Chapter I: Front Matter

BROTHERS OF PERIL

A Story of Old Newfoundland

_WORKS OF THEODORE ROBERTS_

_The Red Feathers_ _$1.50_ _Brothers of Peril_ _1.50_ _Hemming the Adventurer_ _1.50_

_L. C. PAGE & COMPANY_ _New England Building, Boston, Mass._

Brothers of Peril

A Story of Old Newfoundland

By

Theodore Roberts _Author of_ "Hemming, the Adventurer"

_Illustrated by_ H. C. Edwards

_Boston_ L. C. Page & Company _Mdccccv_

_Copyright, 1905_ BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY (INCORPORATED)

_All rights reserved_

Published June, 1905 Second Impression, March, 1908

_COLONIAL PRESS Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. Boston, Mass., U.S.A._

Preface

During the three centuries directly following John Cabot's discovery of Newfoundland, that unfortunate island was the sport of careless kings, selfish adventurers, and diligent pirates. While England, France, Spain, and Portugal were busy with courts and kings, and with spectacular battles, their fishermen and adventurers toiled together and fought together about the misty headlands of that far island. Fish, not glory, was their quest! Full cargoes, sweetly cured, was their desire--and let fame go hang!

The merchants of England undertook the guardianship of the "Newfounde Land." In greed, in valour, and in achievement they won their mastery. Their greed was a two-edged sword which cut all 'round. It hounded the aborigines; it bullied the men of France and Spain; it discouraged the settlement of the land by stout hearts of whatever nationality. It was the dream of those merchant adventurers of Devon to have the place remain for ever nothing but a fishing-station. They faced the pirates, the foreign fishers, the would-be settlers, and the natural hardships with equal fortitude and insolence. When some philosopher dreamed of founding plantations in the king's name and to the glory of God, England, and himself, then would the greedy merchants slay or cripple the philosopher's dream in the very palace of the king. Ay, they were powerful enough at court, though so little remarked in the histories of the times! But, ever and anon, some gentleman adventurer, or humble fisherman from the ships, would escape their vigilance and strike a blow at the inscrutable wilderness.

The fishing admirals loom large in the history of the island. They were the hands and eyes of the wealthy merchants. The master of the first vessel to enter any harbour at the opening of the season was, for a greater or lesser period of time, admiral and judge of that harbour. It was his duty to parcel out anchorage, and land on which to dry fish, to each ship in the harbour; to see that no sailors from the fleet escaped into the woods; to discourage any visions of settlement which sight of the rugged forests might raise in the romantic heads of the gentlemen of the fleet; to see that all foreigners were hustled on every occasion, and to take the best of everything for himself. Needless to say, it was a popular position with the hard-fisted skippers.

In the narratives of the early explorers frequent mention is made of the peaceful nature of the aborigines. At first they displayed unmistakable signs of friendly feeling. They were all willingness to trade with the loud-mouthed strangers from over the eastern horizon. They helped at the fishing, and at the hunting of seals and caribou. They bartered priceless pelts for iron hatchets and glass trinkets. Later, however, we read of treachery and murder on the parts of both the visitors and the natives. The itch of slave-dealing led some of the more daring shipmasters and adventurers to capture, and carry back to England, Beothic braves and maidens. Many of the kidnapped savages were kindly treated and made companions of by English noblemen and gentlefolk. It is recorded that more than one Beothic brave sported a sword at his hip in fashionable places of London Town before Death cut the silken bonds of his motley captivity.

Master John Guy, an alderman of Bristol, who obtained a Royal Charter in 1610, to settle and develop Newfoundland, wrote of the Beothics as a kindly and mild-mannered race. Of their physical characteristics he says: "They are of middle size, broad-chested, and very erect.... Their hair is diverse, some black, some brown, and some yellow."

As to the ultimate fate of the Beothics there are several suppositions. An aged Micmac squaw, who lives on Hall's Bay, Notre Dame Bay, says that her father, in his youth, knew the last of the Beothics. At that time--something over a hundred years ago--the race numbered between one and two hundred souls. They made periodical excursions to the salt water to fish, and to trade with a few friendly whites and Nova Scotian Micmacs. But, for the most part, they avoided the settlements. They had reason enough for so doing, for many of the settlers considered a lurking Beothic as fair a target for his buckshot as a bear or caribou. One November day a party of Micmac hunters tried to follow the remnant of the broken race on their return trip to the great wilderness of the interior. The trail was lost in a fall of snow on the night of the first day of the journey. And there, with the obliterated trail, ends the world's knowledge of the original inhabitants of Newfoundland; save of one woman of the race named Mary March, who died, a self-ordained fugitive about the outskirts of civilization, some ninety years ago.

To-day there are a few bones in the museum at St. John's. One hears stories of grassy circles beside the lakes and rivers, where wigwams once stood. Flint knives and arrow-heads are brought to light with the turning of the farmer's furrow. But the language of the lost tribe is forgotten, and the history of it is unrecorded.

In the following tale I have drawn the wilderness of that far time in the likeness of the wilderness as I knew it, and loved it, a few short years ago. The seasons bring their oft-repeated changes to brown barren, shaggy wood, and empurpled hill; but the centuries pass and leave no mark. I have dared to resurrect an extinct tribe for the purposes of fiction. I have drawn inspiration from the spirit of history rather than the letter! But the heart of the wilderness, and the hearts of men and women, I have pictured, in this romance of olden time, as I know them to-day.

T. R.

_November, 1904._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. A BOY WINS HIS MAN-NAME 1

II. THE OLD CRAFTSMAN BY THE SALT WATER 9

III. THE FIGHT IN THE MEADOW 16

IV. OUENWA SETS OUT ON A VAGUE QUEST 24

V. THE ADMIRAL OF THE HARBOUR 34

VI. THE FANGS OF THE WOLF SLAYER 43

VII. THE SILENT VILLAGE 56

VIII. A LETTER FOR OUENWA 65

IX. AN UNCHARTERED PLANTATION 73

X. GENTRY AT FORT BEATRIX 83

XI. THE SETTING-IN OF WINTER 94

XII. MEDITATION AND ACTION 104

XIII. SIGNS OF A DIVIDED HOUSE 116

XIV. A TRICK OF PLAY-ACTING 126

XV. THE HIDDEN MENACE 133

XVI. THE CLOVEN HOOF 140

XVII. THE CONFIDENCE OF YOUTH 148

XVIII. EVENTS AND REFLECTIONS 156

XIX. TWO OF A KIND 164

XX. BY ADVICE OF BLACK FEATHER 174

XXI. THE SEEKING OF THE TRIBESMEN 183

XXII. BRAVE DAYS FOR YOUNG HEARTS 190

XXIII. BETROTHED 200

XXIV. A FIRE-LIT BATTLE. OUENWA'S RETURN 207

XXV. FATE DEALS CARDS OF BOTH COLOURS IN THE LITTLE FORT 217

XXVI. PIERRE D'ANTONS PARRIES ANOTHER THRUST 227

XXVII. A GRIM TURN OF MARCH MADNESS 233

XXVIII. THE RUNNING OF THE ICE 241

XXIX. WOLF SLAYER COMES AND GOES; AND TROWLEY
RECEIVES A VISITOR 252

XXX. MAGGIE STONE TAKES MUCH UPON HERSELF 264

XXXI. WHILE THE SPARS ARE SCRAPED 273

XXXII. THE FIRST STAGE OF THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE IS
BRAVELY ACCOMPLISHED 279

XXXIII. IN THE MERRY CITY 287

XXXIV. PIERRE D'ANTONS SIGNALS HIS OLD COMRADES,
AND AGAIN PUTS TO SEA 294

XXXV. THE BRIDEGROOM ATTENDS TO OTHER MATTERS THAN LOVE 306

XXXVI. OVER THE SIDE 317

XXXVII. THE MOTHER 323

BROTHERS OF PERIL

A Story of Old Newfoundland