18 CAPTAIN CARTWRIGHT'S 



shoot the poor creatures whenever they can, and 

 afterwards boast of it as a very meritorious 

 action. With horror I have heard several de- 

 clare, they would rather kill an Indian than a 

 deer! 



These Indians are called Red, from their custom 

 of painting themselves, and everything belonging 

 to them, with red ochre, which they find in great 

 plenty in various parts of the island; and Wild, 

 because they secrete themselves in the woods, 

 keep an unremitting watch, and are seldom seen; 

 a conduct, which their defenceless condition, and 

 the inhuman treatment which they have always 

 experienced from strangers, whether Europeans 

 or other tribes of Indians from the Continent, have 

 compelled them to adopt. 



They are extremely expert at managing their 

 canoes, which are made with a very thin, light 

 wood-work, covered with birch rinds, and worked 

 by single-headed paddles; they vary in size, ac- 

 cording to the number of persons which they are 

 intended to carry. 



They are excellent archers, as many of our 

 fishermen have too fatally experienced, and they 

 are likewise good furriers. Indeed, if they had 

 not these resources, the whole race must long 

 since have been extirpated by cold and fam- 

 ine. 



Formerly, a very beneficial barter was carried 

 on in the neighbourhood of Bonavista, by some of 

 the inhabitants of that harbour. They used to 

 lay a varietj^ of goods at a certain place, to which 



