236 



INDIANS. 



at, or near Buetouche, Richibucto, Miramichi, 

 and at other points along the shore. But the 

 greater part of them are met wandering from 

 one settlement to another, squalid and dis- 

 pirited, under circumstances of great com- 

 miseration. Their strength is enervated, and 

 their diseases are multiplied, through the pre- 

 vailing habits of idleness and drunkenness ; 

 which have sunk them far below the true 

 Indian character. They are reduced to a po- 

 verty that is unknown to them in their native 

 wilds, and which corrodes, like a canker, their 

 very hearts. They are of the Roman Catholic 

 persuasion, as are the Indians of the adjoining 

 territory in Lower Canada, and are so dis- 

 ciplined, that many of them wear the crucifix 

 fastened over the right shoulder, so as to hang 

 upon the left breast, near the heart. Such is 

 the influence of the Priests, that they regulate 

 their marriages, appoint certain times in the 

 year for them to collect, and attend their 

 superstitious ceremonies, and at the same time 

 supply them with a form, or instruct them in 

 an idolatrous act of worship to the Virgin 

 Mary in their camps. — It does not appear that 

 any of the natives have crossed the Gulf, to the 

 opposite coast of Newfoundland ; or that there 

 are any savages who dwell among the rocks, 



