The depredations of this extensive combination were severely felt;but so well were their plans arranged,that although Murel,who was always active,was everywhere suspected,there was no proof to be obtained.It so happened,however,that a young man of the name of Stewart,who was looking after two slaves which Murel had decoyed away,fell in with him and obtained his confidence,took the oath,and was admitted into the gang as one of the General Council.
By this means all was discovered;for Stewart turned traitor,although he had taken the oath,and having obtained every information,exposed the whole concern,the names of all the parties,and finally succeeded in bringing home sufficient evidence against Murel,to procure his conviction and sentence to the Penitentiary (Murel was sentenced to fourteen years'imprisonment);so many people who were supposed to be honest,and bore a respectable name in the different States,were found to be among the list of the Grand Council as published by Stewart,that every attempt was made to throw discredit upon his assertions--his character was vilified,and more than one attempt was made to assassinate him.
He was obliged to quit the Southern States in consequence.
It is,however,now well ascertained to have been all true;and although some blame Mr.Stewart for having violated his oath,they no longer attempt to deny that his revelations were correct.
I will quote one or two portions of Murel's confessions to Mr.Stewart,made to him when they were journeying together.
I ought to have observed,that the ultimate intentions of Murel and his associates were,by his own account,on a very extended scale;having no less an object in view than RAISING THE BLACKS AGAINSTTHE WHITES,TAKING POSSESSION OF,AND PLUNDERING NEW ORLEANS,AND MAKING THEMSELVES POSSESSORS OF THE TERRITORY.The following are a few extracts:--'I collected all my friends about New Orleans at one of our friends'
houses in that place,and we sat in council three days before we got all our plans to our notion;we then determined to undertake the rebellion at every hazard,and make as many friends as we could for that purpose.Every man's business being assigned him,I started to Natchez on foot,having sold my horse in New Orleans,--with the intention of stealing another after I started.
I walked four days,and no opportunity offered for me to get a horse.
The fifth day,about twelve,I had become tired,and stopped at a creek to get some water and rest a little.While I was sitting on a log,looking down the road the way that I had come,a man came in sight riding on a good-looking horse.The very moment I saw him,I was determined to have his horse,if he was in the garb of a traveler.
He rode up,and I saw from his equipage that he was a traveler.
I arose and drew an elegant rifle pistol on him and ordered him to dismount.
He did so,and I took his horse by the bridle and pointed down the creek,and ordered him to walk before me.He went a few hundred yards and stopped.I hitched his horse,and then made him undress himself,all to his shirt and drawers,and ordered him to turn his back to me.
He said,'If you are determined to kill me,let me have time to pray before I die,'I told him I had no time to hear him pray.He turned around and dropped on his knees,and I shot him through the back of the head.
I ripped open his belly and took out his entrails,and sunk him in the creek.
I then searched his pockets,and found four hundred dollars and thirty-seven cents,and a number of papers that I did not take time to examine.
I sunk the pocket-book and papers and his hat,in the creek.
His boots were brand-new,and fitted me genteelly;and I put them on and sunk my old shoes in the creek,to atone for them.
I rolled up his clothes and put them into his portmanteau,as they were brand-new cloth of the best quality.I mounted as fine a horse as ever I straddled,and directed my course for Natchez in much better style than I had been for the last five days.
'Myself and a fellow by the name of Crenshaw gathered four good horses and started for Georgia.We got in company with a young South Carolinian just before we got to Cumberland Mountain,and Crenshaw soon knew all about his business.He had been to Tennessee to buy a drove of hogs,but when he got there pork was dearer than he calculated,and he declined purchasing.
We concluded he was a prize.Crenshaw winked at me;I understood his idea.Crenshaw had traveled the road before,but I never had;we had traveled several miles on the mountain,when he passed near a great precipice;just before we passed it Crenshaw asked me for my whip,which had a pound of lead in the butt;I handed it to him,and he rode up by the side of the South Carolinian,and gave him a blow on the side of the head and tumbled him from his horse;we lit from our horses and fingered his pockets;we got twelve hundred and sixty-two dollars.Crenshaw said he knew a place to hide him,and he gathered him under his arms,and I by his feet,and conveyed him to a deep crevice in the brow of the precipice,and tumbled him into it,and he went out of sight;we then tumbled in his saddle,and took his horse with us,which was worth two hundred dollars.
'We were detained a few days,and during that time our friend went to a little village in the neighborhood and saw the negro advertised (a negro in our possession),and a deion of the two men of whom he had been purchased,and giving his suspicions of the men.
It was rather squally times,but any port in a storm:
we took the negro that night on the bank of a creek which runs by the farm of our friend,and Crenshaw shot him through the head.
We took out his entrails and sunk him in the creek.
'He had sold the other negro the third time on Arkansaw River for upwards of five hundred dollars;and then stole him and delivered him into the hand of his friend,who conducted him to a swamp,and veiled the tragic scene,and got the last gleanings and sacred pledge of secrecy;as a game of that kind will not do unless it ends in a mystery to all but the fraternity.
