Lecture On The Aborigines Of Newfoundland | Page 3

several
sorts of fish dried. By shooting off a musquet towards them, they all
ran away without any apparel but only their hats on, which were made
of seal skins, in fashion like our hats, sewed handsomely with narrow
bands and set round with fine white shels. All the canoes, flesh, skins,
yolks of eggs, bows, arrows, and much fine ochre and divers other
things did the ship's company take and share among them." And from
Whitburne's time up to 1818 have complaints been made of thefts
committed by the Indians. To the Northward the settlers, as they allege,
had many effects stolen from them--one individual alone made a

deposition to the effect that he had lost through the depredations of the
Indians, property to the amount of £200.
Now whether in such thefts (although they were only of a petty
character) we are to trace the origin of that murderous warfare so
relentlessly carried on by the Whites against the Red Indians, or
whether the atrocities of the former, were the result of brutal ignorance
and a wanton disregard of human life, cannot how be determined,--we
have only the lamentable fact before us, that to a set of men not only
destitute of all religious principle, but also of the common feelings of
humanity, the pursuit and slaughter of the Red Indian became a
pastime--an amusement--eagerly sought after--wantonly and
barbarously pursued, and in the issue fatally, nd it may be added,
awfully successful.
For the greater part of the seventeenth century the history of the Red
Indians present a dreary waste--no sympathy appears to have been felt
for them, and no efforts were made to stay the hands of their merciless
destroyers. In their attempts to avoid the Micmac, their dire enemy,
they fell in the path of the no less dreaded White, and thus year after
year passed away, and the comparatively defenceless Boeothick found,
only in the grave, a refuge and rest from his barbarous and powerful
foes. During the long period just adverted to, the Red Indian was
regarded by furriers, whose path he sometimes crossed; and with whose
gains his necessities compelled him sometimes to interfere, with as
little compassion as they entertained for any wild or dangerous beast of
the forest, and were shot or butchered with as little hesitation. And
barbarities of this nature became at length so common, that the
attention of the Government was directed to it; and in 1786 a
proclamation was issued by Governor Elliot, in which it is stated "that
it having been represented to the King that his subjects residing in this
Island do often treat the Indians with the greatest inhumanity, and
frequently destroy them without the least provocation or remorse; it
was therefore his Majesty's pleasure that all means should be used to
discover and apprehend all who may be guilty of murdering any of the
said Indians, in order that such offenders may be sent over to England
to be tried for such capital crimes." In 1797 Governor Waldegrave
issued a proclamation of a similar character, which document also
adverts to the cruelties to which the Indians were subject at the hands of

hunters, fishermen and others.--And again in 1802 a proclamation of a
like description was also issued.
In 1803 a native Indian was for the first time taken alive--this was a
female,--she was captured at the northern part of the Island, being
surprised by a fisherman while paddling her canoe towards a small
island in quest of birds' eggs. She was carried to St. John's and taken to
Government-house, where she was kindly treated. She admired the
epaulets of the officers more than any thing she saw, but appeared to
value her own dress more highly, for although presents were given her,
and indeed whatever she asked for, she would never let her own fur
garments go out of her hands. In the hope that if this woman were
returned to her tribe, her own description of the treatment she had
received, and the presents she would convey to her people, may lead to
a friendly communication being opened with the Red Indians, a
gentleman residing in Fogo, (Mr. Andrew Pearce) in the vicinity of
which place the woman was taken, was authorised to hire men for the
purpose of returning her in safety to her tribe. She was accordingly put
under the care of four men, and the manner in which they dealt with her
is recounted in the following copy of a letter, written by one of them,
and addressed to Mr. Trounsell, who was the Admiral's Secretary:--He
says, "This is to inform you that I could get no men until the 20th
August, when we proceeded with the Indian to the Bay of Exploits, and
there went with her up the