Lecture On The Aborigines Of Newfoundland

Lecture On The Aborigines Of
Newfoundland

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Title: Lecture On The Aborigines Of Newfoundland Delivered Before
The Mechanics' Institute, At St. John's, Newfoundland, On Monday,
17th January, 1859
Author: Joseph Noad
Release Date: February 21, 2005 [EBook #15126]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ABORIGENES OF NEWFOUNDLAND ***

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LECTURE
ON
THE ABORIGINES
OF
Newfoundland,

_Delivered before the Mechanics Institute, at St. John's, on Monday,
17th January,_
BY
THE HON. JOSEPH NOAD,
_Surveyor-General._
ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND:
R.J. PARSONS, PRINTER.
1859.

Lecture
_DELIVERED BEFORE THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE AT ST.
JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND._
BY
THE HON. JOSEPH NOAD,
_Surveyor-General,_
Of the various theories advanced on the origin of the North American
Indians, none has been so entirely satisfactory as to command a general
assent; and on this point many and different opinions are yet held. The
late De Witt Clinton, Governor of the State of New York, a man who
had given no slight consideration to subjects of this nature, maintained
that they were of Tatar origin; others have thought them the
descendants of the Ten Tribes, or the offspring of the Canaanites
expelled by Joshua. The opinion, however, most commonly entertained
is, that the vast continent of North America was peopled from the
Northeast of Asia; in proof of which it is urged that every peculiarity,
whether in person or disposition, which characterises the Americans,
bears some resemblance to the rude tribes scattered over the northeast
of Asia, but almost none to the nations settled on the northern extremity
of Europe. Robertson, however, gives a new phase to this question;
from his authority we learn that, as early as the ninth century, the
Norwegians discovered Greenland and planted colonies there. The
communication with that country, after a long interruption, was
renewed in the last century, and through Moravian missionaries, it is
now ascertained that the Esquimaux speak the same language as the
Greenlanders, and that they are in every respect the same people. By
this decisive fact, not only is the consanguinity of the Greenlanders
with the Esquimaux established, but also the possibility of peopling

America from the north of Europe demonstrated, and if of America,
then of course of Newfoundland also, and thus it appears within the
verge of possibility, that the original inhabitants of this Island may be
descendants of Europeans, in fact merely a distinct tribe of the
Esquimaux. At a meeting of the Philosophical Society held in England
some few years ago, the subject of the Red Indians of Newfoundland
was brought under discussion by Mr. Jukes, the gentleman who
conducted the geological survey of this Island; and Dr. King, a name
well-known among scientific men, gave it as his opinion, founded on
historical evidence, going so far back as the period of Sebastian Cabot,
that they were really an Esquimaux tribe. Others are of opinion,
founded on some real or presumed affinity between the vocabulary of
the one people with that of the other, that the Indian tribes of North
America and the original inhabitants of Newfoundland, called by
themselves "Boeothicks," and by Europeans "Red Indians," are of the
same descent.
The enquiry, however, into the mere origin of a people is one more
curious in its nature than it is calculated to be useful, and failure in
attempting to discover it need excite but little regret; but it is much to
be lamented that the early history of the Boeothick is shrouded in such
obscurity, that any attempt to penetrate it must be vain. All that we
know of the tribe as it existed in past ages, is derived from tradition
handed down to us chiefly thro' the Micmacs; and even from this
source, doubtful and uncertain as such authority confessedly is, the
amount of information conveyed to us is both scanty and imperfect.
From such traditionary facts we gather, that the Boeothicks were once a
powerful and numerous tribe, like their neighbouring tribe the Micmacs,
and that for a long period these tribes were on friendly terms and
inhabited the western shores of Newfoundland in common, together
with other parts of the Island as well as the Labrador, and this good
understanding continued until some time after the discovery of
Newfoundland by Cabot; but it was at length violently interrupted by
the Micmacs, who, to ingratiate themselves with the French, who at
that time