officers for reconnoissances. "By
George!" said her captain, laughing and bringing down his fist on the
table, "you can't make those fellows understand that a ship has to
look out for the tide. I would say to them, 'See here, the tide is
running out, and if we don't move very soon we shall be left aground,
fast till next high-water.' 'Oh yes, yes,' they would reply, 'all
right'; and then they would forget all about it, and go on as if they
had unlimited time." But of course the captain did not forget.

The fall of Richmond and Charleston, and the surrender of Lee's army,
assuring the early termination of hostilities on any grand scale, the
admiral had kindly transferred me from his staff back to the ship on
board which I had joined the squadron a year before, and which was
soon to return North. War service, nominal at least, was not, however,
quite over; for after some brief repairs we were sent down to Haiti to
take up the duty of convoying the Pacific Mail steamers from the
Windward Passage (between Cuba and Haiti) some distance towards
Panama. It is perhaps worth recording that such an employment incident
to the war was maintained for quite a while, consequent upon the
capture of the _Ariel_, before mentioned. Upon my personal fortunes it
had the effect of producing a severe tropical fever, engendered
probably during the years of Southern service, and brought to a head
by the conditions of Haiti. Whatever its cause, this led to my being
invalided for six months, at the expiration of which, to my grievous
disappointment, I was again assigned to duty in the Gulf of Mexico.
The War of Secession then--December, 1865--was entirely over; but the
Mexican expedition of Napoleon III., the culminating incident of
which, the capture of Mexico, we had seen celebrated at Cherbourg in
1863, was still lingering. Begun in our despite, when our hands were
tied by intestine troubles, it now engaged our unfriendly interest;
and part of the attention paid to it was the maintenance of a
particular squadron in those waters--observant, if quiescent. Here
again sickness pursued, not me, but my ship; from the mouth of the Rio
Grande we returned to Pensacola, with near a hundred men, half the
ship's company, down with fever. It was not malignant--we had but
three deaths--but one of those was our only doctor, and we were sent
to the far North, and so out of commission, in September, 1866. The
particular squadron was continued till the followin