the number of Indians who
formerly inhabited this country. The natives of Acadia were not a
prolific race and the life they led was so full of danger and
exposure, particularly in the winter season, as not to be conducive
to longevity. An instance of the dangers to which the Indians were
exposed in their winter hunting is related by Gyles which very nearly
proved fatal to him.

"One winter," he says, "as we were moving from place to place our
hunters killed some moose. One lying some miles from our wigwams, a
young Indian and myself were ordered to fetch part of it. We set out
in the morning when the weather was promising, but it proved a very
cold cloudy day.

"It was late in the evening before we arrived at the place where the
moose lay, so that we had no time to provide materials for a fire or
shelter. At the same time came on a storm of snow very thick which
continued until the next morning. We made a small fire with what
little rubbish we could find around us. The fire with the warmth of
our bodies melted the snow upon us as fast as it fell and so our
clothes were filled with water. However, early in the morning we took
our loads of moose flesh, and set out to return to our wigwams. We had
not travelled far before my moose-skin coat (which was the only
garment I had on my back, and the hair chiefly worn off) was frozen
stiff round my knees, like a hoop, as were my snow-shoes and shoe
clouts to my feet. Thus I marched the whole day without fire or food.
At first I was in great pain, then my flesh became numb, and at times
I felt extremely sick and thought I could not travel one foot farther;
but I wonderfully revived again. After long travelling I felt very
drowsy, and had thoughts of sitting down, which had I done, without
doubt I had fallen on my final sleep. My Indian companion, being
better clothed, had left me long before. Again my spirits revived as
much as if I had received the richest cordial.

"Some hours after sunset I reached the wigwam, and crawling in with my
snow-shoes on, the Indians cried out, 'The captive is frozen to
death!' They took off my pack and the place where that lay against my
back was the only one that was not frozen. They cut off my snow-shoes
and stripped off the clouts from my feet, which were as void of
feeling as any frozen flesh could be.

"I had not sat long by the fire before the blood began to circulate
and my feet to my ankles turned black and swelled with bloody blisters