442 MONEY TRANSPORT. Book III. 
CHAPTEE II. 
The Author returns to the Coast — Money-transport on the Matagorda Bay — 
" A Norther," and an Opportunity of getting warm in it — Starting of 
the Caravan from Port Lavaca — Fragment of the Author's Diary, charac- 
terizing a Texan Journey by Freight- waggons — Arrival of the Caravan 
at San Antonio. 
Business affairs connected with the loading of our waggons 
at Port Lavaca, obliged me early in December to return 
to the coast from San Antonio. The disorder caused by the 
yellow fever in the stores of our agent, the damage done 
by the weather to the contents of chests and bales which 
had lain unprotected, and other circumstances, occasioned 
a very vexatious loss of time. I was directed to hasten as 
much as possible the departure of the caravan from the 
coast, and on the 5th arrived at Lavaca. 
The following day I was obliged to hire a boat, and in 
spite of a " Norther " setting in, to cross the Bay of Mata- 
gorda, to convey a transport of Mexican dollars to the 
steam-boat " Perseverance " lying at Indianola. This 
business was accompanied with various unpleasant circum- 
stances. The boatman asked me, when we were in the 
middle of the bay, how I could have ventured to trust 
myself with so much money to strangers like him and his 
men; adding, that he would advise me not to try the same 
with just any boatmen on the Texan coast. The money 
was, in the Mexican fashion, sown into bags of undrest 
ox-hides, which, when dry, are as hard as bone, and thus 
form an extremely solid package. But the mice had 
nibbled the skins, so that the bright dollars were visible, of 
which three thousand were stowed in each bag. Any one 
