2 68 LEAVING MINGAN. 



rubber boots or moccasins, according to the weather, state of their 

 purse or their credit. The squaws wear cahco, or woollen dresses 

 of any shade, quality or pattern, and a peculiar, long, peaked cap 

 usually of red flannel cloth. Dressed deer-skin waistcoats are 

 common with the men and are very warm ; moccasins of all sorts 

 and shapes are made, and used or sold. But this extraordinary 

 race demands far greater attention than has been heretofore given 

 them, or that can possibly be contained in these fragments of their 

 history, and it is to be hoped that the government which has so 

 far acted judiciously in the matter will be able to do some perma- 

 nent good to this unfortunate and destitute people. 



Wednesday, the 8th. We left Mingan, on our return trip, yes- 

 terday, with a good wind and fair sky, and to-day we made Romaine 

 river or Olomanosheebo as the Indians call it, another now de- 

 serted post of the Hudson's Bay Company. This location, Grand 

 Romaine, as it is called, has recently become a great rendezvous 

 of the Indians. The place was crowded. There must have been 

 thirty or forty families camping there, just on the eve of their de- 

 parture on a hunting excursion, so that we were too late to visit 

 them. They were in the midst of a celebration of some grand fete 

 day, and were saluting their priest, who had just arrived to conduct 

 the ceremonies of the occasion. They continued an almost unin- 

 terrupted firing of guns for about two hours. In the evening all 

 attended service ; ten minutes after every Indian had left the place, 

 and it was as still and deserted as if no one had ever existed there. 

 Romaine is as pretty a place as its name is musical. It has a se- 

 cluded yet snug appearance, while the hills form a sort of barrier 

 within which the natural beauties of the place unfold themselves. 

 The rocky islets on the outside enclose a safe harbor. 



Tuesday, the 14th. We reached Natashquan to-day, and there 

 found letters from home awaiting us. Here we found, surrounded 

 by petty traders, a large French steamer that was coasting the 

 shore for fresh salmon, which, first undergoing a freezing process, 

 were packed, to be transported to the French coast where they 

 are retailed at a large profit. The captain had had no cause to 



