duced to come out. General Shelby asked what was the matter, and on being told, replied: "Well, Lieutenant, if there is going to be a row, just count us in." His offer was thankfully accepted, and revolvers were prepared for use. The English cutter, however, pluckily ran down for them before the wind, the blue-jackets having their carbines in hand, and the gun-boat, seeing that offensive action would bring both the "Jason" and "Tacony" down upon her, sheered off, and our friends went on their way rejoicing.
This General Shelby was the celebrated cavalry leader in the Confederate army, of whom it has been said, that had he remained loyal to his country, he would have been Sheridan's stoutest rival. Like so many others of that service, on hearing of Lee's and Johnston's surrenders, he had retired to Mexico. Crossing the Rio Grande at the head of a well-appointed troop of five hundred men, he had marched southward, selling the arms and gradually disbanding the force, and had finally settled in Princess Carlotta's colony at Cordova. It seemed indeed a caprice of fate that it should be under the protection of the United States flag that he was finally able to leave the unhappy country that he had tried to adopt in place of his own.
The shore boat was sent back to the beach with a prize crew, accompanied by the sailing launch with a twelve-pounder howitzer in the bows. The
