In the island of Newfoundland, an institution has been formed for opening
a communication with, and promoting the civilization of, the Red Indians;
and procuring, if possible, an authentic history of that unhappy race of
people, in order that their language, customs, and pursuits, may be
contrasted with those of other tribes of Indians and nations. The interior
of the island is less known than any other British possessions abroad;
but, from the exertions of the above Society, more information has been
collected concerning the natives, than has been obtained during the two
centuries and a half in which Newfoundland has been in possession of
Europeans. The last journey was undertaken by W.E. Cormack, Esq.,
president of the Society. His report has appeared in a recent Number of
the _Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal_, and will, we are persuaded, be
interesting to our readers:
"My party," says Mr. Cormack, "consisted of three Indians, whom I procured
from among the other different tribes, viz. an intelligent and able man of
the Abenakie tribe, from Canada; an elderly Mountaineer from Labrador; and
an adventurous young Micmack, a native of this island, together with
myself. It was my intention to have commenced our search at White Bay,
which is nearer the northern extremity of the island than where we did,
and to have travelled southward. But the weather not permitting to carry
my party thither by water, after several days' delay, I unwillingly
changed my line of route.
"On the 31st of October, 1828, last, we entered the country at the mouth
of the River Exploits, on the north side, at what is called the Northern
Arm. We took a north-westerly direction, to lead us to Hall's Bay, which
place we reached through an almost uninterrupted forest, over a hilly
country, in eight days. This tract comprehends the country interior from
New Bay, Badger Bay, Seal Bay, &c.; these being minor bays, included in
Green or Notre Dame Bay, at the north-east part of the island, and well
known to have been always heretofore the summer residence of the Red
Indians.
"On the fourth day after our departure, at the east end of Badger
Bay-Great Lake, at a _portage_ known by the name of the Indian Path, we
found traces made by the Red Indians, evidently in the spring or summer of
the preceding year. Their party had had two canoes; and here was a
_canoe-rest_, on which the daubs of red ochre, and the roots of trees used
to fasten or tie it together appeared fresh. A canoe-rest, is simply a few
beams supported horizontally about five feet from the ground, by
perpendicular posts. A party with two canoes, when descending from the
interior to the sea-coast, through such a part of the country as this,
where there are troublesome portages, leave one canoe resting, bottom up,
on this kind of frame, to protect it from injury by the weather, until
their return. Among other things which lay strewed about here, were a
spearshaft, eight feet in length, recently made and ochred; parts of old
canoes, fragments of their skin-dresses, &c. For some distance around, the
trunks of many of the birch, and of that species of spruce pine called
here the Var (_Pinus balsamifera_) had been rinded; these people using the
inner part of the bark of that kind of tree for food. Some of the cuts in
the trees with the axe, were evidently made the preceding year. Besides
these, we were elated by other encouraging signs. The traces left by the
Red Indians are so peculiar, that we were confident those we saw here were
made by them.
"This spot has been a favourite place of settlement with these people. It
is situated at the commencement of a _portage_, which forms a
communication by a path between the sea-coast at Badger Bay, about eight
miles to the north-east, and a chain of lakes extending westerly and
southerly from hence, and discharging themselves by a rivulet into the
River Exploits, about thirty miles from its mouth. A path also leads from
this place to the lakes, near New Bay, to the eastward. Here are the
remains of one of their villages, where the vestiges of eight or ten
winter _mamatecks_, or wigwams, each intended to contain from six to
eighteen or twenty people, are distinctly seen close together. Besides
these, there are the remains of a number of summer wigwams. Every winter
wigwam has close by it a small square-mouthed or oblong pit, dug into the
earth, about four feet deep, to preserve their stores, &c. in. Some of
these pits were lined with birch rind. We discovered also in this village
the remains of a vapour-bath. The method used by the Boeothicks to raise
the steam, was by pouring water on large stones made very hot for the
purpose, in the open air, by burning a quantity of wood around them; after
this process, the ashes were removed, and a hemispherical framework
closely covered with skins, to exclude the external air, was fixed over
the stones. The patient then crept in under the skins, taking with him a
birch-rind bucket of water, and a small bark-dish to dip it out, which, by
pouring on the stones, enabled him to raise the steam at pleasure.[5]
"At Hall's Bay we got no useful information, from the three (and the only)
English families settled there. Indeed we could hardly have expected any;
for these, and such people, have been the unchecked and ruthless
destroyers of the tribe, the remnant of which we were in search of. After
sleeping one night in a _house_, we again struck into the country to the
westward.
"In five days we were on the high lands south of White Bay, and in sight
of the high lands east of the Bay of Islands, on the west coast of
Newfoundland. The country south and west of us was low and flat,
consisting of marshes, extending in a southerly direction more than thirty
miles. In this direction lies the famous Red Indians' Lake. It was now
near the middle of November, and the winter had commenced pretty severely
in the interior. The country was every where covered with snow, and, for
some days past, we had walked over the small ponds on the ice. The summits
of the hills on which we stood had snow on them, in some places, many feet
deep. The deer were migrating from the rugged and dreary mountains in the
north, to the low mossy barren, and more woody parts in the south; and we
inferred, that if any of the Red Indians had been at White Bay during the
past summer, they might be at that time stationed about the borders of the
low tract of country before us, at the _deer-passes_, or were employed
somewhere else in the interior, killing deer for winter provision. At
these passes, which are particular places in the migration lines of path,
such as the extreme ends of, and straights in, many of the large lakes--
the foot of valleys between high and rugged mountains--fords in the large
rivers, and the like---the Indians kill great numbers of deer with very
little trouble, during their migrations. We looked out for two days from
the summits of the hills adjacent, trying to discover the smoke from the
camps of the Red Indians; but in vain. These hills command a very
extensive view of the country in every direction.
"We now determined to proceed towards the Red Indians' Lake, sanguine that,
at that known rendezvous, we could find the objects of our search.
"In about ten days we got a glimpse of this beautifully majestic and
splendid sheet of water. The ravages of fire, which we saw in the woods
for the last two days, indicated that man had been near. We looked down on
the lake, from the hills at the northern extremity, with feelings of
anxiety and admiration:--No canoe could be discovered moving on its placid
surface, in the distance. We were the first Europeans who had seen it in
an unfrozen state, for the three former parties who had visited it before,
were here in the winter, when its waters were frozen and covered over with
snow. They had reached it from below, by way of the River Exploits, on the
ice. We approached the lake with hope and caution; but found to our
mortification that the Red Indians had deserted it for some years past. My
party had been so excited, so sanguine, and so determined to obtain an
interview of some kind with these people, that, on discovering from
appearances every where around us, that the Red Indians--the terror of the
Europeans as well as the other Indian inhabitants of Newfoundland--no
longer existed, the spirits of one and all of us were very deeply affected.
The old mountaineer was particularly overcome. There were every where
indications, that this had long been the central and undisturbed
rendezvous of the tribe, when they had enjoyed peace and security. But
these primitive people had abandoned it, after having been tormented by
parties of Europeans during the last eighteen years. Fatal rencounters had
on these occasions unfortunately taken place."
(_To be concluded in our next_.)
[5] Since my return, I learn from the captive Red Indian woman
_Shawnawdithit_, that the vapour-bath is chiefly used by old people,
and for rheumatic affections.
_Shawnawdithit_ is the survivor of three Red Indian females, who were
taken by, or rather who gave themselves up, exhausted with hunger, to
some English furriers, about five years ago, in Notre Dame Bay. She is
the only one of that tribe in the hands of the English, and the only
one that has ever lived so long among them.
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