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The Flanagan Version of Swift's Journal
(Swift talking about Munday) I took him to Alexandria with me and cared for him and nursed him as i would my own. He told me when i met him that if i would be good to him he would take me to a mine known to his people, where vast stores of silver were laid. When Munday was strong again we departed from Alexandria. Guise and Jefferson, men i know as strudy hunters and able to stand hardship, went with us, and we had ponies and provisions. We reached the Big Sandy River after much hardship, but without mishap.
Munday knew the trails and the habits of the Indians so well that we were able to avoid them. From there we traveled west through a hilly country, following the creek bottoms until we came to a rocky country that looked like the end of the world.
A turbulent river was before us, and following its windings from the heights we came to the mouth of a large creek. Our path fell rapidly to the creek, which has small branches running through deep ravines having great cliffs rising on either side. On the opposite side of the creek from where we were the land rose up to a cliff that stood far back from the creek, and this cliff has a great hole in its side near the top. We called that the "lighthouse" we could see clear through it, and see the sky beyond.
Munday did not know where we were, but after following the creek on a southwest course, he reconized the hills on the opposite side, and said that if we were over there he knew how to reach the Indian trace, which was some miles below, and having reached the trace he would know how to go to the mine. He said that we had to go through a myrtle thicket and then down a flight of steps that the Indians had cut in the side of the cliff at the top of it; and that across the creek from the foot of the cliff at that point and in the cliffs of the other side was the mine.
We crossed the creek by a natural rock bridge, and Munday led us to a place that the Indians used for a camping ground, and for games when on thier hunting trips. This was not the time of year for them, and we did not see any of them. We camped there, and a creel flowed by our camp. When we went out with Munday again he could not find the myrtle thicket, and we came again to the rock bridge, and from there we went down a rocky branch, and there were vines closing the entrance mouth of the branch.
We camped in this branch and kept our horses there. We could leave them there grazing while exploring the country, because the cliffs made an enclosure except for the entrance, which was closed by grapevines. Munday could not find the cliff where the mine was, but one day he called out to us and said: "here is the myrtle thicket, i know the way now" Through this thicket we reached the steps in the cliff. From there i can point to the mine." It was hard to get through the thicket. We could not take our horses, and we stumbled many times and had to fight and cut our way. We got to the Indian steps which are cut in the side of the cliff. You can stand on top of the rock there and look across the creek, and to your left the creek cuts through the cliff, and the cliffs in front are shapes of a half-moon.
Just above the creek, on the other side, there is a ledge, and higher up another ledge, and up near the top of the cliff a third ledge, and between the second and third ledges Munday said was the opening to the mine. Now we crossed the creek and climbed up to the second and third ledge, and then we went west a couple of hundreds yards and found the mine. There was a big rock that looked like a buffalo sitting down, resting on the slope within a few hundred feet of the opening to the mine. We cut our names on that rock, Swift, Munday, Jefferson and others.
We got ore and we smelted in a rock house which is in the second ledge. This rock-house faces the sunrise, and looking out there is a branch of a creek that comes in from the southwest and just below the mouth of that branch are three monument rocks, one large one, and two small ones. They are layers of rock and they taper to a point at the top.
We all returned home with our silver, but we could not carry as much as we wanted the first time, and we came back again and again, better prepared. The time before last we stayed to long. Munday told us we were staying to long, as we had been in the country almost a year, and the Indians came upon us near the river. We were living in a rockhouse, and we barricaded the front and fought them off all day and escaped. We had such peril and privation and increasing danger from Indians that we were leaving the country of the mine again, Mundays horse was bitten by a rattlesnake in the leg, and he could not go on. Each one of us had a sack of silver, which was all that a horse could carry beside ourselves and our pack, and Munday insisted that we would have to walk in turn with him and let his sack of silver be carried also.
About this we quarreled, and Munday threatened to return to his people and betray us and bring them down on us; so we killed Munday, and we buried his sack of silver on a rocky branch, beneath a forked white oak; and i marked the tree with a compass and trowel. For a more particular description i have made diagrams and maps as i remember. It is eight miles from the natural rock bridge to the place where we first camped by the creek, a due south course. One mile northwest from the natural rock bridge and right below where the branch forks, we smelted ore. Five rods up the creek from where it bends to the south, there and lets you out of the cliffty country.
Now the troubles and hardships of the exposure, particularly of that one long, hard winter, left their marks upon me. My iron frame is unbroken, but my sight is gone. Every rock and hill and creek is clearly before me, but i cannot find the place, and the markings that i have described cannot be found by my party. I led this party from the west, seeing as only the blind can see, and we reached the river , but alas! I could not give to others eyes what was stamped behind my own.
(Swift talking about Munday) I took him to Alexandria with me and cared for him and nursed him as i would my own. He told me when i met him that if i would be good to him he would take me to a mine known to his people, where vast stores of silver were laid. When Munday was strong again we departed from Alexandria. Guise and Jefferson, men i know as strudy hunters and able to stand hardship, went with us, and we had ponies and provisions. We reached the Big Sandy River after much hardship, but without mishap.
Munday knew the trails and the habits of the Indians so well that we were able to avoid them. From there we traveled west through a hilly country, following the creek bottoms until we came to a rocky country that looked like the end of the world.
A turbulent river was before us, and following its windings from the heights we came to the mouth of a large creek. Our path fell rapidly to the creek, which has small branches running through deep ravines having great cliffs rising on either side. On the opposite side of the creek from where we were the land rose up to a cliff that stood far back from the creek, and this cliff has a great hole in its side near the top. We called that the "lighthouse" we could see clear through it, and see the sky beyond.
Munday did not know where we were, but after following the creek on a southwest course, he reconized the hills on the opposite side, and said that if we were over there he knew how to reach the Indian trace, which was some miles below, and having reached the trace he would know how to go to the mine. He said that we had to go through a myrtle thicket and then down a flight of steps that the Indians had cut in the side of the cliff at the top of it; and that across the creek from the foot of the cliff at that point and in the cliffs of the other side was the mine.
We crossed the creek by a natural rock bridge, and Munday led us to a place that the Indians used for a camping ground, and for games when on thier hunting trips. This was not the time of year for them, and we did not see any of them. We camped there, and a creel flowed by our camp. When we went out with Munday again he could not find the myrtle thicket, and we came again to the rock bridge, and from there we went down a rocky branch, and there were vines closing the entrance mouth of the branch.
We camped in this branch and kept our horses there. We could leave them there grazing while exploring the country, because the cliffs made an enclosure except for the entrance, which was closed by grapevines. Munday could not find the cliff where the mine was, but one day he called out to us and said: "here is the myrtle thicket, i know the way now" Through this thicket we reached the steps in the cliff. From there i can point to the mine." It was hard to get through the thicket. We could not take our horses, and we stumbled many times and had to fight and cut our way. We got to the Indian steps which are cut in the side of the cliff. You can stand on top of the rock there and look across the creek, and to your left the creek cuts through the cliff, and the cliffs in front are shapes of a half-moon.
Just above the creek, on the other side, there is a ledge, and higher up another ledge, and up near the top of the cliff a third ledge, and between the second and third ledges Munday said was the opening to the mine. Now we crossed the creek and climbed up to the second and third ledge, and then we went west a couple of hundreds yards and found the mine. There was a big rock that looked like a buffalo sitting down, resting on the slope within a few hundred feet of the opening to the mine. We cut our names on that rock, Swift, Munday, Jefferson and others.
We got ore and we smelted in a rock house which is in the second ledge. This rock-house faces the sunrise, and looking out there is a branch of a creek that comes in from the southwest and just below the mouth of that branch are three monument rocks, one large one, and two small ones. They are layers of rock and they taper to a point at the top.
We all returned home with our silver, but we could not carry as much as we wanted the first time, and we came back again and again, better prepared. The time before last we stayed to long. Munday told us we were staying to long, as we had been in the country almost a year, and the Indians came upon us near the river. We were living in a rockhouse, and we barricaded the front and fought them off all day and escaped. We had such peril and privation and increasing danger from Indians that we were leaving the country of the mine again, Mundays horse was bitten by a rattlesnake in the leg, and he could not go on. Each one of us had a sack of silver, which was all that a horse could carry beside ourselves and our pack, and Munday insisted that we would have to walk in turn with him and let his sack of silver be carried also.
About this we quarreled, and Munday threatened to return to his people and betray us and bring them down on us; so we killed Munday, and we buried his sack of silver on a rocky branch, beneath a forked white oak; and i marked the tree with a compass and trowel. For a more particular description i have made diagrams and maps as i remember. It is eight miles from the natural rock bridge to the place where we first camped by the creek, a due south course. One mile northwest from the natural rock bridge and right below where the branch forks, we smelted ore. Five rods up the creek from where it bends to the south, there and lets you out of the cliffty country.
Now the troubles and hardships of the exposure, particularly of that one long, hard winter, left their marks upon me. My iron frame is unbroken, but my sight is gone. Every rock and hill and creek is clearly before me, but i cannot find the place, and the markings that i have described cannot be found by my party. I led this party from the west, seeing as only the blind can see, and we reached the river , but alas! I could not give to others eyes what was stamped behind my own.
Alexander, VA may be "key" here... sailing up the Potomac River... OVER-LANDING down the Old Valley Turnpike (Rt. 11); ALL the state of Virginia, in those days. Different journals for different "units" of S.W.I.F.T.; BRITS from England... PROBABLY FreeMasons, knowing how to "read" the signs. 
