ear him was struggling in the water. With the speed of lightning
he ran from one robber to another, as they were sitting on the sides of
the boat and, in a few seconds' time, had thrown several of them
overboard. Then seizing an oar he struck on the head those who had
attempted to save themselves by grappling the running boards. He then shot
with rifles, which had been dropped on deck, those who attempted to swim
away. In the meantime his companions had done almost as much execution as
their leader."

Thus every one of these robbers found a watery grave. Mr. Beausoliel had
his property restored to him, and pressing all sail went on his way
rejoicing.

A few years after this, about the year 1800, there was a noted robber
named Mason, who occupied what is called, "The Cave in the Rock." This
renowned cavern was about twenty miles below the Wabash river. Its
entrance was but a few feet above high water-mark, and opened into a very
remarkable chamber, two hundred feet long, eighty feet wide and
twenty-five feet high. Throughout the whole central length the floor was
quite level, and on each side of this central aisle the sides rose in
tiers, like the seats of an amphitheatre.

This remarkable cave is connected with another a little above. Here this
Mason, a man of gigantic stature, and of inferior education and intellect,
had his concealed retreat, with two sons and several other desperadoes,
organized into a band of land and water pirates. With great skill they
prosecuted their robberies, plundering boats as they descended the river,
but more often watching the return boats, to rob the owners of the money
which they had received from the sale of their cargoes.

As the population of the Ohio valley increased, Mason deemed it expedient
to abandon the Cave in the Rock and established himself with his gang, on
a well known and much frequented trail called the Nashville and the
Natches Trace. Here his gang became the terror of the whole travelling
community. Sometimes, with his whole band decorated in the most gaudy
style of Indian warriors, with painted faces, and making the forest
resound with hideous yells, they would swoop down upon a band of
travellers, inflicting outrages which savages could not exceed.

The atrocities of which this desperate gang were guilty, at length became
so frequent and daring, accompanied with the most brutal murders, that
Governor Claiborne, of the Mississippi Territory, offered a large reward