Faded ink

This map, “taken on the spot in the year 1768,” tells but a tiny piece of the story of Newfoundland’s bygone Beothuk

- ABI HAYWARD

WHEN THIS MAP WAS MADE IN 1768, the British already knew the Beothuk Indigenous People of present-day Newfoundland were under threat. Lieutenant John Cartwright was sent by Governor Hugh Palliser to Newfoundland’s interior to establish a friendly relationship with a people who were disappearing — being killed or dying through disease. While Cartwright didn’t encounter any people as he travelled along the Exploits River — the Beothuk, who moved with the seasons, were likely hunting at the coast — he made several maps of the area. These maps are now seen as one of the earliest extensive European documents of how Beothuk lived (see “Amet,” page 40, for more on the Beothuk story).

Cartwright’s hand captured geological information in black ink about the water he travelled along, the hills he saw rising up, the rocks in the river. But in faded red ink, he also recorded evidence of the people who lived along the river’s banks.