CHAPTER X. 



THE ABORIGINES. 



Beothiks or "Ked Indians" Their Condition when Dis- 

 covered A Powerful and Warlike People A Change 

 Comes Over their Dreams Their Decadence The Race 

 Extinct A Melancholy Find The First White Men to 

 Sight Newfoundland White Men Land on the Island 

 From Eighteen to over Two Hundred Thousand. 



HEN the question is asked, who were the 

 first inhabitants of the island of Newfound- 

 land, to what race of men did they be- 

 long, what were their appearance and habits, their 

 color and modes of living? the sages of the world 

 are not prepared to answer. Recorded history en- 

 ables us to go back only to the first appearance of 

 European explorers some four hundred years ago, but 

 it is barely possible that other races may have pre- 

 ceded the 



"RED INDIANS" OR BEOTHIKS, 



Who were the occupants of the soil when the dar- 

 ing voyagers braved the tempestuous Atlantic in their 

 frail crafts, and after untold hardships reached the 

 seagirt isle, and found it inhabited by a race in all re- 



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