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pilferings aud robberies which the French experienced at the hands ol 

 these natives, brought them to such a pitch of exasperation, that they, in 

 the middle of the eighteenth century, offered a reward for every head of a 

 Red Indian. To gain this reward, and also for the value of the fur-skins 

 which they wore, the Micmacs privately shot them. This brought on the 

 above-mentioned conflicts and many other personal encounters. 



The English never pursued them with the same hatred as the French. 

 In 1810, Sir Thomas Duckworth issued a proclamation for their protec- 

 tion. In 1827 some benevolent inhabitants of Newfoundland founded a 

 society at St. John's to open communication with the Red Indians, to 

 protect aud possibly civilize them. W, E. Cormack, who in 1822 had 

 crossed the island from coast to coast for exploration, and left an " Itine- 

 rary" of his expedition, undertook a similar trip with a retinue in 1827, 

 but failed to sight a single individual of the mysterious tribe. The last 

 region where they had been seen were the shores of the River of Exploits 

 and its tributaries ; this seems to have been one of their main habitats 

 even in the foregoing centuries. Since then many other travelers have 

 searched for them ; but nothing except implements and the remains of 

 their dwellings and stockades were discovered. 



TRIBAL NAMES. 



The names by which the tribe is known to us are those of " Beothuk," 

 and of "Red Indians." 



The name of Beothuk has been interpreted differently. Mr. J. P. 

 Howley mentions an Eskimo word bethuc, said to mean forefoot of deer, 

 and Rob. Gordon Latham supposed it"meant good night in their own lan- 

 guage, and that the tribe should hence be named the Oood Night Indians ; 

 betheok 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 manuscript betiieoate (not betheok, Lloyd) ; 

 it is evidently a form of the verb baetha to go home ; and thus its real 

 meaning is : "lam now going home." The spellings of the tribal name 

 found in the vocabularies are Beothuk, Beothick, Behathook, Boeothuk 

 and Beathook ; beothuk means not only Red Indian, of Nevfoundland, 

 but is also the generic expression for Indian, and composes the word 

 haddabothic body (and belly). Just as many other peoples call them- 

 selves by the term men, to which Indian is here equivalent, it is but natu- 

 ral to assume that the Indians of Newfoundland called themselves by the 

 same word. 



Another term Shawatharott or Shawdtharut is given for Bed Indian 

 man in King's vocabulary ; we find also woas-sut Bed Indian woman, cf. 

 oosuck wife; its diminutive woas-eeash, woas-eeoh Bed Indian girl; 

 mozazeesh Bed Indian boy. 



Bed Indians was the name given to 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. Sebastian Cabot, the discov- 



