VIII
_A LONELY GRAVE IN TENNESSEE_
A hero of his country was dead, the Governor of its largestTerritory,--dead, on his way to Washington, where fresh honoursawaited him,--dead, far from friends and kindred in a wild andboundless forest.
Did he commit suicide in a moment of aberration, or was he foullymurdered by an unknown hand on that 11th of October, 1809? PresidentJefferson, who had observed signs of melancholy in him in early life,favoured the idea of suicide, but in the immediate neighbourhood thetheory of murder took instant shape. Where was Joshua Grinder? Wherewere those servants? Where was Neely himself?
"I never for a moment entertained the thought of suicide," said hismother, when she heard the news. "His last letter was full of hope. Iwas to live with him in St. Louis."
Of all men in the world why should Meriwether Lewis commit suicide?The question has been argued for a hundred years and is to-day nonearer solution than ever.
"Old Grinder killed him and got his money," said the neighbours. "Hesaw he was well dressed and evidently a person of distinction andwealth." Grinder was arrested and tried but no proof could be secured.
"Alarmed by his groans the robbers hid his pouch of gold coins in theearth, with the intention of securing it later," said others. "Theynever ventured to return,--it lies there, buried, to this day." Andthe superstitions of the neighbourhood have invested the spot with theweird fascination of Captain Kidd's treasure, or the buried box ofgold on Neacarney.
"He was killed by his French servant," said the Lewis family. Later,when Pernia visited Charlottesville and sent word to Locust Hill,Meriwether's mother refused to see him.
John Marks, half-brother of Meriwether Lewis, went immediately to thescene of tragedy, but nothing more could be done or learned.Proceeding to St. Louis, the estate was settled.
When at last the trunks arrived at Washington they were found tocontain the journals, papers on the protested bills, and thewell-known spy-glass used by Lewis on the expedition. But there wereno valuables or money.
Years after, Meriwether's sister and her husband unexpectedly metPernia on the streets of Mobile, and Mary recognised in his possessionthe William Wirt watch and the gun of her brother. On demand they werepromptly surrendered.
In the lonely heart of Lewis county, Tennessee, stands to-day acrumbling gray stone monument with a broken shaft of limestone erectedby the State on the spot where, in the thirty-fifth year of his age,Meriwether Lewis met his death. In solitude and desolation, mossoverlies his tomb, but his name lives on, brightening with the years.