statement referring to the Red Indians, of which the following is a
copy:--"Nippers Harbor, where the Red Indians were said to have been
seen three weeks ago, and where one of their arrows was picked up,
after having been ineffectually shot at one of the settlers, is in
Green Bay." This accumulation of facts, all of a widely different
character from Shaw-na-dith-it's testimony, would seem, to render the
latter more than doubtful, and it ought to be borne in mind that
Shaw-na-dith-it acquired a knowledge of the English language very
slowly; and though it is said that before her death she could
communicate with tolerable ease, yet it would be incorrect to assume
that she could, without fear of mistake, make such a detailed
statement as that which is attributed to her; but even allowing that
which is most uncertain,--allowing that she expressed herself with
tolerable clearness, and admitting that the parties to whom she made
her communication fully understood her broken English, and were
acquainted with the Boeothick words, which it was her wont to mingle
in all she said--admitting all this--yet even in this view of the
case, it may not be difficult to suppose a reason for her giving an
incorrect account of the state of her tribe. Shaw-na-dith-it knew from
bitter experience, that all former attempts made by Europeans to open
a communication with the Red Indians, had to the latter issued only in
the most disastrous and fatal results. She knew too the antipathy her
own people had to the whites,--so great was this, that she feared to
return to them, believing that the mere fact of her having resided
among the whites for a time would make her an object of hatred to the
Red man.--Knowing all this, is it a violent deduction to draw from all
the circumstances surrounding this subject, that Shaw-na-dith-it in
very love for her own people, may have purposely given an incorrect
account of the numbers of her tribe--lessening it, in the hope that by
so doing no further search would be made for then. Supposing it
possible that such may have been the case, then, it follows that
Shaw-na-dith-it may not have been, as many persons have presumed her
to be, the last of the Boeothicks.
Some account of the usages and habits of this people, and of such
particulars as have special reference to them, will now close this
narrative: and first it may be observed that the extensive works which
they completed and kept in repair for a number of years, would seem to
indicate, and that almost beyond a doubt, that the Boeothicks were
once a numerous and energetic tribe.
That they were intelligent, their buildings, store-houses, &c., would
appear to be a sufficient evidence. Their mamaseeks, for such was the
word they used to describe their habitations, were far superior to the
wigwams of the Micmacs. The dwellings of the Boeothicks were in
general built of straight pieces of fir, about twelve feet high,
flattened at the sides, and driven in the earth close to each other,
the corners being made stronger than the other parts. The crevices
were filled up with moss, and the inside lined with the same material;
the roof was raised so as to slant from all parts and meet in a point
in the centre, where a hole was left for the smoke to escape--the
remainder of thereof was covered with a treble coat of birch bark, and
between the first and second layers of bark was placed about six
inches of moss--about the chimney clay was substituted for the moss.
The sides of these mamaseeks were covered with arms--that is, bows,
arrows, clubs, stone hatchets, arrow heads, and all these were
arranged in the neatest manner. Beams were placed across where the
roof began, over which smaller ones were laid; and on the latter were
piled their provisions--dried salmon, venison, &c.
That the Boeothicks were a bold, heroic, self-dependant tribe, few
will be disposed to question, when it is remembered that they never
courted the friendship of, neither were they ever subdued by, any
other tribe, or by Europeans--by the combined efforts of both Micmacs
and Whites, their numbers were greatly reduced, if not utterly
exterminated, but they were never conquered.
BOEOTHICK DRESS.
This was peculiar to the tribe, and consisted of but one garment--a
sort of mantle formed out of two deer skins, sewed together so as to
be nearly square--a collar also formed with skins was sometimes
attached to the mantle, and reached along its whole breadth--it was
formed without sleeves or buttons, and was worn thrown over the
shoulders, the corners doubling over at the breast and arms. When the
bow is to be used the upper part of the dress was thrown off from the
shoulders and arms, and a broad fold, the whole extent of it, was
secured round the loins, with a belt to keep the lower part from the
ground and the whole from falling off, when the arms were at liberty.
The collar of the dress was sometimes made of alternate stripes of
otter and deer skins sewed together, and sufficiently broad to cover
the head and face when turned up, and this is made to answer the
purpose of a hood of a cloak in bad weather--occasionally leggings or
gaiters were worn, and arm coverings, all made of deer skins--their
moccasins were also made of the same material; in summer, however,
they frequently went without any covering for the feet.
BOEOTHICK ARMS.
These, whether offensive or defensive, or for killing game, were
simply the bow and arrow, spear, and club. The arrow-heads were of two
kinds, viz.:--stone, bone or iron, the latter material being derived
from Europeans, and the blunt arrow, the point being a knob
continuous with the shaft--the former of these was used for killing
quadrupeds and large birds, the latter for killing small birds--two
strips of goose feathers were tied on to balance the arrow, and it has
been remarked by many persons who have seen the Red Indians' arrows,
that they have invariably been a yard long; the reason of this would
seem to be that their measure for the arrow was the arm's length, that
is, from the centre of the chest to the tip of the middle finger, that
being the proper length to draw the bow--the latter was about five
feet long, generally made of mountain ash, but sometimes of spruce.
Their spears were of two kinds--the one, their chief weapon, was
twelve feet in length, pointed with bone or iron, whenever the latter
material could be obtained, and was used in killing deer and other
animals. The other was fourteen feet in length and was used chiefly,
if not wholly, in killing seals--the head or point being easily
separated from the shaft--the service of the latter being, indeed
mainly, to guide the point into the body of the animal, and which
being effected, the shaft was withdrawn, and a strong strip of deer
skin, which was always kept fastened to the spear head, was held by
the Indian, and who in this manner secured his prey.
CANOES.
These varied from sixteen to twenty-two feet in length, with an upward
curve towards each end. Laths were introduced from stem to stern
instead of planks--they were provided with a gunwhale or edging which,
though slight, added strength to the fabric--the whole was covered on
the outside with deer skins sewed together and fastened by stitching
the edges round the gunwhale.
LANGUAGE.
The language of the Boeothicks, Mr. Cormack is of opinion, is
different from all the languages of the neighbouring tribes of Indians
with which any comparison has been made. Of all the words procured at
different times from the female Indian Shaw-na-dith-it, and which were
compared with the Micmac and Banake (the latter people bordering on
the Mohawk) not one was found similar to the language of the latter
people, and only two words which could be supposed to have had the
same origin, viz.: Keuis--Boeothick--and "Kuse" Banake--both words
meaning "Sun,"--and moosin Boeothick, and moccasin, Banake and Micmac.
The Boeothick also differs from the Mountaineer or Esquimaux language
of Labrador. The Micmac, Mountaineer, and Banake, have no "_r_." The
Boeothick has; the three first use "_l_" instead of "_r_." The
Boeothick has the dipthong _sh_.--the other languages, as before
enumerated, have it not. The Boeothicks have no characters to serve as
hieroglyphics or letters, but they had a few symbols or signatures.
METHOD OF INTERMENT.
The Boeothicks appear to have shown great respect for their dead, and
the most remarkable remains of them commonly observed by Europeans at
the sea coasts are their burial places. They had several modes of
interment--one was when the body of the deceased had been wrapped in
birch rind, it was then, with his property, placed on a sort of
scaffold about four feet from the ground--the scaffold supported a
flooring of small squared beams laid close together, on which the body
and property rested.
A second method was, when the body bent together and wrapped in birch
rinds was enclosed in a sort of box on the ground--this box was made
of small square posts laid on each other horizontally, and notched at
the corners to make them meet close--it was about four feet high,
three feet broad, and two-feet-and-a-half deep, well lined with birch
rind, so as to exclude the weather from the inside--the body was
always laid on its right side.
A third, and the most common method of burying among this people, was
to wrap the body in birch rind, and then cover it over with a heap of
stones on the surface of the earth; but occasionally in sandy places,
or where the earth was soft and easily removed, the body was sunk
lower in the earth and the stones omitted.
Their marriage ceremony consisted merely in a prolonged feast, and
which rarely terminated before the end of twenty-four hours. Polygamy
would seem not to have been countenanced by the tribe.
Of their remedies for disease, the following were those the most
frequently resorted to:--
For pains in the stomach, a decoction of the rind of the dogberry was
drank.
For sickness among old people--sickness in the stomach, pains in the
back, and for rheumatism, the vapor-bath was used.
For sore head, neck, &c., pounded sulphuret of iron mixed up with oil
was rubbed over the part affected, and was said generally to effect a
cure in two or three days.
Brief as the foregoing statement is, yet, so scanty are the materials
which relate to the subject, that it contains substantially all the
facts which can now be gathered together of that interesting people,
the original inhabitants of Newfoundland--a people whose origin and
fate are alike shrouded in mystery, and of whom, in their passage
across the stage of life, but little is certainly known, beyond the
cruel outrages, the bitter wrongs they endured at the hands of the
white man--before whose power, so mercilessly used, the tribe sank,
and was either utterly annihilated, or, as is more probable, a
remnant--worn out, harrassed beyond human endurance--left the homes of
their fathers, and in another land sought that security for their
lives which was denied them in this.
FINIS.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: "Large guns." The guns in common use there are what are
made for killing seals. The general size is a barrel of five feet
long, with a bore from seven-eighths to an inch and a quarter.]
[Footnote B: What I saw I should estimate at from three to four
hundred, including women and children: of this however hereafter.]