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Henry Crout’s Diary, September 1, 1612 “September first the winde at weste al the daie verie faire the sune shininge all the daie untill night: this morning 8 of us went forward for Trinitie Bay markinge the way: we founde verie faire birch trees passing thorowe the woodes and 4 places of open grounde and passed 3 Fresh watter lakes with divers beavers nestes in them: thus we went some Six milles the first daie/ this night we had the winde at southeast with raine until daie”. Middleton Manuscript Mi x 1/66, University of Nottingham |
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 On September 1, 1612 Henry Crout lead a group of colonists overland from the Cupers Cove plantation in Conception Bay towards Trinity Bay cutting and marking a trail as they went. By establishing an overland route to the bay the colonists hoped to make contact and eventually set up a fur trade with the Beothuk Indians who lived there. On the first trip, they travelled for three and a half days and were within about three miles of the bay when they were forced to turn around. On September 9, a second party set out to complete the trail and cut it wide enough, Crout says, “for two men to pass together”. We know that the trail was completed because when John Guy sailed into “Mount Eagle Bay” (present day Hopeall) in Trinity Bay on October 22 of the same year, he noted in his journal that this was the place, “that the way overland from Avon in the bay of Conception is marked vnto”. While we do not know exactly where the “Avon” mentioned by Guy was located, it was probably near “Avon Hill” which is mentioned by Crout in his diary and seems to have been within a short distance of Cupers Cove. Henry Crout’s “way”, as he called it, is one of the oldest European trails in North America. Crout left us two accounts of his journey: one in his weather diary which he kept from September 1, 1612 to May 13, 1613 and the other in a letter he wrote to Sir Percival Willoughby on September 8, 1612, just two days after he returned from the first trip. In the fall of 1997, the Baccalieu Trail Heritage Corporation’s archaeology crew set out to see if we could retrace the route followed by Crout and his companions. Between October 30 and November 6 1997 we spent five days hiking across the roughly eighteen miles (29 km) of woods, bogs and barrens that lie between Cupids and Hopeall trying to follow in Henry Crout’s footsteps and match his descriptions to the terrain we encountered along the way. The experience turned out to be a fascinating combination of historical detective work and wilderness adventure. Images (from left to right, top to bottom) 1. Approaching Black Pond on Crout’s Way. |
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