lso decided the Commissaries not to return
immediately. The country through which they would have had to pass, was
infested by a set of bushwhackers, in comparison with whose relentless
ferocity, that of Bluebeard and the Welch giants sinks into
insignificance. Chief among them was "Tinker Dave Beattie," the great
opponent of Champ Ferguson. This patriarchal old man lived in a cove, or
valley surrounded by high hills, at the back of which was a narrow path
leading to the mountain. Here, surrounded by his clan, he led a
pastoral, simple life, which must have been very fascinating, for many
who ventured into the cove never came away again. Sometimes Champ
Ferguson, with his band, would enter the cove, harry old Dave's stock
and goods, and drive him to his retreat in the mountain, to which no man
ever followed him. Then, again, when he was strong enough, he would lead
his henchmen against Champ, and slay all who did not escape. But it must
not be understood that he confined his hostility to Captain Ferguson and
the latter's men: on the contrary, he could have had, had he so chosen,
as many scalps drying in his cabin as ever rattled in the lodge of a
Camanche war-chief, and taken with promiscuous impartiality. There were
not related of Beattie so many stories, illustrative of his personal
strength and bull-dog courage, as of Champ Ferguson. I have heard of the
latter having gone, on one occasion, into a room where two of his bitter
enemies lay before the fire, both strong men and armed, and, throwing
himself upon them, he killed both (after a hard struggle) with his
knife. But Beattie possessed a cunning and subtlety which the other, in
great measure, lacked. Perhaps he was more nearly civilized. Both of
these men were known to have spared life on some rare occasions, and
perhaps none were so much astonished, thereat, as themselves. On one
occasion, Ferguson was called upon to express an opinion regarding the
character of a man who had been arrested near a spot where bushwhackers
had just fired upon the party he (Ferguson) was with, and, from several
suspicious indications, this man was thought to be one of them. By way
of giving him a chance, it was decided that Ferguson, who knew every man
in that country, should declare his doom, influenced by his previous
knowledge of him. Ferguson, somewhat to the astonishment of the
tribunal, begged that he should be released, saying, that he knew he was
a Union man, but did not believe