S^ Mr W. E. Cormack's Journey in search of 



saw in the woods for the last two days, indicated that man had 

 been near. We looked down on the lake, from the hills at the 

 northern extremity, with feelings of anxiety and admiration : — 

 No canoe could be discovered moving on its placid surface, in the 

 distance. We were the first Europeans who had seen it in an 

 unfrozen state, for the three former parties who had visited it 

 before, were here in the winter, when its waters were frozen and 

 covered over with snow. They had reached it from below, by 

 way of the river Exploits, on the ice. We approached the lake 

 with hope and caution ; but found to our mortification that the 

 Red Indians had deserted it for some years past. My party 

 had been so excited, so sanguine, and so determined to obtain 

 an interview of some kind with these people, that, on discover- 

 ing from appearances every where around us, that the Red In- 

 dians, — the terror of the Europeans as well as the other Indian 

 inhabitants of Newfoundland, — no longer existed, the spirits 

 of one and all of us were very deeply affected. The old mountain- 

 eer was particularly overcome. There were every where indica- 

 tions, that this had long been the central and undisturbed ren- 

 dezvous of the tribe, when they had enjoyed peace and security. 

 But these primitive people had abandoned it, after having been 

 tormented by parties of Europeans during the last 18 years. Fa- 

 tal rencounters had on these occasions unfortunately taken place. 

 We spent several melancholy days wandering on the borders 

 of the east end of the lake, surveying the various remains of 

 what we now contemplated to have been an unoffending and 

 cruelly extirpated people. At several places, by the margin of 

 the lake, are small clusters of winter and summer wigwams in 

 ruins. One difference, among others, between the Bojothick wig- 

 wams and those of the other Indians, is, that in most of the for- 

 mer there are small hollows, like nests, dug in the earth around 

 the fire-place, one for each person to sit in. These hollows are 

 generally so close together, and also so close to the fire-place, and 

 to the sides of the wigwam, that I think it probable these people 

 have been accustomed to sleep in a sitting position. There was 

 one wooden building constructed for drying and smoking 

 venison in still perfect; also a small log-house, in a dilapi- 

 dated condition, which we took to have been once a store- 

 house. The wreck of a large handsome birch- rind canoe, 

 about twenty-two feet in length, comparatively new, and cer- 



