First of all (by the way, I ought to mention that we were both nautical parties) we engaged a pilot, thereby meaning a man who had a canoe or two stowed away in different parts of the woods, and who was well acquainted with the passes on the river.  Our amiable friend, the correspondent of the ‘Times.’ showed so much confidence in our success that he entrusted to our care a packet of despatches, which were intended, if we got through successfully, to delight the eyes of the readers of the ‘Thunderer’ some weeks afterwards.

We had to buy a horse and buggy, as naturally enough no one would let them out on hire for such an enterprise; besides, those were not days when men let out anything on hire that they could not keep in sight.  However, we sent a man on before us, in company with the pilot, to a station some miles from the frontier, whose business it was to bring the trap back when we had done with it.  We stowed in our haversacks a pair of dry stockings, a good stock of tobacco, and a couple of bottles of brandy, against the road; we also had passes to produce in the event of questions being asked by the patrols on the Southern side of the frontier.

All being ready, we started, leaving Richmond at four o’clock in the morning.  We travelled on a long, dreary, dusty road all day, stopping about noon for two hours at a free nigger’s hut, where we got some yams and milk, and about sunset arrived at the station above mentioned, at which we were to dismiss our conveyance; and right glad we were to get rid of it, for we were bumped to death by its dreadful oscillations.

At this station our pilot was waiting for us.  There were also bivouacking here a picket of cavalry, who told us they had seen some of the enemy’s patrols that morning, scouring about on the opposite bank of the river just where we proposed to land.  Somehow or other, people always seem to take a pleasure in telling you disagreeable things at a time when you rather want encouragement than fear instilled into you.  We had some supper, consisting of eggs and bacon; and at nine o’clock, it being then pitch dark, the pilot informed us it was time to start.  I must say I should have been more comfortable if I had been on the bridge of my little craft, just starting over the bar at Wilmington, with the probability of a broadside from a gun-boat saluting us in a very short time, than where I was.  But it would never do to think of going back, so we crawled into the wood.

Our land pilot informed us that the bank of the river, from whence we should find a clear passage across, was about two miles distant.  I never remember seeing or feeling anything to be compared with the darkness of that pine wood, but our guide seemed to have the eyes of a basilisk.  We formed Indian file, our guide leading, and crept along as best we could.  At last, after stealthily progressing for half an hour, a glimmer of starlight through the trees showed us that we were getting to the borders of the wood.