“A letter dated, Natchez, June 11, from a gentleman who lately descended the river, contains the following interesting intelligence: ‘We were attacked by robbers near the mouth of White River and a breeze springing up, prevented us from being boarded by two pirogues, having in each six men well armed. They hailed us from the shore, telling us they wished to purchase some rifles, and on our refusing to land, they commenced the pursuit. They originally consisted of three companies, and were commanded by a person named Mason, who has left the camp at White River, and scours the road through the wilderness. About two weeks ago they attacked a merchant boat and took possession of her, after having killed one of the people on board.’”
Other robberies in 1802 and in the summer and fall of 1803 were reported, but by whom they were committed is not stated in the current newspapers. The one just cited, however, was without doubt some of Mason’s work. It occurred about one hundred and fifty miles above Stack Island and three hundred miles above Natchez, and some three hundred miles below New Madrid, which was then the principal town in the Spanish territory of upper Louisiana. New Madrid is now the county seat of New Madrid County, Missouri. The New Madrid country was six hundred miles from Natchez, out of the Mississippi territory and in a field where Mason felt he could carry on his usual activities, unhindered by the men who were pursuing him for the nine hundred dollars reward. Mason went up the river and had taken steps toward establishing himself a few miles below the town of New Madrid, in a small settlement known as Little Prairie, when in January, 1803, he was trapped and captured. He was arrested, not by the American officials he so much feared, but by the Spanish authorities who suspected that he was guilty of many of the crimes that had been committed on their side of the Mississippi River. The curious story of that frontier pursuit and trial is now to be told from the French records for the first time.
Mason—Trapped and Tried
The official record of the arrest of the Masons at Little Prairie and their trial at New Madrid is still in existence. The whereabouts of this old document has been noted by a few historians who briefly state that “There is in the Mississippi Department of Archives and History a record in French of the trial of Mason for robbery, by the military authorities of New Madrid, dated January, 1803.” But no writer has heretofore penetrated into this manuscript to discover what the trial revealed or how it ended. It was found among the papers belonging to J. F. H. Claiborne, the historian, and is now preserved in Jackson.[25]
The document covers one hundred and eighty-two pages. Many of the leaves are badly faded. Although the penmanship is far from good, every word, with few exceptions, can be deciphered. It is filled with interesting facts and equally interesting perjury. From the beginning of legislation down through the pioneer days humanity has ever been the same, and facts and fabrications have been paraded together before officials who are to pass judgment on the evidence presented. The Mason trial is no exception to this old practice in courts, but is rather an exaggerated instance of the tendency, as common in the “good old days” as in our own times.
The manuscript gives a complete history not only of the proceedings during the trial, but also of the arrests that preceded it. It begins with the day New Madrid officials were notified that the Masons were seen at Little Prairie, thirty miles down the river. A clerk then, and every day thereafter, carefully noted what action had been taken by the pursuers and what evidence had been gathered against the suspects, and continued the record through all the other proceedings.
The commandant at New Madrid, by whom the pursuit was ordered and before whom the captives were tried, evidently did not understand English, which was the only language spoken by nearly all the persons who appeared before him. Questions and answers were transmitted through an official interpreter.
There were fifteen witnesses. Eight made declarations regarding their knowledge of Mason and his family; the other seven were the prisoners themselves, who testified in their own behalf. Every witness took “an oath on the cross of his sword” to speak the truth. In a few instances “and by the Holy Scriptures” was added. As a witness was being heard the substance of his statements was recorded in French and after he finished, his testimony was read to him, transposed into English, and he, “maintaining it contained the truth to which nothing could be added or unsaid,” signed it as did the presiding officials. Four of these signatures are here reproduced in facsimile.
