The Isle of Demons is a phantom island once associated with

Quirpon Island Quirpon Island is a small Canadian island off the northeastern tip of Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is located at the southeastern edge of the Strait of Belle Isle, south of Belle Isle. ...

, Newfoundland, in Canada. It was generally shown as two islands. It began appearing on maps in the beginning of the 16th century and disappeared in the mid-17th century. It could also simply be a translation from First Nations people who often avoided areas where a person had died, believing it was haunted by spirits. This results in many islands with the same reference. It was believed that the island was populated by demons and wild beasts which would torment and attack any ships that passed or anyone that was foolish enough to wander onto the island. A French noblewoman,

Marguerite de La Rocque Marguerite de La Rocque de Roberval ('' fl'' 1515–1542) was a French noblewoman who spent some years marooned on the Île des Démons while on her way to New France (Quebec). She became well known after her subsequent rescue and return to Franc ...

, was marooned on an island in the mid-16th century, allegedly because of an affair with a young man on her ship. This island is a possible site of their abandonment, and residents and visitors have claimed to see the couple. Across the centuries, many historians, novelists, poets and singers have retold the story of Marguerite abandoned on the island. It is believed now that the island of the marooning is most likely

Harrington Harbour, Quebec Harrington Harbour is an unconstituted locality within the municipality of Côte-Nord-du-Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. History Harrington Harbour was founded near the end of the 19th century by fishermen from ...

. The Isle of Demons first appears in the 1508 map of Johannes Ruysch. It may simply be a relocated version of the older legendary island of

Satanazes The island of Satanazes (also called the Island of Devils, or the Hand of Satan) is a legendary island once thought to be located in the Atlantic Ocean, and depicted on many 15th-century maps. Cartographic depiction In 15th-century portolan ch ...

("Devils" in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

) that was normally depicted in 15th century maps in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean just north of

Antillia Antillia (or Antilia) is a phantom island that was reputed, during the 15th-century age of exploration, to lie in the Atlantic Ocean, far to the west of Portugal and Spain. The island also went by the name of Isle of Seven Cities (''Ilha das S ...

. With the Atlantic better mapped with the trans-oceanic voyages of the 1490s, Ruysch may simply have transplanted old Satanazes to a more suitable location. TerreNeuve16e

The Isle of Demons continues to appear as late as the 1556 map of "La Nueva Francia" by Giacomo Gastaldi – that is, after Jacques Cartier's expeditions (1534, 1535, 1541) had explored much of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The "Isola de Demoni" is depicted by Gastaldi as a substantially large island roughly encompassing northern Newfoundland, with figurative depictions of flying demons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isle Of Demons Phantom Arctic islands Islands of Newfoundland and Labrador Paranormal places in Canada