A RUN TO NICARAGUA. 333 



commanded this), and of sympathy (for was not the 

 object laudable ?) So that we were rather lions, on 

 the whole, more particularly when slightly intoxicated 

 and highly enthusiastic individuals harangued those 

 on shore from the side of the ship, and were responded 

 to by short spasmodic cheers, and observations ironi- 

 cal or genuine, according to the sympathies of the 

 speaker. A number of oblong deal cases, very ominous 

 in appearance, for they looked like unostentatious 

 coffins, immediately preceded me, and I learned after- 

 wards that they contained two hundred rifles, to be 

 used upon an occasion hereinafter to be named. A 

 good deal of delay took place, after we got on board, 

 consequent upon the non-arrival of a certain Colonel 

 Titus, of Kanzas notoriety, who was hourly expected 

 from that tranquil territory with one hundred and fifty 

 " boys," who had been helping him to keep the peace 

 there, and who, now that their services were no longer 

 needed, were going to make themselves useful else- 

 where. Thick fogs, however, had prevented their 

 coming " to time," and so we were obliged at last to 

 start without them ; and once more waving our adieus, 

 we cast off from the wharf, unmolested by the myrmi- 

 dons of Marcy, and amid the cheers of the populace 

 dropped slowly down the river. 



All that night and the following day we were en- 

 veloped in fogs so thick that our progress was but 

 slow, and their depressing influence seemed to be felt 

 on board : the men had not shaken down into their 



