Lecture On The Aborigines Of Newfoundland | Page 2

held the sway in these parts, and who had taken offence at
some proceedings of the Boeothicks, slew two Red Indians with the
intention of taking their heads, which they had severed from the bodies,
to the French. This wanton and unprovoked outrage was discovered by

the Boeothicks, who gave no intimation of such discovery, but who,
after consulting together, determined on revenge. They invited the
Micmacs to a feast, and arranged their guests in such order that every
Boeothick had a Micmac by his side; at a preconcerted signal every
Boeothick slew his guest. War of course ensued. Firearms were but
little known to the Indians at that time, but they soon came into more
general use among such tribes as continued to hold intercourse with
Europeans. This circumstance gave the Micmacs an undisputed
ascendancy over the Boeothicks, who were forced to betake themselves
to the recesses of the interior and other parts of the Island, alarmed, as
well they might be, at every report of the firelock. What may be the
present feelings of the Red Indians, supposing any of the tribe to be yet
living, towards the Micmacs we know not; but we do know that the
latter cherish feelings of unmitigated hatred against the very name of
"Red Indian."
When Cabot discovered Newfoundland in 1497 he saw Savages, whom
he describes as "painted with red ochre, and covered with skins."
Cartier in 1534 saw the Red Indians, whom he describes "as of good
stature,--wearing their hair in a bunch on the top of the head, and
adorned with feathers." In 1574 Frobisher having been driven by the ice
on the coast of Newfoundland, induced some of the natives to come on
board, and with one of them he sent five sailors on shore, whom he
never saw again; on this account he seized one of the Indians, who died
shortly after arriving in England.
As soon after the discovery of Newfoundland as its valuable fisheries
became known, vessels from various countries found their way hither,
for the purpose of catching whales, and of following other pursuits
connected with the fishery. Among those early visiters was a Captain
Richard Whitburne, who commanded a ship of 300 tons, belonging to
"one Master Cotton of South-hampton" and who fished at Trinity. This
Captain Whitburne, in a work published by him in 1622, describing the
coast, fishery, soil, and produce of Newfoundland, says, "the natives
are ingenious and apt by discreet and moderate government, to be
brought to obedience. Many of them join the French and Biscayans on
the Northern coast, and work hard for them about fish, whales, and
other things; receiving for their labor some bread or trifling trinkets."
They believed, according to Whitburne, that they were created from

arrows stuck in the ground by the Good Spirit, and that the dead went
into a far country to make merry with their friends. Other early
voyagers also make favourable mention of the natives, but
notwithstanding this testimony, it is evident, even from information
given by their apologist Whitburne himself, that the Red Indians were
not exempt from those pilfering habits which, in many instances, have
marked the conduct of the inhabitants of newly discovered Islands on
their first meeting with Europeans. Whitburne, when expressing his
readiness to adopt measures for opening a trade with the Indians,
incidentally mentions an instance where their thievish propensities
were displayed.--He says, "I am ready with my life and means whereby
to find out some new trade with the Indians of the country, for they
have great store of red ochre, which they use to colour their bodies,
bows, arrows, and canoes. The canoes are built in shape like wherries
on the river Thames, but that they are much longer, made with the rinds
of birch trees, which they sew very artificially and close together, and
overlay every seam with turpentine. In like manner they sew the rinds
of birch trees round and deep in proportion like a brass kettle, to boil
their meat in; which hath been proved to me by three mariners of a ship
riding at anchor by me--who being robbed in the night by the savages
of their apparel and provisions, did next day seek after and came
suddenly to where they had set up three tents and were feasting; they
had three pots made of the rinds of trees standing each of them on
stones, boiling with fowls in each; they had also many such pots so
sewed, and which were full of yolk of eggs that they had boiled hard
and so dried, and which the savages do use in their broth. They had
great store of skins of deer, beaver, bears, otter, seal, and divers other
fine skins, which were well dressed; they had also great store of