Our Subsistence In The Interior Was
Entirely Animal Food, Deer And Beavers, Which We Shot.
* * * * *
"Resolved, - That the measures recommended in the president's report
be agreed to; and that the three men, Indians of
The Canadian and
Mountaineer tribes, be placed upon the establishment of this
institution, to be employed under the immediate direction and control
of the president; and that they be allowed for their services such a
sum of money as the president may consider a fair and reasonable
compensation: That it be the endeavour of this institution to collect
every useful information respecting the natural productions and
resources of this island, and, from time to time, to publish the same
in its reports: That the instruction of Shawnawdithit would be much
accelerated by bringing her to St John's, &c.: That the proceedings of
the institution, since its establishment, be laid before his Majesty's
Secretary of State for the Colonial Department, by the president, on
his arrival in England.
(Signed) "A.W. des BARRES, Chairman and Vice-Patron."
Footnotes:
[Footnote A: 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.
Shanawdithit 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. It appears extraordinary,
and it is to be regretted, that this woman has not been taken care of,
nor noticed before, in a manner which the peculiar and interesting
circumstances connected with her tribe and herself would have led us
to expect.]
[Footnote B: It should be remarked here, that Mary March, so called
from the name of the month in which she was taken, was the Red Indian
female who was captured and carried away by force from this place by
an armed party of English people, nine or ten in number, who came up
here in the month of March 1809.[Sic: 1819] The local government
authorities at that time did not foresee the result of offering a
reward to bring a Red Indian to them. Her husband was cruelly shot,
after nobly making several attempts, single-handed, to rescue her from
the captors, in defiance of their fire-arms and fixed bayonets. His
tribe built this cemetery for him, on the foundation of his own
wigwam, and his body is one of those now in it. The following winter,
Captain Buchan was sent to the River Exploits, by order of the local
government of Newfoundland, to take back this woman to the lake where
she was captured, and, if possible, at the same time, to open a
friendly intercourse with her tribe. But she died on board Captain
B.'s vessel, at the mouth of the river. Captain B., however, took up
her body to the lake; and not meeting with any of her people, left it
where they were afterwards likely to meet with it. 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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