Michael Crummey: River Thieves

By LINDA HERRICK*

There's a note at the end of Crummey's debut novel which simply says, "The last known Beothuk died in St John's in 1829." Those stark words mark the extinction of the Beothuk Indians on the rugged island of Newfoundland. It's a familiar scenario: the subjugation of an indigenous race by colonists who, in the case of Newfoundland, were a rolling wave of Dutch, French and English, squabbling over land long inhabited by the Beothuks and the Micmacs.

Crummey grew up listening to the legends of the Beothuk and their doomed encounters with the crude whites, from whom they preferred to quietly withdraw. The whites, as history and this narrative show, took "ownership" of land as their right while the starving Indians retaliated by pilfering equipment and food.

River Thieves, which takes place from 1810-20, centres around young trapper John Peyton, who lives unhappily in the wild with his secretive father and housekeeper-tutor Cassie, whom John loves without requite. The arrival of British Crown representative Lt David Buchan, under instruction to capture Indians to better understand their customs and use them as hostages, has tragic repercussions for all, particularly a woman they take and re-name "Mary".

Buchan's arrival also unearths John Senior's involvement in a past massacre, and the skein of lies and misunderstandings holding the traders' lives together unravels.

Crummey based his story on historic research, which makes River Thieves all the more tragic. The fatalistic narrative is served by tight prose, idiomatic dialogue and detailed descriptions of the landscape where survival was a daily trial. It is a bleak tale, with little to sweeten the outcome. Brutal and ignorant as the settlers were, they prevailed. River Thieves is a haunting story with international resonance.

* Canongate, $39.95

* Linda Herrick is the Herald's arts editor.