164 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



7var bases 

 against 

 the Beo- 

 thics. 



and start- 

 ing-points 

 for three 

 inland 

 tours. 



Conne River in the east arm of D'Espoir Bay, and at Little 

 Barachois close by White Bear Bay. But they abandoned 

 Little Barachois when Burgeo became populous, and concen- 

 trated themselves on Conne River, where they still enjoy their 

 primaeval isolation more or less. 



In early times the Micmacs used their settlements on the 

 southern shore as war bases against the Beothics. The date 

 of their earliest coming to these setUements is unknown ; but 

 they probably had had long-standing causes of strife against 

 the Beothics, before Frenchmen added fuel to the flames, for 

 Indians have never yet attacked their kith and kin at the mere 

 bidding of white men. Under French instigation, and ' be- 

 cause ', we are told, ' the French offered a reward for the head 

 of every Beothic ' ^ and the Micmacs went about earning the 

 reward, the Beothics invited some Micmacs to a feast, found 

 scalps in their possession and slew all the guests. Then the 

 Micmacs, who were apparently familiar already with the in- 

 most recesses of the country, undertook a war of revenge, 

 marched down ' Shannoc Brook ' to the middle Exploits, and 

 being armed with European weapons almost exterminated 

 their opponents. Cormack's date for these events was 1680 

 or thereabouts, and as they took place at a time when the 

 French still feared the Beothics, they must have taken place 

 before the Treaty of Utrecht (17 13) and not at the date usually 

 assigned.^ We do not know when the Micmacs first came, nor 

 are we sure of the date at which the visitors matured into settlers 

 — except in the case of St. George Bay (1783), which probably 

 preceded permanent settlement at Conne Bay by a quarter of a 

 century ; but long before Cormack's time, and probably long 

 before their great war of revenge, they lived there off and on 

 and looked on the land or on parts of it as their very own. 



The result of this war was that the hunters of the rival 



1 Jukes, Exairsions in Newfoundland, 1839-40, vol. ii, p. 129; 

 comp. vol. i, p. 173; J. MacGregor, op. cit., vol. i, p. 260, and a7tte, 

 p. 14T. 2 1750 or 1770 (Peyton). 



