Gatschet.] [Jan. 3, 



fugitives as to hail them and make signs of friendship, which were left 

 unheeded. On and on they pursued one of the young women of the 

 party snapped the strap of the snowshoes and had to sit down and repair 

 it. Her father came back, assisted her and they fled again ; but the 

 mended strap failed a second time. The poor girl shrieked with fright ; 

 she was left and overtaken. She could not be induced to go with her pur- 

 suers ; so they constructed a small wigwam and remained on the spot a 

 day or two. At first, she touched no food for days ; then her fear relented 

 in regard to one of the young men, and starting out again with the hunting 

 party, clung to that youth who had first won her confidence. This she 

 showed by keeping him between her and all the others. After staying two 

 years with the Micmac people she acquired their language and was married 

 to that same young man. She often recounted the eventful story of her 

 life, and conversed with Nancy Jeddore's father on the circumstances 

 connected therewith, after she had become the mother of a family." 



A correction of a former statement needs to be inserted here. The Hudson 

 Bay Company never had control of Newfoundland, but it was a number 

 of English merchants who retarded settlement in the interior. The im- 

 mense tracts and forests of the interior were given up to the deer, bears, 

 foxes, wolves, and to a few straggling Micmac hunters, whereas the entire 

 white population was compelled to live along the sea-coast. 



Mr. Howley having favored me with more particulars about these firms, 

 I would state first that these merchants were chiefly fisli dealers, and that 

 thev purchased furs only incidentally. Even now fish is the chief article 

 of trade with them. There are but few of these old firms now in exist- 

 ence, and of these, Newman & Co.'s establishment at Harbor Button, 

 Fortune Bay, and Gaultor's, in Hermitage Bay, south side of the island, are 

 probably the oldest. Slade & Co. once ruled supreme in Notre/Dame Bay 

 during the first half of this century, and to their employes is ascribed the 

 cruel treatment of the last Beothuk Indians. But things are now assuming 

 a different aspect, and the present mercantile firms no longer oppose the 

 opening up of the country, for a railway act together with a loan act has 

 lately passed the legislature. The railway is now being constructed, and 

 will be of best service for opening the lands for settlement. 



THE JURE VOCABULARY. 



While engaged in surveying the Bay of Exploits during the summer 

 months of 1886, Mr. Howley became acquainted with Mrs. Jure, then 

 about seventy-five years old, who once had been the fellow-servant of 

 Shanandithit, or Nancy, at Mr. John Peyton's, whose widow died about 

 the close of the year 1885. Mrs. Jure was, in spite of her age, hale and 

 sound in body and mind, and remembered with accuracy all the little 

 peculiarities of Shanandithit, familiarly called "Nance." Many terms of 

 Beothuk learned from Nance she remembered well, and at times was 



