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Lecture on the Aborigines of Newfoundland - Delivered Before the Mechanics' Institute, at St. John's, - Newfoundland, on Monday, 17th January, 1859 by Joseph Noad
page 28 of 48 (58%)
head, when uttering a yell that made the woods echo, he rushed
at him. The man fired as he advanced, and the noble Indian
again fell on his face: a few moments' struggle, and he lay a
stiffened corpse on the icy surface of the limpid waters.--The
woman for a moment seemed scarcely to notice the corpse; in a
few minutes, however, she showed a little emotion; but it was
not until obliged to leave the remains of her husband that she
gave way to grief, and vented her sorrow in the most
heart-breaking lamentations. While the scene which I have
described was acting, and which occurred in almost less space
than the description can be read, a number of Indians had
advanced within a shore distance, but seeing the untimely fate
of their chief, halted. Mr. ---- fired over their heads, and
they immediately fled. The banks of the lake, on the other
side, were at this time covered with men, women, and children,
at least several hundreds; but immediately being joined by
their companions all disappeared in the woods. We then had time
to think. For my own part I could scarcely credit my senses as
I beheld the remains of the noble fellow stretched on the ice,
crimsoned with his already frozen blood. One of the men then
went to the shore for some fir tree boughs to cover the body,
which measured as it lay, 6 feet 7½ inches. The fellow who
first stabbed him wanted to strip off his cassock, (a garment
made of deer skin, lined with beaver and other skins, reaching
to the knees,) but met with so stern a rebuke from ----, that
he instantly desisted, and slunk abashed away.

After covering the body with boughs, we proceeded towards the
Indian houses--the woman often requiring force to take her
along. On examining them, we found no living creature, save a
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