accused by his numerous enemies of complicity in the
alleged treasonous conspiracy. Captain--I write the word with
pride--Captain Pike was highly indignant at this attempt to implicate
the friend and patron who had so helped him in his career. But I,
remembering what I had learned from Burr and from the General himself,
and above all considering that hideous charge by the aide Medina, had
the greatest difficulty in giving the passive assent of silence when my
friend said that he would include my respects in his letter to the
General.

Truth to tell, having now the possibility of again meeting and of
winning my lady, I was extremely desirous for a commission in the Army.
It was an ambition which the Captain and I had frequently discussed
since our departure from Chihuahua, and which he told me he intended to
call to the attention not only of General Wilkinson but of the Secretary
of War, General Dearborn.

I need hardly say that we had also discussed, in confidence, my plans
for a voyage to Vera Cruz. But as he knew even less about the sea than
myself, he could only commend my intention of applying for assistance
to Mr. Daniel Clark, and insist upon my leaving him as soon as his
health was a little improved and the notes partly arranged.

At last my growing impatience and anxiety forced me to bend to his
urging. We parted, with more than brotherly regard and affection, in the
fond expectation of rejoining each other within a few months as brothers
in arms. His last words were an assurance that he could obtain me a
captaincy, and a heart-felt wish that I might succeed in my venture.

CHAPTER XXXIII

IMPRESSED

It was a wearisome journey by river and forest and swamp to New Orleans
in the swelter of the July heat, but I pushed on by horse and boat to
the mosquito-and-fever-plagued city of the delta. Having long since
become hardened to the torments of the Southern insect pests and to the
dangers of ague, dengue, and yellow jack, I endured the first with
resignation and braved the last without a qualm.

The sight of the creole city, with our glorious flag afloat above the
bold little forts, St. Louis and St. Charles, filled me with joy and a
sense of accomplishment. This marked my point of departure in the
crossing of the Gulf, which alone, I hoped, now separated me from my
lady. Though, even with the influx of our native-born Americans since
the annexation, the city could claim only nine thousand inhabitant