Custis's play, since she undoubtedly witnessed the performance, in which her mother took the part of "Pocahontas." The play was published in Philadelphia in 1830. That it was played again seems certain, for the Clothier Collection includes a prompt copy belonging to John Sefton, the manager of Niblo's Theatre, in New York, and of the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, under E. A. Marshall. In this copy the parts of "Hugo," "Mowbray," "Namoutac" and "Mantea" are omitted and the play is much cut.
On May 16, 1830, Custis's play of The Railroad, a national drama, was performed at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia. Durang, in his account, tells us that a locomotive steam carriage was introduced in the last act, which whistled as it went out! It moved off the stage to the music of the "Carrolton March," composed for the occasion by Mr. Clifton of Baltimore.
At the request of the manager of the Baltimore Theatre, Custis wrote a play called North Point or Baltimore Defended, in celebration of the battle of North Point, on whose anniversary, September 12, 1833, it was produced. It was completed according to the author in nine hours and was "a two-act piece with two songs and a finale." His Eighth of January was played January 8, 1834, at the Park Theatre, New York. He seems also to have written an Indian play, The Pawnee Chief, but accurate information concerning this is wanting. An account of Custis is given in Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, by his Adopted Son, George Washington Parke Custis, with a Memoir of the Author by his Daughter [Mary Custis Lee], Philadelphia, 1861. The original source of Pocahontas was Captain John Smith's Generall Historic of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles (1624), as Smith's earlier True Relation (1608) does not mention the salvation of Smith by Pocahontas. For accounts of the productions of the plays, see Charles Durang, History of the Philadelphia Stage, Series 2, Chapters 52 and 53, and Joseph N. Ireland, Records of the New York Stage, Vol. I, p. 644.
