The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-07-25
CHAPTER III.
THE CAVALIERS.

at the time OF which we write, tnere
was road, or, more correctly speak
ing, a trail, leading from the west
shore of the bay of Saint Louis IN a
direction somewhat west of north
through a wild country to the wilder
region of the upper Pearl River. This
trail, which was known as the Black
wolf Trail, had been highway for
the Indians as far back as tradition
went-a road which led from their
hunting-grounds to the breezy bluffs
of the gulf. where they spent the hot
season, like the philosophers that
they were, in oathing, fishing, eating
and smoking.
Since the coming of the white men,
the Blackwell Trail had been put to
other uses. Soldiers, horses and can
+ on had followed it; caravans of set
tiers, with their oxen, their mules,
their servants and their household ap-
pliances, had made it the road to new
homes and life of hardy and lordly
independence.
comfortable, even spacious and, in a
degree, luxurious houses built on the
beautiful and fertile lands once titled
by the aborigines, whose descendants
still skulked in the swamps and held
the Businesses of cane-brake and
cypress. jungle all around the coast.
Many other trails, less distinct. and
more mesndering, came into the Black
wolf Trail on its way from the high
lands to the coast, andhe was an alert
and experienced woodman who could
60 among these crossing and appar-
emily entangled paths without bewil-
derment.
In those days, all of the ways of the
woods were ways of danger; for not
only were the Indians treacherous and
savage in the extreme, there were
white men more to be feared than the
red ones; reckless knights of adventure
devoted to life of utter lawlessness
bold riders whose dashing exploits
would have been themes of song and
story if done some centuries earlier
Claude Duvals, Robin Hoods, Wolf
stanes of the new land, all seeking the
excitement of desperate emprise, and
all defying every word and letter OF
law, human or divine.
The wood-paths were known to
these men as familiarly as the cow
paths of his fathers farm are known
to the country lad to-day in the same
region. Singly or in small parties,
these self-reliant freebooters rode be-
meath the pines and the widespread
ing oaks; the Indian heard their
horses feet beating the yellow sand
and their careless songs echoing
through the brakes. 1t was not for
the red man to attack the outlaws; O
sort of bond held between them, both
being enemies to the settlers. More
over, the Indians feared the "riders, "
as they named them. and were glad to
stink away whenever those picturesque
cavaliers made their appearance.
Most of the riders" made pretense
of being traders, buyers of cattle, ,furs,
skins, cotton-anything, indeed; and
sometimes they did buy. when buy
ing seemed safer than taking by force;
but robbery in one form or another
was their main business.
Pearl River, rs far up as Honey ISL
and, afforded a waterway by which
vessels of considerable draft could be
used to bear the pluuder of the cava.
liers to New Orleans, by way of the
Rigolets and Lake Pontchartrain; and
the GRADERS" who managed these ves-
sells shared in the rich profits. In
deed, no small part of the traffic Of
the city at that time came from this
and somewhat similar sources. With
the Lafttes, the Ie Jourdains and the
Mascots on one side, and the con-
frers of Pierre Rameau on the other
side, New Orleans was fed by constant
streams of ill-gotten wealth.
As for Rameau and his immediate
associates, they preferred, for pru-
Dental reasons, to do most of their
boldest and most remunerative work
at long distance from their head
quarters; wherefore, greater part Of
the booty. shipped down Pearl
River came from Alabama, Georgia,
Tennessee, and even as fur away as the
Carolinas, while in the country round
about Honey Island, within radius
OF fifty or sixty miles, people and
their property were not molested to
any great degree. 1t was this policy,
enforced by Rameau, which had 80
long protected him and his followers;
for while common rumor established
him as king of the island, and kept
ahoat startling stories of his prowess
and daring, almost nothing had been
done toward investigating the situa-
tion. The main fact was that wealthy
and influential men i'll New Orleans,
large sharers in the unholy revenues,
were standing behind the outlaws and
affording them the protection which
it was 80 easy to give 50 long as the
power of the civil and military gov
ernment was almost paralyzed in
Louisiana, and so long as these very
citizens controlled directly or indirect
~ the government itself, either by
ccrrupting the officials or by holding
official positions themselves.
With a glance at the foregoing
slirht sketch of tie situation of
things in the Gulf-coast region, the
! readers of this story, which, in all its
parts, is stolically true, will be able
to understand why a party OF horse
men should be following the Black
wolf Trail in the direction of the