From: Wandering Thoughts... by Philip Tocque.

TC Note: Tocque was a clerk at Elliston for a short time - was later ordained in the Anglican Church and was eventually a Bishop in Toronto.

begins pg 283: (probably refers to the year 1842)

The sun had now mounted a considerable height in the heavens. On consulting my watch I found it was nearly breakfast hour, and I had rambled nearly two miles from home. Just at this moment I met old Mr. Wiltshear. Having a little acquaintance with him, I stopped to inquire respecting his health, &c., when the following conversation took place:

"How long have you been living in this place?"

"About twenty-five years, previous to which I resided several years in Green Bay, and once during that period barely escaped being transported."

"Under what circumstances?"

"In the year 1810, I was living to the northward. Five of us were returning one evening from fishing, when, on rowing round a point, we came close upon a canoe of Red Indians; there were four men and one woman in the canoe. Had we been disposed to have shot them we could have done so, as we had a loaded gun in the boat. The Indians, however became alarmed, and pulled with all speed to the shore, where they immediately jumped out and ran into the woods, leaving the canoe on the beach. We were within ten yards of them when they landed. We took the canoe into possession, and carried it home. In the fall of the year, when we went to St. John's with the first boat load of dry fish, thinking a canoe would be a curiosity, we took it with us in order to present it to the governor; but immediately it become known that we had a canoe of the Red Indians, we were taken and lodged in prison for ten days, on a supposition that we had shot the Indians to whom the canoe belonged. We protested our innocence, and stated the whole affair to the authorities; at last the canoe was examined, no shot holes were found in any part of it, and there being no evidence against us we were set at liberty."

"Did you ever see any of the encampments of the Red Indians?"

"Yes, frequently; I have seen twelve wigwams in the neighbourhood of Cat Harbour. A planter living there built a new boat, for which he made a fine new suit of sails. One night the Indians came and carried away every sail. The planter and his men, immediately it was discovered, set out in pursuit of the Indians. After traveling nearly a day, they espied them on a distant hill, shaking their cassocks at them in defiance, which were made out of the boat's sails, and daubed with red ochre. Seeing further pursuit was fruitless they returned home. The next day, however, the planter raised a party of twenty-five of us. We proceeded over-land to a place where we knew was an encampment; when we arrived, we found twelve wigwams, but all deserted. Previous to our leaving by land, two men were dispatched in a skiff, in order to take us back by water. On approaching near the place of the Indians, they saw a fine goose swimming about a considerable distance from the shore. They immediately rowed towards it, but the goose began to swim towards the shore; they began to row faster to overtake it, when one of the men happened to see something dark moving up and down behind a sand-bank. Suspecting all was not right, they immediately pulled from the shore, when they saw two Indians rise up from concealment, who immediately discharged their arrow at them, but they were at too great a distance to receive any injury. After the sails had been taken, the Indians, expecting a visit, placed these two of their party to keep watch. The goose was fastened to a string in order to decoy the men in the boat near the shore, so as to afford the Indians an opportunity of throwing their arrows at them. The two Indians on watch communicated intelligence of the arrival of the boat to the encampment; hence the cause of the forsaken wigwams when we arrived."

"How large were the wigwams?"

"They were built round, and about thirty or forty feet in circumference. The frame consisted of small poles, being fastened together at the top and covered with birch rind, leaving a small opening for the escape of the smoke. Traces of their encampments are still to be seen along the Cat Harbour shore, consisting of large holes, &c. being left in the sand."

"Did you ever hear of any of the Indians having been taken?"

"Yes; during the time the circumstances occurred which I have stated, Lieut. Buchan, in H. M. Schooner Pike , was commissioned by the Governor, Sir John Thomas Duckworth, to discover and, if possible, bring about a friendly intercourse. He succeeded in discovering an encampment, and prevailed on two of the Indians to go on board his vessel, leaving two marines with the Indians as hostages, while he proceeded in search of another party. But as Lieut. Buchan did not return at the time appointed by him, the Indians suspecting cruelty about being practised upon them, murdered the marines and fled. When Lieut. B. returned to the spot, and not finding his men, the two Indians he had taken with him immediately decamped, and were never heard of afterwards. Several years after this, two or three Indians, who had been driven to the coast by hunger, were taken and carried to St. John's. I recollect seeing two Red Indians when I was a boy, at Catalina; their names were William June and Thomas August (so named from the months in which they were taken). They were both taken very young, and one of them went master of a boat for many years out of Catalina."

"I remember reading something of Lieut. Buchan's expedition. Do you think any of the Red Indians now exist in the country?"

"I am of opinion that, owing to the relentless exterminating hand of the English furriers and the Micmac Indians, that what few were left unslaughtered made their escape across the Straits of Bell Isle to Labrador."

"Do you know anything of the Micmac Indians?"

"Yes; I have lived several winters in Clode Sound, in the bottom of Bonavista Bay, where several families of them constantly resided. They obtained a subsistence by selling fur. They lived in wigwams constructed very similar to those of the Red Indians, During my residence in the Bay, several Micmacs had gone to Canada, by way of Labrador, and returned again. The last family belonging to this tribe residing in Bonavista Bay, was lost last summer (1841). An old man, his wife and son, were coming down the Bay in their canoe; they had some rum on board, of which they drank freely, when the father and son fell fighting; the son was thrown overboard by the father, and drowned. He then gave directions to his wife how to manage the canoe, and plunging into the sea swam a considerable distance and sank. The woman immediately took the canoe to the nearest cove, where she was supported by the inhabitants until she died."

Seeing some black clouds gathering, portending a shower, I took my leave of the old gentleman and hastened home, where I arrived quite invigorated and refreshed, after so delightful a morning's walk.