To connect primitive man with civilization, refinement and the arts -- is more immediately the object of this moment, and here we can come directly to facts the most interesting.
That they have been a nation superior to all others adjacent to them is evident from the remains we have of them, and is admitted by the other tribes on the continent of America. Indeed the fear of the other tribes of them, even felt at this very moment, although it is only of their shadow speaks for itself.
Every fact relating to this isolated nation similar or dissimilar to what has been met with amongst other tribes is interesting because it concerns man at a time more remote than any history.
Commencing with their dwellings we see the first remove from a few poles stuck in the ground and meeting at the top, and a skin or rind of trees laid on under which to lie down to sleep, from that we see the remove to the upright wall for a dwelling, in which to stand and move in comfort, next we see the remove from the simple circular to the angular and straight walled dwelling, from the octagonal to the five sided.
Then in their style of adorning the posts or poles outside
of their doors, we can evidently trace the corinthian(?) a
complete order in architecture, different countries producing
animals with different kinds of horns, will cause variations in
the capital.(78)
Their Mamateeks, or wigwams, were far superior to those of
the Micmac's. They were in general built of straight pieces of
fir about twelve feet high, flattened at the sides, and driven in
the earth close to each other; the corners being made stronger
than the other parts. The crevices were filled up with moss, and
the inside lined with the same material; the roof was raised so
as to stand from all parts and meet in a point in the centre,
where a hole was left for the smoke to escape. The remainder of
the roof was covered with a treble coat of birch bark, and
between the first and the second layers of bark was placed about
six inches of moss, about the chimney clay was substituted for
the moss. The sides of these mamateeks were covered with arms,
that is, bows, arrows, clubs, stone hatchets, arrow heads, &c.
and all these were arranged in the neatest manner. Beams were
placed across where the roof began, over which smaller ones were
laid; and on the latter were piled their provision -- dried
salmon, venison, &c.
/212/ This was peculiar to the tribe, and consisted of but one
garment, -- a sort of mantle, formed out of two deer skins, sewed
together so as to be nearly square, -- a collar also formed with
skins, was sometimes attached to the mantle, and reached along
its whole breadth. It was formed without sleeves or buttons, and
was worn thrown over the shoulders, the corners doubled over at
the chest and arms. When the bow was to be used the upper part
of the dress was thrown off from the shoulders and arms, and a
broad fold, the whole extent of it, was secured round the loins,
with a belt, to keep the lower part from the ground, and the
whole from falling off, when the arms were at liberty. The
collar of the dress was sometimes made of alternate stripes of
otter and deer skins sewed together, and sufficiently broad to
cover the head and face when turned up, and this is made to
answer the purpose of a hood of a cloak in bad weather.
Occasionally, leggings or gaiters were worn, and arm coverings,
all made of deer skins. Their moccasins were also made of the
same material; in summer, however, they frequently went without
any covering for the feet.
These whether offensive or defensive, or for killing game
were simply the bow and arrow, spear and club. The arrow heads
were of two kinds viz. -- stone, bone or iron, the latter
material being derived from Europeans, and the blunt arrow, the
point being a knob continuous with the shaft. The former of
these was used for killing quadrupeds and large birds. Two
strips of goose feathers were tied on to balance the arrow, and
it has been remarked by many persons who have seen the Red Indian
arrows, that they have invariably been a yard long; the reason of
this would seem to be that their measure for the arrow was the
arm's length, that is from the centre of the chest to the tip of
the middle finger, that being the proper length to draw the bow;
-- the latter was about five feet long, generally made of
mountain ash, but sometimes of spruce.(79)
The spears were of two kinds, the one, their chief weapon,
was twelve feet in length, pointed with bone or iron, whenever
the latter material could be obtained, and was used in killing
deer and other animals. The other was fourteen feet in length
and was used chiefly, if not wholly, in killing seals, -- the
head or point being easily separated from the shaft, -- the
service of the latter being indeed mainly, to guide the point
into the body of the animal, which being effected, the shaft was
withdrawn, and a strong strip of deer skin, which was always kept
fastened to the spear head was held by the Indian, who in this
manner secured his prey. This method of taking the seals may be
compared to that of taking the whales. The handle of the harpoon
being chiefly to guide the point, to which the
/213/ cord is
attached, into the body of the animal and then hauling against it
until the fish is exhausted. The Esquimaux adopt a similar plan
the point of their harpoon or spear being somewhat different in
form.(80)
These varied from sixteen to twenty two feet in length, with
an upward curve towards each end. Laths were introduced from
stem to stern instead of planks. They were provided with a
gunwhale or edging which, though slight, added strength to the
fabric -- the whole was covered on the outside with deer skins
sewed together and fastened by stitching the edges round the
gunwhale.(81)
The language of the Boeothucks, Mr. Cormack is of opinion,
is different from all the languages of the neighboring tribes of
Indians with which any comparison has been made. Of all the
words procured at different times from the female Indian
Shanawdithit, and which were compared with the Micmac and Banake
(the latter people bordering on the Mohawk) not one was found
similar to the language of the latter people, and only two words
which could be supposed to have had the same origin, viz., "Kuis"
-- Boeothuck -- and "Kuse" Banake -- both words meaning Sun, --
and "Moosin" Boeothuck, -- and "Moccasin" Banake and Micmac shoe,
or covering for the foot. The Boeothuck also differs from the
Mountaineer and Eskimo languages of Labrador. The Micmac,
Mountaineers, and Banake, have no "r" the Boeothuck has; the
three first use "l" instead of "r." The Boeothuck has the
diphthong "sh" -- the other languages have it not. The
Boeothucks have no characters to serve as hieroglyphics or
letters, but they had a few symbols or signatures.
The Boeothucks appear to have shown great respect for their
dead, and the most remarkable remains of them commonly observed
by Europeans at the sea coast, are their burial places. They had
several modes of interment. One was when the body of the
deceased had been wrapped in
/214/ birch rind, it was then, with
his property, placed on a sort of scaffold about four feet from
the ground, the scaffold supported a flooring of small squared
beams laid close together, on which the body and property rested.
A second method was, when the body bent together and wrapped
in birch rinds was enclosed in a sort of box on the ground, --
this box was made of small square posts laid on each other
horizontally, and notched at the corners to make them meet close,
-- it was about four feet high, three feet broad, and two feet
and a half deep, well lined with birch rind, so as to exclude the
weather from the inside, -- the body was always laid on its right
side.
A third and most common method of burying among this people
was to wrap the body in birch rind, and then cover it over with a
heap of stones on the surface of the earth; but occasionally in
sandy places, or where the earth was soft and easily removed, the
body was sunk lower in the earth and the stones omitted.
The marriage ceremony consisted merely in a prolonged feast
which rarely terminated before the end of twenty-four hours.
Polygamy would seem not to have been countenanced by the tribe.
Of their remedies for disease, the following were the most
frequently resorted to.
For pains in the stomach, a decoction of the rind of the
dogwood was drunk.
For sickness amongst old people -- sickness in the stomach -- pains in the back, and for rheumatism, the vapour bath was
used.
For sore head, neck &c. pounded sulphuret of iron mixed with
oil was rubbed over the part affected, and was said generally to
affect a cure in two or three days.
For sore eyes, -- woman's milk as a wash.
This was evidently written by Cormack to be submitted to the
Governor for approval, but I cannot learn that it was ever
issued.
KING GEORGE is sorry his children the Red Indians live for
no good, his children the Micmacs hunt and sell fur to the
English. King George wants to tell Red Indians not to hunt
beaver always, but to come to the salt water to catch fish: to
leave the beaver for the Micmacs because English know Micmacs a
long time. Any Micmac who brings Red Indian to St. John's to
speak to Governor or to me will receive a reward of 20 pounds a
year each, as long as he or they live, a silver medal each, and a
grant of Red Indian Lake for six years. But if Micmacs kill Red
Indians King George order all Micmacs to go away from
Newfoundland.
In this he states that he has acquired several ingenious
articles of the Beothuck manufacture, some of which were
discovered on his last journey, models of canoes, bows and
arrows, spears of different kinds, &c. and also a complete dress
worn by that people. Their mode of kindling
/215/ fire by
striking together two pieces of iron pyrites is not only
original, but as far as we at present know, peculiar to the
tribe.(82) These articles together with a short vocabulary of their
language, which I have been enabled to collect, proved the
Beothucks to be a distant tribe from any hitherto discovered in
North America. In my detailed report, I would propose to have
plates of these articles and also of the like articles used by
other tribes of Indians, that a comparative idea may be formed of
them, and when the Indian female Shanawdithit arrives in St.
John's, I would recommend that a correct likeness of her be taken
and preserved in the record of this Institution.(83)
Resolved that the measures recommended in the President's
report be agreed to; and that the three men John Louis, John
Stevens, and Peter John, Indians of the Canadian and Mountaineer
tribes be placed upon the establishment of this Institution to be
employed under the immediate direction and control of the
President and that they be allowed for their services such a sum
of money as the president may consider a fair and reasonable
compensation, &c.
The three Indians above mentioned were sent out in search of
the Beothucks as it appears from a report of proceedings of the
Beothuck Institution, dated February 7th, 1828, when it was
considered besides the pay, to offer a bounty of $100 to them in
the event of their discovery of the residence of the Red Indians,
or the Indians themselves still living &c.
The following documents in reference to these expeditions
appear amongst the transactions of the Beothuck Institution, now
in my possession.
At a meeting of the members of the Institution the 7th day
of February 1828 at the Court House.
The Honorable A.W. Desbarres in the chair, -- it was moved
and unanimously resolved.
First. -- That the Instructions for the party composing the
expedition to discover the Red Indians and which are now ready be
adopted and acted upon by the Society.
Second. -- That a bounty of one hundred dollars be paid to
the party sent in pursuit of the Indians, in addition to the sum
granted for their services by the President W.E. Cormack Esq.
provided it appear by subsequent investigation that they shall
have discovered the abodes of the Red Indians now in existence.
/216/ INSTRUCTIONS to John Louis the chief of the party of
Indians upon the establishment of the Boeothick Institution
respecting the route to be taken by the party in quest of the Red
Indians in the winter of 1828.
John Louis will proceed forthwith to Clode Sound in
Bonavista Bay, and inform John Stevens and Peter John that they
have been nominated as the most proper persons to be attached to
this Institution for opening a friendly communication with the
Red Indians and that they will be compensated for such services
as they may perform, by such a sum of money as the President W.E.
Cormack Esq. shall consider just and reasonable. --
John Louis will then make arrangements with John Stevens and
Peter John to attend him on the expedition to discover the abodes
of the Red Indians, which expedition is to proceed from Fortune
Bay on or before the tenth day of March next.
The party will in the first place proceed to White Bear Bay
in order if necessary to consult with a party of Micmacs there
from thence proceed through the country (interior) to St.
George's Bay, then through the country to the Bay of Islands
Lake,(84) then pass through the country to the westward of Red
Indian Lake to White Bay, and from thence return back to the
River Exploits and wait on John Peyton Esq. and the Rev. Mr.
Chapman for further instructions.
Instructions to the party under the direction of John Louis
in case they shall meet with or discover the abodes of the Red
Indians.
The Institution having originated from a sincere desire of
establishing a friendly intercourse with that unhappy race of
people the Red Indians, and of protecting the lives of the few
who survive at this day, any communication with them that can by
any possibility lead to an unfriendly result ought to be avoided.
-- John Louis and his party will therefore at all times bear in
mind that great caution and perseverance are eminently requisite
to accomplish the important and intricate designs of the
Institution, and they will avoid coming in contact with the Red
Indians under any circumstances however favourable they may
appear to be.
They will however, endeavour to ascertain as correctly as
they possibly can the numbers of Red Indians now in existence and
the country occupied by them, and they will then immediately
return to St. John's to report the particulars of their discovery
in order than another expedition upon a more matured plan, and
other measures, expedient and necessary may be adopted by the
Institution.
(signed) W.E. CORMACK
President of the
Boeothuck Institution.
February 1828.
/217/ The following account of this expedition is taken from
the Newfoundlander, of date June 26th 1828.
BOEOTHIC INSTITUTION,
ST. JOHN'S, 24th June, 1828.
At a meeting of the subscribers to the Boeothic Institution
held at Perkin's hotel this day, to receive the report of the
three Indians employed by the Institution, on their return from
researches after the Native Red Indians; and to consider what
further measure may be proper to adopt, in order to ascertain
whether there are any aborigines still existing in the island,
and their place of abode &c. with a view to open a friendly
intercourse with them, and to assure them of protection and
safety. --
The President W.E. Cormack Esq. was called to the chair.
An account was then exhibited of the journey and route of
the Indians employed by the Institution during the last four
months. John Louis left St. John's on the 12th of February, and
proceeded to Clode Sound; whence, being joined by John Stevens
and Peter John the party proceeded to Bay Despair,(85) principally
for the purpose of collecting information from the other Indians.
They thence proceeded in a North Westerly direction to St.
George's Bay, whence they took an Easterly course, about forty
miles, to the West end of the Great Bay of Islands Lake, without
discovering any recent signs of the Red Indians.
Having left this lake, at the Eastern extremity, the party
set out in a South Eastern direction to the Red Indian's Lake,
where they constructed another canoe, and remained upwards of a
week in examining the different creeks and coves, but with the
same ill success. They then paddled down the Exploits River, and
in two days reached Mr. Peyton's upper establishment, where they
procured a passage to this place, and arrived on the 20th inst.
It appearing from the foregoing particulars, that the party
had passed over and examined the whole of the country in the
interior, where the Red Indians are likely to be found, except
that part of the country in the vicinity of White Bay, a large
tract of which remains yet unexplored. --
It was moved and unanimously resolved,
1st. That the three Indians be again employed to proceed
forthwith to explore and examine the country in the interior of
and adjacent to White Bay: and the President of the Institution
be authorised to employ one of the European settlers to accompany
the Indians.
2nd. That as the Indians have now to explore a part of the
island contigious to the French fisheries, it may prove
beneficial to the objects of the Institution, to interest the
French people in the enquiries after the aborigines, and to
solicit the aid of the French Commandant in affording facilities
to the progress of the Indians now employed &c. also to request
the French authorities to inform the president, Mr. Cormack, if
any of the Red Indians have been met with in the neighbourhood of
the French fisheries.
/218/ 3rd. That in addition to the pay per month, the
Indians employed shall have a gratuity of $150, in the event of
their discovering the abode of the Red Indians now living.
4th. That as the money already subscribed is inadequate to
defray the necessary expenses attending the expedition to White
Bay the friends of the Institution be again requested to
contribute their aid in support thereof.
5th. That the account of the receipts and expenditure of
the Institution now exhibited be passed, and that the same be
printed.
6th. That William Thomas Esq. be requested to accept the
office of Treasurer to the Institution.
ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND,
26th June, 1828.
Sir,
The condition of the Aborigines or Red Indians of
Newfoundland has always had the solicitude of the English
Government, and several attempts have been made, ineffectually,
to bring these people within the pale and protection of
civilization.
A Society was formed last year among the principal
inhabitants and others connected with Newfoundland, and called
the "Boeothick Institution," for the purpose of renewing the
attempts to open a friendly intercourse with these people. A
party composed of a few of the most intelligent men from among
the other tribes of Indians met with here, was sent to search for
their abodes, which after an absence of several months exploring
the country in the vicinity of St. George's Bay -- of the Bay of
Islands -- the Red Indians' Lake and the Exploits River lately
returned without discovering any recent traces of them, proving
that this unfortunate Tribe are now very much reduced in numbers,
and that they have taken refuge in some sequestered spot. It
only remains to explore to the North and the vicinity of White
Bay to determine their existence or extinction; and with this
impression, the party are again sent to explore the interior in
these parts. They are directed to commence their search from
Croke Harbour.
The Society, anxious to avail themselves of every
circumstance that may operate favourably to their views have
taken upon themselves to request your good offices in affording
any facilities to the mission that may tend to the accomplishment
of the object they have in view; and the Society will further
feel thankful for any information you may be able to give them
relating to the Red Indians, or if any traces of that tribe have
lately been seen in the vicinity of the French Fisheries.
I have the Honor to be
Sir
with the highest consideration
and respect,
Your most obedient
humble servant.
(signed) W.E. CORMACK,
Pres. of the Boeothick
Institution.
A Monsieur,
Le Commandant
Administrateur pour Sa Majestie
Le Roi de France,
A Terre Neuve.
/219/ Later on in the same year the same party of Indians
were sent out again, as appears from the following documents.
INSTRUCTIONS to John Louis, John Stevens, and Peter John
respecting the route to be taken in quest of the Red Indians, the
summer of 1828.
The party will proceed on board the schooner Eclipse, the
master of which will receive directions to land them at Croke
Harbour; John Louis will then deliver the letter directed to the
French Commandant, who has been requested to afford him any
information that may tend to the discovery of the Red Indians.
If any of them are to be met with in that vicinity, John Louis is
required to apply for written directions as to the part of the
country which the French Commandant may point out is the most
likely to discover their habitation, and he will then proceed to
examine that country, provided the country so recommended to be
examined, does not lie further than 20 miles north of Croke
Harbour. -- John Louis will, in case he receives no intelligence
respecting the Red Indians at Croke, or that he is unable to
discover any of the tribe to the north of Croke Harbour, proceed
westwardly into the interior about twenty miles, thence taking a
southwardly direction to White Bay, thence passing round the head
of White Bay, and thence in the most proper direction through the
country to the house of Mr. Peyton the resident agent at Exploits
Burnt Island, being careful to examine particularly the whole of
the lakes, rivers and country along the route now described, so
that the party may be able to give the most unequivocal
information that no part of the country has been left unsearched.
John Louis will therefore make a plan of the country he may pass
over, marking down every lake, river and mountain, so that Mr.
Peyton who is already intimately acquainted with the interior may
be able to afford the Institution his opinion and observations
thereon.
(signed) W.E. CORMACK,
President of the Boeothick
Institution.
We have the following reference to this last expedition, in
an address to the Institution, which bears no date but was
evidently at some time subsequent to the return of the Micmac
party, probably in the fall of 1828, and is written by the
President.
Gentlemen,
Since we met in October on the return of the last expedition
in search of the Red Indians, our separate avocations otherwise
have prevented our coming together again until now, on the
business of our Institution. At that meeting you were made
acquainted with the result on the last expedition; a more
detailed account of it being left to be given at a future day.
We regret to have to acknowledge that: the result only tends to
confirm our fears for the fate of the Boeothicks, and proves that
the tribe if not totally extinct, are expiring, a remnant only of
them exists, so small and occupying so small a space that they
have been passed by unnoticed. The last expedition you are
aware, left this in June last to explore the most northern parts
of Newfoundland, where it appeared possible the Red Indians might
have taken refuge.
They proceeded to the French Shore and examined the northern
parts of the island. . . . From the head of White Bay they took a
south-eastern direction and again came out at the seacoast in
Notre Dame Bay, discovering nothing on their whole line of route
indicative of any of the
/220/ Red Indians having been recently
alive in these parts; but old marks of them abound everywhere
from White Bay to Notre Dame Bay. On the French Shore the party
visited besides Belvie, Croke, Crouse, and Canada Harbour. At
Croke the French Commodore on the part of his Government afforded
them every assistance that might in anyway further their object,
in men, boats, ammunition and provisions, and the same facilities
were secured to them along the whole French line of shore. The
French authorities could give them no information of any traces
of the Red Indians having been seen in the neighbourhood of their
fisheries.
Although we may infer where the remnant of the Red Indians
would most likely be found, yet from the certainty of the
smallness of their number, if any really do exist, it would not
be prudent again to send armed. . . . (the remainder of this MS.
is torn off).
Those who are curious in enquiries relating to man have a
treat just now in St. John's such as is not likely again to be
met with. There are at present at Mr. Cormack's house,
accessible at all times to those who feel an interest,
individuals belonging to three different tribes of North American
Indians, viz. a Mountaineer from Labrador, -- two of the Banakee
nation from Canada, -- and a Boeothick, or Red Indian of
Newfoundland, the last a female. They all speak different
languages -- and are good specimens of the race. The men are 5
feet 10 inches and a 1/2 and 5 feet 11 inches in height.
The three men are those that were sent a few months ago, in
search of the Red Indians. They have returned without finding
any recent traces of these people to the North or in the vicinity
of White Bay. One of the party has volunteered to go for nothing
to search that place at Notre Dame Bay, where the reports of the
European settlers make them out to have been seen a few weeks
since.
Ascertain their mode of counting.
Ascertain their mode of counting Micmacs.
Religious belief of the Red Indians.
Religious belief of the Micmacs.
History of the Red Indians by Micmacs. Examine the most
intelligent of the Micmacs, and record each account to compare
afterwards if marks of truth. The history by Nancy to compare
with Micmacs.
Nancy's history of them and record to compare with Micmacs
to see if they correspond in any way or points.
Note all Red Indian words.
Red Indian skulls, male and female.
Ascertain from Nancy and from Micmacs if ever any white
faced or light haired people have been seen amongst the Red
Indians: (No, Capt. Buchan not correct)?(86)
/221/ Procure specimens of every implement they have,
including dress of males and females.
Have they any exterior form of worship?
Approach 1st [first] Nancy, 2nd [second] me, 3rd [third]
Micmac.
If any opportunity offers, offer to exchange my gun &c. or
whatever the Red Indians suppose most valuable to me for one of
their children; say my gun, powder, shot for a boy.
Ascertain how they record events amongst themselves. Have
the Red Indians any dogs amongst them or domestic animals?
(No.)(87)
Their Government.
Have the Boeothucks short arms like the Esquimos? (No.)
Burying places near Exploits Burnt Island and Caves where
numerous large skulls are here lying, they have an idea that
those were spirits.
NOTE. The above looks like instructions to some one,
possibly to the Micmac guides, but more probably to some member
of the Beothuck Institution, or to Mr. Peyton who may have been
asked to thus interrogate Nancy (Shanawdithit) while in his
charge.
(From Noad.)
"Though Shanawdithit acquired a knowledge of English slowly,
yet it is said before her death she could communicate with
tolerable ease.
She feared to return to her tribe, believing that the mere
fact of her residing amongst the whites for a time, would make
her an object of hatred to the Red men.
In person Shanawdithit was 5 feet 5 inches in height -- her
natural abilities were good. She was grateful for any kindness
shown her, and evinced a strong affection for her parents and
friends. She evinced great taste for drawing, and was kept
supplied with paper and pencils of various colours, by which she
made herself better understood than she otherwise could.
In her own person, she had received two gunshot wounds, at
two different times from volleys fired at the band she was with
by the English people of Exploits. One wound was that of a slug
through the leg. Poor Shanawdithit, she died destitute of this
world's goods. Yet desirous of showing her gratitude to one from
whom she received great kindness, she presented a keepsake to Mr.
Cormack and there is something very affecting under the
circumstances in which she was placed, as associated with the
simple articles of which the presents consisted. They were a
rounded piece of granite -- a piece of quartz -- both derived
from the soil of which her tribe were once the sole owners and
lords, but which were all the soil she could then call her own;
and added to these was a lock of her hair."
/222/ To begin in the year 1829 to write a history of the Red
Indians of Newfoundland, is like beginning to write the history
of an extinct people. All that they have left behind them being
their name and one wonders that they left nothing else.
Although Newfoundland has been occupied by Europeans for two
centuries and a half, that is since the discovery of the New
World, nothing of consequence has been collected and preserved
relating to the aboriginal inhabitants, the Red Indians.
The Island has often changed hands from one European power
to another, but from among all these vicissitudes all that has
been preserved relating to the aborigines of the country, are a
few fabulous fragments, which have shone out now and then as
connected evidence of the contention of the existence of this
remarkable tribe, inhabiting the island. The stories about them
have not been credible. These aborigines it is evident never
courted friendship with the whites and their stern self dependent
character withstood the European allurements.
We have traces enough left only to cause our sorrow that so
peculiar and so superior a people should have disappeared from
the earth like a shadow. The only considerable search has at
length, but alas too late, been made to prove that they are
irrevocably lost to the world.
Unoffending, they have been cruelly extirpated: a purely
self-dependent people, known to the world only, as it were, a
meteor that had been. They were never allowed to discover nor
taste of civilization, what thoughts must they have entertained
of the white man?
Pizarro's offences to the Peruvians when first discovered,
do not tarnish the Spanish name compared with the stain upon that
of the English, for their cruel and wanton extermination of the
little nation of the first occupants of Newfoundland.
The heroic Spaniards at the glorious period alluded to,
could not comprehend, and therefore dared not trust the probable
power of an overwhelming race and wonderful people in a world
just discovered. Not so were the circumstances of the English
and the people under our notice. The place of the latter is now
a monumental blank to excite the surprise and indignation of
humanity.
The first American Indians brought to England, were three
from Newfoundland by Sebastian Cabot on his second voyage of
discovery, and presented to Henry VII in 1497.(88)
/223/ The early voyagers to Newfoundland, the Portuguese,
English, French and Spaniards were in general, up till the middle
of the 17th century, on a friendly footing with the aborigines of
the Island, and thought highly of their tractability and mental
powers. The parties were mutually serviceable to each other.
Early writers speak of the English as the first and only
aggressors upon the Red Indians, and that the savages returned
them forbearance and good for evil, formerly English fishermen,
strangers alike to Government protection and to mild laws were
not so criminal for having extirpated the aborigines as the
Government authorities under whose passive irresponsibility the
deed was perpetrated.
In the year 1800 the Governor of Newfoundland sent a Captain
Le Breton to examine the nature of the North coast of the island
and enquire about the aborigines. Capt. Le B. returned without
seeing any of them but in several places found very recent traces
of them.
In several instances aboriginal females have been captured
by Europeans and brought to St. John's for exhibition, but none
of the men have for a century past fallen into our hands alive.
Thus in 1804 an old woman was brought from the Northward to
St. John's and after a few weeks sent back. But it is reported,
true or false, that she was murdered by the parties who
accompanied her for the sake of getting possession of the
presents she had received to carry back to her people.
In 1815 Sir Richard Keats the Governor at that time,
dispatched Capt. Buchan in H.M. Schooner Pike to the River
Exploits, in the North part of the island, with instructions to
endeavour to open friendly intercourse with the Red Indians. The
expedition failed in its object.(89)
In 1819 the Governor Sir Charles Hamilton, having offered a
reward of one hundred pounds to any one who would bring a Red
Indian to St. John's, an armed party of English went up to the
Red Indian Lake, by way of the river Exploits, on the ice, and
surprised a party in their camp, carried off by force, the female
afterwards known as Mary March, killing her husband and his
brother(90) in their attempt at rescue. Thus the breach between
parties was still widened.
Mary March was carried to St. John's where she was
considered a very interesting woman. Her health declined. In
the autumn of 1819 Capt. Buchan was ordered to convey her back to
where she was taken from. Unfortunately she died on board the
vessel at the mouth of the River Exploits. Capt. Buchan however,
carried her body up to the great lake (Jan. 1820) by way of the
Exploits on the ice, but not meeting with any of her people at
the lake, left the body there, so placed that it might be found
by her tribe upon their revisiting the spot. Fresh traces of the
Indians were seen by Capt. B. on the banks of the Exploits upon
his way up.
In 1823, early in the spring three females, a mother and her
two /224/ daughters in Badger Bay near Exploits Bay, being in a
starving and exhausted condition, allowed themselves in despair
to be quietly captured by some English furriers, who accidentally
came upon them. Fortunately (?) their miserable appearance when
within gun shot, led to the unusual circumstance of their not
being fired at. The husband of the mother, in endeavouring to
avoid the observation of the white men, attempted to cross a
creek upon the ice, and fell through and was drowned. About a
month before this event, and a few miles distant the brother of
this man and his daughter, belonging to the same party, were shot
by two other English furriers.(91) One or two more of the party
escaped to the interior.
The three female captives were brought to St. John's where
they remained four or five weeks, and were then sent back to
Exploits with many presents in the hope that they might meet and
share them with their people. They were conveyed up the River
Exploits some distance by a party of Europeans, and left on the
bank with some provisions, clothing &c. to find their friends as
they best might. Their provisions were soon exhausted, and not
meeting any of their tribe, they wandered on foot down the right
bank of the river, and in a few days again reached the English
habitations. The mother and one daughter here died shortly
afterwards, and within a few days of each other. The survivor
Nancy or Shanawdithit was received and taken care of by Mr.
Peyton junior and family.
After 1823, there is no evidence that any of the Red Indians
were fallen in with by Europeans. In 1824 a party with two
canoes were seen on the right bank of the River Exploits about
halfway between the coast and the great lake, by two Canadian
Indians who were crossing that part of the country on a hunting
excursion. Friendly gestures were exchanged across the river,
and no collision took place.(92)
In 1826, (in the spring) recent traces of the Red Indians
were seen by some other Micmacs at Badger Bay Great Lake.
In 1827, the writer undertook a journey into the interior in
search of the Red Indians, the narrative of which will appear in
due order.
With the occasion of this expedition the Beothuck
Institution was formed, and as the proceedings and circumstances
of this institution will throw light upon the subject before us
they are here given.
The Royal Gazette, Friday September 18th 1827.
The Royal Gazette, Tuesday November 6th.
The Royal Gazette, Tuesday November 14th? 13th 1827.
Edinburgh Philosophical Journal Dec. 1827.
At a meeting &c. . . . in England.
A.W. DES BARRES,
Chairman and Vice President.
/225/ Narrative of my Journey (to come here).
The Royal Gazette Tuesday February 19th 1828.
The Public Ledger St. John's Tuesday June 24th 1828.
The Newfoundlander St. John's Thursday June 26th 1828.
The Royal Gazette St. John's Tuesday July 1st 1828.
The Public Ledger St. John's Friday Sept. 5th 1828.
St. John's 26th June 1828.
15th of October 1828. John Louis and party arrived at St. John's from Exploits per schooner.
The Royal Gazette Tuesday October 21st 1828.
The Newfoundlander Thursday August 9th 1828.
The Public Ledger Tuesday September 2nd 1828.
The report of the Red Indians having appeared at Green Bay
upon particular investigation proved not to be founded upon
truth.
On the 20th of September 1828 Shanawdithit arrived in St.
John's from Mr. Peyton's at Exploits, where she had remained five
years in obscurity, and from whence she was now brought by the
desire of the Beothuck Institution.
Shanawdithit was now the object of the peculiar care and
solicitude of the Beothuck Institution, and the last of the Red
Indians.
To this interesting protege we are indebted for nearly all
the information we possess regarding her tribe, the aborigines of
Newfoundland. Although she had been five years and upwards
amongst the English, upon her arrival the second time in St.
John's she spoke so little English that those only who were
accustomed to her gibberish, could understand her. By
persevering attention now however, to instruct her, she acquired
confidence and became enabled to communicate. She evinced
extraordinary powers of mind in possessing the sense of gratitude
in the highest degree, strong affections for her parents and
friends, and was of a most lively disposition. She had a natural
talent for drawing, and being at all times supplied with paper
and pencils of various colours, she was enabled to communicate
what would otherwise have been lost. By this means, aided by her
broken English and Beothuck words, she herself taught the meaning
of to those around her. The chief points of the following
history, notices of the manners, customs, language, armour &c. of
her tribe are derived.
In person Shanawdithit was inclined to be stout, but when
first taken was slender.
The following is a summary of what was obtained and learned
from her by the use of the materials mentioned and by broken
English aided by portions of her own language which she put into
the power of those around her to understand. (This document is
unfortunately missing from Cormack's papers.)
Shanawdithit lived nearly nine months under the protection
of the Institution during a considerable portion of which time
she was unwell.
Shanawdithit gives the following account of Capt. Buchan's
expedition to the Great Lake in 1816(93) and the state of her tribe
at that time.
/226/ At the time the tribe had been much reduced in numbers
in consequence of the hostile encroachments and meetings of the
Europeans at the seacoast. But they still had, up to that
period, enjoyed unmolested, the possession of their favourite
interior parts of the island, especially the territory around and
adjacent to the Great Lake and Exploits River. Their number
then, it would appear, hardly amounted to one hundred, seventy-two it is stated by Shanawdithit.
They were all encamped in their winter quarters in three
divisions on different parts of the margin of the Great Lake.(94)
The principal encampment was at the east end of the lake, on
the south side, a little to the east of the estuary of the lake;
which forms the river Exploits. There were here three mamateeks
or wigwams, containing forty-two people. One of these wigwams
was Shanawdithit's father's, and she was in it at the time. A
smaller encampment lay six or eight miles to the westward on the
north side of the lake, consisting of two mamateeks with thirteen
people, and another lay near the west end of the lake, on the
south side, and consisted of two mamateeks with seventeen people.
A census of the aborigines at this period derived from one
of themselves, will be interesting to all Newfoundlanders.
In the principal settlement, that which Capt. Buchan
visited, there were:
In one wigwam, -- 4 men, 5 women, 3 children
-- 3 other children. . . . . . . . . . . 15
In another, 4 men, 2 women, 3 girls, 3
children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
In another, 3 men, 3 women, 2 single women, 5
children and 2 other children. . . . . . 15
-----------
42
In the second settlement, that on the north
shore of the lake, in the two
wigwams -- 3 women, 4 men, 6
children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
And in the third settlement, that at the
S.W. end of the lake:
In 1st wigwam -- 2 men, 4 women, 3
children. . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
In 2nd wigwam -- 3 men, 3 women, and
two children. . . . . . . . . . . 8
-----------
30
42
-----------
Total 72
It was the principal encampment that Capt. Buchan fell in
with. He took it by surprise and made the whole party prisoners.
This occurred in the morning. After a guarded pantomimic
interchange of civilities for several hours, it was agreed that
two hostages should be given on each side, for Capt. Buchan
wished to return down the river for an additional supply of
presents, in order thereby the better to secure the friendship of
the Indians.
Capt. Buchan had no sooner departed with his men and
hostages than the Indians, suspected he had gone down the river
for an additional force to come up and make them all prisoners,
and carry them off to the /227/ seacoast. Their suspicions were
strengthened by the sudden appearance of one of the two Indians
who had gone with Capt. Buchan, and had run off when only a few
miles down the river, and they resolved to break up their
encampment immediately and retire further into the interior, to
where the rest of their tribe were, and where they would be less
liable to be again surprised.
To insure concealment of their proceedings, they first
destroyed the two Europeans left as hostages, by shooting them
with arrows, then packed up what clothing and utensils they could
conveniently carry, crossed the lake on the ice the same
afternoon, carrying the heads of the two Europeans with them, one
of which they stuck upon a pole and left at the north side of the
lake. They then followed along the margin of the lake westward,
and about midnight reached the nearest encampment of their
friends in that direction. The alarm was given, and next morning
all joined in the retreat westward. They proceeded a few miles
in order to reach a secure and retired place to halt at in the
hope of soon learning something of the Indian whom Capt. Buchan
had taken with him. On the second day the Indian appeared
amongst them, and stated to them that upon returning with the
whitemen, (Capt. B.'s party) and discovering the first encampment
deserted he instantly fled and escaped.(95) All now resumed the
retreat and crossed over on the ice to the south side of the lake
where the only remaining and undisturbed encampment lay. Upon
reaching this shore a party was despatched to the encampment
which lay further westward to sound the alarm. This encampment
was then likewise broken up and the occupants came east to join
their tribe. To avoid discovery, the whole retired together to
an unfrequented part of the forest situated some distance from
the shores of the lake carrying with them all the winter's stock
of provisions they possessed.
In this sequestered spot they built six wigwams, and
remained unmolested for the remainder of the winter (about six
weeks). They brought one of the European hostages heads with
them, stuck it upon a pole, danced and sang round it. (See
Shanawdithit's drawing Plate I.)
When spring advanced, their provisions were exhausted, some
of them went back to the encampment at which they had been
surprised by Capt. Buchan, and there supplied themselves out of
the winter stock of venison that had been left there.
After this disaster the tribe became scattered and continued
dispersed in bands frequenting the more remote and sequestered
parts of the northern interior. In the second winter afterwards,
twenty-two had died about the river Exploits, and in the vicinity
of Green Bay: and the third year also numbers died of hardship
and want.
About two years after the general breaking up De-mas-do-weet
(afterwards Mary March) was married to Nonos-baw-sut. She was
four years married before she had children.
In 1819 the tribe had become reduced to less than half the
number that they were three years before, the whole amounting now
to thirty-one. /228/ They were all encamped together in three
winter wigwams at one spot on the north side of the Great Lake,
near the east end, opposite to the place where Capt. Buchan had
surprised them three years before (?) (eight years). One wigwam
contained thirteen persons, three couples being married, another
wigwam contained 12 persons, 3 couples being also married.
Another 6 persons, 1 couple married.
An armed party of English, 9 in number, now again came up
from the coast to the lake for the purpose of carrying off some
Red Indians, instigated by the reward held out by the Governor
for a Red Indian man.
The English espied a small party of the Indians on the ice
near the shore and stealing upon them gave chase, and overtook
one of them (a woman) whom they seized; one of the Indians upon
seeing this halted, came back alone into the midst of the armed
men, and gave them to understand that he would have the woman.
Another Indian then approached; a parley and altercation took
place; the whitemen insisted upon carrying the woman with them,
in which they were opposed by the first Indian, who in defiance
of the muskets and bayonets by which he was surrounded strove to
rescue the woman: he was shot on the spot, and the other Indian,
who now attempted to run off, was shot dead also.(96)
Shanawdithit was present in the encampment on the north
shore of the lake.
Thus was De-mas-do-weet, or Mary March kidnapped, in the
accomplishment of which her heroic husband (for that was he who
struggled with the Banditti) was murdered, as was also his
brother (?), the other Indian, in attempting to rescue her, and
in consequence, her only child, an infant, died two days
afterwards (see Shanawdithit's drawing).
Disastrously disturbed again their number now was reduced to
twenty-seven.
Mary March was taken to the coast and in the spring conveyed
to St. John's. It has been already mentioned that Capt. Buchan
was employed in the ensuing winter (Jan. 1820), to conduct her to
the interior. She having died while under his care, he conveyed
her remains to the Great Lake where it was afterwards found by
her tribe and removed into the cemetery and placed by the side of
her husband (for further details of her burial, see narrative of
Cormack's 2nd journey into the interior page 193). The cemetery
was built for her husband's remains upon the foundation of his
own wigwam.
In the winter of 1819-20 the tribe was encamped in three
wigwams at Badger Bay waters a few miles from the north bank of
the River Exploits. Capt. Buchan's party was seen by them going
up the Exploits on the ice, and they immediately afterwards went
up to the lake by a circuitous route, to ascertain what he had
done there, when they found as stated, Mary March's remains.
Shanawdithit was present. No other death it is stated, took
place until the winter of 1821. In 1822 one half of their number
were encamped at the Great Lake, the other half on the right bank
of the River Exploits. The latter half were seen by two
/229/
Canadian Indians as above mentioned and consisted of 6 men, 5
women, 4 boys, and 2 girls. . . . 17.
In 1822-23, when Shanawdithit makes out there were still 27
alive. They were all encamped on the Badger Bay waters, at the
N.W. corner of the second lake from the River Exploits, in four
wigwams. She accounts satisfactorily for deaths, so that the
number was reduced in the spring of 1823 to thirteen alive in the
interior.
Shanawdithit's father's wigwam contained five. Her father
and one of the family here died, in consequence of which her
mother, sister and herself went to the seacoast in search of
mussels to subsist on. Shanawdithit's uncle's wigwam contained
seven. The uncle and his daughter were shot by (Curnew and
Adams) as alluded to before(97) (see note * below). Three died at
this encampment, and two died at another lake to the eastward (at
c, on plan Plate V). The third wigwam contained nine, one of
whom died. The fourth wigwam contained six, two of whom died and
four removed in April further eastward. Thus from her father's
and uncle's wigwams all were dead or gone away, while of the nine
in the third wigwam eight survived, and of the six in the fourth,
four survived, leaving but twelve individuals beside
Shanawdithit, her mother and sister alive.
The surviving remnant (consisting of 6 men, 3 women, 2
single women and 2 boys) she says, went by a circuitous route
northerly, westerly and southerly from the Badger Bay waters to
the Great Lake. Here ends all positive knowledge of her tribe,
which she never narrated without tears.
* NOTE. This man Shanawdithit's uncle, it will be
remembered was the same individual who accompanied Lieut. Buchan
in 1811, down the river Exploits to where the presents were
stored, and who remained with Buchan until the discovery of the
bodies of the two marines, when he took to flight and rejoined
his people. I conjecture that the remembrance of his kind
treatment at the hands of Buchan and his party, led him to
conclude that the whites generally were inclined to be more
amicably disposed towards his tribe thereafter, and that this
impression, coupled with his miserable plight, caused him to
advance so boldly upon the wretches who so foully murdered him,
(a single, unarmed, half starved man), and afterwards, in sheer
wantonness, shot his poor daughter.
NOTE from Conquest of Canada by Henry Kirke, M.A., B.C.L.,
Oxon.
In a foot note the author says, "I have been informed by
Admiral Sir H. Prescott G.C.B., who was for many years Governor
of Newfoundland (1834 to 1840) that he went there with the firm
conviction that the Beothicks were still to be found in the
Island, but after careful investigation and enquiry, he was
persuaded that the race was extinct."
RED INDIAN ARROWS, DRESS &C. -- The arms for offence and
defence and for killing game, consisted of Bows, arrows and
spears. Their arrows were of two kinds viz. the stone, bone and
iron (the latter material being derived from Europeans), for
/230/killing quadrupeds, and large birds; the blunt arrow, (the point
being a knob continuous with the shaft), for killing small birds
(see figures 1, 2, and 3).(136)
Two strips of goose feather were tied on to balance this
arrow.(137)
Their arms are those of all rude people unacquainted with the
arts and civilization. The bow is about five feet long, made of
the Mountain Ash (Dogwood), but sometimes of spruce and fir,(138)
seasoned over fire. Their arrows now, are all barbed with iron,
but formerly with stone &c. The iron they find in the wrecks of
boats &c. about the English settlements, and they sometimes pilfer
it from about the fishermen's premises.
FIRE STONES. -- Two pieces of radiated iron pyrites, which he
(Cormack) thinks they must have procured from the west coast,
about Bay of Islands.(139)
THE BOTTLE-NOSED WHALE. -- Which they represented by the
fishes tail, frequents in great numbers, the northern bays, and
creeps in at Clode Sound and other places, and the Red Indians
consider it the greatest good luck to kill one. They are 22 and
23 feet long.(140)
Asceres(?) is the Goddess of corn, and her image was
worshipped by the Romans; so is the image of the Whale's tail
worshipped by the Red Indians, that animal affording them more
abundant luxury than anything else, sometimes so large and fat an
animal is the greatest prize.
Little bird-Ob-seet. Black Bird-Woodch. Blunt-nosed fish
Mo-co-thut. Profiles of man and woman.
Men singing to Ash-wa-meet, with Eagles feathers and deer
ears in cap. Eagle -- Gob-id-in. -- Woodpecker Shee-buint. --
Lump fish Ae-she-meet. (These notes apparently refer to
drawings.)
The Beothics have a great many songs. Subjects, -- are of
whiteman, Darkness, Deer, Birds, Boats, Of the other Indians,
Bears, Boots, Hatchet, Shirt, Indian Gosset, Stealing man's boat,
Sheils, Pots, Whiteman's houses, Stages, Guns, fire stones, wood
or sticks, Birch rind, Whiteman's jacket, Beads, Buttons, Dishes,
men dead, Whiteman's head, Ponds, Marshes, Mountains, Water,
Brooks, Ice, Snow, Seals, Fishes &c, Salmon, Hats, Eggs &c.
In the song two or three wigwams sometimes join.
To show the number of the tribe, not long ago they inhabited
within the remembrance of people still living, all the country
between Bonavista Bay and Bay of Islands, and traces are to be
seen all along in these parts. Shanawdithit received two gunshot
wounds at two different times, from shots fired at the band she
was with by the English people at Exploits; One wound was that of
a slug or buck shot through the palm of her hand, the other was a
shot through her leg. I have seen the scar of the wound on her
hand, and so have others in St. John's.
The Red Indians never wash except when a husband or wife
dies, then the survivor has in some water heated by stones in a
birch rind kettle, decocted with the shrimps(?) of dogwood tree,
or Mountain Ash.
The vocabulary of the Red Indians is (I think) in Dr. Yates'
possession, also a seal bone (broken but can be put together),
Birch rind culinary vessels, Birch
(signed) W.E. CORMACK,
24th June, 1851.
Shanawdithit died on the 6th of June 1829, and was buried on
the 8th in the C.E. Cemetery, South side of St. John's.
The record of her interment is contained in the C.E.
Cathedral Parish Register, of St. John's, and is as follows.
June 8th 1829.
Interred Nancy, Shanawdithe(143) aet. 23 South Side.
(very probably the last of the aborigines)
(signed) Frederick H. Carrington A.B.
Rector. St. John's.
The following notice of her death is taken from a St. John's
newspaper of date June 12th 1829.
"DIED, -- On Saturday night the 6th inst., at the Hospital,
Sha-na-dith-it-, the female Indian, one of the aborigines of this
Island. She died of Consumption, a disease which seems to have
been remarkably prevalent amongst her tribe, and which has
unfortunately been fatal to all who have fallen into the hands of
the settlers. Since the departure of Mr. Cormack from the Island,
this poor woman has had an asylum afforded her in the house of
James Simms Esq., Attorney General, where every attention has been
paid to her wants and comforts, and under the able and
professional advice of Dr. Carson, who has most liberally and
kindly attended her for many months, it was hoped her health might
have been re-established. Latterly however, her disease became
daily more formidable, and her strength rapidly declined, and a
short time since it was deemed advisable to send her to the
Hospital, where her sudden decease has but too soon fulfilled the
fears that were entertained of her."
A more extended notice of her death appeared in the London
Times newspaper of England, of date Sept. 14th 1829, which was
evidently written by Mr. W.E. Cormack, then in England, as
follows: --
"DIED. -- At St. John's Newfoundland on the 6th of June last
in the 29th year of her age, Shanawdithit, supposed to be the last
of the Red Indians or Beothicks. This interesting female lived
six years a captive amongst the English, and when taken notice of
latterly exhibited extraordinary mental talents. She was niece to
Mary March's husband, a chief of the tribe, who was accidentally
killed in 1819 at the Red Indian Lake
/232/ in the interior while
endeavouring to rescue his wife from the party of English who took
her, the view being to open a friendly intercourse with the tribe.
This tribe, the Aborigines of Newfoundland, presents an
anomaly in the history of man. Excepting a few families of them,
soon after the discovery of America, they never held intercourse
with the Europeans, by whom they have ever since been surrounded,
nor with the other tribes of Indians, since the introduction of
fire arms amongst them. The Chinese have secluded themselves from
the interference of all nations, their motives being understood
only to themselves, and the peculiarities of that people are
slowly developed to others. But in Newfoundland, nearly as far
apart from China as the antipodes, there has been a primitive
nation, once claiming rank as a portion of the human race, who
havae lived, flourished, and become extinct in their own orbit.
They have been dislodged, and disappeared from the earth in their
native independence in 1829, in as primitive a condition as they
were before the discovery of the New World, and that too on the
nearest point of America to England, in one of our oldest and most
important Colonies."
This is evidently the title page to another history of the
Beothucks, but as it appears on a separate sheet, without any
other reference, I can only conjecture that such is the case. The
date of 1836 would indicate that this history was written by
Cormack some seven years after he left the country for good.
Whether it was published or not I could not ascertain, but I think
it most probable that it was, either in some magazine or newspaper
in England or Scotland.
Of all those whose names are connected with the sad history
of the aborigines of Newfoundland, there is not one whose name
stands out more conspicuously than that of William Epps Cormack,
the daring explorer who first essayed to cross the interior of
this great island, in 1822.
Now-a-days, our knowledge of the principal features of the
country are commonplace enough. One can rush across the island by
the aid of "the Iron Horse," in a short space of time, penetrate
its remotest interior in a few days journey, traverse on foot or
by canoe along its numerous water courses and over its great lakes
from points on the cross country railway. The modern traveller
must entirely fail to appreciate the toil /233/ and hardship, and
the almost unsurmountable difficulties Cormack had to contend with
in his great undertaking. It is only those like myself, who were
privileged to follow in the wake of this intrepid explorer, before
the advent of the railway, who can form any idea of what he had to
go through. Accompanied only by a single Micmac hunter of
uncertain reliability,(144) he braved the terrors of the vast unknown
interior, which was supposed to be filled with innumerable savages
and wild beasts, such as bears, wolves, etc., ready to devour the
foolhardy person who would venture to invade their solitude.
The country was thought to present almost insurmountable
difficulties in the form of inaccessible mountains, extensive and
intricate lakes and rivers or impassable morasses. In a word this
"Terra incognita" was invested with all the terrors of the
unknown, with which imagination, or perhaps wilful
misrepresentation could endow it. But above all, it was supposed
to be peopled by numerous ferocious and bloodthirsty savages, to
whose bitter hatred of the white man was added the desire to be
revenged, for the cruel treatment they had so long experienced at
the hands of the latter.
It was surmised that they would show no mercy to the hapless
white who might fall into their hands, or place himself in their
power. All these considerations would be sufficient to dampen the
ardour of any less daring spirit than that of Cormack, but such a
man was not to be deterred, or turned back from his purpose by any
real or imaginary dangers.
In view then of all the circumstances, and considering the
state of our knowledge generally with regard to this great unknown
land, at that early date, I look upon Cormack's daring undertaking
as one worthy to rank with many of the more pretentious
explorations of recent times.
Born of Scotch parentage, in this City of St. John's, May 5th
1796, his father, who was a well-to-do merchant gave him a liberal
education, at the University of Edinburgh, under the tuition of
Prof. Jameson, he acquired a good practical knowledge of the
sciences, especially of Botany, Geology and Mineralogy. Whether
this education unfitted him for commercial pursuits, or whether
his natural inclinations tended towards a more cosmopolitan
existence, it would appear that he became a regular rolling stone,
a globe trotter, who could not remain long anywhere. He was
however the very kind of individual fitted by nature and education
for the hazardous undertaking he entered upon in 1822, in
exploring the interior of his native land. But above all his
philanthropic disposition filled him with a most ardent desire to
endeavour to bring about friendly relations with the hapless Red
Indians, the poor persecuted untutored savage of the interior
wilds. He threw himself, heart and soul into this cherished idea,
nor did he count the risks and dangers that confronted him in the
least. The one desire of his life so actuated him that he seemed
to look upon himself as the instrument by which the amelioration
of the condition of the Beothuck was to be accomplished. Of
course Cormack himself did not credit the bloodthirsty stories of
the fierce relentless disposition of the
/234/ Indians current
among the fisherfolk. He knew that in most instances, their
ferocity was grossly exaggerated for the purpose of forming an
excuse for their own inhuman conduct. Even though he did place
any reliance upon the oft repeated yarns of the settlers, he
believed that in him lay the necessary qualifications to allay the
fears of the Red men, turn aside their hostility, and bring them
to a friendly understanding, of his good intentions.
Cormack appears to have been well fitted for the task he had
laid out for himself. He is described by those who knew him as
being a tall, long limbed, wiry individual, physically just the
man to endure any amount of hardship and toil, and of such a
lively sympathetic temperament as would sustain him under the most
trying circumstances.
The late John Peyton, Magistrate of Twillingate, who knew him
intimately, informed me, that he saw Cormack just as he was about
to enter the interior on his second journey in 1827, and again on
his return, when he came to Mr. P's house. At first he could
scarcely recognize in the tall, gaunt, shaggy individual who stood
before him the man whom he saw a couple of months previous start
off full of life and vigour, clean, kempt and well kept. His
appearance now betokened what the man had gone through in the
interim.
The story of his itinerary on both of his journeys reads like
a romance, and as these are now long out of print, and exceedingly
rare, their inclusion in this work will be the means of preserving
these most interesting narratives of the earliest exploration of
the interior of Newfoundland, as well as doing tardy justice to
this splendid character, in our historical annals.
Cormack died in New Westminster, British Columbia in 1868,
and the following obituary, written by one who had known him
intimately, as a cherished friend, appeared in the British
Columbian of May the 9th, 1868.
"It was our very melancholy duty to announce in our obituary
this day week a name intimately associated with almost every
social and political movement that has taken place in this Colony,
ever since its birth, ten years ago -- the name of William Epps
Cormack.
"Mr. Cormack was born in St. John's Newfoundland on the 5th
of May, 1796. About seven years thereafter, on the death of his
father, the family returned to Scotland, in which country Mr.
Cormack spent his schoolboy and most impressionable days. Endowed
with a fine susceptibility of the beautiful in external nature, it
seemed to afford him great delight to recount his boyish rambles
amidst the pleasing and classic scenery of Southern Scotland.
During one of his holiday excursions he visited Burns's `Bonnie
Jean,' nothing very remarkable, perhaps, in the light of our
prosaic time, but it formed a green spot in his memory which often
blossomed into facetious pleasantry at congenial gatherings. He
attended the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh; the subsequent
fame of /235/ several of his class fellows at the former (the late
Marquis of Breadalbane being one) was always, with him, a theme of
much admiration and pride; the emotion -- possibly from mere
associative ideal force -- occasionally rose into an impassioned
love of his ancestral country. At Edinburgh he was fortunate
enough to secure the personal friendship of Professor Jameson, the
late celebrated Mineralogist, whose fascinating incitement to the
study of the physical sciences he ever gratefully remembered.
"About the year 1818 he took out from Scotland to Prince
Edward's Island two vessels with emigrant farmers, and established
there the now flourishing settlement of New Glasgow.(145) About a
dozen years thereafter he established an export trade of grain
from the same Island to Great Britain, which we understand has
increased immensely.
"In or about the year 1821 or 1822, he crossed the interior
of Newfoundland, being the first European who had done so. The
object being (1) to test the truth of certain fabulous-like
statements regarding the occupation of the interior by a peculiar
race of Indians, and (2) their existence being proved, to
introduce them to civilized life. A notice of this exploration
appeared in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, (circa) 1828.
Between the years 1819 and 1834 he added a good deal to the
knowledge of the flora of North America, frequently sending home
to the Linnean Society specimens of plants: a specimen of the
Calluna Vulgaris, or common heath, contributed by Mr. Cormack,
formed, not very long ago, an interesting subject of discussion in
the Society, the question being: Whether the Calluna is
indigenous to the American Continent? Some time within the period
last above stated, he wrote an Essay on the British American and
French Fisheries, for which he received a medal from the Montreal
Natural History Society. He went to Australia in 1836, where he
cultivated tobacco, with much success, for two or three years. He
left that colony for New Zealand in 1839, and there laid the
foundation of pastoral pursuits on an extensive scale by
purchasing land from the natives and raising cattle and horses.
But some difficulties occurred with the Home Government which
materially interferred with the enterprises of the first settlers
in that Island. While in New Zealand he exported spars (the
Cowdie pine) to London on an extensive scale, principally for the
Admiralty. He sent a numerous collection of the young forest tree
seed of New Zealand to Kew Gardens, but seemed to be under the
impression that some mishap had fallen them. He spent a few years
in California engaged principally in mercantile and mining
pursuits, varying their exciting though arid pleasures by forming
a small hortus siccus of the magnificent plants of that State. In
this Colony he took a most active part in everything which he
thought would tend to its material and political progression; he
fought hard to get the modicum of representative government which
we now possess -- the peculiar beauties of which some of us,
perhaps, have latterly been unable to perceive. One of the first
members of our Municipal Council he devoted to its affairs, in an
ultra-disinterested way, a great deal of valuable time. He was
/236/ mainly instrumental in establishing an Agricultural Society
in British Columbia, acting as its Secretary, and preserving --
uninfluenced by much that was disheartening -- its rather languid
life. He had charge of the Ichthyological Department in
connection with British Columbia's contributions to the Exhibition
of 1862, (a very interesting account of the various kinds of
salmon, &c., found in the Fraser accompanied the contributions)
but nothing was ever heard of the fishes, the probability being
that they did not keep through the tropics. The stomachs were not
taken out, and this would certainly serve to hasten decomposition;
the object in retaining the stomach, and mutilating the fish as
little as possible, was a purely scientific one. The examination
(by such a man as Professor Owen) of the contents of the stomach
might have thrown some valuable light not only on ichthyology but
on some of its allied sciences. He opened a correspondence a few
years since with the Highland and Agricultural Society of
Scotland, and sent to it a variety of the grass seeds of this
Colony, thinking the bunch grass, for instance, would find a
congenial habitat in the Alpine districts of Scotland. By the
last mail he contributed to the same Society a sample of a species
of hemp indigenous to British Columbia, and was recently engaged
in trying to procure one or two of our mountain sheep, with the
view to improve the breed and wool of Great Britain. These
animals, however, are not unknown in the Mother Country -- good
specimens are to be seen in London and Edinburgh Museums; and if
we remember rightly, a description of them is given in
Richardson's Fauna Boreali Americana.
"Mr. Cormack was a great lover of field sports and outdoor
amusements. Fishing and skating he was passionately fond of.
During one of his occasional visits home he amused himself by
revising and amplifying a small treatise on skating (originally
written by a Lieut. Jones); and the old gentleman agreeably
delighted and astonished everybody here, in 1862, by his graceful
evolutions on the ice. He numbered amongst his friends and
correspondents some of the most celebrated scientific and literary
men of the last half century, such as Sir William Hooker,
Professor Faraday, Dr. Ure, Dr. Hodgkin, (Chairman of the
Aborigines Protection Society,) and the late talented, though
somewhat eccentric, John Macgregor, author of the Progress of
America, Commercial Statistics, &c., the last being a most
intimate friend. Though fond of writing, Mr. Cormack has left no
works to testify to his industry. It is only visible through the
darkened light of half-forgotten newspapers and Reviews.
"The impulse of a strong fancy made him a wanderer -- the
commercial man and the explorer in one. While he sought the
respectable gains of commerce, he at the same time aimed at
extending international knowledge, thus contributing to the
welfare and happiness of man.
"He was naturally of a buoyant and happy disposition, genial
and kindly; his manners were suave and dignified. Latterly, great
bodily suffering somewhat tinged with bitterness a temper which
was constitutionally mild. But no words of his were meant to be
`unkind,' though they were sometimes, by those who did not
understand him, `wrongly taken.' His warm appreciation of what he
deemed the good works of /237/ the Roman Catholic Missionaries in
this Colony showed that he had no narrow-souled religious notions.
The Rev. Father Fouquet he held in the highest esteem.
"Though afflicted for years, he was only confined to bed
about a month. His sufferings during the greater part of his
confinement, though intense, never affected his mental powers.
With a clear intellect and a consolatory resignation he met the
approach of death.
"The greatest respect was paid by this community to his
remains -- almost every one who could conveniently attend was at
his funeral. The Fire Department (of which he was an honorary
member) paid him special respect, the officers of the company
carrying his body to the church. The funeral service was
conducted by his estimable friend the Rector of Holy Trinity.
Personally we have to mourn the loss of an esteemed and much
valued friend. Several of our `old familiar faces' are,
unhappily, leaving for other homes -- but one dear old face has
passed away to `another and a better world.'"
The above obituary was written by Edward Graham, Esq., a
gentleman who claims to have been on terms of intimate friendship
with Cormack for many years.
NOTE. Amongst Cormack's numerous papers I came across the
following Agreement, which fully bears out the statement as to the
unreliability of his Indian guide.
Agreement between W.E. Cormack and Joseph Silvester of Bay of
Despair.
I promise and agree with Joseph Silvester that if he
accompanies me from St. John's to St. George's Bay by land towards
the middle of the country of Newfoundland, that besides what I may
have already done for him, that after he takes me safe there, that
I will on our return, give his mother one barrel of pork, one
barrel of flour and anything else that may be found suitable, and
further, that he is to go along with me to England or Scotland and
stay there as long as I do, and if he likes he may return to St.
John's with me next year, or if he likes I will give him a passage
in one of our vessels to Portugal or Spain in order that it might
do his health good, and then from Spain he is to get his passage
back to St. John's or to go in the same vessel to England and
return by her to St. John's, and that I will give the Captain of
the vessel particular directions to take care of him, and that
whatever should happen he the Captain will take care of Joe. until
his return to St. John's. When as Joseph Silvester is in St.
John's he is to live at my house. If Joe. should ever go to
Prince Edward's Island, I will give him a letter to my friends
there to do what they can for him, he is to write me what it is,
and I will always be very glad to perform what Joe. reasonably
wants of me.
(signed) W.E. CORMACK.
Done in the interior of Newfoundland in about 48 degrees 20
minutes N. Lat. 54 degrees 50 minutes W. Long. on Sunday Sept.
14th, 1822.
/238/ It is quite evident from the above agreement that
Mister Silvester had been showing the "White feather" and must
have contemplated abandoning Cormack to his fate in the far
interior, and that in order to retain his services it was
necessary to offer him all these extra inducements.
/251/ It is not my intention to pose as an authority on the
ethnological, philological or linguistic affinities of the
Beothuck. These subjects have been treated by several of the most
learned scientists in all such researches. Various theories, have
been advanced, and deductions arrived at, which, while I would not
attempt to constitute myself an umpire to decide upon, I must
confess leaves the question of their real origin about as much in
the dark as ever. It would be presumption on my part to even
express an opinion, favourable or otherwise, upon any views
entertained by such eminent authorities. I shall only here give
the gist of their views as they have come to me, and leave the
readers to judge for themselves as to which carries most weight.
All the attempts made to solve this great problem, are of an
exceedingly interesting character, and there is a strong
temptation to elaborate thereon, but with such meagre material at
our disposal we cannot hope to arrive at any definite conclusion
at this late date.
Mr. W.E. Cormack, that intrepid and philanthropic gentleman,
who devoted so much time and money with the view to bringing about
amicable relations with the poor Red men, and who also made a deep
study of everything relating to their manners, customs, language
&c., conceived the idea that the Beothucks might possibly have
derived their origin from the Norsemen, whom tradition asserts,
discovered America in the tenth century, and afterwards sent out
colonies to inhabit therein. No doubt Cormack was led to this
supposition by the recently published translation of the Icelandic
sagas, just then made public, by the learned Danish Antiquary Dr.
Rink. Cormack apparently seized with avidity this interesting
story and saw in it a possible solution of the mystery. Could he
have established his theory it would have been a complete
confirmation of the story of the sagas, and would have made his
name famous, amongst the savons of his day. That he was filled
with this theory is apparent from his writings, and I find amongst
his notes attempts to compare the Beothuck language with that of
Iceland and Greenland dialects. He frequently refers to its
possible European origin, points out the fact of its possessing
all the sounds of those of Europe, while differing radically from
the languages of all the neighbouring tribes. Cormack seems to
have held on to this view to the day of his death, for I have
quite recently learned, from one who knew him intimately in
British Columbia, a Mr. Smith, that Cormack did not think the
Beothucks were Indians he had an idea that they came from Norway
or Sweden. "The late Bishop Mullock of St. John's also seemed to
favour this opinion and thought that they might be descendants of
Liefs Colonists, possibly intermixed with some aboriginal people."
There are others who favour the theory of a Basque origin as
the traditions of that hardy race of fishermen claim that they had
made their /252/ way to our shores anterior to Cabot, and that the
term "Baccalaos" for Codfish, said to have been used by the
natives, was derived from them. Again some learned authors seem
to see in the Basque language a remote yet notable resemblance, at
least in form to American Indian languages in general.
But the concensus of opinion of those most competent to judge
has long ago decided against this supposed European origin, and
the most careful comparison of the linguistic characteristics of
the language has led to the conclusion that it is clearly Indian
or American. But having decided this point it has not been found
quite so easy to determine to what great family of Indian dialects
the Beothuck language really belongs. The most eminent
authorities upon this phase of the question, such persons as Prof.
Rob. Gordon Latham, of the Anthropological Society of Great
Britain, Prof. Albert S. Gatschet of the Ethnological Bureau
Washington, and the Rev. John Campbell, L.L.D., and the late Sir
Wm. Dawson all differ in the conclusions they have arrived at.
But before entering upon the question as treated by the above
named gentlemen, I must record here a most ingenious and certainly
very interesting theory put forward by Mr. Wm. Sweetland,
Magistrate of Bonavista, who wrote an unpublished history of
Newfoundland in 1837. I have been kindly favoured with a perusal
of this work by his grand daughter Mrs. C.V. Cogan wife of the
Rector of St. Mary's Church, St. John's, South.
Mr. Sweetland begins by stating that when Shanawdithit was
brought to St. John's and while she resided with Mr. W.E. Cormack,
he had frequent opportunities of conversing with her.
"On one of these occasions," says Mr. S. when questioned as
to the origin of her tribe, she stated, "that `The Voice' told
them that they sprang from an arrow or arrows stuck in the
ground." Upon this Mr. Sweetland weaves an elaborate story of
their descent from one Ogus Khan a great Tartar Chieftain who
flourished about 675 B.C. Though I am by no means prepared to
accept this theory, I must confess it possesses much that seems
plausible, and is altogether of such an interesting character,
never, so far as I know having been put forward by any other
writer, I feel justified in inserting it here in full.
"This Ogus Khan according to his Tartar historian, having
overrun the greater part of Asia, which he conquered and subdued,
he then began to move towards the eastward, conquering all the
great cities that lay in his way, and bringing all the minor
states and kingdoms under his sway. Being in the city of Sham, he
ordered one of his most faithful attendants to bury privately, a
golden bow in the eastern part of the neighbouring forest; but in
such a manner, that only an exceeding small bit of it could be
seen, which being done he commanded the same person to bury so
likewise, three golden arrows, in the west side of the same
forest. A year later, he sent his three eldest sons, `Kuin,' or
the Sun, `Ay,' or the moon, and `Juldus,' or the Star, to hunt on
the east side of the aforesaid forest with orders to bring him
whatever they found therein. Then he despatched his three younger
sons, with orders to repair to the chase but on the west side
only. The first of these had the appellation /253/ `of Kuck,' or
the Heaven; the second that of `Tag,' or the Mountain; and the
third that of `Zenghiz,' or the Sea. The former, besides a large
quantity of game, brought with them, at their return the golden
bow they had found; and the latter the three golden arrows,
likewise much game. The Khan, having caused the game to be
dressed, and added many other dishes to it, made a great feast on
this occasion; after the conclusion of which, he divided the
golden bow amongst his three eldest sons, and permitted also the
three others to keep each of them, a golden arrow. He resided
some years in the principal towns he had conquered; and having
left strong garrisons in those of them that were defensible, he
led back his army into his hereditary dominions.
"At his return he erected a magnificent tent, adorned with
golden apples, curiously enriched with all sorts of precious
stones; and invited to a grand entertainment his sons, the nobles,
and all the officers of distinction in the Empire. He ordered
nine hundred horses, and nine thousand sheep to be killed on this
occasion; and provided nine leather bottles filled with brandy,
and ninety with Kumiss, or mares' milk, for the use of his
illustrious guests. Then having thanked his sons for their
inviolable fidelity to him, he made them sovereign princes, giving
them subjects of their own. As for the lords of his Court and his
principal Officers, he rewarded each of them according to his
respective merit. His three eldest sons received from him the
name of `Bussuk,' that is broken, in memory of the golden bow
which they had found, and parted among themselves and to the three
youngest he gave the surname of `Utz-ock' or three arrows, in
remembrance of the adventure above mentioned. Then telling them,
that among their ancestors, a bow was the symbol of dominion, and
the arrows that of ambassadors, he appointed Kuin, his successor,
and declared the descendants of the `Bussucks' only to have a
right to the crown. As for the `Utz-ocks,' and their posterity,
they were to remain in a state of subjugation to their brethren
for ever.
"In fine, this great conqueror made himself master of Kathay,
and subdued all the Turkish tribes or nations of the East. He
also reduced Persia, Korassan, Media, or Adarbayagjan and Armenia,
and planted in the countries he possessed himself of, the true
religion. Those who embraced it he treated with great lenity, and
even heaped many favours upon them; but the Idolators he cut off
without mercy. He likewise left Governors in all his conquests,
commanding them to govern according to the Oguzian laws, which he
had caused to be promulgated for the good of all his subjects.
"The memory of Ogus Khan is still held in high veneration
over a great part of the East. He is considered as the greatest
hero, except the famous Janghiz Khan, that ever lived, at least in
the Eastern part of the world, by the Turks and Tartars of all
denominations. The Ottomans or Othmans Turks so called in
contradistinction to the Turkish or Tartarian tribes, settled in
Great and Little Tartary, from him assume the name of Oguzians;
and pretend that the Ottoman family is descended in a direct line
from Ogus Khan.
"Ogus Khan having reigned according to the Tartar Historian,
one /254/ hundred and sixteen years, departed this life, and was
succeeded by his son Kuin or Ghun Khan. That Prince being advised
thereto by one of his fathers old councillors of the tribe of
Vigus, made a partition of the Empire. He divided Ogus Khan's
immense dominions amongst the six brothers already mentioned, and
all their sons. As each of them, therefore had four sons born in
lawful wedlock, and four by his concubines, Kuin Khan's dominions
were greatly dismembered, and after this event, assumed quite a
different form. This we learn from Abul Ghazi Bahadur, the Khan
of Khowarazm; but according to Mahommed Ebu Emin Khouandschah,
commonly called Murkhoud the Persian Historian, the division of
the Turkish Nation into tribes, which this seems to allude to,
happened in the time of Ogus Khan.
"That Prince, says this author, divided the Oriental Turks,
that is to say all those remote Turkish or Tartar Nations seated
beyond the Gihon, on the Oxus, into twenty four different tribes.
As many of them are still in being, an account of them will be
found in the modern History of the Tartars.
"Having conducted my readers thus far by placing before them
the history of the only two nations, with whom the Beothick of
Newfoundland can reasonably claim affinity, allow me to examine
the premises upon which that affinity is founded. The first of
these as it regards Boetia, will not be found upon investigation
to be so improbable as at first sight it may appear.
"The name Boetia resembles so closely that of Boeothic, that
we may reasonably infer that the only alteration which time and
custom has made between them, is that of changing the a of the
first into c or ck of the latter, which slight alteration will not
go to annihilate the supposition that they were originally one and
the same signification.
"The fable of the Ox having conducted Cadmus into Boeotia has
in my humble opinion no other reference than to the former
situation of the tribe or family on the Oxus where, as I have
already stated the Tartar tribes were partly seated at the
division of Ogus Khan's vast dominions.
"In the next place, the tradition or fable of the two arrows
given by Shanawdithit the Beothic woman to Mr. Cormack bears a
close similitude to the circumstance recorded of Ogus Khan by the
Tartar Historian, which has been related above; coupled with the
name Boeotic (which I take for granted had the same signification
with Boeotia, which meant an Ox) fixes their identity as
descendants of one of the three younger sons of Ogus Khan, who was
situated at the time of their separation from the parent stock, on
or near the Oxus, west of the forest of Hyrcania, or if you please
suppose the word Utz-ock, or the three arrows, in process of time,
to have changed into Boeotzook or Butz-ock, the similitude will in
some measure bear me out in claiming for them an affinity with one
of Ogus Khan's youngest sons.
"The determination of the matter must be left in the hands of
the learned and curious, should it be worth their attention and
consideration, the purport of the writer being to shew as regards
the Beothics, in the first instance, the probability of their
Tartar extract, the route pursued by them from their own country
into America, and that the Beothucks of /255/ Newfoundland were
not the descendants of Scandinavians as some authors assert, or
Norwegians as others.
"That they emigrated hither from Canada will easily be
admitted by all acquainted with their proximity to the Straits of
Belle Isle, which separates Newfoundland from Labrador.
"That they gave name to a bay in their neighbourhood, whither
the Canadians frequented, and that they were in habits of friendly
intercourse with them till the arrival of civilized man from
Europe who quickly sowed the seeds of discord amongst them which
eventually led to the annihilation of the Beothuck, for at this
period the European
Of their name and race
Hath scarcely left a token or a trace'
save and except a few scattered vague reminiscences collected
towards the end of their time, from the last of their race."
In considering the foregoing dissertation of Mr. Sweetland I
have been impressed with a few rather remarkable coincidences, if
nothing more. In the name given by Ogus Khan to his eldest son,
"Kuin" the Sun, we have a very close resemblance to the Beothuck
term for that luminary "Kuis." Several of the other terms used,
while not so closely resembling any of the known words of the
vocabulary of our Red Indians, have nevertheless a decided
Beothuck sound, especially in such words as "Bussuk" and "Utz-ock."
With reference to the theory of their origin from the three
arrows stuck in the ground, I find on referring back to the so-called mythological symbols, that the last three of these figures
might be taken to represent arrows. The first of these indeed
corresponds exactly with the description of the bluntpointed arrow
described by Cormack, as used for killing small birds, "the point
being a knob continuous with the shaft," and without feathers at
the small end. The other two at their upper end are so fashioned
that it might easily be conceived that this was intended to
represent feathers, but there is nothing at the other end to
indicate points or heads.
I must now proceed to the consideration of what the other
more recent, and presumably more scientific authorities have to
say on the subject of the possible origin of this mystical race.
Professor Latham gives it as his opinion that they were
undoubtedly a branch of the great Algonkin family of North
American Indians. In his Varieties of Man published in 1850, he
says, of the Beothucks, "The particular division to which the
Aborigines of Newfoundland belonged has been a matter of doubt.
Some writers considering them to have been Eskimo, others to have
been akin to the Micmacs, who have now a partial footing on the
Island.
"Reasons against either of those views are supplied by a
hitherto unpublished Beothuck vocabulary with which I have been
kindly furnished by my friend Dr. King of the Anthropological
Society.
"This makes them a separate section of the Algonkins, and
such I believe them to have been."
/256/ NOTE. -- A table of the chief affinities between the
Beothuck and other Algonkin languages or dialects, has been
published by the present writer in the proceedings of the
Philological Society for 1850.
The late Sir Wm. Dawson was of opinion that the Beothucks
were of Tinne stock, a branch of the great Chippewan family, but
neither Latham nor Gatschet acquiesce in this view.
Prof. Albert S. Gatschet of the Ethnological Bureau of
Washington who has certainly given a deeper study to this subject
than any other authority I know of, and who has taken infinite
pains in comparing the Beothuck vocabulary with many of the
dialects of the neighbouring Indian tribes of the mainland, is
decidedly of opinion that the language possesses no real affinity
with any of these, that it is a mistake to suppose they were
Algonkins, or yet Chippewans. "There is nothing in their language
to indicate their origin from either of those great families, that
in fact they were `Sui generis,' a people of themselves, apart and
distinct from all others we know anything of."
The Rev. John Campbell, L.L.D., another distinguished
Philologist, is most pronounced in his opinion that the Beothucks
were undoubtedly Algonkins, and that Latham was right in so
concluding. This gentleman makes a comparison between some thirty
or forty Beothuck words and a similar number of Malay-Polynesian
and deduces therefrom the probability that the ancestral Beothuck
stock was located in Celebes, and he imagines that they belonged
to the same tribe as the New England Pawtuckets and Pequods, and
adds that "their vocabulary agrees best with those of the New
England tribes."
From such a diversity of opinions held by such eminent
Scientists it is impossible to form any definite conclusion as to
the origin of the Beothucks, yet there can be little doubt that
they must have originally come from the mainland of America, and
everything seems to point to the narrow Strait of Belle Isle as
the most probable course of their migration. The fact that they
were always on friendly terms with the Labrador Indians seems
strong presumptive evidence that it is in this direction we should
look for their nearest kin. This is further borne out by a
statement of Shanawdithit to Mr. Peyton, recorded in one of his
notes, viz. that the traditions of her people represented their
descent from the Labrador Indians. The further fact that they
were at such deadly enmity with the Micmacs, would preclude the
idea that they were in any way closely allied to that tribe by
ties of kindred.
There are several traditions of the remnant of the tribe
having again crossed over to the Labrador shore, and having either
died out or become absorbed by some of the resident tribes either
the Nascopie or Mountaineers, but none of these traditions are
well authenticated. John Stevens, a Canadian Indian, one of those
employed by Cormack, told Mr. Peyton that the last signs of the
Red Indians were seen near Quirpon, on the extreme NE. Coast of
this Island about 1838(?). Bonnycastle, in his History of
Newfoundland (1842) relates that while cruising in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence with the Governor General of Canada, in the summer of
1831, that they found "the Indians, a sort of half bred Esquimaux,
/257/ who were employed in the Salmon fisheries of the King's
Ports, on the Labrador shore, were very much agitated and alarmed
in the Bay of Seven Islands, by the sudden appearance of a fierce
looking people amongst them, of whom they had neither knowledge
nor tradition, and who were totally different from the warlike
Mountaineer, or Montagnards of the interior, who came occasionally
to barter at the posts."
"I believe," he adds, "the strangers themselves were as much
alarmed at seeing the very unusual circumstance of three ships of
war riding in that splendid basin, and finding that the part of
the shore they had arrived at was occupied by a large storehouse
and a dwelling, with some tents; for, after frightening the others
out of their wits, they disappeared as suddenly as they came."
He concludes thus: "These were, very possibly, the poor
disinherited Red Men, who, it had been the disgraceful practice of
the ruder hunters, furriers, and settlers of Newfoundland, to
hunt, fire at, and slaughter, wherever they could find them,
treating these rightful lords of the soil as they would the bears
and wolves, and with just as little remorse."
Hon. Joseph Noad, Surveyor General of Newfoundland in a
lecture delivered by him in 1852, says "That the Micmacs still
believe in the existence of the Beothucks and say some 25 years
ago (1827) the whole tribe passed over to Labrador, and that the
place of their final embarkation, as they allege, is yet
indiscernible."(146)
The Royal Gazette of Sept. 2, 1828 contains the following
statement re the Red Indians. "Nippers Harbour, where the Red
Indians were said to have been seen three weeks ago, and where one
of their arrows was picked up, after having been ineffectually
shot at one of the settlers, is in Green Bay."
A great diversity of opinion seems to have existed as to the
physical characteristics of this strange tribe. It has been
customary on the part of fishermen and others to describe them as
a race of gigantic stature and numerous instances are recorded to
bear out this statement. Major George Cartwright, in speaking of
the Indians he saw on an island in Dildo Run, says "One of them
appeared to be remarkably tall."
The anonymous writer in the Liverpool Mercury, who was
present at the capture of Mary March, speaks of her dead husband,
as he lay on the ice, measuring six feet seven and a half inches.(147)
A man killed in Trinity Bay by the fishermen is described as a
huge savage, and another /258/ said to have been seen by one
Richards, in Notre Dame Bay was pronounced to be seven feet tall,
this was probably the same individual described by an old
fisherman to Mr. Watts of Harbour Grace as being a huge man with
immense chest development.
I have myself frequently heard fishermen talk of the large
bones of skeletons they had come across, and say by placing the
thigh bones (femur) alongside their own legs to compare them they
were found to be much longer as a rule.
Nevertheless, I take it that most of these statements are
highly exaggerated, and were the outcome of fear, or perhaps for
the purpose of affording an excuse, for the wanton destruction of
such formidable enemies. No doubt, as in most other races of the
human family there were individuals of exceptional big stature,
but all the more trustworthy evidence in our possession goes to
prove conclusively that the Beothucks were people of ordinary
stature only.
I shall here give a review of such facts bearing on this head
as are contained in the foregoing pages.
Richard Edens, in his Gatherings from writers on the New
World, says, "The inhabitants are men of good corporature,
although tawny like the Indians." Jacobus Bastaldus writeth of
the inhabitants thus: "They are whyte people and very rustical."
Pasqualligi, the Venetian Ambassador at Lisbon writing to his
brother in Italy, describes the savages brought home by Cortereal
thus: "They are of like figure, stature and respect, and bear the
greatest resemblance to the Gypsies, they are better made in the
legs and arms and shoulders than it is possible to describe."
Damiano Goes, a contemporary Portuguese writer, in his
Chronica del Rey Dom Manuel, gives the following description of
them: "The people of the country are very barbarous and
uncivilized, almost equally with the people of Santa Cruz, except
that they are whyte [white], and so tanned by cold that the whyte
[white] colour is lost as they grow older and they become
blackish. They are of middle size, very lightly made &c."
Cartier in 1534-5 says, "These are men of indifferent good
stature and bigness, but wilde [wild] and unruly."
John Guy, who met and traded with them in 1612 at the head of
Trinity Bay, also says, "They are of a reasonable stature, of an
ordinary middle size. They go bare-headed, wearing their hair
somewhat long but cut round: they have no beards; behind they
have a great lock of hair platted with feathers, like a hawk's
lure, with a feather in it standing upright by the crown of the
head, and a small lock platted before." . . . . "They are full
eyed, of blacke colour; the colour of their haire [hair] was
divers, some black, some brown and some yellow,(148) and their faces
somewhat flat and broad, red with oker, as all their apparel is,
and the rest of their body; they are broad breasted, and bold, and
stand very upright."
Whitbourne does not describe their personal appearance and it
is therefore presumable that he never actually saw any of them.
/259/ In Patrick Gordon's Geographical Grammar 1722, it is
stated, "The natives of this Island are generally of middle
stature, broad faced, colouring their faces with ochre."
Lieut. John Cartwright did not see any of them and therefore
does not describe their personal appearance.
Anspach, writing in 1818, thus describes the Indian female
captured in 1803, "She was of a copper colour, with black eyes and
hair much like the hair of an European."
Bonnycastle says of this female, "She was stained both body
and hair, of a red colour, as is supposed from the juice of the
alder."
But it is to Lieut. Buchan, and Mr. John Peyton we are
indebted for the most circumstantial and reliable description of
the Beothucks. Both these gentlemen, as is known, came into
closer contact with them than any others of education and clear
intelligence, therefore I would take their statements as being
thoroughly reliable. Buchan, during his amicable intercourse of
several hours duration at Red Indian Lake in 1811, had an
opportunity such as no other person, at least in modern times,
enjoyed of taking close observation, not merely of one or two
indivuduals, but of the whole tribe. He describes them very fully
thus: "Report has famed these Indians as being of gigantic
stature, this is not the case, and must have originated from the
bulkiness of their dress, and partly from misrepresentation. They
are well formed and appear extremely healthy and athletic, and of
the medium structure, probably from five feet eight to five feet
nine inches, and with one exception, black hair. Their features
are more prominent than any of the Indian tribes that I have seen,
and from what could be discovered through a lacker of oil and red
ochre (or red earth) with which they besmear themselves I was led
to conclude them fairer than the generality of Indian complexion."
In counting their numbers he says, "There could not be less than
thirty children, and most of them not exceeding six years of age,
and never were finer infants seen."
Mary March (Demasduit) is described in the official reports
as a young woman, about 23 years of age, of a gentle and
interesting disposition. Bonnycastle says, "She had hair much
like that of an European, but was of a copper colour, with black
eyes. Her natural disposition was docile. She was very active
and her whole demeanour agreeable. In this respect as well as in
her appearance, she was very different from the Micmacs or other
Indians we are acquainted with."
Capt. Hercules Robinson, writing of her from information
obtained from the Rev. Mr. Leigh, says, "She was quite unlike an
Esquimau in face and figure, tall and rather stout in body, limbs
very small and delicate, particularly her arms. Her hands and
feet were very small and beautifully formed, and of these she was
very proud; her complexion a light copper colour, became nearly as
fair as an European's after a course of washing, and absence from
smoke, her hair black, which she delighted to comb and oil, her
eyes larger and more intelligent than those of an Esquimau, her
teeth small, white and regular, her cheek bones rather high but
her countenance had a mild and pleasing expression. Her voice was
remarkably sweet, low and musical."
/260/ Old Mr. Curtis, who was in Peyton's employ when she was
brought out from the interior, says, "She was of medium height and
slender, and for an Indian very good looking."
Rev. Wm. Wilson, in his diary gives a very graphic
description of the three women captured in 1823, as he saw them in
the Court House at St. John's. He says, "The mother was far
advanced in life, she was morose, and had the look and action of a
savage, she seemed to look with dread and hatred on all who
approached her. The oldest daughter was in ill health, but her
sister, Shanawdithit or Nancy, was in good health, and seemed
about 22 years of age. If she had ever used red ochre about her
person, there was no sign of it in her face. Her complexion was
swarthy, not unlike the Micmacs her features were handsome, she
was a tall fine figure, and stood nearly six feet high, and such a
beautiful set of teeth, I do not know that I ever saw in a human
head. She was bland, affable and affectionate. She appeared to
be of a very lively disposition, and was easily roused and prone
to laughter."
Old widow Jure of Exploits Island, who was a domestic in
Peyton's employ, at the time Nancy resided with the family,
describes her as rather swarthy in complexion, but with very
pleasing features. She was rather inclined to be stout, but
nevertheless of a good figure. She was very bright and
intelligent, and quick at acquiring the English language, and had
a most retentive memory. At times she was very pert, and inclined
to be saucy to her mistress, then again she would fall into sulky
moods, take fits of laziness, and absolutely refuse to do any
work. When in this state of mind she would sometimes run away
from the house, and hide herself in the woods for a day or two,
but always came back in better humour. In fact she was a big,
grown, wayward, pettish child, to all intents.
Mr. Curtis, before mentioned, says she was industrious and
intelligent, that she performed all the usual household work,
except bread making and did everything well. Old John Gill, whose
mother also lived with Nancy at Peyton's, confirmed all the above
statements, and added further, "Nancy was very similar to the
Micmacs in appearance, having about the same complexion and broad
features. Her hair was jet black and coarse, her figure tall and
stout. She was a good worker when she felt inclined that way.
She was subject to occasional melancholy moods, and when in this
state of mind would do nothing. On the whole she was of a very
gentle disposition, and not at all inclined to viciousness. She
displayed a marvellous taste for drawing or copying anything, and
was never so happy as when supplied with paper and lead pencils.
She was strictly modest in her demeanour, and would permit no
freedom on the part of the male sex. She took great pride in some
fine clothes given her by Captain Buchan."
Cormack also speaks of her natural talent for drawing. He
says she evinced extraordinary powers of mind in possessing the
sense of gratitude in the highest degree, strong affections for
her parents and friends, and was of a most lively disposition. He
says in person she was inclined to be stout, but when first taken
was slender.
/261/ The Hon. Joseph Noad, Surveyor General of the Colony,
who writes as though he had seen Shanawdithit, describes her in
similar terms. He says, "her natural abilities were good, she was
grateful for any kindness shown her. In height she was five feet
five inches."
Bonnycastle speaks of seeing a miniature of Shanawdithit
"which without being handsome, shews a pleasing countenance, not
unlike in expression to those of the Canadian tribes, round with
prominent cheek bones, somewhat sunken eyes, and small nose."
Finally Mr. Peyton informed me that the Red Indians as a
whole were not such gigantic people as represented by some of the
fishermen, they were of medium height only, of a very active lithe
build. They were a better looking people than the Micmacs, having
more regular features with slightly aquiline noses, not so broad
featured, and much lighter in complexion. They did not appear to
be so fond of gaudy colours as their continental neighbours,
except as regards their custom of using red ochre.
The above are about all the really reliable and trustworthy
references to the physical characteristics of the Beothuck tribe
known to me.
Amongst the Beothucks the women seem to have been held in
greater esteem and been treated more in accordance with civilized
notions of what is due to the weaker sex, than was usual amongst
savage peoples. At least we are led to infer as much from several
facts contained in the foregoing references and traditions.
There are two or three instances recorded, where when
surprised by the whites, the women had recourse to appealing their
enemies' sympathy or better nature, by laying bare their bosoms,
thus disclosing their sex, in the vain hope of turning aside their
enmity. I look upon this fact as clearly indicating that such an
appeal would be considered amongst themselves as one calculated to
ward off the threatened blow. Then again we have the noble
example of affection displayed by poor Nonos-a-ba-sut, husband of
Mary March, who did not hesitate to face his enemies and brave
death itself, in the endeavour to rescue his wife from the
despoilers' hands. There is the further example of filial
affection displayed by the Indian boy August, who said if he could
come across the ruffian who shot his mother, he would wreak
vengeance upon him.
In the tradition about the Carbonear white women captives, we
are told that these women were treated with every consideration by
the Indians, and that they observed that their own women were also
well treated by the sterner sex, in that respect, fully as well as
amongst civilized beings.
Mr. Peyton informed me, that when conveying Mary March out to
the sea coast, they drew her on a sled. She seemed to demand and
expect kindly treatment at their hands. She would sit upon the
sled, put out her feet and intimate by signs she wanted someone to
lace up her moccasins, and in many other ways seemed to look upon
such little services as
/262/ a matter of course. Both she and
Nancy during their sojourn amongst the white people, looked for
and expected as their right such small attentions, and resented
anything approaching rough, harsh or unseemly conduct on the part
of the fishermen.
Many theories have been advanced to account for this curious
custom of using red ochre, a mixture of red earth, oxide of iron
and oil or grease, called by the Beothucks Odemet. It appears to
have been their universal practice to smear everything they
possessed with this pigment. Not only their clothing, implements,
ornaments, canoes, bows and arrows, drinking cups, even their own
bodies were so treated. Small packages of this material, tied up
in birch bark, are found buried with their dead, and there is
evidence even that long after the flesh had decomposed and fallen
away, they must have visited the sepulchres and rubbed ochre over
the skeletons of their departed kin. At least one such now in the
local museum was certainly so treated.
It was of course this custom which gave origin to the name of
Red Indians commonly applied to these people. There are many
conjectures as to the purpose of this style of adornment. Some
writers suppose it may have been intended as a protection against
the elements, or the mosquitoes, but it is more generally conceded
that the red colour had for them some greater significance,
something supernatural, perhaps intended to act as a talisman, to
ward off the spirits of evil, or perhaps as a charm against the
machinations of their enemies.(149)
Whatever may have been the real object, it was invariably
indulged in, and several places around the coast are still pointed
out where the Indians procured the red material. One of those in
Conception Bay, is known as Ochre Pit Cove, another in the Bay of
Exploits as Ochre Island.
Of course this custom of painting the body with some such
pigment was not confined to the Beothucks, for it appears to have
been practised by most savages the world over. We are told that
the ancient Britons besmeared themselves with woad. In the report
of the United States Survey West of the 100th Meridian, mention is
made of certain tribes of the Pacific slope, who were in the habit
of painting or staining their persons with a red colour, supposed
to be for protecting their flesh from the Sun's heat. If we go
back still further, it would appear that the ancient Greeks were
not exempt from a similar practice.
/263/ Amongst most of the tribes of North America various
colours were used to render the features as repulsive as possible,
by being daubed on in streaks so as to present a most hideous
appearance, calculated it is believed, to strike terror into their
enemies. I scarcely think however, that such could have been the
object aimed at by our own aborigines, for previous to the coming
of Europeans, and the influx of Micmacs from the mainland they had
no enemies that we are aware of.
Lieut. Chappel in his Voyage of the Rosamond, says in a
footnote, "Both ancient and savage nations have manifested this
propensity to paint or dye their persons. The image of Jupiter
preserved in the Capitol at Rome was painted with minium, and a
Roman Emperor wishing to assume a God-like aspect, when entering
the city in triumph, ornamented his skin in imitation of the God.
The image of the Sphinx in Egypt is painted red. The ancient
Britons painted their bodies of various colours, and Capt. Cook
relates that the natives of Van Diemens Land had their hair and
beards anointed with red ointment."(150)
Numerous other references to these peculiar customs might be
quoted, but as they are all pretty much of the same character, and
moreover do not throw much light upon the subject, it is not
necessary to give them here. The most up to date scientific
references are as follows:
Significance has been attached to several colours amongst all
peoples and in all periods of culture, and is still recognized in
even the highest civilizations. As for instance, the association
of black with death and mourning, white with innocence and peace,
red with danger; yellow with epidemic, disease, etc.
Red seems to be more universally used than any other colour,
and, amongst various peoples, had its various significance. The
Tabernacle of the Israelites was covered with skins dyed with red,
and today the Roman Pontiff and Cardinals are distinguished by red
garments.
In ancient art this colour had a mystic sense or symbolism
and its proper use was an important and carefully considered
study. Red was the colour of Royalty, fire, Divine love, the Holy
Spirit, creative power and heat. In an opposite sense it
symbolised blood, war, hatred, etc. Most of the North American
Indians adorned some portions of their bodies /264/ with this and
other colours, especially when going to war, hence the term
"Putting on the war paint."
Amongst the New Zealanders Red (kura) was closely connected
with their religious belief. Red paint was their sacred colour.
Their Idols, stages for the dead, and all offerings or sacrifices,
their Chiefs' graves, houses, war canoes, etc., were all painted
red.
To render anything tapu (taboo) was by making it red. When a
person died his house was thus coloured. When the tapu was laid
on anything, the Chief erected a post and painted it red or kura;
wherever a corpse rested some memorial was set up and painted red.
When the hahunga took place, the scraped bones of the Chief were
so ornamented, and then wrapped in a stained cloth mat and
deposited in a box smeared with the sacred colour and placed in
the tomb. A stately monument was then erected to his memory which
was also so coloured.
In former times the chief anointed his entire person with Red
Ochre when fully dressed on state occasions.(151)
Tattooing seems to have taken the place of painting the body
amongst these people in more modern times. This custom is also
prevalent amongst many of the natives of the Pacific Islands. The
Haida of the Queen Charlotte Islands, and the natives of Alaska
carried out this custom to a perhaps greater degree than any other
savage people. Even the Esquimau of the far North indulged in it
to a lesser degree, amongst the female sex, the married women
only, tattooed the face especially the cheeks, forehead and chin
with simple designs.
In the case of the Queen Charlotte Islanders the custom seems
to have attained the highest degree of art. Not only the face and
arms, but all the fleshy portions of the body were covered with
most grotesque designs, representing real or imaginary animals.
They were the crests or armorial bearings of the tribe or family
to which the individual belonged. Both painting and tattooing the
person in this fashion has been made the subject of recent study
especially by the Jesup North Pacific Expedition sent out to
British Columbia in 1897. The question of "Why do the Indians
paint their faces?" was one of those which engaged the most
earnest attention of the expedition, and it was found to have a
far deeper significance than was hitherto supposed to be the case.
The fact of the matter is, that every paint mark on an
Indian's face is a sign with a definite meaning which other
Indians may read. The same applies to the tattoo marks. The
whole design represented the totem (crest) or armorial bearing of
the tribe or family, to which the individual belonged, just as the
civilized gentleman of noble birth has his crest or coat of arms
to distinguish his family.
The subject is a far reaching one as it can be seen that it
carries us back almost to the advent of the human race on this
globe. There are some who hold that even Adam himself may have
indulged in the red ochre habit, as his very name signifies "red
earth."
/265/ But to return to our Aborigines the Beothucks, I am
greatly inclined to the belief that with them as with the Maoris,
the custom had some sacred significance, or was connected in some
way with their religious belief. The mere fact of their visiting
the dead and smearing the very bones with red ochre, also of their
depositing packets of the material with the corpse in its last
resting place, is a clear indication that they supposed the colour
to have some specially saving virtue, for the deceased on his
journey to the "Happy hunting ground."
There are numerous traditions, especially amongst the
inhabitants of the more Northern Bays, relative to the Red
Indians. While it is impossible to vouch for the correctness of
many of these stories, there can be little doubt that the majority
of them have some element of truth in them. They are chiefly of a
sanguinary character, and refer to various encounters with the Red
Men. As all these stories are more or less interesting, I shall
give them just as they were related to me, except a few which are
of too revolting a character to put in print.
I cannot here attempt to arrange these occurrences according
to dates, as nothing definite could be obtained on that point.
What appears to be probably one of the oldest relates to Carbonear
and was obtained from Mr. Claudius Watts, a very old and
intelligent resident of Harbour Grace, now bordering on the
century mark,(152) through his son Mr. H.C. Watts. Mr. Watts
remembered a very old inhabitant of Carbonear, a Mr. Thos. Pike,
who died in 1843, at the great age of 103. This man's father came
out from England at an early date. He remembered seeing an
encampment of Red Indians on Carbonear Beach, with whom he traded,
exchanging iron and other articles for furs &c. He said the
Indians were camped there for several days, and during that time
some of them went down the shore to a place called Ochre-Pit Cove
to procure red ochre, so much prized by them. Pike had in his
possession for a long time some stone implements and other
articles given him by the Indians, which remained in his family
for many years but were eventually destroyed by a child putting
them in the fire, when the heat split them into fragments. A
sister of old Mr. Watts who predeceased him many years, used to
relate a tradition current in her young days amongst the older
inhabitants of Carbonear, to the effect that once the fishermen
from that place who used to go into Trinity Bay every season to
fish, surprised a number of Indians in a canoe. These all made
their escape except one young girl who was sick and unable to get
away. They brought her to Carbonear with them and kept her for
some time but the Indians made a raid upon the place while the men
were absent fishing, and not only recaptured the girl but carried
off three white women of the place. The women were returned to
Carbonear in the following spring, unharmed, and fully dressed in
deer /266/ skins. They gave a most favourable account of their
treatment by the Indians, describing them as more like civilized
people than savages. Their women, they said were handsome, and
the men of immense stature. They had but one wife each, as these
they treated as well as white people did their wives.
The cause of the kidnapping of the three women was supposed
to be in retaliation for the capture of the girl, who it appeared
was a chief's daughter and a person of note amongst them.
The tradition of the Indians procuring red ochre at the place
since called Ochre-Pit Cove, about six miles below Carbonear on
the north shore of Conception Bay, has long been current.
Mr. C. Watts distinctly remembers many of the old people some
80 years ago, speaking of this tradition, which had been handed
down from one generation to another. According to his story the
first settlers on the north shore of Conception Bay, below
Carbonear, had frequently seen the Indians come to Ochre-Pit Cove
and take away red ochre therefrom, and there was a place in the
cliff called Red Man's Gulch, from the circumstance. A very old
man named Parsons, who lived in this cove, and was the grandson of
another man of the same name who was one of the very first
settlers on the shore, used to state, when his grandfather came
there an old Englishman who preceded him often spoke of the
Indians whom he saw taking ochre from the cliffs. Sometimes they
came overland from Trinity Bay, but more frequently in their
canoes from up the shore somewhere. The settlers did not molest
them in any way at that time, and the old Englishman in particular
was on quite friendly terms with them.
Mr. Watts also states that an old trapper once told him that
in the month of May, he with some others were hunting somewhere on
the South side of Notre Dame Bay, when they came across the body
of a huge Indian laying dead by the side of a river. As there
were no signs of violence or any marks of shot wounds on the body,
the trappers concluded that the man must have fallen through the
ice and been drowned, and when the river broke up the body had
been carried down by the freshets to where they saw it.
Mr. Watts remembers many years ago, hearing from a reliable
source, that some hunters being in the interior of Labrador near
Forteau came across the footprints of men, who judging from their
great strides, must have been of immense stature. The hunters
came up with the encampment of these people about sunset, but as
soon as they showed themselves, the Red Men, as they called them,
made a hasty retreat, leaving all their camp equipage behind.
Another tradition amongst the Carbonear men who used to fish in
the straits of Belle Isle was to the effect, that the Nascopie
Indians of Labrador told of a strange race of big men having been
seen by some of their tribe on several occasions. It was thought
the Nascopie and Eskimo killed them out.
/267/ "A place called Bloody Bay(153) on the north side of Bonavista
Bay, has often been named to the writer as a place where frequent
encounters had occurred with the Red Indians. . . .
"In a place called Cat Harbour, some Indians came one night
and took all the sails from a fishing boat. The next day they
were pursued and when seen, were on a distant hill, with the sails
cut into a kind of cloak, and daubed all over with red ochre. Two
men belonging to the party who had gone in pursuit of the Indians,
were rowing along the shore, when they saw a goose, swimming in
the water, and went in pursuit of it. But it proved to be merely
a decoy, for while their attention was arrested two Indians rose
up from concealment, and discharges their arrows at them but
without effect."
A man named Rousell, one of the first settlers in Hall's Bay,
was reputed as being a great Indian killer.
Many stories are told of this old Rousell's treatment of the
Indians. It is said he never went anywhere without his long
flint-lock gun, and woe betide the unfortunate Beothuck who dared
to show himself near where Rousell was. It has even been stated
that should a bush move or any noise emanate therefrom Rousell
would immediately point his gun at the spot and let go. He is
said never to have spared one of the natives. In the end, they
killed him and carried off his head as was their usual custom.(154)
On the other hand a brother of his who never molested the
poor creatures was treated well. They did him no injury, except
to help themselves occasionally to a salmon from his weir. They
would even come to one side of the brook while he was at the other
and take a fish out before his face, so bold were they with him.
They would call him by name Tom Rouse, and hold up the fish for
him to see it. They were perfectly aware of the difference
between the two brothers, and that while one was their deadly
enemy, the other would not harm them.
Thomas Peyton, son of the man who captured Mary March, told
me that another old man named Genge who lived alone at a place
called Indian Arm, frequently saw the Red Indians, but he never
interfered with them, they in turn did not harm him. They would
approach his tilt at night and peep in through the chinks at him,
but he always had a dog with him, of which the Indians were very
much afraid. They would not dare enter the tilt while the dog was
there. Genge used to put out a salmon or other food for them
through a trap in his door, and they, understanding it was so
meant, would approach and take it away. They never harmed or in
anyway interfered with this man, except to visit his weir or nets
and take out a salmon to eat. As in the case of Rousell, they
would come while Genge was present at one side of the river and
/268/ from the other side, run out on his dam and dexterously
spear a fish and make off with it. He never fired at them, and
they were perfectly aware of his friendly disposition, and in turn
never molested him further than to take an occasional fish, as
above stated. He would leave a fish on his splitting table for
them then watch from his tilt to see them come and take it away.
He also stated that they would go where he had his nets hung up to
dry and pick the sea-weed out of them.
Another man named Facey or Tracy lived in Loo Bay salmon
fishing, and had a boy with him. Once when the boy was out in a
boat shooting sea birds, and while rowing along shore, he was shot
in the throat with an arrow, by some Indians concealed in the
bush. The boy siezed [seized] his gun (an old flint lock), and
raised it to fire at the place where the arrow came from, but as
he raised to his shoulder the profuse bleeding from his wound fell
into the pan of the gun, damping the powder so that it would not
ignite. He then rowed back in all haste and informed his master
of what had occurred. "Never mind," said Facey (?), "I'll settle
that." Forthwith he loaded up all his guns, and at daylight next
morning set off in his boat to hunt up the Indians. As he pulled
along shore he observed a path leading into the woods, which he
followed up, and soon came across an Indian wigwam in which the
inmates were still asleep. He raised the deer-skin door and
peeped in. There were two occupants only still sound asleep (my
informant stated that the Indians were great sleepers). Facey (?)
called out to them twice before they became aroused, and as soon
as they jumped up, he fired first at one, then seizing a second
gun fired at the other. He would never admit that he killed them,
only stating that he gave them a fright.
I was once informed that some fishermen or furriers in some
part of Notre Dame Bay, having been subjected to frequent
depradations on the part of the Indians, determined to kill them
out. The furriers went in pursuit, and succeeded in surprising
the Red men while still asleep in their wigwam. They stole
cautiously forward, surrounded the wigwam and then set it on fire.
The wigwam or mamateek, being constructed of birch bark, a most
inflammable material, was ablaze in a minute or two. The
unfortunate Indians rushed from the blazing structure and tried to
escape, but they were shot down as they emerged, and not a single
individual escaped alive.
On June 13th 1809, one Michael Turpin, an Irishman, was
killed and scalped (head cut off)(?) at a place called Sandy Cove
on Fogo Island, near Tilton Harbour. He with others, men and
women, were engaged planting their gardens, some distance from the
settlement, when the Indians made a descent upon them, all fled
and escaped except Turpin who was shot down with arrows. One of
the women was the first to give the alarm. The settlers rallied
and went in pursuit, but the Indians had made good their retreat,
having first cut off Turpin's head which they carried off with
them.
Fishermen relate that on several occasions the Indians were
seen in their canoes coming from the Funk Islands(155) where they had
been in search /269/ of eggs and sea birds. This invariably took
place during foggy weather, and it was only when they suddenly
appeared out of the fog, in the vicinity of the fishing boats that
they were seen. On such occasions, as soon as they described the
fishing boats, they immediately swerved to one side and made off
at great speed. It is certain that they did visit these distant
islets (over forty miles from the main island), as some of their
paddles and other belongings were found on these island rocks. It
is thought probable some of them had been wrecked there during one
of their visits.
A very intelligent native of Old Perlican in Trinity Bay
named Jabez Tilley, gave me the following tradition, which he
often heard the old people relate when he was a youth.
Several of the then oldest inhabitants remembered the
depradations committed by the Indians as late as 1775. They came
at night and stole the sails and other articles from a boat on the
collar,(156) as well as all the gear they could lay hands upon.
Tilley's informant, a Mrs. Warren, with others were up all night
splitting fish in a stage close by, but they did not hear the
Indians approach. Next day a party was organized and being fully
armed set out in pursuit. They saw the smoke of the Indians camp
near Lower Lance Cove, and laying concealed all night, they
surprised the Indians, while still asleep, at daylight next
morning, when they shot seven of them, but the rest escaped. One
huge savage, after being shot twice, rose up again and discharged
an arrow at them, but he was immediately shot through the heart.
He is said to have been nearly seven feet tall.
The fishermen now loaded their boats with the stolen articles
and also everything belonging to the Indians they could carry
away. Being desirous of exhibiting the huge savage at Perlican,
but having no room in their boat for the body, they tied a rope
around his neck and tried to tow him along. A strong N.E. breeze
having sprung up, they were obliged to cut the corpse adrift, and
make all speed back.
The poor Indian's body drove ashore at Lance Cove Head where
it lay festering in the sun till the autumnal gales and heavy seas
dislodged it.(157) In the meantime, all through the summer many
visited the place to inspect the body.
Another tradition was current to the effect that on one
occasion 400 Indians were surprised and driven out on a point of
land near Hant's Harbour, known as Bloody Point, and all were
destroyed.
Tilley related other stories he had heard which are
altogether too revolting to give in detail here.
J.B. Jukes, M.A., F.G.S., F.C.P.S., who conducted a
Geological Survey in Newfoundland in 1839-40, and afterwards wrote
a book of his travels, entitled, Excursions in Newfoundland,
relates that his Micmac guide, one Sulian, had a tradition that
about the beginning of the 17th Century, a great battle took place
between the Micmacs and the Red Indians at the head of Grand Pond
(Lake), but as the former were then /270/ armed with guns they
defeated the latter, and massacred every man, woman and child.
Peyton always affirmed that the Red Indians had a great dread
of the Micmacs, whom they called Shannock, meaning bad Indians, or
"bad men." They used to point out a tributary of the Exploits,
flowing in from the South, by way of which the Micmacs, came into
their territory. He accordingly named this Shannock Brook, now
Noel Paul's Brook. Peyton also told Jukes that the Red Indians
were on good terms with the Labrador Indians (Mountaineers)(?)
whom they called Shudamunks, or Shaunamuncks, meaning "good
Indians." That they mutually visited each others country and
traded for axes and other implements. The Mountaineers, he said,
came over from Labrador across the Strait of Belle Isle, they were
dressed in deer skins similarly to the Beothucks, but they did not
redden themselves with ochre. The Red Indians also knew the
Esquimaux, whom they despised, and called the "four paws."
Jukes mentions the old tradition about the feast of the
Micmacs and Red Indians, the discovery of the former's treachery,
and their consequent destruction, and adds, "after this feast
frequent encounters between them took place, the one already
mentioned near the head of Grand Pond, and another at Shannock
Brook on the Exploits, but the Micmacs possessing fire arms were
usually victorious."
An old man named George Wells, of Exploits Burnt Island, gave
me the following information in 1886. He was then a man of 76
years of age, and remembered seeing Mary March and Nancy
(Shanawdithit) at Peyton's. He confirmed the statement about
Shanawdithit being a tall stout woman, nearly six feet high. His
great uncle on his mother's side, Rousell of New Bay, saw much of
the Indians and could tell a great deal about them. He, Rousell
was killed by them while taking salmon out of his pound (weir) in
New Bay River. The Indians hid in the bushes and shot him with
arrows, wounding him very severely. He ran back towards his
salmon house where he had a gun tailed, but he fell dead before
reaching it. Rousell used to relate many stories about the
Indians, he often lay hidden and watched them at work. Once as he
rowed along shore he saw several of them on a hill, who shouted
out to him. They were ensconced behind a big rock to shelter
themselves from shot, as they could not induce him to come nearer
than within several gun shots of them, one big Indian drew his bow
and fired an arrow in the air with such strength and precision
that it fell in the after part of his boat and pierced through an
iron or tin bail-bucket pinning it to the plank at the bottom.
They frequently lay in ambush for the fishermen and even used
decoys, such as sea birds attached to long lines. When the
fishermen approached and gave chase to the birds, in their boats
the Indians would gradually draw their decoys towards the shore,
in order to get the boats within reach of their arrows. They
sometimes used "dumb arrows," all of wood, without any iron point,
which by reason of their lightness fell short when fired off, thus
leading the fishermen to believe they could approach nearer
without running any risk, but when they did so they were met with
a shower of well pointed and heavier arrows.
/271/ The Indians once stole a salmon net from Rousell's
brother in Hall's Bay and carried it across to the Bay of
Exploits, they then cut out every second mesh and used it for
catching seals. I was told here that some Red Indians were killed
in White Bay, some years after Shanawdithit's death(?).(158)
Wells stated that the Rousell's had many implements belonging
to the Indians, including also some of their canoes. He confirmed
the shape of the canoe, except that it was round on the bottom
similar to the Micmac's.(159) He represented it thus being very high
at the bows. According to him their dress consisted of a single
robe of deer skin, without sleeves, belted around the waist, and
reaching midway between the knee and ankle. The moccasins were
made from the deer's shanks, just as they were cut off from the
legs, and sewn round to form the toe part. They reached up the
calf of the leg to about the end of the deer skin robe, and were
tied round with deer skin thongs.
In summer, he says they wore no clothes.(?) They never
washed but smeared themselves over with red ochre. Their bows
were fully 6 feet long made of spruce or fir and were very
powerful. They were thick in the central part but flattened away
towards either end, where the spring chiefly lay. The string was
of plaited (twisted)(?) deer skin. There was a strip of skin
fastened along the outer, or flat side of this bow. The hand
grasping the bow passed inside this strip, with the arrow placed
between the fingers to guide it. So dexterous were they in the
use of this weapon, that they could arrange five or six arrows at
a time between the fingers, and shoot them off, one after the
other, with great rapidity, and unerring aim. The point or spear
of the arrow was made of iron, and was fully 6 inches long.(160)
Wells is positive they knew how to heat and forge iron, he
says they would keep it several days in the fire to render it
soft. They used an old axe, set it into a junk of wood, with the
sharp edge turned up, upon which they would work the iron back and
forth, till it assumed the requisite shape and then grind it down
sharp on a stone.
One of the most remarkable stories I have heard was related
to me by an old fisherman, in the Bay of Exploits in 1886. It
runs as follows: "Once a crew of fishermen were somewhere up the
Bay, making what is termed a `winter's work,' i.e. cutting timber
and sawing plank for boat and schooner building, etc. While at
work in their saw-pit, beneath a sloping bank and close to the
woods, they were annoyed by someone throwing snow balls at them,
from the top of the bank. Thinking it was some friends from
another camp, who were amusing themselves in this way, they did
not pay much heed at first, but after a while, as the annoyance
continued, one of the party determined to investigate. He climbed
up the /272/ bank and entered the woods, and not returning again,
his companions, after a long delay, believing something must have
happened to him, went in search, he was nowhere to be found. They
soon came across footprints in the snow, apparently made by
Indians, and then unmistakable signs of a struggle. It was very
evident to them that their unfortunate companion had been seized
by the Red men and forcibly carried off. In vain they searched
all around but the Indians had a good start of them and had gone
away into the interior with their captive. Nothing more was heard
of the missing man till a year or more had elapsed. One day some
fishermen including some of the same party, were rowing along
shore in the vicinity, when they were suddenly surprised by seeing
a man rush out of the woods, jump into the water, and make towards
them, at the same time making signals and calling some of them by
name.
"Although dressed in deerskin, and besmeared with red ochre,
like all the Indians they nevertheless recognized their long lost
friend, and rowed towards him. In the meantime, just as he gained
the boat a number of Indians appeared on the beach, wildly
gesticulating and discharged a flight of arrows at the party.
One, a woman, holding aloft an infant, waded out to her waist in
the water, and entreating the fugitive by voice and gesture to
come back, but seeing it was of no avail, and that the boat into
which he had clambered, was moving away from the shore she drew
from her girdle a large knife, and deliberately cut the infant in
two parts, one of which she flung with all her might towards the
retreating boat, the other, she pressed to her bosom, in an agony
of grief.
"The fisherman now told his story, which was to the effect
that upon climbing over the bank, and entering the woods he was
suddenly pounced upon, bound and gagged before he could make any
outcry, by the Indians who were concealed in a hollow close by.
They then made a precipitate retreat, carrying him with them, away
into the interior. For a long while they kept a close watch upon
him never leaving him for a moment unguarded. One of the Indian
women who took a particular fancy to him, presumably because he
was a red headed man, was given him to wife in Indian fashion, and
in course of time a child was born to them. The tribe wandered
about the interior from place to place, and believing now that
their captive had become thorougly reconciled to his surroundings,
they relaxed their vigilance. On again approaching the seacoast
and seeing some of his old friends and associates, his natural
desire to regain his liberty and return to his fellow whites,
overcame all other considerations. He made a dash for the boat
and as we have seen was fortunate enough to escape the arrows and
rejoin his friends."
A man named Carey or Kierly, whose descendants are still
living at Herring Neck, was one of those who accompanied Peyton to
Red Indian Lake, at the time Mary March was captured. He
frequently related the story of her capture, and told how the
husband of Mary seized old Mr. Peyton by the throat and would have
made short work of him, had not someone stabbed the Indian in the
back with a bayonet. This was probably the same Carey whom
Cormack mentions as having killed the Indians in New Bay, and
boasted of it as a deed to be proud of.
/273/ Inspector Grimes of the Newfoundland Constabulary, a native
of Notre Dame Bay, heard many stories about the Indians in his
younger days. He said his father remembered seeing the man June
and confirms the statement of June's taking charge of a fishing
boat. June was drowned by the upsetting of his boat while
entering Fogo Harbour.
He relates how a party of fishermen were attacked in their
boat by the Indians and all killed except one man who managed to
effect his escape with an arrow sticking in his neck behind the
ear, in this plight he reached his home with the boat.
He heard of two boys being killed on Twillingate Island,
their heads cut off and carried away.
One Richmond, a noted Indian killer, told many stories about
them. He said he once saw a dead Indian 7 feet tall. When
questioned as to whether he shot the man, he would say no, he
found him dead by the side of a brook, and supposed that he had
been drowned by falling through the ice, and that the body had
been carried down by the spring freshets. Everybody believed he
shot the man, and it was common talk that Richmond and another
man, in a boat, were proceeding under sail along shore to overhaul
their Otter traps, when peeping beneath the sail he observed an
Indian on the shore, in the act of adjusting an arrow to fire at
them. He sung out to his companion to shoot quickly. The other
grabbed up his gun but it missed fire, where upon Richmond seized
his own gun and killed the Indian dead on the spot.
Richmond or Richards(161) was another of those furriers who was
present with the Peytons at the capture of Mary March in 1819. He
was fond of relating the following stories.
Richmond used to say the Indians were nasty brutes and stunk
horribly. It has frequently been asserted by others also that
they took a delight in befouling everything belonging to the
fishermen especially anything in the way of food, they came
across, but I expect, if the truth were known, this was merely
used as a pretext for destroying them.
Another man named Pollard was also reputed as a great Indian
slayer, and was one of those who openly boasted of his
achievements in that line.
An old man named Jones who was with Peyton at the capture of
Mary March stated that they found in one wigwam, Peyton's watch
broken up and distributed about the wigwam, also in a Martin skin
pouch some silver coins which were in Mr. Peyton's pockets at the
time his boat was stolen. This man also affirmed that the Indians
had a kind of telegraphic communication between the several
wigwams, by means of salmon twine stretched along from one to
another. This was raised above the ground, and rested in the
forks of sticks, stuck up at intervals, or on the branches of
/274/ trees which happened to come convenient. By this means if
one wigwam was surprised the alarm could be given to the others by
pulling the string. He did not say what was the medium at the end
of the line by which the alarm was received.
Rev. Mr. Cogan C.E. Missionary informed me that a man named
Butler of White Bay was with Peyton in 1819 at Red Indian Lake and
amongst other things found in their wigwams, picked up a silver
tablespoon.
In the latter part of the 18th century, a dozen or more
furriers came in contact with a large body of Red Indians
somewhere in the interior, when a pitched battle was fought
between them. The Indians were led by a huge powerful looking man
who appeared to be their chief, and who tried to induce his party
to rush on the whitemen and overwhelm them, but they were too much
afraid of the long flint-lock guns with which the latter were
armed. After a few discharges of arrows on the one side and balls
or slugs on the other, the chief who was hit twice and badly
wounded, rushed forward alone, and seized one of the whitemen in
his arms, and was making off with him when a well directed ball
from the leader of the furriers struck him in the side. He fell
forward releasing his hold on the whiteman, who immediately ran
back and rejoined his fellows. When they saw their chief laid low
the rest of the Indians fled from the scene. The dying chief was
seen to hold his hands beneath the wound in his side, and catch
the blood flowing therefrom and then drink it, but his life soon
ebbed away. The furriers said had the Indians rushed on them in a
body as their chief desired they could have easily killed the
whole party, before they would have time to reload their guns.
Somewhere about this same date a man named Cooper was killed
by the Indians, in some part of Notre Dame Bay. His brother, who
was then at college in England, on learning the circumstance,
swore he would be avenged upon them. When arrived at manhood he
came back to Twillingate, learned all he could about the Red Men,
their habits, location &c., he then fitted out a skiff, and
procured a number of guns with plenty of ammunition, to go in
search of them. As he could not induce anyone to join him, he got
hold of a poor halfwitted individual, made him drunk, took him
aboard the skiff, and started off for New Bay during the night
time. He arrived there early in the morning. The Indians
observing gave chase in several canoes. When Cooper saw so many
of them he tried to get away, but as the wind was light the canoes
soon gained upon him. Seeing he could not escape them he took
down his sail and prepared to do battle. When within about 100
yards of the skiff one of the Indians fired an arrow at Cooper
which barely missed him. He returned the fire and kept up a
regular fusilade, firing as fast as his companion could reload the
guns. They tried to surround him, but some of their canoes were
riddled with shot and ball and began to fill with water, so they
turned and made for the shore. When out of range of shot Cooper
continued to fire ball at them, and the story goes that not one
canoe reached land, and that a number of the Indians were /275/
killed or drowned. The canoes were large and each contained quite
a number of men.
At Herring Neck the Indians committed several depradations.
Once they cut up the sails of a fishing boat and all the
fishermens' lines, besides doing various other mischief. They lay
concealed in their canoe underneath the fishing stage while the
fisherfolk were at work therein, and as soon as the latter retired
to their houses, the Indians emerged, and were rowing away when
detected. The fishermen gave chase but the Indians, having a good
start, managed to make good their escape.
On another occasion they made their appearance at the same
place, when all the fishermen were absent, and only two women, a
mother and daughter, named Stuckly, were at home. The older woman
was out of doors spreading clothes to dry when the Indians raided
the house, and one of them seized the girl, a young woman of about
19 years of age, and was carrying her off bodily, when she
screamed to her mother for help. The old woman immediately ran to
her assistance, and seizing one of the poles supporting her
clothes line, struck the Indian such a stunning blow on the head,
that he dropped his burthen and made off holding his hand to the
injured part.
Mr. Thos. Peyton, to whom I referred this story, has recently
(Dec. 1907) written me fully confirming this occurrence in most
particulars. Strange to say he obtained his information quite
recently and directly from a granddaughter of the woman who
figured in the above incident. Peyton's version of it is so
interesting I give it here in full.
"While on a visit to Herring Neck recently, I boarded at Mr.
John Reddick's, an old friend of mine. His late wife was a
daughter of old John Warren, late of Herring Neck, the only man I
ever heard of as coming to this country from the Island of St.
Helena. He was a powder Monkey on board the Frigate `Arethusa'
etc.
"One evening as old Mr. Reddick and myself were having a
yarn, and the conversation turned on the Red Indians. I related
what Sergt. Grimes had told you [me(?)] about the Indians chasing
a woman at Herring Neck, when to my great surprise, Reddick's
daughter, a woman between 40 and 50 years of age, and very
intelligent at that, said, `Why Mr. Peyton that woman, Mrs.
Stuckly was my grandmother,' and she then related the whole story
as she often heard it from her mother.
"It was not at Herring Neck that the occurrence took place,
but on the South side of Twillingate Island where the family then
resided before removing to Pikes' Arm, Herring Neck. The two
young women were in behind their house, berry picking, when they
observed an Indian creeping towards them. They instantly ran
towards the house and being pretty fleet of foot, the Indians did
not gain on them very fast. On drawing near their home the dogs
began to bark and this encouraged them to renewed exertions. On
nearing the house, one of them, then a young able woman, caught up
a pole, faced about, and went for the Indian, the dogs assisting
her by barking and yelping at him, at this the Indian turned and
made for the woods. The woman did not however get within striking
distance of him, and adds Mr. Peyton, `I guess it was well for
/276/ him she did not, or he would have got an awful crack on the
head, most likely he would have been stunned, and then the dogs
would have finished him off for certain.' It was not long after
this that the family removed to Herring Neck.
"Old Mr. Reddick confirmed his daughter's story, having often
heard his late wife speak of it, as she heard it from her mother,
one of the young women in question."
The Rev. Philip Tocque, in his curious work, entitled
Wandering Thoughts, relates a conversation he had with an old man
named Wiltshear, a resident of Bonavista. It is in dialogue form
and is as follows:
"How long have you been living in this place?"
"About twenty-five years, previous to which I resided several
years in Green Bay,(162) and once during that period barely escaped
being transported."
"Under what circumstances?"
"In the year 1810, I was living to the northward. Five of us
were returning one evening from fishing, when, on rounding a
point, we came close upon a canoe of Red Indians; there were four
men and one woman in the canoe. Had we been disposed to have shot
them we could have done so, as we had a loaded gun in the boat.
The Indians however, became alarmed, and pulled with all speed to
the shore, when they immediately jumped out and ran into the
woods, leaving the canoe on the beach. We were within ten yards
of them when they landed. We took the canoe into our possession,
and carried it home. In the fall of the year, when we went to St.
John's with the first boat load of dry fish, thinking a canoe
would be a curiosity, we took it with us in order to present it to
the Governor; but immediately it became known that we had a canoe
of the Red Indians, we were taken and lodged in prison for ten
days, on a supposition that we had shot the Indians to whom it
belonged. We protested our innocence, and stated the whole affair
to the authorities; at last the canoe was examined, no shot holes
were found in any part of it, and there being no evidence against
us we were set at liberty."
"Did you ever see any of the encampments of the Red Indians?"
"Yes, frequently; I have seen twelve wigwams in the
neighbourhood of Cat Harbour. A planter living there built a new
boat, for which he had made a fine new suit of sails. One night
the Indians came and carried away every sail. The planter and his
men, immediately it was discovered, set out in pursuit of the
Indians. After travelling nearly a day, they espied them on a
distant hill, shaking their cossacks at them in defiance, which
were made out of the boat's sails, and daubed with red ochre.
Seeing that further pursuit was fruitless they returned home. The
next day, however, the planter raised a party of twenty-five of
us. We proceeded overland to a place where we knew was an
encampment; when we arrived, we found twelve wigwams, but all
deserted. Previous to our leaving by land, two men were
despatched in a skiff, in order to
/277/ take us back by water.
On approaching near the place of the Indians, they saw a fine
goose swimming about a considerable distance from the shore. They
immediately rowed towards it, when one of the men happened to see
something dark moving up and down behind a sand bank. Suspecting
all was not right, they pulled from the shore, when they saw two
Indians rise up from concealment, who immediately discharged their
arrows at them, but they were at too great a distance to receive
any injury. After the sails had been taken, the Indians,
expecting a visit, placed these two of their party to keep watch.
The goose was fastened to a string in order to decoy the men in
the boat near the shore, so as to afford the Indians an
opportunity of throwing their arrows at them. The two Indians on
watch communicated intelligence of the arrival of the boat to the
encampment; hence the cause of the forsaken wigwams when we
arrived."
"How large were the wigwams?"
"They were built round, and about thirty or forty feet in
circumference. The frame consisted of small poles, being fastened
together at the top and covered with birch rind, leaving a small
opening for the escape of the smoke. Traces of their encampments
are still to be seen along the Cat Harbour shore, consisting of
large holes etc. being left in the sand."
"Did you ever hear of any of the Indians having been taken?"
The answer to this question is just a repetition of Buchan's
expedition, in a garbled and incorrect version, also an account of
the three women who gave themselves up in 1823. The only
interesting part of the reply is the statement that, "I recollect
seeing two Red Indians when I was a boy, at Catalina; their names
were William(?) June and Thomas August(163) (so named from the months
in which they were taken). They were both taken very young, and
one of them went master of a boat for many years out of Catalina."
"I remember reading something of Lieut. Buchan's expedition."
"Do you think any of the Red Indians now exist in the
country?"
"I am of opinion that, owing to the relentless exterminating
hand of the English furriers and the Micmac Indians, that what few
were left unslaughtered made their escape across the straits of
Belle Isle to Labrador."
Thos. Peyton informed me that but for his father's
intercession and strong evidence as to Wiltshear's good character
and innocence of the crime attributed to him, it would have gone
hard with him, in fact as Peyton put it, "He would have hanged
shure."
Joseph Young, better known as Joe Jep or Zoe-Zep, which is
simply the Micmac way of pronouncing his Christian name, is a
resident of Bank Head, Bay St. George. Joe is a half breed Indian
with a considerable blending of the Negro element in him, a most
unusual combination by /278/ the way, and was reared up by the
Micmacs of that locality. In his younger days there lived in the
same neighbourhood an old Indian woman named Mitchel, whose
parents were Mountagnais from Labrador. Joe often listened to
this old body relating stories of the Red Indians, one of which
was as follows.
"When quite a small girl she with her father, mother and a
young brother, were hunting in the vicinity of Red Indian Lake.
Having secured a good deal of fur they were proceeding down the
lake in their canoe, preparatory to starting for the sea coast,
when just at dusk one evening they observed the light of a fire
through the woods, near the side of the lake. Supposing it to be
some of their Micmac friends who were camped there they landed,
and went in to investigate. They found a wigwam which proved not
to be that of a Micmac but of a Red Indian family. Nothing
daunted Old Mitchel went forward, raised the skin covering the
doorway and looked in, being followed by the other members of his
family. They beheld an old Red Indian man and woman with a young
man and a little girl seated around the fire. At first the
inmates seemed to be struck dumb with fear at this unexpected
intrusion, and stared at the new comers in mute astonishment.
Mitchel however, succeeded in allaying their fears after a little
while, and seeing their miserable half starved plight, for they
had roasting on sticks before the fire for their supper, three
miserable Jays only, which was evidently all their stock of
provisions, he made signs to them to come with him to his canoe
and that he would give them venison. They understood him, and the
boy and girl went out with him. He gave each a piece of venison,
which the little girl in delight wrapped in her cloak and ran back
to the wigwam, while Mitchel and wife brought up a kettle full of
boiled meat and placed it over the fire to warm, and when it was
ready they served it around to all hands on pieces of birch bark.
The poor Beothucks expressed their gratitude as best they could
for all this kindness, and invited Mitchel and his family, by
signs to share their wigwam for the night. The two little girls,
who were nearly about the same age, and too young to recognise any
difference between them, soon became fast friends. Mrs. Mitchel
remembered what childish glee she felt at meeting a companion so
far in the interior, and after so many weary months of toil and
lonesomeness, and how she played with her new found friend. They
could only communicate with each other by signs, as neither
understood a word of the other's language. They all seated
themselves around the fire, and learnt from the Beothucks that on
account of deer being so scarce and their fear to hunt much in the
open, they had been reduced to great straits for food. Next
morning at daylight the young Red Indian youth ascended a tree
which they used for a lookout, and seeing some deer swimming
across the lake, he jumped down, seized his bow and arrows, and
without a moment's hesitation, pushed off the Mountaineers canoe,
jumped aboard and paddled away after the deer. She described him
as an active athletic lad who handled the paddle with such
strength and dexterity that he actually made the canoe fly through
the water. He soon returned with a dead deer in tow. Mitchel
stayed several days with them, and being well supplied with guns
and /279/ ammunition, killed several deer which he left with them
for food. He also presented the young Beothuck with a gun and
ammunition and taught him how to use it before leaving them, for
all of which kindness the Beothucks showed the utmost gratitude."
Mathew (Mathy) Mitchel, grandson(?) of the woman Joe heard
the story from, confirmed it, in so far as, that his grandparents
did see a Beothuck wigwam at Red Indian Lake and went to
investigate, but states the Red men had fled, though the fire was
still burning in the centre and on three sticks stuck up, were the
heads (only) of three Jays. They did not see the Red Indians or
remain over night, and he says Joe was drawing upon his
imagination in supplying the other details.
Mathy also told me that his grandfather and some others once
saw three Red Indians' canoes full of people poling up the
Exploits. They watched in concealment till the canoes were
opposite them, when they fired off a gun in the air. Immediately
the Beothucks made for the opposite shore, landed and ran off into
the woods. In their haste the canoes went adrift and the tide
catching them brought them quickly across the river to the side
the Micmacs were on. There were still two small children in them
who had not had time to get away, but immediately the canoes
touched the shore these got out, grabbed up their deer skin
clothes and made off.
Noel Mathews, one of my Micmac canoe-men, related to me the
following traditions, which he learned from his mother and old
Maurice Louis, the Chief of his tribe. This man Louis was one of
those who accompanied W.E. Cormack in 1827, in his expedition to
Red Indian Lake.(164)
Noel confirms the shape of the Beothuck canoe, and of its
being sewn with rootlets, and the gunwales being bound with the
same, but there was this difference between it and the Micmac
canoe. The latter is served all over from end to end, while that
of the Red Indians was only served at intervals, and there were
spaces cut in the gunwales to receive the binding so as to make it
flush with the rest of the gunwale.
He relates how one Noel Boss, or Basque, I presume the same
individual mentioned by Peyton and others, had much to do with the
Red men, but he avers that it was always of a friendly nature.
This Noel Boss on one occasion met two of them, a young man and a
lad, crossing a marsh, with loads on their backs. He went towards
them but they ran away. He also ran and finally caught up with
them as they could not go fast, being burthened with their heavy
loads which they would not discard. The young man could have
easily outrun him, but he would not abandon the lad, who was
greatly frightened. When Boss came up with them he looked the
young man in the face and addressed him, but the latter only
laughed and still kept on running. Boss made several attempts to
get him to stop and have a palaver, but in vain, he then turned
off and let them go their way. On another occasion this same man
Boss with some of his own people, came out on the banks of the
Exploits River and saw a Red Indian canoe on the opposite side
with several people in it. The Micmacs again tried to parley with
them across the river but the Red men /280/ apparently did not
relish their company, so they paddled away up the river.
(Evidently another version of Mathy Mitchel's story.)
The only tragic story Noel related was that of a Micmac with
his wife who coming to the shore of the Grand Lake near where the
river flows out, saw a Red Indian wigwam on the opposite side.
The man proposed to go across in their skin canoe and visit them,
but his wife demurred, being too much afraid of them. He however,
persisted in going himself. She remained behind and concealed
herself in the bushes to await events. She saw him land, and also
saw two Beothucks come forward and take him by the arms, and lead
him up to their mamateek, into which all three entered. After a
considerable time elapsed, the two Red men came forth carrying
their belongings, got into their canoe and paddled away. After a
long wait seeing no sign of her husband returning, she mustered up
courage to venture across. Having constructed a raft she ferried
herself over, but on entering the now silent mamateek, she was
horrified to find the headless body of her husband stretched on
the floor. The head as usual having been carried off by the
Beothucks.(165)
I met old Maurice Louis in 1870 but unfortunately was not
aware that he possessed any information of this kind, a
circumstance which I greatly regret. Had I known it, possibly, I
might have obtained many valuable and interesting traditions from
him.
The Rev. C.V. Cogan, C.E. Missionary in the District of White
Bay, gave me some interesting information, relative to the Red
Indians' doings in that locality, most of which was gleaned from
the oldest inhabitant named Gale or Gill,(166) then almost a
nonogenarian, who died about the year 1889. Gale's father was one
of the first settlers in White Bay, and saw a good deal of the
Indians, being subject to their depradations on more than one
occasion. Mr. Cogan's informant frequently heard his father
relate his experiences. He once saw two canoes full of Indians
paddling across the bay, and related how they made a descent upon
his premises, situated at the extreme head of the bay, when all
the males were absent, hunting for fur in the interior. The
Indians broke open and looted his store of every article which
took their fancy all of which they carried off with them. Amongst
other articles there were some silver spoons with the family crest
engraved upon them. This Gale is said to have belonged to some
family of distinction in England, but for some unknown cause had
run away and hidden himself in this out of the way place. One of
the spoons in question was subsequently found in a wigwam or
mamateek at Red Indian Lake, at the time of Mary March's capture,
and is now in Mr. Cogan's possession.(167)
/281/ While the Indians were looting the store, the women
folk of Gale's household watched them from their residence, and
old Mrs. Gale stood on guard at a window with a heavily loaded
flint lock musket pointing towards them ready to fire should they
attempt an attack on the house itself.
Mr. Cogan heard of two fishermen going into Western Bay, and
observing some Indians on the beach, they fired at them and drove
them off. The fishermen then went ashore to boil their tea kettle
but while so engaged, the Indians returned and stealing out to the
edge of the woods, shot the two men with arrows. They then
mutilated the bodies in a shocking manner. The bodies were buried
where found, and during Mr. Cogan's incumbency they were come
across in clearing away a site for a new church.
Information obtained from Mr. J.B. Wheeler, J.P., Musgrave
Harbour, N.D.B.
Mr. Wheeler was well acquainted with a very old man named
John Day, who died but a few years ago at an advanced age. Day,
in his younger days was a servant of the Peytons, and was another
of the party who accompanied them at the time of Mary March's
capture in 1819. Mr. Wheeler often heard the old man relate the
whole circumstance, and gave me from memory, Day's story. It is
so similar in almost every detail to Mr. Peyton's own narrative
that it would be needless to repeat it here. I shall merely give
a few items not before stated.
According to this old man's story, the party were furnished
with articles of barter in hope of trading with the natives for
furs. Speaking of Mary March, he said she was very ill at the
time of her capture, yet she took her baby in her arms and ran
after the other Indians as they retreated, but was not able to
keep up with them. Her husband seeing she was likely to be
captured, turned back and took the child from her, but in her weak
state she could not run fast enough and was soon overtaken. As
soon as the husband saw this he gave the baby to another man, and
turned back to try and rescue his wife. Breaking off a fir bough
he placed it on his forehead, as a flag of truce and boldly came
towards the white men. Seeing his wife's hands tied with a
handkerchief he attempted to unloosen them, and to lead her away.
They tried to prevent him and capture him also, but raising one
hand, with a single blow he felled the first white man who
approached him. The whites, six in number, then gathered around
him, and tried to seize him, but with another blow he struck down
a second man, rendering him insensible. Recognizing Mr. Peyton,
Sr., as the leader he made towards him, grasped him by the collar
and shook him so violently that Mr. Peyton called out for help,
saying "Are you going to stand by and let the Indian kill me?"
John Day asked, "Do you think master's life is in danger?" All
cried out, "Yes." Instantly one of the crew fired and shot a ball
into him, while another stabbed him in the back with a bayonet.
He still held old Mr. Peyton firmly, and would soon have choked
him. Peyton beckoned for further help, the men then struck down
the Indian with the butts of their muskets before they could
succeed in making him relinquish his grasp of their master's
throat. He had to be beaten insensible before he would let go.
Day believed that had the party of white men not been armed with
muskets, the Indian would have been a match for them all in /282/
a hand to hand encounter. He was a very strong powerful man, and
as he lay dead on the ice they measured him and found he was
considerably over six feet in height.
I have had much communication with Mr. Thomas Peyton, D.S. of
Twillingate, son of John Peyton the captor of Mary March. Mr.
Peyton, Jr., is one of the very few now remaining who knows
anything of the Indians, and his information is all second hand,
having been derived chiefly from his father and mother, and from
old servants or employees of the family. In reply to various
inquiries addressed to him from time to time by myself, I cull the
following items.
Mr. Thomas Peyton says, I never heard of any boy or girl
being lost in Notre Dame Bay, except one boy named Rousell of New
Bay. He was in the habit of going into the country by himself to
look after his father's traps, and on one of these occasions he
did not return. On a search being made his gun was found leaning
against a tree near the country path, but the lad himself was
never heard of afterwards. It is believed that the Indians either
killed him or carried him off. Peyton says, I never heard of but
one man being killed by the Indians, that was Thomas Rousell,
about the year 1787. I was informed by Henry Rousell, residing in
Hall's Bay, that the first five men who attempted to make a
settlement in that Bay were all killed by the Indians(?). A crew
came up from Twillingate shortly afterwards and found their bodies
with the heads cut off and stuck on poles. One of the latter men
was a Capt. Hall after whom the Bay was named.
Henry Rousell's Grandfather was a servant with Squire Childs
and purchased the rights of that merchant to the salmon fishing in
the brooks of Hall's Bay for the sum of 90 pounds about 1772.
I never heard of a white settlement being attacked by the
Indians, nor of any white person being carried off, nor did I ever
hear of the Indians scalping any body. I have only seen a part of
a Red Indian canoe on an Island in the Exploits River near Rushy
Pond. The birch bark was very neatly sewn together with roots. I
had several descriptions of their canoes given me, the best by Joe
Joe, Micmac, Long Joe as we called him. He found one by the side
of the river near Badger Brook once, and launching it got in, and
pushed off from the shore, but said Joe, "he develish [devilish]
crank, me get ashore again as quickly as possible."
Peyton says Nancy's sister died at Charles's Brook, Nancy and
her mother then paddled up to Lower Sandy Point, where she told
the men in charge of the salmon station her sister had gone
"winum," asleep, dead. The men then went down and buried the
body. Her mother died a few days later at Sandy Point. Nance
sewed the body up in a blanket and it was buried there, she was
then sent down to Exploits Island to Mr. Peyton's house.
Peyton often heard his mother and old Mrs. Jure speak of
Cormack. They described him as a long legged, wiry, but eccentric
individual. He could eat almost anything. The Rev. John Chapman,
C.E. Missionary, then residing in Twillingate, was married to
Cormack's sister.
Mary March, when captured gave expression to the deepest
grief at /283/ the death of her husband, and showed her hatred of
the man who fired the shot at him, by never coming near him. Old
John Day said she was named after a young lady whom he knew well
living at Itsminister, Newtown, Devon(?). This is certainly not
correct. Old Mr. Peyton himself often told me she was so named
from the month in which she was taken.
John Wells, a native of Joe Batt's Arm, Fogo Island, with
five others left his home in a boat to go to Fogo, but as the wind
was against them and blowing fresh, they pulled into Shoal Bay
towards a place called the Scrape. Seeing a sea pigeon swimming
near the shore, they rowed in close, to get a shot at it, when an
Indian who was hidden away, suddenly fired an arrow at them. It
pierced Wells's hand and pinned it to the oar he was holding. The
wound was a very nasty one and became much inflamed. It never
properly healed, and eventually caused his death. This story was
confirmed by Mr. Wheeler, who had it from Wells' own widow.
Mr. Thos. Peyton states that he personally knew many of the
old furriers in the employ of his father and had been much in
their company in his younger days. He gives the names of a few of
them, such as John Day, Thomas Taylor, John Boles, Maurice Cull,
and Humphrey Coles, from all of whom he heard many stories about
the Indians, most of which have now slipped his memory. Old John
Boles told him that on one occasion while rowing to his salmon
nets in Hall's Bay, he saw an Indian run out on the edge of a
cliff, and raise his bow. Knowing how accurate was their aim,
Boles seized one of the boats thwarts and held it over his head;
the arrow after poising in the air a moment, came down so fairly
as to embed itself in the board. Catching up his flint lock gun,
the old man used to add gleefully, "I peppered his cossack for
him." These old furriers would never confess to the actual
killing of an Indian. They used to say that the Indians were in
great dread of the Whiteman's powder and shot.
In one of his letters Mr. Peyton says he often heard when a
boy at school that an English youngster was killed on the south
side of Twillingate Harbour, near Hart's Cove, which was the usual
anchorage for vessels coming from England. The boy went ashore
for water, and was caught by the Indians and killed. Two other
boys who went ashore one Sunday to wash their clothes in Kiar's
Pond were also killed, and when a crew of men went to search for
them they found the bodies, and at the same time saw on a point
about half a mile to the westward a party of Indians making off.
"I never heard the Red Indians spoken of as giants," he adds.
"Richmond or Richards(?) used to say the Indians were nasty dirty
brutes, because no doubt their camps and the grounds about them
smelled of seal fat and putrid animal matter lying around. I
frequently heard the old men of Fogo speak of the Indian man
June."
"After the killing of Thomas Rousell, his friends waged a war
of extermination on the Indians. They killed a number of them at
a place called Moore's Cove, near Shoal Tickle."
Peyton never heard of the Whiteman being carried off by the
Indians
/284/ and reappearing with the woman and child, as related
by John Gill of Exploits, nor does he believe the story. Having
lived so many years in the Bay of Exploits and mixing with so many
of the people who had seen and had something to do with the Red
men, he thinks if there were any truth in this story he could
scarcely fail to have heard of it. He once heard from a clergyman
of the body of an Indian being picked up in the landwash near
Phipp's Head in that Bay, who was supposed to have been shot, but
adds, after careful enquiry found there was no truth in the story.
One Jacky Jones, whose proper name was Snelgrove, was a
servant of his father's, and was with him at the capture of Mary
March. He often travelled with this man and obtained much
information from him. He refers to the story told by Joe Young,
and believes there may be some truth in it. He was well
acquainted with both Jack Mitchell, Micmac, and his wife. He
often heard old Jack talk some sort of gibberish which he called
Red Indian.
He tells a story of his own grandfather having once surprised
some Indians in their wigwam, at Sandy Point, Birchy Island, when
they all ran away. One woman having forgotten her child in her
haste, ran back for it. Just as she was coming forth from the
wigwam with the child, his grandfather arrived at the entrance.
He tried to stop her, but she pulled off her moccasin, and struck
him such a blow in the face with it as to nearly blind him,
thereby making good her escape.
He never heard of the White woman seen by Capt. Buchan at Red
Indian Lake. It is very strange that none of those who were with
Buchan at the time, nor any one else, so far as I am aware ever
mentioned this fact, still more remarkable that Peyton's father
never referred to it. Yet I cannot believe that a man of Capt.
Buchan's intelligence and powers of observation could have made
any mistake.
The Rev. Silas Tertius Rand of Hantsport, N.S., was a
gentleman who had much intercourse with the Micmac Indians of that
Province, and who published a grammar and lexicon of their
language several years ago. At my request in 1887, he furnished
me with the following interesting "Anecdote of the Red Indians of
Newfoundland."
He said the story was related to him by one Nancy Jeddore
(Micmac) of Hantsport, N.S., who received it from her father,
Joseph Nowlan who died about fifteen years previous, at the
advanced age of ninety-five years.(168) Mr. Rand says, "I have seen
and conversed with him many a time, but I did not know then that
he had spent a good many years in Newfoundland, and also among the
Esquimaux, as his daughter informs me was the case. Had I been
aware of these facts, I might have gathered I doubt not, many
interesting facts respecting the people whom he had seen and of
whom he had heard. As Nancy's statements agree with what
/285/ is
related by others respecting the Beothucks, and as I have full
confidence in their correctness, as heard from her father, I am
well satisfied as to their general accuracy."
"The Micmacs time out of mind have been in the habit of
crossing over to Newfoundland to hunt. The Micmac name for this
large Island, is `Uktakumk,' the Mainland, or little Continent.
"Note. -- It is `Uktakumkook,' in the case locative, the form
in which the name generally occurs.
"The name," he says, "seems to indicate that those who first
gave it had not discovered that it was an Island. The Micmacs who
visited it knew that there was another tribe there, but never
could scrape acquaintance with them, for as soon as it was known
that strangers were in the neighbourhood, these Red Indians --
called Red from their profuse use of Red ochre, -- and who were
believed to be able to tell by magic, when anyone was approaching
-- would gird on their snow shoes, if it was in the winter season,
and flee as for their lives. But on one occasion three young
hunters from `Megumaghee,' Micmac-land -- came upon three lodges
belonging to these people. They were built up with logs around a
`cradle hollow,' so as to afford a protection from the guns of an
enemy. These huts were empty and everything indicated that they
had just been abandoned. The three Micmacs determined to give
chase, and if possible overtake the fugitives, and make friends
with them. They soon came sufficiently near to hail them and make
signs of friendship, but those signs were unheeded, and the poor
fellows, men, women, and children, fled like frightened fawns, and
like John Gilpin's horse, `as they fled left all the world
behind.' Nothing daunted, however, the young men continued the
pursuit. Finally one of the fleeing party, a young woman, snapped
the strap that held her show-shoe. This delayed her for a few
moments. It was necessary to sit down and repair it. Her father
ran back to her assistance and she was soon again on the wing.
But the mended strap again gave way; and by this time the pursuers
were so near that the poor creature was left behind, her
companions would not halt for her. She shouted and screamed
dolorously but her shrieks and cries were unheeded, and she was
soon in the hands of the three hunters. They endeavoured to make
her comprehend that they were not enemies but friends, that they
would not injure a hair of her head. But although she probably
understood the signification of their gesticulations, she had no
confidence in them. She resisted wildly all attempts to lay a
hand upon her and cried and shrieked with terror whenever one of
them came near her. They tried to induce her by signs to go back
with them to their encampment, and that she should be kindly
treated and cared for. But this she positively refused to do.
They offered her food which she refused to touch. Night was
coming on and her friends were evidently now far away. The
hunters could not leave her there to perish so they constructed a
shelter and remained at the place for several days. Finally they
succeeded in some measure in pacifying /286/ her. Of one of the
young men she ceased to be afraid. She went back with them to
their camp, but still for several days refused all nourishment,
but she clung to the young fellow who had first won her
confidence, keeping as far as possible from all the rest, standing
or crouching behind him, and keeping him between herself and the
others. After a few days, however, she became pacified, and after
remaining with them two years, she had learned to speak their
language, and became the wife of that one of her captors to whom
she had first become reconciled. Then she recounted her history.
"Joseph Nowlan, my informant's father, saw her many a time,
and conversed with her on these subjects, but these details are
lost. One summer when on the Island, Nowlan boarded with the
family. The woman became the mother of a number of children.
"Such is the story referred to by Mr. Gatschet. I can only
regret that I had not known something of these matters during the
life of Mr. Nowlan: How much interesting information I might have
obtained."
SILAS T. RAND.
HANTSPORT, N.S.,
May 21, 1887.
A friend of mine in New Brunswick (Mr. Edward Jack) at my
request interviewed a very old Melicite Indian of that Province
named Gabriel, or Gabe, as to what he knew of the Newfoundland
Indians. Gabe had often heard of them from the older people of
his tribe, who used to visit this island periodically in quest of
fur. It was however so long ago since these excursions took
place, and Gabe's memory was now so defective, he could remember
but little of what he had learned from his forbears.
The only thing learnt from this old Melicite which was at all
of an interesting character is the following story.
"On one of these annual expeditions, three young hunters of
his tribe, came across a Red Indian wigwam (mamateek) and took its
occupants unawares. The latter rushed forth in great haste and
betook themselves to the woods as was their custom when suddenly
disturbed. No doubt the poor creatures had been so harassed by
both whites and others, that they expected no mercy at the hands
of either, but on this occasion, at least, according to Gabe, they
were allowed to make their escape without molestation.
"In the hurry of their precipitate flight the Red men left
behind a little baby boy rolled up in furs, in a corner of the
wigwam, which the Melicites discovered on searching the interior.
Being inclined for amusement, they took some charcoal from the
fire and mixing it with grease, they smeared the poor little
infant all over till he was as black as any nigger [Negro]. They
then determined to watch and see what the effect would be when the
Beothucks returned, so hiding themselves in the thick forest close
by, they awaited patiently a long time. At length they saw the
Beothucks cautiously approach, with stealthy step, and peering
about them /287/ in every direction. At length they became
sufficiently emboldened to enter the wigwam. On beholding the
little black piccaninny, they fairly howled with laughter, and
apparently enjoyed the joke immensely. Upon this the hunters
stealthily withdrew and did not further molest them. This was
about all that old Gabe could recollect, of the many stories he
had heard in his younger days."
In the Royal Gazette of January 1862, an article appeared on
the "Aborigines of Newfoundland," signed W. Avalonis. It was of
considerable interest, and ascertaining that the author was Mr.
William Sweetland, Magistrate of Bonavista, from whom I have
already quoted extensively, the gist of his remarks were copied
and are here given.
The author first refers to Buchan's expedition, as already
fully set forth. He says he was personally acquainted with Capt.
Buchan, and had frequent conversation with him about the Red
Indians. He also says, in referring to Shanawdithit "that when
brought to St. John's and while residing in the house of Mr.
Cormack, during her residence with him, formed a pretty extensive
vocabulary of the language of her people."
"On one of these occasions, we learnt," says he, "from her
that the marines left by Capt. Buchan, had in no way misconducted
themselves, and that the Indians continued to treat them with
kindness, until the return of the chief, who had deserted Buchan's
party that day. On his return to the wigwams he called his
brethren together, and proposed to put the marines to death
immediately, but this the others would not consent to do, and
opposed it for a long time most strenuously, nevertheless, the
chief eventually gained his point by having persuaded them of the
necessity of doing so. The poor fellows were thrust forth from
the huts, and from the direction in which their remains were
discovered by Buchan and his party on their return to the pond,
they were apparently intent upon returning to the Exploits to seek
their commander. They were shot down by arrows from behind and
beheaded.
"This confirms Lieut. Buchan's surmise that their death was
occasioned by the return of the chief, possibly without presents.
This chief, who directed their destruction, appears to have been
of a sanguinary temperament with peculiarly marked features. The
act completed, the inhabitants of the encampment fled with
precipitation to the Indian town, where their account of the
strange visitors and subsequent destruction of two of their number
at the encampment caused great consternation, lest Lieut. Buchan
and his party should return and annihilate them with his thunder.
The safe return of the Indian who had accompanied Buchan to the
depot, and Lieut. B's subsequent deposit of presents at the
wigwams served, in some measure, to reassure the tribe, and
relieve them somewhat from their fears of retaliation, but not
sufficiently to do away with that suspicion which they naturally
felt, that Buchan only wanted the opportunity to fall upon and
annihilate the whole tribe, or at least we may infer as much from
their darting arrows through the store before they ventured into
it, as related by Lieut. Buchan.
"In questioning Shanawdithit as to the origin of her tribe
she stated
/288/ that `the Voice' told them that they sprang or
came from an arrow stuck in the ground." Then follows the long
dissertation as to their Tartar derivation from Ogus Khan &c.,
already given in full.
Mr. Sweetland further adds, "that they were at one time on
friendly terms with the White fishermen and even assisted them in
their operations, as attested by Whitbourne, John Guy and others.
He remarks that two splendid opportunities were suffered to pass,
by the traders resigning in Trinity and Bonavista Bays aforetimes,
without taking advantage of them, to bring on an intercourse with
the Red Indians, by means of the two Red Indian boys who fell into
their possession, and who were reared up and employed by the
parties who captured them. The one was named Tom June and the
other John August. The former appears to have induced his patron
to sit down and spend a day with his parents and his brothers and
sisters, who had pitched their tent near them, and dwelt therein,
at Gambo, during the whole of one winter. The other, John August,
whose remains lie interred in the Churchyard at Trinity, usually
in the fall, during many years, took his canoe, went off up the
bay, and returned to his quarters at the end of a fortnight or
three weeks; the interval, it is supposed, he spent visiting his
family in the interior, but he does not appear to have committed
the secret to anyone."
Lieutenant Chappell who published a book in 1818, entitled
The Voyage of the Rosamond, also makes several references to the
Red Indians. He says "on meeting a Micmac Indian in Bay of St.
George, he asked him if the savage, Red Indians, inhabiting the
interior of the country, also looked up to God, when with a sneer
of the most ineffable contempt, he replied. `No; no look up to
God: killee all men dat dem see, Red Indian no good.' `Do you
understand the talk of the Red Indians? Oh no; dem talkee all
same dog; Bow, wow, wow.' This last speech was pronounced with a
peculiar degree of acrimony."
Chappell it was who, referring to the Indian woman captured
by Cull in 1804, observed it was said that this woman had been
made away with on account of the value of the presents, which
amounted to an hundred pounds. "Mr. Cormack told MacGregor,
author of `British America,' in 1827, that if Cull could catch the
author of that book within reach of his long duck gun, he would be
as dead as any of the Red Indians that Cull had often shot."
During the summer of 1886 while engaged surveying the Bay of
Exploits, the author paid a visit to a burial place of the
Beothucks on an uninhabited island called Swan Island, a few miles
south of Exploits Harbour, to examine a place of sepulchre I had
often heard of. It is situated on the S. side of the Island, just
inside two island rocks, and is so hidden from view that one would
never detect it unless shown the place. On this occasion I had
procured a guide who knew its location well, having previously
entirely failed to find it on my own account.
/289/ It is approached by a little cove which leads up to the
base of a jagged broken cliff, rising almost vertically from the
water to a height of some fifty or more feet. On either side
there are fissures or ravines reaching inland, occupied by dense
bushes and some fairly large trees, which grow right down to the
water's edge effectually concealing any appearance of a cave, from
view. On the right hand side the cliff ends very abruptly, and
the trees grow so close to its edge that it was necessary to
almost squeeze oneself between the cliff and the nearest tree to
get access to the rear. A slight elevation is then seen forming a
sloping floor reaching up behind and beneath the cliff which here
overhangs considerably. In fact it is in reality a great fissure
in the back of the cliff. It slopes down so far that the upper
overhanging part projects fully 15 or 20 feet, and forms a kind of
canopy which affords complete shelter from the elements.
The floor of this semi-cavern was a mass of loose fragments
of rock, fallen from the cliff above, mixed with sand and gravel.
On removing some of this loose debris, fragments of human bones,
birch bark and short pieces of sticks were found all confusedly
mixed together. This may be accounted for by the fact that the
place had been frequently visited before and pretty thoroughly
ransacked. Nevertheless our search was fairly well rewarded,
although the human bones were all too fragmentary and too much
decayed to be worth preserving. A few rib bones and sections of
vertebral columns only were intact. The fragments of birch bark
were perfectly preserved. Some of those showed neat rows of
stitching in single and double lines. The small sections of trees
were cut to fit across the crevice immediately over the bodies,
and on these the birch bark must have been laid, the whole being
then covered or weighted down with loose rock and gravel, but all
this had been disturbed and pulled to pieces. Some of the wood
was so rudely hacked off at the ends as to suggest that it had
been cut with stone implements, while other pieces were so cleanly
cut as to leave no doubt steel axes had been used. This would
seem to imply that burial had taken place here both before and
after the advent of the white man.
After a good deal of labour in removing the heavier pieces of
rock, and digging into the more gravelly parts beneath, a few
articles of interest were found, such as carved bones, pieces of
iron, broken glass bottles, fragments of lobster claws and other
shells, and some sections of clay pipe stems. Two or three sticks
sharpened at the ends and partly charred by fire were evidently
used for roasting meat. Some small and much decayed fragments of
bows and arrows, all still retaining evidence of having been
smeared with red ochre were amongst the finds. But by far the
most interesting articles recovered were the carved bones, and
discs made of shells perforated in the middle.(169) These with
strings of wampum, consisting of segments of clay pipe stems
alternating with others of the inner birch bark and small rings of
sheet lead, were all strung on deer skin thongs. Far in at the
back part of the crevice, resting on a shelf of the rock, a good
many carved bone ornaments were found, of a very interesting
character, some of these were made of ivory, probably Walrus'
tusk, but by far the greater number consisted of flat pieces of
deer's leg bones. /290/ They were of various shapes and sizes and
all had curious designs carved on either side, no two of which
were exactly alike, and every piece had a small hole drilled
through one end. Several pieces were between four and five inches
long, and all tapered towards the end in which the hole was
drilled.
The wider end averaged about half an inch; some were cut
square across, others obliquely, and still others forked or
swallow-tailed. A number of other pieces were short and presented
two, three and some four prongs; two were cut in the shape of
triangles, and several others in forms undescribable. The designs
on these were very elaborate, but did not seem to indicate
anything beyond the whim or fancy of the designer. There were
also several combs and a variety of nondescript articles.
Perhaps the most interesting of all were a number of square
blocks of ivory, about one inch long by 3/4 wide and 1/4 in
thickness, perfectly plain on one side but elaborately carved on
the other. A fine double marginal line ran around near the edge
on each of the four sides, inside of which was a double row of
triangular figures meeting at their apex on a central line,
extending across the face of the block. The triangular figures on
four of the blocks were eight in number, four on either side,
while on another block there were six such at each of the narrower
ends, twelve in all. In the central space of this latter block
there appears a large figure exactly resembling the capital letter
H. A few other blocks were merely scored with fine lines crossing
each other at right angles. Another set of somewhat similar
articles were of diamond shape of about two inches long, carved
also on one side only. None of these latter pieces have holes in
them, and one is led to the conclusion they were used for entirely
different purposes than any of the other ornaments. They seem to
suggest something in the form of our dice, and were probably used
for gaming.
Mr. Gatschet in one of his papers read before the
Archaelogical Section of the University of Pennsylvania (May
1900), describes a Micmac game called "Altesta-an-" consisting of
a wooden tray, or "Waltes" and several small carved discs of bone,
which latter were placed on the tray and tossed into the air and
as they fell on the ground or on a skin spread out thereon, each
counted according to the design on such as fell face upwards. I
have very little doubt but that the Beothucks possessed a somewhat
similar game, of which the blocks above mentioned formed the
counters. There was nothing corresponding to the wooden tray or
Waltes found, but Mr. Gatschet states that a sheet of birch bark
was frequently substituted for this, so it is quite probable the
Beothuck used only the latter, and did not preserve it. If the
above supposition for the use of these articles be correct, it
would prove an interesting fact that two tribes so hostile to each
other should have anything in common. It may point to more
friendly relations in former times, but of this we have nothing of
a definite nature.
The few remaining articles discovered here are clearly
indicative of a more recent origin, they consist of fragments of
iron pots, nails and clay pipe stems evidently French, for one
piece is stamped with a fleur de lis and a lion Rampant, Arms of
Francis I of France (?). A few chips of chert were found but no
arrow heads or spears of any kind. Had such been /291/ here at
any time they were probably all picked up by those persons who had
preceded me in the search. The only other articles to be noted
were fragments of broken bottles, and of shell fish such as
mussels, Mytilus edulus, salt and fresh water clams, especially
Mya arenaria, the scollop, Pecten islandicus, and some broken
lobster claws. There were among other nondescript articles
several teeth of animals, some apparently of the seal and walrus,
with two or three pigs' tusks. Most of these had holes bored in
them like the other ornaments, these with fragments or lumps of
radiated iron pyrites, used as fire stones, made up the remainder
of the find.
A visit was paid to another island further in the Bay, on
which a few articles only were obtained. The cliff here had
fallen and the burial place was covered with tons of large
fragments of rocks which would take several days to remove, and in
any case the overhanging cliffs were too dangerous to work under.
In the short time spent here we only succeeded in finding some
pieces of birch bark, a few much decayed fragments of human bones,
one very perfect forked bone ornament and the battered spout of a
copper tea kettle.
I might add here that numerous carved bones similar to those
above described have been found from time to time in other burial
places on all sides of the island. The shape or pattern of all
these varies but little, yet there are scarcely any two designs
exactly alike. Invariably they show the trace of red ochre,
especially in the interstices of the designs carved upon them.
/293/ Mr. R.S. Dahl, M.E., has furnished me with the
following particulars of Indian burying places visited by him in
Placentia Bay and information received from Benjamin Warren who
first found these places.
Red Indian grave on Hangman's Island, one of the group of
Ragged Islands in that Bay. Particulars:
The grave was covered with a Birch Bark shield (see fig., p.
291) made of strips of birch bark neatly sewn together and laid
upon sticks, eighteen in all. These were supported by one long
central pole, lengthwise which was 4 inches in diameter and 10
feet long. The cross sticks were 2 1/2 inches in diameter and 7
feet long. These were placed about 4 inches apart, and the strips
of bark covering 10 and 12 inches wide were sewn onto them. The
long central lengthwise pole was placed underneath and supported
the covering. This covering or pall was held in place by being
weighted down with small rocks and gravel, or soil.
The cave in which the remains were found is described thus:
The roof overhung the grave so as to completely protect it from
the weather. It was about 25 feet from high water mark and about
10 feet above it. I saw a piece of the bark in which the seam
overlapped about 1 inch, and the stick holes were exceedingly
regular about 1/8" apart, double rows about 1/4". A number of
winkles neatly cut and holed and the absence of weapons indicated
a woman's grave.
On another island called Tilt Island of the same group Mr.
Dahl examined a place called Indian Hole where several fragments
of human remains and some stone implements were found. He
enumerated the articles found here and on Hangman's Island as
follows:
1 rib bone 1 arrow head
1 tibia 3 small beads
1 patella 2 large flat beads on stick
1 bone(?) 1 feather
1 metatarsal bone Birch rind with stitched holes
1 piece of a cross stick
Birch rind with stitched holes and a number of small bones of
doubtful origin. Found by Mr. Warren on Hangman's Island 24 bone
charms(?) made of bone or such hard substances approximately as
sketch.
In the Annals of the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, for 1856, there is a coloured frontispiece representing
SHANAWDITHIT or NANCY, and said to be a facsimile of an original
painting.(170) The following interesting article explains the
portrait and gives the source from whence it was obtained.
"Our frontispiece is the portrait of a woman who is believed
to have been the last survivor of the Beothicks, the aboriginal
people of Newfoundland. That ancient race was, unhappily,
suffered to die out, without any attempt, beyond good intentions
on the part of Europeans, for their conversion to the Christian
faith.
"An interesting account of Shanawdithit is given by Bishop
Englis [Inglis] of Nova Scotia, who visited the Island of
Newfoundland in 1827 and in the course of his visitation reached,
on July 2nd, the River and Bay of Exploits, on the North East
shore of the Island. The ship in which the Bishop sailed went up
the river for twenty-five miles, and landed in a spot which the
Bishop describes.
"The weather was fine, but as hot as I have ever felt it;
while the ship was being provided with wood, we went in the boats
about thirteen miles up the river to a rapid where we landed, and
walked about two miles to a splendid waterfall. The land is good,
finely wooded with large timber, and the scenery is rich and
picturesque. Mr. Peyton, who was with us, has twelve fishing
stations for salmon along thirty miles of the river; and the
abundance of seal, deer, wild fowl and game of every description
is surprising. But our interest in all we saw was greatly
increased by knowing that this was the retreat of the Beothick or
red, or wild Indians, until the last four or five years.
"We were on several of their stations, and saw many of their
traces. These stations were admirably chosen on points of land
where they were concealed by the forest, but had long views up and
down the river, to guard against surprise. When Cabot first
landed he took away three of this unhappy tribe and from that day
to the present they have had reason to lament the discovery of
their island by Europeans. Not the least advancement has been
made towards their civilization. They are still clothed in skins
if any remnant of the race be left, and bows and arrows are their
only weapons. English and French, and Micmacs and Mountaineers,
and Labrador Esquimaux, shoot at the Beothick as they shoot at
deer. The several attempts that have been made under the sanction
of the Government to promote an intercourse with this race have
been most unfortunate, though some of them had every prospect of
success. An institution has been founded in the present year
(1827) to renew these praiseworthy attempts, the expenses of which
must be borne by benevolent individuals; and while I am writing,
Mr. Cormack is engaged in a search for the remnant of the race;
but as it is known that they were reduced to the greatest distress
by being driven from the shores and rivers, where alone they could
procure sufficient food, and none have been seen for several
years, it is feared by some that a young woman who was brought
/296/ in some four years ago and is now living in Mr. Peyton's
family, is the only survivor of her tribe. The Beothick
Institution have now assumed the charge of this interesting
female, that she may be well instructed and provided for. Mr.
Cormack has only taken with him one Micmac, one Mountaineer, and
one Canadian Indian, and they are provided with shields to protect
them from arrows, that they may not be compelled to fire. If they
remain, they are hidden in the most retired covers of the forest,
which is chiefly confined to the margins of lakes and banks of
rivers. Mr. Cormack and his three companions are provided with
various hieroglyphics and emblems of peace, and hope to discover
the objects of their pursuit by looking from the tops of hills for
their smoke, which may sometimes be seen at the distance of eight
or ten miles in the dawn of a calm frosty morning. Who can fail
to wish complete success to so charitable an attempt? We returned
to our ship in the evening greatly delighted with everything we
had seen, but much exhausted with excessive heat; several of the
party also suffered from the mosquitoes, which were innumerable.
"Wednesday July 4th. The Weather continued fine and we had a
rapid sail down the river at an early hour in the morning, making
only one stop at a beautiful station on Sandy Point, from whence
the Beothicks a few years ago stole a vessel and several hundred
pounds worth of property from Mr. Peyton.
"Between nine and ten we landed at Burnt Island; and while
the clergy were engaged in assembling the people for service, I
had some conversation with Shanawdithit, the Beothick young woman
I have already mentioned. The history of her introduction to
Peyton's family is soon related. In April 1823, a party of
furriers in the neighbourhood of the Exploits River, followed the
traces of some Red Indians, until they came to a wigwam, or hut,
from whence an Indian had just gone, and near it they found an old
woman, so infirm that she could not escape. They took her to Mr.
Peyton's, where she was kindly treated, and loaded with presents.
After a few days she was left at her wigwam, while the furriers
searched for others. Two females were soon discovered, whose
dress was but little different from that of the men. Though much
alarmed, they were made to understand by signs that the old woman,
who was their mother, was at hand. The man who had been first
seen was their father (?) who was drowned by falling through the
ice. The women were in such lamentable want of food that they
were easily induced to go to Mr. Peyton's. He took them to St.
John's where everything they could desire was given to them, and
after a stay of ten days they were taken back to Exploits, and
returned to their wigwam, in full confidence that an amicable
intercourse with their tribe would be established. One of the
young women, who had suffered some time from pulmonary complaint
died as soon as she was landed. In a short time the other two
returned to one of Mr. Peyton's stations, nearly famished and very
soon after they arrived the old woman also died, and Mr. Peyton
has retained her daughter Shanawdithit, in his family ever since.
She is fond of children, who leave their mother to go to her, and
soon learned all that was necessary to
/297/ make her useful in
the family. Her progress in the English language has been slow,
and I greatly lamented to find that she had not received
sufficient instruction to be baptised and confirmed. I should
have brought her to Halifax for this purpose but her presence will
be of infinite importance if any more of her tribe should be
discovered. She is now 23 years old, very interesting, rather
graceful, and of a good disposition; her countenance mild, her
voice soft and harmonious. Sometimes a little sulkiness appears,
and an anxiety to wander, when she will pass twenty-four hours in
the woods, and return; but this seldom occurs. She is fearful
that her race has died for want of food. Mr. Peyton has learnt
from her that the traditions of the Boeothick represent their
descent from the Labrador Indians but the language of one is
wholly unintelligible to the other. All that could be discovered
of their religion is, that they feared some powerful monster, who
was to appear from the sea and punish the wicked. They consider
death as a long sleep, and it is customary to bury the implements
and ornaments of the dead in the same grave with their former
possessors. They believe in incantations. When the girl who died
was very ill, her mother, who was of a violent and savage
disposition, heated large stones and then poured water upon them
until she was encircled by the fumes, from the midst of which she
uttered horrid shrieks, expecting benefit to her suffering child.
"Mr. Chapman has been diligent in visiting and instructing
the people during our short absence in the upper part of the
river. A congregation was assembled at 11 O'clock, and forty-nine
persons were confirmed. All of these were very decorous in their
whole behaviour and many of them appeared sincerely devout.
"Shanawdithit was present. She perfectly understood that we
were engaged in religious services, and seemed struck with their
solemnity. Her whole deportment was serious and becoming. She
was also made to understand my regret that her previous
instruction had not been such as to allow of her baptism and
confirmation, and my hope and expectation that she would be well
prepared, if it should please God that we meet again. Mr. Peyton
pledged himself that every possible endeavour should be made for
this purpose.
"We learn from another source that Shanawdithit lived
altogether six years in St. John's, N.F., first in the house of
Mr. Cormack, then in that of Mr. Simms, Attorney General, but
consumption, the fatal disease of her nation, at length carried
her off. She died in the hospital in St. John's in 1829."
The foregoing may be looked upon as thoroughly reliable,
coming as it does from one who actually saw and conversed with
Shanawdithit, and moreover had the benefit of an intimate
acquaintance with both Peyton and Cormack, two most intelligent
persons.
The question of the linguistic affinity of the Beothucks with
the neighbouring tribes of the Continent of America, as well as
with certain /298/ peoples of the Old World, with whom it was
surmised, by some writers, they might be allied is one that has
received much attention at the hands of several eminent
Philologists on both sides of the Atlantic.
Prof. Andrew Wilson, LL.D., F.R.G.S. of the University of
Toronto, speaking generally of the origin of the North American
Indian, says, "Language which is considered the only satisfactory
evidence of affiliation of the different races of man has been
appealed to in vain. Of the five hundred or more North American
languages spoken by the aboriginal tribes of this continent, all
have undergone the minutest study and classification by the most
eminent Philologists and have afforded nothing that could
establish any definite line of descent." If this be true of the
continental tribes, it is still more applicable in regard to those
insular peoples such as the inhabitants of Newfoundland.
In England Prof. Robb Gordon Latham, in the Transactions of
the Anthropological Society of Great Britain treats largely on the
subject of the Beothuck language. The late Sir Wm. Dawson,
Principal of McGill University, Montreal, and the Rev. Dr.
Patterson also studied the language. The latter gave the result
of his investigations in the publications of the Royal Society of
Canada, with remarks upon the language by the Rev. John Campbell,
LL.D. Prof. Albert S. Gatschet of the Ethnological Bureau,
Washington, U.S. made a most exhaustive study and analysis of the
Beothuck vocabularies in our possession. He read three papers on
this subject, before the American Philosophical Society, in June
1885, May 1886 and January 1890.
While the conclusions arrived at by these eminent scientists
do not by any means solve the problem of the origin of the
Beothucks, nevertheless they are all of so interesting a character
that this history would be incomplete without their inclusion.
Mr. W.E. Cormack, who took such an active part in the
endeavour to bring about a friendly understanding with the
aborigines, and who was a gentleman of superior attainments, being
a graduate of the University of Edinburgh conceived the idea that
the Beothuck language pointed rather to an European than an
American origin, and several other early writers were of the same
opinion. The publication of the Icelandic Sagas no doubt gave
rise to the supposition that possibly the Beothucks might be a
remnant of the Norse Colonists, whom we are told formed a
settlement on this side of the Atlantic in the 10th century, but a
comparison of Beothuck with the Norse language failed to establish
the slightest similarity between them. Capt. David Buchan was
another who seemed to hold the same view, for he says in his
concluding remarks, "I had persons with me that could speak
Norwegian and most of the dialects known to the North of Europe,
but they could in no wise understand them."
Other writers on the subject thought they might possibly have
derived their origin from the early Basque fishermen, who claimed
to have fished on the Banks and shores of Newfoundland prior to
the advent of the Cabots. No doubt what gave rise to this
supposition was the statement made on the supposed Cabot Map, that
the inhabitants called the Codfish /299/ which abounded in these
waters, Baccalaos, a purely Basque term, but this has long since
been disproved. The Beothucks had no such term for the fish, they
called the Cod, bobboosoret, another reason for this supposed
affinity may be found in the peculiar construction of this Basque
language, which, while it contained no words of a similar sound or
meaning, nevertheless, bore a certain morphological resemblance to
the North American languages generally. Mr. Horatio Hale points
this out, in treating of the subject, when he says, "it is not in
any positive similarity of words or grammar as would prove a
direct affiliation, it is only in possessing that highly complex
polysynthetic character which distinguishes the American
languages. The likeness is merely in general cast and mould of
speech, but this likeness has awakened much attention."
But the attempt to correlate the Beothuck with any European
language having proved entirely abortive, thenceforth the
attention of Ethnologists, who became interested in the subject,
turned naturally to America, where a solution of the problem
seemed most likely to be found. Yet here again, while the fact
was established beyond question that the Beothuck language was
undoubtedly Indian, i.e., American, still no clear relationship
could be established between it and any of the continental
dialects. This comparison likewise failed to reveal anything
satisfactory.
Unfortunately, although the known words of this peculiar
language preserved to us amount, according to Mr. Gatschet, to
some four hundred and eighty vocables, "yet owing to the defective
mode of transcription, no vocabularies had ever caused him so much
trouble and uncertainty in obtaining from them results available
for science."
About all that can be clearly established at this distance of
time with regard to these vocabularies, is that they were obtained
at different dates, and from three different individuals. The
first in point of time, was that of the Rev. Mr. Clinch obtained
from some unknown source about the end of the 18th century. It
has been conjectured that Mr. Clinch obtained his vocabulary from
John August who lived at Catalina during Mr. C.'s incumbency in
the Parish of Trinity, but this is scarcely possible. August was
taken from his mother, who was shot down, when he was only an
infant, and as he ever afterwards lived amongst the whites, he had
no opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of his mother tongue. It
was also thought probable that the source of the vocabulary may
have been the woman captured by Cull in 1804, but this cannot be
as Mr. Clinch himself had died before that date (?). The
occurrence of the term OUBEE, which is rendered into, "her own
name," would certainly indicate that it was obtained from a
female. Who this Ou-bee could have been can only be surmised,
possibly it was the little girl mentioned by Governor Edwards and
Mr. Bland, who lived at Trinity with a family named Stone about
the same time as Mr. Clinch. The girl was afterwards taken to
England, where she died.
The next vocabulary in point of time was that taken down from
Mary March (Demasduit) by the Rev. Mr. Leigh, Episcopal missionary
at Twillingate, with whom she resided after her capture, and again
for sometime before Capt. Buchan took charge of her to restore her
to her tribe. As Mary March could scarcely have obtained much
proficiency in the /300/ English language during that short period
of her sojourn with Mr. Leigh's family, it is only reasonable to
suppose that she could not have made herself clearly understood,
except by signs, and the use of the few words of English she had
acquired, consequently it may be expected that many errors have
crept into this vocabulary. The Robinson vocabulary was simply a
reproduction of Leigh's with a few additional words subsequently
obtained.
The third, and in point of real interest undoubtedly the most
reliable, was that obtained by Mr. W.E. Cormack from Nancy
(Shanawdithit). Mr. C., being himself a man of intellect and
superior education, had an opportunity such as no one else
possessed of acquiring a complete and reliable list of words from
this woman. She, it will be remembered, had then been six years
living with the Peyton family at Exploits, and had acquired
considerable knowledge of English from them. During the last six
or eight months of her existence she resided in Mr. Cormack's
house, and he himself tells us he availed of the opportunity to
closely question her on all matters pertaining to her tribe. The
few other words which Mrs. Jure, Nancy's fellow servant at
Peyton's was able to remember, constitute the whole range of the
Beothuck vocabulary now preserved.(171)
It would of course be presumption on my part to attempt
anything like a solution of the problem this language presents,
especially in face of the fact that it has received at the hands
of such eminent scientists the closest possible scrutiny, while
their endeavours to elucidate it seem to have been completely
baffled, as may be judged by the widely diverse conclusions
arrived at.
Mr. Rob Gordon Latham in his paper on the "Varieties of man"
published in Comparative Philology, London, 1850, pronounces the
language to be distinctly Algonkin, he says, "The particular
division to which the aborigines of Newfoundland belonged has been
a matter of doubt. Some writers considering them to have been
Eskimo, others to have been akin to the Micmacs, who have now a
partial footing in the Island."
"Reasons against either of those views are supplied by a
hitherto unpublished Beothuck vocabulary with which I have been
kindly furnished by my friend Dr. King of the Anthropological
Society. This makes them a separate section of the Algonkins, and
such I believe them to have been."(172)
This view is upheld by the Rev. John Campbell, LL.D., of
Montreal. The latter gentleman, after a careful study of the Rev.
Dr. Patterson's paper on the Beothucks, says, "I have come to the
deliberate conviction that Dr. Latham was right in classifying the
extinct aborigines of Newfoundland with the Algonkins." After a
comparison of some of their words with Malay-Polynesian, he adds,
"This would tend to locate the ancestral Beothuck stock in
Celebes." He further adds, "I imagine the /301/ Beothucks
belonged to the same tribe as the New England Pawtuckets and
Pequods, and that their remote ancestors must have formed part of
a great emigration from the Indian archipelago consequent upon the
Buddhist invasions of these islands prior to the Christian era."
Sir Wm. Dawson was of opinion that they were of Tinne or
Chippewan stock, and instances the fact that the Micmacs of Nova
Scotia had a tradition that a prior race of human beings occupied
that country, whom the Micmacs drove out, and who they believe
went over to Newfoundland and settled there. These he conjectures
were the Beothucks, who remained isolated and undisturbed, except
perhaps by the Eskimo, until the advent of the white fishermen on
our coast.
In a letter I received from him, dated March 28th, 1881, he
writes as follows: "I have looked up the vocabulary you sent me,
and have shown it to Dr. S.M. Dawson, who knows something of the
Western Indian Languages. We fail to make anything very certain
of it. Latham was no doubt right in stating it to be different
from Eskimo, but I see no certain affinities with Algonkin
languages. The little it has in common with other American
languages would perhaps, rather point to Tinne, or Chippewan
affinities; but I would not at all insist on this.
"I sent the vocabulary to Rev. Mr. Rand of Hansport, N.S.,
who is our best authority on Micmac and Melicite. He fails to
find any resemblance except in a few words mentioned below.
Evidently the Beothuck language is something distinct from Eskimo
on the North, and Micmac on the South, and its affinities, I
fancy, are to be looked for among the Mountagnais or other tribes
extending west from Labrador, and of whose languages I have no
knowledge, etc."
Mr. Rand points out the following resemblance to Micmac which
may have some significance.
BEOTHUCK MICMAC ENGLISH
Mathuis Mallijwa Hammer
Emet Mema Oil
Moosin M'Kasin Shoe
These are so far apparently related words. According to Lloyd,(173)
John Lewis a Mohawk "Metis" who could speak several Indian
dialects, told Mr. Curtis that the Beothuck language was unknown
amongst the Canadian Indian tribes.
So far as the author is enabled to judge, Prof. Albert S.
Gatschet certainly seems to have given the most profound study to
this singular language. It so greatly interested him that he
spared no pains to unearth everything he could possibly find
bearing upon the subject. His study of the language extended over
a period of five or six years altogether, and during that time he
made the most minute investigation, and comparison with other
Indian dialects, with all of which he was quite familiar. I
should therefore be inclined to place more reliance in what this
eminent Ethnologist has to say on the subject than upon the more
cursory examinations of other authorities, however learned.
/302/ "The names by which this tribe is known to us are those of
`Beothuck' and of Red Indians. Mr. Rob. Gordon Latham supposed
Beothuck meant, good night in their own language, and that the
tribe should hence be named the `Good Night Indians,' Beothuck
being the term for `good night' in Mary March's vocabulary. But
Indians generally have some other mode of salutation than this;
and that word reads in the original MS. betheoate (not betheok,
Lloyd), it is evidently a form of the verb baetha to go home; and
thus its real meaning is: `I am going home.' The spellings of
the tribal name found in the vocabularies are: Beothuk, Beothik,
Behathook, Boeothuck, and Beathook; beothuk means not only Red
Indian of Newfoundland, but is also the generic expression for
Indian, and composes the word haddabothic body (and belly). Just
as many other peoples call themselves by the term men, to which
Indian is here equivalent, it is but natural to assume that the
Indians of Newfoundland called themselves by the same word.
"Another term Shawatharott or Shawdtharut is given for Red
Indian Man in King's vocabulary; we find also, Woas-sut Red Indian
woman, cf. oosuck, wife; its diminutive woas-eeash, woas-eesh, Red
Indian girl; mozazeesh, Red Indian boy.
"Red Indian was the name given them by the explorers,
fishermen or Colonists, because they noticed their habit of
painting their utensils, lodges, boats and their own bodies with
red ochre. Most of the earlier explorers and historians mention
this peculiar habit. Thus Joann de Laet, in his Novis Orbis, page
34, writes: `uterque sexus non modum cutem sed et vestimenta
rubrica quadam tingit,' etc.
"This ochre they obtained from several localities around the
coast as well as in the interior, and mixed it with fat or grease
to use as a substance for daubing.
"The Micmac Indians called them Macquaejeet Ulno-mequagit,
the Abnakis Ulnobah (Latham) in which alno, ulno means man,
Indian.
"The results obtained by former writers from an investigation
of their language not proving satisfactory to me, I have subjected
the fragments which have reached down to our period to a new
chirographic and critical examination, for the purpose of drawing
all the conclusions that can fairly be drawn from them for
ascertaining affinities, and thereby shed some light upon the
origin of the Red Indians.
/303/ "The information we possess of the Beothuk tongue was
chiefly derived from two women,(174) Mary March and Shanawdithit and
is almost exclusively of a lexical, not of a grammatic nature.
The points deducible from the vocabularies concerning the
structure of the verb, noun and sentence, the formation of
compound terms, the prefixes and suffixes of the language are very
fragmentary and one sided. The mode of transcription is so
defective that no vocabularies ever have caused me so much trouble
and uncertainty as these in obtaining from them results available
for science.
"Cormack obtained his vocabulary from Shanawdithit which
seems more reliable and phonetically, more accurate than the one
obtained from Mary March."
Below I reproduce the terms written in the same manner as
transmitted, using the following abbreviations:
C. -- Cormack's vocabulary, from Shanawdithit.
Howl. -- Corrections of Leigh's printed vocabulary from his own Manuscript, made by James P. Howley.
K. -- Vocabulary of Dr. King, translated by Rob. Gordon Latham, London, April 1883.
No letter -- Rev. John Leigh's voc. from Mary March (Demasduit).
A-aduth seal-spear, C. Cf. amina.
Abemite gaping.
Abideshook; Abedesoot K., domestic cat; cf. bidesook.
Abidish "martin cat," marten. Micmacs call him cat; the whites of Newfoundland call a young seal: cat or harp-seal, because
a design visible on their backs resembles a harp.(175)
Abobidress feathers; cf. ewinon.
Abodoneek bonnet, C.; abadung-eyk hat, K.
Adadimite or Adadimiute; andemin K. spoon; cf. a-enamin.
Adamadret; adamatret K. gun, rifle.
Adenishit stars; cf. shawwayet a star, K.
Adizabad Zea white wife.
Adjith to sneeze.
Adoltkhtek, adolthtek K., adolthe; ode-othyke C. boat, vessel seems to imply the idea of being pointed or curved; cf. A- aduth, adothook; Dhoorado, Tapathook.
Adosook K., Aa-dazook C. eight; Ee-aa-dazook eighteen, C.
Adothook; Adooch, K. fish-hook.
Aduse leg; adyouth foot, K.
Adzeech K.; adasic; adzeich C., two; ee-adzike twelve, C.; adzeich dthoonut twenty, C.
A-enamin bone, C.
A-eshemeet lumpfish, C.
Ae-u-eece snail, K.
Ae-wa-een C.; cf. ee-wa-en.
Agamet; aegumet K., buttons; money.
Aguathoonet grindstone.
Ahune, Ahunes, oun K. rocks. Misspelt Ahmee (Lloyd).
Ajeedick or vieedisk K. I like.
Akusthibit (ac- in original) to kneel.
Amet awake, C.
Amina deer-spear, C.
Amshut to get up; cf. amet. Howley supposes this to be from the
same word as gamyess, q.v.
Anadrik sore throat; cf. tedesheet.
Anin comet; cf. anun spear (in skies?).
Annawhadya bread, K.; cf. manjebathook.
Annoo-ee tree; forest, woods K.
Anun spear, C.; cf. a-duth, amina, anin, annoo-ee.
Anwoyding consort; husband, when said by wife; wife when said by husband. Cf. zathrook.
Anyemen bow, K.; der. from annoo-ee, q.v.
A-oseedwit I am sleepy, K.
Aoujet snipe: Gallinago wilsonia, of genus Scolopacidae.
Apparet o bidesook sunken seal.
Ardobeeshe and madobeesh twine, K.; cf. meroobish.
Ashaboo-uth C.; iggobauth blood, C.; cf. ebanthoo.
Ashautch meat; flesh, K.
Ashei lean, thin; sick.
Ashmudyim devil, "bad man," C.; cf. muddy. The spelling of the first syllable is doubtful.
Ashwameet, ashumeet, mythological symbol drawn by Shanawdithit.
Ashwan, nom. pr., Eskimo.
Ashwoging C.; ashoging K., arrow; cf. dogernat.
Asson K. sea-gull.
Ass-soyt angry, C.
Athess; athep K. to sit down.
Awoodet singing.
Baasick bead, C., bethec necklace.
/304/ Baasothnut; beasothunt, beasothook K. gunpowder; cf. basdic.
Badisut dancing.
Baetha go home, K., becket? where do you go? baeodut out of doors, or to go out of doors, K. These three words all seem to belong to the same verb.
Baroodisick thunder.
Basdic; basdick K. smoke; cf. baasothnut.
Bashedtheek; beshed K. six, C. Rigadosik six Leigh's vocabulary seems to point to another dialect. Ee-beshedtheek sixteen, C.
Bashoodite Howl. to bite.
Bashubet scratch (verb?).
Bathuc; badoese K., watshoosooch K. rain; cf. ebanthoo.
Baubooshrat fish, K.; cf. bobboosoret codfish.
Bebadrook nipper (moskito).
Bedejamish bewajowite May, C.; cf. kosthabonong bewajowit.
Beodet money; cf. agamet, baasick.
Beothuk, Beothick K.; Behat-hook K.; Boeothuck (in Howley's correspondence); Beathook. (1) Indian; (2) Red Indian, viz. Indian of Newfoundland; cf. haddabothic.
Berrooick or berroich clouds.
Betheoate good night.
Bibidegemidic berries; cf. manus.
Bidesook; beadzuck, bidesuk K. seal; cf. abidesook, apparet.
Bidisoni sword.
Bituwait to lie down.
Boad thumb, K.
Bobbidist Howl.; bobbodish K. pigeon (guillemot, a sea bird). A species of these, very abundant in Newfoundland is Lomvia troile.(176)
Bobbiduishemet lamp; cf. boobeeshawt, mondicuet and emet oil.
Bobboosoret codfish; is the same word as baubooshrat.
Bogathoowytch, to kill, K.; buhashauwite to beat; bobathoowytch beat him! Beating and killing are frequently expressed by the same term in Indian languages; cf. datyuns.
Bogodoret; bedoret K. heart.
Bogomot or bogomat breast, K.; boghmoot woman's breast, K.; bodchmoot bosom, C.; bemoot breast, C.; cf. bogodoret.
Boobasha warm, K.; cf. obosheen.
Boobeeshawt fire, K.; cf. bobbiduishemet.
Boochauwhit I am hungry, K.; cf. pokoodoont.
Boodowit duck; cf. eesheet, mameshet.
Boos seek blunt, C.; pronounced busik.
Bootzhawet sleep (verb?) K.; cf. isedoweet.
Botomet onthermayet; botothunet outhermayet Howl. teeth(?).
Boyish birch bark; by-yeech birch tree, K.
Buhashamesh white boy, C.; buggishamesh boy, K.
Buhashauwite; cf. bogathoowytch.
Bukashaman, bookshimon man; buggishaman white man, K.
Butterweye tea, K. (English.)
Carmtack to speak, K.; ieroothack, jeroothack speak, K.
Cheashit to groan.
Cockaboset; cf. geswat.
Dabseek C., dabzeek K., abodoesic four; eedabzook fourteen, C.
Dattomeish; dootomeish K. trout.
Datyuns or datyurs not kill(?), K.
Dauoosett I am hungry, K., probably false; cf. boochauwhit.
Debine Howl., deboin K. egg.
Deddoweet; didoweet K., saw, subst.
Deed-rashow red, K.
Deh-hemin Howl., dayhemin K. give me!
Delood! come with us! K. dyoom! come hither! K. dyoot thouret!
come hither! C. toouet (to) come, K. nadyed you come back, K.
Demasduit, nom. pr. of Mary March.
Deschudodoick to blow, C.
Deyn-yad, pl. deyn-yadrook bird, C.
Dho orado large boat, K.; cf. adoltkhtek.
Dingyam, dhingyam K., thengyam clothes.
Dogajavick fox, K.; cf. deed-rashow red; the common fox is the red fox.
Dogernat arrow, kind of.
Doodebewshet, nom. pr. of Nancy's mother, C.
Doothun forehead, K.
Dosomite pin.
Drona; drone-ooch K. hair; the latter form apparently a plural.
Dthoonanven, thinyun hatchet, K.
Dtho-onut, C.; cf. adzeech. Dyout, dyoat, come here.
Ebanthoo; ebadoe K. water.
Ebathook to drink, K,; zebathoong to drink water,K.; cf. ebanthoo, bathuc.
Edat or edot fishing line; cf. a-aduth, adothook.
Edru or edree; edachoom K. otter.
Ee- composes the numerals of the first decad from 11 to 19; it is prefixed to them and emphasized; cf. the single numerals.
Eeg fat, adj.
Eenoaja cold (called?), K.
Eenodsha to hear, K.; cf. noduera.
Eeseeboon cap, K.
Eeshang eyghth blue, C.
Eesheet duck, K.; probably abbrev. of mameshet, q.v.
Eeshoo make haste.
Eewa-en; aewa-en K., hewhine, o-owin K. knife; cf. oun. Leigh has also: nine, probably misspelt for: wine (wa-en).
Egibididuish, K., egibidinish silk handkerchief.
Ejabathook, ejabathhook K., sail; edjabathook sails.
Ejew to see, K.; pronounced idshu.
Emamoose, immamoose woman; emmamoose white woman, K.
Emamooset child; girl; emmamooset white girl, K.
Emet; emet K. oil; composes bobbiduishemet and odemet, q.v.
Emoethook; emmathook K. dogwood (genus: Cornus) or mountain Ash.
Ethenwit; etherwit Howl. fork.
Euano to go out; enano go out, Howl.
Ewinon feather, K.
Gaboweete breath, C.
/305/ Gamyess get up, Howl.
Gasook or yasook, yosook dry K.; gasuck, gassek, K. stockings.
Gausep dead, K.; gosset death, and dead, K.
Geonet tern, turr,(177) a sea-swallow; Lomvia troile (also called Urea troile), K. has geonet fur.
Ge-oun K.; gown chin.
Geswat fear, K.; cockaboset! no fear! do not be afraid! K.
Gheegnyan, geegn- yan, K., guinya eye.
Gheen K., geen (or gun?) nose.
Gidyeathuc wind.
Gigarimanet K., giggeramanet; giggamahet Howl. net.
Gobidin eagle, C.
Godabonyeesh November, C.
Godabonyegh October, C.
Godawik shovel; cf. hadowadet.
Gonathun- keathut Howl.; cf. keathut.
Goosheben lead (v. or subst.?).
Gotheyet ticklas,(178) a bird of the genus Sterna; species not identifiable, perhaps macrura, which is frequent in Newfoundland (H.W. Henshaw)?
Gowet scollop or frill; a bivalve, pecten.
Guashawit puffin; a bird of the Alcidae family: Lunda cirrhata.(179)
Guashuwit; gwashuwet, whashwitt, washawet K. bear.
Guathin; cf. keathut.
Gungewook Howl. mainland.
Haddabothic body; hadabatheek belly, C.; contains beothuk, q.v.
Hadalahet K.; hadibiet glass; cf. nadalahet.
Hadowadet shovel, K.; cf. godawik.
Hanawasutt flatfish or halibut, K.
Hanyees finger, K.
Haoot the devil, K.
Hodamishit knee.
Homedich, homedick, oomdzech K., good.
Ibadinnam to run, K.; cf. wothamashet.
Immamooset; cf. emamoose.
Isedoweet to sleep; cf. bootzhawet.
Itweena thumb; cf. boad.
Iwish hammer, K.; cf. mattuis.
Jewmetchem, jewmetcheen soon, K.
Jiggamint gooseberry.
Yaseek C., Yazeek K., gathet one; ee-yaziech eleven, C.
Yeathun, ethath yes, K.
Yeothoduc nine, C.; ee-yeothoduck nineteen, C.
Yeech short, K.
Kaasussabook, causabow snow, K.
Kadimishuite tickle; a rapid current where the tide ebbs and flows in a narrow channel of the sea.
Kaesinguinyeet blind, C.; from gasook dry, gheenyan eye.
Kannabuch long, K.
Kawingjemeesh shake hands, K.
Keathut, gonathun- keathut; ge-outhuk K., guathin; head. Keoosock., kaasook hill, K.
Kewis, Kuis, ewis, keeose K. sun; moon; watch. Kuis halfmoon; a
mythological symbol drawn by Shanawdithit.
Kingiabit to stand.
Kobshuneesamut (ee accented) January, C.
Koshet to fall.
Kosthabonong bewajowit February, C. For the last part of word, cf. bedejamish bewajowite.
Kosweet K., osweet deer (caribou).
Kowayaseek July, C.; contains yazeek one.
Kusebeet louse.
Lathun; lathum(?) trap, K.; cf. shabathoobet.
Madabooch milk, K.
Maduck, Maduch to-morrow, K.
Madyrut hiccough.
Maemed, maelmed; mewet hand, K,; cf. meesh in kawingjemeesh; meeman monasthus to shake hands. Memayet arms.
Magaraguis, mageragueis son, K.
Magorun; magorum K. deer's horns.
Mamashee K.; mamzhing ship, vessel.
Mamatrabet a long (illegible; song?) K.
Mameshet; memeshet Howl., ducks and drakes (drake: male duck) probably the mallard duck, Anas boschas.(180)
Mameshook, mamudthun K. mouth; cf. memasook.
Mammateek, cf. meotick.
Mamishet, mamset, mamseet, K., mamisut C. alive. Doodebewshet mamishet gayzoot, or D. mamisheet gayzhoot, Doodebewshet is alive, K. mamset life, K.
Mamjaesdoo, nom. pr. of Nancy's father.
Mammadronit (or -nut) lord bird, or harlequin duck, contains drona.
Mammasheek islands; cf. mamashee.
Mammasaveet (or mammoosernit J. Peyton), mamasameet K., mamudthuk,
mamadthut K. dog, mammusemitch, pl. mammasavit puppy.
Mamshet, maumsheet K. beaver (simply: animal).
Manaboret K., manovoonit Howl. blanket.
Manamiss March, month of, C.
Mandeweech, maudweech bushes, K.
Mandzey, mamdsei K., mandzyke C. black.
Manjebathook bread, C.
Manegemethon shoulder.
Mangaroonish or mangaroouish sun; probably son; cf. magaraguis.
Manune pitcher, cup.
Manus berries, K.; cf. bibidegemidic.
Marmeuk eyebrow.
Marot to smell, K. (v. intr.?).
Massooch, masooch salt water, K.
Matheoduc to cry.
Mathik, mattic stinking: mattic bidesuk stinking, rotten seal,(181) K.: mathic bidesook stinking seal; cf. marot.
/306/ Mattuis Howl. hammer; cf. iwish.
Memasook, mamudth-uk, mamadth-ut K. tongue; cf. mameshook.
Memayet arms; cf. maemed.
Meotick, meeootick, mae-adthike K. house, wigwam. Mammatik house, mammateek Howl. winter wigwam, meothick house, hut, tilt camp, K. (probably a windbreak).
Meroobish thread; cf. ardobeeshe.
Messiliget-hook baby, K.
Methabeet cattle, K,; nethabete "cows and horses."
Miaoth to fly.
Modthamook sinew of deer, K.
Moeshwadit drawing (?), mohashaudet or meheshaudet drawing-knife
K.
Moidensu comb.
Moisamadrook wolf.
Mokothut, species of a blunt-nosed fish, C.
Monasthus (to touch?), meeman monasthus to shake hands; cf. maemed.
Mondicuet lamp, K.; cf. bobbiduishemet.
Moocus elbow.
Moomesdick, nom. pr. of Nancy's grandfather.
Mooshaman, mootdhiman K. ear.
Moosin moccasin, K., mosen shoe, K.
Moosindgei- jebursut ankle, C., contains moosin.
Mossessdeesh; cf. mozazeosh.
Motheryet cream jug; cf. nadalahet.
Mowageenite iron.
Mowead trousers, K.
Mozazeosh, mogazeesh K. Red Indian boy, mossessdeesh Indian boy,
C.
Muddy, mandee K., mud'ti C. bad, dirty, mudeet bad man, C.; cf.
eshmudyim.
Nadalahet cream-jug; cf. hadalahet, motheryet.
Nechwa tobacco, K., deh- hemin neechon! give me tobacco! Howl.
Newin, newim no, K.
Ninezeek C., nunyetheek K., nijeek, nijeck, five, ee-ninezeek fifteen, C.
Noduera to hear, K.; cf. eenodsha.
Nonosabasut, nom. pr. of Demasduit's husband; tall 6 feet 7 1/2 inches.
Oadjameet C. to boil, as water; v. trans. or intr.? moodamutt to boil, v. trans. C.
Obosheen warming yourself; cf. boobasha.
Obsedeek gloves, K.
Obseet little bird (species of?), C.
Odasweeteeshamut December, C.; cf. odusweet.
Odemen, ode- emin K., odemet ochre; cf. emet.
Odensook; odizeet, odo-ezheet K. goose; cf. eesheet duck.
Odishuik to cut.
Odjet lobster, K. and Leigh.
Odoit to eat; cf. pokoodoont.
Odusweet, edusweet K. hare; cf. kosweet, odasweeteeshamut.
Oodrat K., woodrut fire; cf. boobeeshawt.
O-odosook, oodzook C., ode-ozook K. seven, ee-oodzook seventeen,
C.
Ooish lip.
Oosuck wife; cf. woas-sut.
Osavate to row; cf. wotha-in, wothamashet.
Oseenyet K., ozegeen Howl. scissors.
Osthuk tinker (J. Peyton); also called guillemot, a sea bird of the genus Urea.(182) Species not identifiable.
Oun; cf. ahune.
Owasboshno-un (?) C. whale's tail, a mythological emblem drawn by
Shanawdithit; Dr. Dawson thinks it is a totem.
Ozeru, ozrook K. ice.
Podibeak, podybear Howl. oar, paddle; cf. osavate.
Pokoodoont, pokoodsont, bococtyone to eat, K.; cf. odoit.
Poochauwhat to go to bed, K.; cf. a-osedwit.
Pugathoite to throw.
Quadranuek, quadranuk K. gimlet.
Quish nails.
Shabathoobet Howl., shabathootet trap.
Shamoth, thamook, shamook, shaamoc K. capelan [caplin], a fish species.(183)
Shanandithit C., Shanawdithit, nom. pr. of Nancy, a Beothuc woman.
Shanung, Shonack, Shawnuk, Shannok, nom. pr., Micmac Indian, Shonack "bad Indians," Micmacs; cf. Sho-udamunk.
Shapoth K., shaboth candle.
Shansee C. and K., theant ten.
Shawatharott, Shawdtharut, nom. pr., Red Indian man; cf. zathrook.
Shawwayet a star; cf. adenishit.
Shebohoweet K., shebohowit, sheebuint C. woodpecker.
Shebon, sheebin river, brook, K.
Shedbasing wathik upper arm, C.
Shedothun, shedothoon sugar, K.
Sheedeneesheet cocklebur, K.
Shegamite to blow the nose.
Shema bogosthuc muskito; cf. bedadrook.
Shendeek C., shendee K., thesdic three, ee-shendeek thirteen, shendeek dtho-onut thirty, C.
Shewthake grinding stone, K.; cf. aguathoonet.
Shoe-wana, shuwan water bucket, of birch bark, drinking cup, K.,
shoe-wan-yeesh small stone vessel, C. A drawing of a shuwan, made by Shanawdithit, has been preserved (Howley).
Sho-udamunk (from Peyton), nom. pr. of the Mountaineer (or Algonkin) Indians of Labrador, Naskapi, or "good Indians"; cf.
Shanung.
Sosheet bat, K.
Shucododimet K., shucodimit, a plant called Indian cup.(184)
Tapathook, dapathook K. canoe; cf. adoltkhtek.
Tedesheet neck, throat.
Theehone heaven, K.
Thengyam clothes; cf. dingyam.
Thine I thank you.
Thooret come hither! abbrev. from the full dyoot thouret C.; cf.
deiood!
Thoowidgee to swim.
Toouet; cf. deiood!
/307/ Wabee wet, K.; probably misunderstood for white.
Wadawhegh August, C.
Wasemook salmon, K.; cf. wothamashet.
Washa-geuis K., washewnish moon.
Washawet, whashwitt K.; cf. guashuwit.
Washewtch K., washeu night, darkness; cf. month's names.
Washoodiet, wadshoodet to shoot, K.
Wasumaweeseek April, June, September, C. Said to mean "first sunny month"; cf. wasemook.
Watshoosooch rain, K.; cf. bathic.
Wathik arm, C., watheekee the whole arm, K.; cf. shedbasing.
Waunathoake, nom. pr. of Mary March (Howley).
Wawashemet o-owin moo meshduck we give you (thee) a knife, K.
Weenoun cheek, K.; cf. ge-oun.
Weshomesh (Lloyd, washemesh) herring; cf. wothamashet. Mr. Howley thinks that Washimish, the name of an Island, contains this term.
Whadicheme; cf. bogathoowytch to kill(?).
Widumite to kiss.
Woadthoowin, woad-hoowin spider, K.
Woas-eeash, woas-eesh Red Indian girl, K.
Woas-sut Red Indian woman, K., same as oosuck.
Wobee white, K.; cf. wabee.
Wobesheet sleeve, K.
Woin Howl., waine hoop.
Woodch blackbird,(185) C.
Woodum pond, K.
Wothamashet Lloyd, to run, woothyat to walk.
Zathrook husband; cf. anwoyding.
Zeek necklace, K., abbr. from baasick(?).
Zosoot K., Zosweet partridge. Ptarmigan is added to the term; but a ptarmigan (Lagopus alba) is not a partridge.(186)
Subjects of: -- Bafu Buth Baonosheen Babashot, Siethodaban-yish,
Edabansee, -- Dosadooosh, -- Edabanseek.
In this paper he first treats of the Robinson Vocabulary, so
called, because it was furnished to the British Museum Library by
Capt. Sir Hercules Robinson of H.M. Ship, Favourite, 1820. This
vocabulary, as the Author states, was written from memory of
conversations had with the Rev. Mr. Leigh at Harbour Grace, and
being merely an incorrect copy of Leigh's own vocabulary obtained
from Mary March, need not be considered here. There are a few
additional words however which I shall include later.
Mr. Gatschet then treats of the grammatic elements of the
language thus:
The points deducible with some degree of certainty from the
very imperfect material on hand may be summed up as follows, the
sounds being represented in my own scientific alphabet, in which
all vowels have the European continental value:
Vowels:
/308/
Diphthongs:
ai, ei in by-yesh birch, madyrut hiccough; oi, in moisamadrock
wolf; ou, au in ge-oun chin; oe may indicate o: emoethook (?),
etc.
Consonants:
Explosives: Sounds of duration:
surd sonant Aspirates Spirants Nasals Trills
Gutturals: k g z h ng
Palatals: tch dsh y cl
Linguals: sh r,l
Dentals: t d th s,z n
Labials: p b w,(v?) m
The sound expressed by lth in adolthek, adolthe boat I have
rendered by `l, the palatalized l, which is produced by holding
the tip of the tongue against the alveolar or foremost part of the
palate. It appears in many American, but not in Algonkin
languages.
The sound dr, tr in adamadret, adamatret gun, drona hair,
edru otter and other terms is probably a peculiar sound, and not a
mere combination of d(t) with r.
The articulation dth seems distinct from the aspirate th of
the English language; it occurs in dthoonanyen hatchet, dtho-onut
ten, used in forming the decade in the terms for twenty, thirty,
etc. (cf. theant and shansee ten). Perhaps it is th pronounced
with an explosive effort of the vocal organ.
z is rendered in our lists by gh and sometimes by ch, as in
yaseech one, droneeoch hairs, maduch to-morrow.
ts, ds are unfrequent [infrequent] or do not occur at all.
sch in deschudodoick to blow and other terms is probably our
sk. f does not occur in Beothuck but is found in Micmac
vocabularies; perhaps it would be better to have rendered there
that sound by v'h, w'h, and not by f, for other Algonkin dialects
show no trace of it.
l is unfrequent [infrequent] and found, as an initial sound,
only in the term lathun trap. Whether r is our rolling r or not
is difficult to determine.
th often figures as a terminal, but more frequently as an
initial and medial sound.
Consonants are frequently found geminated in our lists, but
this is chiefly due to the graphic method of English writers, who
habitually geminate them to show that the preceding vowel is short
in quantity: cf. dattomeish, haddabothic, immamooset, massooch.
The language exhibits the peculiarity not unfrequently
[infrequently] observed throughout America, that final syllables
generally end in consonants and the preceding syllables in vowels.
Accumulations of consonants occur, but are not frequent; e.g.
carmtack to speak, Mamjaesdoo, nom. pr. The majority of all
syllables not final consists of a consonant followed by a vowel,
or diphthong.
Too little information is on hand to establish any general
rules for the accentuation. None of the accented words are
oxytonized, but several have the antepenult emphasized:
bashedtheek, ashwoging, dosomite; the term ejabathook has the
accent still further removed from the final syllable. Very likely
the accent could in that language shift as in other languages
/309/ of America, from syllable to syllable, whenever rhetorical
reasons required it. By some of the collectors the signs for
length and brevity were used to designate the emphasized syllable,
placed above or underneath the vowels.
Alternation of sounds, or spontaneous permutation of the
guttural, labial, etc., sounds without any apparent cause, is
traceable here as well as in all other illiterate languages. Thus
the consonantic sounds produced in the same position of the vocal
organs are observed to alternate between:
g and k: buggishaman, bukashaman man, etc.
g and z: bogomot, boghmoot breast.
g and h: buggishamesh, buhashamesh boy; bogathoowytch to kill, buhashauwite to beat.
tch and sh: mootchiman, mooshaman ear.
dsh and s, sh: wadshoodet, washoodiet to shoot.
r and d: merobeesh, madabeesh thread, twine.
t and d: tapathook, dapathook canoe.
t and th: meotick, mae-adthike house; mattic, mathick stinking.
d and th: ebanthoo, ebadoe water.
th and z: nunyetheek, ninezeek five.
th and s, sh: mamud-thuk, memasook tongue; thamook, shamook
capelan [caplin].
s and z: osenyet, ozegeen scissors.
s and sh: mamset, mamishet alive; bobboosoret, baubooshrat
codfish.
p and b: shapoth, shaboth candle.
In regard to vowels, the inaccurate transmission of the words
does not give us any firm hold; still we find alternation between:
a and o: bogomat, bogomot breast; dattomeish, dottomeish trout.
a and e: baasick, bethec beads.
oi and ei: boyish, by-yeech birch.
The points to be gained for the morphology of Beothuk are
more scanty still than what can be obtained for reconstructing its
phonology, and for the inflection of its verb we are entirely in
the dark.
Substantive. The most frequent endings of substantives are
-k and -t, and a few only, like drona hair, end in a vowel.
Whether the substantive had any inflection for case or not, is not
easy to determine; we find however, that maemed hand is given for
the subjective meeman (in m. monasthus to shake hands) for the
objective case; in the same manner nechwa and neechon tobacco,
mameshook and mamudthun mouth. Other terms in -n are probably
worded in the objective or some other of the oblique cases:
ewinon feather, magorun deer's horns, mooshaman ear, ozegeen
scissors, shedothun sugar. Cf. the two forms for head.
A plural is traceable in the substantives deyn-yad bird,
deyn-yadrook birds; odizeet goose, pl. odensook geese; drona, pl.
drone-ooch hair; and to judge from analogy, the following terms
may possibly be worded in the plural form marmeuk eyebrow(s),
messiliget-hook bab(ies?), moisamadrook wolves(?), berroich
clouds, ejabathook sails. Compare also edot fishing line,
adothook fish hook; the latter perhaps a plural of the former.
The numerals 7, 8, 9 also show a suffix -uk, -ook.
Adjectives are exhibiting formative suffixes of very
different kinds gosset and gausep dead, gasook dry, boos-seek
blunt, homedich good, ass-soyt angry, eeshang-eyghth blue, ashei
lean.
/310/ The phrase shedbasing wathik upper arm would seem to
show, that the adjective, when used attributively, precedes the
noun which it qualifies.
The numerals of our list are all provided with the suffix
-eek or -ook; what remains in the numerals from one to ten, is a
monosyllable, except in the instance of six and nine. Yaseek is
given as one and as first (in the term for April)(187) but whether
there was a series of real ordinals we do not know.
Compound nouns. A few terms are recognizable as compound
nouns, and in them the determinative precedes the noun qualified.
wash-geuis moon, lit. "night-sun."
bobbiduish-emet lamp; probably "fire-oil."
kaesin-guinyeet blind; probably for "dry on eyes."
moosin- dgej-jebursut ankle; contains moosin moccasin.
adasweet-eeshamut December; contains odusweet hare, rabbit.
aguathoonet grinding stone; probably contains ahune stone in the initial agu-, agua.
No pronouns whatever could be made out with any degree of
probability.
Concerning the verbal inflection we are almost entirely
without reliable data, nor do we know anything concerning the
subjective and objective pronouns necessarily connected with
conjugational forms.
(1) Verbs mentioned in the participle -ing or in the
infinitive generally end in -t and -k.
-t: amshut to get up, awoodet singing, bituwait to lie down,
cheashit to groan, marot to smell, kingiabit to stand, washoodict to shoot.
-k: carmtack to speak, deschudoodick to blow, ebathook to drink, odishuik to cut.
(2) Imperative forms, to judge from the English translation,
are the following:
deiood! come with us! dyoom! come hither!
dyoot thouret! come hither! (Rob. kooret! kooset!)
nadyed you come back(?)
cockaboset! no fear! do not be afraid!
bobathoowytch! beat him!
deh-hemin! give me!
(3) Participal forms are probably represented by amet awake,
gosset and gausep dead, apparet sunken (Rob. aparit).
(4) The first person of the singular is, according to the
interpretation, contained in the vocables:
ajeedick or vieedisk I like.
boochauwit I am hungry; cf. dauosett.
a-oseedwit I am sleepy; cf. bootzhawet sleep, isedoweet to sleep.
thine I thank you; cf. what was said of betheoate.(188)
(5) Other personal forms of singular or plural are probably
embodied in the terms:
pokoodoont, from odoit to eat.
ieroothack, jeroothack speak, from carmtack to speak.
becket? where do you go?
boobasha; cf. obosheen warming yourself.
(6) Forms in -p and -es, if not misspelt occur in athep,
athess to sit down, gamyess get up, gausep dead.
/311/ (7) No conclusive instance of reduplication as a means
of inflection or derivation occurs in any of the terms
transmitted, though we may compare wawashemet, p. 307,
Nonosabasut, nom. pr. Is mammateek a reduplication of meotick?
Derivatives and the mode of derivation are easier to trace in
this insular language than other grammatic processes. Although
the existence of prefixes is not certain as yet, derivation
through suffixes can be proved by many instances, and there was
probably a large number of suffixes, simple and compound, in
existence. Some of the suffixes were mentioned above, and what
may be considered as "prefixes(?)" will be treated of separately.
Suffix -eesh, -eech, -ish forms diminutive nouns:
mammusemitch puppy, from mamasameet dog.
Mossessdeesh Indian boy.
buhashamesh boy, from bukashaman man.
woaseesh Indian girl, from woas-sut Indian woman.
Shoewanyeesh small vessel, from shuwan bucket, cup.
mandeweech bushes(?): hanyees finger.
Probably the term yeech short is only deduced from the above
instances of diminutives and had no separate existence for itself.
-eet, a frequently occurring nominal suffix:
a-eshemeet lumpfish, deddoweet saw, gaboweete breath, kosweet
dear, kusebeet louse, methabeet cattle, shebohoweet woodpecker,
sheedeneesheet cocklebur, sosheet bat, tedesheet neck, wobesheet
sleeve, probably from wobee white. Also occurring as a verbal
ending; cf. above, hence it is possible that the nouns in -eet are
simply nomina verbalia of verbs in -eet, it.
-k, a suffix found in verbs and nouns:
ebanthook to drink, from ebanthoo water.
obesedeek gloves, perhaps (if not plural form) from obosheen,
q.v.
Verbs in -k were mentioned supra; -ook forms plurals of
substantives, also numerals; in Micmac the suffix for the plural
of animates is -uk, -k, for inanimates -ul, -l; in Abnaki -ak, -al.
-m occurs in nouns like dingyam clothes, lathum(?) trap,
woodum pond; also in ibadinnam, jewmetchem, etc.
-n, suffix of objective case and of many substantives.
-oret, nominal suffix in bobboosoret codfish, bogodoret
heart, manaboret blanket, oodrat fire, shawatharott man.
-uit, -wit occurs in kadimishuite tickle, ethenwit fork,
mondicuet lamp, Demasduit, nom. pr., guashuwit bear; also in
sundry verbs.
-ut occurs in nouns:
woas-sut Indian woman, mokothut fish-species, madyrut hiccough.
Follows a series of terms or parts of speech found only at
the beginning of certain words. Whether they are particles of an
adverbial or /312/ prepositional nature (prefixes), or fragments
of nouns, was not possible for me to decide. The dissyllabic
nature of some of them seems to favour a nominal origin.
bogo- buka-: bogodoret, abbr. bedoret heart.
bogomat breast.
bogathoowytch to kill, beat.
bukashaman man.
buggishamesh boy.
shema bogosthuc muskito.
-ee is the prefix of numerals in the decad from 11 to 19.
hada-, ada-, hoda-, odo-, od- is found in terms for tools,
implements, parts of the animal body. a is easily confounded with
o by English-speaking people.
haddabothic body, hadabatheek belly.
hodanishit knee; cf. hothamashet to run.
hadalahet glass and glass-vase.
hadowadet shovel; cf. od-ishuik to cut, and godawik.
adamadret gun, rifle.
adadimite spoon.
ardobeesh twine; is also spelt adobeesh (Howley).
adothook fishhook.
adoltkhtek, odo-othyke boat, vessel.
mama-, mema-. The terms commencing with this group are all
arrayed in alphabetical order on pp. 305, 306, and point to living
organisms or parts of such or dwellings.
For several English terms the English-Beothuk vocabulary
gives more than one equivalent, even when only one is expected.
With some of their number the inference is, that one of these is
borrowed from an alien language. Thus we have:
devil ashmudyim, haoot.
comb edrathu, moidensu.
hammer iwish, mattuis.
money agamet, beodet. The fact that agamet also means button
finds a parallel in the Greek language, where the term for bead, ao'nawa, ao'nap, forms also the one for coined
money: tchatu aonawa, "stone bead" or "metal bead."
bread annawhadya, manjebathook.
lamp boddiduish-emet, mondicuet.
star adenishit, shawwayet.
grinding stone aguathoonet, shewthake.
shovel gadawik, hadowadet.
trap lathun, shabathoobet.
See also the different terms for cup (vessel), spear, wife,
feather, boy, rain, to hear, etc. Concerning the term trap, one
of the terms may be the noun, the other the verb (to trap). Terms
traceable to alien languages will be considered below.
The term for cat is evidently the same with that for seal and
marten, the similarity of their heads being suggestive for name-giving. In the term for cat, abideshook, a prefix a- appears, for
which I find no second instance in the lists; abidish is, I think,
the full form of the singular for all the three animals.
/313/ Of the two terms for fire, boobeeshawt means what is
warming, cf. boobasha warm, oodrat is the proper term for fire.
Smoke and gunpowder are expressed by the same word in many
Indian languages; here, the one for gunpowder, baasothnut, is a
derivative of basdic smoke.
The muskito, shema bogosthuc, is described as a black fly(?).
Whadicheme in King's vocabulary means to kill.
Beothik as name for man, Indian and Red Indian is probably
more correct than the commonly used Beothuk.
Botomet onthermayet probably contains a whole sentence.
The term for hill, keoosock, kaasook is probably identical
with keathut head.
Ecshamut appears in the names for December and January;
signification unknown.
The most important result to be derived from researches on
the Beothuk people and languages must be the solution of the
problem, whether they formed a race for themselves and spoke a
language independent of any other, or are racially and
linguistically linked to other nations or tribes.
Our means for studying their racial characteristics are very
scanty. No accurate measurements of their bodies are on hand, a
few skulls only are left as tangible remnants of their bodily
existence (described by George Rusk; cf. p. 413). Their
appearance, customs and manners, lodges and canoes seem to testify
in favor of a race separate from the Algonkins and Eskimos around
them, but are too powerless to prove anything. Thus we have to
rely upon language alone to get a glimpse at their origin or
earliest condition.
A comparison with the Labrador and Greenland Inuit language,
commonly called Eskimo, has yielded to me no term resting on real
affinity. The Greenlandish attausek one and B. yaseek one agree
in the suffix only.
R.G. Latham has adduced some parallels of Beothuk with Tinne
dialects, especially with Taculli, spoken in the Rocky Mountains.
But he does not admit such rare parallels as proof of affinity,
and in historic times at least, the Beothuks dwelt too far from
the countries held by Tinne Indians to render any connection
probable. Not the least affinity is traceable between Beothuk and
Iroquois vocables, nor does the phonology of the two yield any
substantial points of equality. Tribes of the Iroquois stock once
held the shores of the St. Lawrence river down to the environs of
Quebec, perhaps further to the northeast and thus lived at no
great distance from Newfoundland.
All that is left for us to do is to compare the sundry
Algonkin dialects with the remnants of the Beothuk speech. Among
these, the Micmac of Nova Scotia and parts of the adjoining
mainland, the Abnaki of New Brunswick and Maine, the Naskapi of
Labrador will more than others /314/ engross our attention, as
being spoken in the nearest vicinity of Newfoundland. The first
of these, Micmac, was spoken also upon the isle itself. Here as
everywhere else, words growing out of the roots of the language
and therefore inherent to it, have to be carefully distinguished
from terms borrowed of other languages. It will be best to make
here a distinction between Beothuk terms undoubtedly Algonkin in
phonetics and signification and other Beothuk terms, which
resemble some words found in Algonkin dialects. Words of these
two categories form part of the list of duplex Beothuk terms for
one English word, as given on a previous page.
(1) Beothuk words also occurring in Algonkin dialects:
-eesh, -ish, suffix forming diminutive nouns: occurs in various
forms in all the Eastern Algonkin dialects.
mamishet: mamseet alive, living; Micmac meemajeet, perhaps
transposed from almajeet.
mattuis hammer; Abnaki mattoo.
mandee devil; Micmac maneetoo, Naskapi (matchi) mantuie.
odemen, odemet ochre; Micmac odemen.
Shebon, sheebin river; Micmac seiboo; sibi, sipi in all Eastern Algonkin dialects for long river.
wobee white; Micmac wabaee, Naskapi waahpou, wahpoau white; also in all Eastern Algonkin dialects; cf. B. wobesheet
sleeve, probably for "white sleeve," and Micmac wobun
daylight.
(2) Beothuk words resembling terms of Algonkin dialects
comparable to them in phonetics and signification. Some of them
were extracted from R.G. Latham's comparative list, in his Comp.
Philology, pp. 433-455.
bathuk rain; Micmac ikfashak, -- paesuk in kiekpaesuk rain; but the other forms given in Beothuk, badoese and watshoosooch, do not agree; cf. ebanthoo water.
boobeshawt fire. The radix is boob- and hence no analogy exists with Ottawa ashkote, Abnaki skoutai and other Algonkin terms
for fire mentioned by Latham.
bukashaman white man, man. Affinity with Micmac wabe akecheenom white man (jaaenan man) through aphaeresis of wa- is exceedingly doubtful. Compare the Beothuk prefixed syllable
bogo.
emet oil; Abnaki pemmee, Ojibew bimide oil; Micmac mema oil, fat, grease.
kannabuch long; cf. the Algonkin names Kennebec, Quinnipiac long inlet), and the Virginian cunnaivwh long (Strachey, p. 190).
kewis, kuis sun, watch; watcha gewis moon (the form kuis is misspelt).
Micmak nakoushet sun, topa-nakoushet moon (in Naskapi beshung, beeshoon sun and moon).
The ordinary term in the Eastern Algonkin languages is
gisis, kisus, kishis for both celestial bodies; goes is the Micmack month appended to each of their month-names.
Magaraguis, magaragueis, mangaroouish son. Latham, supposing guis
to be the portion of the word signifying son, has quoted numerous analogies, as Cree equssis, Ottawa kwis, Shawano koisso, etc., but Robinson has mangarewius sun, King has kewis,
kuis sun, moon, which makes the above term very
doubtful. Probably it was the result of a misunderstanding;
cf. magorun deer(?), kewis sun.
mamoodthuk dog, mamoosem-itch puppy; Micmac alamouch, elmoohe dog,
elmoojeek puppies, Abnaki almoosesauk puppies (alma- in Abn.
corresponds to mama- in Beothuk.)
mamudthun mouth. Latham refers us to Abnaki madoon, Micmac toon, but Leigh has mameshook for mouth and memasook for tongue, which proves that mam, -mem is the radix of the Beothuk word
and not dthun.
manjebathook bread contains in its final part beothuk man people; and in its first perhaps Micmac megisee, maegeechimk to eat,
mijese I eat, or the French manger, obtained through Micmac
Indians. So the signification would be "people's food."
manus berries; Micmac minigechal berries may be compared, provided
mini- is the basis of the term.
moosin moccasin, meoson shoe; probably originated from Abnaki (and
other Algonkin): mkison moccasin through ellipse.
mootchiman ear; in Algonkin dialects tawa is ear and therefore Latham is mistaken in comparing Micmac mootooween, Abnaki
mootawee (my ear).
muddy, mudti, bad dirty; could possibly be the transformed Ottawa
and Massach. word matche, /315/ Mohican matchit, Odjibwe
mudji bad, quoted by Latham. Ashmudyim devil is a derivative
of muddy.
noduera to hear is probably the Micmac noodak I hear (him).
woas-seesh girl is a derivative of woas-sut woman, and therefore
affinity with the Naskapi squashish girl through aphaeresis is not probable, sehquow (s'kwa) being woman in that language. In the Micmac, epit is woman, epita-ish girl.
The lists which yielded the above Algonkin terms are
contained in: A. Gallatin's Synopsis, Archaeologia Americana,
Vol. II, (1836); in Collections of Massachusetts Histor. Society,
I series, for 1799, where long vocabularies of Micmac, Mountaineer
and Naskapi were published; in Rev. Silas T. Rand's First Reading
Book in the Micmac Language, Halifax, 1875, 16mo.; also in Abnaki
(Benekee) and Micmac lists sent to me by R.G. Latham and evidently
taken with respect to existing Beothuk lists, for in both are
mentioned the same special terms, as drawing knife, capelan
[caplin], Indian cup, deer's horns, ticklas, etc. W.E. Cormack or
his attendants probably took all these three vocabularies during
the same year.
In order to obtain a correct and unprejudiced idea of our
comparative Beothuk-Algonkin lists, we have to remember that the
Red Indians always kept up friendly intercourse and trade with the
Naskapi or Mountaineer Indians of Labrador, and that during the
first half of the eighteenth century, when Micmacs had settled
upon Newfoundland, they were, according to a passage of Jukes'
Excursions, the friends of the Beothuk also. During that period
the Beothuk could therefore adopt Algonkin terms into their
language to some extent and such terms we would expect to be
chiefly the words for tools, implements and merchandize
[merchandise], since these were the most likely to become articles
of intertribal exchange. Thus we find in list No. 1 terms like
hammer and ochre, in list No. 2 bread, moccasin, and dog. We are
informed that the Beothuk kept no dogs, and when they became
acquainted with these animals, they borrowed their name from the
tribe in whose possession they saw them first. The term
mamoodthuk dog is, however, of the same root as mamishet, mamset
alive, which we find again in Micmac,(189) and it is puzzling that
the Beothuk should have had no word of their own for alive.
Exactly the same remark may be applied to wobee white and the
suffixes -eesh and -ook, all of which recur in Algonkin languages.
Concerning shebon river, we recall the fact that the Dutch
originally had a German word for river, but exchanged it for the
French riviere; also, that the French adopted la crique from the
English creek, just as they have formed bebe from English baby.
The term for devil could easily be borrowed from an alien people,
for deity names travel from land to land as easily as do the
religious ideas themselves. The majority of these disputed terms
come from Nancy, who had more opportunity to see Micmacs in St.
John's than Mary March.
In our comparative list No. 2 most of the terms do not rest
upon radical affinity, but merely on apparent or imaginary
resemblance. In publishing his comparative list, Mr. Latham did
not at all pretend to prove by it the affinity of Beothuk to
Algonkin dialects; for he distinctly states (p. 453): "that it
was akin to the (languages of the) ordinary American Indians
rather than to the Eskimo; further investigation showing that, of
/316/ the ordinary American languages, it was Algonkin rather than
aught else." In fact, no real affinity is traceable except in
dog, bad and moccasin, and even here the unreliable orthography of
the words preserved leaves the matter enveloped in uncertainty.
The suffix -eesh and the plurals in -ook are perhaps the
strongest arguments that can be brought forward for Algonkin
affinity of Beothuk, but compared to the overwhelming bulk of
words entirely differing this cannot prove anything. In going
over the Beothuk list in 1882 with a clergyman thoroughly
conversant with Ojibwe, Rev. Ignatius Tomazin, then of Red Lake,
Minnesota, he was unable to find any term in Ojibwe corresponding,
except wobee white, and if gigarimamet, net, stood for fishnet,
gigo was the Ojibwe term for fish.
The facts which most strongly militate against an assumed
kinship of Beothuk with Algonkin dialects are as follows:
(1) The phonetic system of both differs largely; Beothuk
lacks f and probably v, while l is scarce; in Micmac and the
majority of Algonkin dialects th, r, dr and l are wanting, but
occur in Beothuk.
(2) The objective case exists in Beothuk, but none of the
Algonkin dialects has another oblique case except the locative.
(3) The numerals differ entirely in both, which would not be
the case if there was the least affinity between the two.
(4) The terms for the parts of the human and animal body, for
colors (except white), for animals and plants, for natural
phenomena, or the celestial bodies and other objects of nature, as
well as the radicals of adjectives and verbs differ completely.
When we add all this to the great discrepancy in ethnologic
particulars, as canoes, dress, implements, manners and customs, we
come to the conclusion that the Red Indians of Newfoundland must
have been a race distinct from the races on the mainland shores
surrounding them on the North and West. Their language I do not
hesitate, after a long study of its precarious and unreliable
remnants, to regard as belonging to a separate linguistic family,
clearly distinct from Inuit, Tinne, Iroquois and Algonkin. Once a
refugee from some part of the mainland of North America, the
Beothuk tribe may have lived for centuries isolated upon
Newfoundland, sustaining itself by fishing and the chase.(190) When
we look around upon the surface of the globe for parallels of
linguistic families relegated to insular homes, we find the Elu
upon the Island of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean, and the extinct
Tasmanian upon Tasmania Island, widely distant from Australia.
The Harafuru or Alfuru languages of New Guinea and vicinity, are
spoken upon islands only. Almost wholly confined to islands are
the nationalities speaking Malayan, Aino, Celtic, Haida and Ale-ut
dialects; only a narrow strip of territory now shows from which
portion of the mainland they may have crossed over the main to
their present abodes.
/317/ Among the three vocabularies which I have recently had the
good fortune of receiving, there is one just as old as the
century, and another comes from an aged person who has actually
heard words of the language pronounced by a Beothuk Indian. I
take pleasure in placing these lists before the Society, together
with a number of new ethnographic facts gathered in the old haunts
of the extinct race, which will prove to be of scientific value.
While engaged in surveying the Bay of Exploits during the
summer months of 1886, Mr. Howley became acquainted with Mrs.
Jure, then about seventy-five years old, who once had been the
fellow-servant of Shanawdithit, or Nancy, at Mr. John Peyton's,
whose widow died about the close of the year 1885. Mrs. Jure was,
in spite of her age, hale and sound in body and mind, and
remembered with accuracy all the little peculiarities of
Shanawdithit, familiarly called "Nance." Many terms of Beothuk
learned from Nance she remembered well, and at times was
complimented by Nance for the purity of her pronunciation; many
other terms were forgotten owing to the great lapse of time since
1829. Mr. Howley produced his vocabularies and made her repeat
and pronounce such words in it as she could remember. Thus he
succeeded in correcting some of the words recorded by Leigh and
Cormack, and also to acquire a few new ones. He satisfied himself
that Mrs. Jure's pronunciation must be the correct one, as it came
directly from Shanawdithit, and that its phonetics are extremely
easy, much more so than those of Micmac, having none of the nasal
drawl of the latter dialect. She also pronounced several Micmac
words exactly as Micmacs pronounce them, and in several instances
corrected Mr. Howley as to the mistranslation of some Beothuk
words. The twenty-three words which Mr. Howley has obtained from
this aged woman embody nine new ones; this enabled me to add in
parentheses their true pronunciation and wording in my scientific
alphabet.
A vocabulary of Beothuk has just come to light, which appears
to be, if not more valuable, at least older than the ones
investigated by me heretofore. It contains one hundred and twelve
terms of the language, many of them new to us. It was obtained,
as stated, by the Rev. John Clinch, a minister of the Church of
England, and a man of high education, /318/ stationed as Parish
priest at Trinity, in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. The original is
contained in the Record Book, preserved in the office of Justice
Pinsent, D.C.L., of the Supreme Court at Harbour Grace, and it has
been printed in the Harbour Grace Standard and Conception Bay
Advertiser, of Wednesday, May 2, 1888, some biographic and other
notes being added to it in the number of May 12th.
Among these the following will give us a clearer insight into
the question of authenticity of Clinch's vocabulary. John Clinch
was born in Gloucestershire, England, and in early youth studied
medicine under a practitioner at Cirencester, where he became a
fellow of Dr. Jenner, who discovered the celebrated specific
against small-pox. In those times, no law compelled a man to
undergo examination for diplomas; so Clinch migrated to Bonavista,
Newfoundland, and established himself there in 1775 as a
physician, but in 1783 removed to Trinity. Besides his practice,
he conducted services in church, was ordained deacon and priest in
London, in 1787, then worked over thirty years at Trinity in his
sacred calling, until his death, which must have occurred about
1827. He has the merit of introducing vaccination upon that
island, and there are people living now who were vaccinated by
him. He was also appointed to judicial charges.
Simultaneously with Mr. Clinch, a Beothuk Indian stayed in
that town, known as John August. Tradition states that he was
taken from his mother when a child and brought up by a colonist,
Jeffrey G. Street. He then remained in Street's house as an
intelligent and faithful servant, and when arrived at manhood was
entrusted with the command of a fishing smack manned by whites.
Frequently he obtained leave to go into the country, where he
probably communicated with his tribe. The parish register of
Trinity records his interment there on October 29, 1788.
As there is no other Beothuk Indian known to have resided
among white people of Newfoundland at that time, it is generally
supposed that Mr. Clinch, who lived there since 1783, obtained his
collection from none else but from John August. The selection of
words differs greatly from that in Leigh's Vocabulary, but the
identity of a few terms, which are quite specific, as hiccups,
shaking hands, warming yourself, induces Mr. Howley to believe
that he, Leigh, had Clinch's Vocabulary before him. One item in
Clinch's list, "Ou-bee: her own name," seems to indicate that it
was obtained from a female. Indeed, in 1803, a Beothuk woman was
captured, presented to Governor Gambier, and subsequently sent
back to her tribe. Mrs. Edith Blake, in her article, "The
Beothuks," gives a description of her and of her presence at a
social meeting at the Governor's house, St. John's.(191)
I have obtained a copy of the printed vocabulary through Mr.
Howley. It was full of typographic errors, and these were
corrected by him with the aid of a copy made of the original at
Trinity by Mrs. Edith Blake, who took the greatest pains to secure
accuracy. The Record Book states that Rev. Clinch obtained the
vocabulary in Governor Waldegraves' time,(192)
/319/ and the volume
which contains it embodies documents of the year 1800; this date
would form an argument against the supposition, that it was
obtained from the female captured in 1803. Below I have
reproduced all the terms of this vocabulary, as it surpasses all
the others in priority, though perhaps not in accuracy. The words
are all syllabicated, but none of them show accentuation marks; I
have printed most of them in their syllabicated form.
Capt. Robinson has consulted and partly copied the Clinch
vocabulary, as will be readily seen by a comparison of the terms
in both.
CM. -- The W.E. Cormack vocabulary, from a Montreal copy of the manuscript.
J. -- The Jure vocabulary.
No letter. -- The Clinch vocabulary.
Words in parentheses contain the transcription of vocables into my
scientific alphabet.
Abenick gaping, CM.
Abideeshook domestic cat, CM.
Abus-thib-e kneeling.
Adayook eight; ee-adajook eighteen, CM.
Adi-ab wood.
Adjieich two; ee-ajike twelve, adjeich atho-onut twenty-two, CM.
Adothe or odeothyke boat, vessel, CM.
Agamet buttons and money, CM.
Ah-wadgebick, awadgebick (awadshibik) middle finger, J.
Amshut or yamyess get up, CM.; cf. kinnup.
Anaduck sore throat, CM.
Arrobauth blood; ashabooutte or iggobauth (for izzobauth) blood,
CM.
Atho-onut twenty; adjeich atho-onut twenty-two, CM.
Bashedtheek six; ee-beshedtheek sixteen, CM.
Bay-sot, bazot, besot, besut, to walk J.
Beathook Red Indian, CM.
Beteok good night, CM.
Boas-seek blunt, CM.
Bobodish sea pigeon, J.; bobbidish pigeon, black guillemot, CM.
Boddebmoot woman's bosom, CM.
Boo-it, buit (bu-it), thumb, J.
Boshoodik or boshwadit to bite, CM.
Botonet-onthermayet teeth, CM. (onthermayet alone means teeth; cf. below).
Buggishaman man, J.; bukashman or bookshimon man, CM.; pushaman,
man.
Buggishamish boy, J.; bugasmeesh white boy, CM.
Chee-a-shit, groaning; cheasit, CM.
Chee-thing a walking stick.
Cobthun-eesamut January, CM.
Co-ga-de-alla leg.
Coosh lip.
Corrasoob sorrow; snow (snow, by confounding it with kausussa- book?).
Cowasazeek July, CM.
Cusebee louse; casebeet, CM.
Cush nails.
Dabseek four; ee-dabseek fourteen CM.
Deshudodoick to blow, CM.
Deu-is sun or moon (doubtful).
Dis-up fishing line.
Dogemat or ashoog-ing (Howley: ash-vog-ing) arrow, CM.
Drummet (drumt) hair, J.; don-na (Clinch).
Ebauthoo water; ebanthoo, CM.
Eemommoos, immawmoose (imamus) woman, J.
Eemommooset, immomooset (imamuset) girl, J.
Eewo-in, ewoin (iwo-in) knife, J.; yew-oin a knife.
Ejeedoweshin, edgedoweshin (edshidoweshin) fowl, J.
Ejibidinish silk handkerchief, CM.
Emeethook dogwood, CM.
Ersh-bauth catching fish.
Euano go out, CM.
Eve-nau feathers.
Gei-je-bursut; see moosin.
Giggaremanet net, CM.
Giwashuwet bear, CM.
Gosset stockings; gasaek, CM.
Gothieget ticklas, CM.
Goun chin, CM.
Gun or guen nose, CM.
Hadda-bothy body.
Hadibiet glass, CM.
Hados-do ding sitting.
Hanamait spoon.
Han-nan a spear; first letter uncertain.
Ha-the-may a bow.
Hedy-yan stooping.
Hods-mishit knee.
Hod-thoo to shoot.
Hod-witch fool.
Hurreen and huz-seen a gun.
Huzza-gan rowing.
Ii-be-ath yawning.
Io-ush-zath stars (doubtful).
/320/ Is-shu, izhu, ishu (izhu), make haste, J.
Ite-ween thigh.
Jib-e-thun (or, iib-e-thun) a trap or gin.
Jigganisut gooseberry, CM.
Yamyess; see amshut.
Yaseek one; ee-yagiesk eleven, CM.
Yeothoduck nine; ee-yeothoduck nineteen, CM.
Yew-one wild goose.
Yew-why dirt.
Keathut; gorathun (obj. case) head, CM.; he-aw-thou head, ke-aw- thon your head.
Kess-yet a flea.
King-able standing.
Kinnup, kinup, get up, J.
Koo-rae lighting; fire.
Koothabonong-bewajowite February, CM.
Kuis; mangaronish sun, CM.; kuis watch, CM.
Kuis and washewnishite moon, CM.
Mady-u-a leaves.
Magorum deer's horns, CM.
Mamasheek islands, CM.
Mamegemethin shoulders, CM.; momezabethon shoulder.
Mam-isutt alive, CM.
Mammadronitan lord bird(193), CM.
Mammasamit dog, J. (mammasavit is incorrect); mammasareet, mamoosernit dog, CM. (reet false for mit).
Mamooseemich puppy, CM.
Manarooit, blanket, CM.
Mangaronish; see kuis.
Manjebathook beard (on page 305; bread, which is probably false; see annawhadya), CM.
Mau-the-au-thaw crying; cf. su-au-thou.
Memajet anus, CM. (false for arms).
Memet hand, CM,; memen (obj. case) hands and fingers; meman momasthus shaking hands.
Me-ma-za tongue.
Menome dogberries.
Me-roo-pish twine, thread.
Mi-a-woth flying; meaoth flying, CM.
Midy-u-theu sneezing.
Mis-muth ear.
Mithie coal.
Moadamutt to boil, as dinner, CM.
Mom-au a seal.
Mome-augh eyebrow.
Moocus elbow.
Moosin and gei-je-bursut ankle, CM.
Mowgeenuck, mougenuk (maudshinuk) iron, J.; mowageene iron.
Mud-ty bad (dirty); mudeet bad (of character).
Mudy-rau hiccups.
Musha-a-bauth oakum or tow.
Nethabete cattle, CM.
Nine knife, CM. (false for u-ine, yewoin).
Nine jeck five; ee-ninezeek fifteen, CM.
No-mash-nush scalping.
Now-aut hatchet.
Obodish, obbodish, cat, J.; obditch a beast; cf. abideeshook.
Obosheen warming yourself.
Obseedeek gloves, CM.
Odasweet-eeshamut December, CM.
Od-au-sot rolling.
Oddesamick, odd-essamick (odesamik), little finger, J.
Odemet ochre, CM. (ochre mixed with oil, emet, Howley).
Onnus (ones) forefinger, index, J.
Oodzook seven; ee-oodyook seventeen, CM.
Oregreen (?) scissors, CM.
Oreru ice, CM.; cf. ozeru.
Osavate rowing, CM.
Osweet (oswit) deer, J.; osweet, CM.
Ou-bee (nom. pr. fem.) "her own name."(194)
Ou-gen stone.
Ou-ner-mish a little bird (species of?).
Outhermay teeth.
Ow-the-je-arra-thunum to shoot an arrow perpendicularly.
Pa-pa de aden a fork.
Pau-shee birch rind; paper.
Peatha fur, hair of beast.
Pedth-ae rain.
Pe-to-tho-risk thunder.
Pig-a-thee a scab.
Pis-au-wau lying.
Podibeac oar, CM.; poodybe-ac an oar.
Poopusraut fish.
Poorth thumb; cf. boad.
Popa-dish a large bird (species of?).
Posson the back.
Poss-thee smoke; cf. baasdic.
Pug-a-thuse beating; pug-a-tho throwing.
Pug-a-zoa eating.
Pug-e-non to break a stick.
Puth-u-auth sleep.
Shabathooret trap, CM.
Shamye currants.
Shansee ten, CM.
Shaub-ab-un-o I have to throw your trap.
Shau-da-me partridge berries.
Shebohowit; sheebuint woodpecker, CM.
She-both kissing.
Shedbasing upper arm, CM.
She-ga-me to blow the nose; shegamik, CM.
Shemabogosthuc muskito (black fly), CM.
Shendeek (or sheudeek?) three; ee-shaedeck thirteen, CM.
Shisth grass.
Shucodimit Indian cup, CM.
Sou-sot spruce rind.
Stiocena thumb, CM.
Su-au-thou singing.
Su-gu-mith birds' excrement.
Susut fowl, partridge.
Tapaithook canoe, CM.; cf. thub-a-thew.
Tedesheet neck.
The-oun the chin; cf. goun.
Thub-a-thew boat or canoe.
/321/ Thub-wed gie dancing.
Tis eu-thun wind.
Traw-na-soo spruce.
Tus-mug pin; tus-mus needle.
Tu-wid-yie swimming.
Waine hoop, CM.
Washeu night, darkness, CM.
Wasumaw-eeseek April, June, September, CM.
Washewnishite; see kuis and washeu.
Weshemesh herring, CM.
Who-ish-me laughing.
Widdun (widun or widan), asleep; also euphemistically for dead.
Woodrut fire, CM.
Wothamashet running, CM.; wothamashee running.
Wooth-yan walking.
Wyabick (wayabik) ring-finger, J.
Zatrook husband, CM.
Zosweet partridge (willow grouse), CM. (same word as susut).
The ending -bauth occurs so frequently that we may have to
consider it as a suffix used in the derivation of substantives;
thus we have, e.g., izzo-bauth blood, arsh-bauth catching fish,
mushabauth oakum, tow.
emmamoose woman, emamoset child, girl, resemble strongly the
following Algonkin terms: amemens child in Lenape (Barton),
amosens daughter in Virginian (Strachey, Vocab., p. 183).
Ama'ma is mother in the Greenland Inuit.
The sound l occurs but four times in the words which have
come to our notice: adolthtek, lathun, messiliget-hook,
nadalahet. In view of the negligent handwriting in which all of
these vocabularies have reached us, it is permitted to doubt its
existence in the language.
menome dogberries is a derivative of manus berries.
mamoose whortle berries, Rob., is perhaps misspelt for
manoose.
Cf. min grain, fruit, berry, in all Eastern Algonkin
dialects.
ozeru, ozrook, ice; E. Petitot renders the Montagnais (Tinne)
ezoge by "gelee blanche" (frost), t'en-zure by "glace vive." The
resemblance with the Beothuck word seems only fortuitous.
poopusraut fish is identical with bobboosoret codfish (or
bacalaos, Mscr.).
pug-a-zoa eating; the latter probably misspelt for beating.
stioeena thumb, CM., is misspelling of itweena, which means
thigh, not thumb.
The new ethnologic and linguistic facts embodied in this
"Third Article" do not alter in the least the general results
which I deduced from my two previous articles and specified in
Proceedings of 1886, pp. 226 to 428. On the contrary, they
corroborate them intrinsically and would almost by themselves be
sufficient to prove that the Beothuck race and the language were
entirely sui generis. By the list contained in this "Third
Article" the number of Beothuck vocables known to us is brought up
to four hundred and eighty, which is much more than we know of the
majority of other American languages and dialects.
The violent hatred and contempt which the Beothucks nourished
against all the races in their vicinity seems to testify by itself
to a radical difference between these and the Algonkin tribes.
The fact that we know of no other homes of the Beothuck people
than Newfoundland, does not entitle us to conjecture, that they
were once driven from the mainland opposite and settled as
refugees upon the shores of that vast island. It is more
/322/
probable that this race anciently inhabited a part of the mainland
simultaneously with the island, which would presuppose that the
Beothucks were then more populous than in the historic period.
Numerous causes may account for the fact that we do not notice
them elsewhere since the beginning of the sixteenth century:
fragmentary condition of our historic knowledge, rigorous colds,
epidemics, want of game, famine, infanticide, may be [maybe] wars
among themselves or with strangers. Some of these potent factors
may have cooperated in extinguishing the Beothucks of the mainland
from whom the island Beothucks must have once descended -- while
the tribes settled upon Newfoundland may have increased and
prospered, owing to a more genial climate and other physical
agencies.
Mr. T.G.B. Lloyd, C.E., F.G.S., M.A.I., read a couple of
papers on the subject of the Red Indians of Newfoundland, in 1873-4, before the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain.
The first of these papers gives merely a cursory review of
the historical references, already fully dealt with. He quotes
Cartwright's journal in full and makes that narrative the basis of
his observations. Only a few remarks of his are worth recording.
Lloyd says, "Peyton confirms the statement of the Indians not
having dogs, and also states they did not use narcotics."
During a short stay at Labrador last fall (1873) he was
informed that about half a century ago a tribe of Red Indians was
living near Battle Harbour, opposite Belle Isle, which committed
depredations on the fishermen. A story is told of the Indians
having on one occasion cut off the heads of two white children
which they stuck on poles, but he adds Cartwright makes no mention
of them in his journal of a residence of nearly sixteen years on
the coast of Labrador, published in 1792, in which he speaks of
Battle Harbour.(195) Peyton says the two small images found in Mary
March's coffin by Cormack, were so placed along with several other
articles she took a fancy to while in St. John's, by Buchan's
people. Peyton also said the dress of the Indians consisted of
two dressed deer skins, which were thrown over their shoulders.
Sometimes they wore sleeves of the same material, but never
anything else as a covering. On their feet they wore rough
moccasins of deer skins (probably made from the shanks as do the
Micmacs).
Their eyes were black and piercing. Men and women wore their
black hair long. Their complexion was lighter than the Micmacs,
and resembled that of Spaniards etc.
Stone pipes are said to have been found at their camping
places, but Peyton is very positive they did not use narcotics of
any kind.
Two half breed hunters who are supposed to be the last who
saw the Red Indians, believe the remnant left the country and
crossed the Straits of Belle Isle to Labrador.
/323/ John Lewis, a Mohawk Metis, who could speak several
Indian dialects, informed Mr. Curtis that the Beothuck language
was unknown amongst the Canadian tribes.
Lloyd's second paper treats mainly of their stone, bone and
other implements found by himself in the course of a cruise around
the island. He says, "These implements belong to the class known
as surface implements." Numerous discoveries of chisels, gouge-shaped implements, stone pots, spear heads, etc., have been made
in various parts of the island. The localities at present known,
are comprised in the following list. Starting from St. John's and
passing round the island north and west, they will be met with in
the following order; -- at Fox Harbour Random Sound Trinity Bay,
in Bonavista Bay, Funk Island, Twillingate Island, Bay of
Exploits, Notre Dame Bay; Fogo Island; Granby Island and Sop
Island White Bay; Conche, Howe Harbour, Hare Bay Bonne Bay, Mouth
of Flat Bay Brook Bay St. George; Codroy River, Burgeo Islands;
Long Island and Ragged Islands, Placentia Bay. To which may now
be added, The River Head of St. John's itself, Collinet River in
Peninsula of Avalon, the Beaches and Gambo Bonavista Bay, at
Comfort Head, Swan Island, Yellow Fox Id. and other places in the
Bay of Exploits. At Sunday Cove Island, Hall's Bay, Long Island,
Pilley's Island, Middle and Western Arms, Rouge Har. South West
Arm, Indian Burying place in Notre Dame Bay, Fleur de Lis,(196) La
Scie, etc. At Cony and Cat Arms White Bay. At Pistolet Bay on
the Northern extremity of Newfoundland, and on the west side of
the Island, at Port au Choix, Cow Head, and other places. In the
interior, at Grand Lake, Sandy Lake, Red Indian Lake etc.
It is worthy of remark that most of the above localities are
situated on the sea coast. Mr. Lloyd then describes two
localities where he discovered these implements, viz., at Sop
Island and at Conche; in both cases they were covered by vegetable
mould for a depth of a few inches. He found numerous small arrow
heads and gouge shaped tools, broken fragments of pots and an
immense number of chips and flakes. The ground had the appearance
of having been burnt. Fragments of small bones of birds, also
burnt, were mixed up with these implements, or arranged in small
groups. They were the "Kitchen middens" of the Beothucks. At
Conche, the implements were found at a depth of about 18 inches
below the surface, and mixed up with them were some fragments of
human skeletons, and seal bones all so much decayed as to crumble
to pieces when handled. Drinking cups of soapstone, broken and
entire, together with a stone knife about 18 inches long had been
found here previous to Lloyd's visit.
"These may be conveniently divided into nine classes, 1st.
axe and chisel shaped tools, 2nd. gouge shaped tools, 3rd. broken
stone pots, 4th. sinkers, 5th. spear and arrow heads, 6th.
scrapers or planes, 7th. fish /324/ hooks, 8th. objects in the
course of manufacture, 9th. whetstones, rubbing stones, and other
miscellaneous articles.
"No. 1. These implements are made of rough pieces of stone
by the simple process of rubbing down one end to a chisel shaped
edge. Here he figures two of these, one of which was said to have
been taken from a Red Indian wigwam in the year 1810. The man who
got possession of it, said it fell from the hands of an Indian,
who was apparently occupied in skinning or cutting up some animal,
as it was covered with blood. None of these tools show any
indication of having been mounted in handles.
"No. 2. These also appear to have been manufactured from any
suitable shaped pieces of stone which came to hand. Some of these
are made of chert, and are highly finished. All the articles
belonging to class 1 & 2 shew marks of fracture on their bevelled
edges.
"No. 3. A comparison of the fragments of stone vessels
indicates that the larger ones, when whole, were from eight to
nine inches in length and breadth, and about 4 or 5 inches in
height, with a depth inside of some three inches or thereabouts.
The material of which these vessels are composed, is impure
steatite (serpentine or potstone). Mr. Lloyd thinks some of these
vessels may have been used as lamps, from the fact of their having
small holes bored through the sides for suspending them.
"No. 4. These sinkers were egg shaped pieces of soapstone.
Mr. Lloyd describes one from the Indian burying place, which he
thinks must have been used as a hook. It is a small oval shaped
piece of soapstone 1 1/4 inches long, pointed at the lower end.
It has two shallow grooves, one horizontal the other vertical, for
the attachment of a line. On one side of the object there is a
barbed-shaped projection which suggests the idea of a combination
of sinker and hook for catching small fish.
"No. 5. Mr. John Evans, in his standard work on Stone
Implements, places the javelins and arrow heads under the same
heading, and remarks on the difficulty of distinguishing the one
class from the other. Taking Mr. Evans for my guide, I have
divided the specimens into the following classes: (a) Stemmed
arrow heads; (b) double barbed triangular Do.; (c) abnormal forms.
"Class (a) must have been from 5 to 6 inches long, and must
have been a spear head.
"Class (b). In point of number and excellence of workmanship
these form the most important group. The specimens belonging to
it show a gradual diminution in length, from about 3 inches down
to 5 sixteenths of an inch, they also differ in the relation of
the length of the two sides to the base, thus giving to the more
elongated forms a straighter contour than the shorter ones, the
bases are all hollowed out, some more than others. The larger
ones have a notch cut in them on either side, near their bases.
The arrow heads were made of hornstone and quartzite, which appear
to be excellent material for the purpose.
"Class (c). These specimens represent a broad flat implement
of chert of a somewhat leaf shaped form. The base, above which
are two notches, is slightly notched. They are finely serrated
all around the edges. Another /325/ is of a triangular shape in
outline, slightly hollowed out at base above which are two
notches.
"Mr. Evans says of North American forms, p. 362, `The arrow
heads with a notch at the base on either side, is a prevailing
type in North America. The triangular form usually but little
excavated at the base, is also common there. For the most part
the chipping is but rough, as the material which is usually chert,
hornstone, or even quartz does not readily lend itself to fine
work. They were made of various sizes, the smaller for boys, and
those for men varying in accordance with the purpose to which they
were to be applied.'
"(6) is a group of the class of implements generally termed
`scrapers' for which various uses have been suggested -- such as
for scraping skins and planing wood, as also for the manufacture
of articles of horn and bone, for fabricating arrow heads, knives
of flint, and as strike-a-lights. Those from Newfoundland are
more or less triangular. They vary in size from 2 inches to 1/2
an inch in length, usually made of hornstone or opaque quartz.
"(7) These peculiar shaped objects appeared to me to have
been used as scrapers for rounding the shafts of arrows, but Mr.
Franks suggested that they were points of fish hooks fastened into
shafts of bone, which latter were bound round the end of a strip
of wood. Such articles were used by the Eskimos.
"(8) These consist of cores of hornstone a number of flakes
& chips with a quantity of raw materials of quartz hornstone etc.
"(9) Various articles, one of which, a thin piece of
micaceous slate about 4 inches long and 3/8 of an inch broad near
the middle, tapering towards both ends, thus showing four groups
of small notches arranged on one side of the stone. At pretty
nearly equal distances apart, the notches are all about the same
length. Besides this, several awl shaped tools of hornstone, one
of them showing marks of wear at the point, another partially
serrated on one side. Similar boring implements of flint have
been found in Denmark in company with scrapers and other tools,
numerous rubbing stones and flat pieces of slate, apparently
whetstones etc.
"Though possessing many characteristics belonging to many
tribes of North American Indians, the Beothucks appear to differ
from the others in certain peculiarities as follows.
"1 Lightness of complexion.
"2 The peculiar form of their canoes.
"3 The use of trenches in their wigwams for sleeping places.
"4 The custom of living in a state of isolation far from the
White inhabitants of the island, and the persistent refusal to
submit to any attempt to civilize them.
"5 Non domestication of the dog amongst them.
"6 The art of making pottery was unknown amongst them."
Mr. L thinks the chisel shaped tools were used for skinning
seals and other animals, and the gouge shaped for removing the
vellum off the skins, and that both kinds were of service in
hollowing out the soft stone vessels.
/326/ The scrapers. These form a series of implements of the
hardest kind of stone, and are characterised by a similarity of
form and style of workmanship. They vary in size down to such as
can be conveniently grasped between the thumb and fore finger.
The planes of their working forces meet at angles which make them
more suitable for abrasion, by a backward than a forward movement
of the hand. He thinks these were used for the fashioning of
arrow and spear shafts and heads amongst other purposes.
The branches of the great Algonkin nation, recent and modern,
include the Aborigines of Montreal, the Chippeways, and Crees of
the NW. of Canada, the Montagnards and the Nascuapees of Labrador,
besides the Ottawas and the Abanakis. In short they embrace the
whole of the Indian tribes extending from beyond the head of Lake
Superior to the Atlantic coast, with the exception of the Eskimos.
About the year 1875 (?) a Mr. Samuel Coffin cleared a small
piece of ground at a place called Spencer's Cove at the northern
end of Long Island, Placentia Bay. This place was uninhabited at
that time, but had been frequently visited by the fishermen to
procure firewood. Mr. Coffin in clearing the soil came across a
number of Indian implements and other relics of the Beothucks.
The late Alex. Murray, C.M.G., F.G.S., the then Director of the
Geological Survey of this island, who evinced a great interest in
the subject of the Red Indians, despatched Mr. Albert Bradshaw of
Placentia to examine and report upon the find. The following is
Mr. Bradshaw's report.
ST. JOHN'S, July 15th, 1876.
Alexander Murray Esqr. F.G.S.
Sir,
In accordance with your request, and the instructions
contained in a letter bearing date -- ? to visit and examine
Spencer's Cove on the North east end of Long Island, I beg to
state that I have complied with the request, and submit to you the
following report, as the result of my investigation.
1st. The specimens obtained by me, were found at the height
of five feet above high water mark, in a deposit of black clay
formed of the debris of the camps of the Indians. There are from
eight to twelve inches of this deposit resting upon a bed of brown
clay and pebbles.
2nd. Above the deposit in which the specimens were found,
there are from twelve to fifteen inches of peat, formed from
decomposed wood, and other vegetable matter. Immediately under
this, and resting on the aforementioned deposit there is a layer
of red slate. Although there were found a few of the arrow heads
etc. above the slate, the principal quantity was discovered
beneath it.
I have not met with any trace of iron or iron rust, in any
part of the ground. The iron axe found by Mr. Coffin on the
clearing is of more recent date and has evidently been lost by
some person engaged in cutting timber.
I have not met with any shells or organic remains in or below
the superficial deposit; nor have I in any case met with charcoal
except the burnt wood about the site of their fireplaces.
I do not think it probable that iron in any of its uses had
been known to the tribe of Indians who inhabited the Island at
that period, for had it been used by /327/ them, it would be
impossible from the quantity of land now under cultivation there,
not to have met with some trace of it. I found the remains of a
pot formed of stone, which goes far to prove that they employed
stone for all the uses, for which more recently, iron has been
substituted.
Some fifty or sixty years ago this place was covered with a
heavy growth of timber, and judging from traces not yet totally
destroyed, I was enabled to ascertain that the growth was of a
large size, as many of the stumps measured from fifteen to
eighteen inches through.
I found very few traces of bones, and even those were very
much decomposed, and I am led to conjecture from the position of
them, that they were the bones of inferior animals, being above
the deposit of black clay and immediately beneath the peat
formation.
I am not of opinion that the place was at all used as a
burying ground, as if such were the case, I should have met with
traces of bones beneath the surface.
The place has evidently been only used as a summer resort and
a sort of factory for making and repairing tools and implements of
warfare, as the traces amply testify, there being a large quantity
of shavings and chips of stone which plainly shows that the
manufacturing of tools has been extensively carried on here.
Mr. Coffin, in turning up the soil previous to cultivation
has met with numerous spear and arrow heads, gouges and stone
axes, grinding or rubbing stones, all of which appear to have some
defect, none being entirely perfect. Showing that when they left
the place they took everything that might be of any service to
them, and leaving only those that were of little or no importance.
This in my opinion is proof positive that they left the island for
some reason, with the intention of not returning to it again.
It is worthy of mention that the remains of the pot above
referred to was found to be composed of steatite and is an
importation, as there is no serpentine to be met within the
neighborhood of Placentia Bay.(197)
(signed) ALBERT BRADSHAW.
Similar stone implement factories to that described by Mr.
Bradshaw, occur at several other points on the coast as well as in
the interior. Of this character are several of those mentioned in
Lloyd's paper, notably those at the Beaches Bonavista Bay, at
Conche, N.E. coast, at Cow Head west coast, and at Grand and Sandy
lakes in the interior. At each of the above localities numerous
flakes and fragments of chert and other material are scattered
around, together with incomplete or spoiled tools, and pieces of
the rock from which they were made. This latter consists usually
of black chert, pale bluish hornstone (a variety of flint), smoky
and other varieties of quartz or quartzite. It is from such
material most of the arrow and spear heads, also the scrapers are
made. Many of the larger tools, such as the gouges, chisels, or
"celts," fleshers, etc., are made of a hard altered slate, called
feldsite slate, characteristic of some of the older geologic
periods in this island. Most of these materials were found in the
near vicinity of those workshops, which was no doubt the reason of
their being so situated. In the same way, the soapstone or
steatite pot factories were located in localities where cliffs of
that material exist. At a place on the N.E. coast called Fleur de
Lis, where a cliff of this material occurs, numerous fragments of
half finished or spoiled pots and other vessels have been met
with, and in the cliff itself, are plainly /328/ to be seen the
outlines of similar vessels in process of being manufactured (see
Plate XXXII).
Of an entirely different character to these are the burying-places, where in connection with the human remains, are always
found the finished implements of stone, and sometimes of iron,
stolen from the fishermen and a great variety of bone ornaments,
fragments of shells, broken glass bottles, bones of small mammals
and birds, packages of red ochre, fire stones, of pyrites, and a
host of other things, but scarcely ever any chips or flakes of
stone as in the former.
One of these sepulchres at Swan Island, Bay of Exploits has
already been described, another which was found at a place called
Port au Choix on the West coast, yielded a great number of
articles, of a somewhat different type from those usually found in
their burial places. They consisted of, (1) Two lower jaw bones
of human beings, both broken. One was evidently that of a very
old individual, three of the molar teeth on the right side and one
on the left side are absent, and in each case the cavities are
filled up with porous bone. None of the teeth remained in this
jaw, but the cavities of twelve are seen. The chin looks very
massive. The second jaw appeared to have had all its teeth but
only four jaw teeth remain, the rest having fallen out. There
were also twelve loose teeth including one molar. Most of these
appear to be in a good state of preservation, yet a few show signs
of decay on the crowns. A peculiarity of all these teeth, and for
that matter all the Red Indian teeth I have ever seen is the fact
that in every instance they are worn down smooth and quite flat on
the crown, like a ruminants. I can only account for this feature
by supposing that the Beothucks, like the Eskimos, were in the
habit of chewing their skin garments along the edges to soften
them in the process of dressing and manufacturing them. To effect
this end the Eskimos work their jaws sideways, and no doubt the
friction tends to wear down the teeth. There were also amongst
these relics, part of an upper jaw showing nasal cavities; the
teeth were gone but seven spaces where they had been are visible,
and one space is filled up with bone, as in the lower jaw referred
to above.
There were three long narrow pointed teeth, slightly curved,
apparently those of a dog or seal, and five broken pieces of
beaver's teeth, three lower and two upper.
(2) Two bone spear sockets, small and slightly made, a good
deal decayed. Two fragments of a deer's leg bone, apparently cut
or scraped, and used for some purpose or another. A third
fragment had a hole bored through, near the edge. Two other
slightly curved pieces have grooves cut along the inner side
lengthways, and one of them has a hole bored through, at about 1/3
of the length. The hole is oblique, and cut with square angles;
it has a slight notch also cut in the outer edge about 1/3 from
the other end. The second piece has no hole in it, but in the
middle of the outer edge a slight notch is seen. A third smaller
piece of bone has a chisel edge at one end. Still another piece
is shaped like the small blade of a penknife with a slit like the
barb of a fishhook near one end. A much larger piece of bone,
evidently of a Whale, is nearly square and /329/ about four inches
long, bevelled away at one end to a chisel edge, and apparently
the same at the other end which is now decayed. These chisels
were at right angles to each other. Two other pieces of bone
somewhat similar to the last, have blunt chisel edges at one end,
but taper away to points at the other; also a round piece about
the same length slightly tapering at both ends, and another piece
of the same shape but much slighter and only 1 1/8 inches long. A
bone needle nine inches long, very slightly curved, one end
pointed, the other a little flattened with an oblong eye hole
drilled through it. The inner and outer sides of this needle are
bevelled away to fairly sharp edges. A slight groove extends
along either side on the central or higher part, reaching from the
eye to the point. I imagine this needle may have been used for
sewing together the birch bark or skins used for covering their
canoes and mammateeks, as it is too large for the ordinary
purposes of making garments, moccasins, etc.
One large and one small piece of bone, much decayed, look as
though they had been used as sockets for spear heads.
There are three peculiarly shaped and much decomposed pieces
of ivory, with small holes drilled through either end, and a deep
groove cut along one side extending from one hole to the other, as
if intended for a string to pass through the holes and rest in
this groove. While the hole at the thinner end passes right
through from side to side, that at the other and thicker end does
not reach from side to side, but comes out on the thick base of
the object. Two of those pieces are about the same size 1 3/4
inches long by about 1 1/2 wide. They are thin and leaf like in
shape. The third is about the same length as the other two but is
only 1/2 an inch wide. Two other small pieces of ivory have the
holes drilled at the sides instead of the ends, and only one of
them has the connecting groove. All the holes in those articles
are square or oblong, none of them appear to have been bored round
as would be the case had a drill-bow been used. Two other small
thin pieces of bone about 1 1/2 inches long each, but of different
shapes, comprise this lot. One is quite thin, has jogs cut on the
edges, and a hole bored through one end; the other has a deep
groove on one edge extending about half its length, and a slight
notch on the other edge near the smaller end.
There are seven flat oblong pieces of bone or ivory of
peculiar shape. One is 2 1/3 inches long, one 3 1/2 and one 4
inches by about an inch wide. Each has notches or projections on
the thin edges. One has a single small hole another two holes
close together, bored through at one end, and each has thin
delicate straight lines marked on the sides near the ends, with
slight grooves cut in line with the holes. They are slightly
rounded on one side, which may be the natural shape of the bone.
Two others of somewhat similar shape, one being considerably
larger than the rest. Neither of these has any hole in it; the
smaller one only has a slight straight line down the middle of one
side, the larger no markings at all; both are notched on the outer
edges.
There are three other somewhat similarly shaped pieces but of
much smaller size, being from 1 1/4 to 2 inches long, and about
1/2 an inch wide. One of these has two holes drilled, in line, at
one end; one being quite
/330/ small, the other and inner one
large. Two shorter pieces of almost the same form, have each a
hole at one end, and all are scored with two, three and four light
straight lines near the ends. Three small pieces of ivory having
holes bored at both ends and a deep groove connecting them are
notched or barbed on the outer edges, and have a slight slit cut
into the narrower ends. This end is tapered away like the spear
sockets. The holes at the base or thicker end are oblong. These
are all too small to hold a spear or arrow head of any size, but
may have been used as sockets for children's or toy arrows.
Four long narrow barbed pieces of bone evidently used for
fish or bird spears. Two of them have but one shoulder on either
side while the others have two shoulders or barbs. Three of them
are grooved out at the base, and have narrow slits cut in them,
but the fourth tapers away to a fine point. Each of these has a
fairly large hole bored through near the centre. They were
evidently attached by a string to a handle in the same manner as
the larger seal spear.
There is but one other small piece of ivory about 1 3/4
inches long by 1/2 an inch in width, with a notch cut on one edge,
and a deep groove on the other running about two-thirds of its
length.
The stone implements found here consisted of 27 flakes
chiefly of black or drab coloured chert, two being of a yellowish
jasper. Several small thin pieces of dark coloured slate or
serpentine greenish in colour, some veined with lighter shades of
serpentine. All these latter are highly polished on both sides,
and some have the edges bevelled away. There are two pieces of
broken spear heads made of black and greenish chert. Seven well
made chert arrow heads of the stemless hollowed base pattern.
These are black and bluish green in colour, also three oblong
pieces of thin slate, ground smooth on both sides, and round on
the edges. There were a few small bones of animals or birds, much
decomposed.
I have a strong suspicion that all these implements, etc.,
from this locality, may possibly be of Eskimo and not of Beothuck
manufacture. The situation of Port au Choix near the lower
entrance of the Strait of Belle Isle, and close to the most
projecting headland (Point Riche) on that part of the Newfoundland
coast, would be just such as to attract those coasting and fishing
people. But the character of the implements themselves are very
Eskimo like. The bird or fish spears are unlike any found
elsewhere in Beothuck sepulchres; the long bone needle would be
just such an article as might be used in sewing their skin
"Kayacks." Many of the smaller bone and ivory articles, might be
used as buttons or fasteners for skin dresses, others for stops
such as are still to be seen attached to their lines, or fastened
on to the edges of their Kayacks, etc. The complete absence of
red ochre amongst these remains is also very noticeable.
The same Mr. Samuel Coffin, who discovered the implements on
Long Island, Placentia Bay, afterwards removed to Rabbit's Arm,
Notre Dame Bay. While residing here he was made aware of an
Indian burying cave /331/ having been discovered on a small island
in Pilley's Tickle not far distant. He proceeded there to
investigate and succeeded in obtaining a most valuable and
interesting lot of remains and relics which are now in our local
museum.
From Mr. Coffin I obtained the following particulars of this
find. These remains were removed from their resting place by
myself in September 1886. They were buried in a sort of cave
formed by a shelf of rock with a projecting cliff above, on an
island called Burnt Island in Pilley's Tickle, under the following
circumstances. Some berry pickers it appears were on the island,
when one of the boys in searching about, stood upon the grave and
his foot broke through the slight covering placed over the bodies.
Tearing up the stones and dirt he found the body of a child or
young person beneath with several articles laying around it. They
carried away the head and a number of the trinkets, which Mr.
Coffin purchased from them. He then paid a visit to the place
himself, and carefully removing all the loose covering so as to
get a full view of the remains he thus describes them.
The body was lying on its left side, enshrouded in a skin
covering, (probably beaver skin but now destitute of fur) the
flesh side turned out and smeared with red ochre. This shroud was
arranged loosely covering all the body except the head. Inside it
was clothed with a sort of skin pants covering the lower limbs,
which was neatly sewn together, and fringed at sides with strips
of skin cut into fine shreds. On the feet were moccasins also
fringed round the top. The toes of these moccasins were not
gathered in, in the usual way, but slightly turned up and sewn
straight across so as to form a square front. Besides those
covering the feet, there were a couple of extra pairs of the same
pattern, with the other articles laying about. All these were
very neatly sewn with fine stitches apparently of deer sinew. The
outer robe was also fringed with finely cut skin down one side of
the front and along the lower end of the garment. On the other
side of the front were fastened several carved bone ornaments and
a couple of birds feet (ducks or gulls), this appeared to be the
outer side. All had been smeared with red ochre, traces of which
were clearly visible. The body itself was enshrouded in its
natural skin, now dried and shrunken and resembling Chamois
leather, and was almost perfect. Only one hand and a couple of
the cervical vertebrae were missing. The other hand, as well as
the feet, was perfect, even the nails were well preserved. The
legs were bent up so that the knees formed a right angle to the
body with the feet bent back against the seat. The head was well
shaped and contained twenty fully developed teeth, with four more
at the inner side of the jaws which had apparently not yet broken
through the gums. This would indicate a youth of some ten or
twelve years of age. Accompanying the body and arranged around it
were a number of articles consisting [of] a small wooden image of
a male child, two small birch bark canoes, miniature bows and
arrows, paddles, a couple of small packages of red ochre tied up
neatly in birch bark, and a package of dried or smoked fish,
salmon and trout, made up in a neat parcel of bark and fastened
with a net-work of rootlets like a rude basket. There were no
stone
/332/ implements found with the boy's body, but about 14 or
15 feet away, on the same shelf of rock, the skull and leg bones
of an adult, with several loose bones of other parts of a skeleton
were accompanied by several well made spear and arrow heads of
stone, a stone dish, and an iron axe with wooden handle, of old
English or French pattern, and an iron knife set into a rough
wooden handle, with a few other articles of iron much corroded by
rust. There were also a number of drinking cups and other small
vessels made of birch bark. Most of these were very neatly made
and well sewn together with fine roots, presumably to keep them
from splitting. All these articles withoout exception were
reddened with ochre.
Over the remains was formed a canopy of arched sticks
supporting a covering of birch bark, of large heavy sheets, some
of them sewn together with roots. These latter were evidently
taken from a broken or disused canoe, judging from the thickness
of the bark, and the manner in which it was sewn. Over this
covering of bark was laid a pile of loose fragments of stone and
gravel to conceal the remains.
It has been conjectured that this child may have been the son
of a chief or otherwise a person of some particular distinction
amongst the tribe, if we may judge from the evident care bestowed
upon his interment, and the careful if not loving manner in which
the little fellow was supplied with everything requisite for his
journey to the "Happy Hunting Grounds."
These relics afford an insight into many subjects hitherto
open to some doubt. First they clearly attest a belief in a
future state of existence. Then again, presuming that the small
models of the canoes, paddles and other articles are correct in
every particular, seeing these are the work of their own hands,
they confirm beyond all question the peculiar shape of those
vessels and implements.
I have an idea that the sharp "V" shaped bottom of the canoe
was intended the better to navigate our rough boulder choked
rivers, as the fact of their narrow form would enable them to slip
between boulders where a wider bottomed boat could not pass. It
has also been suggested that this shaped boat, when ballasted,
would sail better in open water, the sharp bottom acting as a
keel. In like manner the long narrow bladed paddle, with sharp
point, so unlike any of the paddles of other Indian tribes, which
are generally short and wide, and more or less round at the end,
appears to me to have been intended to answer the double purpose
of pole and paddle.
About the year 1888, a Mr. George Hodder of Twillingate, came
across some Indian remains in a cave on Comfort Island, Bay of
Exploits, which he secured, and which were purchased for the
museum where they now are, one being an almost complete skeleton
of an adult. Mr. Hodder gave me the following particulars of this
find. He says, "there were three or four caves on the island
where Indians had been buried, but most of the bones had become so
decayed that he could only find one perfect skull. Some of the
fragments of others were very much larger, than the one we sent
you. We had one under jaw that measured an inch wider, and leg
bones that measured 2 or 3 inches longer. I believe he says that
some /333/ of these men must have been 7 or 8 feet in height. The
skeleton you have was in a cave from fifteen to twenty feet in
length. The Indian was buried in a sitting posture, with a grass
rope under his seat going up over his head, which was covered with
a deer skin. He was then covered with Birch rind, and the cave
filled in with rocks. He had buried with him quite a lot of
arrows, broken in two pieces, also quite a lot of beads and bone
ornaments, a lot of birds heads, a piece of iron pyrites, etc."
This skeleton which stands about five feet eight inches, and
probably when in the flesh was fully six feet tall, presents
several characteristics worthy of note.
Had it not been for the absence of both feet, which are only
represented by one or two of the small bones, metatarsus, and
phalanges, the right hand, one of the patellae, or knee caps, and
the lower portion of the breast bone, it would be complete. All
the other parts are in a good state of preservation. The left arm
and hand are intact, the hand being still attached to the wrist
and forearm by the dried, shrivelled up sinews which connected
them. The leg bones are long and strong looking, especially the
femurs, which are over a foot and a half in length. The skull is
large, particularly in the occipital region, cheek bones
prominent, frontal angle rather low, with a deep depression in the
forehead just above the base of the nasal organ. This latter is
very peculiar, and if we can judge from what remains of the
bridge, must have been considerably turned up at the end, or
otherwise of this shape:
The lower jaw is thick and massive, the teeth, what are left of
them, are sound and all exhibit the worn down crown already
referred to. Taken as a whole this skeleton does not impress one
favourably as to the intelligence of the individual, the skull in
particular seems to indicate the characteristics of a rather
savage, if not brutal nature. In this respect it differs much
from all the other skulls I have seen of the Beothucks, which, as
a rule, are well formed, with good facial angles, indicative of a
fair degree of intelligence and mild disposition. Yet the careful
manner in which the individual was buried seems to point to a
person of some consequence, probably a chief. This is further
borne out by the fact that the bones are smeared with red ochre,
which could only have been done long after all the flesh had
decomposed and fallen away. Whatever significance this red colour
had for them, it apparently was not confined to the living only,
for here we have an instance of its being applied to the remains
of the dead, long after all the flesh had disappeared.
Still another skeleton was obtained on an island near
Rencontre, South coast of Newfoundland, as far back as 1847, by
the Rev. Mr. Blackmore, rural dean of Conception Bay, who
presented it together with an account of the finding, to the
Museum of McGill University, Montreal. The particulars are
contained in a paper read before the Royal Society of Canada, by
the Rev. George Patterson, 1891, and are published in the
Transactions of that Society for the same year.
/334/ As it is of considerable interest, I give it here in
full. "They were (says Mr. Blackmore) found in the year 1847 on
an island forming one of the lower Burgeo group, called
`Rencontre.' This island is uninhabited and considerably
elevated; difficult also of access in rough weather. It is in a
great measure covered with broken fragments of rocks which have
fallen from the heights. About half way up the mountain (if I may
so term it), and in a hollow formed by a large piece of fallen
rock, with every opening carefully closed by small pieces of
broken rock, we found the bones of a human being wrapped closely
round with birch rinds. On removing these rinds a quantity of
gravel mixed with red ochre became visible, and on removing this
we found oblong pieces of carved bone, together with flat circular
stones, some glass beads, two iron hatchet heads, so rusty that we
could pick them to pieces, a bone spear head (socket?) the handle
of a knife with part of the blade still in it, also some flints
designed for arrow heads. All these articles were together, and
had been placed apparently under or just before the head of the
individual buried -- all carefully enclosed in the rinds. The
skull was that of a full grown male adult, with a very flat crown
and large projection behind. The place of interment was
singularly wild, high up in a cliff overlooking a little cove
facing the open sea, and only accessible on this side in very
smooth water. It was discovered by a boy while gathering
brushwood. This boy seeing a piece of wood projecting from the
rock, pulled at it to add to his store, and so loosened the
smaller rocks and found the cavity with its contents. The head of
this stick, which was about four inches in diameter, was
ornamented. There were four fragments of sticks, and they must, I
imagine, have formed a canopy over the body.
"From the implements here found, it is evident the burial
took place after they had intercourse with the whites, but so
early that they still dwelt upon the coast hunting the seal and
other inhabitants of the deep, still using their old implements,
and there also depositing their dead."
There is in our local museum a skull and right femur of
another Indian, the finding of which antedates all the above, and
which event has a rather romantic history attached to it. It was
procured in 1834 by the late Hon. Dr. Winter, M.L.C., under the
following circumstances, as related to him by Alex. Murray,
C.M.G., F.G.S., Director of the Geological Survey, in 1875. Dr.
Winter stated that at the time, 1834, he was practising his
profession at Green's Pond, on the north side of Bonavista Bay.
"He was called upon one day by a person who wanted a troublesome
tooth extracted. The patient stated that he was convinced that
his sufferings were attributable to the fact of his having been in
possession of the tooth of a Red Indian who had been killed on the
`Straight Shore,' and whose body lay buried in a spot which he
described. The Doctor extracted the aching tooth, and undertook
to restore the Indian's grinder to its original owner. He hoped
in this way to obtain the skeleton of one of the extinct race;
while at the same time, he quieted the superstitious fears of the
patient. Accordingly he hired a boat and proceeded to the
locality described. After considerable labour the grave was
discovered, and in it he found the skull, a thigh bone, a shoulder
blade and a few other /335/ smaller bones; but the remainder had
been carried off by wolves or foxes. The skull was in a good
state of preservation, except that the cheek bone and the lower
part of the socket of one eye had been broken, evidently, in the
Doctor's opinion, by shot. Mr. Murray states that his specimen is
exactly in this condition, thus proving its identity. Underneath
where the body had lain the doctor found a concave circular hole,
lined with birch bark, about twenty inches in diameter, at the
bottom of which were two pieces of iron pyrites.' He also found
the shaft of a spear stained with red ochre. The skull was
presented by the doctor to the St. John's Mechanics' Institute, in
1850, where it was kept till the contents of the Museum were
dispersed, when it found its way to the Geological Museum, where
it still remains.
"Dr. Winter mentions that the boatman who accompanied him to
the Indian's grave, finding that he meant to bring away the
remains refused to trust himself in the boat, declaring `that
neither luck nor grace would follow such doings, as robbing the
grave.' He had to row the boat back himself, and the fisherman
walked twenty miles through marshes and bogs rather than undertake
the perilous voyage in company with a skull. The doctor deserves
much credit for his efforts to preserve these interesting relics.
It is also satisfactory to know that his patient had no return of
the tooth ache, the Indian's tooth having been restored to the
rightful owner, and the troublesome grinder extracted."
This skull and femur are in an excellent state of
preservation, and are not nearly so weathered or decayed as most
of the others, from which circumstance I would infer that the
individual to whom they belonged had not been long buried.
In many respects these relics differ considerably from the
others in the museum. The skull, while undoubtedly that of an
adult, as it possesses or did possess its full complement of
teeth, is not nearly so massive. The frontal angle is good
showing a fairly high but narrow forehead, much slighter maxilla,
less heavy brow, without any pronounced depression such as that
described in the larger skeleton. The nasal organ also would
appear to have been well shaped. In fact a delicate almost
elegantly shaped cranium, if such a term can be applied to that
object. The femur also is much slighter and fully two inches
shorter than any of the others. All these peculiarities lead me
to the conclusion that this was the skeleton of a female. There
is no vestige of red ochre about the bones, possibly, only those
of the male sex were so treated. The teeth, as usual, are worn
down on the crowns but not to such an extent, and they are very
white and perfect, exhibiting no signs of decay. One would almost
be inclined to think that these were not the remains of an Indian
at all, yet the manner of burial, as described by Doctor Winter
leaves no room for doubt on this point.
Numerous fragments of skulls and disconnected vertebrae or
other portions of human skeletons have been found from time to
time especially in and around the Great Bay of Notre Dame, but it
is rare to find a perfect cranium much less a complete skeleton.
/336/ In the foregoing pages various references will be found to
these by the different authorities quoted, but so far no attempt
has been made to classify them properly. They comprise the usual
stone tools, such as spear and arrow heads, axes, chisels, gouges,
lances, knives, fleshers, scrapers, and a great variety of
nondescript articles for which it is difficult to assign a use.
There are a few steatite, (soapstone) pots, some egg shaped
sinkers and a pipe of the same material. Nowhere has there been
found any utensils or fragments of baked clay, and it appears
quite certain that the Beothucks were not acquainted with the
Ceramic Art. There is an abundance of material in the island
suitable for such purpose, and had they a knowledge of pottery
they would scarcely have gone to so much labour in cutting out,
and shaping into bowls, dishes, etc., those clumsy steatite
utensils found in their burial places.
This represents four very crude stone implements, so much so,
as almost to make it a matter of doubt as to whether some of them
were ever used by the Red men. Yet the fact that they were found
in that part of the country most frequented by them, and the
evident chipping, or rather spawling of the two first, though this
may have been accidental, seems to imply that they were made use
of, while the third shows no indication of having been prepared in
any way, but is just a heart shaped fragment of a slate boulder
with a fairly sharp cutting edge and blunt point. Nos. 1 and 3
are large and stout towards the wider end, and supposing them to
have been held in the hand would thus afford a good grasp. These
may have been merely rude fleshers picked up at random, and cast
aside after being used. No. 1 however, seems just such an
implement as might be applied to the chipping of the smaller
tools, as it is made from a hard dark bluish slate, of a tough
nature. No. 2 was undoubtedly chipped or spawled around the sides
and shows marks of blows on the upper end, its lower, or cutting
edge, is just the natural cleavage. No. 4 is a piece of flattish
hard red slate, chipped or spawled, but its cutting end has been
ground down to a blunt edge. It also exhibits the mark of blows
at the upper end, where it is considerably bruised. Such a tool
may have been used for cleaving wood or splitting marrow bones.
Some of the implements figured here are still of a rather
rude character. Nos. 1, 5 and 6 are ground down at the lower end,
but 2, 3 and 4 are only chipped. These latter are all thin pieces
of a hard white-weathering slate showing lines of stratification.
They are scarcely sharp enough to be used for any purpose other
than as fleshers. No. 3 is the largest of those leaf shaped
implements I have met with. It may have been used as a knife for
cutting up meat, as well as for skinning an animal. No. 7 is also
a thin piece of hard slate of about 1/2 an inch in thickness. It
is of a uniform width throughout, the two edges being partially
ground, while the lower end has a good, well ground cutting edge.
Nos. 8 and 9 may have been axes, but are so short and thick
at the upper end, as to afford no chance of attaching a handle to
them, there being no groove by which to fasten it, yet their shape
certainly suggests the axe or tomahawk.
10, 11, and 12 are well made knives, ground down on both
sides to fine cutting edges. 11 and 12 show both sides of the
same implement, and the base is cut away to receive a handle which
must have been attached by strong sinews or strips of deer skin
and held in place by the grooved base, which was clearly made to
receive the binding so as to keep the knife in place. As No. 10
is but a broken piece of a broad flat knife we can only conjecture
that the base was grooved in a somewhat similar manner. Both are
thickest along the central line and No. 11 shows a distinct ridge
in the middle. Nos. 13 and 14 show the back and side view of a
peculiar curved implement, made of a hard white-weathering chert.
It is well chipped, but not ground in any way, and has a pretty
good cutting edge on either side. The point is round, as shown in
figure. It has evidently been broken off from a handle into which
the lower and smaller end was inserted. I believe this implement
had been used as a crooked knife, as it bears a resemblance to
that in use amongst the Micmacs, only the latter is made of steel.
/337/ These are specimens of the well-known Celts, which appear to
have been common to savage people all the world over. They are
nearly always of the same pattern, and consist of long flattish
pieces of hard slate rock or other material found suitable for the
purpose. They are usually about 6 or 7 inches in length, narrow
at one end, and ground away to a good cutting or chopping edge at
the other and wider end. All these figured here were well made
implements of a hard feldsitic slate well ground down and polished
over most of the surface. Nos. 1 and 2 are very perfect specimens
and do not appear to have been much used. I have seen a similar
implement in the Smithsonian Museum at Washington, with a wooden
handle attached by thongs of hide, in the form of an adze. It
looked as though it had been used for dressing down sticks for
spear handles, etc., and possibly for hollowing out wooden
troughs. With the exception of 1, 2 and 3, the remainder are all
broken fragments. Complete specimens of this form are not often
met with. No. 3 is of softer material than the rest and is much
weathered, especially along the cutting edge. 7 and 8 are reduced
specimens, after Lloyd. No. 9 stone adze with wooden handle
attached.
These are all gouge shaped implements. No. 1 is a
beautifully made tool of hard slate perfectly grooved out, with a
very sharp cutting edge, part of which has been broken away. The
front or upper side is flat, but it is round on the back and is
about 1 1/4 inches in thickness. Nos. 2 and 3 show the front and
back view of another similar gouge. This is also beautifully
made, especially the grooved end, which is highly polished and has
a keen cutting edge. The front of this tool is also flat and the
back is rounded. It is somewhat thicker than No. 1 or about 1 1/2
inches. Nos. 4, 5 and 8 are smaller types of the gouge, the
groove only being well ground. Nos. 6 and 7 are but slightly
hollowed at lower end and the edge is not so keen. They are both
partly ground on the sides, but otherwise rather rough. They do
not display anything like the workmanship of the first lot.
It has been variously conjectured by some that these
implements were used in dressing skins, shaping spear handles,
paddles, etc., while others maintain they were used to gouge out
wooden or log boats, but I know of no instance where it is
recorded that the Beothucks made dugouts. I imagine they were
applied to one or both of the first mentioned uses. I have seen
the Micmacs use a somewhat similarly shaped tool made of a deer's
leg bone (femur), one end of which was cut away and bevelled to a
sharp curved cutting edge, the hollow inside part of the bone
taking the place of the groove in these stone implements. It was
used for removing the vellum from the fleshy side of the deerskins
in the following manner: A smooth round stick of perhaps three
inches in diameter was driven into the ground, or jammed between
boulders to keep it firm. It stood at an angle sufficient to
bring its upper or free end about 3 feet above the ground. Over
this the green skin was thrown, which hung down on either side.
The operator then rubbed off the vellum by fitting the grooved
bone over that part of the hide which rested along the stick,
pressing his chest against the elevated end and forcing the tool
downwards with both hands. They also use another tool, made of a
deer's shin bone cut open lengthwise and sharpened along its whole
length, except at the thick ends, which latter are held in both
hands. This tool resembles a drawing knife or spokeshave, and is
drawn towards the operator while the other is worked from him.
The former is called "Seskadedagan," the latter "Gigegan."
Those with the small narrow grooves could scarcely have been
applied to this purpose of dressing skins, and I think must have
been used for fashioning poles or shafts for spear handles etc.
Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are or were all well made hunting
spears or lance heads. No. 1 was a beautiful implement of hard
red slate, perfectly shaped and ground down with great care.
Along the centre of both sides where it is thickest is a distinct
well-marked straight gable, as is also the case with No. 4. The
outer edges are quite sharp, Nos. 2, 3, and 5 are more rounded in
outline, with less pronounced central ridge or none at all. No.
24 is a reduced specimen after Lloyd, of a similar spear to No. 1.
No. 4 is much smaller than the others. All have the tangs broken
off, and with the exception of No. 5, the points also. No. 6
shows the front and side view of a very well made and polished
tool which would appear to have been long and narrow throughout.
If the outline of the absent parts be correct, it was evidently
used as a drilling implement.
No. 7 is a long thin lance or possibly an arrow head. Nos. 8
and 9 are long spear-like implements of red slate well made and
highly finished throughout. They seem to suggest a dagger or
dirk, and were probably set in a handle. 10 is a lance or spear
head. 11, a chipped arrow of hard feldsite slate, 12, 13, 14, 15,
20, 21 and 23 are not easily defined. They are rather large for
arrow heads, yet small for spears. Some American authorities call
similar tools, fishing spears.
16 is a rude flat chipped lance or spear head with notched
base for fastening a handle by. 17, is a reduced leaf-shaped
spear, after Lloyd. 18 and 19 are somewhat similar to 16 only
much smaller, 19 shows two grooves on either side near the base.
22 is probably an arrow head, made of smoky quartz.
/338/ Some of the implements figured here are what is termed by
American authorities, "turtle-backs." Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 10, 15, 18, and 19 are all of this type, No. 4 being the most
perfect specimen, showing the comparatively flat under, and peaked
upper surface; what particular use they were put to is not easy to
determine. That none of them could have been affixed to handles
of any kind seems pretty evident. Possibly, they were used for
skinning or fleshing animals, but they do not appear very suitable
for such purpose and most of them are too small. All, with the
exception of Nos. 7, 8, and 10 are made of black or dark coloured
chert. 7 is greenish chert, while 8 and 10 are banded quartz.
Nos. 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, may have been used as
spears as their shapes seem to imply.
This plate exhibits specimens of the different types of stone
arrow heads used by the Beothucks. They are made from a variety
of different materials, such as greenish slate, or horn-stone,
black chert, red jasper, quartz, etc.
Some few are rather crudely made, but the majority are very
perfect and show much fine and careful workmanship. Nos. 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, and 6 are of the former class. From No. 7 to 24 represent
those triangular shaped arrow points with slightly curved bases.
These appear from their abundance to have been the most commonly
used form. Some of them are very small, and it is a matter of
doubt as to how they were fastened to the shaft. It is supposed
by some authorities that they were set into a slit and merely kept
in place by gum from the spruce trees, but if this were so they
could not have had a very firm hold.
Nos. 32, 33, 34, are beautiful and delicately made specimens,
ground down on all sides perfectly smooth with keen edges and
sharp points. The base is also ground to a fine edge. The two
last have the central line or peak perfectly straight on both
sides. No. 44 is another, similar in every respect, except that
the base is square across instead of being curved. 43 is rather
clumsy for an arrow head and may have been a lance or fishing
spear. Nos. 45 and 46 show an extra deep indentation at the base,
a form not at all plentiful.
Nos. 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55 all represent
various types of triangular arrow heads with short tangs and deep
notches on either side of the base for the purpose of fastening
them securely to the shaft by means of sinew or fine strips of
hide. These are what are termed stemmed arrows.
Both these latter and the two former (45 and 46) are exactly
like some arrow heads I have seen figured in the Transactions of
the Royal Historical and Archaeological Journal of Ireland, for
Jan. and April 1888. Nos. 56 and 57, 64 and 66 being all broken
at the base, we do not know whether they were notched or
otherwise. Nos. 58, 59, 60, 61, and 62, are all of a larger size
and somewhat different pattern, especially the two last, which are
much wider at the base, and slightly curved, but both exhibiting
the notches for fastening, etc. No. 65 being broken across the
middle leaves it difficult to decide whether it was an arrow or
spear head. It is made of dark coloured, translucent quartz
(smoky quartz), and is beautifully and evenly chipped all over,
with sharp slightly serrated edges. If a spear head, it must have
been a very elegant one.
67 is also a quartz or quartzite tool, but is not nearly so
well finished as the preceding.
Here we have a variety of nondescript articles with a few
others that can be easily defined. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9,
10, 11, and 12 are all either scrapers or graving implements. 4,
5, 6, 7, and 9 are thin spawls of dark greenish chert, which have
evidently either been fashioned as we see them or else selected on
account of their exceedingly sharp edges. I imagine these may
have been used in carving the bone ornaments, described in Plates
XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII.
No. 8, the side view of which is like this
was probably used for boring the small holes in the bone, the
point, now broken off, was evidently very fine and sharp. 12 is a
piece of milky white quartz chipped and frayed at the edge. The
smallness of these fragments suggests that they must have been
held between the thumb and fore-finger when in use.
Nos. 13, 14, and 15, are thin pieces of slate quite smooth on
both sides and ground on the edges. They were probably whetstones
used for sharpening the smaller tools. No. 16 is a peculiar
shaped piece of black chert, well chipped and having sharp edges.
It looks like a sort of double pointed implement, but the extreme
points are broken off. Possibly it was intended to be divided in
two, and made into arrow heads. No. 17 shows two sides of a thin
piece of whitish slate cut with some sharp implement, but not
fashioned into any recognised [recognized] form. No. 18, also of
dull whitish slate may have been intended for a lance head which
was not completed. Nos. 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23 are flat pieces of
serpentine; some of them are bevelled at the edges, and all are
highly polished. As this kind of stone is too soft to be used
other than for ornamentation, it is not easy to determine what
they were. 22, with the notch at one side, does look as if it
were intended for an arrow head.
/339/ Nos. 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28, are either plummets or
sinkers and are all made of soapstone. The grooves at the top
clearly indicate that they were attached to lines. No. 28 is
reduced after Lloyd, and differs from the rest by having a sharp
projecting point or barb at one side. Lloyd thinks this was used
for fishing, as a hook.
No. 29 is a flat piece of whitish or drab slate with a broad
bevelled edge at the base, where it is ground away from one side
like a chisel. It has a cuneiform hole drilled through near this
wide base. I have seen no other tool exactly resembling this
figured anywhere. It may have been used as a knife, but the
object of the hole is not apparent.
No. 30 is a beautifully made pipe of greenish serpentine.
The bowl is octagonal shaped outside but perfectly circular
inside. There is some doubt as to whether this can be really
attributed to the Beothucks, especially as they are said not to
have smoked. Again, it is so very fresh and unweathered, it looks
as though it was quite recently made. The party who gave it to
me, received it from a Micmac Indian, who picked it up near
Pipestone Pond in the interior, and pronounced it to be of Red
Indian manufacture. No. 31 may have been used as a hook, though a
very clumsy one. It is a piece of fine grained reddish sandstone
and looks as though it owed its peculiar shape to weathering or
from being water worn.
No. 32 is a large sized scraper or perhaps knife with a
fairly good cutting edge along the lower side. 33 is clearly a
fragment of the basal part of a spear or lance head, made of black
chert. No. 34 is a rather rudely made spear head of dull reddish
porphyry. No. 35 are fragments of clay pipes of European
manufacture, apparently French, for one section of a stem shows
the Fleur de Lis with a Lion(?) Rampant, surmounted by a crown,
Arms of Francis I of France(?). Whether the Boethucks [Beothucks]
used these pipes, or only picked up the broken fragments near the
French fishing establishments and looked upon them as curios
cannot now be determined; at all events these fragments were found
by myself in one of the Beothuck cemeteries. My own impression
is, notwithstanding so many assertions to the contrary, that they
really did smoke something, as most other Indians do. If not
tobacco, which of course does not grow in Newfoundland, they, like
the Micmacs, when short of that weed may have used Kinnikanick,
i.e. the inner bark of the Red Willow (Redrod), or the root of the
Michaelmas daisy dried. I have myself had occasion to resort to
the former more than once, in order to eke out my scanty supply of
tobacco. They may have at times, when on friendly terms with the
French fishermen received both pipes and tobacco from them in
barter.
The Beothucks certainly had a term for tobacco, "Nechwa,"
which is evidence that they must have been acquainted with the
weed.(198) No. 36 is a tool of the gouge pattern, but having a very
small groove. It was probably used for shaping and paring down
arrow shafts. It is of a rather soft slate.
Nos. 37 and 38. Two spherical balls of limestone, probably
used for gaming.
These are all rubbing stones. Nos. 1 and 2 are of fine
grained sandstone. 1 being a reddish sandstone, 2, greenish gray.
No. 3 is a hard close grained pinkish porphyry, and is worn quite
smooth and polished on top and bottom. Nos. 4 and 5 are made of
grayish grindstone, fairly hard and somewhat coarse grained. 6
and 7 are soft fine gray and greenish rock like a chlorite state.
All exhibit well worn or rubbed down surfaces indicating that they
were much used for sharping tools, etc.
These are all implements and other articles of bone. No. 1
is a long well made needle with an eye hole drilled through one
end. It is from Port au Choix. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are
undefinable objects. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19,
20, 21, and 22 are mostly made of Ivory, evidently of Walrus tusk.
What they were really intended for does not seem apparent; they
may have been used in lieu of buttons for fastening their
garments, etc.
Nos. 23 and 24 are barbed bone fishing or bird spears. I
have seen one with the Micmacs of exactly the same pattern as 24,
but made of iron.
Nos. 25, 26, 27, 28, and 28a are smaller types of the same.
25, 26, and 28a have deep notches cut in the base as if intended
for inserting a handle or shaft. They also have holes drilled
through them. It appears as though they must have been attached
by a string to the handle or shaft, which in this case would
probably be an arrow shaft, and when shot into a bird or fish
would separate from the wood but still remain attached by the
string, in a similar manner to the seal spear.
Nos. 29 and 29a were undoubtedly the bone sockets of small
spears.
Nos. 30 and 31 were bone spears, also attached to the handles
by a thong of hide.
No. 32 is a well-defined bone spear socket, such as was used
for killing seals. The stone or iron point was set into a slot at
the small end and then securely bound around the narrow neck by
sinew /340/ or thong. The two holes were not drilled through,
only about half way and are connected one with the other. This
was where the string for attachment to the handle was tied. In
the swallow tailed base is a fine groove for the point of the
handle to be inserted. This implement was so constructed, that
upon entering the body of a seal it became detached from the
handle, but still held by the long cord which was carried up to,
and over the end of the handle and thence back to where it was
grasped in the hand. Another feature of its ingenious
construction was, that owing to the cord being attached to the
middle of the socket, as soon as it pierced the flesh of the
animal, and a strain was put upon it by the effort to escape, the
spear turned sideways across the aperture made in the skin and
this prevented its withdrawing.
Nos. 33 to 43 are all pieces of bone of various shapes, 37,
38, and 39 have chisel-shaped points at one end. It is difficult
to say what they were used for. 44 and 45 are two pieces of
whalebone, partly cut but apparently not intended for use in their
present form. 46 is a seal's tooth with a hole bored through one
end. 47 and 48 probably buttons. All the remainder are only
fragments of bone or ivory, except 50 which are two small and well
formed disks of ivory.
No. 1 is a piece of bone cut round and smooth. It looks like
European manufacture, and was probably a handle of some sort.
Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 are tusks of animals, the first three being
those of a pig. 2 and 4 have small holes bored in them to receive
a string. 5 looks like the tooth of a large seal.
Nos. 6 and 7 are pieces of a deer's horn partly cut or shaped
for some unknown purpose. No. 8 gives two sides of a bone spear,
one of which shows the slit cut into the base to receive the shaft
or handle. All the remaining articles on this and Plate XXVI are
carved bone ornaments, such as are usually found deposited in the
graves with the dead. There is a great variety of these carved
bones, but in no two instances have I come across exactly similar
designs. They are all made of sections of a deer's leg bones, and
the carvings indicate that they were cut with some very sharp and
fine edged tool, no doubt either broken fragments of glass
bottles, which have been also found in the burial places, or else
those sharp spawls of chert and quartz crystals figured in Plate
XXII.
All the interstices of these carvings are filled with red
ochre, and in the case of 47, 48, 49, and 50 the whole piece is
smeared over with it. Probably the others were also, at one time,
but it has become rubbed or worn off.
I have arranged these ornaments according to the shape of the
base. From 9 to 50 are or have been cut straight across at the
wider end. 51 is a spike of a caribou antler, perhaps used as an
awl. Nos. 52 and 53, and in Plate XXVI, Nos. 1 to 8 show the base
cut away obliquely, while 54 has the base slightly grooved and
notched, and is also somewhat hollowed on either side.
All the ornaments figured here are of the swallow tailed type
and have various designs carved upon them, differing in some
respect, no two being exactly alike. Some of the smaller pieces
are more ornate than the larger, most of them having the outside
edges scolloped [scalloped] in different ways.
These represent a variety of nondescript forms, beginning
with the three pronged or trident shaped ornaments, and passing on
to other peculiar forms. The square and diamond shaped articles
were undoubtedly used in gaming. The combs need no description.
Exhibit a selection of the various forms, drawn by Lady Edith
Blake, wife of Sir Henry Blake, late Governor of Newfoundland.
Her Ladyship took a deep interest in the subject of the Aborigines
while here. She copied all these ornaments and also wrote a paper
on the Beothucks which was published in the Century Magazine for
December 1888. What the exact use or purpose of those ornaments
was we do not know. The fact of so many of them being always
found deposited with the dead seems to suggest some symbolic or
talismanic idea. So far as I know they have not been found
anywhere else except in the cemeteries. As almost every one of
those ornaments had a small hole drilled through, near the smaller
end, it is pretty clear they were attached by strings to
something. A few of them still retain portions of the string. In
the case of the little Beothuck boy's interment, some of these
ornaments, together with bird's legs and feet were found attached
to the fringe of his outer garment. Again, in the figure of the
dancing woman drawn by Shanawdithit, the dress appears to be
fringed in like manner, around the lower end by similar ornaments.
If this were really the case, I imagine their purpose was to
produce a rattling noise by striking against each other, in the
manner of castanets, during the evolutions of dancing. It may be
that such a dress was only worn on ceremonial occasions, of this
however, we are left to conjecture only.
Nos. 20 to 36 are small discs of bone or shell, probably used
on strings as neck ornaments.
/341/ Represents a few articles of iron found either at their
encampments or in their cemeteries. Nos. 1, 2, and 3 are portions
of the springs of steel traps, no doubt stolen from the furriers.
The two latter being roughly beaten into the form of spear heads.
No. 4 is a knife evidently of European manufacture, set into a
rude handle, by the Indians, and I think from the shape of the
latter and a slight bend in the knife blade, it must have been
used as a crooked knife, as it closely resembles the Micmac
implement so named.
No. 5 is the much decomposed remains of a very small, polled
tomahawk, with handle attached. This was evidently made by the
Indians themselves and shows much ingenuity in the form of the
eye, etc. The handles of both these latter implements are as
usual, coloured by ochre.
No. 6 is one of the spear heads stamped with the broad arrow,
which Capt. Buchan had made aboard his ship, by his armourer in
1820, to be distributed amongst the Indians should he come up with
them; but as he did not meet with them on this occasion, the spear
points were tied in small bundles, and fastened to the branches of
trees along the river side where the Indians most frequented, such
as the portages over the falls. Some also were left at the
deserted Mamateeks on Red Indian Lake.
Whether the Beothucks ever made use of any of these is not
known for certain. That figured here was picked up on the side of
the Exploits River in recent years.
Exhibits some articles made of Birch bark.
No. 1 is a package of dried or smoked fish.
Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. These are five drinking cups of
different patterns, all neatly sewn together.
No. 7 is a small model of a canoe, and 8 is the bow or stem
part of another.
No. 9 is a small paddle. All these articles are smeared with
red ochre, and were deposited in the grave with the little
Beothuck boy's body.
Upper. Stone pots and lamps made of Soapstone hollowed out.
Lower. Cliff of Soapstone at Fleur de Lis, from which such
pots were obtained. The figure shows several spots, half formed
in the cliff but not broken off, also indentations from whence
others were so derived.
Roasting sticks, fragments of bows and arrow shafts,
tomahawk, etc.
Upper. Pieces of birch bark showing marks of stitching; fire
stones, stone fragments etc.
Lower. Models of canoes, small drinking cups etc. all made
of birch bark, found in grave of little boy.
Various bone and other articles, including a necklace, wampum
as specified on plate.
These also are a recent find of carved bone ornaments, from a
cave near the Southern Head of Long Island, Notre Dame Bay. While
bearing a general resemblance in outward form to others already
figured, yet the designs carved on them differ much from any that
I have seen. They all exhibit the remains of the red ochre with
which they were once smeared.
Recent find of stone implements. Nos. 1, 2, 3 are finely
made lance heads or spears. Nos. 4 and 5 arrow heads. No. 6 is a
long and perfectly formed spear, except that it is broken off at
the base. From the length and shape of this implement I imagine
it was used as a dagger or poignard set in a wooden handle. No. 7
is a perfectly made lance head and is interesting from the fact
that it was obtained at the mouth of the small river, flowing into
the Harbour of St. John's. It was frequently stated that the
Indians did not frequent this neighbourhood. No. 8 is a smooth
worn stone of peculiar shape, also found near the above river.
Its shape may be purely accidental yet it was possibly used by the
Indians for some purpose.
/342/ It only remains for me to offer some comments on the
foregoing notices and attempt some solution of apparently
conflicting and doubtful statements, etc.
First did the Beothucks or did they not possess dogs? Most
authorities positively assert they did not. Cartwright speaks as
though he was very certain on this point, when he remarks, "To
complete their wretched condition, Providence has even denied them
the pleasing services and companionship of the faithful Dog."
Old Mr. Peyton also assured me the Indians had no dogs and
were very greatly afraid of them, nor do any of the settlers in
their numerous traditions about them ever mention the presence of
the dog.
Yet against this we have old Capt. Richard Whitbourne's
statement about their wolves (Eskimo dogs?), and the story of his
mastiff going off in the woods with the latter and coming back
unharmed. The correspondent of the Liverpool Mercury also
mentions seeing in one of their wigwams at Red Indian Lake in
1819, a slut with a litter of puppies. My own impression is, that
originally they undoubtedly possessed dogs of the Eskimo breed,
perhaps obtained from that people, and may have been driven in
times of scarcity to eat them; more probably they destroyed them,
lest their footprints in the snow or their howlings by night,
might be the means of betraying their presence to their white
enemies. I conjecture that the animal seen by the party above
referred to was one of the ordinary short-haired common species of
Newfoundland, stolen from some fisherman's establishment. Had it
been one of the Eskimo breed, he would have stated the fact, as he
was, no doubt well acquainted with that wolf-like animal.
As regards the whitewoman seen at Red Indian Lake amongst the
Indians, by Lieut. Buchan, and to all appearance an Indian in
dress, etc., I have in vain tried to obtain confirmation of this
statement and have sought to ascertain whether any tradition
existed amongst the fisher folk of a white girl having been
kidnapped by the Indians, but to no purpose. Cormack also
evidently sought for some information on this point, for I find in
some notes of his the question was put to Shanawdithit as to the
existence of a white woman. She answered, "No,"(199) and Cormack
adds, "Buchan not correct." Nevertheless, I cannot see how Buchan
could have made such a mistake. He was a man of superior
education, most observant, and had an opportunity such as no other
person (so far as we know) ever possessed, of a close intercourse
with them, for several hours at their village, Red Indian Lake.
His description of this particular woman is too exact to admit of
doubt. He says of her: "Conceive my astonishment at beholding a
female bearing all the appearances of an European, with light
sandy hair, and features strongly similar to the French,
apparently about twenty-two years of age, with an infant which she
carried in her cossack, her demeanour differing materially from
the others. Instead /343/ of that sudden change from surprise and
dismay to acts of familiarity, she never uttered a word, nor did
she recover from the terror, our sudden and unexpected visit had
thrown them into." It was a pity Buchan did not think of
interrogating this woman both in French and English, for even
though she may have been kidnapped when quite a child, she would
probably have recognized her own tongue, which ever it may have
been, did she hear it once again. I also think he should have
made an effort to bring the poor creature back to civilisation
[civilization]. Probably he might have done so were the Indians
there on his return to the Lake.
I conceive Buchan made a great mistake in taking with him so
many of the furriers as guides, and moreover, allowing them to go
armed. It is only natural to suppose that the Indians seeing
these blood-thirsty enemies of their tribe amongst the party,
would naturally conclude all the rest were of the same stamp, and
actuated with the same desire for their destruction, hence their
caution and the fatal termination of the expedition.
It was subsequently learnt from Shanawdithit that the killing
of Buchan's two marines was occasioned by a misunderstanding on
the part of the Indians, aided by their fears. All went well with
the two hostages, who conducted themselves in a becoming manner,
till the return of the Indian who fled from Buchan down the river.
This individual reported that a large party were in hiding ready
to march up and destroy them all. On receiving this report, the
poor Red men were thrown into a state of alarm, but before
deciding on the death of the hostages a council was held as to the
best mode of procedure. Some were for immediate flight and taking
the marines with them, but others argued that Buchan would be sure
to follow them up in order to recover his men and that their only
safety was in destroying them, so that they could not give any
information as to the direction the Indians had taken. It would
appear that the majority were loathe to murder the men who came to
them in such a friendly way, and showed such confidence as to
remain alone with them. The matter was decided by the chief and a
few others surprising the unfortunate marines and shooting them in
the backs with arrows, and then beating a hasty retreat.
Buchan certainly made another mistake in allowing that first
individual to go free, had he held on to him till his return to
the Lake, no doubt all might have been well. It was a great pity
so favourable an opportunity at an amicable understanding should
have been frustrated.
/344/ Articles and books on Newfoundland, in which express mention
is made of the Boethuck [Beothuck] Indians are as follows; though
this list makes no pretence of being exhaustive.
JACQUES CARTIER. Voyages of Discovery in 1534-35. Published by Canadian Government. Describes the Beothucks he met with at Quirpon on the Northern extreme of Newfoundland.
WHITBOURNE, RICHARD. "Discourse and Discovery of the New- Foundland," London 1622.
DE LAET, JOAN. "Novus Orbis" speaks of the Beothucks. 1633. pp.
34.
SIR WM. DAWSON. "Fossil Men."
CARTWRIGHT, JOHN. Remarks on the situation of the Red Indians, etc. 1768. Published by his Neice [Niece].
CARTWRIGHT, MAJOR GEORGE. "Journal of Transactions and Events on Labrador," London 1793.
HAKLUYT. Voyages, ed. London 1810. pp. 168-169 and 245.
CHAPPELL, LIEUT. EDW. "Voyages of the Rosamond," London, 1818.
CHAPPELL, LIEUT. EDW. "Voyage to Newfoundland," London, 1818(?).
Illustrated. In chapter treating of the "Red Indians" pp. 169-187 he quotes Whitbourne's "Discourse and Discovery of New-Foundland."
ANSPACH, REV. LEWIS A. "History of Newfoundland." 1818.
"Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal" for Oct. 1828, Mar. 1829, contains an account of W.E. Cormack's second expedition in search
of the Red Indians.
BONNYCASTLE, SIR R.H. Newfoundland, 1842, London, 1842. His chapter on Red Indians embraces pp. 251-278, vol. II.
JUKES, J.B., of the Geological Survey. "Excursions in and about
Newfoundland." London, 1842. On the Beothucks cf. ii, 126,
132, 133, 170-175.
MURRAY, CHAS. AUG. (Author of the "Prairie Bird," etc.). "The Red Indians of Newfoundland," Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, 98 Chestnut Street (no date, about 1850?). Illustrated. The book is pure fiction the first chapter only contains some
ethnologic points.
"The Last of the Aborigines. A Poem founded on facts, in four Cantos." Dedicated to Master John Gaspard Le Marchant,
by George Webber, St. John's, N.F. Printed at Office of
"The Morning Post," 1851.
TOQUE, REV. PH. "Wandering Thoughts." London, 1856.
MULLOCK, RIGHT. REV. DR., R.C. Bishop of St. John's. Lectures on
Newfoundland, 1860.
HARVEY, REV. M. "Memoirs of an Extinct Race" in "Maritime Monthly."
GOBINEAU, COMTE A. DE. "Voyage a Terre Neuve." Paris, 1861.
LATHAM, ROB. GORDON. Comparative Philology. London, 1862. pp.
453-455.
PEDLEY, REV. CHAS. "The History of Newfoundland from the earliest
times to the year 1860." London, 1863. cf. 338 sqq. The
appendix VII, pp. 506-522, contains extracts from W.E.
Cormack's "Itinerary through the central parts of the Island," 1822.
In the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great
Britain and Ireland, the following treatises appear:
LLOYD, T.G.B., M.A.I. "On the Beothucks, a tribe of Red Indians, supposed to be extinct, which formerly inhabited Newfoundland." 1874. pp. 21-39.
LLOYD, T.G.B. "A further account of the Beothucks of Newfoundland." Ibid. pp. 223-248, with 3 plates.
LLOYD, T.G.B. "On stone implements of Newfoundland." Ibid. pp.
230-232, one plate.
BUSK, GEO., F.R.S. Description of two Beothuck skulls. Ibid.
pp. 230-232, one plate.
TOQUE, REV. PH. "Newfoundland as it was, etc." Illustrated. London, 1878. pp. 511.
/345/
HATTON, J. and HARVEY, M. "Newfoundland, its history, etc." Boston, 1883. On pp. 184-186 vocab. of Mary March.
STEARNS, WINIFRED ALDEN. "Labrador, a sketch of its people, its
industries, etc." Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1884. The
description, pp. 254-272, suggests interesting comparisons
of Labrador Indians with the Beothucks.
"New York Herald," correspondence of date Oct. 23rd, 1886.
STORM, PROF. GUSTAV. "Studies on the Vinland voyages." Copenhagen, 1888. The Beothucks are spoken of pp. 361,
362, etc.
"The Harbour Grace Standard," and "Conception Bay Advertiser."
Linguistic and Biographic Article, date May 2nd 1888.
HOWLEY, RIGHT REV. M.F. Ecclesiastical History, 1888.
MRS. EDITH BLAKE. "The Beothuck Indians," in the "Nineteenth Century" (Kegan and Co., Publishers, London). Dec. 1888.
ROSCOE'S SERIES:
"Ottawah," the Last Chief of the Red Indians of Newfoundland.
A Romance with Illustrations. London, pub. by E.
Appleyard, 86 Farringdon St. (No date, Author's name
not given.) Fiction only.
PROWSE, D.W. "History of Newfoundland from the records." London,
1895.
1. By J.B. Jukes, F.G.S., F.C.P.S; London, 1842. Vol. 11, page 129.
2. Noel Paul's Brook.
3. Life of Major Cartwright, by his niece, F.D. Cartwright, in two volumes, published by
Henry Cobbin, New Burlington Street, London, 1826. The Weymouth must have been his last
ship. That on whch he served at the date of the expedition was certainly the Guernsey as appears
from his original MS.
4. Furrier's term for rapid.
5. "Hos non immissos canibus, non cassibus ullis:
Puniciae agitant pavidos formidine pennae."
Virgil has neglected the peculiar beauty of this passage by using only the general word tolis,
which gives no idea of a sewel formed with coloured feathers.
6. This word is probably compoundd from see and well; another example is Semore (Mt
See-more) near Birchy Lake, Upper Humber River.
7. Maple (Fraxinus Americana), called sycamore by the Newfoundland fishermen.
Cartwright is not correct in stating that this was the only wood used for that purpose, they also
used Mountain Ash and a hard tough species of fir.
8. This was the Indian (John August) mentioned by Capt. George Cartwright in his Journal
of Transactions and Events, seen at Catalina, June 15th, 1785.
9. Micmacs and other tribes from the Continent.
10. Local term for rapid.
11. Badger Brook (?).
12. Red Indian Lake.
13. Twin Ponds (?).
14. Rev. Neville Stow, Chaplain of the Guernsey.
15. A construction of bushes or loose stones behind which a hunter conceals himself when
watching for game.
16. Junction of Rushy Pond Brook(?).
17. Badger Brook.
18. Small Brook near Badger (?). Either Aspen or Leach Brook.
19. Bloody Pt., Red Indian Lake.
20. American name for the Balsam Poplar (Populus balsamifera)
site of R. I. Village.
21. The balsam or balm of Gilead, is quite common on the west coast along the rivers in Bay
St. George.
22. N.E. Arm of lake, where Millertown now stands.
23. Micmac and other continental tribes.
24. Halfway Mountain.
25. Hodges Hill.
26. This was His Excellency, Capt. The Hon. John Byron, who succeeded Capt. H. Palliser
in 1769.
27. Cartwright says, "I saw no difference between the wigwam of the Mountaineer and Red
Indians of Newfoundland."
28. It looks as though Capt. Geo. Cartwright not only assumed to himself the planning of the
expidition up the Exploits river, but the carrying out of the same, thereby robbing his brother
John of all the kudos, whereas it will be remembered by the latter's narrative, he merely formed
one of the party and abandoned the enterprise when about halfway up the river.--J.P.H.
29. This was the first mentioned by his brother John Cartwright, who was captured in
August 1768, and called John August. He died in 1788, and was interred in the Churchyard at
Trinity. The following notice of his interment is taken from the Parish Register of the Church of
England at that place.
October 29th, 1788.
"Interred John August, a native of this island, a servant of Jeffery G. Street."
30. I am indebted to Mr. W. G. Gosling for this and much other valuable information which
he had copied for me from the records.
31. This term in Newfoundland parlance has not exactly the same significance as elsewhere.
It is applied to the trapper or hunter who procures the skins of fur bearing animals, rather than to
the person who cures and dresses the furs.
32. North Head is at the Western side of Exploits Bay. Dog Creek now Dog Bay.
33. I think Mr. Ougier is mistaken in this, and that he really refers to the Beothuck men Tom
June and John August, who acted in that capacity. Mr. Ougier being evidently unaquainted with
the northern parts of the island, easily made the mistake.
34. This is evidently the girl referred to by Mr. J. Bland in his first letters to the Governor as
having been taken when the father and mother were killed, and afterwards sent to Trinity where
she was reared up. She was subsequently taken to England by a Mr. and Mrs. Stone and died
there about 1795. She was probably the person named Ou-bee from whom Rev. Clinch obtained
his vocabulary?
35. I could not succeed in tracing the letter referred to, which I much regret as I have no
doubt it must have been very interesting.
36. It has been said that June lost his life by upsetting of his skiff while entering the narrow
dangerous gut leading into Fogo Harbour.
37. Presumably Capt. Le Breton made a report to the Governor, but I have failed to find it
amongst the records of Government House, or elsewhere.
38. Voyage of H.M.S. Rosamond by Lieut. Edward Chappell, R.N., London, 1818.
39. History of Newfoundland, by Lewis Amadaus, Anspatch 1818.
40. She was first placed under the care of Mr. Andrew Pearce, a gentleman at Fogo, who
hired men to take her back to the tribe.
41. Records, vide Vol. 19, p. 171.
42. Referred to on preceding pages.
43. I have used every effort to trace this picture, but without success. The accompanying
sketch is a reproduction from a description by a local artist, Mr. John Haywood.
44. History of Newfoundland by Rev. Chas Pedley, 1863.
45. This proclamation was evidently addressed to the Mountaineer or Nascoppi of Labrador
or Northern extremity of Newfoundland.
46. Governor's Poclamation respecting the Native Indians.
47. The Seewells, described by Cartwright.
48. This description seems to correspond with the sixth figure of Shawnawdithit's Sketch
No. IX, "Mythological emblems." Ash-u-meet.
49. This is the Grand Falls of the Exploits River where is now situated the gigantic Pulp and
Paper Mills of the Anglo-Newfoundland Company. (Harmsworth's)
50. Red Indian Fall.
51. This is a mistake, they certainly did boil some of their
food, as attested by Whitbourne and other authorities.
52. This is not correct, there is plenty of birch in the
interior.
53. Note from Peyton's diary of date March 1st, 1819. "On the
night of the 18th of September, 1818, between the hours of 12 and
1/2 past 1, the wild Indians cut adrift from the wharf at Lower
Sandy Point, Exploits, a boat loaded with salmon. The boat was
found the next day, stranded on an island near Grego, or gray
gull Island, -- sails gone and considerable other property stolen
or destroyed. Guns, pistols, watch, money and many articles of
personal apparel too numerous to mention. Cargo but little
damaged."
54. I have one of those iron spear heads now in my possession.
Although modelled after the Indians' own spears, Peyton averred
they were not nearly so well made.
55. This is New-World Island.
56. This is a mistake in the date, it should have been 1810,
1811.
57. As may be seen from Capt. Buchan's own narrative, the
author is not quite correct here, only one of the Indians
remained with Buchan's party.
58. What I saw I should estimate at from three to four hundred, including women and
children: of this however hereafter. This does not at all tally with Mr. Peyton's estimate.
59. Muskets
60. The possession of a beard is very unusual amongst full blooded Indians.
61. This was probably some member of the Slade family, whose firm carried on an extensive
mercantile trade all over Notre Dame Bay, their principal establishment being located in
Twillingate, with branch houses in all the settled harbours.
62. Red Indian Lake.
63. This information was derived from Shanawdithit.
64. Apparently Bonnycastle was misinformed, all other accounts represent her as a young
woman some 23 or 24 years of age.
65. More probably Micmacs?.
66. It is a pity Peyton's offer was not accepted, as he knew more about them and their ways
than any other living person. With the aid of the woman it is probable he might have succeeded
in opening communication with her tribe, of which he expresses himself so confidant.
67. Mr. Forbes was the Chief Justice of the Colony at that
time.
68. This appears to be still another name for Mary March.
69. Bishop's Fall.
70. What a pity this man Trivick acted so injudiciously. It
would appear from his letter that he had about the best
opportunity ever presented, at all events of later years to
intercept and capture the Indians.
71. Beothuck term for woman.
72. At Placentia there lived at this time Josiah Blackburne,
Esq., an interesting old gentleman, a magistrate and patriarch of
the place, a Scot by birth, who related with the greatest delight
the event of the visit of His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence
(His present Majesty William the IV) at this place in the year
17.. in His Majesty's ship. * * * *
In remembrance of His Royal Highness's visit, Her late
Majesty Queen Caroline sent to Placentia the sum of four hundred
pounds to build a chapel -- accompanied with a model, and church
service of plate, in trust, to Mr. Blackburne. The chapel was
erected, and is now an extremely chaste building. The model was
probably of one of the Royal Chapels in England.
73. Captain Buchan's interesting narrative of his journey by
way of the river Exploits to the encampments of the Red Indians,
and of his interview with these people on the banks of the Red
Indian Lake in the interior, during the winter season, when the
face of the country was covered with snow and ice, could not
throw much light upon the natural condition of the country upon
the banks of that river and lake.
74. The late Hon. Chas. Fox Bennett, in 1882, informed me that
he was the person referred to who was to have accompanied Cormack
but that business interfered and prevented his doing so. He said
he was well acquainted with W. E. Cormack, who was a particular
friend of his.
75. Judging from the above, Cormack does not appear to have
been well posted in Newfoundland history. It was not Sir George
Calvert who founded the first Colony in Conception Bay, but John
Guy, of Bristol, one of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of
London and Bristol. It took place not in 1620, but in 1610. Sir
Geo. Calvert (Lord Baltimore's) settlement was at a place called
Ferryland, on the eastern seaboard 40 miles south of St. John's,
in 1621. It was not he, but Sir Humphrey Gilbert who was lost at
sea.
76. Equipment. -- My dress chiefly consisted of a grey
moleskin shooting jacket, small clothes of worsted cord, three
entire inside woollen body dresses, (no linen or cotton
whatever,) worsted stockings and socks, Canadian long moccasin
boots; the Indian wore leggings or gaiters made of swanskin
blanketing, together with moccasins instead of boots. I was
armed with a double-barrelled fowling piece and a brace of
bayoneted-pistols, two pounds and a-half of gunpowder, and ten
pounds of bullet and shot. The Indian had a single-barrelled
fowling piece and a pistol, and the like quantity of powder and
shot. Our stock consisted of a hatchet, two small tin kettles,
for cooking; about twenty pounds of biscuit, eight pounds of
pork, some portable soup, tea and sugar, pepper, salt, &c.; a
blanket each, and one for the camp roof, a telescope, a pocket
compass each: I took a small fishing rod and tackle, and various
minor articles for our casual necessities and for mineralogical
and other purposes of observation and notes. On another journey
of the kind, I should very little vary this equipment.
77. This is not correct.
78. Or, Through Hill.
79. By Dr. McCullock in his valuable paper "On Peat" in the
Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, No. 3 and 4, 1820.
80. Phonolite.
81. Ground hemlock.
82. Yellow birch.
83. Known locally as plaster holes.
84. Lynx (Lynx Canadensis).
85. Called Chicken Halibut.
86. History of Newfoundland, 1863.
87. Not so, he was her uncle.
88. In a list of disbursements for the district of St. John's
from the 20th of October, 1822, to the 20th October, 1823, I find
the following entries:
"Elizabeth Bryan, for attendance upon three Indian women,
per order of Sessions" 1 pound, 10 shillings, 0d.
"Paid Hunters & Co. for sundries for the use of the Indian
women" 3 pounds, 7 s. 6 d.
These were Shanawdithit, her sister and mother.
89. Peyton frequently expressed the same belief to myself.
90. Presumably Mr. W. E. Cormack.
91. Some accounts state that a second man accompanied the
three women who was drowned also by falling through the ice in an
attempt to escape.
92. This does not accord with Rev. Mr. Wilson's description of
her appearance, but she may have fallen into flesh as she grew
older.
93. Presumably the red hair of the individual was the
attraction, red colour being held in great esteem amongst the
natives.
94. In 1826 in the spring, recent traces of the Red Indians
were seen by some Micmacs at Badger Bay Great Lake. Cormack.
95. I find the name of Capt. David Buchan, J.P., together with
the names of R. Parry, Surrogate, and Josiah Blackburne, J.P.,
signed to a decree of the Surrogate Court at Placentia, Sept.
12th, 1808, in a suit of Maurice Power versus Thos. Baily, agent
for Saunders, Sweetman & Saunders.
96. The Adonis only mounted 10 guns in all.
97. From the records we learn that Buchan had the distribution
of 10,000 pounds sent by the British Government for the relief of
the distressed.
98. A custom which is carried out to this day by the Colonial
Government, who every year appoints the commander on the station
a Justice of the Peace.
99. In 1824(?) Buchan was examined before a Committee of the
British Parliament, presumably about the Butler-Lundrigan case.
100. Not Grand Pond (Lake) but Red Indian Lake.
101. Apparently old man Curtis makes a mistake about the
mother's death, it was the eldest daughter who died first.
102. Does not agree with Mrs. Jure's statement.
103. The Beothucks did not scalp their victims, they cut off
the heads.
104. I have seen a Micmac Indian perform this same feat.
105. Cormack always spelt her name thus, and he should be
considered the best authority.
106. According to Mr. Thos. Peyton this gentleman was married
to a sister of Wm. E. Cormack.
107. Since my return, I learn from the captive Red Indian woman
Shanawdithit, that the vapour bath is chiefly used by old people,
and for rheumatic affections.
Shanawdithit is the survivor of three Red Indian females who
were taken by, or rather who gave themselves up, exhausted with
hunger, to some English furriers, about five years ago, in Notre
Dame Bay. She is the only one of that tribe in the hands of the
English, and the only one that has ever lived so long amongst
them. It appears extraordinary, and it is to be regretted, that
this woman has not been taken care of, nor noticed before, in a
manner which the peculiar and interesting circumstances connected
with her tribe and herself would have led us to expect.
108. Not so -- Cormack appears to have been unaware of Lieut.
Cartwright's expedition in 1768.
109. It should be remarked here, that Mary March, so called
from the name of the month in which she was taken, was the Red
Indian female who was captured and carried away by force from
this place by an armed party of English people, nine or ten in
number, who came up here in the month of March 1819. The local
government authorities at that time did not foresee the result of
offering a reward to bring a Red Indian to them. Her husband was
cruelly shot, after nobly making several attempts, single handed,
to rescue her from the captors, in defiance of their fire arms
and fixed bayonets. Her tribe built this cemetery for him, on
the foundation of his own wigwam, and his body is one of those
now in it. The following winter, Captain Buchan was sent to the
River Exploits, by order of the local government of Newfoundland
to take back this woman to the lake, where she was captured, and
if possible, at the same time, to open a friendly intercourse
with her tribe. But she died on board Capt. B.'s vessel, at the
mouth of the river. Captain B., however, took up her body to the
lake; and not meeting with any of her people, left it where they
were afterwards likely to meet with it. It appears the Indians
were this winter encamped on the banks of the River Exploits, and
observed Capt. B.'s party passing up the river on the ice. They
retired from their encampments in consequence; and some weeks
afterwards, went by a circuitous route to the lake, to ascertain
what the party had been doing there. They found Mary March's
body, and removed it from where Capt. B. had left it to where it
now lies, by the side of her husband.
With the exception of Captain Buchan's first expedition by
order of the local government of Newfoundland in the winter of
1810, to endeavour to open a friendly intercourse with the Red
Indians, the two parties just mentioned are the only two we know
of that had ever before been up to the Red Indian Lake. Captain
B. at that time succeeded in forcing an interview with the
principal encampment of these people. All the tribe that
remained at that period were then at the Great Lake, divided into
parties, and in their winter encampments, at different places in
the woods on the margin of the lake. Hostages were exchanged;
but Capt. B. had not been absent from the Indians two hours, on
his return to a depot left by him at a short distance down the
river, to take up additional presents for them, when the want of
confidence of these people in the whites evinced itself. A
suspicion spread amongst them that he had gone down to bring up a
reinforcement of men, to take them all prisoners to the sea-coast; and they resolved immediately to break up their encampment
and retire further into the country, and alarm and join the rest
of their tribe, who were all at the western parts of the lake.
To prevent their proceedings being known, they killed and then
cut off the heads of the two English hostages; and on the same
afternoon on which Capt. B. left them, they were all in full
retreat across the lake, with baggage, children, &c. The whole
of them afterwards spent the remainder of the winter together at
a place twenty to thirty miles to the south-west, on the south-east side of the lake. On Capt. B.'s return to the lake next day
or the day after, the cause of the scene there was inexplicable;
and it remained a mystery until now, when we can gather some
facts relating to these people from the Red Indian woman
Shanawdithit.
110. Mr. Peyton informed me, that he saw Cormack before he
entered upon this journey, that he was a lithe, active, robust
man. When he returned from the expedition and revisited Mr.
Peyton's house, the latter did not recognise him at first, he had
changed so much. He presented such a gaunt, haggard and worn out
appearance from the excessive toil and privation he had
undergone, accompanied by hunger and anxiety, that he did not
look much like the stalwart individual he saw depart for the
interior a month previously.
111. It is to be regretted that these relics have all been lost
to us.
112. Labradorite.
113. Deer Lake or Grand Lake(?).
114. The then Governor.
115. This is the first and only reference I have ever met with
of the Beothucks using carved doorposts to their dwellings. It
is to be regretted Cormack does not give us fuller particulars as
to the character of those carvings. I presume they must have
been somewhat similar to those grotesque figures used by the
natives of the Queen Charlotte Islands off the west coast of
British Columbia.
116. Also of a species of fir called boxy fir, a hard grown,
tough, springy wood, so I have been informed by the Micmacs.
117. I believe the Beothucks derived the idea of this harpoon
from the Eskimos, who are adepts in its use, are known to have
possessed it a long time, and who moreover, depend more upon the
seal and walrus for their livelihood than the former had any
occasion to do. It is a most ingenious weapon, and while the
general structure is the same, that of the Beothuck was slighter
and more neatly constructed. It was called by them a-aduth.
118. This statement does not tally with that of any of the
other authorities on the subject. Whitbourne, Cartwright, Buchan
and even Cormack himself all affirm that the outside of the canoe
was invariably covered with birch rind.
Possibly, they may have on some occasions, when pressed for
time or when birch bark was difficult to obtain, resorted to deer
skins for that purpose, as the Micmacs sometimes do, but it
certainly was not the usual covering, and this is the only
instance I have met with where such is mentioned.
119. Lloyd states that his Micmac guide, Souliann, told him
they used the down of the Blue Jay for tinder.
120. This suggestion was apparently carried out. Bonnycastle
affirms that he saw her miniature. It is probably a copy of this
picture of Shanawdithit which appears as a frontispiece in the
Annals of the Propagation of the Gospel, 1856, a photo of which
is here reproduced.
121. Grand Lake.
122. Corruption of the French "Baie d'Espoir."
123. I cannot believe Buchan could have made any mistake about
the white woman he saw at Red Indian Lake, and so particularly
described in 1811. Shanawdithit's negation to this query may
have been actuated from some special motive, perhaps fear for
herself or her people for having kidnapped (?) a white child.
More probably, however, Shanawdithit may not have remembered the
white woman, seeing that she was only some 10 or 12 years of age
at the time of Buchan's first expedition. Probably the white
woman in question may have died soon after.
124. Here again there is evidently some mistake. The
correspondent of the Liverpool Mercury clearly mentions a bitch
with a litter of puppies in one wigwam at the time of Mary
March's capture.
125. History says that Indians were brought from Newfoundland
by Cabot, and presented to Henry VII. Capt. Richard Whitbourne
describes them in 1620. See also Anderson on Commerce; Reves,
Newfoundland, published in 1796; Barrow's Northern Voyages, etc.
126. We have no other record of this expedition. I think
Cormack has mistaken the date and is really referring to the
expedition of 1810-11.
127. This latter statement does not appear to be correct. All
other accounts, including Peyton's own, only mention the death of
one man, Mary March's husband.
128. Stated by one of the men who committed the deed.
129. The two Canadians informed the writer of this event.
130. A curious mistake for Cormack to make. It should have
been 1811.
131. This was Red Indian Lake on the Exploits, and must not be
confounded with Grand Lake on the Humber.
132. This man was Shanawdithit's uncle. The same person
afterwards shot, at Badger Bay in 1823(?).
133. This statement does not seem to be correct. Only one man
was shot (?).
134. Cormack was told this by one of the very barbarians who
shot them.
135. This information bears evidence of being derived from
Shanawdithit.
136. Drawings missing.
137. Wild Goose (Bernicla Canadensis).
138. A kind of tough springy hardgrown tree called "Boxey fir."
139. Occurs in many other localities.
140. This is the common Dolphin (Delphinus.)
141. There is nothing to show where these were written.
Cormack had left the country for good long prior to this date. I
think he was then residing at New Westminster, British Columbia.
142. This probably refers to his first expedition, which was
evidently not published till a later date. It would appear from
the foregoing notes that he still took a lively interest in the
subject of the Aborigines. They appear to me to have been
written at the suggestion of someone who knew him, probably Mr.
Noad who was gathering material for his lecture, delivered in the
following year, 1852.
143. Name wrongly spelt, the final syllable should read "thit."
144. See note at end of this bibliography.
145. New Glasgow is not in Prince Edward's Island, but in Nova
Scotia.
146. On some of the old French charts of the northern extremity
of Newfoundland (the Petit Nord), a track or path is shown,
extending along the low flat shore forming the south side of the
Strait of Belle Isle, and facing the Labrador coast, which is
distinctly visible from here; being only about nine miles
distant. This path is called "Chemin de Sauvage." There is also
a place on this same shore still called "Savage Cove," which is
probably the supposed place of their departure. This would seem
to bear out the statement of the Micmacs. Again in the English
Coast Pilot for 1755, there is a place near Hawkes' Bay, or Point
Riche called "Passage de Savages."
147. John Day, one of Peyton's men confirmed this statement and
said he was considerably over 6 feet in height.
148. Evidently from the fact of its being smeared with ochre,
there can be little doubt the hair was black.
149. Possibly the object of thus colouring the person and
clothing red may have been the better to conceal their movements
from the enemy or to render themselves less conspicuous when
pursuing the chase, especially in the autumn, at which season the
bushes and shrubs covering the barrens where the caribou most
resort, assume many tints of red and brown, corresponding closely
with the red ochre of the Indians. Even the natural colour of an
Indian's complexion seems designed by Nature to enable him the
more easily to approach game of any kind, as I have frequently
observed myself when in company with the Micmacs. A deer, goose,
or black duck for instance will observe a white man's features
much quicker than those of an Indian.
It was this assimilating the natural colour of the South
African Veldt that caused our troops and volunteers during the
Boer war to adopt the khaki coloured uniform, so as to render
themselves less conspicuous to the enemy. Possibly, this fact
may have suggested to the observant Red man the same idea of
concealing his person by artificial means.
150. From Article on the Beothucks by Rev. Geo. Patterson, D.D.
of the Royal Society of Canada, 1891. In referring to this
practice, he quotes from Ezekiel (Chap. xxiii. 14, 15), referring
to the idolatrous practices which the Jewish people borrowed from
neighbouring nations, describes them as "doting upon the
Assyrians, her neighbours, adding to her idolatries," "for when
she saw men portrayed on the walls images of Chaldeans portrayed
with vermilion." Jeremiah (Chap. xxii. 14) notices the King's
vanity especially as manifest in having his house "painted with
vermilion." And the Book of Wisdom (Chap. xiii. 14) represents
them as colouring the idol itself in this manner, "laying on
ochre (Greek Miltos) and with paint colouring it red, and
covering every spot on it." With this accord the recently
exhumed Assyrian monuments. M. Botta noticed several figures on
the walls of Khorsabad yet retaining a portion of the vermilion
with which it had been painted. There is in the British Museum
among the marbles sent from Nimroud by Mr. Layard a large slab
with the figure of the King standing holding in his right hand a
staff and resting his left on the pommel of his sword, "still
having the soles of his sandals coloured red."
"The Buddhist Monks in Central Asia all wear a red cloak."
151. The Australian Aboriginal painted his body with a mixture
of red ochre and grease and also adorned the beard and hair of
his head with same.
152. Mr. Watts died in 1908 at the advanced age of 98 years.
153. Since renamed Alexander Bay.
154. This occurred at New Bay. The Indians had constructed an
ambush of bushes, from which they rushed out and seized Rousell
before he had time to defend himself.
155. These rocks, the "Isle Ouseaux," of the old maps, were the
principal habitat and last resting place of the Great Auk, Alca
impennis, long extinct.
156. Place where the fishermen moored their boats.
157. What seems to bear out this story, is the fact that on the
maps of to-day and in close proximity to Lance Cove is a headland
called Salvage (i.e. Savage) Point.
158. This story is scarcely to be believed.
159. I think the old man must be mistaken about the bottom of
the canoe being round, when such reliable authorities as
Cartwright, Cormack, Peyton, &c., affirm so positively that it
was V shaped.
160. This of course refers to a comparatively recent date when
they learnt the use of iron, which they stole from the fishermen.
161. Mr. Thos. Peyton says "the man's name was Richards and was
usually called Dick Richards. He was an old brute. He was one
of my father's party at the capture of Mary March. He it was who
shot her husband at that time, and caused all the trouble."
162. This is the fisherman's name for the whole of Notre Dame
Bay.
163. A mistake, the names were Tom June and John August.
164. A mistake, it was his father John Louis.
165. Mathew (Mathy) Mitchel also confirmed Noel Mathews' story,
but gave a somewhat different version of it. He says it occurred
at Red Indian Lake, and that the woman did not go to the wigwam
but when her husband failed to return in due time, she made her
way out to Bay St. George where she informed her people of what
had occurred. The Micmacs thereupon set out in a body for Red
Indian Lake, found their dead comrade in the wigwam and then went
after the Red men to wreak vengeance upon them.
166. This was evidently the same man John Gale who wrote the
Governor, Sir Charles Hamilton, in Sept. 1819, about the
depradations of the Red Indians (see page 118).
167. This was apparently the spoon mentioned by the man named
Butler. Old Mr. John Peyton told me that several of the articles
found by his party in 1819 at Red Indian Lake had been looted
from a store in White Bay the fall before, thus confirming Gale's
story.
168. This would bring the date of his birth back to 1767, so
that he would be fully 33 years of age at the commencement of the
nineteenth century.
169. Shells of the Mya truncata and Saxicava rugosa, locally
called clams.
170. Probably a copy of the picture or portrait referred to by
W.E. Cormack, and seen by Bonnycastle.
171. Mr. Gatschet says he obtained still another vocabulary
from Rev. Silas Rand, which he calls the Montreal vocabulary, but
he adds "it is only another copy or `recension' of the W.E.
Cormack voc."
172. A table of the chief affinities between the Beothuck and
the other Algonkin languages (or dialects) has been published by
the present writer in the Proceedings of the Philological Society
for 1850. Latham.
173. T.G.B. Lloyd, C.E., F.G.S., M.A.I., paper on the Beothucks
Journal of the Anthropological Society, Vol. IV, p. 21, 1874(?).
174. Three women (?) also Oubee.
175. This so-called harp does not develop till the animal
attains its third year.
176. Sea pigeon, Black guillemot, Uria grylle.
177. Two entirely different species of sea birds. The tern is,
Sterna Wilsoni. The Turr is, Urea arra or lomvia.
178. Kittiwake Gull, Rissa tridactylus.
179. Fraturcula arctica.
180. More probably the eider duck, Somateria mollissima.
181. Perhaps, phoca foetida.
182. Thick billed Guillemot, Alca torda.
183. Mallotus villosus.
184. Sarracenia purpurea.
185. Robin thrush, Turdus migratorius, called Blackbird in
Newfoundland.
186. The Willow grouse, always called partridge, locally.
187. Perhaps also in June, July, September.
188. The Algonkin na, -nu-, n- of the first person occurs in
none of these examples.
189. Micmac: -- memaje I live, memajoo-okun life.
190. Linguistic stocks reduced like Beothuk to a small compass
are of the highest importance for anthropologic science. Not
only do they disclose by themselves a new side of ethnic life,
but they also afford a glimpse at the former distribution of
tribes, nations, races and their languages and ethnographic
peculiarities.
191. I think it more probable Clinch's vocabulary was obtained
from the young girl mentioned by Gov. Edwards.
192. That was from 1797 to 1800.
193. Harlequin Duck, Clangula histrionica.
194. Evidently the name of the person from whom the vocabulary
was obtained.
195. Of course Cartwright does not mention the Indians at
Battle Harbour, because if the date be correct, it occurred long
after his time, or about 1825 to 1830.
196. Where the stone pots were manufactured.
197. In this Mr. Bradshaw is wrong, there is some soapstone on
Sound Island, not far away.
198. I have only heard of one other steatite pipe having been
found at Fleur de Lys, where the soapstone pots were
manufactured. This was said to have some sort of an animal
carved on the outside with its head projecting over the bowl.
The scarcity of stone pipes may be accounted for by the fact that
in all probability these people, like the Micmacs, used strips of
Birch bark twisted into the form of a pipe, which after being
used once was so burnt as to be useless and consequently cast
aside.
The Eskimos living north of Hudson Strait make steatite
pipes much like that figured here, though not so ornamental, in
which they smoke some kind of moss.
199. Shanawdithit was probably too young at the time to
remember.
/231/ rind models of canoes.
Spear point, Drawings by Shanawdithit, A map of the interior. The
narrative of my journey in search of the aborigines (in MS).(142)