In 1807 a proclamation was issued by Governor Holloway, offering a reward of L50 “to such person or persons as shall be able to induce or persuade any of the male tribe of native Indians to attend them to the town of St. John’s; also all expenses attending their journey or passage,” and the same reward was offered to any person who would give information of any murder committed upon the bodies of the Indians.

In 1809, the Government, not satisfied with merely issuing proclamations, sent a vessel to Exploit’s Bay, in order if possible to meet with the Indians.  Lieutenant Spratt, who commanded the vessel, had with him a picture representing the officers of the Royal Navy, shaking hands with an Indian chief—­a party of sailors laying goods at his feet—­a European and Indian mother looking at their respective children of the same age—­Indian men and women presenting furs to the officers, and a young sailor looking admiration at an Indian girl.  The expedition, however, did not meet with any of the tribe.

In the following year, 1810, several efforts were made to open a communication with the natives, and to arrest the destruction to which they were exposed—­first, a proclamation was issued by Sir John Duckworth, stating that the native Indians, by the ill treatment of wicked persons, had been driven from all communication with His Majesty’s subjects, and forced to take refuge in the woods, and offering a reward of L100 to any person who should, to use the words of the proclamation, “generously and meritoriously exert himself to bring about and establish on a firm and settled footing an intercourse with the natives; and moreover, that such persons should be honorably mentioned to His Majesty.”

In the same year a proclamation was also issued, addressed exclusively to the Micmacs, the Esquimaux, and American Indians frequenting the Island, recommending them to live in harmony with the Red Indians, and threatening punishment to any who should injure them; and early in the same year, William Cull, the same person who has been spoken of, with six others, and two Micmacs, set out upon the river Exploits, then frozen over, in quest of their residence in the interior of the country.  On the fourth day, having travelled 60 miles, they discovered a building on the bank of the river, about 40 or 50 feet long, and nearly as wide.  It was constructed of wood, and covered with the rinds of trees, and skins of deer.  It contained large quantities of venison, estimated to have been the choicest parts of at least 100 deer—­the flesh was in junks, entirely divested of bone, and stored in boxes made of birch and spruce rinds—­each box containing about two cwt.  The tongues and hearts were placed in the middle of the packages.  In this structure, says the celebrated William Cull, we saw three lids of tin tea kettles, which he believed to be the very same given by Governor Gambier to the Indian woman he was entrusted to restore to her tribe.