2 SO INDIANS IN NOVA SCOTIA — GILPIN. 



as have the whites, and devious Indian paths lose themselves- in 

 open porches of houses passed in and out, rather than dwelt in. 

 Yet it may be called a success. Here have twenty-six families been 

 weaned from wigwams and bed on the ground, to permanent dwell- 

 ings, dry floors, to separation of sleeping rooms, to cook-stoves, 

 and to a sense of the necessity of all these wants. 



At the time of our visit, — Summer, — the men were all away 

 shooting porpoise on the Bay of Fundy, and nothing but women 

 and children were left behind. A scanty crop of potatoes, and 

 letting their fields for pasturage, with here and there a cow, is all 

 that they gain, save fire- wood and a home from the land. The sale 

 of baskets and woodenware, with that of porpoise oil, berries, some 

 deer meat and wages gained in log cutting, make up the scanty 

 hoard which clothes and feeds them. Begging is carried on every- 

 where and every place. As are the habits of the citizens of this 

 the most permanent and populous settlement, such are those of 

 their fellows, scattered in smaller parties in every county of the 

 Province, — of those who dwell at Cape Breton, in larger settle- 

 ments, and who linger in Dartmouth, from its neighborhood to the 

 metropolis. Much has been done. Dry feet and a cook-stove fits 

 man for moral reform far more than a^ny but the thoughtful will 

 allow ; but in all that is to be done, they must be considered as 

 individuals, — the past forgotten, the future aimed at. They 'must 

 be taught in English, — to write, to read, and to forget their own 

 language, with all its traditions ; but which is only and never was 

 but a dialect of a roving tribe, with ,an ever varying pronunciation 

 of years and iacli r iduals. -*■ 



Instead of distributing the conventional blankets and pipes, — 

 things of the past, — the Dominion Government should use the same 

 means, in improving their very rude way of trying out fish oil and 

 of selling their oils well in the American market. They mentally 

 oppose farm labour, but are ready and skilful mechanics. Basket 

 work, woodenware, especially mast hoops, buckets and barrels, they 

 naturally take to. Surely it is better, and greatei\results will follow 

 in running with their inclinations, and giving greater facilities to 

 them in these directions. But the question, who is to do this? 



