Washington telegraph., 1854-08-09

And when the last OF the Shawnees had
launched his canoe upon the Ohio. Bill
Smith rose from amid the bushes on the
/ shore. and fred on the little bark.
| Revenge was his monomauia When
he buried his wife and children, q rash
and bloody resolution fixed itself in bis
mind. He never spoke to man. but silent.
" and remorselessly haunted the trail Of
the Shawnees to slay every one that came
within the range of bis far.famed rifle
Then, after the Indian tribe had gone from
its ancient hunting grounds, he retired.
mute and alone, to the most inaccessible
part of the Green River Hills. There, in
shady dell. remote from the habitations
Of men. he built himself hut. where. in
solitary quiet. he passed the remainder Of
his days.
| He hunted to supply himself with food
and skins to exchange for powder and shot,
which an old man at an out settlement down
on the Green river was accustomed to SUP.
ply him with. Ills life was protracted to
the age of 49,
One day the old man at the settlement
was heard to say that something must have
happened to the Silent Hunter, for he had
not come, az usual, to gil his shot bag and
powder pouch. Bidding no one to follow
him. he went out to the Green River Noun
tains. and when he came back though many
questioned, he said nothing of what he had
seen or where he had been. From that day
however. no man saw the Silent Hunter
No one heard Of his fate but it became q
dim tradition in the country that Lis -prit
was still among the Mountains Of Green
River.
Not many years ago, however, Weber,
the naturalist.hunter, started with compan.
ion in search of game among the Green
river hills After wandering many days
among their solitudes, they came to the
dwelling of an old traprer. living alone with
his dogs-a hermit of the forest full of its
traditions, and familiar with all the spots
they haunted He said that near the place,
under All old oak, lay the grave of mighty
hunter. He had been mysterious inhabi-
tant of these mountains and his resting
bed was marked by stone He had cho-
sen it himself years before he died. 1t was
near spring Of which he had drank and
an old man had buried him, though no one
had since visited the grave. Webber offer
ed the trapper some money if he would lead
! him to the spot but he shuddered and re-
fused, though at length with visible trepi
dation, he consented to guide him in sight
Of it.
He walked iE front of them for some
time, among cliffs and trees. over streams
and through hollows, till from bluff of
eminence they iouked down on narrow
wild plain. Over the surface of this, lay
what seemed number of fiat rocks, but
were in reality, stone sarcophagi. or graves.
which are to be found in thousands, some
times covering miles oe ground in the south
ern part of Kentucky and portions Of Ten
nessee. The people who used this curious
mode of sepulture are now extinct. They
existed long before the Indian nation-long
before the redskins Hunted through those
woods and savannas. Their burial grounds
are all that remain of them They were
apparently pigmies, for their graves were
not. on an average, more than three feet in
length. Some have imagined that these
were the graves of their children, but the
children of the Aztec nation in this case
must have died by thousands when they
were just about three feet high, and the old
er people must have been buried secretly.
In one of these curious sepulchres the
body of Bill Smith was discovered 1t was
a sarcophagus sunk into the earth, almos,
eighteen inches deep. by the same in width
The explorers examined the grave-they
even disturbed the remains, but they laid
them again in their place of rest. and left
once more to bis solitary repose the Silent
Hunter of the Green River Hills.
What dark and mournful story. How
strange and checkered life 1t was the
faith Of this man to his early love. and the
affection Of his heart for her children. that
made the terrible. silent. remorseless being
he afterward became. But he was not in
his nature wicked. During the latter part
of his life his mind was shaken by remem-
brance of that melancholy day. when Mat.
tie and her little ones had been buried BY
his hands in the "Vale of Pines"
Ion" the Washington correspondent of
the Baltimore Sun. says:
Many novel and startling events are pas-