The 4th of September, in the Morning, they towed out of the Harbour they were in, the Wind soon after sprung up, and by Night they go out of the Inlet, and anchored amongst some Islands, just at the Entrance of the fourth Inlet.
The next Morning, September the 5th, entered the fourth Inlet; but being becalmed a small Time catched above fifty Cod, much such as they had before taken. By Twelve o'Clock were abreast of the Island where they had seen the Smoke on the 3d, and which was four Leagues from the Entrance: Could perceive no Natives, but several Fires, and that there had been a great burning of the Brush; soon after saw a Snow lying at an Anchor, which hoisted English Colours, and fired a Gun. They hoisted the Colours aboard the Schooner, fired a Swivel, and bore away for the Snow. The Wind was fresh, and, as the Schooner was entering the Harbour, two People came running over the Rocks, hailed, but it could not be well understood what they said; but it was a friendly Precaution as to some Rocks which lay off there. The Snow's People then took to their Boat, and made a Trip to view the Schooner as she was coming to an Anchor, and then returned aboard. A Whaleboat was hoisted out, and a Person sent in it to go aboard the Snow, and know where she was from, and to let the Captain know they would be glad to see him aboard the Schooner.
The Person sent, and Capt. Elijah Goff the Commander of the Snow, returned aboard in a short Time; and the Particulars of what the Captain related were, That the Snow was fitted out by Mr. Nesbit, a Merchant in London: That he, the present Captain, had been the Year before Mate of the same Vessel on this Coast: That she was then fitted out by Bell, Nesbit and Company; the intended Voyage kept a great Secret. They had, the Year before as a Captain, a Dane who had used the Greenland Trade, and could talk the Eskemaux Language. That the Snow had been at Newfoundland, and afterwards came on the Labrador Coast; but being Strangers to the Coast, and the Captain very obstinate, the Vessel was several Times in Danger, which raised a Mutiny amongst the People, who had formed a Resolution of seizing the Ship, and bearing away for Newfoundland; which Mutiny was appeased, and the People consented to go to the Labrador, where they harboured July the 20th, in the same Harbour which the Schooner first entered this Year. They brought with them four of the Unitas Fratrum, or Moravian Brethren, who were to remain during the Winter, to attain an Acquaintance with the Natives, and lay a Foundation of Trade: That the House, the Ruins of which the Discoverer saw, was built for the Residence of these Brethren; and, being compleated by the Beginning of September, the Snow left them in Possession of it, and set out to make Discoveries, and pursue a Trade to Northward: That they had some Trade in Nesbit's Harbour, the Name they had given to the Harbour where the House was, and also on the Coast before they arrived at the Harbour: That when they went to Northward; in about Lat. 55° 40´ off the Islands, amongst which the Schooner had harboured the preceding Night, some Eskemaux came aboard, and told the Dane Captain there were some trading Boats come from the Northward, with Plenty of Trade, and advised the Captain to come where they were. The Captain asked, Why they would not come along Side? The Eskemaux said, It was dangerous on Account of the Surf. The Captain and six others went in the Ship's Boat, with a Quantity of Goods to trade, but had no Fire Arms with them, though advised to take them; but the Captain said, No, they were very honest Fellows. Captain Goff saw the Boat go round an Island, upon which there was a Number of Natives; but the Island hindered him from having any further Sight of the Boat. After the Boat had been gone about an Hour, he saw one or two of the Eskemaux with his Glass peep over the Rocks; but never after saw any more of the Boat, the Snow's People, or the Eskemaux. That the Snow lay at a League Distance from the Island; he had no other Boat, one being left with the Moravian Brethren. Capt. Goff waited three Days, and then returned with the Snow to the Harbour where the House was. The Snow being short of Hands, he took the Moravian Brethren aboard, leaving a Quantity of Provisions sufficient to subsist the unhappy People who were missing should they come there, until his Return. They put the Key of the House and a Letter in a Hole of a Tree; but on his Return this Year found the House in Ruins, the Casks and Hogsheads broke to Pieces, and the Key and Letter gone. That what was sowed there was by Way of Experiment.
Capt. Goff judged that the Eskemaux traded with the French, as their Fishgiggs, Knives, and Boats, were French; and the Eskemaux told them there was a Settlement of twenty Europeans to Southward, which they supposed to be somewhere to Southward of Lat. 55, the Latitude of the Cape they had named Cape Harrison, which is the Southermost Cape that forms the Bay in which is Nesbit's Harbour, and the high Saddleback Land within, which is first seen off at Sea they named St. John's. He said that one of the Eskemaux offered a Quantity of Whalebone for a Cutlass, which they are very fond of; the Danish Captain insisted on having more, the Eskemaux answered, If he would not take it that Capt. Saleroo would; alluding, as supposed, to the Captain or Factor at the French Settlement. The Boats the Eskemaux had were French: They spoke many French Words. And the Women worked the Boats, turned them to Windward, and were very expert in the Management of them.
The Account given by the Master who went in the Schooner's Boat to fish for Cod (Capt. Goff not having yet got any) to the People in the Boat was, That Mr. Nesbit was only, in this Case, an Agent or Factor for the Moravian Brethren, who aimed at a Settlement in these Parts, and to attain a Propriety by a prior Possession, but that no Propriety would be allowed of by our Government: That Petitions had been flung into the Board of Trade for Patents for the Labrador, but were rejected, and a free Trade would be permitted to all the Subjects of Great Britain; which open Trade was the original Design on which this Discovery was undertaken by the People in America; the Execution of which was not only interrupted by private Persons stealing the Scheme, and being before hand, but hath been a great Hindrance to the Fisheries being carried on in those Parts, a Trade established with the inland Indians and the Eskemaux, and further Advantages which will be known, on our being better acquainted with those Parts. For as to this Severity of the Eskemaux, inexcusably barbarous, yet there were some Provocations which might have been avoided, and which incited those Eskemaux to this Act, whose Hatred and Revenge, the Character of most Indians, are rouzed at the slightest Causes. It appears from a Journal of the Boatswain, wherein he makes a Valuation of the Trade, that they had bought a Hundred Weight of Whalebone for Six-pence. The Eskemaux were also treated with great Contempt and Rudeness. A Person aboard had bought a Pair of Eskemaux Boots; and carrying them into his Cabbin, an Eskemaux followed claiming the Boots as his, saying that he who sold them had no Right to sell them; and the Buyer settled the Matter by presenting a Pistol at his Head. On which the Eskemaux cried out in the French, Tout, Comerado, and retired.
Capt. Goff came this Year in Hopes to recover the People who were missing with the Boat, and to make a further Essay as to the Trade, but brought no Settlers with him, intended immediately for the Coast, which he could not attain to on Account of the Ice, and went to Trinity Bay in Newfoundland, where he staid some Time. Sailed from thence the 27th of June; the 2d of July saw French Ships in the Streights of Belle Isle, retarded by the Ice; and the 9th of July joined Capt. Taylor in a Sloop of about 35 Tons, fitted out from Rhode Island to go in Pursuit of a North-west Passage; and if not successful to come down on the Coast of Labrador. Capt. Goff said he had learned by Capt. Taylor that the Philadelphia Schooner would be out, and he should have suspected this to be her, but she entered the Inlet so readily, and came up with that Boldness as could not but think that the Schooner was a French Vessel acquainted with the Coast; and he had received Orders to avoid any Harbour in which a French Ship should appear. Capt. Taylor had seen a large French Sloop in Latitude 53, and to the Northward three hundred Eskemaux, who had nothing to trade but their old Cloaths, and who were going further to Northward, but were hindered by the Ice. Capt. Goff and Taylor, who had entered into an Agreement to associate, were eight Days grappled to the Ice, and did not arrive at Nesbit's Harbour until the 20th of July. But had traded with some of the Eskemaux before, though for small Matters, and had some of these Eskemaux aboard for three successive Days, who then left them, and came no more aboard the Vessels. Capt. Goff suspected, though he had altered his Dress, that they had then recollected him. The 1st of August they sailed from Nesbit's Harbour, and attained to this Inlet where he now was; and on the 11th sailed to the Northward, when Capt. Taylor left him; and on the 25th returned here again. That the Smoke which the Persons saw on the Island when they travelled over Land, and which the Schooner passed that Day, was made by his Order, but that he had not made any other Smoke, and this was for a Direction for his Longboat, gone to the Northward to trade, and to signify to Capt. Taylor his being in the Harbour, whose Return he expected.
Capt. Goff said he had been in no Inlet but Nesbit's Harbour, and in this where the Snow was; and that Capt. Taylor, in the Snow's Longboat, had searched the Head of this Inlet, shewed a Draught of the Coast, which was defective, as he knew nothing of the intermediate Inlets. Had no Account of the inland Country; of there being any Beaver or other Furs to be acquired there; or of there being any Mines, of which the Schooner's People had seen many Instances, and had collected some Ore. Capt. Goff had two Dutch Draughts of the Coast, made from late Surveys; but they were very inaccurate, the Views taken from Sea, and there the Land appeared close and continued; the Inlets, excepting that in which they now were, appearing like small Bays, their Entrance being covered by Islands. They had, this Year, found the Corpse of one of those who went in the Boat, stripped and lying on an island.
It being rainy Weather, and the Wind contrary to the Schooner's going up the Inlet, they were detained, and on September the 8th the Snow's Longboat returned, after having been out fourteen Days, with some Whalebone, and a Quantity of Eskemaux Cloathing, which being examined to find out if the Eskemaux wore Furs, there was only seen a small Slip of Otter Skin on one of the Frocks. And Capt. Goff, being asked, said he never saw any Furs amongst them. It is pretty evident the Eskemaux only pass along this Coast, to go and trade with the Eskemaux in Hudson's Streights, and occasionally put in as Weather or other Occasions may make it necessary, which keeps the Native or inland Indians from the Coast, as they are their Enemies. The Eskemaux go up to Latitude 58, or further North; there leave their great Boats, pass a small Neck of Land, taking their Canoes with them, and then go into another Water which communicates with Hudson's Streights. Carry their Return of Trade into Eskemaux Bay, where they live in Winter; and the French made considerable Returns to Old France, by the Whalebone and Oil procured from these People. And this Account is agreeable to the best Information that could be procured.
While the Schooner's People were viewing the Cloaths, Word was brought that the Eskemaux were coming, who may be heard shouting almost before that they can be discerned, the Schooner's People repaired aboard. On the Colours aboard the Snow being hoisted, the Schooner's People displayed theirs; but the Snow being the nearest, and the Snow's People so urged the Eskemaux to come along-side them, that they were afraid to pass. The Eskemaux had no large Boats with them, only their Canoes, three of which came afterwards along-side the Schooner. It was perceived that none of the leading People were in the Canoes; they exposed no Marks or Shew of any Trade they had, which was usual for them to lay on the Outside their Canoes; nevertheless they were presented with Rings. It was some Time before they began to trade with the Snow's People, and then it was carried on in a very peremptory Manner.
The People in the Schooner, a light Wind springing up, weighed Anchor, with a Design to proceed up the Inlet, expecting to be followed by the Eskemaux, when they saw that they were not Associates with the Snow's People, so to have a future Opportunity of trading with them. It was also consistent with the Design they had of searching this Inlet, the first Opportunity that offered. They took their Leave of Capt. Goff as they passed, and when advanced further beat their Drum. The Eskemaux quitted the Snow and came after the Schooner. The Fire Arms were all primed and in order aboard the Schooner, but concealed; each Man had his Station; and they were ordered to treat the Eskemaux as Men, and to behave to them in an orderly Manner; no hallooing, jumping, or wrestling with them when they came aboard; not to refuse some of the Eskemaux to come aboard, and let others, as there were but nine Canoes in all.