The Forest King Read online

  Produced by Steven desJardins

  The Forest King]

  THE FOREST KING;

  OR,

  THE WILD HUNTER OF THE ADACA.

  A Tale of the Seventeen Century

  NEW YORK:WHEAT & CORNETT, PRINTERS, NO. 8 SPRUCE ST.1878.

  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, byHERVEY KEYES,in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

  PREFACE.

  To Mayall the Valley of the Mohawk was a land where flowers bloomed,where one fair girl flitted about through green glades and virginforests, and lifted his mind to the supernatural, and he seemed tolisten to the voice of seraphs. Then sweet memory brought him again tothe morning of life, and he stood by his mother's knee, and leaned uponthe cradle where he was rocked to soothe his infant mind. Again he roseto manhood. The power of the music of the groves, and the sweet voice ofNelly Gordon, was the angel of the moment, that unlocked the harmony ofthe universe. Her eyes appeared as pure as the first rays of morning, asit danced on the heaven-kissed hills of Paradise. Her heart expandedwith thankfulness, as she thought how rich she was in everything thatmade life desirable to Mayall, her lover. She longed to give out thestores of her own happiness, and Mayall seemed to think this lovely girlhad a special claim on him for life, which he seemed proud to admit andwilling to accept, as the richest gift that Heaven could bestow upon manwas Nelly Gordon.

  * * * * *

  In writing this short history of Mayall and his family, the hunter andtrapper of the Valley of the Adaca, I have gathered the main facts fromthe first settlers in my youthful days, who found him in this then wildbut beautiful valley, a place of bloom and shade, dimpled on the face ofcreation with a smile that renders life pleasing in solitude. The songof birds, and the music of the rills that came rushing down the ravines,to water the flowers and swell the rapid current of the Adaca, under thearching of the woodland forest that hung out its green plumes to wave inevery breath of summer, formed an earthly Paradise, in Mayall'sestimation.

  The bounty and grandeur of Eastern cities faded into insignificance,when compared with his surroundings; for here he reigned lord of thevalley's long and wide domain, that abounded in deer, game and furredanimals, whilst its streams swarmed with fish. He was truly one ofNature's noblemen--kind and affectionate to his beautiful and lovelywife and children, charitable and humane to all. He was ready at alltimes to hazard his own life to assist a friend. When attacked by hisenemies, he seemed to anticipate all their designs at a glance, anddestroyed them without remedy. After the storm of the Revolution hadpassed away, and the muttering of its thunder was no longer to be heard,adventurers from the East, who were searching for new homes in theproductive valleys of Tryon County, found this Friend, as he styledhimself, and settled on the same stream, charmed by the beautifulforests, the crystal streams, and the fertility of the soil.

  The history of this remarkable hunter is wrapped in mystery. His daringadventures, his wonderful escapes from danger, his presence of mind inthe most trying scenes of danger, all combine to render his lifewonderful. With his chosen companion to rear a family amid the wildscenes of Nature, far from the civilized world, surrounded by the wildbeasts of the forest, he worshiped at the shrine of Nature's God, andgloried in the wild scenes of beauty. The romantic courtship andmarriage of Esock Mayall with the adopted daughter of a famous Indianchief, her grace of manners, her remarkable beauty, and courage in timeof danger, her journey to her new forest home and return to the land ofher birth, seem to be one of the great events of Providence, togetherwith her journey to Niagara Falls with the Indian chief, her father, towitness the sacrifice of a young Indian maiden of high rank to the GreatSpirit of the Falls.