The Karankawa Indians were a group of fierce cannibals who lived in this part of Texas and down the coast towards Corpus Christi, all the way from Galveston. They had been there for several hundred years, and no one knew where they had come from. But in the 1820s, part of the Austin colony decided they needed to make some sort of a peace arrangements with them, so a powwow was called. At the powwow, they noticed some very strange things. There was a man who approached them who appeared to be the leader of the tribe.He wore as a headdress a full set of deer antlers and he was mostly naked, except for a gold woman's locket. But the strangest thing was that he spoke perfect English. Of course, they were very interested in the locket and the language, and they asked him how he learned English.

And he told them that around 1810, a strange man appeared at the mouth of the San Bernard River, just below Freeport.

There used to be a big grove of oak trees there and this man, a hermit, lived alone.

The reason the Karankawa's didn't kill him and/or eat him was that they thought he was crazy, and they didn't believe in killing crazy people because the evil spirits might invade the killer. So they let him live there in peace.

There was a Karankawan brave who was about 10 years old who befriended this old hermit, and the hermit taught him English. And they stayed friends for a long time.


View: Full Article | Source: News 24 Houston