Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1853-06-23

never dreamed Of having conflict The Silent
Hunter never lost their trail. Then they once
more burned their wigwams and went away
forever from that country. And When the last
of the Shawnees had launched his canee upon
the Ohio, Bill Smith rose from amid the bushes
on the shore, and fred after the little bark.
Revenge was his monomana When he bur.
led his wifi, and children, rash and bloody res
olution fixed Itself in his mind. Itbecame mad
ness. He never more spoke to man, but silently
and remorseessly haunted the trail The Saw
nees to slay every one that came within range
of his far-famed rife, Then, after The Indian
tribe had gone from its ancient hunting grounds,
he retired, mute and alone, 70 the mos; inaccess
able part of the Green River Hills. There, in a
shady cleft, remote from Che habitatioas sf man,
he built himself hut where, in solitary quiet,
he passed the remainder of his daye lile hunt
ed to supply bimsef with food ssd - sss@-zsAss
to exchange for powder and sIi1s,zs1sAich an old
man at an out settlement down on the Green
River was ccuslomed to supply him with. Ills
life was protracted to the age Of slightly eight
years.
One day the old man at the settlement was
heard to say that something must have happened
to the Silent Hunter, for ho had not come as
usual to fill his shot bag and powder flask Bid
ding no one follow him, he went away to the
Green River Mountains, and when he came back
he SAID nothing where he had been, though many
questioned him. From that day, however, no
man ever saw the Silent Hunter. NO one heard
of his fate but it became din tradition in that
country that his spirit was still among the noun
tains of the Green River.
Not many yeurs ago. however, Webbcr, the
hunter. naturalist, started with companion in
search of game among the Green River Hills.
After wandering for many days among the soil
tudes, they came to The dwelling of an old trap
per, living alone with his dogs--an eremite of
the Forest full Of traditions, and familiar with all
the spots they hunted. He said that near that
place lay, under an oak, the grave of q mighty
hunter. He had been a mysterious inhabitant
of those mountains, and his resting bed had been
marked BY stone. He had chosen it himself
years before he died. 1t was near spring of
which he had drank, where an old man buried
him, though no one had since visited the grave.
| Webber offered the trapper some money if he
would lead them to the spot but he shuddered
and refused though at length, with visible trep,
ldation, he consented to guide them within sight
of it.
He walked before some time among cliffs and
trees, and over streams, and through holows,
till from bluff emnence they looked down on
narrow wild plain. Over the surface of this
lay sprinkled with what seemed number of fiat
rocks but were in reality stone sarcopbagi, OF
graves, which are to be found in S1ousards
F-o'se,mes cnper.me Niisa ssaenl IN ..,he
southern part Of Kentucky aud portion of Ten
nessee. The people who used this cursus mode
Of sepulchre are now extinct. They existed
long before the Indian nation-long before tue
red skins hunted through those woods and sa-
vannas. Their burial grounds are all that re
main of them. They were apparently pismies
for the graves are not on an average, more than
three ieet in length. Some have imagined thai
these were the ,ombs of Aztec children but the
children of the Aztec nation, in this case mus
have died by thousands when they were JUS
about three feet high, and the older people mus
have been burned or secretly inferred.
In one OF these curious sepulchres the body o
Bill Smith was discovered 1t was a sarcopha
gus sunk in the earth, almost eighteen inches
Deep by the same in width. The bottom ant
sides were lined with unhewn stones, and one
of similar wns laid over the top No cement o
any kind had been used. The explorers exam
ined the grave-they even disturbed the re-
mains, but they laid them again in thei place o
rest, and left once more to his solitary repost
the Silent Hunter of the Green River Hills.
What a dark and mournlul story How re
markably strange and checkercd life! 1t was
the faith of this man to his early love, and the
affection of his heart to his children, tha made
, the terrible, silent, remorseess being he after
ward became. But he was not in his naiur,
wicked. During the latter part of his life h"
mind WIS shaken by the remembrance of tia
melancholy day when Matte and her little one'
had been bnred by his hands in the Vale o
Pines.