FISHERIES OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC 



87 



INDIAN TRIBES OF LABRADOR. 



In 1719, in a letter 1 which was deemed important 

 enough to be laid before the Regent of France, the Duke 

 of Orleans, the Sieur de Brouague, Commandant of the 

 Labrador coast, gave an interesting account of the Indian 

 tribes encountered on the coast by the fishermen, and of 

 the curious collection of facts and fables given him concern- 

 ing them by an Esquimau prisoner. This person was his 



FEMALE ESQUIMAUX IN HABITATION OF ICE. 



authority for the statement that these Indians were ex- 

 ceedingly numerous in the north and of different nations, 

 who were almost always at war with each other. He told 

 him that the worst and most cruel of them all were those 

 who were born with white hair, having black faces and 

 very large noses and lips. These people, he said, were not 

 accustomed to iron arrows, but Used those made of bone or 

 stone. The people of another very numerous nation were 

 only two or three feet high, he said, but made up in width 

 what they lacked in height. They lived on seals, deer, and 



Archives de la Marine, B.I. 50, p. 177 et seq. 



