MAKING A NEW COMPANY.
Some weeks after my initiation, I was detailed with an older Brother, to attend to the formation of a new company in a neighboring county. As usual, the source of the order was unknown, except that it came from the captain of our band. The order and detail were announced by our captain, no comment made, and myself and comrade in the duty started next night, in obedience to the order, for the location of the new company, in the adjoining county. He knew the mode of procedure in these cases, and I left the direction of all to him. We reached the place in the morning, and did nothing during the day. At night, by his direction, I notified a well known citizen, in much the same manner I had been notified myself before initiation, and we started after dark, out of the town. My comrade, with another citizen, was with me. Reaching a lonely spot in the country, we turned our horses off the road into a wild tract, and being far from all habitations, at length stopped in the woods. Here we separated, I taking my man, and my comrade his, and going perhaps a quarter of a mile apart. We were both armed with Enfield rifles. The two men to be initiated on this occasion brought no arms with them. Had they done so they would have been required to lay them aside before the initiation commenced.
The mode of initiation of these men, who were to form the nucleus of a new company, was substantially that already narrated, as experienced by myself, except, of course, that there was no attendant band, and the final ceremony of the Consecrating Drink was deferred till half a dozen others had been initiated, when it was administered to all at the same time.
The instructions in the formation of a new band or Company, are to select two prominent citizens at first, as we did in this case, and after they are initiated they are used to bring in others, until the band is strong enough to do its own business. A special instruction to the Brothers detailed for the formation of a new band, is, that if the persons selected for initiation refuse any of the oaths, or falter in their devotion to the cause, they are to be killed on the spot. This is the reason why two Brothers are always sent together, and take but two for initiation at first, and they are required to be unarmed while the oaths are proposed. At no time are two persons initiated at the same place, even when the band numbers fifty or a hundred. There is but one fate for any one who refuses the oaths. He is never seen again. The Brothers of the Southern Cross visit on him the reward of traitors—Death!
The Sign of Recognition.