OE EED INDIANS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 149 



encamped ou the banks of the River Exploits. Their numbers had decreased during the 

 few years preceding. Shauaudithit drew a pencil sketch of a gun and a puff of smoke 

 to indicate that the shooting was still going on. At this time, according to her statement, 

 they were then reduced to four fiimilies— her father's, numbering five, her uncle's, seven, 

 a third nine, and the fourth six, making twenty-seven in all, occupying three camps. 

 They saw Capt. Buchau and his party pass up the river on the ice, but made no sign. 

 They then went down to the seacoast near the mouth of the river, where they remained 

 a month. After that they returned up the river, and saw the tracks of Capt. B.'s party 

 returning. They then went by a circuitous route to the lake, and to the spot where Mary 

 March's body had been left. They opened the coffin with hatchets and took out the 

 clothes, etc., that had been left with her. It was allowed to remain suspended as they 

 found it for one month. It was then placed on the ground, where it remained two 

 months, when in spring they removed it to the house-tomb which they had built for her 

 husband, and laid her by his side. 



We hear of no farther contact of the whites with the Beothiks till the winter of 1823, 



when two men named C and A , near Badger Bay, fell in with an Indian man 



and woman, who approached apparently soliciting food. The man was first killed, and 

 the woman, who was afterward found to be his daughter, in despair remained calmly to 

 be fired at, when she also was shot through the chest and immediately expired. This 

 was told Mr. Cormack by the man who did the deed. 



About a month after, and in the same neighborhood, a Red Indian family was fallen 

 in with by a band of furriers, at the head of whom was Cull, already mentioned. They 

 first saw an Indian mau and woman. According to one account the former fled, but the 

 latter approached Cull and his party, and afterward led them to a clump of bushes where 

 her two daughters were, the one aged about twenty, whose native name was Shanan- 

 dithit, to whom we have already referred. But according to another account as given in 

 the journal of the Rev. W. Wilson, the party had gone two and two in different direc- 

 tions, when one of these bauds saw an Indian on a distant hill, and supposing him to be one 

 of their party, they fired a gun loaded only with powder to let their friends know of their 

 whereabouts. A Red Indian generally fled at the report of a musket, but this man only 

 quickened his pace, and came toward them in a threatening attitude and with a large 

 club in his hand. They summoned him to surrender, but he came on with redoubled 

 fury, and when nearly at the muzzle of their guns one of the men fired and he fell dead 

 at their feet. He adds that the men were brought to trial, but there being no evidence 

 against them they were acquitted. From this statement we cannot doubt that the Indian 

 was shot, but it is very unlikely that one man armed only with a club should advance to 

 attack two men armed with muskets. If he did it could only have been from his being 

 in a state of desperation. Mr. Wilson has given the statement of those engaged in the 

 affair, but circumstances now known leave little doubt that they came to solicit food. At 

 all events the three women were captured, and were found to be all seemingly in a 

 starving condition. 



From Shanandithit it was afterward ascertained that famine and disease had been 

 doing their deadly work among the feeble remnant of the Beothiks. Of the twenty-.seven, 

 three years before, three of the second family, one of the third and two of the fourth had 

 died. They had long been too feeble to keep up their deer-fences, and at their old resorts 



