THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 

THE 
 
 ROCKS 
 
 DEER CREEK, 
 
 H/RFORD COUNTY, M/RYLAND. 
 
 THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS TURNER WYSONG, 
 
 OF 
 
 " SHIRLEY, NEAR THE KOCKS." 
 
 TWO ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 PRINTED BY A. J. CONLON, 
 
 No. 23 SOUTH STREET. 
 
 1880 
 
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1880, 
 
 BY THOMAS TURNER WYSONG, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
TO MY FRIENDS 
 
 OF 
 
 MARYLAND AND OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 
 
 OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND OF VIRGINIA AS 
 
 IT WAS TERRITORIALLY AT THE 
 
 DATE OF MY BIRTH, 
 
 MAY 20, 1817, 
 
 THIS BOOK OF 
 
 Is AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 M363111 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 MY residence is about a mile, as the bird flies, from 
 the celebrated Rocks of Deer Creek. I first saw this 
 great natural curiosity in the Spring of 1844. I was 
 then young, and did not dream that my advanced years 
 would be passed almost under its shadows. But He 
 who appoints the bounds of our habitations has so 
 ordered. To-day I occupy the place which I have 
 named, for peculiar reasons, " Shirley, near the Kocks." 
 
 Since I have lived in this locality I have been ob- 
 servant of much apparent interest in the Rocks, and 
 have read numerous compositions, both in prose and 
 poetry, descriptive of them. These were generally the 
 essays of the young, inspired by the beauties and sub- 
 limities of the scenes around them. Of the objects 
 seen, none have excited more interest than the King 
 and Queen Seats. Who made them ? for what pur- 
 pose were they used ? have been frequent enquiries. 
 These interrogatories suggested the writing of "The 
 Last King and Queen of the Rocks of Deer Creek." 
 Having done so for the instruction and entertainment 
 of the young people especially, it occurred to me that a 
 series of sketches, mingling fact with fancy, might give 
 them pleasure, and, perhaps, be of some profit to them. 
 These I have written, and they are to be found in this 
 small and unpretentious volume. 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I hope that the character of these compositions will 
 give offence to no one, not even the most conscientious. 
 They are, indeed, the interweaving of fact with fancy, 
 but the facts are more numerous than one would imag- 
 ine who has not studied the locality and its history as 
 I have done. Add to these facts the laws, customs and 
 usages of the original inhabitants of the country, re- 
 ferred to in these stories, and the amount of absolute 
 fiction is not great. My apology for the presence of fic- 
 tion at all is, that it is, as I use it, a mirror a reflection 
 of the truth. Nature responds to imagination, and 
 imagination is the handmaid of Nature. Shakespeare 
 is read by all, not because his characters and scenes are 
 not fictitious, but rather because his imaginings mirror 
 the truths of Nature. That sublimest creation of poetic 
 genius, the Book of Job, the Divine inspiration of which 
 is not doubted, is a sacred drama, the persons of which, 
 though they may not have had existence in fact, are 
 nevertheless real, because they are truthful. Paradise 
 Lost and the Pilgrim's Progress are both creations of 
 fancy, but not therefore pernicious. If strict, literal 
 fact is alone to be tolerated, then all bo'oks embellished 
 with the colors of imagination must be discarded, 
 though imagination be the medium for the conveyance 
 of truth. 
 
 I am the more solicitous that the facts and truthful 
 fancies of this book shall be read, because of the changes 
 that will be wrought by the improvements now in prog- 
 ress and promised in the vicinity of the Rocks. The 
 iron horse will soon be running along our streams and 
 through our valleys, the srnoke of the locomotive will 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 curl its wreaths about the summits of the Rocks, par- 
 tially hiding them from view. The substitution of the 
 realities of the commercial and business life for the 
 poetries of undisturbed Nature is inevitable. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 THE favor with which the first edition of one thou- 
 sand copies of " THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK ; THEIR 
 LEGENDS AND HISTORY," has been received, encour- 
 ages the issue of a second edition indefinitely large. 
 The sale of so many copies in so brief a space of time 
 shows that the interest is in the Rocks as a natural 
 curiosity of great attraction ; and this fact is a compli- 
 ment to the intelligence and taste of the many who 
 have purchased and read the book. Of the hundreds 
 who were courteously solicited to patronize this home 
 production, scarce a half-dozen lacked courtesy in their 
 refusal to do so, and charity believes that the majority 
 of this insignificant number were prompted by no un- 
 worthy motives. Occasionally there is found in the 
 forests a rare bird, in the waters a rare fish, in the fields 
 a rare beast; why, therefore, should it be thought a 
 strange thing when there is found occasionally among 
 those animals who, as has been scientifically determined, 
 possess the qualities and characteristics of all the infe- 
 rior animals, one to whom the presentation of a book 
 constitutes a grave offence. Some members of the 
 genus homo the microcosm never read a book, not 
 because they have no knowledge of letters, but because 
 all letters are offensive to them. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Care has been taken in making up the present edi- 
 tion to avoid as much as possible the defects and 
 blemishes of the first. Both grammatical and typo- 
 graphical errors exist in the former, and fortunate it 
 will be if none shall be found in the latter. The effort 
 to secure perfection of form will be appreciated, and 
 the failure to do so will be forgiven by all generous 
 readers. 
 
 This book is larger ; other legends have been added ; 
 the facts and incidents are more numerous. It is large 
 enough. We launch our boat, which, though not 
 
 4 ' as goodly and strong and staunch 
 
 As ever weathered a wintiy sea," 
 
 will nevertheless, we hope, 
 
 " sail securely, and safely reach 
 
 The Fortunate Isles, on whose shining beach 
 The sights we see, and the sounds we hear, 
 Will be those of joy, and not of fear." 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 Title 1 
 
 Dedication 3 
 
 Introduction 5 
 
 Introduction to Second Edition 9 
 
 Description of the Rocks 13 
 
 Razuka ; a Legend of Rock Ridge Lake . 15 
 
 The Last King and Queen of the Rocks of Deer Creek 22 
 
 The Last Indian of Deer Creek 28 
 
 The Hermit of the Otter Rock 33 
 
 The Robber's Den ; or, The Learned Philologist 41 
 
 The Enchantress of Hunting Ridge 46 
 
 The Aged Trapper, Hunter and Fisherman of the Indian 
 
 Cupboard 51 
 
 The Mine Old Fields ; or, The Gathering of the Witches... , 58 
 
 The Falling Branch ; or, The Captured Bride 64 
 
 The Eagle 71 
 
 The Witch Rabbit 72 
 
 The Big Snake..* 73 
 
 Whitsuntide 74 
 
 The Perilous Feat 75 
 
 An Act of Vandalism 76 
 
 Canal and Railroad 77 
 
 The Original Moonshiner 79 
 
 The Monuments of the Giants 81 
 
 The Field of Darts 84 
 
 The Chrome Pits 86 
 
 The Slate Quarries 7 87 
 
 The Horse Epidemic and the Guinea- Man's Pony 89 
 
 The Church of the Rocks. . . 92 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB. 
 
 Mike' s Rock 94 
 
 The Ancient Mill and the Honest Miller 95 
 
 The Oldest Inhabitant '. 98 
 
 The Youngest Inhabitants 100 
 
 The Original Inhabitants 101 
 
 The Massacre of the Mingoes 103 
 
 Rocks Literature 105 
 
 Introduction thereto ,106 
 
 Selections therefrom, in Prose and Poetry 107 
 
 a. Description of the Rocks in Prose 107 
 
 b. Stanzas on King and Queen Seats 107 
 
 c. Description of the Rocks in Poetry 108 
 
 d. The Fern... 109 
 
 e. The Old MiU 112 
 
 A Prophecy .116 
 
 Mason and Dixon's Line 122 
 
 A Literary Curiosity 123 
 
 ILLUSTRA TIONS. 
 
 The Rocks of Deer Creek Front of Title. 
 
 The Falling Branch Page 64 
 
THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE ROCKS. 
 
 THE Rocks of Deer Creek are in Harford County, 
 Maryland, distant nine miles north-east of Bel Air, 
 the county seat, and seven miles south of the 
 boundary line between Maryland and Pennsylvania. 
 The waters of Deer Creek, forcing their way at an 
 indefinite time past through Rock Ridge, have left 
 on either side an immense pile of massive rocks, 
 three hundred and eighty-five feet in height, which, 
 with the plunging waters of the romantic river 
 which runs at their base and the contiguous scenes, 
 constitute a rare picture of sublimity and beauty. 
 The western rocks are more accessible, and of great- 
 er attraction to visitors. The view from them is 
 less obstructed and more distant, embracing within 
 its range hill and dale, forest and field, river and 
 brook, farm-house and hamlet. On them are the 
 King and Queen Seats. To the verge of their pre- 
 cipice was driven, by a madman, Bold Hector, that 
 noble horse, which was as deserving of a monu- 
 ment as was Bucephalus, the war horse of Alexan- 
 der. At their base the Eagle was killed, and also 
 the last wolf and the last deer. These, with other 
 historical incidents, increase the interest felt in the 
 Rocks, the monuments of mighty and mysterious 
 forces exerted in the unknown past. 
 2 
 
14 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 Every genuine Harfordonian is enthusiastic in 
 his admiration of the Rocks. They are with him 
 the Great Curiosity ; they belong to him ; he is 
 proud of them. He loves them, because associated 
 with them are memories of happy hours passed 
 with congenial associates on their summits or at 
 their base by the waters of his favorite stream. 
 Their inspirations are sweet to him, and their pres- 
 ence creates sympathies loving and tender. In 
 their presence he has a higher appreciation of Na- 
 ture, and an intenser sympathy with the spirit of 
 poetry which dwells amid such scenes. Here, as 
 beautifully expressed by our own great poet, whose 
 highest, purest inspirations are due to that " sweet 
 spirit which fills the world ;" here, amid everlast- 
 ing hills, mountain and shattered cliff, and green 
 valley, and river and brook, and the silent majesty 
 of deep woods 
 
 In many a lazy syllable repeating 
 Their old poetic legends to the winds, 
 
 his thoughts are uplifted from earth. And such 
 also is the interest he feels in the general library of 
 the Rocks, consisting of many volumes of rare in- 
 formations. 
 
 Will the coming of the Railroad and the devel- 
 opment of the commercial and business life, as has 
 been feared, lessen the attractions of the Rocks? 
 The poetries of Nature will still be there, and the 
 presence of the accidents of artificial life may 
 heighten by contrast the interest, making the poet- 
 ries of Nature more poetical. Happily, the ap- 
 proach by the Railroad, especially from the Smith, 
 will open up a view of the Rocks surpassing in at- 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 15 
 
 tractiveness. Passengers from that direction, in 
 crossing the bridge over the Creek at the head of 
 the dam, will have a view of the upper portion of 
 the Rocks, which by a well known quality of the 
 mind will exaggerate the whole picture. Mightier 
 structures they will seem to be, having their found- 
 ations in greater depths, because their summits 
 tower upward, touching the heavens. The Rocks, 
 their legends and history, the poetries of Nature 
 made more poetical by the contrasts suggested by 
 the thundering train and smoking locomotive, will 
 ever be sources of interest ; and that singular en- 
 thusiasm felt by those whose dwelling-places are 
 not distant from the Great Curiosity will abide. 
 
 RAZUKA; 
 
 A LEGEND OP ROCK RIDGE LAKE. 
 
 THE Rocks of Deer Creek are the great natural 
 curiosity of Harford County, Md. Who first dis- 
 covered them? What was their condition at the 
 time of discovery ? These questions may not be ca- 
 pable of satisfactory answers. A tradition of the 
 distant and uncertain past is that the first white 
 man who visited that locality did not find it as it 
 now is. Instead of the gorge, and the rocks, and 
 the river running at their base, there was an impact 
 
16 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 rock ridge, holding against its gigantic breast the 
 waters of a mighty lake, and throwing from its sum- 
 mit, four hundred feet in height, the waters of Deer 
 Creek. The physical features of the ridge, and the 
 characteristics of the low lands for at least five miles 
 above it, justify the conjecture that the tradition- 
 ary lake and cataract are not myths. In the ab- 
 sence of certain historical information, it may be 
 allowable to accept the tradition as in accordance 
 substantially with the facts. Of the name of the 
 first discoverer we have no available knowledge. If 
 his name is recorded, it may be found in some 
 musty volume of some foreign library. There is a 
 bare possibility that some adventurer, associated with 
 the expedition of the celebrated Captain John Smith, 
 the founder of the colony of Jamestown, Virginia, 
 who in his exploration of the Chesapeake Bay and 
 its tributaries, sailed as far as the mouth of the Sus- 
 quehanna river, may have heard, on the arrival of 
 the expedition at that locality, of the wonders of 
 the not distant wilderness scarce a day's journey 
 and that he was the first civilized man who gazed 
 upon those wonderful exhibitions of nature. It 
 may be that to a Jesuit father, who had penetrated 
 the wilderness in the prosecution of his sacred mis- 
 sion, the honor of discovery is due. These holy 
 fathers were the earliest explorers of our Western 
 territories and inland seas and rivers. They were 
 the spiritual guides and counsellors of many of the 
 North American Indians, and in the furtherance of 
 their work rescued many a wonder of nature from 
 the gloom of the primeval forest. But even though 
 these conjectures be inadmissible, and we should be 
 left to the judgment that at the discovery of this 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 17 
 
 continent by Columbus, in 1492, the Rocks and the 
 Ridge were essentially what they are at the present 
 time, such a conviction does not destroy our faith in 
 the existence of the lake and fall at some more dis- 
 tant period in the past. The testimony of the ridge 
 and valleys assures our belief. We naturally regret 
 that the pent-up waters of Deer Creek exerted so 
 soon that resistless energy which clove asunder a 
 mountain and reduced their volume to the compar- 
 atively small stream of to-day. There is beauty in 
 the sinuous Deer Creek, threading its way between 
 abrupt wooded hills and along fertile valleys ; also 
 sublimity in the Rocks and rapids as they now are ; 
 but how much more of grandeur in the mighty lake 
 and the lofty cataract, rivalling the Falls of Mont- 
 morenci or those of the Yosemite Valley. 
 
 An ancient bard, whose name is unknown, sang 
 of the Rocks of Deer Creek : 
 
 A bare and isolated rock, 
 On which no tuft of moss has ever grown ; 
 In front a precipice descends far down, 
 Where a rapid river sweeps along. 
 Behind, nature has shaped an opening in the cliff 
 (Which looks with frowning brows upon the scene), 
 To the resemblance of a lovely garden ; 
 There wild flowers bloom, and scent the evening breeze; 
 There birds resort and warble all day long; 
 -TJiere lovers meet and whisper tales of love. 
 
 I have italicized the last line, and for two reasons ; 
 first, because it is as true of the present as the past ; 
 and second, because it recalls the legend of the Lake 
 and the Rocks, which was learned from the aged 
 and venerable hermit of the Otter Rock. 
 
 There once lived on the northern borders of the 
 lake, in the wigwam of her father, a noted chieftain 
 
18 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 in his day, an Indian maiden of exceeding beauty 
 and rare fascination. This latter statement may 
 be received with incredulity by those who have not 
 had the opportunity of observing the North Ameri- 
 can Indians in their natural state, removed from the 
 contamination of civilization. The hermit assured 
 me that it is nevertheless true, and I proceed in his 
 own language to describe the attractions of Razuka, 
 the Beauty of the Lake : 
 
 " Slender, delicate and elastic as a reed swaying 
 in the currents of a gentle breeze, above the ordi- 
 nary height, while all the outlines of her graceful 
 figure displayed the lithe and fragile symmetry of 
 girlish years with the mature development of perfect 
 womanhood. Her brow and face were dark, and 
 the rich blood crimsoned her full pouting lips, and 
 flushed peach-like through the golden hue of her 
 cheeks with as warm a tide as ever burned in the 
 impassioned cheeks of an Anglo-Norman beauty. 
 Her long straight hair was of the deepest black. 
 Her eyes had the long almond orbits and long fringed 
 lashes, which are deemed the rarest charms of Ital- 
 ian beauty, and the large soft pupils of the deepest, 
 clearest hazel swam in a field of nacry bluish lustre, 
 which could be compared to nothing but the finest 
 mother-of-pearl. Her teeth were of perfect white- 
 ness, and her features had a harmony and unison 
 entirely their own, a soft, tranquil, half unconcious 
 majesty of stillness." 
 
 Such is the very imperfect recollection of the de- 
 scription of the beauty of Razuka, the loveliest of 
 her tribe. Habituated to labor, as all Indian women 
 are, it was but pastime to paddle the light bark 
 canoe, which was her favorite employment. On 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 19 
 
 the lake alone, angling for the fish which abounded 
 in it, she passed many days of her happy life. This 
 life, so free from the anxieties and perplexities of 
 the artificial life of civilized communities, might 
 have been protracted indefinitely but for the pos- 
 session of the personal attractions that entitled her 
 to the name she bore, Razuka, the Beauty of the 
 Lake. Not only the young men of her own tribe, 
 but those of other and distant tribes, were wont to 
 seek her presence at the wigwam of her father, or 
 gathering on the shores of the lake, gaze with fixed 
 look upon the Beauty shooting her frail canoe with 
 the speed of the arrow through the glassy waters. 
 At one time, having passed entirely over the lake 
 to the opposite shore, she was attracted by the 
 beauty of a wild rose, some distance from the bank, 
 and was about making an effort to secure it, when 
 she heard the rumbling of the not distant thunder. 
 Turning her face to the west, she observed a por- 
 tentous storm-cloud gathering on the horizon. 
 Anxious, she turned the prow of the boat home- 
 ward and rowing with energy, reached the middle 
 of the lake, when the storm fell in its fury upon 
 the waters. Standing upon the shore near the wig- 
 wam was a young man of another tribe, who had 
 been smitten by the charms of Eazuka, and solicit- 
 ous for the welfare of her whose life was evidently 
 imperilled, entered hurriedly a canoe lying near by, 
 and pushed out rapidly upon the storm -lashed lake 
 to rescue, if possible, the endangered. Happily he 
 reached her, and taking her into his stronger boat, 
 after almost superhuman exertion, brought her in 
 safety to her home. The rescuer, whose timidity 
 had hitherto deterred him from any marked demon- 
 
20 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK, 
 
 stration of interest in Razuka, now very naturally 
 hoped that the heroic deed he had done would re- 
 commend him to the favorable consideration of the 
 chief, the father of the saved ; and having awakened 
 the sentiment of gratitude in the mind of the 
 daughter, it might eventually lead to the possession 
 of the prize he coveted. Under ordinary circum- 
 stances, such doubtless would have been the case, 
 but unhappily for the cherished hopes of the noble 
 rescuer, Razuka had, unknown to her family, re- 
 ciprocated the affections of another. Chocorea, the 
 son of a M aquas chief, was the favored one. The 
 father of Razuka, ignorant that the interest of his 
 daughter was endangered, and feeling the obliga- 
 tion of gratitude, would have encouraged the aspi- 
 rations of the saviour of his idolized child. He 
 intimated to Razuka that possibly her union with 
 the Swan might promote her happiness, and if so, 
 to himself the alliance would not be objectionable. 
 Desirous to undeceive her father, and unwilling 
 that her rescuer should cherish a hope that could 
 not be realized, she frankly declared that her heart 
 belonged to another to Chocorea, the son of the 
 chief of the Massawomikes, the inveterate foes of 
 her tribe. 
 
 " Never/' said the chief, her father, "shall the 
 daughter of a Susquehannock wed the son of a 
 Maquas," (the Massawomikes were sometimes so 
 called.) "The Maquas are dogs. These f< 
 had been from time immemorial the undisturbed 
 hunting-grounds of my people, and in this lake 
 they caught at pleasure the white belly and the 
 blue fin, and below the Tails, in the water of our 
 river, the shad, the herring and the eel ; and my 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 21 
 
 people had hoped that they would sit by their fires 
 unmolested, and smoke their pipes in peace while 
 sun and moon endured ; but, alas ! in an evil day 
 the prowling wolves of the frozen lakes and haunted 
 forests, the sneaking Maquas, came, and but for 
 the strength of my arm and the arms of my noble 
 braves, many of whom fell by the arrows of the 
 hated ones, my people would have been swept from 
 the earth, as the north wind sweeps the dry leaves 
 from the woodlands. Murderers the Maquas are 
 robbers, sneaks ! No Maquas shall ever wed the 
 daughter of Nieskan, the Susquehannock, and the 
 life of the insolent shall atone for his presumption." 
 This threat was put into execution. 
 
 In the twilight of the same evening when these 
 ominous words were uttered, Razuka met Chocorea 
 in the glen (their usual place of meeting), in the 
 rear of her father's wigwam. That interview was 
 hurried and anxious, and resulted in the determin- 
 ation of Razuka to leave the wigwam of her father 
 for the distant home of her hated lover. A meet- 
 ing was appointed for the ensuing evening to de- 
 termine the time and mode of their departure. 
 That interview never took place. On the morning 
 of that day, by the hand of the angered father, 
 Chocorea, the lover of Razuka, was slain, and his 
 body was thrown into the lake. The report of a 
 firearm announced the fearful tidings to Razuka, 
 and life for her had no further charms. 
 
 Standing, like some grim sentinel, on the south- 
 ern border of the lake, was a gigantic and precipit- 
 ous rock, which threw its shadows upon its waters. 
 To the summit of this eminence Razuka, imme- 
 diately upon the report of the death of Chocorea, 
 
22 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 made her way, and, fastening to her body a stone 
 of heavy weight, secured by a cord made of the 
 bark of the birch tree, threw herself into the dark 
 
 waters. 
 
 "On the strand 
 
 Two sleeping bodies afterward were found, 
 Chocorea and Razuka, joined in death 
 As they had been in life. Their spirits, too, 
 (So the untutored children of the woods 
 Believed) had gone to happier grounds 
 The Red Man's paradise to live and love 
 Forever there." 
 
 And furthermore, the legend says that at that 
 lone rock, where Kazuka met her fate, is seen at 
 summer eve a great enchantress, 
 
 "Who will sometimes pour 
 
 Such glowing tales of love into your ear, 
 That, in a transport, you will spread your arms, 
 And clasp a lovely vision." 
 
 THE LAST KING AND QUEEN OF THE 
 KOCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 ON the right bank of Deer Creek, nearly oppo- 
 site the present residence of E. S. Rogers, Esq., 
 wan, two centuries ago, a village of the SusqiK-han- 
 nock Indians. Five miles above, on the same 
 stream, fifty yards from where the mill of James 
 Stansbury, Esq., is located, was another village of 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 23 
 
 the same Indians. Two and one-half miles south- 
 east of the Rocks, on the land now in the occupancy 
 of Bennett Grafton, Esq., was a third village. 
 Each of these villages had its own chief, but, for 
 mutual protection and aid, were confederate, ac- 
 knowledging the supremacy of the chief whose 
 location was in the vicinity of the Rocks. This 
 chief bore the not uncommon Indian name of Bald 
 Eagle. The chief of the upper village was Great 
 Bear ; of the lower, Lone Wolf. 
 
 In the autumn of the year Lone Wolf, accom- 
 panied by several of his braves, visited the Iroquois, 
 then living in the northern part of what is now the 
 State of New York. While there he became en- 
 amoured with an Ojibway maiden, who had been 
 captured by the Iroquois in her infancy ; and adopt- 
 ed by their chief, was brought up in his wigwam 
 as his own daughter. The stay of the visitors was 
 protracted until the snow began to whiten the earth 
 and the ice to cover the waters, and Lone Wolf 
 would fain have tarried until the snow and ice were 
 melted again. In the charms of the Fern-Shaken- 
 by-the-Wind, as she had been named by her captors, 
 he had found an attraction stronger than that he felt 
 for his own people in the South country. But fail- 
 ing in his efforts to win the affections of the Fern, 
 he resorted to diplomac}^, hoping that time, with 
 assiduity of attention, would soften the maiden's 
 heart, and she would ultimately become his wife. 
 The time of his departure having come, he besought 
 the Iroquois chief to allow his adopted daughter 
 and her brother to accompany him to his distant 
 home, promising to return them safely, and laden 
 with valuable presents, when the trees put forth 
 
24 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREER. 
 
 their leaves again. This request was granted. 
 The Fern and her brother accompanied Lone 
 Wolf to his home. Two moons after their arrival 
 the braves of the three confederate villages were 
 summoned to attend a great council, to be held at 
 the Rocks. At the time appointed Bald Eagle and 
 his wife, as was their custom on such occasions, 
 took their places in the seats on the Rocks known 
 as the King and Queen seats, the braves of the tribe 
 and their confederates sitting upon the ground be- 
 neath or leaning against the interspersed trees. 
 At a short distance beyond the circle of the 
 assembled warriors sat the women and children of 
 the tribes and their Iroquois visitors. The Fern 
 and her brother listened attentively to the speeches 
 of the different orators. Nor were they unobserved, 
 the maiden particularly. She could hot fail to at- 
 tract attention, for to perfection of form and great 
 symmetry of features, was added a dignity of man- 
 ner rarely equaled. Among the braves most attract- 
 ed by the charms of the Fern was The-Bird-that- 
 Flies-High, eldest son of Bald Eagle, and prospec- 
 tive heir to the supreme chieftainship or kingship, 
 as it was sometimes designated. This young brave, 
 taking advantage of a short recess had by the coun- 
 cil, approached the Fern, and offered her as a pres- 
 ent a trinket of exceeding brilliancy and apparently 
 of great value, which she graciously accepted. This 
 was observed by Lone Wolf, who, under the influ- 
 ence of an unconcealed jealousy, rushed to the spot 
 where the maiden and her admirer were standing, 
 and seizing the trinket, violently wrenched it from 
 her hands, and throwing it upon the ground, train- 
 pled it under his feet. Ordinarily such an act 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 25 
 
 would have been promptly resented, but tbe Bird 
 had too much regard for the dignity of the occasion, 
 and too much respect for the character and author- 
 ity of his father, the confederate chief, to notice it 
 by immediate and violent resentment. He quietly 
 withdrew from the presence of the maiden,, enter- 
 taining, however, the purpose to avenge the insult 
 when the fitting opportunity arrived. That oppor- 
 tunity was not long delayed. 
 
 Ten days after the close of the council, there was 
 a gathering of the tribes at the lower village, to 
 participate in the ceremonial connected with the 
 rite of purification, a rite imperative in the case of 
 every male infant of the tribe at its eighth day. 
 From a grove of stately oaks, one of which may be 
 seen at this present time, one hundred yards east of 
 the spot on which now stands the house of Mr. 
 Grafton, a procession moved toward Deer Creek, in 
 the waters of which the child was immersed by the 
 venerable priest of the lower village. The rite per- 
 formed, the procession returned in the order in 
 which it came. The remaining portion of the day 
 was spent in feasting and dancing, in which the 
 Bird participated with seeming enjoyment and for- 
 getful apparently of his purpose to avenge the in- 
 sult perpetrated by Lone Wolf. True, however, 
 to the instincts of his race, that purpose was still 
 cherished, and only awaited the opportunity of its 
 accomplishment. When about to leave for his vil- 
 lage, he challenged Lone Wolf to a trial of skill 
 with the bow and arrow, to take place at the Rocks 
 early on the morning of the succeeding day, sug- 
 gesting at the same time the Fern as ump re, whose 
 decision would be respected by all. These propo- 
 3 
 
26 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 sitions were gladly accepted by Lone Wolf, as the 
 trial proposed would afford him an opportunity of 
 displaying his acknowledged skill, and also of en- 
 joying the society of the Fern. On the following 
 day, before the frosts had been melted by the rising 
 sun, the contestants met at the place designated. 
 The contest continued until the shadows fell upon 
 the roots of the trees, when Lone Wolf was declared 
 the victor. The crown of laurel was placed on his 
 brow by the umpire, accompanied by a few words 
 complimentary to the skill of the victor, and seem- 
 ingly expressive of personal interest. The Bird 
 was excited to madness by the seeming preference 
 of the Fern for Lone Wolf, and remembering the 
 insult, suddenly grasped his rival, and rushing 
 with the speed of lightning to the edge of the preci- 
 pice, threw him headlong into the abyss below. As 
 he was falling, a few plaintive notes of the death- 
 song were heard, and the voice of Lone Wolf was 
 hushed forever. 
 
 The Bird made no effort to escape. Submissive 
 to the immemorial custom and imperative law of his 
 race, he sternly awaited the coming of the avenger, 
 and would certainly have been slain, but for the in- 
 terposition of the Fern. Drawing from the pocket 
 of a belt which she wore the trinket of two jewels 
 that had not been damaged seriously, she offered 
 them to the sister of Lone Wolf, his only surviving 
 relative, as an atonement for the blood of her broth- 
 er. The offering was accepted by her, as also by 
 her tribe. That trinket of two jewels was the Ar 
 and Thar, erroneously supposed to have been lost 
 by the ancestors of the present race of Indians in 
 their migration to this continent from the East. It 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 2? 
 
 had been preserved in the family of Bald Eagle, 
 and highly valued, as its possession gave prosper- 
 ity, and conferred princely authority and rule. 
 That the Fern should have parted with such a 
 treasure is understood in the light of the fact that 
 she had cherished an attachment for the Bird, and 
 secretly hoped to become his wife. 
 
 Three moons subsequently, at the feast of the 
 coming spring, always observed when the first birds 
 made their appearance, there was another gather- 
 ing of the tribes at the Rocks, to witness the cele- 
 bration of the nuptials of the Bird-that-Flies-High 
 and of the Fern-Shaken-by-the-Wind. Following 
 immediately this ceremony was the consummation 
 of a design that Bald Eagle had long entertained. 
 Aged and wearied with the responsibilities and la- 
 bors pertaining to his position as chief ruler of the 
 confederate tribes, he abdicated his authority, and 
 nominated his son as his successor. His choice was 
 ratified by all the tribes. Conducted by the aged 
 priest of the upper tribe to the seats on the Rocks, 
 the Bird-that-Flies-High and the Fern-Shaken-by- 
 the-Wind were formally declared King and Queen 
 of the confederate tribes. 
 
 They were the last King and Queen of the Rocks 
 of Deer Creek. Ere many moons waxed and waned 
 the pale faces came. Driven from their homes and 
 from the graves of their forefathers, the confederate 
 tribes fled to the land of the setting sun, finding 
 their last hours and their graves among strangers 
 in the distant wilderness. 
 
 Lone Wolf, whose romantic history and tragic 
 death have been related, was buried on the banks 
 of Deer Creek, about six hundred yards above the 
 
28 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 present residence of Joshua Rutledge, Esq., and 
 often, during the autumnal nights, in the faint 
 light of the waning moon, is seen at that locality a 
 strange apparition. It is thought to he the spirit 
 of the murdered chieftain mingling with the shadows 
 that fall on the rippling waters. 
 
 THE LAST INDIAN OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 MINGO PARK is the name of the estate of our 
 well-known and respected fel lo vv -citizen, James 
 Stansbury, Esq. This place is most appropriately 
 named. It is derived from Mingo Hill, an ahrupt 
 eminence immediately opposite the residence of that 
 gentleman, at the base of which luns and ripples 
 the waters of the far-lamed Deer Creek. The hill 
 itself takes its name from Mingo one of the Min- 
 goes whose wigwam was located on the lowlands, 
 an hundred yards or more above the position now 
 occupied by the mill of Mr. Stansbury, and on the 
 left bank of the stream. 
 
 The Mingoes have become celebrated in Indian 
 history. They originally occupied a large part of 
 the territory now included in the State of New York. 
 They were known by several names. The English 
 called them the Five Nations, because they consti- 
 tuted a confederacy of that number of diMinrt 
 nations, increased to si* by the accession of the 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 29 
 
 Tnscaroras of Carolina. The French called them 
 Iroquois ; the Dutch, Maquas, and the Virginia 
 Indians gave them the name of Massawomikes. At 
 home they were known by the name of Mingoes. 
 At first their habitj had been rather agricultural 
 than warlike, but unhappily for their peace, and 
 the well-being of others of their race, they were 
 attacked by the powerful tribe of the Adirondacks, 
 then occupying the country three hundred miles 
 above Trois-Rivieres in Canada. Necessity drove 
 them to war, and by their prowess and success they 
 earned the proud title of the Romans of the West. 
 Nearly exterminating the Adironacks, and proudly 
 exalting themselves on their overthrow, the Iroquois 
 or Mingoes grew rapidly to be the leading tribe of 
 the North , and fi nally of the whole continent. But, 
 like many of the mighty nations of the earth, they 
 have yielded to a superior force, and there now 
 remains only an handful to recount mournfully the 
 mighty deeds of their valorous fathers. Another 
 race, with its teeming millions, occupies their hunt- 
 ing-grounds arid controls their waters. Their fate is 
 the melancholy recollection of a greatness never to 
 be recovered, and the agonizing anticipation of 
 the utter extinction of their race. 
 
 The Mingo whose history we record had, as we 
 have seen, his home among the wild, weird scenes 
 of the Upper Deer Creek. His wigwam at first 
 was one of many, for in the locality designated 
 there was a considerable village of his tribe. The 
 coming of the white man drove them from their 
 homes, and they migrated northward and westward, 
 resting for a time in the forests of Pennsylvania 
 and on the plains of Ohio. Mingo alone remained, 
 3* 
 
30 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 occupying his wigwam, with his wife and children, 
 and finding his support in the waters of Deer Creek 
 and in the wooded hills that bordered it. The rea- 
 son of this seemingly singular procedure is, as will 
 appear, but another illustration of the mysterious 
 nature of man and the power of a sentiment. 
 
 The Mi n goes of Deer Creek made frequent forays 
 upon the Indians living on the waters of the lower 
 Patapsco, and occasionally extended their incursions 
 into Eastern Maryland and Virginia. In one of 
 their adventures they penetrated the country as far 
 south as the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, 
 opposite the mouth of the Potomac, and attacking 
 suddenly and unexpectedly, surprised and captured 
 a large village, with much booty and some prison- 
 ers. Among the captives was Watumpka, the 
 daughter of Wesaco, in his day the most celebrated 
 chieftain of the Wicomicos. Brought by her cap- 
 tors to the Rocks of Deer Creek, which at the period 
 referred to was the general rendezvous of the Mingo 
 warriors of the vicinity, and from which they con- 
 ducted their warlike expeditions, and to which they 
 returned to make distribution of the common spoils, 
 happily for Watumpka, in the allotment of the 
 prisoners, she fell to the share of Mingo, who had 
 participated in the expedition. This youthful war- 
 rior had seen twenty summers. He had already at 
 that age developed into the noblest type of manhood. 
 Six feet in height, of corresponding weight, straight 
 as the arrow he let go from his bow, of perfect fea- 
 tures, rather Roman than Indian, and of dignified 
 mien, he was the admiration of his tribe. Added 
 to these physical attractions was a mind and heart 
 intellectual, sympathetic arid loving. The artist 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 31 
 
 would have selected him as his ideal, and the female 
 heart chosen him as its possession forever. Of 
 Watumpka it might have heen said, Indian though 
 she was, what the immortal bard said of the gentle 
 Desdemona : 
 
 "A maiden never bold, 
 Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion 
 Blushed at itself." 
 
 And of the attractions of her person what Michael 
 Cassio said of the gentle maiden : 
 
 "Tempests themselves, high seas and howling winds, 
 As having sense of beauty, do omit 
 Their mortal natures, letting safe go by 
 The divine" Watumpka. 
 
 Mingo saw and was conquered. His captive was 
 the captor. Watumpka submitting resignedly to 
 the fate of the captured expatriation from her 
 home and yielding to the ardent wooing of her 
 lover, consented to become his bride. The celebra- 
 tion of the nuptials was in accordance with the rites 
 of the Mingoes, after which she occupied with her 
 husband his wigwam on the banks of the Upper 
 Deer Creek. There, under the shadows of Mingo 
 Hill, in the quiet and patient performance of the 
 duties of her position as wife and mother, she passed 
 the days of her allotted life. Not indeed without 
 feeling the weight of the shadows that fell upon her 
 heart in the recollection of the happy scenes of 
 childhood and youth, and in the remembrance of 
 the loss of a noble father and the care of a tender 
 mother. These were but occasional experiences. 
 The duties of life and the sense of the affections of 
 him she had chosen generally absorbed her thought. 
 
32 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 How long Mingo remained on Deer Creek after 
 the occupancy of the country by the whites is not 
 known. The ancestors of some of the present res- 
 idents of upper Harford knew him to have been 
 there several years after they had settled in the 
 neighborhood among them Richard Deaver, the 
 great-grandfather of the present George and Rich- 
 ard Deaver, Seniors. That after a time he followed 
 his tribe westward is conjectured ; but if so, not 
 until after the death of Watumpka, his captured 
 bride. By the side of the river, under the shadows 
 of the trees, was laid in deepest grief what was 
 mortal of Watumpka, the child of Wesaco the Wi- 
 comico, and the wife of Mingo the Massawomike. 
 And it is not difficult, we think, for the occupants 
 of .Mingo Park, as they sit by the blazing fire in the 
 winter nights, to imagine that they hear the voice 
 of Mingo, who long since joined Watumpka in the 
 land of spirits, mingling with the voices of the 
 winds without. It is the voice of the shade of the 
 yet living and loving Mingo, which seeks to com- 
 mune with the shade of the still living and loving 
 Watumpka. 
 
 Honnis, a venerable chief of the Wyandots, said 
 to an acquaintance of the writer of this narrative, 
 that the warriors of his nation were called upon to 
 put each one grain of corn into a wooden tray that 
 would hold more than half a bushel, and that 
 before all had done so the tray was full and running 
 over. The Mingoes were a more numerous and pow- 
 erful nation, covering a great tract of country, esti- 
 mated to have been twelve hundred miles in length 
 and seven hundred miles in breadth. Along the 
 Busquehanna and its tributaries, among the forests 
 
Til KIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 33 
 
 of Deer Creek and in its valleys, were once many of 
 these people. There remained for a while after 
 their departure a single representative of this once 
 mighty nation. He lingered because his captive 
 wife, the beautiful and loving Watumpka, was alien 
 to his people. They had killed her father, Wesaco, 
 the honored chief of the Wicomicos, and made her 
 a captive in a strange land and among a strange 
 people. Obedient to a mysterious quality of the 
 human mind, she became the wife of a Mingo, par- 
 ticipating in his toils and sharing in his sympathies. 
 Him alone she loved, and for him and the children 
 she bore to him she lived to the Mingoes alien 
 forever, a sentiment that led her to end her life 
 and find her grave among the pale faces, also the 
 inexorable foes of her race. 
 
 THE HERMIT OF THE OTTER ROCK. 
 
 YEARS ago I will not say how many there lived 
 in the Valley of Virginia a family of English origin. 
 They had emigrated to America, not to better 
 their worldly condition, but to relieve themselves, 
 if possible, of the shadow of a great trouble which 
 had fallen upon them at their former home. The 
 head of the household was of noble birth the blood 
 
 of the ran in his veins. Unhappily his temper 
 
 was irascible, and he lacked ability to control its 
 
34 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 violence. In a controversy with a fellow-nobleman 
 he yielded to its exactions, and struck a blow that 
 almost instantly proved fatal to his antagonist. 
 Conscious of the insufficiency of the provocation 
 that led to the fatal result, and properly fearing the 
 majesty of that equal justice which is a distinguish- 
 ing characteristic of English law, he fled his country, 
 and under an assumed name came to America, and 
 found, as he thought, a refuge of safety in the prov- 
 ince of New Jersey. Having brought with him 
 abundant means, he purchased an estate in the vicin- 
 ity of what is now , and made preparation for 
 
 the reception of his family. The large reward that 
 had been offered for his arrest stimulated inquiry, 
 and it was learned that he had fled to America. 
 Detectives were put upon his track, and they 
 were likely to accomplish the arrest of the object 
 of their search. Information of these facts coming 
 to the knowledge of the criminal and fugitive, he 
 suddenly and secretly left the locality in which he 
 had been living, and by concealed travel eventually 
 reached the forests of Virginia. Purchasing from 
 Lord Fairfax, then proprietor of the northern neck 
 of Virginia, a tract of land consisting of two thou- 
 sand acres, a few miles east of the present site of 
 , he again prepared for the reception of his 
 wife and children. Here he was secure, and was 
 in a brief time rejoined by his family. At that dis- 
 tant period of the past there were not, as now, large 
 towns, substantially built, and attractive villages, 
 with communities in town and country possessing 
 all the refinements of highly cultured society. 
 There was not a hamlet ; only an occasional cabin, 
 connected by paths or the blazings of the trees, and 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 35 
 
 with rare exceptions, the few, isolated inhabitants 
 were as rude and uncultivated as their surround- 
 ings. An exception was the family of noble lineage. 
 The oldest child of that family was a son, and at 
 the time of which we write was a young man twenty- 
 four years of age, of cultivated mind, and of much 
 personal attraction. In heart he was as his mother, 
 a woman of gentle nature and sweetness of disposi- 
 tion. And from her he inherited a love of solitude. 
 Though she was the wife of a nobleman of large 
 wealth, and constrained by her position when at 
 home to mingle much in society, it was always with- 
 out pleasure, and gladly intermitted. This predis- 
 position to solitude was intensified by the occurrence 
 which led to the removal of the family to America. 
 In its wilds at that day, where solitude reigned 
 
 almost supreme, Walter realized the fullest 
 
 gratification of the inherited and now cultivated 
 predisposition. He communed with nature and 
 with his own spirit, saddened by the remembrance of 
 a great misfortune. 
 
 Calamities come not singly. To that family of 
 stricken ones death came in the character of a mys- 
 terious plague, and all save Walter fell victims 
 
 to its relentless power. The solitude that he had 
 coveted and enjoyed, now intensified, became insup- 
 portable, and he sought relief from its oppressions. 
 Having heard from a trapper of the wild of north- 
 eastern Maryland, with its wondrous lake abound- 
 ing in fish, of the cataract falling from the summit 
 of a rocky ridge four hundred feet in height, and of 
 the rapid river, in the waters of which the otter and 
 the beaver abounded, and of the forests in which 
 roamed the elk, the bear and the deer, he resolved 
 
36 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 to muke it his home, where, undisturbed by human 
 associations, he might commune alone with nature 
 and the denizens of forest and river ; and forgetting, 
 if such were possible, that crime of a parent which 
 had smitten his heart with an inexpressible anguish, 
 wait patiently and submissively for that event which 
 comes to all. Early on the morning of May he 
 bade adieu to the forests of Virginia, and, after a 
 fatiguing journey of some days, reached his desti- 
 nation. He had not been deceived by the represen- 
 tations of the trapper. He found lake and cataract, 
 waters abounding in fish and forests in game. About 
 one-half mile east of the Kocks of Deer Creek is a 
 massive rock projecting from a precipitous hill into 
 the water. The rock is cavernous, arid was a home 
 of otters ; hence its name, the li Otter Kock." On 
 the hill, one hundred yards above the rock, in a 
 thick growth of laurel, the hermit erected a rude 
 hut of fallen logs. The cabin was well concealed 
 from view by the thicket of undergrowth, and 
 having to and from it a narrow, circuitous path, ho 
 deemed himself secure from intrusion. The once 
 " petted child of fortune " took up his abode in this 
 solitary place of the wilderness, trusting in his skill 
 in the use of gun and trap and hook to supply him 
 with the material necessary to sustain his physical 
 life, and hoping to escape the recollections of the 
 great wrong that had poisoned so soon the springs 
 of his earthly felicity. 
 
 Solitude, to be advantageous, must be for a season 
 only. Communing with ones self cannot long be 
 protracted. Too long apart from his fellows, man 
 will conjure up a thousand beings to con verso with 
 his thoughts ; he will give sentiment and even Ian- 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 37 
 
 gunge to inanimate objects. The wild man will 
 people the solitudes of the wilderness with society, 
 and the untutored man in his solitary watchings 
 and walkings among hills and valleys has his fears 
 aroused by traditions of places haunted by spirits 
 and ghouls. Where human associations break not 
 the monotony of speechless existence, there it al- 
 ways is 
 
 "Fast in the wilderness and dream of spirits." 
 
 So it became with the hermit. Now he lived in 
 an ideal world. Educated from his youth to be- 
 lieve in spiritual existences, he peopled the solitudes 
 with real though invisible beings, and often in his 
 dreams, as also in his waking reveries, communed 
 with them. The Puckwudjimmenees those fairy 
 beings whom the Algonquins thought planted the 
 acorns from which the forests of oaks grow not 
 infrequently to his vision 
 
 " came fleeting by 
 
 In the pale autumnal ray." 
 
 In the vicinity of his retreat was a gentle spring 
 of cool, limpid water, which he imagined was 
 haunted by those mysterious little people. There 
 is., perhaps, some apology for the superstition, for 
 an ancient legend tells 
 
 " How that old fountain was peopled erst by fairies ; 
 That the spirit of their spells 
 And flowery rites yet on its margin tarries, 
 And that upon the summer eve, in the silent air still lingers 
 The wild, sweet music of a band of fay-like singers." 
 
 Such solitude could not be sustained, and the 
 hermit turned to the living instincts around him 
 4 
 
S8 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 for relief. In so doing he found pleasure. He 
 found in his communings with the occupants of 
 forest and lake, grove and river, rare and exquisite 
 enjoyments, joys denied him by the presence of civil- 
 ized life, and not found in the dreamy existence he 
 had been living. The birds entertained him with 
 rarest songs of sweetest melodies, and to his ear the 
 howl of the wolf and the cry of the panther were 
 music. So also the scream of the eagle and the 
 hissing of the serpent. With all the habitants of 
 woods and waters he cultivated intimate relations. 
 He recognized them as friends, and deported him- 
 self towards them as such. His friendship was 
 reciprocated, and on their part was confiding. Had 
 he been seen in his wanderings through the wood- 
 lands, or in his solitary walkings by the river's side, 
 strange phenomena would have been witnessed. 
 The birds accompanied him, flitting after him from 
 tree to tree, or bush to bush, reluctant, seemingly, to 
 be absent from one whom they manifestly esteemed 
 and loved. The fish recognized his voice, and 
 upon his appearance on the banks of the streams 
 would gather to his presence. They fed from lii.s 
 hand as trustingly as the child feeds from the hands 
 of a loving mother. The raccoon, the opossum, the 
 wildcat and the timid deer were'equally confiding. 
 An Adam in his Eden, he ruled the beasts of the 
 field, the birds of the air, and the fishes of the 
 waters. If his physical necessities required the of- 
 fering of the confiding, that sacrifice was made with 
 the utmost tenderness and consideration. 
 
 The hermit was not always indifferent to human 
 associations. Rarely, indeed, did he Irave his seclu- 
 sion to mingle with men. At distant intervals the 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 39 
 
 hermitage was visited by persons prompted by curi- 
 osity, if by no otber motive. These rare occasions 
 were enjoyed by him, and to his visitors were of 
 great interest. His facility of communication was 
 great, and at the times referred to his conversations 
 were intensive in their character, the logical reaction 
 from the life of seclusion he had led. 
 
 Age came to the hermit, and with it thoughts of 
 other days and sweeter joys. Present to his vision 
 often was the image of his mother, and in the slum- 
 bers of the night he would dream that he heard her, 
 as in the days of his childhood, breathing blessings 
 upon him. He awoke to find it but an illusive 
 dream. Sickness came, and with it fever, picturing 
 images of terror. The vigils of the night brought 
 with them the sense of loneliness, and the mornings 
 gave no relief. Alone in the wilderness, without 
 the sympathy of his kind, and by infirmity denied 
 the happiness he had derived from association with 
 the instincts around him, he passed the days of his 
 closing life. He was then heard to say he was 
 thinking of his mother 
 
 ' ' Thy gentle hand seems lightly still caressing 
 The flaxen hair so loved, so prized by thee, 
 And as in days gone by, I hear thy blessing 
 Breathed, oh! so earnestly." 
 
 The end came. The solitary watcher by the 
 couch of the departing was a lone star. Looking 
 upward, he- gazed long and intently upon it, and 
 interpreted the beautiful phenomenon as prophetic 
 of joys beyond it, where He abides who dwells in 
 the light inaccessible. His last earthly vision was 
 the fading image of his mother. 
 
40 THE ROCKS OP DEER CREEK. 
 
 "Even thine image now, 
 The image of the lovely form, that shone, 
 The starlight of my childhood, seems to fade 
 From memory's vision. 'Tis as some pale tint 
 Upon the twilight wave, a broken glimpse 
 Of something beautiful and dearly loved 
 In far gone years, a dim and tender dream, 
 That, like a faint bow, on a darkened sky, 
 Lies on my clouded brain." 
 
 Times change, and men and things change with 
 them. The lake and cataract no longer exist. 
 Under the shadows of the Rocks human habitations 
 are built. The waters of Deer Creek are utilized 
 in the production of the necessities and conveniences 
 of civilized and, in a certain sense, artificial life. 
 The rude hut of the hermit has long since dis- 
 appeared, and the progress of the age threatens 
 greater innovations. But a very brief space of 
 time ago men of singular mien were seen among 
 the hills and along the valleys of Deer Creek, with 
 peculiar instruments in their hands, measuring the 
 surface of the earth as they passed. Unknowingly 
 they stood on the very spot on which rested the Her- 
 mit of the Otter Rock, and had they not been so in- 
 tent on pursuing their curious vocation, they might 
 have heard the voice of a mysterious though invisi- 
 ble stranger bidding them, " Begone ! " For have 
 not these men reported that these hills and valleys 
 shall soon reverberate with the loud whistlings of 
 the " locomotive " and the thunderings of the 
 " train?" And such will be the substitution for 
 the poetries of nature in the solitudes of the wilder- 
 ness. 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 41 
 
 THE ROBBER'S DEN ; OR, THE LEARNED 
 PHILOLOGIST. 
 
 A SHORT distance above the Otter Rock, on the 
 opposite bank of Deer Creek, and in view of the 
 Rocks, is a large cavernous rock, that was, as tradi- 
 tion informs us, in the. far past the retreat of an 
 unhappy man, whose hands, like those of Ishmael, 
 the brother of Isaac, the son of Abraham, were 
 against every man, and every man's hand against 
 him. The entrance to the cave is now partially 
 closed by portions of its roof, which have fallen. 
 Directly opposite, and near to the water, was a nar- 
 row path, used at first by the Indiana in their jour- 
 ney ings to and from the Rocks of Deer Creek and 
 the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and Patapsco 
 River, afterwards by the original white settlers in 
 their travel from one neighborhood to another. 
 
 The occupant of the cavern had been reared in 
 affluence and amidst elevating and refining associ- 
 ations. Born in Germany, he received his early 
 education in a gymnasium, an institution answering 
 to an American college. Afterwards he became a 
 student of the University of Heidelberg, one of the 
 largest educational institutions of a land which has 
 ever been distinguished for its ripe scholars and 
 learned philosophers. Immediately after the com- 
 pletion of his scholastic studies, he entered the ser- 
 vice of the government as an attache 7 of an Ambas- 
 sador to the English Court. Of great acuteness of 
 intellect, well skilled in international law and the 
 art of diplomacy, and ever prompt and faithful in 
 4* 
 
42 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 the discharge of the duties of his position, he won 
 the confidence of his superiors, and was recom- 
 mended to preferment. Unhappily, at that period 
 of English history, the Court was corrupt; from 
 the monarch down to the humhlest servant of the 
 State, profligacy of manners generally prevailed. 
 Truth, honor, integrity, virtue, were words that 
 had no meaning, for the sentiments, principles and 
 actions of which they are the representatives had no 
 existence. Influenced by such examples, his moral 
 force was weakened and his sense of right obscured. 
 The tempter came to him in the guise of a gilded 
 bait the love of money that not for its own sake, 
 but for the ability it would give him to gratify his 
 depraved appetites and propensities. The German 
 government has always been characterized by a 
 commendable frugality, not parsimoniousness, but 
 a generous economy. Hence, the salary and per- 
 quisites of the attache 7 sufficed to maintain the dig- 
 nity of his position, but were not enough for its 
 abuse. The Embassy, having failed on several 
 occasions to receive remittances of money that had 
 been made in the usual manner, employed the ser- 
 vices of English detectives, who, after several fail- 
 ures, succeeded in fixing the crime of the abstraction 
 of the funds on the subordinate. 
 
 The young man, receiving timely information 
 that suspicion had fallen on him, immediately, in 
 the habit of an English laborer, went on board a 
 Dutch vessel then lying in the Thames, which in a 
 few hours thereafter hoisted sail for America. Ar- 
 rived at new New York, he deemed it unsafe to re- 
 main, and having heard of the wilds of Soutlmn 
 Pennsylvania, journeyed thitherward. And alter 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 43 
 
 a fatiguing travel of many days, through forests 
 and swamps, and crossing broad rivers, he reached 
 a locality one-half mile east of the present site of 
 Fawn Grove, York county. He built a rude hut of 
 bark, a few yards above the spring, ou the farm now 
 in the occupancy of Thomas II. Wright, Esq., and 
 there tarried for a time, subsisting on the game the 
 forest afforded and the trout caught in the waters of 
 Wild Cat Branch. His stay would probably have 
 been protracted, but ascertaining a few months after 
 his coming that several families of English sup- 
 posed to have been members of the Society of Friends 
 had migrated to his vicinity, he hurriedly left, and 
 directing his steps southward, found himself in a 
 few hours amidst the rugged hills and dense forests 
 in the vicinity of the Rocks of Deer Creek, and 
 believing that here, if anywhere, he would be safe 
 from the pursuit of justice, he chose as the place of 
 his refuge the rock now known as the Robber's Den. 
 Better thoughts came to the unfortunate, and he 
 resolved to expiate, by penitence and reformation, if 
 such could be, the sin that had made him an outcast 
 and a fugitive in the wilds of America. There was, 
 indeed, no church in the wilderness, at the altars 
 of which he could bow, no clergyman to instruct and 
 comfort, but He against whom he had most sinned, 
 who is not confined to temples built with hands, 
 was there in that " void waste," to witness his tears 
 and hear his cries. Alas ! there needed only the 
 presence of the tempter and the occasion of tempt- 
 ation where are they not? to call forth again 
 the vicious elements of character that had not been 
 destroyed, only suppressed. At that time Mason 
 and Dixon were running and marking the boundary 
 
44 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 line between the provinces of Maryland and Penn- 
 sylvania, and their party had in the progress of 
 their work reached a point near where the road from 
 Fawn Grove to Fellowship Methodist Episcopal 
 Church crosses Wild Cat Branch. At a spring near 
 by, now on the farm of J. L. Glenn, Esq., they 
 had encamped for a few days to await supplies of 
 provisions from Philadelphia, by way of Joppa, 
 then a seaport town in the province of Maryland. 
 From what is now Forest Hill, there ran northward 
 toward the camp of the surveyors the Indian trail 
 of which I have written, along which the packed 
 mules must pttss. 
 
 On the morning of what promised to be a bright 
 autumnal day, the robber was awakened from his 
 somewhat protracted slumbers by the cries of the 
 muleteers then approaching. Hastily seizing his 
 gun, he made rapidly for the summit of Rock Ridge, 
 one mile southwest of the Rocks, and secreting 
 himself, awaited the coming of the train. In less 
 than an hour it reached that point of the path, and 
 being in range with his rifle, he fired, killing the 
 leading mule. This so alarmed the drivers that 
 they hastily abandoned the mules, and ran in the 
 direction of their camp. Hiding the spoils in a se- 
 cure place, the robber left the locality of his Den for 
 a time, to avoid the search that he feared would be 
 made for him. In a few weeks he returned to the 
 cave. 
 
 In the Den the once accomplished gentleman and 
 honored scholar and diplonmte, but now degraded 
 and dishonored man, passed several years of his life, 
 issuing therefrom, as necessity constrained him, to 
 prey upon the unsuspecting and often unarmed 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 45 
 
 travelers. His many deeds of cruel daring are re- 
 corded in the " Book of the Chronicles of the Rocks 
 of Deer Creek," but, sadly for our knowledge, these 
 chronicles are written in a language to which we 
 have no adequate key. There has come down to us 
 the interpretation of a few words of the now obso- 
 lete language, which gives us some faint idea of the 
 difficulty of translation by the most skilled philolo- 
 gists, if a translation is possible at all. The words 
 are : NummatQhakodtautamoQnkanunnannash our 
 lusts ; Kummogkodonattootirnmooetjongannunnon- 
 ash our questions ; and Noowomantainmoonkauu- 
 naunash our loves. Whether this was the lan- 
 guage of the Susquehannocks, who originally occu- 
 pied the country in the vicinity of the Rocks, or of 
 the Lenopes, who possessed the country eastward 
 and northward, or of the Mingoes, who at one period 
 dominated both of these nations, we have not been 
 advised. It may be an admixture of the three, as 
 it is known that the intermingling of tribes did 
 modify dialects. Nor do we know whether the 
 learned may or may not find in the words resem- 
 blance to the family of Semetic languages the He- 
 brew, Chaldee, Arabic, Punic, Aramean, Syriac, 
 Ethiopic, Hymyaritic. If such could be shown to 
 be the case, then we might hope for the ultimate 
 translation into English of the " Book of the Chron- 
 icles of the Rocks of Deer Creek." Such a result 
 would also establish the theory of the eastern ori- 
 gin of the Indians of North America. 
 
 The coming of new settlers made the habitation of 
 the robber and philologist untenantable. He could 
 not expose himself to the certainty of detection. 
 Furthermore, just at that time a paper was found 
 
46 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 by him in the path opposite the Den ; its contents 
 were as follows: " By the King, a proclamation 
 for the more effectual reducing and suppressing of 
 pirates and privateers in America, as well on the 
 sea as on the land in great numbers, committing fre- 
 quent robberies and piracies, which hath occasioned 
 a great prejudice and obstruction to trade and com- 
 merce, and given a great scandal and disturbance to 
 our government in those parts." London Gazette. 
 Whither he went, we do not know ; and the only 
 remembrance of the unhappy man is the " Book of 
 the Chronicles of the Rocks of Deer Creek." Who 
 can translate it? 
 
 THE ENCHANTRESS OF HUNTING RIDGE. 
 
 RUNNING parallel with Rock Ridge, one and a-half 
 miles north-northwest of the Rocks of Deer Creek, 
 is Hunting Ridge, and, like the first, is high, 
 rugged, and in places precipitous. Both ridges are 
 covered with trees, generally of large growth, and 
 between them is a narrow valley. The whole scene 
 is of the wildest character, and, singularly, to the 
 inhabitants generally of the county of Harford, is 
 almost as much unknown as are the Highlands of 
 Scotland or the mountains of Switzerland. In the 
 narrow valley, at a time far beyond the memory of 
 living man, tjiere dwelt, as th-e ancient legend tells 
 
TIIEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 47 
 
 us, in a rude hut, built of unhewn logs and cov- 
 ered with clapboards, a family consisting of three 
 persons an aged man, apparently of fourscore 
 years, intellectual in his appearance and courtly in 
 his manners; a venerable woman, intelligent and 
 dignified of mien ; their daughter, a young lady 
 possessing much beauty, affable, and of rare intel- 
 lectual and social accomplishments. Whence they 
 came none knew, and why they should have left a 
 refined and cultivated community to take up their 
 residence in so isolated and forbidding a locality 
 was a mystery to all. After a time the abode was 
 untenanted, and no one knew whither the former 
 occupants had gone. A few years ago a gentleman 
 visited La Grange, the country-seat of E. S. Rogers, 
 Esq., and hearing the legend, was prompted by 
 curiosity, and the interest he felt in the shadowy 
 past, to visit the unknown scenes. About the mid- 
 dle of the afternoon of a summer day he left the 
 residence of his hospitable friend at La Grange, and 
 walked to the locality of whose physical attractions 
 and mythical story he had heard. The experiences 
 of his visit I will give in his own language, as 
 nearly as my memory will permit me : 
 
 " Entranced by the grandeur of the hills and 
 the picturesque loveliness of the vale, I lingered 
 until the twilight of the evening came. Warned 
 by the lateness of the hour, I was about to retrace 
 my steps toward La Grange, when I observed, a 
 short distance from me, a rude hut of logs, which 
 gave signs of occupation. Associating this scene 
 with the legend of the mysterious family, I felt an 
 uncontrollable impulse to visit the rude habitation 
 and its inmates. As I approached the dwelling I 
 
48 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 heard a female voice of exquisite melodiousness, 
 accompanied by a harp, singing 
 
 " When summer flowers are weaving 
 
 Their perfume wreaths in air, 
 And the zephyr wings receiving 
 
 The love gifts gently bear ; 
 Then memory's spirit stealing, 
 
 Lifts up the veil she wears, 
 In all their light revealing 
 
 The loved of other years. 
 
 " When summer stars are shining 
 
 In the deep, blue midnight sky, 
 And their brilliant rays entwining, 
 
 Weave coronals on high ; 
 When the fountain's waves are singing 
 
 In tones night only hears, 
 Then sweet thoughts waken, bringing 
 
 The loved of other years. 
 
 " The flowers around me glowing, 
 
 The midnight stars' pure gleams, 
 The fountain's ceaseless flowing, 
 
 Recalls life's fondest dreams, 
 Where all be bright in heaven, 
 
 And tranquil are the spheres, 
 To thee sweet thoughts are given, 
 
 The loved of other years. 
 
 " The interest I had felt was now intensified, and 
 immediately upon the cessation of the voice and 
 harp I rapped at the door. It was heard and an- 
 swered by a gentle voice, bidding me, ' Come in.' 
 I entered, and finding but a single occupant, a 
 young lady, made as though I would leave the 
 room, when a kind but emphatic, ' Be seated,' 
 constrained me to remain. The young lady in 
 whose presence I was possessed great personal at- 
 tractions. Her features were regular, he form elas- 
 tic and graceful, showing that no common blood 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY,. 49 
 
 flowed through her veins. An irrepressible desire 
 seized me to know by what strange mutation of for- 
 tune one so gifted should have been impelled to 
 bury herself and all her hopes in this desolate wil- 
 derness. I was about to enter into conversation, 
 with the view of eliciting information that might 
 give me a clue to the history of the mysterious be- 
 ing, when I felt myself under the influence of a 
 strange spell. In a few moments I was in a pro- 
 found slumber. How long I slept I did not know, 
 and when I awoke the scene was wholly changed. 
 I was in a princely mansion. In the room a soli- 
 tary light was gleaming. The windows were 
 draped with heavy silken curtains. A whisper of 
 leaves and the murmur of a fountain were heard 
 coming from without. Delicate flowers, arranged 
 in vases, were shedding their perfume through the 
 room, and the silver lam)) shed a soft arid radiant 
 light on every object. The only occupant of the 
 room besides myself was a young lady of medium 
 height, pale of complexion, standing, statue-like, 
 in the middle of the room, with a harp in her hand. 
 8 he sang : 
 
 " Deep hidden in the bosom lies 
 
 A talisman of magic power, 
 An heirloom borrowed from the skies, 
 
 For man in his first sinless hour, 
 Inwoven in his secret heart 
 
 By some kind, pitying angel's hand, 
 Eve, Eden saw him sad depart 
 
 A wandering exile through the land. 
 This, when all other gifts took wing, 
 
 When of each heavenly gift bereft, 
 He stood a doomed, deserted thing, 
 
 From the great moral wreck was left 
 Was left to light the lurid gloom 
 5 
 
50 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 That gathered o'er in his fall, 
 To burst, to brighten, and to bloom 
 
 O'er mined Eden, Ere, Earth all, 
 Awakening joys that ne'er were his 
 
 In all their matchless pride and power, 
 Until all other hopes of bliss 
 
 Fled from him. In that angry hour, 
 When Heaven resumed the gifts it gaye, 
 
 And drove him forth in his despair 
 To look upon his future grave, 
 
 The self-same hand was ready there 
 As when it plucked the fruit for him. 
 
 She touched the gem his bosom bore, 
 And though till now its light was dim, 
 
 A glory like the Cherubim 
 It from that magic moment wore. 
 
 And ever, r mid the wrong and wrath 
 Of life, there beaineth far above 
 
 The darkness dwelling on his path, 
 The glory gleam of woman's love. 
 
 " Again the scene changed. I was in the depths 
 of a dark forest. It was midday, but the light of 
 the sun scarce reached me at the spot where I was 
 standing the overhanging branches of the heavy- 
 foliaged trees were almost impenetrable to its rays. 
 Of the time when I left the princely mansion and 
 its accomplished inmate I had no recollection, nor 
 how I reached the interior of the forest. I saw no 
 road, not even a path, by which I could have entered 
 it. My situation perplexed me ; indeed, alarmed 
 me. For the first time in my life I saw myself 
 surrounded by a network of curious circumstances 
 I cuuld not comprehend. My intellect failed me in 
 the perception of my real condition ; so also in the 
 apprehension of the means by which I might be 
 relieved from what seemed to me a hopeless impris- 
 onment in the unknown wilderness. The anxieties 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 51 
 
 of my situation awoke me. I was in the library of 
 my friend at La Grange. Looking at the clock 
 upon the mantel, I found that I had been asleep 
 half an hour. I had been under the influence of a 
 great Enchantress." 
 
 THE AGED TRAPPER, HUNTER AND FISH- 
 ERMAN OF THE INDIAN CUPBOARD. 
 
 THK Indian Cupboard is a well-known locality 
 one and a-half miles below the Rocks of Deer Creek 
 and one-fourth mile below the ancient mill now 
 owned by heirs of the late J. Bond Preston, Esq. 
 The Cupboard is a cavern entering a bold and pro- 
 jecting rock whose base is washed by the waters of 
 Deer Creek. Within a few yards of this rock is 
 the home of Alexius, the noted trapper, hunter and 
 fisherman. When Alexius first saw the light of 
 day is not known by the writer of this narrative, 
 nor is it important to the interest of the story that 
 it should be known. I am aware that ordinarily 
 such ignorance might be interpreted as evidence of 
 want of interest in the subject of the story, and 
 perhaps as a lack of appreciation of his deeds. 
 Such a judgment would do essential injustice to the 
 hero, and such he was in the truest and most sig- 
 nificant sense of that term. If his deeds do not 
 
52 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 rival those of the celebrated Baron Munchausen in 
 the quality of exaggeration, or those of the Arabian 
 Nights in romantic significance, they are such as to 
 rank him with the celebrities of the time, and to 
 entitle him to a place on the historic page. The 
 place where the infantile cries of Alexius were first 
 heard is among the wild, weird scenes of Upper 
 Deer Creek, in the vicinity of the Rocks so celebrated 
 in .story and in song. The great-grandparents 
 of Alexius were from the Island of Madagascar, in 
 the Indian Ocean. Their migration to the Ameri- 
 can Continent was a forced one. The negroes of 
 Zululand, South Africa, known as daring and 
 aggressive warriors, and unscrupulous as to the 
 means by which they secured their ends, under 
 pretense of a friendly visit, entered Madagascar 
 with hostile purpose, and attacking their unsuspect- 
 ing and unprepared army, defeated them, taking 
 many prisoners. These they sold to Portuguese 
 traders, who, in turn, transferred them to English 
 dealers in men. Among these were the ancestors 
 of the subject of my story. They were put on 
 board ship, and, after a somewhat tempestuous 
 voyage of ten months, were landed at Joppa, then 
 a seaport town in the province of Maryland. Hap- 
 pily for them and their descendants, they were 
 purchased upon their arrival in America by a hu- 
 mane and benevolent gentleman then residing in 
 the vicinity of Scott's old fields, now Bel Air, the 
 county-seat of Harford. 
 
 Before proceeding further in the relation of my 
 story, I will state, by way of parenthesis, that the ' 
 people of Madagascar are not negroes. They arc 
 copper-colored, have straight black hair, and lack 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 53 
 
 those prominent facial features which belong to the 
 African race proper. They were sometimes en- 
 slaved, because it was practicable to do so, and 
 profitable because their better looks made their 
 possession more desirable. Enslaved, they inter- 
 married with the inferior race, and hence but few, 
 if any, remain of unmixed Island blood. 
 
 It is due to the character of slaveholders gener- 
 ally of that early period in the history of our Conti- 
 nent, to say that they were not deficient in those 
 qualities that were needed to the discharge of the 
 duties of their relations as masters. Their ser- 
 vants such they were called were well fed, well 
 clothed, and their tasks, unlike those of Egyptian 
 bondmen, were not heavy. To them was imparted 
 a measure of education, and their attendance upon 
 religious service was encouraged. In their early 
 years they were allowed the utmost latitude of lib- 
 erty. Basking in the sun, rolling in the sand, wad- 
 ing in the water, and an occasional siesta, consti- 
 tuted chiefly their summer employment ; the winter, 
 in the ashes by the blazing hickory fire, the occa- 
 sional episode, snow-balling or sliding on the ice. 
 The only fear of the youthful negro was of his irate 
 mamma, whose habit of persistent beatings has often 
 suggested the inquiry, " Is the African woman des- 
 titute of sympathy ? ' ' Many a negro child has been 
 shielded from the cruel treatment of its mother by 
 the authority of a sympathetic master or mistress. 
 Instincts are hereditary, and though they may be 
 modified by time and circumstances, often survive 
 in their original character, with more or less dis- 
 tinctness, for many generations. The woman in 
 Africa who will barter her child for gain, in America 
 
54 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 may inflict cruel chastisements. Alexius was for- 
 tunate in the possession of his Madagascan mother, 
 she having all that solicitude for her offspring, and 
 exercising that maternal care which insured their 
 comfort ; and having in his mistress a lady of great 
 benevolence of character and kindness of heart, his 
 youthful life was happy. 
 
 Alexius developed at a very early age those tastes 
 and qualities which have made him so celebrated in 
 the annals of Deer Creek as a most skillful and 
 successful trapper, hunter and fisherman. Retiring 
 in his nature, he loved the solitudes of the forest, 
 and found in communion with its occupants the 
 gratification denied by the common pursuits of life. 
 And it was thus in his association with birds and 
 fishes. At that period the forests of Deer Creek 
 abounded in game, and its waters in fish. In the 
 woods were raccoons, opossums, ground-hogs, wild- 
 cats, and smaller game; in the streams fall-fish, 
 perch, eels, trout and turtle. The favorite game 
 of our hunter was the ground-hog, or wood-chuck, 
 as naturalists call it ; and many are the wonderful 
 and marvelous stories told of his adventures with 
 this animal. Like a skillful hunter as he was, his 
 first effort was to secure their confidence. He fre- 
 quented their burrows and made their acquaintance. 
 He had the peculiar faculty of making himself 
 understood by them. This animal is not alone in 
 its susceptibility to education. The flea has been 
 trained to know the voice of its master, and to be 
 obedient to his commands. Unhappily fur the con- 
 liding chuck, the motive of the seemingly friendly 
 hunter was sinister ; he smiled only to betray, and 
 the confidence of the simple chuck was his destruc- 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 55 
 
 tion. 'Possum-hunting was an exciting pastime. 
 In the woods of Rock Ridge and contiguous hills he 
 passed much time in this, to him, pleasing pursuit. 
 His hahit was to leave his retreat about nightfall, 
 taking with him his two trusty dogs, Bell and Trav- 
 eler. Once on a trail, they followed it unerringly 
 to the hiding-places of the game, which were usu- 
 ally in the thick boughs of some lofty tree, or in 
 the rocky caves with which the ridges abound. 
 The coon treed, the hunter ascended the tree with 
 almost the agility of the squirrel, and, ascertaining 
 the position of the game, proceeded to dislodge it. 
 This he did either by a violent shaking of the limb, 
 or by pushing the animal from his perch with a long 
 and heavy pole. The coon on the ground was 
 immediately secured by the dogs. More than 
 once the hunter narrowly escaped the loss of 
 his life in these perilous adventures, and he 
 bears to this day on his hand the mark of the 
 bite of an enraged coon struggling for his liber- 
 ty. Want of space forbids the enumeration of 
 the many thrilling adventures connected with his 
 pursuit of game in the forests. In the water he 
 was equally successful. Eels of enormous length 
 and size were trophies of the fisherman's skill, as 
 also turtles of great bulk and wonderful strength. 
 Notwithstanding the asseveration of the fisherman, 
 whose veracity it is not our province to question, 
 it is hard to believe that " Big Turtle " supported 
 the weight of a man of one hundred and sixty 
 pounds, and carried him on his back the distance 
 of a half-mile. The theory of Darwin the survival 
 of the fittest would lead us to look for animals of 
 larger size at the present than in the past, and there 
 
56 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 is the remotest possibility that this trophy of our 
 fisherman's skill was one the last survivor possi- 
 bly of a family that had, by a fortuitous and for- 
 tunate concurrence of circumstances, been preserved 
 from the power of all trappers, hunters and fisher- 
 men, from Nimrod down to the last of his class on 
 Deer Creek. 
 
 Our hunter was characterized by an even courage 
 that made him equal to emergencies generally. He 
 was never known to exhibit fear in contest with bird 
 or beast or fish. It was different as to a gigantic 
 snake, a habitue of the hill opposite the old mill 
 above the Cupboard. This snake tl was twenty ieet 
 long and thick as a man's body. " It is conjectured 
 that it was of foreign origin, or was of the Hairs- 
 spring species that in very late times so excited the 
 people of that section of Baltimore county, Md. But 
 whatever may be the opinion of the present genera- 
 tion as to these accounts of the size of the fauna of 
 the past, it is true that our hero was remarkably 
 successful in his favorite vocations. And now, in 
 his old age, he is envied by the younger generation 
 of hunters, trappers and fishermen. He may be 
 seen occasionally bearing homeward, as a trophy of 
 his skill, a fat " chuck," and often in the early 
 spring or summer morning drawing from the waters 
 of Deer Creek the largest fall-fish or the longest eel. 
 The " coon " and the " 'possum " are now secure in 
 their retreats, for age has incapacitated him for those 
 exertions necessary to their successful pursuit. 
 
 A new day has dawned. An intensive civiliza- 
 tion, eager for great achievements, has decreed that 
 the hills and dales of Upper Deer Creek shall no 
 longer rest in the; % comparative solitudes. The 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 57 
 
 tramroad and the steam engine, with their enormous 
 capacity of transportation, are about to substitute 
 the common modes of travel and trade. The change 
 will bring an increased population, and insure the 
 erection of factories and mills. The theatres of the 
 solitary wanderings and walkings and skillful 
 achievements of our hunter, trapper and fisherman 
 will re-echo with the whirr of the wheel and the 
 sound of the hammer. A new generation, with its 
 real and artificial wants, will take the place of the 
 old, content in its enjoyment of the common modes 
 of life. 
 
 The Indian Cupboard, no longer tenantable, has 
 been abandoned. A common country road has 
 marred its beauties, and soon the mighty and 
 mysterious dynamite will reduce its proportions 
 still more. Reluctant to leave a spot endeared to 
 him by so many recollections of the past, the subject 
 of our narrative is building of stone and wood, un- 
 der the shadow of the Copper Rock, a habitation 
 conformable to the style of modern times, where, as 
 a partial compensation for the great loss he has sus- 
 tained, the exclusion of the employments and pleas- 
 ures of the past, he will view the mysterious 
 stranger as it passes by, laden with the productions 
 of the earth and the fruits of human skill. 
 
 The story I have told is not of one reared in afflu- 
 ence, a child of fortune, but of a poor man, who has 
 illustrated the dignity of manhood in the faithful 
 discharge of the duties of life as he understood them. 
 And there are those who have owed to him the 
 preservation of their lives from a watery grave in 
 the sometimes excessively swollen and turbulent 
 waters of Deer Creek ; and many more for assist- 
 
58 THE ROCKS OP DEER CREEK. 
 
 ances and courtesies that ought not to be forgotten. 
 To that class of the community who worship only 
 the great we have no apology to offer for this re- 
 membrance of the humble. We find in such recol- 
 lection an illustration of the well-known adage, 
 " Act well your part ; there all the honor lies." 
 
 THE MINE OLD FIELDS ; OR, THE GATH- 
 ERING OF THE WITCHES. 
 
 Two miles east portheast of the Rocks are the 
 Mine Old Fields. This locality, though the Ara- 
 bia Petrea of this section of Harford County, is 
 not without a certain degree of interest, and may 
 be catalogued with the many curious and attractive 
 natural objects of the neighborhood of the Rocks. 
 It is an elevated plateau of considerable area, abound- 
 ing in iron ore, chrome and other minerals. Much 
 of the rock is soapstone of a superior quality. 
 From this stone the Susquehannocks and other In- 
 dians of the vicinity made their culinary vessels. 
 Occasionally there is found a pot or other relic which 
 is treasured as a souvenir of the distant past. These 
 Fields, as they are called, have never produced 
 wheat, or corn, or other cereals, but did for a time 
 yield an abundant harvest of iron ore, which, being 
 smelted, was manufactured into various articles that 
 the necessities of civilized life demand, and they 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 59 
 
 will, doubtless, upon the completion of the Bail- 
 road, yield again their valuable treasures. 
 
 A tradition exists that on this territory was found, 
 many years ago, a rich mine of lead ; that it was 
 known to the first Mr. Rigdon, settled near by on 
 land now in the occupancy of some of his decend- 
 ants. He was, in his day, a great hunter, and ob- 
 tained there, it is said, all the lead he used. There 
 is a similar tradition that in the immediate vicinity 
 of the Hocks there is a gold mine, known to the Sus- 
 quehannocks, the original inhabitants, the knowl- 
 edge of which was communicated by them to some 
 white man who visited the locality at an early day. 
 The contractor who made his way by powder, and 
 crowbar and pick through the formidable rock, in 
 the hill immediately beyond the creek, above the 
 mill, found in the rock a substance bearing so strong 
 a resemblance to gold that he conveyed a Urge 
 specimen to the shanty. There it was for a time to 
 be examined by the curious. But like the discover- 
 ers of gold at the settlement of Jamestown, Vir- 
 ginia, expectants were doomed to disappointment. 
 The Mine Old Fields do have iron and chrome, and 
 perhaps lead. 
 
 Like other portions of this far-famed section of 
 Harford, the Mine Old Fields have a mythical his- 
 tory. The story of the gathering there by moon- 
 light of the witches to practice their mysterious 
 rites, has come down to us of the present generation. 
 We shall relate it substantially as it was told to an 
 aged citizen by that venerable hermit, whose roman- 
 tic and touching history is written in this book. 
 That the story may be properly appreciated, it will 
 be necessary to preface it by some preliminary 
 statements. 
 
60 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 Many persons believe not only in the power of 
 the devil to assume a corporeal form, hut also in his 
 capacity of acting injuriously upon mankind through 
 the instrumentality of others. Baxter, the author 
 of the "Saint's Rest," shared this opinion with 
 many of the wisest and best of England in an age 
 of culture and refinement. The same credulous 
 tone of mind existed in New England in its early 
 history. It is true that at that period belief in 
 witchcraft -ind other diabolical agencies were popu- 
 lar delusions which were rapidly disappearing from 
 the world, but such men as Cotton Mather and the 
 intelligent inhabitants of Palem were always ready 
 to sustain their belief in such superstitions both 
 from holy writ and philosophy. It was an excess 
 of the imagination, affecting not only the stupid 
 and the dull, but also the highest wrought minds. 
 The early residents of our vicinage were a simple 
 and enthusiastic people, primitive in their manners, 
 and were doubtless affected by the sentiments of 
 their more pretentious fellow citizens northeast of 
 them. The Puritan, then as now, despite the pre- 
 judice and repugnancy felt toward him, singularly 
 impressed his views and opinions upon others. In 
 the existence of witches and other malevolent beings 
 a*id their power of harm, many of our ancestors 
 had the most implicit faith. They saw spirits and 
 witches ; to them devils appeared ; strange sights 
 were seen, strange sounds were heard. The Jack 
 o' the Lantern was recognized as a personality 
 whose every purpose was evil, and whose following 
 certainly brought perplexity, and even peril of life. 
 The Fay, though extremely diminutive in size, was 
 greatly feared, not so much on account of its physi- 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 61 
 
 cal ability to do harm as of a supposed moral power 
 of evil. The potent words were spell, charm, witch- 
 craft. 
 
 Why witches practice incantation on moonlight 
 nights may possibly be explained on philosophical 
 principles. There is no peculiarity, that we are 
 aware of, in the visual organs of a witch. The singu- 
 lar construction of the eye of an owl or an Albinos 
 adapts their sight to moonlight. The retinas of 
 witches are suited to the light of day. 'Tis not that ; 
 'tis this, perhaps. The moon is idiosyncratic ; 
 psychologically, she is peculiar, and by the well- 
 known law of sympathy impresses her own nature 
 upon the nature of man. It must be so, or else the 
 word lunacy would not have found a place in our 
 lexicography. Other reasons why the witches were 
 wont to assemble in the Mine Old Fields on moon- 
 light nights are apparent. They had light. Be- 
 sides, the fears of the people, heightened by moon- 
 light, were a defence to them as strong as the walls 
 of a fortified city. The witches were there, and there 
 they practiced their dark rites. Around the blazing 
 fire and the boiling caldron they, with joined hands, 
 walked during the hours of moonlight " black 
 spirits arid white, red spirits and gray," singing : 
 
 "Mingle, mingle, mingle, 
 You that mingle may," 
 
 and invoking the spirits of power, ceased their 
 orgies only when there came to them the gifts of 
 power, in the exercise of which they satanically de- 
 lighted. The demonstration of the fact that they 
 who gathered in the Mine Old Fields by moonlight 
 were witches, was that people in the vicinity became 
 6 
 
62 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 sick in all sorts of ways, falling into strange fits, 
 crawling under beds and into cupboards, barking 
 like dogs, inewing like cats, bleating like sheep, and 
 lowing like cattle. The doctors were sent for, and 
 they declared that their patients were bewitched. 
 All were superstitious. All believed in diabolical 
 agency. Terror and consternation were in every 
 heart. 
 
 Living at that day on Deer Creek, one mile east 
 of the Mine Old FieMs, in an humble dwelling, was 
 an aged woman, whose only misfortune if such it 
 were was that she was poor and infirm. The 
 other occupants of the hut were an aged Indian 
 woman, one of the very few who remained after her 
 people had migrated westward, and a young man of 
 the class of the "innocents," as the Swiss mountain- 
 eers benevolently name such unfortunates as are 
 not endowed at birth with the sana mens. Albert, 
 as he was always tenderly called by his aged moth- 
 er, willingly labored to provide sustenance for the 
 household, and the Indian woman, Maggy, having 
 been taught the art of weaving, contributed also by 
 her industry and skill to the support of the family. 
 Of the aged matron of the lowly household it might 
 have been said, " She that is a widow indeed, and 
 desolate, trusting in God, and continueth in suppli- 
 cation night and day ;" and of her assistant, " She 
 hath done what she could." An Eden it was. But 
 the cruelties of suspicion were soon to be felt by 
 the hitherto unsuspecting and confiding household. 
 Trouble came from an unexpected source. 
 
 Father G., a prominent man of the neighbor- 
 hood, in conversation had said, " Tliere have been 
 wizards and witches in all times," and that pious 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 63 
 
 and learned man, Cotton Mather, says, ".That if 
 all the spectral appearances and molestations of evil 
 angels, and tricks of necromancy, and bodily appa- 
 ritions of Satan and his imps, could he collected 
 and counted, that are daily and nightly going on, 
 all righteous and goodly men's hair would stand 
 on ends with horror." " In these parts," con- 
 tinued Father G., "are infernal doings," and 
 pointing significantly toward the cabin which the 
 unsuspecting were abiding in peace, ominously said, 
 " Satan may now abide there." That was sufficient 
 to create in all minds a suspicion that very soon 
 ripened into a conviction, that the aged and decrepit 
 occupant of the cottage, as, perhaps, also her faith- 
 ful assistant, dealt with familiar spirits, and that 
 much, if not all, the strange evils which afflicted 
 the community were to be attributed to their ma- 
 chinations. 
 
 On the morning of the following day the former 
 habitation of the widow was but a pile of smoking 
 ashes. The people said, "The wretches who made 
 a compact with Satan, and inflicted the evils we 
 suffer, have perished. Give God the glory." 
 
 From the Mine Old Fields the witches have de- 
 parted. Their unhallowed rites have ceased ; the 
 innocent are at rest. And Father G. has, we hope, 
 expiated his great wrong in the light of a knowl- 
 edge free from cruel suspicion. 
 
64 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 THE FALLING BRANCH ; OR, THE CAP- 
 TURED BRIDE. 
 
 EMPTYING into Deer Creek, three miles above the 
 Rocks, is Falling Branch. It is so called from the 
 fact that a mile or more above its mouth its waters 
 fall from a rock twenty-five or thirty feet in height, 
 forming a miniature Niagara, which, with the 
 picturesque and romantic surroundings, constitute 
 a most pleasing attraction. To some this curiosity 
 is more attractive than the Rocks, nature not dis- 
 playing herself in such bold and massive forms, but 
 exceeding in picturesque beauty. It is a wild scene, 
 primitive almost as when the wild man speared the 
 speckled trout that abounded in its waters, or shot 
 the swift deer that frequented the adjacent forests. 
 Here the attention of the visitor is also curiously 
 drawn to a series of stone steps that lead from the 
 base of the rock over which the waters fall to its 
 summit. These steps were seemingly cut by the 
 hand of man. If so, by whom and by what instru- 
 ments? The Susquehannocks, who dwelt by the 
 locality when discovered by the white man, were 
 men of large size and of much strength, but could 
 physical strength so handle the stone axe or hatchet 
 as to make the achievement possible? If human 
 ingenuity and labor constructed the steps, it may 
 have been done by that previous race whose instru- 
 ments of labor were of copper or iron, or by the 
 present race, to whom invention has supplied such 
 instruments in their more perfect forms. 
 
 Within fifteen or twenty yards of the falls and 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 65 
 
 directly opposite them are the remains of a mill and 
 a dwelling-house, the former abode of the miller. 
 Why the immediate contiguity of those build- 
 ings to the ialls? Was the builder and occupier a 
 man of romantic turn of mind? Appreciating the 
 scene, and charmed by the music of the falling 
 waters, were these the motives that prompted him 
 to fix his residence in this wild spot? It would be 
 pleasant to think so, but sadly for our imaginings, 
 the suspicion of utility and economy is suggested. 
 His nearness to the falls obviated the necessity of 
 building a dam of perishable material, or the digging 
 of a race, or the construction of a trunk more than 
 a few feet in length. Wise, worldly wise, was Isaac 
 Jones in his day and generation. But for aught we 
 know, in the heart of that plain man who patiently 
 watched the hopper in the years long gone, when 
 northern Harford was a comparative wilderness, and 
 the progenitors of the pretentious race of the pres- 
 ent were a plain folk without ambition to be great, 
 there may have been the highest and the subtliest 
 appreciation of nature in her sublime and beautiful 
 moods, and a susceptibility to art that brought to 
 him the knowledge of that mysterious law a law 
 operative in the realms of spirit and matter equally, 
 which harmonizes the creations of the made with 
 the works of the Maker. The artist-born builds not 
 a high house in a diminutive and contracted valley, 
 nor a low one on a high hill overlooking an extended 
 plain. These are but few of the many fitnesses of 
 things perceived by the man whom God has created 
 great in his appreciation of the harmonies of nature. 
 Almost a demonstration of the possession of this 
 quality is the row of Lombardy poplars, now in 
 
66 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 decay, that were planted in front of the dwelling, 
 which, with the native forest trees and rocks and 
 cataract and rapid river, constituted a scene of sur- 
 passing attractiveness. 
 
 The Falling Branch owes its chief attraction to 
 the story of the Captured Bride, which, though 
 confessedly legendary and mythical, is not without 
 a certain degree of interest, especially to persons of 
 much romantic susceptibility. Arlotto was the only 
 daughter of a gentleman of fortune, whose home 
 was in the vicinity of Hull, England. The attrac- 
 tions of her person and the fascination of her man- 
 ners, added to a superior mental and moral culture, 
 brought to her presence many admirers. Among 
 them was an officer of the English Army. Young, 
 handsome, accomplished, brave, the scion of a noble 
 family, in all respects worthy of her whose qual- 
 ities of mind and heart had so strongly attracted 
 him, his suit was encouraged, and after a proper 
 interval of time, they were wedded. The church, 
 or rather cathedral, in which the nuptials were 
 
 celebrated, was 
 
 ^ 
 
 "A dim and mighty Minster of old times! 
 A temple shadowy with remembrance 
 Of the majestic past." 
 
 Everything about it told of a race 
 
 41 that nobly, fearlessly, 
 
 In their heart's worship poured forth a wealth of love." 
 
 There, under its fretted roof, and in the midst of its 
 wrought coronals of ivy, and vine, and leaves, and 
 sculptured rose '*the teriderest image of mortal- 
 ity" the light which streamed through arch and 
 
TI1EIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 67 
 
 aisle in harmony with all ; that dim, religious light, 
 which is a reminder of the past of the dim, the 
 shadowy, the heroic past there, in the select 
 assemhly of the high-born, they pledged each to 
 other their troth, and were by the aged and vener- 
 able priest pronounced man and wife. Retiring 
 from the church, they were followed by the aged 
 minister and his assistants, singing a recessional 
 hymn, accompanied by the organ, the flood of its 
 harmony bearing up on its high waves their voices 
 attuned to the praise of God. Such was the mar- 
 riage scene. 
 
 The past is always suggestive of the future. The 
 memories of the past, like dim processions of a 
 dream, are associated with visions of the future, 
 though indistinct as dreams that ic sink in twilight 
 depths away." Arlotto passed from the altar 
 happy, indeed, in the sense of the love of her now 
 adored husband, but not without thoughts tinged 
 with sadness. Apprehension of coming sorrows 
 was the shadow that fell upon her pathway so soon. 
 " Coming events " sorrowful and pleasant alike 
 " cast their shadows before." A few days after 
 the marriage the young officer was ordered to rejoin 
 his regiment, then at Portsmouth, about to embark 
 for America. This summons was the interpretation, 
 in part, of the mysterious revelations that mingled 
 with her present joys fears of future evils. 
 
 "Even so the dark and bright will kiss; 
 The sunniest things throw brightest shade, 
 And there is even a happiness 
 That makes the heart afraid." 
 
 The New World was at this period a theatre for 
 
68 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 the struggles of giants. France and England were 
 contending for the mastery, and the stake was a 
 continent, with all its possibilities of wealth and 
 power. So desperate was the conflict, and of such 
 magnitude was the issue, that each party was 
 obliged to avail itself of all its resources. To the 
 place of battle, so full of peril to the participants, 
 the youthful officer would have gone alone. He 
 was unwilling that his bride should be subjected to 
 the privations incident to warfare, and to the perils 
 always attending it, greater in this case because of 
 the character of the foe. The savages were gener- 
 ally the allies of the French. Yielding to her en- 
 treaties, he consented that she should accompany 
 him. 
 
 Arriving in America, the regiment to which the 
 officer belonged was detached to form a part of the 
 army then being raised by the governors of Massa- 
 chusetts and Connecticut, and designed to operate 
 against the French and Indians, who in large force 
 were threatening the borders of their respective prov- 
 inces. In a battle fought soon after his entrance 
 upon the campaign, the young officer was wounded, 
 and left upon the field as dead. Arlotto, imme- 
 diately upon the cessation of the conflict, made her 
 way to the ensanguined field, and after a patient 
 and anxious search found her yet living husband. 
 The dying sufficiently recovered to recognize her 
 whose presence was the only earthly solace left to 
 him. A few words, with difficulty uttered, were 
 expressive of the tenderness and strength of his 
 affection. Arlotto hoped. How delusive that hope 1 
 
 "A moment more and she 
 Knew the fullness of her woe at last ! 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 69 
 
 One shriek the forests heard and mute she lay 
 And cold; yet clasping still the precious clay 
 To her scarce heaving breast." 
 
 Awaking from what was less than death and more 
 than sleep, Arlotto became conscious of the presence 
 of a dusky form bending with seeming sympathy 
 over her prostrate body. It was an aged Indian 
 warrior, who, taking her tenderly by the hand, 
 bade her arise, and by further signs indicated his 
 desire that she should follow him. Toward the 
 setting sun they journeyed slowly for some days ; 
 then south-eastward until they reached the imme- 
 diate vicinity of the Falling Branch. There was 
 the home of her captor, a lone cabin in the woods, 
 within hearing of the plunging waters of the cata- 
 ract. The Indian woman in whose care she was 
 placed, seemingly won by "a form so desolately 
 fair/' or touched by the remembrance of some deep 
 sorrow, manifested an unwonted interest in the cap- 
 tive, and cared for her with all the tenderness and 
 solicitude of a mother. The aged warrior and his 
 wife had seen a daughter go to the land of spirits, 
 
 ' ' And ever from that time her fading mien 
 And voice, like winds of summer, soft and low, 
 Had haunted their dim years." 
 
 And fancying that they saw in their captive a re- 
 semblance to their only child, whose early death 
 had thrown upon their pathway heavy shadows, 
 their hearts, " with all their wealth of love," were 
 touched by the sorrows of her to whom was left only 
 the memories of the past. In the forest was no 
 temple erected by human hands dedicated to the 
 Sufferer of Calvary. It was a void waste, in which 
 
70 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 the sound of the church-going bell was not heard ; 
 nor priest nor altar was there. Yet in the silent 
 majesty of the deep woods, and in the presence of 
 the silver brook which pours from its full laver the 
 white cascade, was more than the spirit of poetry 
 which dwells amid such scenes. The spirit of the 
 Holy One was there, and valley and brook, and cas- 
 cade and deep woods and everlasting hills, and the 
 green trees, were a grand minster at the altars of 
 which the devout could worship and the sorrowing 
 find relief. To this temple and to these altars in 
 the green wood, by the side of babbling streams, in 
 the sunlight and the stars' bright gleams, the sufferer 
 went, and thither she led her captors, and there she 
 taught them to listen to the voice of Him whose 
 presence is the glory of all temples and of all altars. 
 
 The harp-string too strongly tensioned breaks. 
 Worn with grief and hopeless of relief, Arlotto 
 wasted, and when autumn's last sigh was heard, 
 and the winter's blast, in the first days of spring ; 
 when " sound and odors with the breezes play 
 whispering of spring-time/' bore to her couch life's 
 farewell sweetness, then she was passing away to 
 that solemnly beautiful sleep, that deep stillness 
 which falls on the silent face of the dead. 
 
 Arlotto's life work was ended ; its great purposes 
 accomplished. In the depths of the forest, within 
 hearing of the murmuring waters of the Falling 
 Branch, in God's acre she sleeps, and by her side 
 her foster father and mother. In God's acre they 
 rest, and 
 
 "Into its furrows shall we all be cast, 
 
 In the sure faith that we shall rise again 
 At the great harvest, when the archangel's blast 
 Shall winnow, like a fan, the chaff and grain. 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 71 
 
 "Then shall the good stand in immortal bloom, 
 ' In the fair gardens of that second birth ; 
 And each bright blossom mingle its perfume 
 With that of flowers which never bloomed on earth." 
 
 THE EAGLE. 
 
 "He clasps the crags with hooked hands; 
 Close to the sun in lonely lands, 
 Ringed with the azure world he stands, 
 The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; 
 He watches from his mountain walls, 
 And like a thunderbolt he falls." 
 
 Some yards above the Saloon at the Kocks and 
 under the hill, there lived in a small cabin a man 
 by the name of Cully, the father of Arch Cully, so 
 well known in his day by the residents of Rock 
 Ridge and its vicinity. At that early period the 
 Rocks and their surroundings were in almost their 
 original wildness, unaffected by the arts and appli- 
 ances of civilized life. The axe of the woodman 
 might have been heard now and then, but no house 
 other than the cabin had been erected, and no forge 
 or furnace to mar the scene. 
 
 It was wash-day to the aged matron of the hut, 
 and while engaged in the necessary vocation, she 
 heard the crtes of the chickens and the excited bark- 
 ings of the dog without. An eagle, whose nest, 
 with young, was on the summit of the opposite 
 
72 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 Rock, had swooped down from her eyrie, and seized 
 with its talons one of the chickens. The little dog, 
 true to its instincts, hastened to the rescue, and 
 chicken, and dog, and eagle were soon engaged in 
 earnest contest. The eagle was likely to succeed in 
 her purpose, when the old lady, grasping her beetle, 
 ran to the rescue, and striking the eagle a deadly 
 blow, carried it in triumph to the cottage. 
 
 The eagles, like the original human inhabitants, 
 pressed by the presence of civilized man, have sought 
 their eyries on more distant and secluded heights. 
 Occasionally one may be seen hovering about the 
 summits of the Rocks, as if curious to observe the 
 past homes of its progenitors. 
 
 THE WITCH RABBIT. 
 
 AMONG the hills in the vicinity of the Rocks was 
 many years ago a remarkable rabbit. Tradit on 
 tells us that it was of the size of a Jack Rabbit, 
 that well-known habitant of the West, though not 
 of the same species. The hunters of those early 
 times sought by trap and snare to secure it, but 
 without success. Many a charge from musket and 
 shot-gun and rifle was directed toward it fruitlessly. 
 The opinion of our simple fathers was, that the 
 body of tfmt rabbit was the habitation of a witch, 
 and in solemn conference they resolved that it could 
 
TIIEER LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 73 
 
 be slain by a silver bullet only. The scarcity of the 
 precious metal prevented the making of the problem- 
 atical experiment, and hence the possessed animal 
 was left to wander at will. For many years it has 
 not been seen. The witch may have taken another 
 habitation, or assumed another form. The en- 
 lightenment of the community has thrown doubt 
 upon the story, once so implicitly believed. People 
 now-a-days suspect much of the past to be mythical, 
 as it doubtless is, but subjecting everything to a 
 mathematical test, they may forget, as my credulous 
 friend suggests, that there are more things in heaven 
 and earth than are dreamed of in their philosophy. 
 Candor compels us to say that in our philosophy 
 there are no witches save those bewitching ones 
 whose manners captivate the susceptible youths of 
 the stronger sex. 
 
 THE BIG SNAKE. 
 
 THE existence of a species of snakes of large size 
 in the neighborhood of the Rocks has been reported 
 for many years. Mr. William Jeffrey, an aged 
 citizen of Bel Air, informed us that the track of a 
 snake "broad as a cart wheel" was pointed out to 
 him by his father seventy years ago ; that thirty, 
 and again fifty, years thereafter, the serpent itself 
 was seen. The Ancient Trapper avers that in his 
 7 
 
74 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 youth he learned from a reliahle source of a snake 
 of extraordinary size, whose home was in the hill 
 opposite the Ancient Mill. By the incredulous, the 
 story was considered doubtful, or supposed to be an 
 exaggeration, but very recently several persons 
 whose truthfulness is not questioned, have declared 
 that they saw the monstrous reptile. The visitor 
 to the Rocks need have no fear, as the animal is 
 most likely to shun the presence of man. And it is 
 probable that the blasting of rocks in the making of 
 the Railroad will induce his majesty to seek another 
 domain in which to enjoy his hitherto acknowledged 
 supremacy over the beasts that crawl* 
 
 WHITSUNTIDE. 
 
 FOR many years the Rocks were a resort at Whit- 
 suntide. The best people of the country patronized 
 the festival. It was a favorable time for making 
 acquaintance and cementing friendships. And I 
 suppose that then, as now, on festal days, Cupid 
 was present, armed cap-a-pie, and that his arrows 
 failed not of many a worthy mark. An estimable 
 lady, who died a few years ago, living to be nearly 
 one hundred years of age, was wont to speak with 
 great interest of her visit to the Rocks of Deer 
 Creek at Whitsuntide, when she was a little girl. 
 Her memory of the delicate and refined attentions 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 75 
 
 of Colonel John Streett, a prominent gentleman of 
 Harford county, in those early days, was very dis- 
 tinct, and she failed not to speak of them enthusias- 
 tically 
 
 The Rocks in later years became at this season a 
 scene of dissipation and rowdyism, and the patron- 
 age of the more respectable classes was discontinued. 
 In the procession of years, another change has come. 
 Now, at all seasons, the Rocks are a point of attrac- 
 tion to all classes. The pic-nic, harvest homes, 
 political gatherings, railroad meetings, have substi- 
 tuted Whitsuntide ; and upon the completion of the 
 Baltimore and Delta Railroad, the Rocks must, from 
 the attractions of scenery and the salubrity of the 
 air, become the resort of persons from all sections 
 of the county and more distant points. 
 
 THE PERILOUS FEAT. 
 
 To SAY fool-hardy, would be an appropriate ad- 
 dition to qualify the act. A well-known resident 
 of the neighborhood of the Rocks illustrated the 
 truth of the old adage, " When wine is in wit is 
 out," by forcing his horse to the very verge of the 
 precipice, with seeming intention of throwing him- 
 self and his noble animal into the fearful abyss 
 below. The sober horse, with more discretion than 
 his drunken master, seeing the peril, turned at the 
 
76 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 moment of immediate danger, and thus saved him- 
 self and rider from certain death. This unhappy 
 man afterward, in an attempt to force his horse 
 across Deer Creek when swollen, was drowned. 
 The particular point on the Creek where he 
 entered the water is said to have been about the head 
 of the dam of Preston's Mills. Thus died igno- 
 miniously a man who, but for indulgence in the use 
 of an unnecessary beverage, might have lived for 
 many years, a comfort to his family and an orna- 
 ment to society. The horse, Bold Hector, as he was 
 not inappropriately named, survived his unfortunate 
 master several years. 
 
 AN ACT OF VANDALISM. 
 
 ON the summit of the western Rocks was an im- 
 mense boulder, weighing many tons, poised on a 
 fixed rock so slightly and delicately that a strong 
 man could move it at will, and yet it was so related 
 to the rock upon which it rested, that it required 
 the force of four men, aided by levers, to throw it 
 from its position. These persons, without apprecia- 
 tion of nature, and of mere wantonness, or con- 
 ceiving the purpose of giving immortality to their 
 names, threw this object of great interest from its 
 position to the rocks below, where it now lies with- 
 out hope of its ever being replaced in its original 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 77 
 
 location. I have understood that the then proprie- 
 tor of the Rocks offered a reward for the discovery 
 of the perpetrators of the ignoble deed, 'but that 
 it was not effectual in securing that end. This 
 may have been fortunate. Otherwise the names of 
 the guilty parties might have been coupled in history 
 with the destroyers of Rome and the burners of the 
 Alexandrian Library. 
 
 CANAL AND RAILROAD. 
 
 WHEN the Tide- Water Canal was completed, our 
 citizens agitated the subject of slack-water naviga- 
 tion from a point five miles above La Grange to the 
 mouth of Deer Creek, the accomplishment of which 
 would have made a direct and cheap outlet for our 
 trade to Baltimore and Philadelphia. The idea 
 was born of a felt necessity, but could not have 
 been made practical. Such a project would not have 
 paid. And it has been well for the health of the 
 country bordering Deer Creek that it was impossible 
 of realization. Canals and fevers are synonymous 
 terms. 
 
 Instead of slack-water, locks and dams, with in- 
 creased disease, we shall have a Railroad, and more 
 direct communication with Baltimore, our chief 
 commercial city. Under the direction of a most 
 energetic President and an enterprising Board of 
 7* 
 
78 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 Directors, sustained by citizens along the line, who 
 are awake to its advantages, it is being pushed with 
 commendable vigor, and will, we cannot doubt, be 
 completed in good time. 
 
 To our immediate Rocks of Deer Creek neigh- 
 borhood the effect of the road will be very signifi- 
 cant. Our rocks and minerals will be marketable, 
 and the attractions of our scenery will draw many 
 curious visitors. And it is to be hoped that the 
 possessors of the soil will awake from their more 
 than Rip Van Winkle sleep. It is strange that they 
 have slept so long, seeing that around them there 
 are so many examples worthy of imitation. The 
 enterprise, thrift and judgment of the many success- 
 ful farmers above, and the no less competent tillers 
 of the soil below, should stimulate us to an exertion 
 that may make this comparative wilderness blossom 
 as the rose. The Railroad, completed, will ensure 
 the development of all our interests. Our fields will 
 yield abundant harvests, the waters of Deer Creek 
 will be utilized in the operation of mills, and fac- 
 tories, and furnaces. Our lofty summits will be 
 crowned with the residences of their proprietors, or 
 occupied as the retreats of the wealthy inhabitants of 
 the city. 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 
 
 THE ORIGINAL MOONSHINER. 
 
 SOUTHEAST of the Rocks three-fourths of a mile, 
 through a ravine hidden by wooded hills, runs a 
 small stream, having its sources in several springs 
 a short distance above, which gives evidence of oc- 
 cupation and use. Remains of a dam still exist, as 
 also traces of a ditch, leading to what has the ap- 
 pearance of the foundation of a building. For what 
 purpose was the dam built, the ditch dug, and the 
 building erected? The oldest inhabitants cannot 
 answer these interrogatories, and have no tradition 
 in relation thereto. We are therefore left to conjec- 
 ture the purpose for which they were made. It 
 may have been the location of the distillery of some 
 moonshiner one of the progenitors of the gentle- 
 men of West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, 
 and elsewhere, who are engaged in illicit distilla- 
 tion, to the great detriment of the revenues of the 
 United States of America. If so, he could not have 
 selected a place more favorable to his vocation. 
 
 Since writing the above I have had conversations 
 with James Wann, Esq., and with David Tucker, 
 Sr., an aged citizen, from whom I have learned 
 some facts that may throw doubt on the moonshine 
 theory. They informed me that in the earlier days 
 of Harford the tub-mill was in use, requiring but 
 little water ; that the turning of chair-stuff by wa- 
 ter, of which little volume was required, was com- 
 mon ; as also the distillation of brandies from fruits, 
 requiring comparatively little water. The waters 
 of my brook may have been used for one of these 
 purposes. A remark made by our venerable citi- 
 
80 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 zen, Mr. Tucker, throws doubt upon all these spec- 
 ulations. He said that it is not rare to find in the 
 forests of this portion of Harford traces of ditches, 
 sometimes of considerable length, leading to low- 
 lands, and suggested that they might have been 
 used for purposes of irrigation. If so, by whom? 
 Not one of the oldest inhabitants has any knowledge 
 of such use, and none know by whom they were ex- 
 cavated ; nor is there tradition bearing upon the 
 subject. Can it be that the people who preceded 
 the Indians in the occupancy of this country, and 
 who have left traces of a superior civilization 
 the mound-builders or some other race were the 
 diggers of these ditches, and used them, as sug- 
 gested, for irrigating uses? Or might they not 
 have been rude aqueducts conveying water to their 
 villages or fortified camps, or, at a later period, to 
 the palisaded villages of the Susquehannocks, 
 against whom the Six Nations waged war for many 
 years ? It is known that the Tohocks, a tribe once 
 residing at the head of the Chesapeake, did thus for- 
 tify themselves against the fierce Mingoes. How 
 soon the past becomes mythical and legendary, and 
 how greatly it is to be regretted that there has not 
 been left more than mere conjecture of so much 
 which, if known, would greatly interest us of the 
 present 1 
 
 " Thus are the tracks of nations blotted out, 
 Faint impress leaving, like the passing bird, 
 Save when the mould, erst trod by them, is stirred 
 By other races giving to the light 
 Borne yellow, crumbling bone, or instrument of fight." 
 
TIIEIll LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 81 
 
 THE MONUMENTS OF THE GIANTS. 
 
 WHEN the French first settled Canada, they heard 
 marvelous stories of a race of giants who were said 
 to inhabit the country at the mouth of the Susque- 
 hanna and westward of that river. How much 
 foundation of fact there was for these reports we 
 do not know, hut in after ^years the Susquehan- 
 nocks were known as men of large size and of great 
 strength. Six feet or more in height, and of corre- 
 sponding weight, was the representation given of 
 them by the first white explorers of their country. 
 The knowledge of the Indians who first communi- 
 cated to the French the stories of the size and 
 strength of the Susquehannocks might have been 
 traditionary arid descriptive of a race who had been 
 gigantic in stature and of herculean strength, but 
 who, from some unexplained and unexplainable 
 causes, had in the progress of time degenerated to 
 the proportions of ordinary mortals. Students of 
 ethnology know that such degenerations have 
 occurred. There are some slightly presumptive 
 proofs that the traditionary stories of the physical 
 proportions of the original dwellers by the Rocks 
 of .Deer Creek are not without some slight basis of 
 truth. The King and Queen Seats are the sitting 
 places of giants, arid they, presumptively, were 
 occupied at a time past indefinitely distant by the 
 rulers of the country. Indian Jupiters and Junos, 
 honored not less, perhaps, than the gods and god- 
 desses of Roman and Grecian mythology, may have 
 received there the homage of their subjects. The 
 gods have come down to us, said the superstitious 
 
82 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 Ephesians, when Paul and Barnabas wrought 
 miracles in their city. The gods are with us, would 
 have been the natural exclamation of the super- 
 stitious Indians assembled in council on the summits 
 of the Rocks in the presence of their rulers. We 
 may not in this argument overlook the attractions 
 but little noticed by intelligent seekers of curious 
 objects which we have appropriately named, as we 
 think, the Monuments of the Giants. On the sum- 
 mit of Rock Ridge, northeast of the Rocks, are 
 several huge pillars of stone many feet in height. 
 The curious observer that looks at them from the 
 valley below in the dawn of the morning or twilight 
 of the evening can scarce resist the conviction that 
 they may have been erected by a race of giants in 
 honor of their monarchs and to perpetuate their 
 glory ; and that here may have been deposited their 
 remains, a use to which some, if not all, of the great 
 mounds in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi 
 were appropriated. The geologist who shall visit 
 these attractions may smile at that simplicity which 
 attributes to the might of man that which may be 
 only a proof and illustration of the power of nature, 
 which, in the indefinite past, threw upon the sum- 
 mit of Rock Ridge these collossal piles. But what- 
 ever was the agency by which the result was effected, 
 there they are those monuments 
 
 "That look like frowning Titans in the dim 
 And doubtful light," 
 
 to be numbered with the many curious and attract- 
 ive natural objects seen in the vicinity of the Rocks 
 of Deer Creek. 
 
 The view from the Monuments is commanding 
 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 83 
 
 and extensive. In the distance northward is seen 
 the Susquehanna River, and beyond it the hills of 
 Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; southward, the 
 Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore of Maryland 
 the bay dotted here and there with white sails, 
 moving gracefully, like swans, upon the bosom of 
 the scarcely ruffled waters. On every side are 
 reaches of fields and forests, in the midst of which 
 are towns and villages, hamlets and farm-houses, 
 constituting rare pictures of Arcadian beauty ; the 
 interest heightened by the lowing of the herds 
 which feed upon the contiguous meadows, and by 
 the sounds of distant church bells, reminding the 
 devout of the hour of prayer, or summoning them 
 to the worship of the sanctuary on the early Sab- 
 bath morning. The observer of these entrancing 
 views is, however, conscious of that illusion which 
 is always associated with such scenes ; " every valley 
 is an Eden, and every heart therein is at peace." 
 The repose is the possession of unthinking nature ; 
 the hearts of the reasoning inhabitants are the 
 abodes of strife, for in them is found envy, and 
 pride, and ambition, and hate, 
 
 "Every prospect pleases, 
 And only man is vile." 
 
84 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 THE FIELD OF DARTS. 
 
 ONE-HALF mile southeast of Rock Ridge, and two 
 and one-halt' miles northeast of the Rocks and bor- 
 dering on the Mine Old Fields, is a valley in which 
 have been found numerous Indian arrow-heads or 
 darts. The stone of which they were made is unlike 
 any that exists in that locality. Either the material 
 of which these points were manufactured was brought 
 there for that purpose, or it was the place of a great 
 battle or battles fought by contending savage forces. 
 Possibly, those confederated nations, Oneidas, Cay- 
 ugas, Senecas, Mohawks, Onandagoes and Tuscaro- 
 ras fought at that spot the Delawares and Susque- 
 hannocks, also confederated tribes, and that that 
 contest was decisive of that long-continued struggle 
 which reduced the latter nations to the condition of 
 women, which they were contemptuously called after 
 their subjection. No conjecture is at fault in con- 
 sidering that eventful past in which almost every 
 foot of territory occupied by them was the place of 
 battle between opposing Northmen and Southmen, 
 and no excess of imagination can paint in too vivid 
 colors the horrors of the struggle. To the South- 
 men the coming of the Northmen was as- the coming 
 of Gog and Magog. All resistance was vain. 
 Loups and Susquehannocks were as helpless in the 
 grasp of their foes, as effete Romans in the hands of 
 Goths and Vandals. 
 
 History is ever repeating itself. Three centuries 
 later the territory south, and bordering on the 
 former, was the theatre of a contest between civil- 
 ized people almost unparalleled, in its violence, in 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 85 
 
 the history of warfare, resulting as in the past in 
 the triumph of the warriors of the northern lakes 
 and rivers, but as also in the past, without loss of 
 honor to the conquered. The weaker was overborne 
 by the stronger. Once more, if the prophet is indeed 
 a seer, the mighty tribes of the distant North will 
 move down upon the strong ones of the South. Kuss 
 and American in the valley of the Mississippi con- 
 tending for the mastery, the former finding that 
 valley the place of graves. So shall close the con- 
 flict of the world, and the earth shall keep jubilee 
 a thousand years. The voice of Gitche Manito, 
 the mighty, will yet be potent to subdue man's 
 stubborn nature, and to allay his thirst for human 
 blood. Happy would it be for mankind if his 
 counsels were now heeded : 
 
 "O, my children! my poor children! 
 Listen to the words of wisdom, 
 Listen to the words of warning 
 From the lips of the Great Spirit, 
 From the Master of life, who made you 1 
 
 "I am weary of your quarrels, 
 Weary of your wars and bloodshed, 
 Weary of your prayers for vengeance, 
 Of your wranglings and disunion, 
 All your strength is in your union, 
 All your danger is in discord ; 
 Therefore be at peace henceforward, 
 And as brothers live together." 
 
86 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 THE CHROME PITS. 
 
 SOUTHWEST of the Rocks, from one to three miles 
 distant, are extensive deposits of chrome. They 
 have been worked for many years, chiefly by the 
 Messrs. Tyson, of Baltimore, enterprising mer- 
 chants of that city. The working has often been 
 intermitted for considerable spaces of time, but 
 when the Baltimore and Delta Railroad shall have 
 been completed, this industry will doubtless be con- 
 tinuous, and also enlarged, and thus add materially 
 to the wealth of this section of the county of Har- 
 ford. In addition to chrome, there are in the neigh- 
 borhood valuable deposits of iron ore, magnesia, 
 black lead, flint, asbestos and natural paint. The 
 development of all these sources of material pros- 
 perity is but a question of time and of cheap trans- 
 portation to market. The rock of Rock Ridge, 
 which is fire-proof and particularly adapted for fur- 
 nace hearths, may of itself become a considerable 
 source of income. As an item of history interest- 
 ing to all, it may be noted that the fire-proof char- 
 acter of these rocks was first discovered by Dr. 
 Thomas Johnson, of the United States Army, and 
 brother of the late Mrs. Eliza A. Preston, of Deer 
 Creek. 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 8*7 
 
 THE SLATE QUARRIES. 
 
 THE Slate Quarries of Harford County, Mary- 
 land, and York County, Pennsylvania, are distant 
 about eight miles northeast of the Rocks. They 
 are a source of prosperity to the section of country 
 in which they are situated, and promise, upon the 
 completion of the Baltimore and Delta and York 
 and Peach Bottom Railroads, to develop its wealth 
 indefinitely. The slate is of superior quality, and 
 held in high estimation wherever used. The quar- 
 ries employ many men and afford subsistence to 
 many families. The Welsh alone, who are chiefly 
 employed, constitute a population of six or seven 
 hundred. The village of Bangor, upon the sum- 
 mit of the Ridge, is composed principally of this 
 nationality. It has several stores and other places 
 of business. There are two churches, Welsh Con- 
 gregational and Calvinistic Methodist. One of 
 these has a settled pastor, the Rev. Mr. Hughes, 
 and in both the Welsh language is exclusively used 
 in religious services. These churches have given a 
 desirable moral tone to the community, though, 
 like all other Christian communities, the good find 
 in the natural antagonism of the human heart a 
 constant incentive to holy work. The village of 
 Delta, at the foot of the Ridge, is composed chiefly 
 of a native population. It has many places of busi- 
 ness, but no church. In the immediate vicinity of 
 the two villages are Slate Ridge, Slateville and Mt. 
 Nebo churches, the first under the pastoral care of 
 the Rev. Joseph D. Smith, a gentleman loved by 
 his congregation, and held in high esteem by the 
 
88 . THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 people generally, irrespective of creed or profession ; 
 the second by the Rev. Mr. Davenport, a gentleman 
 of deserved popularity among all classes ; the last 
 is under the charge of the Eev. Mr. Litsiuger, of 
 the Methodist Protestant Church, a Christian min- 
 ister of enlarged and liberal views, whose praise is 
 in all the churches. 
 
 The representative business men at the Quarries 
 of the Welsh population are Faulk Jones, William 
 E. Williams, John Humphreys and Hugh C. Rob- 
 erts, Esqrs., John Parry & Co., Richard Reese & 
 Co., Win. C. Robertson & Co., John W. Jones & 
 Co., Richard Hughes & Co., Robert L. Jones & Co., 
 and Humphrey Lloyd, Esq. These gentlemen came 
 to America in their youth, and by industry and 
 skill have accumulated property ; and occupying 
 prominent and influential positions in the commu- 
 nity, have given proof that industry and integrity 
 are roads to success. 
 
 The first Welsh worker in the Quarries was a 
 Mr. Davis ; the first successful worker a Mr. Parry. 
 The latter leased from Major Williamson thirty or 
 thirty-five years ago, acquired a fortune, traveled 
 into foreign countries, and died at Jerusalem. His 
 family is now living in Bangor, Wales, on the inter- 
 est of the money made at Bangor, United States of 
 America. He is represented to have been a man of 
 great integrity, a proof of which is, that after his 
 return to Wales he called together his creditors, 
 and paid the whole amount of his indebtedness to 
 them, with interest. 
 
 The Quarries constitute a part of the group of 
 interesting objects that render the locality of the 
 Rocks of Deer Creek one of great attraction, and 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 89 
 
 the visitor to the Rocks will do well to visit them. 
 The Quarries have a promising future. Delta's 
 magnificent distances will be of the past, and Ban- 
 gor's sombre residences will be substituted by more 
 pretentious edifices. The whole ridge will be alive 
 with busy and enterprising workers, bringing from 
 the bowels of the earth the material that shall 
 shield its purchasers from sun, and rain, and snow, 
 and make fortunes for the sellers. 
 
 THE HORSE EPIDEMIC AND THE GUINEA- 
 MAN'S PONY. 
 
 MORE than one hundred years ago, during the 
 lifetime of Benjamin Rigdon, grandfather of the 
 late George W. S. Rigdon,, an epidemic among 
 horses, very destructive in its character, prevailed 
 throughout all this section of country. Tradition 
 tells us that the Durhams, ancestors of the present 
 families of that name, who were wealthy, owning 
 large tracts of land and many horses, lost two hun- 
 dred of them by the scourge ; that the only horse 
 that escaped the plague was a pony owned by an 
 aged Guinea-man belonging to the first Mr. Rigdon. 
 This old negro lived in a small cabin on the top of 
 Rock Ridge, a short distance above the present resi- 
 dence of Richard Mayes, Esq., and not distant from 
 the Rocks of Deer Creek. Whether the preservation 
 8* 
 
90 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 of the life of the pony was owing to the healthful- 
 ness of the spot, or its isolated position, is not 
 known ; most likely to the latter, as the disease was, 
 doubtless, contagious. Though not another repre- 
 sentative of the equine race was left, the fortunate 
 pony ate sprightlily of the slight herbage that grew 
 on the open places of Rock Ridge summit, or of the 
 corn grown by his thrifty master on the plain below. 
 Looking down on the vast reaches of country on 
 either side of the noted ridge, which towers in 
 mountain height above the valleys, if he could not 
 say, with Alexander Selkirk (Robinson Crusoe), on 
 the island of Juan Fernandez, 
 
 "I am monarch of all I survey, 
 My right there is none to dispute," 
 
 he could say, "I am the sole owner of a horse 
 in all these broad domains ;" and the proud pony, 
 joining his master in the refrain, could utter, 
 
 "No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, 
 The whole boundless continent is ours." 
 
 Theirs it was not as against superior man, who rules 
 the beasts of the field, but as against the beasts 
 themselves, every one of which, save the pony, had 
 succumbed to the power of the fell destroyer. The 
 invulnerable pony was alone in all his glory. The 
 value of such a pony could not be estimated. 
 
 The Guinea-man was a character. We write 
 only of his religion. In that he was Fetish. He 
 bore constantly about his person afeitico, the Por- 
 tuguese name for an amulet a talisman. To this 
 gru yrus, the name of the charm in his native lan- 
 guage, he attached much importance, as it shielded 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 91 
 
 his family and all living things belonging to it- 
 dog or cat or pony from disease, and made all safe 
 from the machinations of their enemies. We are 
 not to infer from his possession of the feitico, and 
 the power he ascribed to it, that he had no idea of 
 a Supreme Spirit, a King of Heaven, or that he did 
 not worship Him. Worship of the Highest is uni- 
 versal. So thought Pope : 
 
 "Father of all in every age, 
 
 In every clime adored, 
 By saint, by savage, and by sage, 
 Jehovah, Jove, or Lord." 
 
 The Guinea-man could not but recognize Him who 
 
 " Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, 
 Glows in the stars, blossoms in the trees, 
 Lives through all life, extends through all extent, 
 Spreads undivided, operates unspent." 
 
 Fetishism is not a primitive religion. It is a cor- 
 ruption of religion, and even enlightened Christians 
 may well be fearful of foe feitico, for the tendency 
 to idolatry is universal. Solomon built altars for 
 Chemosh and Moloch. The possession of the feitico 
 by the G-uinea-man of Rock Ridge rendered him 
 very obnoxious to his fellow-servants. They were 
 afraid of him. " He possesses a charm," said they ; 
 " he can kill us if he will. He is a wizard, a con- 
 jurer ; his old woman is a witch ; they deal with 
 spirits." No one of them would have touched that 
 mountain, for to touch it was death, they thought. 
 If they could have taken his life by poison, the usual 
 mode of their race, they would not have done so ; 
 for does not the power of the feitico survive after its 
 possessor has gone hence, and may not his spirit 
 
92 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 come in the silent hours of the night to avenge his 
 wrongs ? This apprehension was his castle. A 
 cabin without wall, or moat, or drawbridge, was 
 stronger than a feudal castle. It was defended by 
 superstition. 
 
 That pony should have been skinned at its death, 
 his cuticle stuffed and preserved, and labeled, " The 
 sole survivor." 
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE ROCKS. 
 
 "A CITY set on a hill " cannot be hid, nor can a 
 church in such a position. This is eminently true 
 of the house of worship now in the occupancy of the 
 religious denomination known as the Evangelical 
 Association. Situated on the summit of a lofty emi- 
 nence directly opposite the Rocks, having them in 
 full view, and overlooking the romantic and pic- 
 turesque valley of La Grange, it looks upon a scene 
 of alternate and mingled beauty and grandeur not 
 often seen. This view has a peculiar psychological 
 effect upon the intelligent and appreciative be- 
 holder. It intuitively demonstrates (I hope my 
 language is philosophical) the former existence of 
 a Rock Ridge Lake. That mighty basin, scooped 
 out of the mighty hills which surround it, and the 
 violent breaks of the Ridge, where the waters of 
 Deer Creek rush through it, are physical proofs of 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 93 
 
 its past existence, that, like axioms in mathematics, 
 are self-evident. 
 
 Years previous to the building of the church, re- 
 ligious services were held on the summit of the 
 Kocks. Prompted hy curiosity, if hy no worthier 
 motive, there gathered once on that high eminence 
 a congregation of men, women and children to hear 
 the preacher of righteousness, who, we may well 
 conjecture, was, with -his audience, inspired by the 
 scenes around them. In the selection of this spot 
 for the exercise of his vocation, he but imitated the 
 example of One greater than himself. "And see- 
 ing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain, 
 and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him ; 
 and He opened His mouth and taught them." 
 
 More than a century previously there was a gath- 
 ering of the chiefs of the Indians whose habitations 
 were not distant from the Rocks, to listen to a ser- 
 mon by a Swedish minister. The lessons were those 
 which are now given to such as sit under the min- 
 istry of the Word. The clergyman spoke to them 
 of the principal historical facts of Christianity 
 such as the fall of Adam by eating an apple, the 
 coming of Christ to repair the evil, His labors, suf- 
 ferings and miracles. When he had finished, one 
 of the chiefs, thanking him for the discourse, re- 
 lated one of the mythical traditions of his people, 
 which he deemed to be of like credibility, and 
 equally binding upon the faith of all, and thus 
 proved the inefficacy of the lessons taught him by 
 the Christian teacher. Now, the lessons taught in 
 the Church of the Rocks are doubtless believed, and, 
 we would fain hope, practiced. 
 
94 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 MIKE'S ROCK. 
 
 \ 
 
 A FEW miles northeast of the Rocks of Deer 
 Creek, and on Rock Ridge, is a large rock known 
 by the name of the title of this article. By the 
 side of it is a large tree, the branches of which over- 
 hang it. An unfortunate, wearied with the per- 
 plexities of life, perhaps its agonies, closed here 
 that life, if not precisely in the manner expressed 
 in the following lines of an atheist, found among 
 his papers after his death, yet in one of the modes 
 common to the sad who lack fortitude : 
 
 "An hour more; 
 Sixty minutes, and the light 
 Of this, we mis-call life, goes out forever. 
 Forever? Aye; beyond the grave is found 
 No life, save that great primal force, which here 
 Displays itself alike in growth of weed 
 Or human soul. Why longer live and suffer, 
 When Vie finger upon this slender 
 Bar of steel will end, with one sharp flash, 
 TJie hurry and the heart-ache? 
 
 "Death's messenger, 
 
 From out this glittering tube, I call, to bid 
 Me sleep ; and in that sleep I dread no dreams, 
 And no to-morrow. Salve, rex terrorumf 
 Moriturus te saluto" 
 
 A rash act, which was followed by a surprise. 
 Death terminates this, not that ; and that is eter- 
 nal. 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 95 
 
 THE ANCIENT MILL AND THE HONEST 
 MILLER. 
 
 HALF-WAY between the Indian Cupboard, the re- 
 treat of Alexius, the noted fisherman and trapper, 
 and the Otter Bock, above which was the habita- 
 tion of Walter the Hermit, is an ancient mill. 
 The first mill was of logs, and owned by an English- 
 man named Sankey. He was probably a York- 
 shireman, as tradition informs us that the boys of 
 that day amused themselves with his, to them, sin- 
 gular brogue. The mill, in the course of time, 
 passed to Underwood, Harry, Morton, and J. Bond 
 Preston, in the order named. This mill has fur- 
 nished for many years bread for man and " stuff" 
 for beast. One possessed of good descriptive powers 
 and of a poetical genius might make the mill and 
 its picturesque surroundings furnish material for an 
 article that would not discount the reputation of 
 Scribner or Harper, or any other leading magazine. 
 Such description is not sought. Attention is direct- 
 ed to it rather because it is one of the ancient land- 
 marks or watermarks of its neighborhood, and is a 
 connecting link between the distant past and the 
 immediate present. It derives also some notoriety 
 from the snake story of the ancient trapper, a snake 
 rivaling the sea serpent that has been so often seen 
 on our Atlantic coast from New England to Key 
 West the habitation of which was on the wooded 
 hill opposite it. 
 
 In this ancient mill was once upon a time, as 
 tradition tells us, an honest miller. To me, all 
 millers are honest ; but unhappily for the reputa- 
 
9b TI1E ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 tion of the craft, suspicious people, or people who, 
 like the Heathen Chinee, as Bret Harte tells us, 
 themselves familiar with the ways that are dark, 
 are sometimes oblivious of the saying : 
 
 "Who steals my purse steals trash, 
 But he who filches from me my good name 
 Takes that which does not himself enrich, 
 And makes me poor indeed." 
 
 The honest miller was Thomas Wright, remem- 
 bered by the few ancient people who have survived 
 him. The story of the mysterious pig is both a 
 proof and illustration of the integrity of the miller. 
 Once on a time he left Sam's Creek, Carroll county, 
 Md., early on the morning of a summer day, for 
 the mill on Deer Creek. He had walked but a 
 short distance when he heard the squealing of a di- 
 minutive pig that was following in his tracks. To 
 escape the animal that was intent upon accompany- 
 ing him on his journey, he left the road, walking 
 through fields and forests. But in vain. The pig 
 was equal to the emergency, its instincts pointing 
 out the way of the miller unerringly. The integ- 
 rity of the miller consisted in this, that he made 
 every possible exertion to escape from that pig, 
 showing that if there has ever been in this Chris- 
 tian country a miller who fattened his pigs on 
 other people's corn, he was not that miller. The 
 sad thing about the story of the pig is, that the 
 honest miller, being of superstitious turn of mind, 
 interpreted its singular following as an omen of 
 his death. His death did occur a short time there- 
 after. 
 
 The wheels of the ancient mill yet turn not the 
 wheels used when the honest miller was occupant, 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 97 
 
 but turbine wheels. The old mill is doomed. The 
 coining narrow-gauge, insuring facility of transit to 
 and from our large commercial city, will make it a 
 potent reason why men of capital should utilize the 
 great and continuous water-power for manufactories 
 on a larger scale. 
 
 The unceasing flow of the waters of Deer Creek 
 symbolizes the onward flow of humanity uninter- 
 rupted by successive generations. Humanity lives 
 and the waters flow on, and such may be for a bil- 
 lion of years to come. But within the hearing of 
 the music of no onflowing stream will there be, if 
 my informant has uttered truth, a more honest 
 miller than Thomas Wright. (f An honest man is 
 the noblest work of God." 
 
 "At the window, looking upon a crystal stream, 
 There sat a little lady, indulging in a dream, 
 A dream of fairy visions conies up before her eyes, 
 As she gazes now intently upon the azure skies. 
 
 " A soft breeze fans the valley, the sun rests on the hill, 
 The water murmurs sweetly as it rushes past ' the mill ; ' 
 The earth seems glad of springtime, unfolding every hour 
 From Nature's store, the tender bud that holds the fragrant 
 flower. 
 
 "The lady sits a-dreaming, with head buried in her hand, 
 And visions come a- trooping from off a fairy-land, 
 And in her dreamy fancies there is a potent spell 
 That acts like charm of music, the smiling lips now tell. 
 
 "The heart cons o'er its treasures glowing in rosy light, 
 The spirit basks in beaut}'- like stars that gem the night, 
 And thus the little lady dreamed happy hours away, 
 So happy in her musings she fain would have them stay." 
 
 The little lady whose musings form a proper se- 
 quel to the story of the ancient mill and its 
 9 
 
98 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 occupant, cherishes now, and it will ever be so, 
 the highest admiration and esteem for the honest 
 miller. 
 
 THE OLDEST INHABITANT. 
 
 THE oldest inhabitant now living in the vicinity 
 of the Rocks of Deer Creek is Mrs. Rebecca Smith. 
 She was born within three-fourths of a mile of her 
 present residence. Here, within sight of the Rocks, 
 she has lived to be almost a centenarian, being now 
 in the ninety-sixth year of her age, surviving all 
 who commenced with her the journey of life. Of 
 a cheerful disposition and vigorous constitution, she 
 has borne the burdens of life with comparative ease ; 
 and in a serene old age, comforted by loving hearts, 
 she is awaiting resignedly the final summons. 
 
 Retaining unimpaired her mental faculties, which 
 were always strong, she is able to entertain the cu- 
 rious of a later generation with most interesting 
 descriptions of the habits, customs and manners of 
 her early cotemporaries, distinctly recollecting arid 
 graphically relating innumerable incidents of the 
 far past. In her youth this portion of the country 
 was comparatively a wilderness. Without attract- 
 ive and comfortable residences, as now ; no conven- 
 ient and well supervised roads, paths usually ; no 
 churches, preaching in private houses ; the school- 
 house a rude cabin of logs, without any floor but 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 99 
 
 nature's, the chimney built of sticks, unplaned 
 seats, without backs. Carriages there were none, 
 the ordinary mode of travel being on horseback. 
 The whole progress for ninety-six years, from the 
 rude past to the present more advanced civilization, 
 lias been witnessed by her. But whatever contrasts 
 she makes between the past and the present, they 
 are without invidiousness. All along she has ac- 
 cepted the conditions of life, and the circumstances 
 attending it, as they were more or less favorable, 
 without murmur or complaint, recognizing the fact 
 that the Most High appoints the bounds of our hab- 
 itations, and that all things promote the happiness 
 of the submissive. 
 
 It was her great felicity to be united in marriage, 
 at a comparatively early age, with a gentleman of 
 superior intellectual and social qualities, a conscien- 
 tious Christian, a faithful friend, and a considerate 
 and loving husband and father. The name of Amos 
 Smith is to this day in this community a synonym 
 of all that is excellent in character it is as precious 
 ointment poured forth. The memories of his unob- 
 trusive acts of kindness are treasured, and his ex- 
 ample valued as a rich legacy to those who have 
 followed him. 
 
 The venerable matron, the oldest inhabitant of 
 the neighborhood of the Rocks of Deer Creek, now 
 leaning upon her staff, and bending toward that 
 house of the earth that is the decreed abode of all, 
 suggests, in the remarkable vigor of her physical 
 being, and in the sprightliness of her intellectual 
 life, lessons of wisdom that the young everywhere 
 may with profit learn. An active life and a cheer- 
 ful mind were the great treasures she possessed 
 
100 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 more valuable than gold or silver, or the jewels that 
 blaze in the coronets of queens. 
 
 THE YOUNGEST INHABITANTS. 
 
 THE youngest inhabitant in the neighborhood of 
 the Rocks is William Cecil Gladden, infant son of 
 our well-known fellow-citizen, William Gladden, 
 Esq. 
 
 Of the immediate vicinity of the Rocks, the 
 youngest inhabitants are Bessie and Jessie, twin 
 daughters of Joseph Wetherill, Esq., proprietor of 
 the store at that place. Born under the very 
 shadows of the Rocks, and by the side of Deer 
 Creek, in view of the plunging waters of its romantic 
 fall all that remains of the once majestic cataract 
 of Rock Ridge Lake they are passing their con- 
 fiding and unsuspecting life happy in the present 
 and without care for the future. These children 
 and William Cecil Gladden are cousins. May life 
 be to the three all that fond parents and loving 
 friends can wish. To each we dedicate the prayer 
 of the gifted Willis : 
 
 "Light to thy paths, bright creature! I would charm 
 Thy being if I could, that it should be 
 Ever as now thou dreainest, and flow on, 
 Thus innocent and beautiful, to heaven." 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 101 
 
 THE ORIGINAL. INHABITANTS. 
 
 THE original inhabitants were the Susquehan- 
 nock Indians. Their territory extended from the 
 Susquehanna River westward as far as the Allegany 
 Mountains. This nation had a close alliance with 
 the Len Lenapes or Delawares, who occupied the 
 country from the head of the Chesapeake Bay to the 
 Kittatinny Mountains northward, and as far east- 
 ward as the Connecticut River. This confederacy 
 carried on a long war with the Indians who lived 
 to the north of them, between the Kittatinny Mount- 
 ains and Lake Ontario, who called themselves Min- 
 goes, and were called by the English the Five 
 Nations. At the time of the settlement of James- 
 town, Virginia, this war was raging with great 
 fury. In one of Captain Smith's excursions up the 
 Chesapeake, at the mouth of the Susquehanna, in 
 1608, he met with five or six canoes full of warriors 
 who were coming to attack their enemies in the 
 rear. Having made peace with the Adirondacks, 
 through the intercession of the French, who were 
 then settling Canada, they turned their arms against 
 the Lenapi and their confederates, and subduing 
 them, reduced them to almost the condition of 
 slaves. Peace was granted them on condition that 
 they should put themselves under the protection of 
 the Mingoes, confine themselves to raising corn, 
 hunting for the subsistence of their families, and no 
 longer have the power of making war. This is 
 what the Indians call making them women. In 
 this condition the Lenapes and their confederates 
 were when the settlement of Pennsylvania was 
 
102 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 begun. What is said by Stitb of tbe language and 
 dress of the Susquehannocks, may deserve to be here 
 inserted: " Their language and attire were very 
 suitable to their stature and appearance ; for their 
 language sounded deep and solemn, and hollow, 
 like a voice in a vault. Their attire was the skins 
 of bears and wolves, so cut that the man's head went 
 through the neck, and the ears of the bear were 
 fastened on his shoulders, while the nose and teeth 
 hung dangling upon his breast. Behind was 
 another bear's face split, with a paw hanging at 
 the nose. And their sleeves coming down to their 
 elbows, were the necks of bears, with their arms 
 going through the mouth and paws hanging to the 
 nose. One of them had the head of a wolf hanging 
 to a chain for a jewel, and his tobacco pipe was 
 three-quarters of a yard long, carved with a bird, 
 a deer and other devices at the great end. His 
 arrows were three-quarters of a yard long, headed 
 with splinters of a white, crystal-like stone in the 
 form of a heart, an inch broad and an inch and a 
 half long. These he carried at his back in a wolf's 
 skin for a quiver, with his bow in one hand and a 
 club in the other." Such was the appearance of 
 the first inhabitants of Deer Creek and the Rocks. 
 The Mingoes came, saw, conquered, and, occupying 
 the country as masters, ruled for a time. They, in 
 turn, were overborne by a superior race, and we 
 have only the recollections of the deeds of the bold 
 warriors. 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 103 
 
 THE MASSACRE OF THE MINGOES. 
 
 THE Mingoes of Deer Creek, as a body, left this 
 locality in the year 1752. A few of them remained 
 until, as is plausibly conjectured, the winter of 1763, 
 and left immediately after the extermination of their 
 kindred who had been living on Conestogoe Creek, 
 Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. These Indians 
 were the remains of a tribe long settled at that place, 
 and thence called Conestogoes. Upon the arrival 
 of the English in Pennsylvania this tribe sent mes- 
 sengers to welcome them, with presents of venison, 
 corn and skins, and the whole tribe entered into a 
 treaty of friendship with the first proprietary, Wil- 
 liam Penn a treaty which was to last as long as the 
 sun should shine, or the waters run in the rivers. 
 This treaty was often renewed the chain brightened, 
 as the Conestogoes expressed it from time to time. 
 This tribe was ultimately reduced to twenty per- 
 sons seven men, five women and eight children, 
 when by one of the most cowardly and dastardly 
 acts on record in all the protracted and bloody con- 
 tests with the Indians, this handful of peaceable 
 people were murdered in cold blood by fifty-seven 
 Conestogoe gentlemen (.?). On Wednesday, the 14th 
 day of December, 1763, these cavaliers, mounted on 
 good horses, and armed with fire-locks, hangers 
 and hatchets, entered Conestogoe Manor, and sur- 
 rounding the defenceless village, fired upon, stabbed 
 and hatcheted to death three men, two women and 
 a boy. Shehaes, an old man who assisted at the 
 second treaty held with them by Penn in 1701, was 
 among the slain. All were scalped, and their huts 
 
104 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 burned. The remaining Mingoes, absent at the 
 time of the massacre they were out among their 
 white neighbors selling baskets, brooms and bowls 
 were taken into protection by the humane magis- 
 trates of Lancaster, and secured from harm, as they 
 thought, in the work-house of that town. Fifty of 
 the chivalry, whose names are worthy to be inscribed 
 on the temple of cfo'shonor as high up as the sum- 
 mits of the Rocks of Deer Creek, suddenly appeared 
 before that town on the 27th of December, invested 
 the work-house, and by gradual approaches, doubt- 
 less, assaulted, captured and put to death all that 
 were left of the Mingoes men, women and chil- 
 dren, fourteen in all. The remains of the mur- 
 dered victims were dragged into the street and ex- 
 posed to view. The fifty patriots of the Simon 
 Girty stamp then mounted their horses, huzzaed in 
 triumph, and rode off, congratulating themselves 
 on their victory. 
 
 "Ah! where are the soldiers that fought here of yore, 
 The sod is upon them, they'll struggle no more, 
 The hatchet is fallen, the red man is low ; 
 But near him reposes the arm of the foe. 
 
 "The bugle is silent; the war whoop is dead; 
 There is a murmur of waters and woods in their stead, 
 And the raven and owl chant a symphony drear 
 From the dark waving pines o'er the combatants' bier. 
 
 "Sleep, soldiers of merit! sleep gallants of yore! 
 The hatchet is fallen, the struggle is o'er, 
 While the fir-tree is green and the wind rolls a wave, 
 The tear-drop shall brighten the turf of the brave?" 
 
 The Mingoes of Deer Creek, hearing of the mas- 
 sacre of their people, and fearing that their lives 
 would not be secure even among the humane white 
 
THKIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 105 
 
 inhabitants of their neighborhood, left to join their 
 people in the West or South. Their fears were 
 groundless. We have never heard that gentlemen 
 of Maryland ever deported themselves toward de- 
 fenceless women and innocent children as those 
 Bayard-like representatives of the men of England 
 who wore the red rose. 
 
 The Mingoes occasionally visited their former 
 homes, but that for a few years only. In 1764, a 
 year after their removal, a party visited a locality 
 in the neighborhood of New Park, York County, 
 Pennsylvania, ten miles distant from the Rocks. 
 There was a wigwam still standing at that date on 
 the farm now owned by Duncan Brown, Esq., then 
 possessed by his paternal grandfather. They were 
 seen walking around it, and seemingly viewing it 
 with a curious interest. To Deer Creek and the 
 Rocks a final adieu came. The descendants of the 
 former occupants know of these localities only as 
 the homes of their ancestors the places where the 
 bear, the wolf and the beaver were many, and 
 where the eagle built her nest upon the High Rocks, 
 beneath which their chiefs sat by their council fires. 
 
 ROCKS LITERATURE. 
 
 I AM not perfectly satisfied with the designation 
 I have given to the communications in prose and 
 poetry which I have selected for this place in this 
 
106 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 book. Rocks Literature is not poetical ; and the 
 title is justified only by the fact that these contri- 
 butions have been inspired by the sublimities and 
 beauties of that wonder of nature, the Rocks of 
 Deer Creek, with their romantic contiguities and 
 surroundings. Could I have said " The Curiosties 
 of Literature," the name giVen by Disraeli the 
 elder to that confessedly most curious collection of 
 literary gems which bears that title, I should as- 
 suredly be content, assuming, of course, that my 
 collection would bear some proper relation in their 
 literary qualities to that unique gathering of rare 
 intellectualities. No other title could I use, because 
 the literature I collect bears relation to but one 
 thing the Rocks of Deer Creek and their surround- 
 ings. And I am shut up to the necessity of using 
 the material I have, material not created by my- 
 self, save one short essay, but by others, and for the 
 quality of which I am in no degree responsible. 
 
 I am not to be understood, however, as disparag- 
 ing the efforts of the writers in prose and in poetry 
 whose contributions I shall insert in this book. I 
 have no doubt that many of the readers of them 
 will derive both pleasure and profit in their pe- 
 rusal. 
 
 I make these contributions a part of this volume, 
 because they are a part of the history, so to speak, 
 of the Rocks, and because they show that the Rocks 
 are potent in inspiration. 
 
 The literature of the Rocks is abundant suffi- 
 cient, perhaps, to make a volume respectable in 
 size. It is in accordance with my plan to limit my 
 collection to a few selections. The first was written 
 some years ago by a girl of tender years, and was, 
 perhaps, her first effort in such writing. 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 107 
 
 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. . 
 
 " Nature, in her delineations, ever delights in 
 giving variety to the beauty and magnificence of 
 her creations. Mountain, hill, valley and plain 
 have each their enchantments, but the Rocks of 
 Deer Creek, situated in the upper section of Har- 
 ford County, present to the lover of natural scenery 
 a combination of attractions that nature, in her mu- 
 nificence, seldom deigns to lavish on her fair do- 
 mains. The Rocks are several hundred feet in 
 height, extending to a point that projects in solemn 
 grandeur over huge masses of rock that lie scat- 
 tered at their base." Having described the beauty 
 of the adjacent landscape, she continues : " But the 
 Rocks, apart from the lovely landscape that spreads 
 around us, are ever the scene that must enchant the 
 gaze, and infuse into the heart of nature's votary a 
 mingled feeling of admiration and awe." She con- 
 cludes : " The image of the scene is impressed upon 
 the soul, and in the secret chamber of our being 
 often will we view over again the Rocks of Deer 
 Creek." 
 
 The next selection is a poem, written by a young 
 lady of Long Island, New York. We give only the 
 stanzas which describe the " King and Queen 
 Seats:" 
 
 "In ages past, so runs a legend old, 
 These rocks were the wild home of warriors bold ; 
 Here they in council met, and warfare planned, 
 Talked o'er the mighty secrets of their dusky band; 
 I fancy how the echoes have rung out, 
 The noisy clamor of their war-cry shout. 
 Long years have passed away, the red man's tread 
 
108 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 No longer echoes there ; the wild, fierce tribe is dead, 
 
 And nought remains but memories alone, 
 
 And two rough seats hewn from the solid stone. 
 
 "These were the lofty thrones of King and Queen, 
 Spread now with moss and trailing vines of green ; 
 We rested in their depths, and pictured rare 
 Visions of Indian beauties, wild yet fair ; 
 All still and silent now, only the breeze 
 Comes whispering soft sweet stories through the trees, 
 And echoes only waken to the words 
 Of untold beauty in the songs of birds, 
 Those clearest, bell-like tones that float and ring, 
 Pronounce the mocking bird the woodland king." 
 
 The following was written by a lady, a native of, 
 and now resident in, Harford : 
 
 Rocks of Deer Creek, I, a pilgrim, 
 
 Wander up thy mountain side, 
 And beneath thy lofty summits 
 
 Watch the sparkling waters glide. 
 
 Here upon this pile of ages, 
 Where the Red Man's flight was stayed, 
 
 I, in contemplation solemn, 
 View the mighty work displayed. 
 
 Think of Him who, out of chaos, 
 
 Called this great mysterious world, 
 With its mountains, vales and waters, 
 
 Like a picture fair unfurl' d. 
 
 Piled this mighty, rocky structure, 
 
 Like some castle, grim and gray, 
 Sublime mysterious wrote upon it, 
 
 A monument without decay. 
 
 List! methinks I hear "the voices 
 
 Of the hills" that round me lie, 
 For one grand and solemn anthem 
 
 Seemeth filling earth and sky. 
 
 And self is lost forgotten e'en 
 
 As I list the soft refrain; 
 Surely God, the builder of you, 
 
 Reigns upon this height supreme. 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 109 
 
 Misty clouds are upward rising, 
 
 Like pure incense, to the sky, 
 Peace-offerings from the waters 
 
 On this rock-bound mountain high. 
 
 Surely in this solemn grandeur, 
 
 On this temple most sublime, 
 More ancient than the pyramids 
 
 Of old, in eastern clime, 
 
 Man must see and feel a power, 
 
 Great beyond our mortal ken; 
 Rocks of Deer Creek, veil'd in mystery, 
 
 You must ever more remain. 
 
 MARY WARNER Ross. 
 
 Sandy Hook, 1879. 
 
 That which follows are the meditations of one 
 who discovers, in the vicinity of the Rocks, a sin- 
 gular fern. He is evidently in a philosophical 
 mood, and has been disturbed, it may be, by the 
 rash speculations of some modern scientists so- 
 called. 
 
 A REMARKABLE FERN. 
 
 Strolling one day of the past autumn along Deer 
 Creek, in the vicinity of the Rocks, I was attracted 
 by a species of fern with which I was not familiar. 
 Upon examining it minutely, I found, to my sur- 
 prise, and I must confess to my gratification, written 
 upon the stem and each leaf of the fern the word 
 Biogenesis : life from life, and from nothing but 
 life. And recollecting that Sir William Thomp- 
 son, President of the British Association for the 
 Advancement of Science, in an address to the Soci- 
 ety, incidentally refers to the theory of Biogenesis 
 and its opposite theory, Abiogenesis (spontaneous 
 10 
 
110 THE ROCKS OF DEER CHEEK. 
 
 generation), I sought that address, and found the 
 following statement therein : 
 
 " I am ready to adopt as an article of scientific 
 faith, true through all space and through all time, 
 that life proceeds from life, and from nothing hut 
 life." I am not aware that Sir William had ever 
 seen a specimen of the singular Deer Creek fern, or 
 ever heard of it ; but one cannot fail to note the 
 agreement between the teaching of the fern and that 
 of the distinguished President of the British Asso- 
 ciation. Anxious to know what that other distin- 
 guished member of the same Association, Professor 
 Huxley, might have to say upon Biogenesis and its 
 antagonistic theory, Abiogenesis, I turned to an in- 
 augural address delivered by him to the British 
 Association, in which Professor Huxley concedes 
 that " the evidence, direct and indirect, in favor 
 of Biogenesis : life from life, and from nothing but 
 life, for all known forms of life, must be admitted to 
 be of great weight/' This utterance of the great 
 inductive philosopher gave me great pleasure, as it 
 seems to confirm the suspicion that possibly the 
 Creator of all things wrote upon my fern the word 
 Biogenesis: life from life, and from nothing but 
 life. My satisfaction with this declaration of the 
 philosopher would have been complete, had he not 
 to this just admission, as I thought it to be, added : 
 u But though I cannot express this conviction of 
 mine too strongly, I must carefully guard myself 
 against the supposition that 1 intend to suggest that 
 no such thing as Abiogenesis (spontaneous gener- 
 ation) has ever taken place in the past, or will take 
 place in the future. If it were given me to look 
 beyond the abyss of geologically recorded lime to 
 
TIIKIK LEGENDS AND HISTORY. Ill 
 
 the still more remote period when the eartli was 
 passing through physical and chemical conditions, 
 which it can no inure sec again than a man can re- 
 call his infancy, / should expect to be a witness of the 
 evolution of living protoplasm from unliving matter." 
 I was now in a quandary. When doctors disagree, 
 who shall decide? And what estimate can I have 
 of the veracity of my fern? Singularly, the phil- 
 osopher whose just quoted utterance had tended to 
 overthrow my cherished theory of life, and brand as 
 false the teaching of the fern, comes to my relief. 
 The philosopher does not account for life without a 
 metaphysical cause. Hear him : " I, individually, 
 am no materialist, but, on the contrary, believe 
 materialism to involve grave philosophical error/' 
 His materialism is only a trick of logic ; his faith 
 is that all life has a transcendental, metaphysical 
 cause. He vindicates the truthfulness of my fern.* 
 
 The question is, where did my fern get its life? 
 Who wrote upon its stem and leaves Biogenesis? 
 My fern was sustained by inorganic substances. 
 From such substances it extracted the nutriment of 
 its life by a chemistry peculiar to itself. But whence 
 its life? It cannot be that life is a phenomenon ? 
 evolved from the forces of unliving matter. Science 
 does not say so. Matter is a basis of life ; in it life 
 manifests itself, and nothing more. Life, like 
 matter in which it dwells, was created, not evolved 
 from unliving forces. The life of my fern came 
 fro m abroad . Its cause was the only cause , ultimat e , 
 spontaneous will. The Author of all life gave it 
 life, and wrote upon its leaves Biogenesis. 
 
 My fern is perishing. Is this not singular? 
 Strange that the living forces which built it up 
 
112 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 should now, that its vitality is gone, tear down the 
 structure which they, with so much pains, con- 
 structed. The vital principle in my fern did for a 
 time hold in abeyance the physical forces, but this 
 having departed, its enemies triumph. My fern is 
 returning to unliving dust. Whether it, Phoenix- 
 like, will arise from its ashes, I do not know. And 
 if its unliving dust should become the basis of other 
 life, whether it will be the life of another fern, I do 
 not know. Of this I am confident, if it shall be 
 the basis of another life, upon that creation, be it 
 rose or magnolia or fern, will be written Biogenesis : 
 life from life, and from nothing but life. 
 
 If any of my curious friends would see a specimen 
 of the Deer Creek fern, they can do so by searching 
 the hills between Preston's Mill and the Rocks of 
 Deer Creek. 
 
 THE OLD MILL. 
 
 Opposite Mingo Hill, on the waters of Deer Creek, 
 a few miles above the Rocks, is a quaint old mill. 
 Of this ancient mill a poetess writes : 
 
 4 'Softly dim twilight lingers 
 
 O'er the picturesque mill, 
 Night, with her purple fingers, 
 
 Is draping each noble hill 
 With the shadows she loves to muster, 
 
 And waft in the twilight down, 
 Faintly outlined with the lustre 
 
 "Which streams from his starry crown. 
 Beautiful shadows that fall so still 
 And nestle down on the silent mill. 
 
 "Silent, for now the 
 
 Heart of the mill's at rest, 
 And only the breezes arc sobbing 
 O'er the water's breast; 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 113 
 
 Its ripples' musical splashing 
 
 Seem crowning a dreamy song, 
 As o'er the high dam dashing, 
 
 They hurry so swiftly along. 
 Laughing waters that scorn to feel 
 The ponderous weight of the old mill wheel. 
 
 " We sit in the night's dark splendor 
 
 And list to the whippoorwill, 
 Breathing in accents tender 
 
 Its moan o'er the night-wrapped mill, 
 And watch how the shadows linger 
 
 O'er the tree-topped hill on high, 
 Till each waving branch seems a finger 
 
 Writing against the sky. 
 And the spirit of night has awakened 
 
 The fairies that surely dwell, 
 In the quiet depths of the woodland 
 
 In some fair little hidden dell; 
 For the fire-flies twinkle their lights afar 
 Till each fairy lamp seems a tiny star. 
 
 " Brightly the summer dawning 
 
 Gleams o'er the quiet mill, 
 And scattered far by the morning 
 
 The shadows lift from the hill; 
 And the sunbeam's golden splendor 
 
 Pours o'er the dewy earth, 
 While the birdlings' voices tender 
 
 Thrill with sweetest mirth. 
 A morning concert given us free 
 Echoing sweet the softest melody. 
 
 "How lightly the water dances, 
 
 How sparkles its crystal breast, 
 As each arrow of sunlight glances 
 . In quivering, gay unrest, 
 And the dewy morning breathing 
 
 Tenderly touching now, 
 Silvery hair enwreathiug 
 
 An aged though cheerful brow. 
 For many years that are gone and dead, 
 The mill has echoed his gentle tread. 
 
 10* 
 
114 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 "And long may it echo the paces 
 
 Of the feet that are walking toward 
 The golden gates of the city 
 
 Leading to home and God. 
 Respected friend, I will carry 
 
 Sweet memories as I roam 
 Of the picturesque mill in the valley, 
 
 And the sweetly embowered home. 
 With sad regrets my song will fill, 
 And a fond farewell to the dear old mill." 
 
 "JAMAICA, LONG ISLAND.'' 
 
 WHAT immediately follows are the prophetic dec- 
 larations of the resident of "Shirley, near the 
 Hocks," who may be indebted, in a measure, to the 
 scenes amid which he dwells for the strength of 
 his patriotic inspirations and impulses. The High- 
 lands of Scotland, the mountains of Wales and 
 Switzerland, have ever been inhabited by peoples of 
 patriotic sentiments and practically devoted to lib- 
 erty. The dwellers by the Kocks are not an excep- 
 tion. The Eagle, which is the symbol of their 
 country's majesty, soars above the summits of their 
 mountains. They watch its lofty flights with pride, 
 and aspire to equal eminence in their sentiments 
 and aspirations. The lowlands are generally the 
 places of wealth, and luxury, and enervation, with 
 which the sentiments of personal independence and 
 individual liberty do not usually co-exist. 
 
 The prophecy is a portion of a Centennial Ad- 
 
Til KIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 115 
 
 dress, delivered by the author, July 4th, 1876, in 
 Ward's Woods, not distant from, and in view of, 
 the Rocks, and is a legacy to the young men who 
 shall be living in 1976 ; bequeathed to them with 
 the hope that they will cherish an ardent love of 
 country, and maintain the principles of their 
 fathers. 
 
116 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 A PROPHECY. 
 
 THE retrospect we have made very naturally sug- 
 gests the prospect. What shall the future of our 
 country be? Who shall forecast its destiny ? Have 
 we, by the marvelous rapidity of our growth in the 
 hundred years past, exhausted our energies, and 
 brought upon ourselves premature old age, premon- 
 itory of speedy deatli ? Or, are we as Hercules in 
 his cradle, possessed of a vitality and force and fer- 
 tility of resources that shall be manifested in achieve- 
 ments that will surpass all that has been seen in 
 the past of our history, and surprised the world 
 with their greatness. We are in the infancy of 
 our greatness, the beginning of a progress such as 
 has not hitherto been seen, and of which the most 
 sanguine could not possibly have dreamed. Man- 
 kind is standing on the very threshold of a new life, 
 on a boundary line, about to launch out into an 
 unknown future. The past is gone, the old land- 
 marks are swept away, and fresh armies of 
 thoughts, opinions and knowledge are breaking in 
 upon the world. The jungle has been cleared, 
 space has been almost annihilated, and the. human 
 mind, free from embarrassments that have inter- 
 rupted its progress, is entering upon a series of es- 
 says and conflicts that shall ultimate in achieve- 
 ments far surpassing those of the past, and that 
 Khali carry humanity upward to higher planes rap- 
 idly and majestically. It may be centuries before 
 tin- new life shall be matured. In the very "lisp- 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 117 
 
 ing infancy " of the new life humanity may be, but 
 the child is born, and there shall follow the vigor 
 of manhood and the ripeness of age. A sagacious 
 thinker and observer has said : " A mighty impulse 
 has come over the world lately. A time of looking 
 forward rather than back has set in. Great inven- 
 tions of all kinds are altering the face of the earth, 
 making the conditions of life different, and raising 
 the hopes and fears of men. Great discoveries are 
 bringing with them all the eager wildness, all the 
 enthusiasm for good or evil, that such unsettle- 
 ments must always bring. The vast ocean of 
 knowledge has found its Columbuses, and hearts 
 beat high with the daily hope of fresh wonders be- 
 ing unveiled by new voyagers." Where, we ask, 
 has this impulse been felt stronger than on this 
 continent and with us ? Where so much of change, 
 of adventure, of achievement? Where in all the 
 earth so much of enthusiasm, of earnest purpose, 
 of determination to do all that lies within the range 
 of possibility ? There are barriers that no human 
 invention can overcome ; conditions beyond the 
 range of mortal power. But within those great bar- 
 riers which God has fixed to human progress, an 
 almost infinite advance is certain. There are men 
 of folly, as was Canute the Great, when he sat by 
 the sea-shore, and said to the advancing waters, 
 " So far shalt thou come, and no farther," who in 
 the impotency of their reason may prescribe bounds 
 to human progress, but that progress, as did the 
 oncoming waves, will mock their folly and weak- 
 ness. This continent, this nation, shall participate 
 in this general onward movement, and in a degree 
 exceeding all. The genius of the American people, 
 
118 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 their inquisitiveness, their steadiness of purpose, 
 their inflexibility of will, their inventive qualities, 
 their love of change, their ambition to excel, all 
 point to a destiny of unparalleled grandeur. Our 
 lofty mountains, our wide extended plains, our ma- 
 jestic rivers, are symbolic of the might and majesty 
 of our coining greatness. Here, upon the shores of 
 the Atlantic, on the banks of the Mississippi and the 
 Missouri, and by the side of the Pacific, in mountain 
 place and valley, shall be a teeming multitude of 
 men building up in their strength a material, in- 
 tellectual, social, spiritual empire, before which all 
 other empires shall pale as the glow-wortn v pales in 
 the presence of the sun. It will be the onward 
 movement of thought, and feeling, and faith, and 
 work, widening and deepening, and increasing in 
 strength, until mighty in its volume and resistless 
 in its force, it shall bear upon its bosom, as the 
 flood bears the oak, all the treasures of wisdom and 
 knowledge. This is my thought it may be the 
 dream of an enthusiast. 
 
 In one hundred years the population of the 
 United States of America may exceed that of China ; 
 the area of territory, if extended, may embrace the 
 whole of North America, and our progress in all 
 other respects be commensurate. Then it will be 
 that those then living will look back upon the epoch 
 of the first Centennial as we, who celebrate it to-day, 
 look back upon its beginning as a day of very small 
 things, and, as we do, congratulate themselves and 
 the country on the progress made, differing from us 
 in this, that their felicitations will be greater pro- 
 portionate to their increased prosperity. The reali- 
 zation of this hope will depend essentially upon 
 
THEIR LKGHNDS AND 1IIST011Y. 1 1 ( J 
 
 one thing that we remain at peace among our- 
 selves. This unity of the nation is the pledge of its 
 perpetuity, and the assurance of its high destiny. 
 Not, indeed, that unity which is enforced by strength 
 of will and power of bayonet, but unity .of senti- 
 ment and affection, that unity of mind and heart 
 which has its most striking illustrations and exem- 
 plifications in the virtuous household, each member 
 of which, recognizing the significancy of the rela- 
 tion, performs its obligations. The hope is that 
 Christianity, in its onward inarch, will so leaven 
 society with its restraining and conserving influ- 
 ences, that human passions will not simply be held 
 in check, but will be consecrated to virtuous pur- 
 poses, the human heart responding always and un- 
 erringly to truth, and the life to noble aim. 
 
 Our fathers sought to erect the superstructure of 
 American government upon a substantial basi^s, in- 
 tending that in th#5 ark of national safety their de- 
 scendants should be secure when the tempests gath- 
 ered. The fabric of government which they erected 
 was no temporary expedient," to serve the wants of 
 a day ; it was built, as the pyramids were built, to 
 resist the wear of ages, and serve the necessities of 
 generations. Washington, and Adams, and Jef- 
 ferson, and Madison, and Monroe, and all the illus- 
 trious host of worthies who laid the foundations of 
 American nationality, were men not only of wis- 
 dom, but of conscience also, having in view, not the 
 mere gratification of personal ambition and the ag- 
 grandizement of self,' but the welfare of the whole 
 people and of generations of people. To establish 
 this government our ancestors toiled, and sacri- 
 ficed, and poured out their blood, not anticipating 
 
120 THE ROCKS OF DEER CREEK. 
 
 that Catalines would ever be found among their 
 descendants, who would conspire against the liber- 
 ties of the people, but hoping and believing that 
 they to whom had been bequeathed the precious 
 legacy of- American freedom, would cherish it as 
 vestal virgins and priests of Inca cherished their 
 sacred fires. The gift has so far been generally 
 appreciated, and the men of this generation are 
 bearing upon their shoulders the ark which contains 
 the sacred things placed therein by the fathers of 
 the republic. They cherish it as the ark of the 
 Lord was cherished in the house of Obed Edom. 
 
 It is not within the power of man to foretell the 
 time when this nation, having performed its allot- 
 ted part in the great drama of the world's life, 
 shall follow the peoples that have preceded it, and 
 pass in mournful procession to the graves of dead 
 nationalities. The race that forms this nation has, 
 as we have seen, been distinguished above all other 
 races for its vitality and force, resisting thus far 
 that strong tendency to decay that characterized the 
 nations that preceded it. It may follow in the 
 footsteps of the nations that have gone before ; but 
 if true to itself, if it fulfills the destiny which the 
 Divine hand has marked out for it, then when its 
 cycle shall have been completed and the record 
 made up, future races will look back upon its period 
 as the brightest in human history. And that re- 
 cord, the brightest spot in human history, may be 
 the roll of a thousand years. 
 
 Yea, if the period of the existence of the great 
 nations of antiquity was ten centuries, ten times ten 
 centuries may be the cycle of American history, the 
 time when its record shall be made up. The senti- 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 121 
 
 inent of patriotism existing in such intense force in 
 the bosom of every true American would place no 
 limit to his country's life. To-day, moved thereto 
 by the enthusiasm kindled by our recollections of 
 the past and our faith in the greatness of our coun- 
 try's future, we all with one accord exclaim, Our 
 country ; may she live forever ! 
 
 My fellow-citizens, we congratulate ourselves 
 that we have lived to celebrate the Centennials In 
 honoring this day we do justice to the memory of 
 our fathers who bequeathed to us our heritage to 
 their intelligence, their virtue, their bravery, their 
 fortitude, their spirit of self-sacrifice. They have 
 gone to their graves, and the worthiest monuments 
 that we can erect to perpetuate their memories are 
 the appreciation of their virtues and the imitation 
 of their examples. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, we shall not live to celebrate 
 another Centennial. Ere the coming century of our 
 national existence shall have closed we will have 
 passed away been gathered to our fathers ; but we 
 shall leave a heritage worthy to be preserved by our 
 posterity, and by them transmitted to the genera- 
 tions following. 
 
 1 1 
 
1-- THE ROCKS OF DBKR CREEK. 
 
 MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 
 
 A FEW miles north of the Rocks of Deer Creek, 
 in latitude 39 degrees, 43 minutes, 26^ seconds, is 
 the boundary between the States of Pennsylvania 
 and Maryland. This line was begun in December^ 
 1763, and concluded in the end of the year 1767. 
 Its whole length is 244 miles, not all of which was 
 laid out by the scientific gentlemen after whom it is 
 called. They were prevented by fears of hostile 
 Indians from proceeding further than Sideling Hill, 
 a distance of 116 miles from the place of beginning. 
 At the termination of every fifth mile is planted a 
 large stone, having on one side the coat of arms of 
 William Penn, and on the other or southern side, 
 the Escutcheon of Lord Baltimore, the proprietaries 
 respectively of the provinces of Maryland and Penn- 
 sylvania. Every mile is a smaller stone with the 
 letter P on one side and M on the other. All these 
 stones were brought from England. This line was 
 fixed after eighty years of constant discussion, and 
 thus was lost to Maryland much fertile territory. 
 It was not surveyed in the ordinary mode, but estab- 
 lished by mathematical and astronomical calcula- 
 tion. A survey was had in 1844, and the original 
 line was found to be substantially correct. 
 
THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY. 123 
 
 A LITP:RARY CURIOSITY. 
 
 IN the year 1661, the Rev. John Eliot, " the 
 Apostle to the Indians," translated the Virginian 
 Bihle into the language of the New England In- 
 dians. The following specimen exhibits the Lord's 
 Prayer (Matt, vi : 9-13) : 
 
 9. Yowutche yeu nuppenantarnook: Nooshun 
 kesukqut quttianatamunach knowesuonk. 
 
 10. Peaumooutch kukketassootamdonk, kutten- 
 autamoouk nennach ohkeit neane kesukqut. 
 
 11. Nummeetsuonqash asekesukokish assamaii- 
 uean yeuyea kesuked. 
 
 12. Kah ahquontamaiinean nummatchseonqash, 
 neane niatcheneukgueagig nutahquontamounna- 
 nog. 
 
 13. Ahque sagkompagunaiinnean en qutchhua- 
 onganit, webepohquohwussinean wutch matchitut. 
 Newutche kutahtaun ketassootarnoonk, kah raenuh- 
 kesuonk, kali sohsumoorik micheme. Amen.