was a young sea-captain
from Maine, who was returning to his vessel, which he had left in
Liverpool some weeks before, to confer with the owners.

One day at dinner, without any previous conversation whatever to lead
even indirectly to such a remark, he said: "I believe you are going to
Europe to buy arms for Jeff. Davis."

I was in the act of taking a piece of potato on my fork, and, to gain
time before answering, I passed the potato to my mouth and then made
about as foolish a reply as was possible, saying, "If he wanted arms he
would be likely to select a man who knew something about arms." The
captain immediately remarked, "Sometimes those fellows that know the
most, say the least." I could think of nothing to say to advantage, and
said nothing; the matter was never referred to again.

On arriving in London I went to what was then a favorite hotel for
Americans,--Morley's in Trafalgar Square. The remark of the ship-captain
interested me, and I resolved to probe the matter a little by calling on
a gentleman with whom I had conversed more freely than with any other
passenger. He was a lawyer from Portland, who in his younger days had
taught school in Mississippi. He was stopping at a near-by hotel on the
Strand. On meeting him, I asked if he knew the object of my visit to
Europe. He replied he had not the slightest idea why I was there. I then
told him of the captain's remark, and that his surmise was correct. I am
very sure that, during the voyage, I said nothing from which the nature
of my business could be inferred; and as for papers, I had received none
since leaving Montgomery.

My orders were to purchase 12,000 rifles and a battery of field
artillery, and to procure one or two guns of larger calibre as models. A
short time before the beginning of the war, the London Armory Company
had purchased a plant of gun-stocking machinery from the Ames
Manufacturing Company of Chicopee, Mass. Knowing this, I went to the
office of the Armory Company the day after my arrival in London, with
the intention of securing, if possible, their entire output.

On entering the Superintendent's office, I found there the American
engineer who superintended the erection of the plant. I had known him in
Chicopee. Suspecting he might be an agent for the purchase of arms for
the United States Government, I asked him, bluntly, if he was, and
added, "I am buying for the Confederate Government." Such a disclosure
of my business may seem t