But these were only day-dreams
--he didn't admit, even to himself, that they were anything more than
heavenly impossibilities. But as he worked during the winter in the
printing-office of Wrightson & Company of Cincinnati, he whiled away his
leisure hours reading Lieutenant Herndon's account of his explorations
of the Amazon, and became greatly interested in his description of the
cocoa industry. Now he set to work to map out a new and thrilling
career. The expedition sent out by the government to explore the Amazon
had encountered difficulties and left unfinished the exploration of the
country about the head-waters, thousands of miles from the mouth of the
river. It mattered not to him that New Orleans was fifteen hundred
miles away from Cincinnati, and that he had only thirty dollars left.
His mind was made up he would go on and complete the work of
exploration. So in April, 1857, he set sail for New Orleans on an
ancient tub, called the Paul Jones. For the paltry sum of sixteen
dollars, he was enabled to revel in the unimagined glories of the main
saloon.
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