OR RRD INDIANS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 133 



of travelling from shore to shore across the body of the islaud, and to acquire a more cer- 

 tain knowledge of the settlements of the Tied Indians, as well as to surprise, if possible, 

 one or more of these savages for the purpose of efTecting in time a friendly intercourse 

 with them " — a tribe, as he observes, with whom, though the original native inhabitants 

 of a country so long in our possession, we hold no intercourse whatever, " except, indeed, 

 the unfriendly one of reciprocal injuries and murders." The expedition, though not a 

 government one, seems to have been undertaken with the countenance of the governor. 

 At Indian Point, on Notre Dame Bay, he met a young Beothik who had been captured 

 when a boy, and was named William June from the month in which he was taken. -He 

 was the first of the tribe ever known to have lived among the whites. He is spoken of 

 as "John Cousins' Indian boy." He gave the party information regarding the situation 

 of the Eed Indian Lake, which was the principal seat of the tribe, and also in part its 

 configuration, describing a cove iu which his father's camp was sitiiated.' 



Cartwright's company consisted of himself and brother, Eev. Neville Stow, chaplain, 

 and nine seamen of H. M. S. Guernsey, Mr. John Cousins and a servant. They started 

 from Indian Point on Notre Dame Bay on the 24rth August, ll68, and pulled a short dis- 

 tance up the River Exploits to a place named Start Rattle." Here they left their boats 

 and began their search along the banks of the river. Before long they came upon wig- 

 wams recently erected " and other apparatus." These were so numerous as to indicate 

 that the Indians could not be very far off, and to excite high hopes of soon meeting them. 

 As they advanced their attention was particularly struck by the extent of their fences for 

 taking deer. We have already alluded to the vast herds of these animals, which then 

 ranged the interior. The River Exploits lay right across their course, and in their spring 

 and autumn migrations they crossed it in thousands. In order to capture them the 

 Beothiks had made fences along its bank so high and strong that the largest deer could 

 neither jump over nor force a way through them. These fences were made by felling 

 the trees near the river's bank, without chopping the trunks cj^uite asunder, taking care 

 that they fell parallel with the stream, each being guided so as to fall on the last. Graps 

 were filled in by stakes or by branches interwoven. These fences were thus raised to the 

 height of six, eight or even ten feet, according to the ground. In places where the trees 

 grew too stunted, or were too scattered to be available for fences, they placed " sewels." '' 

 These were made by attaching tassels of birch bark to thin sticks about six feet long, 

 which were stuck into the ground ten or twelve yards apart, and so slanting that the 

 rind might hang clear of its support, and thus fluttering with every breath of wind 

 frighten and turn back these timid animals. The most favourable situation for taking 

 them was where there was a beach of about twenty feet wide with a steep bank along- 

 side. At such or other favourable points were placed half-moon breast works, from which 

 to shoot the animals, or probably in other instances they speared them in the water from 



' We know little more about this boy. A Mr. .Tohn Bland of Bonavista, in answer to some enquiries made by 

 Admiral Waldegrave on his becoming governor in 1796, says tliat he became expert in all the branches of the 

 Newfoundlanl business; that he was then dead long ago, that an old man informed him that he frequently made 

 visits to his friends in the interior of the country. (Pedley, 184.) 



- Kattle is used in Newfoundland to denote a rapid. 



■' This word in Old English is defined to mean a " scarecrow," made of feathers tied to a string, hung up to pre- 

 vent deer from breakmg into a place. Virgil refers to the same practice (Geor. iii., ."71) " l'uniceœve agitant 

 pavidos formidine pennae." 



