St. Thomas harbor, at the end of our cruise, I was more sorry than I can
tell. I was very glad to meet him again in 1830; and later in life, when
I thought I had some influence in Washington, I moved heaven and earth
to have him discharged. But it was like getting a ghost out of prison.
They pretended there was no such man, and never was such a man. They
will say so at the Department now! Perhaps they do not know. It will not
be the first thing in the service of which the Department appears to
know nothing!

There is a story that Nolan met Burr once on one of our vessels, when a
party of Americans came on board in the Mediterranean. But this I
believe to be a lie; or, rather, it is a myth, _ben trovato_, involving
a tremendous blowing-up with which he sunk Burr,--asking him how he
liked to be "without a country." But it is clear from Burr's life, that
nothing of the sort could have happened; and I mention this only as an
illustration of the stories which get a-going where there is the least
mystery at bottom.

Philip Nolan, poor fellow, repented of his folly, and then, like a man,
submitted to the fate he had asked for. He never intentionally added to
the difficulty or delicacy of the charge of those who had him in hold.
Accidents would happen; but never from his fault. Lieutenant Truxton
told me that, when Texas was annexed, there was a careful discussion
among the officers, whether they should get hold of Nolan's handsome set
of maps and cut Texas out of it,--from the map of the world and the map
of Mexico. The United States had been cut out when the atlas was bought
for him. But it was voted, rightly enough, that to do this would be
virtually to reveal to him what had happened, or, as Harry Cole said, to
make him think Old Burr had succeeded. So it was from no fault of
Nolan's that a great botch happened at my own table, when, for a short