A number of boarding-house runners came on board. Each one, of course, was working for the "best house." It was two o'clock in the morning when our work was finished. Then all the crew went ashore to enjoy a sleep on dry land. Captain Otis tried to induce us four Americans to remain on the ship for another voyage. I gave him my reasons for leaving, as it was my intention to return to my home from which I had been absent so long. I received eighty-five dollars pay that was due me, and went by steamboat to Mobile, Ala.
On my arrival in Mobile, I went to work on a barge and received forty-five dollars a month. We would be towed down the bay with a load of cotton and back to the city with general freight. Ships drawing over twelve feet of water could not go up the river, consequently they had to receive and discharge in the lower bay, thirty-five miles from the city. I was on the barge for two months and then shipped on the schooner Pennsylvania, at thirty-five dollars a month. For a few weeks we brought salt to the city from the ships in the bay. Then my wages were reduced to eighteen dollars a month, as we were to take a cargo of pine lumber to Havana, Cuba. The schooner was towed up the Alabama River to a new sawmill.
During the daytime we would load timber and at night all hands would go 'possum-hunting. A few pine-knots for torches and a couple of dogs were all that was required for the sport. As soon as a 'possum was caught he would be as dead as a door-nail, to all appearances. They were put in a bag as fast as captured. On returning to the schooner, we dumped them all into an empty barrel. In the morning they would be as lively as crickets. When the barrel was hit hard with a stick, the whole lot would pretend to die a most tragic death.
When the schooner was loaded, we sailed for Havana. On our arrival in that port, the lumber was discharged. The captain, as a speculation, bought a car of oranges and bananas. The fruit was perfectly green when brought on board. We immediately set sail for Mobile. Much to the captain's disgust, the trip was a long one of calms and head winds and great trouble. The weather was intensely warm. The oranges ripened very quickly and then rapidly decayed. The fruit venture proved very unprofitable. On our arrival in Mobile, only the bananas were fit for sale. We had a nice job to clean the rotten oranges from the hold. I never see a mouldy orange but that my memory goes back to that remarkable trip.