268 NEWFOUNDLAND 



generally laughing or chaffing John Hinx or the others, and I 

 found him an excellent guide and hunter in his own province. 

 Like all the Indians he loved deer hunting, and soon became 

 proficient with the telescope. His capacity for carrying heavy 

 weights was extraordinary. " I like to take those," he said 

 one day, making a grab at my coat, rifle, telescope and 

 camera, which I had set aside for my own small pack, when 

 crossing a mountain range, and flinging them on the top 

 of his hundred-pound pack, "and when we come to the 

 brook, you climb on top, sir." This I did by way of experi- 

 ment, and the great weight seemed to trouble him as little 

 as a fifty-pound pack would harass a white man. In the 

 rivers he was not the equal of Jeddore, Matty Burke, 

 or John Hinx, but the Indian nature is nothing if not 

 acquisitive, for in a few days he worked his pole with 

 considerable skill and untiring patience. 



I spent the remainder of the day in placing my provisions 

 in linen bags, and making all ready for a rough and watery 

 trip, and on the morning of 3rd October, accompanied by 

 Steve Bernard, Matty Burke, and Johnny Benoit, we made 

 a start up the river. 



Matty Burke is a half-bred Frenchman of about thirty- 

 three. In the river he was invaluable, and very skilful with 

 the pole. Ashore he was a splendid camp man, being a 

 good cook and excellent woodman, as all the Indians are. 

 In appearance he was a picturesque ruffian of the old coureur- 

 de-bois type, and would have made an excellent stage villain 

 at the Adelphi. At first he seemed to be of a somewhat 

 suspicious nature, and was always watching me out of the 

 corners of his eyes, but this soon wore off, and he became 

 the gayest of the party when his buoyant Gallic nature 

 asserted itself. 



