With the birth and fruition of such adventures, Mobile’s river-front naturally became an exciting place. About this time a group of men were one day standing on the wharf discussing the efforts the Government was finally making to suppress the slave trade, the vigilance which was being exerted, and the impossibility for a vessel equipped for such a purpose to evade officials. There was some betting--a favorite pastime of the day--and Captain Tim Meaher, a steamboat builder and river-man, who was standing near, wagered that he could send a slaver to the coast of Africa and bring through the port of Mobile a cargo of slaves. The wager was taken up and the stakes were large. This is the tradition which is given in connection with the _Clotilde’s_ voyage. It may have been true or it may have been invented to give color and palliation to what proved to be the last cargo of slaves brought into the United States, but it is certain that this was only one of the voyages made under the auspices of the Meahers and Captain Foster. Of these there are still rumors among the older people, and the widow of Captain Foster, innocent and trustful, hoped until her recent death to get from the United States about thirty thousand dollars which would have been Foster’s share in the _Gipsy_--a slaver which with her cargo was captured by Government officials and which was valued by those interested in her at four hundred thousand dollars. There were three of the Meaher brothers--Tim, Jim, and Burns. They were natives of Maine, and possessed the New England love of the water and taste for the slave trade. Captain Foster was born in Nova Scotia of English parentage. His people were all seafaring--sailors, captains, and builders of boats--and possibly his proclivities were also inherited. These men were interested in a mill and a ship-yard at the mouth of Chickasabogue, three miles above Mobile. The _Clotilde_, the _Susan_, the _Gipsy_, and other boats which were engaged in the river trade, in filibustering expeditions, the slave trade, and as blockade-runners during the Civil War were built there. The _Clotilde_, because of her fleetness, was selected to make the voyage to the slave coast. She was the personal property of Foster and had been designed and built by him. [Illustration: Drawn by Emma Roche. Poleete.]