Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, vol 9 | Page 2

treasure.
Some years ago the cave was enlarged by blasting, in a hope of finding

that chest, for an old saying has been handed down among the people
of the island--from whom it came they have forgotten--that was to this
effect: "Dig six feet and you will find iron; dig six more and you will
find money."
On Damariscotta Island, near Kennebec, Maine, is a lake of salt water,
which, like dozens of shallow ones in this country, is locally reputed to
be bottomless. Yet Kidd was believed to have sunk some of his
valuables there, and to have guarded against the entrance of boats by
means of a chain hung from rock to rock at the narrow entrance, bolts
on either side showing the points of attachment, while ring bolts were
thought to have been driven for the purpose of tying buoys, thus
marking the spots where the chests went down. This island, too, has
been held in fear as haunted ground.
Appledore, in the Isles of Shoals, was another such a hiding-place, and
Kidd put one of his crew to death that he might haunt the place and
frighten searchers from their quest. For years no fisherman could be
induced to land there after nightfall, for did not an islander once
encounter "Old Bab" on his rounds, with a red ring around his neck, a
frock hanging about him, phosphorescence gleaming from his body,
who peered at the intruder with a white and dreadful face, and nearly
scared him to death?
A spot near the Piscataqua River was another hiding-place, and early in
this century the ground was dug over, two of the seekers plying pick
and spade, while another stood within the circle they had drawn about
the spot and loudly read the Bible. Presently their implements clicked
on an iron chest, but it slid sideway into the ground as they tried to
uncover it, and at last an interruption occurred that caused them to stop
work so long that when they went to look for it again it had entirely
disappeared. This diversion was the appearance of a monster horse that
flew toward them from a distance without a sound, but stopped short at
the circle where the process of banning fiends was still going on, and,
after grazing and walking around them for a time, it dissolved into air.
Kidd's plug is a part of the craggy steep known as Cro' Nest, on the
Hudson. It is a projecting knob, like a bung closing an orifice, which is
believed to conceal a cavern where the redoubtable captain placed a
few barrels of his wealth. Though it is two hundred feet up the cliff,
inaccessible either from above or below, and weighs many tons, still, as

pirates and devils have always been friendly, it may be that the corking
of the cave was accomplished with supernatural help, and that if blasts
or prayers ever shake the stone from its place a shower of doubloons
and diamonds may come rattling after it.
The shore for several hundred feet around Dighton Rock,
Massachusetts, has been examined, for it was once believed that the
inscriptions on it were cut by Kidd to mark the place of burial for part
of his hoard.
The Rock Hill estate, Medford, Massachusetts, was plagued by a
spectre that some thought to be that of a New Hampshire farmer who
was robbed and murdered there, but others say it is the shade of Kidd,
for iron treasure chests were found in the cellar that behaved like that
on the Piscataqua River, sinking out of sight whenever they were
touched by shovels.
Misery Islands, near Salem, Massachusetts, were dug over, and under
spiritual guidance, too, for other instalments of Mr. Kidd's acquisitions,
but without avail.
It takes no less than half a dozen ghosts to guard what is hidden in
Money Hill, on Shark River, New Jersey, so there must be a good deal
of it. Some of these guardians are in sailor togs, some in their mouldy
bones, some peaceable, some noisy with threats and screams and
groans-- a "rum lot," as an ancient mariner remarked, who lives near
their graves and daytime hiding-places. Many heirlooms are owned by
Jerseymen hereabout that were received from Kidd's sailors in
exchange for apple- jack and provisions, and two sailor-looking men
are alleged to have taken a strong-box out of Money Hill some years
ago, from which they abstracted two bags of gold. After that event the
hill was dug over with great earnestness, but without other result to the
prospectors than the cultivation of their patience.
Sandy Hook, New Jersey, near "Kidd's tree," and the clay banks of the
Atlantic highlands back of that point, are suspected hiding-places; but
the cairn or knoll called Old Woman's Hill, at