Page:The woman in battle .djvu/279

Rh No city on the globe has been more fitly named ; for this harbor is unsurpassed, and nestles beneath the shadow of the vine-clad hills, a broad, land-locked basin, in which the navies of the world might float. While not insensible to the beauties of the spectacle which the place of my nativity and its surroundings presented to the eye, I was too full of other thoughts just at that moment to give myself up to the enjoyment of it, as I might have done at another time, and was as eager to get on shore and execute my commission, as if my brief sojourn on shipboard had been a thraldom to me instead of a source of real pleasure. I, therefore, landed at the earliest possible moment; and making my way through streets that seemed strangely familiar, and among people speaking my native tongue, which sounded most oddly after the long years since I had been accustomed to hear it habitually spoken, I succeeded in finding the Confederate agent, into whose trusty hands I had been directed to place my despatches for the "Alabama." This important commission having been satisfactorily executed, my chief responsibilities were at an end, and I was at liberty to gratify my curiosity and my desire to learn all that could be learned that was likely to be of service to me in any future enterprises in which I might be engaged.

I confidently expected to visit Havana again, and, perhaps, many times before the end of the war, and therefore was anxious to make the most of the present opportunity for gaining all the information I was able that would in any way aid me in the successful prosecution of such exploits as I might hereafter think it expedient to undertake.

The friends of the Confederacy, with whom I was thrown in contact, were eager to obtain all the news they could with regard to the progress of events, the present situation of affairs, and the prospect for the immediate future. I was able to tell them a great many things that surprised them, and to give them much important information that would never have reached them through the ordinary news channels. There was much, of course, that I did not tell, for a great variety of reasons, and they were evidently puzzled to understand how I came to be possessed of such extensive and such accurate information. I was, of course, particularly reticent about the