William Cormack

William Epps Cormack (5 May 1796 – 30 April 1868) was a Scottish-Canadian explorer, philanthropist, agriculturalist and author, born St. John’s, Newfoundland. Cormack was the first person of European descent to journey across the interior of the island. His account of his travels was first published in Britain in 1824. Interested in studying and trying to preserve Native culture, he founded the Beothick Institution in 1827.

The son of a well-to-do Scottish family, Cormack was born in Newfoundland. He traveled to Scotland to study at the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh, which were centres of the Enlightenment teaching and scholars. In 1818 he left the country to lead a group of Scottish emigrants to Prince Edward Island, where they settled on the Hunter River near Charlottetown.

In 1822, he returned to his native Newfoundland to carry on some family business and property interests. Cormack decided to undertake a venture never before attempted by a European, to explore the interior of Newfoundland. His other goal was to make contact with the Beothuk and to establish friendly relationship with the few surviving native people.

On 5 September 1822, Cormack’s expedition departed from Smith Sound, Trinity Bay, along with his only companion Joseph Sylvester, a young Mi'kmaq hunter from Miawpukek, Bay d'Espoir. By early October, they had reached the centre of the island and came across a hilly ridge, which Cormack named after his Edinburgh teacher (Robert Jameson) as Jameson’s Mountains (now Jamieson Hills). They arrived in St. George’s Bay on 4 November of the same year but had not encountered any Beothuk.

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