106 THE REGULATORS.
The name of M A S O N is still familiar to many of the navigators of the
Lower Ohio and Mississippi. By dint of industry in bad deeds he became
a notorious horse-stealer, formed a line of worthless associates from
the eastern parts of Virginia (a State greatly celebrated for its fine breed
of horses) to New Orleans, and had a settlement on Wolf Island, not far
from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, from which he issued to
stop the flat-boats, and rifle them of such provisions and other articles as
he and his party needed. His depredations became the talk of the whole
Western Country; and to pass Wolf Island was not less to be dreaded
than to anchor under the walls of Algiers. The horses, the negroes, and
the cargoes, his gang carried off and sold. At last, a body of Regulators
undertook, at great peril, and for the sake of the country, to bring the
villain to punishment.
M A S O N was as cunning and watchful as he was active and daring.
Many of his haunts were successively found out and searched, but the
numerous spies in his employ enabled him to escape in time. One day,
however, as he was riding a beautiful horse in the woods, he was met by
one of the Regulators, who immediately recognised him, but passed him
as if an utter stranger. M A S O N , not dreaming of danger, pursued his way
leisurely, as if he had met no one. But he was dogged by the Regulator,
and in such a manner as proved fatal to him. A t dusk, M A S O N having
reached the lowest part of a ravine, no doubt well known to him,
hoppled (tied together the fore-legs of) his stolen horse, to enable it to
feed during the night without chance of straying far, and concealed himself
in a hollow log to spend the night. The plan was good, but proved
his ruin.
The Regulator, who knew every hill and hollow of the woods, marked
the place and the log with the eye of an experienced hunter, and as he
remarked that M A S O N was most efficiently armed, he galloped off to the
nearest house, where he knew he should find assistance. This was easily
procured, and the party proceeded to the spot. M A S O N , on being attacked,
defended himself with desperate valour; and as it proved impossible to secure
him alive, he was brought to the ground with a rifle ball. His head
was cut off, and stuck on the end of a broken branch of a tree, by the
nearest road to the place where the affray happened. The gang soon dispersed,
in consequence of the loss of their leader, and this infliction of
merited punishment proved beneficial in deterring others from following
a similar predatory life.
THE REGULATORS. 1 07
The punishment by castigation is performed in the following manner.
The individual convicted of an offence is led to some remote part of the
woods, under the escort of sometimes forty or fifty Regulators. When
arrived at the chosen spot, the criminal is made fast to a tree, and a few
of the Regulators remain with him, whilst the rest scour the forest, to assure
themselves that no strangers are within reach, after which they form
an extensive ring, arranging themselves on their horses, well armed with
rifles and pistols, at equal distances and in each other's sight. At a given
signal that "all's ready," those about the culprit, having provided themselves
with young twigs of hickory, administer the number of lashes prescribed
by the sentence, untie the sufferer, and order him to leave the
country immediately.
One of these castigations which took place more within my immediate
knowledge, was performed on a fellow who was neither a thief nor a murderer,
but who had misbehaved otherwise sufficiently to bring himself under
the sentence with mitigation. He was taken to a place where nettles
were known to grow in great luxuriance, completely stripped, and so
lashed with them, that although not materially hurt, he took it as a hint
not to be neglected, left the country, and was never again heard of by
any of the party concerned.
Probably at the moment when I am copying these notes respecting
the early laws of our frontier people, few or no Regulating Parties exist,
the terrible examples that were made having impressed upon the new settlers
a salutary dread, which restrains them from the commission of flagrant
crimes.