CHAP, xxvii. PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES IN LABRADOR. 109 



fifty more. These people, in colour^ figure, stature, and ex- 

 pression, greatly resemble gipsies ; they are clothed with the 

 skins of different beasts, but chiefly of the otter, wearing the 

 hair outside in summer, and next to the skin in winter. These 

 skins, too, are not sewed together nor shaped to the body in any 

 fashion, but wrapped round their arms and shoulders exactly as 

 taken from the animals ; whilst the slight and partial covering 

 which they wear is formed with strong cords made of the 

 sinews or entrails of fishes. Their faces are punctured in the 

 same manner as the Indians : some have six marks, some eight, 

 some fewer ; they use a language of their own, but it is under- 

 stood by no one. 



******* 



They have great plenty of salmon, herring, stockfish, and 

 similar kinds of fish. They have also abundance of timber, and 

 principally of pine, fitted for the masts and yards of ships ; on 

 which account his serene Majesty anticipates the greatest advan- 

 tage from this country, both in furnishing timber for his 

 shipping, of which at present he stands in great need, and also 

 from the men who inhabit it, who appear admirably fitted to 

 endure labour, and will probably turn out the best slaves which 

 have been discovered up to this time. This arrival appeared to 

 me an event of which it was right to inform you ; and if, on the 

 arrival of the other caravel, I receive any additional information, 

 it shall be transmitted to you in like manner.* 



Three hundred and sixty years later (1853), Pere 

 Durocher describes the appearance of a few Nasquapees 

 who had descended from the interior with a party of Mon- 

 tagnais, to be present at the Ilets de Jereniie during the 

 visitation of the Archbishop of Quebec m 1853. At the 

 commencement of the ceremony some Nasquapee families 

 were observed standing aloof and watching the Montagnais 



* 3Icmoir of Sebastian Cabot, pp. 2-39, 240. Quoted by Tytler, 

 Northern Coasts of America and the Hudson's Bay Company s Terri- 

 tories. R. M. Ballautyne. 



