Shaw-na-dith-it when entering into the particulars of the condition of
her tribe at the period just referred to, said it consisted of no more
than seventy two persons, and whom she thus further described: In the
principal encampment, that which Captain Buchan surprised, there were
in one mamaseek or wigwam four men, five women and six children--in a
second mamaseek there were four men, two women and six children--in a
third mamaseek there were three men, five woman, and seven
children--in the whole forty-two persons. In the second encampment
there were thirteen persons, and in the third seventeen persons,
making in the whole seventy-two; the two smaller encampments being
several miles distant from the larger one. Now, compare this account
with what Captain Buchan saw, bearing in mind that it was only the
larger encampment he surprised,--of the two smaller ones, it does not
appear that he was at all aware, Shaw-na-dith-it states the encampment
contained forty-two persons, of whom nineteen were children. Captain
Buchan asserts in his official Report, that it contained seventy-five
persons, and it is by no means clear that in this number he included
any of the women or children, as in another part of his report, he
estimates the number of the Red Indians as consisting at least of
three hundred persons--an opinion formed solely from the appearances
which the one encampment presented. Then we have the testimony of a
writer, an anonymous one it is true, yet it is evidently the testimony
of a person who was present at the scenes he describes, and he tells
us that in 1819 he estimated the number of Indians he saw, at from
three to four hundred, including women and children. Then again, we
find Mr. Cormack, in 1827, declaring "that hundreds of Indians must
have been in existence not many years ago," otherwise it would be
impossible to account for the great extent of deer fences which he
found so late as the period above-named, yet in being. And lastly, we