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Yet from the beginning of the seventeenth century the Beothiks then about four thousand in number were ill-treated by the European fishermen who frequented the Newfoundland coasts. They soon greatly decreased in numbers, and became very shy of white men. The French, when they occupied the south coast of Newfoundland, brought over Mikmak Indians to chase and kill the Beothiks or "Red" Indians.
Apparently some kind of alliance had been struck up between the Beothiks a nation of hunters and the wolf packs which followed in their tracks; and the Newfoundland wolves were on the way to becoming domesticated "dogs". Later on it was realized that the island did produce a special breed the celebrated Newfoundland dog the original type of which was much smaller than the modern type, nearly or entirely black in colour, with a sharper muzzle and less pendulous ears.
The aborigines of Newfoundland the Beothiks are said to have known the birch-bark canoe, framework canoe, but to have employed "dug-outs" hollowed tree trunks. The canoes of the Mandans of the upper Missouri basin were like coracles, of circular form, made of a framework of bent willow branches over which was stretched a raw bison-hide with the hair inside.
The capillaire plant yielded a lusciously sweet, sugary substance. The Beothiks were a tall, good-looking people, with large black eyes and a light-coloured skin.
Indeed, North America represented to some extent, as late as a hundred years ago, what Europe must have looked like in the days of palæolithic Man. The order of enumeration begins in the east and proceeds westwards. I have already mentioned the peculiar Beothiks of Newfoundland.
They were shot down without the least provocation, or captured to be exposed as curiosities to the rabble at the fairs of the western towns of Christian England at twopence a piece." Too late when the worry and anxiety of the Napoleonic wars were over the British Government sent a commission of naval officers to enquire into the treatment of the Beothiks by the settlers.
Before the English arrived on the coasts of Newfoundland the Beothiks lived an ideal life for savages. They were well clothed with beasts' skins, and in the winter these were supplemented by heavy fur robes. Countless herds of reindeer roamed through the interior, passing from north to south in the autumn and returning in the spring.
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