officer who had died for the cause of secession. This was the first
time I had ever missed an opportunity of boasting of my relationship
to my distinguished grandparent, and I felt meanly conscious that I
was in a way disloyal. But they were so genuinely pleased when they
learned that my father had fought for the South, that I lacked the
courage to tell them that while he was so engaged another relative of
mine had driven one of their best generals through three States.

I am one who makes the most of what he sees, and even the simplest
things filled me with delight; my first sight of cotton-fields, of
tobacco growing in the leaf, were great moments to me; and that the
men who guarded the negro convicts at work in the fields still clung
to the uniform of gray, struck me as a fact of pathetic interest.

I was delayed in New Orleans for only one day. At the end of that time
I secured passage on the steamer Panama. She was listed to sail for
Aspinwall at nine o'clock the next morning, and to touch at ports
along the Central American coast. While waiting for my steamer I
mobilized my transport and supplies, and purchased such articles as I
considered necessary for a rough campaign in a tropical climate. My
purchases consisted of a revolver, a money-belt, in which to carry my
small fortune, which I had exchanged into gold double-eagles, a pair
of field-glasses, a rubber blanket, a canteen, riding boots, and
saddle-bags. I decided that my uniform and saddle would be furnished
me from the quartermaster's department of Garcia's army, for in my
ignorance I supposed I was entering on a campaign conducted after the
methods of European armies.

We left the levees of New Orleans early in the morning, and for the
remainder of the day steamed slowly down the Mississippi River. I sat