Section II, 1891. [ 123 ] Trans. Eoy. Soc. Canada. 



VI. — The Beothiks or Red Indians of NewfoundlanJ. 

 By the Rev. George Patterson, D.C. 



(Read the 29th May, 1891.) 



Introductory. 



The history of the early iutercourse of Europeans with the rude aborigines of America 

 presents one of the darkest pictures on the page of time. Occasionally its blackness may 

 be, in some measure, relieved by such events as the friendly dealings of Penn with the 

 tribes inhabiting Pennsylvania, or the self-denying labours of Christian missionaries ; yet 

 these only serve to throw into deeper shade the oppression and cruelty, the robbery and 

 murder, and the destructive consequences of European vices, which, to a greater or less 

 extent, have characterized the early attempts of every nation in Europe to colonize this 

 continent. 



Perhaps no part of this history is sadder than that which concerns the doom of the 

 Red Indians of Newfoundland. Here was a people described by all who met them as of 

 good, if not superior, physique, and in the arts of uncivilized life showing much intelli- 

 gence, numerous as compared with tribes on the neighbouring continent, in the midst of 

 lavish abundance supplied to their hands by a bountiful Creator, a people too at their first 

 intercourse with Europeans disposed to be friendly, yet goaded into a spirit of relentless 

 hostility, and finally exterminated as noxious wild beasts, leaving neither name nor inherit- 

 ance on the earth. Such a fact may well excite serious consideration and awaken deep 

 emotions. 



From the entire separation or bitter hostility between them and the whites, main- 

 tained during almost the whole time that the two were brought into contact, our knowl- 

 edge of thein is imperfect, and so it must remain, for they have no buried records for any 

 future explorer to decipher, and it cannot be expected that any future collecting of their 

 relics will add much to our information concerning them. In these circumstances I have 

 thought it advisable to collect what is known of them, that it may be placed on record in 

 the 'Transactions' of the society. In prosecuting this work I must acknowledge my 

 obligations to the various histories and other works on Newfoundland which refer more 

 or less fully to the aborigines.' Besides these I have availed myself of special articles by 

 different writers in serial publications, and have gathered information from various other 



' The principal are McGregor's " British America," Edinburgh and London, If'SS ; Anspach's " History of New- 

 foundland," 1827, p. 457, etc. ; Cbappell's "Voyage to Newfoundland," London, 1818, pp. 169-187; Bonnycastle's 

 " Newfoundland in 1842," Vol. i, pp. 251-278 ; Jukes' " Excursions in Newfoundland," London ; Pedley's " New- 

 foundland," London, 18t3 ; Toeques' " Newfoundland a.s it was," London, 1878 ; also his " Wandering Thouglits," 

 and especially Harvey's '' Newfoundland," London and Boston, 1883. 



