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Report of' Mr W. E. Cormack's Journey in Search of the 

 Red Indians in Newfoimdland. Read before the Bceothich 

 Institution at St John\ Newfoundland. Communicated by 



Mr CORMACK. 



X URSUAKT to special summons, a meeting of this Institution 

 was held at St John's on the 12th day of January 1828; the 

 Honourable A. W. Desbarres, Vice-Patron, in the chair. The 

 Honourable Chairman stated, that the primary motive which 

 led to the formation of the Institution, was the desire of open- 

 ing a communication with, and promoting the civilization of, 

 the Red Indians of Newfoundland ; and of procuring, if pos- 

 sible, an authentic history of that unhappy race of people, in or- 

 der that their language, customs and pursuits, might be con- 

 trasted with those of other tribes of Indians and nations ; — that 

 in following up the chief object of the institution, it was antici- 

 pated that much information would be obtained respecting the 

 natural productions of the island ; the interior of which is less 

 known than any other of the British possessions abroad. Their 

 excellent President, keeping all these objects in view, had per- 

 mitted nothing worthy of research to escape his scrutiny, and 

 consequently a very wide field of information was now intro- 

 duced to their notice, all apparently highly interesting and use- 

 ful to society, if properly cultivated. He was aware of their 

 very natural anxiety to hear from the president an outline of 

 his recent expedition, and he would occupy their attention far- 

 ther, only by observing, that the purposes of the present meet- 

 ing 'Would be best accomplished by taking into consideration the 

 diflPerent subjects recommended to them in the president's re- 

 port, and passing such resolutions as might be considered ne- 

 cessary to govern the future proceedings of the Institution. 



The President, W. E. Cormack, Esq. then laid the following 

 statement before the meeting. 



Having so recently returned, I will now only lay before you 

 a brief outhne of my expedition in search of the Bceothicks or 

 Red Indians, confining my remarks exclusively to its primary 

 object. A detailed report of the journey will be prepared, 

 and submitted to the institution, whenever I shall have leisure 

 to arrange the other interesting materials which have been col- 

 lected. 



