absence. I was placed on waiting orders. The Neptune, Proteus,
and Galatea had also arrived from Cape Haitien. My discharge should have
been on one of those vessels, but no one knew anything about the missing
document.

Our vessel had left Cape Haitien just in time to miss exciting scenes. A
revolution had taken place, and it was the city against the whole
republic. The English gunboat got mixed up in the melee and bombarded
the city. The women took refuge on the men-of-war during the
bombardment. The man-of-war Bulldog ran on a reef in the harbour and
became a wreck. The English Government dismissed the captain for acting
without authority, and the sailing-master met the same fate for losing
the vessel. After waiting a reasonable time, I wrote to the Secretary of
the Navy as to how I was situated, but received no reply. Captain Howell
was in Washington, so I sent him a letter about my circumstances. He
attended to the case personally, and in a few days I received a copy of
the acceptance of my resignation on April 17, 1865. The copy was dated
June 14th, and I received my pay to that date. I then got a position as
watchman in the Brooklyn Navy Yard at sixty dollars a month. Renting a
suite of rooms, I furnished them nicely and settled down to life on
shore with my wife. A child was soon born to comfort our household.

I was finally, at my own request, transferred to the harbour patrol
boat. There were nine of us, divided into three crews, twelve hours on
duty and twenty-four hours off. River pirates and deserters were our
special game.

The war was ended, and that stopped desertion. The purchased gunboats
were sold at auction, and then there was nothing left for the river
pirates to plunder. Alas! our services were no longer needed, and we
were all discharged. Next I got a situation in the navy yard
machine-shops, for I was ambitious to become a first-class machinist.
Busy times were over, and men returning from the war overstocked the
labour market. A great reduction was ordered in all the navy yard
machine-shops, and, of course I, being a late arrival, had to be
discharged with the first lot. Gradually what money I had saved up was
used for necessary living expenses. Rent and provisions were still at
war prices, consequently I soon found myself dead broke, and with no
prospects of obtaining employment.

I came to the conclusion that there was no hope of obtaining employment
in New York. Selling part of my furnitu