ESKIMOS AND MOUNTAINEERS. 261 



macs and Abinaquis, from Nova Scotia and Maine ; 

 Iroquois, from lakes Champlain and Ontario ; Algon- 

 quins and Nascopies, north of the St. Lawrence — all sent 

 their war parties against the Esquimaux : as to their im- 

 mediate neighbors, the Mountaineers, a continual war 

 raged between them. 



" Notwithstanding all these enemies, the Esquimaux 

 maintained their conquests with a strong hand, and, it is 

 probable, would have progressed farther south if the 

 Europeans had not arrived. No account of their num- 

 bers has come down to us ; yet from various items it 

 would appear to be seventy thousand. When Da Monts 

 first settled Port Royal in Nova Scotia in 1605, he was 

 surprised with the appearance of an Indian army near 

 his settlement, of four hundred men, who had just re- 

 turned from an expedition against the Esquimaux. It 

 would seem by this that the parties who ventured into 

 the Esquimau country were numerous" (pp. 42, 43). 



" I have said that they maintained their conquests 

 along the Gulf shore until about the year 1600, when 

 the Mountaineers, having received firearms from the 

 French, and learned the use of them, this soon turned 

 the scale, as it does everywhere else, and the Esquimaux 

 were forced to give ground, retiring downwards to the 

 Straits, and concentrating themselves on Esquimaux Is- 

 land, about one mile from the hotise of the late Mr. N. 

 Lloyd, of St Paul's. There they fortified themselves in 

 a camp, with walls composed of stone and turf, with a 

 ditch outside, in circuit more than half a mile, which re- 

 mains almost entire to this day. In this fort they main- 

 tained themselves till about the year 1640, when they 

 were assaulted by the Mountaineers aided by the French, 



