“On Tuesday last the notorious Samuel Mason and several of his party, all well armed, were seen on the Choctaw trace near Cole’s Creek. Two detachments of the militia of Jefferson County were immediately ordered out by his excellency, the Governor, in pursuit of them. We have not yet been informed of the result of this expedition.”
The expedition was a failure. About two months after it was first reported that Mason had been seen near Cole’s Creek, James May came to Greenville, Mississippi—a place formerly called Hunston, some twenty-five miles in a northeasterly direction from Natchez, and now extinct—and gave an account of his recent contact with Mason. James May, it will be recalled, was among the rough characters who were driven out of Henderson County, Kentucky, about the time Mason made his departure from there for Cave-in-Rock. May’s past career was not yet known by the citizens to whom he made this report. The Palladium, ever reliable but sometimes late, in its issue of September 8, 1803, says:
“By a gentleman from Natchez, we are informed that about the 25th or 26th of July, a man by the name of James May, came to Hunston, near Natchez, and made oath before a magistrate, that sundry articles of property and money, which he then delivered up, he had taken from the notorious Samuel Mason, after shooting him in the head just above the eye. May had been robbed and taken by Mason on his passage down the river, and had joined that party. A few days after which, the company hearing a firing of guns, Mason ordered his party, May excepted, to hide the horses. May he directed to hide a skiff. He took his gun with him, and on his return, whilst Mason was counting his money to divide with the party, he shot him, put the money and property on board the skiff, and conveyed it to Hunston.
“A letter from Natchez, published in the Natchez paper, confirms the above account. A letter to a gentleman in this town from his correspondent at Natchez dated the 25th instant, makes no mention of the above circumstance, but says: ‘The Masons have removed to Mississippi where they have of late committed many robberies, but no murders that I have heard of.’”
No complete file of any of the newspapers published in Natchez from 1800 to 1805 has been found. The few stray copies, located in various large libraries, contain nothing about Mason’s career. All are too late or too early to embrace any current news pertaining to him. Thus it was without success that an effort was made to verify, by “the Natchez paper” which “confirms the above account,” the statement regarding May’s appearance in Greenville in July, 1803, or to draw on any Natchez paper for any contemporary reports relative to Mason.
There is nothing in history or tradition to indicate what action was taken by the authorities after they received James May’s report. He evidently left Greenville, but for what purpose can only be surmised. It is highly probable that, after May presented the “money and property” he claimed he had taken from Mason as evidence of his having shot the outlaw for whom a reward was offered, he was soon convinced that he had produced no positive evidence at all. Judging from what took place a few months later, he left for the purpose of bringing in Mason, dead or alive.
May probably had been “robbed and taken” by Mason for the same purpose that John Setton had been detained—to be used as a witness upon whom he might try to shift the Mason robberies. If so, May’s pursuit of Mason for the offered reward was stimulated by a spirit of revenge. He sallied forth, reconnoitered, and returned; but he did not return to Greenville, nor alone. He appeared at Natchez and was accompanied by John Setton. Setton shortly thereafter was recognized as one of Mason’s band and both men were taken and committed to jail some time during the latter part of October. When they were arrested Setton, as shown by later records, claimed he came to Natchez for the purpose of turning state’s evidence. The Kentucky Gazette, of November 22, 1803, briefly touches on the situation as it was about a month before that paper went to press:
“A letter from a gentleman at Natchez, to his correspondent in this town, dated 20th October, contains information that the men who robbed Mr. Elisha Winters, on his way from New Orleans, have been taken and committed to jail; so that there is a probability of his getting his money. They had in their possession sundry articles taken from the party who were robbed near Bayou Pierre. One of the robbers has turned state’s evidence against the rest; and says that if he can be suffered to go out with a guard, he will take them where all the papers were hid and a number of other things with some money. The place is not more than two days’ ride, and application has been made to the governor for the above purpose, which will doubtless be granted.”
The hunt for Mason was now continued with even greater enthusiasm. Besides the militia stationed at Natchez and Fort Gibson many men were on watch for the notorious outlaw and his band. The woods were full of robber-exterminating and reward-seeking soldiers and civilians. Mason’s capture was inevitable. May and Setton evidently formed a pursuing party of their own. According to one tradition, the two men discovered Samuel Mason near Rodney, Jefferson County, Mississippi, and, according to another, they found him near Lake Concordia, Louisiana, not far from Natchez. They gained Mason’s confidence and succeeded in convincing him that they had returned in order to follow him as their leader. Then it was that Mason met the fate he had himself invited.
Monette says: “Two of his band, tempted by the large reward, concerted a plan by which they might obtain it. An opportunity soon occurred, and while Mason, in company with the two conspirators, was counting out some ill-gotten plunder, a tomahawk was buried in his brain. His head was severed from his body and borne in triumph to Washington, the seat of the territorial [Mississippi] government.” Daniel Roe, in a letter published in The Port Folio, August, 1825, states that the two men “took Mason’s head to Natchez in the bow of a canoe, rolled up in blue clay, or mud, to prevent putrefaction.” Resuming Monette’s account: “The head of Mason was recognized by many, and identified by all who read the proclamation, as the head entirely corresponded with the description given of certain scars and peculiar marks. Some delay, however, occurred in paying over the reward, owing to the slender state of the treasury. Meantime, a great assemblage from all the adjacent country had taken place, to view the grim and ghastly head of the robber chief. They were not less inspired with curiosity to see and converse with the individuals whose prowess had delivered the country of so great a scourge.”[30]