20 NEWFOUNDLAND 



by an " English erring Captaine (that went forth with Sir 

 Walter Rawleigh)." The distinction between "an arch- 

 pirate" and "an English erring Captaine" does not seem to 

 be very clear. 



Another point in this quaint book which he wrote upon 

 his travels is of great interest to naturalists, for it refers to 

 the Great Auk {A ice impennis), now, alas, extinct, but which 

 formerly existed in great numbers on Funk Island, off the 

 north-east coast of Newfoundland. These birds were always 

 known as "Penguins" by the inhabitants, and I once met 

 an old fisherman whose father possessed a stuffed specimen. 

 He himself used to ride on the back of the bird as a little 

 boy, little knowing that within his lifetime such things 

 would be worth four and five hundred pounds. 



"These penguins," says Captain Whitbourne, "are as 

 bigge as geese, and flye not, for they have but a little short 

 wing, and they multiply so infinitely upon a certaine flat 

 island, that men drive them from thence upon a boord, into 

 their boats by hundreds at a time : as if God had made the 

 innocency of so poore a creature to become such an admirable 

 instrument for the sustenation of man." 



He thus describes the Beothicks and their habits : — 



" For it is well knowne, that they are a very ingenious 

 and subtill kinde of people so likewise are they tractable as 

 hath beene well approved, when they have beene gently and 

 politically dealt withal : also they are a people that will seek 

 to revenge any wrongs done unto them or their woolves, as 

 hath often appeared. For they marke their woolves in the 

 eares with several markes, as is used here in England on 

 sheepe, and other beasts, which hath been likewise approved : 

 for the woolves in those parts are not so violent and devouring 

 as woolves are in other countries. For no man that I ever 



