Reverend Noah

By the late 1800s, Protestant missionaries had become interested in the people of Newfoundland, especially the Beothuks. The missionaries wanted to convert the Beothuks to their Protestant religion. Reverend Noah came to Fortune Bay and Hermitage Bay to spread the Protestant religion. He could not find any Beothuks. But Reverend Noall did meet some Indians of the Mi'kmaq tribe. These Indians did not interest him. They were Catholic. But then Reverend Noah had an idea. Perhaps the Mi'kmaq might be useful after all. They could help him find the Beothuks. In 1872 he wrote to the Wesleyn Missionary Society in London to tell them so.

...I am informed by those who know their habits well that the Indians belonging to* Bay Despair (of whom there are 18 families) are still under the bondage of the vilest habits. They are very lazy and false in their dealings. And there is much reason to fear that they murder a great many of the Red Indians, who live in the interior.

If they could be properly instructed they might emerge from that darkness in which they are now enveloped. At present they are only the dupes of those priest—who baptized, but never instructed them.

It is impossible to calculate the advantage that might follow if we could convert them to our religion. It would at once open a religious intercourse between much greater numbers at White Bear Bay. And is perhaps the only way for us to meet the Aborigines [Beothuks] of the island.

*Note: British settlers called Bay d'Espoir, Bay Despair. The original name meant bay of hope.

By the time Reverend Noah got to Newfoundland the Beothuk people seemed to be extinct. It was believed that the last Beothuk person had already died in 1829 in St. John's.

This document comes from an old book written by Philip Tocque about his travels in Newfoundland. Tocque published Reverend Noall's letter in his book, Newfoundland as it was and as it is in 1877, Toronto: Magurn, 1878.