The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-04-01
For The HgiS &c Mieiligcncer.
LETTERS FROM VIRGINIA.
No. IL.

Permit me, Messrs. Editors, to wander
off again from the beaten path. In one of
my earlier letters | attempted to give you
something like description of White Top
Mountain, and i'll another partial outline
OF Wilburn Waters, the noted hermit and
great "varmint" hunter of that wild and
sparsely inhabited region. AS some of your
readers with whom | met in my late visit
| to your county expressed wish to hear
more OF this remarkable man and his hab-
its and pursuits, l have concluded to de-
vote this letter to him and some of his
| characteristics as a Christian.
Wilbur, as informed you in former
communication, is half-brced his father
a white man, and his mother squaw of
the Catawba tribe, who inhabited, in the
early settlement of the country, the noun
famous portion of North Carolina, border
ing on the Virginia line, comprised within
the present limits of the counties of Wilkes,
Ashe and Watanga. Being very fond of
solitude, as well as of trapping and the
chase, he started out at about the ageIof
20, to find retreat in the mountain where
he could worship the Great Spirit in his
own simple way, and where his few wants,
9th OF food and raiment, could be sup
Piled by his own trusty rifle. He settled
down in cove of what is known as Pond
Mountain, the local name of q peak in the
Appalachian range, in the immediate vicini-
ty OF White Top, where he dwelt four years
under rude shelter constructed of punch
cons reared upon pole supported by two
forks, after the fashion of the shelter we
sometimes see at charcoal pit. Here
with his, feet to huge log fire, he spent
many happy night in his open shed, in
communion with Deity while wolves and
wildcats howled their lullaby in the sur
rounding forest.
Once, when inquirng of the incidents of
his life during his four years residence in
the shed, he informed me that, bears being
plenty, he rarely wasted ammunition upon
wolves and catamounts, except when he
decoyed them to his shanty by scattering
the offal of slaughtered bear a short dis
lance from his fire. On such occasions, all
he could see of them would be their ewes.
lighted up like two balls of fire in the dark
ness. This was mark enough for him, and
sighting between them, he rarely failed in
his aim.
AT the end of four years he put up COM
paratively comfortable log cabin, in which
he had lived several years before | first
sought him out and broke bread with him.
His furniture consisted of two beds of
skins, pot, a bucket, dutch oven, cof
fee-pot, two or three mugs and tin cups,
two or three stools, and puncheon table
but his larder was well supplied with su-
gar and coffee, flour and meal, and any
quantity of bacon, bear meat, venison and
wild honey The few days spent with him
on my first visit, in the silence of the deep
forest, miles away from all other human
habitations, were among the happiest of
my life, and felt as if l could have re-
NAMED for weeks and listened to his truth
full stories of wild adventures, thrilling en-
counters and marvellous escapes from mad
dened animals. Some of these will re-
late in future letters, and defer them now
in order to give you somewhat of an
insight into the character of the man as
simple and humble Christian. 1 cannot
better illustrate this, than by giving you