The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-09


country known as the Satilla region is
very sparsely inhabited and mostly by poorpeople
to whom the name Cracker" has attached itself.
Here and there where the swamps give place 20
wide areas of pine forests, turpentine pianea-
tons, socalled. have been made by notching and
pulling the bark from space on the bole of
sach tree. a process which has given CHASTITY
z1mmer to the solemn monotony of the lane
scapes By far the larger part of the region,
however is jungle-like maze of all the tanglng
vines bewildering thickets, dark groves and
painless canebrakes imaginable Here the
sportsman, whose zeal and energy is sufficient to
overcome almost insurmountable obstacles, may
find bear, deer. wild turkey and small game to
the full of his desire. Not unfrequently, too, a
panther will cross his path, or cry with peculiar
effect in the dim, cavern-like hollow of the
matted tussock growth.
One of the strangest features of all that wild
eountry is the abandoned plantation. Now and
again you may find it, especially along the river,
readily distngushable by the old ridges, where
on the cotton long ago grew, but which now bear
large trees. srhe remnant Of a cabin is some
times seen, and numerous other traces of long
departed agriculture and vanished domestic
center.
AS early in the history Of Georgia as the days
when General Oglethorpe lived on St Simon's
island, near Brunswick. there were plantations
set at wide intervals in the rich bottom lands of
Che Satilla At what date and why they were
abandoned is not known certainly, but it appears
not to have been much later than in the first
quarter of the present century, and it could not
haav nf foil nf tha oil
fertility
Nearly every one of these abandoned planta-
tions has its legend, ohscurely outlined by tradi
ton. if-.en can chance 10 find it, legend as
bloody and AS picturesque as any Of medieval
times. What with the Indians the outlaws and
the feuds. there must have been wild scenes
along the Satilla. Ones closest scrutiny of
records and most patient chase of tradition, how
ever. give one nothing more than tantalizing
glimpses of horsemen in knightly or rather brig
sndsh array, galloping through the woods, or of
sEulkng figures, dark, saturnine, stealthy, in the
deepest meshes of the brakes, contemplating
some scheme of terrible revenge.
In the course of three winters and four sum
mers spent in studying the natural history of
the Satlla region, tried industriously and in
continuous in outline to be made the subject of
q sketch, until at last by meIest chance, 1
stumbled upon one which. although the best
preserved of any, was absolutely formless, and
yet capable of being somewhat felt as whole.
It was the legend of three-edged knife--a float
Ing, variable legend, as regarded such details as
could get here and there, but constant as to
its general feature. Ipursued it, as detective
pursues clew to some criminal mystery, getting
a hint from this or that or another source,
patching and piecing with whatever dizziness
possessed, until every scrap of material was
exhausted At the end / had nothing, in fact,
but something approaching fact an elusive,
amorphus nebula floating just beyond the full
grasp of my understanding.
This legend of the three-edged knife lowered
about wild spot on the north bank of the Sat
tilla. called the La Fleur place. where long ago
had lived family Of French creoles who had
come from Louisiana The La Fleurs must have
been very rich, for they opened a grand cotton
plantation stretching for miles along the river.
They had many slaves. and although the planta-
tion-house was more than rough rambling,
log cabin, they lived in princely style.
There was the perfumed trace of a love ro-
nance appearing atintervals in the broken story
A beautiful girl, two lovers, deadly feud be-
tween families terrible revenge wreaked by
rejected sutton, all these thrown together in pic
turesque confusion.
The boldest figure Of the shadowy group of
persons bearing part in the tragedy of the
Fleur place was that of an old negro who took
upon himself as 1t would appear the task of
ling out punishment upon those who had
harmed his young mistress, the fair maiden of
he legend, Marie La Fleur.