It Appears The
Indians Were This Winter Encamped On The Banks Of The River Exploits,
And Observed Captain B.'s Party Passing Up The River On The Ice.
They
retired from their encampments in consequence; and, some weeks
afterwards, went by a circuitous route to the lake, to ascertain what
the party had been doing there.
They found Mary March's body, and
removed it from where Captain B. had left it to where it now lies, by
the side of her husband.
With the exception of Captain Buchan's first expedition, by order of
the local government of Newfoundland, in the winter of 1810, [Sic:
1815] to endeavour to open a friendly intercourse with the Red
Indians, the two parties just mentioned are the only two we know of
that had ever before been up to the Red Indian Lake. Captain B. at
that time succeeded in forcing an interview with the principal
encampment of these people. All of the tribe that remained at that
period were then at the Great Lake, divided into parties, and in their
winter encampments, at different places in the woods on the margin of
the lake. Hostages were exchanged; but Captain B. had not been absent
from the Indians two hours, in his return to a depot left by him at a
short distance down the river, to take up additional presents for
them, when the want of confidence of these people in the whites
evinced itself. A suspicion spread among them that he had gone down to
bring up a reinforcement of men to take them all prisoners to the
sea-coast; and they resolved immediately to break up their encampment
and retire farther into the country, and alarm and join the rest of
their tribe, who were all at the western parts of the lake. To prevent
their proceedings being known, they killed and then cut off the heads
of the two English hostages; and, on the same afternoon on which
Captain B. had left them, they were in full retreat across the lake,
with baggage, children, &c. The whole of them afterwards spent the
remainder of the winter together, at a place twenty to thirty miles to
the south-west, on the south-east side of the lake. On Captain B.'s
return to the lake next day or the day after, the cause of the scene
there was inexplicable; and it remained a mystery until now, when we
can gather some facts relating to these people from the Red Indian
woman Shawnawdithit.]
***END OF MR. W. E. CORMACK'S JOURNEY IN SEARCH OF THE RED INDIANS IN NEWFOUNDLAND***
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