CHAPTER XXXIX.
BLOCKADE-RUNNING.
Making Preparations for going into Business as a Blockade-runner. The trade in Contraband Goods by Northern Manufacturers and Merchants. Profits versus Patriotism. The secret History of the War yet to be told. This Narrative a Contribution to it. Some dark Transactions of which I was cognizant. Purchasing Goods for the Southern Market, and shipping them on Board of a Schooner in the North River. How such Transactions were managed. The Schooner having sailed, I go to Havana by Steamer. On reaching Havana I meet some old Friends. The Condition of the Blockade-running Busi ness during the last Year of the War. My Acquaintances in -Havana think that the Prospects of the Confederacy are rather gloomy. I visit Barbadoes, and afterwards St. Thomas. While at St. Thomas the Confederate Cruiser Florida comes in, coals, and gets to Sea aga'in, despite the Federal Fleet watching her.
HAD proven myself so efficient in managing matters that required to be managed with skill, boldness, and discretion, during the time I had been co-operating with the Confederate agents at the North, and especially daring my late Western trip, that my associates were more than ever anxious to avail themselves of my services. They fully appreciated my feelings over the failure of the Johnson's Island raid, after I had performed the part
assigned me so successfully, but they contended that
I would not be acting an heroic part to forsake the fortunes of the Confederacy just at this juncture, when, although things were looking exceedingly gloomy, there was a chance that success might yet be achieved if all the friends of the cause would stick together, and labor with even more than their old energy to achieve success in the face of every opposition.
It was a comparatively easy matter to persuade me to continue to act as a Confederate secret service agent, although I was too angry over the Johnson's Island matter to be willing
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