126 REV. GEO. PATTERSON ON TFIE BEOTHIKS 



was formed under royal sanction, headed by several distinguished men, among whom the 

 most noted was the great Bacon. To them a pitent was issued granting a large part of 

 the country, and they sent out a colony, under the charge of Mr. Gruy, a merchant, and 

 afterwards mayor, of Bristol, as governor. These landed at Mosquito Harbour on the 

 north side of Conception Baj% and proceeded to erect huts. Mr. Guy explored the coast 

 and had friendly intercourse with the natives, and during the short time that the colony 

 lasted he treated them with such kindness as entirely to win their confidence, and to begin 

 with them what promised to be a prosperous trade. 



But the best early account of them is that given by Richard Whitbourne, who, 

 besides making a number of voyages to this quarter, in 1615 received a commission from 

 the British A'dmiralty to proceed to Newfoundland, to establish order among the fishing 

 population, and to remedy abuses which had become prevalent among them. After his 

 return, in 1622, he published a work entitled " A Discourse and Discovery of Newfound- 

 laud," in which he describes the Indians as follows : — 



" The natural inhabitants of the country, as they are but few in number, so are they 

 something rude and savage people, having neither knowledge of Grod, nor living under 

 any kind of civil government. In their habits, customs and manners they resemble the 

 Indians on the continent, from whence I suppose they came. They live altogether in the 

 north and west part of the country, which is seldom frequented by the English. But the 

 French and Biscaines (who resort thither yearly for the whale fishing and also for the 

 codfish) report them to be an ingenious and tractable people (being well used). They are 

 ready to assist them with great labour and patience in the killing, cutting and boiling of 

 whales, and making the train oil, without expectation of other reward than a little bread 

 or some such small hire." 



A conclusion is added to the discourse in which he says : " It is well known that 

 they are an ingenious and subtill ' kind of people (as it hath often appeared in divers 

 things), so likewise are they tractable, as hath been well approved, when they have been 

 gently and politickly dealt withall : also they are a people that will seek to revenge any 

 wrongs done to them, or their wolves, as hath often appeared. For they mark their 

 wolves in the ears with several marks, as is used here in England on sheep and other 

 beasts, which hath been likewise well approved ; for the wolves in those parts are not so 

 violent and devouring as wolves are in other coiintries. 



" The natives of these parts have great store of red ochre, wherewith they use to 

 colour their bodies, bows, arrows and canoes, in a painting manner, which canoes are their 

 boats, that they use to go to sea in, which are built in shape like the wherries on the 

 river Thames, with small timbers no thicker nor broader than hoops ; and instead of 

 boards they use the barks of birch trees, which they sew very artificially and close 

 together, and then overlay the seams with turpentine (probably fir-balsam), as pitch is 

 used on the seams of ships and boats And in like manner they use to sew the barks of 

 spruce and fir trees, round and deep in proportion, like a brass kettle, to boil their meat 

 in, as it hath been well approved by divers men ; but most especially to my certain 

 knowledge, by three mariners of a ship of Tapson, in the county of Devon, which ship 

 riding there at anchor near by me, at the harbour called Heart's Ease, on the north side of 

 Trinity Bay, and being robbed in the night by the savages of their apparel and divers 



' This word seems to be used not in its present sense, but in its original of skilful, clever or ingenious. 



