hats on, which were made of seal skins, in fashion like our hats,
sewed handsomely with narrow bands and set round with fine white
shels. All the canoes, flesh, skins, yolks of eggs, bows, arrows, and
much fine ochre and divers other things did the ship's company take
and share among them." And from Whitburne's time up to 1818 have
complaints been made of thefts committed by the Indians. To the
Northward the settlers, as they allege, had many effects stolen from
them--one individual alone made a deposition to the effect that he had
lost through the depredations of the Indians, property to the amount
of L200.

Now whether in such thefts (although they were only of a petty
character) we are to trace the origin of that murderous warfare so
relentlessly carried on by the Whites against the Red Indians, or
whether the atrocities of the former, were the result of brutal
ignorance and a wanton disregard of human life, cannot how be
determined,--we have only the lamentable fact before us, that to a set
of men not only destitute of all religious principle, but also of the
common feelings of humanity, the pursuit and slaughter of the Red
Indian became a pastime--an amusement--eagerly sought after--wantonly
and barbarously pursued, and in the issue fatally, nd it may be added,
awfully successful.

For the greater part of the seventeenth century the history of the Red
Indians present a dreary waste--no sympathy appears to have been felt
for them, and no efforts were made to stay the hands of their
merciless destroyers. In their attempts to avoid the Micmac, their
dire enemy, they fell in the path of the no less dreaded White, and
thus year after year passed away, and the comparatively defenceless
Boeothick found, only in the grave, a refuge and rest from his
barbarous and powerful foes. During the long period just adverted to,
the Red Indian was regarded by furriers, whose path he sometimes
crossed; and with whose gains his necessities compelled him sometimes
to interfere, with as little compassion as they entertained for any
wild or dangerous beast of the forest, and were shot or butchered with
as little hesitation. And barbarities of this nature became at length
so common, that the attention of the Government was directed to it;
and in 1786 a proclamation was issued by Governor Elliot, in which it
is stated "that it having been represented to the King that his
subjects residing in this Island do often treat the Indians with the