OE EED INDIANS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 145 



It was afterward ascertained that they had suspected that Capt. Buchau had gone to 

 bring up a body of men to make them all prisoners. They had therefore resolved to break 

 up their encampment and to alarm and join the rest of the tribe encamped around the 

 lake. They went first to a point on the north side, where was a small encampment of 

 sixteen souls — five men, four women, three boys and four girls. With these they pro- 

 ceeded across the lake to the south side, where now all that remained of the tribe were 

 encamped. Probably the whole number wov^ld not exceed seventy souls, such was the 

 destruction that had been going on. Here they raised the head of one of the marines 

 which they had brought with them on a pole and danced round it for two hours. They 

 remained here till spring, when they returned to their former residence and did the same 

 with the head of the other marine which they had left behind them.' 



We hear no more of efforts on the part of government to enter into communication 

 with them. Of the relation between them and the settlers we are safe in assuming that 

 it continued of the same hostile character. We next hear of this people in the beginning 

 of the year 1810, when a person of the name of Peyton, carrying on considerable salmon 

 fisheries in the north of the island, having been greatly annoyed and having suffered 

 considerable losses by the depredations of the natives, determined to go into the interior 

 with the view of recovering his lost property and of establishing a system of trade by 

 barter with them. In this journey he was accompanied by his father and eight men, all 

 armed. One the 5th March, on Eed Indian Lake, which was then frozen, they surprised 

 three Indians at a little distance from their wigwams. One, who proved to be a woman 

 was captured, or indviced to stop, when a man, described as six feet high and of a noble 

 and commanding figure, and who it was ascertained afterward was her hiisband, turned 

 back and attempted to rescue her single-handed, when he was shot, and it is believed also 

 the third of the party.- The woman was taken to Twillingate, where she was placed 

 under the care of the Church of England clergyman of that place. She received the 

 name of Mary March from the month in which she was taken, though her native name 

 was Demasduit. A full account of her was prepared by Capt. Hercules Robinson, of H. 

 M. S- Favourite, from recollection of conversations with the Rev. Mr. Leigh,' which we 

 give nearly in full. On the death of her husband he says : — " She did not fly, shed no 

 tears (a savage never weeps), but after a few minutes' violent struggle of emotions, 

 which were visible on her intelligent countenance, anguish and horror appeared to give 

 place to fear, and she went to the murderer of her husband, clung to his arm, as if for 

 protection, and strange to say a most devoted attachment appeared from that moment to 

 have been produced toward him, which only ended with her life.^ To him alone she was 



' This information regarding the movements of the Indians, with some to be given presently, was obtained 

 from Slianandithit, a Red Indian woman, whose capture and life among the whites we shall have occasion to refer 

 to at length. The man who accompanied Lieut. Buchan's party back to their supplies was her uncle. 



-' In a vocabulary drawn up by Mr. King, mostly from Mr. Cormack's papers, his name is given as Monose- 

 basset, and he is said to have been 6 ft. 11 in. high. When or by whom he was measured we are not informed. 

 But there are traditions round the coast of such gigantic men among them. Allowing for exaggerations, there is 

 reason to believe tliat they were generally a tall race cf men. 



' Tlie MS. of this is in the llritish Museum, but a copy is in the Legislative Library of Nova Scotia. 



^ Chappell says that in like manner the woman captured by Cull was contented in the presence of females, but 

 became outrageous if a man approaclied her except Cull, with whom she was gentle and affectionate. I believe 

 the cause of this was the reaction of feeling from expecting to be killed, but instead treated with kindness. 



Sec. II, 1891. 19. 



