10 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxi. 



Eiver to the Atlantic coast of Labrador. Tliey called 

 themselves the people of the north -north-east, or the 

 Tshe-tsi-uetin-euerno,* and were formerly a numerous 

 and warlike nomadic 'nation. A curious circumstance 

 connected with the direction in which they came to the 

 Labrador Peninsula is that they also term themselves the 

 Ne-e-no-il-no, or perfect people. A resemblance between 

 this name and that of the M-the-wuk (' Exact or 

 Complete Men ') of Sir John Eichardson will be re- 

 cognised at once, more especially when it is known that 

 the Crees referred to by Sir John Eichardson had their 

 hunting-grounds on the west of Hudson's Bay, bounded 

 by the great prairies on the south and the country of the 

 Chipewyans on the north. f 



The Cree branch of the great Algonkin race ex- 

 tended themselves far beyond the bounds of their 

 brethren in origm and language, the Ojibways, and now 

 overlap them on both sides by more than 1,000 miles. 



Paul le Jeune, a Jesuit missionary, visited the 

 Montagnais of the Lower St. Lawrence in 1632, and 

 remained with them until he had made himself familiar 

 with their language. | When first he saw some of these 

 Indians, who came on board the vessel which was sailmg 

 towards Quebec, their faces were painted with red, blue, 



* Mr. Mackenzie of Mingan, -who speaks the Moutagnais language as 

 well as English, informed me that this was the name that these people 

 called themselves. They belong to the Cree nation of the Algonkin 

 family ; they are called Montagnais by the French Canadians, and Monta- 

 gnais, Montaignets, or Montagnards, or Algonkin Inferi euros, by the Jesuits 

 and their early historians ; the English Canadians frequently call them 

 Mountaineers. 



t Ne or Ni signifies 'exactly.' Arctic Searching P]xpedition. 



X Relation des Jesuites, 1632. 



