(1796-1820)
The Beothucks had an encampment near the lake where it ran into Exploits River, and it was there that Peyton saw a woman walking along the shore with a birch rind bucket in her hand. He hid in the woods until she was about 100 yards away, but when he stood up to grab her, she ran. Peyton gave chase and when he caught up with her she fell to her knees and bared her breast to show that she was a woman; an action respected by most Nations in North America. Just not the Euro-Canadians; and instead she was forced to her feet and bound to her captor with a silk handkerchief.
When her husband heard her cries, he came running, and tried to untie her from Peyton, but a companion Richard Richmond, stabbed him in the back with a bayonet. He fell to his knees and continued trying to free his wife, but the Englishman raised his gun and shot the poor man in the head.
Others who tried to come to her aid, were fired at until they fled, and several more were killed, including Demasduit's only child. She then surrendered peacefully, only asking if she could return home to pick up her snowshoes. This done, she went quietly with her captors, but on the second night she escaped, taking a blanket with her, which she trailed t in the snow to cover her tracks. She was found the next morning hiding under the roots of a spruce tree and never tried to escape again.
She was then taken into captivity, and died from tuberculosis eleven months later. Her body was delievered back to a place where it was hoped that someone from her tribe would find it. It is said that she was laid to rest with her husband and child, in a sepulchre erected on the foundation of the chief's meotick (wigwam). I certainly hope so.
