1609
James I establishes the first permanent settlement on the island. Under the auspices of the Newfoundland Plantation Company, John Guy publishes a pamphlet encouraging English settlers. He is named Governor of the colony and spends the winter of 1610–11 in Cupper’s Cove (Cupids), Conception Bay. He encounters many Beothuk without experiencing any problems with them.
1612, June 7
John Guy returns to the colony after a stay in England. In October, he leads an expedition of twelve men to Mount Eagle Bay (Spread Eagle) and Trinity Bay (Savage Harbour). On October 6, he meets eight Beothuk paddling a tapatook and holding up furs for him to inspect. George Whittington, one of the colonists, goes ashore, buys food and furs from them, and pays them with knives. There is dancing and singing, and a shared meal, and they arrange to meet again the following year, in August. The Beothuk present Guy with an eagle feather.
1613, August
Guy, still back in Bristor, does not keep his appointment. Instead, a fishing boat sails into the bay, where eight hundred Beothuk have gathered. They again hold up furs for the English to see, and dance for joy. When they launch their tapatooks and paddle out to meet the English, the ship’s captain panics and fires his cannon at them. Many are killed. This is the last friendly encounter in the history of the Beothuk of Newfoundland.
1616
In Port-les-Oyes (St. Julien), eighty Beothuk attack a company of French soldiers that had come to rid the island of its inconvenient Savages. At Petty Master (Crock Harbour), the French, unaccustomed to the Beothuk way of guerrilla warfare, lose seven soldiers on the first day, nine on the second, and twenty-one on the third. Thirty-seven dead in three days, and they never see a single Savage. The company returns to France.
1610–1635
The Malouins (from the port of St. Malo, in Brittany) make repeated demands to the authorities in their home port that they be allowed to hunt the Beothuk, who are preventing the fishing fleet from landing to acquire fresh water and food. They say they have to pay the Mi’kmaq to perform these tasks.
III – GENOCIDE
Eighteenth Century
In Notre Dame Bay, the Beothuk take to stealing fish hooks and axes from the colonists and fishermen. This is used as an excuse to hunt them down.
The Beothuk abandon the island’s coastal areas and retreat inland, where they mix with the Mi’kmaq.
In St. George’s Bay, the Mi’kmaq cut the heads off their Beothuk victims in order to collect bounties. When Beothuk children discover these severed heads, they inform their parents. The Mi’kmaq are invited to a Beothuk feast, and fifty-four of them are massacred during the meal.
At about this time the Innu (Sho-Undamung) cross over the Strait of Belle Isle to the island.
1758
One morning at sunrise, several trappers burst into a Beothuk mamateek and kill a man, a woman, and a child. A young girl is taken captive. Her name is Ou-bee. She is sent to England to live with a couple named Stone. Ou-bee’s lexicon of the Beothuk language is the only one in existence, and is the basis of what is reproduced at the end of this book.
1760
A naval officer named Scott builds a fort in the Bay of Exploits, after arriving by ship from St. John’s. He is approached by several Beothuk. An elderly Beothuk man leaves his companions and walks towards Scott. As they meet the old man takes a knife from under his cloak and kills Scott. The other Beothuk take out their bows and arrows and kill four more sailors.
1766
Sir Joseph Banks studies the flora and fauna of the island. According to him, there are still five hundred Beothuk living within five miles (eight kilometres) of Fogo. A Mi’kmaq guide tells him that the Beothuk are not dangerous; if they were, all the English on the island would be dead without ever having laid eyes on a Beothuk.
1768
Lieutenant George Cartwright, under orders from the governor, Sir Hugh Palliser, arrives on the HMS Guernsey and sails up the Exploits River, Cape John, and Cape Freels.
1768, June
A trapper surprises a Beothuk woman while she is gathering clams. She throws herself to her knees and implores the man not to harm the child she is carrying in her belly. The trapper eviscerates her, impales the fetus on the fork of a sharpened stick, and parades it before his companions.
1768, August
Some trappers encounter another Beothuk woman and her six-year-old child. She trips while trying to run away and is killed. Her son is taken prisoner and displayed in Liverpool that winter, for a fee of two cents. He is called John August, marking the month of his capture. Much later he returns to Catalina to seek the men who murdered his mother, and dies in 1785. It Is not known whether he succeeded in avenging his mother’s death.
1769
George III issues a Royal Proclamation prohibiting the molestation of the Beothuk.
1770, June
Another Beothuk child is captured, and is given the name Tom June. He is allowed to visit his people, whose language he still speaks, but he refuses to teach the Beothuk language to the English settlers. He works as a boatmaster in the cod fishery, and is found drowned in the harbour at Fogo Island in 1790.
1800, August 25
John Bland writes a dramatic piece based on an exchange of letters about the Beothuk.
1803, September 17
William Cull captures a Beothuk woman near Gander and is given a reward for not killing her. At a formal ball she is exhibited to the island’s upper-class inhabitants, who admire her light hair and pale skin. She prefers the company of children, with whom she plays.
1804, September 27
The captive woman becomes sick, and Cull is ordered to return her to the place where she was captured: James Howley states that she was taken to the mouth of the Exploits River, although she had been captured near Gander. Rather than staying to care for the woman, Cull abandons her on the beach.
1807, July 30
A second Royal Proclamation is issued to protect the Beothuk.
1807
Nonviolent contact in Bonavista Bay.
1808, June 8
Governor Holloway decides to send an expedition to make contact with the Beothuk.
1809
Lieutenant Spratt is ordered to establish contact. He draws up a list of useful items to give to the Beothuk, but makes contact with no one.
1810, January 1.
William and John Cull make an expedition up the River of Exploits, with two Mi’kmaq guides. As companions, they take John Waddy, Thomas Lewis, James Foster, and someone named Joseph. After four days, they find a structure fifty feet long within which are more than one hundred caribou, skinned and neatly packed in boxes made of birchbark. Each box contains the tongue, liver, and heart of the animal. They also encounter some Beothuk, who quickly make off. The Newfoundlanders steal all the furs they find and leave utensils and other objects in exchange.
1810, August
Royal Navy Lieutenant David Buchan, aboard HMS Adonis, sails up the Bay of Exploits without seeing any Savages. He decides to spend the winter at either Ship Cove or Borwood.
1811, January 12
Buchan goes back up the River of Exploits with William Cull, Matthew Hughster, Thomas Taylor, and twenty-three men from the Adonis. On the twenty-fourth he discovers three mamateeks, surprising their occupants. An attempt to exchange gifts goes badly and two of his men, James Butler and Thomas Bouthland, are killed. On January 28 Buchan and his men retreat to the bay and their ship.
1811, August 10
A third Royal Proclamation is issued to protect the Beothuk.
1819, March 10
Demasduit is captured. She gives her name as Wonaoktaé, but is called Mary March by her captors. She is captured along with her husband, and taken from her son, who is still nursing. Her husband is killed before her eyes, and the child is left to starve.
1820
The ailing Mary March is returned to her people, many of whom have already died. She dies on January 8. H
er body is taken to Red Indian Lake, where it is placed beside the graves of her husband and child.
1823
In the spring, in Viewbay on the shores of Notre Dame Bay, a group of trappers meet a Beothuk couple who are obviously starving. When the Beothuk ask for food, they are beaten to death.
1823, June 10
Three women are found huddled in a mamateek and brought back to the nearest settlement. They are nearly dead of starvation. One dies on the way back. Then the oldest one dies. The third, Shanawdithit, lives in captivity for the rest of her life. She had been wounded three times by musket balls, in her breast, her calf, and her side. She tells about the massacre of four hundred Beothuk on a point of rock: no one had ever admitted to knowing about the incident.
1829, June 5
Shanawdithit dies of tuberculosis.
A BEOTHUK LEXICON
(based on the lexicon provided by Ou-bee, in captivity in England c. 1760)
BEOTHUK
ENGLISH
Abdobish
Rope, cable
Abemite
Fish net
Abideshhook
Lynx, wild cat
Abidish
Marten
Abobidwess
Eagle feather
Abodoneek
Hat
Adadimite
Fishing lure, bait
Adadimiute
Spoon, ladle
Adamadwet
Musket
Addaboutik
Literally, “We are red” (the name the Beothuk gave themselves).
Addizabad-Zéa
White woman
Adenishit
Star
Aduth
Harpoon
Adijith
To sneeze
Adoltkhtek
Vessel, boat
Adosook
Eight
Adothook
Fish hook
Aduse
Leg
Adyouth
Foot
A-Enamin
Bone (thin person)
A-eshimut
A kind of fish
A-E-U-Chee
Snail
Agamet
Button, silver
Aguathoonet
Whetstone
Ahune
Stone
Akushtibit
To kneel down
Amet
To wake up
Amina
Spear, lance
Amshut
To get up
Anadrik
Sore throat
Anawasut
Halibut
Anin
Comet
Annawhadya
A kind of bread
Annoo-ee
Tree, forest
Anwoydin
Spouse
Anyemen
Bow
A-Oseedwith
I am going to sleep
Aoujet
Ptarmigan
Appawet
Seal
Aschautch
Meat
Asha-Bu-Ut
Blood
Ashei
Thin, meagre, sick
Ashmudyim
The Evil One, wicked
Ashwameet
Red Ochre
Ashwogin
Arrow
Asson
Gull
Ass-soyt
To anger
Aszik-dtounouk
Twenty
Athess
To sit down
Awoodet
To sing
Baasothnut
Gunpowder
Baashooditte
To walk
Badisut
Dancer, to dance
Baétha
Home
Basdic
Smoke
Bashoodité
Owl, wood-owl
Bashubet
To scrape
Bassik
Collar
Bathuk
Rainwater
Bawoodisik
Thunderbird
Bebadwook
Blackflies, mosquitoes
Beedeejamish
May flowers
Beothuk
The true men
Berroïk
Cloud
Bethoeote
Good night
Bibidegemedic
Berries, fruit
Bidissoni
Stick, sword
Bitoweit
To lie down
Boad
Thumb
Boagadoret
Chest, breasts
Bobbidish
Guillemot
Bobbidishumet
Guillemot oil
Bobusowet
Cod
Bogodoret
Heart
Boobishat
Fire
Botchmouth
Buttocks
Botowait
To spread or lay (something) out
Boubashan
(It’s) hot
Boubishat
Fire
Bouboushats
Fish
Boudowit
Duck
Bougatowishi
To kill
Bouguishaman
White men
Bouguishamesh
Strangers, foreigners
Boushauwith
To be hungry
Bousik
Right away
Boutonet
Teeth
Bouzawet
To sleep
Boyish
Birchbark
Buh-Bosha-Yesh
Boy, son, male
Bukashaman
Man
Buterweyeh
Tea
By-yeetch
Birch
Camtac
To speak, he speaks, speaker
Dabseek
Four
Dabsook
Fourteen
Dattomesh
Trout
Datyun
Don’t shoot
Debimé
Duck eggs
Debiné
Eggs
Dedduweet
To cut, to saw
Dee-cradou
Very large boat
Deed-rashow
To be red, to redden
Dee-Hemin
To give
Delood
Come
Demasduit
The flower that grows by the lakes
Deschudodoïck
To breathe
Deyn-yad
Birds (in general)
Dingiam
Loincloth
Dogajavik
Red fox (a Viking word)
Dogermaït
Long arrow
Doothun
Forehead
Dosomite
Pine
Drakkar
Small Viking boat
Drona
Fur, hair
D’toonanven
Small axe (a Viking word)
E-adzik
Twelve
Ebantook
Drinking water
Ebantou
Water
Edath
Fishing line
Edruh
Otter
Eedshoo
To see, to see again
Eenohaja
Cold
E-ènoodjah
To hear
Eeseebouin
Helmet, cap
Eewa-en
Knife
Eguibididwish
Kerchief
Ehege
Animal grease
Ejahbtook
Ship’s sail
Emeothuk
Trembling aspen
Emet
Oil
Emmamoos
Woman
Emmamooset
Young girl
Eshang
Sky blue
Fork
E-U-Anau
Outside, to go outside
Ewinon
(My) father
Gaboweete
Breath
Gashu-Uwith
Bear
Gasook
It is dry (weather)
Gausep
(He’s) dead, breath
The Beothuk Saga Page 35