an affront to Roberval’s religious principles that, upon reaching what he considered to be the Isle of Demons, he immediately put her ashore, along with four guns and the old nurse, who had pandered to her mistress’s illicit love.

When the young officer was about to be put in irons, he jumped overboard to join Marguerite… but Isle of Demons did not tolerate a romantic idyll. The evil spirits of the island at once beset them, day and night. The lovers and the old nurse tried to drive the demons back through readings from the New Testament and intercession of the Virgin Mary, but “beasts or other shapes abominably and unutterably hideous, the brood of hell, howling in baffled fury” kept visiting them.

Marguerite became pregnant and the infuriated tormentors redoubled their efforts. Her lover sickened and died, and so did the child… and finally the old nurse. Marguerite faced her agony and despair alone now. She killed three bears “as white as an egg”, but the demons were not “vulnerable to mortal weapons”.

Her ordeal took two years and five months… until a passing fishing boat rescued her and brought her back to France, where she – and André Thevet – told her tale.

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Confused and inarticulate

In his marvellous book Phantom Islands of the Atlantic, Donald S. Johnson says that the key element, responsible for the name of the island and its reputation, is the “confused and inarticulate voices” that emanated from the Isle of Demons. Portuguese and French mariners timed their voyage so as to get an ice-free passage through the Strait of Belle Isle into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This brought them to Newfoundland during the nesting and breeding season of gannets and other pelagic birds.

A sailor who had spent a long and lonely passage at sea, hearing only wind and wave, seeing nothing but the infinity of sky and water, was suddenly engulfed in a cacophony of sound, produced by a large gannet colony. On their breeding grounds, gannet males give a whistling call, the females a resonant trumpeting. Nesting auks utter low moans, guttural growls, quacks and croaks and piping cries. The Newfoundland fog would undoubtedly add an aura of mystery to the clamorous event…

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