Theory of love thy neighbour

Put-in at Burnside

We all know that Jesus Christ taught that we should "love thy neighbour". For me its still a theory because the fact that mankind follows this commandment is still unproven.

Probably not moreso than in the 1800's in Newfoundland. As English settlers spread across the island of Newfoundland they came into contact with the native Beothuck who were living here when the English arrived. The English expansion started to crowd the Beothucks out of their traditional hunting and harvesting territory. The Beothuck reaction was to cause a nuisance to the settlers by stealing fishing equipment, cutting the mooring of boats and similar acts.

That resulted in numerous skirmishes where Beothucks were killed and occasionally settlers. We were paddling in an area where a massacre occured in the mid 1800's - Bloody Point and on the other side Bloody Reach. Pete thought English settlers were enticed to a Beothuck camp and slaughtered. A friend tells me the English slaughtered the Beothuck and an ancestor of his wife was involved. It doesn't much matter who is right, one group of people killed another group.

We haven't learned much either in the time since.

On Sunday a group of eight paddled from Burnside to Bloody Point and then on to St. Brendan's to catch the ferry back. We stopped at Bloddy Point and reflected. I wondered when we would get around to living peacefully together and "love thy neighbour".

Tony :-)

Fishing stage at Burnside. This is a typical scene in most fishing communities in Newfoundland.

Here we are leaving Burnside. A group of four turned left and handrailed along the coast down to St. Chads and the eight in our group paddled towards Bloody Point.

After we left Burnside we crossed the open waters of Fair and False Bay on our way to Bloody Point. The view of islands floating in the bay, still waters and a little breeze make for a pleasurable crossing.

Here's the group on top of Bloody Point, about 100 metres above the water. We had a great view about 270 degrees around. Its kind of sobering knowing without question the Beothuck stood on this site 200 years or so ago and had the same thoughts about the great view. People aren't so different based either on ethnic background or time.

After we walked up to the top of Bloody Point we returned and had lunch, fuel for the run up to St. Brendan's.

Wharf at the archaeological Bloody Point site, getting underway again to meet the ferry at St. Brendan's.