St John's

April 19th 1907

Thos. Peyton Esq.

Dear Thomas,

I suppose you will think I am off my head if I again write you on the subject of the Red Indians, but as you are about the only really reliable authority now living I trust you will excuse my troubling you again. I have heard some wonderful yarns lately on the subject of the R. I. and I now want to know if you can confirm any of them, or know of any person who can.

Sgt. Grimes of the Police force, a native of Herring Neck told me the following.

1st On one occasion the Red Indians appears at Herring Neck and raided a house owned by one Stuckey. Only the mother and daughter were home, the latter a girl of about 19 years. The mother was out of doors spreading clothes on a line, when the Indians entered the house & seized the daughter & were dragging her off. She screamed out & called her mother for help. The old woman seeing a big Indian making off with the girl in his arms, seized one of the poles she had for the clothes line, ran after him & struck the Indian a stunning blow across the head. He dropped the girl & made off holding his hand to his broken head.

No 2. Grimes says two boys were killed on Twillingate Island & their heads cut off by the R. I. A man named Richards said he saw a dead Indian by the side of a brook who measured 7 feet high.

No 3. This same Richards used to relate of a pitched battle that took place between a party of furriers & the Indians, in the woods somewhere. One big Indian, who appeared to be the leader tried to urge his men to rush on the furriers & annihilate them, but they were afraid to do so. A volley from the furriers killed & wounded several, the leader being one of the latter. He then rushed forward alone & seized one of the furriers & was carrying him off bodily when a well directed ball took him in the side. He had to drop the white man, who got back to his own party. All the other Indians now fled. The leader however was unable to get away & as the blood poured out of his wound, he used to hold his hand under it and drink his own blood, but he soon fell & died.

Richards used to say the Red Indians were nasty brutes and stunk awfully. Grimes says his father knew John June & that John was drowned in Fogo Harbor by the upsetting of his boat?

No 3. Somewhere in the latter part of the 18th century a young man named Cooper who was at college in England, heard that his brother had been killed by the Red Indians and swore that he would be avenged on them. He left college & came out to Twillingate. He learned all he could of the Red Indians & their whereabouts. He tried to get someone to go with him to New Bay but failed. He then got hold of a poor half witted fellow, made him drunk & got him aboard his boat, taking with him a number of guns & plenty of ammunition. He started off. He left the early part of the night and got to New Bay early next morning. He was seen by the Indians who made after him in several canoes. When he saw such a number of them, he tried to get away, but as the wind was very light he could not. The Indians gained on him so fast, he took down his sail & awaited them. When within about 100 yards of his skiff, one of the Indians fired an arrow at him which barely missed him. Cooper then fired at them. They tried to surround him, but he kept up firing while his companion reloaded the guns as fast as he could. Some of the canoes began to sink & then the Indians tried to get away, but when out of range of shot Cooper opened again on them with balls, & not one canoe escaped ? and a great number of the Indians were killed or drowned. The Indian summer quarters were at New Bay at the time.

I was told a yarn one time while in Bay of Exploits about another crew who were up there sawing lumber. Someone began to throw snowballs at them from the woods. One man went in to investigate but did not return. When his friends went to look for him they found that the Indians had been there & carried him off.

About a year or so afterwards some of the same crew were rowing along shore when a man rushed out of the woods & hailed them. They recognized their lost companion & pulled in for him. Just as they got him into the boat a number of Indians made their appearance & began to fire arrows at them. One, a woman, holding a child in her arms ran out up to her middle in the water yelling after the man to come back & at the same time holding up the child to him. Seeing the boat going off with him she pulled out a knife & cut the child in two, throwing one half after the boat & keeping the other herself.

The man's story was that, the Indians having seized & bound him carried him off into the interior & for a long time kept a close watch on him. They gave him a squaw for a wife, and after a time a child was born. They then thought he would not try to escape & were less vigilant. As they were wandering near the shore he saw the boat with his friends coming along & determined to make a dash for liberty in which he succeeded as above.

A man named Solomon Snow of Black Isl. told me he often heard one Jones, who was with Buchan ? say that the Indians had a sort of telegraph extruding from one wigwam to another, so that if one was surprised, they could give alarm to the rest. It was a salmon twine laid along resting in forked sticks stuck in the ground or on branches of trees. Did you ever hear of this?

Do you think you could give the names of the furriers who were with Buchan, or with your father at the capture of Mary March? It was an old man named Geo Wells whom I met at Exploits, Burnt Isl. in 1886, who gave me the information I spoke of before. He was a nephew of the Rousells.

I will deem it a great favour if you can confirm any of the above or add anything thereto.

Yours very truly

James P. Howley