Part
Three
The Wild Man of Cape Cod
For years after Bellamy's pirate
ship was wrecked at Wellfleet, by false pilotage on the part of one
[of] his captives, a strange-looking man used to travel up and don
the cape, who was believed to be one of the few survivors of that
night of storm, and of the hanging that others underwent after
getting ashore. The prates had money when the ship struck; it was
found in the pockets of a hundred drowned who were cast on the beach,
as well as among the sands of the cape, for coin was gathered there
long after.
They supposed the stranger had
his share, or more, and that he secreted quantity of specie near his
cabin. After his death gold was found under his clothing in a girdle.
He was often received at the houses of the fishermen, both because
the people were hospitable and because they feared harm if the
refused to feed or shelter him; but if his company grew wearisome he
was exorcised by reading aloud a portion of the Bible. When he heard
the holy words he invariably departed.
And it was said that fiends came
to him at night, for in his room whether he appeared to sleep or
wake, there were groans and blasphemy, uncanny words and sounds that
stirred the hair of listeners on their scalps. The unhappy creature
cried to be delivered of the murders he had committed.
For some time he was missed from
his haunts, and it was thought he had secured a ship and set to sea
again; but a traveler on the sands, while passing his cabin in the
small hours, had heard a more than usual commotion, and could
distinguish the voice of the wild man raised in frantic appeal to
somebody, or something; still, knowing it was his habit to cry out
so, and having misgivings about approaching the house, the traveler
only hurried past
A few neighbors went to the
lonely cabin and looked through the windows, which, as well as the
doors, were locked on the inside. The wild man lay still and white on
the floor, with the furniture upset and pieces of gold clutched in
his fingers and scattered about him. There were marks of claws about
his neck.
Narrative taken from Myths and Legends of Our Own Land,
Vol. 1., Charles M Skinner, JB Lippincott Company, 1896, pps. 309-310.
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