The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1903-06-18
CHAPTER Ill.
THE CAVALIERS.

IHE CAVALIERS.
At the time OF which We write, there
was a road. or, more correctly speak
ing, c trail, leading from the west
shore of the bay Of Saint Louis in e
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 a 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 bathing, fishing, eating
and smoking.
Since the coming Of the white men,
the Blackwell Trail had been put to
other uses. Soldiers, horses and can
ron had followed it; caravans Of set
tiers, with their oxen, their mules,
their servants and their household up.
planes, had made it the road to new
homes and a life of hardy and lordly
independence.
Large plantations were opened and
comfortable, even spacious and, in q
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.iungle ELL around the coast.
Many other trails, less distinct and
more meandering, came into the Black
wolf Trail on its way from the high
lands to the coast, and he was an alert
aud experienced woodman who could
60 among these crossing and appar-
emily entaugled paths without bewil-
derment.
In those days, all of the ways of the
woods were ways of danger; for not
only were the Indians t%reacherous and
savage in the extreme, there were
white men more to be feared than the
red ones; reckless knights of adventure
devoted to q 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 emprisc, and
oil defying every word and letter of
law, human or divine.
The ~wood-paths were known to
these men as Familiarity 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 aud the widespread
ing oaks; the Indian heard their
horses feet beating the yellow sand
and their careless songs eehoing
through the brakes. 1t was not for
the red man to attack the outlaws; a
sort Of bond held between them. both
being enemies TO the settlers. More
over, the Indians feared the orders"
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 enc form or another
was their main business.
Pearl River, as 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 Portchartrain; and
the GRADERS" who managed these YES
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 LaGttes, the de Jourdaius and the
Mascots on one side, and the con-
frers of Pierre Rameau Oh 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 q long distance from their head.
quarters; wherefore, a greater part OF
the booty, shipped down Pearl
| River came from Alabama, Georgia,
Tennessee, and even rs far away as the
ca, olinas. while in tha country r"nad