In this sequestered spot they built six winter wigwams, and remained unmolested for the remainder of the winter,—about six weeks. They had conveyed with them the head of one of the hostages; this was placed on a pole, around which the Indians danced and sang.
When spring advanced and their provisions were exhausted, some of them went back to the encampment at which they had been surprised, and there supplied themselves out of the winter stock of venison that had been left there.
After the disaster the tribe became scattered, and continued dispersed in bands frequenting the more remote and sequestered parts of the northern interior. In the second winter afterwards twenty-two had died about the river Exploits, at the Great Lake, and in the vicinity of Green Bay; in the following years also numbers died of hardship and want. In 1819 their numbers were reduced to thirty-one, and in 1823 it consisted of only a remnant of twelve or thirteen. Such is the substance of Shaw-na-dith-it's statement, and which it is said she never related without tears.
In 1827 Mr. Cormack renewed his attempt to discover and open a friendly intercourse with the Boeothicks, and for this purpose with a small party, consisting of Europeans and a couple of Micmacs, entered the country at the mouth of the River Exploits, and took a north-westerly direction which led them to Hall's Bay. On the fourth day after their departure, at the east end of Badger Bay, at a portage known by the name of the Indian Path, they found traces made by the Indians, evidently in the spring or summer of the preceding year. Their party had been possessed of two canoes, and they had built a canoe-rest, on which the daubs of red ochre and the roots of trees used to tie or fasten it together appeared fresh. A canoe-rest is simply a few beams' supported horizontally about five feet from the ground by perpendicular posts. Among other things which lay strewed about here was a spear shaft, eight feet long, recently made and stained with ochre—parts of old canoes—fragments, of their skin dresses, &c. Some of the cuts in the trees, made with an axe, were evidently of not more than a year's date. Besides these signs, the party were elated by other encouraging marks. After some further search, but without meeting with any greater success, the party determined to proceed to the Red Indian Lake. On reaching this magnificent sheet of water, they found around its shores abundant evidence that this had been for a long time the central and undisturbed rendezvous of the tribe. At several places by the margin of the lake were found small clusters of summer and winter wigwams, but all in ruins—one large wooden building, presumed to have been used for the purpose of drying and smoking venison, was found in a perfect state. The repositories for the dead were found perfect, and in one of these the party discovered the remains of the ill-fated Mary March, whom the Indians had placed by the side of her unfortunate husband. On the north-side of this lake, opposite the River Exploits, were seen the extremities of two deer fences, about half a mile apart, where they lead to the water—and in gliding down the river, the attention of the traveller is arrested by a continuation of these fences which extend from the lake downwards on the banks of the river at least thirty miles. After spending several days in wandering round the margin of the lake, and having fully satisfied themselves that no encampment of the Indians was to be found there, they returned. Subsequently to this excursion, a party of men under the direction of an Institution termed the "Boeothick Institution," which was established with the view of benefiting the Indians, were sent on the same errand, but they too returned after a fruitless search, and with this attempt ends all efforts that have been made to open a communication with the Red Indians.
And now what opinion may be reasonably formed after a careful consideration of all the foregoing facts? Shall it be concluded as many, nay, as most people have done, that the Red Indians are wholly extinct? The mind is slow to entertain so painful a conclusion, and more especially as there is some reason to hope that the tribe, to some extent at least, yet survives.
If indeed Shaw-na-dith-it's statement is to be taken as of unquestionable authority, and is not to be subjected to any scrutiny, then indeed but slight hopes can be entertained of the existence of any of her race; but if the information she supplied be compared with that conveyed to us through various other sources, then a very different conclusion may be most legitimately reached.
And first let Shaw-na-dith-it's recital of the circumstances connected with Captain Buchan's visit to the Great Lake in the winter of 1810 and 1811 be contrasted with that gentleman's own statement of the same facts.
Shaw-na-dith-it when entering into the particulars of the condition of her tribe at the period just referred to, said it consisted of no more than seventy two persons, and whom she thus further described: In the principal encampment, that which Captain Buchan surprised, there were in one mamaseek or wigwam four men, five women and six children—in a second mamaseek there were four men, two women and six children—in a third mamaseek there were three men, five woman, and seven children—in the whole forty-two persons. In the second encampment there were thirteen persons, and in the third seventeen persons, making in the whole seventy-two; the two smaller encampments being several miles distant from the larger one. Now, compare this account with what Captain Buchan saw, bearing in mind that it was only the larger encampment he surprised,—of the two smaller ones, it does not appear that he was at all aware, Shaw-na-dith-it states the encampment contained forty-two persons, of whom nineteen were children. Captain Buchan asserts in his official Report, that it contained seventy-five persons, and it is by no means clear that in this number he included any of the women or children, as in another part of his report, he estimates the number of the Red Indians as consisting at least of three hundred persons—an opinion formed solely from the appearances which the one encampment presented. Then we have the testimony of a writer, an anonymous one it is true, yet it is evidently the testimony of a person who was present at the scenes he describes, and he tells us that in 1819 he estimated the number of Indians he saw, at from three to four hundred, including women and children. Then again, we find Mr. Cormack, in 1827, declaring "that hundreds of Indians must have been in existence not many years ago," otherwise it would be impossible to account for the great extent of deer fences which he found so late as the period above-named, yet in being. And lastly, we have the opinions of the Micmacs, who are so satisfied of the continued existence of the Red Indian tribe, that they can with difficulty be made to comprehend that it is possible to entertain a doubt of a fact, which to them appears so palpable. Their opinion is that the whole tribe of Boeothicks passed over to the Labrador some twenty or twenty-five years since, and the place of their final embarkation, as they allege, is yet plainly discernable.
In the Royal Gazette, dated the 2nd September, 1828, there appears a statement referring to the Red Indians, of which the following is a copy:—"Nippers Harbor, where the Red Indians were said to have been seen three weeks ago, and where one of their arrows was picked up, after having been ineffectually shot at one of the settlers, is in Green Bay." This accumulation of facts, all of a widely different character from Shaw-na-dith-it's testimony, would seem, to render the latter more than doubtful, and it ought to be borne in mind that Shaw-na-dith-it acquired a knowledge of the English language very slowly; and though it is said that before her death she could communicate with tolerable ease, yet it would be incorrect to assume that she could, without fear of mistake, make such a detailed statement as that which is attributed to her; but even allowing that which is most uncertain,—allowing that she expressed herself with tolerable clearness, and admitting that the parties to whom she made her communication fully understood her broken English, and were acquainted with the Boeothick words, which it was her wont to mingle in all she said—admitting all this—yet even in this view of the case, it may not be difficult to suppose a reason for her giving an incorrect account of the state of her tribe. Shaw-na-dith-it knew from bitter experience, that all former attempts made by Europeans to open a communication with the Red Indians, had to the latter issued only in the most disastrous and fatal results. She knew too the antipathy her own people had to the whites,—so great was this, that she feared to return to them, believing that the mere fact of her having resided among the whites for a time would make her an object of hatred to the Red man.—Knowing all this, is it a violent deduction to draw from all the circumstances surrounding this subject, that Shaw-na-dith-it in very love for her own people, may have purposely given an incorrect account of the numbers of her tribe—lessening it, in the hope that by so doing no further search would be made for then. Supposing it possible that such may have been the case, then, it follows that Shaw-na-dith-it may not have been, as many persons have presumed her to be, the last of the Boeothicks.
Some account of the usages and habits of this people, and of such particulars as have special reference to them, will now close this narrative: and first it may be observed that the extensive works which they completed and kept in repair for a number of years, would seem to indicate, and that almost beyond a doubt, that the Boeothicks were once a numerous and energetic tribe.