USA > Maryland > Harford County > The rocks of Deer Creek, Harford County, Maryland. Their legends and history > Part 3
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
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 Indians in their jour- neyings 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' 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*
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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 humblest 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' 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 Southern Pennsylvania, journeyed thitherward. And after
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
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, on the farm now in the occupancy of Thomas H. 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
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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 pass.
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 diplomate, 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
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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 : Nummatchakodtautamoonkanunnonnash-our lusts ; Kummogkodonattootimmooetiongannunnon- ash-our questions ; and Noowomantammoonkauu- 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
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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, there dwelt, as the ancient legend tells
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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
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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
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
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 lamp shed a soft and 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. She 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 cach heavenly gift bereft, He stood a doomed, deserted thing, From the great moral wreck was left- Was left to light the lurid gloom 5
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That gathered o'er in his fall,
To burst, to brighten, and to bloom O'er ruined Eden, Eve, 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 gave, 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 Cherabim It from that magic moment wore. And ever, 'mid the wrong and wrath Of life, there beameth 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 could 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
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
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.
THE 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
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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 are copper-colored, have straight black hair, and lack
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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 5*
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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 for the con- fiding 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-
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THEIR LEGENDS AND HISTORY.
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 habit 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
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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 "was twenty feet long and thick as a man's body. " It is conjectured that it was of foreign origin, or was of the Hall's- 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.
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