ead of us.

I went ashore on board of a steamboat and, in a few hours, was back at
Campbell's boarding-house, giving a description of a storm in the Gulf
of Mexico. After I had finished my story, I was taken to the back yard
and saw two bales of cotton which they had captured floating in the
streets in front of the boarding-house. One third of the city had been
under water, the upper part of a wharf had been washed away, and a
flat-bottomed steamer had replaced it by standing squarely on top of the
spiles. Schooners and fishing-smacks were swept into the swamp and left
there--over a mile from the river. A great amount of damage had been
done all along the Gulf coast.

The season was rather early for work among the shipping, consequently I
was idle. Sailors were needed for a ship ready for Liverpool, but no one
wanted to leave Mobile. The wages, eighteen dollars a month, remained
the same, and advance pay of fifty dollars was offered and increased to
one hundred, so I concluded to accept it. The trip to England would take
about five weeks, and, by immediately returning, I should still have a
long winter for work. The giving of nearly six months' advance pay was
to evade the marine law in regard to discharging sailors in a foreign
port. If sailors deserted on a vessel's arriving, the owners were not
responsible. My name was signed on the articles for the full voyage.
Campbell, the boarding-house keeper, got the one hundred dollars and
handed my share to me. I sent part of it to New York and retained twenty
dollars for myself. Bidding my acquaintances good-bye and promising to
be back in ten weeks, I went by steamboat down the bay and reported for
duty on the full-rigged ship Annie Size. Campbell's responsibility for
the advance money then ceased. That was exactly thirty-seven years ago,
and I have never seen Campbell nor Mobile since.

The Annie Size was a ship of one thousand tons burthen, loaded with
cotton for the Liverpool market. The difficulty in getting a crew
detained us several days. Two other men and I had made up our minds to
make a short cut in the voyage. The plan was to steal the ship's boat,
get ashore and foot it back to Mobile. As we had our advance money,
there was no particular desire on our part to see Liverpool. The next
morning, while the mates were eating breakfast, two of us got into the
boat. The third man weakened and squarely "flunked." With only us two to
steer as we had planned, our little s