124 EEV. GEO. PATTEESON ON THE BEOTHIKS 



sources, published and unpublished, which will be more particularly referred to in. the 

 sequel. 



I may remark that Beothiks, sometimes spelled Bœothicks, was their own tribal name. 

 Attempts have been made to determine the meaning and origin of the word ; but as we 

 have no real information on the subject, and the conclusions adopted are only inferences 

 from its etymology, we think that none of them are reliable. Some of them, indeed, we 

 regard as demonstrably false. Mr. J. P. Howley mentions an Eskimo word, &e//iMC, mean- 

 ing forefoot of deer. We presume to think he might as well have mentioned the English 

 word, boathook. Latham supposed that it meant good-night in their language. This 

 was founded on a copy of Mary March's vocabulary, hereafter to be referred to, in which 

 the word hetheok appears for good-night. But on examination of the original, it is found 

 that the word is be/heoate, a form of the verb baelha, to go home, and meaning, I am going 

 home. Gatschet, justly rejecting these interpretations, supposes that " it means not only 

 Red Indian of Newfoundland, but is also the generic expression for Indian, and composes 

 the word haddabothic, bodi/ (and belly), just as many other people call themselves by the 

 term men." This appears to me far-fetched, and I believe that, like the name of other 

 Indian tribes, such as Micmac, etc., though it must once have had a meaning, which was 

 the occasion of its application to them, this has long since been lost, and that it had become 

 merely their tribal designation. 



The name Red Indians is supposed to have been given to them by Europeans from 

 their practice of colouring their faces and utensils with red ochre. The name, however, 

 I believe originated before the arrival of white men. It is the translation of the Micmac 

 name for them, Maquujik, which means r-ed men or red people. 



II. 

 Early Notices. 



Going back to the earliest notices of them, it is probably to them that Cabot refers 

 when, according to Hakluyt, he says : "The inhabitants are painted with red ochre. They 

 use the skins and furs of wild beasts for garments, which they hold in as high estimation 

 as we do our finest clothes. In war they use bows and arrows, spears, darts, clubs and 

 slings." 



The first undoubted reference to them is in " Fabian's Chronicle " as follows : " In 

 the fourteenth year of Henry VII, there were brought unto him three men taken in New 

 Found Island by Cabot. They were clothed in the skins of beasts, and spoke such speech 

 as no man could understand them, and in their demeanour were like brute beasts, whom 

 the King kept for a time after, of the w^hich, about two years ago, I saw two apparelled 

 after the manner of Englishmen, in Westminster Palace, which I could not discern from 

 Englishmen, till I was learned what they were." 



What became of these men we are not informed. It is not quite certain that they 

 were from Newfoundland. They might have been from Cape Breton or Nova Scotia. 



It is almost certain, however, that it 1= the Beothiks that are brought under our 

 notice in the voyage of Gaspard Cortereal in 1501. In that year he sailed with three 

 vessels on a voyage of exploration, prosecuting the work which he had begun the year 



