ade by Europeans to open
a communication with the Red Indians, had to the latter issued only in
the most disastrous and fatal results. She knew too the antipathy her
own people had to the whites,--so great was this, that she feared to
return to them, believing that the mere fact of her having resided
among the whites for a time would make her an object of hatred to the
Red man.--Knowing all this, is it a violent deduction to draw from all
the circumstances surrounding this subject, that Shaw-na-dith-it in
very love for her own people, may have purposely given an incorrect
account of the numbers of her tribe--lessening it, in the hope that by
so doing no further search would be made for then. Supposing it
possible that such may have been the case, then, it follows that
Shaw-na-dith-it may not have been, as many persons have presumed her
to be, the last of the Boeothicks.

Some account of the usages and habits of this people, and of such
particulars as have special reference to them, will now close this
narrative: and first it may be observed that the extensive works which
they completed and kept in repair for a number of years, would seem to
indicate, and that almost beyond a doubt, that the Boeothicks were
once a numerous and energetic tribe.

That they were intelligent, their buildings, store-houses, &c., would
appear to be a sufficient evidence. Their mamaseeks, for such was the
word they used to describe their habitations, were far superior to the
wigwams of the Micmacs. The dwellings of the Boeothicks were in
general built of straight pieces of fir, about twelve feet high,
flattened at the sides, and driven in the earth close to each other,
the corners being made stronger than the other parts. The crevices
were filled up with moss, and the inside lined with the same material;
the roof was raised so as to slant from all parts and meet in a point
in the centre, where a hole was left for the smoke to escape--the
remainder of thereof was covered with a treble coat of birch bark, and
between the first and second layers of bark was placed about six
inches of moss--about the chimney clay was substituted for the moss.
The sides of these mamaseeks were covered with arms--that is, bows,
arrows, clubs, stone hatchets, arrow heads, and all these were
arranged in the neatest manner. Beams were placed across where the
roof began, over which smaller ones were laid; and on the latter were
piled their provisions--dried salmon, ven