The Eskimo had compelled the Basques to give up their whale 

 fishery in the strait, and kept up a continual and savage 

 warfare with the French and Montagnais. The unknown writer 

 mentioned above, who has left a quaint and charming description 

 of the life of the French settlement, gives it as his opinion that 

 "they (the Eskimo) fly from Europeans because they have been 

 maltreated, fired on, and killed, and if they attack and kill 

 Europeans it is only in way of reprisal." 



Courtemanche was succeeded in 1717 by his son-in-law 

 Brouage. His reports are an account of continual strife with the 

 Eskimo. Brouage learned the Eskimo language from a woman 

 taken captive in Courtemanche's time, and relates some marvel- 

 lous tales which he obtained from her. He speaks of one tribe 

 who were dwarfs, 2 or 3 feet high, but remarkably fierce and 

 active. Have we to do here with the Agdlit, or dog-people, of 

 Eskimo mythology ? Another tribe had white ( ?) hair from the 

 time of their birth (possibly the Bear-people) ; another tribe had 

 one leg, one arm, and one eye (the Illokoq, "longitudinally split 

 person" of Eskimo myths ?). On Brouage's death, the post was 

 abandoned. About the same time Labrador, together with the 

 rest of Canada, fell into the hands of the English. 



During the English occupation of Labrador, the Eskimo 

 continued their depredations in the Strait of Belle Isle. 

 Bands of them came down each summer, ostensibly to trade, but 

 in reality to carry off everything they could lay hands on. Their 

 system of attack was to creep up on the unsuspecting fishermen 

 in a dense fog, and so terrify them with their unearthly yells 

 that they would abandon their property and flee. At other 

 times, when a party presented a bold front, the Eskimo would 

 advance and engage in trade, but when they had thrown their 

 adversaries off their guard for a moment, they would attack them 

 and kill the whole crew. They told the Moravians that they used 

 to carry knives and arrows for such purposes 1 concealed in their 

 clothing and kayaks. 



The fishermen were not behind in retaliation, and shot and 

 plundered small parties of Eskimo at sight. There was probably 



1 Courtemanche, writing in 1716, mentions seeing firearms, probably plunder, in possession 

 of the Eskimo; but it is doubtful if they knew how to use them. 



