Life and bloody career of the executed criminal, James Copeland, the great Southern land piratePitts, J. R. S. (James Robert Soda)
History
Life and bloody career of the executed criminal, James Copeland, the great Southern land pirate
Pitts, J. R. S. (James Robert Soda)
Copeland, James, 1823-1857; Criminals -- Gulf States -- Biography
We now had the sixty horses and mules and the ten lead and pack mules,
the two fine horses of the old man and his servant, and the two horses
he had loaned us to ride, which made seventy-four head in all, and
a better selected drove of horses never left Texas. We pursued our
journey that day very silent. Wages had but little to say and I had
less. We had in our hurry and confusion forgotten to supply ourselves
with water, and had but little victuals to eat that were cooked. About
a quart of water in our gourds, was all we had for the day. We came to
the water late in the evening. We suffered very much for water that
day, as did our horses. We stripped and hampered them to graze, after
they had got water, and then prepared some thing for ourselves. We had
our turkey and part of the deer; we built a fire and barbecued the
game. After we had eat, Wages said he could not sleep, and told me to
lie down and take a nap.
I laid down, but could not sleep. Every time I would fall into a doze,
the vision of the young man I had killed the night before, would
appear before my eyes, and I would start up in a fright. After several
ineffectual attempts, I finally got up, and told Wages I could not
sleep, and told him to try it. He laid down and was quite still for
some time. All at once he screamed out “Oh! my God!” and jumped upon
his feet. I called and asked what was the matter, and he declared
that he saw the old man he had killed, standing over him, and that he
plainly saw the shot holes in his head, and the blood running down his
face. So we both set up the balance of the night.
The next morning we started very early. About noon we came to a large
creek where we procured plenty of water for ourselves and the drove;
we halted and rested awhile, and then pursued our journey with little
delay, making the route as direct as possible for the mouth of Red
River. We did not pass the settlement on Irish Bayou, nor Natchitoches.
We arrived at the mouth of Red River and went down the river until we
came opposite Bayou Sara, where we had our horses and mules ferried
over.
We went to a man living out from the river, and effected a sale of all
the horses, except the four saddle horses. We went up into Wilkinson
County, Mississippi, where we sold all the mules, getting fifty dollars
for each of the horses and an average of seventy-five dollars for each
of the mules. We sold the two saddle horses that Wages and myself rode
before we killed the two Mexicans, for one hundred dollars each. We
then shaped our course for Natchez, and when within about twenty miles
of it, we effected sale of the two horses we were riding, to one man;
he gave Wages one hundred and fifty dollars for the horse the old
Mexican had, and he gave me one hundred and twenty-five dollars for
the one I rode, and sent us in a carriage to Natchez, where we arrived
about the last of June. We had realized on our trip that time about six
thousand six hundred and seventy-five dollars.
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