he answered that he had accompanied him to Downs’ but did not force
him to make an affidavit. He added that John Mason had received
a message from the Governor of Natchez to the effect that if he
produced a witness who would turn state’s evidence it would “tend
to clear him of his guilt;” hence, their anxiety to have Setton
make a declaration.
After hearing Thomas Mason’s version of the subjects that had been
discussed by the preceding witnesses, the Commandant, who evidently
had been informed that day that the Masons had also maneuvered
further north, asked him whether or not he knew a man named Mosique
and the two Duff brothers while in Illinois. He answered he had
heard of them and understood that one of the brothers had been
killed by Indians. His answers to other questions were to the
effect that he knew nothing of the robbing of a negro in St. Louis,
of a man named Lecompte, and of a stolen negro woman who had been
sold to a priest named Manuel. The officer then asked him whether
or not he was aware that the Masons were accused of these crimes,
“but the witness continued to profess he had never heard of them.”
The fifth prisoner was Marguerite Douglas, wife of John Mason. She
swore she had been married eight years. She answered that to her
“keen regret” she had heard of the robberies of which her husband
and the other Masons were “so falsely accused.” Her knowledge of
these acts, she swore, was based solely on hearsay. Among other
things, she said Setton told her that robbing the Baker boat proved
as easy “as robbing some old woman.” She also swore she knew
nothing about the paper money found in their possession and could
not account for the money and goods discovered among her personal
belongings other than by suggesting that in packing up so hurriedly
she may have placed some of Setton’s personal property in her bag.
Samuel Mason Jr., in his testimony stated that he was eighteen
years old and that he had lived with his parents all the time until
about three months previous. He said his father and brothers had
left his mother at Bayou Pierre--between Natchez and Vicksburg--and
were away for the purpose of establishing a new home, and that she
was now ill and living with her daughter, Mrs. Philip Briscoe.
The Commandant remarked to him: “You ought to speak the truth for
you have a mother, who, it is reported, is a good and honorable
woman, and you ought not to be mixed up in the wickedness of your
father and brothers, who, it is said, are guilty of many thefts
and robberies.” The answers he gave to the few questions asked him
agreed with those given by his father.
Magnus Mason, the last of the prisoners, was called upon January
24. He stated he was about sixteen years old and was born “in
Kentucky on the south side of Green River.” (The others had claimed
Pennsylvania as their native state.) In answer to questions he
stated that he had lived “part of his time with his father in
Kentucky and part with his mother in Bayou Pierre near Natchez.” He
declared his father had spent practically all of the past two years
away from home trying “to discover men who were committing the
robberies.”«28»
The next witness was Dr. Richard Jones Waters, the man on whose
recommendation the passport had been granted to Samuel Mason. Dr.
Waters said he first met Mason in 1791 or 1792 at “Red Banks on the
Ohio,” (now Henderson, Kentucky) which was after he (Dr. Waters)
had settled in New Madrid. He had been traveling in America and on
his return, coming to the Ohio River, engaged Charles Lafond, a
merchant, and two other men who were on their way to New Orleans,
to take him down as far as New Madrid. When the boat reached the
Falls of the Ohio (Louisville) Lafond, hearing that he intended to
remain there a few days, asked permission to let the boat proceed
to Red Banks, where Lafond expected to dispose of some of the goods
on board. The permission was granted on condition that Lafond,
without fail, wait for him there. In due time he (Dr. Waters)
reached Red Banks and then met Samuel Mason for the first time.
Mason claimed that Lafond had gone fishing a few days before and,
in the meantime, started his boat south. He (Dr. Waters) did not
know whether or not Lafond and his boat ever reached New Orleans,
and not until recently, had he suspected foul play.
A year after this, continued Dr. Waters, he was traveling down the
Ohio River, stopped at Red Banks and, to his surprise, met Samuel
Mason again. Mason asked him to come to the house to prescribe for
Mrs. Mason who was sick in bed. The doctor complied and the result
was a trade in which Mason bought seventy dollars worth of medicine
and merchandise, paying forty dollars in meat and giving him a
demand note for thirty dollars on Felic Concer, of New Madrid.
But when he arrived at New Madrid he learned that Concer had left
for parts unknown. In 1798, however, Mason paid the note. He then
saw nothing more of Mason until March, 1800, when he met him and
his son Thomas and a man by the name of Smith who said they had
come to New Madrid for drugs. They purchased some medicine from
him for Mrs. John Mason and other members of the family and paid
for it with merchandise which they claimed they had bought from
a store boat. A few days later Samuel Mason called again, not to
buy medicine but to ask his assistance in procuring a passport
for land on Spanish territory. This he was, at first, unwilling
to give, for, although he knew nothing unfavorable concerning the
family, he was not assured of their character. After the old man
had pleaded with him and declared that although rumor had done all
the Masons great injustice he would never regret the endorsement of
his character, he procured a passport, giving to the clerk at the
time a history of his acquaintance with Mason. A few days afterward
Thomas Mason informed him that he was obliged to go to Kentucky to
straighten out some business affairs before he settled on the land
that would be granted them. He entrusted Thomas Mason with “some
valuable papers for delivery at the Falls of the Ohio.” These
papers reached their destination but much later than Thomas had
promised. No explanation of the delay was offered or demanded.
The record of the proceedings shows that January 26 was devoted
by the officials to inspecting the belongings of the Masons and
approximating their value. The saddles and pistols referred to by
Setton were found as described by him. There was also discovered
some “twenty twists of human hair of different shades which do
not seem to have been cut off voluntarily by those to whom the
hair belonged.” These and a number of other evidences were laid
aside by the inspectors. The belongings were estimated at about
six hundred dollars in value. The silver and paper money amounted
to seven thousand dollars, much of which, however, “appears to be
counterfeit.”
The next day Francois Derousser, a citizen of New Madrid, came
forward, stating that he had an important declaration to make
concerning the prisoners. He explained that he was a native of
Illinois and that in 1791, when he and his family were coming down
the Ohio River and had reached a point near Red Banks, where they
happened to make a landing, a man--the one he now recognized among
the prisoners as Samuel Mason--stepped up to him and, pushing a
gun against his stomach, threatened to shoot him if he did not
follow. He was led into a hut, where several persons were sitting.
Immediately after entering, Samuel Mason shouted: “This is the man
who stole my horses and slaves and sold them to the Indians,” and,
looking around for a rope, Mason seemed to be making preparations
to hang him at once. He finally convinced Mason that he could not
possibly have been guilty of the thefts.
After keeping him in chains all night, continued Derousser, Mason
permitted him to leave, but while he was making some repairs on
his boat to resume his trip, Mason came to him and persuaded him
to remain two months and work with the Mason boys. Mason promised
him a certain quantity of linen, calico, and bed covers for his
services and, needing these badly for his family, he accepted the
proposition. At the end of the specified time the promised goods
were given to him; but three hours after he had received them and
while on his way to his boat, Samuel Mason and a Captain Bradley
overtook him and robbed him of all the goods. That night he
managed to return to his boat and with the aid of Eustache Peltier
succeeded in cutting the ice from around it. He started down the
river, and after much suffering from cold and hunger he and his
family finally landed at New Madrid, where they had lived ever
since.
Eustache Peltier appeared before the Commandant, confirmed the
declaration made by Derousser, and added that he had heard that a
certain Lafond, “an European merchant with an emporium of goods
in New Orleans,” had stopped at the Mason’s house near Red Banks
one night about the time he and Derousser made their escape, but
neither the merchant nor the boat in which he traveled had been
heard from since.
Pierre Billeth, another citizen of New Madrid, declared that he
knew some facts bearing on the Masons and felt it his duty to
report them. He related to the Commandant that during an excursion
in August, 1798, on the Cumberland River, near the mouth, he heard
a negro woman belonging to Samuel Mason tell Rees Jones and James
Downs that her master had forced her to help dispose of the body
of one of his victims. She declared that Mason after stabbing and
robbing the man had commanded her to help tie a rope around his
neck and drag the body to the Ohio, where they threw it in to the
water. This same woman had been stolen by Mason and later sold at
public auction by Sheriff James Downs, then of Kaskaskia, to Father
Manuel, a priest, who lived near St. Genevieve.
All the witnesses having been examined, and the declarations and
proclamations heard, the Commandant January 29, 1803, ordered an
itemized account of the cost of the trial, including the expenses
incurred in making the arrest at Little Prairie. The account
rendered shows that the largest single item was for “the sergeant
and nineteen militiamen for seventeen days’ guard and sentinel
watch of prisoners, at one piaster per day, three hundred and forty
piasters.” Twenty-two men, besides the officers, were employed in
making the arrest and bringing the prisoners to New Madrid, for
which they received one hundred and seventy-six piasters. Another
item reads, “irons and cuffs made for prisoners, eight piasters.”
The total expense is given as one thousand fifty-three piasters, or
about one thousand dollars.
The last entry is dated January 31, 1803, and, like all the
others, is presented in monotonous legal phraseology. It ends
with the statement that: “We [the Commandant] hereby direct that
the proceedings of this trial, originally set down in writing on
ninety-one sheets of paper written on both sides, as well as the
pieces of evidence tending to conviction, together with seven
thousand piasters in U. S. banknotes, be forwarded to the Honorable
Governor General by Don Robert McCoy, Captain of the Militia, whom
we have charged to conduct the prisoners, Mason and consorts, to
New Orleans with the view of their trial being continued and
finished, if it so please the Honorable Governor General.”
And here ends the record of the preliminary trial of the Masons.
Captain McCoy, having been appointed to conduct the prisoners to a
higher court, made his preparations and in due time started for New
Orleans.
Mason and Harpe--Double-Cross and Double Death
Out of the mass of perjury and counter-accusations brought out at
this examination only one thing was clear--that is that Mason and
his gang, as far as testimony and confession went, were not guilty
of any crime on the Spanish side of the Mississippi. Whatever
crimes they may have committed it was essential to their present
safety to locate them on the American or eastern side of the river.
The Spanish authorities had no power to punish them for violations
of law on American territory, but the Spanish Intendant Salcedo at
New Orleans had the power under the comity existing between the
Spanish and American governments to deliver them up to the American
authorities. The New Madrid court, therefore, ordered the prisoners
to be transferred to New Orleans and brought before the intendant.
At that point in the march of events fate took relentless grip on
Samuel Mason and Little Harpe, alias Setton, for their crimes.
The way of atonement was as swift as its end was to be terrible.
It might be quickly summarized, but there is the better way of
pursuing the astonishing and dramatic story through the faded
records and old scraps of publications of those times, thus
getting into actual touch with the persons and with the primitive
conditions under which this strange duel of two master criminals
was fought out. Each feared the other; Mason, perhaps, not knowing
his antagonist. The grim headsman was silently stalking both. In
the language of crime fate was double-crossing both.
From New Madrid to New Orleans was a distance of about nine hundred
miles and to travel it by boat in those days required more than two
weeks. It was as if it had been decreed that Mason should make a
farewell tour through a part of the country in which he had become
so execrated. New Orleans was then the capital of the Spanish
province of Louisiana, the seat of the highest court, and had been
for more than three-quarters of a century the most important town
on the Mississippi.
In 1803 New Madrid was a frontier settlement about fourteen years
old. It was a military post occupied by a small force of soldiers
and a town with a population of about eight hundred who were
French, American, Canadian, and Spanish, or an extraction of these
peoples. New Madrid remained under Spanish rule until 1804 when,
as a part of the province of Louisiana, it became a part of the
territory of Louisiana acquired by the United States.«29»
If an official account of what followed Mason’s trial at New
Madrid was kept it may now exist among the archives in old Madrid
in Spain and may contain data relative to the transfer of the
prisoners. At any rate, Captain McCoy and his guard evidently
started for New Orleans early in February, 1803. It is more likely
that, as a matter of economy and convenience, they traveled down
the Mississippi in a flatboat. The records show that some of the
goods found in the possession of the Masons were carried along as
evidence.
There is neither written history nor oral tradition telling of
Captain McCoy’s departure for New Orleans or how he held his
prisoners on board during the trip. At least one very probable
scene, however, presents itself, and in it John Setton is the
central figure. Samuel Mason was then the most widely known bandit
in the Mississippi Valley. But in the eyes of the law Setton now
suddenly became the most important character of all the outlaws.
He was likely to turn state’s evidence, reveal many robberies that
were long standing mysteries, and thus convict not only Samuel
Mason and his family, but also point out clues that would lead to
the extermination of all river pirates.
The boat was necessarily crowded, for even under the most
encouraging circumstances room on a flatboat was limited. There
were about seventeen persons on board: Captain McCoy, the
interpreter, some five men who constituted the guard and crew,
the seven prisoners, and the three children. Setton was probably
chained in the most conspicuous place where he could be carefully
watched. This must have been done not only to prevent his escape,
but also to prevent Samuel Mason from trying to persuade him to
act in a plot against the crew, or to dictate to him a forthcoming
“confession.”
One can easily imagine that Captain McCoy and his men frowned
at Setton as they would at a chained sheep-killing dog. There
was nothing about him to attract them. On the contrary, he was
repulsive. Setton’s countenance, according to one writer, was
always downcast and fierce, his hair red, his face meager and
his stature below that of the average man. This combination gave
him, as Judge James Hall puts it, “a suspicious exterior.” He was
about thirty years of age and looked the part of a man who was too
much of a villain to smile and thereby try to hide some of his
villainy. To his captors he was nothing more than a vicious dog
whose life was being spared solely that he might later give Mason a
long-deserved, fatal bite.
They not only looked upon him as a thief and murderer, but also as
a fool not fit to live. If he were guilty of the crimes Mason laid
at his feet, then hanging was too mild a punishment for him. By the
same token, if guilty, he was a fool to permit a notorious outlaw
to dictate to him just what to confess and whom to implicate. And
if he were innocent of the crimes he was even a greater fool for
submitting to Mason’s demand and declaring in an affidavit that he,
not Mason, was the guilty man.
With Captain McCoy and his guards on one side, and Samuel Mason and
his family on the other, Setton stood alone between “the devil and
the deep blue sea.” He and Mason were figuratively and literally in
the same boat, but Mason had at least the consolation of knowing
that the members of his family on board were also with him in
sympathy and ready to obey his command, even though it led to
certain death.
Judged by their morals Samuel Mason and John Setton were very much
alike, but in their physical aspect they differed greatly. Mason
was then about fifty-five years old, possibly sixty. Swaney, the
old mail-carrier, who saw him often, described him to Guild: “He
weighed about two hundred pounds, and was a fine looking man.
He was rather modest and unassuming, and had nothing of the
raw-head-and-bloody-bones appearance which his character would
indicate.”
Henry Howe refers to him as “a man of gigantic stature and of more
than ordinary talents.” William Darby says: “Mason at any time of
his life or in any situation, had something extremely ferocious in
his look, which arose particularly from a tooth which projected
forwards, and could only be covered with his lip by effort.”
Regardless of the difference in their physical size and
physiognomy, and regardless of the extent of their guilt, both
men were held for the same crimes and were now on their way to
New Orleans to appear before the Spanish authorities. Less than a
dozen towns and forts were then scattered along the river and all
were small ones. As the boat slowly floated and sailed down the
wide stream between seemingly endless forest and jungle covered
shores, Mason had ample time to view the various places where he
had committed robberies, and to recall how successfully he had
carried out all his attempts. The scenes along the Mississippi
have undergone many changes since Mason’s day. Nevertheless, many
of the views have retained enough of their primitive grandeur to
create in the imagination a landscape of continuous virgin forests
and a vivid picture of what river life was in pioneer days. But,
by searching the old records pertaining to Mason’s career, one
discovers facts that could never have been foreseen by the wisest
prophet nor imagined by the wildest fictionist.
How and when Captain McCoy and his prisoners arrived at New Orleans
has not been ascertained, although an effort has been made to
find newspaper or other accounts giving details on the subject.
There is, however, an unpublished official letter in Spanish, in
the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which shows
that upon Captain McCoy’s arrival in New Orleans the record of the
proceedings of the trial held at New Madrid was submitted to the
Governor General of Louisiana and his Secretary of War. These two
Spanish officers, after going over the proceedings, concluded that
since the evidence taken did not prove that Mason had committed any
crime on the Spanish side, the prisoners should be handed over to
the Americans. In due time, therefore, they ordered them sent to
Natchez.
The official letter referred to is dated New Orleans, March 3,
1803. It was written by Vidal, the Secretary of War, approved
by Manuel Salcedo, the last Spanish governor of Louisiana, and
forwarded to Governor Claiborne. It briefly reviews the trial and
points out to the Governor of the Mississippi Territory that the
case falls under American and not Spanish jurisdiction.
Governor Claiborne, in all probability, answered this communication
and requested that the Masons be turned over to him, for Captain
McCoy and his men, taking the prisoners and some of their
stolen property, left New Orleans the latter part of March for
Natchez. What occurred when their boat stopped near Point Coupee,
Louisiana--some two hundred and forty miles above New Orleans and
about one hundred miles below Natchez--is told in the following
news item quoted in full from _The Western Spy_, published at
Cincinnati, May 4, 1803:
“Extract of a letter from the Reverend John Smith to a gentleman
in this town, dated Point Coupee, March 28, 1803.
“‘You no doubt have received the account of old Sam Mason’s arrest,
with three or four of his sons, some other villains, a woman and
three children, about thirty miles below New Madrid, by Captain
McCoy, the king’s interpreter and a small party. Captain McCoy has
since taken them to New Orleans in irons, but as no crime could be
charged upon them as being committed in the Spanish Government, the
Governor General ordered them to be taken to Natchez and delivered
to our Government. The day before yesterday as they were passing
this place the mast of their vessel broke, a part of the men were
sent on shore to make a new one, and the rest were left to guard
the prisoners. In a short time they threw off their irons, seized
the guns belonging to the boat and fired upon the guard. Captain
McCoy hearing the alarm ran out of the cabin, old Mason instantly
shot him through the breast and shoulder; he with the determined
bravery of a soldier, though scarcely able to stand, shot him in
the head. Mason fell and rose, fell and rose again, and although
in a gore of blood, one of his party having shot a Spaniard’s arm
to pieces, he drove off McCoy’s party and kept possession of the
boat till evening, when, discovering a superior force they left the
boat, the woman and children following with great precipitation.
There is a party of Caroles [sic] after them and it is supposed
they will succeed in taking them. The commandant at this place
has offered one thousand dollars for taking old Mason dead or
alive. They will be pursued with the utmost diligence by a set of
determined fellows.’”
Mason escaped March 26, 1803. The report of his flight spread
fast. The same facts that were published in _The Western Spy_
were sent out from Natchez as a news item, dated April 2, and
printed with less detail in various papers, among them _The
Tennessee Gazette_ of April 27, _The Kentucky Gazette_ of May 3,
and _The Palladium_ of May 5. In the same news item appears a
brief statement to the effect that Governor Claiborne had received
“official information of the arrival at New Orleans of the French
Prefect for the Colony of Louisiana.”
Mason hoped, as already stated, that by showing he had committed
no crimes on the Spanish side of the Mississippi he would not be
punished by the Spanish authorities. He evidently did not foresee
the possibility of their turning him over to the Americans. At
any rate, the French were taking possession (in form at least) of
Louisiana, and since they had never been implicated in any strained
relations with the states relative to the free navigation of the
Mississippi, Mason was now in equal danger of pursuit on either
side. By choice or circumstance he risked the American side. Two
months after his thrilling escape from the boat he was seen about
fifteen miles northeast of Natchez. This is shown in a report dated
Natchez, June 6, 1803, published in _The Palladium_ July 14, from
which weekly it was copied by various other papers:
“On Tuesday last the notorious Samuel Mason and several of his
party, all well armed, were seen on the Choctaw trace near Cole’s
Creek. Two detachments of the militia of Jefferson County were
immediately ordered out by his excellency, the Governor, in pursuit
of them. We have not yet been informed of the result of this
expedition.”