Port Royal standard and commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-02-24
An Old.Time Mystery.

The following story is now told as a
SEQUEL to the noted Burdell murder OF
many years ago:
Capt. William Hyde started in Life as
a clerk many years ago, In what was then
a humble little tobacco store In New
city. He fell in lovo with a New York
GIRL. and was engaged to be married to
her: but she Tilted him, and the dis
consolate boy left the city, and for a
number of years was believed to be
dead. His cruel sweetheart had mar
ried Mr.. Cunningham, q name that will
be forever associated with one OF the
most mysterious murders ever recorded
in the annals of crime. She became, in
short, the Mrs. Cunningham in whose
house in Bond street DR.. Burden was
murdered, and who was tried for the
crime and acquitted.
Young Hyde shipped aboard whaler
bound for the Pacific, served his time,
engaged in the pearl fishery in the gulf
of California, and at last settled IN the
old town of Loreto, the ancient capita
of the CALIFORNIA;, when he married O
native woman, who died soon afterward.
About this time he discovered copper
mine in the high mountain known as
"La Giganta " just back OF Loreto, and
for q time busted himself in developing
its resources. he might have been
working there still, but for an un-
fortunate and no less singular circum.
stance that again changed the current OF
his lie, and again sent him q wanderer
out into the wide world.
At the close of the rial of Mrs. Cum
ningham, she disappeared from New
York, and various were the surmlses IN
regard to her abouts. She was frequent
" seen, according to the reports, in q
dozen places at the same time, but could
never be fully identified /; and her death
was so often announced that many peo-
ple began to doubtwhether she ever had
an existence. The truth is that, taking
son and daughter with her, she went
to Lower California, and at Loreto met
Capt. Hyde. Yhe intimacy of bygone
years was renewed, and in due time they
were married. The marriage proved an
unhappy one, and poor Capt. Hyde fled
to another part of the State, leaving his
mine in charge of superintendent, a
Mexican. Shortly after the old mans
disappearance his wife ran away with
the superintendent, and sold the mine
for a large sum. The company who
bought it having failed to comply with
the Mexican mining laws, the property
was confscated by the State. Mrs.
Cunningham's children then made de-
mand for it. It was transferred to them
and is now in their possession. The son
and daughter still reside at Loreto, o
miserable out-of- the-wsy place OF less
than a hundred inhabitants. 1t was
once, however, q large city, .bnt was de
stroyed by an earthquake many years
ago. There are several fine ruins IN and
about the place that prove it to have
been at one time lordly city.
Young Cunningham supports himself
and his sister by working a small rancho.
She lives in the village with her child.
She was never married, and in the hag-
gard woman of thirty-five, old long be-
fore her time, there is no trace OF the
beautiful young girl who played so con-
spicuous part in the great mystery of a
few years ago. The old man gained a
scanty subsistence by teaching here and
there, and finally settled at Purissima, a
small village above Magdalena bay, near
the outer coast. Here he died. When
last heard from Mrs. Cunningham was
living in luxury in California.