mail steamers and trading ships between the two countries, send the
men across as ordinary passengers, and ship the arms as goods of
different kinds. Much had been done in that way during the previous
three or four years, but it was plainly too slow and uncertain a
process to adopt on the present occasion. The other course was to
procure a vessel for this special purpose, freight her with the men
and arms, place her under the command of a skilful and experienced
captain, and trust to his skill and luck for landing the entire in
safety somewhere on the west coast of Ireland.

This was the course adopted. How it was carried out, the
Attorney-General, with whatever degree of authority may attach to his
words in such a case, has thus described:--

On the 12th of April, 1867, a party of forty or fifty men,
almost all of whom had been officers or privates in the
service of the American government, went down from New York to
Sandyhook, in a steamer, a distance of about eighteen miles.
There they found a brigantine of about 200 tons burden, which
had been purchased for the expedition, and in that brigantine
these men embarked, and sailed for Ireland. She was called the
"Jacknell," and she sailed without papers or colours. For the
purpose of keeping their movements as free from observation
as possible, these men embarked without luggage--a rather
extraordinary thing in men the great majority of whom had
been officers in the American service. The commander of the
expedition was named John F. Kavanagh, and he had filled the
office of brigadier-general in the American army, and was at
one time a member of the American Congress. These men had on
board a very large quantity of arms, packed in piano-cases,