We then deposited our money, and gathered all the balance of our fine goods that we had stolen in Mobile at the great fire, and what we had stolen in New Orleans, and prepared ourselves for a second tour. We had realized about four thousand five hundred dollars, which we hid in the ground, and we took each of us about one hundred and fifty dollars for our expenses, and an equal share of the goods.
On the 25th day of March, 1843, Wages, McGrath and myself left Mobile bound to Texas; we went to New Orleans, where we landed the next day. We remained there about three days and sold a great quantity of our goods, such as were too heavy to carry. While we were in the city Wages won about seven hundred dollars from a Tennessee corn dealer by the name of Murphy. McGrath and myself had lost about one hundred and fifty dollars each. We left New Orleans, went up the Mississippi, and landed at the house of an old friend that belonged to our clan. His name was Welter. We spent one day and night with him; we had seen him in the city a few days before, and were invited to call, but when we approached his residence we all pretended to be entire strangers. This was a strict injunction upon our clan—when traveling never to meet any of our comrades as acquaintances, but always treat them as entire strangers, that we had never seen in our life.
Wages pretended to have some business with the old gentleman, and introduced himself, McGrath and myself under fictitious names. The old gentleman had two very nice genteel daughters. They were sociable and refined, well educated, and highly accomplished every way; he was wealthy, and had a good reputation in his neighborhood, and no one would for one moment have suspected him of belonging to our clan. But I afterward learned from Wages that this old gentleman had belonged to the Murrell Clan for many years; and that was what carried Wages there, to get some information relative to some negroes that had been stolen and carried to Louisiana near the Texas line. Wages also informed me that this same man made all his property by stealing and kidnapping negroes from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Having obtained the information we wanted, we made preparation to leave. We offered to pay our fare, but this was promptly refused. We were well entertained; the old gentleman furnished us each with a flask of good brandy, and, after thanking him and his family for their kind, hospitable treatment, we bid adieu, and took our departure for Texas.
We got on a steamboat and went up the Mississippi to the mouth of Red river, and up that river to a landing called the New Springs. There we paid our passage and went on shore, each with his pack and his double-barrel gun. We stopped at a house about one mile from the river, where we called for our dinner, which we got, and we all remained there until next day, during which time we sold a considerable amount of our goods at that house and in the neighborhood, which made our packs much lighter. We left next day, stopping at all houses, and selling our goods, which we did at a rapid rate, as we had stolen them and were not sufficient judges of their value to know what price to ask, and in consequence we often sold them at one-half their value, and so soon got rid of them.
Having disposed of the principal part of our goods, about the fourth day after we left the New Spring landing, we were approaching the prairie county on the Texas border. We provided ourselves with bread and salt; we had ammunition. Shortly before night, we came to a small piece of woodland, by a ravine. There was a large drove of cattle of all sizes there; McGrath shot a very fat two-year old heifer; we skinned the hind quarters and tenderloin; we built up a fire, salted some of our meat and roasted it by the fire and feasted sumptuously. The wolves came near our camp and made a dreadful noise, but at daybreak we shot and killed three and the balance ran off. They had devoured all the heifer’s meat, but we had provided sufficient for our journey that day. We set out and traveled in a direction to find a settlement, then made about twenty-five miles south of Shreveport. That was the place where Welter had told Wages that the negroes were, that we were after. We traveled about thirty miles that day, and suffered very much for water. We reached a settlement a little before night, on some of the waters of the Sabine River. It was the residence of some stock keepers; there were some three or four families, and some fifteen or twenty Mexican drovers, and horse thieves; they had just been to Natchitoches, and had a full supply of rum; a few of them could speak English. We quartered with them, and that night we opened the little remnant of our goods and jewelry, and had a general raffle. By the next day we had realized from our raffle, sufficient to purchase each of us a good Spanish saddle and bridle, and a good Texas horse. We learned from one of these Mexicans the residence of the man who owned the negroes that we were after, and we also learned that he and his family were strict members of the Methodist Church. Now it was that one of us had to turn preacher, so as to reconnoiter around the place. Wages and I put that on McGrath. We all mounted our horses and started, having procured plenty of lassoes, &c., McGrath being an Irishman and his tongue tipped with plenty of blarney.
We traveled for two days very moderately, and, our chief employment was drilling McGrath, how to pray and sing, and give that long Methodist groan, and “Amen.” He having made considerable progress, we went to Natchitoches. McGrath entered that town by one road, and Wages and myself by another. McGrath went among a few of his brethren that evening.
To our astonishment it was posted at every corner, that the “Rev. Mr. McGrath, from Charleston, South Carolina, would preach at the Methodist Church that evening, at half-past seven.” We attended church. McGrath took his stand in the pulpit. He made a very genteel apology to his audience, saying he was much fatigued from his travel; that he had caught cold and was very hoarse and could not sing; but he read out the hymn. It was: “Hark from the tombs a doleful sound.” One old brother pitched the tune to Old Hundred, and they all chimed in, Wages and myself among the rest; Wages sang bass and I tenor, and we all made that old church sound like distant thunder. After singing, McGrath made a very good but short prayer; he then took his text in the 16th chapter of St. Mark, at the verse where Mary the mother, and Mary Magdalene found the stone rolled from the door of the sepulchre. “And he said unto them, Be not affrighted; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified; he has risen; he is not here; behold the place where they laid him.” He read several verses in that chapter, and then made some very good explanations relative to the parables, and prophesies on the coming of the Messiah, and the mysterious way in which he disappeared, and wound up his discourse by telling the audience that he had been a great sinner in his young days, that it had been but a few years since the Lord had called him to preach, and he thanked his God that he was now able and willing to lay down his life upon the altar of God; he then raved, and exhorted all to repent and turn to God; and after raving about half an hour called all his hearers that wished to be prayed for to come forward. The whole congregation kneeled down; he prayed for them all, and finally finished, sang another hymn and dismissed his congregation, and we all retired, Wages and myself to a gaming table, and McGrath with some of his brethren. Next day the members of the church there waited on McGrath to know what was his pecuniary situation. He told them that he was very poor, was on his way to see a rich relation of his, about two hundred miles from there; that he carried his gun to keep off wild beasts, etc. They made up money to buy him a fine suit of black, a new saddle and saddle-bags and fifty dollars in cash. We remained there two days, when McGrath left. Wages and I left by another road. We all met a short distance from town and made the proper arrangement for our operations. McGrath was to go on to the house of this man that had the negroes, and there make what discoveries were necessary. He was to join Wages and myself at San Antonio on the first day of September following. Wages and I left in the direction for the Red Land on the Irish bayou.
POISONING THE OVERSEER.
A few days after we passed the residence of an old bachelor who had a large number of negroes; he was absent at Natchitoches and had left his overseer in charge. We stopped there, and remained two days; we procured some whisky from a grocery store a short distance off; prepared some of it with poison, and induced the overseer to drink freely. We gave him a full dose of the poison, and before day on the third morning he was dead.
Meanwhile Wages and I had made arrangements to steal a likely negro woman and two young negroes, a boy and girl, about ten years of age, besides two of the finest horses on the place. We sent out runners to let one or two of the neighbors know that the overseer was dead; we had our negroes and horses concealed about five miles distant, and about sunrise we offered to pay our bills and left, pretending to go to New Orleans. After we had got out of sight of the plantation we made a circuit and went to the place where the negroes and horses were concealed. Having provided ourselves with provisions, we remained secreted at that place all that day. That night we started with our negroes and horses. Wages took the lead; our horses and negroes were all refreshed. We traveled a brisk gait all that night and till next day at nine or ten o’clock. We suffered greatly for water, having met with none after midnight, until we stopped at a small creek. We had passed no houses after daylight. After we stopped we stripped our horses, gave them water and hampered them to graze; we got water for ourselves and negroes, and took a little spirits we had, and eat the balance of our provisions. After we had rested a little while, Wages took his gun and went up the creek in search of game; I took mine and went to the road we had just left, and went on rather down the creek. At the distance of about two miles I came to a plantation. It was an old stock place, inhabited by some of the old creole settlers that had lived there in Spanish times. I inquired the distances and courses of the country. They told me it was about forty miles to the first river, and that there was but one settlement on the road where we could get water for ourselves and horses, at about twenty-five miles. After I had got this information I purchased some bread and potatoes and a small piece of dried beef, and returned to our camp. Wages had killed a fine deer, and he and the negro woman were roasting a fine piece. We fared well that day. That night about dark we left our camp, provided with provisions for two days. A little after midnight we reached the first water. A little before daylight we reached some settlements and woodland; we traveled a short distance and came to a small, deep river. We there found a ferry flat and some small boats. We took the flat and carried our horses and negroes over; took the flat back, and took a small boat, and Wages and I crossed to our horses and negroes. By this time we could discern the appearance of day. We mounted and traveled on; we could perceive we were passing several large plantations; by sunrise we had traveled four or five miles. We could see at a distance several clusters of woodland in the prairies. We made for one of them some distance from the road, which we found afforded sufficient shelter for that day. We found some water, but not plenty, and very bad; our horses would drink but little of it. We stripped and hampered our horses to graze, took our breakfast and told the negroes to go to sleep. I went to sleep, and Wages kept watch. About twelve o’clock I was awakened by the report of a gun. I rose up and found that Wages had shot a fat yearling beef. We skinned and saved the hind quarters and loin, and salted it a little and barbecued it. While Wages lay down and took a nap the negro woman and I attended to the meat. About an hour before sunset Wages awoke, and we all eat heartily. We eat the last of our bread and potatoes; our horses had finished grazing and were resting, and about sunset we began to pack up for traveling, with plenty of meat and no bread. About dark we left our sheltered woods and started on the road again. We were then about one hundred and twenty miles from the place where we had stolen the negroes. We traveled on that night about thirty miles, and reached a large creek between midnight and day. We passed one or two plantations, and very little woodland. When Wages came to the creek he examined the ford and found horse tracks; he rode in first, went over and came back, and took the bridle of the horse that had the two little negroes and led him safely across, and the negro woman and myself followed. We went on some seven or eight miles, and came to woodland and plantations again. Some of the plantations were very large. We continued traveling till daylight; after day we passed several fine, large plantations. The sun was about one hour high when we came to a ferry on a large river. We called, and the ferryman was a negro; we inquired the distance from the last river we had crossed; he said sixty-three miles. The negro was a very intelligent fellow; we inquired particularly for San Antonio, and told him there was where we were going. We inquired for several other places, and left; at a short distance we found a place where we could rest, not far from a plantation. There Wages and myself procured some corn for our horses, the first they had eaten for several days. We also procured some bread; after we had fed and rested our horses and slept some ourselves, a little before night we started again. We traveled that night about thirty-five miles, and stopped at a small creek and camped till daylight. We then started, crossed the creek, went out a short distance and turned our course more to the east. We took a trail that led us down the creek. We halted about noon to rest our horses, which by this time were much fatigued. Here we procured something for ourselves to eat.