In the course of his surveying he met John Peyton, Jr., who along with his father had captured the Beothuk woman Demasduit.
This started a life long fascination with the indigenous people of the island of Newfoundland, and Howley began collecting artifacts, oral history and documents which related to the Beothuk.
His collection culminated in the publication of The Beothucks or Red Indians, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 1915.
O'Flaherty published an edited version of Howley's Reminiscences of Forty-two Years of Exploration in and about Newfoundland.
[3] Media related to James Patrick Howley at Wikimedia Commons