May Martin, and other tales of the Green mountains

Front matter

AND OTHER

TALES OF THE GREEN MOUNTAINS

•T

Contents

Page

MAY MARTIN, OR THE MONEY DIGGERS, . .7

THE GUARDIAN AND GHOST, . -t . 161

Introduction To The Revised Edition

SINCE the public have evinced a determination to be pleased with MAY MARTIN, with all its imperfections, the author, both in justice to himself and in return for a reception so little anticipated at the time of its hasty composition, has concluded to give this first born of his fancy a new dress, by way of revision and emendation, and at the same time furnish a brief account of the traditions and incidents by which the tale was first suggested.

The tale of MAY MARTIN, OR THE MONEY DIGGERS, was composed in the evenings of the month of March, 1835, being commenced, and the greater portion of it written, rather as an agreeable relaxation from the professional labors and studies of the day than with any view to publication. At this juncture, however, the offer of a prize of Fifty Dollars for the best original tale, made by the publishers of the New England Galaxy, coming under the observation of the author, he hastily finished his story and cast it upon the literary waters, where he supposed, like nine tenths of such ventury, it would be heard of no more. But, in happy fulfilment of the adage here alluded to, after many days he found it, by its appearance in the periodical above named, with the award of the prize in question, which it had obtained among numerous competitors. A copyright having been secured, it was then published in book form, a large edition of which was soon exhausted. Since that time, the work has never been published by the author, nor by his consent, nor in consequence of any assignment ever made by him ; though the market has been constantly supplied by stolen or unauthorized editions, got up in various parts of the country, and presented without the name of the publishers, and, as might be expected, in a sadly mutilated condition. The publishers of our periodicals, also, have, in numerous instances, given the work to then: readers entire, and, as with the book publishers, without thanks, return, or benefit to the author, save the compliment involved in the act — which is, indeed, something, since it is not every work that is worth stealing. And this consideration, together with that of the republication of the tale in London, as a popular work of English production, has induced the author to forego his privilege of grumbling, and let his strayed bantling (which seemed to be doing so well for itself, if not for its owner) go on seeking its fortune without putting in any claim to its earnings, or recalling it for a new outfit.

Having said thus much of the history of the story since its first appearance, I will now proceed to narrate the few incidents with which its origin was connected.

Not many years subsequent to the revolutionary war, a foot traveller of indigent appearance, from some part of Lower Canada, came into one of the western towns of Vermont, and hired himself out to a farmer for a month, to earn money, as he hinted, to be expended in the vicinity, in the prosecution of a special object, the nature of which? with considerable show of mystery, he declined to make known. As soon as he had completed the term of service for which he had engaged, and received his wages, he repaired to a land surveyor, an experienced woodsman, whose acquaintance with the localities of all the neighboring mountains he had previously ascertained, and proposed to hire him as a guide and assistant in exploring the woods for a secret purpose. This purpose, as he now found it necessary to the prosecution of his plan to be somewhat explicit, he declared to be a search for buried treasures, a portion of which, in case of success, was, in addition to ordinary wages, to go to the proposed assistant. And still failing to enlist the surveyor in so hopeless a project as that of searching for treasure buried in so interior a country as Vermont, without strong reasons for believing in its existence in some particular spot, he proceeded, after exacting many promises of secrecy to be observed till after the project should succeed or be abandoned, to relate the following singular story: —

Some time near the close of the French and Indian wars, or so soon after, that the country was still in an unsettled condition, and travelling unsafe any where beyond the outskirts of civilization, a small party of adventurers, who had been to Mexico, and, on their return, had landed at the city of New York, undertook to go over land from that city or Albany to Montreal and Quebec, with the large treasure with which they had enriched themselves, during their expedition to the South.

Taking the usual route through Lake Champlain, or along its borders, then an almost unbroken wilderness, they reached the vicinity of the forts, about midway the lake, without much difficulty. But at this point they became apprised of the approach of a party whose object, they believed, was to plunder them of their treasure; and soon after, they found themselves so encompassed by their foes, that they deemed it their only chance of saving their wealth to leave the lake, bury all they had about them of value in some secluded spot, and then proceed to Canada by a different route. Accordingly they struck off from the lake to one of the most conspicuous peaks to be seen from their position, among the Green Mountains. And having reached the mountain by whose lofty peak they had been guided to the spot, they selected a wild and peculiarly formed nook, hemmed in by precipices and of difficult access, but easily to be recognized by themselves, or described to those to whom they might wish to impart their secret ; and here they buried their treasure, consisting of gold and silver, many feet under ground. It was stated also that they performed over the spot sundry ceremonies and incantations, which, according to the superstition of the times, were necessary to prevent any but the rightful owners from obtaining the treasure. They then, prompted, probably, by their jealousy and distrust of each other, entered into a solemn compact, ratified by the mutual oath of the whole party, that they would return to the place only in company, and no one of them should presume to approach or touch the common treasure, except in the presence of all the rest, or those duly authorized to act for them ; while the time of their return, which was to be as soon as the state of the country would permit with safety, was to be a matter of future appointment.

When all these things were settled to their satisfaction, they left the place, and proceeded in a direct line through the woods to the nearest Canadian settlements, which they now soon reached, without further molestation ; when, agreeing on some mode of communication to be kept up among them, their homes being in the different large towns in Canada, they separated in high spirits and with many happy anticipations of soon meeting again, to come into the individual possession and 2 enjoyment of their wealth. They were destined, however, to meet no more. For sometimes they were •prevented by the terms of their peculiar compact, some being sick or otherwise disabled, and refusing to appoint others to represent them ; sometimes they were deterred by an inauspicious season, and sometimes by the presence of the enemy in the country where they had concealed their money. And thus, from one year to another, they were kept away from the object of their common interest, till all but one individual of the band were dead, or gone to parts of the world from which there was no probability of their return. The individual excepted, who had settled on the northern shore of Lake Memphremagog, where he still resided in indigent circumstances, having long waited in vain for the appearance of some of his comrades, and having become too old and decrepit to go himself in search of this long-buried treasure, of the secret of which he supposed himself now the only living depositary, had recently .divulged the whole affair as above related to the present narrator, giving him full powers to go, search for, and, if found, to bring away the treasure, which was confidently believed still to lie hid in the earth at the exact spot where it was first deposited. And the latter, as he stated in conclusion of his strange story, having gained all the information which the old man was able to impart in relation to the locality, and every thing that would be likely to aid in the search, was now here for the purpose. .

INTRODUCTION. ID

The adventurer having thus imparted his grand secret, and by his story rendered his proposed search sufficiently promising of successful results to induce the surveyor to engage in the project, it now became their first object to identify the mountain described by the old man as the locality of the treasure. This mountain, after discussing all the circumstances under which it was stated to have been selected, they both concluded could be no other than the one now so generally known by the appropriate appellation of CAMEL'S HUMP, which is the most conspicuous peak in the range of the Green Mountains, observable from Lake Champlain, in the vicinity of the old forts.

The requisite starting-point being thus settled, the adventurer and his guide now made their preparations, and secretly proceeded on their expedition. But notwithstanding the great confidence of the one, and the somewhat raised expectations of the other, in regard to their success, the search, as the reader has probably already anticipated, proved a fruitless one ; for although they perseveringly explored for many successive days, not only the mountain above designated, but several others in the vicinity, next likely, in their opinion, to be the right ones, and although they found places, (so many, indeed, that it served more to distract than aid them,) places which served well enough to answer the description of the spot where the money was said to have been

16 iNTRODUCflON.

secreted, yet with all their scrutiny, whether exercised by excavating the earth or inspecting the surface, they were able to discover no treasures, nor, indeed, the least traces to indicate that any had ever been buried there.

The search was consequently abandoned, and the adventurer departed for Canada, from which he never returned, it is believed, to resume the hopeless project. Nothing more now occurred for several years having any bearing on the subject, and the Canadian's story, and the search which was made in consequence, were nearly forgotten, when a circumstance took place which revived the affair, and caused it to be more generally known and discussed than it had ever been before. A scientific gentleman and his son made a mineralogical excursion over Camel's Hump, during which, to their great surprise, they came across, in some dark recess under the mountain, evident traces of what had been a rude furnace, and near it they found several crucibles, such as are used in smelting the precious metals.

This circumstance and its supposed connection with the story of the Canadian adventurer, forming, it must be confessed, a curious and hitherto unexplained coincidence, gave rise, it is believed, to the first, and, indeed, all the attempts at money-digging, that ever were made in Vermont. No sooner were these stories, with the exaggerations usual in such cases, fairly abroad, than the dreamers of buried treasures were on the alert. Two separate companies were formed, one to commence operations on Camel's Hump, and the other on a large semicircular mountain some distance to the east of it. The former of these companies was headed by a native of the state, a pretended adept in finding secreted treasures, who, going on the Hump with his band of dupes, and selecting his position, undertook to find the particular spot where the money was buried, by ceremonies invented or patched up, probably by himself, consisting of a strange jumble of religious rites, and the forms said to have been used by magicians and sorcerers, such as singing hymns, enclosing himself in a circle marked on the ground, invoking unseen spirits, and holding ostensible conversation with them, with many other mysterious performances, the purport of which was as little understood by himself, perhaps, as by his wondering associates. The spirits, however, did not deign to direct the search, at this time, as he said, and after a day or two spent in this manner, the company left the mountain, with the promise of the leader to call them together again as soon as the auspicious moment should arrive, which, I believe, never happened.

The other company, which was organized, I think, the same summer, made a much more systematic and protracted attempt, which became invested in its progress with no small degree of romantic interest. And it was the doings of this secret and sworn band of adventurers, 2 with some circumstances connected with the locality of their operations, which furnished all the hints for the story of The Money Diggers, as it was christened at the outset, but to which, as, in the progress of the tale, it was perceived that its main interest would turn on the destinies of the heroine, was added, or rather prefixed, the name of May Martin. The company was got up by a youngish man, who appears to have been a person of considerable adroitness and address, and who, coming into the obscure neighborhood situated near the mountains which became the scene of his subsequent operations, and there finding several individuals, well imbued with the money-digging mania, caught from the stories and circumstances before narrated, proceeded, upon the hints thus obtained, after coming into the place, very probably, to make known his pretended skill as a treasure-finder, and enlist the persons, whom he there found suited to his purpose and already eager for such a project, into a secret and strictly organized company for the professed object, as he held out, of discovering the long-sought treasure of which they had so often heard. This personage, who at the time was probably a refugee from justice from some other quarter, was doubtless a counterfeiter, and one of that extensive band of counterfeit-money dealers, who were first initiated into the mysteries of their art by the noted Stephen Burroughs, and who, in those days, rendezvoused mostly in some of the south-eastern townships of Lower Canada, from which they could carry their operations over the line into the States with the best chance of success and safety.

He appeared to be well apprised of all that had been said and done in relation to the treasure supposed to have been buried in one of the mountains of Vermont. But whether he obtained his information by fishing it out from different individuals of the neighborhood, after coming into the place, and before forming his plans, or whether he obtained it, as he pretended, from the old man in Canada, referred to by the first adventurer, who was a different, and probably an honest man, I have never been able to determine. He professed, however, in his communications to his company, to have come on with fresh authority and instructions from the same source. And during the time he was enlisting his company, and making pretended approximations towards the exact place of the buried treasure, he made several journeys into Canada, for the ostensible purpose of consulting the old man and obtaining further information in regard to the locality, all of which was made to confirm him in the opinion, which, he told them, he at once adopted, as, in his general search, he entered their little settlement, viz., that one of the mountains which surround it must be the one in question. But although his story respecting the manner in which the treasure was originally buried was, in the main, the same which had been imparted to the surveyor by his predecessor, yet he now invested the transaction with several additional circumstances, such as the murdering of a man by the company and burying him with the money, to deter any from obtaining it but those initiated into the art of laying the ghost. This, and other circumstances of the like marvellous character, which, to subserve his own secret purposes, he threw over the affair, would greatly enhance the difficulties of obtaining the money, he said ; but all these obstacles he well knew how to meet, and if his band would observe the rules he should prescribe to them, there was no doubt that, in spite of all the strange sights and sounds which might assail their senses, they would come off victorious. Having, in this manner, prepared his excited band, and secured certain contributions which he exacted from each of them, he at length led them to the spot in the mountain which he had selected as the scene of operation.

What now ensued, as it was made to appear to this heated band of enthusiasts, will be found, but with little amplification and embellishment, embodied in the tale, to which this sketch is intended as an introduction, in those parts that relate to the doings of the Money Diggers. Some of the incidents therein set forth, however, were with me, I may as well here state, rather matters of unavoidable inference than of known fact, such as the existence of an accomplice to the leader, and the part he enacted in getting up the strange spectacles and noises by which the company were unquestionably frightened from their nightly labors, and such also as the supposed fact, that this leader and his secreted accomplice were counterfeiters, or dealers in false coin, which they either brought with them from Canada or manufactured in some place of concealment in the mountains ; this supposition being the only one by which I could account for the possession of the few counterfeit dollars "which some of the company certainly got hold of in the course of their operations, supposing it to be genuine, and which, indeed, on being shown, led to threats of arrest, to the alarm and sudden and final dispersion of the whole company.

Having thus given the results of my investigation on the subject of money digging in Vermont, it now only remains for me to add, that becoming somewhat interested in the novel and dramatic incidents that were furnished in the operations of the company last and more particularly described, the details of which, in all their minutiae, were given me some time afterwards by one of the acting members of the band, I subsequently made an excursion to the wild and sequestered part of the country where these events occurred. And here, after attending to whatever had reference to the particular affair that had led to my visit, and taking note of the remarkable and impressive scenery of the place, consisting of a partially settled glen, almost wholly environed by towering mountains, I was induced to make some inquiries respecting the original ownership and settlement of the valley. And the simple fact thus elicited, that it had once been mostly owned by a wealthy landholder of one of our Atlantic cities, who bequeathed it to a granddaughter, who married a plain but enterprising young man, an occasional resident of the place, furnished, with one or two other circumstances connected with the character and career of one of the early settlers, the slight superstructure of facts on which were founded the fortunes of May Martin.

THE AUTHOR.

M HOTELIER, June, 1850.

OB,

THE MONEY DIGGERS.

Chapter I

" With what superior grace enchants The face which Nature's pencil paints ! Where eyes, unexercised in art, Glow with the meaning of the heart."

IN one of those rough and secluded towns, situated in the heart of the Green Mountains, is a picturesque little valley, containing, perhaps, something over two thousand acres of improvable land, formerly known in that section of the country by the appellation of The Harwood Settlement, so called from the name of the original proprietor of the valley. As if formed by some giant hand, literally scooping out the solid mountain and moulding it into shape and proportion, the whole valley presents the exact resemblance of an oval basin, whose sides are composed of a continuous ridge of lofty hills bordering it around, and broken only by two narrow outlets at its northerly and southerly extremities. The eastern part of this valley is covered by one of those clear, mirror-like ponds, which furnish so interesting a feature in our Green Mountain scenery. This body of water, the freshly collected tribute of1 a hundred hills, and the chosen retreat of the fierce-eyed trout, the wild duck, and the trumpet-voiced loon, lies very nearly in the shape of a crescent, and extends along beneath the closely encircling mountains the whole length of the glen, to which it forms a bright and beautiful border of waters, wherein are forever reflected, faintly or vividly, as cloud or sunshine may prevail, the motley groups of the sombre forest around, where the more slender and softer-tinted beech and maple seem struggling for a place among the rough and shaggy forms of the sturdy hemlock, peering head over head from the ascending cliffs of the woody precipice ; while here and there, at distant intervals, towering high over all, stands the princely pine, waving its majestic head in solitary grandeur, a striking, but melancholy type of the aboriginal Indian, still occasionally found lingering among us, the only remaining representative of a once powerful race, which, having receded before the march of civilized men, are now destined no more to flourish the lords of the plain and the mountain.

This pond discharges its surplus waters at its southern extremity, in a pure stream of considerable size, which here, as if in wild glee at its escape from the embrace of its parent waters, leaps at once, from a state of the most unruffled tranquillity, over a ledgy barrier, and, with noisy reverberations, goes bounding along from cliff to cliff, yi a series of romantic cascades, down a deep ravine, till the lessening echoes are lost in the sinuosities of the outlet of the valley. From the western shore of this sheet of water the land rises in gentle undulations, and with a gradual ascent, back to the foot of the mountains which heie, as on every other side, rear their evtT-green summits to the clouds, standing around this vast fortress of nature as huge sentinels posted along the lofty outworks, to battle with the careering hurricanes, that burst in fury on their immovable sides, and arrest, and receive on their own unscathed heads, the shafts of the lightning descending for its victims to the valley below ; while they cheerily bandy from side to side the voicy echoes of the thunder-peal with their mighty brethren of the opposite rampart.

Nor is the beauty of the minor features of the landscape surpassed by the bold grandeur of the main outlines. The interior of the valley, for miles in extent, uniformly sloping to the eastward, is checked with beautiful alternations of lawn and woodland, forever richly clothed, in their season, with the wavy and lighter verdure of the cultivated field, or the deep-tinted and exuberant foliage of the forest ; while a thousand gushing rills come dancing down from the surrounding heights to meet the morning sun, and glitter in his first smile, as he looks in over the eastern barrier on his return from his diurnal circuit.

At the period of which we are about to write, the rude dwellings of the small band of settlers, who then inhabited the valley, were scattered at different intervals along the road, which, entering from the south, wound round the westerly margin of the pond, and passed off through the interlapping mountains towards Canada. Of these dwellings, the largest and most respectable in appearance was the one situated in the most southerly part of the valley. The old log house of the pioneer, still standing in the background, surrounded by weeds 3 and briers, had . here given place to a new framed house of one story, which, together with the appearance of the out-buildings and the well-cultivated grounds adjoining, betokened a considerable degree of thrift and comfort in the circumstances of the owner.

Towards night on a beautiful summer's day, at the time we have chosen for the opening of our tale, a young man and maiden might be seen leaving the door of the cottage we have described, and leisurely taking their way across the pasture, in a direction to intersect the main road at the termination of the clearing on the south. The first named of this couple, apparently of the age of about twenty-five, was in the full bloom of vigorous manhood. His hardy, robust, and well-formed frame was graced with an open, frank, and highly intelligent countenance, indicative at once of an ingenuous disposition, a light heart, and the consciousness of a strong hand, with mental capacity to govern and render it available — exhibiting in his person a fine sample of the early immigrants of Vermont, who were almost universally men of uncommon physical powers, and generally of moral qualities which quailed at no ordinary obstacles— a fact attributable, probably, neither to chance, nor the peculiarly invigorating effects of their climate, but to the natural operation of these very powers and qualities themselves, which only could incite them to forsake the ease and comfort of an old settlement, with the certainty of encountering hardships in a new one, and enduring trials, from which men of common mould would shrink with dismay. His fair companion was evidently quite youthful. Her person was rather slightly formed, but of closely knit and beautifully rounded proportions, which were indebted for their almost faultless symmetry to none of the crippling arts of fashion, but solely to the hand of unrestrained nature, giving a free and graceful motion, and a step as light and agile as that of the young fawn of the mountains, among which she was reared. The complexion of her face, however, was, perhaps, too dark to be delicate, or to give full effect to the rich brown tresses that encircled her high forehead and fell profusely in natural ringlets down her finely-arched neck. And her features also, though regular, were remarkable only for the wonderful vivacity of their expression ; though now, as she and her -companion pursued their way from the house some rods in silence, her mind seemed absent, or absorbed by some care, her looks were quiescent and listless, and her dark blue eye seemed sleeping in abstraction — but lo! her lover speaks, and a thousand varying emotions suddenly manifest themselves in her countenance — a smile of peculiar sweetness plays on her lovely lips, her fair cheeks are wreathing in beauteous dimples, and her eyes brightly sparkle with the light of the soul, that seems to have taken perch, the instant, within them.

"May," said he, " May, my girl, do you know that I have invited you out for this little walk only to bid you adieu, and that too for a considerable season ? "

"No! — surely!" replied the girl, pausing in her step, and looking up into the manly features of her lover, with an expression of lively concern — "surely, you are not. going your journey so soon ? "

" Yes, May, I have a horse in readiness at the village below, and thither I propose walking to-night, to be prepared for an early start for Massachusetts in the morning."

" And how soon will you return ? "

" Perhaps I may be absent nearly two months."

" So vary long ! "

" Most probably — my business is such as may lead to delays — but why so concerned, May? this is one more absence, and then — "

" Yes, yes, I know what you would say ; but why is even this absence necessary ? "

" It is but right that you should know, May, and I will tell you. It is now nearly a year since I contracted for the land, on which I made a pitch, in this settlement* The time for a payment, when I am to receive a title, has nearly arrived ; and I am going to gather up the little pittance of property, which I earned with my own hands, and left invested in my native state, when I departed for the wild woods of Vermont, and which I now need to enable me to meet this payment."

" It is right then, I presume, that you go ; but yet I dread your absence."

" Dread ! I hardly dared hope that my presence was so much valued, May."

" How vain, now! — no, no, I did not mean that — I have other reasons for dreading your absence."

" And what can they be, dearest May ? "

" I have often thought I would never disturb your feelings by the story of my little troubles."

" Troubles ! and not tell me, May — you surprise and disturb me already — to whom should you confide them, if not to me ? "

" True, Mr. Ashley, true, if you take the interest in me which you profess — to you certainly, if to any one, should I confide them. And, indeed, should any thing happen to me in your absence, in consequence of thei. existence, I should wish, perhaps, I had apprised you of the difficulties which beset me — "