60 The Rough Riders 



master, Colonel Humphrey. We found his office, 

 where his assistant informed us that he didn't know 

 where the Colonel was, but believed him to be asleep 

 upon one of the transports. This seemed odd at such 

 a time; but so many of the methods in vogue were 

 odd, that we were quite prepared to accept it as a 

 fact. However, it proved not to be such, but for 

 an hour Colonel Humphrey might just as well have 

 been asleep, as nobody knew where he was and no- 

 body could find him, and the quay was crammed with 

 some ten thousand men, most of whom were work- 

 ing at cross purposes. 



At last, however, after over an hour's industrious 

 and rapid search through this swarming ant-heap of 

 humanity, Wood and I, who had separated, found 

 Colonel Humphrey at nearly the same time and were 

 allotted a transport the Yucatan. She was out in 

 midstream, so Wood seized a stray launch and 

 boarded her. At the same time I happened to find 

 out that she had previously been allotted to two 

 other regiments the Second Regular Infantry and 

 the Seventy-first New York Volunteers, which lat- 

 ter regiment alone contained more men than could 

 be put aboard her. Accordingly, I ran at full speed 

 to our train; and leaving a strong guard with the 

 baggage, I double-quicked the uest of the regiment 

 up to the boat, just in time to board her as she came 

 into the quay, and then to hold her against the Sec- 



