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Show 74 Earfy Western Travels [ Vol. * 6 of freebooters which then infested the region, headed by the celebrated Mason/ 9 plundering the boats ascending from New- Orleans and murdering their crews. From these circumstances this cave has become the scene of a poem of much merit, called the " Outlaw/' and has suggested a spirited tale from a popular writer. Many other spots in the vicinity were notorious, in the early part of the present century, for the murder and robbery of travellers, whose fate long remained enveloped in mystery. On the summit of a lofty bluff, not far from the " Battery Rock," was pointed out to us a solitary house, with a single chimney rising from its roof. Its [ 45] white walls may be viewed for miles before reaching the place on descending the river. It was here that the family of Sturdevant carried on their extensive operations as counterfeiters for many years unsuspected; and on this spot, in 1821, they expiated their crimes with their Eves. A few miles below is a place called " Ford's Ferry," 40 where murder, robbery, forgery, and almost every crime in the calendar were for years committed, while not a suspicion of the truth was awakened. Ford not only escaped unsuspected, but was esteemed a most exemplary man. Associated with him were his son and two other individuals, named Simpson and Shouse. They are all now gone to their account. The old man was mysteriously shot by some person who was never discovered, but was supposed to have been Simpson, between whom and himself a misunderstanding had arisen. If it were so, the murderer was met by fitting retribution, for he fell in a similar manner. Shouse and the son of Ford atoned upon the gallows their crimes in 1833. Before reaching this spot the traveller passes M See Cuming's Tour, in our volume iv, p. 268.- ED. *• Ford's Ferry is today a small hamlet in Crittenden County, Kentucky, twenty-five miles below Shawneetown. Flagg is referring probably to the Wilson family.. Consult Lewis Collins, History oj Kentucky ( Covington, 1874), i, p. 147.- ED. |