Until the saw-mills became so active there were old beeches near Chickasabogue and Hog Bayou, bearing seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth century dates and curious signs which substantiated the belief of the credulous and imaginative that through this district there was much hidden treasure--treasure buried by early adventurers, by the pirates, and in later times by members of the Copeland gang--and safely guarded by the spirits of those who had concealed it. Though this tract is now largely cleared and settled, these traditions and ghost stories are still told and believed by the negroes, creoles, and ignorant whites. Poinquinette, an old creole fisherman and a repository of interesting lore, has related some of his personal encounters with the Magazine Point ghosts, and so real are they to him, and so vivid his narrative, that his listeners are thrilled with a sort of belief. By a dream it was once made known to him and several companions (Nelson, Sales, Moody, Ebernezar Fisher, and a man named Robinson) that there was a treasure buried just below Turner & Oats’s mill. The spot was thickly wooded--high trees and low shrubs--yet not so dense that they could not see about them--even a bird was visible as it flew through the brush. They went early one Friday morning and began digging at seven o’clock. Almost as soon as their spades touched the earth, the woods began to resound with voices--child voices--and they wondered where children’s voices could come from, but went on with their digging. As the excavation progressed, the sounds came nearer--there were calling and crying and hissing--until finally the voices were right at them and surrounding them. They could hear the voices but could see nothing. Then the voices passed by them with a whirr and back again into the bushes where they were still heard. By this time the hole was some ten feet deep. Nelson Sales, who had had more experience with spirits than the others, offered to go back into the woods and talk to the voices. He was confronted by a fearful apparition--a great blue bull with eyes of fire and a tail as large as a hogshead. It dashed passed him, charged across the hole, and as it went over threw all the earth back, completely filling the excavation. They were all thoroughly frightened and would not go back until they could get the negress Clara Randall, from Charleston. Poinquinette was loud in his praises of this woman, who could see and talk to spirits and was not afraid of them.