The Romance of Adventure, Or, True Tales of Enterprise; Containing Thrilling Stories of Recent Travels and Perils by Land and Sea (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852. Excerpt: ... ty %wt-umn nf tyt lootgkillt More than a hundred and fifty years ago, there lived in the mountains, amid which the river Delaware rises, a man of singular character, who is remembered by the soubriquet of Boddeback the Bear-Tamer. He is the subject of innumerable stories, most of them sufficiently marvellous, and not without a strong dash of the supernatural. The strange incidents we are about to record are among the legends associated with his name, and are said to be entitled to more credit than many, having been handed down from the first settler on the mountain, Nicholas Brawn by natne, whose father was a boatman on the Hudson, and who, on his demise, left his son a fortune of fifty golden guineas. Depositing his treasure inside the lining of his cloth cap, and taking care to secure this well-endowed headdress firmly in its natural place, Nicholas started off one morning to seek his fortune where no adventurous white man had been before him. He carried on his back a little bag of meat, to supply his modest wants, and fastened a huge horse-pistol in his belt, as a defence against any emergency that might arise. In this way he wandered for a week among the mountains that lie to the westward of the Hudson, at the end of which time he found himself on a spot that he determined to select as his settlement. It was near the bottom of a valley watered by a stream of limpid water, and seemed, from its fresh and fertile look, to be a promising place for cultivation. His mind once made up, he took immediate measures to make himself secure and comfortable. He hastily constructed a hut of stakes, covered over with branches of trees, dried leaves, and a light covering of earth. His next care was to clear a small space of ground, and sow the few seeds he had provide...