kinds were very scarce within the Confederate lines, and consequently brought enormous prices ; so that any one who could manage to smuggle them past the Federal outposts was certain of reaping a handsome profit. I succeeded in obtaining a good quantity of this kind of merchandise from the different hospitals, and, as I could carry many dollars' worth about my person without attracting particular attention, I much more than made my expenses on the several trips I undertook to Mandeville and beyond. Confederate money was also cheap, as well as plenty, in New Orleans, as every body had some of it; while, under Butler's orders, it could not be used. It therefore offered fine opportunities for speculation to any one who could carry it to where it was of more value than it was in New Orleans just at that time. I there fore invested quite heavily in Confederate promises to pay, and, as with the drugs, contrived to make the speculation pay handsomely.
Having made several trips with success and with much profit, I began to think that I was, perhaps, making out with my enterprises entirely too well; and, apprehensive of getting into some difficulty which I might not be able to get out of as easily as I could wish, for I saw a number of indications of trouble ahead, I resolved, while on one of my expeditions, after a consultation with my Confederate friends, to return to New Orleans, for the purpose of buying up a quantity of the proscribed money, and then to leave for good, getting out of Butler's power while I had a fair chance of doing so. This arrangement fell through, however; for I was persuaded to make a trip to Havana, for the purpose of carrying a despatch to the Confederate cruiser, the "290," or "Alabama," as she was otherwise called, and of transacting some other business of a secret character for advancing the interests of the Confederacy. This commission I accepted with eagerness, and returned to New Orleans with what haste I could, with the despatch secreted on my person, for the purpose of taking the first vessel for Havana.
