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land. 
I N Cormack’s “Narrative of a Journey Across New- 
foundland,” which appeared lately in the columns of 
Forest and Stream, the adventurous traveler, at page 49, 
gives us some account of the aborigines of the island — a 
tribe of Red Indians now extinct. His reference is very 
brief, and embodies but a few facts regarding this race, 
which, by the steady advance of the white man, have been 
“improved off the face of all creation.” I propose to 
embody in this paper a short summary of what is known 
regarding these red men of Terra Nova, by way of fur- 
nishing a kind of supplement to Cormack’s journey. 
The aborigines of Newfoundland styled themselves 
Boeothics or Boeothucs. When the island was first dis- 
covered they appear, from the accounts of the early voy- 
agers, to have been a harmless, peaceable race. Sebastian 
Cabot saw them “ dressed in skins and painted with red 
ochre." “ In war," he says, “ they use bows and arrows, 
spears, darts, clubs, and slings." In Kerr's “Travels," 
vol. VI., pages 3-10, we find the following recoyd: "In 
the fourteenth year of the King (Henry VII.) three men 
were brought from Newfoundland, who were clothed in 
the skins of beasts, did eat raw flesh, and spoke a language 
which no man could understand, their demeanor being 
more like that of brute beasts than men. They were kept 
by the King for some considerable time, and I saw two of 
them about two years afterward in the Palace of West- 
minster habited like Englishmen, and not to be distin- 
guished from Englishmen, until I was told who they were." 
Jacques Cartier, in 1534, describes them as “men of indif- 
ferent good stature and bigness, but wild and unruly. 
They wear their hair tied on the top like a wreath of hay, 
and put a wooden pin in it, and with them they bind cer- 
tain birds’ feathers ; they are clothed with wild beasts’ 
skins, as well the men as the women, but the women go 
somewhat straighter and closer in their garments than the 
men do, with their waists girded. They paint themselves 
with certain roan colors. Their boats are made of the 
bark of birch trees, with which they fish and take great 
store of seals." (Hakluyt, vol III., page 252. 
Hayes, who was second in command to Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, about 1583, and whose narrative has been pre- 
served in the Hakluyt collection, says of them: “These 
savages are altogether harmless." Capt. Richard Whit- 
bourne, in hi9 rare and interesting book on Newfoundland, 
1622, gives a pretty full account of the aborigines. He 
tells us “ as they are few in number so are they sometimes 
rude and savage people, having neither knowledge of God 
nor living under any kind civil government. In their hab- 
its, customs, and manners they resemble Indians of the 
continent.” He further describes them as “ ingenious and 
tractable, full of quick and lively apprehensions,” willing 
to assist the fishermen in curing fish for a small hire, and 
only troublesome from their proclivities to annex “ sails, 
lines, hatchets, knives, and such like.” From Whitbourne’s 
account it may be inferred that they had a strong resem- 
blance, in their habits and modes of life, to the Canadian 
Indians, as they constructed their canoe9 of the bark of 
birch trees, “ paying" the seams with gum and turpentine. 
Their cooking utensils were made of the bark of the 9pruce 
tree, and were so well constructed as to bear the heat of 
boiling water. They dressed the ekin9 of deer, beavers, 
otters, bears, and seals in excellent style, and always pos- 
sessed a large store of them’ and of red ochre, with which 
they painted themselves and their canoes and utensils. 
There is now in the possession of the Protestant Bishop 
of Newfoundland the original manuscript of Cartwright’s 
“ Remarks on the Situation of the Red Indians of New- 
foundland, with Some Account of their Manner of Liv- 
ing." It has never been printed, but it contains much val- 
uable information regarding the aborigines, and was com- 
posed for the purpose of enlisting the sympathies of the 
British Government on behalf of the defenseless Indians, 
who were treated by the whites in the most barbarous man- 
ner. Cartwright corroborates Whitbourno as to the inof 
fensive character of the Indians, and as to the friendly in- 
tercourse which existed at first between them and some of 
the white population. It is clear, however, that these 
friendly relations did not long continue. The rude fisher- 
men, hunters, and trappers of those early days were not 
the men to initiate the savages into the arts of civilized 
life. Quarrels arose; the savages could not resist the temp- 
tation to appropriate occasionally the iron weapons of the 
white settlers, which to them seemed to be of priceless 
value. The strong arm of the latter was raised in venge- 
ance, and for two hundred years the feud between them 
and the Indians continued. Deeds of wroug and cruelty 
were perpetrated by the invader, and were followed by 
vengeful retaliation on the part of the savages. But what 
were bows, arrows, and clubs against the muskets of the 
■white man? The poor red men were hunted and shot down 
like beasts of prey. The entire race were gradually exter- 
minated, and now there is not a single representative of the 
red men of Newfoundland known to be iu existence. Their 
haunts iu the interior of the island have been explored in 
the hope of discovering some remnants or the ill-used race, 
but in vain. Only their craves and the moldering remains 
of their huts and deer fences have been found. Their fires 
are extinguished forever, and the record of their fate fills 
another dark page iu the history of the white man's prog- 
ress in the New World. Some believe that a small band of 
them escaped and took refuge in the interior of Labrador, 
but of this there is really no evidence. It is quite certain 
that in Newfoundland not a smgle individual of the race 
now exists. They are gone 
“ Like the cloud-rack of a tempest, 
Like the withered leaves of Autumn.’’ 
Still, it should be noted that their extermination wa9 not 
entirely owing to the cruelties of tho white settlers. One 
hundred and seventy-three years ago the Micmacs, an In- 
dian tribe from Nova Scotia and Capo Breton, invaded 
their territory. A savage war ensued, lasting many years, 
but the Micmacs, having learned the use of firearms from 
the French, had an immense advantage, and the Boeothics, 
after severe losses, retired into the interior, pressed by the 
Micmacs on the one hand, and the whites on the other. It 
is not wonderful that, huuted like beasts of prey, they 
should have manifested the most determined abhorrence of 
their white destroyers, and, unlike the continental Indians, 
refused at length to hold any intercourse with them. Their 
hatred and distrust of the whites are almost unparalleled 
elsewhere, and prompting them to deeds of treachery and 
blood, hastened their own destruction. 
The British Government at length seems to have been 
aroused by the accounts of atrocities perpetrated on this 
unhappy race in Newfoundland, and, when it was too late, 
made many humane but fruitless attempts to arrest the war 
of extermination against the doomed Boeothics, Owing to 
the scattered condition of the settlements, the rude and 
lawless habits of the early trappers and fishermen who 
came in contact with the Indians, their efforts were all in 
vain. The earliest official notice of the aborigines is in the 
form of a proclamation by the Governor, and bears date 
1769, and seems to have been repeated on the accession of 
each new representative of royalty. This document sets 
forth that his Majesty had been informed that his subjects 
in Newfoundland “ do treat the savages with the greatest 
inhumanity, and frequently destroy them without the least 
provocation or remorse. In order, therefore, to put a stop 
to 9uch inhuman barbarity, and that the perpetrator of 
such atrocious crimes might be brought to due punishment, 
his Majesty enjoins and requires all his subjects to live in 
amity and brotherly kindness with the native savages;” 
and further enjoined all magistrates to apprehend persons 
guilty of murdering tho native Indians, and send them to 
England for trial. 
Not content with such a mere negative measure of re- 
pressing the evil, the Government of the island engaged in 
zealous efforts to establish friendly relations with the 
Boeothics. A reward was offered for the capture of a Red 
Indian; and in 1804 a female was taken by a fisherman and 
brought to St. John’s, where sho was kindly treated, aud 
Bent back with presents to her tribe; but no result followed. 
In 1810 Lieut. Buclmn, of the Royal Navy, was sent to the 
Exploits River with orders to Winter tliero and open com- 
munication with the Indians. He succeeded In finding a 
party of them. Taking two of their number as hostages, 
and leaving two marines with them as hostages, he returned 
to his depot for presents. During his absence the fears of 
the red men were aroused lest he had gone for reinforce- 
ments in order to return and overpower them, and having 
first murdered the two hostages, they fled into the Interior. 
In 1819 another female was taken by n party of trappers 
ou Red Indian Lake and brought to St. John's. She was 
named Mary March, from the mouth in which she was 
taken. She was treated with great kindness, and sent bnck 
with presents, but died on the Y°y ft K c - Her bod y was 
placed in a coffin and left on tho margin of a lake, where 
it was fouud by her people and by them conveyed to their 
burial place ou Red Indian Lake, where it was found years 
afterward by the traveler Cor mack, lying beside the body 
of her husband. Another female was taken at a later date, 
aud was known by the Indian name of Shanandltbit. 8he 
lived six years in 8t. John's, and died of consumption, the 
fatal disease of her tribe, as she stated, and tho same that 
carried off Mary March. Thus all hopes of atoning by 
kindness for past cruelties were frustrated. 
A final effort was made in 1827 by tho " Boeothlc Society 
for the Civilization of tho Native Savages." This society 
organized an expedition and dispatched Mr. Cormack, tho 
traveler, who crossed tho island in 1822 with three Micmnc 
Indians to discover tho retreat of tho red men. After a 
difficult and perilous journey tho party reached Red In- 
dian Lake, which had been for centuries the headquarters 
of the Boeothics. This fine lake presented to Cormack a 
view grand, solemn, and majestic as he descended tho hills 
which bound its northern extremity. An unbroken sheet 
of water met his view, stretching far beyond the limits of 
vision, and perfectly placid, with not a canoe to ruffle its 
surface. Eagerly the eyes of the traveler searched the 
shores for some vestiges of the mysterious race, but no 
smoke from hut or wigwam rose into the air; no eound In- 
dicative of the presence of man reached their ears. Tho 
stillness of death had settled down on a scene which once 
swarmed with busy life and had long witnessed the great 
war councils of a powerful tribe, and had seen their braves 
returning in triumph from tho battle or the chase, and re- 
echoed for generations with their war songs and shouts of 
victory. Now all was silent and deserted. The wild Mic- 
mac Indians with G’ormac, though belonging to a hoslllo 
tribe, sank down overcome with grief at the sad and solemn 
sight, and the enthusiastic leader, whose hopes of a suc- 
cessful issue to his journey were thus blighted, was no leas 
saddened and disheartened. 
For “ several melancholy days" the party continued to 
traverse the shores of the lake, meeting everywhere evi- 
dences that this had long been the central domain of tho 
Boeothics. They found along the margin of the lake 
whole villages of 8ummer and Winter wigwams all in 
ruins. They saw the beds dug in the earth round the fire- 
place and in the sides of the wigwams, and a wooden 
building for drying and smoking venison still perfect. At 
one spot they found a large and handsome canoe, twenty- 
two feet in length, rent by the violence of a storm, the 
people in it having probably perished, as it contained some 
of their valuables still undisturbed. Most interesting of 
all were the burying places. These were variously con- 
structed, according to the rank of the person entombed. 
One of them was shaped like a cottage, and was ten feet 
by eight and five feet high in the ridge, and was floored 
with squared poles, the roof covered with bark, and every 
part well secured against the weather and the attacks of 
wild beasts. Here it was that the remains of Mary March 
were found in a coffin, neatly shrouded in white muslin, 
having been conveyed to the tribe many years before by a 
long and painful Journey from the sea side, where it had 
been left. Bows, arrows, hatchets, and other property of 
the dead were found deposited near the bodies. Another 
