/ OE EED INDIANS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 155 



If they received no intelligence of them to the north of that point they were to " proceed 

 westwardly into the interior ior about twenty miles, thence to take a southerly direction 

 to White Bay ; thence passing round the head of White Bay, and thence easterly and 

 southerly in such directions as may appear the best for the object in view through the 

 country toward the mouth of the River Exploits, being careful to examine particularly the 

 whole of the lakes, rivers and country along the route now described, so that the party may 

 be able to give the most unequivocal information that no part of the country have been left 

 unsearched." They proceeded on their mission, but we have no particulars of their journey. 

 The result however was, though there were rumours about the same time of some natives 

 having been seen, to confirm the impression that they had entirely disappeared. 



In 1829 Shauandithit died in St. .lohns. She lived in Mr. Cormack's house till he 

 left the island in that year, when she was taken into the house of the Attorney-Greneral, 

 Mr. Simms, where every attention was paid to her wants. But consumption, which had 

 proved so fatal to others of her people, brought within the restraints of civilization, 

 claimed her for its prey, and though she had the best medical attendance her strength 

 declined. She was therefore removed to the hospital, where she died on the 6th June. 

 Two days after she was buried in the Church of England graveyard,' and so closed one of 

 the dark pages of the progress of man in the new world. 



All subsequent explorations of the haunts of this people in the interior have only 

 served to confirm the impression that with her they have passed away fçrever. Careful 

 search has only found a few of their implements, the mouldering remains of their huts 

 and deer fences and their uutended graves. It has been supposed, indeed, that some rem- 

 nant of them passed over to Labrador and became mixed with the Montagnais or other 

 tribes of that region, and there have been reports of strange Indians having been seen on that 

 coast. Of these appearances, however, the rumors have been very vague, and they are said 

 to have taken place years after the disappearance of the Beothiks. There was nothing to 

 connect them with that people, and nothing has been heard of them since. At all events 

 when we consider what was involved in such a migration, that it would have required 

 the transportation of their canoe or canoes by land and stream for over a hundred miles, 

 and afterward a coast and sea voyage of still greater length, we must conclude that in 

 their circumstances, when last met with, reduced to twelve, or at most thirteen, indivi- 

 duals, of whom not more than six were men, and all in a starving condition, it would 

 be simply impossible. At all events from Newfoundland they have passed away forever. 

 So entirely have they been exterminated that not even a trace of any remnant mixing 

 with other races can be found. 



' The following is the record in the parish register : ''June 8, 1S29, Nancy Slianandithit, set. 23, South Side (very 

 probably the last of the aborigines), F. Carrington, rector." It is remarkable that all the females of the Beothiks 

 who iiave lived among the whites have died in consumption. A tendency of this kind has been manifested in 

 other instances of savages changing their old modes of life for those of civilization. Dr. Hind mentions that the 

 Montagnais and other tribes in Labrador, while in the cold, dry air of the interior are healthy enough, but when they 

 come down to the coast with its damp, chilly atmo.sphere, they immediately become subject to influenza, which 

 very commonly ends in consumption. In the Northwest, I was informed that before the cession of that territory 

 the traders were in the habit of taking Indian women as servants, but that pulmonary disorders were apt to 

 appear among them, which was attributed to the change from a life so much of which was spent in the open air 

 to one in the confined air of the close dwellings of the whites. That this was the real cause appeared from the fact 

 that on the same parties going to their own lodges, through which one would think all the winds of heaven would 

 pass freely, they generally soon recovered. 



