CHAPTER XX.
A VISIT TO HAVANA.
A Trip to Havana. My Purposes in making the Journey. The Results of a Year of Warfare. Gloomy Prospects. A Gleam of Hope in Virginia. The Delights of a Voyage on the Gulf of Mexico. The Island of Cuba in Sight. The Approach to Havana. I communicate with the Confederate Agents and deliver my Despatches. An Interchange of valuable Information. The Business of Blockade-running and its enormous Profits. The Injury to the Business caused by the Capture of New Orleans. My Return to New Orleans and Preparation for future Adventures.
HE idea of making a trip to Havana was very agreeable to me for a number of reasons. My health was not so robust as it had been, and my wounded arm, although it had healed up, was still very sore, and hurt me severely at
times. It was an impossibility for me to keep quiet so long as I was in the midst of associations calculated to excite me and to stimulate the combativeness of my nature, and I needed more than anything else, for restoration to perfect health, such a rest as a
sea voyage alone could give. There was, it is true, some
risks in visiting Havana at this season, but I was acclimated, and did not worry myself much with fears of yellow fever or other diseases, my mind being too intently fixed on a variety of other matters that I esteemed of more consequence.
The most important reason for my wishing to take a run over there was, a desire to make the acquaintance of the
Confederate agents, and to learn something of their methods of transacting business in the way of sending communications through the lines, for, even when the blockade could not be run with goods, it was often possible to smuggle important information past the Federal cruisers, and, some of the post lines were so complete, that, in spite of the vigilance of their enemies, "the beleaguered Confederates managed to maintain
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