142 EEV, GEO. PATTERSON ON THE BEOTHIKS 



In the followiug year (1809) the same officer was ordered to renew the search. 

 Whether he did so, or if he did with what result, does not appear. In the following win- 

 ter the governor engaged Wm. Cull and six others to go into the interior iu search of the 

 Indians. Accompanied by two Micmacs, they started on the 1st January, and proceeded 

 up the river on the ice. On the fourth day, having travelled sixty miles, they discovered 

 a building on the bank of the river, about forty or fifty feet long and nearly as wide. It 

 was constructed of wood and covered with bark and skins of deer. In this building they 

 found a quantity of about one hundred deer, some parts of which, from their extreme fat- 

 ness, must have been obtained early in the fall. The tat venison was in junks entirely 

 divested of bone, and stowed in boxes made of birch and spruce-rind, each box containing 

 about two hundred weight. The tongues and hearts of the deer were stowed iu the 

 middle of the package. The bear venison, or that more recently killed, was in quarters 

 and stowed in bulk, some part of it with the skin on. In this storehouse they saw three 

 lids of tin teakettles, which Cull believed to be the same which had been sent back by 

 him six years before with the Indian woman he had captured. They also found several 

 marten, beaver and deer skins, dressed after the fashion of our own furriers. On the 

 opposite bank ot the river stood a second storehouse, considerably larger than the former, 

 but they did not examine it, the ice being broken and the crossing in consequence dan- 

 gerous. In exchange for some furs they left a variety of European goods. On their way 

 to this storehouse they saw two of the natives, but unfortunately the latter discovered the 

 party and retired. They also saw their fences for capturing deer, to which we have 

 referred. They believed that the residences of the Indians could not be very distant from 

 these magazines. But want of bread and some difference of opinion among the party 

 prevented them from exploring farther.' 



The following winter (1810-11) afforded one of the most interesting, but one of the 

 most melancholy, narratives connected with this unfortunate people. In summer, the 

 new governor. Sir John T. Duckworth, desirous of carrying out the benevolent intentions 

 of the British G-overnment, issued a proclamation in which, besides enjoining all who 

 might meet the Indians to treat them with kindness, he offered to any person who would 

 establish intercourse with them on a firm and settled basis, the sum of i;200 as a reward 

 for the great service he would thereby have rendered to His Majesty and the cause of 

 humanity. It was farther promised to such person that he should be honourably men- 

 tioned to His Majesty, and receive from the governor such countenance and further 

 encouragement as it was in His Excellency's power to give. He also made arrangements 

 for an expedition to endeavour to open communication with them. This was placed in 

 charge of Lieut. Buchan, commander of His Majesty's schooner Adonis, who was commis- 

 sioned to obtain the assistance of Cull and the others who had been employed the previous 

 winter in exploring the country. 



Mr. Buchan accordingly went in autumn to the entrance of the river Exploits and 

 there anchored his vessel, which soon became fixed in the ice. On the 13th January 

 (1811) he started for the interior with twenty-three men and a boy of his crew, and with 

 Cull and two others as guides. They met with serious difficulties from the weather and 

 the state of travelling, but pushed on, and on the 18th they saw signs, though not very 

 fresh, of Indians, Indian paths, sites of wigwams and deer fences. On the 22nd, when 



' The report of the exjieditiou will be found in the apjiendix to Pedley's work, page 480. 



