THE CEDARS OF NONSUCH 



My final count of two hundred and seventy-six 

 is conservative, for I could not reach the very center, 

 nor was the chopping an event of the immediate 

 past. I scratched on a smooth bit of sandstone the 

 sum in subtraction, and got my initial date as 1653. 

 In an attempt to cut off a splinter, my knife blade 

 broke as cleanly as if I had tried to whittle a steel 

 girder. 



I looked over to Castle Island and realized that 

 its old, ruined fort had been built forty years before 

 my tree had taken root. But not until I returned to 

 the laboratory and delved into Bermudian history 

 could I fix on any single item of this year. In an 

 old archive ^ found that in St. Georges, three miles 

 away to the northeast, on April 17, 1653, there 

 took place the trial of John Middleton for witch- 

 craft. The evidence of one Robert Priestly was as 

 follows : 



" Who saith that on Fryday last, being the 15th 

 of this instant, he being removeing Mr. Tucker's 

 cattell in the evening in a piece of ground near to 

 the house of John Middleton, he saw right oppositt 

 agt the house, a Black creatuer lye soe upon the 

 ground in the shape of a catt but farre Bigger, 

 with eyes like fier, and a tayle near as long as a 

 mans arme. And this examynate being some whitt 

 daunted at the first sight, yet tooke courage & went 

 upp close to yt to look on yt. he only saw it move 

 the head, and drawne his knife with a resolution to 

 stabb yt: as he lift up his hand and knife to strike 

 at yt with all his force, he being a strong man, he 



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