eorge Brinsmaid, one of the coloured men
on board, was useless for going aloft, or anything else, for that
matter, so he had extra guard duty to perform. He was given a loaded
rifle and stationed at the port gangway. It made no difference how often
the officer of the deck would go to him, that fellow was sure to be
found asleep. I had bucketful after bucketful of water thrown on him
during my watch, but it had no perceptible effect in keeping him awake,
for he was constitutionally sleepy. The fact that he was so useless
formed circumstances which resulted in his death.

I had become quite tired of doing nothing but fishing, so I asked the
captain if I could take the "dingey," the smallest boat on a man-of-war,
and with two men go into the Inlet on an exploring expedition. He was
desirous to have me go and find out if any vessels were in there, and,
selecting two volunteers from the crew, we were ready to leave the brig
about daylight. The boat was landed close to the southern point at the
entrance to the Inlet. I walked cautiously around the nearest house
without finding any footprints in the soft, white sand. That convinced
me that no one was in the house. Getting into the boat, I had the men
row slowly into the Inlet, the high, dry, soft marsh grass concealing us
from view of any one who might be in that locality. At the southern end
of the Inlet we saw a schooner, which probably had run the blockade,
and, as it was not prudent just then, we proceeded no farther in that
direction; the northern branch was also explored, but nothing was to be
found there. We had been absent from the brig nearly four hours; the
captain had become uneasy on our account and had taken the first cutter
with an armed crew to look for us. We met him at the entrance to the
Inlet. When told of what we had seen, he concluded to go ashore himself
on the northern point. There we managed to shoot a couple of razor-back
hogs that had been feeding on the beach. We raised such a rumpus that
the rebel cavalry were making preparations to give us a warm reception.
Their camp was in the woods about a mile from the beach. We could see
them saddling their horses and acting in an excited manner. We found out
afterward that the rebels had only sixteen men in camp at that time.
Having had all the fun and exercise we wanted on shore, and out of
respect to the rebels, we got into the boats and returned to the brig.

A few nights afterward, we discovered a boat ne