d retaining without any difficulty any words
she was taught. She had one child, who, as was subsequently
ascertained, died a couple of days after its mother's capture. Mary
March was first taken to Twillingate, where, she was placed under the
care of the Revd. Mr. Leigh, Episcopal Missionary, who, upon the
opening of the season, came with her to St. John's. She never
recovered from the effects of her grief at the death of her
husband--her health rapidly declined, and the Government, with the
view of restoring her to her tribe, sent a small sloop-of-war with her
to the northward, with orders to her Commander to proceed to the
summer haunts of the Indians; from this attempt, however, he returned
unsuccessful. Captain Buchan, in the _Grashopper_, was subsequently
sent to accomplish the same object. He left St. John's in September,
1819, for the Exploits, but poor Mary March died on board the vessel
at the mouth of the river. Captain Buchan had her body carried up the
lake, where he left it in a coffin, in a place where it was probable
her tribe would find her,--traces of Indians were seen while the party
was on its way up,--and in fact, although unaware of it, Captain
Buchan and his men were watched by a party of Indians, who that winter
were encamped on the river Exploits, and when they observed Captain
Buchan and his men pass up the river on the ice, they went down to the
sea coast, near the mouth of the river, and remained there a month;
after that they returned, and saw the footsteps of Captain Buchan's
party made on their way down the river. The Indians, then, by a
circuitous route, went to the lake, and to the spot where the body of
Mary March was left--they opened the coffin and took out the clothes
that were left with her. The coffin was allowed to remain suspended as
they found it for a month, it was then placed on the ground, where, it
remained two months; in the spring they removed the body to the burial
place which they had built for her husband, placing her by his side.

A narrative of the circumstances which attended the capture of Mary
March was published in Liverpool in 1829, and written, as is alleged,
by a person who formed one of the party when the capture was effected.
Although this narrative contains some inaccuracies, yet it bears
internal evidence of being the production of a person who really
witnessed the scenes he describes, and though differing in several
particulars from the account as before de