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authorRoger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>2025-10-15 04:42:52 -0700
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Report of Mr. W. E. Cormack's journey in search of the Red Indians in Newfoundland, by W. E. Cormack</title>
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13762 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Report of Mr. W. E. Cormack's journey in
+search of the Red Indians in Newfoundland, by W. E. Cormack</h1>
+</font>
+<hr noshade>
+<br>
+<br>
+<center>
+<h2>REPORT <i>of Mr W. E. CORMACK'S Journey<br>
+in search of the Red Indians in Newfoundland</i>.</h2>
+
+<h3>Read before the Boeothick Institution<br>
+at St John's, Newfoundland.</h3>
+
+<hr width="75%">
+<i>From the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal</i>.
+
+<hr width="75%">
+</center>
+
+<p><b><font size="+3">P</font><font size="+1">URSUANT</font></b> to
+special summons, a meeting of this Institution was held at St
+John's on the 12th day of January 1828; the Honourable A.W.
+Desbarres, Vice-Patron, in the chair. The Honourable Chairman
+stated, that the primary motive which led to the formation of the
+Institution, was the desire of opening a communication with, and
+promoting the civilization of, the Red Indians of Newfoundland; and
+of procuring, if possible, an authentic history of that unhappy
+race of people, in order that their language, customs and pursuits,
+might be contrasted with those of other tribes of Indians and
+nations;&mdash;that, in following up the chief object of the
+institution, it was anticipated that much information would be
+obtained respecting the natural productions of the island; the
+interior of which is less known than any other of the British
+possessions abroad. Their excellent President, keeping all these
+objects in view, had permitted nothing worthy of research to escape
+his scrutiny, and consequently a very wide field of information was
+now introduced to their notice, all apparently highly interesting
+and useful to society, if properly cultivated. He was aware of
+their very natural anxiety to hear from the president an outline of
+his recent expedition, and he would occupy their attention farther,
+only by observing, that the purposes of the present meeting would
+be best accomplished by taking into consideration the different
+subjects recommended to them in the president's report, and passing
+such resolutions as might be considered necessary to govern the
+future proceedings of the Institution.</p>
+
+<p>The President, W.E. Cormack, Esq. then laid the following
+Statement before the meeting.</p>
+
+<p>Having so recently returned, I will now only lay before you a
+brief outline of my expedition in search of the Boeothicks or Red
+Indians, confining my remarks exclusively to its primary object. A
+detailed report of the journey will be prepared, and submitted to
+the Institution, whenever I shall have leisure to arrange the other
+interesting materials which have been collected.</p>
+
+<p>My party consisted of three Indians, whom I procured from among
+the other different tribes, viz. an intelligent and able man of the
+Abenakie tribe, from Canada; an elderly Mountaineer from Labrador;
+and an adventurous young Micmack, a native of this island, together
+with myself. It was difficult to obtain men fit for the purpose,
+and the trouble attending on this prevented my entering on the
+expedition a month earlier in the season. It was my intention to
+have commenced our search at White Bay, which is nearer the
+northern extremity of the island than where we did, and to have
+travelled southward; but the weather not permitting to carry my
+party thither by water, after several days delay, I unwillingly
+changed my line of route.</p>
+
+<p>On the 31st of October 1828 [Sic: 30th of October 1827] last, we
+entered the country at the mouth of the River Exploits, on the
+north side, at what is called the Northern Arm. We took a
+north-westerly direction to lead us to Hall's Bay, which place we
+reached through an almost uninterrupted forest, over a hilly
+country, in eight days. This tract comprehends the country interior
+from New Bay, Badger Bay, Seal Bay, &amp;c.; these being minor
+bays, included in Green or Notre Dame Bay, at the north-east part
+of the island, and well known to have been always heretofore the
+summer residence of the Red Indians.</p>
+
+<p>On the fourth day after our departure, at the east end of Badger
+Bay-Great Lake, at a <i>portage</i> known by the name of the Indian
+Path, we found traces made by the Red Indians, evidently in the
+spring or summer of the preceding year. Their party had had two
+canoes; and here was a <i>canoe-rest</i>, on which the daubs of
+red-ochre, and the roots of trees used to fasten or tie it together
+appeared fresh. A canoe-rest is simply a few beams, supported
+horizontally, about five feet from the ground, by perpendicular
+posts. A party with two canoes, when descending from the interior
+to the sea-coast, through such a part of the country as this, where
+there are troublesome portages, leave one canoe resting, bottom up,
+on this kind of frame, to protect it from injury by the weather,
+until their return. Among other things which lay strewed about
+here, were a spear-shaft, eight feet in length, recently made and
+ochred; parts of old canoes, fragments of their skin-dresses,
+&amp;c. For some distance around, the trunks of many of the birch,
+and of that species of spruce pine called here the Var (<i>Pinus
+balsamifera</i>), had been rinded; these people using the inner
+part of the bark of that kind of tree for food. Some of the cuts in
+the trees with the axe were evidently made the preceding year.
+Besides these, we were elated by other encouraging signs. The
+traces left by the Red Indians are so peculiar, that we were
+confident those we saw here were made by them.</p>
+
+<p>This spot has been a favourite place of settlement with these
+people. It is situated at the commencement of a <i>portage</i>,
+which forms a communication by a path between the sea-coast at
+Badger Bay, about eight miles to the north-east, and a chain of
+lakes extending westerly and southerly from hence, and discharging
+themselves by a rivulet into the River Exploits, about thirty miles
+from its mouth. A path also leads from this place to the lakes,
+near New Bay, to the eastward. Here are the remains of one of their
+villages, where the vestiges of eight or ten winter
+<i>mamateeks</i> or wigwams, each intended to contain from six to
+eighteen or twenty people, are distinctly seen close together.
+Besides these, there are the remains of a number of summer wigwams.
+Every winter wigwam has close by it a small square-mouthed or
+oblong pit, dug into the earth, about four feet deep, to preserve
+their stores, &amp;c. in. Some of these pits were lined with
+birch-rind. We discovered also in this village the remains of a
+vapour-bath. The method used by the Boeothicks to raise the steam,
+was by pouring water on large stones, made very hot for the
+purpose, in the open air, by burning a quantity of wood around
+them; after this process, the ashes were removed, and a
+hemispherical frame-work, closely covered with skins, to exclude
+the external air, was fixed over the stones. The patient then crept
+in under the skins, taking with him a birch-rind-bucket of water,
+and a small bark-dish to dip it out, which, by pouring on the
+stones, enabled him to raise the steam at pleasure.*</p>
+
+<p>At Hall's Bay we got no useful information from the three (and
+the only) English families settled there. Indeed we could hardly
+have expected any; for these, and such people, have been the
+unchecked and ruthless destroyers of the tribe, the remnant of
+which we were in search of. After sleeping one night in a
+<i>house</i>, we again struck into the country to the westward.</p>
+
+<p>In five days we were on the high lands south of White Bay, and
+in sight of the high lands east of the Bay of Islands, on the west
+coast of Newfoundland. The country south and west of us was low and
+flat, consisting of marshes, extending in a southerly direction
+more than thirty miles. In this direction lies the famous Red
+Indians' Lake. It was now near the middle of November, and the
+winter had commenced pretty severely in the interior. The country
+was everywhere covered with snow, and, for some days past, we had
+walked over the small ponds on the ice. The summits of the hills on
+which we stood had snow on them, in some places many feet deep. The
+deer were migrating from the rugged and dreary mountains in the
+north to the low mossy barrens and more woody parts in the south;
+and we inferred, that if any of the Red Indians had been at White
+Bay during the past summer, they might be at that time stationed
+about the borders of the low tract of country before us, at the
+<i>deer-passes</i>, or were employed somewhere else in the
+interior, killing deer for winter provision. At these passes, which
+are particular places in the migration lines of path, such as the
+extreme ends of, and straights in, many of the large
+lakes,&mdash;the foot of valleys between high or rugged
+mountains,&mdash;fords in the large rivers, and the like,&mdash;the
+Indians kill great numbers of deer with very little trouble, during
+their migrations. We looked out for two days from the summits of
+the hills adjacent, trying to discover the smoke from the camps of
+the Red Indians; but in vain. These hills command a very extensive
+view of the country in every direction.</p>
+
+<blockquote>* <font size="-1">Since my return, I learn from the
+captive Red Indian woman <i>Shawnawdithit</i>, that the vapour-bath
+is chiefly used by old people, and for rheumatic
+affections.</font></blockquote>
+
+<blockquote><font size="-1"><i>Shanawdithit</i> 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.</font></blockquote>
+
+<p><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>We now determined to proceed towards the Red Indians' Lake,
+sanguine that, at that known rendezvous, we would find the objects
+of our search.</p>
+
+<p>Travelling over such a country, except when winter has fairly
+set in, is truly laborious.</p>
+
+<p>In about ten days we got a glimpse of this beautifully majestic
+and splendid sheet of water. The ravages of fire, which we saw in
+the woods for the last two days, indicated that man had been near.
+We looked down on the lake, from the hills at the northern
+extremity, with feelings of anxiety and admiration:&mdash;No canoe
+could be discovered moving on its placid surface in the distance.
+We were the first Europeans who had seen it in an unfrozen state,
+for the three former parties who had visited it before, were here
+in the winter, when its waters were frozen and covered over with
+snow. They had reached it from below, by way of the River Exploits,
+on the ice. We approached the lake with hope and caution; but found
+to our mortification that the Red Indians had deserted it for some
+years past. My party had been so excited, so sanguine, and so
+determined to obtain an interview of some kind with these people,
+that, on discovering, from appearances every where around us, that
+the Red Indians&mdash;the terror of the Europeans as well as the
+other Indian inhabitants of Newfoundland&mdash;no longer existed,
+the spirits of one and all of us were very deeply affected. The old
+mountaineer was particularly overcome. There were every where
+indications that this had long been the central and undisturbed
+rendezvous of the tribe, where they had enjoyed peace and security.
+But these primitive people had abandoned it, after having been
+tormented by parties of Europeans during the last eighteen [Sic:
+thirteen] years. Fatal rencounters had on these occasions
+unfortunately taken place.</p>
+
+<p>We spent several melancholy days wandering on the borders of the
+east end of the lake, surveying the various remains of what we now
+contemplated to have been an unoffending and cruelly extirpated
+people. At several places, by the margin of the lake, are small
+clusters of winter and summer wigwams in ruins. One difference,
+among others, between the Boeothick wigwams and those of the other
+Indians is, that in most of the former there are small hollows,
+like nests, dug in the earth around the fire-place, one for each
+person to sit in. These hollows are generally so close together,
+and also so close to the fire-place, and to the sides of the
+wigwam, that I think it probable these people have been accustomed
+to sleep in a sitting position. There was one wooden building
+constructed for drying and smoking venison in, still perfect; also
+a small log-house, in a dilapidated condition, which we took to
+have been once a store-house. The wreck of a large handsome
+birch-rind canoe, about twenty-two feet in length, comparatively
+new, and certainly very little used, lay thrown up among the bushes
+at the beach. We supposed that the violence of a storm had rent it
+in the way it was found, and that the people who were in it had
+perished; for the iron nails, of which there was no want, all
+remained in it. Had there been any survivors, nails being much
+prized by these people, they never having held intercourse with
+Europeans, such an article would most likely have been taken out
+for use again. All the birch trees in the vicinity of the lake had
+been rinded, and many of them and of the spruce fir or var
+(<i>Pinus balsamifera</i>, Canadian balsam tree) had the bark taken
+off, to use the inner part of it for food, as noticed before.</p>
+
+<p>Their wooden repositories for the dead are what are in the most
+perfect state of preservation. These are of different
+constructions, it would appear, according to the character or rank
+of the persons entombed. In one of them, which resembled a hut, ten
+feet by eight or nine, and four or five feet high in the centre,
+floored with squared poles, the roof covered with rinds of trees,
+and in every way well secured against the weather inside and the
+intrusion of wild beasts, there were two grown persons laid out at
+full length on the floor, the bodies wrapped round with deer-skins.
+One of these bodies appeared to have been placed here not longer
+ago than five or six years. We thought there were children laid in
+here also. On first opening this building, by removing the posts
+which formed the ends, our curiosity was raised to the highest
+pitch; but what added to our surprise, was the discovery of a white
+deal coffin, containing a skeleton neatly shrouded in white muslin.
+After a long pause of conjecture how such a thing existed here, the
+idea of <i>Mary March</i> occurred to one of the party, and the
+whole mystery was at once explained.*</p>
+
+<blockquote><font size="-1">* 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 <i>bring a Red Indian to
+them</i>. 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 <i>Mary March's</i> body, and removed it from where Captain
+B. had left it to where it now lies, by the side of her
+husband.</font></blockquote>
+
+<blockquote><font size="-1">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, &amp;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
+<i>Shawnawdithit</i>.</font></blockquote>
+
+<p><br>
+</p>
+
+<p>In this cemetery were deposited a variety of articles, in some
+instances the property, in others the representations of the
+property and utensils, and of the achievements, of the deceased.
+There were two small wooden images of a man and woman, no doubt
+meant to represent husband and wife; a small doll, which we
+supposed to represent a child (for <i>Mary March</i> had to leave
+her only child here, which died two days after she was taken):
+several small models of their canoes; two small models of boats; an
+iron axe; a bow and quiver of arrows were placed by the side of
+<i>Mary March's</i> husband; and two fire-stones (radiated iron
+pyrites, from which they produce fire, by striking them together)
+lay at his head; there were also various kinds of culinary
+utensils, neatly made, of birch-rind, and ornamented; and many
+other things, of some of which we did not know the use or
+meaning.</p>
+
+<p>Another mode of sepulture which we saw here was, where the body
+of the deceased had been wrapped in birch rind, and with his
+property, placed on a sort of scaffold about four feet and a-half
+from the ground. The scaffold was formed of four posts, about seven
+feet high, fixed perpendicularly in the ground, to sustain a kind
+of crib, five feet and a-half in length by four in breadth, with a
+floor made of small squared beams, laid close together
+horizontally, and on which the body and property rested.</p>
+
+<p>A third mode was, when the body, bent together, and wrapped in
+birch-rind, was enclosed in a kind of box on the ground. The box
+was made of small squared posts, laid on each other horizontally,
+and notched at the corners, to make them meet close; it was about
+four feet by three, and two and a-half feet deep, and well lined
+with birch-rind, to exclude the weather from the inside. The body
+lay on its right side.</p>
+
+<p>A fourth, and the most common mode of burying among these
+people, has been, to wrap the body in birch-rind, and cover it over
+with a heap of stones, on the surface of the earth, in some retired
+spot; sometimes the body, thus wrapped up, is put a foot or two
+under the surface, and the spot covered with stones; in one place,
+where the ground was sandy and soft, they appeared to have been
+buried deeper, and no stones placed over the graves.</p>
+
+<p>These people appear to have always shewn great respect for their
+dead; and the most remarkable remains of them commonly observed by
+Europeans, at the sea-coast, are their burying-places. These are at
+particular chosen spots; and it is well known that they have been
+in the habit of bringing their dead from a distance to them. With
+their women, they bury only their clothes.</p>
+
+<p>On the north side of the lake, opposite the River Exploits, are
+the extremities of two deer fences, about half a mile apart, where
+they lead to the water. It is understood that they diverge many
+miles in north-westerly directions. The Red Indians make these
+fences to lead and scare the deer to the lake, during the
+periodical migration of these animals; the Indians being stationed
+looking out, when the deer get into the water to swim across, the
+lake being narrow at this end, they attack and kill the animals
+with spears out of their canoes. In this way they secure their
+winter provisions before the severity of that season sets in.</p>
+
+<p>There were other old remains of different kinds peculiar to
+these people met with about the lake.</p>
+
+<p>One night we encamped on the foundation of an old Red Indian
+wigwam, on the extremity of a point of land which juts out into the
+lake, and exposed to the view of the whole country around. A large
+fire at night is the life and soul of such a party as ours, and
+when it blazed up at times, I could not help observing, that two of
+my Indians evinced uneasiness and want of confidence in things
+around, as if they thought themselves usurpers on the Red Indian
+territory. From time immemorial none of the Indians of the other
+tribes had ever encamped near this lake fearlessly, and, as we had
+now done, in the very centre of such a country; the lake and
+territory adjacent having been always considered to belong
+exclusively to the Red Indians, and to have been occupied by them.
+It had been our invariable practice hitherto to encamp near hills,
+and be on their summits by the dawn of day, to try to discover the
+morning smoke ascending from the Red Indians' camps; and, to
+prevent the discovery of ourselves, we extinguished our own fire
+always some length of time before day-light.</p>
+
+<p>Our only and frail hope now left of seeing the Red Indians lay
+on the banks of the River Exploits, on our return to the
+sea-coast.</p>
+
+<p>The Red Indians' Lake discharges itself about three or four
+miles from its north-east end, and its waters from the River
+Exploits. From the lake to the sea-coast is considered about
+seventy miles; and down this noble river the steady perseverance
+and intrepidity of my Indians carried me on rafts in four days, to
+accomplish which otherwise, would have required, probably, two
+weeks. We landed at various places on both banks of the river on
+our way down, but found no traces of the Red Indians so recent as
+those seen at the portage at Badger Bay-Great Lake, towards the
+beginning of our excursion. During our descent, we had to construct
+new rafts at the different waterfalls. Sometimes we were carried
+down the rapids at the rate of ten miles an hour or more, with
+considerable risk of destruction to the whole party, for we were
+always together on one raft.</p>
+
+<p>What arrests the attention most while gliding down the stream,
+is the extent of the Indian fences to entrap the deer. They extend
+from the lake downwards, continuous, on the banks of the river at
+least thirty miles. There are openings left here and there in them,
+for the animals to go through and swim across the river, and at
+these places the Indians are stationed, and kill them in the water
+with spears, out of their canoes, as at the lake. Here, then,
+connecting these fences with those on the north-west side of the
+lake, is at least forty miles of country, easterly and westerly,
+prepared to intercept all the deer that pass that way in their
+periodical migrations. It was melancholy to contemplate the
+gigantic, yet feeble efforts of a whole primitive nation, in their
+anxiety to provide subsistence, forsaken and going to decay.</p>
+
+<p>There must have been hundreds of the Red Indians, and that not
+many years ago, to have kept up these fences and ponds. As their
+numbers were lessened so was their ability to keep them up for the
+purposes intended; and now the deer pass the whole line
+unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>We infer, that the few of these people who yet survive, have
+taken refuge in some sequestered spot, still in the northern part
+of the island, and where they can procure deer to subsist on.</p>
+
+<p>On the 29th November we were again returned to the mouth of the
+River Exploits, in thirty days after our departure from thence,
+after having made a complete circuit of about 200 miles in the Red
+Indian territory.</p>
+
+<center>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</p>
+</center>
+
+<p>I have now stated generally the result of my excursion,
+avoiding, for the present, entering into any detail. The materials
+collected on this, as well as on my excursion across the interior a
+few years ago, and on other occasions, put me in possession of a
+general knowledge of the natural condition and productions of
+Newfoundland; and, as a member of an institution formed to protect
+the aboriginal inhabitants of the country in which we live, and to
+prosecute inquiry into the moral character of man in his primitive
+state, I can, at this early stage of our institution, assert,
+trusting to nothing vague, that we already possess more information
+concerning these people than has been obtained during the two
+centuries and a-half in which Newfoundland has been in the
+possession of Europeans. But it is to be lamented that now, when we
+have taken up the cause of a barbarously treated people, so few
+should remain to reap the benefit of our plans for their
+civilization. The institution and its supporters will agree with
+me, that, after the unfortunate circumstances attending past
+encounters between the Europeans and the Red Indians, it is best
+now to employ Indians belonging to the other tribes to be the
+medium of beginning the intercourse we have in view; and indeed I
+have already chosen three of the most intelligent men from among
+the others met with in Newfoundland to follow up my search.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, I congratulate the institution on the acquisition
+of several ingenious articles, the manufacture of the
+<i>Boeothicks</i>, some of which we had the good fortune to
+discover on our recent excursion;&mdash;models of their canoes,
+bows and arrows, spears of different kinds, &amp;c. and also a
+complete dress worn by that people. Their mode of kindling fire is
+not only original, but as far as we at present know, is peculiar to
+the tribe. These articles, together with a short vocabulary of
+their language consisting of 200 to 300 words, which I have been
+enabled to collect, prove the Boeothicks to be a distinct tribe
+from any hitherto discovered in North America. One remarkable
+characteristic of their language, and in which it resembles those
+of Europe more than any other Indian languages do, with which we
+have had an opportunity of comparing it,&mdash;is its abounding in
+diphthongs. In my detailed report, I would propose to have plates
+of these articles, and also of the like articles used by other
+tribes of Indians, that a comparative idea may be formed of them;
+and, when the Indian female <i>Shawnawdithit</i> arrives in St
+John's, I would recommend that a correct likeness of her be taken,
+and be preserved in the records of the institution. One of the
+specimens of mineralogy which we found in our excursion, was a
+block of what is called <i>Labrador Felspar</i>, nearly four
+one-half feet in length, by about three feet in breadth and
+thickness. This is the largest piece of that beautiful rock yet
+discovered any where. Our subsistence in the interior was entirely
+animal food, deer and beavers, which we shot.</p>
+
+<center>
+<p>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*</p>
+</center>
+
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"<i>Resolved</i>,&mdash;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
+<i>Shawnawdithit</i> would be much accelerated by bringing her to
+St John's, &amp;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.</p>
+
+<p align="RIGHT">(Signed) "A.W. des B<font size=
+"-1">ARRES</font>,<br>
+ Chairman and Vice-Patron."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr noshade>
+<font size="-1">
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13762 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>