238
��Dwigeon Rock, Lynn.
��[April,
��and, were it not removed by pumps, would fill the place to the brim.
This rock-hewn passage is lighted with lanterns hung at the various turns, so that the descent and ascent, notwith- standing the way is rough, can be made with safety. Though the day was warm outside, we were in a very short time chilled through and glad to make our escape. How these men could have endured many long years of labor in this vast refrigerator, and retain any degree of health, is a problem. Faith and zeal doubtless kept the blood moving through their veins. It is said that a knife, or dirk, and a pair of scissors of very ancient origin, which we were shown, were found by Mr. Marble in a fissure of this solid rock. That they were left there by pirates, years on years ago, no sane man can for a moment believe. The probabilities are that some one ^deceived Mr. Marble.
When this misguided adventurer commenced this work, he was possessed of about fifteen hundred dollars, which he expended long before his death, after which, he depended upon the charities of those who sympathized with him in his undertaking.
In one of the buildings named above, there are several portraits of pirates and their wives, drawn, it is said, by some one under the influence of the spirits, in a marvelously short space of time. Several wives of Captain Kidd are among them.
Captain Kidd must have been a re- markable man, to want more than one such character for a companion, pro- vided the likenesses are true to nature ; at any rate we are not at all surprised that he was a pirate, under the circum- stances-
To illustrate how Mr. Marble pro- fessed to have been directed, we give
��the following correspondence with the spirits : —
Mr. Marble wrote : " I wish Veal or Harris would tell what move to make next."
This query was covered by fifteen thicknesses of paper and then the medium was called in, and, merely feeling of the exterior of the paper, wrote what the spirit of Veal revealed through him. Captain Harris, named in the communication, is supposed to have been the leader of the piratical band.
Response of Veal : " My Deaj- Charge, — You solicit me or Captain Harris to advise you as to what to next do. Well, as Harris says he has always had the heft of the load on his shoulders, I will try and respond myself and let Harris rest. Ha ! ha ! Well, Marble, we must joke a bit ; did we not, we should have the blues, as do you some of those rainy days when you see no living person at the rock,, save your own dear ones. Not a sound do you hear, save the woodpecker and that little gray bird [Mr. Marble's pet canary], that sings all day long, more especially wet days, tittry, tittry, tittry. But, Marble, as Long [a deceased friend of Marble] says, ' Don't be dis- couraged.' We are doing as fast as we can. As to the course, you are in the right direction at present. You have one more curve to make before you take the course that leads to the cave. We have a reason for keeping you from entering the cave at once. Moses was- by the Lord kept forty years in his cir- cuitous route, ere he had sight of that land that flowed with milk and honey. God had his purpose in so doing, not- withstanding he might have led Moses into the promise, in a very few days from the start. But no ; God wanted
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