I beg leave to lay before Your Excellency the following statements by which it will appear to what extent I have been a sufferer of depredations committed against my property by the Native Indians, which have at last driven me to seek your leave to undertake an expedition to recover said losses.
In January 1815, Dick Richmond, a furrier of mine, came out from one of my tilts in the country on business to me, leaving in the tilt his provisions, some fur and his clothes. On his return he found that some persons had been there in his absence and carried away and destroyed the provisions and all the fur with many little things yet valuable to a furrier. The distance being twenty miles from the tilt to my residence, Richmond was obliged to sleep there that night, but came out next day to bring these matters to my attention. In the company of Richmond and a second furrier in my employ, Mr. Thos. Taylor, I visited the tilt and found all as has been described. Nearby we discovered part of an Indian’s snow racket and a hatchet, which satisfied us the depredation had been carried out by Red Indians. We after this followed their tracks to Richmond’s different beaver houses and found they had carried away seven of my traps. Damage and loss on this occasion cannot be estimated at less than fifteen pounds independent of losing much of the season for catching fur.
In June 1816, a new fleet of salmon nets consisting of two nets sixty fathoms long were cut from their moorings on Indian Arm Brook and nothing but a small part of the Head Rope left. From the manner the moorings were cut and hackled, and the marks of Red Ochre on the Buoys, we strongly suspected it had been done by the Indians, no other persons being near at the time. The following August, some of my people discovered the cork and part of the head rope at a camp once occupied by the Red Indians. The damage done me by the loss of the nets was twenty pounds independent of the fish that might have been caught that summer.
Other losses of nets, traps and provisions in separate incidents have set me back an additional fifteen pounds at the least.
At the beginning of the current month of September, the Indians came to my wharf at Exploits Burnt Island and cut adrift a large boat which I had just loaded with salmon, &ct., for St. John’s market. On my missing her at half one in the morning, several small boats were readied for a search commencing at first light. About seven o’clock next evening, I discovered her ashore in a most dangerous situation. There was damage to her hull and the Indians had cut away her sails and part of her rigging and had plundered her of almost anything movable. Two rifles were later recovered from the bed of a nearby brook, but they had been deliberately broken by the Indians and were beyond repair. The damage done to the boat and some part of her cargo, and the property stolen, cannot be replaced under 140 or 150 pounds.
All previous losses I have borne without seeking redress in light of the cruelties inflicted on the Native Indians by His Majesty’s subjects in times past. This latest, I fear, cannot be so ignored as it bodes of similar depredations ahead that would likely bankrupt myself and others. The frustrations that are sure to follow cannot but lead to bloodshed.
I offer this deposition in hopes that Your Excellency will grant permission for a small party of my men to follow my property into the country this winter and regain it if possible. It is also my most anxious desire to be able to take some of the Indians and thus through them open a friendly communication with the rest of the tribe.
All of these endeavours will be undertaken at my own risk and expense. From my acquaintance with the place of resort for the Indians over the winter, I am most confident of succeeding in the plan here laid down.
I have the honour to be,
Your Excellency’s very humble
And obedient servant,
John Peyton Jr.
When she was done she passed the letter across the table. She held the lobe of her right ear between her thumb and forefinger. Peyton was folding the pages she had just read and pressing the creases flat with the palms of his hands.
She said, “I didn’t realize there’d been so much thieving.”
“A waste of time to bring the bloody St. John’s crowd into our affairs,” John Senior said. He was making a determined effort to muzzle his anger in front of Cassie. He said, “Permission be damned, we’ll be going in come March. You make sure you tell the governor that.”