day S. presented the check, which was paid. Sandy
Keith was supposed by those who had known him, to have been lost among
the common herd of low swindlers and rogues, for none of them would have
given him credit for enterprise or sagacity. He emerged, however, from
obscurity, to perpetrate the most horrible and devilishly ingenious
crime of the century; for it was he who under the name of Thomassen blew
up the "City of Bremen" with his infernal machine. Those who have read
the account of that dreadful tragedy will remember that the explosion
was precipitated by the fall of the box containing dynamite from a cart,
or wheelbarrow, conveying it to the steamer. The hammer was set, by
clockwork apparatus, to explode the dynamite after the departure of the
steamer from England and when near mid-ocean, and Keith, confiding in
the efficacy of the arrangement, was actually about to take passage in
the steamer from Bremerhaven as far as England. Many persons believe
that the "City of Boston" was destroyed some years ago by this incarnate
fiend, and by the same means. That calamity carried mourning into many
households in Keith's native city, for a large number of its most
respectable citizens were on board. It will be remembered that she was
supposed at the time to have foundered at sea in a gale of wind.

I had been furnished, before leaving Richmond, with letters to parties
in Canada, who, it was believed, could give valuable aid to the
expedition. To expedite matters, a trustworthy agent, a canny Scotchman,
who had long served under my command, was dispatched to Montreal, via
Portland, to notify these parties that we were on our way there. Our
emissary, taking passage in a steamer bound to Portland, passed safely
through United States territory, while the rest of us commenced our long
and devious route through the British Provinces. Wherever we travelled,
even through the remotest settlements, recruiting agents for the United
States army were at work, scarcely affecting to disguise their
occupation; and the walls of the obscurest country taverns bristled with
advertisements like the following: "Wanted for a tannery in Maine one
thousand tanners to whom a large bonus will be paid, etc." Many could
not resist such allurements, but it was from this class and similar
ones, no doubt, that the "bounty jumpers" sprang. It has been asserted,
by those who were in a position to form a correct estimate, that the
British Provinces, alone, c