AN ACCOUNT OF THE CUSTOMS and MANNERS OF THE MICMAKIS andMARICHEETS SAVAGE NATIONS
Now Dependent on the Government of CAPE-BRETON.
FROM An Original French Manuscript-Letter, Never Published,Written by a French Abbot, Who resided many Years, in quality ofMissionary, amongst them.
To which are annexed, Several Pieces, relative to the Savages,to Nova Scotia, and to North-America in general.
PREFACE.
For the better understanding of the letter immediatelyfollowing, it may not be unnecessary to give the reader someprevious idea of the people who are the subject of it, as well ofthe letter-writer.
The best account of the Mickmakis I could find, andcertainly the most authentic, is in a memorial furnished by theFrench ministry in April, 1751, from which the following paragraphis a translated extract:
"The government of the savages dependent on Cape-Breton exacts aparticular attention. All these savages go under the name ofMickmakis. Before the last war they could raise about sixhundred fighting-men, according to an account given in to his mostChristian majesty, and were distributed in several villagesestablished on Cape-Breton island, island of St. John, on both thecoasts of Acadia (Nova-Scotia) and on that of Canada. All, or mostof the inhabitants of these villages have been instructed in theChristian religion, by missionaries which the king of Franceconstantly maintains amongst them. It is customary to distributeevery year to them presents, in the name of his majesty, whichconsist in arms, ammunition of war, victuals, cloathing, andutensils of various sorts. And these presents are regulatedaccording to the circumstances of the time, and to the satisfactionthat shall have been given to the government by the conduct ofthese savages. In the last war they behaved so as to deserve ourapprobation, and indeed have, on all occasions, given marks oftheir attachment and fidelity. Since the peace too, they haveequally distinguished themselves in the disturbances that are onfoot on the side of Acadia (Nova-Scotia)."
The last part of this foregoing paragraph needs no comment.Every one knows by what sort of service these savages merit theencouragement of the French government, and by what acts of perfidyand cruelty exercised on the English, they are to earn theirreward.
The Maricheets, mentioned in the said letter form adistinct nation, chiefly settled at St. John's, and are oftenconfounded with the Abenaquis, so as to pass for one nationwith them, though there is certainly some distinction. They used,till lately, to be in a constant state of hostility with theMickmakis. But, however, these nations may be at peace or variancewith one another, in one point they agree, which is a thoroughenmity to the English, cultivated, with great application by themissionaries, who add to the scandal of a conduct so contrary totheir profession, the baseness of denying or evading the charge bythe most pitiful equivocations. It is with the words peace,charity, and universal benevolence, for ever in their mouths, thatthese incendiaries, by instigations direct and indirect, inflameand excite the savages to commit the cruellest outrages of war, andthe blackest acts of treachery. Poor Captain How! is well known tohave paid with his life, infamously taken away by them, at aparley, the influence one of these missionaries (now a prisoner inthe island of Jersey,) had over these misguided wretches, whosenative innocence and simplicity are not proof against thecorruption, and artful suggestions of those holy seducers.
It would not, perhaps, be impossible for the