She sailed November 14 for Havana, and discharged her cargo, and sold the whole of it. My knowledge is derived from Mr. Brastow, th supercargo.

The captain's name was Witham; there was some difficulty with Mr. Shufeldt; Mr. Brastow had a power of attorney to sell the vessel, and had an offer for her of $8,000 in gold. Mr. Shufeldt refused to authorize the sale on the ground that the power of attorney of Brastow had not been acknowledged and certified by a notary. The consul ordered the cargo landed; the supercargo sold schooner and cargo for $to Mr. Hurlburt or the house of Ulrise & Varosa, am not sure.

The reason of the sale was that we found her draught too much for the bar at Matamoras. The sale fell through, and Mr. Reynolds then sent a special agent with a power of attorney authorizing the transfer of the schooner and the proceeds of the cargo to me.

This special agent was Charles Prescott. He has a middle name; was of Troy, New York. Under Mr. Prescott's arrangement the schooner and cargo became mine for the consideration of my accounting to them for the entire proceeds. I was to have full and absolute authority. All I knew of Prescott was that he was an engineer; I met him in Washington before I saw Governor Sprague; I never before had seen him; we met casually at Willard's and fell into conversation; he came to Providence by my request, and was to have a part in the enterprise if it continued beyond the first shipment. After the purchase of the schooner there was a purchase of the steamer Ella Warley by I don't know whom. Prescott fitted her up; I don't know that she had or was to have anything to do with the plan. He went to Providence to help me in my plan. By the arrangement at Providence he was to come out in a second vessel to Matamoras.

I took the Snow Drift from Havana to Matamoras; she went under the name of the Cora under the British flag; it was thought best to put her under that flag; the American and British consuls were party to the change; this was after the failure of the sale of which I have spoken, as objected to by the consul.

I took her to Matamoras instead of Texas, because I did not think myself authorized to run the blockade, though I did think myself authorized to take the goods from Matamoras into Texas by land. I sold all the cargo except the carding machines, which I took into Texas, and set them up in Caldwell, town of Prairie Lee. The proceeds of the cargo for gold $——, enough to pay for 20 bales of cotton, which I bought at Matamoras; Mr. Brastow came out after the schooner had been in Matamoras some time, to sell her, and he did sell her in my absence in Texas. I was in Texas nearly 18 months, absent that time from United States, and say about 12 to 14 months in Texas.

Prescott did not bring out anything in the Ella Warley that was transferred to the Cora. I am not aware that the Ella Warley was to have any part in the enterprise.

No written contracts were signed; one was drawn up but never executed.

My brother brought the 20 bales cotton received for the cargo to New York, in what vessel I don't know; I went with the carding machines on wagons to Texas and set them up, and had them running nearly three months, and then sold them for $3,000 or $4,000 confederate money, worth about $1,000 gold. I traveled throughout Texas to see what preparations were making for resistance. I left Havana in Janu

ary; I did not visit any post occupied by Union troops; I collected of my own debts over $80,000 in confederate money, and every dollar of it I

distributed getting cotton from the Union men, of whom I bought cotton, and had it delivered on the Red River in Arkansas; it was there burnt by General Banks. I had it sent there instead of the coast, because of news I had from New York that Banks would first go there. After buying the cotton I came to New York, in May, from Matamoras, reported here to Reynolds & Co. I had not sent out any cotton at all ; Reynolds & Co. made another shipment to Matamoras in April last on the Caraccas; she was disabled; put into Bermuda; balance of the cargo sent on the brig Monarch to Matamoras and there sold, and the proreeds converted into cotton; part of the cotton, if up to sample, was to be received as gold at a fixed price.

The Monarch was lying off the Rio Grande when I left, which was last August.

I left New York for Matamoras last April in the Corsica to Havana, and thence in a Spanish brig to Matamoras, reaching there about the middle of May. I sent a young man into Texas to have my cotton forwarded to Red River, while I was here in New York. I have a man in there now.

In Washington I had communication with Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury, and told him my plan, as I did to the other Secretaries. He got offended with me. I spoke of depending on Governor Sprague, and he said if I depended on some one else I need not depend on him for aiding me in my plan. I went to him to ask for official aid. I should not be surprised if my errand to Mr. Chase was to ask for a permit for my project. It may have been. My impression is that it was. I think tais was before I saw the other Secretaries. Governor Sprague did not mention Mr. Chase's name to me nor speak of a pass. I did not in Texas enter into any contract with the insurgent authorities. The purchaser of my carding machines was Wilson Bell, who was going to use them where they were; he was a Union man-carding wool rolls. I bought those machines in Hartford, I think. I employed Mr. J. W. Boyington at Hartford to purchase them, and he shipped them to me here. I made no other purchase of cards. No cotton cards on the Snow Drift.

NEW YORK, December 12, 1864.

SIR: In making this communication to you I desire to correct some of my statements and answers to you, which, I find, on reflection, I was mistaken about at the time.

First, as to the length of time I was absent from New York, after leaving here in the schooner Snow Drift, I was gone in all about fourteen months, and was in Texas, in all, about eight months. Another thing I was mistaken about was, my saying that I went back into Texas after I returned here and reported myself to Mr. Reynolds. I did not go back into Texas-have never been back since the first day of November, 1863. I was mistaken about the cotton cards that were shipped from New York on the Snow Drift; they were reshipped on the Cora at Havana. I wish, also, to explain my answer to your questions as to the sale of the cargo of the Cora at Matamoras: that sale, all except the oil and some of the bagging, was a conditional sale to Mr. Maloney of Matamoras, and he shipped the cotton goods, the cotton cards, and the bagging and rope into Texas on the same train that took my carding machine, in his own name, but did not pay me for it, but gave me an order for it to be delivered to me when called for, at Alleton, Texas. The object of this was in case I should be arrested in Texas Mr. Maloney could claim the goods.

I will now state my present recollections about my calling on Mr. Chase. I am quite confident that I called on him after I received the letter from the President, and that I did not have any letter of introduction from any one, but think I showed him the letter from the Presi dent. I called on Mr. Chase to ask him to give me a permit to pass the blockade in case I should want to do so. I think that Mr. Chase expressed the opinion that it could not or ought not to be done, but if done at all Mr. Welles was the proper one to do it. The interview with Mr. Chase ended as I told you.

The reason that I referred to Governor Sprague when talking with Mr. Chase was no more or less than this: I had seen his name in print in the Texas papers spoken of as a devoted Union man, and that he had done a great deal to support the Union cause. I knew him by reputation before I went to Texas. I thought that if any man could help me he could, as he had influence and means. I called on Governor Sprague, as I stated to you, in Washington. I have never spoken to him since the night I saw him at the hotel at Providence. I have never written a word to him, or he to me. I have never received any pecuniary aid from him. I believe that, in giving me the letters he did, he was actuated by a sincere desire to benefit the Union people of Texas, and myself among the rest; and God knows that I hope and trust that he may not suffer any annoyance in consequence.

In reference to Mr. W. H. Reynolds I have to state, he went into the matter at my earnest solicitation, with the express understanding that there should be nothing done in connection with the business contemplated but what the United States Government would sanction. The business contemplated, as I understood it, was to establish a legitimate trade at Matamoras.

It was the intention of Mr. Reynolds and myself, at one time, to have Mr. Charles L. Prescott, then of Troy, N. Y., interested in the Matamoras trade. He was with me at Providence when I had the first interview with Mr. Reynolds, but subsequent events transpired that decided Mr. Reynolds not to have any connection with Mr. Prescott, and the same cause decided me to have nothing to do with him; for the causes and reasons of Mr. Reynolds and myself deciding to have nothing to do with Mr. Prescott, I refer you to Mr. W. H. Reynolds, of Providence, R. I. In the arrangement, as above stated, between myself and Mr. Reynolds for the purchase of the schooner and cargo, the amount to be invested was not to exceed twenty thousand dollars. To the best of my recollection now, the whole amount invested was about seventeen thousand dollars, greenbacks. Mr. Reynolds gave me encouragement to continue the Matamoras trade with me if I succeeded in this first adventure; but there was no written agreement between Mr. Reynolds and myself.

I will here state the fact that, up to this present time, Mr. Reynolds has not received a dollar from me, or a pound of cotton from me for the said investment, but he sold the schooner Cora at Matamoras or Bagdad, inside the bar at the mouth of the Rio Grande, where I left her when I went into Texas.

After my arrangements with Mr. Reynolds were completed, I returned to Morris, Illinois, and stopped with my wife and two of my children at my brother's house, until I received notice from New York that the schooner and her cargo were purchased, but I do not know who purchased either the schooner or the goods, but I purchased the two old carding machines that were shipped on the schooner. I think Mr. Prescott had more or less to do with the schooner until she was loaded and cleared at the custom-house.

When I returned from Illinois prepared to leave for Matamoras, I met Mr. Prescott in New York, and he then informed me that a joint stock company had been formed during my absence in Illinois, with a view of putting a steamer into the New York and New Orleans trade, and touching at Havana, and that he had purchased a steamer for the company called the Ella Walley, or some such name, and that he was to have some important position as agent for the company, &c. Mr. Prescott did afterward come to Havana on the said steamer, and professed to have authority from the owners of the steamer to receive and disburse their funds. Mr. Prescott had authority from Mr. Reynolds, he said, to transfer the schooner Snow Drift and her cargo to me, and did so. He left Havana on the same steamer that he came there on, on her return trip to New York. I never heard from him or saw him again until I returned from Texas, in January, 1864, I met him in New York.

Having now all the facts in reference to the parties connected with me in the Texas matter, I will now give an account of my own acts and doings as nearly as I can recollect.

I went from Batavia, Kane County, Illinois, with my family, to Galveston, Texas, in the winter of 1859; was living in Galveston when the rebellion broke out; there were in my family twelve persons dependent upon me at that time. Every dollar I was worth, or had in the world, was in Texas when the war commenced. I was about forty-eight years of age, had a large family on my hands, my business ruined; I knew not what to do, but soon decided to send a part of my family to the North, to our friends. I dare not break up and send all of my family out of Texas at that time, knowing, if I did, all the property I had in the world would be lost. I felt that my first duty was to my own wife and children. I sent my wife and daughter to New Orleans on the last steamer that left Galveston for that place before the blockade commenced. After closing up my business in Galveston, I went to Brenham, Washington County, Texas, and made the best provision I could for the balance of my family, and those who were then dependent upon me, as much as they would have been had they been my own children. There was one Union man in Brenham who had lived there for twenty years; he and I were intimate friends. We entered into arrangements between ourselves with a view of getting what we both had into cotton, and getting our cotton out of Texas, and our own families, and as many of our Union friends as we could. To facilitate this movement I formed the following plan: I went to Austin during the session of Texas legislature, and obtained a charter incorporating a Texas manufacturing company, with a capital stock of half a million dollars, the same to be subscribed payable in cotton. I intended that my friend in Brenham, and as many more true Union men as I could get, should take all the stock, put in our own cotton, and then get permit from the Government to take out our own cotton for the ostensible purpose of paying for machinery, get our families out-cotton and families to go overland to Mexico and having got out no one's cotton but our own, and our families sale, we did not intend to invest a dollar in machinery, or ever return to Texas.

I was to travel over the State for the ostensible object of getting subseriptions to the capital stock, when, in fact, the real object was to get information for certain Union men in Texas, which should be a steppingstone to an organized resistance to the rebel authorities of Texas, and an armed demonstration in favor of the Union cause in Texas, whenever the right opportunity presented itself.

There were but three men in Texas that knew anything about this

movement besides myself, and one of those men was General Sam Houston, of Texas. To my certain knowledge, and had he lived, the Union cause in Texas would not have been where it now is, in my opinion, and hundreds of Union men who have been murdered in Texas by the miserable minions of Jefferson Davis might have shared a better fate. After traveling over the State for four months, I met General Houston in Washington County, Texas, and imparted to him all the information I had obtained; but the right time for the contemplated movement in favor of the Union cause in Texas, in the judgment of General Houston, did not come until it was too late for him. He sleeps his last sleep, and has fought his last battle. I have only to say, further, on this subject, that there have been other Union movements in Texas, by men better known to yourself and General Dix than to me, I presume, which I had no lot or part in whatever, and their results are now known to the world. Uir fortunately for poor Texas, every effort made in her behalf has only served to sink what few Union people there are in that State deeper in misery, and God only knows when there will be a change for the better; but I hope and trust that the rebellion has, or may soon, receive its death-blow, and that peace and reunion may again bless our beloved country. But this is not to the point, and I will go on with my own

matter.

After my traveling over the State, a sufficient amount of stock being taken, a meeting of the board of directors was had, and I was appointed the agent of the company to purchase machinery, and to go where I pleased to purchase it. This was just what I wanted. I went to New York, as everybody supposes in Texas, except my confidential friends. They had instructed me to go to Washington and see the President in behalf of the Union people of Texas-some of them at least; and about the 1st of May, 1862, I went to Sabine Pass; found a sloop there loading cotton for Havana or Kingston. I engaged it to take ten bales for me, which were placed in my hands by my Union friends to defray my expenses to Washington. When this sloop went out I was taken alongside in a small boat outside the bar, not because I was afraid to go on board at the wharf, but because it was more convenient, as I was several miles from the land, and I was not sure that it was the right sloop till I got to it. I then went on board. After a passage of twenty-eight days we arrived at Kingston, Jamaica. I sold the ten bales of cotton and took passage on an English steamer for New York via Port au Prince, Hayti; arrived in New York about the 1st of July, 1862; went to Indianapolis to meet my wife and daughter; from there to Clermont, Iowa, to leave my wife and daughter with our friends; remained there ten days, then went on to Washington, District of Columbia, to see the President for purposes as stated.

Now follows all that I have stated in regard to other parties up to the time of the sailing of the Snow Drift for Havana, which was about the 14th of November, 1862. At Havana I landed the cargo in bond, except the two old carding machines. I changed the name of the schooner from that of Snow Drift to Cora; put her under the English flag, more to mislead the confederate spies in Havana and Matamoras than anything else as to my real purpose. I reshipped all the goods that I landed in bond except some few that I sold in Havana, obtained a Spanish clearance, and sailed for Matamoras about the 15th of January, 1863. Before leaving Havana I learned that our forces had taken Galveston, and that the rebels had retaken it on the night of the 1st of January. Had our forces (I mean Union forces) continued to hold Galveston, I should have gone there; but it is well for me that I did not, as the thing turned out.