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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Memoirs of Service Afloat, During the War
+Between the States, by Raphael Semmes
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Memoirs of Service Afloat, During the War Between the States
+
+
+Author: Raphael Semmes
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 2, 2011  [eBook #34827]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF SERVICE AFLOAT, DURING
+THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+
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+      Images of the original pages are available through
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+
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+
+
+
+[Illustration: ADML. R. SEMMES.
+
+Kelly Piet & Co. Baltimore]
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF SERVICE AFLOAT,
+DURING THE
+WAR BETWEEN THE STATES.
+
+
+by
+
+ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES,
+Of the Late Confederate States Navy,
+Author of "Service Afloat and Ashore, during the Mexican War."
+
+Illustrated with Steel Engraved Portraits and Six Engravings
+from Original Designs printed in Chromo-Tints.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Baltimore:
+Kelly, Piet & Co., 174 Baltimore Street.
+
+New York, L. P. Levy; Louisville, Ky., F. I. Dibble & Co.;
+St. Louis, Mo., J. Hart & Co.; Richmond, Va., R. T. Taylor;
+New Orleans, La., C. W. Jarratt; San Francisco, Cal., H. H.
+Bancroft & Co.
+
+London: Richard Bentley.
+
+1869.
+
+Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
+Kelly, Piet & Co.
+in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
+for the District of Maryland.
+
+PRESS OF KELLY, PIET & CO.
+
+
+
+
+  TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE
+  Sailors and Soldiers of the Southern States,
+  WHO LOST THEIR LIVES, IN THE WAR BETWEEN THE
+  STATES IN DEFENCE OF THE LIBERTIES WHICH HAD
+  BEEN BEQUEATHED TO THEM BY THEIR FATHERS,
+  THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY
+  INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+A number of publications have appeared, first and last, concerning the
+author and his career, as was naturally to have been expected. The
+_Alabama_ was the first steamship in the history of the world--the
+defective little _Sumter_ excepted--that was let loose against the
+commerce of a great commercial people. The destruction which she caused
+was enormous. She not only alarmed the enemy, but she alarmed all the
+other nations of the earth which had commerce afloat, as they could not be
+sure that a similar scourge, at some future time, might not be let loose
+against themselves. The _Alabama_, in consequence, became famous. It was
+the fame of steam. As a matter of course, she attracted the attention of
+the book-makers--those cormorants ever on the lookout for a "speculation."
+A number of ambitious _literateurs_ entered the seductive field. But it
+was easier, as they soon found, to enter the field than to explore it, and
+these penny-a-liners all made miserable failures,--not even excepting the
+London house of Saunders, Otley & Co., to whom the author was induced to
+loan his journals, in the hope that something worthy of his career might
+be produced. To those who have chanced to see the "Log of the _Sumter_ and
+_Alabama_," produced by that house, it will be unnecessary to say that the
+author had no hand in its preparation. He did not write a line for it, nor
+had he any interest whatever in the sale of it, as the loan of his
+journals had been entirely gratuitous. So far as his own career was
+concerned, the author would gladly have devolved the labor of the
+historian on other shoulders, if this had been possible. But it did not
+seem to be possible, after the experiments that had been made. With all
+the facilities afforded the London house referred to, a meagre and barren
+record was the result. The cause is sufficiently obvious. The cruise of a
+ship is a biography. The ship becomes a personification. She not only
+
+  "Walks the waters like a thing of life,"
+
+but she speaks in moving accents to those capable of interpreting her. But
+her interpreter must be a seaman, and not a landsman. He must not only be
+a seaman, he must have made the identical cruise which he undertakes to
+describe. It will be seen, hence, that the career of the author was a
+sealed book to all but himself. A landsman could not even interpret his
+journals, written frequently in the hieroglyphics of the sea. A line, or a
+bare mark made by himself, which to other eyes would be meaningless would
+for him be fraught with the inspiration of whole pages.
+
+Besides, the _Alabama_ had an inside as well as an outside life. She was a
+microcosm. If it required a seaman to interpret her as to her outside
+life, much more did it require one to give an intelligible view of the
+little world that she carried in her bosom. No one but an eye-witness, and
+that witness himself a sailor, could unveil to an outside world the
+domestic mysteries of the every-day life of Jack, and portray him in his
+natural colors, as he worked and as he played. The following pages may,
+therefore, be said to be the first attempt to give anything like a
+truthful picture of the career of the author upon the high seas, during
+the late war, to the public. In their preparation the writer has discarded
+the didactic style of the historian, and adopted that of memoir writing,
+as better suited to his subject. This style gave him more latitude in the
+description of persons and events, and relieved him from some of the
+fetters of a mere writer of history. There are portions of the work,
+however, purely historical, and these have been treated with the gravity
+and dignity which became them. In short, the author has aimed to produce
+what the title of his book imports--an historical memoir of his services
+afloat during the war. That his book will be generally read by the
+Northern people he does not suppose. They are scarcely in a temper yet to
+read anything he might write. The wounds which he has inflicted upon them
+are too recent. Besides, men do not willingly read unpalatable truths of
+themselves. The people of America being sovereign, they are like other
+sovereigns,--they like those best who fool them most, by pandering to
+their vices and flattering their foibles. The author, not being a
+flatterer, cannot expect to be much of a favorite at the court of the
+Demos.
+
+A word now as to the feeling with which the author has written. It has
+sometimes been said that a writer of history should be as phlegmatic and
+unimpassioned as the judge upon the bench. If the reader desires a dead
+history, in other words, a history devoid of the true spirit of history,
+the author assents to the remark. But if he desires a living, moving,
+breathing picture of events--a _personam_ instead of a _subjectam_, the
+picture must not be undertaken by one who does not feel something of that
+which he writes. Such a terrible war as that through which we have passed
+could not be comprehended by a stolid, phlegmatic writer, whose pulse did
+not beat quicker while he wrote. When all the higher and holier passions
+of the human heart are aroused in a struggle--when the barbarian is at
+your door with the torch of the incendiary in one hand, and the uplifted
+sword of diabolical revenge in the other,--_feeling_ is an important
+element in the real drama that is passing before the eyes of the beholder.
+To attempt to describe such a drama with the cold words of philosophy, is
+simply ridiculous. If the acts be not described in words suited to portray
+their infamy, you have a lie instead of history. Nor does it follow that
+feeling necessarily overrides judgment. All passions blind us if we give
+free rein to them; but when they are held in check, they sharpen, instead
+of obscuring the intellect. In a well-balanced mind, feeling and judgment
+aid each other; and he will prove the most successful historian who has
+the two in a just equipoise. But though the author has given vent
+occasionally to a just indignation, he has not written in malice. He does
+not know the meaning of the word. He has simply written as a Southern man
+might be supposed to think and feel, treading upon the toes of his enemies
+as tenderly as possible. If he has been occasionally plain-spoken, it is
+because he has used the English language, which calls a rogue a rogue,
+notwithstanding his disguises. When the author has spoken of the Yankee
+and his "grand moral ideas," he has spoken rather of a well-known type
+than of individual men. If the reader will bear these remarks in mind as
+he goes along, he will find them a key to some of the passages in the
+book. In describing natural phenomena, the author has ventured upon some
+new suggestions. He submits these with great diffidence. Meteorology is
+yet a new science, and many developments of principles remain to be made.
+
+  ANCHORAGE, NEAR MOBILE, ALA.,
+  _December, 1868_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER I.                                                          PAGE
+
+  A Brief Historical Retrospect                                         17
+
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+
+  The Nature of the American Compact                                    24
+
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+
+  From the Foundation of the Federal Government down to 1830,
+  both the North and the South held the Constitution to be a
+  Compact between the States                                            36
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+
+  Was Secession Treason?                                                46
+
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+
+  Another Brief Historical Retrospect                                   52
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+
+  The Question of Slavery as it affected Secession                      62
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+
+  The Formation of the Confederate Government, and the
+  Resignation of Officers of the Federal Army and Navy                  71
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  Author proceeds to Montgomery, and reports to the New
+  Government, and is dispatched northward on a Special Mission          81
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+
+  The Commissioning of the Sumter, the First Confederate States
+  Ship of War                                                           93
+
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+
+  The Preparation of the Sumter for Sea--She drops down between
+  the Forts Jackson and St. Philip--Receives her Sailing Orders--
+  List of her Officers                                                  97
+
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+
+  After long Waiting and Watching, the Sumter runs the Blockade
+  of the Mississippi, in open Daylight, pursued by the Brooklyn        108
+
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+
+  Brief Sketch of the Officers of the Sumter--Her First Prize,
+  with other Prizes in Quick Succession                                120
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  Rapid Work--Seven Prizes in Two Days--The Sumter makes her
+  First Port, and what occurred there                                  132
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+
+  The Sumter on the Wing again--She is put wholly under Sail for
+  the first time--Reaches the Island of Cura�oa, and is only able
+  to enter after a Diplomatic Fight                                    144
+
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+
+  The Sumter at Cura�oa--Her Surroundings--Preparations for Sea--
+  Her Captain solicited to become a Warwick--Her Departure--The
+  Capture of other Prizes--Puerto Cabello, and what occurred there     155
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.
+
+  Steaming along the Coast of Venezuela--The Coral Insect, and
+  the Wonders of the Deep--The Andes and the Rainy Season--The
+  Sumter enters the Port of Spain in the British Island of
+  Trinidad                                                             170
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+
+  On the Way to Maranham--The Weather and the Winds--The Sumter
+  runs short of Coal, and is obliged to "bear up"--Cayenne and
+  Paramaribo, in French and Dutch Guiana--Sails again, and
+  arrives at Maranham, in Brazil                                       188
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+  The Sumter at Maranham--More Diplomacy necessary--The Hotel
+  Porto and its Proprietor--A week on Shore--Ship coals and
+  sails again                                                          210
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.
+
+  The Sumter at Martinique--Proceeds from Fort de France to St.
+  Pierre--Is an Object of much Curiosity with the Islanders--News
+  of the Arrest of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, on board the British
+  Mail Steamer, The Trent--Mr. Seward's extraordinary Course on
+  the Occasion                                                         232
+
+
+  CHAPTER XX.
+
+  Arrival at St. Pierre of the Enemy's Steam-sloop Iroquois--How
+  she violates the Neutrality of the Port--Arrival of the French
+  Steamer-of-War Acheron--The Iroquois blockades the Sumter--
+  Correspondence with the Governor--Escape of the Sumter               252
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.
+
+  The Sumter pursues her Voyage across the Atlantic--Capture and
+  Burning of the Arcade, Vigilant, and Ebenezer Dodge--A Leaky
+  Ship and a Gale--An Alarm of Fire!                                   268
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.
+
+  Voyage across the Atlantic pursued--Christmas-day on board the
+  Sumter--Cape Fly-away, and the Curious Illusion produced by
+  it--The Sumter passes from the Desert Parts of the Sea into a
+  Tract of Commerce once more--Boards a large Fleet of Ships in
+  one Day, but finds no Enemy among them--Arrival at Cadiz             283
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+  Annoyance of the Spanish Officials--Short Correspondence with
+  the U. S. Consul--The Telegraph put in Operation by the
+  Officials between Cadiz and Madrid--The Sumter is ordered to
+  leave in twenty-four Hours--Declines Obedience to the Order--
+  Prisoners land, and Ship Docked after much ado--Deserters--
+  Sumter leaves Cadiz                                                  297
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+  The Sumter off Cadiz--The Pillars of Hercules--Gibraltar--
+  Capture of the Enemy's Ships Neapolitan and Investigator--A
+  Conflagration between Europe and Africa--The Sumter anchors in
+  the Harbor of Gibraltar; the Rock; the Town; the Military; the
+  Review, and the Alameda                                              306
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.
+
+  The Sumter still at Gibraltar--Ship crowded with Visitors--A
+  Ride over the Rock with Colonel Freemantle--The Galleries and
+  other Subterranean Wonders--A Dizzy Height, and the Queen of
+  Spain's Chair--The Monkeys and the Neutral Ground                    320
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+  The Sumter in Trouble--Finds it impossible to coal, by reason
+  of a Combination against her, headed by the Federal Consul--
+  Applies to the British Government for Coal, but is refused--
+  Sends her Paymaster and Ex-Consul Tunstall to Cadiz--They are
+  arrested and imprisoned in Tangier--Correspondence on the
+  Subject--The Sumter laid up and sold                                 329
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+  Author leaves Gibraltar and arrives in London--Mr. Commissioner
+  Mason--Confederate Naval News--Short Sojourn in London--Author
+  embarks on board the Steamer Melita for Nassau--Receives new
+  Orders from the Navy Department--Returns to Liverpool                346
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+  A Brief _Resum�_ of the History of the War, from the date of
+  the commissioning the Sumter, to the commissioning of the
+  Alabama--Secretary Mallory and the Difficulties by which he was
+  surrounded--The Reorganization of the Confederate States Navy        361
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+  The Legality of the Equipment of the Alabama, and a few
+  Precedents for her Career, drawn from the History of the War
+  of 1776                                                              370
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXX.
+
+  The Equipment of the Alabama illustrated by that of sundry
+  Colonial Cruisers during the War of 1776--Benjamin Franklin and
+  Silas Deane sent to Paris as Chiefs of a Naval Bureau--The
+  Surprise and the Revenge--Captains Wickes and Conyngham, and
+  Commodore John Paul Jones                                            388
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+  Author leaves Liverpool to join the Alabama--Arrives at
+  Terceira--Description of the Alabama--Preparing her for Sea--
+  The Portuguese Authorities--The commissioning of the Ship--A
+  Picture of her Birth and Death--Captain Bullock returns to
+  England--The Alabama on the High Seas                                400
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+  The Alabama a Ship of War, and not a Privateer--Sketch of the
+  Personnel of the Ship--Putting the Ship in Order for Service--
+  Sail and Steam--The Character of the Sailor--The First Blow is
+  struck at the Whale Fishery--The Habitat and Habits of the
+  Whale--Capture of the Ocmulgee                                       414
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+  Capture of the Starlight; Ocean Rover; Alert; Weather Gauge--A
+  Chase by Moonlight--Capture of the Altamaha; Virginia; Elisha
+  Dunbar--A Rough Sea, Toiling Boats, and a Picturesque
+  Conflagration in a Gale                                              428
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+  The Yankee Colony of the Island of Flores--What the Captains of
+  the Virginia and Elisha Dunbar said of the Alabama when they
+  got back among their Countrymen--The Whaling Season at the
+  Azores at an End--The Alabama changes her Cruising Ground--What
+  she saw and what she did                                             445
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+  Capricious Weather of the Gulf Stream--Capture of the
+  Packet-Ship Tonawanda; of the Manchester and Lafayette--A
+  Cyclone, the Alabama's First Gale--How she behaved                   463
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+  The Physiognomy of Ships--Capture of the Lafayette--Decree of
+  the Admiralty Court on board the Alabama in her Case, and in
+  that of the Lauretta--The Criticisms of the New York Press--
+  Further Evidence of the Rotary Nature of the Winds--The
+  Lauretta captured--The Crenshaw captured--The New York Chamber
+  of Commerce cries aloud in Pain--Capture of the Baron de
+  Castine, and of the Levi Starbuck--Capture of the T. B.
+  Wales--Lady Prisoners                                                479
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+  The Calm-Belts and the Trade-Winds--The Arrival of the Alabama
+  at the Island of Martinique--The Curiosity of the Islanders to
+  see the Ship--A Quasi Mutiny among the Crew, and how it was
+  quelled                                                              498
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+  The Alabama at Martinique--Is blockaded by the Enemy's Steamer
+  San Jacinto--How she escaped the Old Wagon--The Island of
+  Blanquilla, the Alabama's new Rendezvous--Coaling Ship--A
+  Yankee Skipper and his Alarm--How the Officers and Men amused
+  themselves at this Island--The Alabama sails again--Capture of
+  the Parker Cooke, Union, and Steamer Ariel                           514
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+  The Alabama is disabled by an Accident, and stops to repair her
+  Machinery--Proceeds to her New Rendezvous at the Arcas Islands,
+  and thence to Galveston--Engagement with the United States
+  Steamer Hatteras, which she sinks                                    536
+
+
+  CHAPTER XL.
+
+  The Alabama proceeds to Jamaica, where she lands her Prisoners
+  and refits--Her Commander visits the Country--Intercourse with
+  the English Naval Officers--Earl Russell's Letter--Preparations
+  for Sea--A Boat Race by Moonlight, in which Strange Tactics are
+  practised--Captain Blake of the Hatteras complains of "Dixie"
+  being played by the English Bands--How the Matter is settled         551
+
+
+  CHAPTER XLI.
+
+  Departure from Jamaica--Capture of the Golden Rule--Coasting
+  the Island of Hayti--Capture of the Castelaine--The Old City of
+  St. Domingo and its Reminiscences--The Dominican Convent and
+  the Palace of Diego Columbus--Capture of the Palmetto, the
+  Olive Jane, and the Golden Eagle--How the Roads are blazed out
+  upon the Sea--Captain Maury                                          563
+
+
+  CHAPTER XLII.
+
+  The Crossing of the 30th Parallel--The Toll-Gate upon the Sea--
+  How the Travellers pass along the Highway--Capture of the
+  Washington; John A. Parks; the Bethia Taylor; the Punjaub; the
+  Morning Star; the Kingfisher; the Charles Hill; and the Nora--
+  Alabama crosses the Equator--Capture of the Louisa Hatch--
+  Arrival at Fernando de Noronha                                       581
+
+
+  CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+  Fernando de Noronha--Its Famous Peak--Is a Penal Settlement of
+  Brazil--A Visit from the Governor's Ambassadors--A Visit to the
+  Governor in return--The Aristocracy of the Island--Capture of
+  the Lafayette and the Kate Cory--Burning of these two Ships
+  with the Louisa Hatch--Prisoners sent to Pernambuco--The Cloud
+  Ring and the Rainy and Dry Seasons                                   596
+
+
+  CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+  The Alabama leaves Fernando de Noronha for a Cruise on the
+  Coast of Brazil--Enters the great Highway, and begins to
+  overhaul the Travellers--Capture of the Whalers Nye; Dorcas
+  Prince; Union Jack; Sea Lark--A Reverend Consul taken
+  Prisoner--Alabama goes into Bahia--What occurred there--Arrival
+  of the Georgia--Alabama proceeds to Sea again--Capture of the
+  Gildersleeve; the Justina; the Jabez Snow; the Amazonian; and
+  the Talisman                                                         610
+
+
+  CHAPTER XLV.
+
+  The Alabama continues her Cruise on the Coast of Brazil--
+  American Ships under English Colors--The Enemy's Carrying-Trade
+  in Neutral Bottoms--The Capture of the Conrad--She is
+  commissioned as a Confederate States Cruiser--The Highways of
+  the Sea, and the Tactics of the Federal Secretary of the Navy--
+  The Phenomena of the Winds in the Southern Hemisphere--Arrival
+  at Saldanha Bay, on the Coast of Africa                              626
+
+
+  CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+  The connecting Thread of the History of the War taken up--A
+  brief Review of the Events of the last twelve Months, during
+  which the Alabama has been commissioned--The Alabama arrives at
+  Cape Town--Capture of the Sea-Bride--Excitement thereupon--
+  Correspondence between the U. S. Consul and the Governor on the
+  Subject of the Capture                                               642
+
+
+  CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+  A Gale at Cape Town--The Alabama gets under way for Simon's
+  Town--Capture of the Martha Wenzell--The Tuscaloosa--Her
+  Status as a Ship of War considered--She proceeds to Sea--The
+  Alabama follows her--They, with the Sea-Bride, rendezvous at
+  Angra Peque�a                                                        660
+
+
+  CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+  The Alabama on the Indian Ocean--The Passengers questioned, and
+  contracted with--The Agulhas Current--The brave West Winds--A
+  Theory--The Islands of St. Peter and St. Paul--The Tropic of
+  Capricorn--The South-east Trade-Winds, and the Monsoons--The
+  Alabama arrives off the Strait of Sunda--Capture of the
+  Amanda--Runs in and anchors under the Coast of Sumatra               674
+
+
+  CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+  The Alabama passes through the Strait of Sunda, seeing nothing
+  of the Wyoming--Burns the Winged Racer just inside of the
+  Strait--The Malay Boatmen, and their Alarm--Alabama makes for
+  the Gaspar Strait, and burns the Contest, after an exciting
+  Chase--She passes through the Carimata Passage--Discharges her
+  Prisoners into an English Ship--Miniature Sea-Serpents--The
+  Currents--Island of Pulo Condore--Arrives at Singapore               690
+
+
+  CHAPTER L.
+
+  The Alabama at Singapore--Panic among the Enemy's Shipping in
+  the China Seas--The Multitude flock to see the Alabama--Curious
+  Rumor concerning a Portion of her Crew--The Author rides to the
+  Country and spends a Night--The Chinese in possession of the
+  Business of Singapore--Alabama leaves Singapore--Capture of the
+  Martaban, alias Texan Star--Alabama touches at Malacca--Capture
+  of the Highlander, and Sonora--Alabama once more in the Indian
+  Ocean                                                                708
+
+
+  CHAPTER LI.
+
+  The Alabama crosses the Bay of Bengal--The Pilgrims to Mecca,
+  and how they received her Boarding-Officer--The Burning of the
+  Emma Jane--The Town of Anjenga, and the Hindoos--The Great
+  Deserts of Central Asia, and the Cotton Crop of Hindoston--The
+  Alabama crosses the Arabian Sea--The Animalcul� of the Sea--The
+  Comoro Islands--Johanna, and its Arab Population--The Alabama
+  passes through the Mozambique Channel--Arrives at the Cape of
+  Good Hope                                                            722
+
+
+  CHAPTER LII.
+
+  The Alabama again in Cape Town--The Seizure of the Tuscaloosa,
+  and the Discussion which grew out of it--Correspondence between
+  the Author and Admiral Walker--Action of the Home Government,
+  and Release of the Tuscaloosa                                        738
+
+
+  CHAPTER LIII.
+
+  The Alabama at the Cape of Good Hope--Leaves on her Return to
+  Europe--Capture of the Rockingham, and of the Tycoon--She
+  crosses the Equator into the Northern Hemisphere, and arrives
+  at Cherbourg on the 11th of June, 1864--The Engagement between
+  the Alabama and the Kearsarge                                        744
+
+
+  CHAPTER LIV.
+
+  Other Incidents of the Battle between the Alabama and the
+  Kearsarge--The Rescue of a Portion of the Crew of the Alabama
+  by the English Steam-Yacht Deerhound--The United States
+  Government demands that they be given up--The British
+  Government refuses Compliance--The rescued Persons not
+  Prisoners--The Inconsistency of the Federal Secretary of the
+  Navy                                                                 761
+
+
+  CHAPTER LV.
+
+  The Federal Government and the English Steam-Yacht Deerhound--
+  Mr. Seward's Despatch--Mr. Lancaster's Letter to the "Daily
+  News"--Lord Russell's Reply to Mr. Adams, on the Subject of his
+  Complaint against Mr. Lancaster--Presentation of a Sword to the
+  Author by the Clubs of England; of a Flag by a Lady                  774
+
+
+  CHAPTER LVI.
+
+  Author makes a Short Visit to the Continent--Returns to London,
+  and embarks on his Return to the Confederate States--Lands at
+  Bagdad, near the Mouth of the Rio Grande--Journey through
+  Texas--Reaches Louisiana; crosses the Mississippi, and reaches
+  his Home after an Absence of four Years                              789
+
+
+  CHAPTER LVII.
+
+  Author sets out for Richmond--Is two Weeks in making the
+  Journey--Interview with President Davis; with General Lee--
+  Author is appointed a Rear-Admiral, and ordered to command the
+  James River Squadron--Assumes Command--Condition of the Fleet--
+  Great Demoralization--The Enemy's Armies gradually increasing
+  in Numbers--Lee's Lines broken                                       799
+
+
+  CHAPTER LVIII.
+
+  The Evacuation of Richmond by the Army--The Destruction of the
+  James River Fleet--The Sailors of the Fleet converted into
+  Soldiers--Their helpless Condition without any Means of
+  Transportation--The Conflagration of Richmond, and the Entry of
+  the Enemy into the Confederate Capital--The Author improvises a
+  Railroad Train, and escapes in it, with his Command, to
+  Danville, Va.                                                        807
+
+
+  CHAPTER LIX.
+
+  Interview with President Davis and Secretary Mallory--Author's
+  Command organized as a Brigade of Artillery--The Brigade
+  marches to Greensboro', N. C.--Capitulation between General
+  Joseph E. Johnston and General Sherman--Dispersion of
+  Johnston's Command in Consequence--Author returns Home, and is
+  arrested--Conclusion                                                 817
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF SERVICE AFLOAT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A BRIEF HISTORICAL RETROSPECT.
+
+
+The disruption of the American Union by the war of 1861 was not an
+unforeseen event. Patrick Henry, and other patriots who struggled against
+the adoption of the Federal Constitution by the Southern States, foretold
+it in burning words of prophecy; and when that instrument was adopted,
+when the great name and great eloquence of James Madison had borne down
+all opposition, Henry and his compatriots seemed particularly anxious that
+posterity should be informed of the manly struggle which they had made.
+Henry said, "The voice of tradition, I trust, will inform posterity of our
+struggles for freedom. If our descendants be worthy of the name of
+Americans, they will preserve, and hand down to the latest posterity, the
+transactions of the present times; and though I confess my explanations
+are not worth the hearing, they will see I have done my utmost to preserve
+their liberty."
+
+The wish of these patriotic men has been gratified. The record of their
+noble deeds, and all but inspired eloquence, has come down to posterity,
+and some, at least, of their descendants, "worthy of the name of
+Americans," will accord to them the foremost rank in the long list of
+patriots and sages who illustrated and adorned our early annals.
+
+But posterity, too, has a history to record and hand down. We, too, have
+struggled to preserve our liberties, and the liberties of those who are to
+come after us; and the history of that struggle must not perish. The one
+struggle is but the complement of the other, and history would be
+incomplete if either were omitted. Events have vindicated the wisdom of
+Henry, and those who struggled with him against the adoption of the
+Federal Constitution. Events will equally vindicate the wisdom of
+Jefferson Davis, and other Confederate patriots, who endeavored to
+preserve that Constitution, and hand it down, unimpaired, to their
+posterity.
+
+The wisdom of a movement is not always to be judged by its success.
+Principles are eternal, human events are transitory, and it sometimes
+takes more than one generation or one revolution to establish a principle.
+At first sight, it may appear that there is some discordance between
+Patrick Henry and Jefferson Davis, as the one struggled against the
+adoption of the Constitution, and the other to preserve it. But they were,
+in fact, both engaged in a similar struggle; the object of both being to
+preserve the sovereignty of their respective States. Henry did not object
+so much to the nature of the partnership, into which his State was about
+to enter, as to the nature of the partners with whom she was about to
+contract. He saw that the two sections were dissimilar, and that they had
+different and antagonistic interests, and he was unwilling to trust to the
+_bona fides_ of the other contracting party. "I am sure," said he, "that
+the dangers of this system are real, when those who have no similar
+interests with the people of this country are to legislate for us--when
+our dearest interests are to be left in the hands of those whose advantage
+it will be to infringe them."
+
+The North, even at that early day, was in a majority in both houses of
+Congress; it would be for the advantage of that majority to infringe the
+rights of the South; and Henry, with much more knowledge of human nature
+than most of the Southern statesmen of his era, refused to trust that
+majority. This was substantially the case with Jefferson Davis and those
+of us who followed his lead. We had verified the distrust of Henry. What
+had been prophecy with him, had become history with us. We had had
+experience of the fact, that our partner-States of the North, who were in
+a majority, had trampled upon the rights of the Southern minority, and we
+desired, as the only remedy, to dissolve the partnership into which Henry
+had objected to entering--not so much because of any defect in the
+articles of copartnership, as for want of faith in our copartners.
+
+This was the wisdom of Jefferson Davis and his compatriots, which, I say,
+will be vindicated by events. A final separation of these States must
+come, or the South will be permanently enslaved. We endeavored to bring
+about the separation, and we sacrificed our fortunes, and risked our lives
+to accomplish it. Like Patrick Henry, we have done our "utmost to preserve
+our liberties;" like him, we have failed, and like him, we desire that our
+record shall go down to such of our posterity as may be "worthy of the
+name of Americans."
+
+The following memoirs are designed to commemorate a few of the less
+important events of our late struggle; but before I enter upon them, I
+deem it appropriate to give some "reason for the faith" that was in us, of
+the South, who undertook the struggle. The judgment which posterity will
+form upon our actions will depend, mainly, upon the answers which we may
+be able to give to two questions: First, Had the South the right to
+dissolve the compact of government under which it had lived with the
+North? and, secondly, Was there sufficient reason for such dissolution? I
+do not speak here of the right of revolution--this is inherent in all
+peoples, whatever may be their form of government. The very term
+"revolution" implies a forcible disruption of government, war, and all the
+evils that follow in the train of war. The thirteen original Colonies, the
+germ from which have sprung these States, exercised the right of
+revolution when they withdrew their allegiance from the parent country.
+Not so with the Southern States when they withdrew from their
+copartnership with the Northern States. They exercised a higher right.
+They did not form a part of a consolidated government, as the Colonies did
+of the British Government. They were sovereign, equally with the Northern
+States, from which they withdrew, and exercised, as they believed, a
+peaceful right, instead of a right of revolution.
+
+Had, then, the Southern States the peaceful right to dissolve the compact
+of government under which they had lived with the North? A volume might be
+written in reply to this question, but I shall merely glance at it in
+these memoirs, referring the student to the history of the formation of
+the old Confederacy, prior to the adoption of the Constitution of the
+United States; to the "Journal and Debates of the Convention of 1787,"
+that formed this latter instrument; to the debates of the several State
+Conventions which adopted it, to the "Madison Papers," to the
+"Federalist," and to the late very able work of Dr. Bledsoe, entitled "Is
+Davis a Traitor?" It will be sufficient for the purpose which I have in
+view--that of giving the reader a general outline of the course of
+reasoning, by which Southern men justify their conduct in the late war--to
+state the leading features of the compact of government which was
+dissolved, and a few of its historical surroundings, about which there can
+be no dispute.
+
+The close of the War of Independence of 1776 found the thirteen original
+Colonies, which had waged that war, sovereign and independent States. They
+had, for the purpose of carrying on that war, formed a league, or
+confederation, and the articles of this league were still obligatory upon
+them. Under these articles, a Federal Government had been established,
+charged with a few specific powers, such as conducting the foreign affairs
+of the Confederacy, the regulation of commerce, &c. At the formation of
+this Government, it was intended that it should be perpetual, and was so
+declared. It lasted, notwithstanding, only a few years, for peace was
+declared in 1783, and the _perpetual_ Government ceased to exist in 1789.
+How did it cease to exist? By the _secession_ of the States.
+
+Soon after the war, a convention of delegates met at Annapolis, in
+Maryland, sent thither by the several States, for the purpose of devising
+some more perfect means of regulating commerce. This was all the duty with
+which they were charged. Upon assembling, it was found that several of the
+States were not represented in this Convention, in consequence of which,
+the Convention adjourned without transacting any business, and
+recommended, in an address prepared by Alexander Hamilton, that a new
+convention should be called at Philadelphia, with enlarged powers. "The
+Convention," says Hamilton, "are more naturally led to this conclusion, as
+in their reflections on the subject, they have been induced to think,
+that the power of regulating trade is of such comprehensive extent, and
+will enter so far into the great system of the Federal Government, that to
+give it efficacy, and to obviate questions and doubts concerning its
+precise nature and limits, may require a corresponding adjustment in other
+parts of the _Federal_ system. That these are important defects in the
+system of the Federal Government is acknowledged by the acts of those
+States, which have concurred in the present meeting. That the defects,
+upon closer examination, may be found greater and more numerous than even
+these acts imply, is at least, so far probable, from the embarrassments
+which characterize the present state of our national affairs, foreign and
+domestic, as may reasonably be supposed to merit a deliberate and candid
+discussion, in some mode which will unite the sentiments and counsels of
+all the States."
+
+The reader will observe that the Government of the States, under the
+Articles of Confederation, is called a "Federal Government," and that the
+object proposed to be accomplished by the meeting of the new Convention at
+Philadelphia, was to _amend_ the Constitution of that _Government_.
+Northern writers have sought to draw a distinction between the Government
+formed under the Articles of Confederation, and that formed by the
+Constitution of the United States, calling the one a league, and the other
+a government. Here we see Alexander Hamilton calling the Confederation a
+government--a Federal Government. It was, indeed, both a league and a
+government, as it was formed by sovereign States; just as the Government
+of the United States is both a league and a government, for the same
+reason.
+
+The fact that the laws of the Confederation, passed in pursuance of its
+League, or Constitution, were to operate upon the _States_; and the laws
+of the United States were to operate upon the _individual citizens_ of the
+States, without the intervention of State authority, could make no
+difference. This did not make the latter more a government than the
+former. The difference was a mere matter of detail, a mere matter of
+machinery--nothing more. It did not imply more or less absolute
+sovereignty in the one case, than in the other. Whatever of sovereignty
+had been granted, had been granted _by the States_, in both instances.
+
+The new Convention met in Philadelphia, on the 14th of May, 1787, with
+instructions to devise and discuss "all such _alterations_, and _further_
+provisions as may be necessary to render the Federal Constitution adequate
+to the exigencies of the Union." We see, thus, that the very Convention
+which framed the Constitution of the United States, equally called the
+Articles of Confederation a Constitution. It was, then, from a
+Constitutional, Federal Government, that the States seceded when they
+adopted the present Constitution of the United States! A Convention of the
+States assembled with powers only to amend the Constitution; instead of
+doing which, it abolished the old form of government altogether, and
+recommended a new one, and no one complained. As each State formally and
+deliberately adopted the new government, it as formally and deliberately
+seceded from the old one; and yet no one heard any talk of a breach of
+faith, and still less of treason.
+
+The new government was to go into operation when nine States should adopt
+it. But there were thirteen States, and if nine States only acceded to the
+new government, the old one would be broken up, as to the other four
+States, whether these would or not, and they would be left to provide for
+themselves. It was by no means the voluntary breaking up of a compact, _by
+all the parties to it_. It was broken up piece-meal, each State acting for
+itself, without asking the consent of the others; precisely as the
+Southern States acted, with a view to the formation of a new Southern
+Confederacy.
+
+So far from the movement being unanimous, it was a long time before all
+the States came into the new government. Rhode Island, one of the Northern
+States, which hounded on the war against the Southern States, retained her
+separate sovereignty for two years before she joined the new government,
+not uttering one word of complaint, during all that time, that the old
+government, of which she had been a member, had been unduly broken up, and
+that she had been left to shift for herself. Why was this disruption of
+the old government regarded as a matter of course? Simply because it was a
+league, or treaty, between sovereign States, from which any one of the
+States had the right to withdraw at any time, without consulting the
+interest or advantage of the others.
+
+But, say the Northern States, the Constitution of the United States is a
+very different thing from the Articles of Confederation. It was formed,
+not by the States, but by the people of the United States in the
+aggregate, and made all the States one people, one government. It is not a
+compact, or league between the States, but an instrument under which they
+have surrendered irrevocably their sovereignty. Under it, the Federal
+Government has become the paramount authority, and the States are
+subordinate to it. We will examine this doctrine, briefly, in another
+chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE NATURE OF THE AMERICAN COMPACT.
+
+
+The two principal expounders of the Constitution of the United States, in
+the North, have been Daniel Webster and Joseph Story, both from
+Massachusetts. Webster was, for a long time, a Senator in Congress, and
+Story a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The latter has
+written an elaborate work on the Constitution, full of sophistry, and not
+always very reliable as to its facts. The great effort of both these men
+has been to prove, that the Constitution is not a compact between the
+States, but an instrument of government, formed by the _people_ of the
+United States, as contra-distinguished from the States. They both admit,
+that if the Constitution were a compact between the States, the States
+would have a right to withdraw from the compact--all agreements between
+States, in their sovereign capacity, being, necessarily, of no more
+binding force than treaties. These gentlemen are not always very
+consistent, for they frequently fall into the error of calling the
+Constitution a compact, when they are not arguing this particular
+question; in short, it is, and it is not a compact, by turns, according to
+the use they intend to make of the argument. Mr. Webster's doctrine of the
+Constitution, chiefly relied on by Northern men, is to be found in his
+speech of 1833, in reply to Mr. Calhoun. It is in that speech that he
+makes the admission, that if the Constitution of the United States is a
+compact between the States, the States have the right to withdraw from it
+at pleasure. He says, "If a league between sovereign powers have no
+limitation as to the time of duration, and contains nothing making it
+perpetual, it subsists only during the good pleasure of the parties,
+although no violation be complained of. If in the opinion of either party
+it be violated, such party may say he will no longer fulfil its
+obligations, on his part, but will consider the whole league or compact as
+at an end, although it might be one of its stipulations that it should be
+perpetual."
+
+In his "Commentaries on the Constitution," Mr. Justice Story says, "The
+obvious deductions which may be, and indeed have been drawn, from
+considering the Constitution a _compact between States_, are, that it
+operates as a mere treaty, or convention between them, and has an
+obligatory force no longer than suits their pleasure, or their consent
+continues." The plain principles of public law, thus announced by these
+distinguished jurists, cannot be controverted. If sovereign States make a
+compact, although the object of the compact be the formation of a new
+government for their common benefit, they have the right to withdraw from
+that compact at pleasure, even though, in the words of Mr. Webster, "it
+might be one of its stipulations that it should be perpetual."
+
+There might, undoubtedly, be such a thing as State merger; that is, that
+two States, for instance, might agree that the sovereign existence of one
+of them should be merged in the other. In which case, the State parting
+with its sovereignty could never reclaim it by peaceable means. But where
+a State shows no intention of parting with its sovereignty, and, in
+connection with other States, all equally jealous of their sovereignty
+with herself, only delegates a part of it--never so large a part, if you
+please--to a common agent, for the benefit of the whole, there can have
+been no merger. This was eminently the case with regard to these United
+States. No one can read the "Journal and Debates of the Philadelphia
+Convention," or those of the several State Conventions to which the
+Constitution was submitted for adoption, without being struck with the
+scrupulous care with which all the States guarded their sovereignty. The
+Northern States were quite as jealous, in this respect, as the Southern
+States. Next to Massachusetts, New Hampshire has been, perhaps, the most
+fanatical and bitter of the former States, in the prosecution of the late
+war against the South. That State, in her Constitution, adopted in 1792,
+three years after the Federal Constitution went into operation, inserted
+the following provision, among others, in her declaration of principles:
+"The people of this Commonwealth have the sole and exclusive right of
+governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State; and do,
+and forever hereafter shall exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction,
+and right which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them, expressly
+delegated to the United States."
+
+Although it was quite clear that the States, when they adopted the
+Constitution of the United States, reserved, by implication, all the
+sovereign power, rights, and privileges that had not been granted away--as
+a power not given is necessarily withheld--yet so jealous were they of the
+new government they were forming, that several of them insisted, in their
+acts of ratification, that the Constitution should be so amended as
+explicitly to declare this truth, and thus put it beyond cavil in the
+future. Massachusetts expressed herself as follows, in connection with her
+ratification of the Constitution: "As it is the opinion of this
+Convention, that certain amendments and alterations in said Constitution
+would remove the fears, and quiet the apprehensions of the good people of
+the Commonwealth, and more effectually guard against an undue
+administration of the Federal Government, the Convention do, therefore,
+recommend that the following alteration and provisions be introduced in
+said Constitution: First, that it be explicitly declared, that all powers
+not delegated by the aforesaid Constitution are reserved to the several
+States, to be by them exercised."
+
+Webster and Story had not yet arisen in Massachusetts, to teach the new
+doctrine that the Constitution had been formed by the "_People of the
+United States_," in contra-distinction to the people of the States.
+Massachusetts did not speak in the name of any such people, but in her own
+name. She was not jealous of the remaining people of the United States, as
+fractional parts of a whole, of which she was herself a fraction, but she
+was jealous of them as _States_; as so many foreign peoples, with whom she
+was contracting. The powers not delegated were to be reserved to those
+_delegating_ them, to wit: the "_several States_;" that is to say, to each
+and every one of the States.
+
+Virginia fought long and sturdily against adopting the Constitution at
+all. Henry, Mason, Tyler, and a host of other giants raised their
+powerful voices against it, warning their people, in thunder tones, that
+they were rushing upon destruction. Tyler even went so far as to say that
+"British tyranny would have been more tolerable." So distasteful to her
+was the foul embrace that was tendered her, that she not only recommended
+an amendment of the Constitution, similar to that which was recommended by
+Massachusetts, making explicit reservation of her sovereignty, but she
+annexed a condition to her ratification, to the effect that she retained
+the right to withdraw the powers which she had granted, "whenever the same
+shall be perverted to her injury or oppression."
+
+North Carolina urged the following amendment--the same, substantially, as
+that urged by Virginia and Massachusetts: "That each State in the Union
+shall respectively [not aggregately] retain every power, jurisdiction, and
+right which is not by this Constitution delegated to the Congress of the
+United States, or to the departments of the Federal Government."
+
+Pennsylvania guarded her sovereignty by insisting upon the following
+amendment: "All the rights of sovereignty which are not, by the said
+Constitution, expressly and plainly vested in the Congress, shall be
+deemed to remain with, and shall be exercised by the several States in the
+Union." The result of this jealousy on the part of the States was the
+adoption of the 10th amendment to the Constitution of the United States as
+follows: "The powers not delegated to the United States, by the
+Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
+States, or to the people."
+
+It is thus clear beyond doubt, that the States not only had no intention
+of merging their sovereignty in the new government they were forming, but
+that they took special pains to notify each other, as well as their common
+agent, of the fact. The language which I have quoted, as used by the
+States, in urging the amendments to the Constitution proposed by them, was
+the common language of that day. The new government was a federal or
+confederate government--in the "Federalist," it is frequently called a
+"Confederation"--which had been created by the States for their common use
+and benefit; each State taking special pains, as we have seen, to declare
+that it retained all the sovereignty which it had not expressly granted
+away. And yet, in face of these facts, the doctrine has been boldly
+declared, in our day, that the Constitution was formed by the people of
+the United States in the aggregate, as one nation, and that it has a force
+and vitality independent of the States, which the States are incompetent
+to destroy! The perversion is one not so much of doctrine as of history.
+It is an issue of fact which we are to try.
+
+It is admitted, that if the fact be as stated by our Northern brethren,
+the conclusion follows: It is, indeed, quite plain, that if the States did
+not create the Federal Constitution, they cannot destroy it. But it is
+admitted, on the other hand, by both Webster and Story, as we have seen,
+that if they did create it, they may destroy it; nay, that any one of them
+may destroy it as to herself; that is, may withdraw from the compact at
+pleasure, with or without reason. It is fortunate for us of the South that
+the issue is so plain, as that it may be tried by the record. Sophistry
+will sometimes overlie reason and blind men's judgment for generations;
+but sophistry, with all its ingenuity, cannot hide a fact. The speeches of
+Webster and the commentaries of Story have been unable to hide the fact of
+which I speak; it stands emblazoned on every page of our constitutional
+history.
+
+Every step that was taken toward the formation of the Constitution of the
+United States, from its inception to its adoption, was taken by the
+States, and not by the people of the United States in the aggregate. There
+was no such people known as the people of the United States, in the
+aggregate, at the time of the formation of the Constitution. If there is
+any such people now, it was formed by the Constitution. But this is not
+the question. The question now is, who formed the Constitution, not what
+was formed by it? If it was formed by the States, admit our adversaries,
+it may be broken by the States.
+
+The delegates who met at Annapolis were sent thither by the States, and
+not by the people of the United States. The Convention of 1787, which
+formed the Constitution, was equally composed of members sent to
+Philadelphia by the States. James Madison was chosen by the people of
+Virginia, and not by the people of New York; and Alexander Hamilton was
+chosen by the people of New York, and not by the people of Virginia. Every
+article, section, and paragraph of the Constitution was voted for, or
+against, by States; the little State of Delaware, not much larger than a
+single county of New York, off-setting the vote of that great State.
+
+And when the Constitution was formed, to whom was it submitted for
+ratification? Was there any convention of the people of the United States
+in the aggregate, as one nation, called for the purpose of considering it?
+Did not each State, on the contrary, call its own convention? and did not
+some of the States accept it, and some of them refuse to accept it? It was
+provided that when nine States should accept it, it should go into
+operation; was it pretended that the vote of these nine States was to bind
+the others? Is it not a fact, on the contrary, that the vote of eleven
+States did _not_ bind the other two? Where was that great constituency,
+composed of the people of the United States in the aggregate, as one
+nation, all this time?
+
+"But," say those who are opposed to us in this argument, "look at the
+instrument itself, and you will see that it was framed by the people of
+the United States, and not by the States. Does not its Preamble read thus:
+'We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect
+Union, &c., do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United
+States of America'?" Perhaps there has never been a greater literary and
+historical fraud practised upon any people, than has been attempted in the
+use to which these words have been put. And, perhaps, no equal number of
+reading and intelligent men has ever before submitted so blindly and
+docilely to be imposed upon by literary quackery and the legerdemain of
+words, as our fellow-citizens of the North have in accepting Webster's and
+Story's version of the preamble of the Constitution.
+
+A brief history of the manner, in which the words, "We, the people," &c.,
+came to be adopted by the Convention which framed the Constitution, will
+sufficiently expose the baldness of the cheat. The only wonder is, that
+such men as Webster and Story should have risked their reputations with
+posterity, on a construction which may so easily be shown to be a
+falsification of the facts of history. Mr. Webster, in his celebrated
+speech in the Senate, in 1833, in reply to Mr. Calhoun, made this bold
+declaration: "The Constitution itself, in its very front, declares, that
+it was ordained and established by the people of the United States in the
+aggregate!" From that day to this, this declaration of Mr. Webster has
+been the chief foundation on which all the constitutional lawyers of the
+North have built their arguments against the rights of the States as
+sovereign copartners.
+
+If the Preamble of the Constitution stood alone, without the lights of
+contemporaneous history to reveal its true character, there might be some
+force in Mr. Webster's position; but, unfortunately for him and his
+followers, he has _misstated a fact_. It is not true, as every reader of
+constitutional history must know, that the Constitution of the United
+States was ordained by the people of the United States in the aggregate;
+nor did the Preamble to the Constitution _mean to assert_ that it was
+true. The great names of Webster, and Story have been lent to a palpable
+falsification of history, and as a result of that falsification, a great
+war has ensued, which has sacrificed its hecatomb of victims, and
+desolated, and nearly destroyed an entire people. The poet did not say,
+without reason, that "words are things." Now let us strip off the
+disguises worn by these word-mongers, and see where the truth really lies.
+Probably some of my readers will learn, for the first time, the reasons
+which induced the framers of the Constitution to adopt the phraseology,
+"We, the people," &c., in the formation of their Preamble to that
+instrument. In the original draft of the Constitution, the States, by
+name, were mentioned, as had been done in the Articles of Confederation.
+The States had formed the old Confederation, the States were equally
+forming the new Confederation; hence the Convention naturally followed in
+their Preamble the form which had been set them in the old Constitution,
+or Articles. This Preamble, purporting that the work of forming the new
+government was being done by the States, remained at the head of the
+instrument _during all the deliberations of the Convention_, and no one
+member ever objected to it. It expressed a fact which no one thought of
+denying. It is thus a fact beyond question, not only that the
+Constitution was framed by the States, but that the Convention so
+proclaimed in "_front of the instrument_."
+
+Having been framed by the States, was it afterward adopted, or "ordained
+and established," to use the words of Mr. Webster, by the people of the
+United States, in the aggregate, and was this the reason why the words
+were changed? There were in the Convention several members in favor of
+submitting the instrument to the people of the United States in the
+aggregate, and thereby accomplishing their favorite object of establishing
+a consolidated government--Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris among
+the number. On the "Journal of the Convention," the following record is
+found: "Gouverneur Morris moved that the reference of the plan [i. e. of
+the Constitution] be made to one General Convention, chosen and authorized
+by the people, to consider, amend, and establish the same." Thus the
+question, as to who should "ordain and establish" the Constitution,
+whether it should be the people in the aggregate, or the people of the
+States, was clearly presented to the Convention. How did the Convention
+vote on this proposition? The reader will perhaps be surprised to learn,
+that the question was not even brought to a vote, for want of a second;
+and yet this is the fact recorded by the Convention.
+
+The reader who has read Mr. Madison's articles in the "Federalist," and
+his speeches before the Virginia Convention, in favor of the ratification
+of the Constitution, will perhaps be surprised to learn that he, too, made
+a somewhat similar motion. He was not in favor, it is true, of referring
+the instrument for adoption to a General Convention of the whole people,
+alone, but he was in favor of referring it to such a Convention, in
+connection with Conventions to be called by the States, thus securing a
+joint or double ratification, by the people of the United States in the
+aggregate, and by the States; the effect of which would have been to make
+the new government a still more complex affair, and to muddle still
+further the brains of Mr. Webster and Mr. Justice Story. But this motion
+failed also, and the Constitution was referred to the States for adoption.
+
+But now a new question arose, which was, whether the Constitution was to
+be "ordained and established" by the legislatures of the States, or by
+the people of the States in Convention. All were agreed, as we have seen,
+that the instrument should be referred to the States. This had been
+settled; but there were differences of opinion as to how the States should
+act upon it. Some were in favor of permitting each of the States to
+choose, for itself, how it would ratify it; others were in favor of
+referring it to the legislatures, and others, again, to the people of the
+States in Convention. It was finally decided that it should be referred to
+Conventions of the people, in the different States.
+
+This being done, their work was completed, and it only remained to refer
+the rough draft of the instrument to the "Committee on Style," to prune
+and polish it a little--to lop off a word here, and change or add a word
+there, the better to conform the language to the sense, and to the
+proprieties of grammar and rhetoric. The Preamble, as it stood, at once
+presented a difficulty. All the thirteen States were named in it as
+adopting the instrument, but it had been provided, in the course of its
+deliberations by the Convention, that the new government should go into
+effect if nine States adopted it. Who could tell which these nine States
+would be? It was plainly impossible to enumerate all the States--for all
+of them might not adopt it--or any particular number of them, as adopting
+the instrument.
+
+Further, it having been determined, as we have seen, that the Constitution
+should be adopted by the people of the several States, as
+contra-distinguished from the legislatures of the States, the phraseology
+of the Preamble must be made to express this idea also. To meet these two
+new demands upon the phraseology of the instrument, the Committee on Style
+adopted the expression, "We, the people of the United States,"--meaning,
+as every one must see, "We, the people of the several States united by
+this instrument." And this is the foundation that the Northern advocates
+of a consolidated government build upon, when they declare that the people
+of the United States in the aggregate, as one nation, adopted the
+Constitution, and thus gave the fundamental law to the States, instead of
+the States giving it to the Federal Government.
+
+It is well known that this phrase, "We, the people," &c., became a
+subject of discussion in the Virginia ratifying Convention. Patrick Henry,
+with the prevision of a prophet, was, as we have seen, bitterly opposed to
+the adoption of the Constitution. He was its enemy _a l'outrance_. Not
+having been a member of the Convention, of 1787, that framed the
+instrument, and being unacquainted with the circumstances above detailed,
+relative to the change which had been made in the phraseology of its
+Preamble, he attacked the Constitution on the very ground since assumed by
+Webster and Story, to wit: that the instrument itself proclaimed that it
+had been "ordained and established" by the people of the United States in
+the aggregate, instead of the people of the States. Mr. Madison replied to
+Henry on this occasion. Madison had been in the Convention, knew, of
+course, all about the change of phraseology in question, and this was his
+reply: "The parties to it [the Constitution] were the people, but not the
+people as composing one great society, but the people as composing
+thirteen sovereignties. If it were a consolidated government," continued
+he, "the assent of a majority of the people would be sufficient to
+establish it. But it was to be binding on the people of a State only by
+their own separate consent." There was, of course, nothing more to be
+said, and the Virginia Convention adopted the Constitution.
+
+Madison has been called the Father of the Constitution. Next to him,
+Alexander Hamilton bore the most conspicuous part in procuring it to be
+adopted by the people. Hamilton, as is well known, did not believe much in
+republics; and least of all did he believe in federal republics. His great
+object was to establish a consolidated republic, if we must have a
+republic at all. He labored zealously for this purpose, but failed. The
+States, without an exception, were in favor of the federal form; and no
+one knew better than Hamilton the kind of government which had been
+established.
+
+Now let us hear what Hamilton, an unwilling, but an honest witness, says
+on this subject. Of the eighty-five articles in the "Federalist," Hamilton
+wrote no less than fifty. Having failed to procure the establishment of a
+consolidated government, his next great object was, to procure the
+adoption by the States of the present Constitution, and to this task,
+accordingly, he now addressed his great intellect and powerful energies.
+In turning over the pages of the "Federalist," we can scarcely go amiss in
+quoting Hamilton, to the point that the Constitution is a compact between
+the States, and not an emanation from the people of the United States in
+the aggregate. Let us take up the final article, for instance, the 85th.
+In this article we find the following expressions: "The compacts which are
+to embrace thirteen distinct States in a common bond of amity and Union,
+must necessarily be compromises of as many dissimilar interests and
+inclinations." Again: "The moment an alteration is made in the present
+plan, it becomes, to the purpose of adoption, a new one, and must undergo
+a new decision of each State. To its complete establishment throughout the
+Union, it will, therefore, require the concurrence of thirteen States."
+
+And again: "Every Constitution for the United States must, inevitably,
+consist of a great variety of particulars, in which thirteen _Independent
+States_ are to be accommodated in their interests, or opinions of
+interests. * * * Hence the necessity of moulding and arranging all the
+particulars which are to compose the whole in such a manner as to satisfy
+all the _parties to the compact_." Thus, we do not hear Hamilton, any more
+than Madison, talking of a "people of the United States in the aggregate"
+as having anything to do with the formation of the new charter of
+government. He speaks only of States, and of compacts made or to be made
+by States.
+
+In view of the great importance of the question, whether it was the people
+of the United States in the aggregate who "ordained and established" the
+Constitution, or the States,--for this, indeed, is the whole _gist_ of the
+controversy between the North and South,--I have dwelt somewhat at length
+on the subject, and had recourse to contemporaneous history; but this was
+scarcely necessary. The Constitution itself settles the whole controversy.
+The 7th article of that instrument reads as follows: "The ratification of
+the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment
+of the Constitution between the States so ratifying the same." How is it
+possible to reconcile this short, explicit, and unambiguous provision with
+the theory I am combating? The Preamble, as explained by the Northern
+consolidationists, and this article, cannot possibly stand together. It is
+not possible that the people of the United States in the aggregate, as one
+nation, "ordained and established" the Constitution, and that the States
+ordained and established it at the same time; for there was but one set of
+Conventions called, and these Conventions were called by the States, and
+acted in the names of the States.
+
+Mr. Madison did, indeed, endeavor to have the ratification made in both
+modes, but his motion in the Convention to this effect failed, as we have
+seen. Further, how could the Constitution be binding only between the
+States that ratified it, if it was not ratified--that is, not "ordained
+and established"--by them at all, but by the people of the United States
+in the aggregate? As remarked by Mr. Madison, in the Virginia Convention,
+a ratification by the people, in the sense in which this term is used by
+the Northern consolidationists, would have bound all the people, and there
+would have been no option left the dissenting States. But the 7th article
+says that they shall have an option, and that the instrument is to be
+binding only _between such of them as ratify it_.
+
+With all due deference, then, to others who have written upon this vexed
+question, and who have differed from me in opinion, I must insist that the
+proof is conclusive that the Constitution is a compact between the States;
+and this being so, we have the admission of both Mr. Webster and Justice
+Story that any one of the States may withdraw from it at pleasure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DOWN TO 1830, BOTH THE NORTH
+AND THE SOUTH HELD THE CONSTITUTION TO BE A COMPACT BETWEEN THE STATES.
+
+
+One of the great difficulties in arguing the question of the relative
+power of the States and of the Federal Government, consists in the fact
+that the present generation has grown up under the shadow of the great
+Federal monster, and has been blinded by its giant proportions. They see
+around them all the paraphernalia and power of a great government--its
+splendid capital, its armies, its fleets, its Chief Magistrate, its
+legislature, and its judiciary--and they find it difficult to realize the
+fact, that all this grandeur is not self-created, but the offspring of the
+States.
+
+When our late troubles were culminating, men were heard frequently to
+exclaim, with plaintive energy, "What! have we no government capable of
+preserving itself? Is our Government a mere rope of sand, that may be
+destroyed at the will of the States?" These men seemed to think that there
+was but one government to be preserved, and that that was the Government
+of the United States. Less than a century had elapsed since the adoption
+of the Constitution, and the generation now on the theatre of events had
+seemingly forgotten, that the magnificent structure, which they
+contemplated with so much admiration, was but a creature of the States;
+that it had been made by them for their convenience, and necessarily held
+the tenure of its life at sufferance. They lost sight of the fact that the
+State governments, who were the creators of the Federal Government, were
+the governments to be preserved, if there should be any antagonism between
+them and the Federal Government; and that their services, as well as
+their sympathies, belonged to the former in preference to the latter. What
+with the teachings of Webster and Story, and a host of satellites, the
+dazzling splendor of the Federal Government, and the overshadowing and
+corrupting influences of its power, nearly a whole generation in the North
+had grown up in ignorance of the true nature of the institutions, under
+which they lived.
+
+This change in the education of the people had taken place since about the
+year 1830; for, up to that time, both of the great political parties of
+the country, the Whigs as well as the Democrats, had been State-Rights in
+doctrine. A very common error has prevailed on this subject. It has been
+said, that the North and the South have always been widely separated in
+their views of the Constitution; that the men of the North have always
+been consolidationists, whilst the men of the South have been
+secessionists. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Whilst the North and
+the South, from the very commencement of the Government, have been at
+swords' points, on many questions of mere construction and policy,--the
+North claiming that more ample powers had been granted the Federal
+Government, than the South was willing to concede,--there never was any
+material difference between them down to the year 1830, as to the true
+nature of their Government. They all held it to be a federal compact, and
+the Northern people were as jealous of the rights of their States under
+it, as the Southern people.
+
+In proof of this, I have only to refer to a few of the well-known facts of
+our political history. Thomas Jefferson penned the famous Kentucky
+Resolutions of '98 and '99. The first of those resolutions is in these
+words: "_Resolved_, That the several States comprising the United States
+of America are not united on the principles of unlimited submission to
+their general Government; but that by a compact, under the style and title
+of the Constitution of the United States, and of amendments thereto, they
+constitute a general Government for special purposes; and that whensoever
+the general Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are
+unauthoritative, void and of no force; that to this compact each State
+acceded as a State, and is an integral party, its co-States forming, as to
+itself, the other party; that the government created by this compact was
+not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers
+delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, not the
+Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all cases of
+compact among persons having no common judge, each party has an equal
+right to judge for itself, as well of infractions, as of the mode and
+measure of redress."
+
+It is unnecessary to quote the other resolution, as the above contains all
+that is sufficient for my purpose, which is to show that Mr. Jefferson was
+a secessionist, and that _with this record_ he went before the American
+people as a candidate for the Presidency, with the following results: In
+1800 he beat his opponent, John Adams, who represented the
+consolidationists of that day, by a majority of 8 votes in the Electoral
+College. In 1804, being a candidate for re-election, he beat his opponent
+by the overwhelming majority of 162, to 14 votes. In the Northern States
+alone, Mr. Jefferson received 85 votes, whilst in the same States his
+opponent received but 9. This was a pretty considerable indorsement of
+secession by the Northern States.
+
+In 1808, Mr. Madison, who penned the Virginia Resolutions of '98, similar
+in tenor to the Kentucky Resolutions, became a candidate for the
+Presidency, and beat his opponent by a vote of 122 to 47; the Northern
+majority, though somewhat diminished, being still 50 to 39 votes. Mr.
+Madison was re-elected in 1812, and in 1816, James Monroe was elected
+President by a vote of 183 to his opponent's 34; and more than one half of
+these 183 votes came from the Northern States. In 1820, Mr. Monroe was
+re-elected over John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, by a majority of 231
+votes to 13. Besides Monroe and Adams, Crawford and Jackson were also
+candidates, but these two latter received only 11 votes between them. This
+last election is especially remarkable, as showing that there was no
+opposition to Jefferson's doctrine of State-Rights, since _all_ the
+candidates were of that creed. The opposition had been so often defeated,
+and routed in former elections, that they had not strength enough left to
+put a candidate in the field.
+
+John Quincy Adams succeeded Mr. Monroe, and his State-Rights doctrines
+are well known. He expressed them as follows: "The indissoluble link of
+union between the people of the several States of this confederated
+nation, is, after all, not in the _right_, but in the _heart_. If the day
+should ever come (may heaven avert it) when the affections of the people
+of these States shall be alienated from each other; when the fraternal
+spirit shall give way to cold indifference, or _collision of interests
+shall fester into hatred_, the bands of political association will not
+long hold together parties, no longer attracted by the magnetism of
+conciliated interests, and kindly sympathies; and _far better will it be
+for the people of the dis-united States to part in friendship with each
+other, than to be held together by constraint_. Then will be the time
+for reverting to the precedents, which occurred at the formation, and
+adoption of the Constitution, to form again a more perfect union, by
+dissolving that which could no longer bind, and to leave the separated
+parts to be reunited _by the law of political gravitation to the centre_."
+
+General Jackson succeeded Mr. Adams in 1828, and was re-elected in 1832.
+It was during his administration that the _heresy_ was first promulgated
+by Mr. Webster, that the Constitution was not a compact between the
+States, but an instrument of government, "ordained, and established," by
+the people of the United States, in the aggregate, as one nation. With
+respect to the New England States in particular, there is other and more
+pointed evidence, that they agreed with Mr. Jefferson, and the South down
+to the year 1830, on this question of State rights, than is implied in the
+Presidential elections above quoted. Massachusetts, the leader of these
+States in intellect, and in energy, impatient of control herself, has
+always sought to control others. This was, perhaps, but natural. All
+mankind are prone to consult their own interests. Selfishness,
+unfortunately, is one of the vices of our nature, which few are found
+capable of struggling against effectually.
+
+The New England people were largely imbued with the Puritan element. Their
+religious doctrines gave them a gloomy asceticism of character, and an
+intolerance of other men's opinions quite remarkable. In their earlier
+history as colonists, there is much in the way of uncharitableness and
+persecution, which a liberal mind could wish to see blotted out. True to
+these characteristics, which I may almost call instincts, the New England
+States have always been the most refractory States of the Union. As long
+as they were in a minority, and hopeless of the control of the Government,
+they stood strictly on their State rights, in resisting such measures as
+were unpalatable to them, even to the extremity of threatening secession;
+and it was only when they saw that the tables were turned, and that it was
+possible for them to seize the reins of the Government, that they
+abandoned their State-Rights doctrines, and became consolidationists.
+
+One of the first causes of the dissatisfaction of the New England States
+with the General Government was the purchase of Louisiana, by Mr.
+Jefferson, in 1803. It arose out of their jealousy of the balance of power
+between the States. The advantages to result to the United States from the
+purchase of this territory were patent to every one. It completed the
+continuity of our territory, from the head waters of the Mississippi, to
+the sea, and unlocked the mouths of that great river. But Massachusetts
+saw in the purchase, nothing more than the creation of additional Southern
+States, to contest, with her, the future control of the Government. She
+could see no authority for it in the Constitution, and she threatened,
+that if it were consummated, she would secede from the Union. Her
+Legislature passed the following resolution on the subject: "_Resolved_,
+That the annexation of Louisiana to the Union, transcends the
+Constitutional power of the Government of the United States. It formed a
+new Confederacy, to which the States [not the people of the United States,
+in the aggregate] united by the former compact, are not bound to adhere."
+
+This purchase of Louisiana rankled, for a long time, in the breast of New
+England. It was made, as we have seen, in 1803, and in 1811 the subject
+again came up for consideration; this time, in the shape of a bill before
+Congress for the admission of Louisiana as a State. One of the most able
+and influential members of Congress of that day from Massachusetts was Mr.
+Josiah Quincy. In a speech on this bill, that gentlemen uttered the
+following declaration: "If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion
+that it is virtually a dissolution of the Union; that it will free the
+States from their moral obligation, and as it will be the right of all, so
+it will be the duty of some definitely to prepare for separation,
+amicably if they can, violently if they must."
+
+Time passed on, and the difficulties which led to our War of 1812, with
+Great Britain, began to rise above the political horizon. Great Britain
+began to impress seamen from New England merchant ships, and even went so
+far, at last, as to take some enlisted men from on board the United States
+ship of war Chesapeake. Massachusetts was furious; she insisted that war
+should be declared forthwith against Great Britain. The Southern States,
+which had comparatively little interest in this matter, except so far as
+the federal honor was concerned, came generously to the rescue of the
+shipping States, and war was declared. But the first burst of her passion
+having spent itself, Massachusetts found that she had been indiscreet; her
+shipping began to suffer more than she had anticipated, and she began now
+to cry aloud as one in pain. She denounced the war, and the Administration
+which was carrying it on; and not content with this, in connection with
+other New England States, she organized a Convention, at Hartford, in
+Connecticut, with a view to adopt some ulterior measures. We find the
+following among the records of that Convention: "Events may prove, that
+the causes of our calamities are deep, and permanent. They may be found to
+proceed not merely from blindness of prejudice, pride of opinion, violence
+of party spirit, or the confusion of the times; but they may be traced to
+implacable combinations, of individuals, _or of States_, to monopolize
+office, and to trample, without remorse, upon the rights and interests of
+the commercial sections of the Union. Whenever it shall appear, that these
+causes are radical, and permanent, _a separation by equitable arrangement,
+will be preferable to an alliance, by constraint, among nominal friends
+but real enemies, inflamed by mutual hatred, and jealousy, and inviting,
+by intestine divisions, contempt and aggressions from abroad_." Having
+recorded this opinion of what should be the policy of the New England
+States, in the category mentioned, the "Journal of the Convention" goes on
+to declare what it considers the right of the States, in the premises.
+"That acts of Congress, in violation of the Constitution, are absolutely
+void, is an indisputable position. It does not, however, consist with the
+respect, from a _Confederate State_ toward the General Government, to fly
+to open resistance, upon every infraction of the Constitution. The mode,
+and the energy of the opposition should always conform to the nature of
+the violation, the intention of the authors, the extent of the evil
+inflicted, the determination manifested to persist in it, and the danger
+of delay. But in case of deliberate, dangerous, and palpable infractions
+of the Constitution, _affecting the sovereignty of the State_, and
+liberties of the people, it is not only the right, but the _duty_, of each
+State _to interpose its authority_ for their protection, in the manner
+best calculated to secure that end. When emergencies occur, which are
+either beyond the reach of judicial tribunals, or too pressing to admit of
+the delay incident to their forms, _States_, which have no common umpire,
+_must be their own judges_, and _execute their own decisions_." These
+proceedings took place in January, 1815. A deputation was appointed to lay
+the complaints of New England before the Federal Government, and there is
+no predicting what might have occurred, if the delegates had not found,
+that peace had been declared, when they arrived at Washington.
+
+It thus appears, that from 1803-4 to 1815, New England was constantly in
+the habit of speaking of the dissolution of the Union--her leading men
+deducing this right from the nature of the compact between the States. It
+is curious and instructive, and will well repay the perusal, to read the
+"Journal of the Hartford Convention," so replete is it with sound
+constitutional doctrine. It abounds in such expressions as these: "The
+constitutional compact;" "It must be the duty of the State to watch over
+the rights _reserved_, as of the United States to exercise the powers
+_which were delegated_;" the right of conscription is "not delegated to
+Congress by the Constitution, and the exercise of it would not be less
+dangerous to their liberties, than hostile to the _sovereignty of the
+States_." The odium which has justly fallen upon the Hartford Convention,
+has not been because of its doctrines, for these were as sound, as we have
+seen, as the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98 and '99, but because
+it was a secret conclave, gotten together, _in a time of war_, when the
+country was hard pressed by a foreign enemy; the war having, in fact, been
+undertaken for the benefit of the very shipping States which were
+threatening to dissolve the Union on account of it.
+
+Mr. John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, himself,
+as is well known, a Massachusetts man, speaking of this dissatisfaction of
+the New England States with the Federal Government, says: "That their
+object was, and had been, for several years, a dissolution of the Union
+and the establishment of a separate Confederation, he knew from
+unequivocal evidence, although not provable in a court of law; and that in
+case of a civil war, the aid of Great Britain, to effect that purpose,
+would be assuredly resorted to, as it would be indispensably necessary to
+their design." See Mr. Adams' letter of Dec. 30th, 1828, in reply to
+Harrison Gray Otis and others.
+
+We have thus seen, that for forty years, or from the foundation of the
+Federal Government, to 1830, there was no material difference of opinion
+between the sections, as to the nature of the league or compact of
+government which they had formed. There was this difference between the
+sections, however. The South, during this entire period of forty years,
+had substantially controlled the Government; not by force, it is true, of
+her own majorities, but with the aid of a few of the Northern States. She
+was the dominant or ruling power in the Government. During all this time,
+she conscientiously adhered to her convictions, and respected the rights
+of the minority, though she might have wielded her power, if she had been
+so inclined, to her own advantage.
+
+Constitutions are made for the protection of minorities, and she
+scrupulously adhered to this idea. Minorities naturally cling to the
+guarantees and defences provided for them in the fundamental law; it is
+only when they become strong, when they throw off their pupilage, and
+become majorities, that their principles and their virtues are really
+tested. It is in politics, as in religion--the weaker party is always the
+tolerant party. Did the North follow this example set her by the South?
+No; the moment she became strong enough, she recanted all the doctrines
+under which she had sought shelter, tore the Constitution into fragments,
+scattered it to the winds; and finally, when the South threw herself on
+the defensive, as Massachusetts had threatened to do, in 1803 and 1815,
+she subjugated her.
+
+What was the powerful motive which thus induced the North to overthrow the
+government which it had labored so assiduously with the South to
+establish, and which it had construed in common with the South, for the
+period of forty years? It was the motive which generally influences human
+conduct; it was the same motive which Patrick Henry had so clearly
+foreseen, when he warned the people of Virginia against entering into the
+federal compact; telling them, that interested majorities never had, in
+the history of the world, and never would respect the rights of
+minorities.
+
+The great "American System," as it has been called, had in the meantime
+arisen, championed by no less a personage than Henry Clay of Kentucky. In
+1824, and again in 1828, oppressive tariffs had been enacted for the
+protection of New England manufacturers. The North was manufacturing, the
+South non-manufacturing. The effect of these tariffs was to shut out all
+foreign competition, and compel the Southern consumer to pay two prices
+for all the textile fabrics he consumed, from the clothing of his negroes
+to his own broadcloth coats. So oppressive, unjust, and unconstitutional
+were these acts considered, that South Carolina nullified them in 1830.
+Immediately all New England was arrayed against South Carolina. An entire
+and rapid change took place in the political creed of that section. New
+England orators and jurists rose up to proclaim that the Constitution was
+not a compact between the States. Webster thundered in the Senate, and
+Story wrote his "Commentaries on the Constitution." These giants had a
+herculean task before them; nothing less than the falsifying of the whole
+political history of the country, for the previous forty years; but their
+barren and inhospitable section of the country had been touched by the
+enchanter's wand, and its rocky hills, and sterile fields, incapable of
+yielding even a scanty subsistence to its numerous population, were to
+become glad with the music of the spindle and the shuttle; and the giants
+undertook the task! How well they have accomplished it, the reader will
+see, in the course of these pages, when, toward the conclusion of my
+narrative, he will be called upon to view the fragments of the grand old
+Constitution, which has been shattered, and which will lie in such
+mournful profusion around him; the monuments at once of the folly and
+crimes of a people, who have broken up a government--a free
+government--which might else have endured for centuries.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WAS SECESSION TREASON?
+
+
+A few more words, and we shall be in a condition to answer the question
+which stands at the head of this chapter. Being a legal question, it will
+depend entirely upon the constitutional right the Southern States may have
+had to withdraw from the Union, without reference to considerations of
+expediency, or of moral right; these latter will be more appropriately
+considered, when we come to speak of the causes which impelled the
+Southern States to the step. I have combated many of the arguments
+presented by the other side, but a few others remain to be noticed.
+
+It has been said, that, admitting that the Constitution was a federal
+compact, yet the States did in fact cede away a part of their sovereignty,
+and from this the inference has been deduced, that they no longer remained
+sovereign for the purpose of recalling the part, which had been ceded
+away. This is a question which arises wholly under the laws of nations. It
+is admitted, that the States were independent sovereignties, before they
+formed the Constitution. We have only, therefore, to consult the
+international code, to ascertain to what extent the granting away of a
+portion of their sovereignty affected the remainder. Vattel, treating of
+this identical point, speaks as follows: "Several sovereign and
+independent States may unite themselves together by a perpetual
+confederacy, without ceasing to be, each individually, a perfect State.
+They will, together, constitute a federal republic; their joint
+deliberations will not impair the sovereignty of each member, though they
+may, in certain respects, _put some restraint upon the exercise of it_, in
+virtue of _voluntary_ engagements." That was just what the American States
+did, when they formed the Federal Constitution; they put some voluntary
+restraint upon their sovereignty, for the furtherance of a common object.
+
+If they are restrained, by the Constitution, from doing certain things,
+the restraint was self-imposed, for it was they who ordained, and
+established the instrument, and not a common superior. They, each, agreed
+that they would forbear to do certain things, if their copartners would
+forbear to do the same things. As plain as this seems, no less an
+authority than that of Mr. Webster has denied it; for, in his celebrated
+argument against Mr. Calhoun, already referred to, he triumphantly
+exclaimed, that the States were not sovereign, because _they were
+restrained of a portion of their liberty by the Constitution_. See how he
+perverts the whole tenor of the instrument, in his endeavor to build up
+those manufactories of which we spoke in the last chapter. He says:
+"However men may think this ought to be, the fact is, that _the people of
+the United States_ have chosen to _impose control_ on State sovereignty.
+There are those, doubtless, who wish that they had been left without
+restraint; but the Constitution has ordered the matter differently. To
+make war, for instance, is an exercise of sovereignty, but, the
+Constitution declares that no State shall declare war. To coin money is
+another act of sovereign power; but no State is at liberty to coin money.
+Again, the Constitution says, that no sovereign State shall be so
+sovereign, as to make a treaty. These prohibitions, it must be confessed,
+are a control on the State sovereignty of South Carolina, as well as of
+the other States, which does not arise from her feelings of honorable
+justice."
+
+Here we see, plainly, the germ of the monstrous heresy that has riven the
+States asunder, in our day. The "people of the United States," a common
+superior, ordained and established the Constitution, says Mr. Webster, and
+imposed restraints upon the States! However some might wish they had been
+left without restraint, the Constitution has "_ordained it differently_!"
+And the ostrich stomach of the North received, and digested this monstrous
+perversion of the plainest historical truth, in order that the spindle
+might whirr on, and the shuttle dance from side to side of the loom.
+
+Following the idea of Mr. Webster, that the people of the United States
+gave constitutional law to the States, instead of receiving it from them,
+Northern writers frequently ask, in what part of the Constitution, is the
+doctrine of secession found? In no part. It was not necessary to put it
+there. The States who formed the instrument, delegated certain powers to
+the Federal Government, retaining all others. Did they part, with the
+right of secession? Could they have parted with it, without consenting to
+a merger of their sovereignty? And so far from doing this, we have seen
+with what jealous care they protested against even the implication of such
+a merger, in the 10th amendment to the Constitution. If the power was not
+parted with, by explicit grant, did it not remain to them, even before the
+10th amendment was adopted, and still more, if possible, after it was
+adopted?
+
+To make it still more apparent, that the common understanding among the
+Fathers of the Constitution was, that this right of secession was
+reserved, it is only necessary to refer to what took place, during the
+transition from the old to the new government. The thirteen original
+States seceded, as we have seen, from the Articles of Confederation, not
+unanimously, or all together, but one by one, each State acting for
+itself, without consulting the interests, or inclinations of the others.
+One of the provisions of those Articles was as follows: "Every State shall
+abide by the determination of the United States, in Congress assembled, in
+all questions, which, by this Confederation, are submitted to them; and
+the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every
+State, and the Union shall be _perpetual_; nor shall any alteration, at
+any time hereafter, be made in any of them, unless such alteration be
+agreed to, in a Congress of the United States, and be afterward confirmed
+_by the legislature of every State_."
+
+Now, it is a pertinent, and instructive fact, that no similar provision of
+perpetuity was engrafted in the new Constitution. There must have been a
+motive for this--it could not have been a mere accidental omission--and
+the motive probably was, that the Convention of 1787 were ashamed to
+attempt, a second time, to bind sovereign States, by _a rope of sand_,
+which they, themselves, were in the act of pulling asunder. It was in
+accordance with this understanding, that both New York and Virginia, in
+their ratifications of the new Constitution, expressly reserved to
+themselves the right of secession; and no objection was made to such
+conditional ratifications. The reservations made by these States enure, as
+a matter of course, to the benefit of all the States, as they were all to
+go into the new Union, on precisely the same footing.
+
+In the extract from Mr. Webster's speech, which has been given above, it
+is alleged among other things, that the States are not sovereign, because
+they cannot make treaties; and this disability also has been urged as an
+argument against secession. The disability, like others, was self-imposed,
+and, as any one may see, was intended to be binding on the States only so
+long as the contract which they were then forming should endure. The
+Confederate States respected this obligation while they remained in the
+Federal Union. They scrupulously forbore from contracting with each other
+until they had resumed, each for itself, their original sovereignty; they
+were then not only free to contract with each other, but to do and perform
+all the other acts enumerated by Mr. Webster; the act of declaring war
+included, even though this war should be against their late confederates.
+
+The truth is, the more we sift these arguments of our late enemies, the
+less real merit there appears in them. The facts of history are too
+stubborn, and refuse to be bent to conform to the new doctrines. We see it
+emblazoned on every page of American history for forty years, that the
+Constitution was a compact between the States; that the Federal Government
+was created, by, and for the benefit of the States, and possessed and
+could possess no other power than such as was conferred upon it by the
+States; that the States reserved to themselves all the powers not granted,
+and that they took especial pains to guard their sovereignty, in terms, by
+an amendment to the Constitution, lest, by possibility, their intentions
+in the formation of the new government, should be misconstrued.
+
+In the course of time this government is perverted from its original
+design. Instead of remaining the faithful and impartial agent of all the
+States, a faction obtains control of it, in the interests of some of them,
+and turns it, as an engine of oppression, against the others. These
+latter, after long and patient suffering, after having exhausted all
+their means of defence, within the Union, withdraw from the agent the
+powers which they had conferred upon him, form a new Confederacy, and
+desire "to be let alone." And what is the consequence? They are denounced
+as rebels and traitors, armies are equipped, and fleets provided, and a
+war of subjugation is waged against them. What says the reader? Does he
+see rebellion and treason lurking in the conduct of these States? Are
+they, indeed, in his opinion, in face of the record which he has
+inspected, so bereft of their sovereignty, as to be incapable of defending
+themselves, except with halters around the necks of their citizens?
+
+Let us examine this latter question of halters for a moment. The States
+existed before the Federal Government; the citizens of the States owed
+allegiance to their respective States, and to none others. By what process
+was any portion of this allegiance transferred to the Federal Government,
+and to what extent was it transferred? It was transferred by the States,
+themselves, when they entered into the federal compact, and not by the
+individual citizens, for these had no power to make such a transfer.
+Although it be admitted, that a citizen of any one of the States may have
+had the right to expatriate himself entirely--and this was not so clear a
+doctrine at that day--and transfer his allegiance to another government,
+yet it is quite certain, that he could not, _ex mero motu_, divide his
+allegiance. His allegiance then was transferred to the Federal Government,
+by his State, whether he would or not.
+
+Take the case of Patrick Henry, for example. He resisted the adoption of
+the Federal Constitution, by the State of Virginia, with all the energies
+of an ardent nature, solemnly believing that his State was committing
+suicide. And yet, when Virginia did adopt that Constitution, he became, by
+virtue of that act, a citizen of the United States, and owed allegiance to
+the Federal Government. He had been born in the hallowed old Commonwealth.
+In the days of his boyhood he had played on the banks of the Appomattox,
+and fished in its waters. As he grew to man's estate, all his cherished
+hopes and aspirations clustered around his beloved State. The bones of his
+ancestors were interred in her soil; his loves, his joys, his sorrows
+were all centred there. In short, he felt the inspiration of patriotism,
+that noble sentiment which nerves men to do, and dare, unto the death, for
+their native soil. Will it be said, _can_ it be said, without revolting
+all the best feelings of the human heart, that if Patrick Henry had lived
+to see a war of subjugation waged against his native State, he would have
+been a traitor for striking in her defence? Was this one of the results
+which our ancestors designed, when they framed the federal compact? It
+would be uncharitable to accuse them of such folly, and stupidity, nay of
+such cruelty. If this doctrine be true, that secession is treason, then
+our ancestors framed a government, which could not fail to make traitors
+of their descendants, in case of a conflict between the States, and that
+government, let them act as they would.
+
+It was frequently argued in the "Federalist," and elsewhere, by those who
+were persuading the States to adopt the Federal Constitution, that the
+State would have a sufficient guarantee of protection, in the love, and
+affection of its citizens--that the citizen would naturally cling to his
+State, and side with her against the Federal Government--that, in fact, it
+was rather to be apprehended that the Federal Government would be too
+weak, and the States too strong, for this reason, instead of the converse
+of the proposition being true. It was not doubted, in that day, that the
+primary and paramount allegiance of the citizen was due to his State, and,
+that, in case of a conflict between her and the Federal Government, his
+State would have the right to withdraw his allegiance, from that
+Government. If it was she who transferred it, and if she had the right to
+transfer it, it follows beyond question, that she would have the right to
+withdraw it. It was not a case for the voluntary action of the citizen,
+either way; he could not, of his own free will, either give his allegiance
+to the Federal Government, or take it away.
+
+If this be true, observe in what a dilemma he has been placed, on the
+hypothesis that secession is treason. If he adheres to the Federal
+Government, after his State has withdrawn his allegiance from that
+Government, and takes up arms against his State, he becomes a traitor to
+his State. If he adheres to his State, and takes up arms against the
+Federal Government, he becomes a traitor to that Government. He is thus a
+traitor either way, and there is no helping himself. Is this consistent
+with the supposed wisdom of the political Fathers, those practical, common
+sense men, who formed the Federal Constitution?
+
+The mutations of governments, like all human events, are constantly going
+on. No government stands still, any more than the individuals of which it
+is composed. The only difference is, that the changes are not quite so
+obvious to the generation which views them. The framers of the
+Constitution did not dare to hope that they had formed a government, that
+was to last forever. Nay, many of them had serious misgivings as to the
+result of the _experiment_ they were making. Is it possible, then, that
+those men so legislated, as to render it morally certain, that if their
+experiment should fail, their descendants must become either slaves or
+traitors? If the doctrine that secession is treason be true, it matters
+not how grievously a State might be oppressed, by the Federal Government;
+she has been deprived of the power of lawful resistance, and must regain
+her liberty, if at all, like other enslaved States, at the hazard of war,
+and rebellion. Was this the sort of experiment in government, that our
+forefathers supposed they were making? Every reader of history knows that
+it was not.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+ANOTHER BRIEF HISTORICAL RETROSPECT.
+
+
+In the previous chapters, I have given a brief outline of the history and
+formation of the Federal Constitution, proving, by abundant reference to
+the Fathers, and to the instrument itself, that it was the intention of
+the former to draft, and that they did draft, a _federal compact_ of
+government, which compact was "ordained, and established," by the States,
+in their sovereign capacity, and not by the people of the United States,
+in the aggregate, as one nation. It resulted from this statement of the
+question, that the States had the legal, and constitutional right to
+withdraw from the compact, at pleasure, without reference to any cause of
+quarrel. Accordingly, nothing has yet been said about the causes which
+impelled the Southern States to a separation, except indeed incidentally,
+when the tariff system was alluded to, as the motive which had induced
+Massachusetts and the other Northern States, to change their State-Rights
+doctrine.
+
+It was stated in the opening chapter, that the judgment which posterity
+will form, upon the great conflict between the sections, will depend,
+mainly, upon the answers which we may be able to give to two questions:
+First, Had the South the right to dissolve the compact of government,
+under which it had lived with the North? and secondly, Was there
+sufficient ground for this dissolution? Having answered the first
+question--imperfectly, I fear, but yet as fully, as was consistent, with
+the design of these pages--I propose now to consider, very briefly, the
+second. I would gladly have left all this preliminary work to other, and
+abler pens, but I do not consider that the memoirs of any actor in the
+late war, who, like myself, was an officer in the old service, and who
+withdrew from that service, because of the breaking out of the war--or
+rather because of the secession of his State--would be complete without,
+at least, a brief reference to the reasons, which controlled his judgment.
+
+The American Constitution died of a disease, that was inherent in it. It
+was framed on false principles, inasmuch as the attempt was made, through
+its means, of binding together, in a republican form of government, two
+dissimilar peoples, with widely dissimilar interests. Monarchial
+governments may accomplish this, since they are founded on force, but
+republican governments never. Austria, and Russia, pin together, in our
+day, with their bayonets, many dissimilar peoples, but if a republic
+should make the attempt, that moment it must, of necessity, cease to be a
+republic, since the very foundation of such a government is the consent of
+the governed. The secession of the Southern States was a mere corollary of
+the American proposition of government; and the Northern States stultified
+themselves, the moment they attempted to resist it. The consent of the
+Southern States being wanted, there should have been an end of the
+question.
+
+If the Northern States were not satisfied to let them go, but entertained,
+on the contrary, a desire to restrain them by force, this was a proof,
+that those States had become tired of the republican form, and desired to
+change it. But they should have been honest about it; they should have
+avowed their intentions from the beginning, and not have waged the war, as
+so many republics, endeavoring to coerce other republics, into a forced
+union with them. To have been logical, they should have obliterated the
+State boundaries, and have declared all the States--as well the Northern
+States, as the Southern--so many counties of a consolidated government.
+But even then, they could not have made war upon any considerable number
+of those counties, without violating the fundamental American idea of a
+government--the consent of the governed. The right of self-government was
+vindicated in the Declaration of Independence, in favor of three millions
+of the subjects of Great Britain. In the States of the Southern
+Confederacy, there were eight millions.
+
+The American Republic, as has been said, was a failure, because of the
+antagonism of the two peoples, attempted to be bound together, in the same
+government. If there is to be but a single government in these States, in
+the future, it cannot be a republic. De Toqueville saw this, thirty years
+ago. In his "Democracy in America" he described these States, as "more
+like hostile nations, than rival parties, under one government."
+
+This distinguished Frenchman saw, as with the eye of intuition, the canker
+which lay at the heart of the federal compact. He saw looming up, in the
+dim distance, the ominous, and hideous form of that unbridled, and
+antagonistic Majority, which has since rent the country in twain--a
+majority based on the views, and interests of one section, arrayed against
+the views, and interests of the other section. "The majority," said he,
+"in that country, exercises a prodigious, actual authority, and a moral
+influence which is scarcely less preponderant; no obstacles exist, which
+can impede, or so much as retard its progress, or which can induce it to
+heed the complaints of those whom it crushes upon its path. * * * This
+state of things is fatal, in itself, and dangerous for the future. * * *
+If the free institutions of America are ever destroyed, that event may be
+attributed to the unlimited authority of the majority. * * * Anarchy will
+then be the result, but it will have been brought about by despotism."
+
+Precisely so; liberty is always destroyed by the multitude, in the name of
+liberty. Majorities within the limits of constitutional restraints are
+harmless, but the moment they lose sight of these restraints, the
+many-headed monster becomes more tyrannical, than the tyrant with a single
+head; numbers harden its conscience, and embolden it, in the perpetration
+of crime. And when this majority, in a free government, becomes a faction,
+or, in other words, represents certain classes and interests to the
+detriment of other classes, and interests, farewell to public liberty; the
+people must either become enslaved, or there must be a disruption of the
+government. This result would follow, even if the people lived under a
+consolidated government, and were homogenous: much more, then, must it
+follow, when the government is federal in form, and the States are, in the
+words of De Toqueville, "more like hostile nations, than rival parties,
+under one government." These States are, and indeed always have been rival
+nations.
+
+The dissimilarity between the people of the Northern, and the people of
+the Southern States has always been remarked upon, by observant
+foreigners, and it has not escaped the attention of our own historians.
+Indeed it could not be otherwise, for the origin of the two sections has
+been diverse. Virginia and Massachusetts were the two original germs,
+from which the great majority of the American populations has sprung; and
+no two peoples, speaking the same language, and coming from the same
+country, could have been more dissimilar, in education, taste, and habits,
+and even in natural instincts, than were the adventurers who settled these
+two colonies. Those who sought a new field of adventure for themselves,
+and affluence for their posterity, in the more congenial climate of the
+Chesapeake, were the gay, and dashing cavaliers, who, as a class,
+afterward adhered to the fortunes of the Charleses, whilst the first
+settlers of Massachusetts were composed of the same materials, that formed
+the "Praise-God-Barebones" parliament of Cromwell.
+
+These two peoples, seem to have had an instinctive repugnance, the one to
+the other. To use a botanical phrase, the Puritan was a seedling of the
+English race, which had been unknown to it before. It had few, or none of
+the characteristics of the original stock. Gloomy, saturnine, and
+fanatical, in disposition, it seemed to repel all the more kindly, and
+generous impulses of our nature, and to take a pleasure in pulling down
+everything, that other men had built up; not so much, as its subsequent
+history would seem to show, because the work was faulty, as because it had
+been done by other hands than their own. They hated tyranny, for instance,
+but it was only because they were not, themselves, the tyrants; they hated
+religious intolerance, but it was only when not practised by themselves.
+
+Natural affinities attracted like unto like. The Cavalier sought refuge
+with the Cavalier, and the Puritan with the Puritan, for a century, and
+more. When the fortunes of the Charleses waned, the Cavaliers fled to
+Virginia; when the fortunes of Cromwell waned, the Puritans fled to
+Massachusetts. Trade occasionally drew the two peoples together, but they
+were repelled at all other points. Thus these germs grew, step by step,
+into two distinct nations. A different civilization was naturally
+developed in each. The two countries were different in climate, and
+physical features--the climate of the one being cold and inhospitable, and
+its soil rugged, and sterile, whilst the climate of the other was soft,
+and genial, and its soil generous, and fruitful. As a result of these
+differences of climate, and soil, the pursuits of the two peoples became
+different, the one being driven to the ocean, and to the mechanic arts,
+for subsistence, and the other betaking itself to agriculture.
+
+Another important element soon presented itself, to widen the social, and
+economical breach, which had taken place between the two peoples--African
+slavery. All the Colonies, at first, became slaveholding, but it was soon
+found, that slave labor was unprofitable in the North, where the soil was
+so niggard, in its productions, and where, besides, the white man could
+labor. One, by one, the Northern States got rid of their slaves, as soon
+as they made this discovery. In the South, the case was different. The
+superior fertility of the soil, and the greater geniality of the climate
+enabled the planter to employ the African to advantage; and thus slave
+labor was engrafted on our system of civilization, as one of its permanent
+features.
+
+The effect was, as before remarked, a still greater divergence between the
+two peoples. The wealth of the South soon began to outstrip that of the
+North. Education and refinement followed wealth. Whilst the civilization
+of the North was coarse, and practical, that of the South was more
+intellectual, and refined. This is said in no spirit of disparagement of
+our Northern brethren; it was the natural, and inevitable result of the
+different situations of the two peoples. In the North, almost every young
+man was under the necessity, during our colonial existence, of laboring
+with his own hands, for the means of subsistence. There was neither the
+requisite leisure, nor the requisite wealth to bring about a very refined
+system of civilization. The life of a Southern planter on the other hand
+with his large estates, and hundreds of vassals, with his profuse
+hospitality, and luxurious style of living, resembled more that of the
+feudatories of the middle ages, than that of any modern gentleman out of
+the Southern States.
+
+It is not my object to express a preference for either of these modes of
+civilization--each, no doubt, had its advantages, and disadvantages--but
+to glance at them, merely, for the purpose of showing the dissimilarity of
+the two peoples; their uncongeniality, and want of adaptation, socially,
+the one to the other. With social institutions as wide asunder as the
+poles, and with their every material interest antagonistic, the separation
+of the two peoples, sooner or later, was a logical sequence.
+
+As had been anticipated by Patrick Henry, and others, the moment the new
+government went into operation, parties began to be formed, on sectional
+interests and sectional prejudices. The North wanted protection for her
+shipping, in the way of discriminating tonnage dues, and the South was
+opposed to such protection. The North wanted a bank, to facilitate their
+commercial operations; the South was opposed to it. The North wanted
+protection for their manufactures, the South was opposed to it. There was
+no warrant, of course, for any of these schemes of protection in the
+Federal Constitution; they were, on the contrary, subversive of the
+original design of that instrument. The South has been called aggressive.
+She was thrown on the defensive, in the first Congress, and has remained
+so, from that day to this. She never had the means to be aggressive,
+having been always in a minority, in both branches of the Legislature. It
+is not consistent with the scope of these memoirs, to enter, at large,
+into the political disputes which culminated in secession. They are many,
+and various, and would fill volumes. It will be sufficient to sketch the
+history of one or two of the more important of them.
+
+The "American System," of which Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, became the
+champion, and to which allusion has already been made, became the chief
+instrument of oppression of the Southern States, through a long series of
+years. I prefer to let a late distinguished Senator, from the State of
+Missouri, Mr. Benton, tell this tale of spoliation. On the slavery
+question, Mr. Benton was with the North, he cannot, therefore, be accused
+of being a witness unduly favorable to the South. In a speech in the
+Senate, in 1828, he declared himself, as follows: "I feel for the sad
+changes, which have taken place in the South, during the last fifty years.
+Before the Revolution, it was the seat of wealth, as well as hospitality.
+Money, and all it commanded, abounded there. But how is it now? All this
+is reversed. Wealth has fled from the South, and settled in regions north
+of the Potomac; and this in the face of the fact, that the South, in four
+staples alone, has exported produce, since the Revolution, to the value of
+eight hundred millions of dollars; and the North has exported
+comparatively nothing. Such an export would indicate unparalleled wealth,
+but what is the fact? In the place of wealth, a universal pressure for
+money was felt--not enough for current expenses--the price of all property
+down--the country drooping, and languishing--towns and cities
+decaying--and the frugal habits of the people pushed to the verge of
+universal self-denial, for the preservation of their family estates. Such
+a result is a strange, and wonderful phenomenon. It calls upon statesmen
+to inquire into the cause. Under Federal legislation, the exports of the
+South have been the basis of the Federal revenue. * * * _Virginia, the two
+Carolinas, and Georgia, may be said to defray three-fourths, of the annual
+expense of supporting the Federal Government_; and of this great sum,
+annually furnished by them, nothing, or next to nothing is returned to
+them, in the shape of Government expenditures. That expenditure flows in
+an opposite direction--it flows northwardly, in one uniform,
+uninterrupted, and perennial stream. _This is the reason why wealth
+disappears from the South and rises up in the North. Federal legislation
+does all this._ It does it by the simple process of eternally taking from
+the South, and returning nothing to it. If it returned to the South the
+whole, or even a good part, of what it exacted, the four States south of
+the Potomac might stand the action of the system, but the South must be
+exhausted of its money, and its property, by a course of legislation,
+which is forever taking away, and never returning anything. Every new
+tariff increases the force of this action. No tariff has ever yet included
+Virginia, the two Carolinas, and Georgia, except to increase the burdens
+imposed upon them."
+
+This picture is not overdrawn; it is the literal truth. Before the war the
+Northern States, and especially the New England States, exported next to
+nothing, and yet they "blossomed as the rose." The picturesque hills of
+New England were dotted with costly mansions, erected with money, of which
+the Southern planters had been despoiled, by means of the tariffs of which
+Mr. Benton spoke. Her harbors frowned with fortifications, constructed by
+the same means. Every cove and inlet had its lighthouse, for the benefit
+of New England shipping, three fourths of the expense of erecting which
+had been paid by the South, and even the cod, and mackerel fisheries of
+New England were _bountied_, on the bald pretext, that they were nurseries
+for manning the navy.
+
+The South resisted this wholesale robbery, to the best of her ability.
+Some few of the more generous of the Northern representatives in Congress
+came to her aid, but still she was overborne; and the curious reader, who
+will take the pains to consult the "Statutes at Large," of the American
+Congress, will find on an average, a tariff for every five years recorded
+on their pages; the cormorants increasing in rapacity, the more they
+devoured. No wonder that Mr. Lincoln when asked, "why not let the South
+go?" replied, "Let the South go! _where then shall we get our revenue?_"
+
+This system of spoliation was commenced in 1816. The doctrine of
+protection was not, at first, boldly avowed. A heavy debt had been
+contracted during the war of 1812, with Great Britain, just then
+terminated. It became necessary to raise revenue to pay this debt, as well
+as to defray the current expenses of the government, and for these
+laudable purposes, the tariff of 1816 was enacted. The North had not yet
+become the overshadowing power, which it has become in our day. It was
+comparatively modest, and only asked, that, in adjusting the duties under
+the tariff, such _incidental_ protection, as might not be inconsistent
+with the main object of the bill, to wit, the raising of revenue, should
+be given to Northern manufactures. It was claimed that these manufactures
+had sprung up, _sua sponte_, during the war, and had materially aided the
+country in prosecuting the war, and that they would languish, and die,
+unless protected, in this incidental manner. This seemed but just and
+reasonable, and some of the ablest of our Southern men gave their assent
+to the proposition; among others, Mr. Calhoun of South Carolina, and Mr.
+Clay of Kentucky.
+
+The latter, in particular, then a young member of the House of
+Representatives, espoused the Northern side of the controversy, and
+subsequently became known, as we have seen, as the father of the system.
+Much undeserved obloquy has been thrown upon Mr. Clay, for this supposed
+abandonment of his section. The most that he claimed, was that a temporary
+protection, of a few years' duration only, should be given to these infant
+manufactures, until they should become self-sustaining. In later life,
+when he saw the extent to which the measure was pushed, he did, indeed
+recoil from it, as Mr. Calhoun, with keener intellect, had done, years
+before. The wedge, being thus entered, was driven home by the insatiable
+North.
+
+In less than twenty years, or during the early part of General Jackson's
+administration, the public debt was paid off, and it became necessary to
+reduce the tariffs, to prevent a plethora in the public treasury; but the
+North, by this time, had "waxed fat," and like the ox in the scriptures,
+began to kick. From incidental protection, it advanced, boldly, to the
+doctrine of "_protection, for the sake of protection_"--thus avowing the
+unjust doctrine, that it was right to rob one section, for the benefit of
+the other; the pretence being the general good--the "general welfare"
+clause of the Constitution as well as the expression "We, the people," in
+the Preamble, being invoked to cover the enormity. Under the wholesale
+system of spoliation, which was now practised, the South was becoming
+poorer, and poorer. Whilst her abundant cotton crops supplied all the
+exchanges of the country, and put in motion, throughout the North, every
+species of manufacturing industry, from the cut-nail, which the planter
+put in the weather-boarding of his house, to the coach in which his wife,
+and daughters took an airing, it was found, that, from year to year,
+mortgages were increasing on her plantations, and that the planter was
+fast becoming little better, than the overseer of the Northern
+manufacturer, and the Northern merchant. A statesman of England once
+declared, that "not so much as a hob-nail should be manufactured, in
+America." The colonial dependence, and vassalage meant to be proclaimed by
+this expression, was now strictly true, as between the North, and the
+South. The South was compelled to purchase her hob-nails, in the North,
+being excluded by the Northern tariffs, from all other markets.
+
+South Carolina, taking the alarm at this state of things, resorted as we
+have seen, to nullification, in 1832. The quarrel was compromised in 1833,
+by the passage of a more moderate tariff, but the North still growing, in
+strength, and wealth, disregarded the compromise, in 1842, and enacted a
+more oppressive tariff than ever. From this time onward, no attempt was
+made to conciliate the South, by the practice of forbearance, and justice,
+and the latter sank, hopelessly, into the condition of a tributary
+province to her more powerful rival.
+
+All this was done under a federal compact, formed by sovereign States, for
+their common benefit! Thus was the prophecy of Patrick Henry verified,
+when he said: "But I am sure, that the dangers of this system [the Federal
+Constitution] are real, when those who have no similar interest with the
+people of this country [the South] are to legislate for us--when our
+dearest rights are to be left, in the hands of those, whose advantage it
+will be to infringe them." And thus also, was verified the declaration of
+Charles Cotesworth Pinkney, of South Carolina: "If they [the Southern
+States] are to form so considerable a minority, and the regulation of
+trade is to be given to the general Government, they will be nothing more
+than overseers of the Northern States."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY, AS IT AFFECTED SECESSION.
+
+
+Great pains have been taken, by the North, to make it appear to the world,
+that the war was a sort of moral, and religious crusade against slavery.
+Such was not the fact. The people of the North were, indeed, opposed to
+slavery, but merely because they thought it stood in the way of their
+struggle for empire. I think it safe to affirm, that if the question had
+stood upon moral, and religious grounds alone, the institution would never
+have been interfered with.
+
+The Republican party, which finally brought on the war, took its rise, as
+is well known, on the question of extending slavery to the
+Territories--those inchoate States, which were finally to decide the vexed
+question of the balance of power, between the two sections. It did not
+propose to disturb the institution in the States; in fact, the institution
+could do no harm there, for the States, in which it existed, were already
+in a hopeless minority. The fat, Southern goose could not resist being
+plucked, as things stood, but it was feared that if slavery was permitted
+to go into the Territories, the goose might become strong enough to resist
+being plucked. If proof were wanted of this, we have it, in the resolution
+passed by the Federal Congress, after the first battle of Manassas, in the
+first year of the war, as follows: "_Resolved_, That the war is not waged
+on our part, in any spirit of oppression, or for any purpose of conquest,
+or for interfering with the rights, or _established institutions of these
+States_, but to defend, and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution,
+and to preserve the Union, _with all the dignity and rights of the several
+States unimpaired_."
+
+In 1820, in the admission of Missouri into the Union, the North and the
+South had entered into a compromise, which provided, that slavery should
+not be carried into any of the Territories, north of a given geographical
+line. This compromise was clearly violative of the rights of the South,
+for the Territories were common property, which had been acquired, by the
+blood, and treasure, of the North and the South alike, and no
+discrimination could justly be made between the sections, as to emigration
+to those Territories; but discrimination would be made, if the Northern
+man could emigrate to all of them, and the Southern man to those of them
+only that lay South of the given line. By the passage of the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill, introduced into the House of Representatives, in
+1854 by Mr. Stephen A. Douglas, this unjust compromise was repealed; the
+repealing clause declaring, that the Missouri Compromise "being
+inconsistent with the principles of non-intervention, by Congress, with
+slavery in the States, and Territories, as recognized by the legislation
+of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby declared
+inoperative, and void; it being the true intent, and meaning of this act,
+not to legislate slavery into any Territory, or State, nor to exclude it
+therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form, and
+regulate their domestic institutions, subject only to the Constitution of
+the United States."
+
+Nothing would seem more just, than the passage of this act, which removed
+the restriction which had been put upon a portion of the States, threw
+open the Territories to immigration from all the States, alike, and left
+the question of local government, the question of slavery included, to be
+decided by the inhabitants of the Territories themselves. But this act of
+justice, which Mr. Douglas had had the address and ability to cause to be
+passed, was highly distasteful to the Northern people. It was not
+consistent with their views of empire that there should be any more
+Southern Slave States admitted into the Union. The Republican party,
+which, up to that time, had made but little headway, now suddenly sprang
+into importance, and at the next elections in the North, swept every thing
+before it. The Northern Democratic members of Congress who had voted for
+the hated measure, were beaten by overwhelming majorities, and Republicans
+sent in their places; and the Republican Convention which assembled at
+Chicago in 1860, to nominate a candidate for the Presidency, adopted as
+one of the "planks of its platform"--to use a slang political phrase of
+the day--the principle that slavery should thereafter be excluded from the
+Territories; not only from the Territories North of the geographical line,
+of the Missouri Compromise, but from all the Territories! The gauntlet of
+defiance was thus boldly thrown at the feet of the Southern States.
+
+From 1816 to 1860, these States had been plundered by tariffs, which had
+enriched the North, and now they were told without any circumlocution,
+that they should no longer have any share in the Territories. I have said
+that this controversy, on the subject of slavery, did not rest, in the
+North, on any question of morals or religion. The end aimed at, in
+restricting slavery to the States, was purely political; but this end was
+to be accomplished by means, and the Northern leaders had the sagacity to
+see, that it was all-important to mix up the controversy, _as a means_,
+with moral, and religious questions. Hence they enlisted the clergy in
+their crusade against the South; the pulpit becoming a rostrum, from which
+to inflame the Northern mind against the un-Godly slave-holder; religious
+papers were established, which fulminated their weekly diatribes against
+the institution; magazine literature, fiction, lectures, by paid
+itinerants, were all employed, with powerful effect, in a community where
+every man sets himself up as a teacher, and considers himself responsible
+for the morals of his neighbor. The contumely and insult thus heaped upon
+the South were, of themselves, almost past endurance, to say nothing of
+the wrongs, under which she suffered. The sectional animosity which was
+engendered by these means, in the North, soon became intense, and hurried
+on the catastrophe with railroad speed.
+
+Whilst the dispute about slavery in the Territories was drawing to a
+focus, another, and if possible, a still more exciting question, had been
+occupying the public mind--the rendition of fugitive slaves to their
+owners. Our ancestors, in the Convention of 1787, foreseeing the
+difficulty that was likely to arise on this subject, insisted that the
+following positive provision, for their protection, should be inserted in
+the Constitution: "No person held to service, or labor, in one State,
+under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of
+any law, or regulation therein, be discharged from such service, or labor;
+but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service, or
+labor may be due."
+
+In 1793, a law, called the fugitive slave law, had been passed, for the
+purpose of carrying out this provision of the Constitution. This law was
+re-enacted, with some alterations, the better to secure the object in
+question, in 1850. Neither of those laws was ever properly executed in the
+North. It soon became unsafe, indeed, for a Southern man to venture into
+the North, in pursuit of his fugitive slave. Mr. Webster sought, in vain,
+in the latter part of his life, when he seemed to be actuated by a sense
+of returning justice to the South, to induce his countrymen to execute
+those laws, and he lost much of his popularity, in consequence. The laws
+were not only positively disobeyed, but they were formally nullified by
+the Legislatures of fourteen of the Northern States; and penalties were
+annexed to any attempt to execute them. Mr. Webster, in speaking on this
+subject, says: "These States passed acts defeating the law of Congress, as
+far as it was in their power to defeat it. Those of them to whom I refer,
+not all, but several, nullified the law of 1793. They said in effect, 'We
+will not execute it. No runaway slave shall be restored.' Thus the law
+became a dead letter. But here was the Constitution, and compact still
+binding; here was the stipulation, as solemn as words could form it, and
+which every member of Congress, every officer of the General Government,
+every officer of the State government, from governors down to constables,
+is sworn to support. It has been said in the States of New York,
+Massachusetts, and Ohio, over and over again, that the law shall not be
+executed. That was the language in conventions, in Worcester,
+Massachusetts; in Syracuse, New York, and elsewhere. And for this they
+pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. Now,
+gentlemen, these proceedings, I say it upon my professional reputation,
+are distinctly treasonable. And the act of taking Shadrick [a fugitive
+slave] from the public authorities, in Boston, and sending him off, was an
+act of clear treason." Great outcry was raised against South Carolina when
+she nullified the tariff law of 1830, passed in clear violation of the
+spirit of the Constitution; here we see fourteen States nullifying an
+act, passed to carry out an express provision of the same instrument,
+about which there was not, and could not be any dispute.
+
+Let us again put Mr. Webster on the witness stand, and hear what he says,
+was the effect of this wholesale nullification by the Northern States of
+this provision of the Constitution. "I do not hesitate," says he, "to say,
+and repeat, that if the Northern States refuse wilfully, and deliberately
+to carry into effect that part of the Constitution, which respects the
+restoration of fugitive slaves, the South would be no longer bound to keep
+the compact. _A bargain broken on one side is broken on all sides._" That
+was spoken like Daniel Webster, the able jurist, and just man, and not
+like the Daniel Webster, whom I have before quoted, in these pages, as the
+casuist, and the sophist. The reader cannot fail to see what a full
+recantation we have here, of Mr. Webster's heresy, of 1833, when he
+contended that the Constitution had been "ordained and established," by
+the people of the United States, in the aggregate, as one nation.
+
+Mr. Webster now calls the States, the parties to the instrument, and
+claims that the infraction of it, by some of the States, releases the
+others from their obligations under it. It is then, after all, it seems, a
+_federal compact_; and if it be such, we have the authority of Mr.
+Webster, himself, for saying that the States may withdraw from it, at
+pleasure, without waiting for an infringement of it, by their co-States.
+
+But the Southern States did not desire to withdraw from it, without
+reason. They were sincerely attached to the Union, and were willing to
+suffer, and endure much rather than that it should be destroyed. They had
+stood, shoulder to shoulder, with the North in two wars against the mother
+country, and had freely spent their wealth, and shed their blood in
+defence of the common rights. They had rushed to the defence of New
+England, in the war of the Revolution, and had equally responded to her
+call in 1812, in defence of her shipping interest.
+
+Mr. Madison relied much upon these ties, as a common bond of union. When
+Patrick Henry and other Southern patriots were warning their people
+against the new alliance, proposed to them in the Federal Constitution,
+he spoke the following fervid language in reply to them, in one of the
+numbers of the "Federalist." "Hearken not to the unnatural voice, which
+tells you, that the people of America, knit together, as they are, by so
+many natural cords of affection, can no longer live together as members of
+the same family; can no longer continue mutual guardians of their mutual
+happiness. * * * No, my countrymen, shut your ears against this unhallowed
+language. Shut your hearts against the poison which it conveys. The
+kindred blood which flows in the veins of American citizens, the mingled
+blood which they have shed in defence of their sacred rights, consecrate
+their union, and excite horror at the idea of their becoming aliens,
+rivals, enemies." Much of this feeling still lingered in the bosoms of
+Southern men. They were slow to awaken from this dream of delusion. A rude
+and rough hand had been necessary to disenchant them. But they were
+compelled, in spite of themselves, to realize the fact at last, that they
+had been deceived, and betrayed into the federal compact, that they might
+be made slaves. Like an unhappy bride, upon whose brow the orange-wreath
+had been placed, by hands that promised tenderness, and protection, the
+South had been rudely scorned, and repelled, and forced, in tears, and
+bitter lamentation, to retract the faith which she had plighted. To carry
+still further our simile; like the deceived, and betrayed bride, the least
+show of relenting, and tenderness was sufficient to induce the South to
+forgive, and to endeavor to forget.
+
+The history of our unhappy connection with the North is full of
+compromises, and apparent reconciliations--prominent among which was the
+compromise of 1833, growing out of the nullification of South Carolina, on
+the tariff question; and the compromise of 1850, in which it was promised,
+that Congress should not interfere with the question of slavery, either in
+the States, or Territories. The South, like the too credulous bride,
+accepted these evidences of returning tenderness, in good faith; the
+North, like the coarse and brutal husband, whose selfishness was superior
+to his sense of justice, withdrew them, almost as soon as made. The
+obnoxious laws which had been modified, or repealed, under these
+compromises, were re-enacted with additional provocations, and
+restrictions.
+
+So loth was the South to abandon the Union, that she made strenuous
+efforts to remain in it, even after Mr. Lincoln had been elected
+President, in 1860. In this election, that dreaded sectional line against
+which President Washington had warned his countrymen, in his Farewell
+Address, had at last been drawn; in it,--"the fire-bell of the
+night,"--which had so disturbed the last days of Jefferson, had been
+sounded. There had, at last, arisen a united North, against a united
+South. Mr. Lincoln had been placed by the Chicago Convention on a platform
+so purely sectional, that no Southern State voted, or could vote for him.
+His election was purely geographical; it was tantamount to a denial of the
+co-equality of the Southern States, with the Northern States, in the
+Union, since it drove the former out of the common Territories. This had
+not been a mere party squabble--the questions involved had been _federal_,
+and _fundamental_. Notwithstanding which, some of the Southern States were
+not without hope, that the North might be induced to revoke its verdict.
+Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, introduced into the Senate, a series of
+resolutions, which he hoped would have the effect of restoring harmony;
+the chief feature of which was, the restoration of the Missouri
+Compromise, giving the Southern States access to the Territories south of
+a geographical line. Although this compromise was a partial abandonment of
+the rights of the South, many of the ablest, and most influential
+statesmen of that section, gave in their adhesion to it; among others, Mr.
+Jefferson Davis. The measure failed.
+
+Various other resolutions, looking to pacification, were introduced into
+both houses of Congress; but they failed, in like manner. The border Slave
+States aroused to a sense of their danger--for by this time, several of
+the Gulf States had seceded--called a Convention in the city of
+Washington, to endeavor to allay the storm. A full representation
+attended, composed of men, venerable for their years, and renowned for
+their patriotic services, but their labors ended also in failure; Congress
+scarcely deigned to notice them. In both houses of Congress the Northern
+faction, which had so recently triumphed in the election of their
+President, was arrayed in a solid phalanx of hostility to the South, and
+could not be moved an inch. The Puritan leaven had at last "leavened the
+whole loaf," and the descendants of those immigrants who had come over to
+America, in the _May Flower_, feeling that they had the power to crush a
+race of men, who had dared to differ with them in opinion, and to have
+interests separate and apart from them, were resolved to use that power in
+a way to do no discredit to their ancestry. Rebels, when in a minority,
+they had become tyrants, now that they were in a majority.
+
+Nothing remained to the South, but to raise the gantlet which had been
+thrown at her feet. The Federal Government which had been established by
+our ancestors had failed of its object. Instead of binding the States
+together, in peace, and amity, it had, in the hands of one portion of the
+States, become an engine of oppression of the other portion. It so
+happened, that the slavery question was the issue which finally tore them
+asunder, but, as the reader has seen, this question was a mere means, to
+an end. The end was empire, and we were about to repeat, in this
+hemisphere, the drama which had so often been enacted in the other, of a
+more powerful nation crushing out a weaker.
+
+The war of the American sections was but the prototype of many other wars,
+which had occurred among the human race. It had its origin in the
+unregenerated nature of man, who is only an intellectual wild beast, whose
+rapacity has never yet been restrained, by a sense of justice. The
+American people thought, when they framed the Constitution, that they were
+to be an exception to mankind, in general. History had instructed them
+that all other peoples, who had gone before them, had torn up paper
+governments, when paper was the only bulwark that protected such
+governments, but then they were the _American_ people, and no such fate
+could await them. The events which I have recorded, and am about to
+record, have taught them, that they are no better--and perhaps they are no
+worse--than other people. It is to be hoped that they will profit by their
+dear-bought experience, and that when they shall have come to their
+senses, and undertake to lay the foundation of a new government, they
+will, if they design to essay another republic, eliminate all discordant
+materials. The experiment of trusting to human honesty having failed, they
+must next trust to human interests--the great regulator, as all philosophy
+teaches, of human nature. They must listen rather to the philosophy of
+Patrick Henry, than to that of James Madison, and never attempt again to
+bind up in one sheaf, with a withe of straw, materials so discordant as
+were the people of the North, and the people of the South.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE FORMATION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT, AND THE RESIGNATION OF
+OFFICERS OF THE FEDERAL ARMY AND NAVY.
+
+
+As I am not writing a history of the war, but only of a very small portion
+of the war, it cannot be expected that I will follow events in a connected
+train. I have detained the reader, so far, as to give him a continuous,
+though hasty glance, of the causes of the war, but having brought him down
+to the final rupture of the sections, I must leave him to supply for
+himself many a link, here and there, in the broken chain, as we proceed.
+Let him imagine then that the Southern States have seceded--the gallant
+little State of South Carolina setting her larger, and more powerful
+sisters, the example, on the 20th December, 1860--and that they have met
+at Montgomery, in Alabama, by their delegates in Congress, to form a new
+Confederacy; that a Provisional Government has been formed and that Mr.
+Jefferson Davis has been elected President, and Mr. Alexander H. Stephens
+Vice-President.
+
+The time had now come for the officers of the old Army, and Navy to make
+their election, as to which of the two Governments they would give their
+adhesion. There were no such questions then, as rebellion, and treason in
+the public mind. This was a Federal after-thought, when that Government
+began to get the better of us in the war. The Puritan, if he had been
+whipped, would have been a capital secessionist, and as meek, and humble
+as we could have desired. He would have been the first to make a
+"perpetual" alliance with us, and to offer us inducements to give him the
+benefits of our trade. After the first drubbing we gave him, at Manassas,
+he was disposed to be quite reasonable, and the Federal Congress passed
+the conciliatory resolution I have quoted in a previous chapter,
+intimating to us, that if we would come back, slavery should be secure in
+the States, and our "rights and dignity" remain unimpaired. But as he
+gained strength, he gained courage, and as the war progressed, and it
+became evident that we should be beaten, he began to talk of traitors, and
+treason.
+
+As a general rule, the officers both of the Army, and the Navy sided with
+their respective States; especially those of them who were cultivated, and
+knew something of the form of government, under which they had been
+living. But even the profession of arms is not free from sordid natures,
+and many of these had found their way into both branches of the public
+service. Men were found capable of drawing their swords against their own
+firesides, as it were, and surrendering their neighbors, and friends to
+the vengeance of a government, which paid them for their fealty. Some,
+with cunning duplicity, even encouraged their former messmates, and
+companions who occupied places above them, to resign, and afterward held
+back themselves. Some were mere soldiers, and sailors of fortune, and
+seemed devoid of all sensibility on the subject, looking only to rank and
+pay. They were open to the highest bidder, and the Federal Government was
+in a condition to make the highest bids. Some of the Southern men of this
+latter class remained with the North, because they could not obtain the
+positions they desired in the South; and afterward, as is the fashion with
+renegades, became more bitter against their own people than even the
+Northern men.
+
+Civil war is a terrible crucible through which to pass character; the
+dross drops away from the pure metal at the first touch of the fire. It
+must be admitted, indeed, that there was some little nerve required, on
+the part of an officer of the regular Army, or Navy, to elect to go with
+his State. His profession was his only fortune; he depended upon it, for
+the means of subsisting himself and family. If he remained where he was, a
+competency for life, and promotion, and honors probably awaited him; if he
+went with the South, a dark, and uncertain future was before him; he could
+not possibly better his condition, and if the South failed, he would have
+thrown away the labor of a life-time. The struggle was hard in other
+respects. All professions are clannish. Men naturally cling together, who
+have been bred to a common pursuit; and this remark is particularly
+applicable to the Army, and the Navy. West Point, and Annapolis were
+powerful bonds to knit together the hearts of young men. Friendships were
+there formed, which it was difficult to sever, especially when
+strengthened by years of after-association, in common toils, common
+pleasures, and common dangers. Naval officers, in particular, who had been
+rocked together in the same storm, and had escaped perhaps from the same
+shipwreck, found it very difficult to draw their swords against each
+other. The flag, too, had a charm which it was difficult to resist. It had
+long been the emblem of the principle that all just governments are
+founded on the consent of the governed, vindicated against our British
+ancestors, in the War of the Revolution, and it was difficult to realize
+the fact that it no longer represented this principle, but had become the
+emblem of its opposite; that of coercing unwilling States, to remain under
+a Government, which they deemed unjust and oppressive.
+
+Sentiment had almost as much to do with the matter, as principle, for
+there clustered around the "old flag," a great many hallowed memories, of
+sacrifices made, and victories won.
+
+The cadet at West Point had marched and countermarched under its folds,
+dreaming of future battle-fields, and future honors to be gained in
+upholding and defending it; and the midshipman, as he gazed upon it, in
+some foreign port, flying proudly from the gaff-end of his ship, had drunk
+in new inspiration to do and to dare, for his country. Many bearded men
+were affected almost to tears, as they saw this once hallowed emblem
+hauled down from the flag-staves, of Southern forts, and arsenals. They
+were in the condition of one who had been forced, in spite of himself, to
+realize the perfidy of a friend, and to be obliged to give him up, as no
+longer worthy of his confidence or affection. General Robert E. Lee has so
+happily expressed all these various emotions, in a couple of letters,
+which he wrote, contemporaneously, with his resignation from the Federal
+Army, that I give them to the reader. One of these letters is addressed to
+General Winfield Scott, and the other to General Lee's sister.
+
+     ARLINGTON, VA., April 20, 1861.
+
+     GENERAL:--Since my interview with you on the 18th instant, I have
+     felt that I ought not longer to retain my commission in the army. I
+     therefore tender my resignation, which I request you will recommend
+     for acceptance. It would have been presented at once, but for the
+     struggle which it has cost me to separate myself from a service, to
+     which I have devoted all the best years of my life, and all the
+     ability I possessed. During the whole of that time--more than a
+     quarter of a century--I have experienced nothing but kindness from my
+     superiors, and the most cordial friendship from my comrades. To no
+     one, General, have I been as much indebted as yourself, for uniform
+     kindness and consideration, and it has always been my ardent desire
+     to merit your approbation. I shall carry to the grave the most
+     grateful recollection of your kind consideration, and your name and
+     fame will always be dear to me.
+
+     Save in defence of my native State, I never desire to draw my sword.
+     Be pleased to accept my most earnest wishes for the continuance of
+     your happiness and prosperity, and believe me most truly yours,
+
+        R. E. LEE.
+
+     _Lieutenant-General_ WINFIELD SCOTT,
+     _Commanding United States Army_.
+
+
+     ARLINGTON, VA., April 20, 1861.
+
+     MY DEAR SISTER:--I am grieved at my inability to see you * * * I have
+     been waiting "for a more convenient season," which has brought to
+     many before me deep and lasting regrets. Now we are in a state of war
+     which will yield to nothing. The whole South is in a state of
+     revolution, into which Virginia after a long struggle, has been
+     drawn, and _though I recognize no necessity for this state of
+     things_, and would have forborne and pleaded to the end, for redress
+     of grievances, real or supposed, yet in my own person I had to meet
+     the question, _whether I should take part against my native State_.
+     With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty, and
+     duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind
+     to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have
+     therefore resigned my commission in the army, and save in defence of
+     my native State, with the sincere hope that my services may never be
+     needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword.
+
+     I know you will blame me, but you must think as kindly of me as you
+     can, and believe that I have endeavored to do what I thought right.
+     To show you the feeling and struggle it has cost me, I send a copy of
+     my letter to General Scott, which accompanied my letter of
+     resignation. I have no time for more. * * * May God guard and protect
+     you, and yours, and shower upon you every blessing is the prayer of
+     your devoted brother.
+
+        R. E. LEE.
+
+In the winter of 1860, I was stationed in the city of Washington, as the
+Secretary of the Lighthouse Board, being then a commander in the United
+States Navy, and was an observer of many of the events I have described. I
+had long abandoned all hope of reconciliation between the sections. The
+public mind, North and South, was in an angry mood, and the day of
+compromises was evidently at an end. I had made up my mind to retire from
+the Federal service, at the proper moment, and was only waiting for that
+moment to arrive.
+
+Although I had been born in the State of Maryland, and was reared on the
+banks of the Potomac, I had been, for many years, a resident citizen of
+Alabama, having removed to this State, in the year 1841, and settled with
+my family, on the west bank of the Perdido; removing thence, in a few
+years, to Mobile. My intention of retiring from the Federal Navy, and
+taking service with the South, in the coming struggle, had been made known
+to the delegation in the Federal Congress from Alabama, early in the
+session of 1860-1. I did not doubt that Maryland would follow the lead of
+her more Southern sisters, as the cause of quarrel was common with all the
+Southern States, but whether she did or not, could make no difference with
+me now, since my allegiance, and my services had become due to another
+State.
+
+The month of February, 1861, found me still at the city of Washington. The
+following extract from a letter written by me to a Southern member of the
+Federal Congress, temporarily absent from his post, will show the state of
+mind in which I was looking upon passing events. "I am still at my post at
+the Light-House Board, performing my routine duties, but listening with an
+aching ear and beating heart, for the first sounds of the great disruption
+which is at hand." On the 14th of that month, whilst sitting quietly with
+my family, after the labors of the day, a messenger brought me the
+following telegram:--
+
+     MONTGOMERY, Feb. 14, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--On behalf of the Committee on Naval Affairs, I beg leave to
+     request that you will repair to this place, at your earliest
+     convenience.
+
+        _Your obedient servant_,
+          C. M. CONRAD, _Chairman_.
+
+     _Commander_ RAPHAEL SEMMES, _Washington, D. C._
+
+Here was the sound for which I had been so anxiously listening. Secession
+was now indeed a reality, and the time had come for me to arouse myself to
+action. The telegram threw my small family-circle into great commotion. My
+wife, with the instincts of a woman, a wife, and a mother, seemed to
+realize, as by intuition, all the dangers and difficulties that lay before
+me. She had been hoping without hope, that I would not be subjected to the
+bitter ordeal, but the die was now cast, and with a few tears, and many
+prayers she nerved herself for the sacrifices, and trials that she knew
+were before her. Her children were to be withdrawn from school, her
+comfortable home broken up, and she was to return, penniless, to her
+people, to abide with them the fortunes of a bloody, and a doubtful war.
+The heroism of woman! how infinitely it surpasses that of man. With all
+her gentleness, and tenderness, and natural timidity, in nine cases in
+ten, she has more nerve than the other sex, in times of great emergency.
+With a bleeding and bursting heart, she is capable of putting on the
+composure, and lovely serenity of an angel, binding up the wounds of a
+husband or son, and when he is restored to health and vigor, buckling on
+his sword anew, and returning him to the battle-field. Glorious women of
+the South! what an ordeal you have passed through, and how heroically you
+have stood the trying test. You lost the liberty which your husbands,
+sires, and sons struggled for, but only for a period. The blood which you
+will have infused into the veins of future generations will yet rise up to
+vindicate you, and "call you blessed."
+
+The telegram reached me about four o'clock, P. M., and I responded to it,
+on the same evening as follows:
+
+     WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 1861.
+
+     Hon. C. M. CONRAD, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs,
+     Congress of the Confederate States:--Despatch received; I will be
+     with you immediately.
+
+        Respectfully, &c.,
+          R. SEMMES.
+
+The next morning, I repaired, as usual, to the office of the Light House
+Board, in the Treasury building, General John A. Dix being then the
+Secretary of the Treasury, and _ex officio_ President of the Board, and
+wrote the following resignation of my commission, as a Commander in the
+United States Navy:
+
+     WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 15, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--I respectfully tender through you, to the President of the
+     United States, this, the resignation of the commission which I have
+     the honor to hold as a Commander in the Navy of the United States. In
+     severing my connection with the Government of the United States, and
+     with the Department over which you preside, I pray you to accept my
+     thanks for the kindness which has characterized your official
+     deportment towards me.
+
+     I have the honor to be very respectfully your obedient servant,
+
+        RAPHAEL SEMMES,
+          _Commander U. S. Navy_.
+
+     _Hon._ ISAAC TOUCEY, _Secretary of the Navy_,
+     _Washington, D. C._
+
+On the same day, I received the following acceptance of my resignation:--
+
+     Navy Department, Feb. 15, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--Your resignation as a Commander in the Navy of the United
+     States, tendered in your letter of this date, is hereby accepted.
+
+        I am respectfully your obedient servant,
+          I. TOUCEY.
+
+     RAPHAEL SEMMES, Esq., _late Commander_
+     _U. S. Navy, Washington_.
+
+A few days previously to my resignation, by the death of a lamented member
+of the Light-House Board, I had been promoted from the Secretaryship, to a
+Membership of that Board, and it now became necessary for me to inform the
+Board officially, of my being no longer a member of it, which I did in the
+following communication:--
+
+     WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 16, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--I have the honor to inform you, that I have resigned my
+     commission, as a Commander in the Navy of the United States, and
+     that, as a consequence, I am no longer a member of the Light-House
+     Board. In severing thus my connection with the Board, at which I have
+     had the honor to hold a seat, since the 17th of November, 1858, I
+     desire to say to the members, individually, and collectively, that I
+     shall carry with me to my home in the South, a grateful recollection
+     of the amenities, and courtesies which have characterized, on their
+     part, our official intercourse.
+
+        I am very respectfully your obedient servant,
+          RAPHAEL SEMMES.
+
+     _Commander_ T. A. JENKINS, _U. S. N._,
+     _Secretary Light-House Board, Washington_.
+
+I left in the Light-House Board, a South Carolinian, and a Virginian, both
+of whom were too loyal to their places, to follow the lead of their
+States. The South Carolinian has been rewarded with the commission of a
+Rear-Admiral, and the Virginian with that of a Commodore. The presence of
+these gentlemen in the Board may account for the fact, that my letter was
+not even honored with an acknowledgment of its receipt.
+
+I have said that there was no talk at this time, about traitors, and
+treason. The reader will observe how openly, and as a matter of course,
+all these transactions were conducted. The seceded States had been several
+months in getting their Conventions together, and repealing, with all due
+form, and ceremony, the ordinances by which the Federal Constitution had
+been accepted. Senators, and members of the House of Representatives of
+the Federal Congress had withdrawn from their seats, under circumstances
+unusually solemn, and impressive, which had attracted the attention of the
+whole country. Mr. Jefferson Davis, in particular, had taken leave of a
+full Senate, with crowded galleries, in a speech of great dignity and
+power, in the course of which he said: "We will invoke the God of our
+Fathers, who delivered them from the power of the Lion, to protect us from
+the ravages of the Bear; and thus putting our trust in God, and in our own
+firm hearts, and strong arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may."
+
+As the resignation of each officer of the Army, and Navy went in, it was
+well understood what his object was, and yet we have seen, that up to this
+period, the Government accepted them all, and permitted the officers to
+depart to their respective States. It was not known, as yet, to what
+extent the disintegration might go, and it was not safe therefore to talk
+of treason. "The wayward sisters" might decide to go in a body, in which
+event it would not have been _policy_ to attempt to prevent them, or to
+discuss questions of treason with them. The Secretary of the Navy did not
+think of arresting me, for telegraphing to the Congress of the Confederate
+States, that I would be with it, immediately; nor did he, though he knew
+my purpose of drawing my sword against the Federal Government, if
+necessary, refuse to accept my resignation. Nay, President Buchanan had
+decided that he had no power under the Federal Constitution, to coerce a
+State; though, like a weak old man as he had now become, he involved
+himself afterward in the inconsistency of attempting to hold possession of
+the ceded places within the limits of the States which had withdrawn from
+the Union. It could not but follow, logically, from the premise, that
+there was no power in the Federal Constitution to coerce a State, that the
+State had the right to secede; for clearly any one may do that which no
+one has the right to prevent him from doing.
+
+It was under such circumstances as these, that I dissolved my connection
+with the Federal Government, and returned to the condition of a private
+citizen, with no more obligation resting upon me, than upon any other
+citizen. The Federal Government, itself, had formally released me from the
+contract of service I had entered into with it, and, as a matter of
+course, from the binding obligation of any oath I had taken in connection
+with that contract. All this was done, as the reader has seen, before I
+moved a step from the city of Washington; and yet a subsequent Secretary
+of the Navy, Mr. Gideon Welles, has had the hardihood and indecency of
+accusing me of having been a "deserter from the service." He has
+deliberately put this false accusation on record, in a public document, in
+face of the facts I have stated--all of which were recorded upon the rolls
+of his office. I do not speak here of the clap-trap he has used about
+"treason to the flag," and the other stale nonsense which he has uttered
+in connection with my name, for this was common enough among his
+countrymen, and was perhaps to have been expected from men smarting under
+the castigation I had given them, but of the more definite and explicit
+charge, of "_deserting from the service_," when the service, itself, as he
+well knew, had released me from all my obligations to it.
+
+Another charge, with as little foundation, has been made against myself,
+and other officers of the Army and Navy, who resigned their commissions,
+and came South. It has been said that we were in the condition of _�l�ves_
+of the Federal Government, inasmuch as we had received our education at
+the military schools, and that we were guilty of ingratitude to that
+Government, when we withdrew from its service. This slander has no doubt
+had its effect, with the ignorant masses, but it can scarcely have been
+entertained by any one who has a just conception of the nature of our
+federal system of government. It loses sight of the fact, that the States
+are the creators, and the Federal Government the creature; that not only
+the military schools, but the Federal Government itself belongs to the
+States. Whence came the fund for the establishment of these schools? From
+the States. In what proportion did the States contribute it? Mr. Benton
+has answered this question, as the reader has seen, when he was discussing
+the effect of the tariffs under which the South had so long been depleted.
+He has told us, that four States alone, Virginia, the two Carolinas and
+Georgia, defrayed three fourths of the expenses of the General Government;
+and taking the whole South into view, this proportion had even increased
+since his day, up to the breaking out of the war.
+
+Of every appropriation, then, that was made by Congress for the support of
+the military schools, three fourths of the money belonged to the Southern
+States. Did these States send three fourths of the students to those
+schools? Of course not--this would have been something like justice to
+them; but justice to the Southern States was no part of the scheme of the
+Federal Government. With the exception of a few cadets, and midshipmen "at
+large," whom the President was authorized to appoint--the intention being
+that he should appoint the sons of deceased officers of the Army and Navy,
+but the fact being that he generally gave the appointment to his political
+friends--the appointments to these schools were made from the several
+States, in proportion to population, and as a matter of course, the North
+got the lion's share. But supposing the States to have been equally
+represented in those schools, what would have been the result? Why, simply
+that the South not only educated her own boys, but educated three fourths
+of the Northern boys, to boot. Virginia, for instance, at the same time
+that she sent young Robert E. Lee to West Point, to be educated, put in
+the public treasury not only money enough to pay for his education, and
+maintenance, but for the education and maintenance of three Massachusetts
+boys! How ungrateful of Lee, afterward, being thus a charity scholar of
+the North, to draw his sword against her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AUTHOR PROCEEDS TO MONTGOMERY, AND REPORTS TO THE NEW GOVERNMENT, AND IS
+DISPATCHED NORTHWARD, ON A SPECIAL MISSION.
+
+
+On the evening of the 16th of February, the day after I had resigned my
+commission, I took a sorrowful leave of my family, and departed for
+Montgomery, by the way of Fredericksburg and Richmond. Virginia and North
+Carolina had not yet seceded, and anxious debates were going on, on the
+all-absorbing question, in each town and village in these two States,
+through which I passed. It was easy to see, that the great majority of the
+people were with the extreme South, in this her hour of need, but there
+were some time-servers and trimmers, who still talked of conciliation, and
+of guarantees. They inquired eagerly after news from Washington, at all
+the stations at which the train stopped, and seemed disappointed when they
+found we had nothing more to tell them, than they had already learned
+through the telegraph.
+
+On the evening of the 18th, I entered the level tract of pine lands
+between West Point, and Montgomery. The air had become soft, and balmy,
+though I had left a region of frosts, and snow, only two days before. The
+pine woods were on fire as we passed through them, the flames now and then
+running up a lightwood tree, and throwing a weird and fitful glare upon
+the passing train. The scene was peculiarly Southern, and reminded me that
+I was drawing near my home, and my people, and I mechanically repeated to
+myself the words of the poet:
+
+  "Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
+  Who never to himself hath said,
+  This is my own, my native land!"
+
+And my heart, which up to that moment, had felt as though a heavy weight
+were pressing upon it, began to give more vigorous beats, and send a more
+inspiring current through my veins. Under this happy influence I sank, as
+the night advanced, and the train thundered on, into the first sound sleep
+which had visited my weary eyelids, since I had resigned my commission,
+and read at the foot of the letter accepting my resignation, my name
+inscribed as plain "Esq." This night-ride, through the burning pine woods
+of Alabama, afterward stood as a great gulf in my memory, forming an
+impassable barrier, as it were, between my past, and my future life. It
+had cost me pain to cross the gulf, but once crossed, I never turned to
+look back. When I washed and dressed for breakfast, in Montgomery, the
+next morning, I had put off the old man, and put on the new. The labors,
+and associations of a lifetime had been inscribed in a volume, which had
+been closed, and a new book, whose pages were as yet all blank, had been
+opened.
+
+My first duty was to put myself in communication with Mr. Conrad, the
+chairman of the Committee of Naval Affairs. Several naval officers had
+preceded me to the seat of the new government, and others were arriving.
+It was agreed that there should be a special meeting on the next day, in
+joint session, of the two committees--on military and naval affairs.
+
+The Confederate Congress was in session in the State Capitol, and about
+noon, I repaired thither to witness the spectacle. They did me the honor
+to admit me to the floor, and upon casting my eyes over the august
+assembly, I recognized a number of familiar faces. General Howell Cobb of
+Georgia was the President; Toombs, Crawford, and other distinguished men
+were there from the same State. Curry, McRae, Robert H. Smith and other
+able men were there from Alabama. In short the Congress was full of the
+best talent of the South. It was by far the best Congress that ever
+assembled under the new government. It was a convention as well as a
+Congress, since it was charged with the establishment of a Provisional
+Government. Every one realized the greatness of the crisis that was upon
+us, and hence the very best men in the community had been selected to meet
+the emergency. The harmony of the body was equal to its ability, for, in
+the course of a few weeks, it had put the complicated machinery of a
+government in motion, and was already taking active measures for defence,
+in case the Federal power should decide upon making war upon us.
+
+Mr. Davis, the Provisional President, had preceded me to the capital, only
+a few days, and my next step was to call upon him. I had known him in the
+city of Washington. He received me kindly, and almost the first question
+which he asked me, was whether I had disembarrassed myself of my Federal
+commission. I replied to him that I had done so, as a matter of course,
+before leaving Washington, and that my allegiance henceforth belonged to
+the new government, and to the Southern people. He seemed gratified at
+this declaration, and entered into a free, and frank conversation with me,
+on the subject of the want of preparation for defence, in which he found
+our States, and the great labor that lay before us, to prepare for
+emergencies. Congress, he said, has not yet had time to organize a navy,
+but he designed to make immediate use of me, if I had no objection. I told
+him that my services were at his command, in any capacity he thought fit
+to employ them. He then explained to me his plan of sending me back to the
+city of Washington, and thence into the Northern States, to gather
+together, with as much haste as possible, such persons, and materials of
+war as might be of most pressing necessity.
+
+The persons alluded to, were to be mechanics skilled in the manufacture,
+and use of ordnance, and rifle machinery, the preparation of fixed
+ammunition, percussion caps, &c. So exclusively had the manufacture of all
+these articles for the use of the United States, been confined to the
+North, under "the best government the world ever saw," that we had not
+even percussion caps enough to enable us to fight a battle, or the
+machines with which to make them, although we had captured all the forts,
+and arsenals within our limits, except Fort Sumter and Fort McRae. The
+President was as calm and unmoved as I had ever seen him, and was living
+in a very simple, and unpretending style at the Exchange Hotel. He had not
+yet selected all his Cabinet; nor indeed had he so much as a private
+secretary at his command, as the letter of instructions which he afterward
+presented me, for my guidance, was written with his own hand. This letter
+was very full, and precise, frequently descending into detail, and
+manifesting an acquaintance with bureau duties, scarcely to have been
+expected from one who had occupied his exalted positions.
+
+On the next day, I attended the joint-session of the two committees above
+named. These committees were composed, as was to have been expected, of
+some of the best men of the Congress. Conrad, Crawford, Curry, and the
+brilliant young Bartow of Georgia were present, among others whose names I
+do not now recall. But few naval officers of any rank had as yet withdrawn
+from the old service; Rousseau, Tattnall, Ingraham, and Randolph were all
+the captains; and Farrand, Brent, Semmes, and Hartstone were all the
+commanders. Of these there were present before the committees, besides
+myself, Rousseau, Ingraham, and Randolph; Major Wm. H. Chase, late of the
+engineers of the Federal Army, was also present. Randolph commanded the
+Navy Yard at Pensacola, and Chase the military defences. We discussed the
+military and naval resources of the country, and devised such means of
+defence as were within our reach--which were not many--to enable us to
+meet the most pressing exigences of our situation, and separated after a
+session of several hours. I can do no more, of course, than briefly glance
+at these things, as I am not writing, as before remarked, the history of
+the war.
+
+The next morning I called again on the President, received my
+instructions, and departed Northward on the mission which had been
+assigned me. I will be brief in the description of this mission also. I
+stopped a day at Richmond, and examined the State Arsenal, in charge of
+Capt. Dimmock, and the Tredegar Iron Works; having been especially
+enjoined to report upon the present, and future capacity of these works
+for the casting of cannon, shot, shells, &c. The establishment had already
+turned its attention in this direction, and I was gratified to find that
+it was capable of almost indefinite enlargement, and that it could be made
+a most valuable auxiliary to us. The reader will see how confidently we
+already reckoned upon the support of Virginia.
+
+Reaching Washington again, I visited the Arsenal, and inspected such of
+its machinery as I thought worth my notice, particularly an improved
+percussion-cap machine which I found in operation. I also held conferences
+with some mechanics, whom I desired to induce to go South. Whilst I was
+in Washington Mr. Abraham Lincoln, the newly elected President of the
+United States, arrived, for the purpose of being inaugurated. Being purely
+a sectional President, and feeling probably that he had no just right to
+rule over the South, he had come into the city by night, and in disguise,
+afraid to trust himself among a people of whom he claimed to be Chief
+Magistrate. Poor old General Winfield Scott was then verging toward
+senility, and second childhood, and had contributed no little, perhaps, to
+Mr. Lincoln's alarm. He had been gathering together troops for some days,
+in the Federal capital, for the purpose of inaugurating, amid bayonets, a
+President of the United States. It had been the boast of the American
+people, heretofore, that their Presidents did not need guards, but trusted
+wholly for their security, to the love, and confidence of their
+constituents, but the reign of peace, and good will was at an end, and the
+reign of the bayonet was to ensue. The rumbling of artillery through the
+streets of Washington, and the ring of grounded arms on the pavements, had
+sounded the death-knell of liberty in these States for generations. Swarms
+of visitors from far and near, in the North and West, had flocked to
+Washington, to see _their_ President inaugurated, and were proud of this
+spectacle of arms; too stupid to see its fearful significance.
+
+The auspicious day, the 4th of March, at length arrived, and whilst the
+glorious pageant is being prepared; whilst the windows and the house-tops
+along Pennsylvania Avenue are being thronged with a motley population of
+men and women, come to see the show; whilst the President elect, in a
+hollow square of bayonets, is marching toward the Capitol, the writer of
+these pages, having again taken leave of his family, was hurrying away
+from the desecration of a capital, which had been ceded by a too credulous
+Maryland, and Virginia, and which had been laid out by Washington. As I
+left the Baltimore depot, extra trains were still pouring their thousands
+into the streets of Washington. I arrived in New York, the next day, and
+during the next three weeks, visited the West Point Academy, whither I
+went to see a son, who was a cadet at the Institution, and who afterward
+became a major of light artillery, in the Confederate service; and made a
+tour through the principal work-shops of New York, Connecticut, and
+Massachusetts.
+
+I found the people everywhere, not only willing, but anxious to contract
+with me. I purchased large quantities of percussion caps in the city of
+New York, and sent them by express without any disguise, to Montgomery. I
+made contracts for batteries of light artillery, powder, and other
+munitions, and succeeded in getting large quantities of the powder
+shipped. It was agreed between the contractors and myself, that when I
+should have occasion to use the telegraph, certain other words were to be
+substituted, for those of military import, to avoid suspicion.
+
+I made a contract, conditioned upon the approval of my Government, for the
+removal to the Southern States, of a complete set of machinery for rifling
+cannon, with the requisite skilled workmen to put it in operation. Some of
+these men, who would thus have sold body, and soul to me, for a sufficient
+consideration, occupied high social positions, and were men of wealth. I
+dined with them, at their comfortable residences near their factories,
+where the music of boring out cannon, accompanied the clatter of the
+dishes, and the popping of champagne-corks; and I had more than one
+business interview with gentlemen, who occupied the most costly suites of
+apartments at the Astor House in New York City. Many of these gentlemen,
+being unable to carry out their contracts with the Confederate States
+because of the prompt breaking out of the war, afterward obtained
+lucrative contracts from the Federal Government, and became, in
+consequence, intensely _loyal_. It would be a _quasi_ breach of honor to
+disclose their names, as they dealt with me, pretty much as conspirators
+against their government are wont to deal with the enemies of their
+government, secretly, and with an implied confidence that I would keep
+their secret. It is accordingly safe.
+
+In the mean time, the great revolution was progressing. Abraham Lincoln
+had delivered his inaugural address, with triple rows of bayonets between
+him, and the people to whom he was speaking, in which address he had
+puzzled his hearers, and was no doubt puzzled himself, as to what he
+really meant. He was like President Buchanan; now he saw it, and now he
+didn't. He would not coerce the States, but he would hold on to the ceded
+places within their limits, and collect the public revenue. Texas, and
+Arkansas went out whilst I was in New York. The bulletin-boards at the
+different newspaper offices were daily thronged by an unwashed multitude,
+in search of some new excitement. The Northern public was evidently
+puzzled. It had at first rather treated secession as a joke. They did not
+think it possible that the Southern people could be in earnest, in
+dissolving their connection with a people, so eminently proper as
+themselves; but they now began to waver in this opinion. Still they
+forbore any decided demonstration. Like sensible men they preferred
+waiting until they could see how large a bull they were required to take
+by the horns.
+
+Toward the latter part of my stay in New York I received the following
+letter from the Hon. Stephen R. Mallory, who had been appointed Secretary
+of the Navy, which branch of the public service had been organized since I
+had left Montgomery:
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA,
+     NAVY DEPT., MONTGOMERY, ALA., March 13, 1861.
+
+     COMMANDER RAPHAEL SEMMES.
+
+     SIR:--With the sanction of the President, I am constrained to impose
+     upon you duties connected with this Department, in addition to the
+     important trusts with which you are charged; but I do so, upon the
+     express understanding, that they are not to interfere with the
+     performance of your special duties. I have received reliable
+     information, that two, or more steamers, of a class desired for
+     immediate service, may be purchased at, or near New York; steamers of
+     speed, light draught, and strength sufficient for at least one heavy
+     gun. When I say to you, that they are designed to navigate the
+     waters, and enter the bays, and inlets of the coast, from Charleston
+     to the St. Mary's, and from Key West, to the Rio Grande, for coast
+     defence; that their speed should be sufficient to give them, at all
+     times, the ability to engage, or evade an engagement; and that eight
+     or ten-inch guns, with perhaps two thirty-twos, or if not, two of
+     smaller calibre should constitute their battery, your judgment will
+     need no further guide. Be pleased, should your other important
+     engagements permit, to make inquiries, in such manner as may not
+     excite special attention, and give me such details as to cost,
+     character, &c., as you may deem important.
+
+Under these instructions I made diligent search in the waters of New York,
+for such steamers as were wanted, but none could be found. The river, and
+Long Island Sound boats were mere shells, entirely unfit for the purposes
+of war, and it was difficult to find any of the sea-going steamers, which
+combined the requisite lightness of draught, with the other qualities
+desired.
+
+March was now drawing to a close, the war-cloud was assuming darker, and
+more portentous hues, and it soon became evident that my usefulness in the
+North was about to end. Men were becoming more shy of making engagements
+with me, and the Federal Government was becoming more watchful. The New
+York, and Savannah steamers were still running, curiously enough carrying
+the Federal flag at the peak, and the Confederate flag at the fore; and in
+the last days of March, I embarked on board one of them, arriving in
+Montgomery on the 4th of April, just eight days before fire was opened
+upon Fort Sumter. During the short interval that elapsed between my
+arrival, and my going afloat, I was put in charge of the Light-House
+Bureau; the Confederate Congress having, upon my recommendation,
+established a Bureau, with a single naval officer at its head, instead of
+the complicated machinery of a Board, which existed in the old Government.
+I had barely time to appoint the necessary clerks, and open a set of
+books, before Fort Sumter was fired upon, and the tocsin of war was
+sounded.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE COMMISSIONING OF THE SUMTER, THE FIRST CONFEDERATE STATES' SHIP OF
+WAR.
+
+
+Fort Sumter surrendered on the 13th of April. The next day was a gala day
+in Montgomery. We had driven an insolent enemy from one of the strongest
+positions in the South, and the people were all agog to hear the news. A
+large Confederate flag was displayed from a balcony of the War Office, and
+the Hon. L. P. Walker, the Secretary of War, announced in a brief speech,
+to the assembled multitude below, amid repeated cheering, and the waving
+of hats, and handkerchiefs, the welcome tidings. The Union men, who have
+become so numerous since the war, had, if any of them were in the city,
+slunk to their holes, and corners, and the air was redolent, alone, of
+Southern patriotism, and Southern enthusiasm.
+
+The driving of the enemy from Charleston harbor, decided the fate of
+Virginia, which had been trembling in the balance for some days. The grand
+old State could no longer resist her generous impulses. Under a
+proclamation of President Lincoln the martial hosts of an enraged and
+vindictive North were assembling, to make war upon her sisters, and this
+was enough--her ordinance of secession was passed, by a very gratifying
+majority. Patrick Henry had become a prophet, and the beautiful, and
+touching apostrophe of James Madison to the "kindred blood," and the
+"mingled blood" of the American people, which was given to the reader a
+few pages back, had proved to be the mere chimera of an excited
+imagination.
+
+The effect of the surrender of Sumter in the North was beyond conception.
+A prominent leader of the public press of that section had said of the
+American flag:--
+
+  "Tear down that flaunting lie,
+  Half-mast the starry flag,
+  Insult no sunny sky
+  With hate's polluted rag."
+
+Instantly, and as if by the touch of a magician's wand, the polluted rag
+became the rallying cry of the whole Northern people, and of none more so,
+than of the very men who had thus denounced it. But there was method in
+this madness; the rag had only been polluted whilst it was the emblem of
+good faith between the North, and the South; whilst, in other words, it
+prevented the mad fanatics of the North from violating that slave
+property, which _their_ ancestors had promised _our_ ancestors, in the
+solemn league and covenant of the Constitution, should forever remain
+inviolate.
+
+But now that the rag, instead of being an obstacle, might be made the
+means of accomplishing their designs, it was no longer necessary to pull
+it down. The moment it was fired upon, it became, in their eyes, a new
+flag, and the symbol of a new faith. It was no longer to represent the
+federative principle, or to protect the rights of States; it was
+henceforth to wave over yelling, and maddened majorities, whose will was
+to be both Constitution, and law. Strange that the thinking portion of the
+Northern people did not see this; strange that the hitherto conservative
+Democratic party did not see it. Or was it that the whole North had been
+wearing a mask, and that the mask was now no longer available, or
+desirable, to hide their treachery?
+
+Perhaps the future historian, in calmer moments, when the waves of passion
+engendered by the late storm shall have sunk to rest, will be better able
+to answer this question. For the present it is sufficient to record the
+fact, mortifying, it must be confessed, to poor human nature, that all our
+quondam friends, without so many as half a dozen exceptions in a whole
+nation--I speak, of course, of prominent men--went over to the common
+enemy. The very men who had stood, shoulder to shoulder, with us, in
+resisting Northern aggression, who had encouraged us with pen, and voice,
+to resist, if need be, unto the death, who promised in case of secession,
+to stand between us, and the march of Northern armies of invasion,
+instantly, and without even the salvo to their consciences of
+circumlocution, changed their political faith of a life-time, and became,
+if not straight-out Republicans, at least blatant War Democrats.
+
+The reader cannot be at a loss to account for this change. It was caused
+by the purest, and most refined selfishness. Next to the love of wealth,
+the love of office may be said to be the distinguishing passion of the
+American people. In the hands of a skilful office-seeker, patriotism is a
+mere word with which to delude the ignorant masses, and not a sentiment,
+or a creed, to be really entertained. Our allies in the North were very
+patriotic, whilst there were still hopes of preserving the Union, and
+along with it the prospect of office, by the aid of the Southern people,
+but the moment the Southern States went out, and it became evident that
+they would be politically dead, unless they recanted their political
+faith, it was seen that they had no intention of becoming martyrs. Their
+motto, on the contrary, became _sauve qui peut_, and the d----l take the
+hindmost; and the banks of the new political Jordan were at once crowded
+with a multitude anxious to be dipped in its regenerating waters!
+
+As the tidings of these doings in the North were flashed to us, over the
+wires, in Montgomery, it became evident to me, that the Light-House Bureau
+was no longer to be thought of. It had become necessary for every man, who
+could wield a sword, to draw it in defence of his country, thus threatened
+by the swarming hordes of the North, and to leave the things of peace to
+the future.
+
+I had already passed the prime of life, and was going gently down that
+declivity, at whose base we all arrive, sooner or later, but _I thanked
+God_, that I had still a few years before me, and vigor enough of
+constitution left, to strike in defence of the right. I at once sought an
+interview with the Secretary of the Navy, and explained to him my desire
+to go afloat. We had, as yet, nothing that could be called a navy; not a
+ship indeed, if we except a few river steamers, that had been hastily
+armed by some of the States, and turned over, by them, to the Navy
+Department. The naval officers, who had come South, had brought with them
+nothing but their poverty, and their swords; all of them who had been in
+command of ships, at the secession of their respective States, having,
+from a sense of honor, delivered them back to the Federal Government.
+
+If a sense of justice had presided at the separation of the States, a
+large portion of the ships of the Navy would have been turned over to the
+South; and this failing to be done, it may be questionable whether the
+Southern naval officers, in command, would not have been justified in
+bringing their ships with them, which it would have been easy for them to
+do. But, on the other hand, they had been personally intrusted with their
+commands, by the Federal Government, and it would have been treason to a
+military principle, if not to those great principles which guide
+revolutions, to deliver those commands to a different government. Perhaps
+they decided correctly--at all events, a military, or naval man, cannot go
+very far astray, who abides by the point of honor.
+
+Shortly before the war-cloud had arisen so ominously above the political
+horizon, I had written a letter to a distinguished member of the Federal
+Congress from the South, in reply to one from himself, giving him my views
+as to the naval policy of our section, in case things should come to a
+crisis. I make no apology to the reader for presenting him with the
+following extract from that letter, bearing upon the subject, which we
+have now in hand. "You ask me to explain what I mean, by an irregular
+naval force. I mean a well-organized system of private armed ships, called
+privateers. If you are warred upon at all, it will be by a commercial
+people, whose ability to do you harm will consist chiefly in ships, and
+shipping. It is at ships and shipping, therefore, that you must strike;
+and the most effectual way to do this, is, by means of the irregular force
+of which I speak. Private cupidity will always furnish the means for this
+description of warfare, and all that will be required of you will be to
+put it under sufficient legal restraints, to prevent it from degenerating
+into piracy, and becoming an abuse. Even New England ships, and New
+England capital would be at your service, in abundance. The system of
+privateering would be analogous to the militia system on the land. You
+could have a large irregular sea force, to act in aid of the regular naval
+force, so long as the war lasted, and which could be disbanded, without
+further care or expense, at the end of the war."
+
+Wealth is necessary to the conduct of all modern wars, and I naturally
+turned my eyes, as indicated in the above letter, to the enemy's chief
+source of wealth. The ingenuity, enterprise, and natural adaptation of the
+Northern people to the sea, and seafaring pursuits, had enabled them,
+aided by the vast resources, which they had filched, under pretence of
+legislation, from the South, to build up, in the course of a very few
+years, a commercial marine that was second only to that of Great Britain,
+in magnitude and importance.
+
+The first decked vessel that had been built in the United States, was
+built by one Adrian Block, a Dutch skipper, on the banks of the Hudson, in
+1614, and in 1860, or in less than two centuries and a half, the great
+Republic was competing with England, the history of whose maritime
+enterprise extended back a thousand years, for the carrying trade of the
+world! This trade, if permitted to continue, would be a powerful means of
+sustaining the credit of the enemy, and enabling him to carry on the war.
+Hence it became an object of the first necessity with the Confederate
+States, to strike at his commerce. I enlarged upon this necessity, in the
+interview I was now holding with Mr. Mallory, and I was gratified to find
+that that able officer agreed with me fully in opinion.
+
+A Board of naval officers was already in session at New Orleans, charged
+with the duty of procuring, as speedily as possible, some light and fast
+steamers to be let loose against the enemy's commercial marine, but their
+reports up to this time, had been but little satisfactory. They had
+examined a number of vessels, and found some defects in all of them. The
+Secretary, speaking of the discouragement presented by these reports,
+handed me one of them, which he had received that morning, from the Board.
+I read it, and found that it described a small propeller steamer, of five
+hundred tons burden, sea-going, with a low-pressure engine, sound, and
+capable of being so strengthened as to be enabled to carry an ordinary
+battery of four, or five guns. Her speed was reported to be between nine,
+and ten knots, but unfortunately, said the Board, she carries but five
+days' fuel, and has no accommodations for the crew of a ship of war. She
+was, accordingly, condemned. When I had finished reading the report, I
+turned to the Secretary, and said, "Give me that ship; I think I can make
+her answer the purpose." My request was at once acceded to, the Secretary
+telegraphed to the Board, to receive the ship, and the clerks of the
+Department were set at work, to hunt up the necessary officers, to
+accompany me, and make out the proper orders. And this is the way in which
+the Confederate States' steamer _Sumter_, which was to have the honor of
+being the first ship of war to throw the new Confederate flag to the
+breeze, was commissioned. I had accepted a stone which had been rejected
+of the builders, and which, though, it did not afterward become the "chief
+corner-stone of the temple," I endeavored to work into the building which
+the Confederates were then rearing, to remind their posterity that they
+had struggled, as Patrick Henry and his contemporaries had struggled
+before them, "in defence of their liberties."
+
+The next day, the chief clerk of the Navy Department handed me the
+following order:
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA,
+     NAVY DEPARTMENT, MONTGOMERY, April 18, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--You are hereby detached from duty as Chief of the Light-House
+     Bureau, and will proceed to New Orleans, and take command of the
+     steamer _Sumter_ (named in honor of our recent victory over Fort
+     Sumter). The following officers have been ordered to report to you,
+     for duty: Lieutenants John M. Kell, R. T. Chapman, John M. Stribling,
+     and Wm. E. Evans; Paymaster Henry Myers; Surgeon Francis L. Galt;
+     Midshipmen, Wm. A. Hicks, Richard F. Armstrong, Albert G. Hudgins,
+     John F. Holden, and Jos. D. Wilson. I am respectfully your obedient
+     servant,
+
+        S. R. MALLORY, _Secretary of the Navy_.
+
+     _Commander_ RAPHAEL SEMMES.
+
+The reader will observe that I am addressed as a "commander," the rank
+which I held in the old service. The Navy Department, in consultation with
+the President, had adopted the rule of accepting all the officers who
+chose to come to us from the old Navy--as the Federal Navy began now to be
+called--without increase of rank; and in arranging them on the Navy-list,
+their old _relative_ rank was also preserved. This rule had two good
+effects; it did not tempt any officer to come to us, moved by the hope of
+immediate promotion, and it put us all on an equal footing, in the future
+race for honors.
+
+I had been living in Montgomery as a bachelor, at the house of Mr. Wm.
+Knox, an old friend--my family having gone to spend some time with a
+beloved brother, in Maryland, until I could see, by the light of events,
+what final disposition to make of it. It did not occupy me long,
+therefore, to make my preparations for departure, in obedience to my
+orders. I took a respectful, and affectionate leave of the officers of the
+government, with whom I had been associated, and embarked on the afternoon
+of the same day on which I had received my orders, on board the steamer
+_Southern Republic_ for Mobile. At Mobile I fell in with Lieutenant
+Chapman, one of the officers who had been detailed to report to me, and
+he, being a minute-man like myself, took a hasty leave of a young wife,
+and we continued our journey together.
+
+I found Mobile, like the rest of the Confederacy, in a great state of
+excitement. Always one of the truest of Southern cities, it was boiling
+over with enthusiasm; the young merchants had dropped their daybooks and
+ledgers, and were forming, and drilling companies, by night and by day,
+whilst the older ones were discussing questions of finance, and anxiously
+casting about them, to see how the Confederate Treasury could be
+supported. The Battle House, at which I stopped for a few hours, previous
+to taking the steamer for New Orleans, was thronged with young men in
+military costume, and all seemed going "as merrily as a marriage-bell."
+Alas! my poor young countrymen, how many of you had disappeared from the
+scene, when I next returned among you, near the close of the war, and how
+many poor mothers there were, weeping for the sons that were not. But your
+gallant and glorious record!--that, at least, remains, and must remain
+forever; for you have inscribed your names so high on the scroll of fame,
+that the slanderous breath of an ungenerous foe can never reach them.
+
+I arrived in New Orleans, on Monday, the 22d of April, and at once put
+myself in communication with the commanding naval officer, the venerable
+Lawrence Rousseau, since gone to his long home, full of years, and full of
+honors. Like a true son of the South he had obeyed the first call of his
+fatherland, the State of Louisiana, and torn off the seal from the
+commission of a Federal captain, which he had honored for forty years. I
+will not say, "peace to his ashes," for the spirit of a Christian
+gentleman, which animated his frame during life, has doubtless received
+its appropriate reward; nor will I say aught of his name, or fame, for
+these are embalmed in the memories of his countrymen. He was my friend,
+and in that name "friend" I pronounce his eulogy. On the same day of my
+arrival, in company with Lieutenant Chapman, I inspected, and took
+possession of my new ship. I found her only a dismantled packet-ship, full
+of upper cabins, and other top-hamper, furniture, and crockery, but as
+unlike a ship of war as possible. Still, I was pleased with her general
+appearance. Her lines were easy, and graceful, and she had a sort of saucy
+air about her, which seemed to say, that she was not averse to the service
+on which she was about to be employed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE PREPARATION OF THE SUMTER FOR SEA--SHE DROPS DOWN BETWEEN THE FORTS
+JACKSON, AND ST. PHILIP--RECEIVES HER SAILING ORDERS--LIST OF OFFICERS.
+
+
+A great change was apparent in New Orleans since I had last visited it.
+The lev�e in front of the city was no longer a great mart of commerce,
+piled with cotton bales, and supplies going back to the planter; densely
+packed with steamers, and thronged with a busy multitude. The long lines
+of shipping above the city had been greatly thinned, and a general air of
+desolation hung over the river front. It seemed as though a pestilence
+brooded over the doomed city, and that its inhabitants had fled before the
+fell destroyer. The _Sumter_ lay on the opposite side of the river, at
+Algiers, and I crossed over every morning to superintend her refitment. I
+was sometimes detained at the ferry-house, waiting for the ferry-boat, and
+on these occasions, casting my eyes up and down the late busy river, it
+was not unfrequent to see it without so much as a skiff in motion on its
+bosom.
+
+But this first simoon of the desert which had swept over the city, as a
+foretaste of what was to come, had by no means discouraged its patriotic
+inhabitants. The activity of commerce had ceased, it is true, but another
+description of activity had taken its place. War now occupied the thoughts
+of the multitude, and the sound of the drum, and the tramp of armed men
+were heard in the streets. The balconies were crowded with lovely women in
+gay attire, to witness the military processions, and the Confederate flag
+in miniature was pinned on almost every bosom. The enthusiasm of the
+Frenchman had been most easily and gracefully blended with the stern
+determination of the Southern man of English descent; the consequence of
+which was, that there was more demonstrative patriotism in New Orleans,
+than in any other of our Southern cities. Nor was this patriotism
+demonstrative only, it was deep and real, and was afterward sealed with
+some of the best Creole blood of the land, poured out, freely, on many a
+desperate battle-field. Alas! poor Louisiana. Once the seat of wealth, and
+of a gay and refined hospitality, thy manorial residences are deserted,
+and in decay, or have been levelled by the torch of the incendiary; thy
+fruitful fields, that were cultivated by the contented laborer, who
+whistled his merriment to his lazy plow, have been given to the jungle;
+thy fair daughters have been insulted, by the coarse, and rude Vandal; and
+even thy liberties have been given in charge of thy freedmen; and all
+this, because thou wouldst thyself be free!
+
+I now took my ship actively in hand, and set gangs of mechanics at work to
+remove her upper cabins, and other top-hamper, preparatory to making the
+necessary alterations. These latter were considerable, and I soon found
+that I had a tedious job on my hands. It was no longer the case, as it had
+been in former years, when I had had occasion to fit out a ship, that I
+could go into a navy-yard, with well-provided workshops, and skilled
+workmen ready with all the requisite materials at hand to execute my
+orders. Everything had to be improvised, from the manufacture of a
+water-tank, to the "kids, and cans" of the berth-deck messes, and from a
+gun-carriage to a friction-primer. I had not only to devise all the
+alterations but to make plans, and drawings of them, before they could be
+comprehended. The main deck was strengthened, by the addition of heavy
+beams to enable it to support the battery; a berth-deck was laid for the
+accommodation of the crew; the engine, which was partly above the
+water-line, was protected by a system of wood-work, and iron bars; the
+ship's rig was altered so as to convert her into a barkentine, with
+square-sails on her fore and main-masts; the officers' quarters, including
+my own cabin, were re-arranged; new suits of sails were made, and new
+boats constructed; hammocks and bedding were procured for the crew, and
+guns, gun-carriages, and ammunition ordered. Two long, tedious months were
+consumed in making these various alterations, and additions. My battery
+was to consist of an eight-inch shell gun, to be pivoted amidships, and
+of four light thirty-two pounders, of thirteen cwt. each, in broadside.
+
+The Secretary of the Navy, who was as anxious as myself that I should get
+to sea immediately, had given me all the assistance in his power, readily
+acceding to my requests, and promptly filling, or causing to be filled,
+all my requisitions. With the secession of Virginia we had become
+possessed of a valuable depot of naval supplies, in the Norfolk Navy Yard.
+It was filled with guns, shot, shell, cordage, and everything that was
+useful in the equipment of a ship, but it was far away from New Orleans,
+and such was the confusion along the different lines of railroad, that it
+was difficult to procure transportation. Commander Terry Sinclair, the
+active ordnance officer of the yard, had early dispatched my guns, by
+railroad, but weeks elapsed without my being able to hear anything of
+them. I was finally obliged to send a lieutenant in search of them, who
+picked them up, one by one, as they had been thrown out on the road-side,
+to make room for other freight. My gun-carriages I was obliged to have
+constructed myself, and I was fortunate enough to obtain the services of a
+very ingenious mechanic to assist me in this part of my duties--Mr. Roy, a
+former employee of the Custom-House, within whose ample walls he had
+established his work-shop. He contrived most ingeniously, and constructed
+out of railroad iron, one of the best carriages (or rather, slide and
+circle) for a pivot-gun, which I have ever seen. The large foundry of
+Leeds & Co. took the contract for casting my shot, and shells, and
+executed it to my satisfaction.
+
+Whilst all these various operations are going on, we may conveniently look
+around us upon passing events, or at least upon such of them as have a
+bearing upon naval operations. President Davis, a few days after the
+secession of Virginia, and when war had become imminent, issued a
+proclamation for the purpose of raising that irregular naval force, of
+which I have spoken in a previous page. Parties were invited to apply for
+letters-of-marque and reprisal, with a view to the fitting out of
+privateers, to prey upon the enemy's commerce. Under this proclamation
+several privateers--generally light-draught river-steamers, with one or
+two small guns each--were hastily prepared, in New Orleans, and had
+already brought in some prizes captured off the mouths of the Mississippi.
+Even this small demonstration seemed to surprise, as well as alarm the
+Northern government, for President Lincoln now issued a proclamation
+declaring the molestation of Federal vessels, on the high seas, by
+Confederate cruisers, _piracy_. He had also issued a proclamation
+declaring the ports of the Confederacy in a state of blockade. The mouths
+of the Mississippi were to be sealed on the 25th of May.
+
+The European governments, as soon as it became evident, that the two
+sections were really at war, took measures accordingly. Great Britain took
+the lead, and declared a strict neutrality between the combatants. It was
+of the essence of such a declaration, that it should put both belligerents
+on the same footing. This was apparently done, and the cruisers of both
+sections were prohibited, alike, from taking their prizes into British
+ports. I shall have something to say of the unequal operation of this
+declaration of neutrality, in a future part of these memoirs; for the
+present it is only necessary to state, that it acknowledged us to be in
+possession of belligerent rights. This was a point gained certainly, but
+it was no more than was to have been expected. Indeed, Great Britain could
+do nothing less. In recognizing the war which had broken out between the
+sections, as a war, and not as a mere insurrection, she had only followed
+the lead of Mr. Lincoln himself. Efforts had been made it is true, both by
+Mr. Lincoln, and his Secretary of State, to convince the European
+governments that the job which they had on their hands was a small affair;
+a mere family quarrel, of no great significance.
+
+But the truth would not be suppressed, and when, at last, it became
+necessary to declare the Confederate ports in a state of blockade, and to
+send ships of war thither, to enforce the declaration, the sly little game
+which they had been playing was all up with them. A blockade was an act of
+war, which came under the cognizance of the laws of nations. It concerned
+neutrals, as well as belligerents, and foreign nations were bound to take
+notice of it. It followed that there could not be a blockade without a
+war; and it equally followed, that there could not be a war without at
+least two belligerent parties to it. It will thus be seen, that the
+declaration of neutrality of Great Britain was a logical sequence of Mr.
+Lincoln's, and Mr. Seward's own act. And yet with sullen, and singular
+inconsistency, the Northern Government has objected, from that day to
+this, to this mere routine act of Great Britain. So much was this act
+considered, as a matter of course, at the time, that all the other powers
+of the earth, of sufficient dignity to act in the premises, at all,
+followed the example set them by Great Britain, and issued similar
+declarations; and the four years of bloody war that followed justified the
+wisdom of their acts.
+
+We may now return to the equipment of the _Sumter_. A rendezvouz had been
+opened, and a crew had been shipped for her, which was temporarily berthed
+on board the receiving ship, _Star of the West_, a transport-steamer of
+the enemy, which had been gallantly captured by some Texans, and turned
+over to the Navy. New Orleans was full of seamen, discharged from ships
+that had been laid up, and more men were offering themselves for service,
+than I could receive. I had the advantage, therefore, of picking my crew,
+an advantage which no one but a seaman can fully appreciate. My
+lieutenants, surgeon, paymaster, and marine officer had all arrived, and,
+with the consent of the Navy Department, I had appointed my engineers--one
+chief, and three assistants--boatswain, carpenter, and sailmaker. My
+provisions had been purchased, and were ready to be put on board, and my
+funds had already arrived, but we were still waiting on the mechanics,
+who, though doing their best, had not yet been able to turn the ship over
+to us. From the following letter to the Secretary of the Navy, inclosing a
+requisition for funds, it will be seen that my demands upon the department
+were quite moderate, and that I expected to make the _Sumter pay her own
+expenses_, as soon as she should get to sea.
+
+     NEW ORLEANS, May 14, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--I have the honor to inclose, herewith, a requisition for the
+     sum of $10,000, which I request may be remitted to the paymaster of
+     the _Sumter_, in specie, for use during my contemplated cruise. I may
+     find it necessary to coal several times, and to supply my crew with
+     fresh provisions, &c., before I have the opportunity of replenishing
+     my military chest from the enemy.
+
+The ammunition remained to be provided, and on the 20th of May, I
+dispatched Lieutenant Chapman to the Baton Rouge Arsenal, which had been
+captured a short time before, for the purpose of procuring it, under the
+following letter of instructions:
+
+     NEW ORLEANS, May 20, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--You will proceed to Baton Rouge, and put yourself in
+     communication with the commander of the C. S. Arsenal, at that point,
+     for the purpose of receiving the ammunition, arms, shot, shell, &c.,
+     that may be required for the supply of the C. S. steamer _Sumter_,
+     now fitting for sea at this port. It is presumed that the proper
+     orders [which had been requested] have been, or will be dispatched
+     from Montgomery, authorizing the issue of all such articles, as we
+     may need. Should this not be the case, with regard to any of the
+     articles, it is hoped that the ordnance officer in charge will not
+     hesitate to deliver them, as it is highly important that the _Sumter_
+     should not be detained, because of any oversight, or informality, in
+     the orders of the War Department. Be pleased to present the
+     accompanying requisition to Captain Booth, the superintendent, and
+     ask that it may be filled. The gunner will be directed to report to
+     you, to accompany you to Baton Rouge, on this service.
+
+The reader will thus perceive that many difficulties lay in the way of
+equipping the _Sumter_; that I was obliged to pick up one material here,
+and another there, as I could best find it, and that I was not altogether
+free from the routine of the "Circumlocution Office," as my requisitions
+had frequently to pass through many hands, before they could be complied
+with.
+
+About this time, we met with a sad accident in the loss of one of our
+midshipmen, by drowning. He, with other young officers of the _Sumter_,
+had been stationed, temporarily, on board the receiving ship, in charge of
+the _Sumter's_ crew, whilst the latter ship was still in the hands of the
+mechanics. The following letter of condolence to the father of the young
+gentleman will sufficiently explain the circumstances of the disaster:
+
+     NEW ORLEANS, May 18, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--It becomes my melancholy duty to inform you, of the death, by
+     drowning, yesterday, of your son, Midshipman John F. Holden, of the
+     C. S. steamer _Sumter_. Your son was temporarily attached to the
+     receiving ship (late _Star of the West_) at this place, whilst the
+     _Sumter_ was being prepared for sea, and whilst engaged in carrying
+     out an anchor, in a boat belonging to that ship, met his melancholy
+     fate, along with three of the crew, by the swamping of the boat, in
+     which he was embarked. I offer you, my dear sir, my heartfelt
+     condolence on this sad bereavement. You have lost a cherished son,
+     and the Government a valuable and promising young officer.
+
+     W. B. HOLDEN, ESQ., _Louisburg, Tenn._
+
+War had begun, thus early, to demand of us our sacrifices. Tennessee had
+not yet seceded, and yet this ardent Southern youth had withdrawn from the
+Naval Academy, and cast his lot with his section.
+
+A few extracts from my journal will now, perhaps, give the reader a better
+idea of the progress of my preparations for sea, and of passing events,
+than any other form of narrative. _May 27th._--News received this morning
+of the appearance, at Pass � L'Outre, yesterday, of the U. S. steamer
+_Brooklyn_, and of the establishment of the blockade. Work is progressing
+satisfactorily, and I expect to be ready for sea, by Sunday next.
+
+News of skirmishing in Virginia, and of fresh arrivals of Northern troops,
+at Washington, _en route_ for that State. The Federal Government has
+crossed the Potomac, in force, and thus inaugurated a bloody, and a bitter
+war, by the invasion of our territory. So be it--we but accept the
+gantlet, which has been flung in our faces. The future will tell a tale
+not unworthy of the South, and her glorious cause.
+
+_Monday, May 30th._ My patience is sorely tried by the mechanics. The
+water-tanks for the _Sumter_ are not yet completed. The carriage for the
+8-inch gun was finished, to-day, and we are busy laying down the circles
+for it, and cutting the holes for the fighting-bolts. The carriages for
+the 32-pounders are promised us, by Saturday next, and also the copper
+tanks for the magazine. Our ammunition, and small arms arrived, yesterday,
+from Baton Rouge. Besides the _Brooklyn_, at the Passes, we learn, to-day,
+that the _Niagara_, and _Minnesota_, two of the enemy's fastest, and
+heaviest steamships have arrived, to assist in enforcing the blockade, and
+to lie in wait for some ships expected to arrive, laden with arms and
+ammunition, for the Confederacy. _May 31st._--The tanks are at last
+finished, and they have all been delivered, to-day. Leeds & Co. have done
+an excellent job, and I shall be enabled to carry three months' water for
+my crew. We shall now get on, rapidly, with our preparations.
+
+_Saturday, June 1st_, finds us not yet ready for sea! The tanks have all
+been taken on board, and stowed; the gun carriages for the 32s will be
+finished on Monday. The circles for the 8-inch gun have been laid down,
+and the fighting-bolts are ready for placing. On Monday I shall throw the
+crew on board, and by Thursday next, I shall, _without doubt_ be ready for
+sea. We are losing a great deal of precious time. The enemy's flag is
+being flaunted in our faces, at all our ports by his ships of war, and his
+vessels of commerce are passing, and repassing, on the ocean, in defiance,
+or in contempt of our power, and, as yet, we have not struck a blow.
+
+At length on the 3d of June, I was enabled to put the _Sumter_, formally,
+in commission. On that day her colors were hoisted, for the first
+time--the ensign having been presented to me, by some patriotic ladies of
+New Orleans--the crew was transferred to her, from the receiving ship, and
+the officers were ordered to mess on board. The ship was now hauled off
+and anchored in the stream, but we were delayed two long and tedious weeks
+yet, before we were finally ready. During these two weeks we made a trial
+trip up the river, some ten or twelve miles. Some of the principal
+citizens were invited on board, and a bright, and beautiful afternoon was
+pleasantly spent, in testing the qualities of the ship, the range of her
+guns, and the working of the gun-carriages; the whole ending by a
+collation, in partaking of which my guests were kind enough to wish me a
+career full of "_blazing_ honors."
+
+I was somewhat disappointed in the speed of my ship, as we did not succeed
+in getting more than nine knots out of her. There was another great
+disadvantage. With all the space I could allot to my coal-bunkers, she
+could be made to carry no more than about eight days' fuel. We had masts,
+and sails, it is true, but these could be of but little use, when the coal
+was exhausted, as the propeller would remain a drag in the water, there
+being no means of hoisting it. It was with such drawbacks, that I was to
+take the sea, alone, against a vindictive and relentless enemy, whose Navy
+already swarmed on our coasts, and whose means of increasing it were
+inexhaustible. But the sailor has a saying, that "Luck is a Lord," and we
+trusted to luck.
+
+On the 18th of June, after all the vexatious delays that have been
+described, I got up my anchor, and dropped down to the Barracks, below the
+city a short distance, to receive my powder on board, which, for safety,
+had been placed in the State magazine. At 10.30 P. M. of the same day, we
+got up steam, and by the soft and brilliant light of a moon near her full,
+threw ourselves into the broad, and swift current of the Father of Waters,
+and ran rapidly down to the anchorage, between Fort Jackson, and Fort St.
+Philip, where we came to at 4 A. M. In the course of the day, Captain
+Brand, an ex-officer of the old Navy, and now second in command of the
+forts, came on board to make us the ceremonial visit; and I subsequently
+paid my respects to Major Duncan, the officer in chief command, an
+ex-officer of the old Army. These gentlemen were both busy, as I found
+upon inspecting the forts, in perfecting their batteries, and drilling
+their men, for the hot work that was evidently before them. As was
+unfortunately the case with our people, generally, at this period, they
+were over-confident. They kindly supplied some few deficiencies, that
+still remained in our gunner's department, and I received from them a
+howitzer, which I mounted on my taffarel, to guard against boat attacks,
+by night.
+
+I remained three days at my anchors between the forts, for the purpose of
+stationing, and drilling my crew, before venturing into the presence of
+the enemy; and I will take advantage of this lull to bring up some matters
+connected with the ship, which we have hitherto overlooked. On the 7th of
+June, the Secretary of the Navy--the Government having, in the mean time,
+removed to Richmond--sent me my sailing orders, and in my letter of the
+14th of the same month, acknowledging their receipt, I had said to him: "I
+have an excellent set of men on board, though they are nearly all green,
+and will require some little practice, and drilling, at the guns, to
+enable them to handle them creditably. Should I be fortunate enough to
+reach the high seas, you may rely upon my implicit obedience of your
+instructions, 'to do the enemy's commerce the greatest injury, in the
+shortest time.'"
+
+Here was a model of a letter of instruction--it meant "burn, sink, and
+destroy," always, of course, within the limits prescribed by the laws of
+nations, and with due attention to the laws of humanity, in the treatment
+of prisoners. The reader will see, as we progress, that I gave the
+"implicit obedience" which had been promised, to these instructions, and
+that if greater results were not accomplished, it was the fault of the
+_Sumter_, and not of her commander. In the same letter that brought me my
+sailing orders, the Secretary had suggested to me the propriety of
+adopting some means of communicating with him, by cipher, so that, my
+despatches, if captured by the enemy, would be unintelligible to him. The
+following letter in reply to this suggestion, will explain how this was
+arranged: "I have the honor to enclose herewith a copy of 'Reid's English
+Dictionary,' a duplicate of which I retain, for the purpose mentioned in
+your letter of instructions, of the 7th instant. I have not been able to
+find in the city of New Orleans, 'Cobb's Miniature Lexicon,' suggested by
+you, or any other suitable dictionary, with but a single column on a page.
+This need make no difference, however. In my communications to the
+Department, should I have occasion to refer to a word in the copy sent, I
+will designate the first column on the page, A, and the second column, B.
+Thus, if I wish to use the word 'prisoner,' my reference to it would be as
+follows: 323, B, 15; the first number referring to the page, the letter to
+the column, and the second number to the number of the word from the top
+of the column." By means of this simple, and cheap device, I was enabled,
+at all times, to keep my dispatches out of the hands of the enemy, or, in
+other words, prevent him from interpreting them, when I had anything of
+importance to communicate.
+
+Before leaving New Orleans, I had, in obedience to a general order of the
+service, transmitted to the Navy Department, a Muster Roll of the
+officers, and men, serving on board the _Sumter_. Her crew, as reported by
+this roll, consisted of ninety-two persons, exclusive of officers. Twenty
+of these ninety-two persons were marines--a larger guard than was usual
+for so small a ship. The officers were as follows:
+
+_Commander._--Raphael Semmes.
+
+_Lieutenants._--John M. Kell; Robert T. Chapman; John M. Stribling;
+William E. Evans.
+
+_Paymaster._--Henry Myers.
+
+_Surgeon._--Francis L. Galt.
+
+_1st Lieutenant of Marines._--B. Howell.
+
+_Midshipmen._--William A. Hicks; Albert G. Hudgins; Richard F. Armstrong;
+Joseph D. Wilson.
+
+_Engineers._--Miles J. Freeman; William P. Brooks; Matthew O'Brien; Simeon
+W. Cummings.
+
+_Boatswain._--Benjamin P. Mecasky.
+
+_Gunner._--Thomas C. Cuddy.
+
+_Sailmaker._--W. P. Beaufort.
+
+_Carpenter._--William Robinson.
+
+_Captain's Clerk._--W. Breedlove Smith.
+
+Commissions had been forwarded to all the officers entitled to receive
+them, and acting appointments had been given by me to the warrant
+officers. It will thus be seen, how formally all these details had been
+attended to. These commissions were to be our warrants for what we were to
+do, on the high seas.
+
+And now the poor boon will be permitted to human nature, that before we
+launch our frail bark, on the wild sea of adventure, before us, we should
+turn our thoughts, homeward, for a moment.
+
+  "'And is he gone?'--on sudden solitude
+  How oft that fearful question will intrude!
+  'Twas but an instant past--and here he stood!
+  And now!--without the portal's porch she rushed,
+  And then at length her tears in freedom gushed;
+  Big, bright, and fast, unknown to her they fell;
+  But still her lips refused to send 'farewell!'
+  For in that word--that fatal word--howe'er
+  We promise--hope--believe--there breathes despair."
+
+Such was the agony of many a fair bosom, as the officers of the _Sumter_
+had torn themselves from the embraces of their families, in those scenes
+of leave-taking, which more than any other, try the sailor's heart.
+Several of them were married men, and it was long years before they
+returned to the homes which they had made sad by their absence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+AFTER LONG WAITING AND WATCHING, THE SUMTER RUNS THE BLOCKADE OF THE
+MISSISSIPPI, IN OPEN DAYLIGHT, PURSUED BY THE BROOKLYN.
+
+
+Whilst we were lying at our anchors between the forts, as described in the
+last chapter, Governor Moore of Louisiana, who had done good service to
+the Confederacy, by seizing the forts, and arsenals in his State, in
+advance of secession, and the Hon. John Slidell, lately returned from his
+seat in the Federal Senate, and other distinguished gentlemen came down,
+on a visit of inspection to the forts. I went on shore to call on them,
+and brought them on board the _Sumter_ to lunch with me. My ship was, by
+this time, in excellent order, and my crew well accustomed to their
+stations, under the judicious management of my first lieutenant, and I
+took pleasure in showing these gentlemen how much a little discipline
+could accomplish, in the course of a few weeks. Discipline!--what a power
+it is everywhere, and under all circumstances; and how much the want of it
+lost us, as the war progressed. What a pity the officers of our army did
+not have their respective commands, encircled by wooden walls, with but a
+"single monarch to walk the peopled deck."
+
+Just at nightfall, on the evening of the 21st of June, I received the
+following despatch from the commanding officer of the forts:
+
+     CAPTAIN:--I am desired by the commanding officer to state, that the
+     _Ivy_--this was a small tender of the forts, and
+     letter-of-marque--reports that the _Powhatan_ has left, in pursuit of
+     two ships, and that he has a telegram from Pass � L'Outre, to the
+     effect, that a boat from the _Brooklyn_ had put into the river and
+     was making for the telegraph station, where she was expected to
+     arrive within a few minutes.
+
+The _Powhatan_ was blockading the Southwest Pass, and it was barely
+possible that I might get to sea, through this pass, if a pilot could be
+at once procured; and so I immediately ordered steam to be raised, and
+getting up my anchor, steamed down to the Head of the Passes, where the
+river branches into its three principal outlets. Arriving here, at
+half-past ten P. M. I dispatched a boat to the light-house, for a pilot;
+but the keeper _knew nothing_ of the pilots, and was unwilling to come on
+board, himself, though requested. The night wore away, and nothing could
+be done.
+
+The telescope revealed to us, the next morning, that the _Powhatan_ had
+returned to her station. From the sullen, and unsatisfactory message,
+which had been returned to me, by the keeper of the light-house, I began
+to suspect that there was something wrong, about the pilots; and it being
+quite necessary that I should have one constantly, on board, to enable me
+to take advantage of any temporary absence of the enemy's cruisers,
+without having to hunt up one for the emergency, I dispatched the _Ivy_,
+to the pilots' station, at the Southwest Pass, in search of one. This
+active little cruiser returned in the course of a few hours, and reported
+that none of the pilots were willing to come on board of me! I received,
+about the same time, a telegraphic despatch from the Southwest Pass,
+forwarded to me through Major Duncan, which read as follows: "Applied to
+the Captain of the Pilots' Association for a pilot for the _Sumter_. He
+requested me to state, that there are no pilots on duty now!" "So ho! sits
+the wind in that quarter," thought I--I will soon set this matter right.
+I, at once, sent Lieutenant Stribling on board the _Ivy_, and directed him
+to proceed to the Pilots' Association, and deliver, and see executed the
+following written order:
+
+     C. S. STEAMER SUMTER, HEAD OF THE PASSES,
+     June 22, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--This is to command you to repair on board this ship, with three
+     or four of the most experienced pilots of the Bar. I am surprised to
+     learn, that an unwillingness has been expressed, by some of the
+     pilots of your Association, to come on board the _Sumter_; and my
+     purpose is to test the fact of such disloyalty to the Confederate
+     States. If any man disobeys this summons I will not only have his
+     Branch taken from him, but I will send an armed force, and arrest,
+     and bring him on board.
+
+This order had the desired effect, and in the course of the afternoon,
+Lieutenant Stribling returned, bringing with him, the Captain of the
+Association, and several of the pilots. I directed them to be brought into
+my cabin, and when they were assembled, demanded to know the reason of
+their late behavior. Some stammering excuses were offered, which I cut
+short, by informing them that one of them must remain on board constantly,
+and that they might determine for themselves, who should take the first
+week's service; to be relieved at the end of the week, by another, and so
+on, as long as I should find it necessary. One of their number being
+designated, I dismissed the rest. The reader will see how many faithful
+auxiliaries, Admiral Farragut afterward found, in the Pilots' Association
+of the mouths of the Mississippi, when he made his famous ascent of the
+river, and captured its great seaport. Nor was this defection confined to
+New Orleans. The pilots along our whole Southern coast were, with few
+exceptions, Northern men, and as a rule they went over to the enemy,
+though pretending, in the beginning of our troubles, to be good
+secessionists. The same remark may be applied to our steamboat men, of
+Northern birth, as a class. Many of them had become domiciled in the
+South, and were supposed to be good Southern men, until the crucial test
+of self-interest was applied to them, when they, too, deserted us, and
+took service with the enemy.
+
+The object of the _Brooklyn's_ boat, which, as we have seen, pulled into
+the telegraph station at Pass � L'Outre, just before we got under way from
+between the forts, was to cut the wires, and break up the station, to
+prevent intelligence being given me of the movements of the blockading
+fleet. I now resorted to a little retaliation. I dispatched an officer to
+the different light-houses, to stave the oil-casks, and bring away the
+lighting apparatus, to prevent the enemy's shipping from using the lights.
+They were of great convenience, not only to the ships employed on the
+blockade, but to the enemy's transports, and other ships, bound to and
+from the coast of Texas. They could be of no use to our own
+blockade-runners, as the passes of the Mississippi, by reason of their
+long, and tortuous, and frequently shifting channels, were absolutely
+closed to them.
+
+The last letter addressed by me to the Secretary of the Navy, before
+escaping through the blockade, as hereinafter described, was the
+following:
+
+     C. S. STEAMER SUMTER, HEAD OF THE PASSES,
+     June 30, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--I have the honor to inform the Department that I am still at my
+     anchors at the "Head of the Passes"--the enemy closely investing both
+     of the practical outlets. At Pass � L'Outre there are three ships,
+     the _Brooklyn_, and another propeller, and a large side-wheel
+     steamer; and at the Southwest Pass, there is the _Powhatan_, lying
+     within half a mile of the bar, and not stirring an inch from her
+     anchors, night or day. I am only surprised that the _Brooklyn_ does
+     not come up to this anchorage, which she might easily do--as there is
+     water enough, and no military precautions, whatever, have been taken
+     to hold the position--and thus effectually seal all the passes of the
+     river, by her presence alone; which would enable the enemy to
+     withdraw the remainder of his blockading force, for use elsewhere.
+     With the assistance of the _Jackson_, Lieutenant Gwathmey, and the
+     _McRae_, Lieutenant Huger--neither of which has, as yet, however,
+     dropped down--I could probably hold my position here, until an
+     opportunity offers of my getting to sea. I shall watch, diligently,
+     for such an opportunity, and have no doubt, that sooner or later, it
+     will present itself. I found, upon dropping down to this point, that
+     the lights at Pass � L'Outre, and South Pass had been strangely
+     overlooked, and that they were still being nightly exhibited. I
+     caused them both to be extinguished, so that if bad weather should
+     set in--a gale from the south-east, for instance--the blockading
+     ships, having nothing to "hold on to," will be obliged to make an
+     offing. At present the worst feature of the blockade of Pass �
+     L'Outre is, that the _Brooklyn_ has the speed of me; so that even if
+     I should run the bar, I could not hope to escape her, unless I
+     surprised her, which with her close watch of the bar, at anchor near
+     by, both night and day, it will be exceedingly difficult to do. I
+     should be quite willing to try speed with the _Powhatan_, if I could
+     hope to run the gantlet of her guns, without being crippled; but here
+     again, unfortunately, with all the buoys, and other marks removed,
+     the bar which she is watching is a perfectly blind bar, except by
+     daylight. In the meantime, I am drilling my green crew, to a proper
+     use of the great guns, and small arms. With the exception of a
+     diarrhoea, which is prevailing, to some extent, brought on by too
+     free use of the river water, in the excessive heats which prevail,
+     the crew continues healthy.
+
+Nothing in fact surprised me more, during the nine days I lay at the Head
+of the Passes, than that the enemy did not attack me with some of his
+light-draught, but heavily armed steamers, or by his boats, by night. Here
+was the _Sumter_, a small ship, with a crew, all told, of a little over a
+hundred men, anchored only ten, or twelve miles from the enemy, without a
+gun, or an obstruction between her and him; and yet no offensive movement
+was made against her. The enemy watched me closely, day by day, and bent
+all his energies toward preventing my escape, but did not seem to think of
+the simple expedient of endeavoring to capture me, with a superior force.
+In nightly expectation of an assault, I directed the engineer to keep the
+water in his boilers, as near the steam-point as possible, without
+actually generating the vapor, and sent a patrol of boats some distance
+down the Southwest Pass; the boats being relieved every four hours, and
+returning to the ship, at the first streaks of dawn. After I went to sea,
+the enemy did come in, and take possession of my anchorage, until he was
+driven away by Commodore Hollins, in a little nondescript ram; which, by
+the way, was the first ram experiment of the war. The reader may imagine
+the tedium, and discomforts of our position, if he will reflect that it is
+the month of June, and that at this season of the year, the sun comes down
+upon the broad, and frequently calm surface of the Father of Waters, with
+an African glow, and that clouds of that troublesome little insect the
+mosquito tormented us, by night and by day. There was no sleeping at all
+without the mosquito bar, and I had accordingly had a supply sent down for
+all the crew. Rather than stand the assaults of these little _picadores_,
+much longer, I believe my crew would have run the gantlet of the whole
+Federal Navy.
+
+My diary will now perhaps give the reader, his clearest conception of the
+condition of things on board the _Sumter_, for the remaining few days that
+she is to continue at her anchors.
+
+_Tuesday, June 25th._--A sharp thunder-storm at half-past three A. M.,
+jarring and shaking the ship with its crashes. The very flood-gates of the
+heavens seem open, and the rain is descending on our decks like a
+cataract. Clearing toward ten o'clock. Both blockading ships still at
+their anchors. The British steam sloop _Jason_ touched at the Southwest
+Pass, yesterday, and communicated with the _Powhatan_. We learn by the
+newspapers, to-day, that the enemy has taken possession of Ship Island,
+and established a blockade of the Sound. The anaconda is drawing his
+folds around us. We are filling some shell, and cartridges to-day, and
+drilling the crew at the battery.
+
+_Wednesday, June 26th._--Cloudy, with occasional rain squalls, which have
+tempered the excessive heats. The _Ivy_ returned from the city to-day, and
+brought me eighty barrels of coal. Sent the pilot, in the light-house
+keeper's boat, to sound the S. E. bar, an unused and unwatched outlet to
+the eastward of the South Pass--in the hope that we may find sufficient
+water over it, to permit the egress of the ship. The Federal ships are
+keeping close watch, as usual, at both the passes, neither of them having
+stirred from her anchor, since we have been at the "Head of the Passes."
+
+_Thursday, June 27th._--Weather sultry, and atmosphere charged with
+moisture. Pilot returned this afternoon, and reports ten and a half feet
+water on the S. E. bar. Unfortunately the _Sumter_ draws twelve feet; so
+we must abandon this hope.
+
+_Saturday, June 29th._--A mistake induced us to expend a little coal,
+to-day, uselessly. The pilot having gone aloft, to take his usual
+morning's survey of the "situation," reported that the _Brooklyn_ was
+nowhere to be seen! Great excitement immediately ensued, on the decks, and
+the officer of the watch hurried into my cabin with the information. I
+ordered steam to be gotten up with all dispatch, and when, in the course
+of a very few minutes, it was reported ready--for we always kept our fires
+banked--the anchor was tripped, and the ship was under way, ploughing her
+way through the turbid waters, toward Pass � L'Outre. When we had steamed
+about four miles down the pass, the _Brooklyn_ was seen riding very
+quietly at her anchors, _in her usual berth near the bar_. Explanation:
+The _Sumter_ had dragged her anchor during the night, and the alteration
+in her position had brought a clump of trees between her, and the enemy's
+ship, which had prevented the pilot from seeing the latter! With
+disappointed hopes we had nothing to do, but to return to our anchors, and
+watch and wait. In half an hour more, the sailors were lounging idly about
+the decks, under well-spread awnings; the jest, and banter went round, as
+usual, and save the low hissing and singing of the steam, which was still
+escaping, there was nothing to remind the beholder of our recent
+disappointment. Such is the school of philosophy in which the seaman is
+reared. Our patience, however, was soon to be rewarded.
+
+Early on the next morning, which was the 30th of June, the steamer,
+_Empire Parish_, came down from the city, and coming alongside of us, put
+on board some fresh provisions for the crew, and about one hundred barrels
+of coal, which my thoughtful, and attentive friend, Commodore Rousseau,
+had sent down to me. Having done this, the steamer shoved off, and
+proceeded on her trip, down Pass � L'Outre, to the pilots' station, and
+lighthouse. It was a bright Sunday morning, and we were thinking of
+nothing but the usual muster, and how we should get through another idle
+day. In the course of two or three hours, the steamer returned, and when
+she had come near us, she was seen to cast off a boat, which she had been
+towing, containing a single boatman--one of the fishermen, or oyster-men
+so common in these waters. The boatman pulled rapidly under our stern, and
+hailing the officer of the deck, told him, that the _Brooklyn_ had gone
+off in chase of a sail, and was no longer in sight. The crew, who had been
+"cleaning themselves," for Sunday muster, at once stowed away their bags;
+the swinging-booms were gotten alongside, the boats run up, and, in ten
+minutes, the steam was again hissing, as if impatient of control. The men
+ran round the capstan, in "double-quick," in their eagerness to get up the
+anchor, and in a few minutes more, the ship's head swung off gracefully
+with the current, and, the propeller being started, she bounded off like a
+thing of life, on this new race, which was to decide whether we should
+continue to stagnate in midsummer, in the marshes of the Mississippi, or
+reach those "glad waters of the dark blue sea," which form as delightful a
+picture in the imagination of the sailor, as in that of the poet.
+
+Whilst we were heaving up our anchor, I had noticed the pilot, standing
+near me, pale, and apparently nervous, and agitated, but, as yet, he had
+said not a word. When we were fairly under way, however, and it seemed
+probable, at last, that we should attempt the blockade, the fellow's
+courage fairly broke down, and he protested to me that he knew nothing of
+the bar of Pass � L'Outre, and durst not attempt to run me over. "I am,"
+said he, "a S. W. bar pilot, and know nothing of the other passes."
+"What," said I, "did you not know that I was lying at the Head of the
+Passes, for the very purpose of taking any one of the outlets through
+which an opportunity of escape might present itself, and yet you dare tell
+me, that you know but one of them, and have been deceiving me." The fellow
+stammered out something in excuse, but I was too impatient to listen to
+him, and, turning to the first lieutenant, ordered him to hoist the "Jack"
+at the fore, as a signal for a pilot. I had, in fact, resolved to attempt
+the passage of the bar, from my own slight acquaintance with it, when I
+had been a light-house inspector, rather than forego the opportunity of
+escape, and caused the Jack to be hoisted, rather as a matter of course,
+than because I hoped for any good result from it. The _Brooklyn_ had not
+"chased out of sight," as reported--she had only chased to the westward,
+some seven or eight miles, and had been hidden from the boatman, by one of
+the spurs of the Delta. She had probably, all the while, had her
+telescopes on the _Sumter_, and as soon as she saw the black smoke issuing
+from her chimney, and the ship moving rapidly toward the pass, she
+abandoned her chase, and commenced to retrace her steps.
+
+We had nearly equal distances to run to the bar, but I had the advantage
+of a four-knot current. Several of my officers now collected around me,
+and we were discussing the chances of escape. "What think you of our
+prospect," said I, turning to one of my lieutenants, who had served a
+short time before, on board the _Brooklyn_, and knew well her qualities.
+"Prospect, sir! not the least in the world--there is no possible chance of
+our escaping that ship. Even if we get over the bar ahead of her, she must
+overhaul us, in a very short time. The _Brooklyn_ is good for fourteen
+knots an hour, sir." "That was the report," said I, "on her trial trip,
+but you know how all such reports are exaggerated; ten to one, she has no
+better speed, if so good, as the _Sumter_." "You will see, sir," replied
+my lieutenant; "we made a passage in her, only a few months ago, from
+Tampico to Pensacola, and averaged about thirteen knots the whole
+distance."
+
+Here the conversation dropped, for an officer now came to report to me
+that a boat had just shoved off from the pilots' station, evidently with a
+pilot in her. Casting my eyes in the given direction, I saw a whale-boat
+approaching us, pulled by four stout blacks, who were bending like good
+fellows to their long ashen oars, and in the stern sheets was seated, sure
+enough, the welcome pilot, swaying his body to, and fro, as his boat
+leaped under the oft-repeated strokes of the oars, as though he would
+hasten her already great speed. But more beautiful still was another
+object which presented itself. In the balcony of the pilot's house, which
+had been built in the very marsh, on the margin of the river, there stood
+a beautiful woman, the pilot's young wife, waving him on to his duty, with
+her handkerchief. We could have tossed a biscuit from the _Sumter_ to the
+shore, and I uncovered my head gallantly to my fair countrywoman. A few
+moments more, and a tow-line had been thrown to the boat, and the gallant
+young fellow stood on the horse-block beside me.
+
+As we swept past the light-house wharf, almost close enough to touch it,
+there were other petticoats fluttering in the breeze, the owners of which
+were also waving handkerchiefs of encouragement to the _Sumter_. I could
+see my sailors' eyes brighten at these spectacles, for the sailor's heart
+is capacious enough to love the whole sex, and I now felt sure of their
+nerves, in case it should become necessary to tax them. Half a mile or so,
+from the light-house, and the bar is reached. There was a Bremen ship
+lying aground on the bar, and there was just room, and no more, for us to
+pass her. She had run out a kedge, and had a warp attached to it that was
+lying across the passage-way. The crew considerately slackened the line,
+as we approached, and in another bound the _Sumter_ was outside the bar,
+and the Confederate flag was upon the high seas! We now slackened our
+speed, for an instant--only an instant, for my officers and men all had
+their wits about them, and worked like good fellows--to haul the pilot's
+boat alongside, that he might return to the shore. As the gallant young
+fellow grasped my hand, and shook it warmly, as he descended from the
+horse-block, he said, "Now, Captain, you are all clear; give her h--ll,
+and let her go!"
+
+We had now nothing to do, but turn our attention to the enemy. The
+_Brooklyn_, as we cleared the bar, was about three and a half, or four
+miles distant; we were therefore just out of reach of her guns, with
+nothing to spare. Thick volumes of smoke could be seen pouring from the
+chimneys of both ships; the firemen, and engineers of each evidently doing
+their best. I called a lieutenant, and directed him to heave the log. He
+reported our speed to be nine, and a half knots. Loth to believe that we
+could be making so little way, through the yet turbid waters, which were
+rushing past us with great apparent velocity, I directed the officer to
+repeat the experiment; but the same result followed, though he had paid
+out the line with a free hand. I now sent for the engineer, and, upon
+inquiry, found that he was doing his very best--"though," said he, "there
+is a little drawback, just now, in the 'foaming' of our boilers, arising
+from the suddenness with which we got up steam; when this subsides, we may
+be able to add half a knot more."
+
+The _Brooklyn_ soon loosed, and set her sails, bracing them sharp up on
+the starboard tack. I loosed and set mine, also. The enemy's ship was a
+little on my weather quarter, say a couple of points, and had thus
+slightly the weather-gauge of me. As I knew I could lay nearer the wind
+than she, being able to brace my yards sharper, and had besides, the
+advantage of larger fore-and-aft sails, comparatively, stay-sails,
+try-sails, and a very large spanker, I resolved at once to hold my wind,
+so closely, as to compel her to furl her sails, though this would carry me
+a little athwart her bows, and bring me perhaps a little nearer to her,
+for the next half hour, or so. A rain squall now came up, and enveloped
+the two ships, hiding each from the other. As the rain blew off to
+leeward, and the _Brooklyn_ reappeared, she seemed fearfully near to us,
+and I began to fear I should realize the foreboding of my lieutenant. I
+could not but admire the majesty of her appearance, with her broad flaring
+bows, and clean, and beautiful run, and her masts, and yards, as taunt and
+square, as those of an old time sailing frigate. The stars and stripes of
+a large ensign flew out from time to time, from under the lee of her
+spanker, and we could see an apparently anxious crowd of officers on her
+quarter-deck, many of them with telescopes directed toward us. She had,
+evidently, I thought, gained upon us, and I expected every moment to hear
+the whiz of a shot; but still she did not fire.
+
+I now ordered my paymaster to get his public chest, and papers ready for
+throwing overboard, if it should become necessary. At this crisis the
+engineer came up from below, bringing the welcome intelligence that the
+"foaming" of his boilers had ceased, and that his engine was "working
+beautifully," giving the propeller several additional turns per minute.
+The breeze, too, favored me, for it had freshened considerably; and what
+was still more to the purpose, I began to perceive that I was "eating" the
+_Brooklyn_ "out of the wind"; in other words, that she was falling more
+and more to leeward. I knew, of course, that as soon as she fell into my
+wake, she would be compelled to furl her sails. This she did in half an
+hour or so afterward, and I at once began to breathe more freely, for I
+could still hold on to my own canvas. I have witnessed many beautiful
+sights at sea, but the most beautiful of them all was when the _Brooklyn_
+let fly all her sheets, and halliards, at once, and clewed up, and furled,
+in man-of-war style, all her sails, from courses to royals. We now began
+to gain quite perceptibly on our pursuer, and at half-past three, the
+chase was abandoned, the baffled _Brooklyn_ retracing her steps to Pass �
+l'Outre, and the _Sumter_ bounding away on her course seaward.
+
+We fired no gun of triumph in the face of the enemy--my powder was too
+precious for that--but I sent the crew aloft, to man the rigging, and
+three such cheers were given for the Confederate flag, "that little bit of
+striped bunting," that had waved from the _Sumter's_ peak during the
+exciting chase, as could proceed only from the throats of American seamen,
+in the act of defying a tyrant--those cheers were but a repetition of many
+such cheers that had been given, by our ancestors, to that other bit of
+"striped bunting" which had defied the power of England in that olden war,
+of which our war was but the logical sequence. The reader must not suppose
+that our anxiety was wholly allayed, as soon as we saw the _Brooklyn_ turn
+away from us.
+
+
+[Illustration: The Sumter running the blockade of Pass � l'Outre by the
+enemy's Ship Brooklyn, on the 30th June, 1861.
+
+LITH. BY A. HOEN & CO. BALTO.]
+
+
+We were, as yet, only a few miles from the land, and our coast was
+swarming with the enemy's cruisers. Ship Island was not a great way
+off, and there was a constant passing to and fro, of ships-of-war between
+that island and the passes of the Mississippi, and we might stumble upon
+one of these at any moment. "Sail ho!" was now shouted from the mast-head.
+"Where away!" cried the officer of the deck. "Right ahead," said the
+look-out. A few minutes only elapsed, and a second sail was descried,
+"broad on the starboard bow." But nothing came of these spectres; we
+passed on, seaward, without so much as raising either of them from the
+deck, and finally, the friendly robes of night enveloped us. When we at
+length realized that we had gained an offing; when we began to feel the
+welcome heave of the sea; when we looked upon the changing aspect of its
+waters, now darkening into the deepest blue, and breathed the pure air,
+fresh from the Gulf, untainted of malaria, and untouched of mosquito's
+wing, we felt like so many prisoners who had been turned loose from a long
+and painful confinement; and when I reflected upon my mission, to strike
+for the right! to endeavor to sweep from the seas the commerce of a
+treacherous friend, who had become a cruel and relentless foe, I felt, in
+full force, the inspiration of the poet:--
+
+  "Ours the wild life in tumult still to range,
+  From toil to rest, and joy in every change.
+  Oh, who can tell? Not thou, luxurious slave,
+  Whose soul would sicken o'er the heaving wave;
+  Not thou, vain lord of wantonness and ease,
+  Whom slumber soothes not--pleasures cannot please;
+  Oh, who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried,
+  And danced in triumph o'er the waters wide,
+  The exulting sense--the pulse's maddening play,
+  That thrills the wanderer of that trackless way?
+  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   Death!
+  Come when it will--we snatch the life of life;
+  When lost--what recks it--by disease or strife?
+  Let him who crawls, enamored of decay,
+  Cling to his couch, and sicken years away;
+  Heave his thick breath, and shake his palsied head;
+  Ours! the fresh turf, and not the feverish bed;
+  While gasp by gasp he falters forth his soul,
+  Ours, with one pang--one bound--escapes control.
+  His corpse may boast its wan and narrow cave,
+  And they who loathed his life, may gild his grave:
+  Ours are the tears, though few, sincerely shed,
+  When ocean shrouds and sepulchres our dead."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+BRIEF SKETCH OF THE OFFICERS OF THE SUMTER--HER FIRST PRIZE, WITH OTHER
+PRIZES, IN QUICK SUCCESSION--HER FIRST PORT.
+
+
+Captain Poor, the commander of the _Brooklyn_, was greatly censured by his
+Government, for permitting the escape of the _Sumter_. It was even hinted
+that there had been treason, in the engine-room of the _Brooklyn_, as one
+or more of the engineers had been heard to express sentiments favorable to
+the South. There was no truth, of course, in this report. It had its
+origin in the brain of a people, who, having become traitors, themselves,
+to their former principles, were ready to suspect, and to impute treason
+to every one else. The greatest offence which had been committed by
+Captain Poor was that he had probably permitted his cupidity to draw him
+away from his station. He had chased a prize, in his eagerness to clutch
+the prize-money, a little too far--that was all. But in this, he sinned
+only in common with his countrymen. The thirst of gain, as well as the
+malignity of hate, seemed, from the very first days of the war, to have
+seized upon a majority of the Northern people. The Army, and the Navy,
+professions hitherto held honorable, did not escape the contamination.
+They were soon found, first plundering, and then maliciously burning
+private houses. The spectacle of cotton-thieving was more than once
+presented by the highest dignitaries of the two services--the Admiral
+quarrelling with the General, as ignoble rogues are wont to quarrel, as to
+which rightly pertained the booty.
+
+The evening of the escape of the _Sumter_ was one of those Gulf evenings,
+which can only be _felt_, and not described. The wind died gently away, as
+the sun declined, leaving a calm, and sleeping sea, to reflect a myriad of
+stars. The sun had gone down behind a screen of purple, and gold, and to
+add to the beauty of the scene, as night set in, a blazing comet, whose
+tail spanned nearly a quarter of the heavens, mirrored itself within a
+hundred feet of our little bark, as she ploughed her noiseless way through
+the waters. As I leaned on the carriage of a howitzer on the poop of my
+ship, and cast a glance toward the quarter of the horizon whence the land
+had disappeared, memory was busy with the events of the last few months.
+How hurried, and confused they had been! It seemed as though I had dreamed
+a dream, and found it difficult, upon waking, to unite the discordant
+parts. A great government had been broken up, family ties had been
+severed, and war--grim, ghastly war--was arraying a household against
+itself. A little while back, and I had served under the very flag which I
+had that day defied. Strange revolution of feeling, how I now hated that
+flag! It had been to me as a mistress to a lover; I had looked upon it
+with admiring eyes, had dallied with it in hours of ease, and had had
+recourse to it, in hours of trouble, and now I found it false! What wonder
+that I felt a lover's resentment?
+
+My first lieutenant now approached me, and touching my elbow, said,
+"Captain, had we not better throw this howitzer overboard? it can be of no
+further service to us, and is very much in the way." My waking dream was
+dissolved, on the instant, and I returned at once to the duties of the
+ship. I assented to the lieutenant's proposition, and in a few minutes
+more, the poop was cleared of the incumbrance. It was the howitzer--a
+heavy, awkward, iron field-piece with huge wheels--which we had received
+on board, when we lay between the forts, as a protection against the
+enemy's boats. The rest of the night, to a late hour, was devoted to
+lashing, and otherwise securing such heavy articles, as were likely to be
+thrown from their places, by the rolling of the ship; getting the anchors
+in-board and stowing them, and, generally, in making the ship snug. I
+turned in after a day of excitement, and slept too soundly to continue the
+day-dream from which I had been aroused by my first lieutenant.
+
+The sun rose in an unclouded sky, the next morning, with a gentle breeze
+from the south-west, or about abeam; our course being about south-east.
+The look-out at the mast-head, after having carefully scanned the horizon
+in every direction, informed the officer of the deck, that there was
+nothing in sight. The awnings were soon spread, and the usual routine of a
+man-of-war, at sea, commenced. The crew was mustered, in clean apparel, at
+quarters, at nine o'clock, and a division of guns was exercised, the rest
+of the crew being dispersed in idle groups about the deck; the old salts
+overhauling their bags, and seeing that their tobacco, and soap, and
+needles, and thread were all right for the cruise, and the youngsters
+discussing their recent escape. At noon, we found ourselves in latitude
+26� 18', and longitude 87� 23'. I had provided myself with two excellent
+chronometers, before leaving New Orleans, and having had much experience
+as a master, I was always enabled, when the sun was visible, at the proper
+hours, to fix my position within from a quarter, to half a mile, or, what
+is the same thing, within from one to two seconds of time. I appointed my
+junior lieutenant, navigating officer, _pro forma_, but always navigated
+my ship, myself. I had every confidence in the ability of my young
+lieutenant, but I always found, that I slept better, when surrounded by
+danger, after I had fixed the position of my ship, by my own observations.
+
+We held on our course, during the rest of this day, without the least
+incident to break in upon the monotony--not so much as a sail having been
+descried in any direction; not that we were in want of excitement, for we
+had scarcely regained our equilibrium from the excitement of the previous
+day. An occasional swash of the sea against the ship's sides, the
+monotonous beating of time by her propeller, an occasional order from the
+officer of the deck, and the routine "calls" of the boatswain's whistle,
+as dinner, or grog was piped, were the only sounds audible, beyond the
+usual hum of conversation among the crew.
+
+If the reader will permit me, I will avail myself of this interval of calm
+before the storm, to introduce to him some of my officers. This is indeed
+but a courtesy due him, as he is to be a passenger in our midst. On the
+afternoon of our escape from the _Brooklyn_, the officers of the ward-room
+were kind enough to invite me to drink a glass of wine with them, in honor
+of our success, and I will avail myself of this occasion, to make the
+presentations. I am seated at one end of the long mess-table, and my first
+lieutenant at the other. The first lieutenant, as the reader has already
+been informed, by an inspection of the _Sumter's_ muster-roll, is from
+Georgia. John McIntosh Kell is a descendant from one of the oldest
+families in that State, having the blood of the McIntoshes in his veins,
+through one branch of his ancestors. He was bred in the old Navy, and my
+acquaintance with him commenced when he was in trouble. He was serving as
+a passed midshipman, on board the old sailing sloop _Albany_, and being
+ordered, on one occasion, to perform what he considered a menial duty, he
+resisted the order. Some of his brother passed midshipmen were in the same
+category. A court-martial resulted, and, at the request of the young
+gentlemen, I defended them. The relation of counsel, and client, as a
+matter of course, brought us close together, and I discovered that young
+Kell had in him, the making of a man. So far from being a mutineer, he had
+a high respect for discipline, and had only resisted obedience to the
+order in question, from a refined sense of gentlemanly propriety. The
+reader will see these qualities in him, now, as he sits opposite me. He
+has developed since the time I speak of, into the tall, well-proportioned
+gentleman, of middle age, with brown, wavy hair, and a magnificent beard,
+inclining to red. See how scrupulously neat he is dressed, and how suave,
+and affable he is, with his associates. His eye is now beaming gentleness,
+and kindness. You will scarcely recognize him, as the same man, when you
+see him again on deck, arraigning some culprit, "at the mast," for a
+breach of discipline. When Georgia seceded, Lieutenant Kell was well on
+his way to the commander's list, in the old Navy, but he would have
+scorned the commission of an admiral, if it had been tendered him as the
+price of treason to his State. To have brought a Federal ship into the
+waters of Georgia, and ravaged her coasts, and fired upon her people,
+would have been, in his eyes, little less than matricide. He forthwith
+resigned his commission, and joined his fortunes with those of his people.
+When it was decided, at Montgomery, that I was to have the _Sumter_, I at
+once thought of Kell, and, at my request, he was ordered to the
+ship--Commodore Tattnall, with whom he had been serving on the Georgia
+coast, giving him up very reluctantly.
+
+Seated next to myself, on my right hand, is Lieutenant Robert T. Chapman.
+This gentleman is from Alabama; he is several years younger than Kell, not
+so tall, but stouter, in proportion. His complexion, as you see, is dark,
+and he has jet-black hair, and eyes--the latter remarkable for their
+brilliancy, and for a twinkle of fun, and good humor. Chapman is the life
+of the mess-table; always in a pleasant mood, and running over with wit
+and anecdote. Though he has a fashion, as you see, of wearing his hair
+closely cropped, he is the very reverse of a round-head, being a _preux
+chevalier_, as ready for the fight as the dance, and having a decided
+preference for the music of the band, over that of "Old Hundred." He is
+the second lieutenant, and has, consequently, the easiest berth among the
+sea lieutenants, being relieved from the drudgery of the first lieutenant,
+and exempt from the calls for extra duty, that are sometimes made upon the
+junior lieutenant. When his watch is over, and his division drilled, he is
+a gentleman at large, for the rest of the day. You see by his build--a
+slight inclination to corpulency--that he is fond of his ease, and that he
+has fallen as naturally into the place of second lieutenant, as if it had
+been cut out for him on purpose. He also was bred in the old Navy, and was
+found to be of the pure metal, instead of the dross, when the touchstone
+of secession came to be applied to separate the one from the other.
+
+At Lieutenant Kell's right hand, sits Lieutenant John M. Stribling, the
+third lieutenant, and a native of the glorious little State of South
+Carolina. He is of medium height, somewhat spare in build, with brown
+hair, and whiskers, and mild and expressive blue eyes; the mildness of the
+eye only dwelling in it, however, in moments of repose. When excited at
+the thought of wrong, or oppression, it has a peculiar stare of firmness,
+as much as to say,
+
+  "This rock shall fly,
+  From its firm base as soon as I."
+
+Stribling was also an _�l�ve_ of the old Navy, and, though tied to it,
+by cords that were hard to sever, he put honor above place, in the hour of
+trial, and came South.
+
+
+[Illustration: Kelly, Piet & Co. Baltimore.]
+
+
+Next to Stribling, sits Lieutenant William E. Evans, the fourth and junior
+lieutenant of the ship. He is not more than twenty-four years of age, slim
+in person, of medium height, and rather delicate-looking, though not from
+ill health. His complexion is dark, and he has black hair, and eyes. He
+has a very agreeable, _riante_ expression about his face, and is somewhat
+given to casuistry, being fond of an argument, when occasion presents
+itself. He is but recently out of the Naval Academy, at Annapolis, and
+like all new graduates, feels the freshness of academic honors. He is a
+native of South Carolina, and a brother of General Evans of that State,
+who so greatly distinguished himself, afterward, at the battle of
+Manassas, and on other bloody fields.
+
+If the reader will now cast his eye toward the centre of the table, on my
+right hand, he will see two gentlemen, both with black hair and eyes, and
+both somewhat under middle size, conversing together. These are Dr.
+Francis L. Galt, the Surgeon, and Mr. Henry Myers, the Paymaster, both
+from the old service; the former a native of Virginia, and the latter a
+native of South Carolina; and opposite these, are the Chief Engineer, and
+Marine Officer,--Mr. Miles J. Freeman, and Lieutenant B. Howell, the
+latter a brother-in-law of Mr. Jefferson Davis, our honored President. I
+have thus gone the circuit of the ward-room. All these officers, courteous
+reader, will make the cruise with us, and if you will inspect the
+adjoining engraving, and are a judge of character, after the rules of
+Lavater and Spurzheim, you will perceive in advance, how much reason I
+shall have to be proud of them.
+
+We may now take up our narrative, from the point at which it was
+interrupted, for the purpose of these introductions. Day passed into
+night, and with the night came the brilliant comet again, lighting us on
+our way over the waste of waters. The morning of the second of July, our
+second day out, dawned clear, and beautiful, the _Sumter_ still steaming
+in an almost calm sea, with nothing to impede her progress. At eight A. M.
+we struck the north-east trade-wind, and made sail in aid of steam, giving
+orders to the engineer, to make the most of his fuel, by carrying only a
+moderate head of steam. Toward noon, a few trade squalls passed over us,
+with light and refreshing showers of rain; just enough to cause me to take
+shelter, for a few moments, under the lee of the spanker. At noon, we
+observed in latitude 23� 4' showing that we had crossed the tropic--the
+longitude being 86� 13'. The reader has seen that we have been steering to
+the S. E., diminishing both latitude, and longitude, and if he will look
+upon the chart of the Caribbean Sea, he will perceive, that we are
+approaching Cape San Antonio, the south end of the island of Cuba; but he
+can scarcely conjecture what sort of a cruise I had marked out for myself.
+The Secretary of the Navy, in those curt sailing orders which we have
+already seen, had considerately left me _carte blanche_ as to
+cruising-ground, but as I was "to do the greatest injury to the enemy's
+commerce, in the shortest time," the implication was, that I should, at
+once, throw myself into some one of the chief thoroughfares of his trade.
+I accordingly set my eye on Cape St. Roque, in Brazil, which may be said
+to be the great turning-point of the commerce of the world. My intention
+was to make a dash, of a few days, at the enemy's ships on the south side
+of Cuba, coal at some convenient point, stretch over to Barbadoes, coal
+again, and then strike for the Brazilian coast. It is with this view, that
+the _Sumter_ is now running for the narrow outlet, that issues from the
+Gulf of Mexico, between Cape Antonio, and the opposite coast of Yucatan. I
+shaped my course for the middle of this passage, but about midnight, made
+the light of Cape Antonio right ahead, showing that I had been drifted,
+northward, by a current setting, at the rate of from three fourths of a
+mile, to a mile per hour. We drew off a little to the southward, doubled
+the Cape, with the light still in view, and at nine o'clock, the next
+morning, we found ourselves off Cape Corrientes.
+
+The weather had now become cloudy, and we had a fresh trade-wind, veering
+from E. to E. S. E., with some sea on. At meridian, we observed in latitude
+21� 29', the longitude being 84� 06'. Running along the Cuban coast,
+between it and the Isle of Pines, of piratical memory, at about three in
+the afternoon, the cry of "Sail ho!" was heard from the mast-head, for the
+first time since we had left the mouths of the Mississippi. The look-out,
+upon being questioned, said that he saw two sail, and that they were both
+right ahead. We came up with them, very rapidly, for they were standing in
+our direction, and when we had approached within signal distance, we
+showed them the English colors. The nearest sail, which proved to be a
+brig, hoisted the Spanish colors, and, upon being boarded, was found to be
+from Cadiz, bound for Vera Cruz. She was at once permitted to proceed.
+Resuming our course, we now stood for the other sail, which, by this time,
+there was no mistaking; she being plainly American, although she had not
+yet shown her colors. A gun soon brought these to the peak, when, as I had
+expected, the stars and stripes unfolded themselves, gracefully, to the
+breeze. Here was our first prize, and a most welcome sight it was. The
+capture, I find, upon looking over my notes, was recorded in a few lines,
+barren of all incident, or remark, except only that the doomed ship was
+from the "Black Republican State of Maine;" but I well recollect the
+mingled impressions of joy, and sadness, that were made upon me by the
+event. The "old flag," which I had been accustomed to worship, in my
+youth, had a criminal look, in my eyes, as it ascended to the peak of that
+ship. How strangely we sometimes invest mere inanimate things with the
+attributes of life! When I had fired the gun, as a command to the stranger
+to heave to, and show his colors, I had hauled down the English, and
+hoisted my own flag. The stars and stripes seemed now to look abashed in
+the presence of the new banner of the South; pretty much as a burglar
+might be supposed to look, who had been caught in the act of breaking into
+a gentleman's house; but then the burglar was my relative, and had erst
+been my friend--how could I fail to feel some pity for him, along with the
+indignation, which his crime had excited? The boarding officer soon
+returned from the captured ship, bringing with him the master, with his
+papers. There were no knotty points of fact or law to embarrass my
+decision. There were the American register, and clearance, and the
+American character impressed upon every plank and spar of the ship.
+Nothing could exceed the astonishment of the master, who was rather a
+mild, amiable-looking gentleman, not at all disposed to go either into
+hysterics, or the heroics. "A clap of thunder in a cloudless sky could
+not have surprised me more," said he to me as I overhauled his papers,
+"than the appearance of the Confederate flag in these seas." "My duty is a
+painful one," said I, "to destroy so noble a ship as yours, but I must
+discharge it without vain regrets; and as for yourself, you will only have
+to do, as so many thousands have done before you, submit to the fortunes
+of war--yourself and your crew will be well treated on board my ship." The
+prize bore the name of _The Golden Rocket_, was a fine bark, nearly new,
+of about seven hundred tons, and was seeking, in ballast, a cargo of sugar
+in some one of the Cuban ports. Boats were dispatched to bring off the
+crew, and such provisions, cordage, sails, and paints as the different
+departments of my ship stood in need of, and at about ten o'clock at
+night, the order was given to apply the torch to her.
+
+The wind, by this time, had become very light, and the night was
+pitch-dark--the darkness being of that kind, graphically described by old
+sailors, when they say, you may cut it with a knife. I regret that I
+cannot give to the reader the picture of the burning ship, as it presented
+itself to the silent, and solemn watchers on board the _Sumter_ as they
+leaned over her hammock rails to witness it. The boat, which had been sent
+on this errand of destruction, had pulled out of sight, and her oars
+ceasing to resound, we knew that she had reached the doomed ship, but so
+impenetrable was the darkness, that no trace of either boat, or ship could
+be seen, although the _Sumter_ was distant only a few hundred yards. Not a
+sound could be heard on board the _Sumter_, although her deck was crowded
+with men. Every one seemed busy with his own thoughts, and gazing eagerly
+in the direction of the doomed ship, endeavoring, in vain, to penetrate
+the thick darkness. Suddenly, one of the crew exclaimed, "There is the
+flame! She is on fire!" The decks of this Maine-built ship were of pine,
+calked with old-fashioned oakum, and paid with pitch; the wood-work of the
+cabin was like so much tinder, having been seasoned by many voyages to the
+tropics, and the forecastle was stowed with paints, and oils. The
+consequence was, that the flame was not long in kindling, but leaped,
+full-grown, into the air, in a very few minutes after its first faint
+glimmer had been seen. The boarding officer, to do his work more
+effectually, had applied the torch simultaneously in three places, the
+cabin, the mainhold, and the forecastle; and now the devouring flames
+rushed up these three apertures, with a fury which nothing could resist.
+The burning ship, with the _Sumter's_ boat in the act of shoving off from
+her side; the _Sumter_ herself, with her grim, black sides, lying in
+repose like some great sea-monster, gloating upon the spectacle, and the
+sleeping sea, for there was scarce a ripple upon the water, were all
+brilliantly lighted. The indraught into the burning ship's holds, and
+cabins, added every moment new fury to the flames, and now they could be
+heard roaring like the fires of a hundred furnaces, in full blast. The
+prize ship had been laid to, with her main-topsail to the mast, and all
+her light sails, though clewed up, were flying loose about the yards. The
+forked tongues of the devouring element, leaping into the rigging, newly
+tarred, ran rapidly up the shrouds, first into the tops, then to the
+topmast-heads, thence to the top-gallant, and royal mast-heads, and in a
+moment more to the trucks; and whilst this rapid ascent of the main
+current of fire was going on, other currents had run out upon the yards,
+and ignited all the sails. A top-gallant sail, all on fire, would now fly
+off from the yard, and sailing leisurely in the direction of the light
+breeze that was fanning, rather than blowing, break into bright, and
+sparkling patches of flame, and settle, or rather silt into the sea. The
+yard would then follow, and not being wholly submerged by its descent into
+the sea, would retain a portion of its flame, and continue to burn, as a
+floating brand, for some minutes. At one time, the intricate net-work of
+the cordage of the burning ship was traced, as with a pencil of fire, upon
+the black sky beyond, the many threads of flame twisting, and writhing,
+like so many serpents that had received their death wounds. The
+mizzen-mast now went by the board, then the fore-mast, and in a few
+minutes afterward, the great main-mast tottered, reeled, and fell over the
+ship's side into the sea, making a noise like that of the sturdy oak of
+the forests when it falls by the stroke of the axeman.
+
+By the light of this flambeau, upon the lonely and silent sea, lighted of
+the passions of bad men who should have been our brothers, the _Sumter_,
+having aroused herself from her dream of vengeance, and run up her boats,
+moved forward on her course. The captain of the _Golden Rocket_ watched
+the destruction of his ship from the quarter-deck of the _Sumter_,
+apparently with the calm eye of a philosopher, though, doubtless, he felt
+the emotions which the true sailor always feels, when he looks upon the
+dying agonies of his beloved ship, whether she be broken up by the storm,
+or perish in any other way.
+
+The flag! what was done with the "old flag"? It was marked with the day,
+and the latitude and longitude of the capture, and consigned to the
+keeping of the signal quartermaster, who prepared a bag for its reception;
+and when this bag was full, he prepared another, and another, as the
+cruise progressed, and occasion required. It was the especial pride of
+this veteran American seaman to count over his trophies, and when the
+weather was fine, he invariably asked permission of the officer of the
+deck, under pretence of damage from moths, to "air" his flags; and as he
+would bend on his signal-halliards, and throw them out to the breeze, one
+by one, his old eye would glisten, and a grim smile of satisfaction would
+settle upon his sun-burned, and weather-beaten features. This was our
+practice also on board the _Alabama_, and when that ship was sunk in the
+British channel, in her engagement with the enemy's ship _Kearsarge_, as
+the reader will learn in due time, if he has the patience to follow me in
+these memoirs, we committed to the keeping of the guardian spirits of that
+famous old battle-ground, a great many bags-full of "old flags," to be
+stored away in the caves of the sea, as mementos that a nation once lived
+whose naval officers prized liberty more than the false memorial of it,
+under which they had once served, and who were capable, when it became
+
+  "Hate's polluted rag,"
+
+of tearing it down.
+
+The prisoners--what did we do with them? The captain was invited to mess
+in the ward-room, and when he was afterward landed, the officers
+generously made him up a purse to supply his immediate necessities. The
+crew was put into a mess by themselves, with their own cook, and was put
+on a footing, with regard to rations, with the _Sumter's_ own men. We
+were making war upon the enemy's commerce, but not upon his unarmed
+seamen. It gave me as much pleasure to treat these with humanity, as it
+did to destroy his ships, and one of the most cherished recollections
+which I have brought out of a war, which, in some sense, may be said to
+have been a civil war, is, that the "pirate," whom the enemy denounced,
+with a pen dipped in gall, and with a vocabulary of which decent people
+should be ashamed, set that same enemy the example, which he has failed to
+follow, _of treating prisoners of war, according to the laws of war_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+RAPID WORK--SEVEN PRIZES IN TWO DAYS--THE SUMTER MAKES HER FIRST PORT,
+AND WHAT OCCURRED THERE.
+
+
+We burned the _Golden Rocket_, as has been seen, on the 3d of July. The
+next day was the "glorious Fourth"--once glorious, indeed, as the day on
+which a people broke the chains of a government which had bound them
+against their will, and vindicated the principle of self-government as an
+_inalienable_ right; but since desecrated by the same people, who have
+scorned, and spat upon the record made by their fathers, and repudiated,
+as a heresy fraught with the penalties of treason, the inalienable right
+for which their fathers struggled. The grand old day belonged, of right,
+to us of the South, for we still venerated it, as hallowed by our fathers,
+and were engaged in a _second_ revolution, to uphold, and defend the
+doctrines which had been proclaimed in the _first_, but we failed to
+celebrate it on board the _Sumter_. We could not help associating it with
+the "old flag," which had now become a sham and a deceit; with the
+wholesale robberies which had been committed upon our property, and with
+the villification and abuse which had been heaped upon our persons by our
+late co-partners, for a generation and more. The Declaration of
+Independence had proved to be a specious mask, under which our loving
+brethren of the North had contrived to draw us into a co-partnership with
+them, that they might be the better enabled, in the end, to devour us. How
+could we respect it, in such a connection? Accordingly, the Captain of the
+_Sumter_ was not invited to dine in the ward-room, on the time-honored
+day, nor was there any extra glass of grog served to the crew, as had been
+the custom in the old service.
+
+The weather still continued cloudy, with a few rain squalls passing with
+the trade wind, during the morning. I had turned into my cot, late on the
+previous night, and was still sleeping soundly, when, at daylight, an
+officer came below to inform me, that there were two sails in sight from
+the mast-head. We were steaming, as before, up the south side of Cuba,
+with the land plainly in sight, and soon came close enough to distinguish
+that the vessels ahead were both brigantines, and probably Americans.
+There being no occasion to resort to _ruse_, or stratagem, as the wind was
+light, and there was no possibility of the ships running away from us, we
+showed them at once the Confederate colors, and at the same time fired a
+blank cartridge to heave them to. They obeyed our signal, promptly, and
+came to the wind, with their foretop-sails aback, and the United States
+colors at their peaks. When within a few hundred yards, we stopped our
+engine, and lowered, and sent a boat on board of them--the boarding
+officer remaining only a few minutes on board of each, and bringing back
+with him, their respective masters, with their ships' papers. Upon
+examination of these, it appeared that one of the brigantines was called
+the _Cuba_, and the other the _Machias_; that they were both laden with
+sugar and molasses, for English ports, and that they had recently come out
+of the port of Trinidad-de-Cuba. Indeed the recency of their sailing was
+tested, by the way in which their stern-boats were garlanded, with
+festoons of luscious bananas, and pine-apples, and by sundry nets filled
+with golden-hued oranges--all of which was very tempting to the eyes and
+olfactories of men, who had recently issued from a blockaded port, in
+which such luxuries were tabooed. The cargoes of these small vessels being
+neutral, as certified by the papers--and indeed of this there could be
+little doubt, as they were going from one neutral port to another--I could
+not burn the vessels as I had done the _Golden Rocket_, and so after
+transferring prize crews to them, which occupied us an hour or two, we
+took them both in tow, and steamed away for Cienfuegos--it being my
+intention to test the disposition of Spain toward us, in this matter of
+taking in prizes. England and France had issued proclamations, prohibiting
+both belligerents, alike, from bringing prizes into their ports, but Spain
+had not yet spoken, and I had hopes that she might be induced to pursue a
+different course.
+
+Nothing worthy of note occurred during the rest of this day; we steamed
+leisurely along the coast, making about five knots an hour. Finding our
+speed too much diminished, by the towage of two heavily laden vessels, we
+cast off one of them--the _Cuba_--during the night and directed the
+prize-master to make sail, and follow us into port. The _Cuba_ did not
+rejoin us, and we afterward learned through the medium of the enemy's
+papers, that she had been recaptured by her crew. I had only sent a
+midshipman and four men on board of her as a prize crew; and the
+midshipman incautiously going aloft, to look out for the land, as he was
+approaching his port, and a portion of his prize crew proving
+treacherous--they were not native Americans I am glad to say--he was fired
+upon by the master, and crew of the brig, who had gotten possession of the
+revolvers of the prize crew, and compelled to surrender, after defending
+himself the best he could, and being wounded in one or two places. The
+vessel then changed her course and made haste to get out of the Caribbean
+Sea.
+
+The morning of the fifth dawned cloudy, with the usual moderate
+trade-wind. It cleared toward noon, and at two P. M. we crossed the shoal
+off the east end of the _Jardinillos_ reef, in from seven to five fathoms
+of water. The sea, by this time, had become quite smooth, and the rays of
+a bright sun penetrated the clear waters to the very bottom of the shoal,
+revealing everything to us, as clearly as though the medium through which
+we were viewing it were atmosphere instead of water. Every rock,
+sea-shell, and pebble lying at the bottom of the sea were distinctly
+visible to us, and we could see the little fish darting into their holes,
+and hiding-places, as the steamer ploughed her way through their usually
+quiet domain. It was quite startling to look over the side, so shallow did
+the waters appear. The chart showed that there was no danger, and the
+faithful lead line, in the hands of a skilful seaman, gave us several
+fathoms of water to spare, and yet one could hardly divest himself of the
+belief, that at the next moment the steamer would run aground.
+
+Crossing this shoal, we now hauled up N. E. by N., for the Cienfuegos
+lighthouse. As we approached the lights, we descried two more sail in the
+south-east, making an offing with all diligence, to which we immediately
+gave chase. They were eight or nine miles distant from the land, and to
+facilitate our pursuit, we cast off our remaining tow, directing the
+prize-master to heave to, off the lighthouse, and await our return. We had
+already captured three prizes, in twenty-four hours, and, as here were
+probably two more, I could perceive that my crew were becoming enamoured
+of their business, pretty much as the veteran fox-hunter does in view of
+the chase. They moved about with great alacrity, in obedience to orders;
+the seamen springing aloft to furl the sails like so many squirrels, and
+the firemen below sending up thick volumes of black smoke, from their
+furnaces. The _Sumter_, feeling the renewed impulse of her engines, sprang
+forward in pursuit of the doomed craft ahead, as if she too knew what was
+going on. We had just daylight enough left to enable us to accomplish our
+purpose; an hour or two later, and at least one of the vessels might have
+escaped. Coming up, first with one, and then the other, we hove them to,
+successively, by "hail," and brought the masters on board. They both
+proved to be brigantines, and were American, as we had supposed:--one, the
+_Ben. Dunning_, of Maine, and the other, the _Albert Adams_, of
+Massachusetts. They had come out of the port of Cienfuegos, only a few
+hours before, were both sugar laden, and their cargoes were documented as
+Spanish property. We hastily threw prize crews on board of them, and
+directed the prize masters to stand in for the light, still in sight,
+distant about twelve miles, and hold on to it until daylight. It was now
+about ten P. M. Some appeal was made to me by the master of one of the
+brigantines, in behalf of his wife and a lady companion of hers, who were
+both invalids from the effects of yellow fever, which they had taken in
+Cienfuegos, and from which they were just convalescing. I desired him to
+assure the ladies, that they should be treated with every tenderness, and
+respect, and that if they desired it, I would send my surgeon to visit
+them; but I declined to release the captured vessel on this account.
+
+We now stood in for the light ourselves, and letting our steam go down, to
+the lowest point consistent with locomotion, lay off, and on, until
+daylight. The next morning dawned beautiful, and bright, as a tropic
+morning only can dawn. We were close in under the land, and our prizes
+were lying around us, moving to and fro, gracefully, to preserve their
+positions. The most profuse, and luxuriant vegetation, of that peculiarly
+dark green known only to the tropics, ran down to the very water's edge;
+the beautiful little stream, on which Cienfuegos lies, disembogued itself
+at the foot of the lighthouse perched on a base of blackened limestone
+rock; and the neat, white fort, that sat a mile or two up the river, was
+now glistening in the rays of the sun, just lifting himself above the
+central range of mountains. The sea breeze had died away during the night,
+and been replaced by the land breeze, in obedience to certain laws which
+prevail in all countries swept by the trade-winds; and this land breeze,
+blowing so gently, as scarce to disturb a tress on the brow of beauty,
+came laden with the most delicious perfume of shrub and flower.
+
+But, "what smoke is that we perceive, coming down the river?" said I, to
+the officer of the deck. "I will see in a moment," said this active young
+officer, and springing several ratlines up the rigging, to enable him to
+obtain a view over the intervening foliage, he said, "There is a small
+steam-tug coming down, with three vessels in tow, two barks and a brig."
+"Can you make out the nationality of the ships in tow?" I inquired.
+"Plainly," he replied, "they all have the American colors set." Here was a
+piece of unlooked-for good fortune. I had not reckoned upon carrying more
+than three, or four prizes into port, but here were three others. But to
+secure these latter, a little management would be necessary. I could not
+molest them, within neutral jurisdiction, and the neutral jurisdiction
+extended to a marine league, or three geographical miles from the land. I
+immediately hoisted a Spanish jack at the fore, as a signal for a pilot,
+and directed the officer of the deck, to disarrange his yards, a little,
+cock-billing this one, slightly, in one direction, and that one, in
+another, and to send all but about a dozen men below, to give the
+strangers the idea that we were a common merchant steamer, instead of a
+ship of war. To carry still further the illusion, we hoisted the Spanish
+merchant flag. But the real trouble was with the prizes--two of these must
+surely be recognized by their companions of only the day before! Luckily
+my prize masters took the hint I had given them, and hoisted their
+respective flags, at the fore, for a pilot also. This mystified the
+new-comers, and they concluded that the two brigantines, though very like,
+could not be the same. Besides, there was a third brigantine in company,
+and she evidently was a new arrival. And so they came on, quite
+unsuspiciously, and when the little steamer had towed them clear of the
+mouth of the harbor, she let them go, and they made sail. The fellows
+worked very industriously, and soon had their ships under clouds of
+canvas, pressing them out to get an offing, before the sea breeze should
+come in. The steam-tug, as soon as she had let go her tows, came alongside
+the _Sumter_, and a Spanish pilot jumped on board of me, asking me in his
+native tongue, if I desired to go up to town; showing that my ruse of the
+Spanish flag had even deceived him. I replied in the affirmative, and said
+to him, pleasantly, "but I am waiting a little, to take back those ships
+you have just towed down." "Diablo!" said he, "how can that be; they are
+_Americanos del Norte_, bound to Boston, and _la Nueva York_!" "That is
+just what I want," said I, "we are _Confederados_, and we have _la guerra_
+with the _Americanos del Norte_!" "_Caramba!_" said he, "that is good;
+give her the steam quick, Captain!" "No, no," replied I, "wait a while. I
+must pay due respect to your Queen, and the Captain-General; they command
+in these waters, within the league, and I must wait until the ships have
+passed beyond that." I accordingly waited until the ships had proceeded
+some five miles from the coast, as estimated both by the pilot, and
+myself, when we turned the _Sumter's_ head seaward, and again removed the
+leash. She was not long in pouncing upon the astonished prey. A booming
+gun, and the simultaneous descent of the Spanish, and ascent of the
+Confederate flag to the _Sumter's_ peak, when we had approached within
+about a mile of them, cleared up the mystery of the chase, and brought the
+fugitives to the wind. In half an hour more, their papers had been
+examined, prize crews had been thrown on board of them, and they were
+standing back in company with the _Sumter_, to rejoin the other prizes.
+
+I had now a fleet of six sail, and when the sea breeze set in next
+morning, which it did between nine and ten o'clock, I led into the harbor,
+the fleet following. The three newly captured vessels were the bark _West
+Wind_, of Rhode Island; the bark _Louisa Kilham_, of Massachusetts, and
+the brigantine _Naiad_, of New York. They had all cargoes of sugar, which
+were covered by certificates of neutral property. When the _Sumter_ came
+abreast of the small fort, which has already been noticed, we were
+surprised to see the sentinels on post fire a couple of loaded muskets,
+the balls of which whistled over our heads, and to observe them making
+gestures, indicating that we must come to anchor. This we immediately did;
+but the prizes, all of which had the United States colors flying, were
+permitted to pass, and they sped on their way to the town, some miles
+above, as they had been ordered. When we had let go our anchor, I
+dispatched Lieutenant Evans to the fort, to call on the Commandant, and
+ask for an explanation of his conduct, in bringing us to. The explanation
+was simple enough. He did not know what to make of the new-born
+Confederate flag. He had never seen it before. It did not belong to any of
+the nations of the earth, of which he had any knowledge, and we might be a
+buccaneer for aught he knew. In the afternoon, the Commandant himself came
+on board to visit me, and inform me, on the part of the Governor of
+Cienfuegos, with whom he had communicated, that I might proceed to the
+town, in the _Sumter_, if I desired. We drank a glass of wine together,
+and I satisfied him, that I had not come in to carry his fort by
+storm--which would have been an easy operation enough, as he had only
+about a corporal's guard under his command--or to sack the town of
+Cienfuegos, after the fashion of the Drakes, and other English
+sea-robbers, who have left so vivid an impression upon Spanish memory, as
+to make Spanish commandants of small forts, cautious of all strange craft.
+
+It had only been a week since the _Sumter_ had run the blockade of New
+Orleans, and already she was out of fuel! having only coal enough left for
+about twenty-four hours steaming. Here was food for reflection. Active
+operations which would require the constant use of steam, would never do;
+for, by-and-by, when the enemy should get on my track, it would be easy
+for him to trace me from port to port, if I went into port once a week. I
+must endeavor to reach some cruising-ground, where I could lie in wait for
+ships, under sail, and dispense with the use of steam, except for a few
+hours, at a time, for the purpose of picking up such prizes, as I could
+not decoy within reach of my guns. I was glad to learn from the pilot,
+that there was plenty of coal to be had in Cienfuegos, and I dispatched
+Lieutenant Chapman to town, in one of the ship's cutters, for the double
+purpose of arranging for a supply, and communicating with the Governor, on
+the subject of my prizes, and the position which Spain was likely to
+occupy, during the war. The following letter addressed by me to his
+Excellency will explain the object I had in view in coming into
+Cienfuegos, and the hopes I entertained of the conduct of Spain, whose
+important island of Cuba lay, as it were, athwart our main gateway to the
+sea--the Gulf of Mexico.
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     ISLAND OF CUBA, July 6, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--I have the honor to inform you, of my arrival at the port of
+     Cienfuegos, with seven prizes of war. These vessels are the
+     brigantines _Cuba_,[1] _Machias_, _Ben. Dunning_, _Albert Adams_, and
+     _Naiad_; and barks _West Wind_, and _Louisa Kilham_, property of
+     citizens of the United States, which States, as your Excellency is
+     aware, are waging an aggressive and unjust war upon the Confederate
+     States, which I have the honor, with this ship under my command, to
+     represent. I have sought a port of Cuba, with these prizes, with the
+     expectation that Spain will extend to the cruisers of the Confederate
+     States, the same friendly reception that, in similar circumstances,
+     she would extend to the cruisers of the enemy; in other words, that
+     she will permit me to leave the captured vessels within her
+     jurisdiction, until they can be adjudicated by a Court of Admiralty
+     of the Confederate States. As a people maintaining a government _de
+     facto_, and not only holding the enemy in check, but gaining
+     advantages over him, we are entitled to all the rights of
+     belligerents, and I confidently rely upon the friendly disposition of
+     Spain, who is our near neighbor, in the most important of her
+     colonial possessions, to receive us with equal and even-handed
+     justice, if not with the sympathy which our identity of interests and
+     policy, with regard to an important social and industrial
+     institution, are so well calculated to inspire. A rule which would
+     exclude our prizes from her ports, during the war, although it should
+     be applied, in terms, equally to the enemy, would not, I respectfully
+     suggest, be an equitable, or just rule. The basis of such a rule, as
+     indeed, of all the conduct of a neutral during war, is equal and
+     impartial justice to all the belligerents, without inclining to the
+     side of either; and this should be a substantial and practical
+     justice, and not exist in terms merely, which may be deceptive. Now,
+     a little reflection will, I think, show your Excellency that the rule
+     in question--the exclusion of the prizes of both belligerents from
+     neutral ports--cannot be applied in the present war, without
+     operating with great injustice to the Confederate States. It is well
+     known to your Excellency, that the United States are a manufacturing
+     and commercial people, whilst the Confederate States are an
+     agricultural people. The consequence of this dissimilarity of
+     pursuits was, that at the breaking out of the war, the former had
+     within their limits, and control, almost all the naval force of the
+     old government. This naval force they have dishonestly seized, and
+     turned against the Confederate States, regardless of the just claims
+     of the latter to a large proportion of it, as tax-payers, out of
+     whose contributions to the common Treasury it was created. The United
+     States, by this disseizin of the property of the Confederate States,
+     are enabled, in the first months of the war, to blockade all the
+     ports of the latter States. In this condition of things, observe the
+     _practical_ working of the rule I am discussing, whatever may be the
+     seeming fairness of its terms. It will be admitted that we have equal
+     belligerent rights with the enemy. One of the most important of these
+     rights, in a war against a commercial people, is that which I have
+     just exercised, of capturing his property, on the high seas. But how
+     are the Confederate States to enjoy, to its full extent, the benefit
+     of this right, if their cruisers are not permitted to enter neutral
+     ports, with their prizes, and retain them there, in safe custody,
+     until they can be condemned, and disposed of? They cannot send them
+     into their own ports, for the reason already mentioned, viz.: that
+     those ports are hermetically sealed by the agency of their own ships,
+     forcibly wrested from them. If they cannot send them into neutral
+     ports, where are they to send them? Nowhere. Except for the purpose
+     of destruction, therefore, their right of capture would be entirely
+     defeated by the adoption of the rule in question, whilst the opposite
+     belligerent would not be inconvenienced by it, at all, as all his own
+     ports are open to him. I take it for granted, that Spain will not
+     think of acting upon so unjust, and unequal a rule.
+
+     But another question arises, indeed has already arisen, in the cases
+     of some of the very captures which I have brought into port. The
+     cargoes of several of the vessels are claimed, as appears by
+     certificates found among the papers, as Spanish property. This fact
+     cannot, of course, be verified, except by a judicial proceeding, in
+     the Prize Courts of the Confederate States. But if the prizes cannot
+     be sent either into the ports of the Confederate States, or into
+     neutral ports, how can this verification be made? Further--supposing
+     there to be no dispute about the title to the cargo, how is it to be
+     unladen, and delivered to the neutral claimant, unless the captured
+     ship can make a port? Indeed, one of the motives which influenced me
+     in making a Spanish colonial port, was the fact that these cargoes
+     were claimed by Spanish subjects, whom I was desirous of putting to
+     as little inconvenience as possible, in the unlading and reception of
+     their property, should it be restored to them, by a decree of the
+     Confederate Courts. It will be for your Excellency to consider, and
+     act upon these grave questions, touching alike the interests of both
+     our governments.
+
+     I have the honor to be, &c., &c.,
+
+        RAPHAEL SEMMES.
+
+I did not expect much to grow immediately out of the above communication.
+Indeed, as the reader will probably surmise, I had written it more for the
+eye of the Spanish Premier, than for that of the Governor of a small
+provincial town, who had no diplomatic power, and whom I knew to be timid,
+as are all the subordinate officers of absolute governments. I presumed
+that the Governor would telegraph it to the Captain-General, at Havana,
+and that the latter would hold the subject in abeyance, until he could
+hear from the Home Government. Nor was I disappointed in this expectation,
+for Lieutenant Chapman returned from Cienfuegos, the next morning, and
+brought me intelligence to this effect.
+
+To dispose of the questions raised, without the necessity of again
+returning to them, the reader is informed, that Spain, in due time,
+followed the lead of England and France, in the matter of excluding prizes
+from her ports; and that my prizes were delivered--to whom, do you think,
+reader? You will naturally say, to myself, or my duly appointed agent,
+with instructions to take them out of the Spanish port. This was the
+result to be logically expected. The Captain-General had received them, in
+trust, as it were, to abide the decision of his Government. If that
+decision should be in favor of receiving the prizes of both belligerents,
+well; if not, I expected to be notified to take them away. But nothing was
+further, it seems, from the intention of the Captain-General, than this
+simple and just proceeding; for as soon as the Queen's proclamation was
+received, he deliberately handed back all my prizes to their original
+owners! This was so barefaced a proceeding, that it was necessary to
+allege some excuse for it, and the excuse given was, that I had violated
+the neutral waters of Cuba, and captured my three last prizes within the
+marine league--my sympathizing friend, the Spanish pilot, and an English
+sailor, on board the tug, being vouched as the respectable witnesses to
+the fact! Such was the power of Spanish gold, and Yankee unscrupulousness
+in the use of it. When I heard of these transactions a few months
+afterward, I planned a very pretty little quarrel between the Confederate
+States and Spain, in case the former should be successful in establishing
+their independence. Cuba, I thought, would make us a couple of very
+respectable States, with her staples of sugar and tobacco, and with her
+similar system of labor; and if Spain refused to foot our bill for the
+robbery of these vessels, we would foot it ourselves, at her expense. But
+poor old Spain! I ought perhaps to forgive thee, for thou wast afterward
+kicked, and cuffed by the very Power to which thou didst truckle--the
+Federal steamers of war making a free use of thy coast of the "Ever
+Faithful Island of Cuba," chasing vessels on shore, and burning them, in
+contempt of thy jurisdiction, and in spite of thy remonstrances. And the
+day is not far distant, when the school-ma'am and the carpet-bag
+missionary will encamp on thy plantations, and hold joint conventicles
+with thy freedmen, in the interests of Godliness, and the said ma'am and
+missionary.
+
+Great excitement was produced, as may be supposed, by the arrival of the
+_Sumter_, with her six prizes, at the quiet little town of Cienfuegos.
+Lieutenant Chapman was met by a host of sympathizers, and carried to their
+club, and afterward to the house of one of the principal citizens, who
+would not hear of his spending the night at a hotel, and installed as his
+honored guest. Neighbors were called in, and the night was made merry, to
+a late hour, by the popping of champagne-corks and the story, and the
+song; and when the festivities had ceased, my tempest-tossed lieutenant
+was laid away in the sweetest and whitest of sheets, to dream of the eyes
+of the houries of the household, that had beamed upon him so kindly, that
+he was in danger of forgetting that he was a married man. For weeks
+afterward, his messmates could get nothing out of him, but something
+about Don this, and Do�a that. There was a hurrying to and fro, too, of
+the stewards, and mess boys, as the cutter in which he returned, came
+alongside of the ship, for there were sundry boxes, marked Bordeaux, and
+Cette, and sundry baskets branded with anchors; and there were fruits, and
+flowers, and squalling chickens to be passed up.
+
+The principal coffee-house of the place had been agog with wonders; the
+billiard-players had rested idly on their cues, to listen to Madam Rumor
+with her thousand tongues--how the fort had fired into the _Sumter_, and
+how the _Sumter_ had fired back at the fort, and how the matter had
+finally been settled by the _Pirata_ and the _Commandante_, over a bottle
+of champagne. Yankee captains, and consignees, supercargoes, and consuls
+passed in, and out, in consultation, like so many ants whose nest had been
+trodden upon, and nothing could be talked of but freights, and insurance,
+with, and without the war risk; bills of lading, invoices, consul's
+certificates to cover cargoes, and last, though not least, where the
+d----l all the Federal gunboats were, that this Confederate hawk should be
+permitted to make such a flutter in the Yankee dove-cot.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE SUMTER ON THE WING AGAIN--IS PUT UNDER SAIL FOR THE TIME--REACHES THE
+ISLAND OF CURA�OA, AND IS ONLY ABLE TO ENTER AFTER A DIPLOMATIC FIGHT.
+
+
+From what has been said in the last chapter, the reader will have observed
+how anxious I was to conform my conduct, in all respects, to the laws of
+war. My hope was, that _some_ of the nations of the earth, at least, would
+give me an asylum for my prizes, so that I might have them formally
+condemned by the Confederate States Prize Courts, instead of being obliged
+to destroy them. It was with this hope, that I had entered the port of
+Cienfuegos, as the reader has seen; and it was in furtherance of this
+object, that I now drew up the following appointment of a Prize Agent, who
+had come well recommended to me, as a gentleman of integrity and capacity.
+
+     C. S. STEAMER SUMTER, CIENFUEGOS,
+     July 6, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--You are hereby appointed Prize Agent, for, and in behalf of the
+     Confederate States of America, of the following prizes, to wit: The
+     _Cuba_, _Machias_, _Ben. Dunning_, _Albert Adams_, _Naiad_, _West
+     Wind_, and _Louisa Kilham_, and their cargoes, until the same can be
+     adjudicated, by the Prize Courts of the Confederate States, and
+     disposed of by the proper authorities. You will take the necessary
+     steps for the safe custody of these prizes, and you will not permit
+     anything to be removed from, or disturbed on board of them. You will
+     be pleased, also, to take the examinations of the master, and mate of
+     each of these vessels, before a notary, touching the property of the
+     vessels, and cargoes; and making a copy thereof, to be retained in
+     your own possession, you will send, by some safe conveyance, the
+     originals, addressed to "The Judge of the Confederate States District
+     Court, New Orleans, La."
+
+        I have the honor to be, &c.,
+          RAPHAEL SEMMES.
+
+     _Se�or Don_ MARIANO DIAS.
+
+During the day, the steam-tug towed down from the town, for me, a couple
+of lighters, containing about one hundred tons of coal, five thousand
+gallons of water, and some fresh provisions for the crew. It was necessary
+that we should prepare for sea, with some dispatch, as there was a line of
+telegraph, from Cienfuegos to Havana, where there were always a number of
+the enemy's ships of war stationed. As a matter of course, the U. S.
+Consul at Cienfuegos had telegraphed to his brother Consul, in Havana, the
+arrival of the _Sumter_, in the first ten minutes after she had let go her
+anchor; and as another matter of course, there must already be several
+fast steamers on their way, to capture this piratical craft, which had
+thus so unceremoniously broken in upon the quiet of the Cuban waters, and
+the Yankee sugar, and rum trade. I had recourse to the chart, and having
+ascertained at what hour these steamers would be enabled to arrive, I
+fixed my own departure, a few hours ahead, so as to give them the
+satisfaction of finding that the bird, which they were in pursuit of, had
+flown. My excellent first lieutenant came up to time, and the ship was
+reported ready for sea before sunset, or in a little more than twenty-four
+hours, after our arrival.
+
+To avoid the coal dust, which is one of the pests of a steamer, and the
+confusion, and noise which necessarily accompany the exceedingly poetic
+operation of coaling, I landed, as the sun was approaching the western
+horizon, in company with my junior lieutenant and sailing-master, for a
+stroll, and to obtain sights for testing my chronometers, as well. Having
+disposed of the business part of the operation first, in obedience to the
+old maxim; that is to say, having made our observations upon the sun, for
+time, we wandered about, for an hour, and more, amid the rich tropical
+vegetation of this queen of islands, now passing under the flowering
+acacia, and now under the deep-foliaged orange-tree, which charmed two
+senses at once--that of smell, by the fragrance of its young flowers, and
+that of sight, by the golden hue of its luscious and tempting fruit. We
+had landed abreast of our ship, and a few steps sufficed to put us in the
+midst of a dense wilderness, of floral beauty, with nothing to commune
+with but nature. What a contrast there was between this peaceful, and
+lovely scene, and the life we had led for the last week! We almost
+loathed to go back to the dingy walls, and close quarters of our little
+craft, where everything told us of war, and admonished us that a life of
+toil, vexation, and danger lay before us, and that we must bid a long
+farewell to rural scenes, and rural pleasures. As we still wandered,
+absorbed in such speculations as these, unconscious of the flight of time,
+the sound of the evening gun came booming on the ear, to recall us to our
+senses, and retracing our steps, we hurriedly re-embarked. That evening's
+stroll lingered long in my memory, and was often recalled, amid the
+whistling, and surging of the gale, and the tumbling, and discomforts of
+the ship.
+
+I had been looking anxiously, for the last few hours, for the arrival of
+our prize brigantine, the _Cuba_, but she failed to make her appearance,
+and I was forced to abandon the hope of getting back my prize crew from
+her. I left with my prize agent, the following letter of instructions for
+the midshipman in command of the _Cuba_.
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     CIENFUEGOS, July 7, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--Upon your arrival at this place, you will put the master, mate,
+     and crew of the _Cuba_ on _parole_, not to serve against the
+     Confederate States, during the present war, unless exchanged, and
+     release them. You will then deliver the brigantine to the Governor,
+     for safe custody, until the orders of the Captain-General can be
+     known in regard to her. I regret much that you are not able to arrive
+     in time, to rejoin the ship, and you must exercise your judgment, as
+     to the mode in which you shall regain your country. You will, no
+     doubt, be able to raise sufficient funds for transporting yourself,
+     and the four seamen who are with you, to some point in the
+     Confederate States, upon a bill of exchange, which you are hereby
+     authorized to draw, upon the Secretary of the Navy. Upon your arrival
+     within our territory, you will report yourself to that officer. Your
+     baggage has been sent you by the pilot.
+
+     _Midshipman_ A. G. HUDGINS.
+
+I did not meet Mr. Hudgins, afterward, until as a rear admiral, I was
+ordered to the command of the James River fleet, in the winter of 1864. He
+was then attached to one of my ships, as a lieutenant. On the retreat from
+Richmond, I made him a captain of light artillery, and he was paroled with
+me, at Greensboro', North Carolina, in May 1865. How he has settled with
+my friend, the Spanish pilot, who agreed with _me_ that the prizes which
+I captured, off Cienfuegos, were _five_ miles from the land, and with the
+Northern claimants, and the Captain-General of Cuba, that they were less
+than _three_ miles from it, about his baggage, I have never learned.
+
+Everything being in readiness for sea, on board the _Sumter_, and the
+officers having all returned from their visits to the town, at eleven P.
+M., we got under way, and as the bell struck the midnight hour, we steamed
+out of the harbor, the lamps from the light-house throwing a bright glare
+upon our deck, as we passed under its shadow, close enough to "have tossed
+a biscuit" to the keeper; so bold is the entrance of the little river. The
+sea was nearly calm, and the usual land breeze was gently breathing,
+rather than blowing. Having given the course to the officer of the deck, I
+was glad to go below, and turn in, after the excitement, and confusion of
+the last forty-eight hours. When some seven or eight miles from the land,
+we lost the land breeze, and were struck by the sea breeze, nearly ahead,
+with some force. We steamed on, all the next day, without any incident to
+break in upon the monotony, except a short chase which we gave to a
+brigantine, which proved, upon our coming up with her, to be Spanish.
+Between nine, and ten o'clock in the evening, we passed the small islands
+of the _Caymans_, which we found to be laid down in the charts we were
+using, some fifteen or sixteen miles too far to the westward. As there is
+a current setting in the vicinity of these islands, and as the islands
+themselves are so low, as to be seen with difficulty, in a dark
+night,--and the night on which we were passing them was dark,--I make this
+observation, to put navigators on their guard.
+
+The morning of the ninth of July dawned clear, and beautifully, but as the
+sun gained power, the trade-wind increased, until it blew half a gale,
+raising considerable sea, and impeding the progress of the ship. Indeed,
+so little speed did we make, that the island of Jamaica, which we had
+descried with the first streaks of dawn, remained in sight all day; its
+blue mountains softened but not obliterated by the distance as the evening
+set in. The sea was as blue as the mountains, and the waves seemed almost
+as large, to our eyes, as the little steamer plunged into, and struggled
+with them, in her vain attempt to make headway. All the force of her
+engine was incapable of driving her at a greater speed than five knots.
+The next day, and the day after were equally unpropitious. Indeed the
+weather went from bad, to worse, for now the sky became densely overcast,
+with black, and angry-looking clouds, and the wind began to whistle
+through the rigging, with all the symptoms of a gale. We were approaching
+the hurricane season, and there was no telling at what moment, one of
+those terrible cyclones of the Caribbean Sea might sweep over us. To add
+to the gloominess of the prospect, we were comparatively out of the track
+of commerce, and had seen no sail, since we had overhauled the Spanish
+brigantine.
+
+As explained to the reader, in one of the opening chapters, it was my
+intention to proceed from Cuba, to Barbadoes, there recoal, and thence
+make the best of my way to Cape St. Roque, in Brazil, where I expected to
+reap a rich harvest from the enemy's commerce. I was now obliged to
+abandon, or at least to modify this design. It would not be possible for
+me to reach Barbadoes, with my present supply of coal, in the teeth of
+such trade-winds, as I had been encountering for the last few days. I
+therefore determined to bend down toward the Spanish Main; converting the
+present head-wind, into a fair wind, for at least a part of the way, and
+hoping to find the weather more propitious, on that coast. It was now the
+thirteenth of July, and as we had sailed from Cienfuegos, on the seventh,
+we had consumed six out of our eight days' supply of fuel. Steaming was no
+longer to be thought of, and we must make some port under sail. The Dutch
+island of Cura�oa lay under our lee, and we accordingly made sail for that
+island. The engineer was ordered to let his fires go down, and uncouple
+his propeller that it might not retard the speed of the ship, and the
+sailors were sent aloft to loose the topsails.
+
+This was the first time that we were to make use of our sails, unaided by
+steam, and the old sailors of the ship, who had not bestridden a yard for
+some months, leaped aloft, with a will, to obey the welcome order. The
+race of sailors has not yet entirely died out, though the steamship is
+fast making sad havoc with it. There is the same difference between the
+old-time sailor, who has been bred in the sailing-ship, and the modern
+sailor of the steamship, that there is between the well-trained fox-hound,
+who chases Reynard all day, and the cur that dodges a rabbit about, for
+half an hour or so. The sailing-ship has a romance, and a poetry about
+her, which is thoroughly killed by steam. The sailor of the former loves,
+for its own sake, the howling of the gale, and there is no music so sweet
+to his ear, as the shouting of orders through the trumpet of the officer
+of the deck, when he is poised upon the topsail-yard, of the rolling and
+tumbling ship, hauling out the "weather ear-ring." It is the _ranz de
+vache_, which recalls the memory of his boyhood, and youth, when under the
+tutelage of some foster-father of an old salt, he was taking his first
+lessons in seamanship.
+
+It used to be beautiful to witness the rivalry of these children of the
+deep, when the pitiless hurricane was scourging their beloved ship, and
+threatening her with destruction. The greater the danger, the more eager
+the contest for the post of honor. Was there a sail to be secured, which
+appeared about to be torn into ribbons, by the gale, and the loose gear of
+which threatened to whip the sailor from the yard; or was there a topmast
+to be climbed, which was bending like a willow wand under the fury of the
+blast, threatening to part at every moment, and throw the climber into the
+raging, and seething caldron of waters beneath, from which it would be
+impossible to rescue him, Jack, noble Jack was ever ready for the service.
+I have seen an old naval captain, who had been some years retired from the
+sea, almost melt into tears, as he listened to the musical "heaving of the
+lead" by an old sailor, in the "chains" of a passing ship of war.
+
+But steam, practical, commonplace, hard-working steam, has well-nigh
+changed all this, and cut away the webbing from the foot of the old-time
+sailor. Seamanship, evolutions, invention, skill, and ready resource in
+times of difficulty, and danger, have nearly all gone out of fashion, and
+instead of reefing the topsails, and club-hauling, and box-hauling the
+ship, some order is now sent to the engineer, about regulating his fires,
+and paying attention to his steam-gauges. Alas! alas! there will be no
+more Nelsons, and Collingwoods, and no more such venerable "bulwarks upon
+the deep," as the _Victory_, and the _Royal Sovereign_. In future wars
+upon the ocean, all combatants will be on the dead level of impenetrable
+iron walls, with regard to dash, and courage, and with regard to
+seamanship, and evolutions, all the knowledge that will be required of
+them, will be to know how to steer a nondescript box toward their enemy.
+
+Our first night under canvas, I find thus described, in my journal: "Heavy
+sea all night, and ship rolling, and tumbling about, though doing pretty
+well. The propeller revolves freely, and we are making about five knots."
+The next day was Sunday, and the weather was somewhat ameliorated. The
+wind continued nearly as fresh as before, but as we were now running a
+point free, this was no objection, and the black, angry clouds had
+disappeared, leaving a bright, and cheerful sky. A sail was seen on the
+distant horizon, but it was too rough to chase. This was our usual
+muster-day, but the decks were wet, and uncomfortable, and I permitted my
+crew to rest, they having scarcely yet recovered from the fatigue of the
+last few days.
+
+There is, perhaps, no part of the world where the weather is so uniformly
+fine, as on the Spanish Main. The cyclones never bend in that direction,
+and even the ordinary gales are unknown. We were already beginning to feel
+the influence of this meteorological change; for on Monday, the 15th of
+July, the weather was thus described in my journal: "Weather moderating,
+and the sea going down, though still rough. Nothing seen. In the
+afternoon, pleasant, with a moderate breeze, and the clouds assuming their
+usual soft, fleecy, trade-wind appearance." The next day was still clear,
+though the wind had freshened, and the ship was making good speed.
+
+At nine A. M. we made the land, on the starboard bow, which proved to be
+the island of Oruba, to leeward, a few miles, of Cura�oa. For some hours
+past, we had been within the influence of the equatorial current, which
+sets westward, along this coast, with considerable velocity, and it had
+carried us a little out of our course, though we had made some allowance
+for it. We hauled up, a point, or two, and at eleven A. M. we made the
+island of Cura�oa, on the port bow. We doubled the north-west end of the
+island, at about four P. M. and hauling up on the south side of it we
+soon brought the wind ahead, when it became necessary to put the ship
+under steam again, and to furl the sails.
+
+The afternoon proved beautifully bright, and clear; the sea was of a deep
+indigo-blue, and we were all charmed, even with this barren little island,
+as we steamed along its bold, and blackened shores, of limestone rock,
+alongside of which the heaviest ship might have run, and throwing out her
+bow and stern lines, made herself fast with impunity, so perpendicularly
+deep were the waters. Our average distance from the land, as we steamed
+along, was not greater than a quarter of a mile. There were a few stunted
+trees, only, to be seen, in the little ravines, and some wild shrubbery,
+and sickly looking grass, struggling for existence on the hills' sides. A
+few goats were browsing about here, and there, and the only evidence of
+commerce, or thrift, that we saw, were some piles of salt, that had been
+raked up from the lagoons, ready for shipment. And yet the Dutch live, and
+thrive here, and have built up quite a pretty little town--that of St.
+Anne's, to which we were bound. The explanation of which is, that the
+island lies contiguous to the Venezuelan coast, and is a free port, for
+the introduction of European, and American goods, in which a considerable
+trade is carried on, with the main land.
+
+We arrived off the town, with its imposing battlements frowning on either
+side of the harbor, about dusk, and immediately hoisted a jack, and fired
+a gun, for a pilot. In the course of half an hour, or so, this
+indispensable individual appeared, but it was too late, he said, for us to
+attempt the entrance, that night. He would come off, the first thing in
+the morning, and take us in. With this assurance we rested satisfied, and
+lay off, and on, during the night, under easy steam. But we were not to
+gain entrance to this quaint little Dutch town, so easily, as had been
+supposed. We were to have here a foretaste of the trouble, that the
+Federal Consuls were to give us in the future. We have already commented
+on the love of office of the American people. There is no hole, or corner
+of the earth, into which a ship can enter, and where there is a dollar to
+be made, that has not its American Consul, small or large. The smallest of
+salaries are eagerly accepted, and, as a consequence, the smallest of men
+are sometimes sent to fill these places. But the smaller the place, the
+bigger were the cocked hats and epaulettes the officials wore, and the
+more brim-full were they of patriotism.
+
+At the time of which I am writing, they called one Wm. H. Seward, master,
+and they had taken Billy's measure to a fraction. They knew his tastes,
+and pandered to them, accordingly. His circular letters had admonished
+them, that, in their intercourse with foreign nations, they must speak of
+our great civil war, as a mere _rebellion_, that would be suppressed, in
+from sixty, to ninety days; insist that we were not entitled to
+belligerent rights, and call our cruisers, "corsairs," or "pirates."
+Accordingly, soon after the pilot had landed, from the _Sumter_, carrying
+with him to the shore, the intelligence that she was a Confederate States
+cruiser, the Federal Consul made his appearance at the Government-House,
+and claimed that the "pirate" should not be permitted to enter the harbor;
+informing his Excellency, the Governor, that Mr. Seward would be irate, if
+such a thing were permitted, and that he might expect to have the stone,
+and mortar of his two forts knocked about his ears, in double quick, by
+the ships of war of the Great Republic.
+
+This bold, and defiant tone, of the doughty little Consul, seemed to
+stagger his Excellency; it would not be so pleasant to have St. Anne's
+demolished, merely because a steamer with a flag that nobody had seen
+before, wanted some coal; and so, the next morning, bright and early, he
+sent the pilot off, to say to me, that "the Governor could not permit the
+_Sumter_ to enter, having received recent orders from Holland to that
+effect." Here was a pretty kettle of fish! The _Sumter_ had only one day's
+fuel left, and it was some distance from Cura�oa, to any other place,
+where coal was to be had. I immediately sent for Lieutenant Chapman, and
+directed him to prepare himself for a visit to the shore; and calling my
+clerk, caused him to write, after my dictation, the following despatch to
+his Excellency:--
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     OFF ST. ANNE'S, CURA�OA, July 17, 1861.
+
+     HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CROL:--
+
+     I was surprised to receive, by the pilot, this morning, a message
+     from your Excellency, to the effect that this ship would not be
+     permitted to enter the harbor, unless she was in distress, as your
+     Excellency had received orders from his Government not to admit
+     vessels of war of the Confederate States of America, to the
+     hospitality of the ports, under your Excellency's command. I most
+     respectfully suggest that there must be some mistake here; and I have
+     sent to you the bearer, Lieutenant Chapman, of the Confederate States
+     Navy, for the purpose of an explanation. Your Excellency must be
+     under some misapprehension as to the character of this vessel. She is
+     a ship of war, duly commissioned by the government of the Confederate
+     States, which States have been recognized, as belligerents, in the
+     present war, by all the leading Powers of Europe, viz:--Great
+     Britain, France, Spain, &c., as your Excellency must be aware.
+
+     It is true, that these Powers have prohibited both belligerents,
+     alike, from bringing prizes into their several jurisdictions; but no
+     one of them has made a distinction, either between the respective
+     prizes, or the cruisers, themselves, of the two belligerents--the
+     cruisers of both governments, unaccompanied by prizes, being admitted
+     to the hospitalities of the ports of all these great Powers, on terms
+     of perfect equality. In the face of these facts, am I to understand
+     from your Excellency, that Holland has adopted a different rule, and
+     that she not only excludes the prizes, but the ships of war,
+     themselves, of the Confederate States? And this, at the same time,
+     that she admits the cruisers of the United States; thus departing
+     from her neutrality, in this war, ignoring the Confederate States, as
+     belligerents, and aiding and abetting their enemy? If this be the
+     position which Holland has assumed, in this contest, I pray your
+     Excellency to be kind enough to say as much to me in writing.
+
+When this epistle was ready, Chapman shoved off for the shore, and a long
+conference ensued. The Governor called around him, as I afterward learned,
+all the dignitaries of the island, civil and military, and a grand council
+of State was held. These Dutchmen have a ponderous way of doing things,
+and I have no doubt, the gravity of this council was equal to that held in
+New Amsterdam in colonial days, as described by the renowned historian
+Diederick Knickerbocker, at which Woutter Van Twiller, the doubter, was
+present. Judging by the time that Chapman was waiting for his answer,
+during which he had nothing to do but sip the most delightful mint
+juleps--for these islanders seemed to have robbed old Virginia of some of
+her famous mint patches--in company with an admiring crowd of friends, the
+councillors must have "smoked and talked, and smoked again;" pondered with
+true Dutch gravity, all the arguments, _pro_ and _con_, that were
+offered, and weighed my despatch, along with the "recent order from
+Holland," in a torsion balance, to see which was heaviest.
+
+After the lapse of an hour, or two, becoming impatient, I told my first
+lieutenant, that as our men had not been practised at the guns, for some
+time, I thought it would be as well to let them burst a few of our
+eight-inch shells, at a target. Accordingly the drum beat to quarters, a
+great stir was made about the deck, as the guns were cast loose, and
+pretty soon, whiz! went a shell, across the windows of the
+council-chamber, which overlooked the sea; the shell bursting like a clap
+of rather sharp, ragged thunder, a little beyond, in close proximity, to
+the target. Sundry heads were seen immediately to pop out of the windows
+of the chamber, and then to be withdrawn very suddenly, as though the
+owners of them feared that another shell was coming, and that my gunners
+might make some mistake in their aim. By the time we had fired three or
+four shells, all of which bursted with beautiful precision, Chapman's boat
+was seen returning, and thinking that our men had had exercise enough, we
+ran out and secured the guns.
+
+My lieutenant came on board, smiling, and looking pleasantly, as men will
+do, when they are bearers of good news, and said that the Governor had
+given us permission to enter. We were lying close in with the entrance,
+and in a few minutes more, the _Sumter_ was gliding gracefully past the
+houses, on either side of her, as she ran up the little canal, or river,
+that split the town in two. The quays were crowded with a motley gathering
+of the townspeople, men, women, and children, to see us pass, and sailors
+waved their hats to us, from the shipping in the port. Running through the
+town into a land-locked basin, in its rear, the _Sumter_ let go her
+anchor, hoisted out her boats, and spread her awnings,--and we were once
+more in port.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE SUMTER AT CURA�OA--HER SURROUNDINGS--PREPARATIONS FOR SEA, AND
+DEPARTURE--THE CAPTURE OF OTHER PRIZES--PUERTO CABELLO, AND WHAT OCCURRED
+THERE.
+
+
+The _Sumter_ had scarcely swung to her anchors, in the small land-locked
+harbor described, before she was surrounded by a fleet of bum-boats, laden
+with a profusion of tropical fruits, and filled with men, and women,
+indifferently--the women rather preponderating. These bum-boat women are
+an institution in Cura�oa; the profession descends from mother to daughter
+and time seems to operate no change among them. It had been nearly a
+generation since I was last at Cura�oa. I was then a gay, rollicking young
+midshipman, in the "old" Navy, and it seemed as though I were looking upon
+the same faces, and listening to the same confusion of voices as before.
+The individual women had passed away, of course, but the bum-boat women
+remained. They wore the same parti-colored handkerchiefs wound gracefully
+around their heads, the same gingham or muslin dresses, and exposed
+similar, if not the same, bare arms, and unstockinged legs. They were
+admitted freely on board, with their stocks in trade, and pretty soon Jack
+was on capital terms with them, converting his small change into fragrant
+bananas, and blood-red oranges, and replenishing his tobacco-pouch for the
+next cruise. As Jack is a gallant fellow, a little flirtation was going on
+too with the purchasing, and I was occasionally highly amused at these
+joint efforts at trade and love-making. No one but a bum-boat woman is
+ever a sailor's _blanchiseuse, et par consequence_ a number of well-filled
+clothes'-bags soon made their appearance, on deck, from the different
+apartments of the ship, and were passed into the boats alongside.
+
+These people all speak excellent English, though with a drawl, which is
+not unmusical, when the speaker is a sprightly young woman. Jack has a
+great fondness for pets, and no wonder, poor fellow, debarred, as he is,
+from all family ties, and with no place he can call his home, but his
+ship; and pretty soon my good-natured first lieutenant had been seduced
+into giving him leave to bring sundry monkeys, and parrots on board, the
+former of which were now gambolling about the rigging, and the latter
+waking the echoes of the harbor with their squalling. Such was the crowd
+upon our decks, and so serious was the interruption to business, that we
+were soon obliged to lay restrictions upon the bum-boat fleet, by
+prohibiting it from coming alongside, except at meal-hours, which we
+always designated by hoisting a red pennant, at the mizzen. It was curious
+to watch the movements of the fleet, as these hours approached. Some
+twenty or thirty boats would be lying upon their oars, a few yards from
+the ship, each with from two to half a dozen inmates, eagerly watching the
+old quartermaster, whose duty it was to hoist the pennant; the women
+chattering, and the parrots squalling, whilst the oarsmen were poising
+their oars, that they might get the first stroke over their competitors in
+the race. At length, away goes the flag! and then what a rushing and
+clattering, and bespattering until the boats are alongside.
+
+In an hour after our anchor had been let go, the business of the ship, for
+the next few days, had all been arranged. The first lieutenant had visited
+a neighboring ship-yard, and contracted for a new foretop-mast, to supply
+the place of the old one which had been sprung; the paymaster had
+contracted for a supply of coal, and fresh provisions, daily, for the
+crew, and for having the ship watered; the latter no unimportant matter,
+in this rainless region, and I had sent an officer to call on the
+Governor, _with my card_, being too unwell to make the visit, in person.
+Upon visiting the shore the next day, I found that we were in a _quasi_
+enemy's territory, for besides the Federal Consul before spoken of, a
+Boston man had intrenched himself in the best hotel in the place, as
+proprietor, and was doing a thriving business, far away from "war's
+alarms," and a New Yorker had the monopoly of taking all the phizes of the
+staid old Dutchmen--"John Smith, of New York, Photographer," hanging high
+above the artist's windows, on a sign-board that evidently had not been
+painted by a Cura�oan. Mr. Smith had already taken an excellent photograph
+of the _Sumter_, which he naively enough told me, was intended for the New
+York illustrated papers. If I had had ever so much objection, to having
+the likeness of my ship hung up in such a "rogues' gallery," I had no
+means of preventing it. Besides, it could do us but little damage, in the
+way of identification, as we had the art of disguising the _Sumter_ so
+that we would not know her, ourselves, at half a dozen miles distance.
+
+I was surprised, one morning, during our stay here, whilst I was lounging,
+listlessly, in my cabin, making a vain attempt to read, under the
+infliction of the caulkers overhead, who were striking their
+caulking-irons with a vigor, and rapidity, that made the tympanum of my
+ears ring again, at the announcement that Don somebody or other, the
+private secretary of President Castro, desired to see me. The caulkers
+were sent away, and his Excellency's private secretary brought below.
+President Castro was one of those unfortunate South American chiefs, who
+had been beaten in a battle of ragamuffins, and compelled to fly his
+country. He was President of Venezuela, and had been deprived of his
+office, before the expiration of his term, by some military aspirant, who
+had seated himself in the presidential chair, instead, and was now in
+exile in Cura�oa, with four of the members of his cabinet. The object of
+the visit of his secretary was to propose to me to reinstate the exiled
+President, in his lost position, by engaging in a military expedition,
+with him, to the mainland.
+
+Here was a chance, now, for an ambitious man! I might become the Warwick
+of Venezuela, and put the crown on another's head, if I might not wear it
+myself. I might hoist my admiral's flag, on board the _Sumter_, and take
+charge of all the piraguas, and canoes, that composed the Venezuelan navy,
+whilst my colleague mustered those men in buckram, so graphically
+described by Sir John Falstaff, and made an onslaught upon his despoiler.
+But unfortunately for friend Castro, I was like one of those damsels who
+had already plighted her faith to another, before the new wooer
+appeared--I was not in the market. I listened courteously, however, to
+what the secretary had to say; told him, that I felt flattered by the
+offer of his chief, but that I was unable to accept it. "I cannot," I
+continued, "consistently with my obligations to my own country, engage in
+any of the revolutionary movements of other countries." "But," said he,
+"Se�or Castro is the _de jure_ President of Venezuela, and you would be
+upholding the right in assisting him;--can you not, at least, land us,
+with some arms and ammunition, on the main land?" I replied that, "as a
+Confederate States officer, I could not look into _de jure_ claims. These
+questions were for the Venezuelans, themselves, to decide. The only
+government I could know in Venezuela was the _de facto_ government, for
+the time being, and _that_, by his own showing, was in the hands of his
+antagonists." Here the conversation closed, and my visitor, who had the
+bearing and speech of a cultivated gentleman, departed. The jottings of my
+diary for the next few days, will perhaps now inform the reader, of our
+movements, better than any other form of narrative.
+
+_July 19th._--Wind unusually blustering this morning, with partial
+obscuration of the heavens. The engineers are busy, overhauling and
+repairing damages to their engine and boilers; the gunner is at work,
+polishing up his battery and ventilating his magazine, and the sailors are
+busy renewing ratlines and tarring down their rigging. An English bark
+entered the harbor to-day from Liverpool.
+
+_July 20th._--Painting and refitting ship; got off the new fore-topmast
+from the shore. It is a good pine stick, evidently from our Southern
+States, and has been well fashioned. The monthly packet from the island of
+St. Thomas arrived, to-day, bringing newspapers from the enemy's country
+as late as the 26th of June. We get nothing new from these papers, except
+that the Northern bee-hive is all agog, with the marching and
+countermarching of troops.
+
+_July 21st._--Fresh trade-winds, with flying clouds--atmosphere highly
+charged with moisture, but no rain. This being Sunday, we mustered and
+inspected the crew. The washer-women have decidedly improved the
+appearance of the young officers, the glistening of white shirt-bosoms and
+collars having been somewhat unusual on board of the _Sumter_, of late.
+The crew look improved too, by their change of diet, and the use of
+antiscorbutics, which have been supplied to them, at the request of the
+surgeon; though some of them, having been on shore, "on liberty," have
+brought off a blackened eye. No matter--the more frequently Jack settles
+his accounts, on shore, the fewer he will have to settle on board ship, in
+breach of discipline. We read, at the muster, to-day, the finding and
+sentence of the first court-martial, that has sat on board the _Sumter_,
+since she reached the high seas.
+
+_July 22d._--Warped alongside a wharf, in the edge of the town, and
+commenced receiving coal on board. Refitting, and repainting ship. In the
+afternoon, I took a lonely stroll through the town, mainly in the suburbs.
+It is a quaint, picturesque old place, with some few modern houses, but
+the general air is that of dilapidation, and a decay of trade. The lower
+classes are simple, and primitive in their habits, and but little suffices
+to supply their wants. The St. Thomas packet sailed, to-day, and, as a
+consequence, the Federal cruisers, in and about that island, will have
+intelligence of our whereabouts, in four or five days. To mislead them, I
+have told the pilot, and several gentlemen from the shore, _in great
+confidence_, that I am going back to cruise on the coast of Cuba. The
+packet will of course take that intelligence to St. Thomas.
+
+_July 23d._--Still coaling, refitting and painting. Weather more cloudy,
+and wind not so constantly fresh, within the last few days. Having taken
+sights for our chronometers, on the morning after our arrival, and again
+to-day, I have been enabled to verify their rates. They are running very
+well. The chronometer of the _Golden Rocket_ proves to be a good
+instrument. We fix the longitude of Cura�oa to be 68� 58' 30", west of
+Greenwich.
+
+_July 24th._--Sky occasionally obscured, with a moderate trade-wind. Our
+men have all returned from their visits to the shore, except one, a simple
+lad named Orr, who, as I learn, has been seduced away, by a Yankee
+skipper, in port, aided by the Boston hotel-keeper, and our particular
+friend, the consul. As these persons have tampered with my whole crew, I
+am gratified to know, that there has been but one traitor found among
+them.
+
+We had now been a week in Cura�oa, during which time, besides recruiting,
+and refreshing my crew, I had made all the necessary preparations for
+another cruise. The ship had been thoroughly overhauled, inside and out,
+and her coal-bunkers were full of good English coal. It only remained for
+us to put to sea. Accordingly, at twelve o'clock precisely, on the day
+last above mentioned, as had been previously appointed, the _Sumter_,
+bidding farewell to her new-made friends, moved gracefully out of the
+harbor--this time, amid the waving of handkerchiefs, in female hands, as
+well as of hats in the hands of the males; the quay being lined, as
+before, to see us depart. The photographer took a last shot at the ship,
+as she glided past his sanctum, and we looked with some little interest to
+the future numbers of that "Journal of Civilization," vulgarly yclept
+"Harper's Weekly," for the interesting portrait; which came along in due
+time, accompanied by a lengthy description, veracious, of course, of the
+"Pirate."
+
+Cura�oa lies a short distance off the coast of Venezuela, between
+Laguayra, and Puerto Cabello, and as both of these places had some
+commerce with the United States, I resolved to look into them. The morning
+after our departure found us on a smooth sea, with a light breeze off the
+land. The mountains, back of Laguayra, loomed up blue, mystic, and
+majestic, at a distance of about thirty miles, and the lookout, at the
+mast-head, was on the _qui vive_ for strange sails. He had not to wait
+long. In the tropics, there is very little of that bewitching portion of
+the twenty-four hours, which, in other parts of the world, is called
+twilight. Day passes into night, and night into day, almost at a single
+bound. The rapidly approaching dawn had scarcely revealed to us the bold
+outline of the coast, above mentioned, when sail ho! resounded from the
+mast-head. The sail bore on our port-bow, and was standing obliquely
+toward us. We at once gave chase, and at half-past six A. M., came up
+with, and captured the schooner _Abby Bradford_, from New York, bound for
+_Puerto Cabello_.
+
+We knew our prize to be American, long before she showed us her colors.
+She was a "down-East," fore-and-aft schooner, and there are no other such
+vessels in the world. They are as thoroughly marked, as the Puritans who
+build them, and there is no more mistaking the "cut of their jib." The
+little schooner was provision laden, and there was no attempt to cover her
+cargo. The news of the escape of the _Sumter_ had not reached New York, at
+the date of her sailing, and the few privateers that we had put afloat, at
+the beginning of the war, had confined their operations to our own, and
+the enemy's coasts. Hence the neglect of the owners of the _Bradford_, in
+not providing her with some good English, or Spanish certificates,
+protesting that her cargo was neutral. The "old flag" was treated very
+tenderly on the present occasion. The "flaunting lie," which Mr. Horace
+Greeley had told us, should "insult no sunny sky," was hauled down, and
+stowed away in the quartermaster's bag described a few pages back.
+
+The _Bradford_ being bound for Puerto Cabello, and that port being but a
+short distance, under my lee, I resolved to run down, with the prize, and
+try my hand with my friend Castro's opponent, the _de facto_ President of
+Venezuela, to see whether I could not prevail upon him, to admit my prizes
+into his ports. I thought, surely, an arrangement could be made with some
+of these beggarly South American republics, the revenue of which did not
+amount to a cargo of provisions, annually, and which were too weak,
+besides, to be worth kicking by the stronger powers. What right had
+_they_, thought I, to be putting on the airs of nations, and talking about
+acknowledging other people, when they had lived a whole generation,
+themselves, without the acknowledgment of Spain.
+
+But, as the reader will see, I reckoned without my host. I found that they
+had a wholesome fear of the Federal gun-boats, and that even their
+cupidity could not tempt them to be just, or generous. If they had
+admitted my prizes into their ports, I could, in the course of a few
+months, have made those same ports more busy with the hum and thrift of
+commerce, than they had ever been before; I could have given a new impulse
+to their revolutions, and made them rich enough to indulge in the luxury
+of a _pronunciamiento_, once a week. The bait was tempting, but there
+stood the great lion in their path--the model Republic. The fact is, I
+must do this model Republic the justice to say, that it not only bullied
+the little South American republics, but all the world besides. Even old
+John Bull, grown rich, and plethoric, and asthmatic and gouty, trembled
+when he thought of his rich argosies, and of the possibility of Yankee
+privateers chasing them.
+
+Taking the _Bradford_ in tow, then, we squared away for Puerto Cabello,
+but darkness came on before we could reach the entrance of the harbor, and
+we were compelled to stand off and on, during the night--the schooner
+being cast off, and taking care of herself, under sail. The _Sumter_ lay
+on the still waters, all night, like a huge monster asleep, with the light
+from the light-house, on the battlements of the fort, glaring full upon
+her, and in plain hearing of the shrill cry of "_Alerta!_" from the
+sentinels. So quietly did she repose, with banked fires, being fanned, but
+not moved, by the gentle land-breeze that was blowing, that she scarcely
+needed to turn over her propeller during the night, to preserve her
+relative position with the light. There was no occasion to be in a hurry
+to run in, the next morning, as no business could be transacted before
+ten, or eleven o'clock, and so I waited until the sun, with his broad disk
+glaring upon us, like an angry furnace, had rolled away the mists of the
+morning, and the first lieutenant had holy-stoned his decks, and arranged
+his hammock-nettings, with his neat, white hammocks stowed in them, before
+we put the ship in motion.
+
+We had, some time before, hoisted the Confederate States flag, and the
+Venezuelan colors were flying from the fort in response. The prize
+accompanied us in, and we both anchored, within a stone's throw of the
+town, the latter looking like some old Moorish city, that had been
+transported by magic to the new world, _gallinazos_, and all. Whilst my
+clerk was copying my despatch to the Governor, and the lieutenant was
+preparing himself, and his boat's crew, to take it on shore, I made a
+hasty _reconnoissance_ of the fort, which had a few iron pieces, of small
+calibre mounted on it, well eaten by rust, and whose carriages had rotted
+from under them. The following is a copy of my letter to his Excellency.
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     PUERTO CABELLO, July 26, 1861.
+
+     HIS EXCELLENCY, THE GOVERNOR:--
+
+     I have the honor to inform your Excellency of my arrival at this
+     place, in this ship, under my command, with the prize schooner, _Abby
+     Bradford_, in company, captured by me about seventy miles to the
+     northward and eastward. The _Abby Bradford_ is the property of
+     citizens of the United States, with which States, as your Excellency
+     is aware, the Confederate States, which I have the honor to
+     represent, are at war, and the cargo would appear to belong, also, to
+     citizens of the United States, who have shipped it, on consignment,
+     to a house in _Puerto Cabello_. Should any claim, however, be given
+     for the cargo, or any part of it, the question of ownership can only
+     be decided by the Prize Courts of the Confederate States. In the
+     meantime, I have the honor to request, that your Excellency will
+     permit me to leave this prize vessel, with her cargo, in the port of
+     Puerto Cabello, until the question of prize can be adjudicated by the
+     proper tribunals of my country. This will be a convenience to all
+     parties; as well to any citizens of Venezuela, who may have an
+     interest in the cargo, as to the captors, who have also valuable
+     interests to protect.
+
+     In making this request, I do not propose that the Venezuelan
+     government shall depart from a strict neutrality between the
+     belligerents, as the same rule it applies to us, it can give the
+     other party the benefit of, also. In other words, with the most
+     scrupulous regard for her neutrality, she may permit both
+     belligerents to bring their prizes into her waters; and, of this,
+     neither belligerent could complain, since whatever justice is
+     extended to its enemy, is extended also to itself. * * * [Here
+     follows a repetition of the facts with regard to the seizure of the
+     Navy by the Federal authorities, and the establishment of the
+     blockade of the Southern ports, already stated in my letter to the
+     Governor of Cienfuegos.] * * * Thus, your Excellency sees, that under
+     the rule of exclusion, the enemy could enjoy his right of capture, to
+     its full extent--all his own ports being open to him--whilst the
+     cruisers of the Confederate States could enjoy it, _sub modo_, only;
+     that is, for the purpose of destroying their prizes. A rule which
+     would produce such unequal results as this, is not a just rule
+     (although it might, in terms, be extended to both parties), and as
+     equality and justice, are of the essence of neutrality, I take it for
+     granted, that Venezuela will not adopt it.
+
+     On the other hand, the rule admitting both parties, alike, with their
+     prizes into your ports, until the prize courts of the respective
+     countries could have time to adjudicate the cases, would work equal
+     and exact justice to both; and this is all that the Confederate
+     States demand.
+
+     With reference to the present case, as the cargo consists chiefly of
+     provisions, which are perishable, I would ask leave to sell them, at
+     public auction, for the benefit of "whom it may concern," depositing
+     the proceeds with a suitable prize agent, until the decision of the
+     court can be known. With regard to the vessel, I request that she may
+     remain in the custody of the same agent, until condemned and sold.
+
+When the _Sumter_ entered _Puerto Cabello_, with her prize, she found an
+empty harbor, there being only two or three coasting schooners anchored
+along the coast; there was a general dearth of business, and the quiet
+little city was panting for an excitement. A bomb-shell, thrown into the
+midst of the stagnant commercial community, could not have startled them
+more, than the rattling of the chain cable of the _Sumter_ through her
+hawse-hole, as she let go her anchor; and when my missive was handed to
+the Governor, there was a racing, and chasing of bare-footed orderlies,
+that indicated a prospective gathering of the clans, similar to the one
+which had occurred at Cura�oa. A grand council was held, at which the
+Confederate States had not the honor to be represented.
+
+That the reader may understand the odds against which we now had to
+struggle, he must recollect, that all these small South American towns
+are, more or less, dependent upon American trade. The New England States,
+and New York supply them with their domestic cottons, flour, bacon, and
+notions; sell them all their worthless old muskets, and damaged
+ammunition, and now and then, smuggle out a small craft to them, for naval
+purposes. The American Consul, who is also a merchant, represents not only
+those "grand moral ideas," that characterize our Northern people, but
+Sand's sarsaparilla, and Smith's wooden clocks. He is, _par excellence_,
+the big dog of the village. The big dog was present on the present
+occasion, looking portentous, and savage, and when he ope'd his mouth, all
+the little dogs were silent. Of course, the poor _Sumter_, anchored away
+off in the bay, could have no chance before so august an assemblage, and,
+pretty soon, an orderly came down to the boat, where my patient lieutenant
+was waiting, bearing a most ominous-looking letter, put up in true South
+American style, about a foot square, and bearing on it, "_Dios y
+Libertad_."
+
+When I came to break the seal of this letter, I found it to purport, that
+the Governor had not the necessary _funciones_, to reply to me,
+diplomatically, but that he would _elevate_ my despatch, to the _Supreme_
+Government; and that, in the mean time, I had better take the _Abby
+Bradford_ and get out of _Puerto Cabello_, as soon as possible! This was
+all said, very politely, for your petty South American chieftain is
+
+  "As mild a mannered man, as ever cut a throat,"
+
+but it was none the less strong for all that. The missive of the Governor
+reached me early, in the afternoon, but I paid not the least attention to
+it. I sent the paymaster on shore, to purchase some fresh provisions, and
+fruits, for the crew, and gave such of the officers "liberty," as desired
+it. The next morning I sent a prize crew on board the _Bradford_, and
+determined to send her to New Orleans. Being loth to part with any more of
+my officers, after the experience I had had, with the prize brig _Cuba_, I
+selected an intelligent quartermaster, who had been mate of a merchantman,
+as prize-master. My men I could replace--my officers I could not. The
+following letter of instructions was prepared for the guidance of the
+prize-master:
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     OFF PUERTO CABELLO, July 26, 1861.
+
+     QUARTERMASTER AND PRIZE-MASTER, EUGENE RUHL:
+
+     You will take charge of the prize schooner, _Abby Bradford_, and
+     proceed with her, to New Orleans--making the land to the westward of
+     the passes of the Mississippi, and endeavoring to run into Barrataria
+     Bay, Berwick's Bay, or some of the other small inlets. Upon your
+     arrival, you will proceed to the city of New Orleans, in person, and
+     report yourself to Commodore Rousseau, for orders. You will take
+     especial care of the accompanying package of papers, as they are the
+     papers of the captured schooner, and you will deliver them, with the
+     seals unbroken, to the judge of the Prize Court, Judge Moise. You
+     will batten down your hatches, and see that no part of the cargo is
+     touched, during the voyage, and you will deliver both vessel, and
+     cargo, to the proper law officers, in the condition in which you find
+     them, as nearly as possible.
+
+I availed myself of this opportunity, to address the following letter to
+Mr. Mallory, the Secretary of the Navy; having nothing very important to
+communicate, I did not resort to the use of the cipher, that had been
+established between us.
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     PUERTO CABELLO, July 26, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--Having captured a schooner of light draught, which, with her
+     cargo, I estimate to be worth some twenty-five thousand dollars, and
+     being denied the privilege of leaving her at this port, until she
+     could be adjudicated, I have resolved to dispatch her for New
+     Orleans, in charge of a prize crew, with the hope that she may be
+     able to elude the vigilance of the blockading squadron, of the enemy,
+     and run into some one of the shoal passes, to the westward of the
+     mouth of the Mississippi, as Barrataria, or Berwick's Bay. In great
+     haste, I avail myself of this opportunity to send you my first
+     despatch, since leaving New Orleans. I can do no more, for want of
+     time, than barely enumerate, without describing events.
+
+     We ran the blockade of Pass � L'Outre, by the _Brooklyn_, on the 30th
+     of June, that ship giving us chase. On the morning of the 3d of July,
+     I doubled Cape Antonio, the western extremity of Cuba, and, on the
+     same day, captured, off the Isle of Pines, the American ship, _Golden
+     Rocket_, belonging to parties in Bangor, in Maine. She was a fine
+     ship of 600 tons, and worth between thirty and forty thousand
+     dollars. I burned her. On the next day, the 4th, I captured the
+     brigantines _Cuba_ and _Machias_, both of Maine, also. They were
+     laden with sugars. I sent them to Cienfuegos, Cuba. On the 5th of
+     July, I captured the brigs _Ben. Dunning_, and _Albert Adams_, owned
+     in New York, and Massachusetts. They were laden, also, with sugars. I
+     sent them to Cienfuegos. On the next day, the 6th, I captured the
+     barks _West Wind_, and _Louisa Kilham_, and the brig _Naiad_, all
+     owned in New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. I sent them,
+     also, to Cienfuegos.
+
+     On the same day, I ran into that port, myself, reported my captures
+     to the authorities, and asked leave for them to remain, until they
+     could be adjudicated. The Government took them in charge, until the
+     Home Government should give directions concerning them. I coaled
+     ship, and sailed, again, on the 7th. On the 17th I arrived at the
+     Island of Cura�oa, without having fallen in with any of the enemy's
+     ships. I coaled again, here--having had some little difficulty with
+     the Governor, about entering--and sailed on the 24th. On the morning
+     of the 25th, I captured, off Laguayra, the schooner _Abby Bradford_,
+     which is the vessel, by which I send this despatch. I do not deem it
+     prudent to speak, here, of my future movements, lest my despatch
+     should fall into the hands of the enemy. We are all well, and "doing
+     a pretty fair business," in mercantile parlance, having made nine
+     captures in twenty-six days.
+
+The _Bradford_ reached the coast of Louisiana, in due time, but
+approaching too near to the principal passes of the Mississippi, against
+which I had warned her, she was re-captured, by one of the enemy's
+steamers, and my prize crew were made prisoners, but soon afterward
+released, though they did not rejoin me. I am thus particular, in giving
+the reader an account of these, my first transactions, for the purpose of
+showing him, that I made every effort to avoid the necessity of destroying
+my prizes, at sea; and that I only resorted to this practice, when it
+became evident that there was nothing else to be done. Not that I had not
+the right to burn them, under the laws of war, when there was no dispute
+about the property--as was the case with the _Golden Rocket_, she having
+had no cargo on board--but because I desired to avoid all possible
+complication with neutrals.
+
+Having dispatched the _Bradford_, we got under way, in the _Sumter_, to
+continue our cruise. We had scarcely gotten clear of the harbor, before a
+sail was discovered, in plain sight, from the deck. The breeze was light,
+and she was running down the coast, with all her studding sails set. Her
+taunt and graceful spars, and her whitest of cotton sails, glistening in
+the morning's sun, revealed at once the secret of her nationality. We
+chased, and, at the distance of full seven miles from the land, came up
+with, and captured her. She proved to be the bark _Joseph Maxwell_, of
+Philadelphia, last from Laguayra, where she had touched, to land a part of
+her cargo. The remainder she was bringing to Puerto Cabello. Upon
+inspection of her papers, I ascertained that one-half of the cargo,
+remaining on board of her, belonged to a neutral owner, doing business in
+Puerto Cabello.
+
+Heaving the bark to, in charge of a prize crew, beyond the marine league,
+I took her master on board the _Sumter_, and steaming back into the
+harbor, sent Paymaster Myers on shore with him, to see if some arrangement
+could not be made, by which the interests of the neutral half-owner of the
+cargo could be protected; to see, in other words, whether _this_ prize, in
+which a Venezuelan citizen was interested, would not be permitted to
+enter, and remain until she could be adjudicated. Much to my surprise,
+upon the return of my boat, the paymaster handed me a written _command_
+from the Governor, to bring the _Maxwell_ in, and deliver her to him,
+until the _Venezuelan courts_ could determine whether she had been
+captured within the marine league, or not! This insolence was refreshing.
+I scarcely knew whether to laugh, or be angry at it. I believe I indulged
+in both emotions. The _Sumter_ had not let go her anchor, but had been
+waiting for the return of her boat, under steam. She was lying close under
+the guns of the fort, and we could see that the tompions had been taken
+out of the guns, and that they were manned by some half-naked soldiers.
+Not knowing but the foolish Governor might order his commandant to fire
+upon me, in case I should attempt to proceed to sea, in my ship, before I
+had sent a boat out to bring in the _Maxwell_, I beat to quarters, and
+with my crew standing by my guns, steamed out to rejoin my prize. When I
+had a little leisure to converse with my paymaster, he told me, that the
+Federal consul had been consulted, on the occasion, and that the nice
+little _ruse_ of the Governor's order had been resorted to in the hope of
+intimidating me. I would have burned the _Maxwell_, on the spot, but,
+unfortunately, as the reader has seen, she had some neutral cargo on
+board, and this I had no right to destroy. I resolved, therefore, to send
+her in; not to the Confederate States, for she drew too much water to
+enter any, except the principal ports, and these being all blockaded, by
+steamers, it was useless for her to make the attempt. The following letter
+of instructions to her prize-master, will show what disposition was made
+of her.
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     AT SEA, July 27, 1861.
+
+     MIDSHIPMAN AND PRIZE-MASTER WM. A. HICKS:--
+
+     You will take charge of the prize bark, _Joseph Maxwell_, and
+     proceed, with her, to some port on the south side of the island of
+     Cuba, say St. Jago, Trinidad, or Cienfuegos. I think it would be
+     safest for you to go into Cienfuegos, as the enemy, from the very
+     fact of our having been there, recently, will scarcely be on the look
+     for us a second time. The steamers which were probably sent thither
+     from Havana in pursuit of the _Sumter_ must, long since, have
+     departed, to hunt her in some other quarter.
+
+     Upon your arrival, you will inform the Governor, or Commandant of the
+     Port, of the fact, state to him that your vessel is the prize of a
+     ship of war, and not of a privateer, and ask leave for her to remain
+     in port, in charge of a prize agent, until she can be adjudicated by
+     a prize court of the Confederate States. Should he grant you this
+     request, you will, if you go into Cienfuegos, put the vessel in
+     charge of _Don Mariano Dias_, our agent for the other prizes; but
+     should you go into either of the other ports, you will appoint some
+     reliable person to take charge of the prize, but without power to
+     sell, until further orders--taking from him a bond, with sufficient
+     sureties for the faithful performance of his duties.
+
+     Should the Governor decline to permit the prize to remain, you will
+     store the cargo, with some responsible person, if permitted to land
+     it, taking his receipt therefor, and then take the ship outside the
+     port, beyond the marine league, and burn her. Should you need funds
+     for the unlading and storage of the cargo, you are authorized to sell
+     so much of it as may be necessary for this purpose. You will then
+     make the best of your way to the Confederate States, and report
+     yourself to the Secretary of the Navy. You will keep in close custody
+     the accompanying sealed package of papers, being the papers of the
+     captured vessel, and deliver it, in person, to the Judge of the
+     Admiralty Court, in New Orleans. The paymaster will hand you the sum
+     of one hundred dollars, and you are authorized to draw on the
+     Secretary of the Navy for such further sum as you may need, to defray
+     the expenses of yourself, and crew, to the Confederate States.
+
+I had not yet seen the proclamation of neutrality by Spain, and the reader
+will perceive, from the above letter, that I still clung to the hope that
+that Power would dare to be just, even in the face of the truckling of
+England and France. The master of the _Maxwell_ had his wife on board, and
+the sea being smooth, I made him a present of one of the best of his
+boats, and sent him and his wife on shore in her. He repaid my kindness by
+stealing the ship's chronometer, which he falsely told the midshipman in
+charge of the prize I had given him leave to take with him. At three P.
+M., taking a final leave of _Puerto Cabello_, there being neither waving
+of hats or handkerchiefs, or regrets on either side, we shaped our course
+to the eastward, and put our ship under a full head of steam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+STEAMING ALONG THE COAST OF VENEZUELA--THE CORAL INSECT, AND THE WONDERS
+OF THE DEEP--THE ANDES AND THE RAINY SEASON--THE SUMTER ENTERS THE PORT OF
+SPAIN, IN THE BRITISH ISLAND OF TRINIDAD, AND COALS, AND SAILS AGAIN.
+
+
+There was a fresh trade-wind blowing, and some sea on, as the _Sumter_
+brought her head around to the eastward, and commenced buffeting her way,
+again, to windward. She had, in addition, a current to contend with, which
+sets along this coast in the direction of the trade-wind, at the rate of
+about a knot an hour. We were steaming at a distance of seven or eight
+miles from the land, and, as the shades of evening closed in, we descried
+a Federal brigantine, running down the coast--probably for the port we had
+just left--hugging the bold shore very affectionately, to keep within the
+charmed marine league, within which she knew she was safe from capture. We
+did not, of course, molest her, as I made it a point always to respect the
+jurisdiction of neutrals, though never so weak. I might have offended
+against the sovereignty of Venezuela, by capturing this vessel, with
+impunity, so far as Venezuela was herself concerned, but then I should
+have committed an offence against the laws of nations, and it was these
+laws that I was, myself, looking to, for protection. Besides, the
+Secretary of the Navy, in preparing my instructions, had been particular
+to enjoin upon me, not only to respect the rights of neutrals, but to
+conciliate their good will.
+
+As we were running along the land, sufficiently near for its influence to
+be felt upon the trade-winds, it became nearly calm during the night, the
+land and sea breezes, each struggling for the mastery, and thus
+neutralizing each other's forces. The steamer sprang forward with renewed
+speed, and when the day dawned the next morning, we were far to windward
+of Laguayra. The sun rose in a sky, without a cloud, and the wind did not
+freshen, as the day advanced, so much as it had done the day before. The
+mountains of Venezuela lay sleeping in the distance, robed in a mantle of
+heavenly blue, numerous sea-birds were on the wing, and the sail of a
+fishing-boat, here and there, added picturesqueness to the scene. At
+half-past nine, we gave chase to a fore-and-aft schooner, which proved to
+be a Venezuela coaster.
+
+In the afternoon, we passed sufficiently near the island of Tortuga, to
+run over some of its coral banks. The sun was declining behind the yet
+visible mountains, and the sea breeze had died away to nearly a calm,
+leaving the bright, and sparkling waters, with a mirrored surface. We now
+entered upon a scene of transcendent beauty, but the beauty was that of
+the deep, and not of the surface landscape. The reader is familiar with
+the history of the coral insect, that patient little stone-mason of the
+deep, which, though scarcely visible through the microscope, lays the
+foundations of islands, and of continents. The little coralline sometimes
+commences its work, hundreds of fathoms down in the deep sea, and working
+patiently, and laboriously, day and night, night and day, week after week,
+month after month, year after year, and century after century, finally
+brings its structure to the surface.
+
+When its tiny blocks of lime-stone, which it has secreted from the salts
+of the sea, have been piled so high, that the tides now cover the
+structure, and now leave it dry, the little toiler of the sea, having
+performed the functions prescribed to it by its Creator, dies, and is
+entombed in a mausoleum more proud than any that could be reared by human
+hands. The winds, and the clouds now take charge of the new island, or
+continent, and begin to prepare it for vegetation, and the habitation of
+man, and animals. The Pacific Ocean, within the tropics is, _par
+excellence_, the coral sea, and the navigator of that ocean is familiar
+with the phenomenon, which I am about to describe. In the midst of a clear
+sky, the mariner sometimes discovers on the verge of the horizon, a light,
+fleecy cloud, and as he sails toward it, he is surprised to find that it
+scarcely alters its position. It rises a little, and a little higher, as
+he approaches it, pretty much as the land would appear to rise, if he were
+sailing toward it, but that is all. He sails on, and on, and when he has
+come near the cloud, he is surprised to see under it, a white line of
+foam, or, maybe a breaker, if there is any undulation in the sea, in a
+spot where all is represented as deep water on his chart. Examining with
+his telescope, he now discovers, in the intervals of the foam, caused by
+the rising and falling of the long, lazy swell, a coral bank, so white as
+scarcely to be distinguished from the seething and boiling foam. He has
+discovered the germ of a new island, which in the course of time, and the
+decrees of Providence, will be covered with forests, and inhabited by men,
+and animals.
+
+The cloud, as a sort of "pillar by day," has conducted him to the spot,
+whilst it has, at the same time, warned him of his danger. But the
+cloud--how came it there, why does it remain so faithfully at its post,
+and what are its functions? One of the most beautiful of the phenomena of
+tropical countries is the alternation, with the regularity of clock-work,
+of the land and sea breezes; by day, the sea breeze blowing toward the
+land, and by night the land breeze blowing toward the sea. The reason of
+this is as follows. The land absorbs heat, and radiates it, more rapidly
+than the sea. The consequence is, that when the sun has risen, an hour or
+two, the land becomes warmer than the surrounding sea, and there is an
+in-draught toward it; in other words, the sea breeze begins to blow. When,
+on the contrary, the sun has set, and withdrawn his rays from both land
+and sea, and radiation begins, the land, parting with its absorbed heat,
+more rapidly than the sea, soon becomes cooler than the sea. As a
+consequence, there is an out-draught from the land; in other words, the
+land breeze has commenced to blow. The reader now sees how it is, that the
+"pillar by day" hangs over the little coral island; the bank of coral
+absorbing heat by day more rapidly than the surrounding sea, there is an
+in-draught setting toward it, and as the lazy trade-winds approach it,
+they themselves become heated, and ascend into the upper air. There is
+thus a constantly ascending column of heated atmosphere over these banks.
+This ascending column of atmosphere, when it reaches a certain point, is
+condensed into cumuli of beautiful, fleecy clouds, often piled up in the
+most fantastic and gorgeous shapes. It is thus that the cloud becomes
+stationary. It is ever forming, and ever passing off; retaining, it may
+be, its original form, but its nebul� constantly changing.
+
+When a cooler blast of trade-wind than usual comes along, the condensation
+is more rapid, and perfect, and showers of rain fall. The sea-birds are
+already hovering, in clouds, over the inchoate little island, fishing, and
+wading in its shallow waters, and roosting on it, when they can get a
+sufficient foothold. Vegetation soon ensues, and, in the course of a few
+more ages, nature completes her work.
+
+But to return from this digression, into which we were led by a view of
+the coral bank over which we were passing. The little insect, which is at
+work under our feet, has not yet brought its structure sufficiently near
+the surface, to obstruct our passage over it. We are in five or six
+fathoms of water, but this water is so clear, that we are enabled to see
+the most minute object, quite distinctly. We have "slowed" the engine the
+better to enjoy the beautiful sub-marine landscape; and look! we are
+passing over a miniature forest, instinct with life. There are beautifully
+branching trees of madrepores, whose prongs are from one to two feet in
+length, and sometimes curiously interlaced. Each one of the branches, as
+well as the trunk, has a number of little notches in it. These are the
+cells in which the little stone-mason is at work. Adhering to the branches
+of these miniature trees, like mosses, and lichens, you see sundry
+formations that you might mistake for leaves. These are also cellular, and
+are the workshops of the little masons. Scattered around, among the trees,
+are waving the most gorgeous of fans, and, what we might call sea-ferns,
+and palms. These are of a variety of brilliant colors, purple
+predominating.
+
+Lying on the smooth, white sand, are boulders of coral in a variety of
+shapes--some, like the domes of miniature cathedrals; some, perfectly
+spherical; some, cylindrical. These, and the trees, are mostly of a creamy
+white, though occasionally, pink, violet, and green are discovered. As the
+passage of the steamer gives motion to the otherwise smooth sea, the
+fans, ferns, and palms wave, gracefully, changing their tints as the light
+flashes upon them, through the pellucid waters. The beholder looks
+entranced, as though he were gazing upon a fairy scene, by moonlight; and
+to add to the illusion, there is a movement of life, all new to the eye,
+in every direction. The beautiful star-fish, with its five points, as
+equally, and regularly arranged, as though it had been done by the rule of
+the mathematician, with great worm-like molluscs, lie torpid on the white
+sand. Jelly-fish, polypi, and other nondescript shapes, float about in the
+miniature forest; and darting hither and thither, among the many-tinted
+ferns, some apparently in sport, and some in pursuit of their prey, are
+hundreds of little fishes, sparkling, and gleaming in silver, and gold,
+and green, and scarlet.
+
+The most curious of these is the parrot-fish, whose head is shaped like
+the beak of the parrot, and whose color is light green. How wonderfully
+full is the sea of animal life! All this picture is animal life; for what
+appears to be the vegetable portion of this sub-marine landscape, is
+scarcely vegetable at all. The waving ferns, fans, and palms are all
+instinct with animal life. The patient little toiler of the sea, the
+coralline insect, is busy with them, as he is with his limestone trees. He
+is helping on their formation by his secretions, and it is difficult to
+say what portion of them is vegetable, what, mineral, and what, animal.
+
+I had been an hour, and more, entranced by the fairy sub-marine forest,
+and its denizens, which I have so imperfectly described, when the sun sank
+behind the Andes, and night threw her mantle upon the waters, changing all
+the sparkling colors of forest, and fish, to sombre gray, and admonishing
+me, that it was time to return to every-day life, and the duties of the
+ship. "Let her have the steam," said I to the officer of the deck, as I
+arose from my bent posture over the ship's rail; and, in a moment more,
+the propeller was thundering us along at our usual speed.
+
+At eleven P. M., we were up with the island of Margarita, and as I
+designed to run the passage between it, and the main land, I preferred
+daylight for the operation; and so, sounding in thirty-two fathoms of
+water, I hove the ship to, under her trysails for the night, permitting
+her steam to go down. The next day, the weather still continued clear and
+pleasant, the trade-wind being sufficiently light not to impede our
+headway, for we were steaming, as the reader will recollect, nearly head
+to wind. We had experienced but little adverse current during the last
+twenty-four hours, and were making very satisfactory progress. I was now
+making a passage, rather than cruising, as a sail is a rare sight, in the
+part of the ocean I was traversing.
+
+At meridian we passed that singular group of islands called the
+Frayles--_Anglice_, friars--jutting up from the sea in cones of different
+shapes, and looking, at a distance, not unlike so many hooded monks. With
+the exception of a transient fisherman, who now and then hauls up his boat
+out of the reach of the surf, on these harborless islands, and pitches his
+tent, made of his boat's sail, for a few days of rest and refreshment,
+they have no inhabitants.
+
+_July 30th._--"Thick, cloudy weather, with incessant, and heavy rains;
+hauling in for the coast of Venezuela, near the entrance to the Gulf of
+Paria. So thick is the weather, that to 'hold on to the land,' I am
+obliged to run the coast within a mile, and this is close running on a
+coast not minutely surveyed." So said my journal. Indeed the day in
+question was a memorable one, from its scenery, and surroundings. Few
+landscapes present so bold, and imposing a picture as this part of the
+South American coast. The Andes here rise abruptly out of the sea, to a
+great height. Our little craft running along their base, in the bluest and
+deepest of water, looked like a mere cockle-shell, or nautilus. Besides
+the torrents of rain, that were coming down upon our decks, and through
+which, at times, we could barely catch a glimpse of the majestic, and
+sombre-looking mountains, we were blinded by the most vivid flashes of
+lightning, simultaneously with which, the rolling and crashing of the
+thunder deafened our ears. I had stood on the banks of the Lake of Geneva,
+and witnessed a storm in the Alps, during which Byron's celebrated lines
+occurred to me. They occurred to me more forcibly here, for literally--
+
+                                  "Far along
+  From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,
+    Leaps the live thunder! Not from one cloud,
+  But every mountain now had found a tongue,
+    And Jura answers, through her misty shroud,
+  Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud!"
+
+That word "joyous" was well chosen by the poet, for the mountains did
+indeed seem to rejoice in this grand display of nature. Of wind there was
+scarcely any--what little there was, was frequently off the land, and even
+blew in the direction opposite to that of the trade-wind. We were in the
+rainy season, along this coast, and all the vegetable kingdom was in full
+luxuriance. The cocoanut, and other palms, giving an Eastern aspect to the
+scenery, waved the greenest of feathery branches, and every shrub, and
+almost every tree rejoiced in its flower. It was delightful to inhale the
+fragrance, as the whirling a�rial current brought us an occasional puff
+from the land.
+
+On board the ship, we looked like so many half-drowned rats. The officer
+of the deck, trumpet in hand, was ensconced, to his ears, in his
+india-rubber pea-jacket, his long beard looking like a wet mop, and little
+rills of rain trickling down his neck, and shoulders, from his slouched
+"Sou'wester." The midshipman of the watch had taken off his shoes, and
+rolled up his trousers, and was paddling about in the pools on deck, as
+well pleased as a young duck. And as for the old salt, he was in his
+element. There was plenty of fresh water to wash his clothes in, and
+accordingly the decks were filled with industrious washers, or rather
+scrubbers, each with his scrubbing-brush, and bit of soap, and a little
+pile of soiled duck frocks and trousers by his side.
+
+The reader has been informed, that we were running along the coast, within
+a mile of it, to enable us to keep sight of the land. The object of this
+was to make the proper landfall for running into the Gulf of Paria, on
+which is situated the Port of Spain, in the island of Trinidad, to which
+we were bound. We opened the gulf as early as nine A. M., and soon
+afterward identified the three islands that form the _Bocas del Drago_, or
+dragon's mouth. The scenery is remarkably bold and striking at the
+entrance of this gulf or bay. The islands rise to the height of
+mountains, in abrupt and sheer precipices, out of the now muddy
+waters--for the great Orinoco, traversing its thousands of miles of
+alluvial soil, disembogues near by. Indeed, we may be said to have been
+already within the delta of that great stream.
+
+Memory was busy with me, as the _Sumter_ passed through the Dragon's
+Mouth. I had made my first cruise to this identical island of Trinidad,
+when a green midshipman in the Federal Navy. A few years before, the elder
+Commodore Perry--he of Lake Erie memory--had died of yellow fever, when on
+a visit, in one of the small schooners of his squadron, up the Orinoco.
+The old sloop-of-war _Lexington_, under the command of Commander, now
+Rear-Admiral Shubrick, was sent to the Port of Spain to bring home his
+remains. I was one of the midshipmen of that ship. A generation had since
+elapsed. An infant people had, in that short space of time, grown old and
+decrepid, and its government had broken in twain. But there stood the
+everlasting mountains, as I remembered them, unchanged! I could not help
+again recurring to the poet:--
+
+  "Man has another day to swell the past,
+  And lead him near to little but his last;
+  But mighty Nature bounds as from her birth.
+  The sun is in the heavens, and life on earth;
+  Flowers in the valley, splendor in the beam,
+  Health on the gale, and freshness in the stream.
+  Immortal man! behold her glories shine,
+  And cry, exulting inly, 'they are thine!'
+  Gaze on, while yet thy gladdened eye may see;
+  A morrow comes when they are not for thee:
+  And grieve what may above thy senseless bier,
+  Nor earth, nor sky shall yield a single tear;
+  Nor cloud shall gather more, nor leaf shall fall,
+  Nor gale breathe forth one sigh for thee, for all;
+  But creeping things shall revel in their spoil,
+  And fit thy clay to fertilize the soil."
+
+We entered through the Huevo passage--named from its egg-shaped
+island--and striking soundings, pretty soon afterward, ran up by our chart
+and lead-line, there being no pilot-boat in sight. We anchored off the
+Port of Spain a little after mid-day--an English merchant brig paying us
+the compliment of a salute.
+
+I dispatched a lieutenant to call on the Governor. The orders of
+neutrality of the English government had already been received, and his
+Excellency informed me that, in accordance therewith, he would extend to
+me the same hospitality that he would show, in similar circumstances, to
+the enemy; which was nothing more, of course, than I had a right to
+expect. The Paymaster was dispatched to the shore, to see about getting a
+supply of coal, and send off some fresh provisions and fruit for the crew;
+and such of the officers as desired went on liberty.
+
+The first thing to be thought of was the discharge of our prisoners, for,
+with the exception of the Captain, whom I had permitted to land in _Puerto
+Cabello_, with his wife, I had the crew of the _Joseph Maxwell_,
+prize-ship, still on board. I had given these men, eight in number, to
+understand that they were hostages, and that their discharge, their close
+confinement, or their execution, as the case might be, depended upon the
+action of their own Government, in the case of the _Savannah_ prisoners.
+The reader will probably recollect the case to which I allude. President
+Lincoln, of the Federal States, in issuing his proclamation of the 15th of
+April, 1861, calling out 75,000 troops to revenge the disaster of Fort
+Sumter, inserted the following paragraph:--
+
+     "And I hereby proclaim, and declare, that, if any person, under the
+     pretended authority of said States, or under any other pretence,
+     shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the persons, or cargo
+     on board of her, such persons will be held amenable to the laws of
+     the United States, for the prevention, and punishment of piracy."
+
+On the 6th of May following, the Congress of the Confederate States,
+passed the following act, in reply, as it were, to this manifesto of Mr.
+Lincoln:--
+
+     "_Whereas_, The earnest efforts made by this Government, to establish
+     friendly relations between the Government of the United States, and
+     the Confederate States, and to settle all questions of disagreement
+     between the two Governments, upon principles of right, equity,
+     justice, and good faith, have proved unavailing, by reason of the
+     refusal of the Government of the United States to hold any
+     intercourse with the Commissioners appointed by this Government, for
+     the purposes aforesaid, or to listen to any proposal they had to
+     make, for the peaceful solution of all causes of difficulty between
+     the two Governments; and _whereas_, the President of the United
+     States of America has issued his proclamation, making requisition
+     upon the States of the American Union, for 75,000 men, for the
+     purpose, as therein indicated, of capturing forts, and other
+     strongholds within the jurisdiction of, and belonging to the
+     Confederate States of America, and raised, organized, and equipped a
+     large military force, to execute the purpose aforesaid, and has
+     issued his other proclamation, announcing his purpose to set on foot
+     a blockade of the ports of the Confederate States; and _whereas_, the
+     State of Virginia has seceded from the Federal Union, and entered
+     into a convention of alliance, offensive and defensive, with the
+     Confederate States, and has adopted the Provisional Constitution of
+     said States, and the States of Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee,
+     Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri have refused, and it is believed,
+     that the State of Delaware, and the inhabitants of the Territories of
+     Arizona, and New Mexico, and the Indian Territory, south of Kansas
+     will refuse to co-operate with the Government of the United States,
+     in these acts of hostility, and wanton aggression, which are plainly
+     intended to overawe, oppress, and finally subjugate the people of the
+     Confederate States; and _whereas_, by the acts, and means aforesaid,
+     war exists between the Confederate States, and the Government of the
+     United States, and the States and Territories thereof, excepting the
+     States of Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas,
+     Missouri, and Delaware, and the Territories of Arizona, and New
+     Mexico, and the Indian Territory south of Kansas: THEREFORE,
+
+     "SEC. 1. _The Congress of the Confederate States of America do
+     enact_, That the President of the Confederate States is hereby
+     authorized to use the whole land, and naval force of the Confederate
+     States, to meet the war thus commenced, and to issue to private armed
+     vessels, commissions, or letters-of-marque, and general reprisal, in
+     such form, as he shall think proper, under the seal of the
+     Confederate States, against the vessels, goods, and effects of the
+     Government of the United States, and of the citizens, or inhabitants
+     of the States, and Territories thereof, except the States and
+     Territories hereinbefore named. _Provided_, however, that the
+     property of the enemy, (unless it be contraband of war,) laden on
+     board a neutral vessel, shall not be subject to seizure, under this
+     Act; and _provided further_, that the vessels of the citizens, or
+     inhabitants of the United States, now in the ports of the Confederate
+     States, except such as have been since the 15th of April last, or may
+     hereafter be, in the service of the Government of the United States,
+     shall be allowed thirty days, after the publication of this Act, to
+     leave said ports, and reach their destination; and such vessels, and
+     their cargoes, excepting articles contraband of war, shall not be
+     subject to capture, under this Act, during said period, unless they
+     shall previously have reached the destination for which they were
+     bound, on leaving said ports."
+
+Among the private armed vessels which took out commissions under this Act,
+was the schooner _Savannah_, formerly a pilot-boat out of Charleston. She
+carried one small gun, and about twenty men. During the month of June,
+this adventurous little cruiser was captured by the U. S. brig
+_Bainbridge_, and her crew were hurried off to New York, confined in
+cells, like convicted felons, and afterward brought to trial, and
+_convicted of piracy_, under Mr. Lincoln's proclamation. I had informed
+myself of these proceedings from newspapers captured on board the enemy's
+ships, and hence the announcement I had made to the prisoners of the
+_Joseph Maxwell_. The reader may imagine the delight of those men, and my
+own satisfaction, as well, when my lieutenant brought back with him, from
+the shore, after his visit to the Governor, an American newspaper, of late
+date, stating that the _Savannah_ prisoners had been released from close
+confinement, and were to be treated as _prisoners of war_. I was
+stretching a point, in undertaking retaliation of this serious character
+without instructions from my Government, but the case was pressing, and we
+of the _Sumter_ were _vitally_ interested in the issue. The commission of
+the _Savannah_, though she was only a privateer, was as lawful as our own,
+and, judging by the abuse that had already been heaped upon us, by the
+Northern newspapers, we had no reason to expect any better treatment, at
+the hands of well-paid New York District-Attorneys, and well-packed New
+York juries.
+
+I was gratified to learn, as I did soon afterward, that my Government had
+taken a proper stand on this question. President Davis, as soon as he
+heard of the treatment to which the _Savannah_ prisoners had been
+subjected, wrote a letter of remonstrance to President Lincoln,
+threatening retaliation, if he dared execute his threat of treating them
+as pirates. In that letter so worthy of the Christian statesman, and so
+opposite to the coarse fulminations of the enemy, Mr. Davis used the
+following expressions: "It is the desire of this Government so to conduct
+the war, now existing, as to mitigate its horrors, as far as may be
+possible; and with this intent, its treatment of the prisoners captured by
+its forces has been marked, by the greatest humanity, and leniency,
+consistent with public obligation. Some have been permitted to return
+home, on _parole_, others to remain at large, under similar conditions,
+within the Confederacy, and all have been furnished with rations for their
+subsistence, such as are allowed to our own troops. It is only since the
+news has been received, of the treatment of the prisoners taken on the
+_Savannah_, that I have been compelled to withdraw those indulgences, and
+to hold the prisoners taken by us, in strict confinement. A just regard to
+humanity, and to the honor of this Government, now requires me to state,
+explicitly, that, painful as will be the necessity, this Government will
+deal out to the prisoners held by it, the same treatment, and the same
+fate, as shall be experienced by those captured on the _Savannah_; and if
+driven to the terrible necessity of retaliation, by your execution of any
+of the officers, or crew of the _Savannah_, that retaliation will be
+extended so far, as shall be requisite to secure the abandonment of a
+practice, unknown to the warfare of civilized men, and so barbarous, as to
+disgrace the nation which shall be guilty of inaugurating it."
+
+Shortly before the conviction of the _Savannah_ prisoners, a seaman named
+Smith, captured on board the privateer _Jefferson Davis_, was tried, and
+convicted of piracy, in Philadelphia. There were fourteen of these men, in
+all, and the following order from Mr. Benjamin, the Acting Secretary of
+War of the Confederate States, to General Winder, in charge of Federal
+prisoners, in Richmond, will show how much in earnest President Davis was,
+when he wrote the above letter to President Lincoln:--
+
+     "SIR:--You are hereby instructed to choose, by lot, from among the
+     prisoners of war, of highest rank, one who is to be confined in a
+     cell appropriated to convicted felons, and who is to be treated, in
+     all respects, as if such convict, and to be held for execution, in
+     the same manner as may be adopted by the enemy for the execution of
+     the prisoner of war, Smith, recently condemned to death in
+     Philadelphia.
+
+     "You will, also, select thirteen other prisoners of war, the highest
+     in rank of those captured by our forces, to be confined in cells,
+     reserved for prisoners accused of infamous crimes, and will treat
+     them as such, so long as the enemy shall continue so to treat the
+     like number of prisoners of war, captured by them at sea, and now
+     held for trial in New York as pirates.
+
+     "As these measures are intended to repress the infamous attempt now
+     made by the enemy, to commit judicial murder on prisoners of war, you
+     will execute them, strictly, as the mode best calculated to prevent
+     the commission of so heinous a crime."
+
+The list of hostages, as returned by General Winder, was as follows:
+Colonels Corcoran, Lee, Cogswell, Wilcox, Woodruff, and Wood;
+Lieutenant-Colonels Bowman, and Neff; Majors Potter, Revere, and Vogdes,
+and Captains Ricketts, McQuade, and Rockwood. These measures had the
+desired effect; the necessity, that the Federal Government was under of
+conciliating the Irish interest, contributing powerfully thereto--Colonel
+Corcoran, the first hostage named, being an Irishman of some note and
+influence, in New York. President Lincoln was accordingly obliged to take
+back his proclamation, and the Savannah prisoners, and Smith, were put on
+the footing of prisoners of war. But this recantation of an attempted
+barbarism had not been honestly made. It was not the generous taking back
+of a wrong principle, by a high-minded people. The tiger, which had come
+out of his jungle, in quest of blood, had only been driven back by fear;
+his feline, and bloodthirsty disposition would, of course, crop out again,
+as soon as he ceased to dread the huntsman's rifle. Whilst we were strong,
+but little more was heard of "pirates," and "piracy," except through Mr.
+Seward's long-winded and frantic despatches to the British Government, on
+the subject of the _Alabama_, but when we became weak, the slogan was
+taken up again, and rung, in all its changes, by an infuriated people.
+
+To return now to the _Sumter_. Our decks were crowded with visitors, on
+the afternoon of our arrival; some of these coming off to shake us warmly
+by the hand, out of genuine sympathy, whilst others had no higher motive
+than that of mere curiosity. The officers of the garrison were very civil
+to us, but we were amused at their diplomatic precaution, in coming to
+visit us in _citizens' dress_. There are no people in the world, perhaps,
+who attach so much importance to matters of mere form and ceremony, bluff
+and hearty as John Bull is, as the English people. Lord Russell had dubbed
+us a "so-called" government, and this expression had become a law to all
+his subordinates; no official visits could be exchanged, no salutes
+reciprocated, and none other of the thousand and one courtesies of
+red-tapedom observed toward us; and, strange to say, whilst all this
+nonsense of form was being practised, the substance of nationality, that
+is to say, the acknowledgment that we possessed belligerent rights, had
+been frankly and freely accorded to us. It was like saying to a man, "I
+should like, above all things, to have you come and dine with me, but as
+you havn't got the right sort of a dining-dress, you can't come, you
+know!" Some ridiculous consequences resulted from this etiquette of
+nations. Important matters of business frequently remained unattended to,
+because the parties could not address each other officially. An _informal_
+note would take the place of an official despatch.
+
+The advent of the _Sumter_ invariably caused more, or less commotion, in
+official circles; the small colonial officials fearing lest she might
+complicate them with their governments. There was now another important
+council to be held. The opinion of the "law-officers of the crown" was to
+be taken by his Excellency, upon the question, whether the _Sumter_ was
+entitled to be coaled in her Majesty's dominions. The paymaster had found
+a lot of indifferent coal, on shore, which could be purchased at about
+double its value, but nothing could be done until the "council" moved; and
+it is proverbial that large bodies like provincial councils, move slowly.
+The Attorney-General of the Colony, and other big wigs got together,
+however, after due ceremony, and, thanks to the fact, that the steamer is
+an infernal machine of modern invention, they were not very long in coming
+to a decision. If there had been anything about a steamer, in Coke upon
+Littleton, Bacon, or Bracton, or any other of those old fellows who deal
+in black letter, I am afraid the _Sumter_ would have been blockaded by the
+enemy, before she could have gotten to sea. The _pros_ and _cons_ being
+discussed--I had too much respect for the calibre of certain guns on
+shore, to throw any shells across the windows of the council-chamber--it
+was decided that coal was not contraband of war, and that the _Sumter_
+might purchase the necessary article in the market.
+
+But though she might purchase it, it was not so easy to get it on board.
+It was hard to move the good people on shore. The climate was relaxing,
+the rainy season had set in, and there was only negro labor to be had,
+about the wharves and quays. We were four tedious days in filling our
+coal-bunkers. It had rained, off and on, the whole time. I did not visit
+the shore, but I amused myself frequently by inspecting the magnificent
+scenery by which I was surrounded, through an excellent telescope. The
+vegetation of Trinidad is varied, and luxuriant beyond description. As the
+clouds would break away, and the sun light up the wilderness of waving
+palms, and other tropical trees and plants of strange and rich foliage,
+amid which the little town lay embowered, the imagination was enchanted
+with the picture.
+
+The emancipation of the slave ruined this, as it did the other West India
+islands. As a predial laborer, the freedman was nearly worthless, and the
+sugar crop, which is the staple, went down to zero. In despair, the
+planters resorted to the introduction of the coolie; large numbers of them
+have been imported, and under their skilful and industrious cultivation,
+the island is regaining a share of its lost prosperity.
+
+A day or two after my arrival, I had a visit from the master of a
+Baltimore brig, lying in the port. He was ready for sea, he said, and had
+come on board, to learn whether I would capture him. I told him to make
+himself easy, that I should not molest him, and referred him to the act of
+the Confederate Congress, declaring that a state of war existed, to show
+him that, as yet, we regarded Maryland as a friend. He went away
+rejoicing, and sailed the next day.
+
+We had, as usual, some little refitting of the ship to do. Off _Puerto
+Cabello_, we had carried away our main yard, by coming in contact with the
+_Abby Bradford_ and the first lieutenant having ordered another on our
+arrival, it was now towed off, and gotten on board, fitted, and sent
+aloft.
+
+_Sunday, August 4th._--Morning calm and clear. The chimes of the
+church-bells fall pleasantly and suggestively on the ear. An American
+schooner came in from some point, up the bay, and anchored well in shore,
+some distance from us, as though distrustful of our good faith, and of our
+respect for British neutrality. Being all ready for sea, at half-past ten
+A. M., I gave the order to get up steam; but the paymaster reporting to me
+that his vouchers were not all complete, the order was countermanded, and
+we remained another day.
+
+Her Majesty's steam-frigate _Cadmus_ having come in, from one of the
+neighboring islands, I sent a lieutenant on board to call on her captain.
+This was the first foreign ship of war to which I had extended the
+courtesy of a visit, and, in a few hours afterward, my visit was returned.
+I had, from this time onward, much agreeable intercourse with the naval
+officers of the several nations, with whom I came in contact. I found them
+much more independent, than the civil, and military officers. They did not
+seem to care a straw, about _de factos_, or _de jures_, and had a sailor's
+contempt for red tape and unmeaning forms. They invariably received my
+officers, and myself, when we visited their ships, with the honors of the
+side, appropriate to our rank, without stopping to ask, in the jargon of
+Lord Russell, whether we were "So-Called," or Simon Pure. After the usual
+courtesies had passed between the lieutenant of the _Cadmus_ and myself, I
+invited him into my cabin, when, upon being seated, he said his captain
+had desired him to say to me, that, as the _Sumter_ was the first ship of
+the Confederate States he had fallen in with, he would take it, as a
+favor, if I would show him my commission. I replied, "Certainly, but there
+is a little ceremony to be complied with, on your part, first." "What is
+that?" said he. "How do I know," I rejoined, "that you have any
+_authority_ to demand a sight of my commission--the flag at your peak may
+be a cheat, and you may be no better than you take me for, a ship of war
+of some hitherto unknown government--you must show me _your_ commission
+first." This was said, pleasantly, on my part, for the idea was quite
+ludicrous, that a large, and stately steam-frigate, bearing the proud
+cross of St. George, could be such as I had hypothetically described her.
+But I was right as to the point I had made, to wit, that one ship of war
+has no right to demand a sight of the commission of another, without first
+showing her own. Indeed, this principle is so well known among naval men,
+that the lieutenant had come prepared for my demand, having brought his
+commission with him. Smiling, himself, now, in return, he said:
+"Certainly, your request is but reasonable; here is her Majesty's
+commission," unrolling, at the same time, a large square parchment,
+beautifully engraved with nautical devices, and with sundry seals, pendent
+therefrom. In return, I handed him a small piece of coarse, and rather
+dingy Confederate paper, at the bottom of which was inscribed the name of
+Jefferson Davis. He read the commission carefully, and when he had done,
+remarked, as he handed it back to me, "Mr. Davis's is a smooth, bold
+signature." I replied "You are an observer of signatures, and you have hit
+it exactly, in the present instance. I could not describe his character to
+you more correctly, if I were to try--our President has all the
+smoothness, and polish of the ripe scholar and refined gentleman, with the
+boldness of a man, who dares strike for the right, against odds."
+
+_Monday, August 5th._--Weather clear, and fine. Flocks of parrots are
+flying overhead, and all nature is rejoicing in the sunshine, after the
+long, drenching rains. Far as the eye can reach, there is but one sea of
+verdure, giving evidence, at once, of the fruitfulness of the soil, and
+the ardor of the sun. At eleven A. M., Captain Hillyar, of the _Cadmus_,
+came on board, to visit me, and we had a long and pleasant conversation on
+American affairs. He considerately brought me a New York newspaper, of as
+late a date, as the 12th of July. "I must confess," said he, as he handed
+me this paper, "that your American war puzzles me--it cannot possibly last
+long." "You are probably mistaken, as to its duration," I replied; "I fear
+it will be long and bloody. As to its being a puzzle, it should puzzle
+every honest man. If our late co-partners had practised toward us the most
+common rules of honesty, we should not have quarrelled with them; but we
+are only defending ourselves against robbers, with knives at our throats."
+"You surprise me," rejoined the Captain; "how is that?" "Simply, that the
+machinery of the Federal Government, under which we have lived, and which
+was designed for the common benefit, has been made the means of despoiling
+the South, to enrich the North;" and I explained to him the workings of
+the iniquitous tariffs, under the operation of which the South had, in
+effect, been reduced to a dependent colonial condition, almost as abject,
+as that of the Roman provinces, under their proconsuls; the only
+difference being, that smooth-faced hypocrisy had been added to robbery,
+inasmuch as we had been plundered under the forms of law.
+
+"All this is new to me, I assure you," replied the Captain; "I thought
+that your war had arisen out of the slavery question." "That is a common
+mistake of foreigners. The enemy has taken pains to impress foreign
+nations with this false view of the case. With the exception of a few
+honest zealots, the canting, hypocritical Yankee cares as little for our
+slaves, as he does for our draught animals. The war which he has been
+making upon slavery, for the last forty years, is only an interlude, or
+by-play, to help on the main action of the drama, which is Empire; and it
+is a curious coincidence, that it was commenced about the time the North
+began to rob the South, by means of its tariffs. When a burglar designs to
+enter a dwelling, for the purpose of robbery, he provides himself with the
+necessary implements. The slavery question was one of the implements
+employed, to help on the robbery of the South. It strengthened the
+Northern party, and enabled them to get their tariffs through Congress;
+and when, at length, the South, driven to the wall, turned, as even the
+crushed worm will turn, it was cunningly perceived by the Northern men,
+that 'No Slavery' would be a popular war-cry, and hence they used it. It
+is true, we are defending our slave property, but we are defending it no
+more than any other species of our property--it is all endangered, under a
+general system of robbery. We are, in fact, fighting for independence. Our
+forefathers made a great mistake, when they warmed the Puritan serpent in
+their bosom; and we, their descendants, are endeavoring to remedy it."
+
+The Captain now rose to depart. I accompanied him on deck, and when he had
+shoved off, I ordered the ship to be gotten under way--the fires having
+been started some time before, the steam was already up. The _Sumter_, as
+she moved out of the harbor of the Port of Spain, looked more like a
+comfortable passenger steamer, bound on a voyage, than a ship of war, her
+stern nettings, and stern and quarter boats being filled with oranges, and
+bananas, and all the other luscious fruits that are produced so abundantly
+in this rich tropical island. Other luxuries were added, for Jack had
+brought, on board, one or two more sad-looking old monkeys, and a score
+more of squalling parrots.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ON THE WAY TO MARANHAM--THE WEATHER AND THE WINDS--THE SUMTER RUNS SHORT
+OF COAL, AND IS OBLIGED TO "BEAR UP"--CAYENNE AND PARAMARIBO, IN FRENCH
+AND DUTCH GUIANA--SAILS AGAIN, AND ARRIVES IN MARANHAM, BRAZIL.
+
+
+We passed out of the Gulf of Paria, through the eastern, or Mona passage,
+a deep strait, not more than a third of a mile in width, with the land
+rising, on both sides, to a great height, almost perpendicularly. The
+water of the Orinoco here begins to mix with the sea-water, and the two
+waters, as they come into unwilling contact, carry on a perpetual
+struggle, whirling about in small circles, and writhing and twisting like
+a serpent in pain.
+
+We met the first heave of the sea at about two o'clock in the afternoon,
+and turning our head again to the eastward, we continued to run along the
+mountainous and picturesque coast of Trinidad, until an hour or two after
+nightfall. The coast is quite precipitous, but, steep as it is, a number
+of negro cabins had climbed the hill-sides, and now revealed their
+presence to us by the twinkle of their lights, as the shades of evening
+fell over the scene. These cabins were quite invisible, by daylight, so
+dense was the foliage of the trees amid which they nestled. This must,
+indeed, be the very paradise of the negro. The climate is so genial, that
+he requires little or no clothing, and bountiful Nature supplies him with
+food, all the year round, almost unasked. In this land of the sun, a
+constant succession of fruits is pendent from the trees, and the dwellers
+in the huts beneath their sheltering arms, have only to reach out their
+hands when hunger presses. I was reminded, by this scene, of a visit I had
+once made to the island of St. Domingo, and of the indolence in which the
+negro lives in that soft and voluptuous climate. I landed at the bay of
+Samana, from the ship of war to which I was attached, and taking a stroll,
+one evening, I came upon the hut of an American negress. Some years
+before, Boyer, the President of the island, had invited the immigration of
+free negroes, from the United States. A colony from the city of Baltimore
+had accepted his invitation, and settled at Samana. In the course of a
+very few years, all the men of the colony had run off, and found their way
+back, in various capacities, on board of trading vessels, to the land of
+their birth; leaving their wives and daughters behind to shift for
+themselves. The negro woman, whose hut I had stumbled upon, was one of
+these grass widows. She had become quite old, but was living without
+apparent effort. The cocoanut waved its feathery branches over her humble
+domicil, and the juicy mango and fragrant banana hung within tempting
+reach. A little plot of ground had been picketed in with crooked sticks,
+and in this primitive garden were growing some squashes and watermelons,
+barely visible under the rank weeds. I said to her, "My good woman, you
+don't seem to have much use for the plough or the hoe in your garden."
+"La! master," said she, "no need of much work in this country--we have
+only to put in the seed, and the Lord, _he_ gives the increase."
+
+In time, no doubt, all the West India islands will lapse into just such
+luxuriant wildernesses, as we were now coasting along, in the _Sumter_.
+Amalgamation, by slow, but sure processes, will corrupt what little of
+European blood remains in them, until every trace of the white man shall
+disappear. The first process will be the mulatto; but the mulatto, as the
+name imports, is a mule, and must finally die out; and the mass of the
+population will become pure African. This is the fate which England has
+prepared, for some of her own blood, in her colonies. I will not stop here
+to moralize on it. If we are beaten in this war, what will be our fate in
+the Southern States? Shall we, too, become mongrelized, and disappear from
+the face of the earth? Can this be the ultimate design of the Yankee? The
+night was quite light, and taking a fresh departure, at about ten P. M.,
+from the east end of Trinidad, we passed through the strait between it and
+the island of Tobago, and soon afterward emerged from the Caribbean Sea,
+upon the broad bosom of the South Atlantic. Judging by the tide rips, that
+were quite visible in the moonlight there must have been considerable
+current setting through this strait, to the westward. The next day the
+weather was still fine, and the wind light from about E. N. E., and the
+_Sumter_ made good speed through the smooth sea. At about ten A. M. a sail
+was descried, some twelve or fourteen miles distant. She was away off on
+our port beam, running before the trade-wind, and I forbore to chase. As
+before remarked, I was not now cruising, but anxious to make a passage,
+and could not afford the fuel to chase, away from the track I was
+pursuing, the few straggling sail I might discover in this lonely sea.
+Once in the track of commerce, where the sails would come fast and thick,
+I could make up for lost time. At noon, we observed in latitude 9� 14';
+the longitude, by chronometer, being 59� 10'.
+
+_Wednesday, August 7th._--Weather clear, and delightful, and the sea
+smooth. Nothing but the broad expanse of the ocean visible, except,
+indeed, numerous flocks of flying-fish, which we are flushing, now and
+then like so many flocks of partridges, as we disturb the still waters.
+These little creatures have about the flight of the partridge, and it is a
+pretty sight to see them skim away over the billows with their transparent
+finny wings glistening in the sun, until they drop again into their
+"cover," as suddenly as they rose. Our crew having been somewhat broken in
+upon, by the sending away of so many prize crews, the first lieutenant is
+re-arranging his watch and quarter-bills, and the men are being exercised
+at the guns, to accustom them to the changes which have become necessary,
+in their stations. Officers and men are enjoying, alike, the fine weather.
+With the fore-castle, and quarter-deck awnings spread, we do not feel the
+heat, though the sun is nearly perpendicular at noon. Jack is
+"overhauling" his clothes'-bag, and busy with his needle and thread,
+stopping, now and then, to have a "lark" with his monkey, or to listen to
+the prattle of his parrot. The boys of the ship are taking lessons, in
+knotting, and splicing, and listening to the "yarn" of some old salt, as
+he indoctrinates them in these mysteries. The midshipmen have their books
+of navigation spread out before them, and slate in hand, are discussing
+sine and tangent, base, and hypothenuse. The only place in which a lounger
+is not seen is the quarter-deck. This precinct is always sacred to duty,
+and etiquette. No one ever presumes to seat himself upon it, not even the
+Commander. Here the officer of the deck is pacing to and fro, swinging his
+trumpet idly about, for the want of something to do. But hold a moment! he
+has at last found a job. It is seven bells (half-past eleven) and the
+ship's cook has come to the mast, to report dinner. The cook is a darkey,
+and see how he grins, as the officer of the deck, having tasted of the fat
+pork, in his tin pan, and mashed some of his beans, with a spoon, to see
+if they are done, tells him, "that will do." The Commander now comes on
+deck, with his sextant, having been informed that it is time to "look out
+for the sun." See, he gathers the midshipmen around him, each also with
+his instrument, and, from time to time, asks them what "altitude they have
+on," and compares the altitude which they give him with his own, to see if
+they are making satisfactory progress as observers. The latitude being
+obtained, and reported to the officer of the deck, that officer now comes
+up to the Commander, and touching his hat, reports twelve o'clock, as
+though the Commander didn't know it already. The Commander says to him,
+sententiously, "make it so," as though the sun could not make it so,
+without the Commander's leave. See, now what a stir there is about the
+hitherto silent decks. Since we last cast a glance at them, Jack has put
+up his clothes'-bag, and the sweepers have "swept down," fore and aft, and
+the boatswain having piped to dinner, the cooks of the different messes
+are spreading their "mess-cloths" on the deck, and arranging their viands.
+The drum has rolled, "to grog," and the master's mate of the spirit-room,
+muster-book in hand, is calling over the names of the crew, each man as
+his name is called, waddling up to the tub, and taking the "tot" that is
+handed to him, by the "Jack-of-the-dust," who is the master-mate's
+assistant. Dinner now proceeds with somewhat noisy jest and joke, and the
+hands are not "turned to," that is, set to work again, until one o'clock.
+
+We have averaged, in the last twenty-four hours, eight knots and a half,
+and have not, as yet, experienced any adverse current, though we are daily
+on the lookout for this enemy; latitude 8� 31'; longitude 56� 12'. In the
+course of the afternoon, a brigantine passing near us, we hove her to,
+with a blank cartridge, when she showed us the Dutch colors. She was from
+Dutch Surinam, bound for Europe. Toward nightfall, it became quite calm,
+and naught was heard but the thumping of the ship's propeller, as she
+urged her ceaseless way through the vast expanse of waters.
+
+_August 8th._--Weather still beautifully clear, with an occasional rain
+squall enclosing us as in a gauze veil, and shutting out from view for a
+few minutes, at a time, the distant horizon. The wind is light, and
+variable, but always from the Eastern board; following the sun as the
+chariot follows the steed. We are making good speed through the water, but
+we have at length encountered our dreaded enemy, the great equatorial
+current, which sets, with such regularity, along this coast. Its set is
+about W. N. W., and its drift about one knot per hour. Nothing has been
+seen to-day. The water has changed its deep blue color, to green,
+indicating that we are on soundings. We are about ninety miles from the
+coast of Guiana. The sun went down behind banks, or rather cumuli of pink
+and lilac clouds. We are fast sinking the north polar star, and new
+constellations arise, nightly, above the southern horizon. Amid other
+starry wonders, we had a fine view this evening, of the southern cross;
+latitude 7� 19'; longitude 53� 04'.
+
+The next day was cloudy, and the direction of the current was somewhat
+changed, for its set was now N. W., half N. This current is proving a
+serious drawback, and I begin to fear, that I shall not be able to make
+the run to Maranham, as I had hoped. Not only are the elements adverse,
+but my engineer tells me, that we were badly cheated, in our coal measure,
+at Trinidad, the sharp coal-dealer having failed to put on board of us as
+many tons as he had been paid for; for which the said engineer got a
+rowing. We observed, to-day, in latitude 6� 01' and longitude 50� 48'.
+
+_August 10th._--Weather clear, with a deep blue sea, and a fresh breeze,
+from the south-east. The south-east trade-winds have thus crossed the
+equator, and reached us in latitude 5� north, which is our latitude
+to-day. I was apprehensive of this, for we are in the middle of August,
+and in this month these winds frequently drive back the north-east trades,
+and usurp their place, to a considerable extent, until the sun crosses
+back into the southern hemisphere. We thus have both wind, and current
+ahead; the current alone has retarded us fifty miles, or a fraction over
+two knots an hour; which is about equal to the drift of the Gulf Stream
+off Cape Hatteras.
+
+Things were beginning now to look decidedly serious. I had but three days
+of fuel on board, and, upon consulting my chart, I found that I was still
+550 miles from my port, current taken into account. It was not possible
+for the dull little _Sumter_ to make this distance, in the given time, if
+the wind, and current should continue of the same strength. I resolved to
+try her, however, another night, hoping that some change for the better
+might take place. My journal tells the tale of that night as follows:--
+
+_August 11th._--"The morning has dawned with a fresh breeze, and rather
+rough sea, into which we have been plunging all night, making but little
+headway. The genius of the east wind refuses to permit even steam to
+invade his domain, and drives us back, with disdain. His ally, the
+current, has retarded us sixty miles in the last twenty-four hours!" I now
+no longer hesitated, but directing the engineer to let his fires go down,
+turned my ship's head, to the westward, and made sail; it being my
+intention to run down the coast to Cayenne in French Guiana, with the hope
+of obtaining a fresh supply of fuel at that place. We soon had the
+studding sails on the ship, and were rolling along to the northward and
+westward, with more grace than speed, our rate of sailing being only four
+knots. The afternoon proved to be remarkably fine, and we should have
+enjoyed this _far niente_ change, but for our disappointment. Our chief
+regret was that we were losing so much valuable time, in the midst of the
+stirring events of the war.
+
+Hauling in for the coast, in the vicinity of Cape Orange, we struck
+soundings about nightfall. The sea now became quite smooth, and the wind
+fell very light during the night--the current, however, is hurrying us
+on, though its set is not exactly in the right direction. Its tendency is
+to drive us too far from the coast. The next day, it became perfectly
+calm, and so continued all day. We were in twenty-three fathoms of water,
+and could see by the lead line that we were drifting over the bottom at
+the rate of about two knots an hour. We got out our fishing-lines, and
+caught some deep sea-fish, of the grouper species. The sea was alive with
+the nautilus, and the curious sea-nettle, with its warps and hawsers
+thrown out, and its semi-transparent, gelatinous disc contracting and
+expanding, as the little animal extracted its food from the water. Schools
+of fish, large and small, were playing about in every direction, and
+flocks of sea-gulls, and other marine birds of prey, were hovering over
+them, and making occasional forays in their midst. During the day, a sail
+was descried, far in shore, but we were unable to make it out; indeed
+sails were of the least importance to us now, as we were unable to chase.
+Just before sunset, we had a fine view of the Silver Mountains, some forty
+or fifty miles distant, in the south-west.
+
+_August 15th._--During the past night, we made the "Great Constable," a
+small island, off the coast, and one of the landmarks for Cayenne. The
+night was fine, and moonlit, and we ran in, and anchored about midnight,
+in fourteen fathoms of water. At daylight, the next morning, after waiting
+for the passage of a rain-squall, we got under way, and proceeding along
+the coast, came up with the Remize Islands, in the course of the
+afternoon, where we found a French pilot-lugger lying to, waiting for us.
+We were off Cayenne, and the lugger had come out to show us the way into
+the anchorage. A pilot jumping on board, we ran in, and anchored to the
+north-west of the "Child"--a small island--in three and a quarter fathoms
+of water. I could scarcely realize, that this was the famous penal
+settlement of Cayenne, painted in French history, as the very abode of
+death, and fraught with all other human horrors, so beautiful, and
+picturesque did it appear. The outlying islands are high, rising,
+generally, in a conical form, and are densely wooded, to their very
+summits. Sweet little nooks and coves, overhung by the waving foliage of
+strange-looking tropical trees, indent their shores, and invite the
+fisherman, or pleasure-seeker to explore their recesses. The main land is
+equally rich in vegetation, and though the sea-coast is low, distant
+ranges of mountains, inland, break in, agreeably, upon the monotony. A
+perennial summer prevails, and storms, and hurricanes are unknown. It was
+here that some of the most desperate and bloodthirsty of the French
+revolutionists of 1790, were banished. Many of them died of yellow fever;
+others escaped, and wandered off to find inhospitable graves, in other
+countries; few of them ever returned to France. Shortly after we came to
+anchor, the batteries of the town, and some small French steamers of war,
+that lay in the harbor, fired salutes in honor of the birthday of Louis
+Napoleon--this being the 15th of August.
+
+The next morning, at daylight, I dispatched Lieutenant Evans, and
+Paymaster Myers, to the town--the former to call on the Governor, and the
+latter to see if any coal could be had. Their errand was fruitless. Not
+only was there no coal to be purchased, but my officers thought that they
+had been received rather ungraciously. The fact is, we found here, as in
+Cura�oa, that the enemy was in possession of the neutral territory. There
+was a Federal Consul resident in the place, who was the principal
+contractor, for supplying the French garrison with fresh beef! and there
+were three, or four Yankee schooners in the harbor, whose skippers had a
+monopoly of the trade in flour and notions. What could the _Sumter_ effect
+against such odds?
+
+In the course of an hour after my boat returned, we were again under way,
+running down the coast, in the direction of Surinam, to see if the
+Dutchmen would prove more propitious, than the Frenchmen had done. About
+six P. M., we passed the "Salut" Islands, three in number, on the summit
+of one of which shone the white walls of a French military hospital,
+contrasting prettily with the deep-green foliage of the shade-trees around
+it. It was surrounded by low walls, on which were mounted some small guns
+_en barbette_. Hither are sent all the sick sailors, and soldiers from
+Cayenne.
+
+_August 17th._--Morning clear, and beautiful, as usual, in this delightful
+climate, with a fresh breeze from the south-east. We are now in latitude
+6� north, and still the south-east trade-wind is following us--the calm
+belt having been pushed farther and farther to the northward. We are
+running along in ten fathoms of water, at an average distance of seven, or
+eight miles, from the land, with the soundings surprisingly regular.
+Passed the mouth of the small river Maroni, at noon. At four P. M., ran
+across a bank, in very muddy water, some fifteen miles to the northward
+and eastward, of the entrance of this river, with only three fathoms of
+water on it; rather close shaving on a strange coast, having but six feet
+of water under our keel. Becoming a little nervous, we "hauled out," and
+soon deepened into five fathoms. There is little danger of shipwreck, on
+this coast, however, owing to the regularity of the soundings, and the
+almost perpetual smoothness of the sea. The bars off the mouths of the
+rivers, too, are, for the most part, of mud, where a ship _sticks_, rather
+than _thumps_. Hence, the temerity with which we ran into shallow waters.
+
+_Sunday, August 18th._--The south-east wind came to us, as softly, and
+almost as sweetly, this morning, as if it were "breathing o'er a bed of
+violets;" but it freshened as the day advanced, in obedience to the
+mandate of its master, the sun, and we had a fresh breeze, toward
+nightfall. After passing Post Orange, we ran over another three-fathom
+bank, the water deepening beyond, and enabling us to haul in toward the
+coast, as we approached Bram's Point, at the mouth of the Surinam River,
+off which we anchored, (near the buoy on the bar,) at twenty minutes past
+five P. M., in four fathoms of water. This being Sunday, as we were
+running along the coast, we had mustered and inspected the crew, and
+caused the clerk to read the articles "for the better government of the
+Navy" to them--the same old articles, though not read under the same old
+flag, as formerly. This was my invariable practice on the Sabbath. It
+broke in, pleasantly, and agreeably, upon the routine duties of the week,
+pretty much as church-going does, on shore, and had a capital effect,
+besides, upon discipline, reminding the sailor of his responsibility to
+the laws, and that there were such merciless tribunals, as Courts-Martial,
+for their enforcement. The very shaving, and washing, and dressing, of a
+Sunday morning, contributed to the sailor's self-respect. The "muster"
+gratified, too, one of his passions, as it gave him the opportunity of
+displaying all those anchors, and stars, which he had so industriously
+embroidered, in floss silk, on his ample shirt-collar, and on the sleeve
+of his jacket. We had some dandies on board the _Sumter_, and it was
+amusing to witness the self-complacent air, with which these gentlemen
+would move around the capstan, with the blackest, and most carefully
+polished of pumps, and the whitest, and finest of sinnott hats, from which
+would be streaming yards enough of ribbon, to make the ship a pennant.
+
+I had had considerable difficulty in identifying the mouth of the Surinam
+River, so low and uniform in appearance was the coast, as seen from the
+distance at which we had been compelled to run along it, by the
+shallowness of the water. There is great similarity between these shelving
+banks, running off to a great distance, at sea, and the banks on the coast
+of West Florida. The rule of soundings, on some parts of the latter coast,
+is a foot to the mile, so that, when the navigator is in ten feet of
+water, he is ten miles from the land. This is not quite the case, on the
+coast of Guiana, but on some parts of it, a large ship can scarcely come
+within sight of the land. A small craft, drawing but a few feet of water,
+has no need of making a harbor, on either coast, for the whole coast is a
+harbor--the sea, in bad weather, breaking in from three to five fathoms of
+water, miles outside of her, leaving all smooth and calm within. There is
+a difference, however, between the two coasts--the Florida coast is
+scourged by the hurricane, whilst the Guiana coast is entirely free from
+storms.
+
+Soon after we came to anchor, as related, we descried a steamer in the
+west, steering for the mouth of the river. Nothing was more likely than
+that, by this time, the enemy should have sent some of his fast gun-boats
+in pursuit of us, and the smoke of a steamer on the horizon, therefore,
+caused me some uneasiness. I knew that I had not a chivalrous enemy to
+deal with, who would be likely to give me a fair fight. The captures made
+by the _Sumter_ had not only touched the Yankee in a very tender spot--his
+pocket--they had administered, also, a well-merited rebuke to his
+ridiculous self-conceit. It was monstrous, indeed, in his estimation, that
+any one should have the audacity, in the face of Mr. Lincoln's
+proclamation of prompt vengeance, to molest one of his ships. A malignant
+press, from Maine to Maryland, had denounced the _Sumter_ as a pirate, and
+no quarter was to be shown her. The steamer, now approaching, having been
+descried, at a great distance, by the curling of her black smoke high into
+the still air, night set in before she was near enough to be made out. We
+could see her form indistinctly, in the darkness, but no certain
+conclusion could be arrived at as to her size or nationality. I, at once,
+caused my fires to be lighted, and, beating to quarters, prepared my ship
+for action. We stood at our guns for some time, but seeing, about ten P.
+M., that the strange steamer came to anchor, some three or four miles
+outside of us, I permitted the men to leave their quarters, cautioning the
+officer of the watch, however, to keep a bright lookout, during the night,
+for the approach of boats, and to call me if there should be any cause for
+alarm. As I turned in, I thought things looked a little squally. If the
+strange vessel were a mail-steamer, she would, of course, be familiar with
+the waters in which she plied, and, instead of anchoring outside, would
+have run boldly into the river without waiting for daylight. Besides, she
+had no lights about her, as she approached, and packet steamers always go
+well lighted up. That she was a steamer of war, therefore, appeared quite
+certain; but, of course, it was of no use to speculate upon the chances of
+her being an enemy; daylight only could reveal that. In the meantime, the
+best thing we could do would be to get a good night's rest, so as to rise
+refreshed for the morning's work, if work there should be.
+
+At daylight, all hands were again summoned to their quarters; and pretty
+soon the strange steamer was observed to be under way, and standing toward
+us. We got up our own anchor in a trice--the men running around the
+capstan in "double-quick,"--and putting the ship under steam, started to
+meet her. Neither of us had, as yet, any colors hoisted. We soon perceived
+that the stranger was no heavier than ourselves. This greatly encouraged
+me, and I could see a corresponding lighting up of the faces of my crew,
+all standing silently at their guns. Desiring to make the stranger reveal
+her nationality to me first, I now hoisted the French colors--a fine new
+flag, that I had had made in New Orleans. To my astonishment, and no
+little perplexity, up went the same colors, on board the stranger! I was
+alongside of a French ship of war, pretending to be a Frenchman myself! Of
+course, there was but one thing to be done, and that was, to haul down the
+French flag and hoist my own, which was done in an instant, when we
+mutually hailed. A colloquy ensued, when the names of the two ships were
+interchanged, and we ascertained that the stranger was bound into the
+Surinam, like ourselves. We now both ran in for the light-ship, and the
+Frenchman receiving a pilot on board from her, I permitted him to take the
+lead, and we followed him up the long and narrow channel, having sometimes
+scarcely a foot of water to spare under our keel.
+
+After we had passed inside of Bram's Point, the tide being out, both ships
+anchored to wait for the returning flood. I took advantage of the
+opportunity, and sent a lieutenant to visit the French ship. The
+_Vulture_, for such was her name, was one of the old-fashioned, side-wheel
+steamers, mounting only carronades, and was last from Martinique, with
+convicts on board, for Cayenne. Running short of coal, she was putting
+into Paramaribo, for a supply. Getting under way again, soon after
+mid-day, we continued our course up the river. We were much reminded, by
+the scenery of the Surinam, of that of some of our Southern rivers--the
+Mississippi, for instance, after the voyager from the Gulf has left the
+marshes behind him, and is approaching New Orleans. The bottom lands, near
+the river, are cleared, and occupied by sugar, and other plantations, the
+back-ground of the picture presenting a dense, and unbroken forest. As we
+passed the well-known sugar-house, with its tall chimney, emitting volumes
+of black smoke, and saw gangs of slaves, cutting, and hauling in the cane,
+the illusion was quite perfect. Nothing can exceed the fertility of these
+alluvial lands. They are absolutely inexhaustible, yielding crop after
+crop, in continual succession, without rest or interval; there being no
+frosts to interfere with vegetation, in this genial climate. Some of the
+planters' dwellings were tasteful, and even elegant, surrounded by
+galleries whose green Venetian blinds gave promise of coolness within, and
+sheltered besides by the umbrageous arms of giant forest-trees. Cattle
+wandered over the pasture lands, the negroes were well clothed, and there
+was a general air of abundance, and contentment. Slavery is held by a very
+precarious tenure, here, and will doubtless soon disappear, there being a
+strong party, in Holland, in favor of its abolition. Our consort, the
+_Vulture_, and ourselves anchored almost at the same moment, off the town
+of Paramaribo, in the middle of the afternoon. There were two, or three
+American brigantines in the harbor, and a couple of Dutch ships of war. I
+sent a lieutenant to call on the Governor, and to request permission to
+coal, and refit; both of which requests were granted, with the usual
+conditions, viz.: that I should not increase my crew or armament, or
+receive ammunition on board. The Captain of the _Vulture_ now came on
+board, to return the visit I had made him, through my lieutenant, and the
+commanding Dutch naval officer also called. But, what was more important,
+several coal merchants came off to negotiate with my paymaster, about
+supplying the ship with the very necessary article in which they dealt.
+The successful bidder for our contract was a "_gentleman of color_," that
+is to say, a quadroon, who talked freely about whites, and blacks, always
+putting himself, of course, in the former category, by the use of the
+pronoun "we," and seemed to have no sort of objection to our flag, or the
+cause it was supposed to represent. I wined this "gentleman," along with
+my other visitors, and though I paid him a remunerative price for his
+coal, I am under many obligations to him, for his kindness, and assistance
+to us, during our stay. I take great pleasure in contrasting the conduct
+and bearing of this person, with those of the Federal Consul, at
+Paramaribo. This latter gentleman was a Connecticut man, who had probably
+worn white cravats, and delivered quarter-dollar lectures, in his native
+village, against slavery, as a means of obtaining an "honest living."
+Coming to Paramaribo, he had married a mulatto wife, and through her,
+become a slave-holder. This virtuous representative of "great moral
+ideas," at once threw himself into the breach, between the _Sumter_, and
+the coal-market, and did all he could to prevent her from coaling. He was
+one of Mr. Seward's men, and taking up the refrain about "piracy," went
+first to the Governor, to see what could be effected, in that quarter.
+Being told that Holland had followed the lead of the great powers, and
+recognized the Confederates as belligerents, he next went to our quadroon
+contractor, and endeavored to bluff him off, by threatening him with the
+loss of any Yankee trade, that he might possess. Being equally
+unsuccessful here, he next tried to seduce the lightermen, to prevent them
+from delivering the coal to us. All would not do, however, the _Sumter_,
+or what is more likely, the _Sumter's_ gold--that talisman that works so
+many miracles in this virtuous world of ours--was too strong for him, and,
+pretty soon, the black diamonds--the most precious of jewels to men in our
+condition--came tumbling into our coal-bunkers. Failing to prevent us from
+coaling, the little Connecticut official next tampered with the pilot, and
+endeavored to prevail on him, to refuse to take us to sea. But the pilot
+was a sailor, with all the generous instincts that belong to his class,
+and he not only refused to be seduced, but presented me with some local
+charts of the coast, which I found very useful.
+
+The Consul had his triumph at last, however. When I was fitting out the
+_Sumter_ in New Orleans, a friend, and relative resident in that city, had
+kindly permitted me to take with me, as my steward, a valuable slave of
+his who had been brought up as a dining-room servant. Ned was as black as
+the ace of spades, and being a good-tempered, docile lad, had become my
+right-hand man, taking the best of care of my cabin, and keeping my table
+supplied with all the delicacies of the different markets, to which we had
+had access. He was as happy as the days were long, a great favorite with
+the crew, and when there was any fun going on, on the forecastle, he was
+sure to be in the midst of it. But the tempter came along. The Connecticut
+miscegenist (and slave-holder, at the same time) had seen Ned's shining
+and happy face going to market, of mornings, and, like the serpent of old,
+whispered in his ear. One morning Ned was missing, but the market-basket
+came off, piled up as usual with luxuries for dinner. The lad had been
+bred in an honest household, and though his poor brain had been
+bewildered, he was still above theft. His market-basket fully balanced his
+account. Poor Ned! his after-fate was a sad one. He was taken to the
+country, by his Mephistophiles, and set at work, with the slaves of that
+pious Puritan, on a small plantation that belonged to his negro wife.
+Ned's head was rather too woolly, to enable him to understand much about
+the abstractions of freedom and slavery, but he had sense enough to see,
+ere long, that he had been beguiled, and cheated, by the smooth Yankee;
+and when, in course of time, he saw himself reduced to yam diet, and
+ragged clothing, he began, like the prodigal child, to remember the
+abundance of his master's house, and to long to return to it. Accordingly,
+he was missing, again, one fine morning, and was heard of no more in
+Paramaribo. He had embarked on board a vessel bound to Europe, and next
+turned up in Southampton. The poor negro had wandered off at a hazard in
+quest of the _Sumter_, but hearing nothing of her, and learning that the
+Confederate States steamer _Nashville_, Commander Pegram, was at
+Southampton, he made his way on board of that ship, and told his tale to
+the officers. He afterward found his way to the United States, and died
+miserably, of cholera, in some of the negro suburbs of Washington City.
+
+_August 23d._--Weather clear, during the day, but we had some heavy
+showers of rain, with thunder, and lightning during the night. We are
+receiving coal rather slowly--a small lighter-load at a time. We are
+making some changes in the internal arrangements of the ship. Finding, by
+experience, that we have more tank-room, for water, than is requisite, we
+are landing a couple of our larger tanks, and extending the bulkheads of
+the coal-bunkers. By this means, we shall be enabled to increase our
+coal-carrying capacity by at least a third, carrying twelve days of fuel,
+instead of eight. Still the _Sumter_ remains fundamentally defective, as a
+cruiser, in her inability to lift her screw.
+
+_August 24th._--Weather clear, and pleasant, with some passing clouds, and
+light showers of rain. The Dutch mail-steamer, from Demerara, arrived,
+to-day. We are looking anxiously for news from home, as, at last
+accounts--July 20th from New York--a battle near Manassas Junction, seemed
+imminent. Demerara papers of the 19th of August contain nothing, except
+that some skirmishing had taken place, between the two armies. The French
+steamer-of-war _Abeille_ arrived, and anchored near us.
+
+_Sunday, August 25th._--Morning cloudy. At half-past eight I went on
+shore to church. The good old Mother has her churches, and clergymen, even
+in this remote Dutch colony. The music of her choirs is like the
+"drum-beat" of England; it encircles the earth, with its never-ending
+melody. As the sun, "keeping company with the hours," lights up, with his
+newly risen beams, one degree of longitude after another, he awakens the
+priest to the performance of the never-ending mass. The church was a neat,
+well-arranged wooden building, of large dimensions, and filled to
+overflowing with devout worshippers. All the shades of color, from "snowy
+white to sooty" were there, and there did not seem to be any order in the
+seating of the congregation, the shades being promiscuously mixed. The
+preacher was fluent, and earnest in action, but his sermon, which seemed
+to impress the congregation, being in that beautiful and harmonious
+language, which we call "low Dutch," was entirely unintelligible to me.
+The Latin mass, and ceremonies--which are the same all over the
+world--were, of course, quite familiar, and awoke many tender
+reminiscences. I had heard, and seen them, in my own country, under the
+domes of grand cathedrals, and in the quiet retreat of the country house,
+where the good wife herself had improvised the altar. A detachment of the
+Government troops was present.
+
+Some Dutch naval lieutenants visited the ship to-day. We learn, by late
+papers from Barbadoes, politely brought us by these gentlemen, that the
+enemy's steamer, _Keystone State_, was in that island, in search of us, on
+the 21st of July. She probably heard, there, of my intention to go back to
+cruise off the island of Cuba, which, as the reader has seen, I
+_confidentially_ communicated to my friends at Cura�oa, and has turned
+back herself. If she were on the right track she should be here before
+this. There was great commotion, too, as we learn by these papers, at Key
+West, on the 8th of July, when the news reached there of our being at
+Cienfuegos. Consul Shufeldt, at Havana, had been prompt, as I had
+foreseen. We entered Cienfuegos on the 6th, and on the 8th, he had two
+heavy and fast steamers, the _Niagara_ and the _Crusader_, in pursuit of
+us. They, too, seem to have lost the trail.
+
+_August 28th._--Bright, elastic morning, with a gentle breeze from the
+south-east. There was a grand fandango, on shore, last night, at which
+some of my officers were present. The fun grew "fast and furious," as the
+night waned, and what with the popping of champagne-corks, and the
+flashing of the bright eyes of the waltzers, as they were whirled in the
+giddy dance, my young fellows have come off looking a little red about the
+eyes, and inclined to be poetical.
+
+Rumors have been rife, for some days past, of a Confederate victory at
+Manassas. There seems now to be no longer any doubt about the fact.
+Private letters have been received, from Demerara, which state that the
+enemy was not only beaten, but shamefully routed, flying in confusion and
+dismay from the battle-field, and seeking refuge, pell-mell, in the
+Federal capital. With the exception of the Federal Consul, and Yankee
+skippers in the port, and a small knot of shop-keepers, interested in the
+American trade, all countenances are beaming with joy at this
+intelligence. This splendid victory was won by General Beauregard.
+McDowell was the commander of the enemy's forces, assisted, as it would
+seem, by the poor old superannuated Winfield Scott--this renegade soldier
+lending his now feeble intellect to the Northern Vandal, to assist in
+stabbing to the heart his mother State--Virginia! Alas! what an ignoble
+end of a once proud and honored soldier.
+
+_August 29th._--We have, at length, finished coaling, after a tedious
+delay of ten days. A rumor prevailed in the town, yesterday, that there
+were two enemy's ships of war off the bar--keeping themselves cunningly
+out of sight, to waylay the _Sumter_. The rumor comes with circumstance,
+for it is said that the fisherman, who brought the news, supplied one of
+the ships with fish, and said that the other ship was getting water on
+board from one of the coast plantations. To-day, the rumor dwindles; but
+one ship, it seems, has been seen, and she a merchant ship. The story is
+probably like that of the three white crows.
+
+_August 30th._--The pilot having come on board, we got under way, at two
+P. M., and steamed down to the mouth of the river, where we came to anchor.
+A ship, going to sea, is like a woman going on a journey--many last things
+remaining to be attended to, at the moment of departure. I have always
+found it best, to shove off shore-boats, expel all visitors, "drop down"
+out of the influences of the port, and send an officer or two back, to
+arrange these last things. A boat was now accordingly dispatched back to
+the town, for this purpose, and as she would not return until late in the
+night, inviting the surgeon and paymaster, and my clerk to accompany me, I
+pulled on shore, in my gig, to make a visit to an adjoining sugar
+plantation, that lay close by, tempting us to a stroll under its fine
+avenues of cocoanut and acacia trees. We were received very hospitably at
+the planter's mansion, where we found some agreeable ladies, and with whom
+we stayed late enough, to take tea, at their pressing solicitation. It was
+a Hollandese household, but all the inmates spoke excellent English.
+Whilst tea was being prepared, we wandered over the premises, the
+sugar-house included, where we witnessed all the processes of sugar
+making, from the expression of the juice from the cane, to the
+crystallization of the syrup. There were crowds of negroes on the place,
+old and young, male and female--some at work, and some at play; the
+players being rather the more numerous of the two classes. The grounds
+around the dwelling were tastefully laid out, in serpentine walks, winding
+through a wilderness of rare tropical shrubbery, redolent of the most
+exquisite of perfumes. True to the Dutch instinct for the water, the
+river, or rather the bay, for the river has now disembogued into an arm of
+the sea, washed the very walls of the flower-garden, and the plash, or
+rather the monotonous fretting of the tiny waves, at their base, formed no
+unmusical accompaniment to the hum of conversation, as the evening wore
+away. Among other plants, we noticed the giant maguey, and a great variety
+of the cactus, that favorite child of the sun. Our visit being over, we
+took a warm leave of our hospitable entertainers, and pulled on board the
+_Sumter_, by moonlight, deeply impressed, and softened as well by the
+harmonies of nature, and feeling as little like "pirates," as possible.
+
+The next morning, having run up our boats, and taken a final leave of the
+waters of the Surinam, we steamed out to sea, crossing the bar about
+meridian; the weather being fine, and the wind fresh from the north-east.
+Having given it out that we were bound to Barbadoes, to look for the
+_Keystone State_, we stood north, until we had run the land out of sight,
+to give color to this idea, when we changed our course to E., half S. We
+ran along, for the next two or three days, on soundings, with a view to
+break the force of the current, doubling Cape Orange, on the 2d of
+September, and hauling more to the southward, with the trending of the
+coast. On the next day, we had regained the position from which we had
+been compelled to bear up, and my journal remarks:--"We have thus lost
+three days and a half of steaming, or about fifty tons of coal, but what
+is worse, we have lost twenty-three days of valuable time,--but this time
+can scarcely be said to have been wholly lost, either, since the display
+of the flag of our young republic, in Cayenne and Paramaribo, has had a
+most excellent effect."
+
+_Sept. 4th._--Weather fine, with a fresh breeze, from about E. by S.
+During most of the day, we have carried fore and aft sails, and have made
+an excellent run, for a dull ship--175 miles. We have experienced no
+current. We passed the mouths of the great Amazon, to-day, bearing on its
+bosom the waters of a continent. We were running along in the deepest and
+bluest of sea-water, whilst at no great distance from us, we could plainly
+perceive, through our telescopes, the turbid waters of the great stream,
+mixing and mingling, by slow degrees, with the ocean. Numerous tide rips
+marked the uncongenial meeting of the waters, and the sea gull and penguin
+were busy diving in them, as though this neutral ground, or rather I
+should say, battle-ground, was a favorite resort for the small fish, on
+which they prey. A drift log with sedate water-fowl seated upon it, would
+now and then come along, and schools of porpoises were disporting
+themselves, now in the blue, now in the muddy waters. Unlike the mouths of
+the Mississippi, there were no white sails of commerce dotting the waters,
+in the offing, and no giant tow-boats throwing their volumes of black
+smoke into the air, and, with their huge side-wheels, beating time to the
+pulsations of the steam-engine. All was nature. The giant stream ran
+through a wilderness, scarcely yet opened to civilization. It disembogues
+a little south of the equator, and runs from west to east, nearly entirely
+across the continent.
+
+We crossed the equator in the _Sumter_, on the meridian of 46� 40', and
+sounded in twenty fathoms of water, bringing up from the bottom of the
+sea, for the first time, some of the sand, and shells of the Southern
+Hemisphere. We hoisted the Confederate flag, though there were no eyes to
+look upon it outside of our ship, to vindicate, symbolically, our right to
+enter this new domain of Neptune, in spite of Abraham Lincoln, and the
+Federal gun-boats.
+
+_September 5th._--Wind fresh from E. S. E. Doubled Cape _Garupi_, during
+the early morning, and sounded, at meridian, in eight fathoms of water,
+_without any land in sight_, though the day was clear. Hauled out from the
+coast a little. At half-past three, P. M., made the island of _San Joao_,
+for which we had been running, a little on the starboard bow. We now
+hauled in close with this island, and running along its white sand beach,
+which reminded us much of the Florida coast, about Pensacola, we doubled
+its north-eastern end, in six, and seven fathoms of water. Night now set
+in, and, shaping our course S. E. by S., we ran into some very broken
+ground--the soundings frequently changing, in a single cast of the lead,
+from seven to four fathoms. Four fathoms being rather uncomfortably shoal,
+on an open coast, we again hauled out, until we deepened our water to
+eight fathoms, in which we ran along, still in very equal soundings, until
+we made the light on Mount _Itacolomi_, nearly ahead. In half an hour
+afterward, we anchored in six and a half fathoms of water, to wait for
+daylight.
+
+When I afterward told some Brazilian officers, who came on board, to visit
+me, in Maranham, of this eventful night's run, they held up their hands in
+astonishment, telling me that the chances were a hundred to one, that I
+had been wrecked, for, many parts of the broken ground over which I had
+run, were _almost dry_, at low water. Their steamers never attempt it,
+they said, with the best pilots on board. It is a pity this coast is not
+better surveyed, for the charts by which I was running, represented it
+free from danger. The Brazilian is a coral coast, and, as before remarked,
+all coral coasts are dangerous. The inequality of soundings was due to the
+greater industry of the little stone-mason, of which we read some pages
+back, in some spots than in others. This little worker of the sea will
+sometimes pierce a ship's bottom, with a cone, which it has brought near
+the surface, from surrounding deep waters. As it is constantly at work,
+the bottom of the sea is constantly changing, and hence, on coral coasts,
+surveying steamers should be almost always at work. Having anchored in the
+open sea, and the sea being a little rough, we found, when we came to
+heave up our anchor, the next morning, that we brought up only the ring,
+and a small piece of the shank. It had probably been caught in the rocky
+bottom, and broken by the force of the windlass, aided by the pitching of
+the ship.
+
+There was, much to my regret, no pilot-boat in sight. The entrance to
+Maranham is quite difficult, but difficult as it was, I was forced to
+attempt it. We rounded safely, the shoals of Mount Itacolomi, and passed
+the middle ground of the Meio, and I was already congratulating myself
+that the danger was past, when the ship ran plump upon a sand-bank, and
+stopped! She went on, at full speed, and the shock, to those standing on
+deck, was almost sufficient to throw them off their feet. We had a skilful
+leadsman in the chains, and at his last cast, he had found no bottom, with
+eight fathoms of line--all that the speed of the ship would allow him to
+sink. Here was a catastrophe! Were the bones of the _Sumter_ to be laid to
+rest, on the coast of Brazil, and her Commander, and crew to return to the
+Confederate States, and report to the Government, that they had lost its
+only ship of war! This idea flashed through my mind for an instant, but
+only for an instant, for the work of the moment pressed. The engineer on
+duty had stopped his engine, without waiting for orders, as soon as he
+felt the ship strike, and I now ordered it reversed. In a moment more the
+screw was revolving in the opposite direction, and the strong tide, which
+was running out, catching the ship, on the port bow, at the same time, she
+swung round to starboard, and slid off the almost perpendicular edge of
+the bank into deep water, pretty much as a turtle will drop off a log. The
+first thing I did was to draw a long breath, and the second was to put on
+an air of indifference, as if nothing had happened, and tell the officer
+of the deck, in the coolest manner possible, to "let her go ahead." We now
+proceeded more cautiously, under low steam, giving the leadsman plenty of
+time to get his soundings, accurately. These soon proving very irregular,
+and there being some fishermen on the coast, half a mile distant, throwing
+up their arms, and gesticulating to us, as though to warn us of danger, we
+anchored, and sending a boat on shore, brought one of them off, who
+volunteered to pilot us up to the town. Upon sounding the pumps, we found
+that the ship had suffered no damage from the concussion. We anchored in
+the port of Maranham, in three or four hours afterward, and the
+Confederate States flag waved in the Empire of Brazil. The Port Admiral
+sent a lieutenant to call on us, soon after anchoring, and I dispatched
+one of my own lieutenants, to call on the Governor; returning the
+Admiral's visit, myself, in the course of the afternoon, at his place of
+business on shore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE SUMTER AT MARANHAM--MORE DIPLOMACY NECESSARY--THE HOTEL PORTO AND ITS
+PROPRIETOR--A WEEK ON SHORE--SHIP COALS AND SAILS AGAIN.
+
+
+The day after our arrival in Maranham, was a day of feasting and rejoicing
+by the townspeople--all business being suspended. It was the 7th of
+September, the anniversary of the day on which Brazil had severed her
+political connection with Portugal--in other words, it was her
+Independence-day. The forts and ships of war fired salutes, and the latter
+were gayly draped in flags and signals, presenting a very pretty
+appearance. It is customary, on such occasions, for the ships of war of
+other nations, in the port, to participate in the ceremonies and
+merry-making. We abstained from all participation, on board the _Sumter_,
+our flag being, as yet, unrecognized, for the purposes of form and
+ceremony. In the evening, a grand ball was given, at the Government House,
+by the President of the Province, to which all the world, except the
+_Sumter_, was invited--the etiquette of nations, before referred to,
+requiring that she should be ruled out. The only feeling excited in us, by
+this official slight, was one of contempt for the silliness of the
+proceeding--a contempt heightened by the reflection that we were a race of
+Anglo-Saxons, proud of our lineage, and proud of our strength, frowned
+upon by a set of half-breeds. The Government House being situated on the
+river bank, near our anchorage, the lights of the brilliantly illuminated
+halls and chambers, shone full upon our decks, and the music of the bands,
+and even the confused hum of the voices of the merry-makers, and the
+muffled shuffling of the dancers' feet, came to us, very distinctly, to a
+late hour. The _Sumter_ lay dark, and motionless, and silent, amid this
+scene of merriment; the only answer which she sent back to the revellers,
+being the sonorous and startling cry, every half hour, of her marine
+sentinels on post, of "All's well!"
+
+Having suffered, somewhat, in health, from the fatigue and excitement of
+the last few weeks, I removed on shore the next day, and took up my
+quarters at the hotel _Porto_, kept by one of those nondescripts one
+sometimes meets with in the larger South American cities, whose
+nationality it is impossible to guess at, except that he belongs to the
+Latin race. My landlord had followed the sea, among his thousand and one
+occupations, spoke half a dozen languages, and was "running"--to use a
+slang Americanism--a theatre and one or two fashionable restaurants, in
+beautifully laid out pleasure-grounds in the suburbs, in addition to his
+hotel. He drove a pair of fast horses, was on capital terms with all the
+pretty women in the town, smashed champagne-bottles, right and left, and
+smoked the best of Havana cigars. The reader will thus see, that being an
+invalid, and requiring a little nursing, I had fallen into capital hands.
+Whether it was that _Senhor Porto_--for he had given his own name to his
+hotel--had chased and captured merchant-ships, in former days, himself, or
+from some other motive, I could never tell, but he took quite a fancy to
+me at once, and I rode with him daily, during my stay, behind his fast
+ponies, and visited all the places of amusement, of which he was the
+_padron_. The consequence was, that I visibly improved in health, and at
+the end of the week which I spent with him, returned on board the
+_Sumter_, quite set up again; in requital whereof, I have permitted the
+gallant Captain to sit for his portrait in these pages.
+
+My first duty, after being installed in my new apartments on shore, was,
+of course, to call on the President of the Department--the town of
+Maranham being the seat of government of the province of the same name.
+The President declined to see me then, but appointed noon, the next day,
+to receive me. Soon after I had returned to my hotel, _Senhor Porto_
+entered my room, to inform me that Captain _Pinto_, of the Brazilian Navy,
+the commanding naval officer on the station, accompanied by the Chief of
+Police, had called to see me. "What does this mean?" said I, "the Chief of
+Police, in our cities, is a very questionable sort of gentleman, and is
+usually supposed to be on the scent of malefactors." "Oh! he is a very
+respectable gentleman, I assure you," replied _Porto_, "and, as you see,
+he has called with the Port Admiral, so that he is in good company, at
+least. Indeed he is reputed to be the confidential friend of the
+President." Thus reassured, and making a virtue of necessity, I desired
+_Porto_, very complacently, to admit the visitors. The Port Admiral had
+done me the honor to visit me, immediately upon my arrival, and I had
+returned his visit, so that we were not strangers. He introduced the Chief
+of Police to me, who proved to be, as _Porto_ had represented him, an
+agreeable gentleman, holding military rank, and, after the two had been
+seated, they opened their business to me. They had come, they said, on
+behalf of the President, to present me with a copy of a paper, which had
+been handed him, by the United States Consul, protesting against my being
+permitted to coal, or receive any other supplies in the port of Maranham.
+Oh ho! thought I, here is another of Mr. Seward's small fry turned up. I
+read the paper, and found it full of ignorance and falsehoods--ignorance
+of the most common principles of international law, and barefaced
+misrepresentations with regard to my ship; the whole composed in such
+execrable English, as to be highly creditable to Mr. Seward's Department.
+I characterized the paper, as it deserved, and said to the gentlemen, that
+as I had made an appointment to call on the President, on the morrow, I
+would take that opportunity of replying to the slanderous document. The
+conversation then turned on general topics, and my visitors soon after
+withdrew.
+
+As I rode out, that afternoon, with Porto, he said, "Never mind! I know
+all that is going on, at the palace, and you will get all the coal, and
+everything else you want." The pay of the Federal Consul at Maranham, was,
+I believe, at the time I visited the town, about twelve hundred dollars,
+per annum. As was to be expected, a small man filled the small place. He
+was quite young, and with commendable Yankee thrift, was exercising, in
+the consular dwelling, the occupation of a dentist; the "old flag" flying
+over his files, false teeth, and spittoons. He probably wrote the
+despatch, a copy of which had been handed me, in the intervals between
+the entrance, and exit of his customers. It was not wonderful, therefore,
+that this semi-diplomat, charged with the affairs of the Great Republic,
+and with the decayed teeth of the young ladies of Maranham, at one and the
+same time, should be a little confused, as to points of international law,
+and the rules of Lindley Murray. That he should misrepresent me was both
+natural, and Federal.
+
+At the appointed hour, the next day, I called to see his Excellency, the
+President, and being ushered, by an orderly in waiting, into a suite of
+spacious, and elegantly furnished apartments, I found Captain Pinto, and
+his Excellency, both prepared to receive me. We proceeded, at once, to
+business. I exhibited to his Excellency the same little piece of brownish
+paper, with Mr. Jefferson Davis's signature at the bottom of it, that I
+had shown to Captain Hillyer of the _Cadmus_--unasked, however, as no
+doubts had been raised as to the verity of the character of my ship. I
+then read to his Excellency an extract or two from the letter of
+instructions, which had been sent me by the Secretary of the Navy,
+directing me to pay all proper respect to the territory, and property of
+neutrals. I next read the proclamations of England and France,
+acknowledging us to be in the possession of belligerent rights, and said
+to his Excellency, that although I had not seen the proclamation of
+Brazil, I presumed she had followed the lead of the European powers--to
+which he assented. I then "rested my case," as the lawyers say, seeing, by
+the expression of his Excellency's countenance, that every lick had told,
+and that I had nothing now to fear. "But, what about coal being contraband
+of war," said his Excellency, at this stage of the proceeding. "The United
+States Consul, in the protest addressed to me, a copy of which I sent you,
+yesterday, by Captain Pinto, and the Chief of Police, states that you had
+not been permitted to coal, in any of the ports, which you have hitherto
+visited." The reader will recollect, that, at the British Island of
+Trinidad, the question of my being permitted to coal had been submitted to
+the "law officers of the Crown." The newspaper, at that place, had
+published a copy of the opinion of these officers, and also a copy of the
+decision of the Governor, thereupon. Having brought a copy of this paper,
+in my pocket, for the occasion, I now rejoined to his Excellency: "The
+United States Consul has made you a false statement. I have coaled,
+already, in the colonies of no less than three Powers--Spain, Holland, and
+England"--and drawing from my pocket the newspaper, and handing it to him,
+I continued, "and your Excellency will find, in this paper, the decision
+of the English authorities, upon the point in question--that is to say,
+that coal is not contraband of war, and may be supplied by neutrals to
+belligerents." Captain Pinto, to whom his Excellency handed the paper,
+read aloud the decision, putting it into very good Portuguese, as he went
+along, and when he had finished the reading, his Excellency turned again
+to me, and said: "I have no longer any doubts on the question. You can
+have free access to the markets, and purchase whatsoever you may
+desire--munitions of war alone excepted." I have been thus particular in
+describing these proceedings to the reader, to show him with what
+sleuth-hound perseverance I was followed up, by these small consuls, taken
+from the political kennel in the Northern States, who never hesitated to
+use the most unblushing falsehoods, if they thought these would serve
+their purposes better than the truth. The official portion of my interview
+with the President being ended, I ventured upon some general remarks with
+regard to the unnatural, and wicked war which was being waged upon us, and
+soon afterward took my leave.
+
+In an hour after I had left the President's quarters, my paymaster had
+contracted for a supply of coal, and lighters were being prepared to take
+it on board. The sailors were now permitted to visit the shore, in
+detachments, "on liberty," and the officers wandered about, in twos and
+threes, wherever inclination prompted. We soon found that wherever we
+moved, we were objects of much curiosity, the people frequently turning to
+stare at us; but we were always treated with respect. Nothing was thought,
+or talked of, during our stay, but the American war. The Provincial
+Congress was in session, and several of its members boarded at the hotel
+_Porto_. I found them intelligent, well-informed men. There were political
+parties here, as elsewhere, of course; among others as might be expected,
+in a slave-holding country, there was an abolition party, and this party
+sympathized with the North. It was very small, however, for it was quite
+evident, from the popular demonstrations, that the great mass of the
+people were with us. This state of the public feeling not only rendered
+our stay, very pleasant, but facilitated us in getting off our supplies.
+Invitations to the houses of the citizens were frequent, and we had free
+access to all the clubs, and other places of public resort.
+
+I must not omit to mention here, a very agreeable fellow-countryman, whom
+we met in Maranham--Mr. J. Wetson, from Texas. He had been several years
+in Brazil. His profession was that of a steam-engineer, and mill-wright.
+This worthy young mechanic, full of love, and enthusiasm for his section,
+loaned the paymaster two thousand dollars, on a bill against the Secretary
+of the Navy; and during the whole of our stay, his rooms were the
+head-quarters of my younger officers, where he dispensed to them true
+Southern hospitality. We were gratified to find him a great favorite with
+the townspeople, and we took leave of him with regret.
+
+Maranham lies in latitude 2� S. and we visited it, during the dry season;
+the sun having carried the equatorial cloud-ring, which gives it rain,
+farther north. We had perpetual sunshine, during our stay, but the heat
+was tempered by the trade-wind, which blew sometimes half a gale, so that
+we did not feel it oppressive. Toward night the sea-breeze would moderate,
+and the most heavenly of bright skies, and most balmy of atmospheres would
+envelop the landscape. At this witching hour, the beauties of Maranham
+made their appearance, at the street-doors, and at open windows, and the
+tinkle of the guitar and the gentle hum of conversation would be heard.
+Later in the night, there would arise from different parts of the
+town--somewhat removed from the haunts of the upper-tendom--the rumbling,
+and jingling of the tambourine, and the merry notes of the violin, as the
+national fandango was danced, with a vigor, and at the same time with a
+poetry of motion unknown to colder climes. The wine flowed freely on these
+occasions, and not unfrequently the red knife of the assassin found the
+heart's blood of a rival in love; for there are other climes besides
+those of which the poet sang, where
+
+  "The rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle
+  Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime."
+
+The trade of Maranham is mostly monopolized by Portugal, France, and
+Spain, though there is some little carried on with the United States--an
+occasional ship from New York, or Boston, bringing a cargo of flour, cheap
+but gaudy furniture, clocks, and domestic cottons, and other Yankee
+staples, and notions. The shop-keepers are mostly French and Germans. An
+excellent staple of cotton is produced in the province of Maranham.
+
+On the 15th of September, the _Sumter_ was ready for sea, having been
+refitted, and repainted, besides being coaled, and provisioned; and there
+being, as usual, according to rumor, a couple of enemy's ships waiting for
+her outside, we received a pilot on board, and getting up steam, took
+leave of Maranham, carrying with us many kindly recollections of the
+hospitality of the people. We swept the sea horizon, with our glasses, as
+we approached the bar, but the enemy's cruisers were nowhere to be seen,
+and at three P. M., we were again in blue water; our little craft rising,
+and falling gently, to the undulations of the sea, as she ploughed her way
+through it.
+
+The question now was, in what direction should we steer? I was within
+striking distance of the cruising-ground, for which I had set out--Cape
+St. Roque; but we had been so long delayed, that we should reach it, if we
+proceeded thither at all, at a most unpropitious season--the sailing, and
+steaming qualities of the _Sumter_ considered. The trade-winds were
+sweeping round the Cape, blowing half a gale, on the wings of which the
+dullest ship would be able to run away from us, if we trusted to sail,
+alone; and steam, in the present state of my exchequer, was out of the
+question. I had paid $17.50 per ton for the coal I had taken in, at
+Maranham, and but for the timely loan of Mr. Wetson, should have exhausted
+my treasury entirely. The trade-winds would continue to blow, with equal
+force, until some time in December; they would then moderate, and from
+that time, onward, until March, we might expect more gentle weather. This,
+then, was the only season, in which the _Sumter_ could operate off the
+Cape, to advantage.
+
+On the other hand, the calm belt of the equator lay before me--its
+southern edge, at this season of the year, being in latitude of about 5�
+N. All the homeward-bound trade of the enemy passed through this calm
+belt, or used to pass through it before the war, at a well-known crossing.
+At that crossing, there would be a calm sea, light, and variable winds,
+and rain. In such weather, I could lie in wait for my prey, under sail,
+and, if surprise, and stratagem did not effect my purpose, I could, when a
+sail appeared, get up steam and chase and capture, without the expenditure
+of much fuel. In this way, with the coal I had on board, I could prolong
+my cruise, probably, for a couple of months. I did not hesitate long,
+therefore, between the two schemes. I turned my ship's head to the
+northward, and eastward, for the calm belt, and before sunset, we had run
+the coast of Brazil out of sight.
+
+We recrossed the equator, the next day. In five days more, the sun would
+have reached the equator, when we should have had the grand spectacle, at
+noon, of being able to sweep him, with our instruments, entirely around
+the horizon, with his lower limb just touching it, at all points. We could
+nearly do this, as it was, and so rapidly did he dip, at noon, that we
+were obliged to watch him, with constant vigilance, to ascertain the
+precise moment of twelve o'clock.
+
+_September 17th._--The sea is of a deep, indigo blue, and we have a
+bright, and exceedingly transparent atmosphere, with a fresh breeze from
+the south-east. At half-past eleven A. M., we let the steam go down,
+uncoupled the propeller, and put the ship under sail. Observed at noon, in
+latitude 2� 19' N.; longitude, 41� 29'.
+
+For the next few days, we encountered a remarkable easterly current--the
+current, in this part of the ocean, being almost constantly to the
+westward. This current--which we were now stemming, for we were sailing
+toward the north-west--retarded us, as much as fifty miles, in a single
+day! So remarkable did the phenomenon appear, that if I had noticed it,
+for but a single day, I should have been inclined to think that I had made
+some mistake in my observations, or that there was some error in my
+instrument, but we noticed it, day after day, for four or five days.
+
+Contemporaneously with this phenomenon, another, and even more wonderful
+one appeared. This was a succession of tide-rips, so remarkable, that they
+deserve special description.
+
+The _Sumter_ lay nearly stationary, during the whole of these
+phenomena--the easterly current setting her back, nearly as much as she
+gained under sail. She was in the average latitude of 5� N., and average
+longitude of 42� W. For the first three days, the rips appeared with
+wonderful regularity--there being an interval of just twelve hours between
+them. They approached us from the south, and travelled toward the north.
+At first, only a line of foam would be seen, on the distant horizon,
+approaching the ship very rapidly. As it came nearer, an almost
+perpendicular wall of water, extending east and west, as far as the eye
+could reach, would be seen, the top of the wall boiling and foaming, like
+a breaker rolling over a rocky bottom. As the ridge approached nearer and
+nearer, it assumed the form of a series of rough billows, jostling
+against, and struggling with each other, producing a scene of the utmost
+confusion, the noise resembling that of a distant cataract. Reaching the
+ship, these billows would strike her with such force, as to send their
+spray to the deck, and cause her to roll and pitch, as though she were
+amid breakers. The phenomenon was, indeed, that of breakers, only the
+cause was not apparent--there being no shoal water to account for it. The
+_Sumter_ sometimes rolled so violently in these breakers, when broadside
+to, that we were obliged to keep her off her course, several points, to
+bring the sea on her quarter, and thus mitigate the effect. The belt of
+rips would not be broad, and as it travelled very rapidly--fifteen or
+twenty miles the hour--the ship would not be long within its influence. In
+the course of three quarters of an hour, it would disappear, entirely, on
+the distant northern horizon. So curious was the whole phenomenon, that
+the sailors, as well as the officers, assembled, as if by common consent,
+to witness it. "There come the tide rips!" some would exclaim, and, in a
+moment there would be a demand for the telescopes, and a rush to the
+ship's side, to witness the curious spectacle. These rips have frequently
+been noticed by navigators, and discussed by philosophers, but, hitherto,
+no satisfactory explanation has been given of them. They are like the
+bores, at the mouths of great rivers; as at the mouth of the Amazon, in
+the western hemisphere, and of the Ganges, in the eastern; great
+breathings, or convulsions of the sea, the causes of which elude our
+research. These bores sometimes come in, in great perpendicular walls,
+sweeping everything before them, and causing immense destruction of life,
+and property. I was, at first, inclined to attribute these tide rips to
+the lunar influence, as they appeared twice in twenty-four hours, like the
+tides, and each time near the passing of the meridian, by the moon; but,
+in a few days, they varied their times of appearance, and came on quite
+irregularly, sometimes with an interval of five or six hours, only. And
+then the tidal wave, for it is evidently this, and not a current, should
+be from east to west, if it were due to lunar influence; and we have seen
+that it travelled from south to north. Nor could I connect it with the
+easterly current that was prevailing--for it travelled at right angles to
+the current, and not with, or against it. It was, evidently, due to some
+pretty uniform law, as it always travelled in the same direction.
+
+We reached the calm belt, on the 24th of September, for, on this day,
+having lost the south-east trade, we had light and baffling winds from the
+south-west, and rain-clouds began to muster overhead. On the next day, the
+weather being in its normal condition of cloud, the welcome cry of "sail
+ho!" came resounding from the mast-head, with a more prolonged, and
+musical cadence than usual--the look-out, with the rest of the crew,
+having become tired of the inactivity of the last few days. All was
+bustle, immediately, about the decks; and in half an hour, with the sails
+snugly furled, and the ship under steam, we were in hot pursuit. The
+stranger was a brigantine, and was standing to the north-west, pursuing
+the usual crossing of the calm belt, as best he might, in the light winds,
+that were blowing, sometimes this way, sometimes that. We came up with him
+quite rapidly, there being scarcely a ripple on the surface of the smooth
+sea, to impede our progress, and when we had come sufficiently near to
+enable him to make it out, distinctly, we showed him the enemy's flag. He
+was evidently prepared with his own flag, for, in less than a minute, the
+lazy breeze was toying and playing with it, and presently blew it out
+sufficiently, to enable us to make out the well-known and welcome stars
+and stripes. We hove him to, by "hail," and hauling down the false colors,
+and hoisting our own, we sent a boat on board of him, and captured him. He
+proved to be the _Joseph Parke_, of Boston, last from Pernambuco, and six
+days out, _in ballast_. The _Parke_ had been unable to procure a return
+cargo; the merchants of Pernambuco having heard of the arrival of the
+_Sumter_, at Maranham, in rather uncomfortable proximity.
+
+We transferred the crew of the captured vessel to the _Sumter_, replacing
+it with a prize crew, and got on board from her such articles of
+provisions, cordage, and sails as we required; but instead of burning her,
+we transformed her, for the present, into a scout vessel, to assist us in
+discovering other prizes. I sent Lieutenant Evans on board to command her,
+and gave him a couple of midshipmen, as watch officers. The following was
+his commission:--
+
+     "SIR:--You will take charge of the prize-brig _Joseph Parke_, and
+     cruise in company with this vessel, until further orders. During the
+     day, you will keep from seven to eight miles, to the westward, and to
+     windward, and keep a bright look-out, from your top-gallant yard, for
+     sails--signalling to us, such as you may descry. Toward evening,
+     every day, you will draw in toward this vessel, so as to be within
+     three, or four miles of her, at dark; and, during the night you will
+     keep close company with her, to guard against the possibility of
+     separation. Should you, however, be separated from her, by any
+     accident, you will make the best of your way to latitude 8� N., and
+     longitude 45� W., where you will await her a reasonable time. Should
+     you not join her again, you will make the best of your way to some
+     port in the Confederate States."
+
+In obedience to these instructions, the _Parke_ drew off to her station,
+and letting our fires go down on board the _Sumter_, we put her under
+sail, again. Long before night, the excitement of the chase and capture
+had died away, and things had resumed their wonted course. The two ships
+hovered about the "crossing," for several days, keeping a bright look-out,
+but nothing more appeared; and on the 29th of September, the _Parke_
+having been called alongside, by signal, her prize crew was taken out,
+and the ship burned, after having been made a target, for a few hours, for
+the practice of the crew. It was evidently no longer of any use to bother
+ourselves about the crossing of the calm-belt, for, instead of falling in
+with a constant stream of the enemy's ships, returning home, from
+different parts of the world, we had been cruising in it, some ten days,
+and had sighted but a single sail! We had kept ourselves between the
+parallels of 2� 30' N., and 9� 30' N., and between the meridians of 41�
+30' W., and 47� 30' W.; and if the reader have any curiosity on the
+subject, by referring to the map, he will perceive, that the north-western
+diagonal of the quadrilateral figure, formed by these parallels, and
+meridians, is the direct course between Cape St. Roque, and New York. But
+the wary sea-birds had, evidently, all taken the alarm, and winged their
+way, home, by other routes. I was the more convinced of this, by an
+intercepted letter which I captured in the letter-bag of the _Parke_,
+which was written by the master of the ship, _Asteroid_, to his owner, and
+which ran as follows:--
+
+     "The _Asteroid_ arrived off this port [Pernambuco], last evening,
+     seventy-five days from Baker's Island, and came to anchor in the
+     outer roads, this morning. I found yours of August 9th, and noted the
+     contents, which, I must say, have made me rather _blue_. I think you
+     had better _insure_, even at the extra premium, as the _Asteroid_ is
+     not a _clipper_, and will be a _bon_ prize for the Southerners. I
+     shall sail this evening [September 16th, three days before the
+     _Joseph Parke_] and take a _new_ route, for Hampton Roads."
+
+The _Asteroid_ escaped us, as no doubt many more had done, by avoiding the
+"beaten track," and taking a new road home; thus verifying, in a very
+pointed manner, the old adage, that "the longest way round is the shortest
+way home."
+
+We now made sail for the West India Islands, designing, after a short
+cruise among them, to run into the French island of Martinique, and coal.
+We still kept along on the beaten track of homeward-bound ships, but with
+little expectation of making any prizes, and for some days overhauled none
+but neutral ships. Many of these had cargoes for the United States, but
+not having the same motive to avoid me, that the enemy's ships had, they
+were content to travel the usual highway. Although many of them had
+enemy's property, on board, they were perfectly safe from
+molestation--the Confederate States' Government having adopted, as the
+reader has seen, in its Act declaring, that, by the conduct of the enemy,
+a state of war existed, the liberal principle, that "Free ships make free
+goods."
+
+Among the neutrals overhauled by us, was an English brig called the
+_Spartan_, from Rio Janeiro, for St. Thomas, in the West Indies. We had an
+exciting chase after this fellow. We pursued him, under United States
+colors, and as the wind was blowing fresh, and the chase was a
+"stern-chase," it proved, as usual, to be a long one, although the
+_Sumter_ was doing her best, under both steam and sail. John Bull
+evidently mistook us for the Yankee we pretended to be, and seemed
+determined to prevent us from overhauling him, if possible. His brig, as
+we soon discovered, had light heels, and he made the best possible use of
+them, by giving her every inch of canvas he could spread. Still, we gained
+on him, and as we came sufficiently near, we gave him a blank cartridge,
+to make him show his colors, and heave to. He showed his colors--the
+English red--but refused to heave to. The unprofessional reader may be
+informed, that when a merchant-ship is under full sail, and especially
+when she is running before a fresh breeze, as the _Spartan_ was, it puts
+her to no little inconvenience, to come to the wind. She has to take in
+her sails, one by one, owing to her being short-handed, and "the clewing
+up," and "hauling down" occupy some minutes. The captain of the Spartan
+was loth to subject himself to this inconvenience, especially at the
+command of the hated Yankee. Coming up a little nearer, we now fired a
+shotted gun at him, taking care not to strike him, but throwing the shot
+so near as to give him the benefit of its rather ominous music, as it
+whistled past. As soon as the smoke from the gun, which obscured him for a
+moment, rolled away before the breeze, we could see him starting his
+"sheets," and "halliards," and pretty soon the saucy little _Spartan_
+rounded to, with her main top-sail to the mast. The reader may be curious
+to know, why I had been so persistent in heaving to a neutral. The answer
+is, that I was not sure she was neutral. The jaunty little brig looked
+rather more American, than English, in all but the flag that was flying
+at her peak. She had not only the grace and beauty of hull that
+characterize our American-built ships, but the long, tapering spars on
+which American ship-masters especially pride themselves. She did, indeed,
+prove to be American, in a certain sense, as we found her to hail from
+Halifax, in Nova Scotia. The master of the _Spartan_ was in an ill-humor
+when my boarding-officer jumped on board of him. It was difficult to
+extract a civil answer from him. "What is the news?" said the
+boarding-officer. "Capital news!" replied the master; "you Yankees are
+getting whipped like h--ll; you beat the Derby boys at the Manassas
+races." "But what's the news from Rio?" now inquired the supposed Yankee
+boarding-officer. "Well, there's good news from that quarter too--all the
+Yankee ships are laid up, for want of freights." "You are rather hard upon
+us, my friend," now rejoined the boarding-officer; "why should you take
+such an interest in the Confederate cause?" "Simply, because there is a
+little man fighting against an overgrown bully, and I like pluck."
+
+The _Spartan_ being bound to St. Thomas, and we ourselves intending to go,
+soon, into the West Indies, it was highly important that we should
+preserve our _incognito_, to which end, I had charged the
+boarding-officer, to represent his ship as a Federal cruiser, in search of
+the _Sumter_. The boarding-officer having done this, found the master of
+the _Spartan_ complimentary to the last; for as he was stepping over the
+brig's side, into his boat, the master said, "I hope you will find the
+_Sumter_, but I rather think you will hunt for her, as the man did for the
+tax-collector, hoping all the time he mightn't find him."
+
+The weather now, again, became calm, and we had "cat's-paws" from all the
+points of the compass. The breeze, with which we had chased the _Spartan_,
+was a mere spasmodic effort of Nature, for we were still in the calm-belt,
+or, as the sailors expressively call it, the "doldrums." For the next few
+days, it rained almost incessantly, the heavily charged clouds sometimes
+settling so low, as scarcely to sweep clear of our mast-heads. It did not
+simply rain; the water fell in torrents, and the lightning flashed, and
+the thunder rolled, with a magnificence and grandeur that were truly
+wonderful to witness. In the intervals of these drenching rains, the
+clouds, like so many half-wrung sponges, would lift themselves, and move
+about with great rapidity, in every direction--now toward, and now from,
+each other--convolving, in the most curious disorder, as though they were
+so many huge, black serpents, writhing and twisting in the powerful grasp
+of some invisible hand. Anon, a water-spout would appear upon the scene,
+with its inverted cone, sometimes travelling rapidly, but more frequently
+at rest. At times, so ominous, and threatening would be the aspect of the
+heavens, with its armies of black clouds in battle-array, its forked
+lightning, and crashing thunder, the perfect stillness of the atmosphere,
+and the rapid flight of scared water-fowl, that a hurricane would seem
+imminent, until we would cast our eyes upon the barometer, standing
+unmoved, at near the marking of thirty inches, amid all the signs, and
+portents around it. In half an hour, sometimes, all this paraphernalia of
+clouds would break in twain, and retreat, in opposite directions, to the
+horizon, and the sun would throw down a flood of golden light, and
+scalding heat upon our decks; on which would be paddling about the
+half-drowned sailors. The first lieutenant took advantage of these rains,
+to fill, anew, his water-tanks, "tenting" his awnings, during the heaviest
+of the showers, and catching more water than he needed; and the sailors
+had another such jubilee of washing, as they had had, when we were running
+along the Venezuelan coast.
+
+_Sunday, September 29th._--Beautiful, clear morning, with a gentle breeze
+from the south-east, and a smooth sea. At eleven A. M., mustered the crew,
+and inspected the ship. Latitude, 6� 55' N.; longitude, 45� 08' W. Evening
+set in, squally, and rainy. Running along to the north-west, under
+topsails.
+
+_October 2d._--This morning, when I took my seat, at the breakfast-table,
+I was surprised to find a very tempting-looking dish of fried fish set out
+before me, and upon inquiring of my faithful steward, John, (a Malayan,
+who had taken the place of Ned,) to what good fortune he was indebted, for
+the prize, his little black eyes twinkled, as he said, "Him jump aboard,
+last night!" Upon further inquiry, I found that it was a small sword-fish,
+that had honored us with a visit; the active little creature having leaped
+no less than fifteen feet, to reach the deck of the _Sumter_. It was lucky
+that its keen spear did not come in contact with any of the crew during
+the leap--a loss of life might have been the consequence. The full-grown
+sword-fish has been known to pierce a ship's bottom, floor-timber and all,
+with its most formidable weapon.
+
+_October 4th._--Weather clear, and beautiful, with trade-clouds, white and
+fleecy, and a light breeze from the eastward. The bosom of the gently
+heaving sea is scarcely ruffled. Schools of fish are playing around us,
+and the sailors have just hauled, on board, a large shark, which they have
+caught with hook and line. The sailor has a great antipathy to the shark,
+regarding him as his hereditary enemy. Accordingly, the monster receives
+no mercy when he falls into Jack's hands. See how Jack is tormenting him
+now! and how fiercely the monster is snapping, and grinding his teeth
+together, and beating the deck with his powerful tail, as though he would
+crush in the planks. He is tenacious of life, and will be a long time in
+dying, and, during all this time, Jack will be cutting, and slashing him,
+without mercy, with his long sheath-knife. The comparatively calm sea is
+covered, in every direction, for miles, with a golden or straw-colored
+dust. Whence comes it? We are four hundred miles from any land! It has,
+doubtless, been dropped by the trade-winds, as they have been neutralized
+over our heads, in this calm belt of the equator, and, in a future page,
+we shall have further occasion to refer to it. We have observed, to-day,
+in latitude 8�; the longitude being 46� 58'.
+
+_October 11th._--Morning clear and calm, after a couple of days of
+tempestuous weather, during which the barometer settled a little. Toward
+noon it clouded up again, and there were squally appearances in the
+south-east. The phenomenon of the tide-rips has reappeared. Malay John was
+in luck, again, this morning, a covey of flying-fish having fallen on the
+deck, last night, during the storm. He has served me a plate full of them
+for breakfast. The largest of them are about the size of a half-grown
+Potomac herring, and they are somewhat similar in taste--being a delicate,
+but not highly flavored fish.
+
+_October 14th._--At noon, to-day, we plotted precisely upon the diagonal
+between St. Roque and New York; our latitude being 8� 31', and longitude
+45� 56'. We now made more sail, and on the 17th of October we had reached
+the latitude of 11� 37'. From this time, until the 22d, we had a constant
+series of bad weather, the barometer settling to 29.80, and the wind
+blowing half a gale, most of the time. Sometimes the wind would go all
+around the compass, and the weather would change half a dozen times, in
+twenty-four hours. On the last-mentioned day, the weather became again
+settled, and being now in latitude 14�, we had passed out of the calm
+belt, and began to receive the first breathings of the north-east
+trade-wind.
+
+On the 24th, we chased and hove to a French brig, called _La Mouche
+Noire_, from Nantes, bound for Martinique. She had been out forty-two
+days, had no newspapers on board, and had no news to communicate. We
+boarded her under the United States flag, and when the boarding-officer
+apologized to the master for the trouble we had given him, in heaving him
+to, in the exercise of our belligerent right of search, he said, with an
+admirable _naivet�_, he had _heard_ the United States were at war, but he
+did not recollect with whom! Admirable Frenchman! wonderful simplicity, to
+care nothing about newspapers, and to know nothing about wars!
+
+On the 25th, we overhauled that _rara avis in mare_, a Prussian ship. The
+27th was Sunday; we had a gentle breeze from the north-east, with a smooth
+sea, and were enjoying the fine morning, with our awnings spread, scarcely
+expecting to be disturbed, when the cry of "Sail ho!" again rang from the
+mast-head. We had been making preparations for Sunday muster; Jack having
+already taken down from its hiding-place his Sunday hat, and adjusted its
+ribbons, and now being in the act of "overhauling" his bag, for the
+"mustering-shirt and trousers." All these preparations were at once
+suspended, the firemen were ordered below, there was a passing to and fro
+of engineers, and in a few minutes more the welcome black smoke came
+pouring out of the _Sumter's_ chimney. Bounding away over the sea, we soon
+began to raise the strange sail from the deck. She was a fore-and-aft
+schooner of that peculiar model and rig already described as belonging to
+the New Englander, and nobody else, and we felt certain, at once, that we
+had flushed the enemy. The little craft was "close-hauled," or, may be,
+she had the wind a point free, which was her best point of sailing, had
+the whitest kind of cotton canvas, and carried very taunt gaff-topsails.
+We found her exceedingly fast, and came up with her very slowly. The chase
+commenced at nine A. M., and it was three P. M. before we were near enough
+to heave her to with the accustomed blank cartridge. At the report of our
+gun--the Confederate States flag being at our peak--the little craft,
+which had probably been in an agony of apprehension, for some hours past,
+saw that her fate was sealed, and without further ado, put her helm down,
+lowered her foresail, hauled down her flying-jib, drew her jib-sheet over
+to windward--and was hove to; the stars and stripes streaming out from her
+main-topmast head. Upon being boarded, she proved to be the _Daniel
+Trowbridge_, of New Haven, Connecticut, last from New York, and bound to
+Demerara, in British Guiana.
+
+This was a most opportune capture for us, for the little craft was laden
+with an assorted cargo of provisions, and our own provisions had been
+nearly exhausted. With true Yankee thrift, she had economized even the
+available space on her deck, and had a number of sheep, geese, and pigs,
+on board, for the Demerara market. Another sail being discovered, almost
+at the moment of this capture, we hastily threw a prize crew on board the
+_Trowbridge_, and directing her to follow us, sped off in pursuit of the
+newly discovered sail. It was dark before we came up with this second
+chase. She proved to be an English brigantine, from Nova Scotia, for
+Demerara. We now stood back to rejoin our prize, and banking our fires,
+and hoisting a light at the peak, the better to enable the prize to keep
+sight of us, during the night, we lay to, until daylight. The next day,
+and the day after, were busy days, on board the _Sumter_, for we devoted
+both of them, to getting on board provisions, from the prize. The weather
+proved propitious, the breeze being gentle, and the sea smooth. We hoisted
+out the _Tallapoosa_--our launch--and employed her, and the
+quarter-boats--the gig included, for war admits of little ceremony--in
+transporting barrels, bales, boxes, and every other conceivable kind of
+package, to the _Sumter_. The paymaster was in ecstasy, for, upon
+examination, he found the _Trowbridge's_ cargo to be all that he could
+desire--the beef, pork, canvased hams, ship-bread, fancy crackers, cheese,
+flour, everything being of the very best quality. We were, indeed, under
+many obligations to our Connecticut friends. To get at the cargo, we were
+obliged to throw overboard many articles, that we had no use for, and
+treated old Ocean to a gayly painted fleet of Connecticut woodenware,
+buckets, foot-tubs, bath-tubs, wash-tubs, churns. We found the sheep,
+pigs, and poultry in excellent condition; and sending the butcher on board
+each evening, we caused those innocents to be slaughtered, in sufficient
+numbers to supply all hands. Jack was in his glory. He had passed
+suddenly, from mouldy and worm-eaten bread, and the toughest and leanest
+of "old horse," to the enjoyment of all these luxuries. My Malayan
+steward's eyes fairly danced, as he stowed away in the cabin lockers,
+sundry cans of preserved meats, lobster, milk, and fruits. John was a real
+artist, in his line, and knew the value of such things; and as he busied
+himself, arranging his luxuries, on the different shelves, I could hear
+him muttering to himself, "Dem Connecticut mans, bery good mans--me wish
+we find him often." We laid in, from the _Trowbridge_, full five months'
+provisions, and getting on board, from her, besides, as much of the live
+stock, as we could manage to take care of, we delivered her to the flames,
+on the morning of the 30th of October. On the same day, we chased, and
+boarded the Danish brig, _Una_, from Copenhagen, bound to Santa Cruz.
+Being sixty-six days out, she had no news to communicate. We showed her
+the United States colors, and when she arrived, at Santa Cruz, she
+reported that she had fallen in with a Federal cruiser. The brig
+_Spartan_, which we boarded, a few pages back, made the same report, at
+St. Thomas; so that the enemy's cruisers, that were in pursuit of us, had
+not, as yet, the least idea that we had returned to the West Indies.
+
+For the next few days, we chased and overhauled a number of ships, but
+they were all neutral. The enemy's West India trade seemed to have
+disappeared almost entirely. Many of his ships had been laid up, in alarm,
+in his own ports, and a number of others had found it more to their
+advantage, to enter the public service, as transports. The Federal
+Government had already entered upon that career of corrupt, and reckless
+expenditure which has resulted in the most gigantic national debt of
+modern times. The entire value of a ship was often paid to her owners, for
+a charter-party, of a few months only; the quartermasters, commissaries,
+and other public swindlers frequently dividing the spoils, with the lucky
+ship-owners. Many indifferent vessels were sold to the Federal Navy
+Department, at double, and treble their value, and agencies to purchase
+such ships were conferred, by the Secretary, upon relatives, and other
+inexperienced favorites. The corruptions of the war, soon made the war
+popular, with the great mass of the people. As has been remarked, in a
+former page, many of these _nouveau-riche_ men, whose love of country, and
+hatred of "rebels" boiled over, in proportion as their pockets became
+filled, had offered to sell themselves, and all they possessed, to the
+writer, when he was in the New England States, as a Confederate States
+agent. Powder-mills, manufactories of arms and accoutrements, foundries
+for the casting and boring of cannon, machines for rifling cannon--all
+were put at his disposal, by patriotic Yankees, on the very eve of the
+war--for a consideration.
+
+_November 2d._--Morning, heavy clouds, with rain, breaking away partially,
+toward noon, and giving us some fitful sunshine. Sail ho! at early dawn.
+Got up steam, and chased, and at 7 A. M. came up with, and sent a boat on
+board of the English brigantine, _Falcon_, from Halifax, for Barbadoes.
+Banked fires. Latitude 16� 32'; longitude 56� 55'. Wore ship to the
+northward, at meridian. Received some newspapers, by the _Falcon_, from
+which we learn, that the enemy's cruiser _Keystone State_, which, when
+last heard from, was at Barbadoes, had gone to Trinidad, in pursuit of us.
+At Trinidad, she lost the trail, and, instead of pursuing us to
+Paramaribo, and Maranham, turned back to the westward. We learn from the
+same papers, that the enemy's steam-frigate, _Powhatan_, Lieutenant
+Porter, with more sagacity, pursued us to Maranham, arriving just one week
+after our departure. At a subsequent date, Lieutenant--now
+Admiral--Porter's official report fell into my hands, and, plotting his
+track, I found that, on one occasion, we had been within forty miles of
+each other; almost near enough, on a still day, to see each other's
+smoke.
+
+_November 3d._--Weather fine, with a smooth sea, and a light breeze from
+the north-east. A sail being reported from the mast-head, we got up steam,
+and chased, and upon coming near enough to make out the chase, found her
+to be a large steamer. We approached her, very warily, of course, until it
+was discovered that she was English, when we altered our course, and
+banked fires. Our live-stock still gives us fresh provisions, and the
+abundant supply of Irish potatoes, that we received on board, at the same
+time, is beginning to have a very beneficial effect, upon the health of
+the crew--some scorbutic symptoms having previously appeared.
+
+_Nov. 5th._--Weather fine, with the wind light from the eastward, and a
+smooth sea. At daylight, a sail was descried in the north-east, to which
+we immediately gave chase. Coming up with her, about nine A. M., we sent a
+boat on board of her. She proved to be the English brigantine, _Rothsay_,
+from Berbice, on the coast of Guiana, bound for Liverpool. Whilst we had
+been pursuing the _Rothsay_, a second sail had been reported. We now
+pursued this second sail, and, coming up with her, found her to be a
+French brigantine, called _Le Pauvre Orphelin_, from St. Pierre (in
+France) bound for Martinique. We had scarcely turned away from the
+_Orphelin_, before a third sail was announced. This latter sail was a
+large ship, standing, close-hauled, to the N. N. W., and we chased her
+rather reluctantly, as she led us away from our intended course. She, too,
+proved to be neutral, being the _Plover_, from Barbadoes, for London. The
+_Sumter_ being, by this time out of breath, and no more sails being
+reported, we let the steam go down, and gave her a little rest. We
+observed, to-day, in latitude 17� 10' N.; the longitude being 59� 06' W.
+We had shown the United States colors to all these ships to preserve our
+_incognito_, as long as possible. We found them all impatient, at being
+"hove to," and no doubt many curses escaped, _sotto voce_, against the
+d----d Yankee, as our boats shoved off, from their sides. We observed that
+none of them saluted the venerable "old flag," which was flying at our
+peak, whereas, whenever we had shown the Confederate flag to neutrals,
+down went, at once, the neutral flag, in compliment--showing the estimate,
+which generous seamen, the world over, put upon this ruthless war, which
+the strong were waging against the weak.
+
+The 6th of November passed without incident. On the 7th, we overhauled
+three more neutral ships--the English schooner _Weymouth_, from Weymouth,
+in Nova Scotia, for Martinique; an English barque, which we refrained from
+boarding, as there was no mistaking her bluff English bows, and stump
+top-gallant masts; and a French brig, called the _Fleur de Bois_, last
+from Martinique, and bound for Bordeaux. In the afternoon of the same day,
+we made the islands, first of Marie Galante, and then of Guadeloupe, and
+the Saints. At ten P. M., we doubled the north end of the island of
+Dominica, and, banking our fires, ran off some thirty or forty miles to
+the south-west, to throw ourselves in the track of the enemy's vessels,
+homeward bound from the Windward Islands. The next day, after overhauling
+an English brigantine, from Demerara, for Yarmouth, we got up steam, and
+ran for the island of Martinique approaching the town of St. Pierre near
+enough, by eight P. M., to hear the evening gun-fire. A number of small
+schooners and sail-boats were plying along the coast, and as night threw
+her mantle over the scene, the twinkling lights of the town appeared, one
+by one, until there was quite an illumination, relieved by the sombre
+back-ground of the mountain. The _Sumter_, as was usual with her, when she
+had no work in hand, lay off, and on, under sail, all night. The next
+morning at daylight, we again got up steam, and drawing in with the coast,
+ran along down it, near enough to enjoy its beautiful scenery, with its
+waving palms, fields of sugar-cane, and picturesque country houses, until
+we reached the quiet little town of Fort de France, where we anchored.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE SUMTER AT MARTINIQUE--PROCEEDS FROM FORT DE FRANCE TO ST. PIERRE--IS
+AN OBJECT OF MUCH CURIOSITY WITH THE ISLANDERS--NEWS OF THE ARREST OF
+MESSRS. MASON AND SLIDELL, ON BOARD THE BRITISH MAIL STEAMER, THE
+TRENT--MR. SEWARD'S EXTRAORDINARY COURSE ON THE OCCASION.
+
+
+The _Sumter_ having sailed from Maranham, on the 15th of September, and
+arrived at Martinique, on the 9th of November, had been nearly two months
+at sea, during all of which time, she had been actively cruising in the
+track of the enemy's commerce. She had overhauled a great many vessels,
+but, for reasons already explained, most of these were neutral. But the
+damage which she did the enemy's commerce, must not be estimated by the
+amount of property actually destroyed. She had caused consternation, and
+alarm among the enemy's ship-masters, and they were making, as we have
+seen, long and circuitous voyages, to avoid her. Insurance had risen to a
+high rate, and, for want of freights, the enemy's ships--such of them, at
+least, as could not purchase those lucrative contracts from the
+Government, of which I have spoken in a former page--were beginning to be
+tied up, at his wharves, where they must rot, unless they could be sold,
+at a sacrifice, to neutrals. As a consequence, the little _Sumter_ was
+denounced, without stint, by the Yankee press. She was called a "pirate,"
+and other hard names, and the most summary vengeance was denounced against
+her commander, and all who served under him. Venal scribblers asserted all
+kinds of falsehoods concerning him, and the elegant pages of "Journals of
+Civilization" pandered to the taste of the "b'hoys," in the work-shops, by
+publishing malicious caricatures of him. Even the Federal Government
+denounced him, in grave state papers; Mr. Welles, the Federal Secretary
+of the Navy, forgetting his international law, if he ever knew any, and
+the courtesies, and proprieties of official speech, and taking up in his
+"annual reports," the refrain of "pirate." This was all very natural,
+however. Men will cry aloud, when they are in pain, and, on such
+occasions, above all others, they will be very apt to use the language
+that is most natural to them--be it gentle, or ungentle. Unfortunately for
+the Great Republic, political power has descended so low, that the public
+officer, however high his station, must, of necessity, be little better
+than the b'hoy, from whom he receives his power of attorney. When mobs
+rule, gentlemen must retire to private life. Accordingly, the Commander of
+the _Sumter_, who had witnessed the _facile descensus_ of which he has
+spoken, was not at all surprised, when he received a batch of late
+Northern newspapers, at seeing himself called hard names--whether by the
+mob or officials. Knowing his late fellow-citizens well, he knew that it
+was of no use for them to
+
+  "Strive to expel strong nature, 'tis in vain;
+  With redoubled force, she will return again."
+
+Immediately after anchoring, in Fort de France, I sent a lieutenant on
+shore, to call on the Governor, report our arrival, and ask for the usual
+hospitalities of the port,--these hospitalities being, as the reader is
+aware, such as Goldsmith described as welcoming him at his inn, the more
+cheerfully rendered, for being paid for. I directed my lieutenant to use
+rather the language of demand--courteously, of course--than of petition,
+for I had seen the French proclamation of neutrality, and knew that I was
+entitled, under the orders of the Emperor, to the same treatment, that a
+Federal cruiser might receive. I called, the next day, on the Governor
+myself. I found him a very affable, and agreeable gentleman. He was a rear
+admiral, in the French Navy, and bore the aristocratic name of Cond�.
+Having observed a large supply of excellent coal in the government
+dock-yard, as I pulled in to the landing, I proposed to his Excellency
+that he should supply me from that source, upon my paying cost, and
+expenses. He declined doing this, but said that I might have free access
+to the market, for this and other supplies. Mentioning that I had a
+number of prisoners on board, he at once gave me permission to land them,
+provided the United States Consul, who lived at St. Pierre, the commercial
+metropolis of the island, would consent to become responsible for their
+maintenance during their stay in the island. There being no difference of
+opinion between the Governor and myself, as to our respective rights and
+duties, our business-matters were soon arranged, and an agreeable chat of
+half an hour ensued, on general topics, when I withdrew, much pleased with
+my visit.
+
+Returning on board the _Sumter_, I dispatched the paymaster to St.
+Pierre--there was a small passenger-steamer plying between the two
+ports--to contract for coal and some articles of clothing for the crew. Of
+provisions we had plenty, as the reader has seen. Lieutenant Chapman
+accompanied him, and I sent up, also, the masters of the two captured
+ships, that were on board, that they might see their Consul and arrange
+for their release.
+
+The next day was Sunday, and I went on shore, with Mr. Guerin, a French
+gentleman, who had been educated in the United States, and who had called
+on board to see me, to the Governor's mass. In this burning climate the
+church-hours are early, and we found ourselves comfortably seated in our
+pews as early as eight o'clock. The building was spacious and well
+ventilated. The Governor and his staff entered punctually at the hour, as
+did, also, a detachment of troops--the latter taking their stations, in
+double lines, in the main aisle. A military band gave us excellent sacred
+music from the choir. The whole service was concluded in three-quarters of
+an hour. The whites and blacks occupied pews promiscuously, as at
+Paramaribo, though there was no social admixture of races visible. I mean
+to say that the pews were mixed, though the people were not--each pew was
+all white or all black; the mulattoes, and others of mixed blood, being
+counted as blacks. I returned on board for "muster," which took place at
+the usual hour of eleven o'clock. Already the ship was full of visitors,
+and I was struck with the absorbed attention with which they witnessed the
+calling of the names of the crew, and the reading of the articles of war
+by the clerk. They were evidently not prepared for so interesting a
+spectacle. The officers were all dressed in bright and new uniforms of
+navy blue--we had not yet been put in gray along with the army--the
+gorgeous epaulettes of the lieutenants flashing in the sun, and the
+midshipmen rejoicing in their gold-embroidered anchors and stars. The men
+attracted no less attention than the officers, with their lithe and active
+forms and bronzed countenances, heavy, well-kept beards, and whitest of
+duck frocks and trousers. One of my visitors, turning to me, after the
+muster was over, said, pleasantly, in allusion to the denunciations of us
+by the Yankee newspapers, which he had been reading, "_Ces hommes sont des
+pirates bien polis, Monsieur Capitaine_."
+
+In the afternoon, one watch of the crew was permitted to visit the shore,
+on liberty. To each seaman was given a sovereign, for pocket-money. They
+waked up the echoes of the quaint old town, drank dry all the grog-shops,
+fagged out the fiddlers, with the constant music that was demanded of
+them, and "turned up Jack" generally; coming off, the next morning,
+looking rather solemn and seedy, and not quite so polis as when the
+Frenchman had seen them the day before. The United States Consul having
+come down from St. Pierre to receive his imprisoned countrymen, himself, I
+caused them all--except three of them, who had signed articles for service
+on board the _Sumter_--to be parolled and sent on shore to him. Before
+landing them, I caused them to be mustered on the quarter-deck, and
+questioned them, in person, as to the treatment they had received on
+board--addressing myself, especially, to the two masters. They replied,
+without exception, that they had been well treated, and thanked me for my
+kindness. From the next batch of Northern newspapers I captured, I learned
+that some of these fellows had been telling wonderful stories, about the
+hardships they had endured on board the "pirate" _Sumter_. It will not be
+very difficult for the reader, if he have any knowledge of the
+sailor-character, to imagine how these falsehoods had been wheedled out of
+them. The whole country of the enemy was on the _qui vive_ for excitement.
+The Yankee was more greedy for news than the old Athenian. The war had
+been a god-send for newspaperdom. The more extraordinary were the stories
+that were told by the venal and corrupt newspapers, the more greedily were
+they devoured by the craving and prurient multitude. The consequence was,
+a race between the newspaper reporters after the sensational, without the
+least regard to the truth. The moment a sailor landed, who had been a
+prisoner on board the _Sumter_, he was surrounded by these vampires of the
+press, who drank him and greenbacked him until parturition was
+comparatively easy. The next morning, the cry of "NEWS FROM THE PIRATE
+SUMTER" rang sharp and clear upon the streets, from the throats of the
+newsboys, and Jack found himself a hero and in print! He had actually been
+on board the "pirate," and escaped to tell the tale! More drinks, and more
+greenbacks now followed from his admiring countrymen. Your old salt has an
+eye to fun, as well as drinks, and when it was noised about, among the
+sailors, that some cock-and-a-bull story or other, about the _Sumter_, was
+as good as "fractional" for drinks, the thing ran like wildfire, and every
+sailor who landed, thereafter, from that famous craft, made his way
+straight to a newspaper office, in quest of a reporter, drinks, and
+greenbacks. Such is the stuff out of which a good deal of the Yankee
+histories of the late war will be made.
+
+My paymaster, and lieutenant returned, in good time, from St. Pierre, and
+reported that they had found an abundance of excellent coal, at reasonable
+rates, in the market, but that the Collector of the Customs had
+interposed, to prevent it from being sold to them. Knowing that this
+officer had acted without authority, I addressed a note to the Governor,
+reminding him of the conversation we had had the day before, and asking
+him for the necessary order to overrule the action of his subordinate. My
+messenger brought back with him the following reply:--
+
+     FORT DE FRANCE, November 12, 1861.
+
+     TO THE CAPTAIN:--
+
+     I have the honor to send you the enclosed letter, which I ask you to
+     hand to the Collector of Customs, at St. Pierre, in which I request
+     him to permit you to embark freely, as much coal as you wish to
+     purchase, in the market. * * *
+
+     With the expression of my highest regard for the Captain,
+
+        MAUSSION DE COND�.
+
+I remained a few days longer, at Fort de France, for the convenience of
+watering ship, from the public reservoir, and to enable the rest of my
+crew to have their run on shore. Unless Jack has his periodical frolic, he
+is very apt to become moody, and discontented; and my sailors had now been
+cooped up, in their ship, a couple of months. This giving of "liberty" to
+them is a little troublesome, to be sure, as some of them will come off
+drunk, and noisy, and others, overstaying their time, have to be hunted
+up, in the grog-shops, and other sailor haunts, and brought off by force.
+My men behaved tolerably well, on the present occasion. No complaint came
+to me from the shore, though a good many "bills," for "nights' lodgings,"
+and "drinks," followed them on board. Poor Jack! how strong upon him is
+the thirst for drink! We had an illustration of this, whilst we were lying
+at Fort de France. It was about nine P. M., and I was below in my cabin,
+making preparations to retire. Presently, I heard a plunge into the water,
+a hail, and almost simultaneously, a shot fired from one of the sentinels'
+rifles. The boatswain's-mate's whistle now sounded, as a boat "was called
+away," and a rapid shuffling of feet was heard overhead, as the boat was
+being lowered. Upon reaching the deck, I found that one of the firemen,
+who had come off from "liberty," a little tight, had jumped overboard,
+and, in defiance of the hail, and shot of the sentinel, struck out,
+lustily, for the shore. The moon was shining brightly, and an amusing
+scene now occurred. The boat was in hot pursuit, and soon came upon the
+swimmer; but the latter, who dived like a duck, had no notion of being
+taken. As the boat would come up with him, and "back all," for the purpose
+of picking him up, he would dive under her bottom, and presently would be
+seen, either abeam, or astern, "striking out," like a good fellow, again.
+By the time the boat could turn, and get headway once more, the swimmer
+would have some yards the start of her, and when she again came up with
+him, the same tactics would follow. The crew, hearing what was going on,
+had all turned out of their hammocks, and come on deck to witness the fun;
+and fun it really was for some minutes, as the doubling, and diving, and
+twisting, and turning went on--the boat now being sure she had him, and
+now sure she hadn't. The fellow finally escaped, and probably a more
+chop-fallen boat's crew never returned alongside of a ship, than was the
+_Sumter's_ that night. An officer was now sent on shore in pursuit of the
+fugitive. He had no difficulty in finding him. In half an hour after the
+performance of his clever feat, the fireman was lying--dead drunk--in one
+of the _cabarets_, in the sailor quarter of the town. He had had no
+intention of deserting, but had braved the sentinel's bullet, the
+shark--which abounds in these waters--and discipline--all for the sake of
+a glass of grog!
+
+Our time was made remarkably pleasant, during our stay; the inhabitants
+showing us every mark of respect and politeness, and the officers of the
+garrison, and of a couple of small French vessels of war, in the port,
+extending to us the courtesies of their clubs, and mess-rooms. I declined
+all invitations, myself, but my officers frequently dined on shore; and on
+the evening before our departure, they returned the hospitalities of their
+friends, by an elegant supper in the ward-room, at which the festivities
+were kept up to a late hour. Riding, and breakfast-parties, in the
+country, were frequent, and bright eyes, peeping out of pretty French
+bonnets, shone benignantly upon my young "pirates." The war was frequently
+the topic of conversation, when such expressions as "_les barbares du
+Nord!_" would escape, not unmusically, from the prettiest of pouting lips.
+I passed several agreeable evenings, at the hospitable mansion of my
+friend, Mr. Guerin, the ladies of whose family were accomplished
+musicians. The sailor is, above all others of his sex, susceptible of
+female influences. The difference arises, naturally, out of his mode of
+life, which removes him so often, and so long, from the affections, and
+refinements of home. After roughing it, for months, upon the deep, in
+contact only with coarse male creatures, how delightful I found it to sink
+into a luxurious seat, by the side of a pretty woman, and listen to the
+sweet notes of her guitar, accompanied by the sweeter notes, still, of her
+voice, as she warbled, rather than sang some lay of the sea.
+
+In these delightful tropical climates, night is turned into day. The sun,
+beating down his fierce rays upon heated walls and streets, drives all but
+the busy merchant and the laborer in-doors during the day. Windows are
+raised, blinds closed and all the members of the household, not compelled
+to exertion, betake themselves to their _fauteuils_, and luxurious
+hammocks. Dinner is partaken of at five or six o'clock, in the afternoon.
+When the sun goes down, and the shades of evening begin to fall, and the
+first gentle stirring of the trees and shrubbery, by the land breeze
+begins to awaken the katydid, and the myriads of other insects, which have
+been dozing in the heat, the human world is also awakened. The lazy beauty
+now arises from her couch, and seeking her bath-room, and tire-woman,
+begins to prepare for the _duties of the day_. She is coiffed, and
+arranged for conquest, and sallies forth to the _Place d'Armes_, to listen
+to the music of the military bands, if there be no other special
+entertainment on hand. The _Place d'Armes_ of Fort de France is charmingly
+situated, on the very margin of the bay, where, in the intervals of the
+music, or of the hum of conversation, the ripple of the tide beats time,
+as it breaks upon the smooth, pebbly beach. Ships are anchored in front,
+and far away to the left, rises a range of blue, and misty hills, which
+are pointed out to the stranger, as the birth-place of the Empress
+Josephine. The statue of the Empress also adorns the grounds, and the
+inhabitants are fond of referring to her history. I was quite surprised at
+the throng that the quiet little town of Fort de France was capable of
+turning out, upon the _Place d'Armes_; and even more at the quality, than
+the quantity of the throng. What with military and naval officers, in
+their gay uniforms, the multitudes of well-dressed men and women, the
+ecclesiastics in the habits of their several orders, the flower-girls, the
+venders of fruits, sherbets, and ice-creams--for the universal Yankee has
+invaded the colony with his ice-ships--and the delightful music of the
+bands, it would be difficult to find a more delightful place, in which to
+while away an hour.
+
+Whilst we were still at Fort de France, a rather startling piece of
+intelligence reached us. A vessel came in, from St. Thomas, and brought
+the news, that the English mail-steamer, _Trent_, had arrived there from
+Havana, and reported that Messrs. Mason and Slidell had been forcibly
+taken out of her, by the United States steamer, _San Jacinto_, Captain
+Wilkes. A few days afterward, I received a French newspaper, giving a
+detailed account of the affair. It was indeed a very extraordinary
+proceeding, and could not fail to attract much attention. I had known
+friend Wilkes, in former years, and gave him credit for more sagacity,
+than this act of his seemed to indicate. "A little learning is a dangerous
+thing," and the Federal Captain had read, it would seem, just enough of
+international law to get himself into trouble, instead of keeping himself
+out of it. He had read of "contraband persons," and of "enemy's
+despatches," and how it was prohibited to neutrals, to carry either; but
+he had failed to take notice of a very important distinction, to wit, that
+the neutral vessel, on the present occasion, was bound from one neutral
+port to another; and that, as between neutral ports, there is no such
+thing as contraband of war; for the simple reason that contraband of war
+is a person, or thing, going to, or from an enemy's country. I was glad to
+hear this news, of course. The Great Republic would have to stand up to
+its work, and Great Britain would be no less bound to demand a retraxit.
+If things came to a deadlock, we might have an ally, in the war, sooner
+than we expected. It would be a curious revolution of the wheel of fortune
+I thought, to have John Bull helping us to beat the Yankee, on a point--to
+wit, the right of self-government--on which we had helped the Yankee to
+beat Bull, less than a century before. I will ask the reader's permission,
+to dispose of this little quarrel between Bull and the Yankee, to avoid
+the necessity of again recurring to it; although at the expense of a
+slight anachronism.
+
+When the news of Wilkes' exploit reached the United States, the b'hoys
+went into ecstasies. Such a shouting, and throwing up of caps had never
+been heard of before. The multitude, who were, of course, incapable of
+reasoning upon the act, only knew that England had been bearded and
+insulted; but that was enough. Their national antipathies, and their
+ridiculous self-conceit had both been pandered to. The newspapers were
+filled with laudatory editorials, and "plate," and "resolutions," were
+showered upon unfortunate friend Wilkes, without mercy. If he had been an
+American Nelson, returning from an American Nile, or Trafalgar, he could
+not have been received with more honor. State legislatures bowed down
+before him, and even the American Congress--the House of Representatives;
+the Senate had not quite lost its wits--gave him a vote of thanks. It was
+not, perhaps, so much to be wondered at, that the multitude should go mad,
+with joy, for multitudes, everywhere, are composed of unreasoning animals,
+but men, who should have known better, permitted themselves to be carried
+away by the popular hallucination. The Executive Government approved of
+Captain Wilkes' conduct--the Secretary of the Navy, whose insane hatred of
+England was quite remarkable, making haste to write the Captain a
+congratulatory letter. But an awful collapse was at hand. Mr. Seward, as
+though he already heard the ominous rumbling of the distant English
+thunder, which was, anon, to break over his head, in tones that would
+startle him, on the 30th of November--the outrage had been committed on
+the 7th,--wrote, as follows, to his faithful sentinel, at the Court of
+London, Mr. Charles Francis Adams.
+
+     "We have done nothing, on the subject, to anticipate the discussion,
+     and we have not furnished you with any explanation. We adhere to that
+     course now, because we think it more prudent, that the ground taken
+     by the British Government should be first made known to us, here. It
+     is proper, however, that you should know one fact, in the case,
+     without indicating that we attach much importance to it, namely, that
+     in the capture of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, on board a British
+     vessel, Captain Wilkes having acted without any instructions from the
+     Government, the subject is therefore free from the embarrassment,
+     which might have resulted, if the act had been especially directed by
+     us."
+
+If no "explanation" had been thought of by Mr. Seward, up to this time, it
+was high time that he was getting one ready, for, on the same day, on
+which the above despatch was written, Lord John Russell, then charged with
+the duties of the foreign office, in England, under the administration of
+Lord Palmerston, wrote as follows, to Lord Lyons, his Minister at
+Washington:
+
+     "Her Majesty's Government, bearing in mind the friendly relations
+     which have long subsisted between Great Britain, and the United
+     States, are willing to believe, that the United States naval officer
+     who committed the aggression, was not acting in compliance with any
+     authority from his Government, or that, if he conceived himself to be
+     so authorized, he greatly misunderstood the instructions, which he
+     had received. For the Government of the United States must be fully
+     aware, that the British Government could not allow such an affront to
+     the national honor, to pass without _full reparation_, and her
+     Majesty's Government are unwilling to believe that it could be the
+     deliberate intention of the Government of the United States,
+     unnecessarily to force into discussion, between the two Governments,
+     a question of so grave a character, and with regard to which, the
+     whole British nation would be sure to entertain such unanimity of
+     feeling. Her Majesty's Government, therefore, trust that, when this
+     matter shall have been brought under the consideration of the
+     Government of the United States, that Government will, of its own
+     accord, offer to the British Government such redress as alone, could
+     satisfy the British nation, namely, the liberation, of the four
+     gentlemen [the two Secretaries of Legation were also captured], and
+     their delivery to your lordship, in order that they may again be
+     placed under British protection, and a suitable apology for the
+     aggression, which has been committed. Should these terms not be
+     offered, by Mr. Seward, you will propose them to him."
+
+Mr. Seward had no notion of proposing any terms to Lord Lyons. The shouts
+of the b'hoys had scarcely yet ceased to ring in his ears, and it would be
+an awkward step to take. Besides, he could have no terms to offer, for the
+Government had, in fact, approved of Captain Wilkes' act, through its
+Secretary of the Navy. The back door, which Mr. Seward intimated to Mr.
+Adams was open for retreat, when he told him, that Captain Wilkes' act had
+not been _authorized_ by the Government, was not _honorably_ open, for the
+act had afterward been _approved_ by the Government, and this amounted to
+the same thing. Later on the same day on which Earl Russell wrote his
+despatch to Lord Lyons he added a postscript to it, as follows:--
+
+     "In my previous despatch of this date, I have instructed you, by
+     command of her Majesty, to make certain demands of the Government of
+     the United States. Should Mr. Seward ask for delay, in order that
+     this grave and painful matter should be deliberately considered, you
+     will consent to a delay, _not exceeding seven days_. If, at the end
+     of that time, no answer is given, or if any other answer is given,
+     except that of a compliance with the demands of her Majesty's
+     Government, your lordship is instructed to leave Washington, with all
+     the members of your legation, bringing with you the archives of the
+     legation, and to repair immediately to London. If, however, you
+     should be of opinion that the requirements of her Majesty's
+     Government are substantially complied with, you may report the facts
+     to her Majesty's Government, for their consideration, and remain at
+     your post, until you receive further orders."
+
+This was indeed bringing matters to a focus. Mr. Seward was required to
+liberate the prisoners, and make an apology, and that _within seven days_.
+This was putting it rather offensively. It is bad enough to make a man
+apologize, especially, if he has been "blowing" a short while before, but
+to tell him that he must do it _at once_, that was, indeed, rubbing the
+humiliation in. And then, where was the Congress, and the Massachusetts
+legislature, and Mr. Secretary Welles, and all the "plate," and all the
+"resolutions"? Posterity will wonder, when it comes to read the elaborate,
+and lengthy despatch, which Mr. Seward prepared on this occasion, how it
+was possible for him to prepare it in _seven days_. But it will wonder
+still more, after having patiently waded through it, to find how little it
+contains. I cannot deny myself the pleasure of giving a few of its
+choicest paragraphs to the reader. Do not start! gentle reader, the
+paragraphs will be short; but short as they are, you shall have the _gist_
+of this seven days' labor, of the American diplomatist. David wrote seven
+penitential psalms. I wonder if Lord John Russell had a little fun in his
+eye, when he gave Mr. Seward just _seven_ days for _his_ penitential
+performance. But to the paragraphs. Mr. Seward is addressing himself, the
+reader will observe, to Lord Lyons. After stating the case, he proceeds:--
+
+     "Your lordship will now perceive, that the case before us, instead of
+     presenting a merely flagrant act of violence, on the part of Captain
+     Wilkes, as might well be inferred, from the incomplete statement of
+     it, that went up to the British Government, was undertaken as a
+     simple, legal, and customary belligerent proceeding, by Captain
+     Wilkes, to arrest and capture a neutral vessel, engaged in carrying
+     contraband of war, for the uses and benefit of the insurgents."
+
+This point was so utterly untenable, that it is astonishing that Mr.
+Seward should have thought of defending it. If it were defensible, he
+ought not to have given up the prisoners, or made an apology; for the law
+is clear, that contraband of war may be seized, and _taken out of a
+neutral vessel_, on the high seas. It was not because contraband of war
+had been taken out of one of their vessels, that Great Britain demanded an
+apology, but because persons, and things, _not contraband of war_, under
+the circumstances under which they were found, had been taken out. If the
+_Trent_ had been overhauled in the act of sailing from one of the
+Confederate ports, blockaded or not blockaded, with Messrs. Mason and
+Slidell, and their despatches on board, and the _San Jancinto_ had taken
+them out of her, permitting the ship to proceed on her voyage, Great
+Britain would never have thought of complaining--waiving, for the sake of
+the present argument, the diplomatic character of the passengers. And why
+would she not have complained? Simply, because one of her ships had been
+found with contraband of war, on board, and the least penalty, namely, the
+seizure of the contraband, that the laws of war imposed upon her, had been
+exacted. But her ship the _Trent_, neither having sailed from, or being
+bound for a Confederate port, it matters not whom, or what she might have
+on board, the question of contraband could not arise, at all; for, as we
+have seen, it is of the essence of contraband, that the person, or thing
+should be going to, or from an enemy's port. Wilkes' act being utterly and
+entirely indefensible, the Federal Government should have saved its honor,
+the moment the affair came to its notice, by a frank disavowal of it. But,
+as we have seen, the b'hoys had shouted; Mr. Welles had spoken
+approvingly; Congress had resolved that their officer was deserving of
+thanks, and even Mr. Seward, himself, had gloried over the capture of
+"rebels," and "traitors;" the said "rebels," and "traitors" having
+frequently, in former years, snubbed, and humbled him in the Senate of the
+United States. Hence the indecent language, in which he now spoke of them.
+The reader, having seen that Mr. Seward justified Captain Wilkes' conduct,
+as a "simple, legal, and customary belligerent proceeding, to arrest and
+capture a neutral vessel engaged in carrying contraband of war, for the
+use and benefit of the insurgents," he will be curious to know, on what
+ground it was, that Mr. Seward based his apology. This ground was curious
+enough. It was, not that Captain Wilkes had gone too far, but that he had
+not gone far enough. If, said he, Captain Wilkes had taken the _Trent_
+into port, for adjudication, instead of letting her go, his justification
+would be complete, and there would be no apology to make. Adjudication
+presupposes something to adjudicate; but if there was no contraband of
+war, on board the _Trent_, what was there to adjudicate? The British
+Government did not complain, that the question had not been presented for
+adjudication to the proper prize tribunals, but that their vessel had been
+boarded, and outraged, without there being any grounds for adjudication,
+at all. If the _Trent_ had been taken into port, a prize-court must have
+liberated the prisoners. It would then, if not before, have been apparent,
+that there was no ground for the seizure. The act still remaining to be
+atoned for, what was there to be gained, by sending the vessel in? It is
+not denied that, as a rule, neutrals are entitled to have their vessels,
+when captured, sent in for adjudication, but Mr. Seward knew, very well,
+that no question of this nature had arisen, between the British Government
+and himself, and he was only trifling with the common sense of mankind,
+when he endeavored to turn the issue in this direction.
+
+One cannot help sympathizing with a diplomatist, who being required to eat
+a certain amount of dirt, gags at it, so painfully, and yet pretends, all
+the while, that he really likes it, as Mr. Seward does in the following
+paragraph:--
+
+     "I have not been unaware that, in examining this question, I have
+     fallen into an argument, for what seems to be the British side of it,
+     against my own country [what a deal of humiliation it would have
+     saved his country, if he had fallen into this train of argument,
+     before the dirt-pie had been presented to him]. But I am relieved
+     from all embarrassment, on that subject. I had hardly fallen into
+     that line of argument, when I discovered, that I was really defending
+     and maintaining, not an exclusively British interest, but an old,
+     honored, and cherished American cause, not upon British authorities,
+     but upon principles that constitute a large portion of the
+     distinctive policy, by which the United States have developed the
+     resources of a continent, and thus becoming a considerable maritime
+     power, have won the respect and confidence of many nations."
+
+Like an adroit circus-man, the venerable Federal Secretary of State has
+now gotten upon the backs of two ponies. He continues:--
+
+     "These principles were laid down, for us, by James Madison, in 1804;
+     when Secretary of State, in the administration of Thomas Jefferson,
+     in instructions given to James Monroe, our minister to England."
+
+These instructions had relation to the old dispute, between the two
+Governments, about the impressment of seamen from American ships, and were
+as follows:--
+
+     "Whenever property found in a neutral vessel is supposed to be
+     liable, on any ground, to capture and condemnation, the rule in all
+     cases, is, that the question shall not be decided by the captor, but
+     be carried before a legal tribunal, where a regular trial may be had,
+     and where the captor himself is liable for damages, for an abuse of
+     his power. Can it be reasonable then, or just, that a belligerent
+     commander, who is thus restricted, and thus responsible, in a case of
+     mere property, of trivial amount, should be permitted, without
+     recurring to any tribunal, whatever, to examine the crew of a neutral
+     vessel, to decide the important question of their respective
+     allegiances, and to carry that decision into execution, by forcing
+     every individual, he may choose, into a service abhorrent to his
+     feelings, cutting him off from his most tender connections, exposing
+     his mind and person to the most humiliating discipline, and his life,
+     itself, to the greatest danger. Reason, justice, and humanity unite
+     in protesting against so extravagant a proceeding."
+
+Mr. Seward after thus quoting, continues:--
+
+     "If I decide this case in favor of my own Government, I must disavow
+     its most cherished principles, and reverse, and forever abandon its
+     essential policy. The country cannot afford the sacrifice. If I
+     maintain these principles, and adhere to that policy, I must
+     surrender the case itself. It will be seen, therefore, that this
+     Government could not deny the justice of the claim presented to us,
+     in this respect, upon its merits. We are asked to do to the British
+     nation, just what we have always insisted, all nations ought to do to
+     us."
+
+That is "coming down with the corn," now, handsomely, but in view of the
+antecedents of the question, and of the "seven days'" pressure under which
+Mr. Seward's despatch was written, one cannot help pitying Mr. Seward. We
+not only pity him, but he absolutely surprises us by the fertility of his
+imagination, in discovering any resemblance between the Madison precedent,
+and the case he had in hand. The British Government was not insisting that
+Mr. Seward should send the _Trent_ in for adjudication. It did not mean
+that there should be any adjudication about the matter, except such as it
+had itself already passed upon the case. Had it not said to its minister,
+at Washington, "If, at the end of that time, no answer is given, or, _if
+any other answer_ is given, _except that of a compliance with the demands
+of her Majesty's Government_, your lordship is instructed to leave
+Washington, &c."? To be logical, Mr. Seward should have said, "Our officer
+having made a mistake, by doing a right thing, in a wrong way, namely, by
+seizing contraband of war, on board a neutral ship, without sending the
+ship in, for adjudication, we will send the prisoners back to the _Trent_,
+if you will send the _Trent_ into one of our ports for adjudication." But
+Mr. Seward knew better than to say any such thing, for the simple reason,
+that this was not the thing which was demanded of him, although he had
+written a lengthy despatch to prove that it was.
+
+I was in Europe when Mr. Seward's despatch arrived there. Every one was
+astonished, both at the paper, and the act of humiliation performed by it.
+The act needed not to be humiliating. A great wrong had been done a
+neutral. It could be neither justified, nor palliated. A _statesman_, at
+the head of the Federal State Department, would have made haste to atone
+for it, before any demand for reparation could be made. To pander to a
+vitiated public taste, and gain a little temporary _eclat_, by appearing
+to beard the British lion, hoping that the lion would submit, in silence
+to the indignity, Mr. Seward committed one of those blunders which was
+equivalent to a great crime, since it humiliated an entire people, and put
+on record against them one of those damaging pages that historians cannot,
+if they would, forget. The following were the closing lines of this famous
+despatch:--
+
+     "The four persons in question are now held in military custody, at
+     Fort Warren, in the State of Massachusetts. They will be cheerfully
+     liberated. Your lordship will please indicate a time, and place, for
+     receiving them."
+
+When I read this paragraph, I experienced two sensations--one, of
+disappointment at the loss of an ally, with whose aid we would be sure to
+gain the independence for which we were struggling, and one, of
+mortification, that an American nation had been so greatly humbled, before
+an European Power; for though the Federal States were my enemies, as
+between them and foreign nations, I could not but feel something like
+family attachment. Whilst I would humble them, and whip them into a sense
+of justice and decent behavior, myself, I was loth to see strangers kick
+them, and themselves submit to the kicking.
+
+So very one-sided was the question, which Mr. Seward had permitted himself
+to argue, with so much zeal, and so little discrimination, that all the
+principal nations of Europe rallied, as if by common consent, to the side
+of Great Britain. Russia, France, Spain, and other Powers, all took the
+same view of the case that Earl Russell had done, and made haste, through
+their respective ministers at Washington, so to express themselves. I will
+let France speak for them all. The reasons which influenced the action of
+the French Government are thus assigned:--
+
+     "The desire to contribute to prevent a conflict, perhaps imminent,
+     between two Powers, for which the French Government is animated with
+     sentiments equally friendly, and the duty to uphold, for the purpose
+     of placing the right of its own flag under shelter from any attack,
+     certain principles essential to the security of neutrals, have, after
+     mature reflection, convinced it, that it could not, under the
+     circumstances, remain entirely silent."
+
+The French Minister for Foreign Affairs then goes on to examine the
+arguments which could be set up in defence of the Federal Captain,
+concluding as follows:--
+
+     "There remains, therefore, to invoke, in explanation of their
+     capture, only the pretext that they were the bearers of official
+     despatches from the enemy; but this is the moment to recall a
+     circumstance, that governs all this affair, and which renders the
+     conduct of the American cruiser unjustifiable. The _Trent_ was not
+     destined to a point belonging to one of the belligerents. She was
+     carrying to a neutral country her cargo and her passengers; and
+     moreover, it was in a neutral port that they were taken. The Cabinet
+     at Washington could not, without striking a blow at principles, which
+     all neutral nations are alike interested in holding in respect, nor
+     without taking the attitude of contradiction to its own course, up to
+     this time, give its approbation to the proceedings of the commander
+     of the _San Jacinto_. In this state of things, it evidently should
+     not, according to our views, hesitate about the determination to be
+     taken."
+
+The excuse which I have to offer to the reader, for permitting so much of
+my space to be occupied with this "affair," is, that it deeply interested
+every Confederate States naval officer, afloat at the time. I, myself,
+made several passages, in neutral vessels, between neutral ports, and
+might have been captured with as much propriety, even when passing from
+Dover to Calais, as Messrs. Mason and Slidell had been.
+
+On the 13th of November, my water-tanks being full, and my crew having all
+returned from "liberty"--none of them having shown any disposition to
+desert--we got up steam, and proceeded to the town of St. Pierre, for the
+purpose of coaling; arriving at the early hour of 8 A. M., and anchoring
+at the man-of-war anchorage, south of the town. I immediately dispatched a
+lieutenant to call on the military commandant, accompanied by the
+paymaster, to make the necessary arrangements for coaling. St. Pierre was
+quite a different place, from the quiet old town we had left. A number of
+merchant-ships were anchored in the harbor, and there was quite an air of
+stir, and thrift, about the quays. Busy commerce was carrying on her
+exchanges, and with commerce there is always life. There were not so many
+idle people here, to be awakened from their noon-tide slumbers, by the
+katydid, as in Fort de France. A number of visitors came off, at once, to
+see us; rumor having preceded us, and blown the trumpet of our fame, much
+more than we deserved. Among the rest, there were several custom-house
+officers, but if these had any office of espionage to perform, they
+performed it, so delicately, as not to give offence. Indeed they took
+pains to explain to us, that they had only come on board out of civility,
+and as a mere matter of curiosity. I never permit myself to be out-done in
+politeness, and treated them with all consideration.
+
+The Collector of the Customs gave prompt obedience to the Governor's
+despatch--commanding him not to throw any obstacle in the way of our
+coaling--by withdrawing the interdict of sale which he had put upon the
+coal-merchants; and the paymaster returning, after a short absence, with
+news that he had made satisfactory arrangements with the said merchants,
+the ship was warped up to the coal-depot, and some thirty tons of coal
+received, on board, the same afternoon. This was very satisfactory
+progress. We sent down the fore-yard, for repairs, and the engineer
+finding some good machinists on shore, with more facilities in the way of
+shop, and tools, than he had expected, took some of his own jobs, of which
+there are always more or less, in a steamer, on shore.
+
+As the sun dipped his broad red disk into the sea, I landed with my clerk,
+and we took a delightful evening stroll, along one of the country roads,
+leading to the northern end of the island, and winding, occasionally,
+within a stone's throw of the beach. The air was soft, and filled with
+perfume, and we were much interested in inspecting the low-roofed and
+red-tiled country houses, and their half-naked inmates, of all colors,
+that presented themselves, from time to time, as we strolled on. We were
+here, as we had been in Maranham, objects of much curiosity, and the
+curiosity was evinced in the same way, respectfully. Wherever we stopped
+for water--for walking in this sultry climate produces constant
+thirst--the coolest "monkeys"--a sort of porous jug, or jar--and
+calabashes, were handed us, often accompanied by fruits and an invitation
+to be seated. Fields of sugar-cane stretched away on either hand, and an
+elaborate cultivation seemed everywhere to prevail. The island of
+Martinique is mountainous, and all mountainous countries are beautiful,
+where vegetation abounds. Within the tropics, when the soil is good,
+vegetation runs riot in very wantonness; and so it did here. The eye was
+constantly charmed with a great variety of shade and forest trees, of new
+and beautiful foliage, and with shrubs, and flowers, without number, ever
+forming new combinations, and new groups, as the road meandered now
+through a plane, and now through a rocky ravine, up whose precipitous
+sides a goat could scarcely clamber.
+
+  "As the shades of eve came slowly down,
+  The hills were clothed with deeper brown,"
+
+and the twinkle of the lantern at the _Sumter's_ peak denoting that her
+Captain was out of the ship, caught my eye, at one of the turnings of the
+road, and reminded me, that we had wandered far enough. We retraced our
+steps just in time to escape a shower, and sat down, upon our arrival on
+board, to the evening's repast, which John had prepared for us, with
+appetites much invigorated by the exercise. We found the market-place,
+situated near the ship, both upon landing and returning, filled with a
+curious throng, gazing eagerly upon the _Sumter_. This throng seemed never
+to abate during our stay--it was the first thing seen in the morning, and
+the last thing at night. The next morning, John brought me off a French
+newspaper; for St. Pierre is sufficiently large, and prosperous, to
+indulge in a tri-weekly. With true island marvel, a column was devoted to
+the _Sumter_, predicating of her, many curious exploits, and cunning
+devices by means of which she had escaped from the enemy, of which the
+little craft had never heard, and affirming, as a fact beyond dispute,
+that her Commander was a Frenchman, he having served, in former years, as
+a lieutenant on board of the French brig-of-war _Mercure_! I felt duly
+grateful for the compliment, for a compliment indeed it was, to be claimed
+as a Frenchman, _by_ a Frenchman--the little foible of Gallic vanity
+considered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+ARRIVAL AT ST. PIERRE OF THE ENEMY'S STEAM-SLOOP IROQUOIS--HOW SHE
+VIOLATES THE NEUTRALITY OF THE PORT--ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH STEAMER-OF-WAR
+ACHERON--THE IROQUOIS BLOCKADES THE SUMTER--CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE
+GOVERNOR--ESCAPE OF THE SUMTER.
+
+
+Many rumors were now afloat as to the prospective presence, at Martinique,
+of the enemy's ships of war. It was known that the enemy's steam-sloop,
+_Iroquois_, Captain James S. Palmer, had been at the island of Trinidad,
+on the second of the then current month of November, whence she had
+returned to St. Thomas--this neutral island being unscrupulously used by
+the enemy, as a regular naval station, at which there was always at anchor
+one or more of his ships of war, and where he had a coal-depot. St. Thomas
+was a free port, and an important centre of trade, both for the West India
+Islands and the Spanish Main, and had the advantage, besides, of being a
+general rendezvous of the mail-steamers that plied in those seas. One of
+these steamers, bound to St. Thomas, had touched at Martinique, soon after
+the _Sumter's_ arrival there, and, as a matter of course, we might expect
+the presence of the enemy very soon. I used every possible diligence to
+avoid being blockaded by the enemy, and twenty-four hours more would have
+enabled me to accomplish my purpose, but the Fates would have it
+otherwise; for at about two P. M., on the very next day after the
+delightful evening's stroll described in the last chapter, the _Iroquois_
+appeared off the north end of the island. She had purposely approached the
+island on the side opposite to that on which the town of St. Pierre lies,
+the better to keep herself out of sight, until the last moment; and when
+she did come in sight, it was ludicrous to witness her appearance. Her
+commander's idea seemingly was, that the moment the _Sumter_ caught sight
+of him, she would, if he were recognized, immediately attempt to escape.
+Hence it was necessary to surprise her; and to this end, he had made some
+most ludicrous attempts to disguise his ship. The Danish colors were
+flying from his peak, his yards were hanging, some this way, some that,
+and his guns had all been run in, and his ports closed. But the finely
+proportioned, taunt, saucy-looking _Iroquois_, looked no more like a
+merchant-ship, for this disguise, than a gay Lothario would look like a
+saint, by donning a cassock. The very disguise only made the cheat more
+apparent. We caught sight of the enemy first. He was crawling slowly from
+behind the land, which had hidden him from view, and we could see a number
+of curious human forms, above his rail, bending eagerly in our direction.
+The quarter-deck, in particular, was filled with officers, and we were
+near enough to see that some of these had telescopes in their hands, with
+which they were scanning the shipping in the harbor. We had a small
+Confederate States flag flying, and it was amusing to witness the
+movements on board the _Iroquois_, the moment this was discovered. A rapid
+passing to and fro of officers was observable, as if orders were being
+carried, in a great hurry, and the steamer, which had been hitherto
+cautiously creeping along, as a stealthy tiger might be supposed to skirt
+a jungle, in which he had scented, but not yet seen a human victim, sprang
+forward under a full head of steam. At the same moment, down came the
+Danish and up went the United States flag. "There she comes, with a bone
+in her mouth!" said the old quartermaster on the look-out; and, no doubt,
+Captain Palmer thought to see, every moment, the little _Sumter_ flying
+from her anchors. But the _Sumter_ went on coaling, and receiving on board
+some rum and sugar, as though no enemy were in sight, and at nine P. M.
+was ready for sea. The men were given their hammocks, as usual, and I
+turned in, myself, at my usual hour, not dreaming that the _Iroquois_
+would cut up such antics during the night as she did.
+
+During the afternoon, she had run into the harbor,--without anchoring,
+however,--and sent a boat on shore to communicate, probably, with her
+consul, and receive any intelligence he might have to communicate. She
+then steamed off, seaward, a mile, or two, and moved to and fro, in front
+of the port until dark. At half-past one o'clock, the officer of the deck
+came down in great haste, to say, that the _Iroquois_ had again entered
+the harbor, and was steaming directly for us. I ordered him to get the men
+immediately to their quarters, and followed him on deck, as soon as I
+could throw on a necessary garment or two. In a very few minutes, the
+battery had been cast loose, the decks lighted, and the other preparations
+usual for battle made. It was moonlight, and the movements of the enemy
+could be distinctly seen. He came along, under low steam, but, so
+steadily, and aiming so directly for us, that I could not doubt it was his
+intention to board us. The men were called to "repel boarders;" and for a
+moment or two, a pin might have been heard to drop, on the _Sumter's_
+deck, so silent was the harbor, and so still was the scene on board both
+ships. Presently, however, a couple of strokes on the enemy's steam gong
+were heard, and, in a moment more, he sheered a little, and lay off our
+quarter, motionless. It was as though a great sea-monster had crawled in
+under cover of the night, and was eying its prey, and licking its chops,
+in anticipation of a delicious repast. After a few minutes of apparent
+hesitation, and doubt, the gong was again struck, and the leviathan--for
+such the _Iroquois_ appeared alongside the little _Sumter_--moving in a
+slow, and graceful curve, turned, and went back whence it came. This
+operation, much to my astonishment, was repeated several times during the
+night. Captain Palmer was evidently in great tribulation. He had found the
+hated "pirate" at last--so called by his own Secretary of the Navy, and by
+his own Secretary of State. Captain Wilkes had just set him a glorious
+example of a disregard of neutral rights; and the seven days' penitential
+psalms had not yet been ordered to be written. If a ship might be
+violated, why not territory? Besides, the press, the press! a rabid, and
+infuriate press was thundering in the ears of the luckless Federal
+Captain. Honors were before him, terrors behind him! But there loomed up,
+high above the _Sumter_, the mountains of the _French_ island of
+Martinique. Nations, like individuals, sometimes know whom to kick--though
+they have occasionally to take the kicking back, as we have just seen. It
+might do, doubtless thought Captain Palmer, to kick some small power, but
+France! there was the rub. If the _Sumter_ were only in Bahia, where the
+_Florida_ afterward was, how easily and securely the kicking might be
+done? A gallant captain, with a heavy ship, might run into her, cut her
+down to the water's edge, fire into her crew, struggling in the water,
+killing, and wounding, and drowning a great many of them, and bear off his
+prize in triumph! And then, Mr. Seward, if he should be called upon, not
+by Brazil alone, but by the sentiment of all mankind, to make restitution
+of the ship, could he not have her run into, by _accident_, in Hampton
+Roads, and sunk; and would not this be another feather in his diplomatic
+cap--Yankee feather though it might be? What is a diplomat fit for, unless
+he can be a little cunning, upon occasion? The b'hoys will shout for him,
+if history does not. The reader need no longer wonder at the "backing and
+filling" of the _Iroquois_, around the little _Sumter_; or at the
+sleepless night passed by Captain Palmer.
+
+The next morning, the Governor having heard of what had been done; how the
+neutral waters of France had been violated by manoeuvre and by menace,
+though the actual attack had been withheld, sent up from Fort de France
+the steamer-of-war _Acheron_, Captain Duchatel, with orders to Captain
+Palmer, either to anchor, if he desired to enter the harbor, or to
+withdraw beyond the marine league, if it was his object to blockade the
+_Sumter_; annexing to his anchoring, if he should choose this alternative,
+the condition imposed by the laws of nations, of giving the _Sumter_
+twenty-four hours the start, in case she should desire to proceed to sea.
+Soon after the _Acheron_ came to anchor, the _Iroquois_ herself ran in and
+anchored. The French boat then communicated with her, when she immediately
+hove up her anchor again! She had committed herself to the twenty-four
+hours' rule the moment she dropped her anchor; but being ignorant of the
+rule, she had not hesitated to get her anchor again, the moment that she
+was informed of it, and to claim that she was not bound by her mistake. I
+did not insist upon the point. The _Iroquois_ now withdrew beyond the
+marine league, by day, but, by night, invariably crept in, a mile or two
+nearer, fearing that she might lose sight of me, and that I might thus be
+enabled to escape. She kept up a constant communication, too, with the
+shore, both by means of her own boats, and those from the shore, in
+violation of the restraints imposed upon her by the laws of nations--these
+laws requiring, that if she would communicate, she must anchor; when, of
+course, the twenty-four hours' rule would attach. I had written a letter
+to the Governor, informing him of the conduct of Captain Palmer, on the
+first night after his arrival, and claiming the neutral protection to
+which I was entitled. His Excellency having replied to this letter,
+through Captain Duchatel, in a manner but little satisfactory to me. I
+addressed him, through that officer, the following, in rejoinder:--
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     ST. PIERRE, November 22, 1861.
+
+     SIR:--I have had the honor to receive your letter of yesterday, in
+     which you communicate to me the views of the Governor of Martinique,
+     relative to the protection of my right of asylum, in the waters of
+     this island; and I regret to say, that those views do not appear to
+     me to come up to the requirements of the international code. The
+     Governor says, that "it does not enter into his intentions, to
+     exercise toward the _Iroquois_, either by night, or by day, so active
+     a _surveillance_ as you [I] desire"; and you tell me, that I ought to
+     have "confidence in the strict execution of a promise, made by a
+     commander in the military marine of the American Union, so long as he
+     has not shown to me the evidence that this engagement has not been
+     scrupulously fulfilled." It would appear from these expressions, that
+     the only protection I am to receive against the blockade of the
+     enemy, is a simple promise exacted by you, from that enemy, that he
+     will keep himself without the marine league, the Governor, in the
+     meantime, exercising no watch, by night or by day, to see whether
+     this promise is complied with. In addition to the violations of
+     neutrality reported by me, yesterday, I have, this morning, to
+     report, that one of my officers being on shore, in the northern
+     environs of the town, last night, between eight and nine o'clock, saw
+     two boats, each pulling eight oars, the men dressed in dark blue
+     clothing, with the caps usually worn by the sailors of the Federal
+     Navy, pulling quietly in toward the beach; and that he distinctly
+     heard a conversation, in English, between them--one of them saying to
+     the other, "Look Harry! there she is, I see her,"--in allusion,
+     doubtless, to this ship. These boats are neither more nor less than
+     scout, or sentinel boats, sent to watch the movements, within neutral
+     waters, of their enemy. Now, with all due deference to his
+     Excellency, I cannot see the difference between the violation of the
+     neutrality of these waters, by the enemy's boats, and by his ship;
+     and if no surveillance is to be exercised, either by night or by day,
+     I am receiving very much such protection as the wolf would accord to
+     the lamb.
+
+     It is an act of war for the enemy to approach me, with his boats, for
+     the purpose of reconnoissance, or watch, and especially during the
+     night, and I have the same right to demand that he keep his boats
+     beyond the marine league, as that he keep his ship, at that distance.
+     Nor am I willing to rely upon his promise, that he will not infringe
+     my rights, in this particular. If France owes me protection, it is
+     her duty to accord it to me, herself, and not remit me to the good
+     faith, or bad faith, of my enemy; in other words, I respectfully
+     suggest, that it is her _duty_, to exercise _surveillance_ over her
+     own waters, both "by night, and by day," when one belligerent is
+     blockading another, in those waters. I have, therefore, respectfully
+     to request, that you will keep a watch, by means of guard boats, at
+     both points of the harbor, to prevent a repetition of the hostile
+     act, which was committed against me last night; or if you will not do
+     this, that you will permit me to arm boats, and capture the enemy,
+     when so approaching me. It would seem quite plain, either that I
+     should be protected, or be permitted to protect myself. Further: it
+     is in plain violation of neutrality for the enemy to be in daily
+     communication with the shore, whether by means of his own boats, or
+     boats from the shore. If he needs supplies, it is his duty to come in
+     for them; and if he comes in, he must anchor; and if he anchors, he
+     must accept the condition of remaining twenty-four hours after my
+     departure. It is a mere subterfuge for him to remain in the offing,
+     and supply himself with all he needs, besides reconnoitring, me
+     closely, by means of his boats, and I protest against this act also.
+     I trust you will excuse me, for having occupied so much of your time,
+     by so lengthy a communication, but I deem it my duty to place myself
+     right, upon the record, in this matter. I shall seize an early
+     opportunity to sail from these waters, and if I shall be brought to a
+     bloody conflict, with an enemy, of twice my force, by means of
+     signals given to him, in the waters of France, either by his own
+     boats, or others, I wish my Government to know, that I protested
+     against the unfriendly ground assumed by the Governor of Martinique,
+     that 'it does not enter into his intentions, to exercise toward the
+     _Iroquois_, either by night, or by day, so active a surveillance as
+     you [I] desire.'
+
+     MR. DUCHATEL, _commanding H. I. F. M.'s steamer Acheron_.
+
+As the lawyers say, "I took nothing by my motion," with Governor Cond�.
+The United States were strong at sea, and the Confederate States weak, and
+this difference was sufficient to insure the ruling against me of all but
+the plainest points, about which there could be no dispute, either of
+principle, or of fact. Whilst the Governor would probably have protected
+me, by force, if necessary, against an actual assault, by the _Iroquois_,
+he had not the moral courage to risk the ire of his master, by offending
+the Great Republic, on a point about which there could be any question.
+
+The _Iroquois_ was very much in earnest in endeavoring to capture me, and
+Captain Palmer spent many sleepless nights, and labored very zealously to
+accomplish his object; notwithstanding which, when my escape became known
+to his countrymen, he had all Yankeeland down on him. It was charged,
+among other things, by one indignant Yankee captain, that Palmer and
+myself had been school-mates, and that treachery had done the work. I must
+do my late opponent the justice to say, that he did all that vigilance and
+skill could do, and a great deal more, than the laws of war authorized him
+to do. He made a free use of the neutral territory, and of his own
+merchant-ships that were within its waters. He had left St. Thomas in a
+great hurry, upon getting news of the _Sumter_, without waiting to coal.
+In a day or two after his arrival at St. Pierre, he chartered a Yankee
+schooner, and sent her to St. Thomas, for a supply of coal; and taking
+virtual possession of another--a small lumber schooner, from Maine, that
+lay discharging her cargo, a short distance from the _Sumter_--he used her
+as a signal, and look-out ship. Sending his pilot on shore, he arranged
+with the Yankee master--one of your long, lean, slab-sided fellows, that
+looked like the planks he handled--a set of signals, by which the _Sumter_
+was to be circumvented.
+
+The anchorage of St. Pierre is a wide, open bay, with an exit around half
+the points of the compass. The _Iroquois_, as she kept watch and ward over
+the _Sumter_, generally lay off the centre of this sheet of water. As the
+_Sumter_ might run out either north of her, or south of her, it was highly
+important that the _Iroquois_ should know, as promptly as possible, which
+of the passages the little craft intended to take. To this end, the
+signals were arranged. Certain lights were to be exhibited, in certain
+positions, on board the Yankee schooner, to indicate to her consort, that
+the _Sumter_ was under way, and the course she was running. I knew
+nothing, positively, of this arrangement. I only knew that the pilot of
+the _Iroquois_ had frequently been seen on board the Yankee. To the mind
+of a seaman, the rest followed, as a matter of course. I could not know
+what the precise signals were, but I knew what signals I should require to
+be made to me, if I were in Captain Palmer's place. As the sequel will
+prove, I judged correctly.
+
+I now communicated my suspicions to the Governor, and requested him to
+have a guard stationed near the schooner, to prevent this contemplated
+breach of neutrality. But the Governor paid no more attention to this
+complaint, than to the others I had made. It was quite evident that I must
+expect to take care of myself, without the exercise of any _surveillance_,
+"by night or by day," by Monsieur Cond�. This being the case, I bethought
+myself of turning the enemy's signals to my own account, and the reader
+will see, by and by, how this was accomplished.
+
+In the meantime, the plot was thickening, and becoming very interesting,
+as well to the islanders, as to ourselves. Not only was the town agog, but
+the simple country people, having heard what was going on, and that a
+naval combat was expected, came in, in great numbers, to see the show. The
+crowd increased, daily, in the market-place, and it was wonderful to
+witness the patience of these people. They would come down to the beach,
+and gaze at us for hours, together, seeming never to grow weary of the
+sight. Two parties were formed, the _Sumter_ party, and the _Iroquois_
+party; the former composed of the whites, with a small sprinkling of
+blacks; the latter of the blacks, with a small sprinkling of whites. The
+Governor, himself, came up from Fort de France, in a little sail-schooner
+of war, which he used as a yacht. The Mayor, and sundry councilmen, came
+off to see me, and talk over the crisis. The young men boarded me in
+scores, and volunteered to help me whip the _barbare_. I had no thought of
+fighting, but of running; but of course I did not tell _them_ so--I should
+have lost the French nationality, they had conferred upon me.
+
+The _Iroquois_ had arrived, on the 14th of November. It was now the 23d,
+and I had waited all this time, for a dark night; the moon not only
+persisting in shining, but the stars looking, we thought, unusually
+bright. Venus was still three hours high, at sunset, and looked
+provokingly beautiful, and brilliant, shedding as much light as a
+miniature moon. To-night--the 23d--the moon would not rise until seven
+minutes past eleven, and this would be ample time, in which to escape, or
+be captured. I had some anxiety about the weather, however, independently
+of the phase of the moon, as in this climate of the gods, there is no such
+thing as a dark night, if the sky be clear. The morning of the 23d of
+November dawned provokingly clear. It clouded a little toward noon, but,
+long before sunset, the clouds had blown off, and the afternoon became as
+bright, and beautiful, as the most ardent lover of nature in her smiling
+moods, could desire. But time pressed, and it was absolutely necessary to
+be moving. Messengers had been sent hither, and thither, by the enemy, to
+hunt up a reinforcement of gun-boats, and if several of these should
+arrive, escape would be almost out of the question. Fortune had favored
+us, thus far, but we must now help ourselves. The _Iroquois_ was not only
+twice as heavy as the _Sumter_, in men, and metal, as the reader has seen,
+but she had as much as two or three knots, the hour, the speed of her. We
+must escape, if at all, unseen of the enemy, and as the latter drew close
+in with the harbor, every night, in fraud of the promise he had made, and
+in violation of the laws of war, this would be difficult to do. Running
+all these reasons rapidly through my mind, I resolved to make the attempt,
+without further delay.
+
+I gave orders to the first lieutenant, to see that every person belonging
+to the ship was on board, at sundown, and directed him to make all the
+necessary preparations for getting his anchor, and putting the ship under
+steam, at eight P. M.--the hour of gun-fire; the gun at the garrison to be
+the signal for moving. The ship was put in her best sailing trim, by
+removing some barrels of wet provisions aft, on the quarter-deck; useless
+spars were sent down from aloft, and the sails all "mended," that is,
+snugly furled. Every man was assigned his station, and the crew were all
+to be at quarters, a few minutes before the appointed hour of moving. I
+well recollect the _tout ensemble_ of that scene. The waters of the bay
+were of glassy smoothness. The sun had gone down in a sky so clear, that
+there was not a cloud to make a bank of violets, or a golden pyramid of.
+Twilight had come and gone; the insects were in full chorus--we were lying
+within a hundred yards of the shore--and night, friendly, and at the same
+time unfriendly, had thrown no more than a semi-transparent mantle over
+the face of nature.
+
+The market-place, as though it had some secret sympathy with what was to
+happen, was more densely thronged than ever, the hum of voices being quite
+audible. The muffled windlass on board the _Sumter_ was quietly heaving up
+her anchor. It is already up, and the "cat hooked," and the men "walking
+away with the cat." The engineer is standing, lever in hand, ready to
+start the engine, and a seaman, with an uplifted axe, is standing near the
+taffarel, to cut the sternfast. One minute more and the gun will fire!
+Every one is listening eagerly for the sound. The _Iroquois_ is quite
+visible, through our glasses, watching for the _Sumter_, like the spider
+for the fly. A flash! and the almost simultaneous boom of the eight
+o'clock gun, and, without one word being uttered on board the _Sumter_,
+the axe descends upon the fast, the engineer's lever is turned, and the
+ship bounds forward, under a full head of steam.
+
+A prolonged, and deafening cheer at once arose from the assembled
+multitude, in the market-place. Skilful and trusty helmsmen, under the
+direction of the "master," bring the _Sumter's_ head around to the south,
+where they hold it, so steadily, that she does not swerve a hair's
+breadth. There is not a light visible on board. The lantern in the
+captain's cabin has a jacket on it, and even the binnacle is screened, so
+that no one but the old quartermaster at the "con" can see the light, or
+the compass. The French steamer-of-war, _Acheron_, lay almost directly in
+our course, and, as we bounded past her, nearly grazing her guns, officers
+and men rushed to the side, and in momentary forgetfulness of their
+neutrality, waved hats and hands at us. As the reader may suppose, I had
+stationed a quick-sighted and active young officer, to look out for the
+signals, which I knew the Yankee schooner was to make. This young officer
+now came running aft to me, and said, "I see them, sir! I see them!--look,
+sir, there are two red lights, one above the other, at the Yankee
+schooner's mast-head." Sure enough, there were the lights; and I knew as
+well as the exhibitor of them, what they meant to say to the _Iroquois_,
+viz.: "Look out for the _Sumter_, she is under way, standing south!"
+
+I ran a few hundred yards farther, on my present course, and then stopped.
+The island of Martinique is mountainous, and near the south end of the
+town, where I now was, the mountains run abruptly into the sea, and cast
+quite a shadow upon the waters, for some distance out. I had the advantage
+of operating within this shadow. I now directed my glass toward the
+_Iroquois_. I have said that Captain Palmer was anxious to catch me, and
+judging by the speed which the _Iroquois_ was now making, toward the
+south, in obedience to her signals, his anxiety had not been at all abated
+by his patient watching of nine days. I now did, what poor Reynard
+sometimes does, when he is hard pressed by the hounds--I doubled. Whilst
+the _Iroquois_ was driving, like mad, under all steam, for the south,
+wondering, no doubt, at every step, what the d----l had become of the
+_Sumter_, this little craft was doing her level-best, for the north end of
+the island. It is safe to say, that, the next morning, the two vessels
+were one hundred and fifty miles apart! Poor Palmer! he, no doubt, looked
+haggard and careworn, when his steward handed him his dressing-gown, and
+called him for breakfast on the 24th of November; the yell of Act�on's
+hounds must have sounded awfully distinct in his ears. I was duly thankful
+to the slab-sided lumberman, and to Governor Cond�--the one for violating,
+and the other for permitting the violation of the neutral waters of
+France--the signals were of vast service to me.
+
+Various little _contre-temps_ occurred on board the _Sumter_, on this
+night's run. We were obliged to stop some fifteen or twenty precious
+minutes, opposite the very town, as we were retracing our steps to the
+northward, to permit the engineer to cool the bearings of his shaft, which
+had become heated by a little eccentricity of movement. And poor D., a
+hitherto-favorite quartermaster, lost his _prestige_, entirely, with the
+crew, on this night. D. had been famous for his sharp sight. It was,
+indeed, wonderful. When nobody else in the ship could "make out" a distant
+sail, D. was always sent aloft, glass in hand, to tell us all about
+her. As a matter of course, when the question came to be discussed, as to
+who the look-out should be, on the occasion of running by the enemy, I
+thought of D. He was, accordingly, stationed on the forecastle, with the
+best night-glass in the ship. Poor D.! if he saw one _Iroquois_, that
+night, he must have seen fifty. Once, he reported her lying right "athwart
+our fore-foot," and I even stopped the engine, on his report, and went
+forward, myself, to look for her. She was nowhere to be seen. Now she was
+bearing down upon our bow, and now upon our quarter. I was obliged to
+degrade him, in the first ten minutes of the run; and, from that time,
+onward, he never heard the last of the _Iroquois_. The young foretop-men,
+in particular, whose duty it was to take the regular look-out aloft, and
+who had become jealous of his being sent up to their stations, so often,
+to make out sails, which they could give no account of, were never tired
+of poking fun at him, and asking him about the _Iroquois_.
+
+
+[Illustration: The Sumter running the Blockade of St. Pierre, Martinique,
+by the enemy's ship, "Iroquois" on the 23d Nov. 1861.
+
+KELLY, PIET & CO. PUBLISHERS.----LITH. BY A. HOEN & CO. BALTO.]
+
+
+The first half hour's run was a very anxious one for us, as the reader may
+suppose. We could not know, of course, at what moment the _Iroquois_,
+becoming sensible of her error, might retrace her steps. It was a marvel,
+indeed, that she had not seen us. Our chimney was vomiting forth dense
+volumes of black smoke, that ought to have betrayed us, even if our hull
+had been invisible. I was quite relieved, therefore, as I saw the lights
+of the town fading, gradually, in the distance, and no pursuer near; and
+when a friendly rain squall overtook us, and enveloping us in its folds,
+travelled along with us, for some distance, I felt assured that our run
+had been a success. Coming up with the south end of the island of
+Dominica, we hauled in for the coast, and ran along it, at a distance of
+four or five miles. It was now half-past eleven, and the moon had risen.
+The sea continued smooth, and nothing could exceed the beauty of that
+night-scene, as we ran along this picturesque coast. The chief feature of
+the landscape was its weird-like expression, and aspect of most profound
+repose. Mountain, hill, and valley lay slumbering in the moonlight; no
+living thing, except ourselves, and now and then, a coasting vessel close
+in with the land, that seemed also to be asleep, being seen. Even the town
+of Rousseau, whose white walls we could see shimmering in the moonlight,
+seemed more like a city of the dead, than of the living. Not a solitary
+light twinkled from a window. To add to the illusion, wreaths of mist lay
+upon the mountain-sides, and overhung the valleys, almost as white, and
+solemn looking as winding-sheets.
+
+We came up with the north end of Dominica, at about two A. M., and a
+notable change now took place, in the weather. Dense, black clouds rolled
+up, from every direction, and amid the crashing, and rattling of thunder,
+and rapid, and blinding lightning, the rain began to fall in torrents. I
+desired to double the north end of the island, and to enable me to do
+this, I endeavored, in sea phrase, to "hold on to the land." The weather
+was so thick, and dark, at times, that we could scarcely see the length of
+the ship, and we were obliged often to slow down, and even stop the
+engine. For an hour or two, we literally groped our way, like a blind man;
+an occasional flash of lightning being our only guide. Presently the water
+began to whiten, and we were startled to find that we were running on
+shore, in Prince Rupert's Bay, instead of having doubled the end of the
+island, as we had supposed. We hauled out in a hurry. It was broad
+daylight, before we were through the passage, when we were struck by a
+strong northeaster, blowing almost a gale. I now drew aft the try-sail
+sheets, and heading the ship to the N. N. W., went below and turned in,
+after, as the reader has seen, an eventful night. The sailor has one
+advantage over the soldier. He has always a dry hammock, and a comfortable
+roof over his head; and the reader may imagine how I enjoyed both of these
+luxuries, as stripping off my wet clothing, I consigned my weary head to
+my pillow, and permitted myself to be sung to sleep by the lullaby chanted
+by the storm.
+
+We learned from the Yankee papers, subsequently captured, that the
+_Dacotah_, one of the enemy's fast steam-sloops, of the class of the
+_Iroquois_, arrived at St. Pierre, the day after we "left"--time enough to
+condole with her consort, on the untoward event. In due time, Captain
+Palmer was deprived of his command--the Naval Department of the Federal
+Government obeying the insane clamors of the "unwashed," as often as heads
+were called for.
+
+The day after our escape from Martinique was Sunday, and we made it,
+emphatically, a day of rest--even the Sunday muster being omitted, in
+consideration of the crew having been kept up nearly all the preceding
+night. I slept late, nothing having been seen to render it necessary to
+call me. When I came on deck, the weather still looked angry, with a dense
+bank of rain-clouds hanging over the islands we had left, and the stiff
+northeaster blowing as freshly as before. We were now running by the
+island of Deseada, distant about ten miles. At noon we observed in
+latitude 16� 12', and, during the day, we showed the French colors to a
+French bark, running for Guadeloupe, and to a Swedish brig standing in for
+the islands. Being in the track of commerce, and the night being dark, we
+carried, for the first time, our side-lights, to guard against collision.
+It was a delightful sensation to breathe the free air of heaven, and to
+feel the roll of the sea once more; and as I sat that evening, in the
+midst of my officers, and smoked my accustomed cigar, I realized the sense
+of freedom, expressed by the poet, in the couplet,--
+
+  "Far as the breeze can bear, the billow foam,
+  Survey our empire, and behold our home!"
+
+We had no occasion, here, to discuss jurisdictions, or talk about marine
+leagues; or be bothered by _Iroquois_, or bamboozled by French governors.
+
+_Monday, November 25th._--Morning clear, with trade-clouds and a fresh
+breeze. We are still holding on to our steam, and are pushing our way to
+the eastward; my intention being to cross the Atlantic, and see what can
+be accomplished in European waters. We may be able to exchange the
+_Sumter_ for a better ship. At seven, this morning, we gave chase to a
+Yankee-looking hermaphrodite brig. We showed her the United States colors,
+and were disappointed to see her hoist the English red in reply. In the
+afternoon, a large ship was descried running down in our direction. When
+she approached sufficiently near, we hoisted again the United States
+colors, and hove her to with a gun. As she rounded to the wind, in
+obedience to the signal, the stars and stripes were run up to her peak.
+The wind was blowing quite fresh, but the master and his papers were soon
+brought on board, when it appeared that our prize was the ship
+_Montmorency_, of Bath, Maine, from Newport, in Wales, and bound to St.
+Thomas, with a cargo of coal, for the English mail-steamers rendezvousing
+at that island. Her cargo being properly documented, as English property,
+we could not destroy her, but put her under a ransom bond, for her
+supposed value, and released her. We received on board from her, however,
+some cordage and paints; and Captain Brown was civil enough to send me on
+board, with his compliments, some bottles of port wine and a box of
+excellent cigars. The master and crew were parolled, not to serve against
+the Confederate States during the war, unless exchanged.
+
+I began, now, to find that the Yankee masters, mates, and sailors rather
+liked being parolled; they would sometimes remind us of it, if they
+thought we were in danger of forgetting it. It saved them from being
+conscripted, unless the enemy was willing first to exchange them; and
+nothing went so hard with the enemy as to exchange a prisoner. With
+cold-blooded cruelty, the enemy had already counted his chances of
+success, as based upon the relative numbers of the two combatants, and
+found that, by killing a given number of our prisoners by long
+confinement--the same number of his being killed by us, by the same
+process--he could beat us! In pursuance of this diabolical policy, he
+threw every possible difficulty in the way of exchanges, and toward the
+latter part of the war put a stop to them nearly entirely. Our prisons
+were crowded with his captured soldiers. We were hard pressed for
+provisions, and found it difficult to feed them, and we were even
+destitute of medicines and hospital stores, owing to the barbarous nature
+of the war that was being made upon us. Not even a bottle of quinine or an
+ounce of calomel was allowed to cross the border, if the enemy could
+prevent it. With a full knowledge of these facts, he permitted his
+soldiers to sigh and weep away their lives in a hopeless captivity--coolly
+"calculating," that one Confederate life was worth, when weighed in the
+balance of final success, from three to four of the lives of his own men!
+
+The enemy, since the war, has become alarmed at the atrocity of his
+conduct, and at the judgment which posterity will be likely to pass upon
+it, and has set himself at work, to falsify history, with his usual
+disregard of truth. Committees have been raised, in the Federal Congress,
+composed of unscrupulous partisans, whose sole object it was, to prepare
+the false material, with which to mislead the future historian. Perjured
+witnesses have been brought before these committees, and their testimony
+recorded as truth. To show the partisan nature of these committees, when
+it was moved by some member--Northern member, of course, for there are no
+Southern members, at this present writing, in the Rump Parliament--to
+extend the inquiry, so as to embrace the treatment of Southern prisoners,
+in Northern prisons, the amendment was rejected! It was not the truth, but
+falsehood that was wanted. Fortunately for the Southern people, there is
+one little record which it is impossible to obliterate. _More men perished
+in Northern prisons, where food and medicines were abundant, than in
+Southern prisons, where they were deficient--and this, too, though the
+South held the greater number of prisoners. See report of Secretary
+Stanton._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+THE SUMTER PURSUES HER VOYAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC--CAPTURE AND BURNING OF
+THE ARCADE, VIGILANT, AND EBENEZER DODGE--A LEAKY SHIP, AND A GALE--AN
+ALARM OF FIRE.
+
+
+The morning of the 26th of November dawned clear, with the wind more
+moderate, and a smoother sea. A ship of war being seen to windward,
+running down in our direction, we beat to quarters, and hoisted the U. S.
+colors. She was a heavy ship, but being a sailing vessel, we had nothing
+to fear, even if she should prove to be an enemy. Indeed, it would have
+been only sport for us, to fall in with one of the enemy's old time
+sailing-frigates. Our agile little steamer, with her single long-range
+gun, could have knocked her into pie, as the printers say, before the
+majestic old thing could turn round. It was in the morning watch, when
+holystones and sand, and scrubbing-brushes and soap were the order of the
+hour, and we surprised the stranger, consequently, in her morning
+dishabille, for her rigging was filled with scrubbed hammocks, and a
+number of well-filled clothes-lines were stretched between her main and
+mizzen shrouds. She proved to be Spanish; and was steering apparently for
+the island of Cuba. We observed to-day in latitude 20� 7'; the longitude,
+as told by our faithful chronometer, being 57� 12'.
+
+By the way, one of my amusements, now, was to wind and compare a number of
+chronometers, daily. The nautical instruments were almost the only things,
+except provisions, and clothing for the crew, that we could remove from
+our prizes. I never permitted any other species of property to be brought
+on board. We had no room for it, and could not have disposed of it, except
+by violating the laws of neutral nations, and converting our ship into a
+trader; neither one of which comported with the duties which I had in
+hand, viz., the rapid destruction of the enemy's commerce. I should have
+had no objection to receiving, on deposit, for safe keeping, any funds
+that I might have found on board the said prizes, but the beggarly Yankee
+masters never carried any. A few hundred dollars for ship's expenses was
+all that was ever found, and sometimes not even this--the master having,
+generally, an order on his consignee, for what moneys he might need. I
+sometimes captured these orders, and a stray bill of exchange for a small
+amount, but of course I could make no use of them. The steamship has not
+only revolutionized commerce, and war, but exchanges. Long before the
+arrival of the tardy sailing-ship, at her destined port, with her
+ponderous cargo, the nimble mail-steamer deposits a duplicate of her
+invoice, and bill of lading, with the merchant to whom she is consigned;
+and when the ship has landed her cargo, the same, or another steamer,
+takes back a bill of exchange, for the payment of the freight.
+
+The masters of my prizes frequently remonstrated against my capturing
+their chronometers; in some instances claiming them as their own
+individual property. When they would talk to me about private property, I
+would ask to whom their ships belonged--whether to a private person, or
+the Government? They at once saw the drift of the question, and there was
+an end of the argument. I was making war upon the enemy's commerce--and
+especially upon the ship, the vehicle of commerce, and the means and
+appliances by which she was navigated. If her chronometers, sextants,
+telescopes, and charts were left in possession of the master, they would
+be transferred to, and used in the navigation of some other ship. The fact
+that these instruments belonged to other parties, than the ship-owners,
+could not make the least difference--ship and instruments were all private
+property, alike, and alike subject to capture. Silly newspaper editors
+have published a good deal of nonsense, mixed with a good deal of malice,
+on this subject. It is only their nonsense that I propose to
+correct--their abuse was something to be expected under the circumstances.
+Being dependent upon the patronage of ship-owners and ship-masters, for
+the prosperity of their papers, abuse of the _Sumter_, during the war,
+came as naturally to them, as whittling a stick.
+
+No prisoner of mine was ever disturbed in the possession of his strictly
+personal effects. Under this head were included his watch, and his
+jewelry, as well as his wardrobe. Every boarding-officer had orders to
+respect these, nor do I believe that the orders were ever violated. I will
+not detain the reader to contrast this conduct, with the shameful
+house-burnings, robberies, and pilferings, by both officers and men, that
+accompanied the march of the enemy's armies, through the Southern States.
+It would be well for human nature, if the record made by these men, lost
+to every sense of manliness and shame, could be obliterated; but as the
+wicked deeds of men live after them, our common history, and our common
+race will long have to bear the disgrace of their acts.
+
+Soon after passing the Spanish ship, sail ho! was cried from the
+mast-head, in a sharp, energetic voice, as though the look-out had, this
+time, scented real game. The chase was one of those well-known schooners,
+twice before described in these pages, as being unmistakable--hence the
+energy that had been thrown into the voice of the look-out. She soon came
+in sight from the deck, when we gave chase. In a couple of hours we had
+come up with, and hove her to, with a gun. She proved to be the _Arcade_,
+from Portland, Me., with a load of staves, bound to Guadeloupe, where she
+intended to exchange her staves for rum and sugar. The owner of the staves
+had not thought it worth while to certify, that his property was neutral,
+and so we had no difficulty with the papers. We had not made much of a
+prize. The little craft was sailed too economically to afford us even a
+spare barrel of provisions. The number of mouths on board were few, and
+the rations had been carefully adjusted to the mouths. And so, having
+nothing to transfer to the _Sumter_, except the master and crew, we
+applied the torch to her, in a very few minutes. The staves being well
+seasoned, she made a beautiful bonfire, and lighted us over the seas, some
+hours after dark.
+
+During the night, the wind lulled, and became variable, and we hauled down
+the fore and aft sails, and brought the ship's head to the north-east. The
+prize had no newspapers on board, but we learned from the master, that the
+great naval expedition, which the enemy had been sometime in preparing,
+and about which there had been no little mystery, had at last struck at
+Port Royal, in South Carolina. An immense fleet of ships of war, with
+thirty-three transports, and an army of 15,000 men, had been sent to
+capture a couple of mud forts, armed with 24 and 32-pounders, and
+garrisoned with three or four hundred raw troops. Our next batch of
+newspapers from New York, brought us the despatches of Commodore Dupont,
+the commander of this expedition, exceeding in volume anything that Nelson
+or Collingwood had ever written. Plates, and diagrams showed how the
+approaches had been buoyed, and the order of battle was described, with
+minute prolixity. I cannot forbear giving to the reader, the names of the
+ships, that participated in this great naval victory, with their loss in
+killed and wounded, after an engagement that lasted four mortal hours. The
+ships were the _Wabash_, the _Susquehanna_, the _Mohican_, the _Seminole_,
+the _Pawnee_, the _Unadilla_, the _Ottawa_, the _Pembina_, the _Isaac
+Smith_, the _Bienville_, the _Seneca_, the _Curlew_, the _Penguin_, the
+_Augusta_, the _R. B. Forbes_, the _Pocahontas_, the _Mercury_, the
+_Vandalia_, and the _Vixen_--total 19. The killed were 8--not quite half a
+man apiece; and the seriously wounded 6!
+
+_November 27th._--Morning thick, with heavy clouds and rain, clearing as
+the day advanced. Afternoon clear, bright weather, with a deep blue sea,
+and the trade-wind blowing half a gale from the north-east. At six P. M.,
+put all sail on the ship, and let the steam go down. We had already
+consumed half our fuel, and it became necessary to make the rest of our
+way to Europe under sail. Our boilers had been leaking for several days,
+and the engineer availed himself of the opportunity to repair them. The
+weather is sensibly changing in temperature. We are in latitude 22� 22',
+and the thermometer has gone down to 78�--for the first time, in five
+months. We have crossed, to-day, the track of the homeward-bound ships,
+both from the Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Horn, but have seen no sail. We
+cannot delay to cruise in this track, as we have barely water enough, on
+board, to last us across the Atlantic.
+
+_November 28th._--Weather changeable, and squally--wind frequently
+shifting during the day, giving indications of our approach to the
+northern limit Of the trade-wind, crossing which we shall pass into the
+variables.
+
+_November 29th._--Thick, ugly weather--this term ugly being very
+expressive in the seaman's vocabulary. The wind is veering, as before,
+blowing half a gale, all the time, and a cold rain is pouring down, at
+intervals, causing the sailors to haul on their woollen jackets, and hunt
+up their long-neglected sou'westers. We observed in latitude 25� 51'
+to-day; the longitude being 57� 36'.
+
+_November 30th._--The morning has dawned bright, and beautiful, with a
+perfectly clear sky. The boisterous wind of yesterday has disappeared, and
+we have nearly a calm--the sea wearing its darkest tint of azure. We are,
+in fact, in the calm-belt of Cancer, and having no fuel to spare, we must
+be content to creep through it under sail, as best we may. A sail has been
+reported from aloft. It is a long way off, and we forbear to chase.
+
+_December 1st._--Another beautiful, bright, morning, with a glassy sea,
+and a calm. This being the first of the month, the sailors are drawing
+their clothing, and "small stores" from the paymaster, under the
+supervision of the officers of the different divisions. The paymaster's
+steward is the shopman, on the occasion, and he is "serving" a jacket to
+one, a shirt to another, and a pair of shoes to a third. His assortment is
+quite varied, for besides the requisite clothing, he has tobacco, and
+pepper, and mustard; needles, thimbles, tape, thread, and spool-cotton;
+ribbons, buttons, jack-knives, &c. Jack is not allowed to indulge in all
+these luxuries, _ad lib._ He is like a school-boy, under the care of his
+preceptor; he must have his wants approved by the officer of the division
+to which he belongs. To enable this officer to act understandingly, Jack
+spreads out his wardrobe before him, every month. If he is deficient a
+shirt, or a pair of trousers, he is permitted to draw them; if he has
+plenty, and still desires more, his extravagance is checked. These
+articles are all charged to him, at cost, with the addition of a small
+percentage, to save the Government from loss. When the monthly
+requisitions are all complete, they are taken to the Captain, for his
+approval, who occasionally runs his pencil through a _third_, or a
+_fourth_ pound of tobacco, when an inveterate old chewer, or smoker is
+using the weed to excess; he rarely interferes in other respects. On the
+present occasion, woollen garments are in demand; Jack, with a prudent
+forethought, preparing himself for the approaching change in the climate.
+Much of the clothing, which the sailor wears, is made up with his own
+hands. He is entirely independent of the other sex, in this respect, and
+soon becomes very expert with the needle.
+
+The 3d of December brought us another prize. The wind was light from the
+south-east, and the stranger was standing in our direction. This was
+fortunate, as we might hope to capture him by stratagem, without the use
+of steam. The _Sumter_, when not under steam, and with her smoke-stack
+lowered, might be taken for a clumsy-looking bark. Throwing a spare sail
+over the lowered smoke-stack, to prevent it from betraying us, we hoisted
+the French flag, and stood on our course, apparently unconscious of the
+approaching stranger. We were running free, with the starboard
+studding-sails set, and when the stranger, who, by this time, had hoisted
+the United States colors, crossed our bows, we suddenly took in all the
+studding-sails, braced sharp up, tacked, and fired a gun, at the same
+moment. The stranger at once hauled up his courses, and backed his
+main-topsail. He was already under our guns. The clumsy appearance of the
+_Sumter_, and the French flag had deceived him. The prize proved to be the
+_Vigilant_, a fine new ship, from Bath, Maine, bound to the guano island
+of Sombrero, in the West Indies; some New Yorkers having made a lodgment
+on this barren little island, and being then engaged in working it for
+certain phosphates of lime, which they called mineral guano. We captured a
+rifled 9-pounder gun, with a supply of fixed ammunition, on board the
+_Vigilant_, and some small arms. We fired the ship at three P. M., and
+made sail on our course. The most welcome part of this capture was a large
+batch of New York newspapers, as late as the 21st of November. The Yankees
+of that ilk had heard of the blockade of the "Pirate _Sumter_," by the
+_Iroquois_, but they hadn't heard of Captain Palmer's rueful breakfast on
+the morning of the 24th of November.
+
+These papers brought us a graphic description of the gallant ram exploit,
+of Commodore Hollins, of the Confederate Navy, at the mouth of the
+Mississippi, on the 12th of October. This exploit is remarkable as being
+the first practical application of the iron-clad ram to the purposes of
+war. Some ingenious steamboat-men, in New Orleans, with the consent of the
+Navy Department, had converted the hull of a steam-tug into an iron-clad,
+by means of bars of railroad iron fastened to the hull of the boat, and to
+a frame-work above the deck fitted to receive them; a stout iron prow
+being secured to the bow of the boat, several feet below the water-line.
+In this curious nondescript, which the enemy likened to a smoking
+mud-turtle, the gallant Commodore assaulted the enemy's fleet, lying at
+the old anchorage of the _Sumter_, at the "Head of the Passes," consisting
+of the _Richmond_, _Vincennes_, _Preble_, and _Water Witch_. The assault
+was made at four o'clock in the morning, and caused great consternation
+and alarm among the enemy. The _Richmond_, lying higher up the Pass than
+the other ships, was first assaulted--some of her planks being started,
+below the water-line, by the concussion of the ram, though the blow was
+broken by a coal-schooner, which, fortunately for her, was lying
+alongside. As the ram drew off, a broadside of the _Richmond's_ guns was
+fired into her, without effect. After this harmless broadside, the ships
+all got under way, in great haste, and fled down the Pass, the ram
+pursuing them, but Hollins was unable, from the effect of the current, and
+the speed of the fleeing ships, to get another blow at them. The
+_Richmond_ and the _Vincennes_ grounded, for a short time, on the bar, in
+their hurry to get out, but the former was soon got afloat again. In the
+confusion and panic of the moment, the _Vincennes_ was abandoned by her
+captain, who left a slow match burning. Commodore Hollins, finding that
+nothing more could be accomplished, threw a few shells at the alarmed
+fleet, and withdrew. The _Vincennes_, not blowing up, and the enemy
+recovering from his panic, her captain was ordered to return to her, and
+she was finally saved with the rest of the fleet. This little experiment
+was the _avant courier_ of a great change, in naval warfare--especially
+for harbor and coast defence. The enemy, with his abundant resources,
+greatly improved upon it, and his "monitor" system was the result.
+
+_December 4th._--Weather clear, and becoming cool--thermometer, 76�. We
+have run some 140 miles to the eastward, during the last twenty-four
+hours, under sail, and as we are dragging our propeller through the water,
+I need not tell the reader what a smacking breeze we have had. It is
+delightful to be making so much easting, under sail, after having been
+buffeted so spitefully, by the east wind, for the last five months,
+whenever we have turned our head in that direction. Ten of the crew of the
+_Vigilant_ are blacks, and as our ship is leaking so badly that the
+constant pumping is fagging to the crew, I have set the blacks at the
+pumps, with their own consent. The fact is, some of these fellows, who are
+runaway slaves, have already recognized "master," and whenever I pass
+them, grin pleasantly, and show the whites of their eyes. They are
+agreeably disappointed, that they are not "drawn, hung, and quartered,"
+and rather enjoy the change to the _Sumter_, where they have plenty of
+time to bask in the sun, and the greasiest of pork and beans without
+stint. In arranging the _Vigilant's_ crew into messes, a white bean and a
+black bean have been placed, side by side, at the mess-cloth, my first
+lieutenant naturally concluding, that the white sailors of the Yankee ship
+would like to be near their colored brethren. C�sar and Pompey, having an
+eye to fun, enjoy this arrangement hugely, and my own crew are not a
+little amused, as the boatswain pipes to dinner, to see the gravity with
+which the darkies take their seats by the side of their white comrades.
+This was the only mark of "citizenship," however, which I bestowed upon
+these sons of Ham. I never regarded them as prisoners of war--always
+discharging them, when the other prisoners were discharged, without
+putting them under parole.
+
+_December 5th._--Weather thick and ugly--the wind hauling to the north,
+and blowing very fresh for a while. Reefed the topsails. At noon, the
+weather was so thick, that no observations could be had for fixing the
+position of the ship--latitude, by dead reckoning, 30� 19'; longitude 53�
+02'. During the afternoon and night, it blew a gale from N. E. to E. N. E.
+Furled the mainsail, and set the reefed trysail instead; and the wind
+still increasing, before morning we hauled up and furled the foresail. For
+the next two or three days, we had a series of easterly gales, compelling
+me to run somewhat farther north than I had intended. We carried very
+short sail, and most of the time we were shut down below--that is, such of
+the crew as were not on watch--with tarpaulin-covered hatches, and a cold,
+driving rain falling almost incessantly. What with the howling of the
+gale, as it tears through the rigging, the rolling and pitching of the
+ship, in the confused, irregular sea, and the jog, jog, jog of the pumps,
+through half the night, I have had but little rest.
+
+_December 8th._--This is an anniversary with me. On this day, fifteen
+years ago, the United States brig-of-war _Somers_, of which I was the
+commander, was capsized and sunk, off Vera Cruz, having half her crew, of
+120 officers and men, drowned. It occurred during the Mexican war. I was
+left alone to blockade the port of Vera Cruz--Commodore Connor, the
+commander of the squadron, having gone with his other ships on an
+expedition to Tampico. There being every appearance of a norther on that
+eventful morning, I was still at my anchors, under _Isla Verde_, or Green
+Island, where I had sought refuge the preceding night. Suddenly a sail was
+reported, running down the northern coast, as though she would force the
+blockade. It would never do to permit this; and so the little
+_Somers_--these ten-gun brigs were called coffins in that day--was gotten
+under way, and under her topsails and courses, commenced beating up the
+coast, to intercept the stranger. I had gone below, for a moment, when the
+officer of the deck, coming to the companion-way, called to me, and said
+that "the water looked black and roughened ahead, as though more wind than
+usual was coming." I sprang upon deck, and saw, at the first glance, that
+a norther was upon us. I immediately ordered everything clewed down and
+brailed up, but before the order could be executed, the gale came sweeping
+on with the fury of a whirlwind, and in less time than I have been
+describing the event, the little craft was thrown on her beam-ends, her
+masts and sails lying flat upon the surface of the sea, and the water
+pouring in at every hatchway and scuttle. I clambered to the weather side
+of the ship, and seeing that she must go down in a few minutes, set my
+first lieutenant at work to extricate the only boat that was
+available--the weather-quarter boat, all the others being submerged--from
+her fastenings, to save as much life as possible. This was fortunately
+done, and the boat being put in charge of a midshipman, the non-combatant
+officers, as the surgeon and paymaster; the midshipmen, and such of the
+boys of the ship as could not swim, were permitted to get into her. So
+perfect was the discipline, though death, within the next ten minutes,
+stared every man in the face, that there was no rush for this boat. A
+large man was even ordered out of her, to make room for two lads, who
+could not swim, and he obeyed the order as a matter of course! This boat
+having shoved off from the sinking ship, the order was given, "Every man
+save himself, who can!" whereupon there was a simultaneous plunge into the
+now raging sea, of a hundred men and more, each struggling for his life.
+The ship sank out of sight in a moment afterward. We were in twenty
+fathoms of water. Divesting myself of all my clothing, except my shirt and
+drawers, I plunged into the sea with the rest, and, being a good swimmer,
+struck out for and reached a piece of grating, which had floated away from
+the ship as she went down. Swimming along, with one arm resting on this
+grating, I felt one of my feet touch something, and, at the same moment,
+heard a voice exclaiming, "It is I, Captain; it is Parker, the second
+lieutenant--give me a part of your grating, I am a good swimmer, and we
+shall get along the better together." I, accordingly, shared my grating
+with Parker, and we both struck out, manfully, for the shore, distant no
+more than about a mile; but, unfortunately, the now raging gale was
+sweeping down parallel with the coast, and we were compelled to swim at
+right angles with the waves and the wind, if we would save ourselves; for
+once swept past the coast of the island, and the open sea lay before us,
+whence there was no rescue!
+
+As we would rise upon the top of a wave, and get a view of the "promised
+land," the reader may imagine how anxious our consultations were, as to
+whether we were gaining, or losing ground! In the meantime, the boat,
+which had shoved off from the ship, as described, had reached the island,
+half-swamped, and discharging her passengers, and freeing herself from
+water as soon as possible, pushed out again into the raging caldron of
+waters, under the gallant midshipman, who had charge of her, in the
+endeavor to rescue some of the drowning crew. She came, by the merest
+accident, upon Parker and myself! We were hauled into her more dead than
+alive, and after she had picked up two, or three others--all that could
+now be seen--she again returned to the shore. My first lieutenant, Mr. G.
+L. Claiborne, was saved, as by a miracle, being dashed on shore--he having
+struck out, in the opposite direction, for the mainland--between two
+ledges of rock, separated only by a span of sand beach. If he had been
+driven upon the rocks, instead of the beach, he must have been instantly
+dashed in pieces. The reader will, perhaps, pardon me, for having
+remembered these eventful scenes of my life, as I wrote in my journal, on
+board the leaky little _Sumter_, amid the howling of another gale, _the_
+"_eighth day of December_."
+
+On _this_ eighth day of December, 1861, however, the record is very
+different, it being as follows: "At ten A. M. descried a sail from the
+deck, startlingly close to; so thick has been the weather. The stranger
+being a bark, taunt-rigged, with sky-sail poles, and under top-sails, we
+mistook him at first for a cruiser, and raised our smoke-stack, and
+started the fires in the furnaces. Having done this, we approached him
+somewhat cautiously, keeping the weather-gauge of him, and showed him the
+United States colors. He soon hoisted the same. Getting a nearer view of
+him, we now discovered him to be a whaler. The engineer at once
+discontinued his "firing up," and the smoke-stack was again lowered, to
+its accustomed place. Upon being boarded, the bark proved to be the _Eben.
+Dodge_, twelve days out, from New Bedford, and bound on a whaling voyage
+to the Pacific Ocean. She had experienced a heavy gale, had sprung some of
+her spars, and was leaking badly--hence the easy sail she had been under.
+Although the sea was still very rough, and the weather lowering, we got on
+board from the prize, some water, and provisions, clothing, and small
+stores. The supply of pea-jackets, whalers' boots, and flannel
+over-shirts, which our paymaster had been unable to procure in the West
+Indies, was particularly acceptable to us, battling, as we now were, with
+the gales of the North Atlantic, in the month of December. We brought
+away from her, also, two of her fine whale-boats, so valuable in rough
+weather; making room for them on deck, by the side of the _Sumter's_
+launch. The crew of the _Dodge_, consisting of twenty-two persons, made a
+considerable addition to our small community. We fired the prize at
+half-past six, P. M., as the shades of evening were closing in, and made
+sail on our course. The flames burned red and lurid in the murky
+atmosphere, like some Jack-o'-lantern; now appearing, and now
+disappearing, as the doomed ship rose upon the top, or descended into the
+abyss of the waves.
+
+Having now forty-three prisoners on board, and there never being, at one
+time, so many of the _Sumter's_ crew on watch, it became necessary for me
+to think of precautions. It would be easy for forty-three courageous men,
+to rise upon a smaller number, sleeping carelessly about the decks, and
+wrest from them the command of the ship. Hitherto I had given the
+prisoners the run of the ship, putting no more restrictions upon them,
+than upon my own men, but this could no longer be. I therefore directed my
+first lieutenant to put one-half of the prisoners in single irons--that
+is, with manacles on the wrists only--alternately, for twenty-four hours
+at a time. The prisoners, themselves, seeing the necessity of this
+precaution, submitted cheerfully to the restraint--for as such only they
+viewed it--and not as an indignity.
+
+We received another supply of late newspapers, by the _Dodge_. They were
+still filled with jubilations over Dupont's great naval victory. We
+learned, too, that New England had been keeping, with more than usual
+piety and pomp, the great National festival of "Thanksgiving," which the
+Puritan has substituted for the Christian Christmas. The pulpit thundered
+war and glory, the press dilated upon the wealth and resources of the
+Universal Yankee _Nation_, and hecatombs of fat pigs and turkeys fed the
+hungry multitudes--pulpit, press, pig, and turkey, all thanking God, that
+the Puritan is "not like unto other men."
+
+_December 10th._--The weather remains still unsettled. The wind, during
+the last five or six days, has gone twice around the compass, never
+stopping in the west, but lingering in the east. The barometer has been in
+a constant state of fluctuation, and there will, doubtless, be a grand
+climax before the atmosphere regains its equilibrium. These easterly
+winds are retarding our passage very much, and taxing our patience.
+Observed, to-day, in latitude 32� 39'; the longitude being 49� 57'.
+
+The next day, the weather culminated, sure enough, in a gale. The
+barometer began to settle, in the morning watch, and dense black clouds,
+looking ragged and windy, soon obscured the sun, and spread an ominous
+pall over the entire heavens. I at once put the ship under easy sail; that
+is to say, clewed up everything but the topsails and trysails, and awaited
+the further progress of the storm. The wind was as yet light, but the
+barometer, which had stood at 29� 70' at eight o'clock, had fallen to 29�
+59' by two P. M. The dense canopy of clouds now settled lower and lower,
+circumscribing more and more our horizon, and presently fitful gusts of
+wind would strike the sails, pressing the ship over a little. It was time
+to reef. All hands were turned up, and the close reefs were taken, both in
+topsails and trysails; the jib hauled down and stowed, and the top-gallant
+yards sent down from aloft. The squalls increasing in frequency and force,
+the gale became fully developed by three P. M. The wind, which we first
+took from about E. S. E., backed to the N. E., but did not remain long in
+that quarter, returning to east. It now began to blow furiously from this
+latter quarter, the squalls being accompanied by a driving, blinding rain;
+the barometer going down, ominously down, all the while.
+
+As the night closed in, an awful scene presented itself. The aspect of the
+heavens was terrific. The black clouds overhead were advancing and
+retreating like squadrons of opposing armies, whilst loud peals of
+thunder, and blinding flashes of lightning that would now and then run
+down the conductor, and hiss as they leaped into the sea, added to the
+elemental strife. A streaming scud, which you could almost touch with your
+hand, was meanwhile hurrying past, screeching and screaming, like so many
+demons, as it rushed through the rigging. The sea was mountainous, and
+would now and then strike the little _Sumter_ with such force as to make
+her tremble in every fibre of her frame. I had remained on deck during
+most of the first watch, looking anxiously on, to see what sort of weather
+we were going to make. The ship behaved nobly, but I had no confidence in
+her strength. Her upper works, in particular, were very defective. Her
+bends, above the main deck, were composed of light pine stanchions and
+inch plank, somewhat strengthened in the bows. Seeing the fury of the
+gale, and that the barometer was still settling, I went below about
+midnight, and turned in to get a little rest, with many misgivings. I had
+scarcely fallen into an uneasy slumber, when an old quartermaster, looking
+himself like the demon of the storm, with his dishevelled hair and beard
+dripping water, and his eyes blinking in the light of his lantern, shook
+my cot, and said, "We've stove in the starboard bow-port, sir, and the
+gun-deck is all afloat with water!" Here was what I had feared; unless we
+could keep the water out of the between-decks, all the upper works, and
+the masts along with them, would be gone in a trice. I hurried at once to
+the scene of disaster, but before I could reach it, my energetic and
+skilful first lieutenant had already, by the aid of some planks and spare
+spars, erected a barricade that would be likely to answer our purpose.
+
+The gale lulled somewhat in an hour or two afterward, and I now got some
+sleep. I was on deck again, however, at daylight. The same thick gloom
+overspread the heavens, the scud was flying as furiously, and as low as
+before, and the gale was raging as fiercely as ever. But we had one great
+comfort, and that was _daylight_. We could see the ship and the
+heavens--there was nothing else visible--and this alone divested the gale
+of half its terrors. At last, at six A. M., the barometer reached its
+lowest point, 29.32, which, in the latitude we were in, was a very low
+barometer. Any one who has watched a barometer under similar
+circumstances, will understand the satisfaction with which I saw the
+little tell-tale begin to rise. It whispered to me as intelligibly as if
+it had been a living thing, "the gale is broken!" We had been lying to,
+all this time, under a close-reefed main-topsail. We now bore up under a
+reefed foresail, and kept the ship on her course, east by south. She
+scudded as beautifully as she had lain to, darting ahead like an arrow, on
+the tops of the huge waves that followed her like so many hungry wolves,
+and shaking the foam and spray from her bows, as if in disdain and
+contempt of the lately howling storm.
+
+_December 13th._--Weather clear, with passing clouds. Wind fresh from the
+south-west, but abating, with a rapidly rising barometer. The cyclone, for
+such evidently the late gale was, had a diameter of from three hundred and
+fifty to four hundred miles. We took it in its northern hemisphere--the
+gale travelling north. Hence it passed over us in nearly its entire
+diameter--the vortex at no great distance from us. Observed in latitude
+33� 28'; the longitude being 47� 03'. Repairing damages. The ship leaks so
+badly as to require to be pumped out twice in each watch. During the
+heaviest of the gale, the masters and mates of the captured ships offered
+their services, like gallant men, to assist in taking care of the ship. We
+thanked them, but were sufficiently strong-handed ourselves.
+
+_December 14th._--We had an alarm of fire on the berth deck last night.
+The fire-bell, sounded suddenly in a sleeping city, has a startling effect
+upon the aroused sleepers, but he who has not heard it, can have no
+conception of the knell-like sound of the cry of fire! shouted from the
+lungs of an alarmed sailor on board a ship, hundreds of miles away from
+any land. It is the suddenness with which the idea of danger presents
+itself, quite as much as the extent of the danger, which intimidates.
+Hence the panics which often ensue, when a ship is discovered to be on
+fire. Ships of war, as a rule, are not the subjects of panics. Discipline
+keeps all the passions and emotions under control, as well those which
+arise from fear, as from lawlessness. We had no panic on board the
+_Sumter_, although appearances were sufficiently alarming for a few
+moments. A smoke was suddenly seen arising through one of the ventilators
+forward, in the dead hour of the night, when except the sentry's lantern
+and the lamp in the binnacle, there should be no other fire in the ship.
+The midshipman of the watch, upon rushing below, found one of the
+prisoners' mattresses on fire. The flames were soon smothered, and the
+whole danger was over before the ship's crew were fairly aroused. Some
+prisoner, in violation of orders, had lighted his pipe for a smoke, after
+hours, and probably gone to sleep with it in his mouth. The prisoner could
+not be identified, but there were two sentinels on post, and these in due
+time paid the penalty of their neglect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+VOYAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC PURSUED--CHRISTMAS-DAY ON BOARD THE
+SUMTER--CAPE FLY-AWAY, AND THE CURIOUS ILLUSION PRODUCED BY IT--THE SUMTER
+PASSES FROM THE DESERT PARTS OF THE SEA, INTO A TRACT OF COMMERCE ONCE
+MORE--BOARDS A LARGE FLEET OF SHIPS IN ONE DAY, BUT FINDS NO ENEMY AMONG
+THEM--ARRIVAL AT CADIZ.
+
+
+The punishment administered to the two delinquent sentinels mentioned in
+the last chapter, had the most salutary effect. Seamen are very much like
+children, requiring the reins to be tightened upon them from time to time.
+I made it a rule on board the _Sumter_, that punishment should follow the
+offence, with _promptitude_, and _certainty_, rather than severity; and
+this excellent rule had already performed marvels, in the matter of
+disciplining my ship.
+
+_Sunday, December 15th._--A fine bright morning, with a moderate breeze
+from the north-west, and the weather just cool enough to be delightfully
+bracing. We mustered the crew this morning, and read the articles of war
+for the first time in three weeks, owing to the bad weather. I did not
+inspect the ship below, according to custom, the sea being still rough,
+and the water ankle-deep on the gun-deck in consequence. Our new prisoners
+always looked upon the muster ceremonies on board the _Sumter_, with
+curiosity, as though they were surprised to find so much order and
+discipline, and so much attention to dress and ceremony, on board the
+"pirate" of which they had read, and whose "cut" they had so often
+admired, in their truth-loving and truth-telling newspapers. The latitude,
+to-day, is 34�, and the longitude 42� 05'.
+
+We were quite surprised to find so much bad weather in the parallel, on
+which we were crossing the Atlantic. I had purposely chosen this parallel,
+that my little cock-boat of a ship might not be knocked in pieces, by the
+storms of the North Atlantic, and yet the reader has seen how roughly we
+have been handled. Nor were the fates more propitious for the next few
+days. Gale followed gale, with angry skies, and cloud and rain; there
+sometimes being lightning around the entire horizon, with now rolling, now
+crashing thunder. I had intended when I left the West Indies to touch at
+Fayal, in the Azores, for coal and water, but I found these islands so
+guarded and defended, by the Genius of the storm, that it would require
+several days of patience and toil, to enable me to reach an anchorage in
+one of them. I therefore determined to pass them, and haul up for the
+southern coast of Spain, running finally into Cadiz.
+
+Christmas day was passed by us on the lonely sea, in as doleful a manner
+as can well be conceived. The weather is thus described in my journal.
+"Thermometer 63�; barometer 29.80. Heavy rain squalls--weather dirty, with
+lightning all around the horizon, indicating a change of wind at any
+moment. Under short sail during the night." The only other record of the
+day was that we "spliced the main brace;" that is, gave Jack an extra
+glass of grog. Groups of idle sailors lay about the decks, "overhauling a
+range of their memories;" how they had spent the last Christmas-day, in
+some "Wapping," or "Wide Water street," with the brimming goblet in hand,
+and the merry music of the dance sounding in their ears. Nor were the
+memories of the officers idle. They clasped in fancy their loved ones, now
+sad and lonely, to their bosoms once more, and listened to the prattle of
+the little ones they had left behind. Not the least curious of the changes
+that had taken place since the last Christmas day, was the change in their
+own official positions. They were, most of them, on that day, afloat under
+the "old flag." That flag now looked to them strange and foreign. They had
+some of their own countrymen on board; not, as of yore, as welcome
+visitors, but as prisoners. These, too, wore a changed aspect--enemy,
+instead of friend, being written upon their faces. The two "rival
+nations," spoken of by De Tocqueville, stood face to face. Nature is
+stronger than man. She will not permit her laws to be violated with
+impunity, and if this war does not separate these _two nations_, other
+wars will. If we succeed in preserving the principle of State
+sovereignty--the only principle which can save this whole country, North
+and South, from utter wreck and ruin--all will be well, whatever
+combinations of particular States may be made, from time to time. The
+States being free, liberty will be saved, and they will gravitate
+naturally, like unto like--the Puritan clinging to the Puritan, and the
+Cavalier to the Cavalier. But if this principle be overthrown, if the mad
+idea be carried out, that all the American people must be moulded into a
+common mass, and form one consolidated government, under the rule of a
+_majority_--for no constitution will then restrain them--Constitutional
+liberty will disappear, and no man can predict the future--except in so
+far, that it is impossible for the Puritan, and the Cavalier to live
+together in peace.
+
+On the next day, we witnessed a curious natural illusion. The look-out
+called land ho! from the mast-head. The officer of the watch saw the land
+at the same time from the deck, and sent a midshipman below to inform me
+that we had made "high land, right ahead." I came at once upon deck, and
+there, sure enough, was the land--a beautiful island, with its blue
+mountains, its plains, its wood-lands, its coast, all perfect. It was
+afternoon. The weather had been stormy, but had partially cleared. The sun
+was near his setting, and threw his departing rays full upon the newly
+discovered island, hanging over it, as a symbol that, for a time, there
+was to be a truce with the storm, a magnificent rainbow. So beautiful was
+the scene, and so perfect the illusion--there being no land within a
+couple of hundred miles of us--that all the crew had come on deck to
+witness it; and there was not one of them who would not have bet a month's
+pay that what he looked upon was a reality.
+
+The chief engineer was standing by me looking upon the supposed landscape,
+with perfect rapture. Lowering the telescope through which I had been
+viewing it, I said to him, "You see, now, Mr. F., how often men are
+deceived. You would no doubt swear that that is land." "Why should I not,
+sir?" said he. "Simply," rejoined I, "because it is Cape Fly-away." He
+turned and looked at me with astonishment, as though I were quizzing him,
+and said, "You surely do not mean to say, Captain, that that is not land;
+it is not possible that one's senses can be so much deceived." "Like
+yourself, I should have sworn it was land, if I did not know, from the
+position of the ship, that there is no land within a couple of hundred
+miles of us." Reaching out his hand for my glass, I gave it to him, and as
+he viewed the island through it, I was much amused at his ejaculations of
+admiration, now at this beauty, and now at that. "Why," said he, "there is
+the very coast, sand beach and all, with beautiful bays and indentations,
+as though inviting the _Sumter_ to run in and anchor." As the sun sank
+lower and lower, withdrawing now one ray, and now another, first the
+rainbow began to disappear, and then the lower strata of the island to
+grow a little gray, and then the upper, until, as the sun dipped, the
+whole gorgeous fabric, of mountain, woodland, plain, and coast, was
+converted into a leaden-colored cloud-bank. The engineer handing me my
+glass, said, "Captain, I will be a cautious witness hereafter, in a court
+of justice, when I am questioned as to a fact, which has only been
+revealed to me through a single sense." "I see," I replied, "that you are
+becoming a philosopher. Many metaphysicians have maintained that all
+nature is a mere phantasmagoria, so far as our senses are capable of
+informing us."
+
+For the last two weeks, we had been crossing a desert tract of the ocean,
+where a sail is seldom seen. We now began to approach one of the beaten
+highways, over which a constant stream of travel is passing--the road
+leading from the various ports of Europe to the equator and the coast of
+Brazil, and thence east and west, as may be the destination of the
+wayfarer.
+
+_December 28th._--A fine, bright day, with the wind light from the
+south-west. At daylight, "Sail ho!" came ringing from the mast-head. The
+sail crossing our bows, we took in our studding-sails, hauled up
+south-east, to intercept her, and got up steam. Our latitude being 35�
+17', and longitude 20� 53', we were within striking distance of Cadiz or
+Gibraltar, and could afford now to use a little steam. The chase did not
+reward us, however, as she proved to be English--being the ship
+_Richibucto_, from Liverpool, for Vera Cruz, laden with salt. We received
+from her some English newspapers, which gave us several items of
+interesting intelligence. All England was in mourning for the death of
+Prince Albert. The _Trent_ affair was causing great excitement, and the
+Confederate States steamer _Nashville_, Captain Pegram, had arrived at
+Southampton, having burned a large Yankee ship, the _Harvey Birch_. This
+ship having been burned in the English Channel, much attention was
+attracted to the act; especially as the ship was tea-laden, and supposed
+to be worth near half a million of dollars.
+
+The next day was rainy, with a light wind from the south-east. Only two
+sails were seen, and to neither of them did we give chase; but on the
+morning of the 30th of December, we fell in with a perfect stream of
+ships. "Sail ho!" was shouted at daylight from the mast-head, and repeated
+at short intervals, until as many as twenty-five were reported. We at once
+got up steam, and commenced chasing; but though we chased diligently, one
+ship after another, from eight o'clock in the morning until four in the
+afternoon, we did not overhaul a single ship of the enemy! We actually
+boarded sixteen sail, a number of others showing us their colors. The
+ships boarded were of the following nationalities:--Four Dutch, seven
+English, two French, one Swedish, one Prussian, one Hamburg. Here was
+quite a representation of the nations of Europe, and I amused myself
+taking the vote of these ships, according to our American fashion, upon
+the war. Their sentiments were elicited as follows:--I would first show
+them the United States colors, pretending to be a Federal cruiser; I would
+then haul down these colors, and show them the Confederate flag. The
+result was that but one ship--the Prussian--saluted the United States
+flag, and that all the other ships, with one or two exceptions, saluted
+the Confederate States flag. We were then beating the enemy, and the
+nations of the earth were worshipping success.
+
+So large a fleet of ships--not being a convoy--so far out at sea, was
+quite a curiosity, and may serve to show the landsman how accurately we
+have mapped out, upon the ocean, the principal highways of commerce.
+There were no mile-posts on the road these ships were travelling, it is
+true, but the road was none the less "blazed" out, for all that--the
+blazes being on the wind and current charts. The night succeeding this
+busy day set in cloudy and ugly, with a fresh breeze blowing from the
+eastward; and so continuous was the stream of ships, all sailing in the
+contrary direction from ourselves, that we had serious apprehensions of
+being run over. To guard against this, we set our side-lights, and
+stationed extra look-outs. Several ships passed us during the night,
+hurrying forward on the wings of the wind, at a rapid rate, and sometimes
+coming so close, in the darkness, as almost to make one's hair stand on
+end. The next morning the weather became clear and beautiful, and the
+stream of ships had ceased.
+
+The reader may be curious to know the explanation of this current of
+ships. It is simple enough. They were all Mediterranean ships. At the
+strait of Gibraltar there is a constant current setting into the
+Mediterranean. This current is of considerable strength, and the
+consequence is, that when the wind also sets into the strait--that is to
+say, when it is from the westward--it is impossible for a sailing-ship to
+get out of the strait into the Atlantic. She is obliged to come to anchor
+in the bay of Gibraltar, and wait for a change of wind. This is sometimes
+a long time in coming--the westerly winds continuing here, not
+unfrequently, two and three weeks at a time. As a matter of course, a
+large number of ships collect in the bay, waiting for an opportunity of
+exit. I have seen as many as a hundred sail at one time. In a few hours
+after a change of wind takes place, this immense fleet will all be under
+way, and such of them as are bound to the equator and the coast of Brazil,
+the United States, West Indies, and South America, will be found
+travelling the blazed road of which I have spoken; some taking the forks
+of the road, at their respective branching-off places, and others keeping
+the main track to the equator. Hence the exodus the reader has witnessed.
+
+Perhaps the reader needs another explanation--how it was, that amid all
+that fleet of ships, there was not one Yankee. This explanation is almost
+as easy as the other. Commerce is a sensitive plant, and at the rude
+touch of war it had contracted its branches. The enemy was fast losing his
+Mediterranean trade, under the operation of high premiums for war risks.
+
+We began now to observe a notable change in the weather, as affected by
+the winds. Along the entire length of the American coast, the clear winds
+are the west winds, the rain-winds being the east winds. Here the rule is
+reversed; the west winds bringing us rains, and the east winds clear
+weather. The reason is quite obvious. The east winds, sweeping over the
+continent of Europe, have nearly all of their moisture wrung out of them
+before they reach the sea; hence the dryness of these winds, when they
+salute the mariner cruising along the European coasts. Starting now from
+the European seas as dry winds, they traverse a large extent of water
+before they reach the coasts of the United States. During the whole of
+this travel, these thirsty winds are drinking their fill from the sea, and
+by the time they reach Portland or Boston, they are heavily laden with
+moisture, which they now begin to let down again upon the land. Hence,
+those long, gloomy, rainy, rheumatic, easterly storms, that prevail along
+our coast in the fall and winter months. The reader has now only to take
+up the west wind, as it leaves the Pacific Ocean, as a wet wind, and
+follow it across the American continent, and see how dry the mountains
+wring it before it reaches the Atlantic, to see why it should bring us
+fair weather. The change was very curious to us at first, until we became
+a little used to it.
+
+Another change was quite remarkable, and that was the great difference in
+temperature which we experienced with reference to latitude. Here we were,
+in midwinter, or near it, off the south coast of Spain, in latitude 36�,
+nearly that of Cape Henry at the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay, and
+unless the weather was wet, we had not felt the necessity of a pea-jacket.
+Whence this difference? The cause, or causes, whatever they are, must, of
+course, be local; for other things being equal, the heat should be the
+same, on the same parallel of latitude, all around the globe which we
+inhabit. Captain Matthew F. Maury, of the late Confederate States' Navy,
+to whom all nations accord, as by common consent, the title of
+Philosopher of the Seas, accounts for this difference of temperature in
+the following manner: "Modern ingenuity has suggested a beautiful mode of
+warming houses in winter. It is done by means of hot water. The furnace
+and the caldron are sometimes placed at a distance from the apartment to
+be warmed. It is so at the Observatory. In this case, pipes are used to
+conduct the heated water from the caldron under the Superintendent's
+dwelling, over into one of the basement rooms of the Observatory, a
+distance of one hundred feet. These pipes are then flared out, so as to
+present a large cooling surface; after which they are united into one
+again, through which the water, being now cooled, returns of its own
+accord to the caldron. Thus, cool water is returning all the time, and
+flowing in at the bottom of the caldron, while hot water is continually
+flowing out at the top. The ventilation of the Observatory is so arranged
+that the circulation of the atmosphere through it is led from this
+basement room, where the pipes are, to all parts of the building; and in
+the process of this circulation, the warmth conveyed by the water to the
+basement, is taken thence by the air; and distributed all over the rooms.
+
+"Now, to compare small things with great, we have, in the warm waters
+which are confined in the Gulf of Mexico, just such a heating apparatus
+for Great Britain, the North Atlantic, and Western Europe. The furnace is
+the torrid zone; the Mexican Gulf and Caribbean Sea are the caldrons; the
+Gulf Stream is the conducting-pipe. From the Grand Banks of New Foundland
+to the shores of Europe is the basement--the hot-air chambers--in which
+this pipe is flared out so as to present a large cooling surface. Here the
+circulation of the atmosphere is arranged by nature, and it is such that
+the warmth conveyed into this warm-air chamber of mid-ocean is taken up by
+the genial west winds, and dispensed in the most benign manner, throughout
+Great Britain and the west of Europe. The maximum temperature of the
+water-heated air-chamber of the Observatory, is about 90�. The maximum
+temperature of the Gulf Stream is 86�, or about 9� in excess of the ocean
+temperature due the latitude. Increasing its latitude, 10�, it loses but
+2� of temperature; and after having run three thousand miles toward the
+north, it still preserves, even in winter, the heat of summer.
+
+"With this temperature it crosses the 40th degree of North latitude, and
+there, overflowing its liquid banks, it spreads itself out for thousands
+of square leagues over the cold waters around, and covers the ocean with a
+mantle of warmth that serves so much to mitigate in Europe, the rigors of
+winter. Moving now slowly, but dispensing its genial influences more
+freely, it finally meets the British Islands. By these it is divided, one
+part going into the polar basin of Spitzbergen, the other entering the Bay
+of Biscay, but each with a warmth considerably above the ocean
+temperature. Such an immense volume of heated water cannot fail to carry
+with it beyond the seas a mild and moist atmosphere. And this it is which
+so much softens climates there. We know not, except approximately in one
+or two places, what the depth or the under temperature of the Gulf Stream
+may be; but assuming the temperature and velocity, at the depth of two
+hundred fathoms to be those of the surface, and taking the well-known
+difference between the capacity of air, and of water for specific heat as
+the argument, a simple calculation will show that the quantity of heat
+discharged over the Atlantic from the waters of the Gulf Stream in a
+winter's day would be sufficient to raise the whole column of atmosphere
+that rests upon France, and the British Islands from the freezing-point to
+summer heat. Every west wind that blows, crosses the stream on its way to
+Europe, and carries with it a portion of this heat to temper there the
+northern winds of winter. It is the influence of this stream upon
+climates, that makes Erin the 'Emerald Isle of the Sea,' and that clothes
+the shores of Albion in evergreen robes; while in the same latitude on
+this side, the coasts of Labrador are fast bound in fetters of ice."
+
+To pursue Captain Maury's theory a little farther: the flow of tepid
+waters does not cease at the Bay of Biscay, but continues along the coasts
+of Spain and Portugal, thence along the coast of Africa, past Madeira and
+the Canaries, to the Cape de Verdes; where it joins the great equatorial
+current flowing westward, with which it returns again into the Gulf of
+Mexico. The _Sumter_, being between Madeira and the coast of Spain, was
+within its influence. One word before I part with my friend Maury. In
+common with thousands of mariners all over the world, I owe him a debt of
+gratitude, for his gigantic labors in the scientific fields of our
+profession; for the sailor may claim the philosophy of the seas as a part
+of his profession. A knowledge of the winds and the waves, and the laws
+which govern their motions is as necessary to the seaman as is the art of
+handling his ship, and to no man so much as to Maury is he indebted for a
+knowledge of these laws. Other distinguished co-laborers, as Reid,
+Redfield, Espy, have contributed to the science, but none in so eminent a
+degree. They dealt in specialties--as, for instance, the storm--but he has
+grasped the whole science of meteorology--dealing as well in the
+meteorology of the water, if I may use the expression, as in that of the
+atmosphere.
+
+A Tennesseean by birth, he did not hesitate when the hour came, "that
+tried men's souls." Poor, and with a large family, he gave up the
+comfortable position of Superintendent of the National Observatory, which
+he held under the Federal Government, and cast his fortunes with the
+people of his State. He had not the courage to be a traitor, and sell
+himself for gold. The State of Tennessee gave him birth; she carried him
+into the Federal Union, and she brought him out of it. Scarcely any man
+who withdrew from the old service has been so vindictively, and furiously
+assailed as Maury. The nationalists of the North,--and I mean by
+nationalists, the whole body of the Northern people, who ignored the
+rights of the States, and claimed that the Federal Government was
+paramount,--had taken especial pride in Maury and his labors. He, as well
+as the country at large, belonged to them. They petted and caressed him,
+and pitted him against the philosophers of the world, with true Yankee
+conceit. They had the biggest country, and the cleverest men in the world,
+and Maury was one of these.
+
+But Maury, resisting all these blandishments, showed, to their horror,
+when the hour of trial came, that he was a Southern gentleman, and not a
+Puritan. The change of sentiment was instantaneous and ludicrous. Their
+self-conceit had received an awful blow, and there is no wound so damaging
+as that which has been given to self-conceit. Almost everything else may
+be forgiven, but this never can. Maury became at once a "rebel" and a
+"traitor," and everything else that was vile. He was not even a
+philosopher any longer, but a humbug and a cheat. In science, as in other
+pursuits, there are rivalries and jealousies. The writer of these pages,
+having been stationed at the seat of the Federal Government for a year or
+two preceding the war, was witness of some of the rivalries and jealousies
+of Maury, on the part of certain small philosophers, who thought the world
+had not done justice to themselves. These now opened upon the dethroned
+monarch of the seas, as live asses will kick at dead lions, and there was
+no end to the partisan abuse that was heaped upon the late Chief of the
+National Observatory.
+
+Maury had been a Federal naval officer, as well as philosopher, and some
+of his late _confr�res_ of the Federal service, who, in former years, had
+picked up intellectual crumbs from the table of the philosopher, and were
+content to move in orbits at a very respectful distance from him; now,
+raised by capricious fortune to _place_, joined in the malignant outcry
+against him. Philosopher of the Seas! Thou mayest afford to smile at these
+vain attempts to humble thee. Science, which can never be appreciated by
+small natures, has no nationality. Thou art a citizen of the world, and
+thy historic fame does not depend upon the vile traducers of whom I have
+spoken. These creatures, in the course of a few short years, will rot in
+unknown graves; thy fame will be immortal! Thou hast revealed to us the
+secrets of the depths of the ocean, traced its currents, discoursed to us
+of its storms and its calms, and taught us which of its roads to travel,
+and which to avoid. Every mariner, for countless ages to come, as he takes
+down his chart, to shape his course across the seas, will think of thee!
+He will think of thee as he casts his lead into the deep sea; he will
+think of thee, as he draws a bucket of water from it, to examine its
+animalcul�; he will think of thee as he sees the storm gathering thick and
+ominous; he will think of thee as he approaches the calm-belts, and
+especially the calm-belt of the equator, with its mysterious cloud-ring;
+he will think of thee as he is scudding before the "brave west winds" of
+the Southern hemisphere; in short, there is no phenomenon of the sea that
+will not recall to him thine image. This is the living monument which
+thou hast constructed for thyself; and which all the rage of the Puritan
+cannot shake.
+
+_December 31st._--The last day of the year, as though it would atone to us
+for some of the bad weather its previous days had given us, is charming.
+There is not a cloud, as big as a man's hat, anywhere to be seen, and the
+air is so elastic that it is a positive pleasure to breathe it. The
+temperature is just cool enough to be comfortable, though the wind is from
+the north. At daylight, a couple of sail were reported from aloft, but, as
+they were at a great distance, and out of our course, we did not chase.
+Indeed, we have become quite discouraged since our experience of
+yesterday. A third sail was seen at noon, also at a great distance. These
+are probably the laggards of the great Mediterranean wind-bound fleet. We
+observed, to-day, in latitude 35� 22'; the longitude being 16� 27'. It
+becoming quite calm at eight P. M., I put the ship under steam; being about
+490 miles from Cadiz.
+
+_January 1st_, 1862.--Nearly calm; wind light from the south-west, and sky
+partially overcast. The sea is smooth, and we are making nine knots, the
+hour. We made an excellent run during the past night, and are approaching
+the Spanish coast very rapidly. Nothing seen during the day. At nine P. M.
+a sail passed us, a gleam of whose light we caught for a moment in the
+darkness. The light being lost almost as soon as seen, we did not attempt
+to chase. Latitude 35� 53'; longitude 13� 14'.
+
+On the next day we overhauled a French, and a Spanish ship. It had been my
+intention, when leaving Martinique, to cruise a few days off Cadiz, before
+entering the port, and for this purpose I had reserved a three days'
+supply of fuel; but, unfortunately, the day before our arrival we took
+another gale of wind, which shook us so severely, that the ship's leak
+increased very rapidly; the engineer reporting that it was as much as he
+could do to keep her free, with the bilge pumps, under short steam. The
+leak was evidently through the sleeve of the propeller, and was becoming
+alarming. I therefore abandoned the idea of cruising, and ran directly for
+the land. Night set in before anything could be seen, but having every
+confidence in my chronometers, I ran without any hesitation for the
+Light, although we had been forty-one days at sea, without testing our
+instruments by a sight of land. We made the light--a fine Fresnel, with a
+red flash--during the mid-watch, and soon afterward got soundings. We now
+slowed down the engine, and ran in by the lead, until we judged ourselves
+four or five miles distant from the light, when we hove to. The next
+morning revealed Cadiz, fraught with so many ancient, and modern memories,
+in all its glory, though the weather was gloomy and the clouds dripping
+rain.
+
+  "Fair Cadiz, rising o'er the dark blue sea!"
+
+as Byron calls thee, thou art indeed lovely! with thy white
+Moresque-looking houses, and gayly curtained balconies, thy church-domes
+which carry us back in architecture a thousand years, and thy harbor
+thronged with shipping. Once the Gades of the Phoenician, now the Cadiz
+of the nineteenth century, thou art perhaps the only living city that can
+run thy record back so far into the past.
+
+We fired a gun, and hoisted a jack for a pilot, and one boarding us soon
+afterward, we steamed into the harbor. The Confederate States' flag was
+flying from our peak, and we could see that there were many curious
+telescopes turned upon us, as we passed successively the forts and the
+different quays lined with shipping. As the harbor opened upon us, a
+magnificent spectacle presented itself. On our left was the somewhat
+distant coast of Andalusia, whose name is synonymous with all that is
+lovely in scenery, or beautiful in woman. One almost fancies as he looks
+upon it, that he hears the amorous tinkle of the guitar, and inhales the
+fragrance of the orange grove. Seville is its chief city, and who has not
+read the couplet,
+
+  "_Quien no ha visto Sevilla
+  No ha visto maravilla_,"
+
+which may be rendered into the vernacular thus:
+
+  "He who hath not Seville seen,
+  Hath not seen wonders, I ween."
+
+The landscape, still green in mid-winter, was dotted with villas and
+villages, all white, contrasting prettily with the groves in which they
+were embowered. Casting the eye forward, it rested upon the picturesque
+hills of the far-famed wine district of Xeres, with its vineyards,
+wine-presses, and pack-mules. Some famous old wine estates were pointed
+out to us by the pilot.
+
+We ran through a fleet of shipping before reaching our anchorage off the
+main quay, the latter lined on both sides with market-boats; and as much
+more shipping lay beyond us. I was, indeed, quite surprised to find the
+harbor, which is spacious, so thronged. It spoke well for the reviving
+industry of Spain. With a little fancy one might imagine her still the
+mistress of the "Indies," and that these were her galleons come to pour
+the mineral treasures of half a world in her lap. All nations were
+represented, though the Spanish flag predominated. Wearing this flag there
+were many fine specimens of naval architecture--especially lines of
+steamships plying between Cadiz, the West Indies, and South America. A
+number of the merchant-ships of different nations hoisted their flags in
+honor of the _Sumter_ as she passed; and one Yankee ship--there being
+three or four of them in the harbor--hoisted hers, as much as to say, "You
+see we are not afraid to show it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+ANNOYANCE OF THE SPANISH OFFICIALS--SHORT CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE UNITED
+STATES CONSUL--THE TELEGRAPH PUT IN OPERATION BY THE OFFICIALS BETWEEN
+CADIZ AND MADRID--THE SUMTER IS ORDERED TO LEAVE IN TWENTY-FOUR
+HOURS--DECLINES OBEDIENCE TO THE ORDER--PRISONERS LANDED, AND SHIP DOCKED
+AFTER MUCH ADO--DESERTERS--SUMTER LEAVES CADIZ.
+
+
+The Spanish officials began to annoy us even before we let go our
+anchor--a health officer boarding us, and telling us that he should have
+to quarantine us for three days, unless we could show him a clean bill of
+health. We told him that our health was clean enough, but that we had no
+bill to establish the fact, whereupon he went on shore to consult his
+superiors. I sent by him, the following communication to the United States
+Consul, whose name was Eggleston:--
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     CADIZ, January 4, 1862.
+
+     SIR:--I have the honor to inform you, that I have on board this ship
+     forty-three prisoners of war--late the crews of a ship, a bark, and a
+     schooner, property of citizens of the United States, burned by me on
+     the high seas. These men having elected to be discharged on _parole_,
+     I am ready to deliver them to you.
+
+Mr. Eggleston, proving to be quite a diplomat, refused to give me my
+official title, in replying to my note; and of course, I could have no
+further communication with him. In the afternoon, the Health Officer again
+came off to inform us that the important questions, of the cleanness of
+our health, and the discharge of our prisoners, had been telegraphed to
+Madrid, and that we might soon expect a reply from her Majesty, the
+Queen.
+
+The next morning I received, by the hands of the same officer, a
+peremptory order, from the Military Governor, to proceed to sea, within
+twenty-four hours! I sat down and wrote him the following reply:--
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     CADIZ, January 5, 1862.
+
+     SIR:--I have had the honor to receive through the health officer of
+     the port, an order purporting to come from the Government of Spain,
+     directing me to proceed to sea within twenty-four hours. I am greatly
+     surprised at this unfriendly order. Although my Government has not
+     yet been formally recognized by Spain, as a _de jure_ government, it
+     has been declared to be possessed of the rights of a belligerent, in
+     the war in which it is engaged, and it is the duty of Spain to extend
+     to my ship the same hospitality that she would extend to a ship of
+     war of the opposite belligerent. It can make no difference that one
+     of the belligerents is a _de jure_ nation, and the other a _de facto_
+     nation, since it is only war rights, or such as pertain to
+     belligerents, which we are discussing.
+
+     I am aware of the rule adopted by Spain, in common with the other
+     great powers, prohibiting belligerents from bringing their prizes
+     into her ports, but this rule I have not violated. I have entered the
+     harbor of Cadiz, with my single ship, and I demand only the
+     hospitality to which I am entitled by the laws of nations--the
+     Confederate States being one of the _de facto_ nations of the earth,
+     by Spain's own acknowledgment, as before stated.
+
+     I am sorry to be obliged to add, that my ship is in a crippled
+     condition. She is damaged in her hull, is leaking badly, is
+     unseaworthy, and will require to be docked and repaired before it
+     will be possible for her to proceed to sea. I am therefore
+     constrained, by the force of circumstances, most respectfully to
+     decline obedience to the order which I have received, until the
+     necessary repairs can be made.
+
+     Further:--I have on board forty-three prisoners, confined within a
+     small space greatly to their discomfort, and simple humanity would
+     seem to dictate, that I should be permitted to hand them over to the
+     care of their Consul on shore, without unnecessary delay.
+
+Again, the telegraphic wires were put in operation, and my reply to the
+Military Commandant went up to Madrid. In a few hours a reply came down,
+giving me permission to land my prisoners, and to remain a sufficient time
+to put the necessary repairs upon my ship. In the meantime the most
+offensive espionage was exercised toward me. A guard-boat was anchored
+near by, which overhauled all shore-boats which passed between the
+_Sumter_ and the shore; and on the evening of my arrival, a Spanish
+frigate came down from the dock-yard, and anchored near my ship. There are
+no private docks in Cadiz, and I was obliged, therefore, to go into one of
+the government docks for repairs. Charles Dickens has given us an amusing
+account of an English Circumlocution Office, but English red tape dwindles
+into insignificance by the side of Spanish red tape. Getting into the
+hands of the Spanish officials was like getting into a Chancery suit. I
+thought I should never get out. The Military Commandant referred me to the
+Captain of the Port, and the Captain of the Port referred me back to the
+Military Commandant; until finally they both together referred me to the
+Admiral of the Dock-Yard; to whom I should have been referred at first. In
+the meantime, engineers and sub-engineers, and other officials whose
+titles it were tedious to enumerate, came on board, to measure the length
+of the ship and the breadth of the ship, calculate her tonnage, inspect
+her boilers, examine into the quantity of water she made during the
+twenty-four hours, and to determine generally whether we were really in
+the condition we had represented ourselves to be in, or whether we were
+deceiving her Majesty and the Minister of the Universal Yankee Nation at
+Madrid, for some sinister purpose.
+
+The permission came for me, at length, to go into dock, and landing our
+prisoners, we got up steam and proceeded to Carraca, where the docks lie,
+distant some eight miles east of the city. The Navy Yard at Carraca is an
+important building-yard; it lies at the head of the bay of Cadiz, and is
+approached by a long, narrow, and somewhat tortuous channel, well buoyed.
+The waters are deep and still, and the Yard is, in every other respect,
+admirably situated. It reminded us much, in its general aspect and
+surroundings, of the Norfolk Navy Yard, in Virginia. We were not long
+delayed in entering the dock. A ship which had occupied the basin assigned
+to us--there were several of them--was just being let out as we
+approached, and in the course of an hour afterward, the _Sumter_ was high
+and dry; so rapidly had the operation been performed. We examined her
+bottom with much curiosity, after the thumping she had had on the bar at
+Maranham, and were gratified to find that she had received no material
+damage. A small portion of her copper had been rubbed off, and one of her
+planks indented, rather than fractured. She was as sound and tight as a
+bottle, in every part of her, except in her propeller sleeve. It was here
+where the leak had been, as we had conjectured.
+
+To the delight both of the Spanish officials, who were exceedingly anxious
+to get rid of us, lest we should compromise them in some way with the
+Great Republic, of whom they seemed to be exceedingly afraid, and
+ourselves, we found that the needed repairs would be slight. The boilers
+were a good deal out of condition, it is true, but as they were capable of
+bearing a low pressure of steam, sufficient to take us to sea, the
+officials would not listen to my proposals to repair them. I had one or
+two interviews, whilst I lay here, with the Dock-Admiral, whom I found to
+be a very different man from the Military Commandant. He was a polite and
+refined gentleman, expressed much sympathy for our people, and regretted
+that his orders were such that he could not make my repairs more thorough.
+He expressed some surprise at the backdown of the Federal Government, in
+the _Trent_ affair, the news of which had just arrived, and said that he
+had fully reckoned upon our having Great Britain as an ally in the war.
+"Great Britain seems, herself, to have been of this opinion," said he, "as
+she has withdrawn all her ships of war from the Mediterranean station, for
+service on the American coast, and sent ten thousand troops to Canada."
+
+From the moment my ship entered within the precinct of the Spanish Navy
+Yard, the very d----l seemed to have broken loose among my crew. With rare
+exceptions, a common sailor has no sense of nationality. He commences his
+sea-going career at so tender an age, is so constantly at sea, and sails
+under so many different flags, that he becomes eminently a citizen of the
+world. Although I had sailed out of a Southern port, I had not half a
+dozen Southern-born men among the rank and file of my crew. They were
+mostly foreigners--English and Irish preponderating. I had two or three
+Yankees on board, who had pretended to be very good Southern men, but who,
+having failed to reap the rich harvest of prize-money, which they had
+proposed to themselves, were now about to develop their true characters.
+Some of my boats' crews had visited the shore on duty, and whilst their
+boats were lying at the pier waiting for the officers to transact their
+business, the tempter had come along. Sundry Jack-Tars, emissaries of the
+_diplomatic_ Mr. Eggleston, the Federal Consul, had rolled along down the
+pier, hitching up their trousers, and replenishing their tobacco quids as
+they came along. "Cadiz is a nice place," said they to my boats' crews,
+"with plenty of grog, and lots of fun. We have gotten tired of our ships,
+and are living at free quarters at the Consul's. Come with us, and let us
+have a jolly good time together." And they did come, or rather go, for, on
+one single night, nine of my rascals deserted. This was whilst we were
+still in dock. Being let out of dock, we dropped down to the city, and
+being afloat again, we were enabled to prevent a general stampede, by the
+exercise of firmness and vigilance. I directed an officer to be sent in
+each boat, whenever one should have occasion to communicate with the
+shore, armed with a revolver, and with orders to shoot down any one who
+should attempt to desert. Two or three other sailors slipped away,
+notwithstanding these precautions, but there the matter ended. Hearing
+that my deserters were harbored by the United States Consul, I addressed
+the following letter on the subject to the Governor of the city:--
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     CADIZ, January 16, 1862.
+
+     SIR:--I have the honor to inform you, that whilst my ship was in dock
+     at Carraca, nine of my seamen deserted, and I am informed that they
+     are sheltered and protected by the United States Consul. I
+     respectfully request that you will cause these men to be delivered up
+     to me; and to disembarrass this demand of any difficulty that may
+     seem to attend it, permit me to make the following observations.
+
+     _1st._ In the first place, my Government has been acknowledged as a
+     _de facto_ government by Spain, and as such it is entitled to all the
+     rights of a belligerent, in its war with the Government of the United
+     States.
+
+     _2d._ All the rights and privileges, therefore, which would attach to
+     the flag of the United States, should one of the ships of that
+     country enter this harbor, equally attach to the flag of the
+     Confederate States, mere ceremonial excepted.
+
+     _3d._ It has been and is the uniform custom of all nations to arrest,
+     upon request, and to hand over to their proper officers, deserters
+     from ships of war, and this without stopping to inquire into the
+     nationality of the deserter.
+
+     _4th._ If this be the practice in peace, much more necessary does
+     such a practice become in war, since otherwise the operations of war
+     might be tolerated in a neutral territory, as will be seen from my
+     next position.
+
+     _5th._ Without a violation of neutrality, an enemy's consul in a
+     neutral territory cannot be permitted to entice away seamen, from a
+     ship of the opposite belligerent, or to shelter or protect the same:
+     for if he be permitted to do this, then his domicil becomes an
+     enemy's camp in a neutral territory.
+
+     _6th._ With reference to the question in hand, I respectfully submit
+     that the only facts, which your Excellency can take cognizance of,
+     are that these deserters entered the waters of Spain under my flag,
+     and that they formed a part of my crew. The inquiry cannot pass a
+     step beyond, and Spain cannot undertake to decide, as between the
+     United States Consul and myself, to which of us the deserters in
+     question more properly belong. In other words, she has no right to
+     look into any plea set up by a deserter, that he is a citizen of the
+     United States, and not of the Confederate States.
+
+     _7th._ I might, perhaps, admit, that if a Spanish subject, serving
+     under my flag, should escape to the shore, and should satisfy the
+     authorities that he was held by force, either without contract, or in
+     violation of contract, he might be set at liberty, but such is not
+     the present case. The nationality of the deserters not being Spanish,
+     Spain cannot, as I said before, inquire into it. To recapitulate: the
+     case which I present is simply this. Several of the crew serving on
+     board this ship, under voluntary contracts, have deserted, and taken
+     refuge in the Consulate of the United States. To deprive me of the
+     power, with the assistance of the police, to recapture them, would in
+     effect convert the Consulate into a camp, and enable the Consul to
+     exercise the rights of a belligerent in neutral territory. He might
+     cripple me as effectually by this indirect means, as if he were to
+     assault me by means of an armed expedition.
+
+I took precisely what I expected by this remonstrance, that is to say,
+nothing. I was fighting here, as I had been in so many other places,
+against odds--the odds being the stationed agents, spies, and pimps of a
+recognized government. Our Southern movement, in the eyes of Spain, was a
+mere political revolution, and like all absolute governments, she had no
+sympathy with revolutionists. It was on this principle that the Czar of
+Russia had fraternized so warmly with the Federal President.
+
+Another difficulty now awaited the _Sumter_. I had run the blockade of New
+Orleans, as the reader has seen, with a very slim exchequer; that
+exchequer was now exhausted, and we had no means with which to purchase
+coal. I had telegraphed to Mr. Yancey, in London, immediately upon my
+arrival, for funds, but none, as yet, had reached me, although I had been
+here two weeks. In the meantime, the authorities, under the perpetual
+goading of the United States Charg� in Madrid, Mr. Perry, and of Mr.
+Consul Eggleston, were becoming very restive, and were constantly sending
+me invitations to go to sea. Before I had turned out on the morning of the
+17th of January, an aide-de-camp of the Governor came on board, to bring
+me a peremptory order from his chief, to depart _within six hours_. I went
+on shore, for the first time, to have an official interview with the
+blockhead. I found him, contrary to all Spanish rule, a large, thick-set,
+bull-necked fellow, with whom, I saw at the first glance, it would be of
+but little use to reason. I endeavored to make him understand the nature
+of the case; how it was that a steamer could no more go to sea without
+fuel, than a sailing-ship without a mast; but he was inexorable. He was,
+in short, one of those dunder-headed military men, who never look, or care
+to look, beyond the orders of their superiors. The most that he would
+undertake to do, was to telegraph to Madrid my statement, that I was out
+of fuel, but expected momentarily to be supplied with funds to purchase
+it. He added, however, "but if no reply comes _within the six hours_, you
+must go to sea." I had retained enough coal on board from my last cruise,
+to run me around to Gibraltar--a run of a few hours only--and I now
+resolved to have nothing more to do with Spain, or her surly officials.
+
+I returned on board, without further delay, and gave orders to get up
+steam, and make all the other necessary preparations for sea. As we were
+weighing our anchor, an aide-de-camp of the Governor came off in great
+haste to say, that his Excellency had heard from Madrid in reply to his
+telegram, and that her Majesty had graciously given me permission to
+remain another twenty-four hours; but that at the end of that time I must
+depart without fail. The aide-de-camp added that his Excellency, seeing
+that we were getting up steam, had sent him off to communicate the
+intelligence to me verbally, in advance of the official communication of
+it by letter, which he was preparing. I directed the aide to say to his
+chief that he needn't bother himself with the preparation of any letter,
+as I should not avail myself of her Majesty's gracious permission--she
+having been a little too ungracious in meting out the hours to me. He
+departed, and we got under way. As we passed abreast of the Government
+House, a boat shoved off in a great hurry, and came pulling out to us,
+with a man standing up in the bow, shaking a letter at us with great
+vehemence. It was the letter the aide-de-camp had spoken of. We paid no
+attention whatever to the signal, and the boat finding, after some
+vigorous pulling, that she could not overtake us, turned back. In half an
+hour afterward, we were outside the Cadiz bar, and had discharged the
+pilot.
+
+This was the second Spanish experiment we had made in the _Sumter_. I
+never afterward troubled her Majesty, either in her home ports, or those
+of any of her colonies. I had learned by experience that all the weak
+powers were timid, and henceforth, I rarely entered any but an English or
+a French port. We should have had, during all this controversy, a
+Commissioner at the Court of Madrid, one having been dispatched thither at
+the same time that Mr. Yancey was sent to London, and Mr. Mann to
+Brussels, but if there was one there, I did not receive a line from him.
+The Federal Charg� seemed to have had it all his own way. There is no
+proposition of international law clearer, than that a disabled belligerent
+cruiser--and a steamer without coal is disabled--cannot be expelled from a
+neutral port, and yet the _Sumter_ was, in fact, expelled from Cadiz. As
+remarked some pages back, the Demos, and the Carpet-bagger will revenge us
+in good time.
+
+We did enjoy some good things in the harbor of Cadiz, however. One was a
+superb dinner, given us at the principal hotel by an English admirer, and
+another was the market. The latter is unexcelled in any part of the world.
+Fine beef and mutton from Andalusia, fish from the sea, and fruits and
+wines from all parts of Spain, were present in profusion. Although we were
+in midwinter, there were a variety of vegetables, and luscious oranges and
+bananas that had ripened in the open air--all produced by the agency of
+that Mexican Gulf heating-apparatus, of which we spoke through the lips of
+Professor Maury, a few pages back. Before leaving Cadiz I saw the first
+annual report of the Federal Secretary of the Navy since the breaking out
+of the war. Old gentleman Welles was eloquent, and denunciatory when he
+came to speak of the _Sumter_. The vessel was a "pirate," and her
+commander everything that was odious. The latter "was courageously
+capturing unarmed merchant-ships, and cowardly fleeing from the Federal
+steamers sent in pursuit of him." There were six of these ships in full
+hue and cry after the little _Sumter_, any one of which could have hoisted
+her in upon deck. At the same time that these denunciations were hurled
+against the Captain of the _Sumter_, gallant naval officers, wearing Mr.
+Welles' shoulder-straps, and commanding Mr. Welles' ships, were capturing
+little coasting-schooners laden with firewood, plundering the houses and
+hen-roosts of non-combatant citizens along the Southern coast, destroying
+salt-works, and intercepting medicines going in to our hospitals. But I
+must be charitable. Mr. Welles was but rehearsing the lesson which he had
+learned from Mr. Seward. What could _he_ know about "pirates" and the laws
+of nations, who had been one half of his life editing a small newspaper,
+in a small town in Connecticut, and the other half "serving out" to Jack
+his frocks and trousers, and weighing out to him his sugar and tea, as
+Chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing? It was late in life before
+the old gentleman, on the rising tide of the Demos, had been promoted, and
+allowance must be made for the defects of his early training.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE SUMTER OFF CADIZ--THE PILLARS OF HERCULES--GIBRALTAR--CAPTURE OF THE
+ENEMY'S SHIPS NEAPOLITAN AND INVESTIGATOR--A CONFLAGRATION BETWEEN EUROPE
+AND AFRICA--THE SUMTER ANCHORS IN THE HARBOR OF GIBRALTAR--THE ROCK; THE
+TOWN; THE MILITARY; THE REVIEW AND THE ALAMEDA.
+
+
+The afternoon was bright and beautiful as the _Sumter_, emerging from the
+harbor of Cadiz, felt once more the familiar heave of the sea. There was
+no sail in sight over the vast expanse of waters, except a few small
+coasting-craft, and yet what fleets had floated on the bosom of these
+romantic waters! The names of Nelson, Collingwood, Jervis, and others,
+came thronging upon the memory. Cape St. Vincent and Trafalgar were both
+in the vicinity. The sun, as he approached his setting, was lighting up a
+scene of beauty, peace, and tranquillity, and it was difficult to conjure
+those other scenes of the storm, and the flying ships, and the belching
+cannon, so inseparably connected with those great names.
+
+It was too late to attempt the run to Gibraltar that night, with the hope
+of arriving at a seasonable hour, and so we "held on," in nautical phrase,
+to the light--that beautiful red flash which I have before
+described--until midnight, when we gave the ship her steam, and turned her
+head in the direction of the famous Strait, or Gut, as the sailors
+sometimes less euphoniously call it. The weather, in the meantime, had
+changed, the wind had died entirely away, and the sea was calm, but rifts
+of cloud were passing over the moon, indicating an upper current in the
+higher atmosphere, that might portend storm or rain on the morrow. We
+steamed along the bold Spanish coast, at a distance of only a few miles,
+and entered the Strait before daylight, passing the Tarifa light at about
+five A. M.
+
+The Pillars of Hercules, that for so many centuries bounded the voyages of
+the ancient mariners, rose abruptly and majestically on either hand of us,
+softened and beautified by the moonlight. We had the Strait all to
+ourselves, there being no sail visible. The Genius of the ancient time
+seemed to hover over the scene, so solemn and mysterious did everything
+appear. But no! the Genius of the ancient time could not be there, for the
+quiet waters were broken by the prow of the _steamship_, from a hemisphere
+of which the Genius had not conceived. And that steamship, what flag did
+she bear? A flag that neither Phoenician, nor Carthaginian, nor Roman
+had dreamed of. It had arisen amid the wreck and ruin of a new empire,
+that had decayed before its time, was floating above a thousand dead
+nationalities, and was struggling, as the polished Greek had struggled,
+long centuries before, against the "long-haired" barbarian of the North,
+who was repeating history by overrunning the fair lands of the South.
+
+We made the light at Gibraltar just as the day was dawning, and, hurried
+on by the current, moved rapidly up the Strait. Several sail that were
+coming down the Mediterranean became plainly visible from the deck as the
+twilight developed into day. We could not think of running into Gibraltar
+before overhauling these sails; we might, perchance, find an enemy among
+them, and so we altered our course and gave chase; as so many barks,
+ancient and modern, heathen, Christian, and Moor had done before us, in
+this famous old Strait. The telescope soon revealed the secret of the
+nationality of two of the sails; they being, as plainly as symmetry and
+beauty of outline, the taper and grace of spars, and whiteness of
+canvas--produced upon our own cotton-fields--could speak, American. To
+these, therefore, we directed our attention. It was a couple of hours
+before we came up with the first of these ships. She was standing over
+toward the African side of the Strait, though still distant from the land,
+some six or seven miles. We hoisted our own colors, and fired the usual
+gun. She hauled up her courses, and backed her maintopsail at once, and
+in a moment more, we could see the brightest of stars and stripes
+fluttering in the breeze, and glittering, in very joyousness, as it were,
+in the rays of the morning's sun; for the captain of the prize had
+evidently treated himself to a new ensign. The cat ran close enough to
+parley with the mouse, before she put her paw upon it. The bark, for such
+the prize was, proved to be the _Neapolitan_, of Kingston, Mass., from
+Messina, in the island of Sicily, bound for Boston, with a cargo of fruit,
+dried and fresh, and _fifty tons of sulphur_. She had been freshly
+painted, with that old robber, the bald eagle, surrounded by stars, gilded
+on her stern; her decks looked white and sweet after the morning's
+ablution which she had just undergone; her sails were well hoisted, and
+her sheets well home; in short, she was a picture to look at, and the cat
+looked at her, as a cat only can look at a sleek mouse. And then only to
+think, that the sly little mouse, looking so pretty and so innocent,
+should have so much of that villanous material called sulphur in its
+little pouch!
+
+The master stated in his deposition, that the entire cargo belonged to the
+British house of Baring Bros., it being consigned to an agent of theirs in
+Boston. The object of so wording the deposition was, of course, to save
+the cargo as neutral property, but as I happened to know that the Boston
+house of the Barings, instead of being an agent merely, was a partner of
+the London house, the master took nothing by his deposition. Besides, if
+there had been no doubt as to the British ownership, sulphur going to an
+enemy's country is contraband of war; and in this case the contraband of
+war was not only condemnable of itself, but it tainted all the rest of the
+cargo, which belonged to the same owner. The master, who was as strongly
+marked in his Puritan nationality, as the Israelite is in the seed of
+Abraham, feeling himself securely intrenched behind the Baring Bros., was
+a little surprised when I told him that I should burn his ship, and began
+to expostulate. But I had no time for parley, for there was another ship
+demanding my attention; and so, transferring the prisoners from the doomed
+ship to the _Sumter_, as speedily as possible, the _Neapolitan_ was
+burned; burned in the sight of Europe and Africa, with the turbaned Moor
+looking upon the conflagration, on one hand, and the garrison of
+Gibraltar and the Spaniard on the other. Previously to applying the torch,
+we took a small liberty with some of the excellent fruit of the Barings,
+transferring a number of drums of figs, boxes of raisins and oranges, to
+the cooks and stewards of the different messes.
+
+We now steamed off in pursuit of the other sail. This second sail proved
+also to be American, as we had supposed. She was the bark _Investigator_,
+of Searsport, Maine, from one of the small ports of Spain, bound for
+Newport, in Wales, with a cargo of iron ore. The cargo being properly
+documented as British property, we could not destroy her, but were
+compelled to release her under ransom bond. The capturing and disposing of
+these two ships had occupied us several hours, during which the in-draught
+of the Strait had set us some miles to the eastward of the Rock. We now,
+at half-past two P. M., turned our head in the direction of Gibraltar, and
+gave the ship all steam. By this time the portent of last night had been
+verified, and we had an overcast sky, with a strong northwester blowing in
+our teeth. With the wind and current both ahead, we had quite a struggle
+to gain the anchorage.
+
+It was half-past seven P. M., or some time after dark, that we finally
+passed under the shadow of the historical rock, with the brilliant light
+on Europa Point throwing its beams upon our deck; and it was a few minutes
+past eight o'clock, or evening gun-fire, when we ran up to the man-of-war
+anchorage, and came to. We had no occasion to tell the people of Gibraltar
+who we were. They were familiar with our Cadiz troubles, and had been
+expecting us for some days; and accordingly, when the signal-man on the
+top of the Rock announced the appearance of a Confederate States' steamer
+in the Strait, every one knew that it was the _Sumter_. And when, a short
+time afterward, it was announced that the little steamer was in chase of a
+Yankee, the excitement became intense. Half the town rushed to Europa
+Point and the signal-station, to watch the chase and the capture; and when
+the flames were seen ascending from the doomed _Neapolitan_, sketch-books
+and pencils were produced, and all the artists in the crowd went busily to
+work to sketch the extraordinary spectacle; extraordinary in any age, but
+still more extraordinary in this.
+
+Here were two civilized nations at war, at the door of a third, and that
+third nation, instead of mitigating and softening, as much as possible,
+the barbarities of war, had, by her timidity, caution, or unfriendliness,
+whichever to the reader may seem more probable, ordered, directed, and
+decreed that one of the parties should burn all the ships of the other
+that it should capture! The spectacle of the burning ship which the
+inhabitants of Gibraltar had witnessed from the top of their renowned
+rock, was indirectly the work of their own Government. Why might not this
+Federal ship, when captured, have been taken into Gibraltar, there to
+await the disposition which a prize-court should make of her, instead of
+being burned? Because Great Britain would not permit it. Why might she not
+have been taken into some other neutral port, for this purpose? Because
+all the world had followed the lead of Great Britain, the chief maritime
+power of the earth. Great Britain knew when she issued her orders in
+council, prohibiting both the belligerents in the American war, from
+bringing their prizes into her ports, precisely what would be the effect
+of those orders. She knew that the stronger belligerent would shut out the
+weaker belligerent from his own ports, by means of a blockade. She knew
+that if she denied this weaker belligerent access to her ports, with his
+prizes, all the other nations of the earth would follow her lead. And she
+knew that if this same weaker belligerent should have no ports whatever
+into which to carry his prizes, he must burn them. Hence the spectacle her
+people had witnessed from the top of her rock of Gibraltar.
+
+In a few minutes after anchoring, we were boarded by a boat from the
+English frigate, which had the guard for the day. The officer made us the
+usual "tender of service" from the Port Admiral. We sent a boat ourselves
+to report our arrival on board the health ship, and to inquire if there
+would be any quarantine; and after a _long_ day of excitement and
+fatigue,--for I had not turned in since I left the Cadiz light, the night
+before--I sought my berth, and slept soundly, neither dreaming of Moor or
+Christian, Yankee or Confederate. John spread me the next morning a
+sumptuous breakfast, and brought me off glowing accounts of the Gibraltar
+market, filled with all the delicacies both of Spain and Morocco. The
+prize which we had liberated on ransom-bond, followed us in, and was
+anchored not far from us. There was another large American ship at anchor.
+
+At an early hour a number of English officers, of the garrison and navy,
+and citizens called on board to see us; and at ten o'clock I went on board
+the frigate whose boat had boarded us the previous night, to return the
+commanding naval officer's visit. He was not living on board, but at his
+quarters on shore, whither I proceeded at two P. M. Landing at the Navy
+Yard, an orderly conducted me thence to his neat little cottage, perched
+half way up the rock, and embowered by shade trees, in the most charming
+little nook possible. I found Captain--now Rear-Admiral--Sir Frederic
+Warden a very clever specimen of an English naval officer; and we had a
+pleasant conversation of half an hour together. Having lost one of my
+anchors, I asked the loan of one from him until I could supply myself in
+the market. He replied that he had every disposition to oblige me, but
+that he must first submit the question to the "law officers of the Crown."
+I said to him playfully, "these 'law officers of the Crown' of yours must
+be sturdy fellows, for they have some heavy burdens to carry; when I was
+at Trinidad the Governor put a whole cargo of coal on their shoulders, and
+now you propose to saddle them with an anchor!" He said pleasantly, in
+return, "I have not the least doubt of the propriety of your request, but
+we must walk according to rule, you know." The next morning, bright and
+early, a boat came alongside, bringing me an anchor.
+
+From Captain Warden's, I proceeded to the residence of the Governor and
+Military Commander of the Rock, Sir William J. Codrington, K. C. B. His
+house was in the centre of the town, and I had a very pleasant walk
+through shaded avenues and streets, thronged with a gayly dressed
+population, every third man of which was a soldier, to reach it. The same
+orderly still accompanied me. I was in uniform, and all the sentinels
+saluted me as I passed; and I may as well mention here, that during the
+whole of my stay at this military and naval station, my officers and
+myself received all the honors and courtesies due to our rank. No
+distinction whatever was drawn, that I am aware of, between the _Sumter_,
+and any of the enemy's ships of war that visited the station, except in
+the matter of the national salute. Our flag not being yet recognized,
+except for belligerent purposes, this honor was withheld. We dined at the
+officers' messes, and they dined on board our ship; the club and reading
+rooms were thrown open to us, and both military and citizens were
+particular in inviting us to partake of all the festivities that took
+place during our stay.
+
+My conductor, the orderly, stopped before a large stone mansion on the
+principal street, where there was a sentinel walking in front of the door,
+and in a few minutes I was led to a suite of large, airy, well-furnished
+rooms on the second floor, to await his Excellency. It was Sunday, and he
+had just returned from church. He entered, however, almost immediately. I
+had seen him a hundred times, in the portraits of half the English
+generals I had ever looked upon, so peculiarly was he _English_ and
+_military_. He was a polite gentleman of the old school, though not a very
+old man, his age being not more than about fifty-five. Governor Codrington
+was a son of the Admiral of the same name, who, as the commander-in-chief
+of the combined English, French, and Russian fleets, had gained so signal
+a victory over the Turkish fleet, in the Mediterranean, in 1827, which
+resulted in the independence of Greece, and the transfer of Prince Otho of
+Bavaria to the throne of that country. His rank was that of a
+lieutenant-general in the British army. I reported my arrival to his
+Excellency, and stated that my object in visiting Gibraltar was to repair,
+and coal my ship, and that I should expect to have the same facilities
+extended to me, that he would extend to an enemy's cruiser under similar
+circumstances. He assented at once to my proposition, saying that her
+Majesty was exceedingly anxious to preserve a strict neutrality in our
+unhappy war, without leaning to the one side or the other. "There is one
+thing, however," continued he, "that I must exact of you during your stay,
+and that is, that you will not make Gibraltar, a station, from which to
+watch for the approach of your enemy, and sally out in pursuit of him." I
+replied, "Certainly not; no belligerent has the right to make this use of
+the territory of a neutral. Your own distinguished admiralty judge, Sir
+William Scott, settled this point half a century and more ago, and his
+decisions are implicitly followed in the American States."
+
+The Governor gave me permission to land my prisoners, and they were
+paroled and sent on shore the same afternoon. We could do nothing in the
+way of preparing the _Sumter_ for another cruise, until our funds should
+arrive, and these did not reach us until the 3d of February, when Mr.
+Mason, who had by this time relieved Mr. Yancey, as our Commissioner at
+the Court of London, telegraphed me that I could draw on the house of
+Frazer, Trenholm & Co., of Liverpool, for the sum I needed. In the mean
+time, we had made ourselves very much at home at Gibraltar, quite an
+intimacy springing up between the naval and military officers and
+ourselves; whereas, as far as we could learn, the Yankee officers of the
+several Federal ships of war, which by this time had arrived, were kept at
+arm's-length, no other than the customary official courtesies being
+extended to them. We certainly did not meet any of them at the "club," or
+other public places. I had visited Gibraltar when a young officer in the
+"old service," and I had often read, and laughed over Marryatt's humorous
+description of the "Mess" of the garrison in his day; how, after one of
+their roistering dinners, the naval officers who had been present, would
+be wheeled down to the "sally-port," where their boats were waiting to
+take them on board their ships, on wheel-barrows--the following colloquy
+taking place between the sally-port sentinel (it being now some hours
+after dark), and the wheeler of the wheel-barrow. Sentinel:--"Who comes
+there?" Wheeler of wheel-barrow:--"Officer drunk on a wheel-barrow!"
+Sentinel:--"Pass Officer drunk on a wheel-barrow."
+
+The wheel-barrow days had passed, in the general improvement which had
+taken place in military and naval habits, but in other respects, I did not
+find the "Mess" much changed. The military "Mess" of a regiment is like
+the king; it never dies. There is a constant change of persons, but the
+"Mess" is ever the same, with its history of this "field," and of that;
+its traditions, and its anecdotes. Every person who has been in England
+knows how emphatically dinner is an institution with the English people;
+with its orthodox hour, the punctual attendance of the guests, the
+scrupulous attention they pay to dress, and the quantity of wine which
+they are capable of putting under their vests, without losing sight of the
+gentlemanly proprieties.
+
+It is still more an institution, if possible, with the garrisons of the
+colonies. There they do the thing in a business-like way, and the reader
+will perhaps be curious to know how the young fellows stand such constant
+wear and tear upon their constitutions. It is done in the simplest manner
+possible. After a late carouse over night, during which these fellows
+would drink two bottles to my young men's one, the latter would get up
+next morning on board the _Sumter_ feeling seedy, and dry, and go on shore
+in quest of "hock and soda-water." Meeting their late companions, they
+would be surprised to see them looking so fresh and rosy, with an air so
+jaunty, and a step so elastic. The secret, upon explanation, would prove
+to be, that the debauchee of the night was the early bird of the morning.
+Whilst my officers were still lying in uneasy slumbers, with Queen Mab
+playing pranks with their imaginations, the officer of the "Mess" would be
+up, have taken his cold shower-bath, have mounted his "hunter," sometimes
+with, and sometimes without dogs, and would be off scouring the country,
+and drinking in the fresh morning air, miles away. Not a fume of the
+liquor of the overnight's debauch would be left by the time the rider got
+back to breakfast.
+
+On the day after my visit to the Governor, Colonel Freemantle, of the
+Coldstream Guards, the Governor's aide-de-camp and military secretary,
+came off to call on me on behalf of the Governor, and to read to me a
+memorandum, which the latter had made of my conversation with him. There
+were but two points in this memorandum:--"First: It is agreed that the
+_Sumter_ shall have free access to the work-shops and markets, to make
+necessary repairs and supply herself with necessary articles, contraband
+of war excepted. Secondly: The _Sumter_ shall not make Gibraltar a
+_station_, from which to sally out from the Strait, for the purposes of
+war." I assented to the correctness of the conversation as recorded, and
+there the official portion of the interview ended. I could not but be
+amused here, as I had been at other places, at the exceeding
+scrupulousness of the authorities, lest they should compromise themselves
+in some way with the belligerents.
+
+I found Colonel Freemantle to be an ardent Confederate, expressing himself
+without any reserve, and lauding in the highest terms our people and
+cause. He had many questions to ask me, which I took great pleasure in
+answering, and our interview ended by a very cordial invitation from him
+to visit, in his company, the curiosities of the Rock. This is the same
+Colonel Freemantle, who afterward visited our Southern States during the
+war, and made the acquaintance of some of our principal military men;
+writing and publishing a very interesting account of his tour. I met him
+afterward in London, more of a Confederate than ever. Freemantle was not
+an exception. The army and navy of Great Britain were with us, almost to a
+man, and many a hearty denunciation have I heard from British military and
+naval lips, of the coldness and selfishness of the Palmerston-Russell
+government.
+
+Gibraltar, being a station for several steam-lines, was quite a
+thoroughfare of travel. The mixed character of its resident population,
+too, was quite curious. All the nations of the earth seemed to have
+assembled upon the Rock, for the purposes of traffic, and as each
+nationality preserved its costume and its language, the quay,
+market-place, streets and shops presented a picture witnessed in few, if
+in any other towns of the globe. The attractions for traffic were twofold:
+first, Gibraltar was a free port, and, secondly, there were seven thousand
+troops stationed there. The consequence was, that Christian, Moor, and
+Turk, Jew and Gentile, had assembled here from all the four quarters of
+the earth, bringing with them their respective commodities. The London
+tailor had his shop alongside that of the Moor or Turk, and if, after
+having been measured for a coat, to be made of cloth a few days only from
+a Manchester loom, you desired Moorish slippers, or otto of roses, or
+Turkish embroidery, you had only to step into the next door.
+
+Even the shopmen and products of the far East were there; a few days of
+travel only sufficing to bring from India, China, and Japan, the turbaned
+and sandalled Hindoo, the close-shaved and long-queued Chinaman, and the
+small-statured, deep-brown Japanese, with their curious stuffs and wares,
+wrought with as much ingenuity as taste. The market was indeed a
+curiosity. Its beef and mutton, both of which are very fine, are brought
+from the opposite Morocco coast, to and from which small steamers ply
+regularly. But it is the fruits and vegetables that more especially
+astonish the beholder. Here the horn of plenty seems literally to have
+been emptied. The south of Spain, and Morocco, both fine agricultural
+countries, have one of those genial climates which enables them to produce
+all the known fruits and vegetables of the earth. Whatever you desire,
+that you can have, whether it be the apple, the pear, or the cherry of the
+North, or the orange, the banana, or the date of the South. The Spaniards
+and Moors are the chief market people.
+
+Nor must we forget the fishermen, with their picturesque boats, rigged
+with their long, graceful latteen yards and pointed sails, that come in
+laden with the contributions of the sea from the shores of half a dozen
+kingdoms. Fleets of these little craft crowd the quay day and night, and
+there is a perfect Babel of voices in their vicinity, as the chaffering
+goes on for the disposal of their precious freight, much of it still
+"alive and kicking." By the way, one of the curiosities of this quay,
+whilst the _Sumter_ lay in Gibraltar, was the frequent proximity of the
+Confederate and the Federal flag. When landing I often ran my boat into
+the quay-steps, alongside of a boat from a Federal ship of war; the
+_Kearsarge_ and the _Tuscarora_ taking turns in watching my movements--one
+of them being generally anchored in the Bay of Gibraltar, and the other in
+the Bay of Algeziras, a Spanish anchorage opposite. No breach of the peace
+ever occurred; the sailors of the two services seemed rather inclined to
+fraternize. They would have fought each other like devils outside of the
+marine league, but the neutral port was a powerful sedative, and made them
+temporarily friends. They talked, and laughed and smoked, and peeled
+oranges together, as though there was no war going on. But the sailor is a
+cosmopolite, as remarked a few pages back, and these boats' crews could
+probably have been exchanged, without much detriment to each other's flag.
+
+_Sunday, January 26th._--A charming, balmy day, after the several days of
+storm and rain that we have had. At ten A. M., I went on shore to the
+Catholic church. The military attendance, especially of the rank and file,
+was very large. I should judge that, at least, two thirds of the troops
+stationed here are Irish, and there is no distinction, that I can
+discover, made between creeds. Each soldier attends whatever church he
+pleases. It is but a few years back, that no officer could serve in the
+British army without subscribing to the Thirty-Nine Articles--the creed of
+the "Established Church." After church, I took a stroll "up the Rock," and
+was astonished to find so much arable soil on its surface. The Rock runs
+north and south. Its western face is an inclined plane, lying at an angle
+of about thirty degrees with the sea-level. Ascending gradually from the
+water, it rises to the height of fifteen hundred feet. From this height, a
+plummet-line let down from its eastern face would reach the sea without
+obstruction, so perpendicular is the Rock in this direction. This face is
+of solid rock.
+
+On the western face, up which I was now walking, is situated near the
+base, and extending up about half a mile, the town. The town is walled,
+and after you have passed through a massive gateway in the southern wall,
+you are in the country. As you approach the Rock from the sea, it matters
+not from what direction, you get the idea that it is nothing but a barren
+rock. I now found it diversified with fields, full of clover and fragrant
+grasses, long, well-shaded avenues, of sufficiently gentle ascent for
+carriage-drives, beautifully laid-out pleasure-grounds, and
+well-cultivated gardens. The parade-ground is a level space just outside
+the southern wall, of sufficient capacity for the manoeuvre and review
+of five thousand men; and rising just south of this is the Alameda,
+consisting of a series of parterres of flowers, with shade-trees and
+shrubbery, among which wind a number of serpentine walks. Here seats are
+arranged for visitors, from which the exercise of the troops in the
+parade-ground below may be conveniently witnessed. A colossal statue of
+General Elliot, who defended the Rock in the famous siege that was laid to
+it in the middle of the last century by the Spaniards, is here erected.
+
+The review of the troops, which takes place, I believe, monthly, is _par
+excellence_, the grand spectacle of Gibraltar. I had the good fortune to
+witness one of these reviews, and the spectacle dwells vividly, still, in
+my imagination. Drill of the soldiers, singly, and in squads, is the chief
+labor of the garrison. Skilful drill-sergeants, for the most part young,
+active, intelligent men, having the port and bearing of gentlemen, are
+constantly at work, morning and afternoon, breaking in the raw material as
+it arrives, and rendering it fit to be moulded into the common mass.
+Company officers move their companies, to and fro, unceasingly, lest the
+men should forget what the drill-sergeant has taught them. Battalion and
+regimental drills occur less frequently.
+
+These are the labors of the garrison; now comes the pastime, viz., the
+monthly drill, when the Governor turns out, and inspects the troops. All
+is agog, on the Rock of Gibraltar, on review days. There is no end to the
+pipe-claying, and brushing, and burnishing, in the different barracks, on
+the morning of this day. The officers get out their new uniforms, and
+horses are groomed with more than ordinary care. The citizens turn out, as
+well as the military, and all the beauty and fashion of the town are
+collected on the Alameda. On the occasion of the review which I witnessed,
+the troops--nearly all young, fine-looking men--presented, indeed, a
+splendid appearance. All the corps of the British army were there,
+represented save only the cavalry; and they were moved hither and thither,
+at will; long lines of them now being tied into what seemed the most
+inextricable knots, and now untied again, with an ease, grace, and skill,
+which called forth my constant admiration.
+
+But it was not so much the movements of the military that attracted my
+attention, as the _tout ensemble_ of the crowd. The eye wandered over
+almost all the nationalities of the earth, in their holiday costumes. The
+red fez cap of the Greek, the white turban of the Moor and Turk, and the
+hat of the Christian, all waved in a common sea of male humanity, and,
+when the eye turned to the female portion of the crowd, there was
+confusion worse confounded, for the fashions of Paris and London, Athens
+and Constantinople, the isles and the continents, all were there! What
+with the waving plumes of the generals, the galloping hither and thither
+of aides and orderlies, the flashing of the polished barrel of the rifle
+in the sun, the music of the splendid bands, and the swaying and surging
+of the civic multitude which I have attempted to describe, the scene was
+fairly beyond description. A man might dream of it, but could not describe
+it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE SUMTER STILL AT GIBRALTAR--SHIP CROWDED WITH VISITORS--A RIDE OVER THE
+ROCK WITH COLONEL FREEMANTLE--THE "GALLERIES" AND OTHER SUBTERRANEAN
+WONDERS--A DIZZY HEIGHT, AND THE QUEEN OF SPAIN'S CHAIR--THE MONKEYS AND
+THE "NEUTRAL GROUND."
+
+
+The stream of visitors to the _Sumter_ continued for some days after our
+arrival. Almost every steamer from England brought more or less tourists
+and curiosity-hunters, and these did us the honor to visit us, and
+frequently to say kind words of sympathy and encouragement. Among others,
+the Duke of Beaufort and Sir John Inglis visited us, and examined our ship
+with much curiosity. The latter, who had earned for himself the title of
+the "hero of Lucknow," in that most memorable and barbarous of all sieges,
+was on his way to the Ionian Islands, of which he had recently been
+appointed Governor.
+
+_January 23d._--Weather clear and pleasant. We received a visit from
+Captain Warden to-day, in return for the visit I had made him upon my
+arrival. He came off in full uniform, to show us that his visit was meant
+to be official, as well as personal. Nothing would have pleased the
+gallant captain better, than to have been able to salute the Confederate
+States' flag, and welcome our new republic among the family of nations. We
+discussed a point of international law while he was on board. He desired,
+he said, to call my attention to the well-known rule that, in case of the
+meeting of two opposite belligerents in the same neutral port, twenty-four
+hours must intervene between their departure. I assented readily to this
+rule. It had been acted upon, I told him, by the Governor of Martinique,
+when I was in that island--the enemy's sloop _Iroquois_ having been
+compelled to cruise in the offing for fear of its application to her. I
+remarked, however, that it was useless for us to discuss the rule here, as
+the enemy's ships had adroitly taken measures to evade it. "How is that?"
+he inquired. "Why, simply," I replied, "by stationing one of his ships in
+Gibraltar, and another in Algeziras. If I go to sea from Gibraltar, the
+Algeziras ship follows me, and if I go to sea from Algeziras, the
+Gibraltar ship follows me." "True," rejoined the captain, "I did not think
+of that." "I cannot say," continued I, "that I complain of this. It is one
+of those chances in war which perhaps nine men in ten would take advantage
+of; and then these Federal captains cannot afford to be over-scrupulous;
+they have an angry mob at their heels, shouting, in their fury and
+ignorance, 'Pirate! pirate!'"
+
+The Southampton steamer brought us late news, to-day, from London. We are
+becoming somewhat apprehensive for the safety of Messrs. Mason and
+Slidell, who, having embarked on board the British steam-sloop _Rinaldo_,
+at Provincetown, Mass., on the 2d inst., bound to Halifax, distant only a
+few hundred miles, had not been heard from as late as the 10th inst. A
+heavy gale followed their embarcation. I received a letter, to-day, too,
+from Mr. Yancey. He writes despondently as to the action of the European
+powers. They are cold, distrustful, and cautious, and he has no hope of an
+early recognition. I am pained to remark here, that this distinguished
+statesman died soon after his return to the United States. He was one of
+the able men of the South, who, like Patrick Henry, and John C. Calhoun,
+seemed to be gifted with the spirit of prophecy; or, rather, to speak more
+correctly, his superior mental powers, and knowledge of men and of
+governments, enabled him, like his great predecessors, to arrive at
+conclusions, natural and easy enough to himself, but which, viewed in the
+light of subsequent events, seemed like prophecy to his less gifted
+countrymen. Mr. Yancey much resembled Patrick Henry in the simplicity and
+honesty of his character, and in the fervidness and power of his
+eloquence.
+
+_January 30th._--A fine, clear day, with the wind from the eastward.
+Having received a note last evening, from Colonel Freemantle, informing
+me that horses would be in readiness for us, this morning, at the
+Government House, to visit the fortifications, I went on shore the first
+thing after breakfast, and finding the Colonel in readiness, we mounted,
+and accompanied by an orderly to take care of our horses, rode at a brisk
+pace out of the western gate, and commenced our tour of inspection.
+Arriving at the entrance of the famous "galleries" situated about half-way
+up the Rock, we dismounted, and dived into the bowels of mother Earth.
+
+The Spaniards have been celebrated above all other people for
+fortifications. They have left monuments of their patience, diligence, and
+skill all over the world, wherever they have obtained a foothold. The only
+other people who have ever equalled them, in this particular, though in a
+somewhat different way, are the people of these Northern States, during
+the late war. No Spaniard was ever half so diligent in his handling of
+stone, and mortar, as was the Yankee soldier in throwing up his
+"earth-work." His industry in this regard was truly wonderful. If the
+Confederate soldier ever gave him half an hour's breathing-time, he was
+safe. With pick and spade he would burrow in the ground like a rabbit.
+When the time comes for that New-Zealander, foretold by Macaulay, to sit
+on the ruins of London bridge, and wonder what people had passed away,
+leaving such gigantic ruins behind them, we would recommend him to come
+over to these States, and view the miles of hillocks that the industrious
+Yankee moles threw up during our late war; and speculate upon the genus of
+the animal gifted with such wonderful instincts.
+
+But to return to our tour of inspection. The famous underground
+"galleries" of the Rock of Gibraltar, are huge tunnels, blasted and bored,
+foot by foot, in the living rock, sufficiently wide and deep to admit of
+the placing, and working of heavy artillery. They are from one third of a
+mile, to half a mile in length, and there are three tiers of them, rising
+one above the other; the embrasures or port-holes of which resemble, when
+viewed from a distance, those of an old-time two-decker. Besides these
+galleries for the artillery, there have also been excavated in the solid
+rock, ample magazines, and store and provision rooms, and tanks for the
+reception of water. These receptacles are kept constantly well supplied
+with munitions, both _de guerre_, and _de bouche_, so that if the garrison
+should be driven from the fortifications below, it could retreat to this
+citadel, close the massive doors behind them, and withstand a siege.
+
+We passed through all the galleries, ascending from one to the other,
+through a long, rough-hewn stairway--the Colonel frequently stopping, and
+explaining to me the history of some particular nook or battlement--until
+we finally emerged into the open air through a port-hole, or doorway at
+the very top of the Rock, and stood upon a narrow footway or platform,
+looking down a sheer precipice of fifteen hundred feet, upon the sea
+breaking in miniature waves at the base of the Rock. There was no rail to
+guard one from the precipice below, and I could but wonder at the
+_nonchalance_ with which the Colonel stepped out upon this narrow ledge,
+and walked some yards to get a view of the distant coast of Spain,
+expecting me to follow him. I did follow him, but I planted my feet very
+firmly and carefully, feeling all the while some such emptiness in the
+region of the "bread-basket," as Marryatt describes Peter Simple to have
+experienced when the first shot whistled past that young gentleman in his
+first naval engagement.
+
+The object of the Colonel, in this flank movement, was to show me a famous
+height some distance inland, called the "Queen of Spain's Chair," and to
+relate to me the legend in connection with it. The Rock of Gibraltar has
+always been the darling of Spain. It has been twice wrested from her, once
+by the Moors, and once by the English. She regained it from the Moors,
+when she drove them out of her Southern provinces, after an occupation of
+eight hundred years! Some of the remains of the old Moorish castles are
+still visible. Afterward, an English naval captain, returning from some
+expedition up the Mediterranean, in which he had been unsuccessful,
+stormed and captured the Rock with a handful of sailors. Spain, mortified
+beyond measure, at the result, made strenuous efforts to recover it. In
+1752 she bent all her energies in this direction, and fitted out large
+expeditions, by land and by sea, for the purpose. The Queen came down from
+Madrid to witness the siege, and causing her tent to be pitched near the
+"Chair," vowed she would never leave it, until she saw the flag of Spain
+floating once more from the coveted battlements. But General Elliot, with
+only a small garrison, beat back the immense armaments, and the Spaniards
+were compelled to raise the siege. But the poor Queen of Spain! what was
+to become of her, and her vow? English gallantry came to her relief. The
+Spanish flag was raised for a single day from the Rock, to enable the
+Queen to descend from her chair! The reader will judge whether this legend
+was worth the emptiness in the "bread-basket" which I had experienced, in
+order to get at it.
+
+Descending back through the galleries, to where we had left our horses, we
+remounted, and following a zigzag path, filled with loose stones, and
+running occasionally along the edges of precipices, down which we should
+have been instantly dashed in pieces, if our sure-footed animals had
+stumbled, we reached the signal-station. On the very apex of the rock,
+nature seemed to have prepared a little _plateau_, of a few yards square,
+as if for the very purpose for which it was occupied--that of over-looking
+the approaches from every direction, to the famous Rock. A neat little box
+of a house, with a signal-mast and yard, and a small plot of ground, about
+as large as a pocket-handkerchief, used as a garden, occupied the whole
+space. Europe, and Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic were all
+visible from this eyry. The day was clear, and we could see to great
+distances. There were ships in the east coming down the Mediterranean, and
+ships in the west coming through the famous Strait; they all looked like
+mere specks. Fleets that might shake nations with their thunder, would be
+here mere cock-boats. The country is mountainous on both sides of the
+Strait, and these mountains now lay sleeping in the sunshine, covered with
+a thin, gauzy veil, blue and mysterious, and wearing that air of
+enchantment which distance always lends to bold scenery.
+
+"We had a fine view of your ship, the other day," said the signal-man to
+me, "when you were chasing the Yankee. The latter was hereaway, when you
+set fire to her"--pointing in the direction. "Are there many Yankee ships
+passing the Rock now?" I inquired. "No. Very few since the war
+commenced." "It would not pay me, then, to cruise in these seas?"
+"Scarcely."
+
+As we turned to go to our horses, we were attracted by the appearance of
+three large apes, that had come out of their lodging-place in the Rock, to
+sun themselves. These apes are one of the curiosities of the Rock, and
+many journeys have been made in vain to the signal-station, to see them.
+The Colonel had never seen them before, himself, and the signal-man
+congratulated us both on our good fortune. "Those are three old widows,"
+said he, "the only near neighbors I have, and we are very friendly; but as
+you are strangers, you must not move if you would have a good look at
+them, or they will run away." He then gave us the history of his
+neighbors. Years ago there was quite a colony of these counterfeit
+presentments of human nature on the Rock, but the whole colony has
+disappeared except these three. "When I first came to the signal-station,"
+continued our informant, "these three old widows were gay, and dashing
+young damsels, with plenty of sweethearts, but unfortunately for them,
+there were more males than females, and a war ensued in the colony in
+consequence. First one of the young males would disappear, and then
+another, until I at last noticed that there were only four of the whole
+colony left: one very large old male, and these three females. Peace now
+ensued, and the old fellow lived apparently very happily with his wives,
+but no children were born to him, and finally he died, leaving these three
+disconsolate widows, who have since grown old--you can see that they are
+quite gray--to mourn his loss." And they did indeed look sad and
+disconsolate enough. They eyed us very curiously, and when we moved toward
+our horses, they scampered off. They subsist upon wild dates, and a few
+other wild fruits that grow upon the Rock.
+
+We passed down the mountain-side to the south end of the Rock, where we
+exchanged salutations with the General and Mrs. Codrington, who had come
+out to superintend some repairs upon a country house which they had at
+this end; and reaching the town, I began to congratulate myself that my
+long and fatiguing visit of inspection was drawing to a close. Not so,
+however. These Englishmen are a sort of cross between the Centaur and the
+North American Indian. They can ride you, or walk you to death, whichever
+you please; and so Freemantle said to me, "Now, Captain, we will just take
+a little gallop out past the 'neutral ground,' and then I think I will
+have shown you all the curiosities." The "neutral ground" was about three
+miles distant, and "a gallop" out and back, would be six miles! Imagine a
+sailor who had not been on horseback before, for six months; who had been
+riding for half a day one of those accursed English horses, with their
+long stride, and swinging trot, throwing a man up, and catching him again,
+as if he were a trap-ball; who was galled, and sore, and jaded, having
+such a proposition made to him! It was worse than taking me out on that
+narrow ledge of rock fifteen hundred feet above the sea, to look at the
+Queen of Spain's Chair. But I could not retreat. How could an American,
+who had been talking of his big country, its long rivers, the immense
+distances traversed by its railroads and steam-boats, and the capacity for
+endurance of its people in the present war, knock under to an Englishman,
+and a Coldstream Guardsman at that, on this very question of endurance?
+And so we rode to the "neutral ground."
+
+This is a narrow strip of territory, accurately set off by metes and
+bounds, on the isthmus that separates the Rock from the Spanish territory.
+As its name implies, neither party claims jurisdiction over it. On one
+side are posted the English sentinels, and on the other, the Spanish; and
+the _all's-well!_ of the one mingles strangely, at night, with the
+_alerta!_ of the other. We frequently heard them both on board the
+_Sumter_, when the night was still. I got back to my ship just in time for
+a six o'clock dinner, astonished John by drinking an extra glass of
+sherry, and could hardly walk for a week afterward.
+
+A day or two after my visit to the Rock, I received a visit from a Spanish
+naval lieutenant, sent over, as he stated, by the Admiral from Algeziras,
+to remonstrate with me against the burning of the ship _Neapolitan within
+Spanish jurisdiction_. The reader who has read the description of the
+burning of that ship, will be as much astonished as I was at this visit.
+The Spanish Government owns the fortress of Ceuta, on the African shore
+opposite Gibraltar, and by virtue of this ownership claims, as it would
+appear, jurisdiction for a marine league at sea, in the neighborhood of
+the fortress. It was claimed that the _Neapolitan_ had been captured
+within this league. The lieutenant having thus stated his case, I demanded
+to know on what testimony the Admiral relied, to establish the fact of the
+burning within the league. He replied that the United States Consul at
+Gibraltar had made the statement to the Admiral. Here was the "cat out of
+the bag" again; another United States Consul had turned up, with his
+intrigues and false statements. The nice little piece of diplomacy had
+probably been helped on, too, by the commanders of the Federal ships of
+war, that had made Algeziras a rendezvous, since I had been anchored in
+the Bay of Gibraltar. When the Spanish officer had done stating his case,
+I said to him:--"I do not recognize the right of your Admiral to raise any
+question with me, as to my capture of the _Neapolitan_. The capture of
+that ship is an accomplished fact, and if any injury has been done thereby
+to Spain, the Spanish Government can complain of it to the Government of
+the Confederate States. It has passed beyond the stage, when the Admiral
+and I could manage it, and has become an affair entirely between our two
+Governments."
+
+This was all the official answer I had to make, and the lieutenant, whose
+bearing was that of an intelligent gentleman, assented to the correctness
+of my position. I then said to him:--"But aside from the official aspect
+of the case, I desire to show you, that your Admiral has had his credulity
+played upon by his informant, the Consul, and whatever other parties may
+have approached him on this subject. They have made false statements to
+him. It is not only well known to hundreds of citizens of the Rock, who
+were eye-witnesses of the burning of the _Neapolitan_, that that vessel
+was burned at a distance of from six to seven miles from the African
+coast, but I have the testimony of the master of the captured vessel
+himself, to the same effect." I then sent for my clerk, whom I directed to
+produce and read the deposition of the master, which, according to custom,
+we had taken immediately upon effecting the capture. In that deposition,
+after having been duly sworn, the master had stated that the capture was
+made about five miles from Europa Point, the southern extremity of the
+Rock of Gibraltar. The Strait is about fourteen miles wide at this point,
+which would put the ship, when captured, nine miles from Ceuta! The
+lieutenant, at the conclusion of the reading, raised both hands, and with
+an expressive smile, ejaculated, "_Es possible?_" "Yes," I replied, "all
+things are possible to Federal Consuls, and other Federal pimps and spies,
+when the _Sumter_ and Yankee ships are concerned."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE SUMTER IN TROUBLE--FINDS IT IMPOSSIBLE TO COAL, BY REASON OF A
+COMBINATION AGAINST HER, HEADED BY THE FEDERAL CONSUL--APPLIES TO THE
+BRITISH GOVERNMENT FOR COAL, BUT IS REFUSED--SENDS HER PAYMASTER AND
+EX-CONSUL TUNSTALL TO CADIZ--THEY ARE ARRESTED AND IMPRISONED AT
+TANGIER--CORRESPONDENCE ON THE SUBJECT--THE SUMTER LAID UP AND SOLD.
+
+
+The _Sumter's_ boilers were very much out of condition when she arrived at
+Gibraltar, and we had hoped, from the fact that Gibraltar was a
+touching-point for several lines of steamers, that we should find here,
+machine and boiler shops sufficiently extensive to enable us to have a new
+set of boilers made. We were disappointed in this; and so were compelled
+to patch up the old boilers as best we could, hoping that when our funds
+should arrive, we might be enabled to coal, and run around to London or
+Liverpool, where we would find all the facilities we could desire. My
+funds arrived, as before stated, on the 3d of February, and I at once set
+about supplying myself with coal. I sent my first lieutenant and paymaster
+on shore, and afterward my engineer, to purchase it, authorizing them to
+pay more than the market-price, if it should be necessary. The reader will
+judge of my surprise when these officers returned, and informed me that
+they found the market closed against them, and that it was impossible to
+purchase a pound of coal in any direction!
+
+It has been seen, in the course of these pages, how often I have had
+occasion to complain of the conduct of the Federal Consuls, and one can
+scarcely conceive the trouble and annoyance which these well-drilled
+officials of Mr. Seward gave me. I could not, of course, have complained,
+if their bearing toward me had been simply that of open enemies. This was
+to be expected. But they descended to bribery, trickery, and fraud, and to
+all the other arts of petty intrigue, so unworthy of an honorable enemy.
+Our Southern people can scarcely conceive how little our non-commercial
+Southern States were known, in the marts of traffic and trade of the
+world. Beyond a few of our principal ports, whence our staple of cotton
+was shipped to Europe, our nomenclature even was unknown to the mass of
+mere traders. The Yankee Consul and the Yankee shipmaster were everywhere.
+Yankee ships carried out cargoes of cotton, and Yankee ships brought back
+the goods which were purchased with the proceeds. All the American trade
+with Europe was Yankee trade--a ship here and there excepted. Commercial
+men, everywhere, were thus more or less connected with the enemy; and
+trade being the breath of their nostrils, it is not wonderful that I found
+them inimical to me. With rare exceptions, they had no trade to lose with
+the South, and much to lose with the North; and this was the string played
+upon by the Federal Consuls. If a neutral merchant showed any inclination
+to supply the _Sumter_ with anything she needed, a runner was forthwith
+sent round to him by the Federal Consul, to threaten him with the loss of
+his American--_i. e._ Yankee--trade, unless he desisted.
+
+Such was the game now being played in Gibraltar, to prevent the _Sumter_
+from coaling. The same Federal Consul, who, as the reader has seen a few
+pages back, stated in an official letter to the Spanish Admiral, that the
+_Neapolitan_ had been captured within the marine league of the
+Spanish-African coast, whilst the captain of the same ship had sworn
+positively that she was distant from it, nine miles, was now bribing and
+threatening the coal-dealers of Gibraltar, to prevent them from supplying
+me with coal. Whilst I was pondering my dilemma, I was agreeably
+surprised, one morning, to receive a visit from an English shipmaster,
+whose ship had just arrived with some coal on board. He was willing, he
+said, to supply me, naming his price, which I at once agreed to give him.
+I congratulated myself that I had at last found an independent Englishman,
+who had no fear of the loss of Yankee trade, and expressed as much to
+him. "If there is anything," said he, "of which I am proud, it is just
+_that thing_, that I am an independent man." It was arranged that I should
+get up steam, and go alongside of him the next day. In the meantime,
+however, "a change came o'er the spirit" of the Englishman's dream. He
+visited the shore. What took place there, we do not know; but the next
+morning, whilst I was weighing my anchor to go alongside of him, according
+to agreement, a boat came from the ship of my "independent" friend to say,
+that I could not have the coal, unless I would pay him double the price
+agreed upon! He, too, had fallen into the hands of the enemy. The steam
+was blown off, and the anchor not weighed.
+
+Finding that I could do nothing with the merchants, I had recourse to the
+Government. There was some coal in the Dock-Yard, and I addressed the
+following note to my friend, Captain Warden, to see if he would not supply
+me:--
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     February 10, 1862.
+
+     SIR:--I have the honor to inform you, that I have made every effort
+     to procure a supply of coal, without success. The British and other
+     merchants of Gibraltar, instigated I learn by the United States
+     Consul, have entered into the unneutral combination of declining to
+     supply the _Sumter_ with coal on any terms. Under these circumstances
+     I trust the Government of her Majesty will find no difficulty in
+     supplying me. By the recent letter of Earl Russell--31st of January,
+     1862--it is not inconsistent with neutrality, for a belligerent to
+     supply himself with coal in a British port. In other words, this
+     article has been pronounced, like provisions, innoxious; and this
+     being the case, it can make no difference whether it be supplied by
+     the Government or an individual (the Government being reimbursed the
+     expense), and this even though the market were open to me. Much more
+     then may the Government supply me with an innocent article, the
+     market not being open to me. Suppose I had come into port destitute
+     of provisions, and the same illegal combination had shut me out from
+     the market, would the British Government permit my crew to starve? Or
+     suppose I had been a sailing-ship, and had come in dismasted from the
+     effects of a recent gale, and the dock-yard of her Majesty was the
+     only place where I could be refitted, would you deny me a mast? The
+     laws of nations are positive on this last point, and it would be your
+     duty to allow me to refit in the public dock. And if you would not,
+     under the circumstances stated, deny me a mast, on what principle
+     will you deny me coal--the latter being as necessary to a steamer as
+     a mast to a sailing-ship, and both being alike innoxious?
+
+     The true criterion is, not whether the Government or an individual
+     may supply the article, but whether the article itself be noxious or
+     innoxious. The Government may not supply me with powder--why? Not
+     because I may have recourse to the market, but because the article
+     itself is interdicted. A case in point occurred when I was in Cadiz
+     recently. My ship was admitted into a Government dock, and there
+     repaired. The reasons were, first, the repairs, themselves, were such
+     as were authorized by the laws of nations; and secondly, there were
+     no private docks in Cadiz. So here, the article is innocent, and
+     there is none in the market--or rather none accessible to me, which
+     is the same thing. Why, then, may not the Government supply me? In
+     conclusion, I respectfully request that you will supply me with 150
+     tons of coal, for which I will pay the cash; or, if you prefer it, I
+     will deposit the money with an agent, who can have no difficulty, I
+     suppose, in purchasing the same quantity of the material from some of
+     the coal-hulks, and returning it to her Majesty's dock-yard.
+
+This application was telegraphed to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, in
+London, and after the lapse of a week--for it took the "law-officers of
+the Crown" a week, it seems, to decide the question--was denied. On the
+same day on which I wrote the above letter, I performed the very pleasant
+duty of paying to the Spanish Consul at Gibraltar, on account of the
+authorities at Cadiz, the amount of the bill which the dock-yard officers
+at Caracca had rendered me, for docking my ship. The dock-yard Admiral had
+behaved very handsomely about it. I was entirely destitute of funds. He
+docked my ship, with a knowledge of this fact, and was kind enough to say
+that I might pay at my convenience. I take pleasure in recording this
+conduct on the part of a Spanish gentleman, who held a high position in
+the Spanish Navy, as a set-off to the coarse and unfriendly conduct of the
+Military Governor of Cadiz, of whom I have before spoken.
+
+Failing with the British Government, as I had done with the merchants of
+Gibraltar, to obtain a supply of coal, I next dispatched my paymaster for
+Cadiz, with instructions to purchase in that port, and ship the article
+around to me. A Mr. Tunstall, who had been the United States Consul at
+Cadiz, before the war, was then in Gibraltar, and at his request, I sent
+him along with the paymaster. They embarked on board a small French
+steamer plying between some of the Mediterranean ports, and Cadiz.
+Tangier, a small Moorish town on the opposite side of the Strait of
+Gibraltar, lies in the route, and the steamer stopped there for a few
+hours to land and receive passengers, and to put off, and take on freight.
+Messrs. Myers and Tunstall, during this delay, went up into the town, to
+take a walk, and as they were returning, were set upon by a guard of
+Moorish soldiers, and made prisoners! Upon demanding an explanation, they
+were informed that they had been arrested upon a requisition of the United
+States Consul, resident in that town.
+
+By special treaties between the Christian powers, and the Moorish and
+other non-Christian powers on the borders of the Mediterranean, it is
+provided that the consuls of the different Christian powers shall have
+jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, over their respective citizens. It
+was under such a treaty between the United States and Morocco, that the
+United States Consul had demanded the arrest of Messrs. Myers and
+Tunstall, as citizens of the United States, alleging that they had
+committed high crimes against the said States, on the high seas! The
+ignorant Moorish officials knew nothing, and cared nothing, about the laws
+of nations; nor did they puzzle their small brains with what was going on,
+on the American continent. All they knew was, that one "Christian dog,"
+had demanded other "Christian dogs," as his prisoners, and troops were
+sent to the Consul, to enable him to make the arrest as a matter of
+course.
+
+The Consul, hoping to recommend himself to the mad populace of the United
+States, who were just then denouncing the _Sumter_ as a "pirate," and
+howling for the blood of all embarked on board of her,--with as little
+brains as their Moorish allies,--acted like the brute he was, took the
+prisoners to his consular residence, ironed them heavily, and kept them in
+close confinement! He guarded them as he would the apple of his eye, for
+had he not a prize which might make him Consul for life at Tangier? Alas
+for human hopes! I have since learned that he was kicked out of his place,
+to make room for another _Sans Culotte_, even more hungry, and more "truly
+loil" than himself.
+
+Intelligence of the rich prizes which he had made, having been conveyed by
+the Consul, to the commanding United States naval officer, in the Bay of
+Algeziras, which bay had by this time become a regular naval station of
+the enemy, that officer, instead of releasing the prisoners at once, as he
+should have done, on every principle of honor, if not out of regard for
+the laws of nations, which he was bound to respect and obey, sent the
+sailing bark _Ino_, one of his armed vessels, to Tangier, which received
+the prisoners on board, and brought them over to Algeziras--the doughty
+Consul accompanying them.
+
+There was great rejoicing on board the Yankee ships of war, in that
+Spanish port, when the Consul and his prisoners arrived. They had
+blockaded the _Sumter_ in the Mississippi, they had blockaded her in
+Martinique, they had chased her hither and thither; Wilkes, Porter, and
+Palmer, had all been in pursuit of her, but they had all been baffled. At
+last, the little Tangier Consul appears upon the scene, and waylaying, not
+the _Sumter_, but her paymaster, unarmed, and unsuspicious of Yankee
+fraud, and Yankee trickery, captures him in the streets of a Moorish town,
+and hurries him over to Algeziras, ironed like a felon, and delivers him
+to Captain Craven, of the United States Navy, who receives the prisoner,
+irons and all, and applauds the act!
+
+In a day or two, after the Consul's trophies had been duly exhibited in
+the Bay of Algeziras; after the rejoicings were over, and lengthy
+despatches had been written, announcing the capture to the Washington
+Government, the _Ino_ sets sail for Cadiz, and there transfers her
+prisoners to a merchant-ship, called the _Harvest Home_, bound for the
+goodly port of Boston.
+
+The prisoners were gentlemen,--one of them had been an officer of the
+Federal Navy, and the other a Consul,--but this did not deter the master
+of the Yankee merchant-ship from practising upon them the cruelty and
+malignity of a cowardly nature. His first act was to shave the heads of
+his prisoners, and his second, to put them in close confinement, still
+ironed, though there was no possibility of their escape. The captain of
+the _Ino_, or of the _Harvest Home_, I am not sure which,--they may settle
+it between them,--robbed my paymaster of his watch, so as not to be
+behindhand with their countrymen on the land, who were just then beginning
+to practise the art of watch and spoon stealing, in which, under the lead
+of illustrious chiefs, they soon afterward became adepts. I blush, as an
+American, to be called upon to record such transactions. It were well for
+the American name, if they could be buried a thousand fathoms deep, and
+along with them the perpetrators.
+
+At first, a rumor only of the capture and imprisonment of my paymaster,
+and his companion, reached me. It appeared so extraordinary, that I could
+not credit it. And even if it were true, I took it for granted, that the
+silly act of the Federal Consul would be set aside by the commander of the
+Federal naval forces, in the Mediterranean. The rumor soon ripened,
+however, into a fact, and the illusion which I had labored under as to the
+course of the Federal naval officer, was almost as speedily dispelled. I
+had judged him by the old standard, the standard which had prevailed when
+I myself knew something of the _personnel_ of the United States Navy. But
+old things had passed away, and new things had come to take their places.
+A violent, revolutionary faction had possessed itself of the once honored
+Government of the United States, and, as is the case in all revolutions,
+coarse and vulgar men had risen to the surface, thrusting the more gentle
+classes into the background. The Army and the Navy were soon brought under
+the influence of these coarser and ruder men, and the necessary
+consequence ensued--the Army and the Navy themselves became coarser and
+ruder. Some few fine natures resisted the unholy influences, but the mass
+of them went, as masses will always go, with the current.
+
+As soon as the misfortunes of my agents were known to me, I resorted to
+all the means within my reach, to endeavor to effect their release, but in
+vain, as they were carried to Boston, and there imprisoned. I first
+addressed a note to General Codrington, the Governor of Gibraltar,
+requesting him to intercede with her Britannic Majesty's Charg�, at the
+Court of Morocco, for their release. This latter gentleman, whose name was
+Hay, resided at Tangier, where the Court of Morocco then was, and was said
+to have great influence with it; indeed, to be all-powerful. I then wrote
+to the Morocco Government direct, and also to Mr. Hay. I give so much of
+this correspondence below as is necessary to inform the reader of the
+facts and circumstances of the case, and of the conduct of the several
+functionaries to whom I addressed myself.
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     BAY OF GIBRALTAR, February 22, 1862.
+
+     SIR:--I have the honor to ask the good offices of his Excellency, the
+     Governor of Gibraltar [this letter was addressed to the Colonial
+     Secretary, who conducted all the Governor's official correspondence],
+     in a matter purely my own. On Wednesday last, I dispatched from this
+     port, in a French passenger-steamer for Cadiz, on business connected
+     with this ship, my paymaster, Mr. Henry Myers, and Mr. T. T.
+     Tunstall, a citizen of the Confederate States, and ex-United States
+     Consul at Cadiz. The steamer having stopped on her way, at Tangier,
+     and these gentlemen having gone on shore for a walk during her
+     temporary delay there, they were seized by the authorities, at the
+     instigation of the United States Consul, and imprisoned.
+
+     A note from Paymaster Myers informs me that they are both heavily
+     ironed, and otherwise treated in a barbarous manner. * * * An
+     occurrence of this kind could not have happened, of course, in a
+     civilized community. The political ignorance of the Moorish
+     Government has been shamefully practised upon by the unscrupulous
+     Consul. I understand that the British Government has a diplomatic
+     agent resident at Tangier, and a word from that gentleman would, no
+     doubt, set the matter right, and insure the release of the
+     unfortunate prisoners. And it is to interest this gentleman in this
+     humane task, that I address myself to his Excellency. May I not ask
+     the favor of his Excellency, under the peculiar circumstances of the
+     case, to address Mr. Hay a note on the subject, explaining to him the
+     facts, and asking his interposition? If any official scruples present
+     themselves, the thing might be done in his character of a private
+     gentleman. The Moorish Government could not hesitate a moment, if it
+     understood correctly the facts, and principles of the case; to wit:
+     that the principal powers of Europe have recognized the Confederate
+     States, as belligerents, in their war against the United States, and
+     consequently that the act of making war against these States, by the
+     citizens of the Confederate States, is not an offence, political, or
+     otherwise, of which a neutral can take cognizance, &c.
+
+Governor Codrington did kindly and humanely interest himself, and write to
+Mr. Hay, but his letter produced no effect. In reply to my own note to Mr.
+Hay, that gentleman wrote me as follows:--
+
+     "You must be aware, that her Majesty's Government have decided on
+     observing a strict neutrality, in the present conflict between the
+     Northern and Southern States; it is therefore incumbent on her
+     Majesty's officers, to avoid anything like undue interference in any
+     questions affecting the interests of either party, which do not
+     concern the British Government; and though I do not refuse to accede
+     to your request, to deliver the letter to the Moorish authorities, I
+     think it my duty to signify, distinctly, to the latter, my intention
+     to abstain from expressing an opinion regarding the course to be
+     pursued by Morocco, on the subject of your letter."
+
+In reply to this letter of Mr. Hay, I addressed him the following:--
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER SUMTER,
+     GIBRALTAR, February 25, 1862.
+
+     SIR:--I have had the honor to receive your letter of yesterday's
+     date, in reply to mine of the 23d inst., informing me that "You [I]
+     must be aware that her Britannic Majesty's Government have decided on
+     observing a strict neutrality, in the present conflict between the
+     Northern and Southern States; it is therefore incumbent on her
+     Majesty's officers to avoid anything like undue interference in any
+     questions affecting the interests of either party, which do not
+     concern the British Government; and though I do not refuse to accede
+     to your request, to deliver the letter to the Moorish authorities, I
+     think it my duty to signify distinctly to the latter my intention to
+     refrain from expressing an opinion regarding the course to be pursued
+     by Morocco on the subject-matter of your letter."
+
+     Whilst I thank you for the courtesy of delivering my letter, as
+     requested, I must be permitted to express to you my disappointment at
+     the course which you have prescribed to yourself, of refraining from
+     expressing any opinion to the Moorish Government, of the legality or
+     illegality of its act, lest you should be charged with undue
+     interference.
+
+     I had supposed that the "_Trent_ affair," of so recent occurrence,
+     had settled, not only the right, but the duty of the civilized
+     nations of the earth to "interfere," in a friendly manner, to prevent
+     wars between nations. It cannot have escaped your observation, that
+     the course pursued by Europe in that affair, is precisely analogous
+     to that which I have requested of you. In that affair a quarrel arose
+     between the United States, one of the belligerents in the existing
+     war, and Great Britain, a neutral in that war; and instead of
+     "refraining" from offering advice, all Europe made haste to volunteer
+     it to both parties. The United States were told by France, by Russia,
+     by Spain, and other Powers, that their act was illegal, and that they
+     could, without a sacrifice of honor, grant the reparation demanded by
+     Great Britain. Neither the nation giving the advice nor the nation
+     advised, supposed for a moment that there was a breach of neutrality
+     in this proceeding; on the contrary, it was the general verdict of
+     mankind, that the course pursued was not only legal, but eminently
+     humane and proper, as tending to allay excitement, and prevent the
+     effusion of blood.
+
+     If you will run a parallel between the _Trent_ case, and the case in
+     hand, you will find it difficult, I think, to sustain the reason you
+     have assigned for your forbearance. In that case, the quarrel was
+     between a neutral, and a belligerent, as in this case. In that case,
+     citizens of a belligerent State were unlawfully arrested on the high
+     seas, in a neutral ship, by the opposite belligerent, and imprisoned.
+     In this case, citizens of a belligerent State have been unlawfully
+     arrested by a neutral, in neutral territory, and imprisoned. Does the
+     fact that the offence was committed in the former case, by a
+     belligerent against a neutral, and in the latter case, by a neutral
+     against a belligerent, make any difference in the application of the
+     principle we are discussing? And if so, in what does the difference
+     consist? If A strikes B, is it lawful to interfere to preserve the
+     peace, and if B strikes A, is it unlawful to interfere for the same
+     purpose? Can the circumstance, that the prisoners seized by the one
+     belligerent, in the _Trent_ affair, were citizens of the other
+     belligerent, alter the application of the principle? The difference,
+     if any, is in favor of the present case, for whilst the belligerent
+     in the former case was compelled to release its enemies, whom, under
+     proper conditions it would have had the right to capture, in the
+     latter case I requested you to advise a neutral to release prisoners,
+     who were not the enemies of the neutral, and whom the neutral could
+     have no right to capture under any circumstances whatever.
+
+     Upon further inquiry, I learn that my first impression, that the two
+     gentlemen in question had been arrested under some claim of
+     extradition, was not exactly correct. It seems that they were
+     arrested by Moorish soldiery, upon the requisition of the United
+     States Consul, who claimed to exercise jurisdiction over them, _as
+     citizens of the United States_, under a provision of a treaty common
+     between what are called the non-civilized and the civilized nations.
+     This state of facts does not alter, in any degree, the reasoning
+     applicable to the case. If Morocco adopts the _status_ given to the
+     Confederate States by Europe, she must remain neutral between the two
+     belligerents, not undertaking to judge of the nationality of the
+     citizens of either of them, or to decide any other question growing
+     out of the war, which does not concern her own interests. She has no
+     right, therefore, to adjudge a citizen of the Confederate States, to
+     be a citizen of the United States; and not having this right,
+     herself, she cannot convey it by treaty to the United States, to be
+     exercised by their Consul in Tangier.
+
+     I trust that you will not understand, that I have written in a tone
+     of remonstrance, or complaint. I have no ground on which to _demand_
+     anything of you. The friendly offices of nations, like those of
+     individuals, must be spontaneous; and if in the present instance, you
+     have not deemed yourself at liberty to offer a word of friendly
+     advice, to a Barbarian Government which has evidently erred through
+     ignorance of its rights and duties, in favor of unfortunate citizens
+     of a Government, in amity with your own, and whose people are
+     connected with your people by so many ties of consanguinity and
+     interest, I have no word of remonstrance to offer. You are the best
+     judge of your own actions.
+
+I never received any reply to this letter from Mr. Hay. The fact that the
+prisoners were permitted to be delivered up to the enemy, as before
+stated, is conclusive that he was as good as his word, and "signified
+distinctly" to the Moorish Government, that he should refrain from giving
+it any advice on the subject--which, of course, under the circumstances,
+was tantamount to advising it to do what it did. If he had contented
+himself with handing in my protest to the Moorish authorities, without any
+remark whatever, his conduct would not have been so objectionable, but
+when he made it a point to inform them, as he took pains to tell me he
+would, that he had no advice to offer them, this was saying to them in
+effect, "I have no objection to offer to your course;" for it must be
+borne in mind, that Mr. Hay was a great favorite with the Government to
+which he was accredited, and was in the constant habit of giving it advice
+on every and all occasions. The consuls of the different powers resident
+in Tangier behaved no better than Mr. Hay. A serious commotion among the
+Christian residents took place, upon the arrest and imprisonment of
+Messrs. Myers and Tunstall, which would probably have resulted in their
+release by the Government, but for the interference of these consuls,
+headed by Mr. Hay. They advised their respective countrymen to disperse,
+and "refraining distinctly," each and all of them, from giving a word of
+advice to the perplexed authorities, though implored by the Moors
+themselves to do so, the latter construed the whole course of Hay and the
+consuls to mean, that they must comply with the Federal Consul's demand,
+and hand over the prisoners to him.
+
+The news of this arrest and imprisonment created great excitement in most
+of the Christian capitals, particularly in London. A formal call was made
+in the British Parliament, upon the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs,
+for an official statement of the facts; but it being rumored and believed,
+soon afterward, in London, that the prisoners had been released, no steps
+were taken by the British Government, if any were contemplated, until it
+was too late. Mr. Mason, our Commissioner in London, interested himself at
+once in the matter, but was deceived like the rest, by the rumor. The
+following extract from a letter written by me to him on the 19th of March
+will show how the British Government had been bamboozled by some one,
+although there was a continuous line of telegraph between London and
+Gibraltar:--
+
+     "I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 8th inst.
+     informing me that, as late as the 7th of March, the English
+     Government was under the impression that Paymaster Myers and Mr.
+     Tunstall, had been released from imprisonment; and requesting me to
+     telegraph you, if the contrary should be the fact. This lack of
+     information on the part of the Under Secretary of State is somewhat
+     remarkable, as no rumor has prevailed here, at any time, that these
+     gentlemen had been liberated. On the contrary, the sloop-of-war
+     _Ino_, of the enemy, came into this Bay--Spanish side--on the 28th of
+     February, with the prisoners on board, and sailed with them the next
+     day. On the 6th of March, the _Ino_ transferred the prisoners to the
+     enemy's merchant-ship, _Harvest Home_, off Cadiz, which sailed
+     immediately for Boston. You will perceive, from the narration of
+     these facts, that it was unnecessary to telegraph to you, as the
+     prisoners, though they had not been released, had been placed beyond
+     the reach of the British Government through its Charg� at
+     Tangier--even if you could have induced that Government to interfere,
+     which I very much doubt.
+
+     "You have, of course, been informed through the press, that the
+     Moorish Government was anxious to liberate the prisoners, but that it
+     was bullied into acquiescence, by the truculent Federal Consul, who
+     was backed by a force of forty armed men, landed from the _Ino_, and
+     who threatened to haul down his flag, and quit the country, if his
+     demand was not complied with. A word of advice given, unofficially
+     even, by Mr. Hay, or some one of the consuls present, would have been
+     an act of kindness to the ignorant Moors, in keeping them out of a
+     scrape, as well as to ourselves. As the case now stands, we shall be
+     obliged, as soon as we shall have gotten rid of this Yankee war, to
+     settle accounts with his Majesty of Morocco."
+
+One more letter, and the reader will have full information of this Tangier
+difficulty. Myers and Tunstall had embarked, as has been stated, under the
+French flag, and I wrote to Mr. Slidell in Paris, requesting him to call
+the attention of the French Government to this fact. Having received from
+him in reply a note informing me that he had done so, I wrote him again as
+follows:--
+
+     "I have had the honor to receive your note of the 8th of March,
+     informing me that you had referred the subject of the capture of
+     Messrs. Myers and Tunstall to Mons. Thouvenal, the French Secretary
+     of State for Foreign Affairs, but that the impression prevailed in
+     Paris that those gentlemen had been liberated. With regard to the
+     latter fact, you will, of course, have been undeceived before this.
+     The prisoners will probably be in Fort Warren, before this reaches
+     you. The French Consul-General at Tangier must have kept his
+     Government badly informed on the subject, since the latter supposed,
+     as late as the 8th inst., that the prisoners had been liberated.
+
+     "I trust that you will be able to make something out of the case. It
+     is one in which all the Christian powers are interested. If this
+     precedent is to stand, a French or an English subject may be seized,
+     to-morrow, upon the simple requisition of a consul, and handed over
+     to his enemy. And then, as I stated to you, in my first letter, is
+     not the honor of the French flag involved? It is admitted that, as
+     between civilized states, this question of the flag would not arise,
+     the parties having disembarked. But a different set of rules has been
+     applied to the dealings of the Christian powers, with the
+     non-Christian, as is shown by this very arrest, under a claim of
+     jurisdiction by a consul. A Frenchman in Morocco is, by treaty, under
+     the protection of the French Consular flag. If he commits an offence,
+     he is tried and punished by his Consul, regardless of the fact that
+     he is literally within the jurisdiction of Morocco. And these
+     concessions have been demanded by the Christian nations, for the
+     security of their subjects.
+
+     "A French citizen, on board a French merchant-ship, lying in the
+     waters of Morocco, would be subject to the same rule. Should, now, a
+     French traveller, landing in Morocco, _in itinere_, only, from a
+     French ship, be subject to a different rule? and if so, on what
+     principle? And if a Frenchman would be protected under these
+     circumstances--protected because of the flag which has brought him
+     hither, and not because he is a Frenchman, simply, why may not
+     Messrs. Myers and Tunstall claim French protection? Though they were
+     on the soil of Morocco, when arrested, they were there, _in itinere_,
+     under the French flag, which not only exterritorialized the ship,
+     over which it floated, but every one who belonged to the ship,
+     whether on ship-board or on shore, for the time being.
+
+     "But what appears to me most extraordinary in this case, is the
+     apathy, or rather the fear of their own governments, which was
+     manifested by the representatives of the Christian powers, on the
+     occasion of the arrest. A friend of mine, the Captain of an English
+     steam-frigate, on this station, visited Tangier, with his ship, a day
+     or two only after the occurrence, and he informs me that the Moorish
+     authorities were sorely perplexed, during the pendency of the affair,
+     and that they implored the counsel and assistance of the
+     representatives of the Christian powers, to enable them to solve the
+     difficulty, but that not one word of advice was tendered." * * *
+
+I was sorry to lose my very efficient paymaster, but there was no remedy.
+He was incarcerated for a while, after his arrival in Boston, but was
+treated as a prisoner of war, and was finally released on parole. The
+Secretary of the Federal Navy directed his stolen watch to be returned to
+him which is worthy of record, as being something exceptional, but I have
+never learned whether any punishment was inflicted upon the party
+committing the theft. Probably not, as by this time, entire Federal armies
+had become demoralized and taken to plundering.
+
+The _Sumter_ was now blockaded by three ships of the enemy, and it being
+impossible for me to coal, I resolved to lay her up, and proceed to
+London, and consult with my Government as to my future course. I might
+possibly have had coal shipped to me from London, or some other English
+port, but this would have involved expense and delay, and it was
+exceedingly doubtful besides, whether I could elude the vigilance of so
+many blockading ships, in a slow ship, with crippled boilers. In her best
+days, the _Sumter_ had been a very inefficient ship, being always
+anchored, as it were, in the deep sea, by her propeller, whenever she was
+out of coal. A fast ship, propelled entirely by sail-power, would have
+been better.
+
+When I look back now, I am astonished to find what a struggle it cost me
+to get my own consent to lay up this old ship. As inexplicable as the
+feeling is, I had really become attached to her, and felt as if I would be
+parting forever with a valued friend. She had run me safely through two
+vigilant blockades, had weathered many storms, and rolled me to sleep in
+many calms. Her cabin was my bed-room and my study, both in one, her
+quarter-deck was my promenade, and her masts, spars, and sails, my
+playthings. I had handled her in all kinds of weather, watching her every
+motion in difficult situations, as a man watches the yielding and cracking
+ice over which he is making a perilous passage. She had fine qualities as
+a sea-boat, being as buoyant, active, and dry as a duck, in the heaviest
+gales, and these are the qualities which a seaman most admires.
+
+And then, there are other chords of feeling touched in the sailor's heart,
+at the end of a cruise, besides the parting with his ship. The commander
+of a ship is more or less in the position of a father of a family. He
+necessarily forms an attachment for those who have served under him, and
+especially for such as have developed honorable qualities, and high
+abilities, and I had a number on board the _Sumter_ who had developed
+both. I only regretted that they had not a wider field for the exercise
+of their abilities. I had officers serving with me, as lieutenants, who
+were equal to any naval command, whatever. But, unfortunately for them,
+our poor, hard-pressed Confederate States had no navy worth speaking of;
+and owing to the timidity, caution, and fear of neutrals, found it
+impossible to improvise one. And then, when men have been drenched, and
+wind-beaten in the same storm, have stood on the deck of the same frail
+little ship, with only a plank between them and eternity, and watched her
+battling with the elements, which threaten every moment to overwhelm her,
+there is a feeling of brotherhood that springs up between them, that it is
+difficult for a landsman to conceive.
+
+There was another, and if possible, stronger chord which bound us
+together. In the olden time, when the Christian warrior went forth to
+battle with the Saracen, for the cross, each knight was the sworn brother
+of the other. They not only slept in the same tents, endured the same
+hardships, and encountered the same risks, but their faith bound them
+together with hooks of steel. Without irreverence be it spoken, we of the
+Southern States had, too, our faith. The Saracen had invaded our beloved
+land, and was laying it waste with fire and sword. We were battling for
+our honor, our homes, and our property; in short, for everything that was
+dear to the human heart. Yea, we were battling for our blood and our race,
+for it had been developed, even at this early stage of the war, that it
+was the design of the Northern hordes that were swarming down upon us, not
+only to liberate the slave, but to enable him to put his foot upon the
+neck of his late master, and thus bastardize, if possible, his posterity.
+The blood of the white man in our veins could not but curdle at the
+contemplation of an atrocity which nothing but the brain of a demon could
+have engendered.
+
+Besides my officers, I had many worthy men among my crew, who had stood by
+me in every emergency, and who looked forward with sorrowful countenances,
+to the approaching separation. The reader has been introduced to my
+Malayan steward, John, on several occasions. John's black, lustrous eyes
+filled with ill-concealed tears, more than once, during the last days of
+the _Sumter_, as he smoothed the pillow of my cot with a hand as tender
+as that of a woman, or handed me the choicest dishes at meals.
+
+I had governed my crew with a rigid hand, never overlooking an offence,
+but I had, at the same time, always been mindful of justice, and I was
+gratified to find, both on the part of officers and men, an apparent
+forgetfulness of the little jars and discords which always grow out of the
+effort to enforce discipline, it matters not how suavely and justly the
+effort may be made.
+
+Being more or less cut off from communication with the Navy Department, I
+deemed it but respectful and proper to consult with our Commissioner in
+London, Mr. Mason, and to obtain his consent before finally laying up the
+_Sumter_. Mr. Mason agreed with me entirely in my views, and telegraphed
+me to this effect on the 7th of April. The next few days were busy days on
+board the _Sumter_. Upon the capture of Paymaster Myers, I had appointed
+Lieutenant J. M. Stribling Acting Paymaster, and I now set this officer at
+work, closing the accounts of the ship and paying off the officers and
+men. The officers were formally detached from the command, as fast as paid
+off, and they embarked for London, on their way to another ship, or to the
+Confederate States, as circumstances might determine; and the men, with
+snug little sums in their pockets, were landed, and as is usually the case
+with sailors, soon dispersed to the four quarters of the globe; each
+carrying with him the material for yarn-spinning for the balance of his
+life.
+
+By the 11th of April we had completed all our preparations for turning
+over the ship to the midshipman who was to have charge of her, and in two
+or three days afterward, accompanied by Mr. Kell, my first lieutenant, and
+several other of my officers, I embarked on board the mail-steamer for
+Southampton. The following is an extract from the last letter that was
+written to the Secretary of the Navy from on board the _Sumter_:--
+
+     "I now have the honor to report to you, that I have discharged and
+     paid off, in full, all the crew, numbering fifty, with the exception
+     of the ten men detailed to remain by the ship, as servants, and to
+     form a boat's crew for the officer left in charge. I have placed
+     Midshipman R. F. Armstrong, assisted by Acting Master's Mate I. T.
+     Hester, in charge of the ship, with provisions and funds for ten or
+     twelve months, and I have directed all the other officers to return
+     to the Confederate States, and report themselves to the Department. I
+     will myself proceed to London, and after conferring with Mr. Mason,
+     make the best of my way home. I trust the Department will see, in
+     what I have done, an anxious desire to advance the best interests of
+     our country, and that it will justify the responsibility, which, in
+     the best exercise of my judgment, I felt it my duty to assume, in the
+     difficult circumstances by which I was surrounded and embarrassed.
+     Enclosed is a copy of my order to Midshipman Armstrong, and a list of
+     the officers and men left on board the ship."
+
+A brief summary of the services of the _Sumter_, and of what became of
+her, may not be uninteresting to the reader, who has followed her thus
+far, in her wanderings. She cruised six months, leaving out the time
+during which she was blockaded in Gibraltar. She captured seventeen ships,
+as follows: the _Golden Rocket_, _Cuba_, _Machias_, _Ben. Dunning_,
+_Albert Adams_, _Naiad_, _Louisa Kilham_, _West Wind_, _Abby Bradford_,
+_Joseph Maxwell_, _Joseph Parke_, _D. Trowbridge_, _Montmorency_,
+_Arcade_, _Vigilant_, _Eben Dodge_, _Neapolitan_, and _Investigator_. It
+is impossible to estimate the damage done to the enemy's commerce. The
+property actually destroyed formed a very small proportion of it. The fact
+alone of the _Sumter_ being upon the seas, during these six months, gave
+such an alarm to neutral and belligerent shippers, that the enemy's
+carrying-trade began to be paralyzed, and already his ships were being
+laid up, or sold under neutral flags--some of these sales being _bona
+fide_, and others fraudulent. In addition to this, the enemy kept five or
+six of his best ships of war constantly in pursuit of her, which
+necessarily weakened his blockade, for which, at this time, he was much
+pressed for ships. The expense to my Government of running the ship was
+next to nothing, being only $28,000, or about the price of one of the
+least valuable of her prizes. The _Sumter_ was sold in the course of a
+month or two after being laid up, and being put under the English flag as
+a merchant-ship, made one voyage to the coast of the Confederate States,
+as a blockade-runner, entering the port of Charleston. Her new owner
+changed her name to that of _Gibraltar_. She was lost afterward in the
+North Sea, and her bones lie interred not far from those of the
+_Alabama_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+AUTHOR LEAVES GIBRALTAR, AND ARRIVES IN LONDON--MR. MASON--CONFEDERATE
+NAVAL NEWS--SOJOURN IN LONDON--AUTHOR EMBARKS ON BOARD THE STEAMER MELITA,
+FOR NASSAU--SOJOURN IN NASSAU--NEW ORDERS FROM THE NAVY DEPARTMENT--AUTHOR
+RETURNS TO LIVERPOOL--THE ALABAMA GONE.
+
+
+We had been long enough in Gibraltar to make many warm friends, and some
+of these came on board the mail-steamer in which we had taken passage to
+take leave of us; among others, Captain Lambert, R. N., in command of her
+Majesty's steam frigate, the _Scylla_, to whom I am much indebted, for
+warm sympathy, and many acts of kindness. The captain was the son of
+Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Lambert, whose hospitality I had enjoyed, for a
+single night, many years before, under peculiar circumstances. When the
+United States brig _Somers_ was capsized and sunk, off Vera Cruz, and half
+her crew drowned, as briefly described some pages back, Sir Charles
+Lambert, then a captain, was in command of the sailing frigate _Endymion_,
+and it was on board that ship that I was carried, more dead than alive, on
+the evening of the fatal disaster. I recollect distinctly the plight in
+which I ascended the side of this English frigate. Like a waif which had
+been picked up from the sea, I had nothing on me but shirt and trousers,
+and these, as well as my hair, were dripping water. I had lost my ship
+only an hour or two before, and had witnessed the drowning of many
+helpless men, who had struggled in vain for their lives. My heart was
+oppressed with the weight of my misfortune, and my strength nearly
+exhausted. Sir Charles received me at the foot of the ladder, as I
+descended to the deck of his ship, as tenderly, and with as much genuine
+sympathy and compassion, as if I had been his own son, and taking me into
+his cabin, had my wants duly cared for. There are said to be secret chords
+of sympathy binding men together in spite of themselves. I know not how
+this may be, but I felt drawn toward the son of my benefactor, even before
+I knew him to be his son. I take this public mode of expressing to both
+father and son my thanks for the many obligations under which they have
+placed me.
+
+As the swift and powerful steamer on which we were embarked, moved
+silently, but rapidly out of the harbor, in the evening twilight, I took a
+last, lingering look at the little _Sumter_. Her once peopled decks were
+now almost deserted, only a disconsolate old sailor or two being seen
+moving about on them, and the little ship herself, with her black hull,
+and black mast-heads and yards, the latter of which had been stripped of
+their sails, looked as if she had clad herself in mourning for our
+departure.
+
+A pleasant passage of a few days carried us rapidly past the coasts of
+Spain, Portugal, and a portion of France, into the British Channel, and on
+the sixth day, we found ourselves in Southampton, which I was afterward
+destined to revisit, under such different circumstances. On the same night
+I slept in that great Babel, London. I remained in this city during the
+month of May, enjoying in a high degree, as the reader may suppose, the
+relaxation and ease consequent upon so great a change in my mode of life.
+There were no more enemies or gales of wind to disturb my slumbers; no
+intrusive officers to come into my bed-room at unseasonable hours, to
+report sails or land discovered, and no half drowned old quartermasters to
+poke their midnight lanterns into my face, and tell me, that the bow-ports
+were stove in, and the ship half full of water! If the storm raged without
+and the windows rattled, I took no notice of it, unless it was to turn
+over in my bed, and feel all the more comfortable, for my sense of
+security.
+
+Kell and myself took rooms together, in Euston Square; our windows looking
+out, even at this early season, upon well-grown and fragrant grasses,
+trees in leaf, and flowers in bloom, all in the latitude of 52�
+N.--thanks, as formerly remarked, to our American Gulf Stream. I called
+at once upon Mr. Mason, whom I had often seen in his seat in the Senate of
+the United States, as a Senator from the grand old State of Virginia, but
+whom I had never known personally. I found him a genial Virginia
+gentleman, with much _bon hommie_, and a great favorite with everybody. In
+his company I saw much of the society of the English capital, and soon
+became satisfied that Mr. Davis could not have intrusted the affairs of
+the Confederacy, to better hands. English hearts had warmed toward him,
+and his name was the sesame to open all English doors. I soon learned from
+him the _status_ of Confederate States' naval affairs, on the European
+side of the Atlantic. The gun-boat _Oreto_, afterward the _Florida_, had
+sailed for Nassau, in the Bahamas, and the new ship being built by the
+Messrs. Laird at Birkenhead, was well on her way to completion. Other
+contracts were in hand, but nothing tangible had as yet been accomplished
+under them.
+
+I had also interviews with Commander North, and Commander Bullock, agents
+of the Confederate States Navy Department, for the building and equipping
+of ships, in these waters. It being evident that there was nothing
+available for me, I determined to lose no time in returning to the
+Confederacy, and it was soon arranged that I should depart in the steamer
+_Melita_, an English steamer preparing to take a cargo of arms,
+ammunition, and clothing to Nassau. This ship belonged to the Messrs.
+Isaac, brothers, large blockade runners, who kindly tendered free passages
+to myself, and to my first lieutenant, and surgeon, who were to accompany
+me.
+
+I trust the reader will pardon me--as I hope the family itself will if I
+intrude upon its privacy--if I mention before leaving London, one of those
+old English households, immortalized by the inimitable pen of Washington
+Irving. One day whilst I was sitting quietly, after breakfast, in my rooms
+at Euston Square, running over the column of American news, in the
+"Times," Commander North entered, and in company with him came a somewhat
+portly gentleman, with an unmistakable English face, and dressed in
+clerical garb--not over clerical either, for, but for his white cravat,
+and the cut of the collar of his coat, you would not have taken him for a
+clergyman at all. Upon being presented, this gentleman said to me,
+pleasantly, "I have come to take the Captain of the _Sumter_ prisoner, and
+carry him off to my house, to spend a few days with me." I looked into the
+genial face of the speaker, and surrendered myself to him a captive at
+once. There was no mistaking the old-time English gentleman--though the
+gentleman himself was not past middle age--in the open countenance, and
+kindly expression of my new friend. Making some remarks to him about
+quiet, he said, "That is the very thing I propose to give you; you shall
+come to my house, stay as long as you please, go away when you please, and
+see nobody at all unless you please." I dined with him, the next day, in
+company with a few Confederate and English friends, and spent several days
+at his house--the ladies president of which were his mother and maiden
+sister. I shall return hereafter to this house, as the reader will see. It
+became, in fact, my English home, and was but little less dear to me than
+my own home in America. The name of the Rev. Francis W. Tremlett, of the
+"Parsonage, in Belsize Park, near Hampstead, London," dwells in my memory,
+and in that of every other Confederate who ever came in contact with
+him--and they are not few--like a household word.
+
+We embarked on board the _Melita_ in the latter part of May. The vessel
+had already dropped some distance down the Thames, and we went thither to
+join her by rail; one of the Messrs. Isaac accompanying us, to see us
+comfortably installed. The _Melita_ was to make a _bona fide_ voyage to
+Nassau, having no intention of running the blockade. I was particular to
+have this point settled beyond the possibility of dispute, so as to bring
+our capture, if the enemy should undertake it, within the precedent set by
+the _Trent_ case. The _Sumter_ having dared to capture and destroy Yankee
+ships upon the high seas, in defiance of President Lincoln's proclamation,
+denouncing her as a "pirate," had wounded the ridiculous vanity of the
+enemy past forgiveness, to say nothing of that other and sorer wound which
+resulted from the destruction of his property, and he was exceedingly
+anxious, in consequence, to get hold of me. I was resolved, therefore,
+that, if another zealous, but indiscreet Captain Wilkes should turn up,
+that another seven days of penance and tribulation should be imposed upon
+Mr. Secretary of State Seward. We were not molested, however, and after a
+pleasant run of about twenty days we entered the harbor of Nassau, about 2
+P. M. on the 13th of June, 1862.
+
+On the same evening of our arrival, I was quartered, with my small staff,
+in the Victoria Hotel, then thronged with guests, Federal and Confederate;
+for the Yankee, in obedience to his instincts of traffic, had scented the
+prey from afar, and was here to turn an honest penny, by assisting the
+Confederates to run the blockade! "It's an ill wind that blows nobody
+good," and Nassau was a living witness of this old adage. The island of
+New Providence, of which Nassau is the only town, is a barren limestone
+rock, producing only some coarse grass, a few stunted trees, a few
+pine-apples and oranges, and a great many sand-crabs and "fiddlers."
+Before the war, it was the rendezvous of a few wreckers and fishermen.
+Commerce it had none, except such as might grow out of the sponge-trade,
+and the shipment of green turtle and conch-shells. The American war which
+has brought woe and wretchedness to so many of our States, was the wind
+which blew prosperity to Nassau.
+
+It had already put on the air of a commercial city; its fine harbor being
+thronged with shipping, and its warehouses, wharves, and quays filled to
+repletion with merchandise. All was life, bustle, and activity. Ships were
+constantly arriving and depositing their cargoes, and light-draught
+steamers, Confederate and English, were as constantly reloading these
+cargoes, and running them into the ports of the Confederate States. The
+success which attended many of these little vessels is surprising. Some of
+them made their voyages, as regularly as mail packets, running, with
+impunity, through a whole fleet of the enemy's steamers. Notwithstanding
+this success, however, the enemy was reaping a rich harvest, for many
+valuable prizes fell into his hands. It soon became a bone of contention
+among the Federal naval officers, which of them should be assigned to the
+lucrative commands of the blockading squadrons. The admiral of one of
+these squadrons would frequently awake, in the morning, and find himself
+richer, by ten, twenty, or thirty thousand dollars, by reason of a
+capture made by some one of his subordinates, the night before. This was
+the "mess of pottage" for which so many unprincipled Southern men, in the
+Federal Navy, sold their "birthright."
+
+Some of these men are enjoying princely fortunes, but they have purchased
+these fortunes at the price of treason, and of blood, and by selling into
+bondage to the stranger, the people of their native States. Whilst poor
+old Virginia, for example, the "mother of States and statesmen," is
+wearing the chains of a captive, and groaning under the tortures inflicted
+upon her, by her hereditary enemy, the Puritan, some of her sons are
+counting the "thirty pieces of silver" for which they sold her! "Pity
+'tis, but pity 'tis, 'tis true." These gentlemen may wrap themselves in as
+many folds of the "old flag" as they please, and talk as glibly as any
+Yankee, of the great Federal "nation" which has swallowed up the States,
+but future generations, if their ignoble names should descend so far down
+the stream of time, will unwind these folds from about them, as we have
+unwound from the mummy, its folds of fine linen, and expose the corruption
+and deformity beneath.
+
+I found several Confederate naval officers at Nassau--among others
+Commander J. N. Maffitt, who had been assigned to the command of the
+_Oreto_, afterward to become famous as the _Florida_; and Commander G. T.
+Sinclair, who had been kind enough, as the reader may recollect, to send
+me my guns for the _Sumter_, from the Norfolk Navy Yard. Captain Sinclair
+was recently from the Confederate States, and had brought me a letter from
+Mr. Mallory, the Secretary of the Navy, which put a material change upon
+the face of affairs, so far as I was personally concerned. I was directed
+by this letter, to return to Europe, and assume command of the new ship
+which was being built on the Mersey, to be called the _Alabama_. My reply
+to this letter, dated at Nassau, on the 15th of June, will put the reader
+in possession of this new programme. It is as follows:--
+
+     NASSAU, NEW PROVIDENCE, June 15, 1862.
+
+     SIR:--I have the honor to inform you of my arrival here, on the 8th
+     inst., in twenty days from London. I found here Lieutenants Maffitt
+     and Sinclair, and have received your letter of May 29th, enclosing a
+     copy of your despatch to me, of May 2d. As you may conclude, from
+     the fact of my being here, the original of the latter communication
+     [assigning me to the command of the _Alabama_] has not reached me;
+     nor indeed has any other communication from the Department, since I
+     left the mouths of the Mississippi, in June, 1861. As you
+     anticipated, it became necessary for me to lay the _Sumter_ up, in
+     consequence of my being hemmed in, by the enemy, in a place where it
+     was impossible to put the necessary repairs upon my boilers, to
+     enable me to take the sea again; and where, moreover, it was
+     impossible, without long delay and expense, to obtain a supply of
+     coal. * * * [Here follows a description of the laying up of the ship,
+     which the reader has already seen.]
+
+     Upon my arrival in London, I found that the _Oreto_ had been
+     dispatched, some weeks before, to this place; and Commander Bullock
+     having informed me that he had your order assigning him to the
+     command of the second ship he was building [the _Alabama_], I had no
+     alternative but to return to the Confederate States for orders. It is
+     due to Commander Bullock to say, however, that he offered to place
+     himself entirely under my instructions, and even to relinquish to me
+     the command of the new ship; but I did not feel at liberty to
+     interfere with your orders.
+
+     While in London, I ascertained that a number of steamers were being
+     prepared to run the blockade, with arms and other supplies for the
+     Confederate States, and, instead of dispatching my officers at once
+     for these States, I left them to take charge of the ships mentioned,
+     as they should be gotten ready for sea, and run them in to their
+     several destinations--deeming this the best service they could render
+     the Government, under the circumstances. I came hither, myself,
+     accompanied by my first lieutenant and surgeon--Kell and Galt--a
+     passenger in the British steamer _Melita_, whose cargo of arms and
+     supplies is also destined for the Confederate States. It is fortunate
+     that I made this arrangement, as many of my officers still remain in
+     London, and I shall return thither in time to take most of them with
+     me to the _Alabama_.
+
+     In obedience to your order, assigning me to the command of this ship,
+     I will return by the first conveyance to England, where the joint
+     energies of Commander Bullock and myself will be directed to the
+     preparation of the ship for sea. I will take with me Lieutenant Kell,
+     Surgeon Galt, and First Lieutenant of Marines Howell--Mr. Howell and
+     Lieutenant Stribling having reached Nassau a few days before me, in
+     the British steamer _Bahama_, laden with arms, clothing, and stores
+     for the Confederacy. At the earnest entreaty of Lieutenant-Commanding
+     Maffitt, I have consented to permit Lieutenant Stribling to remain
+     with him, as his first lieutenant on board the _Oreto_
+     (_Florida_)--the officers detailed for that vessel not yet having
+     arrived. Mr. Stribling's place on board the _Alabama_ will be
+     supplied by Midshipman Armstrong, promoted, whom I will recall from
+     Gibraltar, where I left him in charge of the _Sumter_. It will,
+     doubtless, be a matter of some delicacy, and tact, to get the
+     _Alabama_ safely out of British waters, without suspicion, as Mr.
+     Adams, the Northern Envoy, and his numerous satellites in the shape
+     of consuls and paid agents, are exceedingly vigilant in their
+     espionage.
+
+     We cannot, of course, think of arming her in a British port; this
+     must be done at some concerted rendezvous, to which her battery, and
+     a large portion of her crew must be sent, in a neutral
+     merchant-vessel. The _Alabama_ will be a fine ship, quite equal to
+     encounter any of the enemy's steam-sloops, of the class of the
+     _Iroquois_, _Tuscarora_, and _Dacotah_, and I shall feel much more
+     independent in her, upon the high seas, than I did in the little
+     _Sumter_.
+
+     I think well of your suggestion of the East Indies, as a cruising
+     ground, and I hope to be in the track of the enemy's commerce, in
+     those seas, as early as October or November next; when I shall,
+     doubtless, be able to lay other rich "burnt offerings" upon the altar
+     of our country's liberties.
+
+     Lieutenant Sinclair having informed me that you said, in a
+     conversation with him, that I might dispose of the _Sumter_, either
+     by laying her up, or selling her, as my judgment might approve, I
+     will, unless I receive contrary orders from you, dispose of her by
+     sale, upon my arrival in Europe. As the war is likely to continue for
+     two or three years yet, it would be a useless expense to keep a
+     vessel so comparatively worthless, so long at her anchors. I will
+     cause to be sent to the _Alabama_, the _Sumter's_ chronometers, and
+     other nautical instruments and charts, and the remainder of her
+     officers and crew.
+
+     In conclusion, permit me to thank you for this new proof of your
+     confidence, and for your kind intention to nominate me as one of the
+     "Captains," under the new navy bill. I trust I shall prove myself
+     worthy of these marks of your approbation.
+
+I was delayed several very anxious weeks in Nassau, waiting for an
+opportunity to return to Europe. The _Alabama_, I knew, was nearly ready
+for sea, and it was all-important that she should be gotten out of British
+waters, as speedily as possible, because of the espionage to which I have
+referred. But there was no European-bound vessel in Nassau, and I was
+forced to wait. Lieutenant Sinclair having had a passage offered him, in
+an English steamer of war, as far as Halifax, availed himself of the
+invitation, intending to take the mail-steamer from Halifax for England.
+As he would probably arrive a week or two in advance of myself, I wrote to
+Captain Bullock by him, informing him of my having been appointed to the
+command of the _Alabama_, and requesting him to hurry that ship off to her
+rendezvous, without waiting for me. I could join her at her rendezvous. As
+the reader will hereafter see, this was done.
+
+I passed the time of my enforced delay at Nassau, as comfortably as
+possible. The hotel was spacious and airy, and the sea-breeze being pretty
+constant, we did not suffer much from the heat. I amused myself, watching
+from my windows, with the aid of an excellent glass, the movements of the
+blockade-runners. One of these vessels went out, and another returned,
+every two or three days; the returning vessel always bringing us late
+newspapers from the Confederacy. The fare of the hotel was excellent,
+particularly the fish and fruits, and the landlord was accommodating and
+obliging. With Maffitt, Kell, Galt, Stribling, and other Confederate
+officers, and some very pretty and musical Confederate ladies, whose
+husbands and brothers were engaged in the business of running the
+blockade, the time would have passed pleasantly enough, but for the
+anxiety which I felt about my future movements.
+
+Maffitt, in particular, was the life of our household. He knew everybody,
+and everybody knew him, and he passed in and out of all the rooms, _sans
+ceremonie_, at all hours. Being a jaunty, handsome fellow, young enough,
+in appearance, to pass for the elder brother of his son, a midshipman who
+was to go with me to the _Alabama_, he was a great favorite with the
+ladies. He was equally at home, with men or women, it being all the same
+to him, whether he was wanted to play a game of billiards, take a hand at
+whist, or join in a duet with a young lady--except that he had the good
+taste always to prefer the lady. Social, gay, and convivial, he was much
+courted and flattered, and there was scarcely ever a dining or an evening
+party, at which he was not present. But this was the mere outside glitter
+of the metal. Beneath all this _bagatelle_ and _dolce far niente_, Maffitt
+was a remarkable man. At the first blast of war, like a true
+Southerner--he was a North Carolinian by birth--he relinquished a fine
+property in the city of Washington, which was afterward confiscated by the
+enemy, resigned his commission in the Federal Navy, and came South, to
+tender his services to his native State. Unlike many other naval men, he
+had the capacity to understand the nature of the Government under which he
+lived, and the honesty to give his allegiance, in a cross-fire of
+allegiances, where his judgment told him it was due.
+
+He was a perfect master of his profession, not only in its practical, but
+in its more scientific branches, and could handle his ship like a toy.
+Brave, cool, and full of resource, he was equal to any and every emergency
+that could present itself in a sailor's life. He made a brilliant cruise
+in the _Florida_, and became more famous as a skilful blockade-runner than
+any other man in the war. This man, whose character I have not at all
+overdrawn, was pursued by the Yankee, after his resignation, with a
+vindictiveness and malignity peculiarly Puritan--to his honor be it said.
+With Maury, Buchanan, and other men of that stamp, who have been denounced
+with equal bitterness, his fame will survive the filth thrown upon it by a
+people who seem to be incapable of understanding or appreciating noble
+qualities in an enemy, and devoid of any other standard by which to try
+men's characters, than their own sectional prejudices. We should rather
+pity than contemn men who have shown, both during and since the war, so
+little magnanimity as our late enemies have done. The savage is full of
+prejudices, because he is full of ignorance. His intellectual horizon is
+necessarily limited; he sees but little, and judges only by what he sees.
+His own little world is _the_ world, and he tries all the rest of mankind
+by that standard. Cruel in war, he is revengeful and implacable in peace.
+Better things are ordinarily expected of civilized men. Education and
+civilization generally dispel these savage traits. They refine and soften
+men, and implant in their bosoms the noble virtues of generosity and
+magnanimity. The New England Puritan seems to have been, so far as we may
+judge him by the traits which have been developed in him during and since
+the war, an exception to this rule. With all his pretensions to learning,
+and amid all the appliances of civilization by which he has surrounded
+himself, he is still the same old Plymouth Rock man, that his ancestor
+was, three centuries ago. He is the same gloomy, saturnine fanatic; he has
+the same impatience of other men's opinions, and is the same vindictive
+tyrant that he was when he expelled Roger Williams from his dominions. The
+cockatrice's egg has hatched a savage, in short, that refuses to be
+civilized.
+
+The _Oreto_ was in court whilst I was in Nassau; the Attorney-General of
+the colony having libelled her for a breach of the British Foreign
+Enlistment Act. After a long and tedious trial, during which it was proved
+that she had left England unarmed, and unprovided with a warlike crew, she
+was released, very much to the gratification of my friend, Maffitt, who
+had been anxiously awaiting the result of the trial. This energetic
+officer throwing himself and Stribling on board of her, with such other
+officers and men as he could gather on short notice, ran the blockade of
+the enemy's cruisers, the following night, and the next morning found
+himself on the high seas, with just five firemen, and fourteen deck hands!
+His hope was to get his armament on board, and after otherwise preparing
+his ship for sea, to recruit his crew from the neutral sailors always to
+be found on board the enemy's merchant-ships.
+
+Arriving at Green Key, the rendezvous, which had been concerted between
+himself, and our agent at Nassau, Mr. J. B. Lafitte, he was joined by a
+schooner, on board which his battery and stores had been shipped, and
+forthwith set himself at work to arm and equip his ship. So short-handed
+was he, that he was obliged to strip off his own coat, and in company with
+his officers and men, assist at the stay-tackles, in hoisting in his heavy
+guns. The work was especially laborious, under the ardent rays of an
+August sun, but they toiled on, and at the end of five days of incessant
+labor, which well-nigh exhausted all their energies, they were enabled to
+dismiss their tender, and steam out upon the ocean, and put their ship in
+commission. The English flag, which the _Oreto_ had worn, was hauled down,
+and amid the cheers of the crews of the two vessels, the Confederate
+States flag was hoisted to the peak of the _Florida_.
+
+A number of the men by this time, were unwell. Their sickness was
+attributed to the severity of the labor they had undergone, in the
+excessive heats that were prevailing. The Captain's steward died, and was
+buried on the afternoon on which the ship was commissioned. At sunset of
+that day, Captain Maffitt called Lieutenant Stribling into his cabin, and
+imparted to him the startling intelligence that the yellow fever was on
+board! The sick, now constantly increasing in number, were separated from
+the well, and the quarter-deck became a hospital. There being no surgeon
+on board, Maffitt was compelled to assume the duties of this officer, in
+addition to his own, already onerous. He devoted himself with untiring
+zeal to the welfare of his stricken crew, without intermission, by night
+or by day. On the fifth day after leaving Green Key, the _Florida_ found
+herself off the little island of Anguila. By this time the epidemic had
+reduced her working crew to one fireman, and four deck hands.
+
+It was now no longer possible to keep the sea, and Maffitt evading the
+blockade of the enemy--a happy chance having drawn them off in chase--ran
+his ship into the port of Cardenas, in the island of Cuba. Here he was
+received kindly by the authorities and citizens, but as the yellow fever
+was epidemic on shore, no medical aid could be obtained. Stribling was now
+dispatched to Havana for a surgeon, and to ship a few men, if possible.
+Helpless and sad, the suffering little crew awaited his return. One by
+one, the officers were attacked by the disease, until Maffitt was left
+almost alone, to nurse, and administer remedies to the patients. But
+things were not yet at their worst. On the 13th of August, Maffitt was
+himself attacked. On the afternoon of that day he sent for his clerk, and
+when the young gentleman had entered his cabin, said to him: "I've written
+directions in regard to the sick, and certain orders in relation to the
+vessel; also some private letters, which you will please take charge of."
+Upon the clerk's asking him why this was done, he informed him that "he
+had all the symptoms of yellow fever, and as he was already much broken
+down, he might not survive the attack." He had made all the necessary
+preparations for his own treatment, giving minute written directions to
+those around him how to proceed, and immediately betook himself to his
+bed--the fever already flushing his cheeks, and parching his veins. There
+was now, indeed, nothing but wailing and woe on board the little
+_Florida_.
+
+In two or three days Stribling returned from Havana, bringing with him
+twelve men; and on the day after his return, Dr. Barrett, of Georgia,
+hearing of their helpless condition, volunteered his services, and became
+surgeon of the ship. On the 22d, young Laurens, the captain's son--whilst
+his father was unconscious--breathed his last; black vomit having
+assailed him, in twenty-four hours after he had been taken down with the
+fever; so virulent had the disease now become. He was a fine, brave,
+promising lad, greatly beloved, and deeply regretted by all. On the 23d,
+the Third Assistant Engineer died. The sick were now sent to the hospital
+on shore, and nearly all of them died. Dr. Gilliard, surgeon of a Spanish
+gun-boat in the harbor, now visited the Captain, and was exceedingly kind
+to him. On the 24th, a consultation of physicians was held, and it was
+decided that Maffitt's case was hopeless. But it so happened that the
+disease just then had reached its crisis, and a favorable change had taken
+place. The patient had not spoken for three days, and greatly to the
+surprise of all present, after one of the physicians had given his
+opinion, he opened his eyes, now beaming with intelligence, and said in a
+languid voice: "You are all mistaken--I have got too much to do, and have
+no time to die."
+
+He convalesced from that moment. On the 28th, Major Helm, our agent in
+Havana, telegraphed that, for certain reasons, the Captain-General desired
+that the _Florida_ would come round to Havana, and remain until the health
+of her crew should be restored. The Captain-General probably feared that
+in an undefended port like Cardenas, some violence might be committed upon
+the _Florida_ by the Federal cruisers, in violation of Spanish neutrality.
+Accordingly, on the 30th the _Florida_ got under way, and proceeded for
+Havana, where she arrived the next day. The reader naturally wonders, no
+doubt, where the Federal cruisers were, all this time. Maffitt remained
+here only a day, finding it impossible, owing to the stringent orders of
+neutrality that were being enforced, to do anything in the way of
+increasing his crew, or refitting his ship. Getting his ship under way,
+again on the 1st of September, he now resolved to run into Mobile. At two
+P. M. on the 4th of that month Fort Morgan was made, when it was found
+that three of the enemy's cruisers lay between the _Florida_ and the bar.
+Maffitt was assisted on deck, being too weak yet to move without
+assistance. Having determined that his ship should not fall into the hands
+of the enemy, he had made suitable preparations for blowing her up, if it
+should become necessary. He now hoisted the English ensign and pennant,
+and stood boldly on. His very boldness staggered the enemy. He must
+certainly be, they thought, an English gunboat. The _Oneida_, the
+flag-ship of Commander Preble, the commanding officer of the blockading
+squadron, attempted to throw herself in the _Florida's_ path, first having
+hailed her and commanded her to stop. But the latter held on her course so
+determinedly, that the former, to prevent being run down, was obliged to
+stop, herself, and reverse her engine.
+
+Preble, now undeceived as to the possibility of the _Florida's_ being an
+Englishman, opened fire upon her, as did the other two ships. The
+_Oneida's_ broadside, delivered from a distance of a few yards only, cut
+away the _Florida's_ hammocks, smashed her boats, and shattered some of
+her spars. The three enemy's vessels now grouped themselves around the
+daring little craft, and fired broadside after broadside at her, during
+the chase which ensued. One eleven-inch shell entering the _Florida's_
+side, only a few inches above the water-line, passed entirely through her,
+before the fuse had time to explode it. If the enemy had been a little
+farther off, the _Florida_ must have been torn in pieces by the explosion.
+Another shell entered the cabin. The fore-topmast and fore-gaff were shot
+away. In short, when it is recollected that she was nearly two hours under
+this tremendous fire, the wonder is that she escaped with a whole spar, or
+a whole timber.
+
+Maffitt, meantime, had not cast loose a gun. He had no crew with which to
+man his battery. What few sailors he had, he had sent below, except only
+the man at the wheel, that they might be less exposed. But they were not
+safe, even here, for the shell which we have described as passing through
+the ship, took off one man's head, and seven others were wounded by
+splinters. My ex-lieutenant of the _Sumter_, Stribling, merited, on this
+occasion, the praise I have bestowed on him, in drawing his portrait. He
+is described by an eye-witness to have been as cool and self-possessed, as
+if there had been no enemy within a hundred miles of him. To make a long
+story short, the gallant little _Florida_ finally escaped her pursuers,
+and, in a shattered condition, ran in and anchored near Fort Morgan. As
+the reader may suppose, her English flag was exchanged for her own stars
+and bars, as soon as the enemy opened upon her. This was the most daring
+and gallant running of a blockade that occurred during a war so fruitful
+of daring and gallant acts. After repairing and refitting his vessel, my
+gallant friend dashed again through the enemy's fleet, now much increased
+in numbers, and commenced that career on the high seas, which has rendered
+his name one of the notable ones of the war. He lighted the seas with a
+track of fire, wherever he passed, and sent consternation and alarm among
+the enemy's shipping. A correspondent of a Northern paper, writing from
+Havana, thus speaks of Maffitt and his craft:--
+
+     "The rebel man-of-war, privateer or pirate _Florida_, otherwise known
+     as the _Oreto_, has safely arrived in this port, although she was
+     chased up to the very walls of the Moro Castle by the Mobile
+     blockading squadron, nine in number. The chase was a most exciting
+     one, but, unfortunately, without the result so much to be desired.
+
+     "It appears that the pirate Maffitt came out of the port of Mobile
+     with as much impudence as he entered it. The steamer seems to have
+     been well punished with shot and shell from the Federal ships, and it
+     is reported that she lost her first lieutenant, and sixteen men
+     killed by a shell from one of the men-of-war.
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     "From reliable information, I am enabled to state, or, rather, I am
+     convinced, that this vessel will sail for the East Indies in a few
+     days. Our Government had better look out for her advent in those
+     waters. Captain Maffitt is no ordinary character. He is vigorous,
+     energetic, bold, quick, and dashing, and the sooner he is caught and
+     hung, the better will it be for the interests of our commercial
+     community. He is decidedly popular here, and you can scarcely imagine
+     the anxiety evinced to get a glance at him."
+
+We may return now to the movements of the writer. After long waiting at
+Nassau, the _Bahama_, the steamer in which Stribling and Howell had come
+over from Hamburg, was ready to return, and I embarked on board of her,
+with my staff, and after a passage of some three weeks, landed in
+Liverpool, just in time to find that the bird had flown. The _Alabama_ had
+steamed a few days before, for her rendezvous, where, in due time, we will
+follow her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+A BRIEF RESUME OF THE HISTORY OF THE WAR, BETWEEN THE COMMISSIONING OF THE
+SUMTER AND THE COMMISSIONING OF THE ALABAMA--SECRETARY MALLORY, AND THE
+DIFFICULTIES BY WHICH HE WAS SURROUNDED--THE REORGANIZATION OF THE
+CONFEDERATE STATES NAVY.
+
+
+Although, as before remarked, I design only to write a history of my own
+proceedings, during the late war, yet it will be necessary, to enable the
+reader to understand these proceedings correctly, to run a mere thread of
+the general history of the war along parallel with them. I have done this
+up to the date of commissioning the _Sumter_. It will now be necessary to
+take up the thread again, and bring it down to the commissioning of the
+_Alabama_. I shall do this very briefly, barely enumerating the principal
+military events, without attempting to describe them, and glancing very
+cursorily at the naval events.
+
+We ran the blockade of the Mississippi, in the _Sumter_, as has been seen,
+on the 30th of June, 1861. In July of that year, the first great battle of
+Manassas was fought, to which allusion has already been made. This battle
+gave us great prestige in Europe, and contributed very much to the respect
+with which the little _Sumter_ had been received by foreign powers. A long
+military pause now ensued. The enemy had been so astonished and staggered
+by this blow, that it took him some time to recover from its effects. He,
+however, turned it to useful account, and set himself at work with great
+patience, and diligence, at the same time, to collect and thoroughly drill
+new troops. The victory, on the other hand, had an unfavorable effect upon
+our own people, in giving them an undue impression of their superiority
+over their enemy, and lulling them into supineness.
+
+During the summer of 1861, two naval expeditions were fitted out, by the
+enemy, and sent to operate against our coast. The first of these
+expeditions, under command of Commodore Stringham, captured two hastily
+constructed, and imperfect earth-works at Hatteras Inlet on the coast of
+North Carolina, and made a lodgement on Pamlico Sound. The capture of
+these works, is no otherwise remarkable, in a naval point of view, than
+for the circumstance that a Confederate States naval officer fell into the
+hands of the enemy, for the first time during the war. Commodore Samuel
+Barron, of the Confederate States Navy, commanded the forts, and
+surrendered, after a gallant resistance, to the overwhelming force which
+assaulted him, on condition that he should be treated _as a prisoner of
+war_. The battle of Manassas had occurred to humble the pride, and appeal
+to the fears of the enemy, and the condition named by Barron was readily
+assented to. The other naval expedition, under command of Commodore
+Dupont, captured Port Royal, in South Carolina as mentioned in a former
+page. The "_Trent_ Affair," already described, came off in November, 1861,
+and Commodore Hollins' attack upon the enemy's fleet at the mouths of the
+Mississippi, in which he gave him such a scare, occurred, as already
+related, in October of the same year. This brings us to the close of the
+first year of the war.
+
+The year 1862 was big with events, which we will, for the most part,
+merely string on our thread. The Confederates, in the beginning of the
+year, occupied a position at Bowling Green, in Kentucky, which was
+seemingly a strong position, with railroad communication, in their rear,
+with all parts of the South, but they could not hold it, for the simple
+reason, that the enemy, having command of the western rivers by means of
+his superior naval force, penetrated into their rear, and thus compelled a
+retreat. When the enemy, by means of his gun-boats, could send armies up
+the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, to the heart of Tennessee and
+Alabama, it was folly to think of holding Bowling Green, with our limited
+forces. Our army fell back to Nashville, and even abandoned that city,
+after the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson, which were captured by the
+Federal forces, in February, 1862.
+
+The evacuation of all these points, one after another, and afterward the
+loss of Island No. 10, on the Mississippi, and New Madrid, were serious
+blows for us. But our disasters did not end here. The battle of Shiloh
+followed, in which we were defeated, and compelled to retreat, after we
+had, to all appearance, gained a victory almost complete on the first day
+of the fight. Naval disasters accompanied, or followed our disasters upon
+the land. Early in 1862, a naval expedition of the enemy, under the
+command of Commodore Goldsborough, entered Pamlico Sound, and captured
+Roanoke Island. Commodore Lynch, of the Confederate States Navy, with six
+or seven small, ill-armed gunboats, which had been improvised from light
+and frail river steamers, assisted in the defence of the island, but was
+obliged to withdraw before the superior forces of the enemy. The enemy,
+pursuing his advantages, followed Lynch's retreating fleet to Elizabeth
+City, in North Carolina, where he captured or destroyed it.
+
+The enemy was now not only in possession of the western waters--Vicksburg
+and Port Hudson alone obstructing his free navigation of the Mississippi
+as far down as New Orleans--but Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, in North
+Carolina, and the bay of Port Royal in South Carolina and Georgia, were
+open to him. To complete the circle of our disasters, New Orleans was
+captured by Farragut and Porter, in April--the small Confederate fleet
+under Commodore John K. Mitchell, making a gallant but disastrous defence,
+in which it was totally destroyed, with great loss of life of both
+officers and men.
+
+Let us turn now to a more pleasing picture; for all was not disaster for
+the Confederates, during the year 1862. In March of that year, the
+memorable naval engagement occurred in Hampton Roads, between the
+Confederate States iron-clad steamer _Virginia_, and the enemy's fleet,
+resulting in the destruction, by the _Virginia_, of two of the enemy's
+wooden frigates. Great consternation and alarm were produced in the
+enemy's fleet, and at Fortress Monroe, by Admiral Buchanan and his armored
+ship, as well there might be, for the ship was perfectly invulnerable, and
+but for her great draught of water, might have destroyed or driven off
+the whole Federal fleet. Our people were greatly elated by this victory,
+coming as it did, in the midst of so many disasters. It attracted great
+attention in Europe, also, as being decisive of the fate of all the
+old-time wooden ships, which had, up to that period, composed the navies
+of the world. It so happened, that the Federals had completed the first of
+their Monitors, at this very time, and this little iron ship, arriving
+opportunely, engaged the _Virginia_ on the second day of the fight. Like
+her great antagonist, she, too, was invulnerable, and the result was a
+drawn battle. From this time onward, the enemy multiplied his armored
+ships very rapidly, and it is scarcely too much to say, that he is almost
+wholly indebted to them, for his success in the war.
+
+Another very creditable affair for the Confederates came off on the 15th
+of May. In the interval between the fight of the _Virginia_, with the
+enemy's fleet in Hampton Roads, and the day last named, Norfolk had been
+evacuated, and the _Virginia_, which had passed under the command of
+Commodore Tatnall, was blown up. The consequence was that the James River
+was open to the navigation of the enemy. Taking advantage of this state of
+things, five of the enemy's gunboats, two of which were iron-clad,
+ascended the river, with intent to reach, and shell Richmond, if
+practicable. They met with no serious obstruction, or any opposition,
+until they reached Drury's Bluff. Here the river had been obstructed, and
+a Confederate earth-work erected. The earth-work was commanded by Captain
+Eben Farrand, of the Confederate States Navy, who had some sailors and
+marines under him. The Federal fleet having approached within 600 yards,
+opened fire upon the fort, which it kept up for the space of three hours.
+It was so roughly handled, however, by Farrand and his sailors, that at
+the end of that time, it was obliged to retire, with several of its
+vessels seriously damaged. No further attempt was made during the war, to
+reach Richmond by means of iron-clads; the dose which Farrand had given
+them was quite sufficient.
+
+But the greatest of all the triumphs which crowned the Confederate arms
+during this year of 1862, were the celebrated campaigns of Stonewall
+Jackson, in the Shenandoah Valley, and the seven days' fighting before
+Richmond. I will barely string these events, as I pass along. Banks,
+Fremont, and Shields, of the enemy, were all operating in this valley,
+with forces greatly outnumbering those of Jackson. The latter, by a series
+of rapid and masterly movements, fell upon his enemies, one after the
+other, and defeated them all; Banks, in particular, who having been bred
+to civil life, was devoid of all military training, and apparently
+wanting, even, in that first and most common requisite of a soldier,
+courage, flying in disorder, and abandoning to his pursuer all the
+supplies and _materiel_ of a large and well-appointed army. Such frantic
+efforts did he make to escape from Jackson, that he marched thirty-five
+miles in a single day; passing through the good old town of Winchester,
+which he had formerly occupied, with so many signs of trepidation and
+alarm, that the citizens received him and his troops, with shouts of
+derisive laughter!
+
+The enemy, after his defeat at Manassas, put General McClellan in command
+of the Army of the Potomac, and the balance of the year 1861 was devoted,
+by this officer, to the collecting and drilling of troops. In the spring
+of 1862, he landed at Fortress Monroe, with a splendidly appointed army of
+90,000 men, provided with 55 batteries of artillery, consisting of 350
+field pieces. Magruder held him in check, for some time, with 11,000 men,
+which enabled the Confederate commanders to gather together their forces,
+for the defence of Richmond. He moved at length, was checked a while at
+Williamsburg, by Longstreet, but finally deployed his immense forces on
+the banks of the Chickahominy.
+
+A series of battles now took place, commencing on the 30th of May, and
+extending through the month of June, which resulted in the raising of the
+siege, and the total rout and precipitate retreat of the Federal
+commander. I will barely enumerate these battles, as follows: Seven Pines;
+Mechanicsville and Beaver Dam; Gaines' Mills; Savage Station; Frazer's
+Farm; and Malvern Hill;--names sufficient alone to cover the Confederate
+cause with immortal glory, in the minds of all true men, as the highest
+qualities of courage, endurance, patriotism, and self-sacrifice, that any
+men could be capable of, were exhibited on those fields, destined to
+become classic in American annals.
+
+Following up the defeat of McClellan, by Johnston and Lee, Stonewall
+Jackson gained his splendid victory of the Second Manassas over Pope;
+defeating him with great loss, and driving him before him to the gates of
+Washington. Thus, notwithstanding our disasters in the West and South, an
+entirely new face had been put upon the war in Virginia. The enemy's
+capital, instead of Richmond, was in danger, and McClellan was hastily
+withdrawn from Fortress Monroe, for its defence.
+
+We must now pause, for we have brought the thread of the war down to the
+commissioning of the _Alabama_, and the reader will see with what
+forebodings, as well as hopes, we took the sea, in that ship. The war may
+be said now to have been at its height. Both the belligerents were
+thoroughly aroused, and a few blows, well struck, on the water, might be
+of great assistance. I resolved to attempt to strike these blows.
+
+A few words, now, as to the _status_ of the Confederate States Navy. As
+remarked in the opening of these memoirs, the Confederate States had no
+navy at the beginning of the war, and the South being almost entirely
+agricultural, with few or no ships, and but little external commerce,
+except such as was conducted in Northern bottoms, had but very indifferent
+means of creating one. Whilst the North was one busy hive of manufacturing
+industry, with its ship-yards and work-shops, resounding, by night and by
+day, with the busy strokes of the hammer, the adze, and the caulking-iron;
+whilst its steam-mills and foundries were vomiting forth their thick smoke
+from their furnaces, and deafening the ears of their workmen by the din of
+the trip-hammer and the whirr of the lathe; and whilst foreign material of
+every description was flowing into open ports, the South had neither
+ship-yards nor work-shops, steam-mills nor foundries, except on the most
+limited scale, and all her ports were as good as hermetically sealed, so
+far as the introduction of the heavy materials of which she stood in need
+was concerned.
+
+It will be seen what a difficult task the Secretary of the Navy had before
+him, and how unjust are many of the censures that were cast upon him, by
+persons unconversant with naval affairs. Indeed, it is rather a matter of
+surprise, that so much was accomplished with our limited means.
+Work-shops and foundries were improvised, wherever it was possible to
+establish them; but the great difficulty was the want of the requisite
+heavy machinery. We had not the means, in the entire Confederacy, of
+turning out a complete steam-engine, of any size, and many of our naval
+disasters are attributable to this deficiency. Well-constructed steamers,
+that did credit to the Navy Department and its agents, were forced to put
+to sea, and to move about upon our sounds and harbors, with engines
+disproportioned to their size, and incapable of driving them at a speed
+greater than five miles the hour.
+
+The casting of cannon, and the manufacture of small arms, were also
+undertaken by the Secretary, under the direction of skilful officers, and
+prosecuted to considerable efficiency. But it took time to accomplish all
+these things. Before a ship could be constructed, it was necessary to hunt
+up the requisite timber, and transport it considerable distances. Her
+armor, if she was to be armored, was to be rolled also at a distance, and
+transported over long lines of railroad, piecemeal; her cordage was to be
+picked up at one place, and her sails and hammocks at another. I speak
+knowingly on this subject, as I had had experience of many of the
+difficulties I mention, in fitting out the _Sumter_ in New Orleans. I was
+two months in preparing this small ship for sea, practising, all the
+while, every possible diligence and contrivance. The Secretary had other
+difficulties to contend with. By the time he had gotten many of his
+ship-yards well established, and ships well on their way to completion,
+the enemy would threaten the _locus in quo_, by land, and either compel
+him to attempt to remove everything movable, in great haste, and at great
+loss, or destroy it, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the
+enemy. Many fine ships were, in this way, burned on the very eve of
+completion.
+
+It must be recollected, too, that in the early days of the war, we had no
+finances. These were to be improvised along with other things. I travelled
+to the North, on the mission which has been described in these pages, on
+money borrowed from a private banker. If we had had plenty of funds in the
+beginning of the war, it is possible that we might have accomplished more
+than we did, in Europe, in the matter of getting out ships to prey upon
+the enemy's commerce--that is, in the way of purchase, for it soon became
+evident, from the experience we had had, in building the _Alabama_, and
+other ships contracted for by the Navy Department, that we could not rely
+upon constructing them. The neutral powers became too watchful, and were
+too much afraid of the Federal power. When the Government did put the
+Secretary in funds, several months had elapsed, the war had begun, the
+coast was blockaded, and all the nations of Europe were on the alert.
+
+With reference to the _personnel_ of the Navy, a few words will describe
+the changes which had taken place in its organization, since I last
+referred to the subject. It will be recollected that it then consisted of
+but four captains, four commanders, and about thirty lieutenants, and that
+the writer was the junior, but one, of the four commanders. A considerable
+accession was made to the navy-list, as Virginia, North Carolina, and
+other States seceded, and joined their fortunes with those of their more
+impulsive sisters, the Cotton States. A number of old officers, past
+service, disdaining to eat the bread of ignoble pensioners upon the bounty
+of the Northern States, which were seeking to subjugate the States of
+their birth or adoption, came South, bringing with them nothing but their
+patriotism and their gray hairs. These all took rank, as has been
+remarked, according to the positions they had held in the old service.
+These old gentlemen, whilst they would have commanded, with great credit,
+fleets and squadrons of well-appointed and well-officered ships, were
+entirely unsuited for such service as the Confederacy could offer them. It
+became necessary, in consequence, to re-organize the Navy; and although
+this was not done until May, 1863, some months after the _Alabama_ was
+commissioned, I will anticipate the subject here, to avoid the necessity
+of again referring to it. I had been promoted to the rank of captain in
+the Regular Navy, in the summer of 1862. The Act of May, 1863, established
+what was called the Provisional Navy; the object being, without
+interfering with the rank of the officers in the Regular Navy, to cull out
+from that navy-list, younger and more active men, and put them in the
+Provisional Navy, with increased rank. The Regular Navy became, thus, a
+kind of retired list, and the Secretary of the Navy was enabled to
+accomplish his object of bringing forward younger officers for active
+service, without wounding the feelings of the older officers, by promoting
+their juniors over their heads, _on the same list_. As late as December,
+1861, we had had no admirals in our Navy. On the 24th of that month, the
+Act organizing the Navy was so amended, as to authorize the appointment of
+four officers of this grade. There was but one of these admirals
+appointed, up to the time of which I am writing--Buchanan, who was
+promoted for his gallant fight in the _Virginia_, with the enemy's fleet
+in Hampton Roads. Buchanan, being already an admiral in the Regular Navy,
+was now transferred to the Provisional Navy, with the same rank; and the
+captains' list of this latter Navy was so arranged that Barron stood first
+on it, and myself second. I was thus, the third in rank in the Provisional
+Navy, soon after I hoisted my pennant on board the _Alabama_. In reviewing
+these matters, my only regret now is, that the older officers of whom I
+have spoken, and who made so many sacrifices for principle--sacrifices
+that have hastened several of them to the tomb, were not made admirals on
+the regular or retired list. The honors would have been barren, it is
+true, as no commands, commensurate with the rank, could have been given
+them, but the bestowal of the simple title would have been a compliment,
+no more than due to veterans, who had commanded squadrons in the old
+service, and who had abandoned all for the sake of their States. The
+reader is now in a condition to accompany me, whilst I describe to him the
+commissioning of the _Alabama_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+THE LEGALITY OF THE EQUIPMENT OF THE ALABAMA, AND A FEW PRECEDENTS FOR HER
+CAREER, DRAWN FROM THE HISTORY OF THE WAR OF 1776.
+
+
+Before I read my commission on the quarter-deck of the _Alabama_, I desire
+to say a word or two as to the legality of her equipment, and to recall to
+the recollection of the reader a few of the incidents of the war of the
+Revolution of 1776, to show how inconsistent our Northern brethren have
+been, in the denunciations they have hurled against that ship. Mr. Seward,
+the Federal Secretary of State, and Mr. Charles Francis Adams, who was the
+United States Minister at the Court of St. James, during the late war
+between the States, have frequently lost their temper, when they have
+spoken of the _Alabama_, and denounced her as a "pirate." In cooler
+moments, when they come to read over the intemperate despatches they have
+been betrayed into writing, they will probably be ashamed of them
+themselves; since these despatches not only contradict the truth of
+history, and set at defiance the laws of nations, but stultify themselves
+in important particulars.
+
+Great stress has been laid, by both of these gentlemen, on the foreign
+origin of the _Alabama_, forgetting entirely, not only what was done by
+their ancestors in the war of 1776, but what was attempted to be done by
+Mr. Gideon Welles, their own Secretary of the Navy, in the year of grace
+1861. I will refresh their memories on both these points, and first, as to
+the latter. Mr. Welles attempted to do, nothing more nor less than the
+Confederate States Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Mallory, did in the matter
+of building the _Alabama_--that is to say, he endeavored to build some
+_Alabamas_ in England himself, but failed! This little episode in the
+history of the Federal Navy Department is curious, and worthy of being
+preserved as a practical commentary on so much of the despatches of
+Messrs. Seward and Adams, as relates to the foreign origin of my ship. The
+facts were published soon after their occurrence, and have not been, and
+cannot be denied. They were given to the public by Mr. Laird, the
+gentleman who built the _Alabama_, and who was the party with whom the
+Federal Navy Department endeavored to treat.
+
+Mr. Laird was a member of the British Parliament, and having been abused,
+without stint, as an aider and abettor of "pirates," by the Northern
+newspapers, as soon as it became known that he was the builder of the
+_Alabama_, he made a speech in the House of Commons, in defence of
+himself, in the course of which he stated the fact I have charged, to wit:
+that Mr. Welles endeavored to make a contract with him, for building some
+_Federal Alabamas_. Here is so much of his speech as is necessary to
+establish the charge:--"In 1861," said he, "just after the war broke out,
+a friend of mine, whom I have known for many years, was over here, and
+came to me with a view of getting vessels built in this country, for the
+American Government--the Northern Government. Its agent in this country
+made inquiries; plans and estimates were given to my friend, and
+transmitted to the Secretary of the American Navy. I will read an abstract
+from this gentleman's letter, dated the 30th of July, 1861. It is written
+from Washington, and states:--'Since my arrival here, I have had frequent
+interviews with our Department of Naval Affairs, and am happy to say that
+the Minister of the Navy is inclined to have an iron-plated ship built out
+of the country. This ship is designed for a specific purpose, to
+accomplish a definite object. I send you, herewith, a memorandum handed me
+last evening from the Department, with the request that I would send it to
+you, by steamer's mail of to-morrow, and ask your immediate reply, stating
+if you will agree to build such a ship as desired, how soon, and for how
+much, with such plans and specifications as you may deem it best to send
+me.' The extract from the memorandum states, that the ship is to be
+finished complete, with guns and everything appertaining. On the 14th of
+August, I received another letter from the same gentleman, from which the
+following is an extract:--'I have this morning a note from the Assistant
+Secretary of the Navy, in which he says, "I hope your friends will tender
+for the two iron-plated steamers."' After this, the firm with which I was
+lately connected, having made contracts to a large extent with other
+persons, stated that they were not in a condition to undertake any orders
+to be done in so short a time. This was the reply:--'I sent your last
+letter, received yesterday, to the Secretary of the Navy, who was very
+desirous to have you build the iron-plated or bomb-proof batteries, and I
+trust that he will yet decide to have you build one or more of the
+gun-boats.'
+
+"I think, perhaps, in the present state of the law in America, I shall not
+be asked to give the name of my correspondent, but he is a gentleman of
+the highest respectability. If any honorable member wishes, I shall have
+no objection in handing the whole correspondence, with the original
+letters, into the hands of you, sir, [the Speaker of the House,] or of the
+First Minister of the Crown, in strict confidence, because there are
+communications in these letters, respecting the views of the American
+Government, which I certainly should not divulge, and which I have not
+mentioned or alluded to before. But, seeing the American Government are
+making so much work about other parties, whom they charge with violating
+or evading the law, when, in reality, they have not done so, I think it
+only fair to state these facts."
+
+It thus appears that the Government of the United States preceded us in
+the English market, having endeavored, a whole year before the _Alabama_
+was built, to contract with Mr. Laird for the building of iron-plated, and
+other ships, and that the only reason why the contract was not made, was,
+that Mr. Laird had taken already so much work in hand, that he could not
+take "any new orders, to be done in so short a time"--as that prescribed
+by Mr. Welles, for it seems that he was in a hurry. The explanation
+probably is, that we had offered Mr. Laird better terms than Mr. Welles,
+and this is the only reason why the _Alabama_ was a Confederate, instead
+of a Federal ship! This speech of Mr. Laird caused no little merriment in
+the House of Commons, for, as before remarked, the Federal press, knowing
+nothing of these secret transactions between Mr. Welles and Mr. Laird,
+had been denouncing the latter for building the _Alabama_, in the coarse
+and offensive language to which, by this time, it had become accustomed.
+The disclosures could not but be ludicrous.
+
+To dispose, now, of Mr. Seward's objection, that the _Alabama_ was
+foreign-built. The reader will see, in a moment, that there is nothing in
+this objection, when he reflects that a ship of war, in the light in which
+we are considering her, is a _personification_, and not a mere material
+thing. If her personification be true, and unobjectionable, it matters not
+of what materials she may be composed, whence those materials may have
+been drawn, or where they may have been fashioned. It is the commission
+which a sovereign puts on board a ship, that causes her to personify the
+sovereign power, and it is obviously of no importance how the sovereign
+becomes possessed of the ship. It can make no difference to other nations,
+so far as her character of ship of war is concerned, whether she is
+fashioned out of the pines of Norway, or of Florida, or whether the copper
+on her bottom comes from Lake Superior or Peru; or, finally, whether
+Englishmen, or Frenchmen, or Americans shall have put her frame together,
+in either of their respective countries. Even if she be built, armed, and
+equipped in neutral territory, in plain violation of the neutral duty of
+that territory, she is purged of this offence, so far as her character of
+ship of war is concerned, the moment she reaches the high seas, and is
+commissioned.
+
+To apply this reasoning to the Alabama. If it be true, as stated by Mr.
+Seward, that she was built in England, in violation of the neutrality of
+that country, this might have subjected her to detention by England, or it
+might have raised a question between the United States and England; but
+the ship, having once escaped, and been commissioned, her origin is
+necessarily lost sight of, and neither England nor any other country can
+afterward inquire into it. Indeed, there can be no principle of the laws
+of nations plainer than this, that when a ship is once commissioned by a
+sovereign power, no other power can look into the antecedents of the ship.
+From the moment that her commission is read on her quarter-deck, she
+becomes the personification of the sovereign power, and the sovereign
+avows himself responsible for all her acts. No one of these acts can be
+impeached on the ground, that antecedently to her becoming a ship of war,
+she committed some offence against the laws of nations, or against the
+municipal law of some particular nation.
+
+This point was settled years before our war, by the Supreme Court of the
+United States, in the case of the _Santissima Trinidad_. It was alleged
+that that ship had been fitted out in the United States, in violation of
+the neutrality laws--during a war between Spain and her colonies--and the
+question arose whether this invalidated her commission, as a ship of war.
+Mr. Justice Story delivered the opinion of the court, in the course of
+which he said:--
+
+     "In general, the commission of a public ship, signed by the proper
+     authorities of the nation to which she belongs [the nation to which
+     the _Santissima Trinidad_ belonged, was the _de facto_ nation of
+     Buenos Ayres] is complete proof of her national character. A bill of
+     sale is not necessary to be produced, nor will the courts of a
+     foreign country inquire into the means by which the title to the
+     property has been acquired. It would be to exert the right of
+     examining into the validity of the acts of the foreign sovereign, and
+     to sit in judgment upon them in cases where he has not conceded the
+     jurisdiction, and where it would be inconsistent with his own
+     supremacy. The commission, therefore, of a public ship, when duly
+     authenticated, so far at least as foreign courts are concerned,
+     imports absolute verity, and the title is not examinable. The
+     property must be taken to be duly acquired, and cannot be
+     controverted. This has been the settled practice between nations, and
+     it is a rule founded in public convenience and policy, and cannot be
+     broken in upon, without endangering the peace and repose, as well of
+     neutral as of belligerent sovereigns.
+
+     "The commission in the present case is not expressed in the most
+     unequivocal terms, but its fair import and interpretation must be
+     deemed to apply to a public ship of the government. If we add to
+     this, the corroborative testimony of our own, and the British Consul
+     at Buenos Ayres, as well as that of private citizens, to the
+     notoriety of her claim of a public character, and her admission into
+     our own ports as a public ship, with the immunities and privileges
+     belonging to such a ship, with the express approbation of our own
+     Government, it does not seem too much to assert, whatever may be the
+     private suspicion of a _lurking American interest_, that she must be
+     judicially held to be a public ship of the country, whose commission
+     she bears."
+
+This was a very strong case. The ship had not only been fitted out in
+violation of the neutrality laws of the United States, but the court
+intimates that she might also be American owned; but whether she was or
+not, was a fact into which the court could not inquire, the commission, in
+the language of the court, importing "absolute verity."
+
+But it is not true, as we shall see hereafter, that the _Alabama_ violated
+either the laws of nations, or the municipal law of England. The next
+question which presents itself for our consideration is, Was the _Alabama_
+properly commissioned by a sovereign power? No question has ever been
+raised as to the _bona fides_, or form of her commission. Mr. Seward even
+has not attacked these. Our question, then, will be reduced to this, Was
+she commissioned by a sovereign power? The answer to this question is,
+that a _de facto_ government is sovereign, for all the purposes of war,
+and that the Confederate States were a _de facto_ government; so
+acknowledged by the United States themselves, as well as by the other
+nations of the earth. The United States made this acknowledgment, the
+moment President Lincoln issued his proclamation declaring a blockade of
+the Southern ports; and they acted upon the doctrine that we were
+belligerents during the whole war, by treating with us for the exchange of
+_prisoners of war_.
+
+This was no concession on their part. We had become strong enough to
+compel them to this course, in spite of themselves. In other words, we had
+become strong enough to make _war_, and when this is the case, let us see
+what Vattel says is the duty of the other party: "The sovereign indeed,
+never fails to bestow the appellation of 'rebels' on all such of his
+subjects as openly resist him; but when the latter have acquired
+sufficient strength to give him effectual opposition, and to oblige him to
+carry on the war against them, according to the established rules, he must
+necessarily submit to the use of the term 'civil war.' It is foreign to
+our purpose in this place, to weigh the reasons which may authorize and
+justify a civil war. We have elsewhere treated of cases in which subjects
+may resist their sovereign. Setting, therefore, the justice of the case
+wholly out of the question, it only remains for us to consider the maxims
+which ought to be observed in a civil war and to explain whether the
+sovereign is, on such occasions, bound to conform to the established laws
+of war. A civil war breaks the bands of society and government, or at
+least suspends their force and effect; it produces in the nation two
+independent parties, which consider each other as enemies, and acknowledge
+no common judge. These two parties, therefore, must necessarily be
+considered as constituting, at least for a time, two separate bodies, two
+distinct societies. Though one of the parties may have been to blame in
+breaking the unity of the State, and resisting the lawful authority, they
+are not the less divided in fact. Besides, who shall judge them? Who shall
+pronounce on which side the right or wrong lies? On earth they have no
+common superior. They stand, therefore, in precisely the same predicament
+as two nations, who engage in a contest, and being unable to come to an
+agreement, have recourse to arms." This was the law of nations as
+expounded by Vattel more than a century ago. He tells us that when even a
+revolt or rebellion has acquired sufficient magnitude and strength, to
+make "effectual opposition to the sovereign," it is the duty of that
+sovereign to talk of "civil war," and not of "rebellion," and to cease to
+call his former subjects "rebels." How much more was it the duty of the
+Northern States, in a war which was a war from the beginning, waged by
+States against States, with all the forms and solemnities of war, and with
+none of the characteristics of a secret revolt or rebellion, to treat us
+as belligerents, even if they denied the _de jures_ of our movement? But
+even according to the law laid down by Vattel, the United States, and the
+Confederate States stood "precisely in the same predicament," with regard
+to all the rights, duties, and obligations growing out of the war. That is
+to say, they were, _quoad_ the war, the equals, one of the other, and
+whatever one of them might do, the other might do.
+
+Hence it follows, that if the United States could build _Alabamas_, and
+capture the ships of her enemy, so could the Confederate States. And if
+Mr. Welles, the Federal Secretary of the Navy, could go into the
+ship-yards on the Mersey, and endeavor to contract for the delivery to him
+of a ship or ships of war, "to be finished complete," in the words of Mr.
+Laird's correspondent, "with guns, and everything appertaining," it is
+difficult to perceive, why Mr. Mallory, the Secretary of the Confederate
+States Navy, might not go into the same ship-yards, and contract for the
+delivery to him, of an incomplete ship, without any guns at all!
+
+But further, with reference to the right of the Confederate States to be
+regarded as a _de facto_ government, invested with all the rights of war.
+The Supreme Court of the enemy himself affirmed this right, early in the
+war. When the Federal naval officers--the Southern renegades, who have
+been before alluded to, among the rest--began to grow rich by the capture
+of blockade runners, it became necessary, of course, to condemn the prizes
+before they could get hold of their prize-money. Some of these cases went
+up to the Supreme Court, on writ of error, and I shall quote from a case,
+known as the "Prize Case," reported in 2d Black, 635. This case was
+decided as early as the December Term, 1862, and Mr. Justice Greer
+delivered the opinion of the court. The question arose upon the capture of
+some English ships which had attempted to run the blockade. These ships
+could not be condemned, unless there was a lawful blockade, which they had
+attempted to break; and there could not be a lawful blockade, unless there
+was a war, and not a mere insurrection, as Mr. Seward, with puerile
+obstinacy, had so long maintained; and there could not be a war without,
+at least, two parties to it, both of whom must be belligerents; and it is
+of the essence of belligerency, as has been seen, that the parties
+belligerent should be equal, with reference to all the objects of the war.
+The vessels were claimed by the neutral owners, on Mr. Seward's own
+ground, to wit: that the war, not being a war, but an insurrection, there
+could be no such thing as a blockade predicated of it. Mr. Justice Greer,
+in delivering the opinion of the court, among other things said: "It [the
+war] is not the less a civil war, with belligerent parties in hostile
+array, because it may be called an 'insurrection' by one side, and the
+insurgents be considered as rebels and traitors. It is not necessary that
+the independence of the revolted Province or State be acknowledged, in
+order to constitute it a party belligerent in a war, according to the laws
+of nations. Foreign nations acknowledge it as a war, by a declaration of
+neutrality. The condition of neutrality cannot exist, unless there be two
+belligerent parties. In the case of the _Santissima Trinidad_ (7 Wheaton,
+337) this court says: 'The Government of the United States has recognized
+the existence of a civil war between Spain and her colonies, and has
+avowed her determination to remain neutral between the parties. Each party
+is, therefore, deemed by us a belligerent, having, so far as concerns us,
+the sovereign rights of war.'"
+
+The belligerent character of the Confederate States was thus acknowledged
+by the highest judicial tribunal of the United States, and the prizes were
+condemned to the captors; and a precedent is cited by the court, in which
+the United States recognized the right of the revolted Spanish colonies,
+such as Columbia, Buenos Ayres, and Mexico, who were then in _consimili
+casu_ with the Confederate States, to build and equip _Alabamas_ to prey
+upon Spanish commerce, not as a mere matter of power simply, but in the
+exercise of the "sovereign rights of war," under the laws of nations.
+
+With regard to the new American republics, thus acknowledged by the United
+States as belligerents, it will be recollected that one of the first acts
+of Mr. John Quincy Adams, when he became President of the United States,
+was to recommend the passage of a law authorizing him to send members to a
+Congress of all the American States, to be assembled at Panama. Under this
+law, members of that Congress were actually appointed--though they never
+proceeded to their destination--and Mr. Clay, then Secretary of State, and
+who had been among the foremost to advocate the recognition of the
+independence of the South American republics, prepared an elaborate and
+eloquent letter of instructions for their guidance, in which he dwelt upon
+the very principles I am now invoking. The republics, whose ambassadors it
+was thus proposed to meet, in an _International Congress_, were nothing
+more than _de facto_ governments, like the Confederate States, the
+independence of neither one of them having been acknowledged, as yet, by
+Spain.
+
+I may further mention, as a matter of historical notoriety, that it was a
+common practice for the cruisers of those young republics, to carry their
+prizes into the ports of the United States, and there have them condemned
+and sold. The _Santissima Trinidad_ referred to in the case from the
+Supreme Court above quoted, was one of these cruisers, with nothing more
+behind her than a _de facto_ government, and she was held to be a
+belligerent, and to be possessed, as such, of all the "sovereign rights of
+war," under the laws of nations. What renders these transactions the more
+remarkable, in the light of recent events, and in the face of the
+denunciations which have been hurled against the _Alabama_ by the Federal
+Government, because of her foreign origin, is, that most of these cruisers
+were, in fact, _American_ ships, not only built and equipped in the United
+States, but officered and manned by citizens of the Northern States, who
+had gone southward in quest of plunder! Many of these ships were fitted
+out on speculation, in the United States, and sailed from Boston, New
+York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, _fully armed_ and _equipped for war_,
+with enlisted crews on board.
+
+A case of this kind came under my own actual observation. I was serving as
+a midshipman on board the old sailing sloop-of-war _Erie_. We happened in
+at the Swedish Island of St. Bartholomew, in the West Indies, during the
+war between Buenos Ayres and Spain. We were on our way from New York to
+one of the South American ports, to land General William H. Harrison,
+afterward President of the United States, who had been appointed, by
+President John Quincy Adams, Minister to Colombia. In St. Bartholomew we
+found at anchor a Buenos Ayrean cruiser called the _Federal_. This was a
+Baltimore-built schooner--Baltimore in those days being famous above all
+the other American ports, for building fast vessels of this class. Her
+captain, and all her officers, and a large proportion of her crew, were
+Americans. This vessel, we ascertained, had boarded an American ship a few
+days before, and taken from on board of her a portion of her cargo, under
+the pretence that it was Spanish property. This being in our view a
+violation of the laws of nations (as whether the property was Spanish or
+not, we held that "free ships made free goods"), we resolved to commit one
+of those outrages against neutral rights which have become so common in
+our day, by seizing the cruiser. Admitting the act of the cruiser to have
+been wrongful, the argument, so far as her seizure by us was concerned,
+was all against us, and might have been contained in a "nutshell;" but
+our captain, if he had ever read any international law, which was
+exceedingly doubtful, had read it, like Wilkes, wrong end foremost, and
+"went it blind," being quite sure of popular applause from the b'hoys at
+home, and standing in no fear of consequences so far as Buenos Ayres was
+concerned, as she was so weak that the Great Republic might kick her with
+impunity.
+
+We first demanded her of the Governor of the island, as a "pirate." The
+Governor replied, that she was a commissioned ship, with a _de facto_
+government behind her, and that she could not, so long as she retained
+this character, be guilty of piracy. Further, that if she were a pirate,
+she was _hostis humani generis_, and Sweden, within whose waters she was,
+was as competent to deal with her, as the United States. He ended by
+informing us, that in whatever category the vessel might be placed, being
+in neutral jurisdiction, she could not be dealt with forcibly by the
+captain of the _Erie_, and notified us, that if we attempted it, he would
+fire upon us. The _Federal_ was moored under the guns of the fortification
+which protected the harbor, and the following night, we fitted out a boat
+expedition, pulled in under cover of the darkness--the night being black
+and squally--and boarded her, and brought her out; the Governor being as
+good as his word, and firing upon us, though without effect, as soon as he
+discovered the movement. This was my first indoctrination in the laws of
+the sea! and the first occasion on which I ever heard a shot fired in
+anger. Sweden remonstrated, and the United States apologized, and there
+the matter ended. I have mentioned the incident to show, that the very
+cruisers which the Supreme Court of the United States was protecting by
+its decisions, were nothing more than American vessels, under belligerent
+flags, holding commissions under _de facto_ governments.
+
+But I have another precedent or two, to which to call the attention of the
+reader. It is a very useful practice for nations to pause occasionally,
+and look back upon their own history. It teaches them many lessons, which
+they would not otherwise learn. It shows them how to avoid
+inconsistencies, and prevents them from becoming dishonest as
+circumstances change. But, above all, it teaches them that man is a poor,
+weak creature, selfish and corrupt, guided by the instincts and
+inspirations of the moment; and that his reason--that God-like attribute,
+which distinguishes him from the brute--is so fallible, that he rarely
+sees a truth, if that truth militate against his supposed interests. It
+makes all the difference in the world, whether a man's bull gores his
+neighbor's ox, or his neighbor's bull gores his ox. The Yankee ship-owners
+and ship-masters cried out, in pain, as the _Sumter_ and _Alabama_ were
+capturing and destroying their ships, and called both of these cruisers
+"pirates." I design now to show how the Yankee ship-owners and
+ship-masters, of a generation or two back, captured and burned English
+ships, and took great credit to themselves for their exploits, not
+dreaming that they were pirates.
+
+The precedents which I design to cite will be drawn from the history of
+the war of 1776; it will be necessary, therefore to run a brief parallel
+between that war and the war of 1861, to show that the precedents
+established in the former are applicable to the circumstances of the
+latter. To lay aside, entirely, the question of the right of the Southern
+States to secede, and to put the war between the States on no higher
+ground than that between the Colonies and Great Britain, which was a mere
+rebellion, the following parallel appears:--The original thirteen
+Colonies, when they formed a part of the British Government, declared
+their independence of that Government. The Confederate States did the same
+against the United States. Great Britain made war upon the Colonies in
+consequence of this declaration; so did the United States against the
+Confederate States. The Colonies claimed and exercised the rights of war.
+So did the Confederate States. The Colonies, in the exercise of these
+rights, destroyed much of the commerce of Great Britain. So did the
+Confederate States, with regard to the United States. Both the Colonies
+and the Confederate States were _de facto_ governments, when this property
+was destroyed. Now, it can obviously make no difference that the Colonies
+achieved their independence, and that the Confederate States failed to
+achieve theirs. If what the Colonies did _was right, when they did
+it_--that is to say, when they were still a _de facto_ government--what
+the Confederate States did must have been right for the same reason. The
+acknowledgment of the independence of the Colonies by the parent country,
+whilst it had the effect to make them so many nations of the earth, could
+add nothing to any rights they before possessed, as belligerents, for they
+did not derive these rights from their status _de jure_, but from their
+status _de facto_; nor did they derive them from Great Britain, but from
+the laws of nations. It follows, that if nothing could be added to these
+rights by the successful termination of the war, so nothing could be taken
+away from them, by its unsuccessful termination. The parallel thus appears
+perfect, in every particular, so far as belligerent rights are concerned,
+and, of course, it is only of these rights that we are now speaking.
+
+With this introduction I proceed to produce the precedents. Mr. James
+Fenimore Cooper, the Naval Historian of the United States, is the author
+whom I shall quote, and his authority will certainly not be disputed north
+of the Potomac. One of the earliest cruises of the war of 1776, was made
+by Captain, afterward Commodore, John Paul Jones. This gentleman, in
+command of a vessel called the _Providence_, in the summer of 1776, made a
+foray among the British fishermen, on the Banks of Newfoundland, taking no
+less than twelve sail, and returning to Newport, in Rhode Island, at the
+end of his cruise, having made sixteen prizes in all. The _Alabama_ never
+flew at such small game as this. Although she cruised, as the reader will
+see a little further on, for some time off these same Banks of
+Newfoundland, she never deprived a Yankee fisherman of his "catch of cod."
+
+Jones commanded a regular ship of war, but it was the privateers that were
+the most numerous and destructive. With reference to this class of
+vessels, the historian tells us that "Most of the Colonies had their
+respective cruisers at sea or on their own coasts, and the ocean literally
+began to swarm with privateers from all parts of the country, though New
+England took the lead in that species of warfare. Robert Morris, in one of
+his official letters, of a date later than that precise time, remarks that
+the passion for privateering was so strong in this particular part of the
+country, that even agriculture was abandoned in order to pursue it."
+
+In another place, the historian tells us, that "As soon as the struggle
+commenced in earnest, the habits of the people, their aptitude for
+sea-service, and the advantages of both a public and _private_ nature,
+that were to be obtained from successful cruising, induced thousands to
+turn their longing eyes to an element that promised so many flattering
+results. Nothing but the caution of Congress, which body was indisposed at
+first to act as if general warfare, instead of a redress of grievances,
+was its object, prevented a rushing toward the _private cruisers_, that
+would probably have given the commerce of England a heavier and more
+sudden blow than it had ever yet received. But a different policy was
+pursued, and the orders to capture, first issued, were confined to vessels
+bringing stores and supplies to the British forces in America. It was as
+late as November, 1775, before Massachusetts, the colony which was the
+seat of war, and which may be said to have taken the lead in the revolt,
+established Courts of Admiralty, and enacted laws for the encouragement of
+nautical enterprise."
+
+The reader observes, from the above passage, from the historian, how
+"circumstances alter cases." The "nautical enterprise" here spoken of, is
+the same kind of nautical enterprise which has been charged, by virtuous
+Massachusetts, whose people were in such haste to grow rich by
+privateering, against the _Alabama_, as "piracy." The rush was not, it
+seems, to the ships of war of the regular navy, to fight the battles of
+the country, but to the privateers, which promised so many "flattering
+results." It took a little time to warm the Congress and the people up to
+their work, but when they were once fairly warmed, they took their jackets
+off and went at it with a will, as is the wont of us Americans.
+
+Let us dip a little further into Mr. Cooper, and see what more, these
+staid New Englanders, who now have such a horror of "piracy," did. "The
+proceedings in Congress," he continues, "in reference to assailing British
+commerce, as has been seen, were reserved and cautious. War not being
+regularly declared, and accommodation far from hopeless, the year 1775 was
+suffered to pass away, without granting letters of marque and reprisal,
+for it was the interest of the nation to preserve as many friends in
+England as possible. As the breach widened, this forbearing policy was
+abandoned, and the summer of 1776 let loose the nautical enterprise of the
+country upon British commerce. The effect was at first astounding. Never
+before had England found an enemy so destructive to her trade, and during
+the first two years of privateering that followed, something like eight
+hundred sail of merchantmen were captured. After this period, the efforts
+of the Americans necessarily lessened, while the precautions of the enemy
+increased. Still these enterprises proved destructive to the end of the
+war; and it is a proof of the efficiency of this class of cruisers to the
+last, that small privateers constantly sailed out of the English ports,
+with a view to make money by recapturing their own vessels; the trade of
+America at this time, offering but few inducements to such undertakings.
+
+"Among the vessels employed [the historian tells us there were several
+hundred of them], the _Halker_, the _Black Prince_, the _Pickering_, the
+_Wild Cat_, the _Vengeance_, the _Marlborough_, in addition to those
+elsewhere named, were very conspicuous. The _Marlborough_ is said to have
+made twenty-eight prizes in one cruise. Other vessels were scarcely less
+fortunate. Many sharp actions occurred, and quite as often to the
+advantage of the cruisers, as to that of the enemy. In repeated instances
+they escaped from British ships of war, under favorable circumstances, and
+there is no question that in a few cases they captured them. * * * The
+English West India trade, in particular, suffered largely by the private
+warfare of the day. Two and fifty sail, engaged in this branch of the
+commerce, are stated to have been captured as early as February, 1777. The
+whole number of captures made by the Americans in this contest, is not
+probably known, but six hundred and fifty prizes are said to have been
+gotten into port. Many others were ransomed, and _some were destroyed at
+sea_. There can be no minute accuracy in these statements, but the injury
+done to the commerce of Great Britain was enormous, and there can be no
+doubt, that the constant hazards it ran, had a direct influence in
+obtaining the acknowledgment of the independence of the United States of
+America, which great event took place on the 20th of January, 1783."
+
+We thus see how history repeats itself, and how prone men are to forget
+history. The "rebel pirates" of the Colonies--for such they were, if we
+apply to them the polite nomenclature which became fashionable during our
+late war--less than a century ago, were capturing, burning, and otherwise
+destroying the commerce of Great Britain. The historian dwells upon the
+record with pleasure, as an evidence of the patriotism, and "nautical
+enterprise" of his countrymen; and this was but natural in the historian
+of a commercial people. But when the commerce of the same people becomes
+the object of capture, in a war far more justifiable, than the war of
+1776, since it was waged by sovereign States, in defence of their very
+existence, and not a mere rebellion, the cry is changed. It is the wrong
+bull now which is goring the ox, and the _Alabama_ and her consorts are
+committing unheard-of crimes and atrocities.
+
+I call the reader's particular attention to the fact, that some of the
+prizes of the Colonial cruisers were "_destroyed at sea_." This same act
+when committed by the _Sumter_ and _Alabama_ was barbarous, atrocious! Now
+let me run a brief parallel between the times of Paul Jones, by whom some
+of this burning of British ships was done, and my own, to show how much
+less excuse Jones had for such conduct, than I. In Jones' day, all the
+commerce of the world was conducted in sailing ships, and all the navies
+of the world were also composed of sailing ships. The consequence was,
+that there was no such thing known, as a stringent blockade; for the
+simple reason, that every gale of wind which arose, blew off the
+blockading ships from before the blockaded ports, and it was, sometimes,
+days before they could regain their stations. Besides, it is well known to
+readers of American history, that Great Britain did not, at any time
+during the Colonial war, attempt to blockade all the ports of the
+Colonies. With a coast-line--from the St. Croix to St. Mary's in
+Georgia--of fifteen hundred miles, this would have been impossible, even
+with her great navy. The Colonial cruisers had, therefore, at all times
+during the entire war, some of their ports open into which to send their
+prizes. Still they "_destroyed some of them at sea_."
+
+Some ninety years now pass away, and a second, and a greater war ensues
+for American principles--this time between the States themselves. In the
+meantime, the great and powerful steamship has made her appearance upon
+the scene, revolutionizing not only the commerce of the world, but the
+navies of the world. During the first months of the war, all the principal
+ports of the Confederacy were blockaded, and it was not long before every
+little nook and inlet was either in possession of the enemy, or had one or
+more ships watching it. These ships were not the old-time sailing ships,
+dependent upon the winds and the weather for efficiency--they were
+steamers, independent of both, having the ability "to hold on" to the
+blockaded port, both by day and by night, with a tenacity little less than
+that of fate. Though it was possible for fast steam blockade-runners,
+taking advantage of the darkness, sometimes to elude the vigilance of
+these patient watchers, it was utterly impossible for a sailing vessel to
+do so--and with a rare exception, here and there, all my prizes would be
+sailing ships. Not only were all the Confederate ports thus hermetically
+sealed to me, but the ports of neutrals had also been closed against me,
+as the reader has seen, by unfriendly proclamations and orders in council.
+In short, during my whole career upon the sea, _I had not so much as a
+single port open to me, into which I could send a prize_.
+
+What was expected of me under these circumstances? I had shown every
+disposition, as the reader has seen, to avoid the necessity of burning my
+prizes. I had sent prizes, both into Cuba and Venezuela, with the hope
+that at least some of the nations of the earth would relent, and let me
+in; but the prizes were either handed over to the enemy, on some
+fraudulent pretext, or expelled. Unlike Jones, I had no alternative. There
+was nothing left for me but to destroy my prizes, and this course had been
+forced upon me, by the nations of the earth. How senseless and unjust,
+then, was the clamor raised against me on this subject; especially in the
+light of the precedents which the enemy himself had set me? Some senseless
+prints even went so far as to declare that it was in violation of the laws
+of war; but what is it that newspapers will not say, during such a contest
+as that through which we have passed, when reason is dethroned by the
+passions, and no longer sits in the judgment-seat? The right to destroy is
+as perfect, as the right to sell, or make any other disposition of the
+captured ship. But has a captor the right to destroy before adjudication?
+the reader may ask. Certainly. The enemy has no right to adjudication at
+all. Courts of Admiralty are not established for him. He has, and can have
+no standing in such court. He cannot even enter an appearance there,
+either in person, or by attorney; and if he could, he would have nothing
+to show, for his very _status_ as an enemy would be sufficient ground for
+condemning all the property he might claim. It is only neutrals who can
+claim adjudication, and it is for the benefit of these alone that Courts
+of Admiralty have been established. And if any neutrals have suffered in
+the late war, for want of adjudication, the fault is with their own
+government, and not with the Confederate cruisers, as the reader has just
+seen. To instance the Cienfuegos cases: what detriment could have arisen
+to Spain, if she had permitted my prizes to remain within her
+jurisdiction, in the custody of my own prize agent, until a prize court in
+New Orleans, or Mobile could have adjudicated them?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+THE EQUIPMENT OF THE ALABAMA ILLUSTRATED BY THAT OF SUNDRY COLONIAL
+CRUISERS, DURING THE WAR OF 1776--BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND SILAS DEANE, AS
+CHIEFS OF A NAVAL BUREAU IN PARIS--THE SURPRISE, AND THE REVENGE--WICKES
+AND CONYNGHAM, AND PAUL JONES.
+
+
+  "_Mutato nomine
+  De te fabula narratur._"
+
+
+In the last chapter, I gave some account of the operations against British
+commerce, of certain ships of war and privateers, fitted out in the home
+ports of the enemy; but as stress has been laid, as we have already seen,
+upon the foreign origin of the _Alabama_, and it has been objected against
+her, that her captures were illegal, and piratical, on that account, it
+will be incumbent on me to show some cases on this point. The naval
+history of the enemy abounds in them, but I will content myself with
+adducing only a few, as specimens of the rest. I design to show that the
+United States have produced ships, the very counterparts of the _Alabama_,
+in every particular, foreign origin and all, and used them with
+destructive effect, against the commerce of their enemy. All readers of
+American history are familiar with the names of Benjamin Franklin, Silas
+Deane, and John Adams, for these distinguished gentlemen played a very
+important part on the theatre of the American Revolution. As they had much
+to do with the naval affairs of the Colonies abroad, it is of them and
+their doings that I would now speak. They were all Northern men, were
+leaders, in their day, of Northern public opinion, and their memories are
+justly held in high estimation, both North and South. I shall vouch them
+for the legality of the origin of the _Alabama_, as a ship of war, and
+justify by their acts, and out of their mouths, all the doings of that
+ship upon the high seas. I again have recourse to Fenimore Cooper. "The
+_Reprisal_ was the first American man-of-war, that ever showed herself in
+the other hemisphere. She sailed from home not long after the Declaration
+of Independence, and appeared in France, in the autumn of 1776, bringing
+in with her several prizes, and having Dr. Franklin on board as a
+passenger." It is well known that Silas Deane followed Dr. Franklin soon
+afterward, and it was not long before these two Commissioners, who were
+sent to Europe, to look after the interests of the Colonies, just as
+Messrs. Mason and Slidell were sent, in our day, to look after the welfare
+of the Confederate States, went to work.
+
+Dr. Franklin, in particular, was a great favorite with the French people.
+He wore short breeches, with knee-buckles, and silk stockings, and had the
+portly air, and bearing of a philosopher. Having learned to fly kites when
+a boy, he had turned the thing to some account when he had gotten to be a
+man, and was also well known as the author of "Poor Richard's Almanac," a
+book full of axiomatic wisdom, and wise saws. He had a much better field
+before him, therefore, than Mr. John Slidell had. "_Tempora mutantur, et
+nos mutamur in illis_;" and Slidell found that the "philosophers" who had
+petted Franklin, and the fair women who had played with the tassels of his
+three-cornered hat, showered bouquets upon him, and talked prettily of the
+new doctrines of liberty that were just then coming in vogue, had all
+passed away. Neither philosophy, liberty, or knee-buckles were at all
+fashionable at the French Court when Slidell arrived there. In short, the
+people of France had found out that this thing of getting up a revolution
+for popular rights, however well it might suit other people, did not suit
+Frenchmen, and they were tired of the matter. They had, since Franklin's
+day, cut off the head of Louis XVI., played at republics a while, pretty
+much as children play at card-houses, now setting them up, and now
+knocking them down again, and having gotten tired of the game, like good
+children had gone back quietly to their old form of despotism, under
+Napoleon III., and were content! The sympathy which they had bestowed
+upon Franklin, and which was productive of so many good results, in our
+first revolution, had dried up in the second and greater revolution.
+
+Having thus briefly introduced the Commissioners of the Colonies to the
+reader, let us again look into Cooper, to see what their business was in
+France, and how they performed it. "In order," says this writer, "to
+complete the account of the proceedings of the American Commissioners in
+Paris, so far as they were connected with naval movements during the years
+1776 and 1777, it is necessary to come next to the affair of Captain
+Conyngham, which, owing to some marked circumstances, made more noise than
+the cruises of the _Reprisal_ and _Lexington_, though the first exploits
+of the latter were anterior as to time, and not of less consequence in
+their effects. While the Commissioners were directing the movements of
+Captain Wickes [we will come to these presently] in the manner that has
+been mentioned, they were not idle in other quarters. A small frigate was
+building at Nantes, on their account, and there will be occasion to speak
+of her hereafter, under the name of the _Queen of France_.
+
+"Some time in the spring of 1777, an agent was sent to Dover by the
+American Commissioners, where he purchased a fine, fast-sailing,
+English-built cutter, and had her carried across to Dunkirk. Here she was
+privately equipped as a cruiser, and named the _Surprise_. To the command
+of this vessel, Captain Gustavus Conyngham was appointed, _by filling up a
+blank commission_ from John Hancock, the President of Congress. This
+commission bore date, March 1st, 1777, and, it would seem, as fully
+entitled Mr. Conyngham to the rank of captain in the Navy, as any other
+that was ever issued by the same authority. Having obtained his officers
+and crew at Dunkirk, Captain Conyngham sailed on a cruise about the 1st of
+May, and on the 4th he took a brig called the _Joseph_," &c.
+
+Now, it is to be remarked, with reference to this passage, that the
+_Alabama_, though built in England, was not armed or equipped there, nor
+was her crew enlisted there; whilst the _Surprise_ was not only "privately
+equipped as a cruiser," at Dunkirk, a port of France, then at peace with
+England--for France had not yet joined the Colonies in the war--but she
+got all her officers and crew there, many of whom were Frenchmen. And
+when she got up her anchor for a cruise, still lying in the waters of
+France, she was a perfectly armed and equipped ship of war. She could have
+engaged an enemy, immediately upon passing beyond the marine league,
+whereas the _Alabama_, when she left the Mersey, was entirely unarmed, and
+without an enlisted crew, and could have been taken possession of by an
+enemy's cruiser as easily as any other merchant-ship. Mr. Seward insisted,
+with much vehemence, with the English Government, that the _Alabama_ was
+not entitled to be regarded as a ship of war, but rather a "British
+pirate," because she had never been in a Confederate port. His latest form
+of protest is found in a letter to Lord Stanley, the British Secretary for
+Foreign Affairs, of the date of January 12th, 1867, as follows:--
+
+     "Lord Stanley excuses the reception of the vessels complained of in
+     British ports, subsequently to their fraudulent escapes and armament,
+     on the ground that when the vessels appeared in these ports, they did
+     so in the character of properly commissioned cruisers of the
+     Government of the so-styled Confederate States, and that they
+     received no more shelter, provisions, or facilities, than was due to
+     them in that character. This position is taken by his lordship in
+     full view of the facts that--with the exception of the _Sumter_ and
+     the _Florida_--none of the vessels named were ever found in any place
+     where a lawful belligerent commission could either be conferred or
+     received. It would appear, therefore, that, in the opinion of her
+     Majesty's Government, a British vessel, in order to acquire a
+     belligerent character against the United States, had only to leave
+     the British port where she was built, clandestinely, and to be
+     fraudulently armed, equipped, and manned anywhere in Great Britain,
+     or in any foreign country, or on the high seas; and in some foreign
+     country, or upon the high seas, to set up and assume the title and
+     privileges of a belligerent, without even entering the so-called
+     Confederacy, or ever coming within any port of the United States. I
+     must confess that, if a lawful belligerent character can be acquired
+     in such a manner, then I am unable to determine by what different
+     course of proceeding a vessel can become a pirate and an enemy to the
+     peace of nations."
+
+Had Mr. Seward forgotten, when he wrote the above, the case of Dr.
+Franklin's ship, the _Surprise_? It will be recollected, too, that Mr.
+Adams, the United States Minister at the Court of London, frequently
+protested, in his correspondence with the English Foreign Office, against
+the Confederates being permitted to have "stationed agents," at Liverpool,
+and elsewhere in the British dominions, conducting a "Naval Bureau." Had
+he forgotten the "Naval Bureau" which was conducted in France, by Dr.
+Franklin and Silas Deane, who were "stationed agents" of the Colonies? How
+they built, and purchased, and equipped, and commissioned ships, all in
+neutral territory; even filling up blank commissions sent out to them by
+the Congress for the purpose?
+
+But to continue with our precedents. The career of the _Surprise_ was not
+a very long one. Having carried some prizes into a French port, in
+violation of a treaty then existing between France and Great Britain,
+providing that neither should permit the enemies of the other to bring
+their prizes into her ports, she was seized by the French authorities, and
+we hear no more of her. But we do hear more, and that immediately, from
+the Naval Bureau in Paris, under the guidance of Dr. Franklin and Silas
+Deane. As soon as the seizure of the _Surprise_ became known to the
+Commissioners, they dispatched one of their agents, a Mr. Hodge, to
+Dunkirk, where he purchased another cutter, which was fitted with all
+dispatch, as a cruiser, as the _Surprise_ had been. This second vessel was
+called the _Revenge_, and "Captain Conyngham and his people," to use the
+words of the historian, were transferred to her. A new commission was
+given to Conyngham, dated on the 2d of May, 1777, filled up, as before, by
+the Commissioners, and he soon afterward proceeded to sea under it.
+
+It will be seen with what indulgence, and even connivance the
+Commissioners were treated by the French authorities. The seizure of the
+_Surprise_ was a mere blind, intended to satisfy England. The ship herself
+was suffered to pass out of view, but another ship was permitted to be
+equipped in her stead, and the officers and crew of the old ship were
+transferred to the new one, with little or no disguise, and the latter was
+suffered to depart on a cruise without molestation. Here was another ship,
+which had never been in any port of the Colonies, and which, according to
+Mr. Seward's vocabulary, was a "pirate." Let us see what she did. "The
+_Revenge_," continues the historian, "proved exceedingly successful,
+making prizes daily, and _generally destroying them_. Some of the more
+valuable, however, were ordered into Spain, where many arrived; their
+arrival proving of great moment to the agents of the American Government
+in Europe. It is even affirmed, that the money advanced to Mr. Adams [the
+Mr. Adams, here spoken of, was John Adams, afterward second President of
+the United States, the grandfather of Mr. Charles Francis Adams, Federal
+Minister to England during the war; and the antagonism in which the
+grandfather, and grandson are placed, in reference to the principles I am
+discussing, is one of the curious revolutions of history] for travelling
+expenses, when he arrived in Spain, a year or two later, was derived from
+this source."
+
+The _Revenge_ now disappears from view, as the _Surprise_ had done before
+her, and the historian takes up the _Reprisal_, the ship, as we have seen,
+which carried Dr. Franklin over to France. "The _Reprisal_, having
+refitted, soon sailed toward the Bay of Biscay, on another cruise. Here
+she captured several more vessels, and among the rest a King's packet,
+that plied between Falmouth and Lisbon. When the cruise was up, Captain
+Wickes went into Nantes, taking his prizes with him. The complaints of the
+English now became louder, and the American Ministers were _secretly_
+admonished of the necessity of using greater reserve. The prizes were
+directed to quit France, though the _Reprisal_, being leaky, was suffered
+to remain in port, in order to refit. The former were taken into the
+offing, and sold, _the state of the times rendering these informal
+proceedings necessary_. Enormous losses to the captors were the
+consequences, while it is not improbable, that the gains of the purchasers
+had their influence _in blinding the local authorities_ to the character
+of the transaction."
+
+Here we see not only a violation of neutrality, but a little bribery going
+on, these "rebel pirates" having an eye to the "flattering results,"
+spoken of by Mr. Cooper, some pages back. The historian proceeds. "The
+business appears to have been managed with dexterity, and the proceeds of
+the sales, such as they were, proved of great service to the agents of the
+Government, by enabling them to _purchase other vessels_." We see how
+capitally those "stational agents," Franklin and Deane, were conducting
+that "Naval Bureau," against the like of which, in our case, Mr. Adams had
+so warmly protested. I again quote: "In April, the _Lexington_ arrived in
+France, and the old difficulties were renewed. But the Commissioners at
+Paris, who had been authorized to equip vessels, appoint officers, and do
+other matters to annoy the enemy, now planned a cruise that surpassed
+anything of the sort that had yet been attempted in Europe, under the
+American flag. Captain Wickes was directed to proceed to sea, with his own
+vessel and the _Lexington_, and to go directly off Ireland, in order to
+intercept a convoy of linen ships, that was expected to sail about that
+time. A cutter of ten guns called the _Dolphin_, that had been detained by
+the Commissioners, to carry despatches to America, was diverted from her
+original destination, and placed under the orders of Captain Wickes. The
+_Dolphin_ was commanded by Lieutenant Nicholson, a brother of the senior
+captain, and a gentleman who subsequently died at the head of the service.
+Captain Wickes, in command of this light squadron, sailed from Nantes,
+about the commencement of June, going first into the Bay of Biscay, and
+afterward entirely around Ireland, sweeping the sea before him, of
+everything that was not of a force to render an attack hopeless. The linen
+ships were missed, but many vessels were taken _or destroyed_.
+
+"The sensation produced among the British merchants, by the different
+cruises in the European sea, that have been recorded in this chapter, is
+stated in the diplomatic correspondence of the day to have been greater
+than that produced in the previous war by the squadron of the celebrated
+Thurot. Insurance rose to an enormous height, and in speaking of the
+cruise of Captain Wickes, in particular, Mr. Deane observes in one of his
+letters to Robert Morris, that it 'effectually alarmed England, prevented
+the great fair at Chester, occasioned insurance to rise, and even deterred
+the English merchants from shipping in English bottoms, at any rate, so
+that, in a few weeks, forty sail of French ships were loading in the
+Thames, on freight, an instance never known before.' In the same letter
+the Commissioner adds: 'In a word, Conyngham, by his first and second bold
+expeditions, is become the terror of all the eastern coasts of England
+and Scotland, and is more dreaded than Thurot was in the late war.'"
+
+This same Captain Conyngham, afterward, while cruising on the American
+coast, fell into the hands of the enemy. He had, of course, become odious
+to the English people, and they had denounced him as a "pirate," as our
+Northern people have denounced the writer of these pages. Conyngham was
+closely confined, and the English admiral, whose fleet was then stationed
+in the waters of New York, threatened to send him to England for trial.
+Let us see what steps the American Congress took in behalf of this "rebel
+pirate," as soon as it heard of these proceedings. The subject having been
+brought to its notice, it directed its Secretary, Charles Thompson, to
+address a letter of remonstrance to the British admiral, threatening
+retaliation, if he dared to execute his threats. I quote from the journals
+of Congress:--
+
+     "In Congress assembled, July 1799.--A letter of the 17th instant,
+     from Ann Conyngham, and a petition from a number of inhabitants of
+     Philadelphia were read, representing that Captain Gustavus Conyngham,
+     now a prisoner with the enemy, is closely confined, and ordered to be
+     sent to England, and praying that measures may be taken for the
+     security of his person: _Ordered_, That the same be referred to a
+     committee of three. The members chosen, Mr. Morris, Mr. Dickinson,
+     and Mr. Whipple. The committee to whom were referred the petition,
+     and letter respecting Gustavus Conyngham, brought in a report;
+     whereupon, _Resolved_, That the following letter from the Secretary
+     of Congress, be written to the admiral, or other commanding officer
+     of the fleet, or ships of his Britannic Majesty, lying in the harbor
+     of New York, viz.:
+
+     "'Sir, I am directed by the Congress of the United States of America
+     to inform you, that they have received evidence that Gustavus
+     Conyngham, a citizen of America, late commander of an armed vessel in
+     the service of the said States, and taken on board of a private armed
+     cutter, hath been treated in a manner contrary to the dictates of
+     humanity, and the practice of _Christian, civilized nations_. I am
+     ordered, in the name of Congress, to demand that good and sufficient
+     reason be given for this conduct, or that the said Gustavus Conyngham
+     be immediately released from his present rigorous, and _ignominious_
+     confinement.
+
+     "'With all due respect, I have the honor to be, Sir,
+
+        "'Your most obedient and humble servant.'
+
+     "_Resolved_, That, unless a satisfactory answer be received to the
+     foregoing letter, on or before the 1st day of August next, the Marine
+     Committee do immediately order to be confined, in close and safe
+     custody, so many persons as they may think proper, in order to abide
+     the fate of the said Gustavus Conyngham. _Ordered_, That the above
+     letter be immediately transmitted to New York, by the Board of War,
+     and that copies of said letter and resolution be delivered to the
+     wife of Conyngham, and the petitioners.
+
+     "_Monday, Dec. 13th, 1779._--A memorial of Christopher Hale was read,
+     praying to be exchanged, and to have leave to go to New York, upon
+     his parole, for a few days, to procure a person in his room.
+     _Resolved_, That Mr. Hale be informed, that the prayer of his
+     memorial cannot be granted, until Captain Conyngham is released, as
+     it has been determined that he must abide the fate of that officer."
+
+Conyngham was afterward released. This is the way in which the ancestors
+of Mr. Seward, and Mr. Charles Francis Adams, took care of their "rebel
+pirates."
+
+There is one other point in the legal history of the _Alabama_, which it
+is necessary to notice, and to which I propose to adduce another of those
+awkward precedents, which I have exhumed from those musty old records,
+which our Northern brethren seem so thoroughly to have forgotten. It has
+been charged against the _Alabama_, that her crew was composed mostly of
+foreigners, and that this was another reason why she was not entitled to
+be considered as a Confederate States ship of war. Let us look a little
+into this charge. A sovereign is not only not obliged to account to other
+nations, for the manner in which he becomes possessed of his ships of war,
+as we have seen, but he cannot be questioned as to the nativity or
+naturalization of the persons serving on board of them. It could have been
+of no sort of consequence to any foreign officer, demanding to see my
+commission, whether I was a native of England, Germany, or France, or of
+any other foreign power. All that he could demand of me, in order to
+satisfy himself that I was entitled to exercise belligerent rights, was a
+sight of my commission as a _Confederate States naval officer_.
+Nationality is presumed in all such commissions, and the presumption
+cannot be inquired into. Mr. Justice Story, in the decision quoted a few
+pages back, says, as the reader will recollect, that the commission of a
+ship of war imports such "absolute verity," that it cannot be inquired
+into, or contradicted. It is like proving a fact by a record. No other
+proof than the production of the record is required, or indeed permitted.
+The commission of the commander is the commission of his ship. Neither
+the _Sumter_ nor the _Alabama_ had any other commission than my own, and
+the orders assigning me to them. If this be the law with regard to the
+commander of a ship, _a fortiori_, must it be the law with reference to
+the subordinate officers and crew.
+
+The writers on international law, without exception, lay down the rule,
+that a sovereign may enlist foreigners to assist him in his wars; and that
+the men thus enlisted are entitled to all the protection of belligerents,
+equally with native citizens. The Swiss foreign legions, so well known in
+history, are notable illustrations of this doctrine; and no one has ever
+heard of a Swiss being hung because he served under a foreign flag.
+Vattel, who has the rare merit of having so thoroughly exhausted all these
+subjects, that he has left scarcely anything for those who have followed
+him to say, lays down the doctrine as follows: "Much has been said on the
+question whether the profession of a mercenary soldier be lawful or
+not,--whether individuals may, for money, or any other reward, engage to
+serve a foreign prince in his wars? This question does not appear to me to
+be very difficult to be solved. Those who enter into such engagements,
+without the express or tacit consent of their sovereign, offend against
+their duty as citizens. But if their sovereign leaves them at liberty to
+follow their inclination for a military life, they are perfectly free in
+that respect. [Modern nations, and especially the United States, have left
+their citizens free to expatriate themselves at pleasure.] Now, every free
+man may join whatever society he pleases, according as he finds it most to
+his advantage. He may make its cause his own, and espouse its quarrels. He
+becomes, in some measure, at least for a time, a member of the State in
+whose service he engages." Again: "The sovereign has no right to compel
+foreigners; he must not even employ stratagem or artifice, in order to
+induce them to engage in a contract, which, like all others, should be
+founded on candor and good faith."
+
+But it was scarcely necessary to quote other authority, on that point,
+than the authority of the enemy himself. Mr. Secretary Seward knew, at the
+very time he was denouncing the _Alabama_ as a "pirate," because of her
+having, as he alleged, a British crew on board, that his own Government
+was filling up its armies, and its navy, too, with hundreds of thousands
+of raw recruits from Belgium, Germany, and Ireland, and other countries.
+Nay, more, that by an act of the Federal Congress, these debased and
+ignorant men, drawn, for the most part, from the idle and thieving classes
+of their respective countries, were invested, _ipso facto_, upon
+enlistment, with all the functions and attributes of American
+citizens--the function of robbery more especially included! With reference
+to the conduct of the enemy in this particular, I deem it not amiss to
+introduce a short extract or two, from a speech made by Sir Hugh Cairnes,
+her Britannic Majesty's Attorney-General, in the House of Commons, on the
+12th of May, 1864. The discussion grew out of the case of the Confederate
+States steamer _Georgia_, which had recently returned to Liverpool, after
+a cruise. Among other questions discussed was whether the _Georgia_ should
+be excluded from British ports, because of some alleged infraction on her
+part, of the British Foreign Enlistment Act. In speaking to this question,
+the Attorney-General, alluding to the insufficiency of the proof in the
+case, said:--
+
+     "The case of the _Kearsarge_ was a case of this character. Beyond all
+     question, a considerable amount of recruiting was carried on, at
+     Cork, for the purposes of that ship, she being employed at the time,
+     in our own waters, or very near them, in looking out for the enemy;
+     and she was furnished with a large addition to her crew from Ireland.
+     Upon that being represented to Mr. Adams, he said, as might have been
+     expected, that it was entirely contrary to the wishes of his
+     Government, and that there must be some mistake. The men were
+     afterward relanded, and there can be no doubt that there had been a
+     violation of our neutrality. Nevertheless, we admitted the
+     _Kearsarge_ afterward into English waters. We have not excluded her
+     from our ports, and if we had, I think the Government of the United
+     States would have considered that they had some cause of offence.
+
+     "But it does not rest here. I see from the paper, that the Honorable
+     Member for Horsham, wants information respecting the enlistment of
+     British subjects for the Federal Army. Now, from all quarters reports
+     reach us, which we cannot doubt to be substantially true, that agents
+     for recruiting for the Federal Army, with, or without the concurrence
+     of the Government, are in Ireland, and engage men under the pretext
+     of employing them on railways and public works, but really with the
+     intention of enlisting them, and that many of these men are so
+     enlisted. In Canada and New Brunswick the same practices prevail.
+     Representations have been made to the United States Government
+     respecting the cases of particular persons, who have been kidnapped
+     into the service, and I feel bound to say that those representations
+     have not met with that prompt and satisfactory attention we might
+     have expected," &c.
+
+The reader thus perceives, that if the _Alabama_ enlisted some foreigners
+to complete her crew, she was only following the example set her, by Mr.
+Seward himself; but there was this difference between the honorable
+Secretary of State and the writer. The former resorted to deceit,
+trickery, and fraud, whilst no man can say of the latter, that he
+inveigled him on board the _Alabama_.
+
+I will now produce the precedent I spoke of, from those musty old records.
+It is drawn from the career of that remarkable sea-captain, to whom I have
+before referred, and with whose history every American is acquainted--I
+mean, John Paul Jones. The naval engagement, which conferred most honor
+upon Jones, was that between the _Bon homme Richard_, (named after Dr.
+Franklin's "Poor Richard," in the almanac, of which this Chief of the
+Naval Bureau in Paris was the author,) and the British ships _Serapis_ and
+_Countess of Scarborough_. Mr. Cooper thus describes the crew of Jones'
+ship, picked up at Dunkirk, or Nantes, or some of the other French
+ports:--
+
+     "To manage a vessel of this singular armament and doubtful
+     construction, Commodore Jones was compelled to receive on board a
+     crew of still more equivocal composition. A few Americans were found
+     to fill the stations of sea officers, on the quarter deck, and
+     forward, but the remainder of the people were a mixture of English,
+     Irish, Scotch, Portuguese, Norwegians, Germans, Spaniards, Swedes,
+     Italians, and Malays, with occasionally a man from one of the islands
+     [meaning Sandwich Islands]. To keep this motley crew in order, 135
+     soldiers were put on board, under the command of some officers of
+     inferior rank. These soldiers, or marines, were recruited at random,
+     and were not much less singularly mixed as to countries, than the
+     regular crew."
+
+I had something of a mixture on board the _Alabama_, but I think Jones
+decidedly beat me, in the number of nationalities he had the honor to
+command.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+THE AUTHOR LEAVES LIVERPOOL TO JOIN THE ALABAMA--ARRIVAL AT
+TERCEIRA--DESCRIPTION OF THE ALABAMA--PREPARING HER FOR SEA--THE
+PORTUGUESE AUTHORITIES--THE COMMISSIONING OF THE SHIP--A PICTURE OF HER
+BIRTH AND DEATH--CAPTAIN BULLOCK RETURNS TO ENGLAND--AUTHOR ALONE ON THE
+HIGH SEAS.
+
+
+Having cleared the way, in the last two chapters, for the cruise of the
+_Alabama_, by removing some of the legal rubbish with which Mr. Seward and
+Mr. Adams had sought to encumber her, we are in a condition to put the
+ship in commission. I was at last accounts in Liverpool, as the reader
+will recollect, having just arrived there in the steamer _Bahama_, from
+Nassau. The _Alabama_, then known as the "290," had proceeded, a few days
+before, to her rendezvous, the island of Terceira, one of the group of the
+Azores. The name "290" may need a word of explanation. The newspapers of
+the enemy have falsely charged that the _Alabama_ was built by 290
+Englishmen, of "rebel" proclivities, and hence, they say, the name.
+
+One Parson Boynton has written a book, which he calls the "History of the
+Navy," but which is rather a biography of Mr. Secretary Welles, his
+Assistant Secretary Fox, and several ingenious mechanics. Judging by this
+attempt, parsons are rather bad hands to write histories. Speaking of the
+_Alabama_, this gentleman remarks: "Insultingly, this vessel was named
+'290,' to show, by the large number that contributed to fit her out, how
+widespread was the English sympathy for the rebel cause. The _Alabama_ was
+not regarded as a rebel vessel of war, but as a British pirate, or rather,
+perhaps, as an English man-of-war, sent forth under the veil of the rebel
+flag, to sink and destroy our merchantmen." It is thus seen, that this
+_history_ repeats the stale newspaper slander. Of such stuff the Yankee
+histories of the war, generally, are made, especially such of them as are
+written by amateur parsons. The _fact_ is, as the reader has seen, that
+the _Alabama_ was built by the Messrs. Laird of Birkenhead, under a
+contract with the Confederate States, and was paid for out of the
+Confederate Treasury. She happened to be the 290th ship built by those
+gentlemen, and _hence_ the name.
+
+The _Alabama_ had been built in perfect good faith by the Lairds. When she
+was contracted for, no question had been raised as to the right of a
+neutral to build, and sell to a belligerent such a ship. The reader has
+seen that the Federal Secretary of the Navy himself had endeavored, not
+only to build an _Alabama_, but iron-clads in England. But as the war
+progressed, the United States, foreseeing the damage which a few fast
+steamers might inflict on their commerce, took the alarm, and began to
+insist that neutrals should not supply us, even with unarmed ships. The
+laws of nations were clearly against them. Their own practice, in all
+former wars, in which they had been neutrals, was against them. And yet
+they maintained their ground so stoutly and defiantly, threatening war, if
+they were not listened to, that the neutral powers, and especially Great
+Britain, became very cautious. They were indeed bullied--for that is the
+word--into timidity. To show the good faith which the Lairds had practised
+throughout, I quote again from the speech made by the senior partner, in
+the House of Commons:--
+
+     "I can only say from all I know, and from all I have heard, that from
+     the day the vessel was laid down, to her completion everything was
+     open and above board, in this country. I also further say, that the
+     officers of the Government had every facility afforded them for
+     inspecting the ship, during the progress of building. When the
+     officers came to the builders, they were shown the ship, and day
+     after day, the customs officers were on board, _as they were when she
+     finally left_, and they declared that there was nothing wrong. _They
+     only left her when the tug left_, and they were obliged to declare,
+     that she left Liverpool _a perfectly legitimate transaction_."
+
+Notwithstanding this practice of good faith, on our part, and our entire
+innocence of any breach of the laws of nations, or of the British Foreign
+Enlistment Act, Lord John Russell had been intimidated to such an extent,
+that the ship came within an ace of being detained. But for the little
+_ruse_ which we practised, of going on a trial-trip, with a party of
+ladies, and the customs officers, mentioned by Mr. Laird, on board, and
+not returning, but sending our guests back in a tug, there is no doubt
+that the _Alabama_ would have been tied up, as the _Oreto_ or _Florida_
+had been, in court. She must have been finally released, it is true, but
+the delay itself would have been of serious detriment to us.
+
+After a few busy days in Liverpool, during which I was gathering my old
+officers of the _Sumter_ around me, and making my financial arrangements
+for my cruise, with the house of Frazer, Trenholm & Co., I departed on the
+13th of August, 1862, in the steamer _Bahama_, to join the _Alabama_.
+Captain James D. Bullock, of the Confederate States Navy, a Georgian, who
+had been bred in the old service, but who had retired from it some years
+before the war, to engage in the steam-packet service, accompanied me.
+Bullock had contracted for, and superintended the building of the
+_Alabama_, and was now going with me, to be present at the christening of
+his bantling. I am indebted to him, as well the Messrs. Laird, for a very
+perfect ship of her class.
+
+She was of about 900 tons burden, 230 feet in length, 32 feet in breadth,
+20 feet in depth, and drew, when provisioned and coaled for a cruise, 15
+feet of water. Her model was of the most perfect symmetry, and she sat
+upon the water with the lightness and grace of a swan. She was barkentine
+rigged, with long lower masts, which enabled her to carry large
+fore-and-aft sails, as jibs and try-sails, which are of so much importance
+to a steamer, in so many emergencies. Her sticks were of the best yellow
+pine, that would bend in a gale, like a willow wand, without breaking, and
+her rigging was of the best of Swedish iron wire. The scantling of the
+vessel was light, compared with vessels of her class in the Federal Navy,
+but this was scarcely a disadvantage, as she was designed as a scourge of
+the enemy's commerce, rather than for battle. She was to defend herself,
+simply, if defence should become necessary. Her engine was of three
+hundred horse-power, and she had attached an apparatus for condensing,
+from the vapor of sea-water, all the fresh water that her crew might
+require. She was a perfect steamer and a perfect sailing-ship, at the same
+time, neither of her two modes of locomotion being at all dependent upon
+the other. The reader has seen that the _Sumter_, when her fuel was
+exhausted, was little better than a log on the water, because of her
+inability to hoist her propeller, which she was, in consequence, compelled
+to drag after her. The _Alabama_ was so constructed, that in fifteen
+minutes, her propeller could be detached from the shaft, and lifted in a
+well contrived for the purpose, sufficiently high out of the water, not to
+be an impediment to her speed. When this was done, and her sails spread,
+she was, to all intents and purposes, a sailing-ship. On the other hand,
+when I desired to use her as a steamer, I had only to start the fires,
+lower the propeller, and if the wind was adverse, brace her yards to the
+wind, and the conversion was complete. The speed of the _Alabama_ was
+always greatly over-rated by the enemy. She was ordinarily about a
+ten-knot ship. She was said to have made eleven knots and a half, on her
+trial trip, but we never afterward got it out of her. Under steam and sail
+both, we logged on one occasion, thirteen knots and a quarter, which was
+her utmost speed.
+
+Her armament consisted of eight guns; six 32-pounders, in broadside, and
+two pivot-guns amidships; one on the forecastle, and the other abaft the
+main-mast--the former a 100-pounder rifled Blakeley, and the latter, a
+smooth-bore eight-inch. The Blakeley gun was so deficient in metal,
+compared with the weight of shot it threw, that, after the first few
+discharges, when it became a little heated, it was of comparatively small
+use to us, to such an extent were we obliged to reduce the charge of
+powder, on account of the recoil. The average crew of the _Alabama_,
+before the mast, was about 120 men; and she carried twenty-four officers,
+as follows: A Captain, four lieutenants, surgeon, paymaster, master,
+marine officer, four engineers, two midshipmen, and four master's mates, a
+Captain's clerk, boatswain, gunner, sailmaker, and carpenter. The cost of
+the ship, with everything complete, was two hundred and fifty thousand
+dollars.
+
+On the morning of our departure from Liverpool, the _Bahama_ had dropped
+some distance down the Mersey, and we joined her by tug. She had her steam
+up, and was ready to trip her anchor, the moment we arrived, and in a few
+minutes after getting on board, we were under way. The tug cheered us, as
+she turned to steam back to the city, and the cheer was answered lustily
+by our crew. We were a week on the passage from Liverpool to Terceira; our
+old friend, Captain Tessier, of the _Bahama_, with whom I had made the
+passage from Nassau to Liverpool, rendering our time very comfortable. On
+the morning of the 20th of August, we were on the look-out, at an early
+hour, for the land, and it was not long before we discovered the island,
+looking, at first, hazy and indistinct in the distance, but gradually
+assuming more form and consistency. After another hour's steaming, Porto
+Praya, our place of rendezvous, became visible, with its white houses
+dotting the mountain side, and we now began to turn our glasses upon the
+harbor, with no little anxiety, to see if our ships--for a sailing-ship,
+with the _Alabama's_ battery and stores, had preceded her some days, and
+should now be with her--were all right. We first caught sight of their
+spars, and pretty soon, raising their hulls sufficiently for
+identification, we felt much relieved. Our secret had been well kept, and
+the enemy, notwithstanding his fine "smelling qualities," had not scented
+the prey.
+
+In the meantime, our own approach was watched with equal anxiety from the
+deck of the _Alabama_. We might be, for aught she knew, an enemy's steamer
+coming in pursuit of her; and as the enemy was in the habit of kicking all
+the small powers, that had not the means of kicking back, a neutral port,
+belonging to _effete_ old Portugal, would not afford her the least
+protection. At half-past eleven A. M., we steamed into the harbor, and let
+go our anchor. I had surveyed my new ship, as we approached, with no
+little interest, as she was to be not only my home, but my bride, as it
+were, for the next few years, and I was quite satisfied with her external
+appearance. She was, indeed, a beautiful thing to look upon. The
+store-ship was already alongside of her, and we could see that the busy
+work of transferring her cargo was going on. Captain Butcher, an
+intelligent young English seaman, who had been bred in the mail-packet
+service, and who had taken the _Alabama_ out from Liverpool, on that trial
+trip of hers, which has since become historical through the protests of
+Messrs. Seward and Adams, now came on board of us. He had had a rough and
+stormy passage from Liverpool, during which he had suffered some little
+damage, and consumed most of his coal. Considerable progress had been
+made, in receiving on board from the transport, the battery and stores,
+and a few days more would suffice to put the ship in a condition for
+defence.
+
+The harbor of Porto Praya lies open to the eastward, and as the wind was
+now from that quarter, and blowing rather freshly, a considerable sea had
+been raised, which rendered it inconvenient, if not unsafe, for the
+transport and the _Alabama_ to continue to lie alongside of each other;
+which was nevertheless necessary for the transfer of the remainder of the
+heavy guns. I therefore directed Captain Butcher to get up his anchors
+immediately, and follow me around to Angra Bay, on the west side of the
+island, where we should find a lee, and smooth water. This was done, and
+we arrived at Angra at four o'clock, on the same afternoon. Here the
+transshipment of the guns and stores was renewed, and here, for the first
+time, I visited the _Alabama_. I was as much pleased with her internal
+appearance, and arrangements, as I had been with her externally, but
+everything was in a very uninviting state of confusion, guns,
+gun-carriages, shot, and shell, barrels of beef and pork, and boxes and
+bales of paymaster's, gunner's, and boatswain's stores lying promiscuously
+about the decks; sufficient time not having elapsed to have them stowed in
+their proper places. The crew, comprising about sixty persons, who had
+been picked up, promiscuously, about the streets of Liverpool, were as
+unpromising in appearance, as things about the decks. What with faces
+begrimed with coal dust, red shirts, and blue shirts, Scotch caps, and
+hats, brawny chests exposed, and stalwart arms naked to the elbows, they
+looked as little like the crew of a man-of-war, as one can well conceive.
+Still there was some _physique_ among these fellows, and soap, and water,
+and clean shirts would make a wonderful difference in their appearance. As
+night approached, I relieved Captain Butcher of his command, and removing
+my baggage on board, took possession of the cabin, in which I was to spend
+so many weary days, and watchful nights. I am a good sleeper, and slept
+soundly. This quality of sleeping well in the intervals of harassing
+business is a valuable one to the sailor, and I owe to it much of that
+physical ability, which enabled me to withstand the four years of
+excitement and toil, to which I was subjected during the war.
+
+There are two harbors called Angra, in Terceira--East Angra, and West
+Angra. We were anchored in the latter, and the authorities notified us,
+the next morning, that we must move round to East Angra, that being the
+port of entry, and the proper place for the anchorage of merchant-ships.
+We were _playing_ merchant-ship as yet, but had nothing to do, of course,
+with ports of entry or custom-houses; and as the day was fine, and there
+was a prospect of smooth water under the lee of the island, I got under
+way, and went to sea, the _Bahama_ and the transport accompanying me.
+Steaming beyond the marine league, I hauled the transport alongside, and
+we got on board from her the remainder of our armament, and stores. The
+sea was not so smooth, as we had expected, and there was some little
+chafing between the ships, but we accomplished our object, without serious
+inconvenience. This occupied us all day, and after nightfall, we ran into
+East Angra, and anchored.
+
+As we passed the fort, we were hailed vociferously, in very bad English,
+or Portuguese, we could not distinguish which. But though the words were
+unintelligible to us, the manner and tone of the hail were evidently meant
+to warn us off. Continuing our course, and paying no attention to the
+hail, the fort presently fired a shot over us; but we paid no attention to
+this either, and ran in and anchored--the bark accompanying us, but the
+_Bahama_ hauling off, seaward, and lying off and on during the night.
+There was a small Portuguese schooner of war at anchor in the harbor, and
+about midnight, I was aroused from a deep sleep, into which I had fallen,
+after a long day of work and excitement, by an officer coming below, and
+informing me, very coolly, that the Portuguese man-of-war was firing into
+us! "The d----l she is," said I; "how many shots has she fired at us?"
+"Three, sir," replied the officer. "Have any of them struck us?" "No, sir,
+none of them have struck us--they seem to be firing rather wild." I knew
+very well, that the little craft would not dare to fire _into_ us, though
+I thought it probable, that, after the fashion of the Chinese, who sound
+their gongs to scare away their enemies, she might be firing _at_ us, to
+alarm us into going out of the harbor. I said therefore to the officer,
+"Let him fire away, I expect he won't hurt you," and turned over and went
+to sleep. In the morning, it was ascertained, that it was not the schooner
+at all, that had been firing, but a passing mail steamer which had run
+into the anchorage, and fired three signal guns, to awaken her sleeping
+passengers on shore--with whom she departed before daylight.
+
+We were not further molested, from this time onward, but were permitted to
+remain and coal from the bark; though the custom-house officers,
+accompanied by the British Consul, paid us a visit, and insisted that we
+should suspend our operation of coaling, until we had entered the two
+ships at the custom-house. This I readily consented to do. I now called
+the _Bahama_ in, by signal, and she ran in and anchored near us. Whilst
+the coaling was going forward, the carpenter, and gunner, with the
+assistance of the chief engineer, were busy putting down the circles or
+traverses for the pivot guns; and the boatswain and his gang were at work,
+fitting side and train tackles for the broadside guns. The reader can
+understand how anxious I was to complete all these arrangements. I was
+perfectly defenceless without them, and did not know at what moment an
+enemy's ship might look in upon me. The harbor of East Angra, where we
+were now anchored, was quite open, but fortunately for us, the wind was
+light, and from the S. W., which gave us smooth water, and our work went
+on quite rapidly.
+
+To cast an eye, for a moment, now, from the ship to the shore, I was
+charmed with the appearance of Terceira. Every square foot of the island
+seemed to be under the most elaborate cultivation, and snug farm-houses
+were dotted so thickly over the hill-sides, as to give the whole the
+appearance of a rambling village. The markets were most bountifully
+supplied with excellent beef and mutton, and the various domestic fowls,
+fish, vegetables, and fruits. My steward brought off every morning in his
+basket, a most tempting assortment of the latter; for there were apples,
+plums, pears, figs, dates, oranges, and melons all in full bearing at
+Terceira. The little town of Angra, abreast of which we were anchored, was
+a perfect picture of a Portuguese-Moorish town, with its red-tiled roofs,
+sharp gables, and parti-colored verandas, and veranda curtains. And then
+the quiet, and love-in-a-cottage air which hovered over the whole scene,
+so far removed from the highways of the world's commerce, and the world's
+alarms, was charming to contemplate.
+
+I had arrived on Wednesday, and on Saturday night, we had, by the dint of
+great labor and perseverance, drawn order out of chaos. The _Alabama's_
+battery was on board, and in place, her stores had all been unpacked, and
+distributed to the different departments, and her coal-bunkers were again
+full. We only awaited the following morning to steam out upon the high
+seas, and formally put the ship in commission. Saturday had been dark and
+rainy, but we had still labored on through the rain. Sunday morning dawned
+bright and beautiful, which we hailed as a harbinger of future success.
+All hands were turned out at early daylight, and the first lieutenant, and
+the officer of the deck took the ship in hand, to prepare her for the
+coming ceremony. She was covered with coal dust and dirt and rubbish in
+every direction, for we had hitherto had no time to attend to appearances.
+But by dint of a few hours of scrubbing, inside and out, and of the use of
+that well-known domestic implement, the holy-stone, that works so many
+wonders with a dirty ship, she became sweet and clean, and when her
+awnings were snugly spread, her yards squared, and her rigging hauled
+taut, she looked like a bride, with the orange-wreath about her brows,
+ready to be led to the altar.
+
+I had as yet no enlisted crew, and this thought gave me some anxiety. All
+the men on board the _Alabama_, as well as those who had come out with me,
+on board the _Bahama_, had been brought thus far, under articles of
+agreement that were to be no longer obligatory. Some of them had been
+shipped for one voyage, and some for another, but none of them for
+service on board a Confederate cruiser. This was done to avoid a breach
+of the British Foreign Enlistment Act. They had, of course, been
+undeceived from the day of our departure from Liverpool. _They_ knew that
+they were to be released from the contracts they had made, but _I_ could
+not know how many of them would engage with me for the _Alabama_. It is
+true I had had a talk with some of the leaders of the crew, who had
+promised to go with me, and to influence others, but no creature can be
+more whimsical than a sailor, until you have bound him past recall, unless
+indeed it be a woman.
+
+The ship having been properly prepared, we steamed out, on this bright
+Sunday morning, under a cloudless sky, with a gentle breeze from the
+southeast, scarcely ruffling the surface of the placid sea, and under the
+shadow of the smiling and picturesque island of Terceira, which nature
+seemed to have decked specially for the occasion, so charming did it
+appear, in its checkered dress of a lighter and darker green, composed of
+corn-fields and orange-groves, the flag of the new-born Confederate States
+was unfurled, for the first time, from the peak of the _Alabama_. The
+_Bahama_ accompanied us. The ceremony was short but impressive. The
+officers were all in full uniform, and the crew neatly dressed, and I
+caused "all hands" to be summoned aft on the quarter-deck, and mounting a
+gun-carriage, I read the commission of Mr. Jefferson Davis, appointing me
+a captain in the Confederate States Navy, and the order of Mr. Stephen R.
+Mallory, the Secretary of the Navy, directing me to assume command of the
+_Alabama_. Following my example, the officers and crew had all uncovered
+their heads, in deference to the sovereign authority, as is customary on
+such occasions; and as they stood in respectful silence and listened with
+rapt attention to the reading, and to the short explanation of my object
+and purposes, in putting the ship in commission which followed, I was
+deeply impressed with the spectacle. Virginia, the grand old mother of
+many of the States, who afterward died so nobly; South Carolina, Georgia,
+Alabama, and Louisiana, were all represented in the persons of my
+officers, and I had some of as fine specimens of the daring and
+adventurous seaman, as any ship of war could boast.
+
+While the reading was going on, two small balls might have been seen
+ascending slowly, one to the peak, and the other to the main-royal
+mast-head. These were the ensign and pennant of the future man-of-war.
+These balls were so arranged, that by a sudden jerk of the halliards by
+which they had been sent aloft, the flag and pennant would unfold
+themselves to the breeze. A curious observer would also have seen a
+quartermaster standing by the English colors, which we were still wearing,
+in readiness to strike them, a band of music on the quarter-deck, and a
+gunner (lock-string in hand) standing by the weather-bow gun. All these
+men had their eyes upon the reader; and when he had concluded, at a wave
+of his hand, the gun was fired, the change of flags took place, and the
+air was rent by a deafening cheer from officers and men; the band, at the
+same time, playing "Dixie,"--that soul-stirring national anthem of the
+new-born government. The _Bahama_ also fired a gun and cheered the new
+flag. Thus, amid this peaceful scene of beauty, with all nature smiling
+upon the ceremony, was the _Alabama_ christened; the name "290"
+disappearing with the English flag. This had all been done upon the high
+seas, more than a marine league from the land, where Mr. Jefferson Davis
+had as much jurisdiction as Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Who could look into the
+horoscope of this ship--who anticipate her career? Many of these brave
+fellows followed me unto the close.
+
+From the cradle to the grave there is but a step; and that I may group in
+a single picture, the christening and the burial of the ship, let the
+reader imagine, now, some two years to have rolled over--and such a two
+years of carnage and blood, as the world had never before seen--and,
+strangely enough, another Sunday morning, equally bright and beautiful, to
+have dawned upon the _Alabama_. This is her funeral morning! At the hour
+when the church-goers in Paris and London were sending up their orisons to
+the Most High, the sound of cannon was heard in the British Channel, and
+the _Alabama_ was engaged in her death-struggle. Cherbourg, where the
+_Alabama_ had lain for some days previously, is connected with Paris by
+rail, and a large number of curious spectators had flocked down from the
+latter city to witness, as it proved, her interment. The sun rose, as
+before, in a cloudless sky, and the sea-breeze has come in over the
+dancing waters, mild and balmy. It is the nineteenth day of June, 1864.
+The _Alabama_ steams out to meet the _Kearsarge_ in mortal combat, and
+before the sun has set, she has gone down beneath the green waters, and
+lies entombed by the side of many a gallant craft that had gone down
+before her in that famous old British Channel; where, from the time of the
+Norseman and the Danish sea-king, to our own day, so many naval combats
+have been fought, and so many of the laurel crowns of victory have been
+entwined around the brows of our naval ancestors. Many of the manly
+figures who had stood with uncovered heads, and listened with respectful
+silence to the christening, went down in the ship, and now lie buried with
+her, many fathoms deep, with no other funeral dirge than the roar of
+cannon, and the howling winds of the North Sea. Such were the birth and
+death of the ship, whose adventures I propose to sketch in the following
+pages.
+
+My speech, I was glad to find, had produced considerable effect with the
+crew. I informed them, in the opening, that they were all released from
+the contracts under which they had come thus far, and that such of them as
+preferred to return to England could do so in the _Bahama_, without
+prejudice to their interests, as they would have a free passage back, and
+their pay would go on until they were discharged in Liverpool. I then gave
+them a brief account of the war, and told them how the Southern States,
+being sovereign and independent, had dissolved the league which had bound
+them to the Northern States, and how they were threatened with subjugation
+by their late confederates, who were the stronger. They would be fighting,
+I told them, the battles of the oppressed against the oppressor, and this
+consideration alone should be enough to nerve the arm of every generous
+sailor. Coming nearer home, for it could not be supposed that English,
+Dutch, Irish, French, Italian, and Spanish sailors could understand much
+about the rights or wrongs of nations, I explained to them the individual
+advantages which they might expect to reap from an enlistment with me. The
+cruise would be one of excitement and adventure. We had a fine ship under
+us; one that they might fall in love with, as they would with their
+sweethearts about Wapping. We should visit many parts of the world, where
+they would have "liberty" given them on proper occasions; and we should,
+no doubt, destroy a great many of the enemy's ships, in spite of the
+enemy's cruisers. With regard to these last, though fighting was not to be
+our principal object, yet, if a favorable opportunity should offer of our
+laying ourselves alongside of a ship that was not too heavy for us, they
+would find me disposed to indulge them.
+
+Finally I came to the finances, and like a skilful Secretary of the
+Treasury, I put the budget to them, in its very best aspect. As I spoke of
+good pay, and payment in gold, "hear! hear!" came up from several voices.
+I would give them, I said, about double the ordinary wages, to compensate
+them for the risks they would have to run, and I promised them, in case we
+should be successful, "lots of prize-money," to be voted to them by the
+Confederate Congress, for the ships of the enemy that they would be
+obliged to destroy. When we "piped down," that is to say, when the
+boatswain and his mates wound their "calls" three times, as a signal that
+the meeting was over, and the crew might disperse, I caused the word to be
+passed for all those who desired to sign the articles, to repair at once
+to the paymaster and sign. I was anxious to strike whilst the iron was
+hot. The _Alabama_ had brought out from the Mersey about sixty men, and
+the _Bahama_ had brought about thirty more. I got eighty of these ninety
+men, and felt very much relieved in consequence.
+
+The _democratic_ part of the proceedings closed, as soon as the articles
+were signed. The "public meeting" just described, was the first, and last
+ever held on board the _Alabama_, and no other stump speech was ever made
+to the crew. When I wanted a man to do anything after this, I did not talk
+to him about "nationalities," or "liberties," or "double wages," but I
+gave him a rather sharp order, and if the order was not obeyed in
+"double-quick," the delinquent found himself in limbo. Democracies may do
+very well for the land, but monarchies and pretty absolute monarchies at
+that, are the only successful governments for the sea. There was a great
+state of confusion on board the ship, of course, during the remainder of
+this day, and well into the night. Bullock and Butcher were both on board
+assisting me, and we were all busy, as well as the paymaster and clerk,
+making out half-pay tickets for the sailors' wives and sweethearts,
+drawing drafts for small amounts payable to relatives and dependants, in
+different parts of England, for such of the sailors as wanted them, and
+paying advance-wages to those who had no pay-tickets to leave, or
+remittances to make. I was gratified to find, that a large proportion of
+my men left half their pay behind them. "A man, who has children, hath
+given hostages to fortune," and you are quite as sure of a sailor, who
+sends half his pay to his wife or sweetheart.
+
+It was eleven P. M. before my friend Bullock was ready to return to the
+_Bahama_, on his way back to England. I took an affectionate leave of him.
+I had spent some days with him, at his quiet retreat, in the little
+village of Waterloo, near Liverpool, where I met his excellent wife, a
+charming Southern woman, with whom hospitality was a part of her religious
+faith. He was living in a very plain, simple style, though large sums of
+public money were passing through his hands, and he has had the honor to
+come out of the war poor. He paid out moneys in good faith, to the last,
+even when it was quite evident that the cause had gone under, and there
+would be no accounts to settle with an Auditor of the Treasury. I had not
+only had the pleasure of his society during a number of anxious days, but
+he had greatly assisted me, by his counsel and advice, given with that
+modesty and reserve which always mark true ability. As soon as the
+_Bahama_ had steamed away, and left me alone, I turned my ship's head to
+the north-east, set the fore-and-aft sails, and directed the engineer to
+let his fires go down. The wind had freshened considerably, and there was
+some sea on. I now turned into an unquiet cot, perfectly exhausted, after
+the labors of the day, and slept as comfortably as the rolling of the
+ship, and a strong smell of bilge-water would permit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+THE ALABAMA A SHIP OF WAR, AND NOT A PRIVATEER--SKETCH OF THE PERSONNEL OF
+THE SHIP--PUTTING THE SHIP IN ORDER FOR SERVICE--SAIL AND STEAM--THE
+CHARACTER OF THE SAILOR--THE FIRST BLOW STRUCK AT THE WHALE FISHERY--THE
+HABITAT AND HABITS OF THE WHALE--THE FIRST CAPTURE.
+
+
+The reader has seen in the last chapter, that the _Alabama_ is at length
+upon the high seas, as a commissioned ship of war of the Confederate
+States, her commission having been signed by Mr. Jefferson Davis, who had
+all the _de facto_ right, and much more of the _de jure_ right, to sign
+such a commission than John Hancock, who signed Paul Jones' commission.
+The _Alabama_ having been built by the Government of the Confederate
+States, and commissioned by these States, as a _ship of war_, was, in no
+sense of the word, a _privateer_, which is a private armed ship belonging
+to individuals, and fitted out for purposes of gain. And yet, throughout
+the whole war, and long after the war, when she was not called a "pirate"
+by the Northern press, she was called a _privateer_. Even high Government
+officials of the enemy so characterized her. Many of the newspapers erred
+through ignorance, but this misnomer was sheer malice, and very petty
+malice, too, on the part of those of them who were better informed, and on
+the part of the Government officials, all of whom, of course, knew better.
+Long after they had acknowledged the war, _as a war_, which carried with
+it an acknowledgment of the right of the Confederate States to fit out
+cruisers, they stultified themselves by calling her "pirate," and
+"privateer." They were afraid to speak the truth, in conformity with the
+facts, lest the destruction of their property, for which they hoped
+ultimately to be paid, should seem to be admitted to have been done under
+the sanction of the laws of nations. They could as logically have called
+General Robert E. Lee _a bandit_, as myself a _pirate_; but logic was not
+the _forte_ of the enemy, either during or since the late war.
+
+Before we commence operations, a glance at the _personnel_ of the ship may
+not be uninteresting. If the reader is to embark on the cruise with us, he
+will very naturally desire to know something of his future shipmates.
+Having made the cruise in the _Sumter_, he is, of course, acquainted with
+the officers of that ship, and if, after the fashion of the sailor, he has
+formed a liking for any of them, he will naturally be inclined to know
+what became of such of them as did not follow me to the _Alabama_. Of the
+lieutenants, only one of my old set followed me. Accident separated the
+rest from me, very much to my regret, and we afterward played different
+_roles_ in the war. The reader has not forgotten Chapman, the second
+officer of the _Sumter_, who made such a sensation in Cienfuegos, among
+the fair sex, and who slept in such a sweet pair of sheets at the house of
+his friend, that he dreamed of them for weeks afterward. Chapman finished
+the cruise in the _Sumter_, serving everybody else pretty much as he
+served the Cienfuegos people, whenever he chanced to get ashore. He was
+always as ready "to tread one measure--take one cup of wine," with a
+friend, as to hurl defiance at an enemy. He carried the garrison mess at
+Gibraltar by storm. There was no dinner-party without him. He talked war
+and strategy with the colonel, fox-hunted with the major, and thrumbed the
+light guitar, and sang delightful songs, in company with the young
+captains, and lieutenants, beneath the latticed windows of their
+lady-loves. It is astonishing, too, the progress he made in learning
+Spanish, which was attributable entirely to the lessons he took from some
+bright eyes, and musical tongues, in the neighboring village of San Roque,
+only a pleasant canter over into Spain, from Gibraltar. Chapman was,
+unfortunately, going from London to Nassau, in a blockade runner, while I
+was returning from the latter place to Liverpool, preparatory to joining
+the _Alabama_. It was thus we missed each other; and the _Alabama_ was on
+the wing so soon afterward, that it was impossible for him to catch her.
+He served in the _Georgia_, a while, under Captain William Lewis Maury,
+and, when that ship was laid up and sold, he returned to the Confederate
+States, and rendered gallant and efficient service, in the last days of
+the war, in doing what was possible for the defence of Wilmington, against
+the overwhelming fleet of Porter.
+
+Stribling, the third of the _Sumter_, was assigned by me to Maffitt's
+command, as already related. He died of yellow fever in Mobile, deeply
+regretted by the whole service.
+
+Evans, the fourth of the _Sumter_, missed me as Chapman had done, and like
+Chapman, he took service on board the _Georgia_, and afterward returned to
+the Confederate States. He served in the naval batteries on the James
+River, until the evacuation of Richmond.
+
+I took with me to the _Alabama_, as the reader has seen, my old and
+well-tried First Lieutenant, Kell. He became the first lieutenant of the
+new ship.
+
+Lieutenant Richard F. Armstrong, of Georgia, whom, as the reader will
+recollect, I had left at Gibraltar, in charge of the _Sumter_, took
+Chapman's place, and became second lieutenant. Armstrong was a young
+gentleman of intelligence and character, and had made good progress in his
+profession. He was a midshipman at the Naval School, at Annapolis, when
+the war broke out. Though still a mere boy, he resigned his appointment
+without hesitation, and came South. He had made the cruise with me in the
+_Sumter_, and been since promoted.
+
+Midshipman Joseph D. Wilson, of Florida, also an _�l�ve_ of Annapolis, and
+who, like Armstrong, had made the cruise with me in the _Sumter_, and been
+promoted, took Stribling's place, and became third lieutenant.
+
+My fourth lieutenant in place of Evans was Mr. Arthur Sinclair, who,
+though not bred in the old service, belonged to one of the old naval
+families of Virginia, both his father and grandfather having been captains
+in the United States Navy. These two young gentlemen were also
+intelligent, and for the short time they had been at sea, well informed in
+their profession.
+
+
+[Illustration: Eng'd by H. B. Hall, Jr. N. Y.
+
+Kelly, Piet & Co. Baltimore]
+
+
+My fifth lieutenant was Mr. John Low, of Georgia, a capital seaman, and
+excellent officer.
+
+Galt, my old surgeon, had accompanied me, as the reader has seen, as did
+also First Lieutenant Howell, of the marines. Myers, the paymaster of the
+_Sumter_, was, unfortunately for me, in prison, in Fort Warren, when the
+_Alabama_ was commissioned--the Federal authorities still gloating over
+the prize they had made, through the trickery of the Consul at Tangier, of
+one of the "pirate's" officers. In his place I was forced to content
+myself with a man, as paymaster, who shall be nameless in these pages,
+since he afterward, upon being discharged by me, for his worthlessness,
+went over to the enemy, and became one of Mr. Adams' hangers-on, and paid
+witnesses and spies about Liverpool, and the legation in London. As a
+preparatory step to embracing the Yankee cause, he married a mulatto
+woman, in Kingston, Jamaica, (though he had a wife living,) whom he
+swindled out of what little property she had, and then abandoned. I was
+quite amused, when I saw afterward, in the Liverpool and London papers,
+that this man, who was devoid of every virtue, and steeped to the lips in
+every vice, was giving testimony in the English courts, in the interest of
+the nation of "grand moral ideas." This was the only recruit the enemy
+ever got from the ranks of my officers.
+
+To complete the circle of the ward-room, I have only to mention Mr. Miles
+J. Freeman, the chief engineer of the _Sumter_, who was now filling the
+same place on board the _Alabama_, and with whom the reader is already
+acquainted; Dr. Llewellyn, an Englishman from Wiltshire, who having come
+out in the _Alabama_ as surgeon when she was yet a merchant-ship, had been
+retained as assistant surgeon; and Acting Master Bullock, brother of the
+captain already named in these pages. My "steerage officers," who are too
+numerous to be named individually, were a capital set of young men, as
+were the "forward officers." Indeed, with the exception of the black sheep
+in the ward-room, with Federal propensities, to whom I have alluded, I had
+reason to be satisfied with my officers of all grades.
+
+I must not forget to introduce to the reader one humble individual of the
+_Alabama's_ crew. He was my steward, and my household would not be
+complete without him. When I was making the passage from Nassau to
+Liverpool, in the _Bahama_, I noticed a pale, rather delicate, and
+soft-mannered young man, who was acting as steward on board. He was an
+obedient, respectful, and attentive major-domo, but, unfortunately, was
+rather too much addicted to the use of the wine which he set on the table,
+every day, for the guests. Poor Bartelli--I thus designate him, because of
+his subsequent sad fate, which the reader will learn in due time--did not
+seem to have the power of self-restraint, especially under the treatment
+he received, which was not gentle. The captain was rough toward him, and
+the poor fellow seemed very much cowed and humbled, trembling when spoken
+to harshly. His very forlornness drew me toward him. He was an Italian,
+evidently of gentle blood, and as, with the Italians, drinking to
+intoxication is not an ineradicable vice, I felt confident that he could
+be reformed under proper treatment. And so, when we arrived at Terceira, I
+asked Bartelli how he would like to go with me, as steward, on board the
+_Alabama_. He seemed to be delighted with the proposal. "There is one
+understanding, however," I said to him, "which you and I must have: you
+must never touch a drop of liquor, on board the ship, on duty. When you go
+on shore, 'on liberty,' if you choose to have a little frolic, that is
+your affair, provided, always, you come off sober. Is it a bargain?" "It
+is, Captain," said he; "I promise you I will behave myself like a man, if
+you will take me with you." The Captain of the _Bahama_ had no objection,
+and Bartelli was duly installed as my steward. I found him, as I had
+expected, a capital servant. He was faithful, and became attached to me,
+and kept his promise, under strong temptation; for there was always in the
+cabin-lockers of the _Alabama_ the best of wines and other liquors. He
+took care of my linen like a woman, washing it himself when we were at
+sea, and sending it to some careful laundress when in port. I shall,
+perhaps, astonish a great many husbands and heads of families, when I tell
+them, that every shirt-button was always in its place, and that I never
+had to call for needle and thread under difficulties! My mess affairs
+never gave me the least trouble. My table was always well supplied, and
+when guests were expected, I could safely leave the arrangements to
+Bartelli; and then it was a pleasure to observe the air, and grace of
+manner and speech, with which he would receive my visitors and conduct
+them into the cabin. Poor Bartelli!
+
+The day after the _Bahama_ left us was cloudy, and cheerless in aspect,
+with a fresh wind and a rough sea. The ship was rolling and tumbling
+about, to the discomfort of every one, and confusion still reigned on
+board. Below decks everything was dirt and disorder. Nobody had as yet
+been berthed or messed, nor had any one been stationed at a gun or a rope.
+Spare shot-boxes and other heavy articles were fetching way, and the ship
+was leaking considerably through her upper works. She had been put
+together with rather green timber, and, having been caulked in England, in
+winter, her seams were beginning to gape beneath the ardent heats of a
+semi-tropical climate. I needed several days yet, to put things "to
+rights," and mould the crew into a little shape. I withdrew, therefore,
+under easy sail, from the beaten tracks of commerce; and my first
+lieutenant went to work berthing, and messing, and quartering, and
+stationing his men. The gun-equipments were completed, and such little
+alterations made as were found necessary for the easy and efficient
+working of the battery, and the guns were sealed with blank cartridges,
+and put in a proper condition for being loaded promptly. We now devoted
+several days to the exercise of the crew, as well at general, as division,
+quarters. Some few of the guns' crews had served in ships of war before,
+and proved capital drill-sergeants for the rest. The consequence was, that
+rapid progress was made, and the _Alabama_ was soon in a condition to
+plume her wings for her flight. It only remained to caulk our upper works,
+and this occupied us but a day or two longer.
+
+I was much gratified to find that my new ship proved to be a fine sailer,
+under canvas. This quality was of inestimable advantage to me, as it
+enabled me to do most of my work under sail. She carried but an eighteen
+days' supply of fuel, and if I had been obliged, because of her dull
+sailing qualities, to chase every thing under steam, the reader can see
+how I should have been hampered in my movements. I should have been half
+my time running into port for fuel. This would have disclosed my
+whereabouts so frequently to the enemy, that I should have been constantly
+in danger of capture, whereas I could now stretch into the most distant
+seas, and chase, capture, and destroy, perfectly independent of steam. I
+adopted the plan, therefore, of working under sail, in the very beginning
+of my cruise, and practised it unto the end. With the exception of half a
+dozen prizes, all my captures were made with my screw hoisted, and my ship
+under sail; and with but one exception, as the reader will see hereafter,
+I never had occasion to use steam to escape from an enemy.
+
+This keeping of the sea, for three, and four months at a time, had another
+great advantage--it enabled me to keep my crew under better drill, and
+discipline, and, in every way, better in hand. Nothing demoralizes a crew
+so much as frequent visits to port. The sailor is as improvident, and
+incapable of self-government as a child. Indeed he is regarded by most
+nations as a ward of the state, and that sort of legislation is thrown
+around him, which is thrown around a ward in chancery. The moment a ship
+drops her anchor in a port, like the imprisoned bird, he begins to beat
+the bars of his cage, if he is not permitted to go on shore, and have his
+frolic; and when on shore, to carry our simile still further, he is like
+the bird let out of the cage. He gives a loose rein to his passions, and
+sometimes plunges so deeply into debauchery, that he renders himself unfit
+for duty, for days, and sometimes weeks, after he is hunted up and brought
+on board by the police, which is most frequently the manner in which his
+captain again gets possession of him. Such is the reckless intemperance
+into which some of the regular old salts plunge, that I have known them to
+go on shore, make their way straight to a sailor-boarding-house, which is
+frequently a dance-house, and always a grog-shop, give what money they
+have about them to the "landlord," and tell him to keep them drunk as long
+as it will last, and when they have had the worth of it in a _good, long,
+big_ drunk, to pick them up, and send them off to their ship! The very
+d----l is to pay, too, when a lot of drunken sailors is brought on board,
+as every first lieutenant knows. Frequently they have to be knocked down,
+disarmed of the dangerous sheath-knives which they wear, and confined in
+irons until they are sober. When that takes place, Jack comes out of the
+"Brig," his place of confinement, very much ashamed of himself; generally
+with a blackened eye or two, if not with a broken nose, and looking very
+seedy in the way of apparel, as the chances are that he has sold or
+exchanged the tidy suit in which he went on shore, for some 'long-shore
+toggery, the better to enable him to prolong that delightful drunk of his.
+It was quite enough to have such scenes as these repeated once in three or
+four months.
+
+When I had put my ship in a tolerable state of defence, and given a little
+practice at the guns, to my crew, I turned her head toward her cruising
+ground. It so happened that this was not very far off. Following Porter's
+example in the Pacific,--I mean the first Porter, the father of the
+present Admiral in the Federal Navy,--I resolved to strike a blow at the
+enemy's whale-fishery, off the Azores. There is a curious and beautiful
+problem--that of Providence feeding the whale--connected with this
+fishery, which I doubt not will interest the reader, as it did the writer
+of these pages, when it first came under his notice. It is because of that
+problem, that the Azores are a whaling station. The food which attracts
+the whale to these islands is not produced in their vicinity, but is
+carried thither by the currents--the currents of the ocean performing the
+same functions for the finny tribe, that the atmosphere does for the
+plants. The fishes of the sea, in their kingdom beneath the waters, have
+thus their highways and byways, as well as the animals upon the land, and
+are always to be found congregated where their great food-bearers, the
+currents, make their deposits. Animalcul�, infusoria, small fishes, minute
+crustacea, and shell-fish found on the alg�, or floating sea-weed,
+sea-nettles, and other food, are produced in the more calm latitudes,
+where the waters are comparatively still, taken up by the currents, and
+transported to the more congenial feeding-grounds of the whales, and other
+fishes.
+
+Much of this food is produced in the tepid waters of the sea, into which,
+it is well known, some descriptions of whales cannot enter. The
+equatorial belt of waters surrounding the earth, between the tropics,
+whose temperature is generally 80� of Fahrenheit, is as a sea of fire to
+the "right" whale. It would be as certain death for this species of whale
+to attempt to cross these waters, as for a human being to plunge into a
+burning lake. The proof of this is that the "right" whale of the northern
+hemisphere is never found in the southern hemisphere, or _e converso_. It
+is a separate and distinct species of fish. See how beneficent, therefore,
+the arrangement is, by which the food for these monsters of the deep is
+transported from the tepid waters, into which they cannot enter in pursuit
+of it, to the cooler waters in which they delight to gambol. The Gulf
+Stream is the great food-carrier for the extra-tropical whales of the
+northern hemisphere. An intelligent sea-captain, writing to Superintendent
+Maury of the National Observatory, some years before the war, informed
+him, that in the Gulf Stream, off the coast of Florida, he fell in with
+"such a school of young sea-nettles, as had never before been heard of."
+The sea was literally covered with them for many square leagues. He
+likened them, in appearance, to acorns floating on the water, but they
+were so thick as completely to cover the sea. He was bound to England, and
+was five or six days in sailing through them. In about sixty days
+afterward, on his return voyage, he fell in with the same school off the
+Azores, and here he was three or four days in passing them again. He
+recognized them as the same, for he had never before seen any quite like
+them; and on both occasions he frequently hauled up buckets full, and
+examined them. In their adventurous voyage of sixty days, during which
+they must have been tossed about in several gales of wind, these little
+marine animals had grown considerably, and already the whales had begun to
+devour them; for the school was now so much diminished in size, that the
+captain was enabled to sail through it, in three or four days, instead of
+the five or six which it had formerly taken him. We see, thus, that the
+fishes of the sea have their seed-time and harvest; that the same
+beneficent hand that decks the lilies of the field in garments more superb
+than those of Solomon, and feeds the young raven, seeds down the great
+equatorial belt of waters for the fishes; and that when the harvest-time
+has come, he sends in his reapers and gleaners, the currents, which bind
+up the sheaves, and bear them off three thousand miles, to those denizens
+of the great deep, which, perhaps, but for this beautiful and beneficent
+arrangement, would die of inanition.
+
+The whaling season ends at the Azores about the first of October, when the
+first winter gales begin to blow, and the food becomes scarce. The whales
+then migrate to other feeding-grounds, and the adventurous whaler follows
+them. As we were now, in the first days of September, on board the
+_Alabama_, the reader will see, that we had but a few weeks left, in which
+to accomplish our purpose of striking a blow at the enemy's whale fishery.
+In the afternoon of September 4th, the weather being fine and clear, we
+made Pico and Fayal, and reducing sail to topsails, lay off and on during
+the night. The next day, the weather being cloudy, and the wind light from
+the eastward, we made our first prize, without the excitement of a chase.
+A ship having been discovered, lying to, with her foretopsail to the mast,
+we made sail for her, hoisting the United States colors, and approached
+her within boarding distance, that is to say, within a few hundred yards,
+without her moving tack or sheet. She had shown the United States colors
+in return, as we approached, and proved to be a whaler, with a huge whale,
+which she had recently struck, made fast alongside, and partially hoisted
+out of the water by her yard tackles. The surprise was perfect and
+complete, although eleven days had elapsed since the _Alabama_ had been
+commissioned at a neighboring island, less than a hundred miles off.
+
+The captured ship proved to be the _Ocmulgee_, of Edgartown,
+Massachusetts, whose master was a genuine specimen of the Yankee whaling
+skipper; long and lean, and as elastic, apparently, as the whalebone he
+dealt in. Nothing could exceed the blank stare of astonishment, that sat
+on his face, as the change of flags took place on board the _Alabama_. He
+had been engaged, up to the last moment, with his men, securing the rich
+spoil alongside. The whale was a fine "sperm," and was a "big strike," and
+had already been denuded of much of its blubber when we got alongside. He
+naturally concluded, he said, when he saw the United States colors at our
+peak, that we were one of the new gunboats sent out by Mr. Welles to
+protect the whale fishery. It was indeed remarkable, that no protection
+should have been given to these men, by their Government. Unlike the ships
+of commerce, the whalers are obliged to congregate within small well-known
+spaces of ocean and remain there for weeks at a time, whilst the whaling
+season lasts. It was the most obvious thing in the world, that these
+vessels, thus clustered together, should attract the attention of the
+Confederate cruisers, and be struck at. There are not more than half a
+dozen principal whaling stations on the entire globe, and a ship, of size
+and force, at each, would have been sufficient protection. But the
+whalers, like the commerce of the United States generally, were abandoned
+to their fate. Mr. Welles did not seem capable of learning by experience
+even; for the _Shenandoah_ repeated the successes of the _Alabama_, in the
+North Pacific, toward the close of the war. There were Federal steam
+gunboats, and an old sailing hulk cruising about in the China seas, but no
+one seemed to think of the whalers, until Waddel carried dismay and
+consternation among them.
+
+It took us some time to remove the crew of the _Ocmulgee_, consisting of
+thirty-seven persons, to the _Alabama_. We also got on board from her some
+beef and pork, and small stores, and by the time we had done this, it was
+nine o'clock at night; too late to think of burning her, as a bonfire, by
+night, would flush the remainder of the game, which I knew to be in the
+vicinity; and I had now become too old a hunter to commit such an
+indiscretion. With a little management and caution, I might hope to
+uncover the birds, no faster than I could bag them. And so, hoisting a
+light at the peak of the prize, I permitted her to remain anchored to the
+whale, and we lay by her until the next morning, when we burned her; the
+smoke of the conflagration being, no doubt, mistaken by vessels at a
+distance, for that of some passing steamer.
+
+To those curious in such matters, I may state that a large sperm whale
+will yield twenty-five barrels of oil from the head alone. The oil is
+found in its liquid state, and is baled out with buckets, from a hole cut
+in the top of the head. What can be the uses in the animal economy to
+which this immense quantity of oil in the head of the fish is applied?
+They are probably twofold. First, it may have some connection with the
+sustenance of the animal, in seasons of scarcity of food, and secondly,
+and more obviously, it appears to be a provision of nature, designed on
+the same principle on which birds are supplied with air-cells in their
+bones. The whale, though a very intelligent fish, and with an affection
+for its "calf," almost human, has but a small brain, the great cavity of
+its skull being filled as described. As the specific gravity of oil is
+considerably less than that of water, we can be at no loss to conjecture
+why the monster has so bountiful a supply, nor why it is that it carries
+the supply in its head. As is well known, the whale is a warm-blooded
+mammal, as much so as the cow that roams our pastures, and cannot live by
+breathing the water alone. Instead of the gill arrangement of other
+fishes, which enables them to extract from the water sufficient air to
+vitalize the blood, it has the lungs of the mammal, and needs to breathe
+the atmosphere. The oil in the head, acting on the principle of the cork,
+enables it to ascend very rapidly, from great depths in the ocean, when it
+requires to breathe, or "blow." See how beautiful this oil arrangement is,
+too, in another aspect. It enables the monster, when it requires rest, to
+lay its head on the softest kind of a pillow, an ocean wave, and sleep as
+unconcernedly as the child does upon the bosom of its mother.
+
+On the day after the capture of the _Ocmulgee_, we chased and overhauled a
+French ship, bound to Marseilles. After speaking this ship, and telling
+her that we were a United States cruiser, we bore away north, half west,
+and in a couple of hours made the island of Flores, the westernmost of the
+Azores, and a favorite island to be sighted by the whalers, for the
+correction of their chronometers. Approaching it just at nightfall, we
+shortened sail, and lay off and on during the night. This island is an
+exceedingly picturesque object. It rises like a huge mountain from the
+depths of the sea, with the bluest and deepest of water all around it. It
+is rock-bound, and there is scarcely any part of it, where a ship might
+not haul alongside of the rocks, and make fast to the shore. It rises to
+the height of a thousand feet and more, and is covered with a luxuriant
+vegetation, the substratum of rock being overlaid with a generous soil.
+The climate is genial for three-fourths of the year, but almost a
+perpetual gale howls over it in winter. At a distance, the island appeared
+like an unbroken mountain, but as we approached it, many beautiful
+valleys, and gaps in the mountain presented themselves, with the neat
+white farm-houses of the lonely dwellers peeping out from beneath the
+dense foliage. It was indeed a beautiful scene to look upon, and such was
+the air of perfect repose and peace that pervaded it, that a ship of war
+seemed out of place, approaching its quiet shores.
+
+The next day, Sunday, dawned beautiful and bright, and the _Alabama_
+having approached this semi-tropical island, sufficiently near to inhale
+the fragrance of its shrubs and flowers, mustered her crew for the first
+time. The reader has now been sufficiently long with us to know, that when
+we speak of "muster" on board a ship of war, we do not mean simply the
+calling of the roll, but a ceremony of dress and inspection. With clean,
+white decks, with the brass and iron work glittering like so many mirrors
+in the sun, and with the sails neatly trimmed, and the Confederate States
+flag at our peak, we spread our awnings and read the Articles of War to
+the crew. A great change had taken place in the appearance of the men,
+since I made that stump speech to them which has been described. Their
+parti-colored garments had been cast aside, and they were all neatly
+arrayed in duck frocks and trousers, well-polished shoes, and straw hats.
+There was a visible improvement in their health, too. They had been long
+enough out of Liverpool to recover from the effects of their debauches,
+and regain their accustomed stamina. This was the first reading of the
+Articles of War to them, and it was curious to observe the attention with
+which they listened to the reading, occasionally eying each other, as they
+were struck by particular portions of them. These Articles, which were
+copied from similar Articles, for the "better government of the Navy of
+the United States," were quite severe in their denunciations of crime. The
+penalty of death frequently occurred in them, and they placed the power of
+executing this penalty in the hands of the captain and a court-martial.
+
+Jack had already had a little foretaste of discipline, in the two weeks he
+had been on board; the first lieutenant having brought several of them to
+the "mast," whence they had been sent into confinement by me, for longer
+or shorter intervals, according to the grade of their offences; and he now
+began more distinctly to perceive that he had gotten on board a _ship of
+war_, instead of the privateer he had supposed the _Alabama_ to be, and
+that he would have to toe a pretty straight mark. It is with a disorderly
+crew, as with other things, the first blows are the most effective. I had
+around me a large staff of excellent officers, who always wore their side
+arms, and pistols, when on duty, and from this time onward we never had
+any trouble about keeping the most desperate and turbulent characters in
+subjection. My code was like that of the Medes and Persians--it was never
+relaxed. The moment a man offended, he was seized and confined in irons,
+and, if the offence was a grave one, a court-martial was sitting on his
+case in less than twenty-four hours. The willing and obedient were treated
+with humanity and kindness; the turbulent were jerked down, with a strong
+hand, and made submissive to discipline. I was as rigid with the officers
+as with the crew, though, of course, in a different way, and, both
+officers and men soon learning what was required of them, everything went
+on, on board the _Alabama_, after the first few weeks, as smoothly, and
+with as little jarring as if she had been a well-constructed and
+well-oiled machine.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+CAPTURE OF THE STARLIGHT, OCEAN ROVER, ALERT, WEATHER-GAUGE--A RACE BY
+NIGHT--CAPTURE OF THE ALTAMAHA, VIRGINIA, AND ELIJA DUNBAR--A ROUGH SEA,
+TOILING BOATS, AND A PICTURESQUE BURNING OF A SHIP IN A GALE.
+
+
+We were running in, while the muster described in the last chapter was
+going on, for the little town, or, rather, sea-side village of Lagens, on
+the south side of the island of Flores, and, having approached the beach
+quite near, we hove the ship to, and hauling alongside, from the stern,
+where they had been towing, the whale-boats of the captured ship, which we
+had brought away from the prize for this purpose, we paroled our
+prisoners, and, putting them in possession of their boats, shoved them off
+for the shore. I had two motives in thus landing my prisoners in their own
+boats, or, to speak more properly, in the boats which had once belonged to
+them. It saved me the trouble of landing them myself; and, as the boats
+were valuable, and I permitted the prisoners to put in them as many
+provisions as they desired, and as much other plunder as they could pick
+up about the decks of their ships--excepting always such articles as we
+needed on board the _Alabama_--the sale of their boats and cargoes to the
+islanders gave them the means of subsistence, until they could communicate
+with their consul in the neighboring island of Fayal.
+
+We had scarcely gotten through with the operation of landing our
+prisoners, before the cry of "sail ho!" came to us from the mast-head; and
+we made sail in chase of a schooner which was approaching the island,
+hoisting the English colors to throw the stranger off his guard. As the
+two vessels were sailing toward each other, they approached very rapidly,
+and in the course of an hour we were within a mile of each other. Still
+the schooner did not show any colors. The reason was quite plain; she was
+American in every feature, and could show us no other colors than such as
+would subject her to capture, in case we should prove to be her enemy, of
+which she seemed to be suspicious. Indeed, the gallant little craft, with
+every stitch of canvas set, sails well hoisted, and sheets a little eased,
+was now edging off a little from us, and endeavoring to gain the shelter
+of the well-known marine league, the land being distant only about five
+miles. Perceiving her object, and seeing that I had only a couple of miles
+to spare, I kept my own ship off, the better to throw myself across the
+stranger's path, changed my colors, and fired a blank cartridge to heave
+her to. But she neither hove to, nor showed colors, being evidently intent
+upon giving me a race. Although I already had the little craft under my
+guns, I humored her for a few minutes, just to show her that I could beat
+her in a fair trial of speed, and when I had proved this, by gaining
+rapidly upon her, I sent a round shot from one of the bow guns between her
+masts, a few feet only over the heads of her people. If the reader has
+heard a 32-pounder whistle, in such close proximity, he knows very well
+what it says, to wit, that there must be no more trifling. And so the
+captain of the schooner understood it, for in a moment afterward we could
+see the graceful little craft luffing up in the wind, brailing up her
+foresail, and hauling her jib sheet to windward. The welcome stars and
+stripes fluttered soon afterward from her peak. The master being brought
+on board with his papers, the prize proved to be the schooner _Starlight_,
+of Boston, from Fayal, bound to Boston by the way of Flores, for which
+island she had some passengers, several ladies among the number.
+
+The crew consisted of seven persons--all good Yankee sailors. Having
+heard, by this time, full accounts of the shameful treatment of my
+paymaster of the _Sumter_, which has been described, in a former chapter,
+I resolved to practise a little retaliation upon the enemy, and ordered
+the crew of the _Starlight_ put in irons. I pursued this practice, painful
+as it was, for the next seven or eight captures, putting the masters and
+mates of the ships, as well as the crews, in irons. The masters would
+frequently remonstrate with me, claiming that it was an indignity put
+upon them; and so it was, but I replied to them, that their countrymen had
+put a similar indignity upon an officer and a gentleman, who had worn the
+uniform of the navies of both our countries. By the time that the capture
+of the _Starlight_ had been completed, the sun was near his setting, and
+it was too late to land the passengers. I therefore sent a prize crew on
+board the captured ship, directing the prize-master to lie by me during
+the night, and giving him especial charge to inform the passengers that
+they should be safely landed in the morning, and, in the meantime, to
+quiet the fears of the ladies, who had been much alarmed by the chase and
+the firing, we hoisted a light at the peak of the _Alabama_, and lay to,
+all night, in nearly a calm sea. There were some dark clouds hanging over
+the island, but they had apparently gone there to roost, as no wind came
+from them. Among the papers captured on board the _Starlight_ were a
+couple of despatches from the Federal Consul at Fayal, to the
+Sewards--father and son--in which there was the usual amount of stale
+nonsense about "rebel privateers," and "pirates."
+
+The weather proved fine, the next morning, and standing in, within a
+stone's throw of the little town of Santa Cruz, we landed both passengers
+and prisoners, putting the latter, as usual, under _parole_. In the
+meantime, the Governor of the island, and a number of the dignitaries came
+off to visit us. They were a robust, farmer-looking people, giving
+evidence, in their persons, of the healthfulness of the island, and were
+very polite, franking to us the ports of the island, and informing us that
+supplies were cheap, and abundant. Their visit was evidently one of
+curiosity, and we treated his Excellency with all due ceremony,
+notwithstanding the smallness of his dominions. We talked to him, however,
+of bullocks, and sheep, fish and turtles, yams and oranges, rather than of
+the war between the States, and the laws of nations. Bartelli made the
+eyes of the party dance with flowing goblets of champagne, and when I
+thought they had remained long enough, I bowed them out of the cabin, with
+a cigar all round, and sent them on shore, with rather favorable
+impressions, I do not doubt, of the "pirate."
+
+Hauling off, now, from the island, and running seaward for a space, we
+chased and overhauled a Portuguese whaling brig. Seeing by her boats and
+other indications that she was a whaler, I thought, at first, that I had a
+prize, and was quite disappointed when she showed me the Portuguese
+colors. Not being willing to trust to the verity of the flag, I sent a
+boat on board of her, and invited the master to visit me with his papers,
+which he did. The master was himself a Portuguese, and I found his papers
+to be genuine. Thanking him for his visit, I dismissed him in a very few
+minutes. I had no right to command him to come on board of me--he being a
+neutral, it was my business to go on board of him, if I desired to examine
+his papers, but he waived ceremony, and it was for this that I had thanked
+him. I may as well remark here, in passing, that this was the only foreign
+whaling-ship that I ever overhauled; the business of whaling having become
+almost exclusively an American monopoly--the monopoly not being derived
+from any sovereign grant, but resulting from the superior skill, energy,
+industry, courage, and perseverance of the Yankee whaler, who is, perhaps,
+the best specimen of a sailor, the world over.
+
+Later in the same afternoon, we chased a large ship, looming up almost
+like a frigate, in the northwest, with which we came up about sunset. We
+had showed her the American colors, and she approached us without the
+least suspicion that she was running into the arms of an enemy; the master
+crediting good old Mr. Welles, as the master of the _Ocmulgee_ had done,
+with sending a flashy-looking Yankee gunboat, to look out for his
+whalebone and oil. This large ship proved to be, upon the master being
+brought on board with his papers, the _Ocean Rover_, of New Bedford,
+Massachusetts. She had been out three years and four months, cruising in
+various parts of the world, had sent home one or two cargoes of oil, and
+was now returning, herself, with another cargo, of eleven hundred barrels.
+The master, though anxious to see his wife, and dandle on his knee the
+babies that were no longer babies, with true Yankee thrift thought he
+would just take the Azores in his way home, and make another "strike," or
+two, to fill up his empty casks. The consequence was, as the reader has
+seen, a little disappointment. I really felt for the honest fellow, but
+when I came to reflect, for a moment, upon the diabolical acts of his
+countrymen of New England, who were out-heroding Herod, in carrying on
+against us a vindictive war, filled with hate and vengeance, the milk of
+human kindness which had begun to well up in my heart disappeared, and I
+had no longer any spare sympathies to dispose of.
+
+It being near night when the capture was made, I directed the prize to be
+hove to, in charge of a prize crew until morning. In the meantime,
+however, the master, who had heard from some of my men, that I had
+permitted the master of the _Ocmulgee_, and his crew, to land in their own
+boats, came to me, and requested permission to land in the same manner. We
+were four or five miles from the land, and I suggested to him, that it was
+some distance to pull. "Oh! that is nothing," said he, "we whalers
+sometimes chase a whale, on the broad sea, until our ships are hull-down,
+and think nothing of it. It will relieve you of us the sooner, and be of
+some service to us besides." Seeing that the sea was smooth, and that
+there was really no risk to be run, for a Yankee whale-boat might be made,
+with a little management, to ride out an ordinary gale of wind, I
+consented, and the delighted master returned to his ship, to make the
+necessary preparations. I gave him the usual permission to take what
+provisions he needed, the whaling gear belonging to his boats, and the
+personal effects of himself and men. He worked like a beaver, for not more
+than a couple of hours had elapsed, before he was again alongside of the
+_Alabama_, with all his six boats, with six men in each, ready to start
+for the shore. I could not but be amused when I looked over the side into
+these boats, at the amount of plunder that the rapacious fellow had packed
+in them. They were literally loaded down, with all sorts of traps, from
+the seamen's chests and bedding, to the tabby cat and parrot. Nor had the
+"main chance" been overlooked, for all the "cabin stores" had been
+secured, and sundry barrels of beef and pork, besides. I said to him,
+"Captain, your boats appear to me, to be rather deeply laden; are you not
+afraid to trust them?" "Oh! no," he replied; "they are as buoyant as
+ducks, and we shall not ship a drop of water." After a detention of a few
+minutes, during which my clerk was putting the crew under _parole_, I
+gave the master leave to depart.
+
+The boats, shoving off from the side, one by one, and falling into line,
+struck out for the shore. That night-landing of this whaler's crew was a
+beautiful spectacle. I stood on the horse-block, watching it, my mind busy
+with many thoughts. The moon was shining brightly, though there were some
+passing clouds sailing lazily in the upper air, that fleckered the sea.
+Flores, which was sending off to us, even at this distance, her perfumes
+of shrub and flower, lay sleeping in the moonlight, with a few fleecy,
+white clouds wound around the mountain-top, like a turban. The rocky
+islets that rise like so many shafts out of the sea, devoid of all
+vegetation, and at different distances from the shore, looked weird and
+unearthly, like sheeted ghosts. The boats moving swiftly and mysteriously
+toward the shore, might have been mistaken, when they had gotten a little
+distance from us, for Venetian gondolas, with their peaked bows and
+sterns, especially when we heard coming over the sea, a song, sung by a
+powerful and musical voice, and chorussed by all the boats. Those merry
+fellows were thus making light of misfortune, and proving that the sailor,
+after all, is the true philosopher. The echo of that night-song lingered
+long in my memory, but I little dreamed, as I stood on the deck of the
+_Alabama_, and witnessed the scene I have described, that four years
+afterward, it would be quoted against me as a violation of the laws of
+war! And yet so it was. It was alleged by the malice of my defamers, who
+never have, and never can forgive me for the destruction of their
+property, that miles away at sea, in rough and inclement weather, I
+_compelled_ my prisoners to depart for the shore, in leaky and unsound
+boats, at the hazard of their lives, designing and desiring to drown them!
+And this was all the thanks I received for setting some of these fellows
+up as nabobs, among the islanders. Why, the master of the _Ocean Rover_,
+with his six boats, and their cargoes, was richer than the Governor, when
+he landed in Flores; where the simple islanders are content with a few
+head of cattle, a cast-net, and a canoe.
+
+The _Alabama_ had now two prizes in company, with which she lay off and on
+the island during the night, and she was destined to secure another
+before morning. I had turned in, and was sleeping soundly, when about
+midnight, an officer came below to inform me that there was another large
+ship close on board of us. I was dressed and on deck in a few minutes. The
+stranger was plainly visible, being not more than a mile distant. She was
+heading for the island. I wore ship, as quietly as possible, and followed
+her, but she had, in the meantime, drawn some distance ahead, and an
+exciting chase now ensued. We were both close-hauled, on the starboard
+tack, and the stranger, seeing that he was pursued, put every rag of sail
+on his ship that he could spread. I could but admire her, with her square
+yards and white canvas, every sheet home, and every leach taut. For the
+first half hour, it was hard to tell which ship had the heels of the
+other, but at the end of that time, we began to head-reach the chase very
+perceptibly, though the latter rather "eat us out of the wind," or, to
+speak more conformably with the vocabulary of the land, went to windward
+of us. This did not matter much, however, as when we should be abreast of
+her, we would be near enough to reach her with a shot. After a chase of
+about four hours, day broke, when we hoisted the English ensign. This was
+a polite invitation to the chase, to show her colors, but she declined to
+do so. We now felt sure that she was an enemy, and a prize, and as we were
+still gaining on her, it was only a matter of an hour or two, when she
+would fall into our hands. Our polite invitation to the chase, to show her
+colors, not succeeding, we became a little more emphatic, and fired a
+blank cartridge. Still she was obstinate. She was steering for Flores, and
+probably, like the _Starlight_, had her eye on the marine league. Having
+approached her, in another half hour, within good round-shot range, I
+resolved to treat her as I had treated the _Starlight_, and threw a
+32-pounder near enough to her stern to give the captain a shower-bath.
+Shower-baths are very efficacious, in many cases, and we found it so in
+this, for in a moment more, we could see the stars and stripes ascending
+to the stranger's peak, and that he had started his tacks and sheets, and
+was in the act of hauling up his courses. This done, the main-yard was
+swung aback, and the prize had surrendered herself a prisoner.
+
+Bartelli now came to tell me, that my bath was ready, and descending to
+the cabin, I bathed, and dressed for breakfast, whilst the
+boarding-officer was boarding the prize. She proved to be the _Alert_, of,
+and from New London, and bound, by the way of the Azores, and Cape de
+Verde Islands, to the Indian Ocean. She was only sixteen days from port,
+with files of late newspapers; and besides her own ample outfit for a
+large crew, and a long voyage, she had on board supplies for the group
+known as the Navigators' Islands, in the South Indian Ocean, where among
+icebergs and storms, the Yankees had a whaling and sealing station. This
+capture proved to be a very opportune one, as we were in want of just such
+a lot of clothing, for the men, as we found on board the prize; and the
+choice beef, and pork, nicely put up ship-bread, boxes of soap, and
+tobacco, and numerous other articles of seaman's supplies did not come
+amiss. We had been particularly short of a supply of tobacco, this being a
+costly article in England, and I could see Jack's eye brighten, as he
+rolled aft, and piled up on the quarter-deck, sundry heavy oaken boxes of
+good "Virginia twist." That night the pipes seemed to have wonderfully
+increased in number, on board the _Alabama_, and the song and the jest
+derived new inspiration from the fragrance of the weed. We paroled the
+officers and crew of the _Alert_, and sent them ashore, in their own
+boats, as we had done the others.
+
+I had now three prizes on my hands, viz.: the _Starlight_, the _Ocean
+Rover_, and the _Alert_, with a prize crew on board of each, and as I
+could make no better use of them than to destroy them, thanks to the
+unfriendly conduct of neutrals, so often referred to, it became necessary
+to think of burning them. They were lying at distances, ranging from half
+a mile to three miles from the _Alabama_, and were fired within a short
+time of each other, so that we had three funeral pyres burning around us
+at the same moment. The other whalers at a distance must have thought that
+there were a good many steamers passing Flores, that day. It was still
+early in the afternoon, and there was more work before us ere night set
+in. I had scarcely gotten my prize crews on board, and my boats run up,
+before another sail was discovered standing in for the island. We
+immediately gave chase, or rather, to speak more correctly, proceeded to
+meet the stranger, who was standing in our direction. The ships approached
+each other very rapidly, and we soon discovered the new sail to be a large
+schooner, of unmistakable Yankee build and rig. We hoisted the United
+States colors, and she responded soon afterward with the stars and
+stripes. She came on quite unsuspiciously, as the two last prizes had
+done, until she arrived near enough to see that the three mysterious cones
+of smoke, at which she had probably been wondering for some time past,
+proceeded from three ships on fire. Coupling this unusual spectacle with
+the approach toward her of a rakish-looking barkentine, she at once smelt
+rather a large rat, and wheeled suddenly in flight. But it was too late.
+We were already within three miles of her, and a pursuit of half an hour
+brought her within effective range of our bow-chaser. We now changed
+colors, and fired a blank cartridge. This was sufficient. She saved us the
+expenditure of a shot, and hove to, without further ado. Upon being
+boarded, she proved to be the _Weathergauge_, a whaler of Provincetown,
+Massachusetts, six weeks from the land of the Puritan, with other files of
+newspapers, though not so late as those captured on board the _Alert_.
+
+In running over these files, it was wonderful to observe the glibness with
+which these Massachusetts brethren of ours now talked of treason, and of
+rebels, and traitors, at no greater distance, in point of time, than
+forty-five years, from the Hartford Convention; to say nothing of certain
+little idiosyncrasies of theirs, that were developed during the annexation
+of Texas. There were some "Sunday" papers among the rest, and all the
+pious parsons and deacons in the land were overflowing with patriotism,
+and hurling death and damnation from their pulpits, against those who had
+dared to strike at the "Lord's anointed," the sainted Abraham Lincoln. But
+as the papers contained little or no war news, we had no time to bestow
+upon the crotchets of the Yankee brain, and they were promptly consigned
+to the waste-paper basket. Another sail being discovered, whilst we were
+receiving the surrender of the _Weathergauge_, we hastily threw a prize
+crew on board this latter vessel, directing the prize-master to "hold on
+to the island of Corvo," during the ensuing night, which was now falling,
+until we should return, and started off in pursuit of the newly
+discovered sail.
+
+Chasing a sail is very much like pursuing a coy maiden, the very coyness
+sharpening the pursuit. The chase, in the present instance, seemed
+determined to run away from us; and as she was fast, and we were as
+determined to overhaul her as she was to run away, she led us a beautiful
+night-dance over the merry waters. The moon rose bright, soon after the
+chase commenced, and, striking upon the canvas of the fleeing vessel,
+lighted it up as though it had been a snow-bank. The American vessels are
+distinguished, above all others, for the whiteness of their canvas; being
+clothed, for the most part, in the fibre of our cotton-fields. The cut of
+the sails, and the taper of the spars of the chase looked American, and
+then the ship was cracking on every stitch of canvas that would draw, in
+the effort to escape--she must surely be American, we thought. And so we
+"looked on her, to lust after her," and gave our little ship the benefit
+of all our skill in seamanship. The speed of the two ships was so nearly
+matched, that, for the first hour or two, it was impossible to say whether
+we had gained on her an inch. We were both running dead before the wind,
+and this was not the _Alabama's_ most favorable sailing-point. With her
+tall lower masts, and large fore-and-aft sails, she was better on a wind,
+or with the wind abeam. The chase was leading us away from our
+cruising-ground, and I should have abandoned it, if I had not had my pride
+of ship a little interested. It would never do for the _Alabama_ to be
+beaten in the beginning of her cruise, and that, too, by a merchantman;
+and so we threw out all our "light kites" to the wind, and gave her the
+studding-sails "alow and aloft." To make a long story short, we chased
+this ship nearly all night, and only came up with her a little before
+dawn; and when we did come up with her, she proved to be a Dane! She was
+the bark _Overman_, from Bankok, in Siam, bound to Hamburg. There had been
+no occasion, whatever, for this neutral ship to flee, and the long chase
+which she had given me was evidently the result of a little spleen; and
+so, to revenge myself in a good-natured way, I insisted upon all my
+belligerent rights. Though satisfied from her reply to my hail, that she
+was what she proclaimed herself to be, I compelled her to heave to, which
+involved the necessity of taking in all that beautiful white canvas, with
+which she had decoyed me so many miles away from my cruising-ground, and
+sent a boat on board of her to examine her papers. She thus lost more time
+than if she had shortened sail earlier in the chase, to permit me to come
+up with her.
+
+It was late next day before I rejoined the _Weathergauge_ off Corvo, and I
+felt, as I was retracing my steps, pretty much as Music or Rover may be
+supposed to feel, as he is limping back to his kennel, after a run in
+pursuit of a fox that has escaped him. Bartelli failed to call me at the
+usual hour, that morning, and I need not say that I made a late breakfast.
+We now landed the crew of the _Weathergauge_, in their own boats, with the
+usual store of provisions, and traps, and burned her. Two days elapsed now
+without a capture, during which we overhauled but one ship, a Portuguese
+bark homeward bound. Having beaten the "cover" of which Flores was the
+centre, pretty effectually, I now stretched away to the north-west, and
+ran the island out of sight, intending to skirt it, at the distance of
+forty or fifty miles. On the third day, the welcome cry of "sail ho!"
+again rang from the masthead, and making sail in the direction indicated
+by the look-out, we soon discovered that the chase was a whaler. Resorting
+to the usual _ruse_ of the enemy's flag, the stranger did not attempt to
+escape, and in an hour or two more, we were alongside of the American
+whaling brig _Altamaha_, from New Bedford, five months out. The _Altamaha_
+had had but little success, and was comparatively empty. She did not make
+so beautiful a bonfire, therefore, as the other whalers had done.
+
+In the afternoon, we overhauled a Spanish ship. Our position, to-day, was
+latitude 40� 34' N., and longitude 35� 24' 15" W. The barometer stood at
+30.3 inches, and the thermometer at 75�; from which the reader will see
+that the weather was fine and pleasant. It was now the middle of
+September, however, and a change might be looked for at any moment. On the
+night after capturing the _Altamaha_, we had another night-chase, with
+more success, however, than the last. It was my habit, when there was no
+"game up," to turn in early, usually at nine o'clock, to enable my
+_physique_ to withstand the frequent drafts upon its energies. I was
+already in a sound sleep, when about half-past eleven, an old
+quartermaster came below, and giving my cot a gentle shake, said: "There
+has a large ship just passed to windward of us, on the opposite tack,
+sir." I sprang out of bed at once, and throwing on a few clothes, was on
+deck almost as soon as the quartermaster. I immediately wore ship, and
+gave chase. My ship was under topsails, and it took us some little time to
+make sail. By this time the chase was from two and a half to three miles
+distant, but quite visible to the naked eye, in the bright moonlight. We
+were both close-hauled on the starboard tack, the chase about three points
+on the weather bow. The stranger, who was probably keeping a better
+look-out than is usual with merchant-ships, in consequence of the war, had
+discovered our movement, and knew he was pursued, as we could see him
+setting his royals and flying jib, which had been furled. The _Alabama_
+was now at her best point of sailing. The sailors used to say, when we
+drew aft the sheets of those immense trysails of hers, and got the
+fore-tack close aboard, that she was putting on her seven-league boots.
+She did, indeed, then seem
+
+  "To walk the waters like a thing of life,"
+
+and there were few sailing ships that could run away from her.
+
+We gained from the start upon the chase, and in a couple of hours, were on
+his weather-quarter, having both head-reached, and gone to windward of
+him. He was now no more than about a mile distant, and I fired the
+accustomed blank cartridge to heave him to. The sound of the gun broke
+upon the stillness of the night, with startling effect, but the chase did
+not stir tack or sheet in obedience to it. She was evidently resolved to
+try conclusions with me a little farther. Finding that I had the advantage
+of him, on a wind, he kept off a little, and eased his sheets, and we
+could see, with our night-glasses, that he was rigging out his
+studding-sail booms preparatory to setting the sails upon them. We kept
+off in turn, bringing the wind a little forward of the beam, and such good
+use did the _Alabama_ make of her seven-league boots, that before the
+stranger could get even his foretopmast studding-sail set, we had him
+within good point-blank range of a 32-pounder. The moon was shining very
+poetically, and the chase was very pretty, but it was rather "after
+hours," and so I resolved to shift the scenes, cut short the drama an act
+or two, and bring it to a close. I now fired a second gun, though still
+unshotted, and the smoke had hardly blown away before we could see the
+stranger hauling up his courses, and bringing his ship to the wind, as
+much as to say, "I see you have the heels of me, and there is no use in
+trying any longer." I gave the boarding-officer orders, in case the ship
+should prove to be a prize, of which I had but little doubt, to show me a
+light as soon as he should get on board of her. The oars of his boat had
+scarcely ceased to resound, before I saw the welcome light ascending to
+the stranger's peak, and knew that another of the enemy's ships had fallen
+into my power. It was now nearly daylight, and I went below and finished
+the nap which had been so unceremoniously broken in upon. I may as well
+observe here, that I scarcely ever disturbed the regular repose of the
+officers and crew during these night operations. Everything was done by
+the watch on deck, and "all hands" were never called except on
+emergencies.
+
+When I came on deck the next morning, there was a fine large ship lying
+under my lee, awaiting my orders. She proved to be the _Benjamin Tucker_,
+of New Bedford, eight months out, with three hundred and forty barrels of
+oil. We received from her an additional supply of tobacco, and other small
+stores. As early as ten o'clock, the crew of the _Tucker_, numbering
+thirty persons, were on board the _Alabama_, and the ship was on fire. The
+remainder of this day, and the next, passed without incident, except the
+incidents of wind, and weather, which have so often been recorded. We
+improved the leisure, by exercising the men at the guns, and caulking the
+decks, which were again beginning to let water enough through them, to
+inconvenience the men in their hammocks below. Just as the sun was
+setting, on the evening of the second day, we caught a glimpse from the
+mast-head of the island of Flores, distant about forty miles.
+
+The next morning dawned bright and clear, with a smooth sea, and summer
+clouds sailing lazily overhead, giving us just breeze enough to save us
+from the _ennui_ of a calm. As soon as the morning mists lifted themselves
+from the surface of the waters, a schooner appeared in sight, at no great
+distance. We had approached each other unwittingly during the night. We
+immediately gave chase, hoisting the United States colors, for the
+schooner was evidently Yankee. She did not attempt to escape, and when, as
+early as half-past seven A. M., we came near enough to fire a gun, and
+change colors, she hove to, and surrendered. She was the whaling-schooner
+_Courser_, of Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her master was a gallant young
+fellow, and a fine specimen of a seaman, and if I could have separated
+him, in any way, from the "Universal Yankee Nation," I should have been
+pleased to spare his pretty little craft from the flames; but the thing
+was impossible. There were too many white-cravatted, long-haired fellows,
+bawling from the New-England pulpits, and too many house-burners and
+pilferers inundating our Southern land, to permit me to be generous, and
+so I steeled my heart, as I had done on a former occasion, and executed
+the laws of war.
+
+Having now the crews of the three last ships captured, on board, amounting
+to about seventy, who were not only beginning, on account of their number,
+and the limited accommodations of the _Alabama_, to be uncomfortable
+themselves, but were inconveniencing my own people, and hindering more or
+less the routine of the ship, I resolved to run back to Flores, and land
+them. I had eight whale-boats in tow, which I had brought away from the
+burning ships, for the purpose of landing these prisoners, and, no doubt,
+the islanders, as they saw my well-known ship returning, with such a
+string of boats, congratulated themselves upon the prospect of other good
+bargains with the Yankees. The traffic must now have been considerable in
+this little island; such was the avalanche of boats, harpoons, cordage,
+whales' teeth, whalebones, beef, pork, tobacco, soap, and jack-knives that
+I had thrown on shore. When we had reached sufficiently near, I shoved all
+the boats off at once, laden with my seventy prisoners, and there was
+quite a regatta under the lee of Flores that afternoon, the boats of each
+ship striving to beat the others to the shore. The fellows seemed to be so
+well pleased, that I believe, with a little coaxing, they would have been
+willing to give three cheers for the _Alabama_.
+
+We had some sport ourselves, after the prisoners had departed; for we
+converted the _Courser_ into a target, before setting fire to her, and
+gave the crew a little practice at her, with the battery. They did pretty
+well for green hands, but nothing to boast of. They were now becoming
+somewhat familiar with the gun exercise, and in the evolutions that are
+usually taught sailors at general quarters. Not only my excellent first
+lieutenant, but all the officers of the divisions, took great pains with
+them, and their progress was quite satisfactory.
+
+We again stood away to the northward and westward, under easy sail, during
+the night, and the next day, the weather being still fine, and the breeze
+moderate from the south-west, in latitude about 40�, and longitude 33�, we
+chased a large ship which tried her heels with us--to no purpose,
+however--as we overhauled her in about three hours and a half. It was
+another American whaling ship, the _Virginia_, only twenty days out, from
+New Bedford. She brought us another batch of late newspapers, and being
+fitted out, like the _Alert_, for a long cruise, we got on board some more
+supplies from her. The master of this ship expressed great surprise at the
+speed of the _Alabama_, under sail. His own ship, he said, was fast, but
+he had stood "no chance" with the _Alabama_. It was like a rabbit
+attempting to run away from a greyhound. We burned the _Virginia_, when we
+had gotten our supplies on board, and despoiled her of such cordage, and
+spare sails as we needed, and stood away to the north-west again. The
+torch having been applied to her rather late in the afternoon, the burning
+wreck was still visible some time after nightfall.
+
+The next morning the weather had changed considerably. It was cloudy, and
+rather angry-looking, and the wind was fresh and increasing. We overhauled
+a French brig, during the day, and after detaining her no longer than was
+necessary to examine her papers, permitted her to depart. We had barely
+turned away from the Frenchman, when a bark was announced from the
+mast-head. We immediately gave chase. We had to wear ship for this
+purpose, and the bark, which seemed to have descried us, quite as soon as
+we had descried her, observing the evolution, made all sail at once, in
+flight. Here was another chase, and under different circumstances from any
+of those that had preceded it. It was blowing half a gale of wind, and it
+remained to be proved whether the _Alabama_ was as much to be dreaded in
+rough weather as in smooth. Many smooth-water sailers lose their quality
+of speed entirely, when the seas begin to buffet them. I had the wind of
+the chase, and was thus enabled to run down upon her, with a flowing
+sheet. I held on to my topgallant sails, though the masts buckled, and
+bent as though the sticks would go over the side. The chase did the same.
+It was soon quite evident that my gallant little ship was entirely at home
+in the roughest weather. She seemed, like a trained racer, to enjoy the
+sport, and though she would tremble, now and then, as she leaped from sea
+to sea, it was the tremor of excitement, not of weakness. We gained so
+rapidly upon the chase, that in three hours from the time the race
+commenced, we had her within the range of our guns. By way of a change, I
+had chased this ship under English colors, but she obstinately refused to
+show any colors herself, until she was compelled, by the loud-mouthed
+command of a gun. She then ran up that "flaunting lie," the "old flag,"
+and clewed up her topgallant sails, and hauled up her courses, and
+submitted to her fate, with such resignation as she might.
+
+I now not only took in my topgallant sails, and hauled up my courses, but
+furled the latter, and took a single reef in my topsails, so fresh was the
+wind blowing. Indeed it was so rough, that I hesitated a moment about
+launching my boats; but there was evidently a gale brewing, and if I did
+not take possession of my prize, she would in all probability escape
+during the darkness and tempest of the ensuing night. I had a set of
+gallant, and skilful young officers around me, who would dare anything I
+told them to dare, and some capital seamen, and with the assistance I
+could give them, by manoeuvring the ship, I thought the thing could be
+managed; and so I ordered two of the best boats to be launched, and
+manned. We were lying to, to windward of the prize, and the boats had
+nothing to do, of course, but to pull before the wind and sea to reach
+her. I directed the boarding-officers to bring off nothing whatever, from
+the prize, in the way of property, except her chronometer, and her flag,
+and told them when they should have gotten the prisoners on board and were
+ready to return, that I would run down to leeward of the prize to receive
+them. They would thus, still, only have to pull before the wind, and the
+sea, to regain their ship. The prize was to be fired just before leaving
+her. This was all accomplished successfully; but the reader may well
+conceive my anxiety, as I watched those frail, tempest-tossed boats, as
+they were returning to me, with their human freight; now thrown high on
+the top of some angry wave, that dashed its foam and spray over them, as
+though it would swamp them, for daring thus to beard it, and now settling
+entirely out of sight in the trough of the sea. When they pulled under the
+lee of the _Alabama_, and we threw them a rope, I was greatly relieved.
+This was the only ship I ever burned, before examining her papers. But as
+she was a whaler, and so could have no neutral cargo on board, the risk to
+be run was not very great. She proved to be the _Elisha Dunbar_ of New
+Bedford, twenty-four days out.
+
+This burning ship was a beautiful spectacle, the scene being wild and
+picturesque beyond description. The black clouds were mustering their
+forces in fearful array. Already the entire heavens had been overcast. The
+thunder began to roll, and crash, and the lightning to leap from cloud to
+cloud in a thousand eccentric lines. The sea was in a tumult of rage; the
+winds howled, and floods of rain descended. Amid this turmoil of the
+elements, the _Dunbar_, all in flames, and with disordered gear and
+unfurled canvas, lay rolling and tossing upon the sea. Now an ignited sail
+would fly away from a yard, and scud off before the gale; and now the yard
+itself, released from the control of its braces, would swing about wildly,
+as in the madness of despair, and then drop into the sea. Finally the
+masts went by the board, and then the hull rocked to and fro for a while,
+until it was filled with water, and the fire nearly quenched, when it
+settled to the bottom of the great deep, a victim to the passions of man,
+and the fury of the elements.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE YANKEE COLONY IN THE ISLAND OF FLORES--WHAT THE CAPTAINS OF THE
+VIRGINIA AND ELISHA DUNBAR SAID OF THE ALABAMA, WHEN THEY GOT BACK TO THE
+LAND OF THE "SAINTS"--THE WHALING SEASON AT THE AZORES AT AN END--THE
+ALABAMA CHANGES HER CRUISING GROUND--WHAT SHE SAW AND DID.
+
+
+The reader has seen how rapidly we had been peopling the little island of
+Flores. I had thrown ashore there, nearly as many Yankee sailors as there
+were original inhabitants. I should now have gone back with the crews of
+two more ships, but for the bad weather. Jack, suddenly released from the
+labors and confinement of his ship, must have run riot in this verdant
+little paradise, where the law was too weak to restrain him. With his
+swagger, devil-may-care air, and propensity for fun and frolic, when he
+has a drop in his eye, the simple inhabitants must have been a good deal
+puzzled to fix the _genus_ of the bird that had so suddenly dropped down
+upon them. The history of my colony would, no doubt, be highly
+interesting; and I trust that some future traveller will disinter it from
+the archives of the island, for the benefit of mankind. The police reports
+would be of especial interest. In due time the Federal Consul at Fayal
+chartered a vessel, and removed the colony back to the New England States.
+
+The gale which was described in the last chapter, did not prove to be very
+violent, though it blew sufficiently fresh to reduce the _Alabama_ to
+close-reefed topsails, with the bonnets off her trysails. It was but the
+forerunner of a series of gales, occurring about the period of the
+equinox. The bad weather had the effect to put an end to the whaling
+season, a little in advance of the regular time. From the 19th to the 23d
+of September, we were constantly under reefed sails, and the wind being
+from the northward, we drifted as far south as the 34th degree of
+latitude. We were now in a comparatively unfrequented part of the ocean,
+and had not seen a sail since the capture of the _Elisha Dunbar_. During
+the prevalence of this bad weather, our prisoners necessarily suffered
+some inconvenience, and were obliged to submit to some discomforts. I need
+not say that these were greatly magnified by the Northern press. The
+masters of the captured ships took this mode of revenging themselves upon
+me. The captains of the last two ships captured, made long complaints
+against the _Alabama_, when they got back to New England, and I will here
+give them the benefit of their own stories, that the reader may see what
+they amount to. It is the master of the _Virginia_ who speaks first--a
+Captain Tilton. He says:--
+
+     "I went on the quarter-deck, with my son, when they ordered me into
+     the lee waist, with my crew, and all of us were put in irons, with
+     the exception of the two boys, and the cook and steward. I asked if I
+     was to be put in irons? The reply of Captain Semmes was, that his
+     purser had been put in irons, and had his head shaved by us, and that
+     he meant to retaliate. We were put in the lee waist, with an old sail
+     over us, and a few planks to lie upon. The steamer was cruising to
+     the west, and the next day, they took the _Elisha Dunbar_, her crew
+     receiving the same treatment as ourselves. The steamer's guns being
+     kept run out, the side ports could not be shut, and when the sea was
+     a little rough, or the vessel rolled, the water was continually
+     coming in on both sides, and washing across the deck where we were,
+     so that our feet and clothing were wet all the time, either from the
+     water below, or the rain above. We were obliged to sleep in the place
+     where we were, and often waked up in the night nearly under water.
+     Our fare consisted of beef and pork, rice, beans, tea, and coffee,
+     and bread. Only one of my irons was allowed to be taken off at a
+     time, and we had to wash in salt water. We kept on deck all the time,
+     night and day, and a guard was placed over us."
+
+The above statement is substantially correct, with the exception that the
+prisoners were not drenched with sea-water, or with the rain, all the
+time, as is pretended. It is quite true that they were compelled to live,
+and sleep on deck. We had nowhere else to put them. My berth-deck was
+filled with my own crew, and it was not possible to berth prisoners
+there, without turning my own men out of their hammocks. To remedy this
+difficulty, we spread a tent, made of spare sails, and which was quite
+tight, in the lee waist, and laid gratings upon the deck, to keep the men
+and their bedding as dry as possible. Ordinarily they were very
+comfortable, but sometimes, during the prevalence of gales, they were, no
+doubt, a little disturbed in their slumbers by the water, as Captain
+Tilton says. But I discharged them all in good physical condition, and
+this is the best evidence I could give, that they were well cared for. It
+was certainly a hardship that Captain Tilton should have nothing better to
+eat than my own crew, and should be obliged, like them, to wash in salt
+water, but he was waited upon by his own cook and steward, and the reader
+can see from his own bill of fare, that he was in no danger of starving.
+He was, as he says, ordered off the quarter-deck. That is a place sacred
+to the officers of the ship, where even their own crew are not permitted
+to come, except on duty, and much less a prisoner. He explains, himself,
+as I had previously explained to the reader, how he came to be put in
+irons. The "good book" says that we must have "an eye for an eye, and a
+tooth for a tooth." The enemy had put one of my officers in irons, and I
+had followed the rule of the "good book." Now let us hear from Captain
+Gifford, of the _Dunbar_. This witness says:--
+
+     "On the morning of the 18th of September, in latitude 39� 50',
+     longitude 35� 20', with the wind from the south-west, and the bark
+     heading south-east, saw a steamer on our port-quarter, standing to
+     the north-west. Soon after, found she had altered her course, and was
+     steering for the bark. We soon made all sail to get out of her reach,
+     and were going ten knots at the time; but the steamer, gaining on us,
+     under canvas alone, soon came up with us, and fired a gun under our
+     stern, with the St. George's cross flying at the time. Our colors
+     were set, when she displayed the Confederate flag. Being near us, we
+     hove to, and a boat, with armed officers and crew, came alongside,
+     and upon coming on board, stated to me that my vessel was a prize to
+     the Confederate steamer _Alabama_, Captain Semmes. I was then ordered
+     on board the steamer with my papers, and the crew to follow me with a
+     bag of clothing each. On getting on board, the captain claimed me as
+     a prize, and said that my vessel would be burned. Not having any
+     clothes with me, he allowed me to return for a small trunk of
+     clothes;--the officer on board asked me what I was coming back for,
+     and tried to prevent me from coming on board. I told him I came after
+     a few clothes, which I took, and returned to the steamer. It blowing
+     very hard at the time, and very squally, nothing but the chronometer,
+     sextant, charts, &c., were taken, when the vessel was set fire to,
+     and burnt; there were sixty-five barrels of sperm oil on deck, taken
+     on the passage, which were consumed. We were all put in irons, and
+     received the same treatment that Captain Tilton's officers and crew
+     did, who had been taken the day before. While on board, we understood
+     that the steamer would cruise off the Grand Banks, for a few weeks,
+     to destroy the large American ships, to and from the Channel ports.
+     They had knowledge of two ships being loaded with arms for the United
+     States, and were in hopes to capture them. They were particularly
+     anxious to fall in with the clipper-ship _Dreadnought_, and destroy
+     her, as she was celebrated for speed; and they were confident of
+     their ability to capture, or run away from any vessel in the United
+     States. The steamer being in the track of outward and homeward-bound
+     vessels, and more or less being in sight, every day, she will make
+     great havoc among them."
+
+Captain Gifford does not seem to have anything to complain of, in
+particular, except that the sailors had to put their clothes in bags, and
+that his trunk was "small;" but both he and his sailors got their
+clothing, which was more than some of our women and children, in the
+South, did, when the gallant Sherman, and the gallant Wilson, and the
+gallant Stoneman, and a host of other gallant fellows, were making their
+"grand marches," and "raids" in the South, merely for the love of "grand
+moral ideas." The terrible drenchings, that Captain Tilton got, did not
+seem to have made the same impression upon Captain Gifford.
+
+Few of the masters, whose ships I burned, ever told the whole truth, when
+they got back among their countrymen. Some of them forgot, entirely, to
+mention how they had implored me to save their ships from destruction,
+professing to be the best of _Democrats_, and deprecating the war which
+their countrymen were making upon us! How they had come to sea, bringing
+their New England cousins with them, to get rid of the draft, and how
+abhorrent to them the sainted Abraham was. "Why, Captain," they would say,
+"it is hard that I should have my ship burned; I have voted the
+_Democratic_ ticket all my life; I was a _Breckinridge_ man in the last
+Presidential contest; and as for the 'nigger,' if we except a few ancient
+spinsters, who pet the darkey, on the same principle that they pet a
+lap-dog, having nothing else to pet, and a few of our deacons and
+'church-members,' who have never been out of New England--all of whom are
+honest people enough in their way--and some cunning political rascals, who
+expect to rise into fame and fortune on the negro's back, we, New England
+people, care nothing about him." "That may be all very true," I would
+reply; "but, unfortunately, the 'political rascals,' of whom you speak,
+have been strong enough to get up this war, and you are in the same boat
+with the 'political rascals,' whatever may be your individual opinions.
+Every whale you strike will put money into the Federal treasury, and
+strengthen the hands of your people to carry on the war. I am afraid I
+must burn your ship." "But, Captain, can't we arrange the matter in some
+way? I will give you a ransom-bond, which my owners and myself will regard
+as a debt of honor." (By the way, I have some of these debts of honor in
+my possession, now, which I will sell cheap.) And so they would continue
+to remonstrate with me, until I cut short the conversation, by ordering
+the torch applied to their ships. They would then revenge themselves in
+the manner I have mentioned; and historians of the Boynton class would
+record their testimony as truth, and thus Yankee history would be made.
+
+The whaling season at the Azores being at an end, as remarked, I resolved
+to change my cruising-ground, and stretch over to the Banks of
+Newfoundland, and the coast of the United States, in quest (as some of my
+young officers, who had served in the China seas, playfully remarked) of
+the great American junk-fleet. In China, the expression "junk-fleet"
+means, more particularly, the grain-ships, that swarm all the seas and
+rivers in that populous empire, in the autumn, carrying their rich cargoes
+of grain to market. It was now the beginning of October. There was no
+cotton crop available, with which to freight the ships of our loving
+Northern brethren, and conduct their exchanges. They were forced to rely
+upon the grain crop of the great Northwest; the "political rascals" having
+been cunning enough to wheedle these natural allies of ours into this New
+England war. They needed gold abroad, with which to pay for arms, and
+military supplies of various kinds, shiploads of which were, every day,
+passing into New York and Boston, in violation of those English neutrality
+laws, which, as we have seen, Mr. Seward and Mr. Adams had been so
+persistently contending should be enforced against ourselves. Western New
+York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Iowa had gathered
+in the rich harvests from their teeming grain-fields; and it was this
+grain, laden in Yankee ships, which it was my object now to strike at.
+
+The change from one cruising-ground to another, during which no vessels
+were sighted, afforded my crew a much-needed relaxation of a few days, for
+they had been much fagged and worn during the last month, by a succession
+of captures. That which had been but a pleasurable excitement, in the
+beginning, soon became a wearing and exhausting labor, and they were glad
+to be relieved, for a time, from the chasing and burning of ships, hard
+service in boats during all kinds of weather, and the wet jackets and
+sleepless nights, which had sometimes been the consequences of these. I
+will avail myself of this comparative calm, in the moral atmosphere on
+board the _Alabama_, to introduce the reader, more particularly, to our
+interior life. Thus far, he has only seen the ship of war, in her outward
+garb, engaged in her vocation. I propose to give him a sight of my
+military family, and show him how my children played as well as worked;
+how I governed them, and with what toys I amused them.
+
+From the very beginning of our captures, an order had been issued, that no
+sailor should lay his hand on any article of property, to appropriate it
+to his own use, unless by permission of an officer; and especially that no
+spirituous liquors should be brought on board the _Alabama_. It was made
+the duty of every boarding-officer, upon getting on board a prize, to
+demand possession of the keys of the liquor-lockers, and either to cause
+the liquor to be destroyed, or thrown overboard. To the rigid enforcement
+of this rule, I attribute much of the good order which prevailed on board
+my ship. It was enforced against the officers, as well the men, and no
+officer's mess was allowed to supply itself with liquor, by purchase, or
+otherwise, unless by my consent; and I never gave this consent to the
+midshipmen's mess. We burned, on one occasion, a ship, whose entire cargo
+consisted of French brandies, and champagne, and other wines, without
+allowing a bottle of it to be brought on board. But whilst I used these
+precautions, I caused a regular allowance of "grog" to be served out to
+the crew, twice in each day. I was quite willing that Jack should drink,
+but I undertook to be the judge of how much he should drink.
+
+Such articles of clothing and supplies as were captured, were turned over
+to the paymaster, to be credited to the Government, and duly issued and
+charged to the crew, as if they had been purchased in the market. In spite
+of all these precautions, however, a sailor would now and then be brought
+on board from a prize, drunk, would manage to smuggle liquor to his
+comrades, and would be found arrayed in all sorts of strange garbs, from
+whaler's boots, and red flannel shirts and comforters, to long-tailed
+coats and beaver hats. Notwithstanding the discipline of the ship, the
+gravity of the crew would sometimes give way to merriment, as one of these
+fellows, thus ludicrously apparelled, would have to be hoisted or lifted
+on board, being too comfortably drunk to attend to his own locomotion.
+Each offender knew that he would have to walk straight into the "Brig,"
+upon being thus detected in the violation of these orders, and that
+punishment would speedily follow the offence; and yet I found it one of
+the most difficult parts of my duty, to convince some of these
+free-and-easy fellows, who had mistaken the _Alabama_, when they signed
+the articles off Terceira, (after that stump speech before referred to,)
+for what Mr. Seward and Mr. Adams insisted she was, a "privateer," that
+everything was captured in the name of the Confederate States, and that
+nothing belonged to them personally. The California-bound ships frequently
+had on board boxes and bales of fine clothing, boots, shoes, and hats, but
+not a garment was allowed to be brought on board except such as the
+paymaster might need for issue. It seemed hard to consign all these
+tempting articles to the flames, without permitting the sailors to help
+themselves, but if such license had been permitted, disorder and
+demoralization would have been the consequence.
+
+I had no chaplain on board, but Sunday was always kept as a day of
+abstinence from labor, when the exigencies of war and weather would
+permit, and it was my uniform practice on this day, to have the ship
+thoroughly cleansed, in every part, for inspection--particularly the
+sleeping apartments, and the engine-room--and to require the officers and
+seamen to appear on the quarter-deck for muster; the former in their
+appropriate uniforms, and the latter in clean duck frocks and trousers, or
+other clothing adapted to the latitude and climate. The reader has already
+been present at several of these musters. The boys of the ship, of whom I
+had quite a number on board, were placed under the special charge of the
+master-at-arms--a subordinate officer, with police-powers, in charge of
+the berth-deck--whose duty it was to inspect them, in every morning watch,
+with reference to personal cleanliness; turning down the collars, and
+rolling up the trousers of the youngsters, to see that they had duly
+performed their ablutions. These boys had been taken from the stews, and
+haunts of vice about Liverpool, and were as great a set of scamps as any
+disciplinarian could desire to "lick into shape," but it is astonishing
+what a reformation soap and water and the master-at-arms effected in them,
+in a short time. Many of them became very respectable young fellows, for
+which they were indebted almost entirely to the free use of soap and
+water.
+
+As a hygienic precaution, when we were cruising in warm latitudes, where
+the dews were heavy, the whole crew was required to appear, every evening,
+at sunset muster, in blue flannel shirts and trousers. They could then
+sleep in the dews, without the fear of colds or rheumatisms. We were
+always supplied with the best of provisions, for, being at war with a
+provision-producing people, almost every ship we captured afforded us a
+greater or less supply; and all the water that was drank on board the
+_Alabama_ was condensed by the engine from the vapor of sea-water. The
+consequence of all this care was highly gratifying to me, as, in the three
+years I was afloat, I did not lose a man by disease, in either of my
+ships! When it is recollected that I cruised in all parts of the world,
+now fencing out the cold, and battling with the storms of the North
+Atlantic and South Indian Oceans, and now being fried, and baked, and
+stewed within the tropics, and on the equator, and that, besides my own
+crews, some two thousand of the enemy's sailors passed through my hands,
+first and last, as prisoners, this is a remarkable statement to be able to
+make. My excellent surgeon, Dr. Galt, and, after him, Dr. Llewellyn, ably
+seconded me by their skill and experience.
+
+On week days we mustered the crew at their quarters twice a day--at nine
+A. M., and at sunset, and when the weather was suitable, one division, or
+about one fourth of the crew, was exercised, either at the battery, or
+with small arms. This not only gave them efficiency in the use of their
+weapons, but kept them employed--the constant employment of my men being a
+fundamental article of my philosophy. I found the old adage, that
+"Idleness is the parent of vice," as true upon the sea as upon the land.
+My crew were never so happy as when they had plenty to do, and but little
+to think about. Indeed, as to the thinking, I allowed them to do very
+little of that. Whenever I found I had a sea-lawyer among them, I got rid
+of him as soon as possible--giving him a chance to desert. I reserved the
+_quids_, and _quos_, and _pros_ and _cons_, exclusively for myself.
+
+But though I took good care to see that my men had plenty of employment,
+it was not all work with them. They had their pastimes and pleasures, as
+well as labors. After the duties of the day were over, they would
+generally assemble on the forecastle, and, with violin, and
+tambourine--and I always kept them supplied with these and other musical
+instruments--they would extemporize a ball-room, by moving the shot-racks,
+coils of rope, and other impediments, out of the way, and, with
+handkerchiefs tied around the waists of some of them, to indicate who were
+to be the ladies of the party, they would get up a dance with all due form
+and ceremony; the ladies, in particular, endeavoring to imitate all the
+airs and graces of the sex--the only drawback being a little hoarseness of
+the voice, and now and then the use of an expletive, which would escape
+them when something went wrong in the dance, and they forgot they had the
+aprons on. The favorite dancing-tunes were those of Wapping and Wide Water
+Street, and when I speak of the airs and graces, I must be understood to
+mean those rather demonstrative airs and graces, of which Poll and Peggy
+would be likely to be mistresses of. On these occasions, the discipline of
+the ship was wont to be purposely relaxed, and roars of laughter, and
+other evidences of the rapid flight of the jocund hours, at other times
+entirely inadmissible, would come resounding aft on the quarter-deck.
+
+Sometimes the recreation of the dance would be varied, and songs and
+story-telling would be the amusements of the evening. The sea is a wide
+net, which catches all kinds of fish, and in a man-of-war's crew a great
+many odd characters are always to be found. Broken-down gentlemen, who
+have spent all the money they have been able to raise, upon their own
+credit, or that of their friends; defaulting clerks and cashiers; actors
+who have been playing to empty houses; third-class musicians and poets,
+are all not unfrequently found in the same ship's company. These gentlemen
+play a very unimportant _role_ in seamanship, but they take a high rank
+among the crew, when fun and frolic, and not seamanship, are the order of
+the day--or rather night. In the _Alabama_, we had a capital Falstaff,
+though Jack's capacious pouch was not often with "fat capon lined;" and as
+for "sherry-sack," if he now and then got a good glass of "red-eye"
+instead, he was quite content. We had several Hals, who had defied their
+harsh old papas, and given them the slip, to keep Falstaff company; and as
+for _raconteurs_, we had them by the score. Some of these latter were
+equal to the Italian _lazzaroni_, and could extemporize yarns by the hour;
+and there is nothing of which a sailor is half so fond as a yarn.
+
+It was my custom, on these occasions, to go forward on the bridge--a light
+structure spanning the deck, near amidships--which, in the twilight hours,
+was a sort of lounging-place for the officers, and smoke my single cigar,
+and listen to whatever might be going on, almost as much amused as the
+sailors themselves. So rigid is the discipline of a ship of war, that the
+captain is necessarily much isolated from his officers. He messes alone,
+walks the quarter-deck alone, and rarely, during the hours of duty,
+exchanges, even with his first lieutenant, or officer of the deck, other
+conversation than such as relates to the ship, or the service she is upon.
+I felt exceedingly the irksomeness of my position, and was always glad of
+an opportunity to escape from it. On the "bridge," I could lay aside the
+"captain," gather my young officers around me, and indulge in some of the
+pleasures of social intercourse; taking care to tighten the reins, gently,
+again, the next morning. When song was the order of the evening, after the
+more ambitious of the _amateurs_ had delivered themselves of their _solos_
+and _cantatas_, the entertainment generally wound up with _Dixie_, when
+the whole ship would be in an uproar of enthusiasm, sometimes as many as a
+hundred voices joining in the chorus; the unenthusiastic Englishman, the
+stolid Dutchman, the mercurial Frenchman, the grave Spaniard, and even the
+serious Malayan, all joining in the inspiring refrain,--
+
+  "_We'll live and die in Dixie!_"
+
+and astonishing old Neptune by the fervor and novelty of their music.
+
+Eight o'clock was the hour at which the night-watches were set, when, of
+course, all merriment came to an end. When the officer of the deck
+reported this hour to the captain, and was told by the latter, to "make it
+so," he put the trumpet to his mouth, and sang out in a loud voice,
+"Strike the bell eight--call the watch!" In an instant, the most profound
+silence fell upon the late uproarious scene. The witches did not disappear
+more magically, in that famous revel of Tam O'Shanter, when Tam sang out,
+"Weel dune, Cutty Sark!" than the sailors dispersed at this ominous voice
+of authority. The violinist was arrested with half-drawn bow; the
+_raconteur_ suddenly ceased his yarn in the most interesting part of his
+story, and even the inspiring chorus of "Dixie" died a premature death,
+upon the lips of the singers. The shrill call of the boatswain's whistle,
+followed by his hoarse voice, calling "All the starboard watch!" or "All
+the port watch!" as the case might be, would now be heard, and pretty
+soon, the watch, which was off duty, would "tumble" below to their
+hammocks, and the midshipman would be seen coming forward from the
+quarter-deck, with lantern and watch-bill in hand, to muster the watch
+whose turn it was to be on deck. The most profound stillness now reigned
+on board during the remainder of the night, only broken by the necessary
+orders and movements, in making or taking in sail, or it may be, by the
+whistling of the gale, and the surging of the sea, or the cry of the
+look-outs at their posts, every half hour.
+
+To return now to our cruise. We are passing, the reader will recollect,
+from the Azores to the Banks of Newfoundland. On the 1st of October, the
+following record is found upon my journal: "The gale moderated during the
+last night, but the weather, to-day, has been thick and rainy, with the
+wind from the north-west, and a confused, rough sea. No observation for
+latitude. The barometer, which had gone down to 29.8 is rising, and stands
+at nine P. M. at 29.9. The ship being about two hundred miles only, from
+the Banks of Newfoundland, we are trying the temperature of the air and
+water every hour. At nine P. M. we found the temperature of the former to
+be 63�, and of the latter 70�, indicating that we have passed into the
+Gulf Stream." The thick, rainy weather is almost as unerring a sign of the
+presence of this stream as the thermometer.
+
+The stream into which we have now passed is, literally, an immense
+salt-water river in the sea. Coming out of the Gulf of Mexico, it has
+brought the temperature of the tropics, all the way to the Banks of
+Newfoundland, in the latitude of 50� north, and it has run this distance
+between banks, or walls of cold water, on either side, parting with very
+little of its warmth, by the way. When it is recollected that this
+salt-water river in the sea is about three thousand times larger than the
+Mississippi River, that is to say, that it brings out of the Gulf of
+Mexico, three thousand times as much water, as that river empties into it,
+and that all this great body of water is carried up into the hyperborean
+regions of Newfoundland, at a temperature, even in mid-winter, ranging
+from 73 to 78 degrees, it will be seen at once what a powerful
+weather-breeder it must be. Accordingly, no port of the world is more
+stormy than the Gulf Stream, off the north-eastern coast of the United
+States, and the Banks of Newfoundland. Such is the quantity of heat
+brought daily by this stream, and placed in juxtaposition with the rigors
+of a Northern winter, that it is estimated, that if it were suddenly
+stricken from it, it would be sufficient to make the column of
+superincumbent atmosphere hotter than melted iron! With such an element of
+atmospheric disturbance, it is not wonderful that the most terrific gales,
+that rage on the ocean, are wont to sweep over the surface of this stream.
+
+Indeed, this stream not only generates hurricanes of its own, it seems to
+attract to it such as are engendered in the most distant parts of our
+hemisphere; for hurricanes known to have originated near Cape St. Roque,
+in Brazil, have made their way straight for the Gulf Stream, and followed
+it, in its course, for a thousand miles and more, spreading shipwreck and
+disaster, broadcast, in their track. The violence of these gales is
+inconceivable by those who have not witnessed them. The great hurricane of
+1780 originated to the eastward of the island of Barbadoes, and made
+straight for the Gulf Stream. As it passed over the West India Islands,
+trees were uprooted, and the bark literally blown from them. The very
+bottom and depths of the sea, in the vicinity of some of the islands, were
+uncovered, and rocks torn up, and new channels formed. The waves rose to
+such a height, that forts, and castles, removed, as it was thought, far
+out of the reach of the water, were washed away, and the storm, taking
+hold of their heavy artillery, played with it, as with so many straws,
+throwing it to considerable distances. Houses were razed, and ships
+wrecked, and the bodies of men and beasts were lifted up into the air and
+dashed to pieces in the storm. Still, the European-bound ships defy all
+the bad weather, so prevalent in this stream, on account of the easterly
+current which accelerates their passage, at the rate of from two, to three
+miles, per hour. The stream, therefore, has been literally bearded by
+commerce, and has become one of its principal highways. It is because it
+is a highway of commerce that the _Alabama_ now finds herself in it. Nor
+was she long in it, before the travellers on the highway began to come
+along.
+
+Early on the morning of the 3d of October, two sail were simultaneously
+reported by the look-out at the mast-head--one right ahead, and the other
+on the lee-bow. As both the ships were standing in our direction, there
+was no necessity for a chase. We had nothing to do but await their
+approach. As their hulls were lifted above the horizon, we could see that
+they were fine, large ships, with a profusion of tapering spars and white
+canvas. We at once pronounced them American; and so, after a little, they
+proved to be. They were, in fact, the _avant courriers_ of the "junk
+fleet," for which we had come to look. The wind was light, and they came
+on, with all their sails set, from truck to rail. We, on our part, put on
+an air of perfect indifference. We made no change in our sail, and it was
+not necessary to alter our course, as the strangers would pass
+sufficiently near us, unless they altered their own courses, which they
+did not seem inclined to do. They apparently had no suspicion of our real
+character. We did not hoist any colors, until the vessels were nearly
+abreast of us, and only a few hundred yards distant, when, suddenly
+wheeling, we fired a gun, and hoisted the Confederate flag. The capture of
+these two ships must have been a perfect surprise to them, judging by the
+confusion that was visible on board. There was a running about the decks,
+and an evident indecision for a few moments, as to what was best to be
+done; but it did not take the masters long to take an intelligent view of
+the "situation." There was nothing to be done, but surrender; and this
+they did, by hoisting their colors, and heaving to their ships.
+
+We now shortened sail, and laying the maintopsail to the mast, lowered a
+couple of quarter boats, and boarded the prizes. One of them proved to be
+the _Brilliant_, from New York, for London, laden with flour and grain;
+and the other, the _Emily Farnum_, from New York, for Liverpool, with a
+similar cargo. The cargo of the _Farnum_ being properly documented as
+neutral property, I released her on ransom-bond, and converting her into a
+cartel, sent on board of her all my prisoners, of whom I had fifty or
+sixty on board the _Alabama_, besides those just captured in the
+_Brilliant_. The latter ship was burned, and her destruction must have
+disappointed a good many holders of bills of exchange, drawn against her
+cargo, as this was large and valuable. The owners of the ship have since
+put in a claim, in that little bill, which Mr. Seward has pressed with so
+little effect hitherto against the British Government, for indemnity for
+the "depredations of the _Alabama_," for the ship alone, and the
+freight-moneys which they lost by her destruction, to the amount of
+$93,000. The cargo was probably even more valuable than the ship.
+
+I made a positive stipulation with the _Farnum_, upon releasing her, that
+she should continue her voyage to Liverpool, and not put back into any
+American port; the master pledging me his word that he would comply with
+it. My object was, of course, to prevent him from giving news of me to the
+enemy. He had no sooner passed out of sight, however, steering his course
+for Liverpool, than he dodged and put into Boston, and reported me. This
+being nothing more than a clever "Yankee trick," of course there was no
+harm done the master's honor.
+
+I was much moved by the entreaties of the master of the _Brilliant_ to
+spare his ship. He was a hard-working seaman, who owned a one third
+interest in her. He had built her, and was attached to her, and she
+represented all his worldly goods. But I was forced again to steel my
+heart. He was, like the other masters who had remonstrated with me, in the
+same boat with the "political rascals," who had egged on the war; and I
+told him he must look to those rascals for redress. The ship made a
+brilliant bonfire, lighting up the Gulf Stream, for many miles around.
+Having been set on fire near night, and the wind falling to nearly a calm,
+we remained in sight of the burning wreck nearly all night.
+
+Among the many slanders against me, to which the Northern press gave
+currency during the war, it was stated, that I decoyed ships into my
+power, by setting fire to my prizes at night, and remaining by them in
+ambuscade. Of course, when seamen discover a ship on fire at sea they
+rush, with all their manly sympathies aroused, to the rescue of their
+comrades, who are supposed to be in danger; but if they should find, it
+was said, that they were waylaid, and captured, none would go to the
+rescue in future, and thus many seamen would perish. It can scarcely be
+necessary for me to say, that I never purposely lay by a burning ship, by
+night, or by day, longer than _to see her well on fire_. The substantial
+answer to the slander is, that I never captured a ship, under the
+circumstances stated.
+
+For the next few days we had fine, clear weather, and chased and
+overhauled a number of neutral ships, most of them out of New York, and
+bound for Europe, laden with grain. The English, French, Prussian,
+Hamburg, Oldenham, and other flags were fast monopolizing the enemy's
+carrying trade, and enjoying a rich harvest. These were not the sort of
+"junks" that we were in quest of, but they compensated us, somewhat, for
+the time and labor lost in chasing and boarding them, by supplying us with
+late newspapers of the enemy, and giving us valuable information
+concerning the progress of the war.
+
+On the afternoon of the 7th of October, the weather being fine, and the
+breeze light, we chased and captured the American bark, _Wave Crest_, from
+New York, bound for Cardiff, in Wales, with flour and grain. In the
+language of the enemy, we "plundered her," that is, we received on board
+from her, such articles as we needed, and after having made use of her for
+a while, as a target, at which to practise the men at the battery, we
+burned her.
+
+Filing away, we again made sail to the north-west. We were now, in about
+latitude 41�, and longitude 54�, and were working our way, under easy
+sail, toward the coasts of the United States. Just before nightfall, on
+the same afternoon, another sail was cried from aloft, and we made all
+sail in pursuit, immediately, anxious to draw sufficiently near the chase
+before dark, to prevent losing sight of her. By this time, the wind, which
+had been very light all day, had freshened to a stiff breeze, and the
+chase, soon perceiving our object, spread a cloud of canvas, with
+studding-sails "alow and aloft," in the effort to escape. She had seen the
+fire of the burning _Wave Crest_, and knew full well the doom that awaited
+her, if she were overtaken. As night threw her mantle over the scene, the
+moon, nearly at the full, rose with unusual splendor and lighted up the
+sea for the chase; and a beautiful, picturesque chase it was. Although it
+lasted several hours, our anxiety as to the result was relieved, in a very
+short time, for we could see, from the first, that we gained upon the
+fleeing ship, although her master practised every stratagem known to the
+skilful seaman. As soon as we approached sufficiently near to get a good
+view of her through our excellent night-glasses, which, in the bright
+moonlight, brought out all her features almost as distinctly as if we had
+been viewing them by the rays of the sun, we discovered that she was one
+of those light, and graceful hermaphrodite brigs, that is, a rig between
+the brig and the schooner, so peculiarly American. Her sails were
+beautifully cut, well hoisted, and the clews well spread; her masts were
+long and tapering, and her yards more square than usual. There was just
+sea enough on, to give her, now and then, a gentle motion, as she rose
+upon a wave, and scudded forward with renewed impulse. Her sails looked
+not unlike so many silver wings, in the weird moonlight, and with a little
+effort of the imagination, it would not have been difficult to think of
+her as some immense water-fowl, which had been scared from its roost and
+flown seaward for safety.
+
+I sat astride of the hammock-cloth on the weather-quarter, and watched the
+beautiful apparition during the whole chase, only taking off my eye, now
+and then, to give some order to the officer of the deck, or to cast it
+admiringly upon the buckling and bending masts and spars of my own
+beautiful ship, as she sped forward, with all the animation of a living
+thing, in pursuit. The poor little, affrighted fawn ahead of us, how its
+heart must have gone pit-a-pat, as it cast its timid eyes behind it, and
+saw its terrible pursuer looming up larger, and larger, and coming nearer
+and nearer! Still there might be some hope. The pursuing vessel might be
+some peaceful merchant-ship, bound on the same errand of commerce with
+herself, and only trying heels with her, in sport, over these dancing
+waves, and by this bright moonlight. Alas! the hope was short-lived; for
+presently, in the stillness of near midnight, a flash was seen, followed
+by the sound of a booming gun, and there could no longer be any doubt,
+that the pursuer was a ship of war, and most likely a Confederate.
+Halliards and tacks, and sheets were let fly on board the brigantine, and
+as soon as her seamen could gather in the folds of the flapping sails, and
+haul up clew-garnets, her helm was put down, and she rounded gracefully to
+the now whistling wind, with fore-topsail aback. So rapidly had this been
+done, and so close was the _Alabama_ upon the chase, that we had just time
+to sheer clear of her by a little trick of the helm. Our own sail was now
+shortened, and the boarding-officer dispatched on board the prize.
+
+She proved to be the _Dunkirk_, from New York, with a cargo of grain for
+Lisbon. There being no evidence of neutral ownership of the cargo, among
+the papers, she was burned, as soon as her crew could be transferred to
+the _Alabama_. We made two novel captures on board this ship--one was a
+deserter from the _Sumter_, a worthless sailor out of one of the Northern
+States, whom we afterward discharged from the Confederate Naval service,
+in disgrace, instead of hanging him, as we might have done under our
+Articles of War; and the other a number of very neatly put up _tracts_ in
+the Portuguese language; our Northern brethren dealing in a little piety
+as well as trade. These tracts had been issued by that pious corporation,
+the "American Tract Society," of New York, whose fine fat offices are
+filled with sleek, well-fed parsons, of the Boynton stripe, whose business
+it is to prey upon the credulity of kind-hearted American women, and make
+a pretence of converting the heathen! On the cover of these tracts was
+printed the following directions, as to how the doses were to be taken.
+"Portuguese tracts, from the 'American Tract Society,' for distribution
+among Portuguese passengers, and to give, upon the coast, to visitors from
+the shore, &c. When in port, please keep conspicuously on the cabin-table,
+for all comers to read: but be very careful not to take any ashore, as the
+laws do not allow it." A pen had been run through the last injunction, as
+though the propagandists of "grand moral ideas" had become a little bolder
+since the war, and were determined to thrust their piety down the throats
+of the Portuguese, whether they would or not. If there should be any
+attempt now, on the part of poor old Portugal, to seize the unlawful
+distributor of the tracts, a gunboat or two would set the matter right. A
+little farther on, on the same cover, was the following instruction: "As
+may be convenient, please report, (by letter if necessary,) anything of
+interest which may occur, in connection with the distribution; also take
+any orders for Bibles, and forward to John S. Pierson, Marine Agent, New
+York Bible Society, No. 7 Beekman Street."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+CAPRICIOUS WEATHER OF THE GULF STREAM--CAPTURE OF THE PACKET-SHIP
+TONAWANDA, THE MANCHESTER, AND THE LAMPLIGHTER--A CYCLONE.
+
+
+Though the month of October is remarkable for its fine weather, along the
+American coast, yet here in the Gulf Stream, we had a constant succession
+of changes, the wind going regularly around the compass every two or three
+days, and thick, rainy weather predominating. We were now, besides,
+experiencing a south-easterly current of about two knots per hour, and as
+we were bound to the north-west, and frequently had the wind, as well as
+the current ahead, we made but slow progress. On the second day after
+capturing the _Dunkirk_, the familiar cry of "sail ho!" again came ringing
+from the mast-head, and pretty soon a large ship loomed up above the
+horizon. We gave chase, and, just before sunset, came up with a fine
+packet-ship, whose deck, we could see, was crowded with passengers. This
+was a somewhat unusual spectacle--a sailing ship filled with passengers
+for Europe, during the month of October. Since the introduction of the
+steam-packet, but few passengers, except emigrants, take passage in a
+sailing ship, and the current of emigration sets the other way.
+
+Upon being boarded, the ship proved to be the _Tonawanda_, of, and from
+Philadelphia, bound to Liverpool. Some of the passengers were foreigners,
+fleeing from the tyranny, and outrages of person and property, which had
+overtaken them, under the reign of the Puritan, in the "land of the free,
+and the home of the brave," and others were patriotic Puritans themselves
+running away from the "City of Brotherly Love," to escape the draft. We
+captured the _Tonawanda_, and the question immediately presented itself
+what should we do with her? There being no claim, by any neutral, for the
+cargo, both ship and cargo were good prize of war, but unfortunately we
+could not burn the ship, without encumbering ourselves with the
+passengers; and thirty of the sixty of these were women and children! The
+men we might have disposed of, without much inconvenience, but it was not
+possible to convert the _Alabama_ into a nursery, and set the stewards to
+serving pap to the babies. Although I made it a rule never to bond a ship
+if I could burn her, I released the _Tonawanda_ on bond, though there was
+no legal impediment to her being burned. I kept her cruising in company
+with me, however, for a day or two, hoping that I might fall in with some
+other ship of the enemy, that might be less valuable, or might have a
+neutral cargo on board, to which I could transfer the passengers, and thus
+be enabled to burn her. But here, again, her owners were in luck, for the
+finest, and most valuable ships, with cargoes entirely uncovered, would
+persist in crossing my path.
+
+On the second day after the capture of the _Tonawanda_--that ship being
+still in our company, with a prize crew on board--the weather inclining to
+be overcast, and the breeze light--a ship was reported, at early daylight,
+on our weather-quarter. It was another heavy ship of the "junk fleet," and
+as we were lying right across her path, we had nothing to do but await her
+approach. She came along under a cloud of canvas, though, as the wind was
+light, it took her some three or four hours to come up with us. To disarm
+her of suspicion, I hoisted the American colors, and caused my prize to do
+the same. She naturally concluded that the two ships were "visiting,"
+which ships sometimes do at sea, when the wind is light, and there is not
+much time lost by the operation, and came on without so much as shifting
+her helm, or stirring tack or sheet. When she had approached sufficiently
+near, I invited her, too, to visit me; my card of invitation being a blank
+cartridge, and a change of flags. She hove to at once, and, upon being
+boarded, proved to be the ship _Manchester_ from New York, bound to
+Liverpool. I now threw the _Manchester's_ crew, together with the crews of
+the _Wave Crest_, and _Dunkirk_, on board the _Tonawanda_, as being the
+less valuable ship of the two, and permitted the latter to depart; but
+before doing so, I took from on board of her, one of her passengers. This
+was a likely negro lad of about seventeen years of age--a slave until he
+was twenty-one, under the laws of Delaware. This little State, all of
+whose sympathies were with us, had been ridden over, rough-shod, by the
+Vandals north of her, as Maryland afterward was, and was arrayed on the
+side of the enemy. I was obliged, therefore, to treat her as such. The
+slave was on his way to Europe, in company with his master. He came
+necessarily under the laws of war, and I brought him on board the
+_Alabama_, where we were in want of good servants, and sent him to wait on
+the ward-room mess.
+
+The boy was a little alarmed at first, but, when he saw kindly faces
+beaming upon him, and heard from his new masters, and the servants of the
+mess, some words of encouragement, he became reassured, and, in the course
+of a few days, was not only at home, but congratulated himself on the
+exchange he had made. He became, more especially, the servant of Dr. Galt,
+and there at once arose, between the Virginia gentleman and the slave boy,
+that sympathy of master and servant, which our ruder people of the North
+find it so impossible to comprehend. Faithful service, respect, and
+attachment followed protection and kind treatment, and the slave was as
+happy as the day was long. David soon became to Galt what Bartelli was to
+me--indispensable--and the former was really as free as the latter, except
+only in the circumstance that he could not change masters. I caused his
+name to be entered on the books of the ship, as one of the crew, and
+allowed him the pay of his grade. In short, no difference was made between
+him and the white waiters of the mess. His condition was in every respect
+bettered; though, I doubt not, a howl went up over his capture, as soon as
+it became known to the pseudo-philanthropists of the North, who know as
+little about the negro and his nature, as they do about the people of the
+South.
+
+It was pleasant to regard the affection which this boy conceived for Galt,
+and the pride he took in serving him. As he brought the doctor's
+camp-stool for him to the "bridge," placed it in the cosiest corner he
+could find, and ran off to bring him a light for his cigar, his eyes
+would dilate, and his "ivories" shine. Dave served us during the whole
+cruise. He went on shore in all parts of the world, knew that the moment
+he touched the shore he was at liberty to depart, if he pleased, and was
+tampered with by sundry Yankee Consuls, but always came back to us. He
+seemed to have the instinct of deciding between his friends and his
+enemies.
+
+The following correspondence took place between the Liverpool Chamber of
+Commerce, and Earl Russell, the British Foreign Secretary, on the occasion
+of the two last captures:--
+
+     TO THE RT. HON. EARL RUSSELL, ETC., ETC.:--
+
+     MY LORD:--I have been requested by the Council of this Chamber to
+     inform you that they have had brought before them the facts of the
+     destruction at sea, in one case, and of seizure and release under
+     ransom-bond in another case, of British property on board Federal
+     vessels, (the _Manchester_ and the _Tonawanda_,) by an armed cruiser
+     sailing under the Confederate flag, the particulars of which have
+     been already laid before your Lordship. As the question is one of
+     serious importance to the commerce of this country, the Council wish
+     me most respectfully to solicit the favor of your Lordship's
+     acquainting them, for the information of the mercantile community,
+     what, in the opinion of her Majesty's Government, is the position of
+     the owners of such property, in these and other similar cases.
+     Submitting this question with every respect to your Lordship, I have
+     the honor to be, my Lord, your most obedient humble servant,
+
+        THOMAS CHILTON,
+          _President Chamber of Commerce_.
+
+     LIVERPOOL, 8th Nov., 1862.
+
+
+     TO THOMAS CHILTON, ESQ., CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, LIVERPOOL.
+
+     SIR:--I am directed by Earl Russell to acknowledge the receipt of
+     your letter of the 8th inst., calling attention to the recent
+     proceedings of the armed vessel _Alabama_, with regard to British
+     property on board the Federal vessels _Manchester_ and _Tonawanda_,
+     and requesting the opinion of her Majesty's Government with regard to
+     the position of the owners of such property in those and other
+     similar cases which may arise; and I am to request that you will
+     inform the Council of the Chamber of Commerce that the matter is
+     under the consideration of her Majesty's Government.
+
+     I am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
+
+     E. HAMMOND.
+
+     FOREIGN OFFICE, Nov. 7th, 1862.
+
+After the usual period of gestation, Earl Russell informed his
+questioners, that British owners of property, on board of Federal ships,
+alleged to have been wrongfully captured by Confederate cruisers, were in
+the same position as any other neutral owners shipping in enemy's bottoms
+during a war; they must look for redress to the country of the captor. But
+these British owners did what was more sensible--they withdrew, in due
+time, their freights from the enemy's ships; and British and other neutral
+ships soon became the carriers of the American trade. It is claimed in the
+above correspondence, that there was British property destroyed on board
+the _Manchester_. If so, it was the fault of the British owner, in failing
+to document his property properly, for there was no certificate or other
+paper found on board that ship, claiming that any part of the cargo
+belonged to neutrals.
+
+The _Manchester_ brought us a batch of late New York papers, and I was
+much obliged to the editors of the New York "Herald," for valuable
+information. I learned from them where all the enemy's gunboats were, and
+what they were doing; which, of course, enabled me to take better care of
+the _Alabama_, than I should otherwise have been enabled to do. The
+Americans effected many reforms in the art of war during our late
+struggle. Perhaps this was the only war in which the newspapers ever
+explained, beforehand, all the movements of armies, and fleets, to the
+enemy.
+
+The reader will observe, that I received my mails quite regularly, now,
+from the United States. They were sometimes daily, and rarely less
+frequent than tri-weekly. I appointed my excellent clerk, Mr. Breedlove
+Smith, whom I am glad to have this opportunity of introducing to the
+reader, postmaster, and he delivered the mail regularly to the officers
+and crew--that is to say, the newspaper and periodical mail--the letters I
+considered as addressed to myself personally. They might give valuable
+information of the objects and designs of the enemy, and throw some light
+upon the true ownership of cargoes, falsely documented. I therefore took
+the liberty, which the laws of war gave me, of breaking the seals. There
+were some curious developments made in some of these letters, nor were
+they all written on business. Sometimes, as I would break a seal, a
+photograph would tumble out, and the first few lines of the letter would
+inform me of a tender passion that was raging in the heart of the writer.
+These epistles, photographs, and all, were always pitched, with a pshaw!
+into the waste-paper basket, and were soon afterward consigned by Bartelli
+to the sea. So that the fair writers--and some of the writers were fair if
+I might judge by their portraits--may rest satisfied that their secrets
+are safe. My young officers became so accustomed to their morning's
+newspaper, as they sat down to the breakfast-table, that if it was not
+forthcoming, they would wonder "what the d----l _Alabama_ had been about,
+the past night, that she had not gotten hold of a mail?"
+
+For two or three days after capturing the _Manchester_, we fell in with
+nothing but neutral vessels. When the nationality of these was distinctly
+marked, as generally it was, we forbore to chase them. The weather began
+now to give unmistakable signs, of a general disturbance of the
+atmospheric machine. On the 15th of October, we captured our next ship. It
+was blowing half a gale of wind, with a thick atmosphere, and
+rain-squalls. We were lying to, under topsails, when she was reported. As
+in the case of the _Manchester_, we had only to await her approach, for we
+were still in the beaten track of these lone travellers upon the sea. She
+came along quite fast, before the gale, and when within reach, we hove her
+to, with the accustomed gun. She proved, upon being boarded, to be the
+bark _Lamplighter_, of Boston, from New York, for Gibraltar, with a cargo
+of tobacco. There was no attempt to cover the cargo, and when we had
+removed the crew to the _Alabama_, we burned her.
+
+From the frequent mention which has been made of "uncovered cargoes," the
+reader will see how careless the enemy's merchants were, and how little
+they dreamed of disaster. They had not yet heard of the _Alabama_, except
+only that she had escaped from Liverpool, as the "290." They looked upon
+her, yet, as a mere myth, which it was not necessary to take any
+precautions against. But the reader will see how soon their course will
+change, and in what demand British Consular certificates, vouching for the
+neutrality of good American cargoes, will be, in the good city of Gotham,
+toward which, the _Alabama_ is slowly working her way.
+
+We captured the _Lamplighter_ early in the day, and it was well for us she
+came along when she did. If she had delayed her arrival a few hours, we
+should probably not have been able to board her, so much had the gale
+increased, and the sea risen. For the next few days, as the reader will
+speedily see, we had as much as we could do to take care of ourselves,
+without thinking of the enemy, or his ships. We had a fearful gale to
+encounter. As this gale was a cyclone, and the first really severe gale
+that the _Alabama_ had met with, it is worthy of a brief description. We
+begin, in our generation, to have some definite knowledge of the
+atmospheric laws. To our ancestors, of only a generation or two back,
+these laws were almost a sealed book. It is now well ascertained, that all
+the great hurricanes which sweep over the seas, are cyclones; that is,
+circular gales, revolving around an axis, or vortex, at the same time that
+they are travelling in a given direction. These gales all have their
+origin in warm latitudes, or, as has been prettily said, by an officer of
+the Dutch Navy writing on the subject, they "prefer to place their feet in
+warm water." They do not, however, confine themselves to the places of
+their origin, but, passing out of the tropics, sweep over large tracts of
+extra-tropical seas. These circular gales are the great regulators, or
+balance-wheels, as it were, of the atmospheric machine. They arise in
+seasons of atmospheric disturbance, and seem necessary to the restoration
+of the atmospheric equilibrium.
+
+In the East Indian and China seas, the cyclone is called a typhoon. It
+prevails there with even more destructive effect than in the western
+hemisphere. It takes its origin during the change of the monsoons.
+Monsoons are periodical winds, which blow one half of the year from one
+direction--the north-east for example--and then change, and blow the other
+half of the year, from the opposite direction, the south-west. When these
+monsoons are changing, there is great disturbance in the atmospheric
+equilibrium. A battle of the winds, as it were, takes place; the out-going
+wind struggling for existence, and the in-coming wind endeavoring to
+throttle it, and take its place. Calms, whirlwinds, water-spouts, and
+heavy and drenching rains set in; the black, wild-looking clouds,
+sometimes rent and torn, sweeping with their heavy burdens of vapor over
+the very surface of the sea. Now, the out-going, or dying monsoon will
+recede, for days together, its enemy, the in-coming monsoon, greedily
+advancing to occupy the space left vacant. The retreating wind will then
+rally, regain its courage, and drive back, at least for a part of the way,
+the pursuing wind. In this way, the two will alternate for weeks, each
+watching the other as warily, as if they were opposing armies. It is
+during these struggles, when the atmosphere is unhinged, as it were, that
+the typhoon makes its awful appearance. Every reader is familiar with the
+phenomenon of the miniature whirlwind, which he has so often seen sweep
+along a street or road, for a short distance, and then disappear; the want
+of local equilibrium in the atmosphere, which gave rise to it, having been
+restored.
+
+These little whirlwinds generally occur at street-corners, or at
+cross-roads, and are produced by the meeting of two winds. When these
+winds meet, the stronger will bend the weaker, and a whirl will ensue. The
+two winds still coming on, the whirl will be increased, and thus a
+whirlwind is formed, which immediately begins to travel--not at random, of
+course, but in the direction of least pressure. The meeting of two
+currents of water, which form a whirlpool, may be used as another
+illustration. It is just so, that the typhoon is formed. It steps in as a
+great conservator of the peace, to put an end to the atmospherical strife
+which has been going on, and to restore harmony to nature. It is a
+terrible scourge whilst it lasts; the whole heavens seem to be in
+disorder, and that which was only a partial battle between outposts of the
+a�rial armies, has now become a general engagement. The great whirl sweeps
+over a thousand miles or more, and when it has ceased, nature smiles
+again; the old monsoon has given up the ghost, and the new monsoon has
+taken its place. All will be peace now until the next change--the storms
+that will occur in the interval, being more or less local. We have
+monsoons in the western hemisphere, as well as in the eastern, though they
+are much more partial, both in space and duration.
+
+The cyclones which sweep over the North Atlantic are generated, as has
+been remarked, to the eastward of the West India Islands--somewhere
+between them and the coast of Brazil. They occur in August, September, and
+October--sometimes, indeed, as early as the latter part of July. In these
+months, the sun has drawn after him, into the northern hemisphere, the
+south-east trade-winds of the South Atlantic. These trade-winds are now
+struggling with the north-east trade-winds, which prevail in these seas,
+for three fourths of the year, for the mastery. We have, thus, another
+monsoon struggle going on; and the consequence of this struggle is the
+cyclone. The reader may recollect the appearances of the weather, noted by
+me, some chapters back, when we were in these seas, in the _Sumter_, in
+July and August, of 1861; to wit, the calms, light, baffling winds,
+water-spouts, and heavy rains.
+
+If the reader will pay a little attention to the diagram on page 473, it
+will assist him, materially, in comprehending the nature of the storm into
+which the _Alabama_ had now entered. The outer circle represents the
+extent of the storm; the inner circle, the centre or vortex; the arrows
+along the inner edge of the outer circle represent the direction, or
+gyration of the wind, and the dotted line represents the course travelled
+by the storm. The figures marked, 1, 2, and 3, represent the position of
+the _Alabama_, in the different stages of the storm, as it passed over
+her; the arrow-heads on the figures representing the head of the ship.
+
+If the reader, being in the northern hemisphere, will turn his face toward
+the sun, at his rising, and watch his course for a short time, he will
+observe that this course is from left to right. As the course of the
+arrows in the figure is from right to left, the reader observes that the
+gyration of the wind, in the storm, is _against the course of the sun_.
+This is an invariable law in both hemispheres; but, in the southern
+hemisphere, the reader will not fail to remark, that the gyration of the
+wind is in the opposite direction from its gyration in the northern
+hemisphere, for the reason, that, to an observer in the southern
+hemisphere the sun appears to be moving, not from left to right, but from
+right to left. Whilst, therefore, the storm, in the northern hemisphere,
+gyrates from right to left, in the southern hemisphere, it gyrates from
+left to right; both gyrations being _against the course of the sun_.
+
+This is a curious phenomenon, which has, thus far, puzzled all the
+philosophers. It is a double puzzle; first, why the storm should gyrate
+always in the same direction, and secondly, why this gyration should be
+different in the two hemispheres. The law seems to be so subtle, as
+utterly to elude investigation. There is a curious phenomenon, in the
+vegetable world, which seems to obey this law of storms, and which I do
+not recollect ever to have seen alluded to by any writer. It may be well
+known to horticulturists, for aught that I know, but it attracted my
+attention, in my own garden, for the first time, since the war. It is,
+that all creeping vines, and tendrils, when they wind themselves around a
+pole, invariably wind themselves from right to left, or _against the
+course of the sun_! I was first struck with the fact, by watching, from
+day to day, the tender unfolding of the Lima bean--each little creeper, as
+it came forth, feeling, as with the instinct of animal life, for the pole,
+and then _invariably_ bending around it, in the direction mentioned. I
+have a long avenue of these plants, numbering several hundred poles, and
+upon examining them all, I invariably found the same result. I tried the
+experiment with some of these little creepers, of endeavoring to compel
+them to embrace the pole from left to right, or _with the course of the
+sun_, but in vain. In the afternoon I would gather blades of grass, and
+tie some of the tendrils to the poles, in a way to force them to disobey
+the law, but when I went to inspect them, the following morning, I would
+invariably find, that the obedient little plants _had turned back_, and
+taken the accustomed track! What is the subtle influence which produces
+this wonderful result? May it not be the same law which rides on the
+whirlwind, and directs the storm?
+
+The cyclone, of which I am writing, must have travelled a couple of
+thousand miles, before it reached the _Alabama_. Its approach had been
+heralded, as the reader has seen, by several days of bad weather; and, on
+the morning of the gale, which was on the 16th of October, the
+barometer--that faithful sentinel of the seaman--began to settle very
+rapidly. We had been under short sail before, but we now took the close
+reefs in the topsails, which tied them down to about one third of their
+original size, got up, and bent the main storm-staysail, which was made of
+the stoutest No. 1 canvas, and scarcely larger than a pocket-handkerchief,
+swung in the quarter-boats, and passed additional lashings around them;
+and, in short, made all the requisite preparations for the battle with the
+elements which awaited us. If the reader will cast his eye upon the
+diagram, at _Alabama_, No. 1, he will see that the ship has her head to
+the eastward, that her yards are braced up on the starboard tack, and that
+she took the wind, as indicated by the arrows, from S. to S. S. E.
+
+
+[Illustration: Diagram of the Cyclone experienced by the _Alabama_ on the
+16th of October, 1862.]
+
+
+The ship is lying still, and the storm, which the reader sees, by the
+dotted line, is travelling to the north-east, is approaching her. She was
+soon enveloped in its folds; and the winds, running around the circle, in
+that mad career represented by the arrows, howled, and whistled, and
+screeched around her like a thousand demons. She was thrown over, several
+streaks, and the waves began to assault her with sledge-hammer blows, and
+occasionally to leap on board of her, flooding her decks, and compelling
+us to stand knee-deep in water. By this time, we had furled the
+fore-topsail; the fore-staysail had been split into ribbons; and whilst I
+was anxiously debating with myself, whether I should hold on to the
+main-topsail, a little longer, or start its sheets, and let it blow to
+pieces--for it would have been folly to think of sending men aloft in such
+a gale, to furl it--the iron bolt on the weather-quarter, to which the
+standing part of the main-brace was made fast, gave way; away went the
+main-yard, parted at the slings, and, in a trice, the main-topsail was
+whipped into fragments, and tied into a hundred curious knots. We were now
+under nothing but the small storm-staysail, described; the topgallant
+yards had been sent down from aloft, there was very little top-hamper
+exposed to the wind, and yet the ship was pressed over and over, until I
+feared she would be thrown upon her beam-ends, or her masts swept by the
+board. The lee-quarter-boat was wrenched from the davits, and dashed in
+pieces; and, as the sea would strike the ship, forward or aft, she would
+tremble in every fibre, as if she had been a living thing, in fear of
+momentary dissolution.
+
+But she behaved nobly, and I breathed easier after the first half hour of
+the storm. All hands were, of course, on deck, with the hatches battened
+down, and there was but little left for us to do, but to watch the course
+of the storm, and to ease the ship, all it was possible to ease her, with
+the helm. Life-lines had been rove, fore and aft the decks, by my careful
+first lieutenant, to prevent the crew from being washed overboard, and it
+was almost as much as each man could do, to look out for his own personal
+safety.
+
+The storm raged thus violently for two hours, the barometer settling all
+the while, until it reached 28.64. It then fell suddenly calm. Landsmen
+have heard of an "ominous" calm, but this calm seemed to us almost like
+the fiat of death. We knew, at once, that we were in the terrible vortex
+of a cyclone, from which so few mariners have ever escaped to tell the
+tale! Nothing else could account for the suddenness of the calm, coupled
+with the lowness of the barometer. We knew that when the vortex should
+pass, the gale would be renewed, as suddenly as it had ceased, and with
+increased fury, and that the frail little _Alabama_--for indeed she looked
+frail and small, now, amid the giant seas that were rising in a confused
+mass around her, and threatening, every moment, to topple on board of her,
+with an avalanche of water that would bury her a hundred fathoms
+deep--might be dashed in a thousand pieces in an instant. I pulled out my
+watch, and noted the time of the occurrence of the calm, and causing one
+of the cabin-doors to be unclosed, I sent an officer below to look at the
+barometer. He reported the height already mentioned--28.64. If the reader
+will cast his eye upon the diagram again--at figure No. 2--he will see
+where we were at this moment. The _Alabama's_ head now lies to the
+south-east--she having "come up" gradually to the wind, as it hauled--and
+she is in the south-eastern hemisphere of the vortex. The scene was the
+most remarkable I had ever witnessed. The ship, which had been pressed
+over, only a moment before, by the fury of the gale as described, had now
+righted, and the heavy storm staysail, which, notwithstanding its
+diminutive size, had required two stout tackles to confine it to the deck,
+was now, for want of wind to keep it steady, jerking these tackles about
+as though it would snap them in pieces, as the ship rolled to and fro! The
+aspect of the heavens was appalling. The clouds were writhing and
+twisting, like so many huge serpents engaged in combat, and hung so low,
+in the thin air of the vortex, as almost to touch our mast-heads. The
+best description I can give of the sea, is that of a number of huge watery
+cones--for the waves seemed now in the diminished pressure of the
+atmosphere in the vortex to _jut up into the sky_, and assume a conical
+shape--that were dancing an infernal reel, played by some necromancer.
+They were not running in any given direction, there being no longer any
+wind to drive them, but were jostling each other, like drunken men in a
+crowd, and threatening, every moment, to topple, one upon the other.
+
+With watch in hand I noticed the passage of the vortex. It was just thirty
+minutes in passing. The gale had left us, with the wind from the
+south-west; the ship, the moment she emerged from the vortex, took the
+wind from the north-west. We could see it coming upon the waters. The
+disorderly seas were now no longer jostling each other; the infernal reel
+had ended; the cones had lowered their late rebellious heads, as they felt
+the renewed pressure of the atmosphere, and were being driven, like so
+many obedient slaves, before the raging blast. The tops of the waves were
+literally cut off by the force of the wind, and dashed hundreds of yards,
+in blinding spray. The wind now struck us "butt and foremost," throwing
+the ship over in an instant, as before, and threatening to jerk the little
+storm-sail from its bolt-ropes. It was impossible to raise one's head
+above the rail, and difficult to breathe for a few seconds. We could do
+nothing but cower under the weather bulwarks, and hold on to the belaying
+pins, or whatever other objects presented themselves, to prevent being
+dashed to leeward, or swept overboard. The gale raged, now, precisely as
+long as it had done before we entered the vortex--two hours--showing how
+accurately Nature had drawn her circle.
+
+
+[Illustration: The Alabama in a cyclone, in the Gulf Stream, on the 16th
+October, 1862.
+
+KELLY, PIET & CO. PUBLISHERS.----LITH. BY A. HOEN & CO. BALTO.]
+
+
+At the end of this time, the _Alabama_ found herself in position No. 3.
+The reader will observe that she is still on the starboard tack, and that
+from east, she has brought her head around to nearly west. The storm is
+upon the point of passing away from her. I now again sent an officer
+below, to inspect the barometer, and he reported 29.70; the instrument
+having risen a little more than an inch in two hours! This, alone, is
+evidence of the violence of the storm. During the whole course of the
+storm, a good deal of rain had fallen. It is the rain which adds such fury
+to the wind. These storms come to us, as has been said, from the tropics,
+and the winds, by which they are engendered, are highly charged with
+vapor. In the course of taking up this vapor from the sea, the winds take
+up, along with it, a large quantity of latent heat, or heat whose presence
+is not indicated by the thermometer. As the raging cyclone is moving
+onward in its path, the winds begin to part with their burden--it begins
+to rain. The moment the vapor is condensed into rain, the latent heat,
+which was taken up with the vapor, is liberated, and the consequence is,
+the formation of a furnace in the sky, as it were, overhanging the raging
+storm, and travelling along with it. The more rain there falls, the more
+latent heat there escapes; the more latent heat there escapes, the hotter
+the furnace becomes; and the hotter the furnace, the more furiously the
+wind races around the circle, and rushes into the upper air to fill the
+vacuum, and restore the equilibrium.
+
+In four hours and a half, from the commencement of the gale, the _Alabama_
+was left rolling, and tumbling about in the confused sea, which the gale
+had left behind it, with scarcely wind enough to fill the sails, which, by
+this time, we had gotten upon her, to keep her steady. Little more remains
+to be said of the cyclone. If the reader will take a last look at the
+diagram, he will see how it is, that the wind, which appears to him to
+change, has not changed in reality. The wind, from first to the last, is
+travelling around the circle, changing not at all. It is the passage of
+the circle over the ship--or over the observer upon the land--which causes
+it apparently to change. The _Alabama_ lay still during the whole gale,
+not changing her position, perhaps, half a mile. As the circle touched
+her, she took the wind from S. to S. S. E., and when it had passed over
+her, she had the wind at north-west. In the intermediate time, the wind
+had _apparently_ hauled first to one, and then to the other, of all the
+intermediate points of the compass, and yet it had not changed a hair's
+breadth.
+
+The weather did not become fine, for several days after the gale. On the
+following night, it again became thick and cloudy, and the wind blew very
+fresh from the south-west. The sea, though it had somewhat subsided, was
+still very rough, and the night was so dark, that the officer of the deck
+could not see half the length of the ship in any direction. The south-west
+wind was a fair wind from the enemy's ports, to Europe, and we kept a very
+bright look-out, to prevent ourselves from being run over, by some heavy
+ship of commerce, hurrying, with lightning speed, before wind and sea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+THE PHYSIOGNOMY OF SHIPS--CAPTURE OF THE LAFAYETTE--DECREE OF THE
+ADMIRALTY COURT ON BOARD THE ALABAMA IN HER CASE, AND IN THAT OF THE
+LAURETTA--THE CRITICISMS OF THE NEW YORK PRESS--FARTHER PROOF OF THE
+ROTARY NATURE OF THE WIND--THE LAURETTA CAPTURED--THE CRENSHAW
+CAPTURED--THE NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE CRIES ALOUD IN PAIN--CAPTURE OF
+THE BARON DE CASTINE, AND THE LEVI STARBUCK--CAPTURE OF THE T. B.
+WALES--LADY PRISONERS.
+
+
+The day after the gale recorded in the last chapter, we set all hands at
+work repairing damages--the carpenters fishing, and the boatswain and his
+gang refitting the broken main-yard; the gunners putting their battery in
+order, the sailmaker repairing sails, and the old signal-quartermaster
+"breaking out" his signal-lockers, which had been invaded by the
+sea-water, and airing his flags. The latter was enabled, by this time, to
+make quite a display of Yankee flags, from his signal-halliards--the
+_Alabama_ having captured seventeen ships in six weeks. As the Yankee
+ships now began to wear, out of pure patriotism, (though they were out of
+the war, and profitably chasing the honest penny,) the biggest sort of
+"flaunting lies," there were several bagsful of these flags.
+
+We began now to overhaul sails again. From the 16th to the 20th of
+October, we chased and boarded nine, all of which were neutral! We were,
+in fact, in an American sea--the Gulf Stream being the thoroughfare of
+American and West Indian commerce to Europe--and yet the American flag was
+beginning to disappear from it. Such of the Federal ships as could not
+obtain employment from the Government, as transports, or be sold under
+neutral flags, were beginning to rot at the wharves of the once thrifty
+sea-ports of the Great Republic. Our "nautical enterprise" was beginning
+to tell on the enemy, and if we had had the ability to imitate
+Massachusetts, in the war of the first revolution, in the way of putting
+forth armed cruisers, to prey upon the enemy's commerce, the said enemy
+would not have had so much as a rope-yarn upon the sea, in the course of
+twelve months. But at the time of which I am writing, the _Alabama_ and
+the _Florida_ were the only two Confederate ocean cruisers afloat.
+
+On the 21st of October, we observed in latitude 39� 35', and longitude 63�
+26', and on that day, we made our first capture since the gale. We were
+lying to, as usual, when a large ship was descried, in the north-west,
+running in our direction. Though the wind was very fresh, she had her
+royals and fore-topmast studding-sails set, and was, in consequence,
+running before the wind, with great speed. I shook the reefs out of my own
+topsails, and prepared to set the topgallant-sails if it should be
+necessary, and filled away, and moved toward the path of the stranger as
+she approached, with the English colors at my peak. The fine, large ship,
+as she ran down to us, presented a beautiful picture--all the more
+beautiful because we knew her to be Yankee, although she had not yet shown
+her colors.
+
+We had become now very expert in detecting the nationalities of ships. I
+had with me a master's mate--Evans--who had a peculiar talent in this
+respect. He had been a pilot out of Savannah, and had sailed in the
+_Savannah_, privateer, at the beginning of the war. He escaped the harsh
+treatment, and trial for piracy, which, as the reader may recollect, were
+the fate of the prisoners captured in that little vessel, by being absent
+in a prize at the time of her capture. He afterward joined me at
+Liverpool. Whenever I had any doubt about the nationality of a ship, I
+always sent for Mr. Evans, and putting my telescope in his hand, I would
+say to him, "Look at that ship," pointing in the given direction, "and
+tell me to what nation she belongs." A glance of a minute or two was all
+he required. Lowering his glass at the end of this time, he would say to
+me, "She is a Yankee, sir," or, "She is not a Yankee," as the case might
+be; and if she was not a Yankee, he would say, "I think she is English,"
+or French, or Dutch, or whatever other nation to which he supposed her to
+belong. He sometimes failed, of course, in assigning their proper
+nationality to neutrals, but his judgment seemed to amount to an instinct,
+with regard to the question, Yankee, or no Yankee. When he pronounced a
+ship a Yankee, I was always certain of her. I never knew him to fail, in
+this particular, but once, and that can scarcely be said to have been a
+failure. He once mistook a St. John's, New Brunswick-built ship, for an
+enemy; and the ships built in the British Colonies, on the Yankee border,
+are such counterparts of American ships, that it is very difficult to
+distinguish one from the other.
+
+The ship which was now running down for us was, as I have said, a picture,
+with her masts yielding and swaying to a cloud of sail, her tapering poles
+shooting skyward, even above her royals, and her well-turned, _flaring_
+bows--the latter a distinctive feature of New York-built ships. She came
+on, rolling gracefully to the sea, and with the largest kind of a "bone in
+her mouth." She must have suspected something, from our very equivocal
+attitude in such weather, and in such a place; but she made no change in
+her course, and was soon under our guns. A blank cartridge brought her to
+the wind. If the scene was beautiful before, it was still more so now. If
+she had been a ship of war, full of men, and with hands stationed at
+sheets, halliards, and braces, she could not have shortened sail much more
+rapidly, or have rounded more promptly and gracefully to the wind, with
+her main topsail aback. Her cloud of canvas seemed to shrivel and
+disappear, as though it had been a scroll rolled up by an invisible hand.
+It is true, nothing had been furled, and her light sails were all flying
+in the wind, confined to the yards only by their clew-lines, but the ship
+lay as snugly and conveniently for boarding, as I could desire. I
+frequently had occasion, during my cruises, to admire the seamanship of my
+enemies. The Yankee is certainly a remarkable specimen of the _genus
+homo_. He is at once a duck, and a chicken, and takes to the water, or
+the land, with equal facility. Providence has certainly designed him for
+some useful purpose. He is ambitious, restless, scheming, energetic, and
+has no inconvenient moral nature to restrain him from the pursuit of his
+interests, be the path to these never so crooked. In the development of
+material wealth he is unsurpassed, and perhaps this is his mission on this
+new continent of ours. But he is like the beaver, he works from instinct,
+and is so avid of gain, that he has _no time to enjoy the wealth he
+produces_. Some malicious demon seems to be goading him on, in spite of
+himself, to continuous and exhausting exertion, which consigns him to the
+tomb before his time, leaving a "pile" of untouched wealth behind him.
+
+The prize, upon being boarded, proved to be the _Lafayette_, from New
+York, laden with grain, chiefly for Irish ports. We learned from
+newspapers captured on board of her, that news of our capture of the
+_Brilliant_ and _Emily Farnum_ off the Banks of Newfoundland, had reached
+the United States, and, as was to be expected, I found, when I came to
+examine the papers of the _Lafayette_, plenty of certificates to cover her
+cargo. In fact, from this time onward, I rarely got hold of an enemy's
+ship, whose cargo was not certificated all over--oaths for this purpose
+being apparently as cheap, as the much-derided custom-house oaths, that
+every ship-master is expected to take, without the least regard to the
+state of the facts. Upon examination of these certificates, I pronounced
+them fraudulent, and burned the ship.
+
+As the burning of this vessel, with her cargo nicely "covered," as the
+shippers had hoped, with British Consular seals and certificates, seemed
+to warm up the Northern press, and cause it to hurl fresh denunciations of
+"piracy" against me, I will detain the reader, a moment, from the thread
+of my narrative, to look a little into the facts. The reader has already
+been told that I held a regular prize-court on board the _Sumter_. I did
+the same thing on board the _Alabama_, never condemning a ship or cargo,
+when there was any claim of neutral property, without the most careful,
+and thorough examination of her papers, and giving to the testimony the
+best efforts of my judgment. I had every motive not to offend neutrals. We
+were hoping for an early recognition of our independence, by the
+principal powers of the earth, and were covetous of the good-will of them
+all. I had, besides, the most positive instructions from Mr. Mallory, our
+Secretary of the Navy, to pay the utmost attention and respect to neutral
+rights.
+
+Referring to the records of "The Confederate States Admiralty Court, held
+on board the Confederate States steamer _Alabama_, on the High Seas," I
+find the following decree entered, in the case of the _Lafayette_.
+
+     "_In re_ LAFAYETTE.
+
+     "The ship being under the enemy's flag and register, is condemned.
+     With reference to the cargo, there are certificates, prepared in due
+     form, and sworn to before the British Consul, that it was purchased,
+     and shipped, on neutral account. These _ex parte_ statements are
+     precisely such as every unscrupulous merchant would prepare, to
+     deceive his enemy, and save his property from capture. There are two
+     shipping-houses in the case; that of Craig & Nicoll, and that of
+     Montgomery Bros. Messrs. Craig & Nicoll say, that the grain shipped
+     by them, belongs to Messrs. Shaw & Finlay, and to Messrs. Hamilton,
+     Megault & Thompson, all of Belfast, in Ireland, to which port the
+     ship is bound, but the grain is not consigned to them, and they could
+     not demand possession of it, under the bill of lading. It is, on the
+     contrary, consigned _to the order_ of the shippers; thus leaving the
+     possession, and control of the property, in the hands of the
+     shippers. Farther: The shippers, instead of sending this grain to the
+     pretended owners, in a _general_ ship, on freight, consigned to them,
+     they paying freight, as usual, have chartered the whole ship, and
+     stipulated, themselves, for the payment of all the freights. If this
+     property had been, _bona fide_, the property of the parties in
+     Belfast, named in the depositions, it would undoubtedly have gone
+     consigned to them, in a bill of lading, authorizing them to demand
+     possession of it, and the agreement with the ship would have been,
+     that the consignees and owners of the property should pay the
+     freight, upon delivery. But even if this property were purchased, as
+     pretended, by Messrs. Craig & Nicoll, for the parties named, still,
+     their not consigning it to them, and delivering them the proper bill
+     of lading, passing the possession, left the property in the
+     possession, and under the dominion of Craig & Nicoll, and as such
+     liable to capture. See 3 _Phillimore on International Law_, 610, 612,
+     to the effect, that if the goods are going on account of the shipper,
+     _or subject to his order or control_, they are good prize. They
+     cannot even be sold, and transferred to a neutral, _in transitu_.
+     They must abide by their condition, _at the time of the sailing of
+     the ship_.
+
+     "The property attempted to be covered by the Messrs. Montgomery
+     Bros., is shipped by Montgomery Bros., of New York, and consigned to
+     Montgomery Bros., in Belfast. Here the consignment is all right. The
+     possession of the property has legally passed to the Belfast house.
+     But when there are two houses of trade doing business as partners,
+     and one of them resides in the enemy's country, the other house,
+     though resident in a neutral country, becomes also enemy, _quoad_ the
+     trade of the house in the enemy's country, and its share in any
+     property belonging to the joint concern is subject to capture,
+     equally with the share of the house in the enemy's country. To this
+     point, see 3 _Phillimore_, 605. Cargo condemned."
+
+This is the whole case of the _Lafayette_. As this case was coupled, in
+the criticisms in the Yankee papers to which I have alluded, and which the
+reader will see presently, with the case of the _Lauretta_, not yet
+captured, I will anticipate the capture of this ship by a few days, that
+the reader may have the facts also in her case.
+
+     "_In re_ LAURETTA.
+
+     "The ship being under the enemy's colors and register, is condemned.
+     There are two shippers of the cargo, the house of Chamberlain, Phelps
+     & Co., and Mr. H. J. Burden--all the shippers resident, and doing
+     business in the city of New York. Chamberlain, Phelps & Co., ship
+     1424 barrels of flour, and a lot of pipe staves, to be delivered at
+     Gibraltar, _or_ Messina, _to their own order_, and 225 kegs of nails
+     to be delivered at Messina, to Mariano Costarelli. The bill of lading
+     for the flour and staves has the following indorsement, sworn to
+     before a notary: 'State, City, and County of New York: Louis
+     Contencin, being duly sworn, says, that he is clerk with Chamberlain,
+     Phelps & Co., and that part of the merchandise in the within bill of
+     lading is the property of the subjects of the King of Italy.' This
+     certificate is void for uncertainty. It does not separate the
+     property in the bill of lading, and say which of it belongs to the
+     'subjects of the King of Italy,' and which to the enemy. For aught
+     that appears, 'the subjects' alluded to may own no more than a single
+     pipe-staff apiece. Indeed, they can own nothing, as it does not
+     appear _what_ they own. Further: If the property was identified in
+     the certificate, the 'subjects of the King of Italy' are not. No
+     man--for there is none named--could claim the property under this
+     certificate. It is, therefore, void, for this reason. See 3
+     _Phillimore_, 596.
+
+     But the flour and staves are consigned _to the order of the
+     shippers_, and this, alone, would be sufficient to condemn them, even
+     if the articles had been identified, and the proper owners pointed
+     out in the certificate. The _possession of the property at the time
+     of the sailing of the ship, must be divested out of the
+     enemy-shipper_. See 3 _Phillimore_, 610, 612, cited in the case of
+     the _Lafayette_.
+
+     The contingent destination of this property, is another pregnant
+     circumstance. It shows that it was intended _for a market_, and not
+     for any particular neutral owner. It was to be delivered at Gibraltar
+     _or_ Messina, as the shippers might determine, after the sailing of
+     the ship--probably upon advices received by steamer. So much for the
+     claim of Chamberlain, Phelps & Co.
+
+     "The property shipped by H. J. Burden, consists of 998 barrels of
+     flour, and 290 boxes of herring, and is consigned to Charles R.
+     Blandy, Esq., at Funchal, Madeira. The shipper makes the following
+     affidavit before the British Consul, in New York: 'That all and
+     singular, the goods specified in the annexed bill of lading, were
+     shipped by H. J. Burden, in the bark _Lauretta_, for, and on account
+     of, H. J. Burden, subject of her Britannic Majesty.' Mr. Burden may
+     be a very good subject of her Britannic Majesty, but he describes
+     himself as of 42 Beaver Street, New York City, and seems to lose
+     sight of the fact, that his domicile in an enemy's country, for the
+     purposes of trade, makes him, _quoad_ that trade, an enemy. Cargo
+     condemned."
+
+The reader is now in a condition to understand the following criticism,
+from that very elegant sheet, the New York "Commercial Advertiser," and to
+appreciate the justice and courtesy with which I was treated by the press
+of New York, generally.
+
+     "THE ALABAMA.
+
+     "BRITISH AND ITALIAN PROPERTY DESTROYED--PORTUGAL ALSO INVOLVED.
+
+     "_The English Authorities Acting.--Important Facts._--Some
+     important facts have just been developed in relation to the
+     operations of the rebel privateer _Alabama_, and the present and
+     prospective action of the British and other foreign Governments,
+     whose citizens have lost property by the piracies of her commander.
+     The depredations of the vessel involve the rights of no less than
+     three European governments--England, Italy, and Portugal--and are
+     likely to become a subject of special interest to all maritime
+     nations.
+
+     "Already the capture and burning of the ship _Lafayette_, which
+     contained an English cargo, has been the occasion of a correspondence
+     between the British Consul at this port, Mr. Archibald, and
+     Rear-Admiral Milne, commanding the British squadron on the American
+     coast; and it is stated (but we cannot vouch for the truth of the
+     statement) that the Admiral has dispatched three war-vessels in
+     pursuit of the pirate. The Consul has also, we understand,
+     communicated the facts of the case to the British Government and Her
+     Majesty's Minister at Washington. What action will be taken by the
+     British Government, remains to be seen.
+
+     "The _Lafayette_ sailed from this port with a cargo of grain for
+     Belfast, Ireland. The grain was owned _by two English firms of this
+     city_, and the facts were properly certified on the bills of lading
+     under the British national seal. The _Lafayette_ was, however, a
+     Boston vessel, and was commanded by Captain Saunders. The facts of
+     the burning have been published.
+
+     "But another case (that of the bark _Lauretta_) is about to be
+     submitted for the consideration of the British authorities, as well
+     as those of Italy and Portugal. The facts establish a clear case of
+     piracy. The _Lauretta_, which had on board a cargo consisting
+     principally of flour and staves, was burned by Semmes on the 28th of
+     October. She was bound from this port for the island of Madeira and
+     the port of Messina, in Italy. Nearly a thousand barrels of flour and
+     also a large number of staves were shipped by Mr. H. J. Burden, a
+     British subject residing in this city, to a relative in Funchal,
+     Madeira. The bill of lading bore the British seal affixed by the
+     Consul, to whom the shipper was personally known. The other part of
+     the cargo was shipped by Chamberlain, Phelps & Co., to the order of
+     parties in Messina, and this property was also covered by the Italian
+     Consular certificates.
+
+     "The Portuguese Consul at this port also sent a package under seal,
+     to the authorities at Madeira, besides giving a right to enter the
+     port and sending an open bill of lading.
+
+     "Captain Wells' account of the manner in which Semmes disposed of
+     these documents, and which he has verified under oath, is not only
+     interesting, but gives an excellent idea of the piratical intentions
+     of the commander of the _Alabama_.
+
+     "The papers of the bark were, at the command of Semmes, taken by
+     Captain Wells on board the _Alabama_. There was no American cargo,
+     and therefore no American papers, except those of the vessel. These,
+     of course, were not inquired into. Semmes took first the packet which
+     bore the Portuguese seal, and with an air which showed that he did
+     not regard it as of the slightest consequence, ripped it open, and
+     threw it upon the floor, with the remark that 'he did not care a
+     d----n for the Portuguese.' The Italian bill of lading was treated in
+     a similar manner, except that he considered it unworthy even of a
+     remark.
+
+     "Taking up the British bill of lading and looking at the seal, Semmes
+     called upon Captain Wells, with an oath, to explain. It was evidently
+     the only one of the three he thought it worth his while to respect.
+
+     "'Who is this Burden?' he inquired sneeringly. 'Have you ever seen
+     him?'
+
+     "'I am not acquainted with him; but I have seen him once, when he
+     came on board my vessel,' replied Captain Wells.
+
+     "'Is he an Englishman--does he look like an Englishman?'
+
+     "'Yes,' rejoined the captain.
+
+     "'I'll tell you what,' exclaimed the pirate, 'this is a d----d pretty
+     business--it's a d----d Yankee hash, and I'll settle it,'--whereupon
+     he proceeded to rob the vessel of whatever he wanted, including
+     Captain Wells' property to a considerable amount; put the crew in
+     irons; removed them to the _Alabama_; and concluded by burning the
+     vessel.
+
+     "These facts will at once be brought before the British Consul. The
+     preliminary steps have been taken. The facts will also be furnished
+     the Portuguese Consul, who announces his intention of placing them
+     before his Government; and besides whatever action the Italian Consul
+     here may choose to take, the parties in Messina, to whom the property
+     lost on the _Lauretta_ was consigned, will of course do what they can
+     to maintain their own rights. The case is likely to attract more
+     attention than all the previous outrages of the _Alabama_, inasmuch
+     as property rights of the subjects of other nations are involved, and
+     the real character of Semmes and his crew becomes manifest.
+
+     "Some interesting facts are given by Captain Wells in regard to the
+     _Alabama_, to which, however, we can only make a brief allusion. The
+     officers of the privateer are principally Southern men, but the crew
+     are nearly all English and Irish. They claim that they were shipped
+     by stratagem; that they were told the vessel was going to Nassau, and
+     now they are promised shares in captured property--not only the
+     property taken, but that which is burned, of which Semmes says he
+     keeps an accurate account. The bills are to be paid by the
+     'Confederate Government,' which Semmes, who enforces discipline only
+     by terrorism, declares will soon achieve its independence. The men
+     suppose they are gaining fortunes--though some of them protest
+     against the cheat which has been practised upon them."
+
+The above is a fair specimen of the average intelligence of Yankee
+newspapers, on any subject outside of the dirty pool of politics, in which
+they habitually dabble. I was not _quite_ sure when I burned the
+_Lafayette_, that her cargo belonged to the shippers, British merchants
+resident in New York. The shippers swore that it did not belong to them,
+but to other parties resident in Ireland, on whose account they had
+shipped it. I _thought_ they swore falsely, but, as I have said, I was not
+quite certain. The "Advertiser" sets the matter at rest. It says that I
+was right. And it claims, with the most charming simplicity, that I was
+guilty of an act of piracy, in capturing and destroying the property of
+neutral merchants, _domiciled in the enemy's country, and assisting him to
+conduct his trade_! The reader now sees what estimate to put upon all the
+other balderdash of the article. I presume, the only thing Admiral Milne,
+and the British Minister at Washington did, was to wonder at the stupidity
+of the New York "Commercial Advertiser." It is scarcely necessary to say,
+that Captain Wells of the _Lauretta_, took a "custom-house" oath, when he
+swore to the account which the "Advertiser" gives of his interview with
+me, when I burned his ship. It was a business operation with these Yankees
+to abuse me, and they performed it in a _business-like manner_--with oaths
+and affidavits.
+
+Having captured the _Lafayette_ at nightfall, it was as late as ten P. M.
+before we got through with the business of "robbing" her--robbing her, in
+spite of all those nicely contrived certificates, and British consular
+seals--when we set her on fire. In a few hours, she was a mere
+beacon-light, upon the sea, marking, as so many other fine ships had
+marked, the track of the "pirate." Though I have given the reader already
+a pretty large dose of the meteorology of the Gulf Stream, in which we are
+still cruising, I cannot forbear to call his attention to other proofs of
+the rotary character of the winds which prevail along this hot-water river
+in the sea. From the 2d to the 22d of October, a period of twenty days,
+the wind had gone _nine_ times entirely around the compass, with the
+regularity of clock-work. With the exception of the cyclone of the 16th,
+we had had no regular gale of wind; though the wind frequently blew very
+fresh, with the barometer sometimes as low as 29.60. These rotary winds
+were circles of greater or less diameter, obeying the laws of storms, and
+travelling along in the direction of the current, or about north-east.
+There was an interval of only a few hours between them, the barometer
+rising regularly as one circle or whirl departed, and falling as the next
+approached. I was much struck with the exceeding regularity of the
+recurrence of this phenomenon. The received impression is, that it is only
+the great gales, which we call cyclones, or hurricanes, that gyrate. From
+my observations in the Gulf Stream--and I lay in it, continuously, for
+something like a month, changing place, in all this time, but a few
+hundred miles--gyration is the normal condition of the winds in this
+stream--that even the most gentle winds, when undisturbed by local
+causes--the proximity of the land, for instance--are gyrating winds,
+winding around, and around their respective vortices, _against the motion
+of the sun_, as we have seen the tendril of the vine to wind around the
+pole to which it clings.
+
+On the third day after capturing the _Lafayette_, having chased and
+overhauled, in the meantime, a number of neutrals, we descried a large
+schooner, evidently American, bound to the southward, and eastward. We
+gave chase at once, but as the schooner was to windward of us, a
+considerable distance, the chase promised to be long, without the aid of
+steam, and this, for reasons already explained, I was averse to using,
+though we kept, at all times, banked fires in the furnaces, and warm water
+in the boilers. The stranger hugged his wind very closely, this being
+always the best point of sailing with schooners; but this was also the
+best point of sailing with the _Alabama_. The reader has seen, that she
+always put on her seven-league boots, when she had a chance of drawing aft
+the sheets of those immense trysails of hers. We gained perceptibly, but
+the wind was falling light, and it was to be feared night would overtake
+us, before we could bring the chase within reach of our guns. She was
+still good four miles to windward of us, when I resolved to try the effect
+of a solid shot from my rifled pivot, on the forecastle. Elevating the gun
+some ten degrees, we let fly the bolt. It threw up the water in a
+beautiful jet, within less than half a mile of her! It was enough. The
+schooner came to the wind, with the Federal colors at her mast-head, and
+awaited our approach. Upon being boarded, she proved to be the _Crenshaw_,
+three days out from New York, and bound for Glasgow, in Scotland.
+
+The _Crenshaw_ was grain-laden, though rather small for a member of the
+"junk fleet," and there was the usual number of certificates, and British
+consular seals on board of her, vouching, upon good Yankee oaths, that her
+cargo was neutral. It was amusing to see how these merchants clung to the
+British seal, and appealed to the British power, when their grain sacks
+were in danger. But it was all to no purpose. I would have respected
+scrupulously any _bona fide_ neutral ownership of property, but I knew all
+these certificates to be fraudulent. Fraudulent as the transactions were,
+however, some of the shippers might have imposed upon me, if they had only
+known how to prepare their vouchers. But they were such bunglers, that
+they committed the most glaring mistakes. The New York merchant is a
+pretty sharp fellow, in the matter of shaving paper, getting up false
+invoices, and "doing" the custom-house; but the laws of nations, which had
+had little connection, heretofore, with the debit and credit side of his
+ledger, rather muddled his brain. The _Crenshaw's_ certificates were
+precisely like so many others I had, by this time, overhauled. They simply
+stated, that the cargo belonged to "subjects of her Britannic Majesty,"
+without naming them. To quote the certificates literally, they were in
+these terms: "The goods specified, in the annexed bills of lading, were
+shipped on board the schooner _Crenshaw_, for, and on account of subjects
+of her Britannic Majesty, and the said goods are wholly, and _bona fide_,
+the property of British subjects." And when I came to look at the bills of
+lading, I found that the property was consigned _to the order of the
+shippers_. Here was evidently another of those "Yankee hashes," spoken of
+by the New York "Commercial Advertiser;" or, if it was not a Yankee hash,
+it was an English hash, gotten up by some "subjects of her Britannic
+Majesty," who were _resident merchants in the enemy's country_--whose
+property the aforesaid "Advertiser" so innocently thought was not subject
+to capture. For aught that appeared from the certificates, the "subjects"
+were all resident in New York. And so we did the usual amount of
+"plundering" on board the _Crenshaw_, and then consigned her to the
+flames.
+
+From papers captured on board this vessel, we learned that the New York
+Chamber of Commerce--whose leading spirit seemed to be a Mr. Low, one or
+two of whose ships, if I mistake not, I had burned--was in a glow of
+indignation. Its resolutions were exceedingly eloquent. This Chamber of
+Commerce was a sort of debating society, which by no means confined itself
+to mere commerce, as its name would seem to imply, but undertook to
+regulate the affairs of the Yankee nation, generally, and its members had
+consequently become orators. The words "privateer," "pirate," "robbery,"
+and "plunder," and other blood-and-thunder expressions, ran through their
+resolutions in beautiful profusion. These resolutions were sent to Mr.
+Seward, and that renowned statesman sat down, forthwith, and wrote a
+volume of despatches to Mr. Adams, in London, about the naughty things
+that the "British Pirate" was doing in American waters. The _Alabama_,
+said he, was burning everything, right and left, even _British_ property;
+would the Lion stand it?
+
+Another set of resolutions was sent to Mr. Welles, the Federal Secretary
+of the Navy, and that old gentleman put all the telegraph wires in motion,
+leading to the different sea-port towns; and the wires put in motion a
+number of gunboats which were to hurry off to the banks of Newfoundland
+and capture the _Alabama_. Whilst these gunboats were going from New York
+to cruise among the cod-fishermen and icebergs, the _Alabama_ was jogging
+along, under easy sail, toward New York. _We_ kept ourselves, all the
+time, in the track of commerce; what track the gunboats,--some of which
+only mounted a couple of guns, and would have been very shy of falling in
+with the _Alabama_,--took, to look for us, we never knew, as we did not
+see any of them.
+
+On the day after capturing the _Crenshaw_, we observed in latitude 39�
+47', and longitude 68� 06'. Being near the edge of St. George's Bank, off
+the coast of New England, we sounded with eighty-five fathoms of line, but
+got no bottom. Here another gale of wind overtook us; the barometer
+descending as low as 29.33, at the height of the gale. On the next day,
+the 28th of October, the weather being still rough, we captured the bark
+_Lauretta_, of which the veracious Captain Wells was master, and of which
+the reader has already had some account. The _Lauretta_ was skirting St.
+George's Bank, on her way to Madeira and the Mediterranean, and literally
+ran into our arms. We had no other trouble than to heave her to, with a
+gun, as she approached, and send a boat on board, and take possession of
+her; transferring her crew to the _Alabama_, with as much dispatch as
+possible, and "robbing" Captain Wells, as he states--by which he means,
+probably, that we deprived him of his chronometer and nautical
+instruments; for the mere personal effects of a prisoner, as the reader
+has already been informed, were never disturbed. We burned the ship.
+
+On the next day, the weather being thick and rainy, and the _Alabama_
+being about two hundred miles from New York, we chased and captured the
+brig _Baron de Castine_, from Bangor, in Maine, and bound, with a load of
+lumber, to Cardenas, in the island of Cuba. This vessel being old, and of
+little value, I released her on ransom-bond, and sent her into New York,
+with my prisoners, of whom I had now a large number on board. I charged
+the master of this ship, to give my special thanks to Mr. Low, of the New
+York Chamber of Commerce, for the complimentary resolutions he had had
+passed, in regard to the _Alabama_. The more the enemy abused me, the more
+I felt complimented, for it is "the galled jade only that winces." There
+must have been a merry mess in the cabin of the _Baron_ that night, as
+there were the masters and mates of three burned ships. New York was "all
+agog" when the _Baron_ arrived, and there was other racing and chasing
+after the "pirate," as I afterward learned.
+
+The engineer having now reported to me, that we had no more than about
+four days of fuel on board, I resolved to withdraw from the American
+coast, run down into the West Indies, to meet my coal ship, and renew my
+supply. Being uncertain, in the commencement of my career, as to the
+reception I should meet with, in neutral ports, and fearing that I might
+have difficulty in procuring coal in the market, I had arranged, with my
+ever-attentive co-laborer, Captain Bullock, when we parted off Terceira,
+to have a supply-ship sent out to me, from time to time, as I should
+indicate to him the rendezvous. The island of Martinique was to be the
+first rendezvous, and it was thither accordingly that we were now bound.
+This resolution was taken on the 30th of October, and shaping our course,
+and making sail accordingly, we soon crossed the southern edge of the Gulf
+Stream, and were in a comparatively desert track of the ocean. Our sinews
+were once more relaxed, and we had a few days of the _dolce far niente_.
+The weather became fine, as we proceeded southward, and the sailors,
+throwing aside their woollen garments, were arrayed again in their duck
+frocks and trousers. Our mornings were spent in putting the ship in order,
+preparatory to going into port, and in exercising the crew at the battery,
+and the evenings were given up to amusement. Great inroads had been made,
+by the continuous bad weather of the Gulf Stream, on both duty and
+pleasure. Sometimes a week or ten days would elapse, during which it would
+not be possible to cast loose a heavy gun, for exercise; and evening after
+evening passed in drenching rain and storm, when not so much as a note on
+the violin was heard or even a song. The men were, however, cheerful and
+obedient, were as much excited as ever by the chase and the capture, and
+were fast becoming a well-disciplined crew. If there was any of that
+discontent, spoken of by Captain Wells, it was not visible to the eyes of
+the officers. Our numbers had been considerably increased, by recruits
+from the enemy's ships, and we now had men enough to man all our guns,
+which added considerably to our sense of security. The young officers had
+gained much experience in the handling of their ship, and I began in
+consequence to sleep more soundly in my cot, at night, when the weather
+was dark and stormy.
+
+On the 2d of November, when we were scarcely expecting it, we captured
+another of the enemy's ships. She was descried from the mast-head, about
+half-past eight in the morning, and we immediately gave chase. It was
+Sunday, and the muster-hour coming on, we mustered the crew, and read the
+Articles of War in the midst of the chase. We came up with the stranger
+about noon, with the United States colors at our peak, and upon firing a
+gun, the fugitive hoisted the same colors, and hove to. She proved to be
+the _Levi Starbuck_, a whaler, out of New Bedford, and bound on a voyage
+of thirty months, to the Pacific Ocean. Here was another store-ship for
+us, with plenty of provisions, slops, and small stores. Getting on board
+from her such articles as we stood in need of, and removing the crew, we
+burned her about nightfall.
+
+Her New Bedford papers were only four days old, with the latest news from
+the "seat of war." The two armies were watching each other on the Potomac,
+and additional gun-boats had been sent "in pursuit of the _Alabama_." In
+the meantime, the _Alabama_ was approaching another track of commerce,
+across which she intended to run, on her way to Martinique--the track of
+the homeward-bound East India ships of the enemy.
+
+Toward midnight of the 7th of November, we descried a schooner, standing
+to the southward, to which we gave chase. She had heels, as well as the
+_Alabama_, and when day dawned she was still some distance from us, though
+we had gained on her considerably. But fortune came to her rescue, for
+very soon, a large ship, looming up on the horizon like a frigate, came
+in sight, steering to the north-west. She was under all sail, with
+studding-sails, and sky-scrapers set, and Evans, having been sent for,
+pronounced her "Yankee." The small craft was probably Yankee, too, but we
+were like a maiden choosing between lovers--we could not have both--and so
+we took the biggest prize, as maidens often do in a similar conjuncture.
+The large ship was standing in our direction, and we had nothing to do,
+but await her approach. When she came sufficiently near to distinguish our
+colors, we showed her the stars and stripes, which she was apparently very
+glad to see, for she began, of her own accord, to shorten sail, as she
+neared us, evidently with the intention of speaking us, and getting, it
+might be, a welcome newspaper from "home." The stars and stripes were, by
+this time, flying from her own peak. She was terribly astonished, as her
+master afterward confessed, when the jaunty little gun-boat, which he had
+eyed with so much pleasure, believing her to be as good a Yankee as
+himself, fired a gun, and hauling down "hate's polluted rag," hoisted, in
+its stead, the banner of the Southern Republic.
+
+The stranger had not much more to do, in order to surrender himself a
+prisoner. His studding-sails had already been hauled down, and he now
+hauled up his courses, and backed his main-yard. We were once more in
+gentle airs, and a smooth sea; and in a few minutes, the boarding-officer
+was alongside of him. She proved to be as we had expected, an East India
+trader. She was the _T. B. Wales_, of Boston, from Calcutta, for Boston,
+with a cargo consisting chiefly of jute, linseed, and saltpetre. Of the
+latter, she had 1700 bags, sufficient to supply our pious Boston brethren,
+who were fighting for nothing but "grand moral ideas," with a considerable
+quantity of powder. But for the _Wales_ meeting with the _Alabama_, it
+would, probably, have gone into some of the same Yankee mills, which, just
+before the war broke out, had supplied the Confederate States under the
+contracts which, as the reader has seen, I had made with them. The jute,
+which she had on board, was intended as a substitute for cotton, in some
+of the coarser fabrics; the Boston people being somewhat pressed, at the
+period, for the Southern staple.
+
+The captain of the _Wales_, though a Northern man, had very few of the
+ear-marks of the Yankee skipper about him. He was devoid of the raw-bone
+angularity which characterizes most of them, and spoke very good English,
+through his mouth, instead of his nose. His pronunciation and grammar were
+both good--quite an unusual circumstance among his class. He had been five
+months on his voyage, and, of course, had not heard of any such craft as
+the _Alabama_. He had quite a domestic establishment on board his ship,
+as, besides his own wife, who had accompanied him on the voyage, there was
+an ex-United States Consul, with his wife and three small daughters,
+returning with him, as passengers, to the New England States.
+
+There was no attempt to cover the cargo of the _Wales_, and I was glad to
+find, that it was consigned to, and probably owned by, the obnoxious house
+of the Barings, in Boston, whose ship, the _Neapolitan_, I had burned, in
+the Strait of Gibraltar. This British house had rendered itself
+exceedingly active, during the war, in the Federal interest, importing
+large quantities of arms, and otherwise aiding the enemy; and I took
+especial pleasure, therefore, in applying the torch to its property. It
+was one of the New York "Commercial Advertiser's" pets--being a _neutral
+house, domiciled in an enemy's country, for the purposes of trade_. I have
+not heard what Admiral Milne and the British Minister at Washington did,
+when they heard of the burning of the _Wales_, or whether the "Advertiser"
+invoked, anew, the protection of the British lion. A few hours sufficed to
+transfer the crew and passengers of the East-Indiaman to the _Alabama_,
+and to get on board from her, some spars of which we were in want. It was
+found, upon measurement, that her main-yard was almost of the precise
+dimensions of that of the _Alabama_, and as ours had been carried away in
+the cyclone of the 16th of October, and had only been fished for temporary
+use, we got down the yard from the _Wales_, and brought it on board.
+
+We treated the ladies--our first prisoners of the sex--with all due
+consideration, of course; but I was forced to restrict them in the matter
+of baggage and furniture, for the want of room. I permitted them to bring
+on board their entire wardrobes, of course, without permitting it to be
+examined, but was forced to consign to the flames some fancy chairs and
+other articles of East India workmanship, which they seemed to prize very
+highly. I dare say they thought hard of it, at the time, though, I doubt
+not, they have long since forgiven me. Both ladies were gentle. The
+Consul's wife was an Englishwoman, the daughter of a general in the
+British army, serving in the _Mauritius_, where her husband had met and
+married her. She was refined and educated, of course, and her three little
+daughters were very beautiful children. Mr. George H. Fairchild--for such
+was her husband's name--though a New-Englander, was, apparently, an
+unbigoted gentleman, and observed all the gentlemanly proprieties, during
+his stay on board my ship.
+
+When I was arrested, after the war, by the Administration of President
+Johnson, in violation of the contract which the Government had made with
+me, at my surrender, and threatened with a trial, by one of those Military
+Commissions which have disgraced American civilization, on the trumped-up
+charge, among others, of cruelty to prisoners, Mr. Fairchild was kind
+enough to write to me, in prison, and tender himself as a witness in my
+behalf. In the then state of New England feeling, with all the passions,
+and especially those of malignity, and hate, running riot through the
+land, it required moral courage to do this; and I take this opportunity of
+thanking a New England man, for obeying the instincts of a Christian and a
+gentleman.
+
+It took us some time to despoil the _Wales_ of such of her spars and
+rigging as we wanted, and it was near nightfall when we applied the torch
+to her. We had scarcely turned away from the burning prize, when another
+sail was discovered, in the fading twilight, but the darkness soon
+shutting her out from view, it was useless to attempt to chase. The
+_Wales_ was one of the most useful of my captures. She not only served as
+a sort of ship-yard, in enabling me to repair the damages I had suffered
+in the Gulf Stream, but I received eight recruits from her, all of whom
+were fine, able-bodied seamen. My crew now numbered 110 men--120 being my
+full complement. I bestowed the ladies, with their husbands, upon the
+ward-room mess, consigning them to the care of my gallant friend, Kell.
+Some of the lieutenants were turned out of their state-rooms, for their
+accommodation, but being carpet knights, as well as knights of the lance,
+they submitted to the discomfort with becoming grace.
+
+My _m�nage_ began now to assume quite a domestic air. I had previously
+captured another interesting prisoner, who was still on board--not having
+been released on parole. This prisoner was a charming little canary-bird,
+which had been brought on board from a whaler, in its neat gilded cage.
+Bartelli had the wonderful art, too, of supplying me with flowers--brought
+from the shore when this was practicable, and when not practicable, raised
+in his own tiny pots. When I would turn over in my cot, in the morning,
+for another nap, in that dim consciousness which precedes awakening, I
+would listen, in dreamy mood, to the sweet notes of the canary, the
+pattering of the tiny feet of the children and their gleeful voices over
+my head; inhaling, the while, the scent of the geranium, or the jessamine,
+and forget all about war's alarms. "Home, Sweet Home," with all its
+charms, would cluster around my imagination, and as my slumber deepened,
+putting reason to rest, and giving free wing to fancy, I would be clasping
+again the long-absent dear ones to my heart. Bartelli's shake of my cot,
+and his announcement that it was "seven bells"--half-past seven, which was
+my hour for rising--would often be a rude dispeller of such fancies,
+whilst the Fairchilds were on board.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+THE CALM-BELTS, AND THE TRADE-WINDS--THE ARRIVAL OF THE ALABAMA AT THE
+ISLAND OF MARTINIQUE--THE CURIOSITY OF THE ISLANDERS TO SEE THE SHIP--A
+QUASI MUTINY AMONG THE CREW, AND HOW IT WAS QUELLED.
+
+
+We captured the _Wales_, as described in the last chapter, on the 8th of
+November. On the 10th of the same month, we observed in latitude 25�. We
+were approaching the calm-belt of Cancer. There are three of these
+calm-belts on the surface of the earth, and the phenomena which they
+present to the eye of the seaman are very beautiful. A ship coming out of
+New York, for instance, and bound south, will first encounter the
+calm-belt which the _Alabama_ is now approaching--that of Cancer. She will
+lose the wind which has brought her to the "belt," and meet with light
+airs, and calms, accompanied, frequently, by showers of rain. She will
+probably be several days in passing through this region of the "doldrums,"
+as the sailors expressively call it, continually bracing her yards, to
+catch the "cats-paws" that come, now from one, and now from another point
+of the compass; and making no more than twenty, or thirty miles per day.
+As she draws near the southern edge of the belt, she will receive the
+first light breathings of the north-east trade-wind. These will increase,
+as she proceeds farther and farther south, and she will, ere long, find
+herself with bellying canvas, in a settled "trade." She will now run with
+this wind, blowing with wonderful steadiness and regularity, until she
+begins to near the equator. The wind will now die away again, and the ship
+will enter the second of these belts--that of equatorial calms. Wending
+her way slowly and toilsomely through these, as she did through those of
+Cancer, she will emerge next into the south-east trade-wind, which she
+will probably find somewhat stronger than the north-east trade. This wind
+will hurry her forward to the tropic of Capricorn, in the vicinity of
+which she will find her third and last calm-belt.
+
+These three calm-belts enclose, the reader will have observed, two systems
+of trade-winds. To understand something of these winds, and the calms
+which enclose them, a brief reference to the atmospheric machine in which
+we "live, and breathe, and have our being" will be necessary. A
+philosopher of the East has thus glowingly described some of the beauties
+of this machine: "It is," says he, "a spherical shell, which surrounds our
+planet, to a depth which is unknown to us, by reason of its growing
+tenuity, as it is released from the pressure of its own superincumbent
+mass. Its surface cannot be nearer to us than fifty, and can scarcely be
+more remote than five hundred miles. It surrounds us on all sides, yet we
+see it not; it presses on us with a load of fifteen pounds on every square
+inch of surface of our bodies, or from seventy to one hundred tons on us,
+in all, and yet we do not so much as feel its weight. Softer than the
+softest down--more impalpable than the finest gossamer--it leaves the
+cobweb undisturbed, and scarcely stirs the lightest flower that feeds on
+the dew it supplies; yet it bears the fleets of nations on its wings
+around the world, and crushes the most refractory substances with its
+weight. When in motion, its force is sufficient to level the most stately
+forests, and stable buildings with the earth--to raise the waters of the
+ocean into ridges like mountains, and dash the strongest ship to pieces
+like toys.
+
+"It warms and cools, by turns, the earth, and the living creatures that
+inhabit it. It draws up vapors from the sea and land, retains them
+dissolved in itself, or suspended in cisterns of clouds, and throws them
+down again, as rain or dew when they are required. It bends the rays of
+the sun from their path, to give us the twilight of evening, and of dawn;
+it disperses, and refracts their various tints, to beautify the approach
+and the retreat of the orb of day. But for the atmosphere, sunshine would
+burst on us, and fail us at once, and at once remove us from midnight
+darkness to the blaze of noon. We should have no twilight to soften, and
+beautify the landscape; no clouds to shade us from the scorching heat, but
+the bald earth, as it revolved on its axis, would turn its tanned and
+weakened front to the full and unmitigated rays of the lord of day.
+
+"It affords the gas which vivifies, and warms our frames, and receives
+into itself that which has been polluted by use, and thrown off as
+noxious. It feeds the flame of life, exactly as it does that of the fire.
+It is in both cases consumed, and affords the food of consumption,--in
+both cases it becomes combined with charcoal, which requires it for
+combustion, and is removed by it, when this is over."
+
+The first law of nature may be said to be _vis inerti�_, and the
+atmosphere thus beautifully described, following this law, would be
+motionless, if there were not causes, outside of itself, to put it in
+motion. The atmosphere in motion is _wind_, with which the sailor has so
+much to do, and it behooves him to understand, not only the causes which
+produce it, but the laws which control it. "Whence cometh the wind, and
+whither goeth it?" It comes from heat, and as the sun is the father of
+heat, he is the father of the winds. Let us suppose the earth, and
+atmosphere both to be created, but not yet the sun. The atmosphere, being
+of equal temperature throughout the earth, would be in equilibrium. It
+could not move in any direction, and there would not be the slightest
+breeze to fan the brow. Now let us suppose the sun to be called into
+existence, and to begin to dart forth his rays. If he heated the earth,
+and the atmosphere in all parts alike, whilst there would be a swelling of
+the atmosphere into greater bulk, there would still be no motion which we
+could call wind. But the earth being placed in an elliptical orbit, and
+made to revolve around the sun, with its axis inclined to the plane in
+which it revolves, now approaching, and now receding from the sun, and now
+having the sun in one hemisphere, and now in another, the atmosphere is
+not only heated differently, in different parts of the earth, but at
+different seasons of the year; and thus the winds are engendered.
+
+Let us imagine this heating process to be going on for the first time. How
+we should be astonished? The atmosphere having hitherto had no motion, in
+our experience, we should have conceived it as immovable as the hills,
+and would be quite as much astonished to see it putting itself in motion,
+as to see the hills running away from us. But in what direction is the
+atmosphere now moving? Evidently from the north, and south poles toward
+the equator, because we know that the intertropical portions of the earth
+are more heated, than the extratropical portions.
+
+Thus far, we have not given the earth any diurnal motion around its axis.
+Let us give it this motion. It is revolving now from west to east, at the
+rate of fifteen miles in a minute. If the atmosphere had been perfectly
+still when this motion was given to the earth, as we have supposed it to
+have been before the creation of the sun, the consequence would be a
+breeze directly from the east, blowing with different degrees of strength,
+as it was nearer to, or further from the equator. For it is obviously the
+same thing whether the atmosphere stands still, and the earth revolves, or
+whether the earth stands still, and the atmosphere moves. In either case
+we have a wind.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+But the atmosphere was not still, when we gave the diurnal motion to the
+earth. There was already a breeze blowing, as we have seen, from the
+north, and south poles toward the equator. We have thus generated two
+winds--a north wind and an east wind. But these two winds cannot blow in
+the same place at the same time; and the result will be a wind compounded
+of the two. Thus in the northern hemisphere we shall have a north-east
+wind, and in the southern hemisphere we shall have a south east-wind.
+
+These are the two trade-winds, enclosed by the three calm-belts which have
+been described to the reader. The three arrows on the preceding page will
+illustrate the manner in which the north-east trade-wind is formed by the
+north wind and the east wind, which our theory puts in motion.
+
+Why it is that the trade-winds do not extend all the way from the poles to
+the equator, but take their rise in about the thirtieth parallel of
+latitude, north and south, we do not know. The theory would seem to demand
+that they should spring up at the poles, and blow continuously to the
+equator; in which case we should have but two systems of winds covering
+the entire surface of the earth. This non-conformity of the winds of the
+extra-tropical regions to our theory, does not destroy it, however, but
+brings into the meteorological problem other and beautiful features.
+Having put the winds in motion, our next business is to follow them, and
+see what "circuits" they travel. The quantity of atmosphere carried to the
+equator by the north-east and south-east trade-winds, must find its way
+back whence it came, in some mode or other; otherwise, we should soon have
+all the atmosphere drawn away from the poles, and piled up at the equator.
+We can easily conceive this, if we liken the atmosphere to fleeces of
+wool, and suppose an invisible hand to be constantly drawing away the
+fleeces from the poles, and piling them up at the equator. But how to get
+it back is the difficulty. It cannot go back on the surface of the earth,
+within the tropics, for there is a constant surface current here toward
+the equator. There is but one other way, of course, in which it can go
+back, and that is, as an upper current, running counter to the surface
+current. We may assume, indeed, we _must_ assume, that there are two upper
+currents of air, setting out from the equator, and travelling, one of them
+to the 30th degree of north latitude, and the other to the 30th degree of
+south latitude.
+
+What becomes of these two upper currents, when they reach these parallels
+of latitude, is not quite so certain; but there is good reason for
+believing that they now descend, become surface currents, and continue
+their journey on to the poles. It is further supposed that, when they
+reach the poles, they "whirl about" them, ascend, become upper currents
+again, and start back to the 30th parallel; and that, when they have
+returned to this parallel, they descend, become a surface current
+again--in other words, the trade-wind--and proceed to the equator as
+before.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+But there is another, and more beautiful problem still, connected with
+these winds. It is their crossing each other at the equator, of which the
+proofs are so abundant, that there can be but little doubt concerning it.
+And yet the proposition, looked at apart from the proofs, is a very
+startling one. One would think that when the two winds met at the equator,
+there would be a general intermingling, and confounding of particles, and
+that when they ascended to form the upper currents, of which I have
+spoken, the northern particle would be as likely to turn back to the
+north, as to cross the equator and go south. The preceding figure will
+illustrate the crossing. Let A represent the equator, the arrows near the
+surface of the circle the two trade-winds, and the two cross arrows, two
+particles of wind in the act of crossing. The difficulty is to conceive
+how these particles should cross, without mixing with each other, and
+losing their identity; or why they should not turn back, as well as
+continue their course. What law of nature is it, that makes the particles
+of atmosphere which have come from the north pole, so separate and
+distinct from those which have come from the south pole, as to prevent the
+two from fusing, and becoming one? Is it because the two particles, as
+they have gyrated around their respective poles, have received a repulsive
+polarity? Whatever may be the reason, there can be no doubt, as remarked,
+that they do actually cross. One strong proof of their crossing is, that
+we cannot conceive, otherwise, how the great atmospheric machine could
+perform its office of distributing rain over the earth in due proportions.
+The reader will recollect that there is from a fourth, to a third, more
+land than water, in the northern hemisphere, and that there is from a
+fourth to a third more water than land in the southern hemisphere. The
+consequence of this unequal distribution of land and water in the two
+hemispheres is, that the northern hemisphere requires more rain than the
+southern, in the proportion in which it has more land to be rained upon.
+Now it is these mysterious trade-winds, of which we have been speaking,
+that are the water-carriers of the two hemispheres. These winds, on their
+way to the equator, generally reach the 30th parallel as dry winds. These
+dry winds, sweeping over the tropical seas, take up, in the shape of
+vapor, the water with which, in due time, they are to fertilize the fields
+of the farmer, and make the rose blossom. The quantity which they take up
+is in proportion to the sea-surface, or evaporating surface, they have
+respectively passed over. Now, if we will examine the jars of these
+water-carriers, when they reach the equator, we shall find that the
+northern jars are not nearly so full as the southern jars; the reason
+being, that the northern winds have passed over less evaporating surface.
+
+Now, if the two systems of winds, with their jars thus filled, were to
+turn back to their respective hemispheres, and pour down upon them their
+water, in the shape of rain, the consequence would be, as the reader sees,
+that we should have less rain in the northern hemisphere, than they would
+have in the southern hemisphere; whereas, we require more, having more
+land to be watered. The atmospheric machine would thus be at fault. But
+the all-wise and beneficent ruler of the universe, makes nothing faulty.
+We know from the evidence of that silent witness, the rain-gauge, that
+more water falls in the northern hemisphere, than in the southern; in
+other words, that the more heavily laden of those jars which we examined,
+a moment ago, at the equator, have come to us, instead of returning to the
+south; the less heavily laden jars going south. The crossing of the winds
+thus satisfies our theory, and nothing else can; which is, of course, the
+most conclusive of all proofs.
+
+But we have other proofs. For a number of years past, as the East India
+ships would be returning home from their voyages, they would report a
+curious phenomenon to have befallen them, as they passed the parallel of
+the Cape de Verde. This was the falling, or rather silting down upon their
+decks and rigging, of a brick-dust or cinnamon-colored powder. This dust,
+which when rubbed between the thumb and forefinger would be impalpable,
+would sometimes nearly cover the entire deck and rigging. The ships would
+be hundreds of miles away from the land, and where could this dust come
+from? The fact puzzled the philosophers, but having been reported so
+often, it ceased to attract attention. Still it was a fact, and was laid
+away carefully in the archives of philosophy for future use. Years passed
+away, and the great traveller and philosopher, Humboldt, arose to instruct
+and delight mankind. He travelled extensively in South America; and, among
+other places, visited the lower valley of the Orinoco. He happened there
+in the dry season, and gives a graphic account of the wild and weird
+spectacle of desolation which met his eye in that season of universal
+drought.
+
+All annual vegetation lay dead and desiccated on the immense pampas or
+plains. The earth was cracked open, gaping, as it were, for rain. The
+wild cattle were roaming about in herds, bellowing for their accustomed
+food and water; many of them perishing. Even the insect world, so numerous
+and vivacious in all southern climates, had perished. Their tiny little
+organisms lay in heaps, fast disintegrating, and being reduced to powder,
+by the scorching and baking rays of a perpendicular sun, between which and
+the parched earth, not so much as a speck of cloud appeared. The
+philosopher examined a number of these little organisms with his
+microscope. They were peculiar to the region in which he found them, and
+he was struck with the fact. There was another phenomenon which he
+observed. A number of little whirlwinds were playing their pranks about
+the arid waste, sporting, as it were, with dead nature. These little
+whirlwinds, as they travelled hither and thither, would draw up into their
+vortices, and toss high into the upper air, the impalpable dust that lay
+everywhere, and which was composed, in great measure, of the decomposed
+and decomposing organisms of which I have spoken. The atmosphere, at
+times, when filled with this dust, would assume a yellowish, or pale
+straw-colored hue.
+
+The reader probably, by this time, sees my design of connecting the dusty
+remains, described by Humboldt, with the rain dust reported by the
+mariners to have fallen on the decks and rigging of their ships, in the
+neighborhood of the Cape de Verde islands. But the "rain-dust" was of
+brick-dust, or cinnamon color, when collected by the masters of the ships,
+as specimens, and the heavens, when filled with the dust thrown up by the
+whirlwinds, as described by Humboldt, appeared to him to be of a straw
+color. Here is a discrepancy to be reconciled, and we must call in the aid
+of another philosopher, Captain M. F. Maury, late Superintendent of the
+National Observatory, at Washington, before alluded to in these pages, and
+to whom I am indebted for many of the facts here quoted. Captain Maury was
+struck with this discrepancy, and in reconciling it with the theory here
+discussed, makes the following statement: "In the search for spider lines,
+for the diaphragms of my telescopes, I procured the finest, and best
+threads from a cocoon of a mud-red color; but the threads of this cocoon,
+as seen singly in the diaphragm, were of a golden color; there would
+seem, therefore, no difficulty in reconciling the difference between the
+colors of the rain-dust, when viewed in little piles by the microscopist,
+and when seen attenuated and floating in the wind by the regular
+traveller."
+
+There remains but another link in the chain of evidence, to render it
+complete. It remains to be shown how the whirlwind dust, of the valley of
+the lower Orinoco, can be identified with the rain-dust of the Cape de
+Verde. Ehrenberg, a German philosopher, has done this, in our day. Some
+specimens of the rain-dust having been sent him by ship-captains, he
+brought them under his microscope, as Humboldt had done the
+whirlwind-dust, and to his great astonishment, and delight, he found it to
+be the same. These facts correspond entirely with our theory of the
+crossing of the trade-winds at the equator. The reader has been with us
+near the mouth of the Orinoco. This great river disembogues near the
+island of Trinidad, which we visited in the _Sumter_, in about the
+latitude of 9� N. The vernal equinox is the dry season here, and at this
+season, the north-east trade-wind is quite fresh. Running counter to this
+wind, in the upper atmosphere, there is, according to our theory, a strong
+south-west wind blowing. Now, if the reader will inspect a map, he will
+find that a south-west wind, starting from the mouth of the Orinoco, will
+blow over the Cape de Verde islands. The rest is plain. The whirlwind-dust
+is tossed high enough into the upper atmosphere, to be taken in charge by
+the counter south-west wind, is carried to the Cape de Verde, and there
+silted down upon the decks and rigging of the passing ships, as gently as
+so many snow-flakes, becoming the rain-dust which so long puzzled the
+philosophers!
+
+We have reasoned, hitherto, on the supposition, that the three calm-belts,
+one of which the _Alabama_ is now passing, and the two systems of
+trade-winds which they enclose, are stationary within certain limits. But
+this is not so; the whole system of belts and winds is moved north and
+south, as the sun passes now into one hemisphere, and now into another.
+The calm-belt of Cancer is not always in the latitude of 30� N.; nor is
+the calm-belt of the equator always at the equator. The reader will
+recollect that we observed, on board the _Alabama_, on the 10th of
+November, in latitude 25� N., and that we were only just then entering the
+calm-belt of Cancer. The reason is, that the sun, on that day, was in the
+southern hemisphere, well advanced toward his extreme limit in that
+hemisphere, and that he had dragged, as it were, the whole system of belts
+and winds after him. The figures below will make this idea plain. Let the
+broad, dark lines in the circles represent the system of belts and winds,
+all in one; and in circle A let the sun be in the northern hemisphere, and
+in circle B let him be in the southern.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+The reader will see, how the sun, having hitched this system of belts and
+winds to his chariot wheels, as it were, has drawn it after him. The
+distances north and south, to which they have been drawn, are exaggerated
+in the figures, but this is only for the purpose of better illustration.
+The reader will see, from this diagram, how much farther South the
+_Alabama_ will have to run, in November, to catch the north-east
+trade-wind, than she would have had to run in May. We may now return to
+our ship, and our cruise, and when I shall mention the trade-winds and the
+calm-belts, hereafter, the reader will not, I hope, regret the time I have
+consumed in refreshing his memory on so interesting a subject. We spoke
+several English vessels after burning the _Wales_, and a couple of them,
+bound to Demerara, kept company with us through the calm-belt. We sent a
+boat on board one of them, from New York, but she had neither news nor
+newspapers. At length, when we had reached the parallel of about 20�, we
+began to receive the first gentle breathings of the trade-wind. Our light
+sails aloft began first to "belly out," and then a topsail would fill for
+a moment, until the ship rising on the gentle undulations of the sea, and
+falling again, would flap the wind out of it. The zephyr--for, as yet, it
+was nothing more--visibly gained strength, however, from hour to hour, and
+on the 16th of November, I find the following record in my journal:
+"Beautiful, clear weather, with a moderate trade-wind, from about east by
+south, and the well-known fleecy trade-clouds sailing leisurely over our
+heads."
+
+It is Sunday, and muster-day, and the _Alabama_ has once more been put in
+perfect order. She has had a coat of paint, inside and out, her masts have
+been freshly scraped, and her rigging re-rattled, and tarred down. Her
+guns are glistening in the new coat of "composition" which the gunner and
+his mates have put upon them; her engine-room is all aglow with burnished
+brass and steel; her decks are white and sweet, and her awnings are
+spread. The muster is over, the men are lying listlessly about the decks,
+and our lady passengers are comfortably seated on the quarter-deck, with
+several of the young officers around them, and with the children playing
+at their feet. Such was the contrast which the _Alabama_ presented, on
+that quiet Sabbath day, with her former self only a few weeks back, when
+we had been rolling and tumbling in the Gulf Stream, with crippled yards,
+torn sails, and her now bright sides seamed and defaced with iron-rust
+from her corroding chains.
+
+We were soon ready to go into port--our first port since leaving Terceira.
+Men and officers were all desirous of a little relaxation, and were pretty
+soon on the look-out for land. On the next day, at two P. M., we made the
+island of Dominica--the same Dominica that lay so fast asleep in the
+gentle moonlight, on the night that the little _Sumter_ ran so close along
+it, like a startled deer, after her escape from the _Iroquois_. We were
+returning to our old cruising-ground, after an interval of just one year,
+in a finer and faster ship, and we cared very little now about the
+_Iroquois_, and vessels of her class. Having doubled the north-east end
+of Dominica, during the night, at four o'clock, the next morning, we
+lowered the propeller, put the ship under steam, and ran down for the
+island of Martinique. We passed close enough to the harbor of St. Pierre,
+where we had been so long blockaded, to look into it, and see that there
+were no men-of-war of the enemy anchored there, and, continuing our
+course, ran into the anchorage of Fort de France, and dropped our anchor
+at about ten A. M.
+
+Rear-Admiral Cond� was still Governor, and I sent a lieutenant,
+immediately, to call on him, and report our arrival. He received me
+kindly, notwithstanding the little sharp-shooting that had passed between
+us, in the way of official correspondence--and franked the ports of the
+island to me as before. I had long since forgiven him, for the want of
+independence and energy he had displayed, in not preventing the Yankee
+skipper from making signals to the _Iroquois_ on the night of my escape,
+as the said signals, as the reader has seen, had redounded to my benefit,
+instead of Palmer's. In an hour or two, we had landed our prisoners; the
+ladies and their husbands taking a very civil leave of us. In the course
+of the afternoon, our decks were crowded with curious Frenchmen, come off
+to look at the "pirate" ship, of which they had heard so much, through Mr.
+Seward's interesting volumes of "English Composition," called "State
+Papers," and the villification and abuse of the Northern press. They were
+evidently a little puzzled at finding in the _Alabama_ a rather
+stylish-looking ship of war, with polite young officers to receive them,
+at the gangway, and show them round the ship, instead of the disorderly
+privateer, or pirate, they had expected to find. I could see some of these
+gentlemen eying me with curiosity, and with evident disappointment
+depicted in their countenances, as my young officers would point me out to
+them. They had come on board to see a Captain Kidd, or Blue Beard, at the
+least, and had found only a common mortal, in no wise distinguished from
+the officers by whom he was surrounded, except, perhaps, that his gray
+coat was a little more faded, and his moustache a little more the color of
+his coat.
+
+The ship was surrounded with bum-boats, laden with fruits, and other
+supplies for the sailors, and a brisk traffic was going on, alongside, and
+in the port gangway, in pipes, and tobacco, orchata, and orange-water;
+and, as we found as night began to set in, in something a little stronger.
+We had no marine guard on board the _Alabama_, and there was,
+consequently, no sentinel at the gangway in the daytime. We were
+necessarily obliged to rely upon the master-at-arms, and the
+quartermasters, for examining all boats that came alongside, to see that
+no liquor was smuggled into the ship. These petty officers were old
+sailors like the rest, and I have rarely seen a sailor who could be relied
+upon, for any purpose of police, where his brother sailor was concerned.
+
+Whilst I was below, a little after sunset, taking a cup of tea, and
+enjoying some of the delicious fruit which Bartelli had provided for me, I
+heard some confusion of voices, and a tramping of feet on the deck over my
+head, and soon afterward, the first lieutenant came into my cabin to tell
+me, that there was considerable disorder in the ship. I repaired on deck
+immediately, and saw at a glance that the crew was almost in a state of
+mutiny. It was evidently a drunken mutiny, however, and not very alarming.
+An officer had gone forward to quell some disturbance on the forecastle,
+when one of the sailors had thrown a belaying-pin at him, and others had
+abused him, and threatened him with personal violence. Some of the men,
+when directed to assist in seizing and confining their more disorderly
+comrades, had refused; and as I reached the deck, there was a surly, and
+sulky crowd of half-drunken sailors gathered near the foremast, using
+mutinous language, and defying the authorities of the ship. I immediately
+ordered the first lieutenant to "beat to quarters." The drum and fife were
+gotten up, and such was the effect of previous discipline upon the crew,
+that the moment they heard the well-known beat, and the shrill tones of
+the fife, they "fell in," mechanically, at their guns--some of them so
+drunk, that their efforts to appear sober were quite ludicrous.
+
+This was what I had reckoned upon. At quarters, the officers always
+appeared armed, as if they were going into battle. There were very few
+arms about the deck, upon which the sailors could lay their hands--the
+cutlasses and pistols being kept locked up, in the arms-chests. Of course,
+I now had it all my own way--thirty armed officers being more than a
+match for 110 men armed with nothing but sheath-knifes and belaying-pins.
+I began now to quell the mutiny; or rather it was already quelled, and I
+began to bring Jack back to his senses. In company with my first
+lieutenant and aide-de-camp, I passed along the platoons of men as they
+stood at their guns, and stopping wherever I observed a drunken man, I
+ordered his comrades to arrest him. This was immediately done, without
+demur in any instance, and the culprit was ironed. In this way I got as
+many as twenty disorderly fellows. These drunken men, the moment the
+attempt was made to arrest them, began to show fight, and to be abusive in
+their language. They were, however, soon overpowered, and rendered
+harmless. In this way I passed forward and aft, two or three times, eying
+the men as I passed, to be certain that I had gotten hold of all the
+rioters.
+
+When I had done this, I directed the mutineers to be taken to the gangway,
+and calling two or three of the most active of the quartermasters, I made
+them provide themselves with draw-buckets, and commencing with the most
+noisy and drunken of the culprits, I ordered them to dash buckets of water
+over them in quick succession. The punishment was so evidently novel to
+the recipients, that they were at first disposed to deride it. With
+drunken gravity they would laugh and swear by turns, and tell the "bloody
+quartermasters" to "come on with their water, _they_ were not afraid of
+it." But I was quite sure of my remedy, for I had tried it before; and as
+the drunken fellows would call for more water, in contempt and derision, I
+gratified them, and caused bucketsful to be dashed on them with such
+rapidity, that pretty soon they found it difficult to catch their breath,
+in the intervals between the showers. The more they would struggle and
+gasp for breath, the more rapidly the buckets would be emptied upon them.
+
+The effect was almost electric. The maudlin fellows, somewhat sobered by
+the repeated shocks of the cold water, began now to swear less
+vociferously. In fact, they had no voice to swear with, for it was as much
+as they could do, to breathe. They no longer "bloodied" the
+quartermasters, or called for more water. Being reduced thus to silence,
+and still the water descending upon them as rapidly as ever, with
+half-sobered brain, and frames shivering with the cold, they would now
+become seriously alarmed. Did the captain mean to drown them? Was this the
+way he designed to punish them for mutiny, instead of hanging them at the
+yard-arm? They now turned to me, and begged me, for God's sake, to spare
+them. If I would only let them go this time, I should never have cause to
+complain of them again. I held off a little while, as if inexorable to
+their prayers and entreaties, the better to impress upon them the lesson I
+was teaching them, and then ordered them to be released. When their irons
+were taken off, they were sober enough to go below to their hammocks,
+without another word, and "turn in" like good boys! It took me some time
+to get through with this operation, for I had the delinquents--about a
+dozen of the most noisy--soused one at a time. The officers and crew were
+all this while--some two hours--standing at their guns, at quarters, and I
+could, now and then, overhear quite an audible titter from some of the
+sober men, as the drunken ones who were undergoing the shower-bath would
+now defy my authority, and now beg for mercy. When, at last, I had
+finished, I turned to my first lieutenant, and told him to "beat the
+retreat."
+
+And this was the way, reader, in which I quelled my first, and only mutiny
+on board the _Alabama_. It became a saying afterward, among the sailors,
+that "Old Beeswax was h--ll upon watering a fellow's grog."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+THE ALABAMA AT MARTINIQUE--IS BLOCKADED BY THE ENEMY'S STEAMER, SAN
+JACINTO--HOW SHE ESCAPED THE "OLD WAGON"--THE ISLAND OF BLANQUILLA, THE
+NEW RENDEZVOUS--COALING SHIP--A YANKEE SKIPPER--HOW THE OFFICERS AND MEN
+AMUSED THEMSELVES--THE CAPTURE OF THE PARKER COOKE, UNION, AND STEAMER
+ARIEL.
+
+
+I found here at her anchors, as I had expected, my coal-ship, the
+_Agrippina_. She had been lying here eight days. Her master, an old
+Scotchman, who, like most old sailors, was fond of his grog, had been
+quite indiscreet, as I soon learned, in talking about his ship, and her
+movements. Instead of pretending to have come in for water or repairs, or
+to hunt a market, or for something of the kind, he had frequently, when
+"half seas-over," in the coffee-houses on shore, boasted of his connection
+with the _Alabama_, and told his brother tars that that ship might be
+daily looked for. Eight days were a sufficient space of time for these
+conversations to be repeated, in the neighboring islands; and as I knew
+that the enemy had several cruisers in the West Indies, I was only
+surprised that some one of them had not looked in upon the _Agrippina_
+before. It would not do for me to think of coaling in Martinique under the
+circumstances, and so I ordered my coal-ship to get under way forthwith,
+and proceed to a new rendezvous--a small island on the Spanish Main,
+where, in due time, we will rejoin her. I had the satisfaction of seeing
+her get a good offing before nightfall, and knew that she was safe.
+
+It was well that I took this precaution, for on the very next morning,
+before I had turned out, an officer came below to inform me that an
+enemy's ship-of-war had appeared off the harbor! Dressing myself, and
+going on deck, sure enough, there was one of the enemy's large steamships,
+lying close within the mouth of the harbor, with one of the brightest and
+largest of "old flags" flying from her peak. She did not anchor, lest she
+should come under the twenty-four hours' rule; but pretty soon lowered a
+boat, and communicated with the authorities on shore. It soon transpired
+that she was the famous _San Jacinto_, a name which has become inseparably
+connected in the American memory, with one of the greatest humiliations
+ever put upon the Great Republic. Wilkes, and Seward, and the _San
+Jacinto_ have achieved fame. They began by attempting to make a little
+war-capital out of John Bull, and ended by singing, as we have seen, the
+"seven penitential psalms;" or, at least, as many of these psalms as could
+be sung in "_seven days_," _short metre being used_. I could not help
+thinking, as I looked at the old ship, of Mr. Seward's elaborate despatch
+to Lord Russell, set to the tune of "Old Hundred," and of the screams of
+Miss Slidell, as she had been gallantly charged by the American marines,
+commanded, for the occasion, by an officer bearing the proud old name of
+Fairfax, and born in the State of Virginia!
+
+We paid no sort of attention to the arrival of this old wagon of a ship.
+She was too heavy for me to think of engaging, as she threw more than two
+pounds of metal to my one--her battery consisting of fourteen eleven-inch
+guns--and her crew was more than twice as numerous as my own; but we had
+the speed of her, and could, of course, go to sea whenever we pleased. I
+was glad, however, that I had gotten the _Agrippina_ safely out of her
+way, as she might otherwise have been indefinitely blockaded. We remained
+quietly at our anchors during the day; such of the officers visiting the
+shore as desired, and the stewards of the messes being all busy in laying
+in a supply of fruits and other refreshments. We were, in the meantime,
+quite amused at the warlike preparations that were going on on board the
+_San Jacinto_. The captain of that ship, whose name, I believe, was
+Ronckendorff, made the most elaborate preparations for battle. We could
+see his men aloft, busily engaged in slinging yards, stoppering topsail
+sheets, getting up preventer braces, and making such other preparations,
+as the _Victory_ or _Royal Sovereign_ might have made on the eve of
+Trafalgar.
+
+Poor Ronckendorff, what a disappointment awaited him! the _Alabama_ was
+going to sea that very night. There was a Yankee merchant-ship in the
+harbor, and just at nightfall, a boat pulled out from her to the _San
+Jacinto_, to post her, probably, as to the channels and outlets, and to
+put her in possession of the rumors afloat. The fates were much more
+propitious as to weather, than they had been to the little _Sumter_, when
+she eluded the _Iroquois_. The night set in dark and rainy. We ran up our
+boats, lighted our fires, and when the steam was ready, got under way, as
+we would have done on any ordinary occasion, except only that there were
+no lights permitted to be seen about the ship, and that the guns were
+loaded and cast loose, and the crew at quarters. In the afternoon, a
+French naval officer had come on board, kindly bringing me a chart of the
+harbor, from which it appeared that I could run out in almost any
+direction I might choose. I chose the most southern route, and giving my
+ship a full head of steam, we passed out, without so much as getting a
+glimpse of the _San Jacinto_! The next news that we received from the
+"States," informed us that the _San Jacinto_ was perfectly innocent of our
+escape until the next morning revealed to her our vacant place in the
+harbor. Her commander was even then incredulous, and remained cruising off
+the harbor for a day or two longer, until he could satisfy himself that I
+had not hauled my ship up into some cunning nook, or inlet, and hid her
+away out of sight!
+
+The next afternoon I had joined my coal-ship, and we ran in to our
+anchorage, together, in the little, barren island of Blanquilla, off the
+coast of Venezuela, where we came to about nightfall. This was one of
+those little coral islands that skirt the South American coast, not yet
+fully adapted to the habitation of man. It was occasionally visited by a
+passing fisherman, or turtler, and a few goat-herds, from the main-land,
+had come over to pasture some goats on the coarse grass. As we ran in to
+this anchorage, which I remembered well from having visited it once in a
+ship of war of the old service, I was surprised to see a Yankee whaling
+schooner at anchor. She was lying very close in with the beach, on which
+she had a tent pitched, and some boilers in operation, trying out the oil
+from a whale which she had recently struck. The master of this little
+vessel, seeing us running down the island, under the United States colors,
+came off, in one of his boats, to pilot us in, and was apparently quite
+pleased to find himself on board one of his own gun-boats. He told us all
+he had heard about the _Alabama_, and went into ecstasies over our fine
+battery, and the marvellous accounts of our speed, which some of the young
+men gave him, and declared that we were the very ship to "give the pirate
+Semmes fits."
+
+A terrible collapse awaited him. When I had let go my anchor, I sent for
+him, and told him who we were. That we were no less than the terrible
+_Alabama_ herself. He stood aghast for a moment. An awful vision seemed to
+confront him. His little schooner, and his oil, and the various little
+'ventures which he had on board, with which to trade with the natives
+along the coast, and turn that "honest penny," which has so many charms in
+the eyes of his countrymen, were all gone up the spout! And then he stood
+in the presence of the man whose ship he had characterized as a "pirate,"
+and whom he had told to his face, he was no better than a freebooter. But
+I played the magnanimous. I told the skipper not to be alarmed; that he
+was perfectly safe on board the _Alabama_, and that out of respect for
+Venezuela, within whose maritime jurisdiction we were, I should not even
+burn his ship. I should detain him, however, as a prisoner, for a few
+days, I added, to prevent his carrying news of me to the enemy, until I
+was ready myself to depart. He gladly assented to these terms, and was
+frequently afterward on board the ship during our stay.
+
+We lay five days at the little island of Blanquilla, coaling ship, and
+getting ready for another cruise. We broke out our hold for the first
+time, and cleansed and whitewashed it. We hoisted out our boats, and
+rigged them for sailing; and in the afternoons, after the excessive heats
+had moderated a little, sailing and fishing parties were formed, and the
+officers had some very pleasant little picnics on shore. Fish were
+abundant, and on occasion of these picnics, a fine red-fish, weighing
+twenty pounds and more, would sometimes be found cut up, and in the
+frying-pan, almost before it had ceased floundering. The crew were sent on
+shore, "on liberty," in quarter watches, taking their rifles and
+ammunition, and fish-spears, and fishing-lines along with them. The water
+was as clear as crystal, and there being some beautiful bathing-places
+along the beach, bathing became a favorite amusement. Although this coast
+abounds in sharks of large size, they are not found to be dangerous, when
+there is a number of bathers enjoying the sport together. The shark is a
+great coward, and rarely attacks a man, unless it can surprise him.
+
+My gig was a fine boat, fitted with a lug sail, and I used frequently to
+stretch off long distances from the land in her, enjoying her fine sailing
+qualities, in the fresh sea-breeze that would be blowing, the greater part
+of the day. At other times I would coast the island along for miles, now
+putting into one little cove, and now into another, sometimes fishing, and
+at others hunting sea-shells, and exploring the wonders of the coral
+banks. Pelican, gulls, plover, and sand-snipe were abundant, and my boat's
+crew, when we would land, and haul our boat up for a stroll, would
+sometimes make capital shots. Indeed, we generally returned on board laden
+with fish, game, and marine curiosities, of various kinds,--prominent
+among which would be specimens of the little coral insect, and its curious
+manufactures. Miniature limestone-trees, with their pointed branches,
+shrubs, fans, and a hundred other imitations of the flora of the upper
+world would be fished up from beneath the sparkling waters, live their day
+of wonder, and when they had faded and lost their beauty, be thrown
+overboard again.
+
+We found here flocks of the flamingo--a large bird of the crane species,
+with long legs and bill, for wading and feeding in the shallow lagoons
+which surround the island. Its plumage is of the most delicate pink,
+inclining to scarlet, and when the tall birds are drawn up in line, upon a
+sand beach, where there is some mirage, or refraction, they look not
+unlike a regiment of red-coated soldiers. They are quite shy, but we
+carried some of them on board, out of the rich plumage of which Bartelli
+made me some fans. Officers and men, both of whom had been long confined
+on board ship--it being now three months since the _Alabama_ was
+commissioned--visibly improved in health whilst we lay at Blanquilla. The
+reader may recollect that we captured in the brig _Dunkirk_, a deserter
+from the _Sumter_. We had tried him by court-martial before reaching
+Martinique, and sentenced him to serve out his term, under certain
+penalties. At Martinique, we found him a chief spirit among the mutineers,
+whose grog I had "watered" as described in the last chapter. Another court
+now sat upon his case, and in obedience to its sentence, the fellow was
+turned upon the beach at Blanquilla, with "bag and hammock." This worthy
+citizen of the Great Republic joined the Yankee whaling schooner, and went
+into more congenial company and pursuits.
+
+Having finished our coaling, and made the other preparations necessary for
+sea, I dispatched my coal-ship, which had still another supply of coal
+left, to another rendezvous--the Arcas islands, in the Gulf of Mexico, and
+gave the Yankee schooner leave to depart, telling the master to make a
+free sheet of it, and not let me catch him on the high seas, as it might
+not be so well for him a second time. He took me at my word, had all the
+sail on his little craft in the twinkling of an eye, and I question
+whether he stopped this side of Nantucket.
+
+My object, in running into the Gulf of Mexico, was to strike a blow at
+Banks' expedition, which was then fitting out for the invasion of Texas.
+This gentleman, who had been a prominent Massachusetts politician, but who
+had no sort of military talent, had risen to the surface with other scum,
+amid the bubbling and boiling of the Yankee caldron, and was appointed by
+"Honest Abe" to subjugate Texas. Banks had mounted a stud-horse, on Boston
+Common, on militia-review days, before the war, and had had himself
+lithographed, stud-horse, cocked-hat, feathers, and all, and these were
+credentials not to be despised. I had learned from captured Northern
+papers, that he was fitting out at Boston and New York, a large
+expedition, to consist of not less than 30,000 men. A large proportion of
+this army was to consist of cavalry and light artillery. To transport such
+an army, a large number of transport-ships would be required. The
+expedition was to rendezvous at Galveston, which the enemy had captured
+from us, not a great while before.
+
+As there were but twelve feet of water on the Galveston bar, very few of
+these transport-ships would be able to enter the harbor; the great mass of
+them, numbering, perhaps, a hundred and more, would be obliged to anchor,
+pell-mell, in the open sea. Much disorder, and confusion would necessarily
+attend the landing of so many troops, encumbered by horses, artillery,
+baggage-wagons, and stores. My design was to surprise this fleet by a
+night-attack, and if possible destroy it, or at least greatly cripple it.
+The Northern press, in accordance with its usual habit, of blabbing
+everything, had informed me of the probable time of the sailing of the
+expedition, and I designed so to time my own movements, as to arrive
+simultaneously with the stud-horse and the major-general, or at least a
+day or two afterward.
+
+It was to be presumed, of course, that some of the enemy's gun-boats would
+accompany the expedition, but I hoped to be able to fall so unexpectedly
+upon their convoy, as to find them off their guard. There was no
+Confederate cruiser in the Gulf, and I learned from the enemy's own
+papers, that the _Alabama_ was _well on her way to the coast of Brazil and
+the East Indies_. The surprise would probably be complete, in the dead of
+night, and when the said gun-boats of the enemy would be sleeping in
+comparative security, with but little, if any steam in their boilers. Half
+an hour would suffice for my purpose of setting fire to the fleet, and it
+would take the gun-boats half an hour to get up steam, and their anchors,
+and pursue me.
+
+It was with this object in view, that we were now getting under way from
+the island of Blanquilla. But the Banks' expedition would not arrive off
+Galveston, probably, before about the 10th of January, and as we were now
+only in the latter days of November, I had several weeks on my hands,
+before it would become necessary for me to proceed to my new rendezvous. I
+resolved to devote this interval to the waylaying of a California
+treasure-steamer, as a million or so of dollars in gold, deposited in
+Europe, would materially aid me, in my operations upon the sea. I could
+purchase several more _Alabamas_, to develop the "nautical enterprise" of
+our people, and assist me to scourge the enemy's commerce.
+
+There were two routes by which the California steamers returned from
+Aspinwall--one by the east end of Cuba, and the other by the west end. I
+chose the former for my ambuscade, as being probably the most used. To
+reach my new cruising-ground, I put my ship under sail, and made a detour
+by the way of the islands of Porto Rico and St. Domingo, passing through
+the Mona Passage, through which much of the West India commerce of the
+enemy passed, with the hope of picking up something by the way. We left
+our anchorage at Blanquilla on the 26th of November, and made the island
+of Porto Rico on the morning of the 29th. We coasted along the south side
+of this island, with a gentle breeze and smooth sea, sufficiently near to
+enjoy its fine, bold scenery, passing only a couple of sail during the
+day--one a large French steamer, bound to the eastward, and the other an
+English bark. We showed them the United States colors. The bark saluted
+the "old flag," by striking her colors to it, but the "old flag" did not
+return the salute, as it was hoisted at the wrong peak. The Englishman
+must have thought his Yankee friend rather discourteous.
+
+We entered the Mona Passage, lying between St. Domingo and Porto Rico,
+after nightfall, but the moon was shining sufficiently bright to enable us
+to get hold of the small islands of Mona and Desecho, and thus grope our
+way in safety. The currents in this strait being somewhat uncertain, the
+navigation is treacherous when the weather is dark. Early on the next
+morning, we were off the Bay of Samana, and were running with a flowing
+sheet along the coast of St. Domingo. I had approached the Mona Passage
+with much caution, fully expecting to find so important a thoroughfare
+guarded by the enemy, but there was nothing in the shape of a ship of war
+to be seen. The enemy was too busy blockading the Southern coasts to pay
+much attention to his commerce. In the course of the morning, we boarded a
+Spanish schooner, from Boston, bound for the old city of St. Domingo, from
+which we received a batch of late newspapers, giving us still further
+accounts, among other things, of the preparation of the Banks' expedition,
+about which all New England seemed, just then, to be agog.
+
+The great Massachusetts leader had been given _carte blanche_, and he was
+making the best possible use of it. He was fitting himself out very
+splendidly, but his great expedition resembled rather one of Cyrus' or
+Xerxes', than one of Xenophon's. The Boston papers dilated upon the
+splendid bands of music, the superb tents, the school-marms, and the
+relays of stud-horses that were to accompany the hero of Boston Common.
+But the best feature of the expedition was the activity and thrift which
+had suddenly sprung up in all the markets of New England, in consequence.
+The looms, the spindles and the shoemakers' awls were in awful activity.
+In short, every man or boy who could whittle a stick, whittled it, and
+sold it to the Government. The whalemen in New Bedford, Nantucket, and
+Martha's Vineyard were in especial glee. They were selling all their
+whaling ships, which were too old, or too rotten for further service, to
+the Government, for transports, at enormous prices. Many a bluff old
+whaler that had rode out a gale under the lee of an iceberg at the
+Navigators' Islands, or "scraped her keel on Coromandel's coast," forty
+years before, was patched and caulked and covered over with pitch and
+paint, and sold to an ignorant, if not corrupt, army quartermaster, for as
+good as "bran new." No wonder that the war was popular in New England.
+There was not only negro in it, but there was money in it also.
+
+Filling away from the Spanish schooner, which we requested to report us,
+in St. Domingo, as the United States steamer _Iroquois_, we continued our
+course down the island. It was Sunday, and the day was fine. The crew was
+dressed, as usual, for muster, and what with the ship in her gala-dress of
+awnings, and glitter of "bright-work," the island, the sea, and the
+weather, a more beautiful picture could not well have been presented to
+the beholder. In the distance were the blue, and hazy hills, so fraught
+with the memories of Columbus, and the earlier Spanish explorers. Nearer
+to, was the old town of Isabella, the first ever built in the New World by
+civilized men, and nearer still was the bluff, steep, rock-bound coast,
+against which the most indigo of seas was breaking in the purest and
+whitest of foam. The sailors had thrown themselves upon the deck in
+groups, each group having its reader, who was reading aloud to attentive
+listeners the latest war-news, as gleaned from the papers we had received
+from the Spanish schooner; and the officers, through whose hands the said
+newspapers had already passed, were smoking and chatting, now of Columbus,
+and now of the war. Presently the shrill cry of "sail ho!" came ringing
+from aloft; and the scene on board the _Alabama_ shifted almost as
+magically as it does in a theatre. Every man sprang to his feet, without
+waiting for an order; the newspapers were stuck away in cracks and
+crannies; the helm was shifted, to bring the ship's head around to the
+proper point for chasing, and studding-sails, and kites were given
+simultaneously to the wind.
+
+When we began to raise the spars and sails of the chase above the sea,
+from the deck, there was a general exclamation of "Yankee!" The tapering
+royal and sky-sail masts, with the snowiest of canvas, told the tale, as
+they had told it so often before. A run of a few hours more brought us up
+with the American bark _Parker Cooke_, of, and from Boston, bound to Aux
+Cayes, on the south side of the island of St. Domingo. If the _Cooke_ had
+been chartered, and sent out for our especial benefit, the capture could
+not have been more opportune. The _Alabama's_ commissariat was beginning
+to run a little low, and here was the _Cooke_ provision-laden. We had
+found, by experience in the _Sumter_, that our Boston friends put up the
+very best of crackers, and ship-bread, and sent excellent butter, and
+cheese, salted beef and pork, and dried fruits to the West India markets;
+nor were we disappointed on the present occasion. Both ships were now hove
+to, under short sail, within convenient boating distance, and the rest of
+the day was consumed in transporting provisions from the prize. It was
+sunset before we concluded our labors, and at the twilight hour, when the
+sea-breeze was dying away, and all nature was sinking to repose, we
+applied the torch to the _Cooke_.
+
+As we filled away, and made sail, I could not but moralize on the
+spectacle. Sixty years before, the negro had cut the throat of the white
+man, ravished his wife and daughters, and burned his dwelling in the
+island of St. Domingo, now in sight. The white man, in another country,
+was now inciting the negro to the perpetration of the same crimes against
+another white man, whom he had called brother. The white man who was thus
+inciting the negro, was the Puritan of New England, whose burning ship
+was lighting up the shores of St Domingo! That Puritan, only a generation
+before, had entered into a solemn league and covenant, to restore to the
+Southern man his fugitive slave, if he should escape into his territory.
+This was the way in which he was keeping his plighted faith! Does any one
+wonder that the _Alabama_ burned New England ships?
+
+We began now to receive some "returns" of the effect of our late captures
+upon Northern commerce. The papers captured on board the _Cooke_ were full
+of lamentations. Our pious brethren did not confine themselves to the
+forms set down by Jeremiah, however, but hissed their execrations through
+teeth grinding with rage. I will not treat my readers to any of these
+specimens of the art Philippic, but will confine myself to a few business
+excerpts instead, taken indiscriminately from the New York and Boston
+papers.
+
+     _Boston crieth aloud._
+
+     "ADVANCES ON MARINE INSURANCE.--In consequence of the destruction
+     caused at sea by the privateer steamer _Alabama_, the officers of the
+     insurance companies of Boston have fixed the present war rates on
+     different voyages as follows:--To the north of Europe, 4@5 per cent.;
+     Mediterranean, 5@6; India, 4-1/2; Gulf ports, 4; California gold
+     steamers, 4; West India risks, 5; coastwise, 1/2@1-1/2. These rates
+     are liable to be altered according to the necessary requirements of
+     the times, consequent upon the unusual hazards to which commerce is
+     now exposed."
+
+
+     _New York responds to the cry of Boston._
+
+     "The damaging effect of the _Alabama's_ raid on our shipping upon the
+     maritime interests of this port were as conspicuous to-day as
+     yesterday. It was next to impossible for the owner of an American
+     ship to procure freight unless he consented to make a bogus sale of
+     his ship."
+
+     "Freights to Great Britain are rather more active, under favorable
+     foreign advices for breadstuffs, but rates by American vessels
+     depressed; foreign bottoms most in favor, but even these now find it
+     difficult to employ themselves profitably. To Liverpool, flour is
+     9d@2s."
+
+I heard again from the New York Chamber of Commerce, by the _Cooke_. My
+friend, Low, was still lamenting over his lost ships. Like Rachael weeping
+for her children, he refused to be comforted because they were not.
+Another grand _pow-wow_ had been called, and another set of resolutions
+passed. SCENE: _A luxuriously furnished suite of apartments, with
+well-padded arm-chairs, and big ink stands; a table; on the walls, several
+pictures of burning ships, with the "pirate ship" in the distance; of John
+Bull running off with the "carrying-trade," and Jonathan screaming after
+him; and of Mr. Low tearing his hair._ Enter the _dramatis person�_. Low
+loquitur:--
+
+     "Mr. A. Low read a very long preamble and resolution expressive of
+     the feelings of the American public in regard to the shelter afforded
+     to the _Alabama_ by British authorities. He also read a letter from
+     our Consul at Liverpool, Mr. Dudley, in which that functionary sets
+     forth the efforts he made to direct the attention of the British
+     authorities to the _Alabama_, and concludes by asserting that there
+     are now four large vessels fitting out at Liverpool to follow the
+     piratical example of the _Alabama_--three of iron and one of wood.
+     Nine vessels are preparing to run the blockade.
+
+     "Mr. Low explained at some length the object and scope of his
+     proposed resolution. He declared that American ships could no longer
+     get cargoes, in consequence of the depredations of the _Alabama_.
+
+     "Hon. F. A. Conkling spoke in behalf of granting letters-of-marque.
+     He saw no other alternative between this and a complete paralyzation
+     of our commerce. He read extracts from Cogswell's 'Maritime History,'
+     showing the effectiveness of privateers in our previous wars.
+
+     "C. H. Marshall spoke in favor of the adoption of Mr. Low's preamble
+     and resolution.
+
+     "Mr. Maury stated that he had received a letter from Liverpool,
+     saying that the new pirate ships building for the Confederates are
+     vastly more formidable than the _Alabama_.
+
+     "The preamble and resolutions set forth at length the evil
+     consequences likely to ensue from a repetition of such piratical acts
+     as the fitting out of more vessels like the _Alabama_, in the ports
+     of Great Britain; that information has been received of other vessels
+     having sailed to prey upon the commerce of the United States; that
+     the English Government does not interfere to put a stop to the
+     aggressions of the pirate, though British goods have been destroyed;
+     that the _Alabama_ is continually supplied from Great Britain with
+     coal and ammunition, by which she is enabled to pursue her piratical
+     courses against American commerce, the consequence being to raise the
+     premium upon American vessels and their cargoes, and to depress the
+     rates of freight upon American ships, and to transfer our
+     carrying-trade to the ships of other nations. Therefore the Chamber
+     is led to the following conclusions:
+
+     "_1st._ That through the active instrumentality of the subjects of
+     Great Britain, the so-called Confederate States are furnished with
+     ships, men, arms, and ammunition, with which to war upon the commerce
+     of the United States;
+
+     "_2d._ That without such foreign aid the States in revolt against the
+     Government of the United States would be powerless to effect any
+     injury to our commerce on the high seas.
+
+     "_3d._ That this war upon American commerce carried on by ships built
+     and manned in Great Britain, is not rebuked by the British press
+     generally; is not discouraged by the public sentiment of a once
+     friendly nation claiming to be governed by high and honorable
+     principles, and is not effectively and thoroughly arrested by the
+     stronger arm of the British Government.
+
+     "_4th._ That as a result of the foregoing acts and conclusions, the
+     merchants of the United States are subject in a certain degree to the
+     evils that would attend a state of war with Great Britain, and are
+     compelled to witness the carrying-trade of their country transferred
+     from their own vessels to British bottoms, under all the sanctions
+     and advantages of peace and neutrality to the latter--while the
+     source of this great peril, threatening to drive American commerce
+     from the ocean, is of British origin.
+
+     "Now, therefore, resolved, that a Committee of ten be appointed to
+     take into consideration the foregoing, and to report, at a special
+     meeting to be called for the purpose, what action it becomes this
+     Chamber to take in the premises."
+
+How astonishing it is, that these gentlemen when they were denouncing
+Great Britain for supplying the Confederates with men and munitions of
+war, did not think of the supplies they were themselves drawing from the
+same source. I have before referred to a speech of Mr. Laird, the builder
+of the _Alabama_, in the British House of Commons. I now refer to another
+passage of the same speech, as a sufficient answer to Mr. Low's
+complaints:--
+
+     "If a ship without guns and without arms, [he is alluding to the
+     _Alabama_ when she left the Mersey,] is a dangerous article, surely
+     rifled guns and ammunition of all sorts are equally--(cheers)--and
+     even more dangerous. (Cheers.) I have referred to the bills of entry
+     in the Custom-houses of London and Liverpool, and I find there have
+     been vast shipments of implements of war to the Northern States,
+     through the celebrated houses of Baring & Co.--(loud cheers and
+     laughter),--Brown, Shipley & Co., of Liverpool, and a variety of
+     other names, which I need not more particularly mention, but whose
+     Northern tendencies are well known to this House. (Hear! hear!) If
+     the member for Rochdale, or the honorable member for Branchford
+     wishes to ascertain the extent to which the Northern States of
+     America have had supplies of arms from this country, they have only
+     to go to a gentleman who, I am sure, will be ready to afford them
+     every information, and much more readily than he would to me, or to
+     any one else calling upon him--the American Consul in Liverpool.
+     Before that gentleman, the manifest of every ship is laid, he has to
+     give an American pass to each vessel; he is, consequently, able to
+     tell the exact number of rifles which have been shipped from this
+     country for the United States--information, I doubt not, which would
+     be very generally desired by this House. (Loud cries of 'hear!') I
+     have obtained from the official custom-house returns, some details of
+     the sundries exported from the United Kingdom to the Northern States
+     of America, from the 1st of May, 1861, to the 31st of December, 1862.
+     There were--Muskets, 41,500--(hear! hear!)--rifles,
+     341,000--(cheers)--gun-flints, 26,500--percussion-caps,
+     49,982,000--(cheers and laughter)--and swords, 2250. The best
+     information I could obtain, leads me to believe that from one third
+     to a half may be added to these numbers for items which have been
+     shipped to the Northern States as hardware. (Hear! hear!) I have very
+     good reason for saying that a vessel of 2000 tons was chartered six
+     weeks ago, for the express purpose of taking out a cargo of
+     "hardware" to the United States. (Cheers.) The exportation has not
+     ceased yet. From the 1st of January to the 17th of March, 1863, the
+     customs bills of entry show that 23,870 gun-barrels, 30,802 rifles,
+     and 3,105,800 percussion-caps were shipped to the United States.
+     (Hear! hear!) So that if the Southern States have got two ships
+     unarmed, unfit for any purpose of warfare--for they procured their
+     armaments somewhere else--the Northern States have been well supplied
+     from this country, through the agency of some most influential
+     persons. (Hear! hear!)"
+
+"The American Consul in Liverpool," alluded to in the above extract, is
+the same gentleman--Dudley--who was assisting Mr. Low to denounce Great
+Britain for supplying the Confederate States!
+
+The _Parker Cooke_ made a beautiful bonfire, lighting up the sea and land
+for leagues; and as the wind continued light, it was near midnight before
+we had run it below the horizon. Before morning we gave chase to another
+sail, but at daylight, by which time we were within a couple of miles of
+her, she showed us the Spanish colors. We chased, and overhauled soon
+afterward a Dutch galliot, and later in the day, a Spanish bark. The land
+was still in sight on our port beam, and toward nightfall, we passed Cape
+Fran�ois.
+
+Between midnight and dawn, on this same night, we had quite an alarm. A
+large ship-of-war came suddenly upon us, in the darkness! Like ourselves,
+she was running down the coast, but she was under both steam and sail,
+having her studding-sails set on both sides, whereas the _Alabama_ was
+entirely without steam, with her propeller triced up. If the stranger had
+been an enemy, we should have been almost entirely at her mercy. The
+reader may imagine, therefore, how anxious I was for the next few minutes.
+She soon dispelled my fears, however, for she passed rapidly on, at no
+greater distance from us, than a hundred yards, her lights lighting up the
+countenances of my men, as they stood at their guns--for by this time I
+had gotten them to their quarters--quite distinctly. She did not take the
+least notice of us, or swerve a hair's-breadth from her course. I knew,
+from this, she could not be an enemy, and told my first lieutenant, even
+before she had well passed us, that he might let his men leave their guns.
+She was, probably, a Spanish steam-frigate, on her way to the island of
+Cuba.
+
+On the evening of the 2d of December, we passed the little island of
+Tortuga, so famous in the history of the buccaneers and pirates who once
+infested these waters, and on the next day, found ourselves in the passage
+between St. Domingo and Cuba. There were many sails passing in different
+directions, all of which we overhauled, but they proved to be neutral.
+Here was another important thoroughfare of the enemy's commerce entirely
+unguarded. There was not only no ship-of-war of the enemy to be seen, but
+none of the neutrals that I had spoken, had fallen in with any. We had,
+therefore, a clear sea before us, for carrying out our design of waylaying
+a California steamer. In the afternoon, we stretched over to the east end
+of Cuba, and took our station in "watch and wait."
+
+On the same night, we chased and overhauled a French bark. The sea was
+smooth, and a bright moon shining. The chase paid no attention to our
+blank cartridge, though we were close on board of her, and stood a shot
+before she would come to the wind. As we threw this purposely between her
+masts, and pretty close over the heads of her people, she came to the
+conclusion that it would not be safe to trifle longer, and rounded to and
+backed her main yard. When asked by the boarding-officer, why he did not
+heave to, at the first signal, the master replied naively that he was a
+Frenchman, and at war with nobody! Philosophical Frenchman!
+
+We had accurate time-tables of the arrivals and departures of the
+California steamers, in the files of the New York papers, that we had
+captured, and by these tables, the homeward-bound steamer would not be due
+for a few days yet. We spent this interval in lying off and on the east
+end of Cuba, under easy sail, chasing more or less during the day, but
+without success, all the vessels overhauled being neutrals, and closing in
+with Cape Maize during the night, and holding on to its very brilliant
+light until morning. The weather was clear, and the moon near her full, so
+that I had almost as good a view of the passage by night as by day.
+
+On the 5th of December, a prize ran into our arms, without the necessity
+of a chase. It was a Baltimore schooner called the _Union_, old, and of
+little value. She had, besides, a neutral cargo, properly documented, for
+a small town called Port Maria, on the north side of Jamaica. I
+transferred the prisoners of the _Cooke_ to her, and released her on
+ransom-bond. My original orders were not to capture Maryland vessels, but
+that good old State had long since ceased to occupy the category in which
+our Congress, and the Executive had placed her. She was now ranged under
+the enemy's flag, and I could make no discrimination in her favor.
+
+On the next day the California steamer was due, and a very bright lookout
+was kept; a number of the young officers volunteering their services for
+the occasion. In the transparent atmosphere of this delightful climate, we
+could see to great distances. The west end of St. Domingo, about Cape
+Tiburon, was visible, though distant ninety miles. But not so much as a
+smoke was seen during the entire day, and the sun went down upon
+disappointed hopes. The next day was Sunday, and the holy-stones had been
+busy over my head during all the morning watch, putting the decks in order
+for muster. I had turned out, and dressed, and swept the entire horizon
+with my telescope, without seeing anything to encourage me. The crew had
+breakfasted, and the word, "All hands clean yourselves, in white frocks
+and trousers, for muster!" had been growled out by the boatswain, and
+echoed by his mates. The decks were encumbered with clothes-bags, and Jack
+was arraying himself as directed. I had gone down to my own breakfast, and
+was enjoying one of Bartelli's cups of good coffee, hopeless for that day
+of my California steamer, and my million of dollars in gold. Suddenly the
+prolonged cry of "S-a-i-l h-o!" came ringing, in a clear musical voice,
+from aloft; the look-out having at length descried a steamer, and being
+anxious to impart the intelligence in as emphatic a manner as possible, to
+the startled listeners on the deck below. The "Where-away?" of the officer
+of the deck, shouted through his trumpet, followed, and in a moment more
+came the rejoinder, "Broad on the port bow, sir!" "What does she look
+like?" again inquired the officer of the deck. "She is a large steamer,
+brig-rigged, sir!" was the reply. An officer now came below to announce to
+me what I had already heard.
+
+Here was a steamer at last, but unfortunately she was not in the right
+direction, being in the north-west instead of the south-east--the latter
+being the direction in which the California steamer should appear. All was
+excitement now on deck. The engineers and firemen were set at work, in
+great haste, to get up their steam. The sailors were hurried with their
+"cleaning," and the bags stowed away. "All hands work ship!" being called,
+the first lieutenant took the trumpet, and furled the sails, making a
+"snug roll-up of it," so that they might hold as little wind as possible,
+and lowered the propeller. In twenty minutes we were ready for the chase,
+with every thing snug "alow and aloft," and with the steam hissing from
+the gauge-cocks. The strange steamer came up very rapidly, and we
+scrutinized her anxiously to see whether she was a ship of war, or a
+packet-ship. She showed too much hull out of the water to be a ship of
+war, and yet we could not be sure, as the enemy had commissioned a great
+many packet-steamers, and put heavy armaments on board of them. When she
+was within three or four miles of us, we showed her the United States
+colors, and she responded in a few minutes, by hoisting the same. Like
+ourselves, she had her sails furled, and was carrying a very large "bone
+in her mouth" under steam alone.
+
+We could now see that she was fast, and from the absence of guns at her
+sides, a packet-ship. I now put my ship in motion, with a view to lay her
+across the stranger's path, as though I would speak her. But I missed
+doing this by about a couple of ship's lengths, the stranger passing just
+ahead of me. A beautiful spectacle presented itself as I passed under the
+stern of that monster steamship. The weather was charming, there being a
+bright, clear sky, with only a few fleecy trade-clouds passing. There was
+just enough of the balmiest and gentlest of winds, to ruffle, without
+roughening the surface of the sea. The islands of Cuba, St. Domingo, and
+Jamaica--the two latter, in the blue and hazy distance, and the former
+robed in the gorgeous green known only to the tropics--were in sight. The
+great packet-steamer had all her awnings set, and under these awnings, on
+the upper deck, was a crowd of passengers, male and female. Mixed with the
+male passengers were several officers in uniform, and on the forward deck,
+there were groups of soldiers to be seen. This crowd presented a charming
+picture, especially the ladies, most of whom were gayly dressed, with the
+streamers from their bonnets, their veils, and their waste ribbons
+flirting with the morning breeze. We were sufficiently close to see the
+expression of their countenances. Many of them were viewing us with opera
+glasses, evidently admiring the beautiful proportions, fine trim, and
+general comeliness of one of their own gun-boats--for the reader will
+recollect, we were wearing still the United States flag.
+
+As I passed the wake of the steamer, I wheeled in pursuit, fired a blank
+cartridge, and hauling down the Federal, threw the Confederate flag to the
+breeze. It was amusing to witness the panic which ensued. If that old
+buccaneer, Blue Beard, himself, had appeared, the consternation could not
+have been greater. The ladies screamed--one of those delightful, dramatic
+screams, half fear, half acting, which can only ascend from female
+voices--and scampered off the deck in a trice; the men running after them,
+and making quite as good, if not better time. The effect of my gun, and
+change of flags on the steamer herself, seemed to be scarcely less
+electric. She had no intention, whatever, of obeying my command to halt.
+On the contrary, I could see from the increased impetus with which she
+sprang forward, and the dense volumes of black smoke that now came
+rushing, and whirling from her smoke-stack, that she was making every
+possible effort to escape. She had gotten a little the start of me, as I
+was wheeling to pursue her, and might be now, some three or four hundred
+yards distant.
+
+The reader has been on the race-course, and seen two fleet horses, with
+necks and tails straightened, and running about "neck and neck." This will
+give him a pretty good idea of the race which is now going on. We had not
+stretched a mile, when it became quite evident that the stranger had the
+heels of me, and that, if I would capture her, I must resort to force. I
+ordered my "persuader," as the sailors called my rifled bow-gun, to be
+cleared away, and sent orders to the officer, to take aim at the
+fugitive's foremast, being careful to throw his shot high enough above the
+deck not to take life. When the gun was ready to be fired, I yawed the
+ship a little, though the effect of this was to lose ground, to enable the
+officer the better, to take his aim. A flash, a curl of white smoke, and a
+flying off of large pieces of timber from the steamer's mast, were
+simultaneous occurrences. It was sufficient. The mast had not been cut
+quite away, but enough had been done to satisfy the master of the steamer
+that he was entirely within our power, and that prudence would be the
+better part of valor. In a moment after, we could see a perceptible
+diminution in the motion of the "walking-beam," and pretty soon the great
+wheels of the steamer ceased to revolve, and she lay motionless on the
+water.
+
+We "slowed down" our own engine, and began to blow off steam at once, and
+ranging up alongside of the prize, sent a boat on board of her. It was
+thus we captured the steamer _Ariel_, instead of going to muster, on
+Sunday, the 7th of December, 1862. But Fortune, after all, had played us a
+scurvy trick. The _Ariel_ was indeed a California steamer, but instead of
+being a homeward-bound steamer, with a million of dollars in gold, in her
+safe, I had captured an outward-bound steamer, with five hundred women and
+children on board! This was an elephant I had not bargained for, and I was
+seriously embarrassed to know what to do with it. I could not take her
+into any neutral port, even for landing the passengers, as this was
+forbidden, by those unfriendly orders in council I have more than once
+spoken of, and I had no room for the passengers on board the _Alabama_.
+The most that I could hope to do, was to capture some less valuable prize,
+within the next few days, turn the passengers of the _Ariel_ on board of
+her, and destroy the steamer. Our capture, however, was not without useful
+results. The officers and soldiers mentioned as being on board of her,
+were a battalion of marines, going out to the Pacific, to supply the
+enemy's ships of war on that station. There were also some naval officers
+on board, for the same purpose. These were all _paroled_, and deprived of
+their arms. The rank and file numbered 140.
+
+When my boarding-officer returned, he reported to me that there was a
+great state of alarm among the passengers on board. They had been reading
+the accounts which a malicious, and mendacious Northern press had been
+giving of us, and took us to be no better than the "plunderers," and
+"robbers" we had been represented to be. The women, in particular, he
+said, were, many of them, in hysterics, and apprehensive of the worst
+consequences. I had very little sympathy for the terrors of the males, but
+the tear of a woman has always unmanned me. And as I knew something of the
+weakness of the sex, as well as its fears, I resorted to the following
+stratagem to calm the dear creatures. I sent for my handsomest young
+lieutenant--and I had some very handsome young fellows on board the
+_Alabama_--and when he had come to me, I told him to go below, and array
+himself in his newest and handsomest uniform, buckle on the best sword
+there was in the ward-room, ask of Bartelli the loan of my brightest
+sword-knot, and come up to me for his orders. Sailors are rapid dressers,
+and in a few minutes my lieutenant was again by my side, looking as
+bewitching as I could possibly desire. I gave him my own boat, a beautiful
+gig, that had been newly painted, and which my coxswain, who was a bit of
+a sea-dandy, had furnished with scarlet cushions, and fancy yoke and
+steering ropes, and directed him to go on board the _Ariel_, and coax the
+ladies out of their hysterics. "Oh! I'll be sure to do that, sir," said
+he, with a charming air of coxcombry, "I never knew a fair creature who
+could resist me more than fifteen minutes." As he shoved off from the
+side, in my beautiful little cockle-shell of a boat, with its
+fine-looking, lithe and active oarsmen, bending with the strength of
+athletes to their ashen blades, I could but pause a moment, myself, in
+admiration of the picture.
+
+A few strokes of his oars put him alongside of the steamer, and asking to
+be shown to the ladies' cabin, he entered the scene of dismay and
+confusion. So many were the signs of distress, and so numerous the
+wailers, that he was abashed, for a moment, as he afterward told me, with
+all his assurance. But summoning courage, he spoke to them about as
+follows:--"Ladies! The Captain of the _Alabama_ has heard of your
+distress, and sent me on board to calm your fears, by assuring you, that
+you have fallen into the hands of Southern gentlemen, under whose
+protection you are entirely safe. We are by no means the ruffians and
+outlaws, that we have been represented by your people, and you have
+nothing whatever to fear." The sobs ceased as he proceeded, but they eyed
+him askance for the first few minutes. As he advanced in their midst,
+however, they took a second, and more favorable glance at him. A second
+glance begat a third, more favorable still, and when he entered into
+conversation with some of the ladies nearest him--picking out the youngest
+and prettiest, as the rogue admitted--he found no reluctance on their part
+to answer him. In short, he was fast becoming a favorite. The ice being
+once broken, a perfect avalanche of loveliness soon surrounded him, the
+eyes of the fair creatures looking all the brighter for the tears that had
+recently dimmed them.
+
+Presently a young lady, stepping up to him, took hold of one of the bright
+buttons that were glittering on the breast of his coat, and asked him if
+he would not permit her to cut it off, as a memento of her adventure with
+the _Alabama_. He assented. A pair of scissors was produced, and away went
+the button! This emboldened another lady to make the same request, and
+away went another button; and so the process went on, until when I got my
+handsome lieutenant back, he was like a plucked peacock--he had scarcely a
+button to his coat! There were no more Hebes drowned in tears, on board
+the _Ariel_.
+
+But what struck my young officer as very singular was the deportment of
+the male passengers. Some of these seemed to be overhauling their trunks
+in a great hurry, as though there were valuables in them, which they were
+anxious to secrete. Their watches, too, had disappeared from some of their
+vest-pockets. "I verily believe," said he, as he was giving me an account
+of the manner in which he performed his mission, "that these fellows think
+we are no better than the Northern thieves, who are burning
+dwelling-houses, and robbing our women and children in the South!"
+
+I take pleasure in contrasting, in these memoirs, the conduct of my
+officers and crew, during the late war, in the uniform respect which they
+paid to the laws of war, and the dictates of humanity, with that of some
+of the generals and colonels of the Federal Army, who debased our common
+nature, and disgraced the uniforms they wore by the brutality and
+pilferings I have described. There were 500 passengers on board the
+_Ariel_. It is fair to presume, that each passenger had with him a purse,
+of from three to five hundred dollars. Under the laws of war, all this
+money would have been good prize. But not one dollar of it was touched, or
+indeed so much as a passenger's baggage examined.
+
+I carried out my intention, already expressed, of keeping the _Ariel_ in
+company with me, for two or three days, hoping that I might capture some
+less valuable ship, into which to turn her passengers, that I might
+destroy her. I was very anxious to destroy this ship, as she belonged to a
+Mr. Vanderbilt, of New York, an old steamboat captain, who had amassed a
+large fortune, in trade, and was a bitter enemy of the South. Lucrative
+contracts during the war had greatly enhanced his gains, and he had
+ambitiously made a present of one of his steamers to the Federal
+Government, to be called after him, to pursue "rebel pirates."
+
+Failing to overhaul another ship of the enemy in the few days that I had
+at my disposal, I released the _Ariel_, on ransom-bond, and sent her, and
+her large number of passengers, on their way rejoicing. I found Captain
+Jones of the _Ariel_ a clever and well-informed gentleman, and I believe
+he gave a very fair account of the capture of his ship when he reached New
+York. He pledged me that Vanderbilt's ransom-bond, which he signed as his
+agent, would be regarded as a debt of honor. The bond is for sale, cheap,
+to any one desiring to redeem Mr. Vanderbilt's honor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+THE ALABAMA IS DISABLED, AND STOPS TO REPAIR HER MACHINERY--PROCEEDS TO
+HER NEW RENDEZVOUS, THE ARCAS ISLANDS, AND THENCE TO GALVESTON--COMBAT
+WITH THE UNITED STATES STEAMER HATTERAS.
+
+
+The _Alabama_ was disabled for two or three days, soon after the events
+recorded in the last chapter, by an accident which occurred to her
+engine--the giving way of one of the valve castings. I was, in
+consequence, obliged to withdraw from the tracks of commerce, and lie as
+_perdue_ as possible, until the damage could be repaired. For this
+purpose, I ran close in with the land, on the north side of the island of
+Jamaica, where, with the exception of an occasional fishing-boat, and a
+passing coasting sloop, nothing was to be seen. Mr. Freeman, my chief
+engineer, was a capital machinist, and a man of great fertility of
+resource, and he went to work at once to remedy the mishap. Nothing but
+the puffing of the bellows, the clinking of the hammer on the anvil, and
+the rasping of files was heard now for forty-eight hours. At the end of
+this time, the engine was again in order for service. But we should have
+no occasion to use it for some days yet.
+
+It was now the 12th of December, and it was time for us to begin to think
+of running into the Gulf of Mexico, in pursuit of General Banks.
+Accordingly we put the ship under sail, and ran along down the island of
+Jamaica to the west end. Hence we stretched over into that other track of
+the California steamers, returning to the United States by the west end of
+Cuba; intending to follow this track as far as Cape San Antonio, hoping
+that we might stumble upon something by the way. The California steamer
+was not now my principal object, however, but only an incident to my
+Mexican Gulf scheme. I did not design to waste time upon her. Whilst
+pursuing our way leisurely along this track, we experienced a most
+singular series of bad weather. We took an old-fashioned norther, which
+lasted us three days, and blew us well down into the Gulf of Honduras.
+Here we became the sport of a variety of currents--setting generally to
+the westward, but sometimes in a contrary direction. We sighted some of
+the islands lying parallel with the coast, but being anxious to get
+forward, did not touch at any of them. As we drew out of the Gulf of
+Honduras, we again crossed the track of the California steamers, but
+fortune continued adverse, and none came along. A delay of a week or two
+here might enable me to pick up one of these treasure steamers, but this
+would interfere with my designs against Banks, as before remarked, and I
+forbore.
+
+On the 20th of December we made the Mexican province of Yucatan, and, just
+before nightfall, got hold of Cape Catoche. My land-fall was a very happy
+one, though, owing to the bad weather, I had had no "observation" for
+thirty-six hours. I sounded soon after dark, in twenty-eight fathoms of
+water, and being quite sure of my position, ran into the Yucatan passage,
+by the lead, the night being too dark to permit us to discern anything.
+The coast is clean, and the soundings regular, and I felt my way around
+the Cape without the least difficulty, finding myself, the next morning,
+in the Gulf of Mexico, running off to the westward with a free wind. The
+water was of a chalky whiteness, a little tinged with green, resembling
+the water on the Bahama Banks, and we ran along in a depth of twenty
+fathoms, the entire day, scarcely varying a foot. I had accomplished my
+object, thus far, with perfect success. I had not sighted a sail since
+leaving the west end of Jamaica, which could report me, and had entered
+the Gulf of Mexico, by night, unseen of any human eye, on the land or the
+sea. On the day after entering the Gulf, we did pass a solitary sail--a
+large steamer--steering in the direction of Havana, but she was hull down,
+and could make nothing of us. She may have been an enemy, but was probably
+a French ship of war, or transport, from Vera Cruz; the French expedition
+that culminated in the death of the unfortunate Maximilian having landed
+in Mexico about a year before, and there being much passing of steamships
+between France and Vera Cruz.
+
+On the 22d of December, night overtaking us, within about twenty miles of
+the Arcas, we anchored in twenty fathoms of water, in the open sea. The
+Yucatan coast is like that of West Florida, and the Guianas, before
+described. It is a continuous harbor, a ship being able to hold on to her
+anchors in the heaviest gale. Getting under way the next morning, we
+continued on our course, and pretty soon made a bark standing in the same
+direction with ourselves. It was our old friend, the _Agrippina_, with her
+bluff bows, and stump top-gallant masts. She had been all this time making
+her way hither from Blanquilla--a period of nearly four weeks; the
+incorrigible old Scotch captain having stopped, on his way, to refresh his
+crew, and do a little private trading. However, he was in good time, and
+so, letting him off with a gentle reprimand, we ran in to the Arcas
+together, and anchored at about five o'clock in the afternoon.
+
+We remained at these little islands a week, coaling ship, and refitting
+and repainting. We could not have been more thoroughly out of the world if
+we had been in the midst of the great African desert. A Robinson Crusoe
+here might have had it all to himself; and to give color to the illusion,
+we found on one of the islands a deserted hut, built of old boards and
+pieces of wreck, with an iron pot or two, and some pieces of sail-cloth
+lying about. An old dug-out, warped and cracked by the sun, lay hauled up
+near the hut, and a turtle-net, in pretty good repair, was found, stowed
+away in one corner of Crusoe's abode. But what had become of the hermit
+who once inhabited these desolate little coral islands, over which the
+wild sea-bird now flew, and screamed, in undivided dominion? An humble
+grave, on the head-board of which had been rudely carved with a knife, a
+name, and a date, told the brief and mournful story. A companion had
+probably laid the hermit away and departed. A more fitting burial-place
+for a sailor could not well be conceived; for here the elements with which
+he was wont to battle had full sweep, and his requiem was sung, without
+ceasing, by the booming wave, that shook and rocked him in his
+winding-sheet of sand, when the storm raged.
+
+The islands are three in number, lying in a triangle. They are surrounded
+by deep water, and it is probably not a great many years since the little
+stone-mason of the sea, the coralline insect, first brought them to the
+surface, for the only vegetation as yet on any of them is a carpet of
+sea-kale, on the largest of them, and a stunted bush or two. In the basin,
+in the centre of the triangle, the _Alabama_ is anchored, and so pellucid
+is the water, that not only her anchor, which lies in seven fathoms, is
+visible, from stock to fluke, but all the wonders of the coral world,
+before described, lie open to inspection; with the turtle groping about
+amid the sea-fern, the little fishes feeding, or sporting, and madrepore
+and sponges lying about in profusion. Bartelli drew up from this submarine
+forest, one of the largest of the latter, and having cured it in the sun,
+and rendered it sweet by frequent ablution, transferred it to my
+bath-room. The naturalist would have revelled at the Arcas, in viewing the
+debris of sea-shells, and coral, and the remains of stranded fish, that
+lay strewn along the beach; and in watching the habits of the gannet,
+man-of-war bird, and a great variety of the sea-gull, all of which were
+laying, and incubating. As the keel of one of our boats would grate upon
+the sand, clouds of these birds would fly up, and circle around our heads,
+screaming in their various and discordant notes at our intrusion. Beneath
+our feet, the whole surface of the islands was covered with eggs, or with
+young birds, in various stages of growth. Here, as at Blanquilla, all our
+boats were hoisted out, and rigged for sailing; and fishing, and turtling
+parties were sent out to supply the crew, and in the evening sailing and
+swimming matches, and target-shooting took place. This was only the
+by-play, however, whilst the main work of the drama was going forward,
+viz., the coaling, and preparation of the _Alabama_ for her dash at the
+enemy.
+
+Our upper deck had again become open, and required recaulking; and some
+patching and refitting was necessary to be done to the sails. As we wanted
+our heels to be as clean as possible, we careened the ship, and gave her
+copper a good scrubbing below the water-line, where it had become a
+little foul. Having taken all the coal out of the _Agrippina_, we
+ballasted her with the coral rock, which we found lying abundantly at our
+hands, watered her from the _Alabama_, and gave her her sailing orders for
+Liverpool. She was to report to Captain Bullock, for another cargo of
+coal, to be delivered at another rendezvous, of the locality of which the
+reader will be informed in due time. During the week that we lay at the
+Arcas, there had evidently been several gales of wind at work around us,
+though none of them had touched us. On two or three occasions, when the
+wind was quite light, and the sky clear overhead, a heavy sea was observed
+to be breaking on the northern shores of the islands. There is no doubt
+that on these occasions there were "northers" prevailing along the Mexican
+coast. I was led hence to infer, that these terrible gales do not extend,
+as a general rule, a great distance seaward from that coast. We were very
+little more than a hundred miles from Vera Cruz, which is in the track of
+these terrible storms, and yet we had only felt the pulsations of them, as
+it were; the huge breakers on the Arcas beating time, in a still
+atmosphere, to the storm which was raging at Vera Cruz. It was seventeen
+days from the time we doubled Cape Catoche, until we left the Arcas.
+During all this time, we were off the coast of Yucatan, the season was
+near mid-winter, and yet we had not had a norther. Along the Mexican coast
+from Tampico to Vera Cruz, at this season of the year, the usual interval
+between these gales, is from three to five days.
+
+As has been mentioned to the reader, the Banks' expedition was expected to
+rendezvous at Galveston, on the 10th of January. On the 5th of that month
+we got under way from the Arcas, giving ourselves five days in which to
+make the distance, under sail. Our secret was still perfectly safe, as
+only a single sail had passed us, whilst we lay at anchor, and she at too
+great a distance to be able to report us. We had an abundant supply of
+coal on board, the ship was in excellent trim, and as the sailors used to
+say of her, at this period, could be made to do everything but "talk." My
+crew were well drilled, my powder was in good condition, and as to the
+rest, I trusted to luck, and to the "creek's not being too high." The
+weather continued fine throughout our run, and on the 11th at
+noon--having been delayed a day by a calm--we observed in latitude 28� 51'
+45", and longitude 94� 55', being just thirty miles from Galveston. I now
+laid my ship's head for the Galveston light-house, and stood in, intending
+to get a distant sight of the Banks' fleet before nightfall, and then haul
+off, and await the approach of night, before I ran in, and made the
+assault.
+
+I instructed the man at the mast-head, to keep a very bright look-out, and
+told him what to look out for, viz., an immense fleet anchored off a
+light-house. The wind was light, and the afternoon was pretty well spent
+before there was any sign from the mast-head. The look-out at length
+cried, "Land ho! sail ho!" in quick succession, and I already began to
+make sure of my game. But the look-out, upon being questioned, said he did
+not see any fleet of transports, but only five steamers which looked like
+ships of war. Here was a damper! What could have become of Banks, and his
+great expedition, and what was this squadron of steam ships-of-war doing
+here? Presently a shell, thrown by one of the steamers, was seen to burst
+over the city. "Ah, ha!" exclaimed I, to the officer of the deck who was
+standing by me, "there has been a change of programme here. The enemy
+would not be firing into his own people, and we must have recaptured
+Galveston, since our last advices." "So it would seem," replied the
+officer. And so it turned out. In the interval between our leaving the
+West Indies, and arriving off Galveston, this city had been retaken by
+General Magruder, assisted by a gallant seaman of the merchant service,
+Captain Leon Smith. Smith, with a couple of small river steamers,
+protected by cotton bags, and having a number of sharp-shooters on board,
+assaulted and captured, or drove to sea the enemy's entire fleet,
+consisting of several heavily armed steamships.
+
+The recapture of this place from the enemy changed the destination of the
+Banks' expedition. It rendezvoused at New Orleans, whence General Banks,
+afterward, attempted the invasion of Texas by the valley of the Red River.
+He was here met by General Dick Taylor, who, with a much inferior force,
+demolished him, giving him such a scare, that it was with difficulty
+Porter could stop him at Alexandria, to assist him in the defence of his
+fleet, until he could extricate it from the shallows of the river where it
+was aground. The hero of Boston Common had not had such a scare since
+Stonewall Jackson had chased him through Winchester, Virginia.
+
+What was best to be done in this changed condition of affairs? I certainly
+had not come all the way into the Gulf of Mexico, to fight five ships of
+war, the least of which was probably my equal. And yet, how could I very
+well run away, in the face of the promises I had given my crew? for I had
+told them at the Arcas islands, that they were, if the fates proved
+propitious, to have some sport off Galveston. Whilst I was pondering the
+difficulty, the enemy himself, happily, came to my relief; for pretty soon
+the look-out again called from aloft, and said, "One of the steamers, sir,
+is coming out in chase of us." The _Alabama_ had given chase pretty often,
+but this was the first time she had been chased. It was just the thing I
+wanted, however, for I at once conceived the design of drawing this single
+ship of the enemy far enough away from the remainder of her fleet, to
+enable me to decide a battle with her before her consorts could come to
+her relief.
+
+The _Alabama_ was still under sail, though, of course, being so near the
+enemy, the water was warm in her boilers, and in a condition to give us
+steam in ten minutes. To carry out my design of decoying the enemy, I now
+wore ship, as though I were fleeing from his pursuit. This, no doubt,
+encouraged him, though, as it would seem, the captain of the pursuing ship
+pretty soon began to smell a rat, as the reader will see presently by his
+report of the engagement. I now lowered my propeller, still holding on to
+my sails, however, and gave the ship a small head of steam, to prevent the
+stranger from overhauling me too rapidly. We were still too close to the
+fleet, to think of engaging him. I thus decoyed him on, little by little,
+now turning my propeller over slowly, and now stopping it altogether. In
+the meantime night set in, before we could get a distinct view of our
+pursuer. She was evidently a large steamer, but we knew from her build and
+rig, that she belonged neither to the class of old steam frigates, or that
+of the new sloops, and we were quite willing to try our strength with any
+of the other classes.
+
+At length, when I judged that I had drawn the stranger out about twenty
+miles from his fleet, I furled my sails, beat to quarters, prepared my
+ship for action, and wheeled to meet him. The two ships now approached
+each other, very rapidly. As we came within speaking distance, we
+simultaneously stopped our engines, the ships being about one hundred
+yards apart. The enemy was the first to hail. "What ship is that?" cried
+he. "This is her Britannic Majesty's steamer _Petrel_," we replied. We now
+hailed in turn, and demanded to know who he was. The reply not coming to
+us very distinctly, we repeated our question, when we heard the words,
+"This is the United States ship ----" the name of the ship being lost to
+us. But we had heard enough. All we wanted to know was, that the stranger
+was a United States ship, and therefore our enemy. A pause now ensued--a
+rather awkward pause, as the reader may suppose. Presently, the stranger
+hailed again, and said, "If you please, I will send a boat on board of
+you." His object was, of course, to verify or discredit the answer we had
+given him, that we were one of her Britannic Majesty's cruisers. We
+replied, "Certainly, we shall be happy to receive your boat;" and we heard
+a boatswain's mate call away a boat, and could hear the creaking of the
+tackles, as she was lowered into the water.
+
+Things were now come to a crisis, and it being useless to delay our
+engagement with the enemy any longer, I turned to my first lieutenant, and
+said, "I suppose you are all ready for action?" "We are," he replied; "the
+men are eager to begin, and are only waiting for the word." I then said to
+him, "Tell the enemy who we are, for we must not strike him in disguise,
+and when you have done so, give him the broadside." Kell now sang out, in
+his powerful, clarion voice, through his trumpet, "This is the Confederate
+States steamer _Alabama_!" and turning to the crew, who were all standing
+at their guns--the gunners with their sights on the enemy, and
+lock-strings in hand--gave the order, fire! Away went the broadside in an
+instant, our little ship feeling, perceptibly, the recoil of her guns. The
+night was clear. There was no moon, but sufficient star-light to enable
+the two ships to see each other quite distinctly, at the distance of half
+a mile, or more, and a state of the atmosphere highly favorable to the
+conduct of sound. The wind, besides, was blowing in the direction of the
+enemy's fleet. As a matter of course, our guns awakened the echoes of the
+coast, far and near, announcing very distinctly to the Federal
+Admiral--Bell, a Southern man, who had gone over to the enemy--that the
+ship which he had sent out to chase the strange sail, had a fight on her
+hands. He immediately, as we afterward learned, got under way, with the
+_Brooklyn_, his flag-ship, and two others of his steamers, and came out to
+the rescue.
+
+
+[Illustration: The Combat between the Alabama and the Hatteras, off
+Galveston, on the 11th of January, 1863.
+
+KELLY, PIET & CO. PUBLISHERS.----LITH. BY A. HOEN & CO. BALTO.]
+
+
+Our broadside was returned instantly; the enemy, like ourselves, having
+been on his guard, with his men standing at their guns. The two ships,
+when the action commenced, had swerved in such a way, that they were now
+heading in the same direction--the _Alabama_ fighting her
+starboard-broadside, and her antagonist her port-broadside. Each ship, as
+she delivered her broadside, put herself under steam, and the action
+became a running fight, in parallel lines, or nearly so, the ships now
+nearing, and now separating a little from each other. My men handled their
+pieces with great spirit and commendable coolness, and the action was
+sharp and exciting while it lasted; which, however, was not very long, for
+in just _thirteen minutes_ after firing the first gun, the enemy hoisted a
+light, and fired an off-gun, as a signal that he had been beaten. We at
+once withheld our fire, and such a cheer went up from the brazen throats
+of my fellows, as must have astonished even a Texan, if he had heard it.
+We now steamed up quite close to the beaten steamer, and asked her
+captain, formally, if he had surrendered. He replied that he had. I then
+inquired if he was in want of assistance, to which he responded promptly
+that he was, that his ship was sinking rapidly, and that he needed all our
+boats. There appeared to be much confusion on board the enemy's ship;
+officers and crew seemed to be apprehensive that we would permit them to
+drown, and several voices cried aloud to us for assistance, at the same
+time. When the captain of the beaten ship came on board to surrender his
+sword to me, I learned that I had been engaged with the United States
+steamer _Hatteras_, Captain Blake. I will now let Captain Blake tell his
+own story. The following is his official report to the Secretary of the
+Federal Navy:--
+
+     UNITED STATES' CONSULATE,
+     KINGSTON, JAMAICA, JAN. 21, 1863.
+
+     SIR:--It is my painful duty to inform the Department of the
+     destruction of the United States steamer _Hatteras_, recently under
+     my command, by the rebel steamer _Alabama_, on the night of the 11th
+     inst., off the coast of Texas. The circumstances of the disaster are
+     as follows:--
+
+     Upon the afternoon of the 11th inst., at half-past two o'clock, while
+     at anchor in company with the fleet under Commodore Bell, off
+     Galveston, Texas, I was ordered by signal from the United States
+     flag-ship _Brooklyn_, to chase a sail to the southward and eastward.
+     I got under way immediately, and steamed with all speed in the
+     direction indicated. After some time the strange sail could be seen
+     from the _Hatteras_, and was ascertained to be a steamer, which fact
+     I communicated to the flag-ship by signal. I continued the chase and
+     rapidly gained upon the suspicious vessel. Knowing the slow rate of
+     speed of the _Hatteras_, I at once suspected that deception was being
+     practised, and hence ordered the ship to be cleared for action, with
+     everything in readiness for a determined attack and a vigorous
+     defence.
+
+     When within about four miles of the vessel, I observed that she had
+     ceased to steam, and was lying broadside and awaiting us. It was
+     nearly seven o'clock, and quite dark; but, notwithstanding the
+     obscurity of the night, I felt assured, from the general character of
+     the vessel and her manoeuvres, that I should soon encounter the
+     rebel steamer _Alabama_. Being able to work but four guns on the side
+     of the _Hatteras_--two short 32-pounders, one 30-pounder rifled
+     Parrott gun, and one 20-pounder rifled gun--I concluded to close with
+     her, that my guns might be effective, if necessary.
+
+     I came within easy speaking range--about seventy-five yards--and upon
+     asking, "What steamer is that?" received the answer, "Her Britannic
+     Majesty's ship _Vixen_." I replied that I would send a boat aboard,
+     and immediately gave the order. In the meantime, the vessels were
+     changing positions, the stranger endeavoring to gain a desirable
+     position for a raking fire. Almost simultaneously with the piping
+     away of the boat, the strange craft again replied, "We are the
+     Confederate steamer _Alabama_," which was accompanied with a
+     broadside. I, at the same moment, returned the fire. Being well aware
+     of the many vulnerable points of the _Hatteras_, I hoped, by closing
+     with the _Alabama_, to be able to board her, and thus rid the seas of
+     the piratical craft. I steamed directly for the _Alabama_, but she
+     was enabled by her great speed, and the foulness of the bottom of the
+     _Hatteras_, and, consequently, her diminished speed, to thwart my
+     attempt when I had gained a distance of but thirty yards from her. At
+     this range, musket and pistol shots were exchanged. The firing
+     continued with great vigor on both sides. At length a shell entered
+     amidships in the hold, setting fire to it, and, at the same
+     instant--as I can hardly divide the time--a shell passed through the
+     sick bay, exploding in an adjoining compartment, also producing
+     fire. Another entered the cylinder, filling the engine-room and deck
+     with steam, and depriving me of my power to manoeuvre the vessel,
+     or to work the pumps, upon which the reduction of the fire depended.
+
+     With the vessel on fire in two places, and beyond human power, a
+     hopeless wreck upon the waters, with her walking-beam shot away, and
+     her engine rendered useless, I still maintained an active fire, with
+     the double hope of disabling the _Alabama_ and attracting the
+     attention of the fleet off Galveston, which was only twenty-eight
+     miles distant.
+
+     It was soon reported to me that the shells had entered the _Hatteras_
+     at the water-line, tearing off entire sheets of iron, and that the
+     water was rushing in, utterly defying every attempt to remedy the
+     evil, and that she was rapidly sinking. Learning the melancholy
+     truth, and observing that the _Alabama_ was on my port bow, entirely
+     beyond the range of my guns, doubtless preparing for a raking fire of
+     the deck, I felt I had no right to sacrifice uselessly, and without
+     any desirable result, the lives of all under my command.
+
+     To prevent the blowing up of the _Hatteras_ from the fire, which was
+     making much progress, I ordered the magazine to be flooded, and
+     afterward a lee gun was fired. The _Alabama_ then asked if assistance
+     was desired, to which an affirmative answer was given.
+
+     The _Hatteras_ was then going down, and in order to save the lives of
+     my officers and men, I caused the armament on the port side to be
+     thrown overboard. Had I not done so, I am confident the vessel would
+     have gone down with many brave hearts and valuable lives. After
+     considerable delay, caused by the report that a steamer was seen
+     coming from Galveston, the _Alabama_ sent us assistance, and I have
+     the pleasure of informing the Department that every living being was
+     conveyed safely from the _Hatteras_ to the _Alabama_.
+
+     Two minutes after leaving the _Hatteras_ she went down, bow first,
+     with her pennant at the mast-head, with all her muskets and stores of
+     every description, the enemy not being able, owing to her rapid
+     sinking, to obtain a single weapon.
+
+     The battery upon the _Alabama_ brought into action against the
+     _Hatteras_ numbered seven guns, consisting of four long 32-pounders,
+     one 100-pounder, one 68-pounder, and one 24-pounder rifled gun. The
+     great superiority of the _Alabama_, with her powerful battery and her
+     machinery under the water-line, must be at once recognized by the
+     Department, who are familiar with the construction of the _Hatteras_,
+     and her total unfitness for a conflict with a regular built vessel of
+     war.
+
+     The distance between the _Hatteras_ and the _Alabama_ during the
+     action varied from twenty-five to one hundred yards. Nearly fifty
+     shots were fired from the _Hatteras_, and I presume a greater number
+     from the _Alabama_.
+
+     I desire to refer to the efficient and active manner in which Acting
+     Master Porter, executive officer, performed his duty. The conduct of
+     Assistant Surgeon Edward S. Matthews, both during the action and
+     afterward, in attending to the wounded, demands my unqualified
+     commendation. I would also bring to the favorable notice of the
+     Department Acting Master's Mate McGrath, temporarily performing duty
+     as gunner. Owing to the darkness of the night, and the peculiar
+     construction of the _Hatteras_, I am only able to refer to the
+     conduct of those officers who came under my especial attention; but
+     from the character of the contest, and the amount of damage done to
+     the _Alabama_, I have personally no reason to believe that any
+     officer failed in his duty.
+
+     To the men of the _Hatteras_ I cannot give too much praise. Their
+     enthusiasm and bravery was of the highest order.
+
+     I enclose the report of Assistant Surgeon E. S. Matthews, by which
+     you will observe that five men were wounded and two killed. The
+     missing, it is hoped, reached the fleet at Galveston.
+
+     I shall communicate to the Department, in a separate report, the
+     movements of myself and my command, from the time of our transfer to
+     the _Alabama_ until the departure of the earliest mail from this
+     place to the United States.
+
+     I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+        H. C. BLAKE,
+          _Lieutenant Commanding_.
+
+     _Hon._ GIDEON WELLES,
+     _Secretary of the Navy, Washington_.
+
+Setting aside all the discourteous stuff and nonsense about "a _rebel_
+steamer," and a "piratical craft," of which Captain Blake, who had been
+bred in the old service, should have been ashamed, especially after
+enjoying the hospitalities of my cabin for a couple of weeks, the above is
+a pretty fair report of the engagement. I am a little puzzled, however, by
+the Captain's statement, that he could use but four guns on a side. We
+certainly understood from all the officers and men of the _Hatteras_, at
+the time, that she carried eight guns; six in broadside, and two pivots,
+just like the _Alabama_,--the only difference between the two ships being,
+that the _Alabama's_ pivot guns were the heaviest.
+
+There is another remark in the report that is quite new to me. I am
+informed, for the first time, that Captain Blake desired to board me. I
+cannot, of course, know what his intentions were, but I saw no evidence of
+such an intention, in the handling of his ship; and Captain Blake must
+himself have known that, in the terribly demoralized condition of his
+crew, when they found that they had really fallen in with the _Alabama_,
+he could not have depended upon a single boarder. What Captain Blake means
+by saying that his ship went down, with her pennant flying, I am at a
+loss, as every seaman must be, to understand. Did he not surrender his
+ship to me? And if so, what business had his pennant, any more than his
+ensign, to be flying? But this, I suppose, was a little clap-trap, like
+his expressions, "rebel," and "pirate," thrown in to suit the Yankee taste
+of the day. Indeed, nothing was more lamentable to me, during the whole
+war, than to observe how readily the officers of the old Navy, many of
+whom belonged to the gentle families of the land, and all of whom had been
+bred in a school of honor, took to the slang expressions of the day, and
+fell, pell-mell, into the ranks of the vulgar and fanatical rabble that
+was hounding on the war.
+
+The officers of the Confederate States Navy, to say the least, were as
+much entitled to be regarded as fighting for a principle as themselves,
+and one would have thought that there would have been a chivalrous rivalry
+between the two services, as to which should show the other the most
+courtesy. This was the case, a thousand years ago, between the Christian
+and the Saracen. Did it result from their forms of government, and must
+democrats necessarily be vulgarians? Must the howling Demos devour
+everything gentle in the land, and reduce us all to the common level of
+the pot-house politician, and compel us to use his slang? Radicalism
+seemed to be now, just what it had been in the great French Revolution, a
+sort of mad-dog virus; every one who was inoculated with it, becoming
+rabid. The bitten dog howled incessantly with rage, and underwent a total
+transformation of nature. But our figure does not fit the case exactly.
+There was more method in this madness, than in that of the canine animal,
+for the human dog howled as much to please his master, as from rage. The
+size of the sop which he was to receive depended, in a great measure, upon
+the vigor of his howling.
+
+But to return to the _Alabama_ and the _Hatteras_. As soon as the action
+was over, and I had seen the latter sink, I caused all lights to be
+extinguished on board my ship, and shaped my course again for the passage
+of Yucatan. In the meantime, the enemy's boat, which had been lowered for
+the purpose of boarding me, pulled in vigorously for the shore, as soon
+as it saw the action commence, and landed safely; and Admiral Bell, with
+his three steamers, passed on either side of the scene of action--the
+steamers having been scattered in the pursuit, to cover as much space as
+possible, and thus increase their chances of falling in with me. They did
+not find the _Alabama_, or indeed anything else during the night, but as
+one of the steamers was returning to her anchorage off Galveston, the next
+morning, in the dejected mood of a baffled scout, she fell in with the
+sunken _Hatteras_, the tops of whose royal masts were just above water,
+and from the main of which, the pennant--the _night_ pennant, for the
+action was fought at night--spoken of by Captain Blake, was observed to be
+flying. It told the only tale of the sunken ship which her consort had to
+take back to the Admiral. The missing boat turned up soon afterward,
+however, and the mystery was then solved. There was now as hurried a
+saddling of steeds for the pursuit as there had been in the chase of the
+young Lochinvar, and with as little effect, for by the time the steeds
+were given the spur, the _Alabama_ was distant a hundred miles or more.
+
+There was very little said by the enemy, about this engagement, between
+the _Alabama_ and the _Hatteras_, as was usual with him when he met with a
+disaster; and what was said was all false. My own ship was represented to
+be a monster of speed and strength, and the _Hatteras_, on the other hand,
+to be a tug, or river steamer, or some such craft, with two or three small
+guns at the most. The facts are as follows: The _Hatteras_ was a larger
+ship than the _Alabama_, by one hundred tons. Her armament, as reported to
+us by her own people, was as follows: Four 32-pounders; two Parrot
+30-pounder rifles; one 20-pounder rifle; and one 12-pounder
+howitzer--making a total of eight guns. The armament of the _Alabama_ was
+as follows: Six 32-pounders; one 8-inch shell gun; one Blakeley rifle of
+100 pounds--total, eight guns. There was, besides, a little toy-rifle--a
+9-pounder--on the quarter-deck of the _Alabama_, which had been captured
+from a merchant-ship, and which, I believe, was fired once during the
+action. The crew of the _Hatteras_ was 108 strong; that of the _Alabama_
+110. There was thus, as the reader sees, a considerable disparity between
+the two ships, in the weight of their pivot-guns, and the _Alabama_ ought
+to have won the fight; and she did win it, in _thirteen minutes_--taking
+care, too, though she sank her enemy at night, to see that none of his men
+were drowned--a fact which I shall have occasion to contrast, by-and-by,
+with another sinking. The only casualty we had on board the _Alabama_ was
+one man wounded. The damages to our hull were so slight, that there was
+not a shot-hole which it was necessary to plug, to enable us to continue
+our cruise; nor was there a rope to be spliced. Blake behaved like a man
+of courage, and made the best fight he could, ill supported as he was by
+the "volunteer" officers by whom he was surrounded, but he fell into
+disgrace with the Demos, and had but little opportunity shown him during
+the remainder of the war, to retrieve his disaster.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+THE ALABAMA PROCEEDS TO JAMAICA, AND LANDS HER PRISONERS--THE CAPTAIN
+VISITS THE COUNTRY--INTERCOURSE WITH THE ENGLISH NAVAL OFFICERS--EARL
+RUSSELL'S LETTER--PREPARATIONS FOR SEA--A BOAT-RACE BY MOONLIGHT--CAPTAIN
+BLAKE COMPLAINS OF "DIXIE"--HOW THE MATTER IS SETTLED.
+
+
+The little by-play, in the Gulf of Mexico, related in the last chapter,
+being over, I determined to make the best of my way to the island of
+Jamaica, there land my prisoners, on _parole_, patch up the two or three
+shot-holes the enemy had made above the water-line, re-coal, and proceed
+on my eastern cruise, against the enemy's commerce, as originally
+contemplated. We had a long passage to Jamaica, as we took a succession of
+southerly gales, that greatly retarded our speed. My first intention was
+to make the whole run under steam, but after struggling against these
+gales for three or four days, I found my fuel diminishing so rapidly, that
+it became prudent to let the fires go down, and put the ship under sail.
+This delay was very vexatious, as our little ship was greatly
+inconvenienced by the number of prisoners we had on board.
+
+_Friday, the 16th of January_, is noted on my journal as follows:--The
+gale continued all day, moderating toward night. The sky is overcast with
+a dull canopy of leaden clouds, the sun barely showing himself to us, for
+a moment at a time, through an occasional rift, during the entire day.
+Observing the water to be discolored, at one P. M. we sounded on the
+Yucatan Bank. The soundings on this bank being an excellent guide, I
+continued to run along the edge of it until eleven P. M., when we passed
+off it, into the deep waters of the Yucatan Passage. We now put the ship
+under steam again, and aiding the steam by reefed trysails, we battled
+with an adverse sea and current during the rest of the night. We found the
+current setting into the passage, to be as much as two and a half knots
+per hour, which was greater than I had ever known it before.
+
+I may take this occasion to remind the reader, that the old theory of Dr.
+Franklin and others, was, that the Gulf Stream, which flows out of the
+Gulf of Mexico, between the north coast of Cuba, and the Florida Reefs and
+Keys, flows _into_ the Gulf, through the channel between the west end of
+Cuba, and the coast of Yucatan, in which the _Alabama_ now was. But the
+effectual disproof of this theory is, that we know positively, from the
+strength of the current, and its volume, or cross section, in the two
+passages, that more than twice the quantity of water flows out of the Gulf
+of Mexico, than flows into it through this passage. Upon Dr. Franklin's
+theory, the Gulf of Mexico in a very short time would become dry ground.
+Nor can the Mississippi River, which is the only stream worth noticing, in
+this connection, that flows into the Gulf of Mexico, come to his relief,
+as we have seen that that river only empties into the Gulf of Mexico,
+about _one three thousandth_ part as much water, as the Gulf Stream takes
+out. We must resort, of necessity, to an under-current from the north,
+passing into the Gulf of Mexico, under the Gulf Stream, rising to the
+surface when heated, and thus swelling the volume of the outflowing water.
+I refer my readers, curious in this matter, to the work of Captain Maury,
+entitled the "Physical Geography of the Sea." It is full of profound
+philosophy, on the subjects of which it treats, and is written in so
+pleasing a style, and is so strewn with flowers, as to make the reader
+forget that he is travelling the thorny paths of science.
+
+The 18th of January was Sunday, and we were obliged to intermit the usual
+Sunday muster, on account of the bad weather, which continued without
+intermission--the wind still blowing a gale, and the passing clouds
+deluging us with rain. Two days afterward, viz., on the 20th, we made the
+west end of the island of Jamaica, a little after midnight, and as we
+crawled under the lee of the coast, we broke, for the first time, the
+force of the wind with which we had been so long struggling. We had been
+thus nine days making the passage from Galveston to the west end of
+Jamaica, and were the greater part of another day, in coasting the island
+up to Port Royal. We had shown first one, and then another neutral flag to
+several neutral ships that we had passed, but the enemy's flag was nowhere
+to be seen. Giving chase to a bark, whilst we were still in the Gulf of
+Mexico, we were quite amazed, as we came up with her, to find that she was
+our old consort, the _Agrippina_! This bluff-bowed old Scotch ship had
+been all the time since she left us at the Arcas Islands--eight
+days--battling with adverse winds, and was still only a couple of hundred
+miles or so advanced on her voyage.
+
+We made the Plum Point lighthouse, at half-past four P. M., and were off
+the mouth of the harbor of Port Royal just as the evening began to deepen
+into twilight. We hoisted the French flag, and firing a gun, and making
+the usual signal for a pilot, one came promptly on board of us. Day was
+fading into night so fast, that we had scarcely light enough left to
+enable us to grope our way through the tortuous and narrow channel, and it
+was quite dark when our anchor was let go. Of course, we did not permit
+the pilot to anchor us as a _Frenchman_, and when we told him that it was
+the _Alabama_ he was taking in, he did not appear at all surprised, but
+remarked very coolly, "I knew all the while that you were no Frenchman." I
+felt much relieved, when at length I heard the plunge of the anchor into
+the water, followed by the rattling of the chain-cable through the
+hawse-hole. On the high seas, with the enemy all the time in full chase of
+me, constant vigilance was required to guard against surprise; and my
+battle with the elements was almost as constant, as that with the enemy.
+When I reached the friendly shelter, therefore, of a neutral port,
+belonging to such of the powers of the earth as were strong enough to
+prevent themselves from being kicked by the enemy, my over-taxed nervous
+system relaxed in a moment, and I enjoyed the luxury of a little
+gentlemanly idleness. Kell was of wonderful assistance to me, in this
+respect. I always left the ship in his hands, with the utmost confidence,
+and my confidence was never misplaced. He was, as the reader has seen, an
+excellent disciplinarian, and being, besides, a thorough master of his
+profession, I had in him all that I could desire.
+
+We were boarded by a lieutenant from the English flag-ship, immediately
+upon anchoring, and the news spread like wildfire through all Port Royal,
+that the _Alabama_ had arrived, with the officers and crew of a Federal
+gunboat which she had sunk in battle, on board as prisoners. Night as it
+was, we were soon swarmed with visitors, come off to welcome us to the
+port, and tender their congratulations. The next morning I called on
+Commodore Dunlap, who commanded a squadron of Admiral Milne's fleet, and
+was the commanding naval officer present. This was the first English port
+I had entered, since the _Alabama_ had been commissioned, and no question,
+whatever, as to the antecedents of my ship was raised. I had, in fact,
+brought in pretty substantial credentials, that I was a ship of war--130
+of the officers and men of one of the enemy's sunken ships. Great Britain
+had had the good sense not to listen to the frantic appeals, either of Mr.
+Seward or Minister Adams, both of whom claimed, as the reader has seen,
+that it was her duty to stultify herself, and ignore the commission of my
+ship. Nor did Commodore Dunlap say anything to me of my destruction of
+British property, or of the three ships of war, which that adept in
+international law, the "Commercial Advertiser," of New York, had asserted
+Admiral Milne had sent after me. These questions, indeed, had all been
+authoritatively settled, I found, by Earl Russell, the British Foreign
+Secretary, by the following letter to the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce,
+which had applied to him for information. It is copied from the New York
+"World":
+
+     "SIR: I am directed by Earl Russell to reply to your letters of the
+     6th inst., respecting the destruction by the Confederate steamer
+     _Alabama_ of British property embarked in American vessels and burned
+     by that steamer. Earl Russell desires me to state to you that British
+     property on board a vessel belonging to one of the belligerents must
+     be subject to all the risks and contingencies of war, so far as the
+     capture of the vessel is concerned. The owners of any British
+     property, not being contraband of war, on board a Federal vessel
+     captured and destroyed by a Confederate vessel of war, may claim in a
+     Confederate Prize Court compensation for the destruction of such
+     property."
+
+The "World" said lachrymosely of the above, that "it was but one of a
+crowd of eloquent indications which constantly multiply upon us to prove
+that Earl Russell, like Mr. Gladstone, whatever his sympathies may be,
+really regards the 'nation of Jefferson Davis' as substantially created,
+and looks upon recognition as simply a question of time."
+
+I forwarded, through Commodore Dunlap, an official report of my arrival to
+the Governor of the island, with a request to be permitted to land my
+prisoners, and put some slight repairs upon my ship; both of which
+requests were promptly granted. Governor Eyre was then in authority. He
+behaved with great spirit and firmness, afterward, in nipping in the bud a
+widespread negro insurrection, which had for its object, the massacre of
+the whites and the plunder of their property. A few negroes were killed by
+the troops, and I have been sorry to learn since, that his Excellency has
+been much harassed, in consequence, by both English and American fanatics.
+The English squadron at anchor consisted of the _Jason_, the _Challenger_,
+and _Greyhound_. The most cordial relations were at once established
+between the officers of all these ships, and those of the _Alabama_.
+Indeed, many of them were our old acquaintances.
+
+An English friend having come on board, to invite me to pass a few days
+with him, in the mountains, while my ship was being prepared for sea, I
+accepted his invitation, and turning over all the unfinished business of
+the ship to Kell, we pulled up to Kingston in my gig. Here I found my
+friend's carriage in waiting, and entering it, we were soon whirled out of
+the limits of the dusty city, into the most charming of tropical scenery.
+Except landing, occasionally, for a few hours at a time, at the desert
+little islands I had visited in the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico,
+I had not had a holiday on shore, since leaving the _Mersey_, on my way to
+commission the _Alabama_, five months before. I needed a little rest, and
+recreation, to restore my wasted energies, and I found both with my
+excellent friend, Mr. Fyfe.
+
+For the first ten miles, we rode over a beautiful macadamized road, or
+rather avenue, lined with the gigantic cactus, growing frequently to the
+height of twenty and thirty feet, and several specimens of the palm; chief
+among which was the cocoanut-tree, shooting its trunk with the
+straightness of an arrow to a great height, and waving gracefully in the
+breeze, its superb, feather-like foliage. The way was lined with many
+picturesque country houses, each surrounded by its extensive and well-kept
+grounds, on which were growing crops, chiefly of fruits and vegetables,
+but interspersed occasionally with a field of Indian corn, or sugar-cane.
+Hedgerows and shade-trees adorned the front yards, and protected the
+residences from the sun, giving them an air of seclusion, coolness, and
+quiet that was very inviting. We occasionally obtained glimpses of
+beautiful valleys, on the right hand, and on the left, in which fairy
+cottages were nestled. The scenery was continually changing, as the road
+wound along, now skirting the base of abrupt hills, now running over a
+stream, and now plunging into the recesses of a wood, with the trees
+arching overhead, like the groined work of a cathedral.
+
+At the end of our ten miles of carriage-drive, we found ourselves at the
+foot of the mountains. Here we alighted at a large hostelry, which was a
+sort of combination of the inn, caravansary, and country store, and after
+some refreshment, mounted saddle-horses which we found in waiting. The
+roads soon became mere bridle-paths. As we ascended the slopes of the
+mountains, we changed rapidly the character of the vegetation; every
+hundred feet of elevation being equivalent to a change of a degree or more
+of latitude, and bringing us in the presence of new forest-trees and new
+plants, until we dismounted on the lawn of my friend, the immediate
+surroundings of which were all English; the cedar, and other well-known
+trees and shrubs of the temperate latitudes, supplanting the tropical
+vegetation we had left in the _tierra caliente_ below us. The air, too,
+was so delightfully changed, from the sultry heats of the coast, that we
+found a fire lighted of the dry and fragrant branches of the cedar-tree,
+quite pleasant as the night set in.
+
+The reader may imagine how magical the change was, from the cramped
+quarters, and other _desagremens_ of a small ship, to the ample halls, and
+elegant leisure of an English home, perched on the mountain-side, and
+overlooking a perfect wilderness of tropical vegetation. The sea was in
+plain sight to the eastward of us, and Kingston and Port Royal lay, as it
+were, at our feet. With the aid of a fine telescope which my friend had
+mounted in his piazza, I could distinguish my own ship from the other
+vessels in the harbor, though they all appeared as diminutive as so many
+sea-gulls, nestling upon the water. I need not say how soundly I slept
+that night, far away from war's alarms, fanned by the gentlest of
+sea-breezes, in the sweetest of sheets, and lullabied by the distant
+breaker, as it stranded itself at regular intervals upon the beach.
+
+I was awakened the next morning by the merry songs of a hundred birds,
+that came appropriately blended with the perfume of the flowers that
+clustered around my windows; and I have seldom looked upon a more
+beautiful picture, than when I threw back the blinds, and caught a view of
+the landscape, rejoicing in the morning's sun, with all its wealth of
+tropical fruits and flowers, and the sea--the glorious sea--glittering
+like a mirror in the distance. Nothing can be more charming than the
+interior of an English household, when the ice has been broken and you
+have fairly gained admission into the interior of the temple. The
+successful entertainment of a guest is one of those _artless_ arts, of
+which the English gentleman, above all others, is master; and the art
+consists in putting the guest so entirely at ease, as to make him feel at
+home in the first half-hour. With a library, servants, and horses at your
+command, you are literally left to take care of yourself--meeting the
+family in the parlors and sitting-rooms, as much, or as little as you
+please.
+
+From Flamstead, which was the name of the country-seat of my friend, we
+rode over to Bloxburg, the country-seat of his brother, where some ladies
+from the neighborhood did me the honor to make me a visit; and from
+Bloxburg we made several other agreeable visits to neighboring
+plantations. I was in an entirely new world--those mountains of
+Jamaica--and was charmed with everything I saw. All was nature; and nature
+presented herself in her most lovely aspect, whether we viewed the sky
+overhead, the sea at our feet, or the broken and picturesque country
+around us. Time flew rapidly, and what with delightful rides, and lunches,
+and evening parties, where music, and the bright eyes of fair women
+beguiled the senses, I should have been in danger of forgetting the war,
+and the _Alabama_, if Kell had not sent me a courier, on the third or
+fourth day, informing me that he was nearly ready for sea.
+
+I descended at once from the empyrean in which I had been wandering, took
+a hasty leave of my friends, and in company with Mr. Fyfe, rode back to
+the coast. We took a new route back, and re-entered Kingston through a
+different suburb--stopping to lunch with one of Mr. Fyfe's friends, an
+English merchant, at his magnificent country-house. But, alas! much of the
+magnificence of the Kingston of former years is passing away. I had known
+it in its palmiest days, having visited it when a midshipman in the old
+service, before the happy slave had been converted into the wretched
+freedman. It was then a busy mart of commerce, and the placid waters of
+its unrivalled harbor were alive with shipping bearing the flags of all
+nations, come in quest of her great staples, sugar, coffee, cocoa,
+gensing, &c. Now, a general air of dilapidation and poverty hangs over the
+scene. A straggling ship or two only are seen in the harbor; the merchants
+have become shop-keepers, and the sleek, well-fed negro has become an
+idler and a vagrant, with scarce rags enough to hide his nakedness. My
+host, in the few days I remained with him, gave me much valuable
+information concerning the negro, since his emancipation, which I will not
+detain the reader to repeat. I may say in a few words, however, that the
+substance of this information was, that there has been no increase, either
+in numbers, intelligence, or morals among them; and that, too, under
+circumstances, all of which were favorable to the negro. He was the pet of
+the government for years after his emancipation, and English fanatics have
+devoted their lives to his regeneration, but all without success. He is,
+to-day, with a few exceptions about the towns, the same savage that he is
+in his native Dahomey. An English parliament had declared that he was the
+political equal of the white man--that is, of the colonial white man, for
+England takes the best of care, that the imperial legislature is never
+tainted by his presence--and I found him a generation afterward, far below
+his former level of slave.
+
+I found my gig in waiting for me at the wharf in Kingston, and taking
+leave of my friend, with many thanks for his hospitality, I pulled on
+board of my ship about sunset. And here, what a scene of confusion met me,
+and what reports Kell had to make of how my fellows had been "cutting up!"
+The paymaster had been drunk ever since he landed, neglecting his duty,
+and behaving in a most disreputable manner. He was "hail fellow, well met"
+with all the common sailors, and seemed to have an especial fancy for the
+sailors of the enemy. Kell had suspended his functions; and had sent on
+shore, and had him brought off under arrest. He had become partially
+sobered, and I at once ordered him to pack up his clothing, and be off. He
+was landed, bag and baggage, in half an hour, and in due time, as the
+reader has already seen, he married a negro wife, went over to England
+with her, swindled her out of all her property, and turned Yankee, going
+over to Minister Adams, and becoming one of his right-hand men, when there
+was any hard swearing wanted in the British courts against the
+Confederates.
+
+This little matter disposed of, we turned our attention to the crew. They
+had had a run on shore, and Kell was just gathering them together again.
+The ship's cutters, as well as the shore-boats, were constantly coming
+alongside with small squads, all of them drunk, some in one stage of
+drunkenness, and some in another. Liquor was acting upon them like the
+laughing gas; some were singing jolly, good-humored songs, whilst others
+were giving the war-whoop, and insisting on a fight. They were seized,
+ironed and passed below to the care of the master-at-arms, as fast as they
+came on board.
+
+A couple of them, not liking the appearance of things on board, jumped
+into a dug-out alongside, and seizing the paddles from the negroes, shoved
+off in great haste, and put out for the shore. It was night, and there was
+a bright moon lighting up the bay. A cutter was manned as speedily as
+possible, and sent in pursuit of the fugitives. Jack had grog and Moll
+ahead of him, and irons and a court-martial behind him, and he paddled
+like a good fellow. He had gotten a good start before the cutter was well
+under way, but still, the cutter, with her long sweeping oars, was rather
+too much for the dug-out, especially as there were five oars to two
+paddles. She gained, and gained, coming nearer and nearer, when presently
+the officer of the cutter heard one of the sailors in the dug-out say to
+the other, "I'll tell you what it is, Bill, there's too much cargo in this
+here d----d craft, and I'm going to lighten ship a little," and at the
+same instant, he saw the two men lay in their paddles, seize one of the
+negroes, and pitch him head foremost overboard! They then seized their
+paddles again, and away darted the dug-out with renewed speed.
+
+Port Royal Bay is a large sheet of water, and is, besides, as every reader
+of Marryatt's incomparable tales knows, full of ravenous sharks. It would
+not do, of course, for the cutter to permit the negro either to drown or
+to be eaten by the sharks, and so, as she came up with him, sputtering and
+floundering for his life, she was obliged to "back of all," and take him
+in. The sailor who grabbed at him first, missed him, and the boat shot
+ahead of him, which rendered it necessary for her to turn and pull back a
+short distance before she could rescue him. This done, he was flung into
+the bottom of the cutter, and the pursuit renewed. By this time the
+dug-out had gotten even a better start than she had had at first, and the
+two fugitive sailors, encouraged by the prospect of escape, were paddling
+more vigorously than ever. Fast flew the dug-out, but faster flew the
+cutter. Both parties now had their blood up, and a more beautiful and
+exciting moonlight race has not often been seen. We had watched it from
+the _Alabama_, until in the gloaming of the night, it had passed out of
+sight. We had seen the first manoeuvre of the halting, and pulling back
+of the cutter, but did not know what to make of it. The cutter began now
+to come up again with the chase. She had no musket on board, or in
+imitation of the _Alabama_, she might have "hove the chase to," with a
+blank cartridge, or a ball. When she had gotten within a few yards of her,
+a second time, in went the paddles again, and overboard went the other
+negro! and away went the dug-out! A similar delay on the part of the
+cutter ensued as before, and a similar advantage was gained by the
+dug-out.
+
+But all things come to an end, and so did this race. The cutter finally
+captured the dug-out, and brought back Tom Bowse and Bill Bower to their
+admiring shipmates on board the _Alabama_. This was the only violation of
+neutrality I was guilty of, in Port Royal--chasing, and capturing a
+neutral craft, in neutral waters. My excuse was, the same that Wilkes
+made--she had contraband on board. I do not know whether Commodore Dunlap
+ever heard of it; but if he had complained, I should have set-off the
+rescuing of two of her Majesty's colored subjects from drowning, against
+the recapture of my own men. The fact is, the towns-people, themselves,
+were responsible for all these disorders. They had made heroes of all my
+fellows, and plied them with an unconscionable number of drinks. Every
+sea-port town has its sailor quarter, and this in the good old town of
+Kingston was a constant scene of revelry, by day as well as by night,
+during the stay of the _Alabama's_ liberty men on shore. There was no end
+to the "break-downs," and "double-shuffles," which had been given in their
+honor, by the beaux and belles of Water Street. Besides my own crew, there
+were always more or less English man-of-war sailors on shore, on liberty
+from the different ships, and upwards of a hundred had been landed from
+the _Hatteras_. It was quite remarkable that in these merry-makings, and
+debaucheries, the Confederate sailors and the Yankee sailors harmonized
+capitally together. They might frequently be seen arm and arm in the
+streets, or hob-nobbing together--the Confederate sailor generally paying
+the score, as the Yankee sailor's strong box had gone down with his ship,
+and his paymaster was rather short of cash. They sailed as amicably
+together, up and down the contradance, and hailed each other to "heave
+to," when it was time to "freshen the nip," as though the _Alabama_ and
+_Hatteras_ had never been yard-arm and yard-arm, throwing broadsides into
+each other. In short, my men behaved capitally toward their late enemies.
+There was no unmanly exultation over their victory. The most that could be
+seen was an air of patronage very delicately put on, as though they would
+say, "Well, you know we whipped you, but then you did the best you could,
+and there's an end of it."
+
+Among the amusing things that had occurred during my absence in the
+Jamaica mountains, was a flare-up, which Captain Blake, my prisoner, had
+had with the British Commodore.
+
+The steamer _Greyhound_ had a band of music on board, and as one of the
+young lieutenants was an old acquaintance of several of my officers, whom
+he had met at Nassau, he ordered the band on the evening after our
+arrival, and whilst Captain Blake was still on board the _Alabama_, to
+play "Dixie;" which, I may remark, by the way, had become a very popular
+air everywhere, as much on account of the air itself, perhaps, as because
+of its association with a weak and gallant people struggling for the right
+of self-government. Captain Blake chose to construe this little compliment
+to the _Alabama_, as an insult to Yankeedom, and made a formal protest to
+the British Commodore, in behalf of himself, and the "old flag." Commodore
+Dunlap must have smiled, when he read Blake's epistle. He was certainly a
+man of humor, for he hit upon the following mode of settling the grave
+international dispute. He ordered the offending _Greyhound_, when she
+should get up her band, on the following evening, first to play "Dixie,"
+and then "Yankee Doodle."
+
+When the evening, which was to salve the Yankee honor, arrived, great was
+the expectation of every one in the squadron. The band on board the
+_Jason_, flag-ship, led off by playing "God save the Queen," that glorious
+national anthem, which electrifies the Englishman, as the Marseilles' hymn
+does the Frenchman, the world over. The _Challenger's_ band followed and
+played a fine opera air. The evening was still and fine, and the poops of
+all the ships were filled with officers. It then came the _Greyhound's_
+turn. She first played something unusually solemn, then "Dixie," with
+slowness, sweetness, and pathos, and when the chorus
+
+  "In Dixie's land, I'll take my stand,
+  I'll live, and die in Dixie!"
+
+had died away on the soft evening air, such an infernal din, of drums, and
+fifes, and cymbals, and wind instruments, each after its fashion, going it
+strong upon
+
+  "Yankee Doodle Dandy!"
+
+arose, as to defy all description! The effect was electric; the officers
+had to hold their sides to preserve their dignity, and--Captain Blake was
+avenged. There could be no protest made against this time-honored rogue's
+march. It was the favorite tune of the b'hoys, and there the matter had to
+end. I have never learned whether Mr. Seward ever called Lord Palmerston
+to an account about it, in any one of his "Essays on English
+Composition."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+DEPARTURE FROM JAMAICA--CAPTURE OF THE GOLDEN RULE--COASTING THE ISLAND OF
+HAYTI--CAPTURE OF THE CHASTELAINE--THE OLD CITY OF ST. DOMINGO, AND ITS
+REMINISCENCES--THE DOMINICAN CONVENT, AND THE PALACE OF DIEGO
+COLUMBUS--THE CAPTURE OF THE PALMETTO, THE OLIVE JANE, AND THE GOLDEN
+EAGLE--HOW THE ROADS ARE BLAZED OUT UPON THE SEA--CAPTAIN MAURY.
+
+
+On the 25th of January, 1863, or just five days after our arrival at
+Jamaica, we had completed all our preparations for sea, and at half-past
+eight P. M. steamed out of the harbor of Port Royal, bound to the coast of
+Brazil, and thence to the Cape of Good Hope. We had made many friends
+during our short stay, and mutual regrets were expressed at departure. My
+gallant young officers had not been idle, whilst I had been visiting the
+mountains. Many little missives, put up in the tiniest and prettiest of
+envelopes, were discovered among the mail, as our last mail-bag was
+prepared for the shore, and as a good deal of damage may be done in five
+days, there were probably some heart-beatings among the fair islanders, as
+those P. P. Cs. were perused. There is no lover so susceptible, or so
+devoted, or whose heart is so capacious, as that of the young seaman. His
+very life upon the sea is a poem, and his habitual absence from the sex
+prepares him to see loveliness in every female form.
+
+Though it was night when we emerged from the harbor, and when we ought to
+have met with the blandest and gentlest of land breezes, laden with the
+perfume of shrub and flower, we passed at once into a heavy head sea, with
+a stiff north-easter blowing. With yards pointed to the wind, and a
+laboring engine, we steamed along past Point Mayrant light, off which,
+the reader may recollect, we discharged the _Ariel_, some weeks before,
+and the morning's light found us in the passage between Jamaica and St.
+Domingo. The sun rose brightly, the wind moderated, and the day proved to
+be very fine.
+
+My first duty, after the usual morning's muster at quarters, was to hold a
+court of general sessions, for the discharge of my vagabonds, many of
+whom, the reader will recollect, were still in irons; and a
+beautiful-looking set of fellows they were, when their irons were removed,
+and they were brought on deck for this purpose. They were now all sober,
+but the effects of their late debauches were visible upon the persons of
+all of them. Soiled clothing, blackened eyes, and broken noses, frowsy,
+uncombed hair, and matted and disordered beard, with reddened eyes that
+looked as if sleep had long been a stranger to them--these were the
+principal features. Poor Jack! how much he is to be pitied! Cut loose
+early from the gentle restraints of home, and brought into contact with
+every description of social vice, at an age when it is so difficult to
+resist temptation, what wonder is it, that we find him a grown-up child of
+nature, subject to no other restraint than such as the discipline of his
+ship imposes upon him?
+
+"When wine is in, wit is out," was the proverb I always acted upon, on
+occasions similar to the present; that is to say, when the "wine" had any
+business to be "in." I expected, as a matter of course, when I sent my
+sailors on shore, "on liberty," that the result was to be a frolic, and I
+was always lenient to the mere concomitants of a frolic; but I never
+permitted them to abuse or maltreat the inhabitants, or perpetrate any
+malicious mischief. But if they got drunk on board, in violation of the
+discipline of the ship, or, in other words, if the wine had no business to
+be "in," I considered that the wit had no business to be "out." And so I
+listened to their penitential excuses, one by one, and restored them to
+duty, retaining one or two of the greatest culprits for trial by
+court-martial, as an example to the rest. Having disposed of the other
+cases, I turned to Tom Bowse and Bill Bower, the heroes of the
+moonlight-chase, and said to them, "And so you are a pretty set of
+fellows; you not only tried to desert your ship and flag, but you
+endeavored to commit murder, in your attempt to escape!" "Murder!"
+replied Bowse, with a start of horror, that I could see was entirely
+honest, "we never thought of such a thing, sir; them Jamaica niggers, they
+take to the water as natural as South-Sea Islanders, and there's no such
+thing as drowning them, sir." "That was it, your honor," now put in Bowse;
+"it was only a bit of a joke, you see, sir, played upon the officer of the
+cutter. We knew he'd stop to pick 'em up, and so give us the weathergauge
+of him." "That may do very well for the murder," I now rejoined, "but what
+about the desertion?" "Nary-a-bit of it, your honor," again replied Bowse;
+"we only meant to have another bit of a frolic, and come back all in good
+time, before the ship sailed." "Just so," added Bower; "the fact is, your
+honor, we were hardly responsible for what we did that night; for we had a
+small drop aboard, and then the moon was so bright, and Moll Riggs she had
+sent us such a kind message!" The moonlight and Moll clinched the
+argument, and turning to the master-at-arms, with an ill-suppressed smile,
+I directed him to turn the prisoners loose.
+
+I had scarcely gotten through with this jail-delivery, before the cry of
+"sail ho!" rang out upon the clear morning air, from the mast-head. There
+was no necessity to alter our course, for the sail was nearly ahead. In an
+hour more, a very pretty, newly-painted bark, with her sails flapping idly
+in the calm which was now prevailing, arose to view from the deck. She had
+the usual Yankee ear-marks, tapering masts and cotton sails, and we felt
+sure of another prize. We showed her the United States colors as we
+approached, and a very bright "old flag" soon afterward ascended to her
+peak, drooping despondently for want of wind to blow it out. The cat did
+not torture the mouse long, for we soon changed flags, and gave the master
+of the doomed ship the same satisfaction that Jacob Faithful received,
+when he found his missing son's shirt in the maw of the shark--the
+satisfaction of being put out of doubt, and knowing that his ship would be
+burned. The prize proved, upon being boarded, to be the _Golden Rule_,
+from New York, for Aspinwall. She belonged to the Atlantic and Pacific
+Steamship Company, and was filled with an assorted cargo--having on board,
+among other things, masts, and a complete set of rigging for the United
+States brig _Bainbridge_, which had recently had everything swept by the
+board, in a gale at Aspinwall.
+
+Judging from the bills of lading found on board, some small portions of
+the cargo appeared to be neutral, but there being no sworn evidence to
+vouch for the fact, in the way of Consular, or other certificates, I
+applied the well-known rule of prize law to the case, viz., that
+everything found on board an enemy's ship is presumed to belong to the
+enemy, until the contrary is shown by proper evidence; and at about six P.
+M. applied the torch. The islands of St. Domingo and Jamaica were both
+sufficiently near for their inhabitants to witness the splendid bonfire,
+which lighted up the heavens far and near, soon after dark. A looker-on
+upon that conflagration would have seen a beautiful picture, for besides
+the burning ship, there were the two islands mentioned, sleeping in the
+dreamy moonlight, on the calm bosom of a tropical sea, and the
+rakish-looking "British Pirate" steaming in for the land, with every spar,
+and line of cordage brought out in bold relief, by the bright flame--nay,
+with the very "pirates" themselves visible, handling the boxes, and bales
+of merchandise, which they had "robbed" from this innocent Yankee, whose
+countrymen at home were engaged in the Christian occupation of burning our
+houses and desolating our fields.
+
+One of the pleasant recollections connected with the picture, was that I
+had tied up for a while longer, one of the enemy's gun-brigs, for want of
+an outfit. It must have been some months before the _Bainbridge_ put to
+sea. There was another good act performed. Lots of patent medicines, with
+which the enemy was about inundating the South American coast, for the
+benefit of the livers of their fellow-democrats, were consigned to the
+flames. The reader had an opportunity to observe, when we captured the
+_Dunkirk_, how zealously our pious brethren of the North were looking out
+for the religion, and morals of the Portuguese, _in a sly way_. He now
+sees what a regard they have for the health of the atrabilious South
+Americans. Both operations _paid_, of course, and whether it was a tract,
+or a pill that was sold, could make but little difference to the
+manufacturers of the merchandise.
+
+We steamed along the coast, at a distance of seven or eight miles, the
+remainder of that night without further adventure; and the next morning
+dawned clear, with a slight change of programme as to weather. There were
+clouds hurrying past us, wetting our jackets, now, and then, without
+interrupting the sunshine, and a stiff northeaster blowing. This was a
+head-wind, and we labored against it all day, with diminished speed. At
+three P. M. we made the remarkable island, or rather, mountain of rock,
+called in the beautiful Spanish, Alta Vela, or Tall Sail, from its
+resemblance to a ship under sail, at a distance. It rises, at a distance
+of ten or twelve miles from the main island of St. Domingo, with almost
+perpendicular sides, to the height of several hundred feet, and affords a
+foothold for no living creature, but the sea-gull, the gannet, and other
+water-fowl. Soon after nightfall, we boarded a Spanish brig from
+Montevideo, bound for Havana; and at eleven P. M., Alta Vela bearing
+north, and being distant from us, about five miles, we hove to, with a
+shot, another sail, that was running down the coast. She was a
+rakish-looking hermaphrodite brig, and in the bright moonlight looked
+Yankee. The report of our heavy gun, reverberated by a hundred echoes from
+Alta Vela, had a magical effect upon the little craft. Flying like a
+sea-gull before a gale only a moment before, she became, in an instant,
+like the same sea-gull with its wings folded, and riding upon the wave,
+without other motion than such as the wave gave it. Ranging within a
+convenient distance, we lowered, and sent a boat on board of her. She
+proved to be American, as we had suspected. She was the _Chastelaine_ of
+Boston, last from the island of Guadeloupe, whither she had been to
+deliver a cargo of staves, and was now on her way to Cienfuegos, in the
+island of Cuba, in quest of sugar and rum for the Boston folks. We applied
+the torch to her, lighting up the sea-girt walls of Alta Vela with the
+unusual spectacle of a burning ship, and disturbing the slumber of the
+sea-gulls and gannets for the balance of the night.
+
+The next morning found us still steaming to the eastward, along the
+Haytian coast. Having now the crews of two ships on board, as prisoners, I
+hauled in closer to the coast, with the intention of running into the old
+town of St. Domingo, and landing them. We got sight of this old city
+early in the afternoon, and at about four P. M. ran in and anchored. The
+anchorage is an open roadstead, formed by the _debouchement_ of the
+picturesque little river Ozama, which seems to have burst through the
+rocky barrier of the coast, to find its way to the sea. We found but two
+vessels anchored here--one of them being a New York brig, recently put
+under English colors. She had a "bran-new" English ensign flying. Admiral
+Milne having failed to respond to the frantic cries of the New York
+"Commercial Advertiser," to protect the Yankee flag, the Yankee
+ship-owners, with many loathings and contortions, were at last forced to
+gulp the English flag. There was no other way of coaxing England to
+protect them. Being in a neutral port, I had no opportunity, of course, of
+testing the verity of this "cross of St. George," as the Yankees were fond
+of calling the hated emblem of England--hated, but hugged at the same
+time, for the protection which it gave ship and cargo.
+
+It will be recollected that, at the time of my visit, Spain had
+repossessed herself of the eastern, or Dominican end of the island of St.
+Domingo; and a Spanish naval commander now came on board to visit me. I
+had no difficulty in arranging with him for the landing of my prisoners. I
+sent them to the guard-ship, and he sent them thence to the shore. This
+done, and arrangements being made for some fresh provisions and other
+refreshments, to be sent off to the crew in the morning, I landed for a
+stroll, on this most classical of all American soil.
+
+The old city of St. Domingo! How many recollections does it not call up!
+It was a large and flourishing city a hundred years before that
+pestiferous little craft, called the _Mayflower_, brought over the
+cockatrice's egg that hatched out the Puritan. It was mentioned,
+incidentally, as the reader may remember, whilst we were running down the
+north side of the island, on our way to catch Mr. Vanderbilt's California
+steamer, that the little town of Isabella, on that side of the island, was
+the first city founded in the New World; and that the new settlement was
+soon broken up, and transferred to the city of St. Domingo. The latter
+city grew apace, and flourished, and was, for many years, the chief seat
+of the Spanish empire in the New World. It is, to-day, in its ruins, the
+most interesting city in all the Americas. Columbus himself lived here,
+and hither his remains were brought from Spain, and reposed for many
+years, until they were transferred to Cuba, with great pomp and ceremony.
+The names of Las Casas, Diego Columbus, the son and successor of the
+admiral, Oviedo, Hernando Cortez, and a host of others, are bound up in
+its history. The latter, the renowned conqueror of Mexico, was for several
+years a notary in an adjoining province.
+
+We have not much time to spare, reader, as the _Alabama_ will be on the
+wing, again, with the morning's light, but I cannot forbear pointing out
+to you two of the principal ruins of this famous old city. One of them is
+the Dominican Convent, and the other the _Palacio_, or residence of Diego
+Columbus. The old city being named in honor of St. Dominic, great pains
+were evidently bestowed upon the church and convent that were to bear his
+name; and so substantially was the former built, that it stands entire,
+and is still used as a place of worship, after the lapse of three hundred
+and fifty years. The altars are all standing, though faded and worm-eaten,
+and see! there is a lamp still burning before the altar of the Holy
+Eucharist. That lamp was lighted in the days of Columbus, and has been
+burning continuously ever since! Observe these marble slabs over which we
+are walking. The entire floor is paved with them. They are the tombstones
+of the dead, that were distinguished in their day, but who have long since
+been forgotten. Here is a date of 1532, on one of them. It is much defaced
+and worn by the footsteps of the generations that have passed over it, but
+we can see by the mitre and crozier, that have been sculptured on it, in
+_bas-relief_, that the remains of a bishop lie beneath. His name? We
+cannot make it out. The record of a bishop, carved upon the enduring
+marble, and placed upon the floor of his own cathedral, has been lost.
+What a sermon is here in this stone! Raise your eyes now from the floor,
+and cast them on the wall opposite. In that niche, in the great cathedral
+wall, sang the choir of ancient days. These vaulted roofs have resounded
+with music from the lips of many generations of beauties, that have faded
+like the butterfly of the field, leaving no more trace of their names and
+lineage than that little wanderer of an hour. There stands the silent
+organ, whose last note was sounded a century or more ago, with its gilding
+all tarnished, its stately carving tumbled down and lying in debris at its
+feet, and the bat and the spider building their nests in the cylinders
+that once mimicked the thunder, and sent thrills of devotion through the
+hearts of the multitude. There are remains of frescoes on the walls, but
+the damp and the mildew, in this humid climate, have so effectually
+performed their office, that the bright colors have disappeared, and only
+a dim outline of their design is visible.
+
+Let us step over from the cathedral, to the conventual portion of the
+massive block. The walls, as you see, are extensive, and are standing, in
+a sufficient state of preservation, to enable us to trace out the
+ground-plan, and reconstruct, in imagination, the ancient edifice. Its
+design is that of a hollow square, after the fashion prevalent in Spain.
+On all four sides of the square are arrayed the cells of the monks, the
+colonnades in front of which are still standing. In the centre of the
+square, occupying the space, which, in a private house, would have been
+appropriated to a _jet d'eau_, and flowers in vases, is an oblong hall,
+connected at either end with the main building. This was the refectory of
+the ancient establishment. What scenes does not the very sight of this
+refectory present to the imagination? We see the table spread, with its
+naked board, humble service, and still more humble food; we hear the
+dinner-signal sound; and we see long lines of bearded and hooded monks,
+with crosses and beads pendent from their girdles, enter, and seat
+themselves to partake of the wonted refreshment. We hear the subdued hum
+of many voices--the quiet joke, and half-suppressed merriment. There, at
+the head of the board, sits the venerable abbot, whilst the chaplain reads
+his Latin text, from his stand, during the repast. Let now the years begin
+to roll by. We shall miss, first one familiar face from the humble board,
+and then another, until finally they all disappear, being carried away,
+one by one, to their silent tombs! The abbots repose beneath those marble
+slabs in the cathedral that we so lately wandered over, with lightened
+footfall, and subdued breath; but the brothers are carried to the common
+burial-ground of the order, in the outskirts of the town. New generations
+enter, occupy the same seats, go through the same routine of convent life,
+and in turn disappear, to give place to newer comers still; and thus is
+ever swollen the holocaust of the mighty dead! "What is man, O Lord! that
+thou shouldst be mindful of him?"
+
+  "The dead--the honored dead are here--
+  For whom, behind the sable bier,
+  Through many a long-forgotten year,
+    Forgotten crowds have come,
+  With solemn step and falling tear,
+    Bearing their brethren home.
+
+  "Beneath these boughs, athwart this grass,
+  I see a dark and moving mass,
+  Like Banquo's shades across the glass,
+    By wizard hands displayed;
+  Stand back, and let these hearses pass,
+    Along the trampled glade."
+
+The Convent of St. Dominic being situated in the southern part of the old
+city, in the angle formed by the river Ozama, and the sea, observe what a
+delightful sea-breeze meets us, as we emerge from the ruined refectory.
+Let us pause a while, to lift our hats, from our heated brows, and refresh
+ourselves, while we listen to the unceasing roar of the surf, as it beats
+against the rocky cliff below, and throws its spray half-way to our feet.
+What a charming view we have of the sea, as it lies in its blue expanse,
+dotted here and there with a sail; and of the coasts of the island east
+and west of us--those blackened, rock-bound shores that seem hoary with
+age, and so much in unison with the train of thought we have been
+pursuing.
+
+There are but three crafts anchored in the roadstead, where formerly
+fleets used to lie. Of two of these, we have already spoken. The third is
+the _Alabama_. There is a little current setting out of the river, and she
+lies, in consequence, broadside to the sea, which is setting in to the
+beach. She is rolling gently to this sea, displaying every now and then,
+bright streaks of the copper on her bottom. She is full of men, and a
+strange flag is flying from her peak--not only strange to the dead
+generations of whom we have been speaking, but new even to our own times
+and history. It is the flag of a nation which has just risen above the
+horizon, and is but repeating the history of the world. The oppressed has
+struggled against the oppressor since time began. The struggle is going on
+still. It will go on forever, for the nature of man will always be the
+same. The cockatrice's egg has been hatched, and swarms of the Puritan
+have come forth to overrun the fair fields of the South that they may
+possess them; just as the wild Germans overran the plains of Italy
+centuries before.
+
+But away with such thoughts for the present. We came on shore to get rid
+of them. They madden the brain, and quicken the pulse. The little craft,
+with the strange flag, has borne her captain hither, on a pilgrimage to
+the shrine of the great discoverer, whose history may be written in a
+single couplet.
+
+  "A Castilla, y Leon
+  Nuevo Mundo, dio Colon."
+
+On her way hither, her keel has crossed the very track of the three little
+vessels from Palos--two of them mere open caravels--that first ventured
+across the vast Atlantic; and now her commander is standing where the
+great admiral himself once stood--on the very theatre of his early glory.
+And alas! for Spain, on the theatre of his shame, or rather of her shame,
+too; for there stands the fortress still, in which are exhibited to the
+curious spectator the rings in the solid masonry of the wall, to which
+Columbus was chained!
+
+A short walk will take us to the ruins of the palace of Diego Columbus. We
+must ascend the river a few hundred yards. Here it is, a little below the
+port of the present day. When built it stood alone, and we may remember
+that the townspeople complained of it, on this account--saying that it was
+intended as a fortress, to keep them in subjection. It is now surrounded,
+as you see, by the ruins of many houses. If you have read Oviedo's
+description of it, you are disappointed in its appearance; for that
+historian tells us, that "no man in Spain had a house to compare with it."
+Its form is that of two quadrangles connected by a colonnade, but it, by
+no means, comes up to the modern idea of a palace. The roof has entirely
+disappeared, and the quadrangles are mere shells filled with the
+accumulating debris of centuries, amid which large forest-trees have
+taken root and are flourishing. It was built of solid and substantial
+blocks of stone, and in any other country but the tropics, would have
+scarcely shown signs of age in three centuries. But here the fierce rays
+of a perpendicular sun, the torrents of rain in the wet season, and the
+occasional hurricanes and earthquakes, that desolate and destroy
+everything in their path, soon beat down the stanchest buildings--the very
+blocks of granite being disintegrated, by the alternate rain and sunshine,
+and crumbling away beneath their influence. It is situated on a rising
+ground, commanding a fine view of the sea, and the surrounding country. It
+is surrounded by walls and battlements, but the most imposing feature
+about it, must have been the approach to it from the city--the visitor
+passing through a wide avenue of shade-trees, and gaining admission to it
+by a majestic flight of stone steps. The shade-trees have disappeared, and
+the stone steps have been removed to be worked up into other buildings.
+
+We have called this house, the palace of Diego Columbus, but it must have
+been constructed either by his father, the admiral, or his uncle
+Bartholomew, the _Adelantado_, as we read that when Diego came out, after
+his father's death, to assume the viceroyalty, he found it ready built at
+his hand. Its blackened walls and dirt-filled saloons, now in the midst of
+a squalid purlieu of the modern city, must have witnessed many a scene of
+revelry in its day, as Oviedo tells us, that when the young admiral was
+restored to the honors and command of his father, he brought out to his
+new government, with him, some of the most elegant young women of Spain,
+as a sort of maids of honor to his own beautiful young wife--the marriage
+portions of all of whom he undertook to provide. And that in due time
+these young women were all happily bestowed upon gallant knights and
+wealthy planters.
+
+There, now, reader, we have taken a stroll through the classical old city
+of St. Domingo--a piece of good fortune, which falls to the lot of very
+few. Its romantic history seems to have been forgotten; it has fallen into
+the hands of a mongrel race of blacks and whites, and is rarely visited
+for any other purpose than that of trade. The negro and the mulatto in
+this oldest of American cities are thought rather more of than the white
+man, and the Yankee skipper finds in it, a congenial mart, in which to
+vend his cheese and his codfish, and distribute his tracts--political and
+moral--and put forth his patent medicines!
+
+We did not get under way, the next morning, until eight o'clock, as the
+supplies from the butchers and fruiterers could not be gotten on board at
+an earlier hour. Bartelli came off from the market, loaded as usual,
+bringing with him a bunch of wild pigeons, very similar to those found in
+our forests, and some excellent cigars. The flavor of the latter is not
+quite equal to those of the Havana, but they are mild and pleasant
+smokers. He brought off, also, a specimen of the Haytian paper money,
+worth five cents on the dollar. Like the American greenback, it is the
+offshoot of revolution and political corruption.
+
+As eight o'clock struck, turning out of the ship the motley crowd of
+negroes and mulattoes who had come off to trade with the sailors, we
+tripped our anchor, and turning the ship's head again to the eastward,
+gave her the steam. The day was fine, and the sea smooth, and we had a
+picturesque run along the Haytian coast, for the rest of the day. The
+coast is generally clean, what few dangers there are being all visible.
+The only sails sighted were fishing-boats and small coasters laden with
+farm produce, running down to St. Domingo for a market. At times a number
+of these were in sight, and the effect was very pleasing. The coasts of
+Hayti abound in fish, and as there is a succession of fruits all the year
+round, it is the paradise of the negro. A canoe and a fishing-line, or
+cast-net, and a few plantain and mango-trees supply his table; and two or
+three times a year, he cuts a mahogany log, and floats it down the little
+mountain streams, to the coast, where he sells it for paper money enough
+to buy him a few yards of cotton cloth, or calico. _Voila tout!_
+
+We entered the Mona Passage at half-past eight P. M. It was unguarded as
+before. During the night, we let our steam go down, to give the engineer
+an opportunity of screwing up the cylinder-head. Under way again before
+daylight. The weather continued fine, and we began again to fall in with
+sails. They were all neutral, however. We spoke a Spanish schooner, among
+the rest, and gave her the longitude. As soon as we had well cleared the
+passage, we banked fires, and lowering the propeller, put the ship under
+sail. On Sunday, February 1st, we had our first muster since leaving
+Jamaica. We had been out now a week, and in that time I had gotten my crew
+straightened up again. The rum had been pretty well worked out of them;
+most of the black rings around the eyes had disappeared, and beards had
+been trimmed, and heads combed. The court-martial which had been trying
+the few culprits, that had been retained for trial, had gotten through its
+labors, and been dissolved, and Jack, as he answered to his name, and
+walked around the capstan, was "himself again," in all the glory of white
+"ducks," polished shoes, straw hats, and streaming ribbons. No more than
+two or three desertions had occurred, out of the whole crew, and this was
+very gratifying.
+
+The next day, we had an alarm of fire on board. It was near twelve
+o'clock. I happened to be standing on the horse-block, at the time,
+observing the sun for latitude, when suddenly I heard a confusion of
+voices below, and simultaneously the officer of the deck, with evident
+alarm depicted in his countenance, came running to me, and said, "The ship
+is on fire, sir!" This is an alarm that always startles the seaman. The
+"fire-bell in the night" is sufficiently alarming to the landsman, but the
+cry of fire at sea imports a matter of life and death--especially in a
+ship of war, whose boats are always insufficient to carry off her crew,
+and whose magazine and shell-rooms are filled with powder, and the loaded
+missiles of death. The fire-bell on board a ship of war, whose crew is
+always organized as a fire company, points out the duty of every officer
+and man in such an emergency. The first thing to be done is to "beat to
+quarters," and accordingly I gave this order to the officer; but before
+the drummer could brace his drum for the operation, it was announced that
+all danger had disappeared. When we had a little leisure to look into the
+facts, it appeared, that the alarm had arisen from the carelessness of the
+"captain of the hold," who, in violation of the orders of the ship, had
+taken a naked light below with him, into the spirit-room, to pump off the
+grog by. The candle had ignited some of the escaping gas, but the flame
+was suppressed almost immediately. The captain of the hold, who is a petty
+officer, paid the penalty of his disobedience, by being dismissed from
+his office; and in half an hour, the thing was forgotten.
+
+Since leaving the Mona Passage, we had been steering about N. N. W., or as
+near north as the trade-wind would permit us. We expected, as a matter of
+course, to meet with the usual calms, as we came up with the Tropic of
+Cancer, but the north-east trade, instead of dying away, as we had
+expected, hauled to the south-east, and shot us across the calm-belt, with
+a fine breeze all the way. We carried this wind to the twenty-seventh
+parallel, when we took, with scarcely any intermission, a fresh
+north-wester. This does not often happen in the experience of the
+navigator, as the reader has seen, when he has before been crossing the
+calm-belts with us.
+
+On the 3d of February, we made our first capture since leaving St.
+Domingo. It was the schooner _Palmetto_, bound from New York to St.
+John's, in the island of Porto Rico. We gave chase to her, soon after
+breakfast, and came up with her about half-past one P. M. It was a fair
+trial of heels, with a fine breeze and a smooth sea; both vessels being on
+a wind; and it was beautiful to see how the _Alabama_ performed her task,
+working up into the wind's eye, and overhauling her enemy, with the ease
+of a trained courser coming up with a saddle-nag. There was no attempt to
+cover the cargo of the _Palmetto_. The enemy merchants seemed to have come
+to the conclusion, that it was no longer of any use to prepare bogus
+certificates, and that they might as well let their cargoes run the
+chances of war, without them. Upon examination of the papers of the
+schooner, it appeared that the cargo was shipped by the Spanish house of
+Harques & Maseras, domiciled, and doing business in New York, to Vincent
+Brothers, in San Juan, Porto Rico, on joint account; the shippers owning
+one third, and the consignee two thirds. The case came, therefore, under
+the rule applied in a former case, viz., that when partners reside, some
+in a belligerent, and some in a neutral country, the property of all of
+them, which has any connection with the house in the belligerent country,
+is liable to confiscation. (3 _Phillimore_, 605, and 1 _Robinson_, 1, 14,
+19. Also, _The Susa_, _ib._ 255.) Getting on board from the _Palmetto_,
+such articles of provisions--and she was chiefly provision-laden--as we
+needed, we applied the torch to her about sunset, and filled away, and
+made sail.
+
+The next afternoon we sighted a sail on our weather-bow, close hauled,
+like ourselves, and continued to gain upon her, until night shut her out
+from view, when we discontinued the chase. We were satisfied from her
+appearance, that she was neutral, or we should, probably, have expended a
+little steam upon her. At night the weather set in thick, and the wind
+blew so fresh from the north-east, that we took a single reef in the
+topsails. This bad weather continued for the next two or three days,
+reducing us, a part of the time, to close reefs. The reader is probably
+aware, that a ship bound from the West Indies to the coast of Brazil, is
+compelled to run up into the "variables," and make sufficient easting, to
+enable her to weather Cape St. Roque. This is what the _Alabama_ is now
+doing--working her way to the eastward, on the parallel of about 30�. We
+observed on the 20th of February, in latitude 28� 32'; the longitude being
+45� 05'.
+
+The next day, the weather being very fine, with the wind light from the
+southward and eastward, a sail was descried from aloft, and soon afterward
+another, and another, until four were seen. We gave chase to the first
+sail announced; standing to the eastward, in pursuit of her, for an hour
+or two, but she being a long distance ahead, and to windward, and the
+chase being likely, in consequence, to be long, and to draw us away from
+the other three sail, besides, we abandoned it, and gave chase to two of
+the latter. These were fine, tall ships, under a cloud of canvas,
+steering, one to the eastward, and the other to the westward. Being quite
+sure that they were Americans, and the wind falling light, we got up steam
+for the chase. Coming up with the eastward-bound ship, we hove her to, but
+not until we had thrown a couple of shot at her, in succession--the latter
+whizzing over the master's head on the quarter-deck. She was evidently
+endeavoring to draw us after her, as far to the eastward as possible, to
+give her consort, with whom she had spoken, and who was running, as the
+reader has seen, to the westward, an opportunity to escape. Throwing a
+boat's crew hastily on board of her, and directing the prize-master to
+follow us, we now wheeled in pursuit of the other fugitive. The latter
+was, by this time, fifteen miles distant--being hull down--and was running
+before the wind with studding sails, "alow and aloft." Fortunately for the
+_Alabama_, as before remarked, the wind was light, or the chase might have
+put darkness between us, before we came up with her. As it was, it was
+three P. M. before we overhauled her, and we had run our other prize
+nearly out of sight. She was less obstinate than her consort, and
+shortened sail, and hove to, at the first gun, hoisting the United States
+colors at her peak. She proved to be the bark _Olive Jane_, of New York,
+from Bordeaux, bound to New York, with an assorted cargo of French wines,
+and brandies, canned meats, fruits, and other delicacies. There was no
+attempt to cover the cargo. There were a great many shippers. Some few of
+these had consigned their goods to their own order, but most of the
+consignments were to New York houses. It is possible that some of the
+consignments, "to order," really belonged to French owners, but if so, I
+was relieved from the necessity of making the investigation, by the
+carelessness of the owners themselves, who had taken no pains to protect
+their property, by proper documentary evidence of its neutral character.
+In the absence of sworn proof, as before remarked, the rule of law is
+imperative, that all property found on board of an enemy's ship, is
+presumed to belong to the enemy. I acted upon this presumption, and set
+fire to the _Olive Jane_. What a splendid libation was here to old
+Neptune! I did not permit so much as a bottle of brandy, or a basket of
+champagne to be brought on board the _Alabama_, though, I doubt not, the
+throats of some of my vagabonds, who had so recently cooled off, from the
+big frolic they had had in Jamaica, were as dry as powder-horns. There
+were the richest of olives, and _pat�s de fois gras_, going to tickle the
+palates of the New York shoddyites, and other _nouveau-riche_ plebeians,
+destroyed in that terrible conflagration. I should have permitted
+Bartelli, and the other stewards to have a short run among these
+delicacies, but for the wine and the brandy. A Fouch� could not have
+prevented the boats' crews from smuggling some of it on board, and then I
+might have had another Martinique grog-watering on my hands.
+
+Amid the crackling of flames, the bursting of brandy casks, the
+shrivelling of sails, as they were touched by the fire, and the tumbling
+of the lighter spars of the _Olive Jane_ from aloft, we turned our head to
+the eastward again, and rejoined our first prize, coming up with her just
+as the shades of evening were closing in. I had now a little leisure to
+look into _her_ character. She, like the _Olive Jane_, had shown me the
+"old flag," and that, of course, had set at rest all doubts as to the
+nationality of the ship. There was as little doubt, as soon appeared,
+about the cargo. The ship was the _Golden Eagle_, and I had overhauled her
+near the termination of a long voyage. She had sailed from San Francisco,
+in ballast, for Howland's Island, in the Pacific; a guano island of which
+some adventurous Yankees had taken possession. There she had taken in a
+cargo of guano, for Cork and a market; the guano being owned by, and
+consigned to the order of the American Guano Company. This ship had
+buffeted the gales of the frozen latitudes of Cape Horn, threaded her
+pathway among its icebergs, been parched with the heats of the tropic, and
+drenched with the rains of the equator, to fall into the hands of her
+enemy, only a few hundred miles from her port. But such is the fortune of
+war. It seemed a pity, too, to destroy so large a cargo of a fertilizer,
+that would else have made fields stagger under a wealth of grain. But
+those fields would be the fields of the enemy; or if it did not fertilize
+his fields, its sale would pour a stream of gold into his coffers; and it
+was my business upon the high seas, to cut off, or dry up this stream of
+gold. The torch followed the examination of the papers. The reader may,
+perhaps, by this time have remarked, how fond the Yankees had become of
+the qualifying adjective, "golden," as a prefix to the names of their
+ships. I had burned the _Golden Rocket_, the _Golden Rule_, and the
+_Golden Eagle_.
+
+We were now in latitude 30�, and longitude 40�, and if the curious reader
+will refer to a map, or chart of the North Atlantic Ocean, he will see
+that we are on the charmed "crossing," leading to the coast of Brazil. By
+"crossing" is meant the point at which the ship's course crosses a given
+parallel of latitude. We must not, for instance, cross the thirtieth
+parallel, going southward, until we have reached a certain meridian--say
+that of 40� W. If we do, the north-east trade-wind will pinch us, and
+perhaps prevent us from weathering Cape St. Roque.
+
+And when we reach the equator, there is another crossing recommended to
+the mariner, as being most appropriate to his purpose. Thus it is, that
+the roads upon the sea have been blazed out, as it were--the blazes not
+being exactly cut upon the forest-trees, but upon parallels and meridians.
+The chief blazer of these roads, is an American, of whom all Americans
+should be proud--Captain Maury, before mentioned in these pages. He has so
+effectually performed his task, in his "Wind and Current Charts," that
+there is little left to be desired. The most unscientific and practical
+navigator, may, by the aid of these charts, find the road he is in quest
+of. Maury has been, in an eminent degree, the benefactor of the very men
+who became most abusive of him, when they found that he, like other
+Southern statesmen--for he is a statesman as well as sailor--was obliged
+to preserve his self-respect, by spitting upon the "old flag." He has
+saved every Yankee ship, by shortening her route, on every distant voyage
+she makes, thousands of dollars. The greedy ship-owners pocket the
+dollars, and abuse the philosopher.[2]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+THE "CROSSING" OF THE THIRTIETH PARALLEL--THE TOLL-GATE UPON THE SEA--HOW
+THE TRAVELLERS PASS ALONG THE HIGHWAY--CAPTURE OF THE WASHINGTON; THE JOHN
+A. PARKS; THE BATHIAH THAYER; THE PUNJAUB; THE MORNING STAR; THE
+KINGFISHER; THE CHARLES HILL; AND THE NORA--CROSSES THE EQUATOR--CAPTURE
+OF THE LOUISA HATCH--ARRIVAL AT FERNANDO DE NORONHA.
+
+
+Reaching the blazed road, of which I spoke in the last chapter, I
+shortened sail, at the crossing mentioned, that I might waylay such of the
+passengers as chanced to be enemies. There were a great many ships
+passing, both ways, on this road, some going to the Pacific, or the Far
+East, and others returning from those distant points; but they were nearly
+all neutral. The American ships, having, by this time, become thoroughly
+alarmed, especially since they learned that neither English sealing-wax,
+nor Admiral Milne could save them, had dodged the highways, as skulkers
+and thieves are wont to do, and taken to the open fields and by-ways for
+safety. On the day after the capture of the _Olive Jane_ and _Golden
+Eagle_, the weather being cloudy and rainy, and the wind light, four more
+sail were seen--all European bound. At eight A. M. we showed the United
+States colors to one of them, which proved to be a French bark. It now
+became calm, and we were compelled to get up steam, to overhaul the rest.
+They lay long distances apart, and we were several hours in passing from
+one to the other. They were all Englishmen, with various histories and
+destinations, one of them--a fine frigate-built ship--being a Melbourne
+and Liverpool packet. We received a paper from her, printed at the
+antipodes, but there was not much in it, besides the proceedings of the
+Australian Parliament, news from the gold-diggings, and the price of wool;
+in neither of which subjects were we much interested.
+
+On the next day but a solitary passenger came over the road. It was late
+at night when she made her appearance--there being a bright moon and a
+brisk breeze. We made sail in chase, and the chase, taking the alarm, gave
+us a very pretty run for a few hours. We overhauled her, however, at
+length, and fired the usual blank cartridge, to heave her to. She was an
+hermaphrodite brig, and might be, for aught we could see, in the uncertain
+light, American. The gun had no effect. We waited a few minutes for a
+response, but none coming, we fired again--sending a shot whizzing, this
+time, over the little craft. Still no response. We were now only a few
+hundred yards distant. What could the fellow mean? All was as silent on
+board the chase as death, and not a tack or sheet had been started. We ran
+now almost on board of her, and hailing her, commanded her to heave to.
+Great confusion followed. We could hear voices speaking in a foreign
+tongue, and presently a disorderly array of sails whipping and flapping in
+the wind, and of yards swinging to and fro, presented itself. At last the
+little craft managed to come to the wind, and make a halt. She proved to
+be a Portuguese brig, and the crew had been so alarmed, at being chased
+and fired at, by night, as to lose all presence of mind, and become
+incapable of any action whatever, until they were somewhat reassured, by
+the near presence of our ship and the sound of our voices. She was bound
+from Pernambuco to Lisbon, with a cargo of hides and sugar. It was,
+indeed, something like a ghost-chase, to see the _Alabama_ coming, in the
+dead of night after the little craft, with her seven-league boots on, and
+those awful trysails of hers spread out in the moonlight like so many
+winding-sheets.
+
+On the day after this adventure, a Dutch bark and an English brig came
+along; and on the same night, we boarded the English four-master, the
+_Sarah Sands_, from the East Indies for Falmouth. At daylight, the next
+morning, the look-out at the mast-head began to cry sails, until he
+reported as many as seven in sight at one time. They were all European
+bound, and were jogging along, in company, following Maury's blazes, like
+so many passengers on a highway. The _Alabama_ stood like a toll-gate
+before them, and though we could not take toll of them, as they were all
+neutral, we made each traveller show us his passport, as he came up. One
+obstinate fellow--a Hamburger--refused to show us his colors, until he was
+commanded to do so by a gun. I made it a practice to punish these
+unmannerly fellows, for their want of civility. On the present occasion,
+the Hamburger was detained a considerable time, whilst I exercised, at my
+leisure, my belligerent right of _vis�ing_ his papers. When his travelling
+companions were some miles ahead of him, I told the surly fellow to pick
+up his hat and be off.
+
+On the next day, being still in latitude 30�, and longitude 40�, or at the
+"crossing," an English and an American ship came along. The Englishman
+saluted us civilly as he passed. He was from the East Indies, laden with
+silks and wines. But the American, seeing that we were under short
+sail--though the weather was fine--resting by the wayside, as it were, and
+remembering that there was a little unpleasantness between the North and
+South, fought rather shy of us, and endeavored to get out of the way of
+possible harm. She was a fine, large ship, and the moment she showed an
+intention not to pass through the toll-gate, we made sail in pursuit. She
+had heels, but they were not quite as clean as the _Alabama's_, and we
+came up with her, in the course of two or three hours; she having
+approached pretty close, before she smelt the rat. She was obstinate, and
+compelled me to wet the people on her poop, by the spray of a shot, before
+she would acknowledge that she was beaten. The shower-bath made a stir
+among the bystanders; there was a running hither and thither, a letting go
+of sheets and halliards, and pretty soon the main-yard swung aback, and
+the stars and stripes were seen ascending to the stranger's peak. When the
+boarding-officer brought the master of the captured ship on board, with
+his papers, she proved to be the ship _Washington_, of New York, from the
+Chincha Islands, bound to Antwerp, with a cargo of guano, laden on account
+of the Peruvian government, and consigned to its agent at Antwerp, for
+sale. Being unable to destroy the ship, because of the neutral ownership
+of her cargo, I released her on ransom-bond, sent my prisoners on board of
+her to be landed, and permitted her to depart. This capture was made on
+the 27th of February. On the 28th we overhauled two English ships, from
+the East Indies, homeward bound, and a French ship, from Batavia, for
+Nantes. The weather continued very fine, and we had had a uniformly high
+barometer, ever since we had reached the "crossing."
+
+The morning of the 1st of March dawned charmingly, with a very light
+breeze. The night had been rather dark, and we had been lying-to under
+topsails. In the darkness of the night, an enemy's ship had approached us
+unawares. She had been following the blazes, without seeing the toll-gate,
+and the revelations made by the morning's light, must have startled her;
+for she found herself within half a mile of an exceedingly saucy-looking
+gunboat, lying in wait for somebody, or something. It was nearly calm, and
+she could not help herself if she would. On the other hand, the gunboat
+was delighted to see a tall ship, whose masts tapered like a lady's
+fingers, arrayed in the whitest of petticoats--to carry out our
+figure--and which, from the course she was steering, was evidently just
+out from Yankee-land, with that mail on board, which we had been anxiously
+looking for, for several days past. We were in the midst of the scrubbing
+and cleaning of the morning watch, and to effect the capture, it was not
+even necessary to lay aside a holy-stone, or a scrubbing-brush. A gun and
+a Confederate flag, were all that was required to bring the tall ship to a
+halt, and remove her doubts, if she had had any. She was the _John A.
+Parks_, of Hallowell, Maine.
+
+The cargo of the _Parks_ consisted of white pine lumber which she had
+taken on board at New York, and she was bound to Montevideo, or Buenos
+Ayres, as the consignee might elect. There was an affidavit found among
+her papers, made by one Snyder, before a Mr. Edwards Pierrepont, who
+appears to have been acting as British Consul, claiming that the cargo was
+shipped on account of a London house. The real facts of the case, however,
+as gathered from the correspondence, and the testimony of the master,
+were, that one Davidson, a lumber dealer in New York had chartered the
+ship, and shipped the lumber, in the usual course of his business, to the
+parties in Montevideo; that he had paid most of the freight, in advance,
+and insured himself against the _war risk_, both upon the cargo and the
+freight. The manner in which this case was "put up," in the papers, was an
+improvement upon some others I had examined. The New York merchants were
+evidently becoming expert in the preparation of bogus certificates. It was
+no longer merely stated that the property belonged to "neutral owners,"
+but the owners themselves were named. In short, the certificate found on
+board the _Parks_ was in due form, but unfortunately for the parties who
+contrived the clever little plot, the master forgot to throw overboard his
+letter-bag, and among the letters found in that bag, was one written by
+Davidson, giving instructions to the consignees, in which the following
+expressions occur: "The cargo of the _John A. Parks_, I shall have
+certified to, by the British Consul, as the property of British subjects.
+You will find it a very good cargo, and should command the highest
+prices." By the time that I had finished the examination of the case,
+Bartelli announced breakfast, and I invited my Hallowell friend to take a
+cup of coffee with me, telling him, at the same time, that I should burn
+his ship. As well as I recollect, he declined the coffee, but I am quite
+certain that the ship was burned. The carpenter of the _Alabama_ was
+thrown into ecstasies by this capture. All the other departments of the
+ship had been kept well supplied, except his own. The paymaster, who was
+also commissary, the boatswain, the sailmaker, had all been "plundering"
+the enemy quite extensively, but no "boards" had come along, until now,
+for the poor carpenter. Here they were at last, however, and if I had not
+put some restraint upon my zealous officer of the adze and chisel, I
+believe he would have converted the _Alabama_ into a lumberman.
+
+We received from the _Parks_, sure enough, the mail we had been waiting
+for. There must have been a barrel-full, and more of newspapers and
+periodicals, going to the _Montevideans_ and _Buenos Ayreans_--many of
+them in the best of Spanish, and all explaining the "great moral ideas,"
+on which the Southern people were being robbed of their property, and
+having their throats cut. We gleaned one gratifying piece of
+intelligence, however, from these papers. "The Pirate _Florida_" had put
+to sea from Mobile, to assist the "British Pirate," in plundering, and
+burning the "innocent merchant-ships of the United States, pursuing their
+peaceful commerce," as Mr. Charles Francis Adams, so often, and so
+_naively_ expressed it to Earl Russell. Whilst the _Parks_ was still
+burning, an English bark passed through the toll-gate, the captain of
+which was prevailed upon, to take the master of the burning ship, his
+wife, and two nephews, to London. We were glad, on the poor lady's
+account, that she was so soon relieved from the discomforts of a small and
+crowded ship.
+
+The next traveller that came along was the _Bethiah Thayer_, of Rockland,
+Maine, last from the Chincha Islands, with a cargo of guano for the
+Peruvian Government. The cargo being properly documented, I put the ship
+under ransom-bond, and permitted her to pass. It was Sunday; the _Bethiah_
+was dressed in a new suit of cotton canvas, and looked quite demure and
+saint-like, while her papers were being examined. I have no doubt if I had
+questioned her master, that he would have been found to have voted for
+Breckinridge.
+
+I now resolved to fill away, stand down toward the equator, and hold
+myself stationary, for a few days, at the "crossing" of that famous great
+circle. I was far enough to the eastward, to make a free wind of the
+north-east trade, and we jogged along under topsails, making sail only
+when it became necessary to chase. We lost our fine weather almost
+immediately upon leaving the "crossing," and took a series of moderate
+gales--sometimes, however, reducing us to close reefs--which lasted us for
+a week or ten days, or until we began to approach the rains and calms of
+the equator. We met a number of sails on the road, and now and then chased
+one, but they all proved to be neutral. On the night of the 15th of March,
+at a few minutes before midnight, the weather being thick and murky, the
+look-out at the cat-head suddenly cried "sail ho! close aboard;" and in a
+few minutes a large ship passed us on the opposite tack, within speaking
+distance. We hailed, but she passed on like a goblin ship, without giving
+us any reply. She had all sails set, there was no one stirring on board of
+her, and the only light that was visible, was the one which twinkled in
+the binnacle. We wore ship with all expedition, shook the reefs out of the
+topsails, and made sail in pursuit. It took us some minutes to accomplish
+this, and by the time we were well under way, the stranger was nearly out
+of sight. Both ships were on a wind, however, and this, as the reader has
+seen, was the _Alabama's_ best point of sailing. Our night-glasses soon
+began to tell the usual tale. We were overhauling the chase; and at a
+quarter past three, or a little before dawn, we were near enough to heave
+her to, with a gun. She proved to be the _Punjaub_, of Boston, from
+Calcutta for London. Her cargo consisted chiefly of jute and linseed, and
+was properly certificated as English property. The goods were, besides, of
+foreign growth, and were going from one English port to another. I
+released her on ransom-bond, and sent on board of her the prisoners from
+the last ship burned.
+
+Soon after daylight, we gave chase to another sail in the E. S. E., with
+which we came up about eight A. M. She was an English ship, from the
+Mauritius, for Cork. She confirmed our suspicion, that the Yankee ships
+were avoiding, as a general rule, the beaten tracks, having spoken one of
+them on the "line," bound to the coast of Brazil, which had travelled as
+far east as the twenty-third meridian; or about four hundred miles out of
+her way. We were still standing to the southward, and on the 21st of March
+we were very near the sun, for while he was crossing the equator, we were
+in latitude 2� 47' N.; our longitude being 26� W. On that day, the weather
+is thus recorded in my journal: "Cloudy, with squalls of rain, and the
+wind shifting, indicating that we have lost the 'trades.' It is pleasant
+to hear the thunder roll, for the first time in several months, sounding
+like the voice of an old friend; and the crew seem to enjoy a ducking from
+the heavy showers--rain having been a rare visitor of late." And on the
+next day, the following is the record: "Rains, and calms all day; the
+officers and crew alike, are paddling about the deck in bare feet, and
+enjoying the pelting of the rain, like young ducks. Three neutrals, in
+company, bound like ourselves, across the 'line.' They look, at a
+distance, with their drooping sails flapping idly in the calm, as
+disconsolate as wet barn-yard fowls at home, on a rainy day."
+
+On the 23d of March, the weather being still as described, and very little
+change having taken place in our position, we made two more captures; the
+first, the _Morning Star_ of Boston, from Calcutta for London, and the
+second the whaling schooner _Kingfisher_, of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. The
+cargo of the _Morning Star_ being in the same category as that of the
+_Punjaub_, we released her also, on ransom-bond. The _Kingfisher_ we
+burned. This adventurous little whaler had a crew of twenty-three persons,
+all of whom were Portuguese, except the master, and mate, and one or two
+boat-steerers. We set fire to her just at nightfall, and the conflagration
+presented a weird-like spectacle on the "line," amid the rumbling of
+thunder, the shifting, but ever black scenery, of the nimbi, or rain
+clouds, and the pouring and dashing of torrents of rain. Sometimes the
+flames would cower beneath a drenching shower, as though they had been
+subdued, but in a moment afterward, they would shoot up, mast-head high,
+as brightly and ravenously as before. The oil in her hold kept her burning
+on the surface of the still sea, until a late hour at night.
+
+On the next day, we boarded, as usual, a number of neutral ships, of
+different nationalities, some going south, and some going north. We were
+at the "crossing" of the equator, "blazed" by Maury, and with the main
+topsail at the mast, were reviewing, as it were, the commerce of the
+world. We were never out of sight of ships. They were passing, by ones,
+and twos, and threes, in constant succession, wreathed in rain and mist,
+and presenting frequently the idea of a funeral procession. The honest
+traders were all there, except the most honest of them all--the
+Yankees--and they were a little afraid of the police. Still we managed to
+catch a rogue now and then.
+
+On the second day after burning the _Kingfisher_, we made two more
+captures. Late in the afternoon of that day, we descried two large ships
+approaching us, in company. They came along lovingly, arm-in-arm, as it
+were, as though in the light airs and calms that were prevailing, they had
+been having a friendly chat, or one of the masters had been dining on
+board of the other. They were evidently American ships, and had most
+likely been having a cosy talk about the war. The "sainted" Abraham's
+Emancipation Proclamation was the favorite topic of the day, as we had
+learned from the mail-bags of the _Parks_, and perchance they had been
+discussing that; or perhaps the skippers were congratulating themselves
+upon having escaped the _Alabama_; they probably supposing her to be at
+the other toll-gate still. Whatever may have been the subject of their
+discourse, they evidently pricked up their ears, as soon as they saw the
+_Alabama_, stripped like a gentleman who was taking it coolly, with
+nothing but her topsails set, and lying across their path. They separated
+gradually; and quietly, and by stealth, a few more studding-sails were
+sent up aloft.
+
+It was time now for the _Alabama_ to move. Her main yard was swung to the
+full, sailors might have been seen running up aloft, like so many
+squirrels, who thought they saw "nuts" ahead, and pretty soon, upon a
+given signal the top-gallant sails and royals might have been seen
+fluttering in the breeze, for a moment, and then extending themselves to
+their respective yard-arms. A whistle or two from the boatswain and his
+mates, and the trysail sheets are drawn aft, and the _Alabama_ has on
+those seven-league boots which the reader has seen her draw on so often
+before. A stride or two, and the thing is done. First, the _Charles Hill_,
+of Boston, shortens sail, and runs up the "old flag," and then the _Nora_,
+of the same pious city, follows her example. They were both laden with
+salt, and both from Liverpool. The _Hill_ was bound to Montevideo, or
+Buenos Ayres, and there was no attempt to cover her cargo. The _Nora_ was
+bound to Calcutta, under a charter-party with one W. N. de Mattos. In the
+bill of lading, the cargo was consigned to order, and on the back of the
+instrument was the following indorsement: "I hereby certify, that the salt
+shipped on board the _Nora_, is the property of W. N. de Mattos, of
+London, and that the said W. N. de Mattos is a British subject, and was so
+at the time of the shipment." This certificate was signed by one H. E.
+Folk, and at the bottom of the certificate were the words, "R. C. Gardner,
+Mayor"--presumed to mean the Mayor of Liverpool.
+
+Here was a more awkward attempt to cover a cargo than any of my Yankee
+friends of New York or Boston had ever made. There was very little doubt
+that the salt was English-owned, but the certificate, I have recited, did
+not amount even to an _ex parte_ affidavit, it not being sworn to. As a
+matter of course, I was bound to presume the property to be enemy, it
+being found, unprotected by any legal evidence, in an enemy's ship. The
+_Hill_ and the _Nora_ were, therefore, both consigned to the flames, after
+we had gotten on board from them such articles as we stood in need of. We
+received from the two ships between thirty and forty tons of coal, or
+about two days' steaming. It took us nearly all the following day to
+transport it in our small boats, and we did not set fire to the ships
+until five in the afternoon. We received, also, half a dozen recruits from
+them. I had now quite as many men as I wanted.
+
+Among the papers of the _Hill_ was found the following brief letter of
+instructions from her owner to her master. It is dated from the good city
+of Boston, and was written while the ship was lying at that other good
+city, Philadelphia. It is addressed to Captain F. Percival, and goes on to
+say:--
+
+     "DEAR SIR:--I have received your several letters from Philadelphia.
+     As a rebel privateer has burned several American ships, it may be as
+     well if you can have your bills of lading indorsed as English
+     property, and have your cargo certified to by the British Consul."
+
+Such nice little missives as these, written from one city of "grand moral
+ideas," to another city, whose ideas were no less grand or moral, quietly
+instructing ship-masters to commit perjury, were of great assistance to
+me, when, in the classical words of the New York "Commercial Advertiser,"
+I had a "Yankee hash" to deal with.
+
+On the 29th of March we crossed the equator. The event is thus recorded in
+my journal: "Crossed the equator at five P. M. in the midst of a dense
+rain-squall, with lowering, black clouds, and the wind from the
+south-west. We were in chase of a sail at the time, but lost her in the
+gloom. It rained all night, with light airs and calms. We have experienced
+a south-easterly current, setting at the rate of a knot and a half the
+hour, for the last twenty-four-hours." We made our crossing a little
+farther to the eastward than usual--26�--on purpose to counteract the
+Yankee dodge spoken of a little while back. We now encountered a variety
+of currents, some setting to the south-east as just mentioned, others to
+the east, others to the south, until finally we fell in with the great
+equatorial current setting to the westward.
+
+The study of the phenomena of the currents, is one of the most interesting
+that can engage the attention of the marine philosopher. We have already
+had occasion to explain the circulation of the atmosphere--how the wind
+"cometh and goeth," not at random, but in obedience to certain
+well-defined natural laws. The circulation of the sea is no less regular
+than that of the atmosphere, and has equally important offices to perform.
+If the sea were a stagnant mass of waters, some portions of the earth
+which now enjoy temperate climates, and teem with millions of population
+in the enjoyment of an abundant fauna and flora, would be almost
+uninhabitable because of the extreme cold. Some portions of the sea would
+dry up, and become beds of salt, and others again would, from the
+superabundance of precipitation, become fresh, or nearly so. In short,
+there would be a general disturbance of the harmonies of creation. To
+obviate this, and to put the sea in motion, various agencies have been set
+at work by the great Architect; chief among which is the unequal
+distribution of heat over the earth's surface. We have already called the
+sun the Father of the Winds; he is equally the father of the currents. The
+warm water of the equator is constantly flowing off to the poles, and the
+cold water of the poles flowing back, as undercurrents, to the equator.
+This flow is not directly north, or directly south, but by a variety of
+tortuous channels. The different depths of the ocean, the obstructions of
+islands, and continents, clouds and sunshine, and a great many other
+agencies, combine to give this tortuosity and seeming irregularity to the
+currents.
+
+Let us take an example. The _Alabama_ has just experienced a south-east
+current in a locality where the current sets, as a general rule, to the
+westward. How are we to account for this? It may be due to a variety of
+causes, all working in harmony, however, with the general design. In the
+first place, it may be a counter-current going to fill the place left
+vacant by some other current; for, as a matter of course, when a given
+quantity of water flows away from a place, the same quantity must flow
+back to it. Or it may be a principal, and not an accessory current, set in
+motion, say by heat. Let us see how easily this may be accomplished.
+Suppose a dense canopy of clouds to overshadow some considerable space of
+the sea, for a day, or it may be, for a few hours only. Whilst the rays of
+the sun are shut out from this space, they are pouring down their heat
+with tropical fervor, say to the south of this cloud-bank. Under the
+cloud-bank the water is cooling, beyond the bank it is being heated. Under
+the bank evaporation has ceased almost altogether, beyond the bank it is
+going on at the rate of about an inch in twenty-four hours. Here are
+powerful agencies at work, changing both the temperature, and specific
+gravity of the waters.
+
+Waters to be at rest must have the same temperature and specific gravity.
+These waters therefore cannot remain at rest, and a current is the
+consequence. To-morrow, perhaps, the process will be reversed, the cloud
+and the sunshine changing places, and the current flowing in a contrary
+direction. These are local disturbances of the system of oceanic
+circulation--little venous derangements, as it were, the great arterial
+system not being materially affected by them.
+
+There are other exceedingly beautiful agencies at work, on a smaller
+scale, to disturb the oceanic equilibrium, and set the waters in motion.
+It has puzzled philosophers to account for the saltness of the sea.
+Whatever may be its cause, it plays a very important part in giving
+vitality to its circulation. If sea-water were fresh, evaporation would
+not produce any change in its specific gravity. One element of motion,
+therefore, would be wanted. But being salt, and the salts not being taken
+up by the thirsty air, in the process of evaporation, every rain-drop that
+is withdrawn from it, helps to put the currents in motion.
+
+But these are surface operations; let us dive beneath the surface, and
+witness some of the wonders that are going on in the depths below. We have
+before shown the reader, the coralline insect, that wonderful little
+stone-mason of the sea, which, in the hands of Providence, is the
+architect of islands and continents. The sea-water is the quarry from
+which this little toiler extracts his tiny blocks of masonry. If the
+water were fresh, it would not hold the materials in solution, which he
+needs for his work. But being salt, it has just the materials which he
+needs.
+
+But how does he affect the currents? the reader will ask. As follows:
+Every particle of solid matter that he extracts from the sea-water--and he
+must have limestone to build those islands and continents of which he is
+the architect--alters its specific gravity. The little globule of water,
+from which he has just taken the block of stone that would be scarcely
+visible under a powerful microscope, has become lighter than the
+surrounding globules, and ascends to the surface. In obedience to the law
+which we have mentioned, that as much water must flow back to a place, as
+flows away from it, a globule of water from the surface now descends to
+take the place of that which has arisen; descends to the little
+stone-mason, that he may rob it, in turn, of the block of stone that it
+contains. The globules of water thus become the hod-carriers for these
+little stone-masons, working away, in countless myriads, at the bottom of
+the sea.
+
+But what becomes of this lighter globule of water, which has arisen to the
+surface, because it has been deprived of its solid matter? It must flow
+away somewhere in search of the salts it has lost, for if it remain
+stationary, in course of time, the sea in its neighborhood will all be
+deprived of its salts, and there will be no more globules to descend to
+the little stone-mason. But when the globule starts to flow off, a current
+is established.
+
+The reader may recollect that when we were at the Azores, breaking up that
+Yankee whaling station, we spoke of the currents, in connection with the
+whales, and other fishes; how, like "reapers and gleaners," they bore to
+them the food which was prepared for them in other latitudes. The reader
+sees, now, how the currents build the coral bank. Every sea-shell, as it
+secretes the solid matter for its edifice, helps on the movement set on
+foot by the coral insect.
+
+On the 3d of April, we observed in latitude 2� 11' S.; our longitude being
+26� 02'. The weather was still thick and rainy, and we had fitful gusts of
+wind, and calms by turns. During the morning watch, the dense clouds
+lifted for a while, and showed us a fine, tall ship, steering, like
+ourselves, to the southward. We immediately made sail in chase. The wind
+was blowing quite fresh from the south-west, at the time, and we gained
+very rapidly upon the stranger. At twelve o'clock the wind died away, and
+the heavy rains being renewed, she was entirely shut out from view. We
+continued the chase all day; now being sure of her, and now being baffled
+by the ever-shifting clouds, and changing wind and weather. At length, at
+five P. M., it being no longer safe to trust to contingencies, as night
+would set in, in another hour, I sent a whale-boat to board, and halt her,
+although she was still two miles distant. The boarding was successfully
+accomplished, and just before dark, we could see the stranger's head
+turned in our direction. We knew from this circumstance that she was a
+prize, and hoisting a light, as night set in, to guide the
+boarding-officer, in an hour or two more she was alongside of us.
+
+The prize proved to be the _Louisa Hatch_, of Rockland, Maine, from
+Cardiff, with a cargo of the best Welsh coal, for Point-de-Galle, in the
+island of Ceylon. The bill of lading required the cargo to be delivered to
+the "_Messageries Imperiales_," steamship company, and there was a
+certificate on the back of the bill of lading to the effect that the coal
+belonged to that company, but the certificate was not sworn to by the
+subscriber. This was tantamount to no evidence at all, and I condemned
+both ship and cargo as prize of war. Here was quite a windfall--a thousand
+tons of coal, near the coast of Brazil, where it was worth $17 per ton.
+But what was I to do with the prize? It would be an interminable job to
+attempt to supply myself from her, by means of my boats, and hauling the
+two ships alongside of each other, at sea, was not to be thought of. I was
+bound to the island of Fernando de Noronha, that being the second
+rendezvous which I had assigned to my old Scotch collier, the _Agrippina_,
+and I resolved to take the _Hatch_ in, with me, to abide contingencies. If
+the _Agrippina_ should arrive in due time, I could burn the _Hatch_; if
+not, the _Hatch_ would supply her place.
+
+This being determined upon, I sent a prize crew on board the captured
+ship, and directed the prize-master to keep company with me. We overhauled
+an English bark, the next day, bound from Lisbon to Rio Janeiro, from
+which we received some late Portuguese newspapers, of no particular
+interest; and on the day afterward, we chased what we took certainly to be
+a Yankee whaling schooner, but which we found, upon coming up with her, to
+be a Portuguese. The schooner was a capital imitation of the "down East"
+fore-and-after, but upon being boarded, she not only proved to be foreign
+built, but her master and crew were all Portuguese, nearly as black as
+negroes, with a regular set of Portuguese papers. What added considerably
+to the cheat was, that the little craft had heels, and I was some two or
+three hours in coming up with her.
+
+The weather was so thick for the next two or three days, that it was
+necessary to keep the prize very close to me, to prevent losing sight of
+her. At night I showed her a light from my peak, and we jogged along
+within speaking distance of each other. Having had no observation for
+fixing the position of my ship, during the prevalence of this thick
+weather, and the direction and velocity of the currents being somewhat
+uncertain, I was quite anxious lest I should drift past the island I was
+in quest of, and fall upon some of the foul ground lying between it and
+the coast of Brazil. On the 9th of April, the sun showed himself for an
+hour or two, near noon, and I got latitude and longitude, and found that
+we were in the great equatorial current, as I had supposed, setting us
+about S. W. by W. at the rate of a knot and a half per hour. I now got up
+steam, and taking the prize in tow, for it was nearly calm, with but a few
+cats'-paws playing upon the water, made the best of my way toward Fernando
+de Noronha.
+
+At daylight, the next morning, we made the famous peak, some forty miles
+distant, and at half-past two P. M. we came to anchor in thirteen fathoms
+water. The prize, having been cast off as we ran in, anchored near us. The
+_Agrippina_ had not arrived; nor did I ever see her afterward. Captain
+Bullock had duly dispatched her, but the worthless old Scotch master made
+it a point not to find me, and having sold his coal in some port or other,
+I have forgotten where, returned to England with a cock-and-a-bull story,
+to account for his failure. The fact is, the old fellow had become alarmed
+lest he should fall into the hands of the Yankees. It was fortunate that I
+had not burned the _Louisa Hatch_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+FERNANDO DE NORONHA--ITS FAMOUS PEAK--IS A PENAL SETTLEMENT OF BRAZIL--A
+VISIT FROM THE GOVERNOR'S AMBASSADORS--A VISIT TO THE GOVERNOR IN
+RETURN--THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE ISLAND--CAPTURE OF THE LAFAYETTE AND THE
+KATE CORY--BURNING OF THE TWO LAST SHIPS, WITH THE LOUISA HATCH--PRISONERS
+SENT TO PERNAMBUCO--THE CLOUD RING, AND THE RAINY AND DRY SEASONS.
+
+
+Fernando de Noronha lies not a great way from Cape St. Roque in Brazil. It
+forms the western end of a chain of volcanic islands and deep-sea
+soundings that extend some distance along the equator. Earthquakes have
+been frequently experienced by ships when passing along this chain, and
+the charts point out a number of supposed dangers hereabout. Many of these
+dangers have no real existence, but still the prudent mariner gives them a
+wide berth, when sailing past the localities assigned them. The island of
+Fernando de Noronha is evidently of volcanic origin. Its whole appearance
+indicates that it was thrown from the depths of the sea, by nature, when
+in one of her most fearful paroxysms. Its abrupt and rugged sides of solid
+rock, rent and torn, and blackened by the torrents, rise almost
+perpendicularly from the waters to the height of several hundred feet.
+
+The famous peak before spoken of, and which the mariner at sea descries
+long before the body of the island becomes visible, is a queer freak of
+nature. It looks as though the giants had been playing at church-steeples,
+and had upraised this immense shaft of granite to mark one of nature's
+cathedrals. The illusion is almost perfect. When "land ho!" is first cried
+by the look-out at the mast-head, and the glass is applied in the given
+direction, the observer is startled at the resemblance. Nor is his
+surprise diminished, as his ship approaches nearer, and the body of the
+island begins to make its appearance above the water; for there is the
+roof of the massive cathedral, to which the steeple belongs! The peak is a
+mass of solid granite, shot by the earthquake through the solid crust of
+the mountain, and is almost symmetrical enough to have been shaped by
+human hands. We lay nearly two weeks at Fernando de Noronha, and I was
+never tired of gazing upon this wonderful evidence of the power of
+volcanic forces.
+
+The winds, the rains, and the sunshine have, in the course of ages,
+disintegrated enough of the surface of this rocky island, to form a rich
+soil, which is covered with a profusion of tropical vegetation, including
+forest-trees of considerable size; and a number of small farms, with neat
+farm-houses, add to the picturesqueness of the scene. Fruits and
+vegetables, the Indian corn, and the sugar-cane, flourish in great
+perfection, and a few ponies and horned cattle have been introduced from
+the main land. Swine, goats, and domestic fowls abound. Fernando de
+Noronha stands as a great sign-board, as it were, on the principal
+commercial thoroughfare of the world. Almost all the ships that cross the
+line, from Europe and America, to the East Indies and Pacific Ocean, and
+_vice versa_, sight it, for the purpose of taking a new departure from it.
+The dwellers on its lonely hills look out upon a constant stream of
+commerce, but they are like prisoners looking out from their
+prison-windows upon a scene of which they are not a part. A ship rarely
+ever touches at the island. There is nothing to invite communication. It
+is too insignificant for traffic, and has no good harbor where a ship
+could repair damages or refit. It is, besides, a penal colony of Brazil,
+to which it belongs. It is under the government of an officer of the
+Brazilian Army, who has a battalion of troops under him, and hither are
+sent from Rio Janeiro, and the other cities of the empire, all the noted
+criminals who are condemned to long terms of imprisonment. Very few of the
+prisoners are kept in close confinement. The island itself is prison
+enough, and there are no possible means of escape from it. The prisoners
+are, therefore, permitted to run at large, and mitigate the horrors of
+their lot by manual labor on the farms, or engage in the mechanic arts.
+
+Our arrival was announced in due form to the Governor, and the paymaster
+had, besides, at my suggestion, addressed him a letter on the subject of
+supplies. In the meantime, we hauled the _Louisa Hatch_ alongside, and
+commenced coaling. The next morning a couple of gentlemen visited me, on
+the part of the Governor, to arrange personally with the paymaster, the
+matter of supplies, and to welcome me to the island. No objection was made
+to our bringing in the _Hatch_, or to our receiving coal from her. The
+state of my diplomatic relations with the Governor was thus so
+satisfactory, that I invited his ambassadors into the cabin, and summoned
+Bartelli to provide champagne. A popping of corks, and a mutual clinking
+of glasses ensued, and when we had resumed conversation and lighted
+cigars, one of the gentlemen diplomats informed me, in the most easy and
+_san souciant_ manner possible, that he was one of the convicts of the
+island! He had been sentenced for six years, he said, but had nearly
+served his term out. He was a German, and spoke very good English. Several
+of my officers were present, and there was, of course, a casting of
+glances from one to the other. But Bartelli, who was still standing a few
+paces in the rear, with a fresh bottle of uncorked champagne in his hand,
+seemed to be most shocked. My faithful steward felt the honors and dignity
+of my station much more than I did myself, and it was amusing to see the
+smile of derision and contempt, with which he wheeled round, and replaced
+the uncorked bottle in the champagne basket.
+
+The next day, accompanied by my paymaster--by the way, I have forgotten to
+mention that I had appointed Dr. Galt, my esteemed surgeon, paymaster, at
+the time I made a present of my former paymaster to Mr. Adams, as related;
+and that I had promoted Dr. Llewellyn to be surgeon--I made a visit to the
+Governor at his palace. He had kindly sent horses for us to the beach, and
+we had a pleasant ride of about a mile, before we reached his
+headquarters. It was about eleven A. M., when we alighted, and were
+escorted by an aide-de-camp to his presence. The Governor was a thin,
+spare man, rather under the medium height, and of sprightly manners and
+conversation. His complexion, like that of most Brazilians, was about
+that of a side of tanned sole-leather. His rank was that of a major in the
+Brazilian Army. He received us very cordially. We found him at breakfast
+with his family and some guests, and he insisted that we should be seated
+at the breakfast-table, and partake of a second breakfast, though we
+endeavored to decline. The meal was quite substantial, consisting of a
+variety of roast meats, as well as fruits and vegetables.
+
+As soon as I could find a little time to look around me, I discovered that
+her ladyship, the governess, was a very sprightly and not uncomely
+mulatto, and that her two little children, who were brought to me with all
+due ceremony, to be praised, and have their heads patted, had rather
+kinky, or, perhaps, I should say curly, hair. But I was a man of the
+world, and was not at all dismayed by this discovery; especially when I
+observed that my _vis-a-vis_--one of the guests--was a beautiful blonde,
+of sweet seventeen, with a complexion like a lily, tinted with the least
+bit of rose, and with eyes so melting and lovely, that they looked as
+though they might have belonged to one of the houris, of whom that old
+reprobate Mahomet used to dream. To set off her charms still further, she
+was arrayed in a robe of the purest white, with a wreath of flowers in her
+flaxen hair. She was a German, and was seated next to her father, a man of
+about sixty, who, as the Governor afterward informed me, was one of his
+chief criminals.
+
+The Governor seeing me start a little as he gave me this information, made
+haste to explain, that his guest was not of the _canaille_, or common
+class of rogues, but a gentleman, who, in a moment of weakness, had signed
+another gentleman's name to a check for a considerable amount, which he
+had been clever enough to have cashed. "He is only a forger, then!" said I
+to the Governor. "That is all," replied he; "he is a very clever old
+gentleman, and, as you see, he has a very pretty daughter." There was
+certainly no gainsaying the latter proposition. The chaplain of the penal
+colony--which numbered about one thousand convicts, the entire population
+of the island being about two thousand--a portly and dignified priest, was
+also at the breakfast-table, and my paymaster and myself spent a very
+pleasant half-hour around this social board, at which were represented so
+many of the types of mankind, and so different moral elements.
+
+From the breakfast-table, we retired to a withdrawing-room, which was
+pretty well filled when we entered, showing that his Excellency had done
+me the honor to get some guests together to greet me. The paymaster and
+myself were personally presented to most of these distinguished
+gentlemen--some military men, some civilians. Among others, was present
+the ambassador of the day previous, who had given such a shock to
+Bartelli's nerves, as to render him incapable of doing that which he loved
+above all other things to do--draw a champagne cork for the Captain's
+guests, whom he regarded, after a certain fashion, as his own. The
+Governor had evidently been select in his society, for most of these
+gentlemen were not only well dressed, but well-mannered, and some of them
+were even distinguished in appearance. They were mostly homicides and
+forgers, and seemed rather to pride themselves upon the distinction which
+they had attained in their _professions_. There was one young fellow
+present, upon whom all seemed to look with admiration. He was a dashing
+young German, who had evidently driven fast horses, and kept the best of
+company. He wore an elaborately embroidered shirt-bosom, on which
+glittered a diamond brooch of great brilliancy, and there were chains hung
+about his neck, and signet and other rings on his fingers. This fellow was
+such a master of the pen, that he could cheat any man out of his
+signature, after having seen him write but once. To give us an example of
+his skill, he sketched, whilst we were talking to him, the _Alabama_, and
+her surroundings, as they appeared from the window of the saloon in which
+we were sitting, so perfectly, with pen and ink, as to create a murmur of
+applause among the bystanders. This charming young gentleman had "done"
+the Bank of Rio Janeiro out of a very large sum, which was the cause of
+his being the guest of the Governor.
+
+Wine and cigars were brought in, and as we chatted, and smoked with these
+fellows, the paymaster, and I were highly amused--amused at our own
+situation, and by the variety of characters by whom we were surrounded.
+The lev�e being at an end, the Governor ordered horses, and, accompanied
+by an orderly, we rode over his dominions. It was in the midst of the
+rainy season, and the island was almost constantly wreathed in mists and
+rain, but as these rains continue for months, no one thinks of housing
+himself on account of them.
+
+We passed within a stone's throw of the Peak, and were more struck than
+ever, with the grandeur of its proportions and the symmetry of its form.
+The island is broken and picturesque, as all volcanic countries are, and
+in the midst of the rains, it was one mass of rank vegetation, it being as
+much as the farmers could do to keep a few patches of cultivation free
+from the encroaching weeds and jungle. We had not been in the saddle more
+than twenty minutes, when a heavily laden, vaporous cloud swept over us,
+and drenched us to the skin. But I found that this was not to interfere,
+in the least, with our ride. Its only effect was, to induce the Governor
+to call a temporary halt, at a Manioc factory, in which he was interested,
+and whistle up a boy, who brought each of us a very small glass filled
+with the villanous _aguadiente_ of the country. The Governor tossed his
+off at a single gulp, and not to be discourteous, we made wry faces, and
+disposed of as much of ours as we could.
+
+We passed through tangled forests, the trees of which were all new to us,
+and through dells and ravines, in which the living, and the decaying
+vegetation seemed to be struggling for the mastery, and emerged in a
+beautiful cocoanut plantation, on the south end of the island, which lay
+only a few feet above the sea-level. I was now at the end of the
+Governor's dominions--an hour's ride had brought me from the sea, on one
+side of them, to the sea, on the other, and there was nothing more to be
+seen. Other showers coming on, we entered a tiny country house of the
+Governor's, and had some grapes, figs, and melons brought in to us by the
+major domo. The green cocoanut was brought to us among other delicacies,
+to be eaten with spoons. We were quite amused at the manner in which these
+nuts were gathered. The major domo called a boy, and tying his legs
+together, just above the ankles, so that the ankles were about six inches
+apart, set him down at the foot of a tree. These trees, as the reader
+knows, grow to a great height, are perfectly cylindrical, and have not an
+excrescence of any kind from root to top; and yet the boy, by the aid of
+the bandage described, wriggled himself to the top of one of the tallest,
+with the agility of a squirrel.
+
+There being at length a pause in the rains, the sun even peeping through
+an occasional rift in the ragged and watery clouds, we remounted, and rode
+back. The tiny mountain paths had, many of them, by this time become rills
+and torrents, and our horses were frequently knee-deep in water. The
+paymaster and I pulled on board at five P. M., without having suffered any
+inconvenience, either from the rains, or the Governor's _aguadiente_; nor
+did our morals suffer materially by what we had seen and heard in the
+island of Fernando de Noronha. The next morning the Governor's wife sent
+me a fat turkey for dinner, accompanied by the most charming of bouquets.
+This was evidently my reward for patting the little curly heads of her
+children. My diplomacy from this time onward was all right. I did not hear
+a word from the Governor, or any one in authority, about neutral rights,
+or the violation of neutral jurisdictions. Brazil had, I knew, followed
+the lead of the European powers, in excluding prizes from her ports, and I
+had fully expected to receive some remonstrance against my bringing in the
+_Louisa Hatch_, but Madame was too strong for the Governor, and, as the
+reader has seen, I received fat turkeys, and bouquets, instead of
+remonstrances. The anchorage being nothing but an open roadstead, we soon
+found it too rough to permit a ship to lie alongside of us, and so were
+obliged to haul the _Hatch_ off to her anchors, and continue our coaling
+with boats. This was rather a tedious process, and it was not until the
+15th of April, or five days after our arrival, that we were coaled.
+
+We had not once thought of a prize, since we came in. Our whole attention
+had been given to coaling ship, and refitting for another cruise,
+refreshing the crew, and attending to the ladies at the Government House.
+But the ubiquitous Yankee would turn up in spite of us. Just as we had
+gotten our last boat-load of coal on board, two ships appeared off the
+harbor, and were seen to heave to, and lower boats. We soon made them out
+to be whalers, and knew them to be American, though they had not as yet
+hoisted any colors. The boats pulled in apace, and soon entered the
+harbor. They contained the masters of the two whalers, who had come in to
+barter a little whale oil for supplies. The _Alabama_ was lying, without
+any colors hoisted, as was her wont while she remained at this island,
+and, of course, the _Louisa Hatch_, her prize, had none set. The boats
+pulled in quite unsuspiciously, and observing that the _Hatch_ was an
+American-built ship, went alongside of her. The prize-master, who was
+taking it easily, in his shirt-sleeves, and so had no uniform on which
+could betray him, went to the gangway and threw them a rope. The two
+masters declined to come on board, as they were in a hurry, they said, but
+remained some time in conversation--the prize-master, who was an
+Englishman, endeavoring to play Yankee, the best he could. He repeatedly
+invited them to come on board, but they declined. They wanted to know what
+steamer "that was," pointing to the _Alabama_. They were told that it was
+a Brazilian packet-steamer, come over to the colony to bring some
+convicts. "What are _you_ doing here," they now inquired. "We sprang a
+pretty bad leak, in a late gale, and have come in to see if we can repair
+damages." Presently there was a simultaneous start, on the part of both
+the boat's crews, and the words "starn, all!" being bawled, rather than
+spoken, both boats backed out, in "double quick," and put off, with the
+most vigorous strokes of their oars, for the shore, like men who were
+pulling for their lives. The prize-master, a little astonished at this
+sudden movement, looked around him to see what could have caused it. The
+cause was soon apparent. A small Confederate flag--a boat's ensign--had
+been thrown by the coxswain of one of the boats on the spanker-boom to
+dry, and while the conversation was going on, a puff of wind had blown out
+the folds, and disclosed the little tell-tale to the gaze of the
+astonished whalers. It was not precisely a Gorgon's head; they did not
+turn to stone, but perhaps there was some of the tallest pulling done,
+that day, at Fernando de Noronha, that was ever done by a Yankee boat's
+crew.
+
+In the meantime, the "Brazilian packet-steamer" having gotten up steam,
+was moving quietly out of the harbor, to look after the ships outside.
+They were still lying to, and fortunately for me, they were four or five
+miles off; outside of the charmed marine league. There was an outlying
+shoal or two, in the direction in which they were, and this was the
+reason, probably, why they had not ventured nearer. It did not take us
+long to come up with them. We fired the usual gun as we approached, and as
+there was no occasion for _ruse_, we showed them our own flag. They saw in
+a moment that their fate was sealed, and did not attempt to stir, but
+hoisted the United States colors, and patiently waited to be taken
+possession of. The first we came up with, was the bark _Lafayette_, of New
+Bedford. There were no papers to be examined--the mate, in the absence of
+the captain, having thrown them overboard, as we approached--and we gave
+her a short shrift. She was burning brightly, in less than an hour. We now
+ranged up alongside of the other, which proved to be the hermaphrodite
+brig, _Kate Cory_, of Westport. Instead of burning the _Cory_, I took her
+in tow, and stood back to the anchorage with her, it being my intention to
+convert her into a cartel, and dispatch her to the United States, with my
+prisoners, who were now quite as numerous as my crew, there being 110 of
+them. By seven P. M., we had again anchored in our old berth; the burning
+ship outside lighting us into the roadstead, and throwing a bright glare
+over much of the island. A number of ships that passed Fernando de Noronha
+that night, must have been astonished at this illumination of the lonely
+mile-post. The sea was smooth, and the ship was still burning, the next
+morning, though by this time she had drifted so far, that there was
+nothing visible except a column of smoke. I afterward changed my
+determination of converting the _Cory_ into a cartel. A small Brazilian
+schooner having come into the anchorage, offered to take all my prisoners
+to Pernambuco, if I would provision them, and give her, besides, a few
+barrels of pork and flour for her trouble. This I at once consented to do,
+and the Governor having no objection, the arrangement was forthwith made.
+I was thus enabled to burn the _Cory_, and to put the enemy, to the
+expense of sending his released prisoners to the United States. I burned
+the _Louisa Hatch_ along with the _Cory_, having no farther use for her;
+taking the pains to send them both beyond the marine league, that I might
+pay due respect to the jurisdiction of Brazil.
+
+And now we were ready for sea again, though I remained a few days longer
+at my anchors, hoping that the _Agrippina_ might arrive. She was past due,
+but I had not yet given up all hope of her.
+
+We were now getting well along into the latter part of April, and a great
+change was taking place in the weather. It had been raining, as the reader
+has observed, ever since we reached the vicinity of the equator. The rains
+were now becoming less frequent, from day to day, and we had the showers
+agreeably alternated with sunshine. The rainy season was passing away, and
+the dry season was about to set in. I watched this phenomenon with great
+interest--all the more narrowly, because I had nothing to do, but look out
+for the weather, and the _Agrippina_; except, indeed, to attend to the
+refreshment, and recreation of my crew, and send Bartelli on shore,
+occasionally, with messages to the ladies at the Government House. The
+reader, who has now been a passenger with us for some time, has watched
+the trade-winds, as he has crossed the tropics, and has fanned himself and
+panted for breath, when we have been working our tedious way through the
+calm-belts. He has seen how this system of trade-winds and calm-belts
+wanders up and down the earth, from north to south, and south to north,
+drawn hither and thither by the sun. But we have had no conversation, as
+yet, about the Equatorial Cloud Ring. He has been, for the last three
+weeks, under this very Cloud Ring, but has probably failed to remark it.
+He has only seen that the flood-gates of the heavens have been raised, and
+witnessed the descending torrents, and the roll of the thunder, and the
+play of the lightning, without stopping to ask himself the reason.
+
+Let us pause a moment, and look into this beautiful phenomenon of the
+Equatorial Cloud Ring, before we flit away to other seas, and are absorbed
+by new phenomena. The north-east and south-east trade-winds, meeting near
+the equator, produce the Cloud Ring. Let us suppose the _Alabama_ back at
+the crossing of the 30th parallel, where, as the reader will recollect, we
+established the toll-gate. She had, whilst there, a high barometer.
+Starting thence on her way to the equator, as soon as she enters the
+north-east trade, she finds that her barometer settles a little--perhaps a
+tenth of an inch on an average. The reader has seen, that we had, whilst
+passing through this region, a series of half gales, and bad weather; but
+this was an exceptional state of the atmospheric phenomena. The normal
+condition of the weather is that of a clear sky, with passing
+trade-clouds, white and fleecy, and with moderate breezes. If the reader
+has watched his barometer narrowly, he has observed a very remarkable
+phenomenon, which is not known to prevail outside of the trade-wind
+belts--an atmospheric tide. The atmosphere ebbs and flows as regularly as
+the sea. This atmospheric tide is due, no doubt, to the same cause that
+produces the aqueous tides--the attraction of the moon. It occurs twice in
+twenty-four hours, just like the aqueous tides, and there is no other
+cause to which we can attribute it.
+
+The needle has a like semi-diurnal--indeed, hourly variation--showing the
+normal, electrical condition of the atmosphere. The atmospherical, tidal
+wave, as it ebbs and flows, seems to carry the needle backward and forward
+with it. The average barometer being but a very little under thirty, there
+is an agreeable elasticity in the atmosphere, and officers, and crew are
+generally in fine spirits. The sailors enjoy their evening dances, and
+story-tellings, and when the night-watches are set, sleep with impunity
+about the decks--guarded, however, by those woollen garments, of which I
+spoke, when describing our routine life. But observe, now, what a change
+will take place, as we approach the equator. We are approaching not only
+the calm-belt, which has been before described, but the Cloud Ring, for
+the latter is the concomitant of the former. The winds die away, the
+muttering of thunder is heard, and a pall of black clouds, along which
+dart frequent streaks of lightning, is seen hanging on the verge of the
+horizon, ahead of the ship. As she advances, fanned along by puffs of wind
+from various quarters, she loses sight of the sun altogether, and enters
+beneath the belt of clouds, where she is at once deluged with rain. She is
+at once in the equatorial calm-belt, and under the Equatorial Cloud Ring.
+
+The north-east and south-east trade-winds, as they came sweeping along,
+charged to saturation with the vapors which they have licked up from a
+torrid sea, have ascended as they met, and when they have reached the
+proper dew-point, or point of the wet-bulb of the thermometer,
+precipitation has commenced. The barometer falls another tenth of an inch,
+or so, all elasticity departs from the atmosphere, and officers and crew
+lose their cheerfulness. They feel all the lassitude and weariness of men
+in a perpetual vapor-bath. The sailor no longer mounts the ratlines, as if
+he had cork in his heels, but climbs up sluggishly and slothfully, devoid
+of his usual pride to be foremost. In other words, though not absolutely
+sick, he is "under the weather." The rays of the sun being perpetually
+excluded, the thermometer stands lower under the Cloud Ring, than on
+either side of it. At least this is the normal condition. Sometimes,
+however, the most oppressive heats occur. They are local, and of short
+duration. These local heats are occasioned as follows: When a cooler
+stratum of the upper air sweeps down nearer the earth than usual, bringing
+with it the dew-point, condensation takes place so near the surface, that
+the rain-drops have not time to cool, at the same time that an immense
+quantity of latent heat has been liberated in the act of condensation. At
+other times, when the dew-point is far removed from the earth, the latent
+heat is not only thrown off at a greater distance from us, but the
+rain-drops cool in their descent, and greatly reduce the temperature.
+
+The Cloud Ring is being perpetually formed, and is perpetually passing
+away. Fresh volumes of air, charged as described, are constantly rushing
+in from the north and from the south, and as constantly ascending, parting
+with a portion of their water, and continuing their journey to the poles,
+in obedience to the laws providing for the equal distribution of rain to
+the two hemispheres, before explained. The Cloud Ring encircles the entire
+earth, and if it could be viewed by an eye at a distance from our planet,
+would appear like a well-defined black mark drawn around an artificial
+globe. Its width is considerable, being from three to six degrees.
+
+It remains to speak of the offices which this remarkable ring performs. It
+is an important cog-wheel in the great atmospherical machine, for the
+distribution of water over the earth; but, besides its functions in the
+general system, it has local duties to perform. These are the hovering by
+turns over certain portions of the earth, giving them an alternation of
+rain and sunshine. In short, it causes the rainy, and dry seasons, in
+certain parallels, north and south, within the limits assigned to it. The
+ancients were of the opinion that the equatorial regions of the earth were
+a continuous, burning desert, devoid of vegetation, and of course
+uninhabitable; and perhaps this opinion would not be very far wrong, but
+for the arrangement of which I am about to speak. The Cloud Ring is a part
+of the system of calm-belts, and trade-winds. It overhangs the equatorial
+calm-belt, as has been stated, and it travels north and south with it. It
+travels over as much as twenty degrees of latitude--from about 5� S. to
+15� N., carrying, as before remarked, rain to the regions over which it
+hovers, and letting in the sunshine upon those regions it has left. If the
+reader will inspect a map, he will find that it extends as far into our
+hemisphere, as the island of Martinique, in the West Indies. Fernando de
+Noronha, where we are now lying in the _Alabama_, is near its southern
+limit, being in the latitude of about 4� S. The reader has seen that the
+rainy season was still prevailing, when we arrived at this island, on the
+10th of April; and that it had begun to pass away, while we still lay
+there--the rain and the sunshine playing at "April showers." The preceding
+diagram will explain how the Cloud Ring travels:--
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Figure 1 represents the island of Fernando de Noronha still under the
+Cloud Ring. It is early in April, and only about three weeks have elapsed
+since the sun crossed the equator on his way back to the northern
+hemisphere. When he was in the southern hemisphere, he had drawn the ring
+so far south, as to cover the island. His rays had been shut out from it,
+and it was constantly raining. The little island would have been drowned
+out, if this state of things had continued; but it was not so ordered by
+the great Architect.
+
+Suppose now a month to elapse. It is early in May, and behold! the sun has
+travelled sufficiently far north, to draw the Cloud Ring from over the
+island, and leave it in sunshine, as represented in figure 2. Thus the
+island is neither parched by perpetual heat, nor drowned by perpetual
+rains, but its climate is delightfully tempered by an alternation of each,
+and it has become a fit abode for men and animals.
+
+As we have seen in a former chapter, a benign Providence has set the
+trade-winds in motion, that they might become the water-carriers of the
+earth, ordering them, for this purpose, to cross the equator, each into
+the hemisphere of the other. We now see that he has woven, with those same
+winds, a shield, impenetrable to the sun's rays, which he holds in his
+hand, as it were, first over one parched region of the earth, and then
+over another--the shield dropping "fatness" all the while!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+THE ALABAMA LEAVES FERNANDO DE NORONHA FOR A CRUISE ON THE COAST OF
+BRAZIL--ENTERS THE GREAT HIGHWAY AND BEGINS TO OVERHAUL THE
+TRAVELLERS--CAPTURE OF THE WHALER NYE; OF THE DORCAS PRINCE; OF THE UNION
+JACK; OF THE SEA LARK--A REVEREND CONSUL TAKEN PRISONER--ALABAMA GOES INTO
+BAHIA--WHAT OCCURRED THERE--ARRIVAL OF THE GEORGIA--ALABAMA PROCEEDS TO
+SEA AGAIN--CAPTURES THE FOLLOWING SHIPS: THE GILDERSLIEVE; THE JUSTINA;
+THE JABEZ SNOW; THE AMAZONIAN, AND THE TALISMAN.
+
+
+The 22d of April having arrived, we gave up all further hopes of the
+_Agrippina_, and went to sea. As we passed out of the roadstead, we cut
+adrift the four whale-boats which we had brought in from the captured
+whalers, rather than destroy them. They would be valuable to the
+islanders, who had treated us kindly, and it was amusing to see the
+struggle which took place for the possession of them. The good people
+seemed to have some anticipation of what was to take place, and all the
+boatmen of the island had assembled to contest the prizes, in every
+description of craft that would float, from the dug-out to the tidy
+cutter. The boatmen stripped themselves like athletes for the fray, and as
+whale-boat after boat was cut adrift, there was a pulling and splashing, a
+paddling and a screaming that defy all description; the victors waving
+their hats, and shouting their victory and their good-bye to us, in the
+same breath.
+
+We steamed due east from the island some forty miles, when we let our
+steam go down, raised the propeller, and put the ship under sail. The
+_Alabama_, with full coal-bunkers and a refreshed crew, was again in
+pursuit of the enemy's commerce. I had at last accomplished my cherished
+design--which had been frustrated in the _Sumter_--of a cruise on the
+coast of Brazil. In my stanch and fleet little ship, I was in a condition
+to defy both winds and currents. On the day after leaving Fernando de
+Noronha, I observed in latitude 5� 45' S., and had thus run entirely from
+under the Cloud Ring. We were met by a bright sky, and the first gentle
+breathings of the south-east trade. This change in the weather had an
+electric effect upon my people. Cheerfulness returned to their
+countenances, and elasticity to their step. It took us some time to dry
+and ventilate the ship, the rigging being filled, for a day or two, with
+wet pea-jackets and mattresses, and the decks strewed with mouldy boots
+and shoes.
+
+Before we had been twenty-four hours at sea, the usual bugle-note was
+sounded from the mast-head, and the _Alabama_ had pricked up her ears in
+chase. It was another unfortunate whaler. The fates seemed to have a
+grudge against these New England fishermen, and would persist in throwing
+them in my way, although I was not on a whaling-ground. This was the
+sixteenth I had captured--a greater number than had been captured from the
+English by Commodore David Porter, in his famous cruise in the Pacific, in
+the frigate _Essex_, during the war of 1812. The prize proved to be the
+bark _Nye_, of New Bedford. This bluff old whaler was returning home from
+a cruise of thirty-one months in the far-off Pacific, during which her
+crew had become almost as much Sandwich Islanders, as Americans in
+appearance, with their garments so saturated with oil that they would have
+been quite valuable to the soap-boiler. She had sent "home" one or two
+cargoes of oil, and had now on board 425 barrels more. It seemed a pity to
+break in upon the _menage_ of these old salts, who had weathered so many
+gales, and chased the whale through so many latitudes, but there was no
+alternative. The New England wolf was still howling for Southern blood,
+and the least return we could make for the howl, was to spill a little
+"_ile_." Everything about the _Nye_ being greased to saturation, she made
+a splendid conflagration.
+
+The next day the wind freshened, and we might now be said to be in the
+well-pronounced south-east trades. Indeed, it blew so fresh at nightfall,
+that we took the single reefs in the topsails. We were jogging along
+leisurely on the great Brazilian highway, waiting for the passengers,
+rather than hunting them up. Presently another came along--a fine, taunt
+ship, that represented the boxes and bales of merchandise, rather than
+harpoons and whale-oil. We gave chase under the enemy's colors, but the
+chase was coy and shy, and refused to show colors in return, until she was
+commanded to do so by a gun. The stars and stripes, which now fluttered to
+the breeze, sufficiently explained her reluctance. Upon being boarded she
+proved to be the _Dorcas Prince_, of New York, bound for Shanghai. Her
+cargo consisted chiefly of coal. She had been fourty-four days out, an
+unusually long passage, and what was quite wonderful for an American ship,
+she had no documents on board from the college, either of the political or
+religious propaganda, and only three or four old newspapers. When we
+learned she was from New York, we had been in hopes of capturing a mail.
+We burned her as soon as we could transfer her crew, there being no claim
+of neutral cargo found among her papers. Her master had his wife on board,
+which resulted, as usual, in sending one of my young lieutenants into the
+"country."
+
+Reducing sail again, we jogged along as before, but for the next few days
+we overhauled nothing but neutrals. A St. John's, New Brunswick, ship,
+brought us the mail we had expected to receive by the _Dorcas Prince_, but
+it contained nothing of interest. On the 3d of May, the weather being
+fine, though interrupted occasionally by a rain-squall, we gave chase,
+about eleven A. M., to a clipper-ship, with square yards, white canvas,
+and long mast-heads--and the reader must be enough of an expert, by this
+time, to know what these mean. In an hour and a half of fine sailing, we
+came near enough to the chase, to make her show the Federal colors, and
+heave to. She proved to be the _Union Jack_, of Boston, bound for
+Shanghai. Whilst we had been pursuing the _Union Jack_, another
+"suspicious" sail hove in sight, and as soon as we could throw a
+prize-crew on board of the former, we started off in pursuit of the
+latter. This second sail proved also to be a prize, being the _Sea Lark_,
+of New York, bound for San Francisco. Here were two prizes, in as many
+hours.
+
+There was no attempt to cover the cargo of the _Sea Lark_, and the only
+attempt that was made in the case of the _Union Jack_, was made by one
+Allen Hay, who was anxious to save five cases of crackers, and ten barrels
+of butter from capture. In this case, a Mr. Thomas W. Lillie, made oath
+before the British Consul in New York, that the said articles were shipped
+"for and on account of subjects of her Britannic Majesty." The reader has
+seen me burn several other ships, with similar certificates, the reasons
+for which burnings were assigned at the time. I will not stop, therefore,
+to discus this. In due time both ships were consigned to the flames. I was
+sorry to find three more women, and two small children on board of the
+_Union Jack_. That ship was, in fact, about to expatriate herself for
+several years, after the fashion of many of the Yankee ships in the
+Chinese coasting-trade, and the master was taking his family out to
+domicile it somewhere in China. There were several male passengers also on
+board this ship, among them an ex-New-England parson, the Rev. Franklin
+Wright, who was going out as Consul to Foo Chow. The Rev. Mr. Wright had
+been editor of a religious paper for some years, in one of the New England
+villages, and probably owed his promotion to the good services he had
+rendered in hurrying on the war. He had Puritan written all over his
+lugubrious countenance, and looked so solemn, that one wondered how he
+came to exchange the clergyman's garb for the garb of Belial. But so it
+was; Franklin was actually going out to India, in quest of the dollars. We
+deprived him of his Consular seal and commission, though we did not molest
+his private papers, and of sundry very pretty Consular flags, that had
+been carefully prepared for him by Mr. Seward, _fils_, at the State
+Department, in Washington. I am pained to see, by that "little bill" of
+Mr. Seward, _p�re_, against the British Government, for "depredations of
+the _Alabama_," before referred to, that the Rev. Mr. Wright puts his
+damages down at $10,015. I had no idea that a New England parson carried
+so much plunder about with him.
+
+We received large mails from these two last ships, and had our "moral
+ideas" considerably expanded, for the next few days, by the perusal of
+Yankee newspapers. We found among other interesting items, a vivid
+synopsis of the war news, in a speech of Governor Wright, of Indiana, who,
+if I mistake not, had been charg� to Berlin, where he had been in the
+habit of holding conventicles and prayer-meetings. The Governor is
+addressing a meeting of the "truly loil" at Philadelphia, and among other
+things, said:--
+
+     "The stars and stripes now wave over half the slave grounds. I
+     believe in less than thirty days we will open the Mississippi and
+     take Charleston. [Loud applause.] Leave Virginia alone, that can't
+     sprout a black-eyed pea [Laughter.] Scripture teaches us that no
+     people can live long where there is no grass. The question then is
+     only, whether they can live thirty or sixty days."
+
+Thus, amid the laughter and jeers of an unwashed rabble, did an
+ex-Governor, and ex-U. S. Minister, gloat over the prospect of _starving_
+an entire people, women and children included. Did we need other
+incitement on board the _Alabama_, to apply a well-lighted torch to the
+enemy's ships?
+
+There were copious extracts from the English papers found in this mail,
+and I trust the reader will excuse me, while I give a portion of a speech
+made to his constituents, by a member of the British Parliament, who was
+also a member of the cabinet. The speaker is Mr. Milner Gibson, President
+of the Board of Trade. A great war, which covered a continent with the
+fire and smoke of battle, was raging between a people, who were the near
+kinsmen of the speaker. Battles were being fought daily, that dwarfed all
+the battles that had gone before them. Feats of brilliant courage were
+being performed, on both sides, that should have made the blood of the
+speaker course more rapidly through his veins, and stir to their depths
+the feelings of humanity and brotherhood. Under such circumstances, what
+think you, reader, was the subject of Mr. Gibson's discourse? It was bacon
+and eggs! Listen:--
+
+     "Now," continues Mr. Gibson, "these large importations of foreign
+     wheat and flour, and other provisions, into this country, must, to
+     some extent, have tended to mitigate the distress, and have enabled
+     many to provide for the wants of others out of their own surplus
+     means. But supposing that the Government of this country had been
+     induced, as they were urged frequently, to involve themselves in
+     interference in the affairs of the United States; supposing, by some
+     rash and precipitate recognition of those who are conducting
+     hostilities against the United States--called the Confederate States
+     of America--we had brought ourselves into collision with the United
+     States, where would have been this flour, and ham, and bacon, and
+     eggs? I suppose, if we had been compelled to take up arms against the
+     United States, by any unfortunate policy, blockading would have been
+     resorted to, and we should have been obliged to establish a blockade
+     of the coast of America, for the very purpose of keeping out of this
+     country all this wheat, flour, and eggs which have gone to mitigate
+     the distress of the cotton industry in the present alarming state of
+     affairs. We have from the commencement carried out the doctrine of
+     non-intervention. We have endeavored to preserve a strict neutrality
+     between the two contending parties. It was impossible to avoid
+     recognizing the belligerent rights of the South at the outset of the
+     contest, because it was a contest of such magnitude, and the
+     insurgents, as they were called, were so numerous and so powerful,
+     that it would have been impossible to recognize them in any other
+     capacity but as persons entitled to bear arms; and if we had not done
+     so, and if their armed vessels found on the seas were treated as
+     pirates, it must be obvious to every one that this would have been an
+     unparalleled course of action. We were compelled to recognize the
+     belligerent rights of the South, but there has been no desire on the
+     part of the Government to favor either the one side or the other. My
+     earnest desire is to preserve strict neutrality; and, whatever may be
+     my individual feelings--for we must have our sympathies on the one
+     side or the other--whatever may be my feelings as a member of
+     Parliament and the executive administration, I believe it to be for
+     the interest of England that this neutrality should be observed."
+
+Poor old John Bull! What a descent have we here, from the Plantagenets to
+Mr. Milner Gibson? From Coeur de Leon, "striking for the right," to Mr.
+Milner Gibson, of the _Board of Trade_, advising his countrymen to smother
+all their more noble and generous impulses, that they might continue to
+fry cheap bacon and eggs!
+
+We had been working our way, for the last few days, toward Bahia, in
+Brazil, and being now pretty well crowded with prisoners, having no less
+than the crews of four captured ships on board, I resolved to run in and
+land them. We anchored about five P. M., on the 11th of May. Bahia is the
+second city, in size and commercial importance, in the Brazilian empire.
+We found a large number of ships at anchor in the harbor, but no Yankees
+among them. The only man-of-war present was a Portuguese. We were struck
+with the spaciousness of the bay, and the beauty of the city as we
+approached. The latter crowns a crescent-shaped eminence, and its white
+houses peep cosily from beneath forest-trees, of the richest and greenest
+foliage. The business part of the city lies at the foot of the crescent,
+near the water's edge. It, too, looks picturesque, with its quays, and
+shipping, and tugs, and wherries. But, as is the case with most Portuguese
+towns--for the Brazilians are only a better class of Portuguese--the
+illusion of beauty is dispelled, as soon as you enter its narrow and
+crooked streets, and get sight of its swarthy population, the chief
+features of which are _sombreros_ and garlic. We were boarded by the
+health-officer just at dark, and admitted to _pratique_.
+
+The next morning, the weather set in gloomy and rainy. The requisite
+permission having been obtained, we landed our prisoners, there being
+upward of a hundred of them. Parson Wright here took the back track, I
+believe. Whether, after stating his grievances at the State Department in
+Washington, he renewed his commission, and proceeded, in some more
+fortunate Yankee ship to Foo Chow, or went back to his religious paper,
+and his exhortations against the Southern heathen, I have never learned.
+The reverend gentleman forgot his Christian charity, and did not come to
+say "good-bye," when he landed, though we had treated him with all due
+consideration.
+
+I had now another little diplomatic matter on my hands. I had scarcely
+risen from the breakfast-table, on the morning after my arrival, when an
+aide-de-camp of the Governor, or rather President of the Department, came
+off to see me on official business. He brought on board with him a copy of
+the "Diario de Bahia," a newspaper very respectable for its size and
+typography, containing an article, which I was requested to read, and
+answer in writing. This I promised to do, and the messenger departed. I
+found, upon glancing over the article, which filled a couple of columns,
+that it was a Yankee production done into very good Portuguese--the joint
+work, probably, of the Yankee Consul at Pernambuco, where the article had
+originated--for it had been copied into the Bahia paper--and the President
+of that province. It was written after the style of a proclamation, was
+signed by the President, and strangely enough addressed to
+myself--supposed to be still at Fernando de Noronha, with the _Alabama_.
+After charging me with sundry violations of the neutrality of Brazil, it
+ordered me to depart the island, within twenty-four hours.
+
+Instead of sending a ship of war, to examine into the facts, and enforce
+his order, if necessary, the President had been satisfied to send this
+paper bullet after me. It reminded me very much of the "stink-pots," which
+the Chinese are in the habit of throwing at their enemies, and I could not
+restrain a smile, as I called upon Bartelli to produce my writing
+materials. The aide-de-camp who had brought me the paper, had brought off
+a message, along with it, from the President, to the effect that he
+desired I would hold no communication with the shore, until I had answered
+the article; which was tantamount to informing me, that he was somewhat in
+doubt whether he would permit me to communicate at all or not. I really
+wanted nothing--though I afterward took in a few boat-loads of coal,
+merely to show the President that I was disposed to be civil--and this
+consideration, along with the fact, that I had the heaviest guns in the
+harbor, induced me to be rather careless, I am afraid, in the choice of
+phraseology, as I penned my despatch. I simply charged that the whole
+proclamation was a budget of lies, and claimed that I had been insulted by
+the Government of Brazil, by the lies having been put into an official
+shape by it, without first communicating with me.
+
+The Brazilians are a very polite people, and my reply was "perfectly
+satisfactory." Jack went on shore, and had his frolic, and the _Alabama_
+remained a week in the port, enjoying the hospitalities of the numerous
+English, and other foreign residents. Among other entertainments, we had a
+splendid ball given us by Mr. Ogilvie, a British merchant, at which much
+of the foreign and native beauty was present. Mr. Ogilvie's tasteful
+residence overlooked the bay from the top of the crescent I have
+described; his grounds, redolent of the perfumes of tropical flowers, were
+brilliantly illuminated, and a fine band of music charmed not only the
+revellers, but the numerous ships in the Bay. Several Brazilian
+dignitaries and foreign Consuls were present. I took all my young
+gentlemen on shore with me, who could be spared from the ship, and they
+did their "devoirs" as only gallant knights can, and carried on board with
+them, in the "wee sma'" hours of the morning, several tiny kid gloves and
+scarfs, as mementos to accompany them on their cruises--every villain of
+them swearing to return at some future day. So it is always with the
+sailor. As before remarked, his very life is a poem, and his heart is
+capacious enough to take in the whole sex.
+
+On the morning after this brilliant entertainment, an officer came below
+to inform me that a strange steamer of war had entered during the night,
+which, as yet, had shown no colors. I directed our own colors to be shown
+to the stranger--for the regular hour of hoisting them had not yet
+arrived--and the reader may judge of our delight, when we saw the
+Confederate States flag thrown to the breeze in reply, by the newcomer. It
+was the _Georgia_, Commander Lewis F. Maury, on a cruise, like ourselves,
+against the enemy's commerce. She had come in to meet her coal-ship, the
+_Castor_, which had been ordered to rendezvous here. We had now other
+troubles with the authorities. The President, seeing another Confederate
+steamer arrive, became nervous, lest he should be compromised in some way,
+and be called to account by the Emperor. The little gad-fly of a Yankee
+Consul was, besides, constantly buzzing around him. He declined to permit
+the _Georgia_ to receive coal from her transport, though he was forced to
+admit that the transport had the right to land it, and that, when landed,
+the _Georgia_ might receive it on board, like any other coal. Still it
+must be landed. The gad-fly had buzzed in his ear, that there was a "cat
+in the meal tub;" the _Castor_ having, as he alleged, some guns and
+ammunition covered up in her coal! His Excellency then wanted to see my
+commission--the gad-fly having buzzed "pirate! pirate!" To add to the
+complication, news now came in that the _Florida_ also had arrived at
+Pernambuco! Diablo! what was to be done? An aide-de-camp now came off with
+a letter from his Excellency, telling me, that I had already tarried too
+long in the port of Bahia, and that he desired me to be off. I wrote him
+word that I was not ready, and sent another batch of liberty men on shore.
+Presently another missive came. His Excellency had learned from the
+gad-fly, that I had enlisted one of my late prisoners, after setting him
+on shore, which, as he said, was a grave breach of the laws of nations. I
+replied that I had not only not enlisted one of my late prisoners, after
+setting him on shore, but that, my crew being full, I had _refused to
+enlist a good many of my late prisoners_, who had applied to me before
+being set on shore, which was the literal fact. I mention these
+occurrences to show what a troublesome little insect I found the gad-fly
+in Brazil.
+
+We had a few days of very pleasant intercourse with the _Georgia_. Maury
+had been my shipmate in the old service, and two of my old _Sumter_
+lieutenants, Chapman and Evans, were serving on board of her. In company
+with her officers, we made a railroad excursion into the interior, upon
+the invitation of the English company which owned the road. A splendid
+collation was prepared in one of the cars, decorated and furnished for the
+occasion, and a variety of choice wines broke down the barrier between
+strangers, and drew men of the same blood closer together.
+
+At length, when I was entirely ready for sea, I delighted the President
+one evening, by sending him word that I should go to sea the next morning.
+The _Georgia_ was nearly through coaling, and would follow me in a day or
+two. The poor President of the province of Bahia! The Yankees treated him,
+afterward, as they do everybody else with whom they have to do. They first
+endeavored to use him, and then kicked him. The _Florida_ coming into
+Bahia, a few months afterward, as related in a former page, a Federal ship
+of war violated the neutrality of the port, by seizing her, and carrying
+her off; and the Yankee nation, rather than make the amends which all the
+world decided it was bound to make, by delivering back the captured ship
+to Brazil, ordered her to be sunk by _accident_ in Hampton Roads! The
+"_trick_" was eminently Yankee, and I presume could not possibly have been
+practised in any other civilized nation of the earth.
+
+Whilst the _Alabama_ is heaving up her anchor, I deem it proper to say a
+word or two, about emigration to Brazil; a subject which has been a good
+deal canvassed by our people. Brazil is an immense Empire, and has almost
+all the known climates and soils of the world. Nature has bestowed upon
+her her choicest gifts, and there is perhaps no more delightful country to
+reside in than Brazil. But men live for society, as well as for climate
+and soil. The effete Portuguese race has been ingrafted upon a stupid,
+stolid, Indian stock, in that country. The freed negro is, besides, the
+equal of the white man, and as there seems to be no repugnance, on the
+part of the white race--so called--to mix with the black race, and with
+the Indian, amalgamation will go on in that country, until a mongrel set
+of curs will cover the whole land. This might be a suitable field enough
+for the New England school-ma'am, and carpet-bagger, but no Southern
+gentleman should think of mixing his blood or casting his lot with such a
+race of people.
+
+Sail ho! was shouted from the mast-head of the _Alabama_, on the afternoon
+of the 25th of May, a few days after she had put to sea from Bahia. We had
+regained the track of commerce, and were again looking out for our
+friends. We immediately gave chase, and had scarcely gotten the canvas on
+the ship, before the look-out announced a second sail, in the same
+direction. The wind was fresh, there was a heavy sea on, and the _Alabama_
+darted forward, making her eleven, and twelve knots. As we began to raise
+the fugitives above the horizon from the deck, it was plain to see, that
+they were both American. We overhauled them rapidly, making them show
+their colors, and heaving them to, with the accustomed guns. By the time
+we had gotten up with them, the sun had set, and it was blowing half a
+gale of wind. Our boats had a rough job before them, but they undertook it
+with a will. The first ship boarded was the _Gilderslieve_, and the
+second, the _Justina_. The former was a New York ship, last from London,
+with a cargo of coal, purporting to be shipped for the service of the
+"Peninsular, and Oriental Steam Navigation Company," but there was no
+certificate of neutral ownership on board. Ship and cargo were therefore
+condemned. The _Justina_ was a Baltimore ship, with some neutral property,
+not amounting to a full cargo, on board. I converted her into a cartel,
+and throwing the prisoners from the _Gilderslieve_ on board of her,
+released her on ransom-bond. I then burned the _Gilderslieve_. The sea was
+so rough, and the boating so difficult, that it was eleven P. M. before
+the torch could be applied to the doomed ship. We lay to during the
+remainder of the night, under reefed topsails.
+
+The next day the weather moderated somewhat, though the wind still
+continued fresh from about S. S. E. At about half-past eight P. M., the
+night being quite light, we gave chase to an exceedingly rakish-looking
+ship, whose canvas showed white under the rays of the moon, and which was
+carrying a press of sail. We, too, crowded sail, and for a long time it
+was doubtful which ship was the faster. The _Alabama_ seemed to have found
+her match at last. Our pride was aroused, and we put our best foot
+foremost. We saw all the sheets snugly home, the sails well hoisted, and
+properly trimmed, and put the most skilful seamen at the wheel. Little by
+little we began to crawl upon the chase, but hour after hour passed, and
+still we were almost as far astern as ever. Midnight came, and the watch
+was relieved, and still the fugitive was beyond our grasp. Four A. M.
+arrived, and the old watch came back on deck again, only to wonder that
+the chase still continued. At last the day dawned and still the ship, with
+the square yards, and white canvas, was four or five miles ahead of us. We
+had been all night in chase of a single ship--a thing which had never
+happened to us before. When daylight appeared, I went below, and turned
+in, handing the chase over to the first lieutenant. At half-past seven--my
+usual time for rising--I heard the report of a gun, and pretty soon
+afterward an officer came below to say, that the chase proved to be a
+Dutchman! I must have looked a little sour at the breakfast-table, that
+morning, as Bartelli was evidently a little nervous and fidgety.
+
+Forty-eight hours after this night-chase, we had another, though with
+better success, as a prize rewarded me for my loss of rest. The chase
+commenced about two A. M., and it was half-past seven A. M., before we
+were near enough to heave the fugitive to, with a gun. She proved to be
+the _Jabez Snow_, of Buckport, Maine, last from Cardiff, with a cargo of
+coal, for Montevideo. On the back of the bill of lading was the following
+certificate: "We certify that the cargo of coals per _Jabez Snow_, for
+which this is the bill of lading, is the _bona fide_ property of Messrs.
+Wilson, Helt, Lane & Co., and that the same are British subjects, and
+merchants, and also that the coals are for their own use." This
+certificate was signed by "John Powell & Sons," but unfortunately for the
+owners of the "coals" was not sworn to, and was therefore of no more
+validity as evidence, than the bill of lading itself. Having gotten on
+board from the prize, a quantity of provisions, and cordage, of both of
+which we were in need, we consigned her to the flames. We found on board
+this ship, from the sober "State of Maine," a woman who passed under the
+_sobriquet_ of "chamber-maid." These shameless Yankee skippers make a
+common practice of converting their ships into brothels, and taking their
+mistresses to sea with them. For decency's sake, I was obliged to turn the
+junior lieutenant out of his state-room for her accommodation.
+
+There were some letters found on board the _Snow_ not intended for our
+eyes, inasmuch as they informed us of the damage we were doing the Yankee
+commerce. Here is one of them from the owner to the master. It is dated
+Boston, November 25th, 1862. "We hope you may arrive safely, and in good
+season, but we think you will find business rather flat at Liverpool, as
+American ships especially are under a cloud, owing to dangers from
+pirates, more politely styled privateers, which our kind friends in
+England are so willing should slip out of their ports, to prey on our
+commerce." Our torches always grew brighter as we read such effusions of
+joint stupidity and malice.
+
+Here is another wail from Buckport, Maine, under date of January 16th,
+1863. It instructs the master as to the best mode of employing his ship.
+"In the first place, it will not do to come this way with the ship; as New
+York business for ships is flat enough--a large fleet in that port, and
+nothing for them to do, that will pay expenses, and more arriving daily."
+
+And another from the same place. "I hope you will be as prudent and
+economical as possible in managing your ship matters, as your owners want
+all the money they can get hold of, to aid in putting down this terrible
+rebellion of ours. The progress our war is making, I shall leave for you
+to gather from the papers, for it makes me sick to think of it, much more
+to talk about it." No doubt--the ships were being laid up, and no freights
+were coming in. We knew very well, on board the _Alabama_, the use to
+which all the "money the ship-owners could get hold of" was being put. It
+was to purchase "gold bonds" at half price, and push on the war. Hence our
+diligence in scouring the seas, and applying the torch. Whenever we heard
+a Yankee howl go up over a burned ship, we knew that there were fewer
+dollars left, with which to hire the _canaille_ of Europe to throttle
+liberty on the American continent.
+
+We captured the _Jabez Snow_, on the 29th of May. On the 2d of June, being
+in latitude 15� 01', and longitude 34� 56' at half-past three A. M., or
+just before daylight, we passed a large ship on the opposite tack. We were
+under topsails only, standing leisurely across the great highway. We
+immediately wore ship, and gave chase, crowding all sail. When day dawned,
+the fugitive was some six or seven miles ahead of us, and as the chase was
+likely to be long, I fired a gun, and hoisted the Confederate colors, to
+intimate to the stranger, that I would like him to be polite, and save me
+the trouble of catching him, by heaving to. Pretty soon, I fired a second
+gun--blank cartridge--with the same intent. But the stranger had faith in
+his heels, and instead of heaving to, threw out a few more kites to the
+balmy morning breeze. But it was of no use. Both ships were on a wind, and
+the _Alabama_ could, in consequence, use her monster trysails. My large
+double glasses--themselves captured from a Yankee ship, the captain of
+which had probably bought them to look out for the "pirate"--soon told the
+tale. We were gaining, but not very rapidly. Still anxious to save time,
+when we had approached within about four miles of the stranger, we cleared
+away our pivot rifle, and let him have a bolt. We did not quite reach him,
+but these rifle-bolts make such an ugly whizzing, and hissing, and humming
+as they pass along, that their commands are not often disobeyed. The
+stranger clewed up, and backed his main yard, and hoisted the Federal
+colors. We were alongside of him about half-past eleven A. M.--the chase
+having lasted eight hours.
+
+The prize proved to be the bark _Amazonian_ of Boston, from New York, with
+an assorted cargo, for Montevideo. There was an attempt to cover two of
+the consignments of this ship, in favor of French citizens, but the "hash"
+being evidently Yankee, the certificates were disregarded. The prisoners,
+and such "plunder" as we desired, being brought on board the _Alabama_,
+the ship was consigned to the flames. The following letter from a merchant
+in New York, to his correspondent in Buenos Ayres, was found among a very
+large commercial and literary mail--the literature being from the college
+of the Republican Propaganda--on board the _Amazonian_. "When you ship in
+American vessels, it would be well to have the British Consul's
+certificate of English property attached to bill of lading and invoice, as
+in the event of falling in with the numerous privateers, it would save
+both cargo and vessel in all probability. An American ship recently fallen
+in with, was released by the _Alabama_, on account of British Consul's
+certificate, showing greater part of cargo to be English property. If you
+ship in a neutral vessel, we save five per cent. war insurance."
+
+On the day after capturing the _Amazonian_, we boarded an English brig,
+and I made an arrangement with the master to take my prisoners--forty-one
+in number--to Rio Janeiro, whither he was bound. The consideration was,
+twice as many provisions as the prisoners could consume, and a
+chronometer. The master had been afraid of offending Earl Russell, until
+the chronometer was named to him, when his scruples were at once removed.
+Virtuous Briton! thou wert near akin to the Yankee.
+
+On the following night, a little before daylight, whilst we were lying to,
+with the main-topsail to the mast, a large, tall ship suddenly loomed up
+in close proximity to us, and as suddenly passed away into the gloom,
+gliding past us like a ghost. We filled away and made chase on the
+instant, and being still within gun-shot, fired a blank cartridge. The
+chase at once hove to, and we ranged up, just as day was breaking,
+alongside of the clipper-ship _Talisman_, from New York, with an assorted
+cargo, for Shanghai. There was no claim of neutral cargo among her papers,
+and as soon as we could remove the crew, and some necessary articles, we
+consigned her also, to that torch which Yankee malice had kept burning so
+brightly in our hands.
+
+The rebellion of the Taepings was still going on in China, and we found a
+nice little "speculation" in connection with it, embarked on board the
+_Talisman_. The speculators had put on board four very pretty rifled
+12-pounder brass guns, and steam boilers and machinery for a gun-boat; the
+design being to build, and equip one of this class of vessels in the East,
+and take part in the Chinese war. I am afraid I spoiled a "good thing."
+With a Yankee Mandarin on board, and a good supply of opium, and tracts,
+what a smashing business this little cruiser might have done? We took a
+couple of these brass pieces on board the _Alabama_, and in due time, sent
+them afloat after the Yankee commerce, as the reader will see.
+
+The next vessel that we overhauled was a "converted" ship--that is, a
+Yankee turned into an Englishman. I desired very much to burn her, but was
+prevented by the regularity of her papers and the circumstances
+surrounding her. She was a Maine-built ship, but had evidently been _bona
+fide_ transferred, as her master and crew were all Englishmen, and she was
+then on a voyage from London to Calcutta. She received on board from us, a
+couple of the passengers--an Irishman and his wife--captured on board of
+the _Talisman_, who were anxious to go to Calcutta. For the next two or
+three days, we had a series of blows, amounting almost to gales of wind.
+We had arrived off the Abrolhos Shoals--a sort of Brazilian Cape Hatteras,
+for bad weather. On the 9th and 10th of June, we were reduced to close
+reefs; and, which was remarkable, we had a high barometer all the time. We
+had, for some days, experienced a northerly current. The whole coast of
+Brazil is coral-bound, and it is, for this reason, very dangerous. The
+coral shoals rise abruptly, from great depths, and are sometimes found in
+very small patches, with deep water all around them. Many of these patches
+have been missed by the surveyor, and are not laid down on any charts, in
+consequence. Hence it behooves the prudent mariner, to give the banks that
+fringe the coasts of Brazil, a pretty wide berth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+THE ALABAMA CONTINUES HER CRUISE ON THE COAST OF BRAZIL--AMERICAN SHIPS
+UNDER ENGLISH COLORS--THE ENEMY'S CARRYING-TRADE IN NEUTRAL BOTTOMS--THE
+CAPTURE OF THE CONRAD--SHE IS COMMISSIONED AS A CONFEDERATE STATES
+CRUISER--THE HIGHWAYS OF THE SEA, AND THE TACTICS OF THE FEDERAL
+SECRETARY OF THE NAVY--THE PHENOMENON OF THE WINDS IN THE SOUTHERN
+HEMISPHERE--ARRIVAL AT SALDANHA BAY, ON THE COAST OF AFRICA.
+
+
+We captured our last ship off the Abrolhos, as related in the last
+chapter. We have since worked our way as far south, as latitude 22� 38',
+and it is the middle of June--equivalent in the southern hemisphere, to
+the middle of December, in the northern. Hence the blows, and other bad
+weather we are beginning to meet with. On the 16th of June, we overhauled
+two more American ships, under English colors. One of these was the
+_Azzapadi_ of Port Louis, in the Mauritius. She was formerly the _Joseph
+Hale_, and was built at Portland, Maine. Having put into Port Louis, in
+distress, she had been sold for the benefit of "whom it might concern,"
+and purchased by English parties, two years before. The other was the
+_Queen of Beauty_, formerly the _Challenger_. Under her new colors and
+nationality, she was now running as a packet between London, and Melbourne
+in Australia. These were both _bona fide_ transfers, and were evidence of
+the straits to which Yankee commerce was being put. Many more ships
+disappeared from under the "flaunting lie" by sale, than by capture, their
+owners not being able to employ them.
+
+The day after we overhauled these ships, we boarded a Bremen bark, from
+Buenos Ayres, for New York, with hides and tallow, on Yankee account. The
+correspondents of the New York merchants were taking the advice of the
+latter, and shipping in neutral bottoms to avoid paying the premium on the
+war risk.
+
+On the 20th of June, we observed in latitude 25� 48', and found the
+weather so cool, as to compel us to put on our thick coats. On that day we
+made another capture. It was the _Conrad_, of Philadelphia, from Buenos
+Ayres, for New York, with part of a cargo of wool. There were certificates
+found on board claiming the property as British, but as there were
+abundant circumstances in the _res gest�_, pointing to American ownership,
+I disregarded the certificates, and condemned both ship and cargo as good
+prize. The _Conrad_ being a tidy little bark, of about three hundred and
+fifty tons, with good sailing qualities, I resolved to commission her as a
+cruiser. Three or four officers, and ten or a dozen men would be a
+sufficient crew for her, and this small number I could spare from the
+_Alabama_, without putting myself to material inconvenience. Never,
+perhaps, was a ship of war fitted out so promptly before. The _Conrad_ was
+a commissioned ship, with armament, crew, and provisions on board, flying
+her pennant, and with sailing orders signed, sealed, and delivered, before
+sunset on the day of her capture. I sent Acting-Lieutenant Low on board to
+command her, and gave him Midshipman George T. Sinclair, as his first
+lieutenant; and promoted a couple of active and intelligent young seamen,
+as master's mates, to serve with Mr. Sinclair, as watch officers. Her
+armament consisted of the two 12-pounder brass rifled guns, which we had
+captured from the Yankee mandarin, who was going out, as the reader has
+seen, on board of the _Talisman_, to join the Taepings; twenty rifles, and
+half a dozen revolvers. I called the new cruiser, the _Tuscaloosa_, after
+the pretty little town of that name, on the Black Warrior River in the
+State of Alabama. It was meet that a child of the _Alabama_ should be
+named after one of the towns of the State. The baptismal ceremony was not
+very elaborate. When all was ready--it being now about five P. M.--at a
+concerted signal, the _Tuscaloosa_ ran up the Confederate colors, and the
+crew of the _Alabama_ leaped into the rigging, and taking off their hats,
+gave three hearty cheers! The cheers were answered by the small crew of
+the newly commissioned ship, and the ceremony was over. Captain Low had
+now only to fill away, and make sail, on his cruise. Our first meeting was
+to be at the Cape of Good Hope. My bantling was thus born upon the high
+seas, in the South Atlantic Ocean, and no power could gainsay the
+legitimacy of its birth. As the reader will see, England was afterward
+compelled to acknowledge it, though an ill-informed cabinet minister--the
+Duke of Newcastle--at first objected to it.
+
+On the same evening that we parted with the _Tuscaloosa_, we boarded the
+English bark, _Mary Kendall_, from Cardiff for Point de Galle, but which
+having met with heavy weather, and sprung a leak, was putting back to Rio
+Janeiro for repairs. At the request of her master I sent my surgeon on
+board to visit a seaman who had been badly injured by a fall. As we were
+within a few days' sail of Rio, I prevailed upon the master of this ship
+to receive my prisoners on board, to be landed. There were thirty-one of
+them, and among the rest, a woman from the _Conrad_, who claimed to be a
+passenger.
+
+The time had now arrived for me to stretch over to the Cape of Good Hope.
+I had been three months near the equator, and on the coast of Brazil, and
+it was about time that some of Mr. Welles' ships of war, in pursuance of
+the tactics of that slow old gentleman, should be making their appearance
+on the coast in pursuit of me. I was more than ever astonished at the
+culpable neglect or want of sagacity of the head of the Federal Navy
+Department, when I arrived on the coast of Brazil, and found no Federal
+ship of war there. Ever since I had left the island of Jamaica, early in
+January, I had been working my way, gradually, to my present cruising
+ground. My ship had been constantly reported, and any one of his clerks
+could have plotted my track, from these reports, so as to show him, past
+all peradventure, where I was bound. But even independently of any
+positive evidence, he might have been sure, that sooner or later I would
+make my way to that great thoroughfare.
+
+As has been frequently remarked in the course of these pages, the sea has
+its highways and byways, as well as the land. Every seaman, now, knows
+where these highways are, and when he is about to make a voyage, can plot
+his track in advance. None of these highways are better defined, or
+perhaps so well defined, as the great public road that leads along the
+coast of Brazil. All the commerce of Europe and America, bound to the Far
+East or the Far West, takes this road. The reader has seen a constant
+stream of ships passing the toll-gate we established at the crossing of
+the thirtieth parallel, north, all bound in this direction. And he has
+seen how this stream sweeps along by the island of Fernando de Noronha, on
+its way to the great highway on the coast of Brazil. The road thus far is
+wide--the ships having a large discretion. But when the road has crossed
+the equator, and struck into the region of the south-east trades, its
+limits become much circumscribed. It is as much as a ship can do now, to
+stretch by the coast of Brazil without tacking. The south-east trades push
+her so close down upon the coast, that it is touch and go with her. The
+road, in consequence, becomes very narrow. The more narrow the road, the
+more the stream of ships is condensed. A cruiser, under easy sail,
+stretching backward and forward _across_ this road, must necessarily get
+sight of nearly everything that passes. If Mr. Welles had stationed a
+heavier and faster ship than the _Alabama_--and he had a number of both
+heavier and faster ships--at the crossing of the 30th parallel; another at
+or near the equator, a little to the eastward of Fernando de Noronha, and
+a third off Bahia, he must have driven me off, or greatly crippled me in
+my movements. A few more ships in the other chief highways, and his
+commerce would have been pretty well protected. But the old gentleman does
+not seem once to have thought of so simple a policy as _stationing_ a ship
+anywhere.
+
+The reader who has followed the _Alabama_ in her career thus far, has seen
+how many vital points he left unguarded. His plan seemed to be, first to
+wait until he heard of the _Alabama_ being somewhere, and then to send off
+a number of cruisers, post-haste, in pursuit of her, as though he expected
+her to stand still, and wait for her pursuers! This method of his left the
+game entirely in my own hands. My safety depended upon a simple
+calculation of times and distances. For instance, when I arrived off the
+coast of Brazil, I would take up my pencil, and make some such an estimate
+as this: I discharged my prisoners from the first ship captured, on such
+a day. It will take these prisoners a certain number of days to reach a
+given port. It will take a certain other number of days, for the news of
+the capture to travel thence to Washington. And it will take a certain
+other number still, for a ship of war of the enemy to reach the coast of
+Brazil. Just before this aggregate of days elapses, I haul aft my trysail
+sheets, and stretch over to the Cape of Good Hope. I find no enemy's ship
+of war awaiting me here. I go to work on the stream of commerce doubling
+the Cape. And by the time, I think, that the ships which have arrived on
+the coast of Brazil in pursuit of me, have heard of my being at the Cape,
+and started in fresh chase; I quietly stretch back to the coast of Brazil,
+and go to work as before. _Voila tout!_ The reader will have occasion to
+remark, by the time we get through with our cruises, how well this system
+worked for me; as he will have observed, that I did not fall in with a
+single enemy's cruiser at sea, at any time during my whole career!
+
+We had, some days since, crossed the tropic of Capricorn, and entered the
+"variables" of the southern hemisphere; and having reached the forks of
+the great Brazilian highway, that is to say, the point at which the stream
+of commerce separates into two principal branches, one passing around Cape
+Horn, and the other around the Cape of Good Hope, we had taken the
+left-hand fork. We had not proceeded far on this road, however, before we
+found upon examination of our bread-room, that the weevil, that pestilent
+little destroyer of bread-stuffs in southern climates, had rendered almost
+our entire supply of bread useless! It was impossible to proceed on a
+voyage of such length, as that to the Cape of Good Hope, in such a
+dilemma, and I put back for Rio Janeiro, to obtain a fresh supply; _unless
+I could capture it by the way_. We were now in latitude 28� 01', and
+longitude 28� 29', or about 825 miles from Rio; some little distance to
+travel to a baker's shop. We were saved this journey, however, as the
+reader will presently see, by a Yankee ship which came very considerately
+to our relief.
+
+For the next few days, the weather was boisterous and unpleasant--wind
+generally from the north-west, with a south-easterly current. Ships were
+frequently in sight, but they all proved to be neutral. On the 30th of
+June, the weather moderated, and became fine for a few days. On the 1st
+of July, after overhauling as many as eleven neutral ships, we gave chase,
+at eleven P. M., to a twelfth sail looming up on the horizon. She looked
+American, and had heels, and the chase continued all night. As the day
+dawned, a fine, tall ship, with taper spars, and white canvas, was only a
+few miles ahead of us. A blank cartridge brought the United States colors
+to her peak, but still she kept on. She was as yet three miles distant,
+and probably had some hope of escape. At all events, her captain had
+pluck, and held on to his canvas until the last moment. It was not until
+we had approached him near enough to send a shot whizzing across his bow,
+that he consented to clew up, and heave to. She proved to be the _Anna F.
+Schmidt_, of Maine, from Boston, for San Francisco, with a valuable cargo
+of assorted merchandise; much of it consisting of ready-made clothing,
+hats, boots, and shoes. Here was a haul for the paymaster! But
+unfortunately for Jack, the coats were too fine, and the tails too long.
+The trousers and undergarments were all right, however, and of these we
+got a large supply on board. The _Schmidt_ had on board, too, the very
+article of bread, and in the proper quantity, that we were in want of. We
+received on board from her thirty days' supply, put up in the nicest kind
+of air-tight casks. Crockery, china-ware, glass, lamps, clocks,
+sewing-machines, patent medicines, clothes-pins, and the latest invention
+for killing bed-bugs, completed her cargo. No Englishman or Frenchman
+could possibly own such a cargo, and there was, consequently, no attempt
+among the papers to protect it. It took us nearly the entire day to do the
+requisite amount of "robbing" on board the _Schmidt_, and the torch was
+not applied to her until near nightfall. We then wheeled about, and took
+the fork of the road again, for the Cape of Good Hope.
+
+Whilst we were yet busy with the prize, another American ship passed us,
+but she proved, upon being boarded, to have been sold, by her patriotic
+Yankee owners, to an Englishman, and was now profitably engaged in
+assisting the other ships of John Bull in taking away from the enemy his
+carrying-trade. I examined the papers and surroundings of all these ships,
+with great care, being anxious, if possible, to find a peg on which I
+might hang a doubt large enough to enable me to burn them. But, thus far,
+all the transfers had been _bona fide_. In the present instance, the
+papers were evidently genuine, and there was a Scotch master and English
+crew on board. At about nine P. M., on the same evening, the _Schmidt_
+being in flames, and the _Alabama_ in the act of making sail from her, a
+large, taunt ship, with exceedingly square yards, passed us at rapid
+speed, under a cloud of canvas, from rail to truck, and from her course
+seemed to be bound either to Europe or the United States. She had paid no
+attention to the burning ship, but flew past it as though she were anxious
+to get out of harm's way as soon as possible. I conceived thence the idea,
+that she must be one of the enemy's large clipper-ships, from "round the
+Horn," and immediately gave chase, adding, in my eagerness to seize so
+valuable a prize, steam to sail. It was blowing half a gale of wind, but
+the phantom ship, for such she looked by moonlight, was carrying her
+royals and top-gallant studding-sails. This confirmed my suspicion, for
+surely, I thought, no ship would risk carrying away her spars, under such
+a press of sail, unless she were endeavoring to escape from an enemy. By
+the time we were well under way in pursuit, the stranger was about three
+miles ahead of us. I fired a gun to command him to halt. In a moment or
+two, to my astonishment, the sound of a gun from the stranger came booming
+back over the waters in response. I now felt quite sure that I had gotten
+hold of a New York and California clipper-ship. She had fired a gun to
+make me believe, probably, that she was a ship of war, and thus induce me
+to desist from the pursuit. But a ship of war would not carry such a press
+of sail, or appear to be in such a hurry to get out of the way--unless,
+indeed, she were an enemy's ship of inferior force; and the size of the
+fugitive, in the present instance, forbade such a supposition. So I sent
+orders below to the engineer, to stir up his fires, and put the _Alabama_
+at the top of her speed. My crew had all become so much excited by the
+chase, some of the sailors thinking we had scared up the Flying Dutchman,
+who was known to cruise in these seas, and others expecting a fight, that
+the watch had forgotten to go below to their hammocks. About midnight we
+overhauled the stranger near enough to speak her. She loomed up terribly
+large as we approached. She was painted black, with a white streak around
+her waist, man-of-war fashion, and we could count, with the aid of our
+night-glasses, five guns of a side frowning through her ports. "What ship
+is that?" now thundered my first lieutenant through his trumpet. "This is
+her Britannic Majesty's ship, _Diomede_!" came back in reply very quietly.
+"What ship is that?" now asked the _Diomede_. "This is the Confederate
+States steamer _Alabama_." "I suspected as much," said the officer, "when
+I saw you making sail, by the light of the burning ship." A little
+friendly chat now ensued, when we sheared off, and permitted her Britannic
+Majesty's frigate to proceed, without insisting upon an examination of
+"_her papers_;" and the sailors slunk below, one by one, to their
+hammocks, disappointed that they had neither caught the Flying Dutchman, a
+California clipper, or a fight.
+
+The next day, and for several days, the weather proved fine. We were
+running to the eastward on the average parallel of about 30�, with the
+wind from N. N. E. to the N. W. Saturday, _July 4th_, 1863, is thus
+recorded in my journal:--"This is 'Independence day' in the 'old concern;'
+a holiday, which I feel half inclined to throw overboard, because it was
+established in such bad company, and because we have to fight the battle
+of independence over again, against a greater tyranny than before. Still,
+old feelings are strong, and it will not hurt Jack to give him an extra
+glass of grog."
+
+The morning of the 6th proved cloudy and squally, and we had some showers
+of rain, though the barometer kept steadily up. At thirty minutes past
+midnight, an officer came below to inform me, that there was a large sail
+in sight, not a great way off. I sent word to the officer of the deck to
+chase, and repaired on deck pretty soon myself. In about three hours, we
+had approached the chase sufficiently near, to heave her to, with a shot,
+she having previously disregarded two blank cartridges. She proved to be
+another prize, the ship _Express_, of Boston, from Callao, for Antwerp,
+with a cargo of guano from the Chincha Islands. This cargo probably
+belonged to the Peruvian Government, for the guano of the Chincha Islands
+is a government monopoly, but our Peruvian friends had been unfortunate
+in their attempts to cover it. It had been shipped by Messrs. Sescau,
+Valdeavellano & Co., and consigned to J. Sescau & Co., at Antwerp. On the
+back of the bill of lading was the following indorsement:--"Nous
+soussign�, Charg� d'Affairs, et Consul General de France, a Lima,
+certifions que la chargement de mille soixante deuze tonneaux, de
+register, de Huano, specifi� au pres�nt connaissement, est propri�te
+neutre. Fait a Lima, le 27 Janvier, 1863." This certificate was no better
+than so much waste paper, for two reasons. First, it was not sworn to, and
+secondly, it simply averred the property to be neutral, without stating
+who the owners were. I was sorry to burn so much property belonging, in
+all probability, to Peru, but I could make no distinction between that
+government and an individual. I had the right to burn the enemy's ship,
+and if a neutral government chose to put its property on board of her, it
+was its duty to document it according to the laws of war, or abide the
+consequences of the neglect. The certificate would not have secured
+individual property, and I could not permit it to screen that of a
+government, which was presumed to know the law better than an individual.
+As the case stood, I was bound to presume that the property, being in an
+enemy's bottom, was enemy's. The torch followed this decision.
+
+The _Express_ had had a long and boisterous passage around Cape Horn, and
+gave signs of being much weather-beaten--some of her spars and sails were
+gone, and her sides were defaced with iron rust. The master had his wife
+on board, a gentle English woman, with her servant-maid, or rather humble
+companion, and it seemed quite hard that these two females, after having
+braved the dangers of Cape Horn, should be carried off to brave other
+dangers at the Cape of Good Hope.
+
+We were now in mid-winter, July 15th, when the storms run riot over these
+two prominent head-lands of our globe. We were fast changing our skies as
+we proceeded southward. Many of the northern constellations had been
+buried beneath the horizon, to rise no more, until we should recross the
+equator, and other new and brilliant ones had risen in their places. We
+had not seen the familiar "North Star" for months. The Southern Cross had
+arisen to attract our gaze to the opposite pole instead. The mysterious
+Magellan clouds hovered over the same pole, by day, and caused the mariner
+to dream of far-off worlds. They were even visible on very bright nights.
+The reader will perhaps remember the meteorological phenomena which we met
+with in the Gulf Stream--how regularly the winds went around the compass,
+from left to right, or with the course of the sun, obeying the laws of
+storms. Similar phenomena are occurring to us now. The winds are still
+going round with the sun, but they no longer go from left to right, but
+from right to left; for this is now the motion of the sun. Instead of
+watching the winds haul from north-east to east; from east to south-east;
+from south-east to south, as we were wont to do in the northern
+hemisphere, we now watch them haul from north-east to north; from north to
+north-west; and from north-west to west. And when we get on shore, in the
+gardens, and vineyards, at the Cape of Good Hope, we shall see the
+tendrils of the vine, and the creeping plants, twining around their
+respective supports, in the opposite direction, from left to right,
+instead of from right to left, as the reader has seen them do in the
+writer's garden in Alabama.
+
+After capturing the _Express_, we passed into one of the by-ways of the
+sea. The fork of the road which we had been hitherto pursuing, now bore
+off to the south-east--the India-bound ships running well to the southward
+of the Cape. We turned out of the road to the left, and drew in nearer to
+the coast of Africa. With the exception of an occasional African trader,
+or a chance whaler, we were entirely out of the track of commerce. In the
+space of seven or eight hundred miles, we sighted but a single ship.
+
+As we drew down toward the Cape, that singular bird, the Cape pigeon came
+to visit us. It is of about the size of a small sea-gull, and not unlike
+it in appearance. Like the petrel, it is a storm-bird, and seems to
+delight in the commotion of the elements. It is quite gentle, wheeling
+around the ship, and uttering, from time to time, its cheerful scream, or
+rather whistle. A peculiarity of this bird is, that it is entirely unknown
+in the northern hemisphere; from which it would appear, that, like the
+"right" whale, it is incapable of enduring the tropical heats. It would
+probably be death to it, to attempt to cross the equator.
+
+On the 28th of July, we observed in latitude 33� 46', and longitude 17�
+31', and the next day, at about nine A. M., we made Daffen Island, with
+its remarkable breaker, lying a short distance to the northward of the
+Cape of Good Hope. Instead of running into Cape Town, I deemed it more
+prudent to go first to Saldanha Bay, and reconnoitre. There might be
+enemy's ships of war off the Cape, and if so, I desired to get news of
+them, before they should hear of my being in these seas. As we were
+running in for the bay, we overhauled a small coasting schooner, the
+master of which volunteered to take us in to the anchorage; and early in
+the afternoon, we came to, in five and three quarter fathoms of water, in
+a cosy little nook of the bay, sheltered from all winds. There was no
+Yankee man-of-war at the Cape, nor had there been any there for some
+months! Mr. Welles was asleep, the coast was all clear, and I could renew
+my "depredations" upon the enemy's commerce whenever I pleased.
+
+There is no finer sheet of land-locked water in the world than Saldanha
+Bay. Its anchorage is bold, and clean, and spacious enough to accommodate
+the largest fleets. It is within a few hours' sail of the cape, which is
+the halfway mile-post, as it were, between the extreme east, and the
+extreme west, and yet commerce, with a strange caprice, has established
+its relay-house at Cape Town, whose anchorage is open to all the winter
+gales, from which a ship is in constant danger of being wrecked. We did
+not find so much as a coaster at anchor, in this splendid harbor. The
+country around was wild and picturesque in appearance; the substratum
+being of solid rock, and nature having played some strange freaks, when
+chaos was being reduced to order. Rocky precipices and palisades meet the
+beholder at every turn, and immense boulders of granite lie scattered on
+the coast and over the hills, as if giants had been amusing themselves at
+a game of marbles. A few farm-houses are in sight from the ship,
+surrounded by patches of cultivation, but all the rest of the landscape is
+a semi-barren waste of straggling rocks, and coarse grass. The country
+improves, however, a short distance back from the coast, and the grazing
+becomes fine. Beef cattle are numerous, and of fair size, and the sheep
+flourishes in great perfection--wool being one of the staple products of
+the colony. The cereals are also produced, and, as every one knows, the
+Cape has long been famous for its delicate wines.
+
+My first care was to send the paymaster on shore, to contract for
+supplying the crew with fresh provisions, during our stay, and my next to
+inform the Governor at the Cape of my arrival. As I turned into my cot
+that night, with a still ship, in a land-locked harbor, with no strange
+sails, or storms to disturb my repose, I felt like a weary traveller, who
+had laid down, for the time, a heavy burden. The morning after our
+arrival--the 30th of July--was bright and beautiful, and I landed early to
+get sights for my chronometers. It was the first time I had ever set foot
+on the continent of Africa, and I looked forth, from the eminence on which
+I stood, upon a wild, desolate, and yet picturesque scene. The ocean was
+slumbering in the distance, huge rocky precipices were around me, the
+newly risen sun was scattering the mists from the hills, and the only
+signs of life save the _Alabama_ at my feet, and the ox-team of a boer
+which was creeping along the beach, were the screams of the sea-fowl, as
+they whirled around me, and, from time to time, made plunges into the
+still waters in quest of their prey. A profusion of wild flowers bloomed
+in little parterres among the rocks, and among others, I plucked the
+geranium, in several varieties. This was evidently its native home.
+
+Returning on board at the usual breakfast hour, I found that Bartelli had
+made excellent use of his time. There was a hut or two on the beach, to
+which a market-boat had been sent from the ship, to bring off the fresh
+beef and vegetables for the crew, which the paymaster had contracted for
+on the previous evening. Bartelli had accompanied it, and the result was a
+venison steak, cut fresh from a spring-bok that a hunter had just brought
+in, simmering in his chafing dish. There were some fine pan-fish on the
+table, too; for my first lieutenant, ever mindful of the comfort of his
+people, had sent a party on shore with the seine, which had had fine
+success, and reported the bay full of fish. Jack, after having been nearly
+three months on a diet of salted beef and pork, was once more in clover,
+and my young officers were greatly excited by the reports that came off to
+them from the shore, of the variety and abundance of game, in the
+neighborhood. Besides the curlew, snipe, and plover, that were to be found
+on the beach, and in the salt marshes adjacent, the quail, pheasant, deer
+in several varieties, and even the ostrich, the lion, and the tiger,
+awaited them, if they should think proper to go a little distance inland.
+The small islands in the bay abounded in rabbits, which might be chased
+and knocked on the head with sticks. Hunting-parties were soon organized,
+and there was a great cleaning and burnishing of fowling-pieces, and
+adjusting and filling of powder-flasks and shot-pouches going on.
+
+But all was not to be pleasure; there was duty to be thought of as well.
+The _Alabama_ required considerable overhauling after her late cruise,
+both in her machinery, and hull, and rigging. Among other things, it was
+quite necessary that she should be re-caulked, inside and out, and
+re-painted. There were working-parties organized, therefore, as well as
+hunting and fishing-parties. We soon found, too, that we had the duties of
+hospitality to attend to. The fame of the "British Pirate" had preceded
+her. Every ship which had touched at the Cape, had had more or less to say
+of the _Alabama_. Mr. Seward and Mr. Adams, Lord Russell and the "London
+Times" had made her famous, and the people manifested great curiosity to
+see her. We were, in a measure, too, among our own kinsmen. The Cape of
+Good Hope, as all the world knows, had been a Dutch colony, and was now
+inhabited by a mixed population of Dutch and English. The African had met
+the usual fate of the savage, when he comes in contact with civilized man.
+He had been thrust aside, and was only to be seen as a straggler and
+stranger in his native land.
+
+From far and near, the country-people flocked in to see us, in every
+description of vehicle, from the tidy spring-wagon, with its pair of sleek
+ponies, to the ox-cart. The vehicles, containing mostly women and
+children, were preceded or followed by men on horseback, by twos and
+threes, and sometimes by the dozen. The men brought along with them their
+shot-guns and rifles, thus converting their journey into a hunting-party,
+as well as one of curiosity. Those from a distance came provided with
+tents and camp-equipage. Almost every one had some present of game or
+curiosity to offer, as he came on board. One would bring me a wild-peacock
+for dinner, which he had shot on the wayside; another a brace of
+pheasants; others ostrich-eggs fresh from the nest, plumes of
+ostrich-feathers, spikes from the head of the spring-bok three and four
+feet in length, &c. We showed them around the ship--the young boers
+lifting our hundred-pound rifle-shot, and looking over the sights of our
+guns, and the young women looking at the moustaches of my young officers.
+
+The Saldanha settlement is almost exclusively Dutch, notwithstanding it
+has been fifty years and more in possession of the English. Dutch is the
+language universally spoken; all the newspapers are published in that
+melodious tongue, and the "young idea" is being taught to "shoot" in it.
+One young man among our visitors, though he was twenty-three years of age,
+and lived within twenty miles of the sea, told me he had never been on
+board of a ship before. He became very much excited, and went into
+ecstasies at everything he saw, particularly at the size and weight of the
+guns, which seemed to transcend all his philosophy--the largest gun which
+he had hitherto seen, being his own rifle, with which he was in the habit
+of bringing down the ostrich or the tiger. The climate seemed to be well
+suited to these descendants of the Hollanders. The men were athletic and
+well-proportioned, and the young women chubby, and blooming with the
+blended tints of the lily and the rose--the rose rather preponderating.
+The beauty of these lasses--and some of them were quite pretty--was due
+entirely to mother Nature, as their large and somewhat rough hands, and
+awkward courtesies showed that they were rather more familiar with milking
+the cows and churning the butter, than with the airs and graces of the
+saloon.
+
+We remained a week in Saldanha Bay, during the whole of which, we had
+exceedingly fine weather; the wind generally prevailing from the
+south-east, and the sky being clear, with now and then a film of gray
+clouds. This was quite remarkable for the first days of August--this month
+being equivalent, at the "stormy Cape," to the month of February, in the
+northern hemisphere. The natives told us that so gentle a winter had not
+been known for years before. The temperature was delightful. Although we
+were in the latitude of about 34�--say the equivalent latitude to that of
+south-western Virginia--we did not feel the want of fires. Indeed, the
+grasses were green, and vegetation seemed to have been scarcely suspended.
+The graziers had no need to feed their cattle.
+
+A schooner came in while we lay here, bringing us some letters from
+merchants at Cape Town, welcoming us to the colony, and offering to supply
+us with coal, or whatever else we might need. I had left orders both at
+Fernando de Noronha, and Bahia, for the _Agrippina_, if she should arrive
+at either of those places, after my departure, to make the best of her way
+to Saldanha Bay, and await me there. She should have preceded me several
+weeks. She was not here--the old Scotchman, as before remarked, having
+played me false.
+
+When Kell had put his ship in order, he took a little recreation himself,
+and in company with one or two of his messmates went off into the
+interior, on an ostrich hunt. Horses and dogs, and hunters awaited them,
+at the country-seat of the gentleman who had invited them to partake of
+this peculiarly African sport. They had a grand hunt, and put up several
+fine birds, at which some of the party--Kell among the number, got
+shots--but they did not bring any "plumes" on board; at least of their own
+capturing. The devilish birds, as big as horses, and running twice as
+fast, as some of the young officers described them, refused to "heave to,"
+they said, though they had sent sundry whistlers around their heads, in
+the shape of buck-shot.
+
+A sad accident occurred to one of our young hunters before we left the
+bay. One afternoon, just at sunset, I was shocked to receive the
+intelligence that one of the cutters had returned alongside, with a dead
+officer in it. Third Assistant Engineer Cummings was the unfortunate
+officer. He had been hunting with a party of his messmates. They had all
+returned with well-filled game-bags to the boat, at sunset, and Cummings
+was in the act of stepping into her, when the cock of his gun striking
+against the gunwale, a whole load of buck-shot passed through his chest in
+the region of the heart, and he fell dead, in an instant, upon the sands.
+The body was lifted tenderly into the boat, and taken on board, and
+prepared by careful and affectionate hands for interment on the morrow.
+This young gentleman had been very popular, with both officers and crew,
+and his sudden death cast a gloom over the ship. All amusements were
+suspended, and men walked about with softened foot-fall, as though fearing
+to disturb the slumbers of the dead. Arrangements were made for interring
+him in the grave-yard of a neighboring farmer, and the next morning, the
+colors of the ship were half-masted, and all the boats--each with its
+colors also at half-mast--formed in line, and as many of the officers and
+crew as could be spared from duty, followed the deceased to his last
+resting-place. There were six boats in the procession, and as they pulled
+in for the shore, with the well-known funeral stroke and drooping flags,
+the spectacle was one to sadden the heart. A young life had been suddenly
+cut short in a far distant land. A subscription was taken up to place a
+proper tomb over his remains, and the curious visitor to Saldanha Bay may
+read on a simple, but enduring marble slab, this mournful little episode
+in the history of the cruise of the _Alabama_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+THE CONNECTING THREAD OF THE HISTORY OF THE WAR TAKEN UP--A BRIEF REVIEW
+OF THE EVENTS OF THE TWELVE MONTHS DURING WHICH THE ALABAMA HAD BEEN
+COMMISSIONED--ALABAMA ARRIVES AT CAPE TOWN--CAPTURE OF THE SEA
+BRIDE--EXCITEMENT THEREUPON--CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE AMERICAN CONSUL
+AND THE GOVERNOR ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CAPTURE.
+
+
+The _Alabama_ has been commissioned, now, one year. In accordance with my
+plan of connecting my cruises with a thread--a mere thread--of the history
+of the war, it will be necessary to retrace our steps, and take up that
+thread at the point at which it was broken--August, 1862. At that date, as
+the reader will recollect, the splendid army of McClellan had been
+overwhelmed with defeat, and driven in disorder, from before Richmond, and
+the fortunes of the Confederacy had greatly brightened in consequence. Lee
+followed up this movement with the invasion of Maryland; not for the
+purpose of fighting battles, but to free the people of that Southern State
+from the military despotism which had been fastened upon them by the
+enemy, and enable them, if they thought proper, to join their fortunes
+with those of the Confederacy. But he penetrated only that portion of the
+State in which the people had always been but lukewarm Southerners, and an
+indifferent, if not cold, reception awaited him. The result might have
+been different if he could have made his way into the city of Baltimore,
+and the more Southern parts of the State. There the enemy was as cordially
+detested, as in any part of the Confederacy. The Federal Government had,
+by this time, gotten firm military possession of the State, through the
+treason of Governor Bradford, Mayor Swann, and others, and nothing short
+of driving out the enemy from the city of Baltimore, and occupying it by
+our troops, could enable the people of that true and patriotic city to
+move in defence of their liberties, and save their State from the
+desecration that awaited her.
+
+Harper's Ferry was captured by a portion of Lee's forces; the battle of
+Sharpsburg was fought (17th September, 1862) without decisive results, and
+Lee recrossed his army into Virginia.
+
+In the West, Corinth was evacuated by General Beauregard, who was
+threatened with being flanked, by an enemy of superior force.
+
+Memphis was captured soon afterward, by a Federal fleet, which dispersed
+the few Confederate gunboats that offered it a feeble resistance.
+
+The fall of Fort Pillow and Memphis opened the way for the enemy, as far
+down the Mississippi as Vicksburg. Here Farragut's and Porter's
+fleets--the former from below, the latter from above--united in a joint
+attack upon the place, but Van Dorn beat them off.
+
+The Confederates made an attempt to dislodge the enemy from Baton Rouge,
+the capital of Louisiana, about forty miles below the mouth of the Red
+River, but failed. The expedition was to be a joint naval and military
+one, but the naval portion of it failed by an unfortunate accident.
+Breckinridge, with less than 3000 men, fought a gallant action against a
+superior force, and drove the enemy into the town, but for want of the
+naval assistance promised could not dislodge him. We now occupied Port
+Hudson below Baton Rouge, and the enemy evacuated Baton Rouge in
+consequence. We thus held the Mississippi River between Port Hudson and
+Vicksburg, a distance of more than 200 miles.
+
+General Bragg now made a campaign into Kentucky, which State he occupied
+for several weeks, but was obliged finally to evacuate, by overwhelming
+forces of the enemy. During this campaign, the battles of Richmond and
+Perryville were fought. Bragg gathered immense supplies during his march,
+killed, wounded, or captured 25,000 of the enemy's troops, and returned
+with a well-clothed, well-equipped, more numerous, and better disciplined
+army than he had at the beginning of the campaign. The effect of this
+campaign was to relieve North Alabama and Middle Tennessee of the presence
+of the enemy for some months.
+
+In September, 1862, Van Dorn attacked Rosencrans at Corinth, but was
+obliged to withdraw after a gallant and bloody fight. He retreated in good
+order.
+
+After Lee's retreat into Virginia, from his march into Maryland, which has
+been alluded to, McClellan remained inactive for some time, and the
+Northern people becoming dissatisfied, clamored for a change of
+commanders. Burnside was appointed to supersede him--a man, in every way
+unfit for the command of a large army. With an army of 150,000 men, this
+man of straw crossed the Rappahannock, and attacked Lee at Fredericksburg,
+in obedience to the howl of the Northern Demos, of "On to Richmond!" A
+perfect slaughter of his troops ensued. As far as can be learned, this man
+did not cross the river at all himself, but sent his troops to assault
+works in front which none but a madman would have thought of
+attempting--especially with a river in his rear. It is only necessary to
+state the result. Federal loss in killed, 1152; wounded, 7000. Confederate
+loss in killed and wounded, 1800. During a storm of wind and rain, the
+beaten army regained the shelter of its camps on the opposite side of the
+river. Burnside was now thrown overboard by the Northern Demos, as
+McClellan had been before him.
+
+As the old year died, and the new year came in, the battle of
+Murfreesborough, in Middle Tennessee, was fought between Bragg and
+Rosencrans, which was bloody on both sides, and indecisive. Bragg retired
+from Murfreesborough, but was not molested by the enemy during his
+retreat. The year 1862 may be said, upon the whole, to have resulted
+brilliantly for the Confederate arms. We had fought drawn battles, and had
+made some retrograde movements, but, on the other hand, we had gained
+splendid victories, made triumphant marches into the enemy's territory,
+and even threatened his capital. The nations of the earth were looking
+upon us with admiration, and we had every reason to feel encouraged.
+
+One of the first events of the year 1863, was the dispersion of the
+enemy's blockading fleet, off Charleston, by Commodore Ingraham, with two
+small iron-clads, the _Chicora_ and the _Palmetto State_. This gallant
+South Carolinian, in his flag-ship, the _Chicora_, first attacked the
+_Mercedita_, Captain Stellwagen. Having run into this vessel, and fired
+one or two shots at her, she cried for quarter, and surrendered, believing
+herself to be in a sinking condition. In a few minutes, the _Mercedita_
+sent a boat alongside the _Chicora_, with her first lieutenant, who, by
+authority of his captain, surrendered the ship, and assented to the
+_paroling_ of the officers and crew. The two little iron-clads then went
+in pursuit of the enemy's other ships, and succeeded in getting a shot at
+one or two of them, but they were all too fast for them, and betaking
+themselves to their heels, soon put themselves out of harm's way. In a
+short time there was not a blockader to be seen!
+
+Judge of the surprise of Commodore Ingraham, when, upon his return, he
+found that his prize, the _Mercedita_, which he had left at anchor, under
+_parole_, had cleared out. Captain Stellwagen, and every officer and man
+on board the _Mercedita_, had solemnly promised _on honor_--for this is
+the nature of a parole--that they would do no act of war until exchanged.
+From the moment they made that promise, they were _hors du combat_. They
+were prisoners at large, on board the ship which they had surrendered to
+the enemy. And yet, when that enemy turned his back--relying upon the
+_parole_ which they had given him--they got up their anchor, and steamed
+off to Port Royal, and reported to their Admiral--Dupont! Did Dupont send
+her back to Ingraham? No. He reported the facts to Mr. Secretary Welles.
+And what did Mr. Secretary Welles do? He kept possession of the ship at
+the sacrifice of the honor of the Department over which he presided. And
+what think you, reader, was the excuse? It is a curiosity. Admiral Dupont
+reported the case thus to Mr. Welles:--"* * * Unable to use his
+[Stellwagen's] guns, and being at the mercy of the enemy, which was lying
+alongside, on his starboard quarter, all further resistance was deemed
+hopeless by Captain Stellwagen, and he surrendered. The crew and officers
+were paroled, _though nothing was said about the ship_; the executive
+officer, Lieutenant-Commander Abbot, having gone on board the enemy's
+ship, and made the arrangements." Mr. Welles, thus prompted by Admiral
+Dupont, adopted the exceedingly brilliant idea, that as _nothing had been
+said about the ship_--that is, as the _ship_ had not been paroled, she
+might, like every other unparoled prisoner, walk off with herself, and
+make her escape! But to say nothing of the odd idea of paroling a ship,
+these honorable casuists overlooked the small circumstance that the ship
+could not make her escape without the assistance of the paroled officers;
+and it was an act of war for paroled officers to get under way, and carry
+off from her anchors, a prize-ship of the enemy. It was a theft, and
+breach of honor besides.
+
+A few days after Ingraham's raid, Galveston was recaptured by the
+Confederates, as already described when speaking of the victory of the
+_Alabama_ over the _Hatteras_.
+
+Sherman made an attempt upon Vicksburg, and failed. Admiral Dupont, with a
+large and well appointed fleet of iron-clads, attacked Charleston, and was
+beaten back--one of his ships being sunk, and others seriously damaged. On
+the Potomac, Hooker had been sent by the many-headed monster to relieve
+Burnside, which was but the substitution of one dunderhead for another.
+But Hooker had the _sobriquet_ of "fighting Joe," and this tickled the
+monster. "With the most splendid army on the planet," as characterized by
+the hyperbolous Joe himself, he crossed the Rappahannock, _on his way to
+Richmond_. Lee had no more than about one third of Hooker's force, with
+which to oppose him. Three battles ensued--at the Wilderness,
+Chancellorsville, and Salem Church, which resulted in the defeat and rout
+of "fighting Joe," and his rapid retreat to the north bank of the
+Rappahannock. But these victories cost us the life of Stonewall Jackson,
+the Coeur de Leon of the Southern Confederacy. His body has been given
+to the worms, but his exploits equal, if they do not excel, those of
+Napoleon in his first Italian campaign, and will fire the youth of America
+as long as our language lives, and history continues to be read.
+
+A third attempt was made upon Vicksburg; this time by General Grant, with
+a large army that insured success. With this army, and a fleet of
+gunboats, he laid siege to Pemberton. On the 4th of July Pemberton
+surrendered. This was a terrible blow to us. It not only lost us an army,
+but cut the Confederacy in two, by giving the enemy the command of the
+Mississippi River. Port Hudson followed. As a partial set-off to these
+disasters, General Dick Taylor captured Brasher City, a very important
+base which the enemy had established for operations in Louisiana and
+Texas. Nearly five million dollars' worth of stores fell into Taylor's
+hands.
+
+After the defeat of Hooker, Lee determined upon another move across the
+enemy's border. Hooker followed, keeping himself between Lee and
+Washington, supposing the latter to be the object of Lee's movement. But
+Lee moved by the Shenandoah Valley, upon Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.
+Hooker now resigned the command, for which he found himself unfitted, and
+Meade was sent to relieve him. The latter marched forthwith upon
+Gettysburg, cautiously disposing his troops, meanwhile, so as to cover
+both Baltimore and Washington. The greatest battle of the war was fought
+here during the first three days of July. Both parties were whipped, and
+on the 4th of July, when Pemberton was surrendering Vicksburg to Grant,
+Lee was preparing to withdraw from Gettysburg for the purpose of
+recrossing the Potomac. If the battle had been fought in Virginia, Meade
+would have been preparing, in like manner, to cross the same river, but to
+a different side. Lee withdrew without serious molestation, Meade being
+too badly crippled, to do more than follow him at a limping gait. The
+disproportion of numbers in this battle was greatly in favor of Meade, and
+he had, besides, the advantage of acting on the defensive, in an
+intrenched position.
+
+Vicksburg and Gettysburg mark an era in the war. The Confederates, from
+this time, began to show signs of weakness. In consequence of the great
+disparity of numbers, we had been compelled, at an early day in the war,
+to draw upon our whole fighting population. The Northern hive was still
+swarming, and apparently as numerous as ever. All Europe was, besides,
+open to the North as a recruiting station, and we have seen, in the course
+of these pages, how unscrupulously and fraudulently the Federal agents
+availed themselves of this advantage. We were being hard pressed, too, for
+_material_, for the enemy was maintaining a rigid blockade of our ports,
+and was, besides, with a barbarity unknown in civilized war, laying waste
+our plantations and corn-fields. We need no better evidence of the shock
+which had been given to public confidence in the South, by those two
+disasters, than the simple fact, that our currency depreciated almost
+immediately a thousand per cent.! Later in the summer, another attempt was
+made upon Charleston, which was repulsed as the others had been. Dupont,
+after his failure, had been thrown overboard, and Admiral Foote ordered to
+succeed him; but Foote dying before he could assume command, Dahlgren was
+substituted. This gentleman had, from a very early period in his career,
+directed his attention to ordnance, and turned to account the experiments
+of Colonel Paixan with shell-guns and shell-firing. He had much improved
+upon the old-fashioned naval ordnance, in vogue before the advent of
+steamships, and for these labors of his in the foundries and work-shops,
+he had been made an Admiral. He was now sent to aid General Gilmore, an
+engineer of some reputation, to carry out the favorite Boston idea of
+razing Charleston to the ground, as the original hot-bed of secession.
+They made a lodgment on Morris Island, but failed, as Dupont had done,
+against the other works. We have thus strung, as it were, upon our thread
+of the war, the more important military events that occurred during the
+first year of the cruise of the _Alabama_. We will now return to that
+ship. We left her at Saldanha Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope.
+
+On the morning of the 5th of August, the weather being fine, and the wind
+light from the south, we got under way for Table Bay. As we were steaming
+along the coast, we fell in with our consort, the _Tuscaloosa_, on her way
+to join us, at Saldanha Bay, in accordance with her instructions. She had
+been delayed by light winds and calms. She reported the capture of the
+enemy's ship _Santee_, from the East Indies, laden with rice, on British
+account, and bound for Falmouth, in England. She had released her on
+ransom-bond. The _Tuscaloosa_ being in want of supplies, I directed her to
+proceed to Simon Town, in Simon's Bay, to the eastward of the Cape, and
+there refit, and provide herself with whatever might be necessary. A
+little after mid-day, as we were hauling in for Cape Town, "sail ho!" was
+cried from aloft; and when we had raised the sail from the deck, we could
+see quite distinctly that the jaunty, newly painted craft, with the taper
+spars, and white canvas, was an American bark, bound, like ourselves, into
+Table Bay. As before remarked, the wind was light, and the bark was not
+making much headway. This was fortunate, for if there had been a brisk
+breeze blowing, she must have run within the charmed marine league, before
+we could have overhauled her.
+
+Hoisting the English colors, we gave the _Alabama_ all steam in chase, and
+came near enough to heave the stranger to, when she was still five or six
+miles from the land. She proved to be the _Sea-Bride_, of Boston, from New
+York, and bound, with an assorted cargo of provisions and notions, on a
+trading voyage along the eastern coast of Africa. I threw a prize crew on
+board of her, and as I could not take her into port with me, I directed
+the officer to stand off and on until further orders--repairing to
+Saldanha Bay, by the 15th of the month, in case he should be blown off by
+a gale. The capture of this ship caused great excitement at Cape Town, it
+having been made within full view of the whole population. The editor of a
+daily newspaper published at the Cape--the "Argus"--witnessed it, and we
+will let him describe it. The following is an extract from that paper, of
+the date of the 6th of August, 1863:--
+
+     "Yesterday, at almost noon, a steamer from the northward was made
+     down from the signal-post, on Lion's Hill. The Governor had, on the
+     previous day, received a letter from Captain Semmes, informing his
+     Excellency that the gallant captain had put his ship into Saldanha
+     Bay for repairs. This letter had been made public in the morning, and
+     had caused no little excitement. Cape Town, that has been more than
+     dull--that has been dismal for months, thinking and talking of
+     nothing but bankruptcies--bankruptcies fraudulent, and bankruptcies
+     unavoidable--was now all astir, full of life and motion. The stoop of
+     the Commercial Exchange was crowded with merchants, knots of citizens
+     were collected at the corner of every street; business was almost, if
+     not entirely suspended.
+
+     "All that could be gleaned, in addition to the information of Captain
+     Semmes' letter to the Governor, a copy of which was sent to the
+     United States Consul, immediately it was received, was that the
+     schooner _Atlas_ had just returned from Malagas Island, where she had
+     been with water and vegetables for men collecting guano there.
+     Captain Boyce, the master of the _Atlas_, reported that he had
+     himself actually seen the _Alabama_; a boat from the steamer had
+     boarded his vessel, and he had been on board of her. His report of
+     Captain Semmes corroborated that given by every one else. He said the
+     Captain was most courteous and gentlemanly. He asked Captain Boyce to
+     land thirty prisoners for him, in Table Bay, with which request
+     Captain Boyce was unable to comply. Captain Semmes said that the
+     _Florida_ was also a short distance off the Cape, and that the
+     _Alabama_, when she had completed her repairs, and was cleaned and
+     painted, would pay Table Bay a visit. He expected to be there, he
+     said, very nearly as soon as the _Atlas_. Shortly after the _Atlas_
+     arrived, a boat brought up some of the prisoners from Saldanha Bay,
+     and among them one of the crew of the _Alabama_, who said he had left
+     the ship. All these waited on the United States Consul, but were
+     unable to give much information, beyond what we had already received.
+
+     "The news that the _Alabama_ was coming into Table Bay, and would
+     probably arrive about four o'clock this afternoon, added to the
+     excitement. About noon, a steamer from the north-west was made down
+     by the signal-man on the hill. Could this be the _Alabama_? or was it
+     the _Hydaspes_, from India, or the _Lady Jocelyn_ from England? All
+     three were now hourly expected, and the city was in doubt. Just after
+     one, it was made down '_Confederate steamer Alabama from the
+     north-west, and Federal bark from the south-east_.' Here was to be a
+     capture by the celebrated Confederate craft, close to the entrance of
+     Table Bay. The inhabitants rushed off to get a sight. Crowds of
+     people ran up the Lion's Hill, and to the Kloof Road. All the cabs
+     were chartered--every one of them; there was no cavilling about
+     fares; the cabs were taken, and no questions asked, but orders were
+     given to drive as hard as possible.
+
+     "The bark coming in from the south-east, and, as the signal-man made
+     down, five miles off; the steamer coming in from the north-west,
+     eight miles off, led us to think that the kloof road was the best
+     place for a full view. To that place we directed our Jehu to drive
+     furiously. We did the first mile in a short time; but the kloof-hill
+     for the next two and a half miles is up-hill work. The horse jibbed,
+     so we pushed on, on foot, as fast as possible, and left the cab to
+     come on. When we reached the summit, we could only make out a steamer
+     on the horizon, from eighteen to twenty miles off. This could not be
+     the _Alabama_, unless she was making off to sea again. There was no
+     bark. As soon as our cab reached the crown of the hill, we set off at
+     a break-neck pace, down the hill, on past the Round-house, till we
+     came near Brighton, and as we reached the corner, there lay the
+     _Alabama_ within fifty yards of the unfortunate Yankee. As the Yankee
+     came around from the south-east, and about five miles from the Bay,
+     the steamer came down upon her. The Yankee was evidently taken by
+     surprise. The _Alabama_ fired a gun, and brought her to.
+
+     "When first we got sight of the _Alabama_, it was difficult to make
+     out what she was doing; the bark's head had been put about, and the
+     _Alabama_ lay off quite immovable, as if she were taking a sight of
+     the 'varmint.' The weather was beautifully calm and clear, and the
+     sea was as smooth and transparent as a sheet of glass. The bark was
+     making her way slowly from the steamer, with every bit of her canvas
+     spread. The _Alabama_, with her steam off, appeared to be letting the
+     bark get clear off. What could this mean? No one understood. It must
+     be the _Alabama_. 'There,' said the spectators, 'is the Confederate
+     flag at her peak; it must be a Federal bark, too, for there are the
+     stars and stripes of the States flying at her main.' What could the
+     _Alabama_ mean lying there--
+
+       'As idly as a painted ship
+       Upon a painted ocean.'
+
+     What it meant was soon seen. Like a cat, watching and playing with a
+     victimized mouse, Captain Semmes permitted his prize to draw off a
+     few yards, and then he up steam again, and pounced upon her. She
+     first sailed round the Yankee from stem to stern, and stern to stem
+     again. The way that fine, saucy, rakish craft was handled was worth
+     riding a hundred miles to see. She went round the bark like a toy,
+     making a complete circle, and leaving an even margin of water between
+     herself and her prize, of not more than twenty yards. From the hill
+     it appeared as if there was no water at all between the two vessels.
+     This done, she sent a boat with a prize crew off, took possession in
+     the name of the Confederate States, and sent the bark off to sea.
+
+     "The _Alabama_ then made for the port. We came round the Kloof to
+     visit Captain Semmes on board. As we came, we found the heights
+     overlooking Table Bay covered with people; the road to Green Point
+     lined with cabs. The windows of the villas at the bottom of the hill
+     were all thrown up, and ladies waved their handkerchiefs, and one and
+     all joined in the general enthusiasm; over the quarries, along the
+     Malay burying-ground, the Gallows Hill, and the beach, there were
+     masses of people--nothing but a sea of heads as far as the eye could
+     reach. Along Strand Street, and Alderley Street, the roofs of all the
+     houses, from which Table Bay is overlooked, were made available as
+     standing-places for the people who could not get boats to go off to
+     her. The central, the north, the south, and the coaling jetties were
+     all crowded. At the central jetty it was almost impossible to force
+     one's way through to get a boat. However, all in good time, we did
+     get a boat, and went off, in the midst of dingies, cargo-boats, gigs,
+     and wherries, all as full as they could hold. Nearly all the city was
+     upon the bay; the rowing clubs in uniform, with favored members of
+     their respective clubs on board. The crews feathered their oars in
+     double-quick time, and their pulling, our 'stroke' declared, was a
+     'caution, and no mistake.' * * * On getting alongside the _Alabama_,
+     we found about a dozen boats before us, and we had not been on board
+     five minutes before she was surrounded by nearly every boat in Table
+     Bay, and as boat after boat arrived, three hearty cheers were given
+     for Captain Semmes and his gallant privateer. This, upon the part of
+     a neutral people, is, perchance, wrong; but we are not arguing a
+     case--we are recording facts. They did cheer, and cheer with a will,
+     too. It was not, perhaps, taking the view of either side, Federal or
+     Confederate, but in admiration of the skill, pluck, and daring of the
+     _Alabama_, her captain, and her crew, who afford a general theme of
+     admiration for the world all over.
+
+     "Visitors were received by the officers of the ship most courteously,
+     and without distinction, and the officers conversed freely and
+     unreservedly of their exploits. There was nothing like brag in their
+     manner of answering questions put to them. They are as fine and
+     gentlemanly a set of fellows as ever we saw; most of them young men.
+     The ship has been so frequently described, that most people know what
+     she is like, as we do who have seen her. We should have known her to
+     be the _Alabama_, if we had boarded her in the midst of the ocean,
+     with no one to introduce us to each other. Her guns alone are worth
+     going off to see, and everything about her speaks highly of the
+     seamanship and discipline of her commander and his officers. She had
+     a very large crew, fine, lithe-looking fellows, the very picture of
+     English man-of-war's men."
+
+The editor of the "Argus" has not overdrawn the picture when he says, that
+nearly all Cape Town was afloat, on the evening of the arrival of the
+_Alabama_. The deck of the ship was so crowded, that it was almost
+impossible to stir in any direction. Nor was this simply a vulgar crowd,
+come off to satisfy mere curiosity. It seemed to be a generous outpouring
+of the better classes. Gentlemen and ladies of distinction pressed into my
+cabin, to tender me a cordial greeting. Whatever may have been the cause,
+their imaginations and their hearts seemed both to have been touched. I
+could not but be gratified at such a demonstration on the part of an
+entire people. The inhabitants of the Cape colony seemed to resemble our
+own people in their excitability, and in the warmth with which they
+expressed their feelings, more than the phlegmatic English people, of whom
+they are a part. This resemblance became still more apparent, when I had
+the leisure to notice the tone, and temper of their press, the marshalling
+of political parties, and the speeches of their public men. The colony,
+with its own legislature, charged with the care of its own local concerns,
+was almost a republic. It enjoyed all the freedom of a republic, without
+its evils. The check upon the franchise, and the appointment of the
+Executive by the Crown, so tempered the republican elements, that license
+was checked, without liberty being restrained.
+
+Bartelli, my faithful steward, was in his element during the continuance
+of this great lev�e on board the _Alabama_. He had dressed himself with
+scrupulous care, and posting himself at my cabin-door, with the air of a
+chamberlain to a king, he refused admission to all comers, until they had
+first presented him with a card, and been duly announced. Pressing some of
+the ward-room boys into his service, he served refreshments to his
+numerous guests, in a style that did my _menage_ infinite credit. Fair
+women brought off bouquets with them, which they presented with a charming
+grace, and my cabin was soon garlanded with flowers. Some of these were
+_immortelles_ peculiar to the Cape of Good Hope, and for months afterward,
+they retained their places around the large mirror that adorned the
+after-part of my cabin, with their colors almost as bright as ever. During
+my entire stay, my table was loaded with flowers, and the most luscious
+grapes, and other fruits, sent off to me every morning, by the ladies of
+the Cape, sometimes with, and sometimes without, a name. Something has
+been said before about the capacity of the heart of a sailor. My own was
+carried by storm on the present occasion. I simply surrendered at
+discretion, and whilst Kell was explaining the virtues of his guns to his
+male visitors, and answering the many questions that were put to him about
+our cruises and captures, I found it as much as I could do, to write
+autographs, and answer the pretty little perfumed billets that came off to
+me. Dear ladies of the Cape of Good Hope! these scenes are still fresh in
+my memory, and I make you but a feeble return for all your kindness, in
+endeavoring to impress them upon these pages, that they may endure "yet a
+little while." I have always found the instincts of women to be right, and
+I felt more gratified at this spontaneous outpouring of the sympathies of
+the sex, for our cause, than if all the male creatures of the earth had
+approved it, in cold and formal words.
+
+I found, at the Cape of Good Hope, the stereotyped American Consul; half
+diplomat, half demagogue. Here is a letter which the ignorant fellow wrote
+to the Governor, whilst I was still at Saldanha Bay:--
+
+     "SIR: From reliable information received by me, and which you are
+     also doubtless in possession of, a war-steamer called the _Alabama_,
+     is now in Saldanha Bay, being painted, discharging prisoners of war,
+     &c. The vessel in question was built in England, to prey upon the
+     commerce of the United States, and escaped therefrom while on her
+     trial-trip, forfeiting bonds of �20,000 (!) which the British
+     Government exacted under the Foreign Enlistment Act. Now, as your
+     Government has a treaty of amity and commerce with the United States,
+     and has not recognized the persons in revolt against the United
+     States as a government at all, the vessel alluded to should be at
+     once seized, and sent to England, whence she clandestinely escaped.
+     Assuming that the British Government was sincere in exacting the
+     bonds, you have, doubtless, been instructed to send her home to
+     England, where she belongs. But if, from some oversight, you have not
+     received such instructions, and you decline the responsibility of
+     making the seizure, I would most respectfully protest against the
+     vessel remaining in any port of the Colony, another day. She has been
+     at Saldanha Bay four days already, and a week previously on the
+     coast, and has forfeited all right to remain an hour longer, by this
+     breach of neutrality. Painting a ship [especially with Yankee paint]
+     does not come under the head of "necessary repairs," and is no proof
+     that she is unseaworthy; and to allow her to visit other ports, after
+     she has set the Queen's proclamation of neutrality at defiance, would
+     not be regarded as in accordance with the spirit and purpose of that
+     document."
+
+This letter, in its loose statement of facts, and in its lucid exposition
+of the laws of nations, would have done credit to Mr. Seward himself, the
+head of the department to which this ambitious little Consul belonged.
+Instead of a week, the _Alabama_ had been less than a day on the coast,
+before she ran into Saldanha Bay; and, if she had chosen, she might have
+cruised on the coast during the rest of the war, in entire conformity with
+the Queen's proclamation, and the laws of nations. But the richest part of
+the letter is that wherein the Consul tells the Governor, that inasmuch as
+the Confederate States had not been acknowledged as a nation, they had no
+right to commission a ship of war! It is astonishing how dull the Federal
+officials, generally, were on this point. The Consul knew that Great
+Britain had acknowledged us to be in possession of belligerent rights, and
+that the only rights I was pretending to exercise, in the _Alabama_, were
+those of a belligerent. But the Consul was not to blame. He was only a
+Consul, and could not be supposed to know better. Mr. Seward's despatches
+on the subject of the _Alabama_ had so muddled the brains of his
+subordinates, that they could never make head or tail of the subject.
+
+The following was the reply of the Governor, through the Colonial
+Secretary:--
+
+     "I am directed by the Governor, to acknowledge the receipt of your
+     letter of yesterday's date, relative to the _Alabama_. His Excellency
+     has no instructions, neither has he any authority, to seize, or
+     detain that vessel; and he desires me to acquaint you, that he has
+     received a letter from the Commander, dated the 1st instant, stating
+     that repairs were in progress, and as soon as they were completed he
+     intended to go to sea. He further announces his intention of
+     respecting the neutrality of the British Government. The course which
+     Captain Semmes here proposes to take, is, in the Governor's opinion,
+     in conformity with the instructions he has himself received, relative
+     to ships of war and privateers, belonging to the United States, and
+     the States calling themselves the Confederate States of America,
+     visiting British ports. The reports received from Saldanha Bay induce
+     the Governor to believe, that the vessel will leave that harbor, as
+     soon as her repairs are completed; but he will immediately, on
+     receiving intelligence to the contrary, take the necessary steps for
+     enforcing the observance of the rules laid down by her Majesty's
+     Government."
+
+Another correspondence now sprang up between the Consul and the Governor
+in relation to the capture of the _Sea-Bride_. The Consul wrote to the
+Governor, as follows:--
+
+     "The Confederate steamer _Alabama_ has just captured an American bark
+     off Green Point, or about four miles from the nearest land--Robben
+     Island. I witnessed the capture with my own eyes, as did hundreds of
+     others at the same time. This occurrence at the entrance of Table
+     Bay, and clearly in British waters, is an insult to England, and a
+     grievous injury to a friendly power, the United States."
+
+This remark about the honor of England will remind the reader of the
+article I quoted some pages back, from the New York "Commercial
+Advertiser," to the same effect. How wonderfully alive these fellows were
+to English honor, when Yankee ships were in danger! But as the Consul
+admits, upon the testimony of his "own eyes," that the capture was made
+_four_ miles from the nearest land, the reader will, perhaps, be curious
+to see how he brings it within British waters. The marine league is the
+limit of jurisdiction, and the writers on international law say that that
+limit was probably adopted, because a cannon-shot could not be thrown
+farther than three miles from the shore. It may have been the cannon-shot
+which suggested the league, but it was the league, and not the
+cannon-shot, which was the limit. Now the Consul argued that the Yankees
+had invented some "big guns," which would throw a shot a long way beyond
+the league--ergo, the Yankee guns had changed the Laws of Nations.
+
+But the Consul wrote his letter in too great a hurry. He had not yet seen
+the master of the captured ship. This clever Yankee, backed by several of
+his crew equally clever, made a much better case for him; for they swore,
+in a batch of affidavits before the Consul himself, and in spite of the
+Consul's "own eyes," that the ship had been captured within _two miles and
+a half_ of Robben Island! Imprudent Consul, to have thus gone off half
+cocked! This discovery of new testimony was communicated to the Governor,
+as follows: "I beg now to enclose for your Excellency's perusal, the
+affidavit of Captain Charles F. White, of the _Sea-Bride_, protesting
+against the capture of the said bark in British waters. The bearings taken
+by him at the time of capture, conclusively show that she was in neutral
+waters, being about two and a half miles from Robben Island. This
+statement is doubtless more satisfactory than the testimony of persons,
+who measured the distance by the eye." Doubtless, if the bearings had been
+correct; but unfortunately for Captain White, there were too many other
+witnesses, who were under no temptation to falsify the truth. A fine ship,
+and a lucrative trading voyage along the eastern coast of Africa were to
+be the reward of his testimony; the simple telling of the truth the reward
+of the other witnesses. The usual consequences followed. The interested
+witness perjured himself, and was disbelieved. I remained entirely neutral
+in the matter, volunteered no testimony, and only responded to such
+questions as were asked me--not under oath--by the authorities. The
+following was the case made in rebuttal of this "Yankee hash":--
+
+     STATEMENT OF JOSEPH HOPSON.
+
+     Joseph Hopson, keeper of the Green Point Light-house, states:--
+
+     "I was on the lookout on Wednesday afternoon, when the _Alabama_ and
+     _Sea-Bride_ were coming in. When I first saw them, the steamer was
+     coming round the north-west of Robben Island, and the bark bore from
+     her about five miles W. N. W. The bark was coming in under all sail,
+     with a good breeze, and she took nothing in, when the gun was fired.
+     I believe two guns were fired, but the gun I mean was the last, and
+     the steamer then crossed the stern of the bark, and hauled up to her
+     on the starboard side. He steamed ahead gently, and shortly afterward
+     I saw the bark put round, with her head to the westward, and a boat
+     put off from the steamer and boarded her. Both vessels were then good
+     five miles off the mainland, and quite five, if not six, from the
+     north-west point of Robben Island."
+
+
+     STATEMENT OF W. S. FIELD, COLLECTOR OF THE CUSTOMS.
+
+     "I was present at the old light-house, on Green Point, on Wednesday
+     afternoon at two P. M., and saw the _Alabama_ capture the American
+     bark _Sea-Bride_, and I agree with the above statement, as far as the
+     position of the vessels, and their distance from shore are concerned.
+     I may also remark that I called the attention of Colonel Bisset and
+     the lighthouse keeper, Hopson, to the distance of the vessels at the
+     time of the capture, as it was probable we should be called upon to
+     give our evidence respecting the affair, and we took a note of the
+     time it occurred."
+
+
+     STATEMENT OF JOHN ROE.
+
+     "I was, yesterday, the 5th day of August, 1863, returning from a
+     whale chase in Hunt's Bay, when I first saw the bark _Sea-Bride_
+     standing from the westward, on to the land. I came on to Table Bay,
+     and when off Camp's Bay, I saw the smoke of the _Alabama_, some
+     distance from the westward of Robben Island. When I reached the Green
+     Point lighthouse, the steamer was standing up toward the bark, which
+     was about five miles and a half to the westward of Green Point, and
+     about four and a half from the western point of Robben Island. This
+     was their position--being near each other--when the gun was fired."
+
+
+     STATEMENT OF THE SIGNAL-MAN AT THE LION'S RUMP TELEGRAPH STATION.
+
+     "On Wednesday last, the 5th day of August, 1863, I sighted the bark
+     _Sea-Bride_, about seven o'clock in the morning, about fifteen or
+     twenty miles off the land, standing into Table Bay from the
+     south-west. There was a light breeze blowing from the north-west,
+     which continued until mid-day. About mid-day I sighted the _Alabama_,
+     screw-steamer, standing from due north, toward Table Bay, intending,
+     as it appeared to me, to take the passage between Robben Island, and
+     the Blueberg Beach. She was then between fifteen and eighteen miles
+     off the land. After sighting the steamer, I hoisted the demand for
+     the bark, when she hoisted the American flag, which I reported to
+     the port-office, the bark being then about eight miles off the land,
+     from Irville Point. No sooner had the bark hoisted the American flag,
+     than the steamer turned sharp round in the direction of, and toward
+     the bark. The steamer appeared at that time to be about twelve miles
+     off the land, from Irville Point, and about four or five miles
+     outside of Robben Island, and about seven miles from the bark. The
+     steamer then came up to, and alongside of the bark, when the latter
+     was good four miles off the land, at or near the old lighthouse, and
+     five miles off the island. The steamer, after firing a gun, stopped
+     the farther progress of the bark, several boats were sent to her, and
+     after that the bark stood out to sea again, and the _Alabama_ steamed
+     into Table Bay."
+
+At the time of the capture, her Majesty's steamship _Valorous_ was lying
+in Table Bay, and the Governor, in addition to the above testimony,
+charged Captain Forsyth, her commander, also, to investigate the subject,
+and report to him. The following is Captain Forsyth's report:--
+
+     HER MAJESTY'S SHIP VALOROUS, August 6, 1863.
+
+     In compliance with the request conveyed to me by your Excellency, I
+     have the honor to report that I have obtained from Captain Semmes, a
+     statement of the position of the Confederate States steamer
+     _Alabama_, and the American bark _Sea-Bride_, when the latter was
+     captured, yesterday afternoon. Captain Semmes asserts, that at the
+     time of his capturing the _Sea-Bride_, Green Point lighthouse bore
+     from the _Alabama_, south-east, about six or six and a half miles.
+     [The Yankee master said that it bore south, by east.] This statement
+     is borne out by the evidence of Captain Wilson, Port-Captain of Table
+     Bay, who has assured me, that at the time of the _Sea-Bride_ being
+     captured, he was off Green Point, in the port-boat, and that only the
+     top of the _Alabama's_ hull was visible. I am of opinion, if Captain
+     Wilson could only see that portion of the hull of the _Alabama_, she
+     must have been about the distance from shore, which is stated by
+     Captain Semmes, and I have, therefore, come to the conclusion, that
+     the bark _Sea-Bride_ was beyond the limits assigned, when she was
+     captured by the _Alabama_.
+
+The Governor, after having thus patiently investigated the case, directed
+his Secretary to inform the Consul of the result in the following
+letter:--
+
+     "With reference to the correspondence that has passed, relative to
+     the capture, by the Confederate States steamer _Alabama_, of the bark
+     _Sea-Bride_, I am directed by the Governor to acquaint you, that, on
+     the best information he has been enabled to procure, he has come to
+     the conclusion, that the capture cannot be held to be illegal, or in
+     violation of the neutrality of the British Government, by reason of
+     the distance from the land at which it took place."
+
+The Consul was foiled; but he was a man of courage, and resolved to strike
+another blow for the _Sea-Bride_. He next charged that the prize-master
+had brought her within the marine league _after her capture_. He made this
+charge upon the strength of another affidavit--that ready resource of the
+enemy when in difficulty. Enclosing this affidavit to the Governor, he
+wrote as follows:--
+
+     "From the affidavit of the first officer, it appears that the alleged
+     prize was brought within one mile and a half of Green Point
+     lighthouse, yesterday, at one o'clock A. M. Now, as the vessel was,
+     at the time, in charge of a prize-crew, it was a violation of
+     neutrality, as much as if the capture had been made at the same
+     distance from the land."
+
+And he required that the ship should be seized.
+
+Without stopping to inquire into the truth of the fact stated, the
+Governor directed his Secretary to reply, that--
+
+     "His Excellency is not prepared to admit that the fact of a vessel
+     having been brought, by the prize-crew, within one and a half mile of
+     the Green Point lighthouse 'was a violation of the neutrality, as
+     much as if the capture had taken place at the same distance from the
+     land,' although both the belligerents are prohibited from bringing
+     their prizes into British ports. The Governor does not feel warranted
+     in taking steps for the removal of the prize-crew from the
+     _Sea-Bride_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+A GALE AT CAPE TOWN--ALABAMA GETS UNDER WAY FOR SIMON'S TOWN--CAPTURE OF
+THE MARTHA WENZELL--THE TUSCALOOSA; HER STATUS AS SHIP OF WAR
+CONSIDERED--THE TUSCALOOSA PROCEEDS TO SEA--THE ALABAMA FOLLOWS HER--THEY,
+WITH THE SEA-BRIDE, RENDEZVOUS AT ANGRA PEQUENA.
+
+
+Having brushed away Mr. Seward's gadfly, as described in the last chapter,
+we may turn our attention again to the _Alabama_. On the 7th of August, we
+took one of the gales so common at the Cape, in the winter season. Dense
+banks of black clouds hove up in the north-west, soon overspreading the
+whole heavens, and the wind came out whistling from that quarter. The
+reader must bear in mind, that when he crossed into the southern
+hemisphere he reversed the points of the compass, so far as wind and
+weather are concerned, and that the north-wester, at the Cape of Good
+Hope, answers to our south-easter, on the American coast--bringing with it
+thick, rainy weather. There was a number of ships in the harbor, and the
+gale drove in upon them without the least protection. These ships,
+forewarned by the usual signs, had all struck their upper masts, sent down
+their yards, and let go second anchors, and veered to long scopes. We did
+the same in the _Alabama_.
+
+It was a sublime spectacle to look abroad upon the bay in the height of
+the gale. The elements seemed to be literally at war, a low scud rushing
+to the shore, and climbing, as if pursued by demons, up and over the
+Lion's Rump and Table Mountain. Huge waves were rolling in upon the
+struggling shipping, trying its ground-tackle to its utmost tension; the
+jetties and landings were covered with spray; and Cape Town, though only
+a mile off, looked like a spectre town, as viewed through the spray and
+driving scud. And what added much to the interest of the scene, was the
+daring and skill of the watermen. These men, in substantial launches,
+under close-reefed sails, and with spare anchors and cables on board, for
+the use of any ships that might be in distress for want of sufficient
+ground-tackle, were darting hither and thither, like so many spirits of
+the storm. They seemed to be sporting with the dashing and blinding waves
+and the fury of the gale, in very wantonness, as though they would defy
+the elements. The ships at anchor were all fortunate enough to hold on;
+but a luckless Bremen brig, outside, which had ventured too near the land,
+was wrecked, during the night, on Green Point. Fortunately, no lives were
+lost.
+
+The gale lasted about twenty-four hours; and when it had sufficiently
+abated, we communicated with the shore, and got off such supplies as we
+needed; it being my intention to run round to Simon's Town, on the
+opposite side of the Cape, where there is shelter from these gales, for
+the purpose of completing my repairs. On the 9th, the weather had again
+become fine. The wind had gone round to south-east, the fair-weather
+quarter, and the Devil had spread his table-cloth on Table Mountain. Every
+one has heard of this famous table-cloth at the Cape of Good Hope. It is a
+fleecy, white cloud, which hangs perpetually over Table Mountain during
+fine weather. The south-east winds, as they climb the steep ascent, bring
+with them more or less moisture. This moisture is sufficiently cooled as
+it passes over the "table"--a level space on the top of the mountain--to
+become condensed into a white vapor, very similar to that which escapes
+from a steam-pipe. When the wind shifts, and the storm begins to gather,
+the table-cloth disappears.
+
+At nine o'clock, on this morning, we got under way, and steamed out of the
+harbor, on our way to Simon's Town. The day was charmingly fine. The
+atmosphere was soft and transparent, and the sun bright, bringing out all
+the beauties of the bold promontories and the deep-water bays that indent
+the coast. We were now really doubling the Cape of Good Hope. As we
+approached the famous headland, with its lighthouse perched several
+hundred feet above the bold and blackened rocks, our imaginations busy
+with the past, endeavoring to depict the frail Portuguese bark, which had
+first dared its stormy waters, the cry of "sail ho!" resounded most
+musically from the mast-head. Imagination took flight at once, at the
+sound of this practical cry. It recalled us from our dream of John of
+Portugal, to one Abraham Lincoln and his surroundings. Here was not the
+poetical bark, of four centuries ago, that had at last found its way to
+those "Indies," which Columbus so long sought for in vain, but a Yankee
+ship laden with rice; for an hour's steaming brought us alongside of the
+_Martha Wenzell_, of Boston, from Akyab for Falmouth in England. The
+_Wenzell_ had better luck than the _Sea-Bride_, for she had clearly
+entered the mouth of False Bay, and though seven or eight miles yet from
+the land, was within a line drawn from point to point of the Bay. Being
+thus within British jurisdiction, I astonished the master by releasing,
+instead of burning his ship. He looked so dumfounded when I announced to
+him this decision, that if I had been a Yankee, he would, no doubt, have
+suspected me of some Yankee trick. He gathered his slow ideas together, by
+degrees, however, and was profuse in his thanks. I told him he had none to
+give me, for I was only too sorry not to be able to burn him.
+
+We now hauled in for the coast, and taking a pilot, as we approached the
+harbor, anchored at two P. M. in Simon's Bay. This is the naval station of
+the colony, and we found here the frigate _Narcissus_, wearing the flag of
+Rear Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker, the commander-in-chief of the British
+naval forces at the Cape. We were visited immediately upon anchoring by a
+lieutenant from the flag-ship. The _Tuscaloosa_ had preceded me, as the
+reader has seen, a few days, and we found her still here, not having quite
+completed her preparations for sea. The gadfly, I found, had been buzzing
+around her, too, but her difficulties were all ended. As the
+correspondence is short, I will give it to the reader. The Federal Consul
+wrote to the Governor, as follows:--
+
+     "An armed vessel named the _Tuscaloosa_, claiming to act under the
+     authority of the so-called Confederate States, entered Simon's Bay,
+     on Saturday, the 8th instant. That vessel was formerly owned by
+     citizens of the United States, and while engaged in lawful commerce
+     [as if lawful commerce was not a subject of capture, during war] was
+     captured as a prize by the _Alabama_. She was subsequently fitted out
+     with arms, by the _Alabama_, to prey upon the commerce of the United
+     States, and now, without having been condemned as a prize, by any
+     Admiralty Court of any recognized government, she is permitted to
+     enter a neutral port, in violation of the Queen's proclamation, with
+     her original cargo on board. Against this proceeding, I, hereby, most
+     emphatically protest, and I claim that the vessel ought to be given
+     up to her lawful owners."
+
+It is quite true that the _Tuscaloosa_ had not been condemned by a prize
+court of the Confederacy, but it was equally true that the Sovereign Power
+of the Confederacy, acting through its authorized agent, had commissioned
+her as a ship of war, which was the most solemn condemnation of the prize,
+that the Sovereign could give. It was equally true, that no nation has the
+right to inquire into the _antecedents_ of the ships of war of another
+nation. But these were points beyond the comprehension of the gadfly. The
+following was the answer of the Governor. The Colonial Secretary writes:--
+
+     "I am directed by the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your
+     letter of this date, and to acquaint you, that it was not until late
+     last evening, that his Excellency received from the Naval
+     Commander-in-Chief, information, that the condition of the
+     _Tuscaloosa_ was such as, as his Excellency is advised, to entitle
+     her to be regarded as a vessel of war. The Governor is not aware, nor
+     do you refer him to the provisions of the International Law, by which
+     captured vessels, as soon as they enter our neutral ports, revert to
+     their original owners, and are forfeited by their captors. But his
+     Excellency believes, that the claims of contending parties to vessels
+     captured can only be determined, in the first instance, by the courts
+     of the captor's country."
+
+We remained five days at Simon's Town. We did not need coal, but we had
+some caulking of the bends, and replacing of copper about the water-line
+to do, and some slight repairs to put upon our engine. Whilst these
+preparations for sea were going on, we had some very pleasant intercourse
+with the officers of the station and the citizens on shore. Besides the
+_Narcissus_, flag-ship, there were one or two other British ships of war
+at anchor. There were some officers stationed at the navy-yard, and there
+was a Chinese gunboat, the _Kwan-Tung_, with an English commander and
+crew, which had put into the harbor, on her way to the east. Simon's Town
+was thus quite gay. The Governor, Sir Philip Wodehouse, also came over
+from Cape Town during our stay. Lunches on board the different ships,
+excursions on board the _Kwan-Tung_, and dinner-parties were the order of
+the day. As I have before remarked, the English naval officers discarded
+all the ridiculous nonsense about our not being "recognized," and extended
+to us official, as well as private civilities.
+
+The Admiral was kind enough to give me a dinner-party, at which the
+Governor, and his lady, and the principal officers of his squadron were
+present. I found the ladies of the Admiral's family exceedingly agreeable.
+They were living in a picturesque cottage, near the sea-shore, and solaced
+themselves for their temporary banishment from "dear old England," by
+making their home as English as possible. They had surrounded themselves
+by fine lawns and shrubbery and flowers, and Mrs. Walker, and one of the
+bewitching young ladies were kind enough to show me over their extensive
+and well-cultivated garden, in which they took much interest. Horseback
+riding, picnics to the country, and balls on board the ships were the
+principal amusements of the young people. Whilst my officers and myself
+were thus relaxing ourselves, my sailors were also making the most of
+their time. Kell had told them off, by quarter watches, and sent them on
+"liberty." Each batch was mustered, and inspected as it was sent on shore,
+and pretty soon we had the old Jamaica scenes over again. Most of them
+went over to Cape Town, in the stage-coach that was running between the
+two places, and put that lively commercial town "in stays." The sailor
+quarter was a continuous scene of revelry for several days. The
+townspeople humored and spoiled them. They all overstayed their time, and
+we only got them back by twos and threes. It was of no use to muster, and
+inspect them now. The tidy, new suits, in which they had gone on shore,
+were torn and draggled, and old-drunks were upon nearly all of them.
+
+The _Tuscaloosa_ went to sea at daylight on the 14th, and we followed her
+in the _Alabama_ the next day. The former was to proceed to Saldanha Bay,
+and thence take the _Sea-Bride_ with her to one of the uninhabited
+harbors, some distance to the northward, and the _Alabama_ was to follow
+her thither, after a cruise of a few days off the Cape. The object of
+these movements will be explained in due time. I now threw myself into
+that perpetual stream of commerce, that comes setting around the Cape of
+Good Hope from the East Indies. From daylight until dark, ships are
+constantly in sight from the lighthouse on the Cape. The road is about
+twenty miles wide--no more. We kept our station in this road, day in and
+day out for ten days, during which we chased and overhauled a great number
+of ships, but there was not a Yankee among them! It was winter-time, we
+were off the "stormy Cape," and we had the weather suited to the season
+and the locality. Storms and fogs and calms followed in succession--the
+storm being the normal meteorological condition. As we would be lying to,
+in this track, under reefed sails, in a dark and stormy night, our very
+hair would sometimes be made to stand on end, by the apparition of a huge
+ship rushing past us at lightning speed, before the howling gale, at no
+more than a few ships' lengths from us. A collision would have crushed us
+as if we had been an egg-shell.
+
+At length, when I supposed the _Tuscaloosa_ and the _Sea-Bride_ had
+reached their destination, I filled away and followed them. As we were
+making this passage, it was reported to me that our fresh-water condenser
+had given out. Here was a predicament! The water was condensed once a
+week, and we had no more than about one week's supply on hand. The joints
+of the piping had worked loose, and the machine had become nearly useless.
+It was now still more necessary to make a harbor, where we might get
+access to water, and see what could be done in the way of repairs. We
+worked our way along the African coast somewhat tediously, frequently
+encountering head-winds and adverse currents. On the morning of the 28th
+of August, we sighted the land, after having been delayed by a dense fog
+for twenty-four hours, and in the course of the afternoon we ran into the
+Bay of Angra Peque�a, and anchored. This was our point of rendezvous. I
+found the _Tuscaloosa_ and the _Sea-Bride_ both at anchor. I had at last
+found a port into which I could take a prize! I was now, in short, among
+the Hottentots; no civilized nation claiming jurisdiction over the waters
+in which I was anchored.
+
+When at Cape Town, an English merchant had visited me, and made overtures
+for the purchase of the _Sea-Bride_ and her cargo. He was willing to run
+the risk of non-condemnation by a prize-court, and I could put him in
+possession of the prize, he said, at some inlet on the coast of Africa,
+without the jurisdiction of any civilized power. I made the sale to him.
+He was to repair to the given rendezvous in his own vessel, and I found
+him here, according to his agreement, with the stipulated price--about one
+third the value of the ship and cargo--in good English sovereigns, which,
+upon being counted, were turned over to the paymaster, for the military
+chest. The purchaser was then put in possession of the prize. I had made
+an arrangement with other parties for the sale of the wool still remaining
+on board the _Tuscaloosa_. This wool was to be landed at Angra Peque�a,
+also, the purchaser agreeing to ship it to Europe, and credit the
+Confederate States with two thirds of the proceeds. The reader will see
+how easy it would have been for me, to make available many of my prizes in
+this way, but the great objection to the scheme, was the loss of time
+which it involved, and the risks I ran of not getting back my prize crews.
+If I had undertaken, whenever I captured a prize, to follow her to some
+out-of-the-way port, and spend some days there, in negotiating for her
+sale, and getting back my prize crew, I should not have accomplished half
+the work I did. The great object now was to destroy, as speedily as
+possible, the enemy's commerce, and to this I devoted all my energies. I
+did not, therefore, repeat the experiment of the _Sea-Bride_.
+
+I could not have chosen a better spot for my present purpose. At Angra
+Peque�a I was entirely out of the world. It was not visited at all, except
+by some straggling coaster in quest of shelter in bad weather. There was,
+indeed, no other inducement to visit it. It was in a desert part of
+Africa. The region was rainless, and there was not so much as a shrub, or
+even a blade of grass to be seen. The harbor was rock-bound, and for miles
+inland the country was a waste of burning sand. The harbor did not even
+afford fresh water, and we were obliged to supply ourselves from the
+vessel of my English friend, until our condenser could be repaired. The
+whole country was a waste, in which there was no life visible away from
+the coast. On the coast itself; there were the usual sea-birds--the gannet
+and the sea-gull--and fish in abundance. We hauled the seine, and caught a
+fine mess for the crews of all the ships. Three or four naked, emaciated
+Hottentots, having seen the ships from a distance, had made their way to
+the harbor, and came begging us for food. They remained during our stay,
+and had their emptiness filled. Some thirty or forty miles from the coast,
+they said, vegetation began to appear, and there were villages and cattle.
+
+I ordered Lieutenant Low, the commander of the _Tuscaloosa_, as soon as he
+should land his cargo, to ballast his ship with the rock which abounded on
+every hand, and proceed on a cruise to the coast of Brazil. Sufficient
+time had now elapsed, I thought, for the ships of war of the enemy, which
+had been sent to that coast, in pursuit of me, to be coming in the
+direction of the Cape of Good Hope. Lieutenant Low would, therefore, in
+all probability, have a clear field before him. Having nothing further to
+detain me in the _Alabama_, I got under way, on my return to Simon's Town,
+intending to fill up with coal, and proceed thence to the East Indies, in
+compliance with the suggestion of Mr. Secretary Mallory. The _Tuscaloosa_,
+after cruising the requisite time on the coast of Brazil, was to return to
+the Cape to meet me, on my own return from the East Indies.
+
+When I reached the highway off the Cape again, I held myself there for
+several days, cruising off and on, and sighting the land occasionally, to
+see if perchance I could pick up an American ship. But we had no better
+success than before. The wary masters of these ships, if there were any
+passing, gave the Cape a wide berth, and sought their way home, by the
+most unfrequented paths, illustrating the old adage, that "the farthest
+way round is the shortest way home." Impatient of further delay, without
+results, on Wednesday, the 16th of September, I got up steam, and ran into
+Simon's Bay. I learned, upon anchoring, that the United States steamer
+_Vanderbilt_, late the flag-ship of Admiral Wilkes, and now under the
+command of Captain Baldwin, had left the anchorage, only the Friday
+before, and gone herself to cruise off the Cape, in the hope of falling in
+with the _Alabama_. She had taken her station, as it would appear, a
+little to the eastward of me, off Cape Agulhas and Point Danger. On the
+day the _Vanderbilt_ went to sea, viz., Friday, the 11th of September, it
+happened that the _Alabama_ was a little further off the land than usual,
+which accounts for the two ships missing each other. The following is the
+record on my journal, for that day: "Weather very fine, wind light from
+the south-west. At half-past six, showed the English colors to an English
+bark, after a short chase." On the following Sunday, we were in plain
+sight of Table Mountain. The two ships were thus cruising almost in sight
+of each other's smoke.
+
+The _Vanderbilt_ visited both Cape Town, and Simon's Town, and lay several
+days at each. I did not object that she had been "painting ship," and
+should have been sent to sea earlier. The more time Baldwin spent in port,
+the better I liked it. Indeed, it always puzzled me, that the gadflies
+should insist upon my being sent to sea so promptly, when nearly every day
+that the _Alabama_ was at sea, cost them a ship.
+
+I had scarcely come to anchor, before Captain Bickford, of the
+_Narcissus_, came on board of me, on the part of the Admiral, to have an
+"explanation." The gadfly had continued its buzzing, I found, during my
+late absence from the Cape. A short distance to the northward of the Cape
+of Good Hope, in the direction of Angra Peque�a, there is an island called
+Ichaboe, a dependency of the Cape colony. It had been represented to the
+Admiral, by the Consul, that the transactions which have been related as
+taking place at Angra Peque�a, had taken place at this island, in
+violation of British neutrality. In what the evidence consisted I did not
+learn, but the Consul, in his distress and extremity, had probably had
+recourse to some more Yankee affidavits. It was this charge which Captain
+Bickford had come on board to ask an explanation of. The following letter
+from Sir Baldwin Walker, to the Secretary of the Admiralty in London, will
+show how easily I brushed off the gadfly, for the second time:--
+
+     "With reference to my letters, dated respectively the 19th and 31st
+     ult., relative to the Confederate States ship-of-war _Alabama_, and
+     the prizes captured by her, I beg to enclose, for their lordships
+     information, the copy of a statement forwarded to me by the Collector
+     of Customs at Cape Town, wherein it is represented, that the
+     _Tuscaloosa_ and _Sea-Bride_ had visited Ichaboe, which is a
+     dependency of this colony. Since the receipt of the above-mentioned
+     document, the _Alabama_ arrived at this anchorage, (the 16th
+     instant,) and when Captain Semmes waited on me, I acquainted him with
+     the report, requesting he would inform me if it was true. I was glad
+     to learn from him that it was not so. He frankly explained that the
+     prize _Sea-Bride_, in the first place, had put into Saldanha Bay,
+     through stress of weather, and on being joined there, by the
+     _Tuscaloosa_, both vessels proceeded to Angra Peque�a, on the west
+     coast of Africa, where he subsequently joined them in the _Alabama_,
+     and there sold the _Sea-Bride_ and her cargo, to an English subject
+     who resides at Cape Town. The _Tuscaloosa_ had landed some wool at
+     Angra Peque�a, and received ballast, but he states, is still in
+     commission as a tender. It will, therefore, be seen, how erroneous is
+     the accompanying report. I have no reason to doubt Captain Semmes'
+     explanation; and he seems to be fully alive to the instructions of
+     her Majesty's Government, and appears to be most anxious not to
+     commit any breach of neutrality. The _Alabama_ has returned to this
+     port for coal, some provisions, and to repair her condensing
+     apparatus. From conversation with Captain Semmes, I find he has been
+     off this Cape for the last five days, and as the _Vanderbilt_ left
+     this, on the night of the 11th inst., it is surprising they did not
+     meet each other."
+
+The _Vanderbilt_, I found, had exhausted the supply of coal at Simon's
+Town, having taken in as much as eight or nine hundred tons. Commodore
+Vanderbilt, as he is called, had certainly presented a mammoth
+coal-consumer to the Federal Government, if nothing else. I was obliged,
+in consequence, to order coal for the _Alabama_, around from Cape Town.
+And as the operation of coaling and making the necessary repairs would
+detain me several days, and as I was, besides, bound on a long voyage, I
+yielded to the petitions of my crew, and permitted them to go on liberty
+again. The officers of the station were as courteous to us as before, and
+I renewed my very pleasant intercourse with the Admiral's family. The
+owner of the famous Constantia vineyard, lying between Simon's Town and
+Cape Town, sent me a pressing invitation to come and spend a few days with
+him, but I was too busy to accept his hospitality. He afterward sent me a
+cask of his world-renowned wine. This cask of wine, after making the
+voyage to India, was offered as a libation to the god of war. It went down
+in the _Alabama_ off Cherbourg. We had another very pleasant dinner at the
+Admiral's--the guests being composed, this time, exclusively of naval
+officers. After our return to the drawing-room, the ladies made their
+appearance, and gave us some delightful music. These were some of the
+oases in the desert of my life upon the ocean.
+
+In the course of five or six days, by the exercise of great diligence, we
+were again ready for sea. But unfortunately all my crew were not yet on
+board. My rascals had behaved worse than usual, on this last visit to Cape
+Town. Some of them had been jugged by the authorities for offences against
+the peace, and others had yielded to the seductions of the ever vigilant
+Federal Consul, and been quartered upon his bounty. The Consul had made a
+haul. They would be capital fellows for "affidavits" against the
+_Alabama_. I need not say that they were of the cosmopolitan sailor class,
+none of them being citizens of the Southern States. I offered large
+rewards for the apprehension and delivery to me of these fellows; but the
+police were afraid to act--probably forbidden by their superiors, in
+deference to their supposed duty under the neutrality laws. That was a
+very one-sided neutrality, however, which permitted the Federal Consul to
+convert his quarters into a hostile camp, for the seduction of my sailors,
+and denied me access to the police for redress. My agent at Cape Town,
+having made every exertion in his power to secure the return of as many of
+my men as possible, finally telegraphed me, on the evening of the 24th of
+September, that it was useless to wait any longer. As many as fourteen had
+deserted; enough to cripple my crew, and that, too, with an enemy's ship
+of superior force on the coast.
+
+What was to be done? Luckily there was a remedy at hand. A
+sailor-landlord, one of those Shylocks who coin Jack's flesh and blood
+into gold, hearing of the distress of the _Alabama_, came off to tell me
+that all his boarders, eleven in number, had volunteered to supply the
+place of my deserters. This seemed like a fair exchange. It was but
+"swapping horses," as the "sainted Abraham" would have said, if he had
+been in my place--only I was giving a little "boot"--fourteen well-fed,
+well-clothed fellows, for eleven ragged, whiskey-filled vagabonds. It was
+a "swap" in another sense, too, as, ten to one, all these eleven fellows
+were deserters from other ships that had touched at this "relay house" of
+the sea. There was only one little difficulty in the way of my shipping
+these men. There was my good friend, her Majesty, the Queen--I must not be
+ungallant to her, and violate her neutrality laws. What monstrous sophists
+we are, when interest prompts us? I reasoned out this case to my entire
+satisfaction. I said to myself, My sailors have gone on shore in her
+Majesty's dominions, and refuse to come back to me. When I apply to her
+Majesty's police, they tell me that so sacred is the soil of England, no
+man must be coerced to do what he doesn't want to do. Good! I reply that a
+ship of war is a part of the territory to which she belongs, and that if
+some of the subjects of the Queen should think proper to come into my
+territory, and refuse to go back, I may surely apply the same principle,
+and refuse to compel them.
+
+When I had come to this conclusion, I turned to the landlord, and said:
+"And so you have some _gentlemen_ boarding at your house, who desire to
+take passage with me?" The landlord smiled, and nodded assent. I
+continued: "You know I cannot ship any seamen in her Majesty's ports, but
+I see no reason why I should not take passengers to sea with me, if they
+desire to go." "Certainly, your honor--they can work their passage, you
+know." "I suppose you'll charge something for bringing these gentlemen on
+board?" "Some'at, your honor." Here the landlord pulled out a greasy
+memorandum, and began to read. "Bill Bunting, board and lodging, ten
+shillings--drinks, one pound ten. Tom Bowline, board and lodging, six
+shillings--Tom only _landed_ yesterday from a Dutch ship--drinks, twelve
+shillings." "Hold!" said I; "never mind the board and lodging and
+drinks--go to the paymaster,"--and turning to Kell, I told him to give the
+paymaster the necessary instructions,--"and he will pay you your _fares_
+for bringing the passengers on board." The "passengers" were already
+alongside, and being sent down to the surgeon, were examined, and passed
+as sound and able-bodied men.
+
+It was now nine o'clock at night. It had been blowing a gale of wind, all
+day, from the south-east; but it was a fair-weather gale, if I may use the
+solecism; the sky being clear, and the barometer high. These are notable
+peculiarities of the south-east gales at the Cape of Good Hope. The sky is
+always clear, and the gale begins and ends with a high barometer. I was
+very anxious to get to sea. A report had come in, only a day or two
+before, that the _Vanderbilt_ was still cruising off Cape Agulhas, and I
+was apprehensive that she might get news of me, and blockade me. This
+might detain me several days, or until I could get a dark night--and the
+moon was now near her full--in which to run the blockade. I need not
+remark that the _Vanderbilt_ had greatly the speed of me, and threw twice
+my weight of metal. The wind having partially lulled, we got up steam, and
+at about half-past eleven, we moved out from our anchors. The lull had
+only been temporary, for we had scarcely cleared the little islands that
+give a partial protection to the harbor from these south-east winds, when
+the gale came whistling and howling as before. The wind and sea were both
+nearly ahead, and the _Alabama_ was now put upon her metal, under steam,
+as she had been so often before, under sail. False Bay is an immense sheet
+of water, of a horse-shoe shape, and we had to steam some twenty miles
+before we could weather the Cape of Good Hope, under our lee. We drove her
+against this heavy gale at the rate of five knots per hour.
+
+This struggle of the little ship with the elements was a thing to be
+remembered. The moon, as before remarked, was near her full, shedding a
+flood of light upon the scene. The Bay was whitened with foam, as the
+waters were lashed into fury by the storm. Around the curve of the
+"horse-shoe" arose broken, bald, rocky mountains, on the crests of which
+were piled fleecy, white clouds, blinking in the moonlight, like banks of
+snow. These clouds were perfectly motionless. It appeared as if the
+D----l had spread a great many "table-cloths" around False Bay, that
+night; or, rather, a more appropriate figure would be, that he had
+touched the mountains with the stillness of death, and wreathed them with
+winding-sheets. The scene was wild and weird beyond description. It was a
+picture for the eye of a poet or painter to dwell upon. Nor was the
+imagination less touched, when, from time to time, the revolving light
+upon the grim old Cape--that Cape which had so long divided the Eastern
+from the Western world--threw its full blaze upon the deck of the
+struggling ship. Overhead, the sky was perfectly clear, there being not so
+much as a speck of a cloud to be seen--and this in the midst of a howling
+gale of wind! At three A. M. we cleared the Cape, and keeping the ship off
+a few points, gave her the trysails, with the bonnets off. She bounded
+over the seas like a stag-hound unleashed. I had been up all night, and
+now went below to snatch some brief repose before the toils of another day
+should begin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+THE ALABAMA ON THE INDIAN OCEAN--THE PASSENGERS QUESTIONED, AND CONTRACTED
+WITH--THE AGULHAS CURRENT--THE "BRAVE WEST WINDS"--A THEORY--THE ISLANDS
+OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL--THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN--THE SOUTH-EAST TRADES
+AND THE MONSOONS--THE ALABAMA ARRIVES OFF THE STRAIT OF SUNDA, AND BURNS
+ONE OF THE SHIPS OF THE ENEMY--RUNS IN AND ANCHORS UNDER THE ISLAND OF
+SUMATRA.
+
+
+When Bartelli awakened me, at the usual hour of "seven bells"--half-past
+seven A. M.,--on the morning after the events described in the last
+chapter, the _Alabama_ was well launched upon the Indian Ocean. She had
+run the Cape of Good Hope out of sight, and was still hieing off before
+the gale, though this had moderated considerably as she had run off the
+coast. We were now about to make a long voyage, tedious to the
+unphilosophical mariner, but full of interest to one who has an eye open
+to the wonders and beauties of nature. My first duty, upon going on deck,
+was to put the ship under sail, and let the steam go down; and my second,
+to have an interview with the "passengers," who had come on board,
+overnight. We were now on the high seas, and might, with all due respect
+to Queen Victoria, put them under contract. If the reader recollects
+Falstaff's description of his ragged battalion, he will have a pretty good
+idea of the _personnel_ I had before me. These subjects of the Queen stood
+in all they possessed. None of them had brought any baggage on board with
+them. Ragged blue and red flannel shirts, tarred trousers, and a mixture
+of felt hats and Scotch caps, composed their wardrobe. Their persons had
+passed muster of the surgeon, it is true, but it was plain that it would
+require a deal of washing and scrubbing and wholesome feeding, and a long
+abstinence from "drinks," to render them fit for use. Upon questioning
+them, I found that each had his cock-and-a-bull story to tell, of how he
+was "left" by this ship, or by that, without any fault of his own, and how
+he had been tricked by his landlord. I turned them over to the first
+lieutenant, and paymaster, and they were soon incorporated with the crew.
+I hold that her Majesty owes me some "boot," for the "swap" I made with
+her, on that remarkable moonlight night when I left the Cape. At all
+events, I never heard that she complained of it.
+
+I was grieved to find that our most serious loss among the deserters, was
+our Irish fiddler. This fellow had been remarkably diligent, in his
+vocation, and had fiddled the crew over half the world. It was a pity to
+lose him, now that we were going over the other half. When the evening's
+amusements began, Michael Mahoney's vacant camp-stool cast a gloom over
+the ship. There was no one who could make his violin "talk" like himself,
+and it was a long time before his place was supplied. Poor Michael! we
+felt convinced he had not been untrue to us--it was only a "dhrop" too
+much of the "crayture" he had taken.
+
+For the first few days after leaving the Cape, we ran off due south, it
+being my intention to seek the fortieth parallel of south latitude, and
+run my easting down on that parallel. As icebergs have been known to make
+their appearance near the Cape in the spring of the year, I ordered the
+temperature of the air and water to be taken every hour during the night,
+to aid me in detecting their presence. We did not discover any icebergs,
+but the thermometer helped to reveal to me some of the secrets of the
+deep, in this part of the ocean. Much to my surprise, I found myself in a
+sort of Gulf Stream; the temperature of the water being from three to five
+degrees higher, than that of the air. My celestial observations for fixing
+the position of the ship, informed me at the same time that I was
+experiencing a south-easterly current; the current bending more and more
+toward the east, as I proceeded south, until in the parallel of 40�, it
+ran due east. The rate of this current was from thirty to fifty miles per
+day. This was undoubtedly a branch of the great Agulhas current.
+
+If the reader will inspect a map, he will find that the North Indian Ocean
+is bounded wholly by tropical countries--Hindostan, Beloochistan, and
+Arabia to the Red Sea, and across that sea, by Azan and Zanguebar. The
+waters in this great bight of the ocean are intensely heated by the fervor
+of an Indian and African sun, and flow off in quest of cooler regions
+through the Mozambique Channel. Passing thence over the Agulhas Bank,
+which lies a short distance to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, they
+reach that Cape, as the Agulhas current. Here it divides into two main
+prongs or branches; one prong pursuing a westerly course, and joining in
+with the great equatorial current, which, the reader recollects, we
+encountered off Fernando de Noronha, and the other bending sharply to the
+south-east, and forming the Gulf Stream of the South Indian Ocean, in
+which the _Alabama_ is at present. What it is, that gives this latter
+prong its sudden deflection to the southward is not well understood.
+Probably it is influenced, to some extent, by the southerly current,
+running at the rate of about a knot an hour along the west coast of
+Africa, and debouching at the Cape of Good Hope. Here it strikes the
+Agulhas current at right angles, and hence possibly the deflection of a
+part of that current.
+
+But if there be a current constantly setting from the Cape of Good-Hope to
+the south-east, how is it that the iceberg finds its way to the
+neighborhood of that Cape, from the south polar regions? There is but one
+way to account for it. There must be a counter undercurrent. These bergs,
+setting deep in the water, are forced by this counter-current against the
+surface current. This phenomenon has frequently been witnessed in the
+Arctic seas. Captain Duncan, of the English whaler _Dundee_, in describing
+one of his voyages to Davis' Strait, thus speaks of a similar drift of
+icebergs:--"It was awful to behold the immense icebergs working their way
+to the north-east from us, and not one drop of water to be seen; they were
+working themselves right through the middle of the ice." Here was an
+undercurrent of such force as to carry a mountain of ice, ripping and
+crashing through a field of solid ice. Lieutenant De Haven, who made a
+voyage in search of Sir John Franklin, describes a similar phenomenon as
+follows:--"The iceberg, as before observed, came up very near to the
+stern of our ship; the intermediate space, between the berg and the
+vessel, was filled with heavy masses of ice, which, though they had been
+previously broken by the immense weight of the berg, were again formed
+into a compact body by its pressure. The berg was drifting at the rate of
+about four knots, and by its force on the mass of ice, was pushing the
+ship before it, as it appeared, to inevitable destruction." And again, on
+the next day, he writes:--"The iceberg still in sight, but drifting away
+fast to the north-east." Here was another undercurrent, driving a monster
+iceberg through a field of broken ice at the rate of four knots per hour!
+
+When we had travelled in the _Alabama_ some distance to the eastward, on
+the 39th and 40th parallels, the current made another curve--this time to
+the north-east. If the reader will again refer to a map, he will find that
+the Agulhas current, as it came along through the Mozambique Channel and
+by the Cape of Good Hope, was a south-westerly current. It being now a
+north-easterly current, he observes that it is running back whence it
+came, in an ellipse! We have seen, in a former part of this work, that the
+Gulf Stream of the North Atlantic performs a circuit around the coasts of
+the United States, Newfoundland, the British Islands, the coasts of Spain
+and Portugal, the African coast, and so on, into the equatorial current,
+and thence back again to the Gulf of Mexico. From my observation of
+currents in various parts of the world, my impression is, that the circle
+or ellipse is their normal law. There are, of course, offshoots from one
+circle, or ellipse, to another, and thus a general intermingling of the
+waters of the earth is going on--but the normal rule for the guidance of
+the water, as of the wind, is the curve.
+
+As we approached the 40th parallel of latitude, my attention was again
+forcibly drawn to the phenomena of the winds. The "Brave West Winds"--as
+the sailors call them--those remarkable polar trade-winds, now began to
+prevail with wonderful regularity. On the 30th of September, we observed
+in latitude 39� 12', and longitude 31� 59'. The following is the entry on
+my journal for that day:--"Rough weather, with the wind fresh from the N.
+N. W. with passing rain-squalls. Sea turbulent. Barometer 29.47;
+thermometer, air 55�, water 58; distance run in the last twenty-four
+hours, 221 miles. Weather looking better at noon. The water has resumed
+its usual deep-sea hue. [We had been running over an extensive tract of
+soundings, the water being of that pea-green tint indicating a depth of
+from sixty to seventy-five fathoms.] In high southern latitudes, in the
+Indian Ocean, the storm-fiend seems to hold high carnival all the year
+round. He is constantly racing round the globe, from west to east, howling
+over the waste of waters in his mad career. Like Sisyphus, his labors are
+never ended. He not only does not rest himself, but he allows old Ocean
+none, constantly lashing him into rage. He scatters the icebergs hither
+and thither to the great terror of the mariner, and converts the moisture
+of the clouds into the blinding snow-flake or the pelting hail. As we are
+driven, on dark nights, before these furious winds, we have only to
+imitate the Cape Horn navigator--'tie all fast, and let her rip,' iceberg
+or no iceberg. When a ship is running at a speed of twelve or fourteen
+knots, in such thick weather that the look-out at the cat-head can
+scarcely see his own nose, neither sharp eyes, nor water thermometers are
+of much use."
+
+These winds continued to blow from day to day, hurrying us forward with
+great speed. There being a clear sweep of the sea for several thousand
+miles, unobstructed by continent or island, the waves rose into long,
+sweeping swells, much more huge and majestic than one meets with in any
+other ocean. As our little craft, scudding before a gale, would be
+overtaken by one of these monster billows, she would be caught up by its
+crest, like a cock-boat, and darted half-way down the declivity that lay
+before her, at a speed that would cause the sailor to hold his breath. Any
+swerve to the right, or the left, that would cause the ship to "broach
+to," or come broadside to the wind and sea, would have been fatal. These
+"brave west winds," though thus fraught with danger, are a great boon to
+commerce. The reader has seen how the currents in this part of the ocean
+travel in an ellipse. We have here an ellipse of the winds. The _Alabama_
+is hurrying to the Far East, before a continuous, or almost continuous
+north-west gale. If she were a few hundred miles to the northward of her
+present position, she might be hurrying, though not quite with equal
+speed, before the south-east trades, to the Far West. We have thus two
+parallel winds blowing all the year round in opposite directions, and only
+a few hundred miles apart.
+
+Storms are now admitted by all seamen to be gyratory, as we have seen.
+When I was cruising in the Gulf Stream, I ventured to enlarge this theory,
+as the reader may recollect, and suggested that rotation was the normal
+condition of all extra-tropical winds on the ocean, where there was
+nothing to obstruct them--of the moderate wind, as well as of the gale. I
+had a striking confirmation of this theory in the "brave west winds."
+These winds went regularly around the compass, in uniform periods; the
+periods occupying about three days. We would take them at about N. N. W.,
+and in the course of the "period" they would go entirely around the
+compass, and come back to the same point; there being an interval of calm
+of a few hours. The following diagram will illustrate this rotary motion.
+
+Let Figure 1, on the opposite page, represent a circular wind--the wind
+gyrating in the direction of the arrows, and the circle travelling at the
+same time, along the dotted lines from west to east. If the northern
+segment of this circular wind passes over the ship, the upper dotted line
+from A to A2, will represent her position during its passage. At A,
+where the ship first takes the wind, she will have it from about
+north-west; and at A2, where she is about to lose it, she will have it
+from about south-west. The ship is supposed to remain stationary, whilst
+the circle is passing over her. Now, this is precisely the manner in which
+we found all these winds to haul in the _Alabama_. We would have the wind
+from the north-west to the south-west, hauling gradually from one point to
+the other, and blowing freshly for the greater part of three days. It
+would then become light, and, in the course of a few hours, go round to
+the south, to the south-east, to the east, and then settle in the
+north-west, as before.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Figure 2 represents two of these circular winds--and the reader must
+recollect that there is a constant series of them--one following the other
+so closely as to overlap it. Now, if the reader will cast his eye upon the
+letter C, near the upper dotted line, in the overlapped space, he will
+observe why it is, that there is always a short interval of calm before
+the north-west wind sets in, the second time. The wind within that space
+is blowing, or rather should blow, according to the theory, two opposite
+ways at once--from the N. N. W., and the S. S. E. The consequence is,
+necessarily, a calm. It is thus seen that the theory, that these "brave
+west winds" are a series of circular winds, harmonizes entirely with the
+facts observed by us. The lower dotted line is merely intended to show in
+what direction the wind would haul, if the southern segment, instead of
+the northern, passed over the ship. In that case, the ship would take the
+wind, from about N. N. E., as at B, and lose it at south-east, as at B2.
+In the region of the "brave west winds," it would seem that the northern
+segment always passes over that belt of the ocean. The received theory of
+these south polar-winds, is not such as I have assumed. Former writers
+have not supposed them to be circular winds at all. They suppose them to
+pass over the south-east trade-winds, as an upper current, and when they
+have reached the proper parallel, to descend, become surface-winds, and
+blow home, as straight winds, to the pole. But I found a difficulty in
+reconciling this theory with the periodical veering of the wind entirely
+around the compass, as above described. If these were straight winds,
+blowing contrary to the trades, why should they not blow steadily like the
+trades? But if we drop the straight-wind theory, and take up the circular
+hypothesis, all the phenomena observed by us will be in conformity with
+the latter. The periodical hauling of the wind will be accounted for, and
+if we suppose that the northern half of the circle invariably passes over
+the ship, in the passage-parallels, we shall see how it is that the wind
+is blowing nearly all the time from the westward. To account for the fact
+that the northern half of the circle invariably passes over these
+parallels, we have only to suppose the circle to be of sufficient diameter
+to extend to, or near the pole.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Here is the figure. It extends from the parallel of 40�, to the pole; it
+is therefore fifty degrees, or three thousand miles, in diameter. Half-way
+from its northern to its southern edge, would be the 65th parallel. Along
+this parallel, represented by the dotted line, which passes through the
+centre of the circle, the vortex, V, or calm spot, would travel. There
+should be calms, therefore, about the 65th parallel. In the southern half
+of the circle, or that portion of it between the vortex and the pole,
+easterly winds should prevail. Navigators between the parallels of 65� and
+75�, speak of calms as the normal meteorological condition. All nature
+seems frozen to death, the winds included. Unfortunately, we have no
+reliable data for the parallels beyond, and do not know, therefore,
+whether easterly winds are the prevalent winds or not. It is probable, as
+we approached the pole, that we should find another calm. The winds, [see
+the arrows,] as they come hurrying along the circle, from its northern
+segment, bring with them an impetus _toward_ the east, derived from the
+diurnal motion of the earth, on its axis. As these winds approach the
+pole, this velocity increases, in consequence of the diminishing diameter
+of the parallels. To illustrate. If a particle of air on the equator,
+having a velocity eastward of fifteen miles per minute--and this is the
+rate of the revolution of the earth on its axis--should be suddenly
+transported to a point, distant five miles from the pole, it would have
+sufficient velocity to carry it entirely around the pole in one minute.
+Here we have two forces acting in opposition to each other--the impetus of
+the wind _toward_ the east, given to it by the diurnal motion of the
+earth, and an impetus _from_ the east, given to it by whatever causes are
+hurrying it around the circle. These two forces necessarily neutralize
+each other, and a calm is the consequence. It is in this calm region near
+the poles, that the winds probably ascend, to take their flight back to
+the equator, in obedience to that beautiful arrangement for watering the
+earth, which I described some pages back.
+
+There remains but one other fact to be reconciled with our theory. It has
+been seen that consecutive circles of wind passed over the _Alabama_, in
+periods of three days each. Did this time correspond with the known rate
+of travel of the circles? Almost precisely. Referring again to the last
+diagram, it will be remembered that the _Alabama_ was near the northern
+edge of the circle. Let A A represent her position at the beginning and
+end of each wind. The chord of the segment, represented by the dotted
+line, is about 1500 miles in length. The circles travel at the rate of
+about 20 miles per hour. Multiply the number of hours--72--in three days,
+by 20, and we shall have 1440 miles. It is not pretended, of course, that
+these figures are strictly accurate, but they are sufficiently so to show,
+at least, that there is no discordance between the fact and the theory.
+
+Soon after leaving the Cape of Good Hope, the storm-birds began to gather
+around us in considerable numbers--the Cape pigeon, the albatross, and
+occasionally the tiny petrel, so abundant in the North Atlantic. These
+birds seemed to be quite companionable, falling in company with the ship,
+and travelling with her for miles at a time. On the occasion of one of the
+short calms described, we caught an albatross, with hook and line, which
+measured ten feet across the wings. The monster bird was very fat, and it
+was quite a lift to get it inboard. Though very active on the wing, and
+rising with great facility from the water, in which it sometimes alights,
+it lay quite helpless when placed upon the deck. It did not seem to be
+much alarmed at the strangeness of its position, but looked at us with the
+quiet dignity and wisdom of an owl, as though it would interrogate us as
+to what we were doing in its dominions. These birds live in the midst of
+the great Indian Ocean, thousands of miles away from any land--only making
+periodical visits to some of the desert islands; or, it may be, to the
+Antarctic Continent, to incubate and rear their young.
+
+I have described at some length the nature of the great circles of wind
+which form the normal meteorological condition of the region of ocean
+through which we were passing. This normal condition was sometimes
+interfered with by the passage of cyclones of smaller diameter--a circle
+within a circle; both circles, however, obeying the same laws. We took one
+of these cyclones on the 5th of October. I do not design to repeat, here,
+the description of a cyclone, and only refer to that which we now
+encountered, for the purpose of showing that the _Alabama ran a race with
+it, and was not very badly beaten_. This race is thus described in my
+journal: "Morning dull, cloudy, and cool. The wind hauled, last night, to
+north, and is blowing a fresh breeze at noon. Barometer, 30.14.
+Thermometer, air 54�, water 60�. Current during the last twenty-four
+hours, thirty miles east. The weather continued to thicken in the
+afternoon, and the wind to increase, with a falling barometer, indicating
+the approach of a gale. At nine P. M., the squalls becoming heavy, we
+furled the top-gallant sails and foresail, close-reefed the topsails, and
+took the bonnets off the trysails. Under this reduced sail we continued to
+scud the ship all night--the barometer still falling, the wind increasing,
+and a heavy sea getting up. We had entered the north-eastern edge of a
+cyclone. The next morning the wind was still north by west, having hauled
+only a single point in twelve hours; showing that we had been running,
+neck and neck, with the gale.
+
+If the reader will recollect that, in these circular gales, the change of
+the wind is due to the passage of the circle over the ship, he will have
+no difficulty in conceiving that, if the ship travels as fast as the
+circle, and in the same direction, the wind will not change at all. Now,
+as the wind had changed but a single point in twelve hours, it is evident
+that the _Alabama_ had been travelling nearly as fast as the circular
+gale. The race continued all the next day--the wind not varying half a
+point, and the barometer settling by scarcely perceptible degrees. Toward
+night, however, the barometer began to settle quite rapidly, and the wind
+increased, and began to haul to the westward. The gale had acquired
+accelerated speed, and was now evidently passing ahead of us quite
+rapidly; for by half-past four A. M. the wind was at west, having hauled
+nearly a quadrant in twelve hours. At this point we had the lowest
+barometer, 29.65. The centre of the storm was then just abreast of us,
+bearing about south, and distant perhaps a hundred miles. At five A. M.,
+or in half an hour afterward, the wind shifted suddenly from W. to W. S.
+W., showing that the vortex had passed us, and that the _Alabama_ was at
+last beaten! The wind being still somewhat fresher than I desired, I hove
+the ship to, on the port tack, to allow the gale to draw farther ahead of
+me. After lying to three hours, the barometer continuing to rise, and the
+wind to moderate, we filled away, and shaking out some of the reefs,
+continued on our course.
+
+On the 12th of October, we passed the remarkable islets of St. Peter and
+St. Paul, a sort of half-way mile-posts between the Cape of Good Hope and
+the Strait of Sunda. These islets are the tops of rocky mountains,
+shooting up from great depths in the sea. They are in the midst of a
+dreary waste of waters, having no other land within a thousand miles and
+more, of them. They are composed of solid granite, without vegetation, and
+inhabited only by the wild birds of the ocean. I cannot imagine a more
+fitting station for a meteorologist. He would be in the midst of constant
+tempests, and might study the laws of his science, without interruption
+from neighboring isle or continent. There being an indifferent anchorage
+under the lee of St. Paul, we scanned the island narrowly with our
+glasses, as we passed, not knowing but we might find some adventurous
+Yankee whaler, or seal-catcher, trying out blubber, or knocking a seal on
+the head. These islands are frequently sighted by India-bound ships, and
+it was my intention to cruise a few days in their vicinity, but the bad
+weather hurried me on.
+
+We took another gale, on the night after leaving them, and had some damage
+done to our head-rail and one of our quarter-boats. The scene was a
+sublime one to look upon. The seas--those long swells before
+described--were literally running mountains high, the wind was howling
+with more than usual fury, and a dense snow-storm was pelting us from the
+blackest and most angry-looking of clouds. I was now in longitude 83� E.,
+and bore away more to the northward. Although the thermometer had not
+settled below 50�, we felt the cold quite piercingly--our clothing being
+constantly saturated with moisture. On the 14th of October, we had the
+first tolerably fine day we had experienced for the last two weeks, and we
+availed ourselves of it, to uncover the hatches and ventilate the ship,
+getting up from below, and airing the damp bedding and mildewed clothing.
+The constant straining of the ship, in the numerous gales she had
+encountered, had opened the seams in her bends, and all our state-rooms
+were leaking more or less, keeping our beds and clothing damp. On the next
+day, another gale overtook us, in which we lay to ten hours, to permit it,
+as we had done the gale we ran the race with, to pass ahead of us.
+
+And thus it was, that we ran down our easting, in the region of the "brave
+west winds," with every variety of bad weather, of the description of
+which, the reader must, by this time, be pretty well tired. On the 17th of
+October, I was nearly _antipodal_ with my home in Alabama. By the way, has
+the reader ever remarked that land is scarcely ever antipodal with land?
+Let him take a globe, and he will be struck with the fact, that land and
+water have been almost invariably arranged opposite to each other. May not
+this arrangement have something to do with the currents, and the
+water-carriers, the winds?
+
+On the morning of the 21st of October, at about five o'clock, we crossed
+the tropic of Capricorn, on the 100th meridian of east longitude. We still
+held on to our west winds, though they had now become light. We took the
+trade-wind from about S. S. E. almost immediately after crossing the
+tropic. We thus had the good fortune, a second time, to cross the tropic
+without finding a calm-belt; the two counter-winds blowing almost side by
+side with each other. We had been twenty-four days and three quarters from
+the Cape of Good Hope, and in that time had run, under sail
+alone--occasionally lying to, in bad weather--4410 miles; the average run,
+per day, being 178 miles. We had brought the easterly current with us,
+too, all the way. It had set us twenty miles to the north-east, on the
+day we reached the tropic. In all this lengthened run, we had sighted only
+two or three sails. One of these was a steamer, which we overhauled, and
+boarded, but which proved to be English. For nineteen days we did not see
+a sail; and still we were on the great highway to India. There must have
+been numerous travellers on this highway, before and behind us, but each
+was bowling along at a rapid, and nearly equal pace, before the "brave
+west winds," enveloped in his own circle, and shut out from the view of
+his neighbor by the mantle of black rain-clouds in which he was wrapped.
+Our mysterious friends, the Cape-pigeons, disappeared, as we approached
+the tropics.
+
+We now ran rapidly through the south-east trades, with fine weather, until
+we reached the 12th parallel of south latitude, when we passed suddenly
+into the monsoon region. The monsoons were undergoing a change. The east
+monsoon was dying out, and the west monsoon was about to take its place.
+The struggle between the outgoing, and the incoming wind would occupy
+several weeks, and during all this time I might expect sudden shifts and
+squalls of wind and rain, with densely overcast skies, and much thunder
+and lightning. My intention was to make for the Strait of Sunda, that
+well-known passage into, and out of the China seas, between the islands of
+Java and Sumatra, cruise off it some days, and then run into the China
+seas. On the evening of the 26th we spoke an English bark, just out of the
+Strait, which informed us that the United States steamer _Wyoming_ was
+cruising in the Strait, in company with a three-masted schooner, which she
+had fitted up as a tender, and that she anchored nearly every evening
+under the island of Krakatoa. Two days afterward, we boarded a Dutch ship,
+from Batavia to Amsterdam, which informed us, that a boat from the
+_Wyoming_ had boarded her, off the town of Anger in the Strait. There
+seemed, therefore, to be little doubt, that if we attempted the Strait, we
+should find an enemy barring our passage.
+
+As we drew near the Strait, we began to fall in with ships in considerable
+numbers. On the 31st of October, no less than six were cried from aloft,
+at the same time, all standing to the south-west, showing that they were
+just out of the famous passage. The wind being light and baffling, we got
+up steam, and chased and boarded four of them--three English, and one
+Dutch. By this time, the others were out of sight--reported, by those we
+had overhauled, to be neutral--and the night was setting in dark and
+rainy. The Dutch ship, like the last one we had boarded, was from Batavia,
+and corroborated the report of the presence of the _Wyoming_ in these
+waters. She had left her at Batavia, which is a short distance only from
+the Strait of Sunda. The weather had now become exceedingly oppressive.
+Notwithstanding the almost constant rains, the heat was intense. On the
+morning of the 6th of November, we boarded an English ship, from Foo Chow
+for London, which informed us, that an American ship, called the _Winged
+Racer_, had come out of the Strait, in company with her. In the afternoon,
+two ships having been cried from aloft, we got up steam, and chased,
+hoping that one of them might prove to be the American ship reported. They
+were both English; but whilst we were chasing these two English ships, a
+third ship hove in sight, farther to windward, to which we gave chase in
+turn.
+
+This last ship was to be our first prize in East-Indian waters. A gun
+brought the welcome stars and stripes to her peak, and upon being boarded,
+she proved to be the bark _Amanda_, of Boston, from Manilla bound to
+Queenstown for orders. The _Amanda_ was a fine, rakish-looking ship, and
+had a cargo of hemp, and sugar. She was under charter-party to proceed
+first to Queenstown, and thence to the United States, for a market, if it
+should be deemed advisable. On the face of each of the three bills of
+lading found among her papers, was the following certificate from the
+British Consul at Manilla:--"I hereby certify that Messrs. Ker & Co., the
+shippers of the merchandise specified in this bill of lading, are British
+subjects established in Manilla, and that according to invoices produced,
+the said merchandise is shipped by order, and for account of Messrs.
+Holliday, Fox & Co., British subjects, of London, in Great Britain." As
+nobody swore to anything, before the Consul, his certificate was valueless
+to protect the property, and the ship and cargo were both condemned. The
+night set in very dark and squally, whilst we were yet alongside of this
+ship. We got on board from her some articles of provisions, and some sails
+and cordage to replace the wear and tear of the late gales we had passed
+through, and made a brilliant bonfire of her at about ten P. M. The
+conflagration lighted up the sea for many miles around, and threw its grim
+and ominous glare to the very mouth of the Strait.
+
+The next day we ran in and anchored under Flat Point, on the north side of
+the Strait, in seventeen fathoms water, about a mile from the coast of
+Sumatra. My object was to procure some fruits and vegetables for my crew,
+who had been now a long time on salt diet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+THE ALABAMA PASSES THROUGH THE STRAIT OF SUNDA, SEEING NOTHING OF THE
+WYOMING--BURNS THE WINGED RACER JUST INSIDE THE STRAIT--THE MALAY BOATMEN
+AND THEIR ALARM--ALABAMA MAKES FOR THE GASPAR STRAIT, AND BURNS THE
+CONTEST, AFTER AN EXCITING CHASE--PASSES THROUGH THE CARIMATA
+PASSAGE--DISCHARGES HER PRISONERS INTO AN ENGLISH SHIP--MINIATURE
+SEA-SERPENTS--THE CURRENTS--PULO CONDORE--ARRIVAL AT SINGAPORE.
+
+
+Soon after anchoring as described in the last chapter, we had a false
+alarm. It was reported that a bark some distance off had suddenly taken in
+all sail, and turned her head in our direction, as though she were a
+steamer coming in chase. Orders were given to get up steam, to be ready
+for any emergency, but countermanded in a few minutes, when upon a partial
+lifting of the rain-clouds, it was ascertained that the strange sail was a
+merchant-ship and had only taken in her top-gallant sails to a squall, and
+clewed down her topsails, to reef. She was indeed coming in our direction,
+but it was only to take shelter for the night. She was a Dutch bark from
+Batavia, for the west coast of Sumatra.
+
+The next morning, we got under way, at an early hour, to pass through the
+Strait of Sunda into the China Sea. We hove up our anchor in the midst of
+a heavy rain-squall, but the weather cleared as the day advanced, and a
+fresh and favorable wind soon sprang up. We ran along by Keyser Island,
+and at half-past ten lowered the propeller and put the ship under steam.
+Under both steam and sail we made rapid headway. We passed between the
+high and picturesque islands of Beezee and Soubooko, the channel being
+only about a mile in width. Groves of cocoanut-trees grew near the beach
+on the former island, among which were some straw-thatched huts. From
+these huts, the natives, entirely naked, except a breech-cloth around the
+loins, flocked out in great numbers to see the ship pass. Ships do not
+often take this narrow channel, and the spectacle was, no doubt, novel to
+them. They made no demonstration, but gazed at us in silence as we flew
+rapidly past them. We ran through the Strait proper of Sunda, between one
+and two o'clock in the afternoon, passing to the westward of the island
+called Thwart-the-Way, and close to the Stroom Rock, lying with its
+blackened and jagged surface but a few feet above the water. This course
+carried us in full view of the little town and garrison of Anjer, but we
+saw nothing of the _Wyoming_. We found the Strait of Sunda as unguarded by
+the enemy, as we had found the other highways of commerce along which we
+had passed.
+
+Just where the Strait debouches into the China Sea, we descried, in the
+midst of a rain-squall, to which we were both obliged to clew up our
+top-gallant sails, a tall clipper ship, evidently American. She loomed up
+through the passing shower like a frigate. We at once gave chase, and in a
+very few minutes hove the stranger to with a gun. It was the _Winged
+Racer_, which our English friend told us had passed out of the Strait some
+days before in his company. She had lingered behind for some reason, and
+as a consequence had fallen into the power of her enemy, with no friendly
+gun from the _Wyoming_ to protect her. The _Winged Racer_ was a perfect
+beauty--one of those New York ships of superb model, with taunt, graceful
+masts, and square yards, known as "clippers." She was from Manilla, bound
+for New York, with a cargo consisting chiefly of sugar, hides, and jute.
+There was no claim of neutral property, and condemnation followed the
+capture as a matter of course. We anchored her near North Island, and came
+to, ourselves, for the convenience of "robbing" her. She had sundry
+provisions on board--particularly sugar and coffee--of which we stood in
+need. She had, besides, a large supply of Manilla tobacco, and my sailors'
+pipes were beginning to want replenishing. It took us a greater part of
+the night--for night had set in by the time the two ships were well
+anchored--to transport to the _Alabama_ such things as were needed. In the
+meantime, the master of the captured ship, who had his family on board,
+requested me to permit him and his crew to depart in his own boats. The
+portion of the Javan sea in which we were anchored was a mere lake, the
+waters being shallow, and studded every few miles with islands. He
+proposed to make his way to Batavia, and report to his Consul for further
+assistance. I granted his request, made him a present of all his boats,
+and told him to pack into them as much plunder as he chose. About one
+o'clock he was ready, and his little fleet of boats departed. The
+prisoners from the _Amanda_ took passage with him.
+
+Whilst these things were going on, a number of Malay bum-boatmen had
+collected around us, with their stores of fruits, and vegetables, and live
+stock. These boatmen, like the Chinese, live on the water, and make a
+business of supplying ships that pass through the Strait. The stewards of
+the different messes had all been busy trading with them, and there was a
+great squalling of chickens, and squealing of pigs going on. An amusing
+scene was now to occur. The boatmen had no suspicion that the _Alabama_
+had captured the _Winged Racer_, and was about to destroy her. They were
+lying on their oars, or holding on to lines from the two ships, with the
+most perfect _insouciance_. Presently a flame leaped up on board the
+_Winged Racer_, and in a few minutes enveloped her. Terror at once took
+possession of the Malay boatmen, and such a cutting of lines, and
+shouting, and vigorous pulling were perhaps never before witnessed in the
+Strait of Sunda. These boats had informed us that the _Wyoming_ was at
+Anger only two days before, when they left.
+
+It was now about two o'clock A. M., and the _Alabama_ getting up her
+anchor, steamed out into the China Sea, by the light of the burning ship.
+We had thus lighted a bonfire at either end of the renowned old Strait of
+Sunda. After having thus advertised our presence in this passage, it was
+useless to remain in it longer. Ships approaching it would take the alarm,
+and seek some other outlet into the Indian Ocean. Most of the ships coming
+down the China Sea, with a view of passing out at the Strait of Sunda,
+come through the Gaspar Strait. I resolved now to steam in the direction
+of this latter strait, and forestall such as might happen to be on their
+way. By daylight we had steamed the coast of Sumatra and Java out of
+sight, and soon afterward we made the little island called the North
+Watcher, looking, indeed, as its name implied, like a lone sentinel posted
+on the wayside. We had lost the beautiful blue waters of the Indian Ocean,
+with its almost unfathomable depths, and entered upon a sea whose waters
+were of a whitish green, with an average depth of no more than about
+twenty fathoms. Finding that I should be up with Gaspar Strait, sometime
+during the night, if I continued under steam, and preferring to delay my
+arrival until daylight the next morning, I let my steam go down, and put
+my ship under sail, to take it more leisurely.
+
+We were about to lift the propeller out of the water, when the cry of
+"sail ho!" came from the vigilant look-out at the mast-head. We at once
+discontinued the operation, not knowing but we might have occasion to use
+steam. As the stranger was standing in our direction, we soon raised her
+from the deck, and as my glass developed, first one, and then another of
+her features, it was evident that here was another clipper-ship at hand.
+She had the well-known tall, raking masts, square yards, and white canvas.
+She was on a wind, with everything set, from courses to skysails, and was
+ploughing her way through the gently ruffled sea, with the rapidity, and
+at the same time, the grace of the swan. We made her a point or two on our
+lee bow, and not to excite her suspicion we kept away for her, so
+gradually, that she could scarcely perceive the alteration in our course.
+We hoisted at the same time the United States colors. When we were within
+about four miles of the chase, she responded by showing us the same
+colors. Feeling now quite sure of her, we fired a gun, hauled down the
+enemy's flag, and threw our own to the breeze. (We were now wearing that
+splendid white flag, with its cross and stars, which was so great an
+improvement upon the old one.) So far from obeying the command of our gun,
+the gallant ship kept off a point or two--probably her best point of
+sailing--gave herself top-gallant and topmast studding-sails, and away she
+went!
+
+I had been a little premature in my eagerness to clutch so beautiful a
+prize. She was not as yet under my guns, and it was soon evident that she
+would give me trouble before I could overhaul her. The breeze was
+tolerably fresh, but not stiff. We made sail at once in chase. Our steam
+had been permitted to go down, as the reader has seen; and as yet we had
+not much more than enough to turn over the propeller. The chase was
+evidently gaining on us. It was some fifteen or twenty minutes before the
+engineer had a head of steam on. We now gave the ship all steam, and
+trimmed the sails to the best possible advantage. Still the fugitive ship
+retained her distance from us, if she did not increase it. It was the
+first time the _Alabama_ had appeared dull. She was under both sail and
+steam, and yet here was a ship threatening to run away from her. She must
+surely be out of trim. I tried, therefore, the effect of getting my crew
+aft on the quarter-deck, and shifting aft some of the forward guns. This
+helped us visibly, and the ship sprang forward with increased speed. We
+were now at least holding our own, but it was impossible to say, as yet,
+whether we were gaining an inch. If the breeze had freshened, the chase
+would have run away from us beyond all question. I watched the signs of
+the weather anxiously. It was between nine and ten o'clock A. M.
+Fortunately, as the sun gained power, and drove away the mists of the
+morning, the breeze began to decline! Now came the triumph of steam. When
+we had come within long range, I threw the spray over the quarter-deck of
+the chase, with a rifle-shot from my bow-chaser. Still she kept on, and it
+was not until all hope was evidently lost, that the proud clipper-ship,
+which had been beaten rather by the failure of the wind, than the speed of
+the _Alabama_, shortened sail and hove to.
+
+When the captain was brought on board, I congratulated him on the skilful
+handling of his ship, and expressed my admiration of her fine qualities.
+He told me that she was one of the most famous clipper-ships out of New
+York. She was the _Contest_, from Yokohama, in Japan, bound to New York.
+She was light, and in fine sailing trim, having only a partial cargo on
+board. There being no attempt to cover the cargo, consisting mostly of
+light Japanese goods, lacker-ware, and curiosities, I condemned both ship
+and cargo. I was sorry to be obliged to burn this beautiful ship, and
+regretted much that I had not an armament for her, that I might commission
+her as a cruiser. Both ships now anchored in the open sea, with no land
+visible, in fourteen fathoms of water, whilst the crew was being removed
+from the prize, and the necessary preparations made for burning her. It
+was after nightfall before these were all completed, and the torch
+applied. We hove up our anchor, and made sail by the light of the burning
+ship. Having now burned a ship off Gaspar Strait, I turned my ship's head
+to the eastward, with the intention of taking the Carimata Strait.
+
+My coal was running so short, by this time, that I was obliged to dispense
+with the use of steam, except on emergencies, and work my way from point
+to point wholly under sail. Fortune favored me however, for I passed
+through the Carimata Strait in the short space of five days against the
+north-west monsoon, which was a head-wind. Ships have been known to be
+thirty days making this passage. I generally anchored at night, on account
+of the currents, and the exceeding difficulty of the navigation--shoals
+besetting the navigator on every hand in this shallow sea. We began now to
+fall in with some of the curiosities of the China Sea. Salt-water serpents
+made their appearance, playing around the ship, and cutting up their
+antics. These snakes are from three to five feet long, and when ships
+anchor at night, have been known to crawl up the cables, and make their
+way on deck through the hawse-holes, greatly to the annoyance of the
+sailors who chance to be sleeping on deck. They are not known to be
+poisonous. Never having been in the China seas before, I was quite amused
+at the gambols of these miniature sea-serpents. Seeing an old sailor
+stopping up the hawse-holes, with swabs, one evening after we had
+anchored, I asked him what he was about. "I'm stopping out the snakes, y'r
+honor," he replied. "What," said I, "do they come on deck?" "Oh! yes, y'r
+honor; when I was in the ship _Flying Cloud_, we killed forty of them on
+deck in one morning watch."
+
+Naked Malays frequently paddled off to us, when we anchored near their
+villages, with fowls, and eggs, and fruits, and vegetables, which they
+desired to exchange for rice and ship-bread. In frail piraguas, these
+amphibious bipeds will make long voyages from island to island. They seem
+to be a sort of wandering Arabs of the sea, and, as a rule, are a great
+set of villains, not hesitating to take a hand at piracy when opportunity
+offers. So intricate are some of the archipelagos which they inhabit, that
+it is next to impossible to track them to their hiding-places. These
+nomads, upon whom no civilization seems to make any impression, will
+probably long remain the pests of the China seas, in spite of the
+steamship.
+
+Emerging from the Carimata passage, we stood over to the west end of the
+island of Souriton, where we anchored at four P. M., on the 18th of
+November. Here we lay several days, and for the convenience of overhauling
+passing ships, without the necessity of getting under way, we hoisted out,
+and rigged our launch, a fine cutter-built boat, and provisioning and
+watering her for a couple of days at a time, sent her out cruising;
+directing her, however, to keep herself within sight of the ship. A number
+of sails were overhauled, but they all proved to be neutral--mostly
+English and Dutch. I was much struck with the progress the Dutch were
+making in these seas. Holland, having sunk to a fourth or fifth rate power
+in Europe, is building up quite an empire in the East. The island of Java
+is a little kingdom in itself, and the boers, with the aid of the natives,
+whom they seem to govern with great success are fast bringing its fertile
+lands into cultivation. Batavia, Sourabia, and other towns are rising
+rapidly into importance. The Dutch are overrunning the fine island of
+Sumatra, too. They have established military stations over the greater
+part of it, and are gradually bringing the native chiefs under subjection.
+They occupy the spice islands, and are extending their dominion thence to
+the northward. In short, Great Britain must look to her laurels in the
+China seas, if she would not divide them with Holland.
+
+In the meantime, the inquiry naturally presents itself, Where is the
+Yankee? that he is permitting all this rich harvest of colonization and
+trade in the East to pass away from him. It was at one time thought that
+he would contest the palm of enterprise with England herself, but this
+dream has long since been dispelled. Even before the war, his trade began
+to dwindle. During the war it went down to zero, and since the war it has
+not revived. Is he too busy with his internal dissensions and politics? Is
+the miserable faction which has ruled the country for the last seven years
+determined to destroy all its prosperity, foreign as well as domestic?
+
+While lying at Souriton, we boarded the British ship _Avalanche_, two days
+from Singapore, with newspapers from America just forty days old! Here was
+a proof of the British enterprise of which we have just been speaking. The
+Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and a part of
+the China Sea, are traversed by British steam and sail, and the _Alabama_
+shakes out the folds of a newspaper from the land of her enemy, at an
+out-of-the-way island in the China Sea, just forty days old! The
+_Avalanche_ kindly consenting, we sent by her our prisoners to Batavia. We
+now got under way, and stood over to the west coast of Borneo, where we
+cruised for a few days, working our way gradually to the northward; it
+being my intention as soon as I should take the north-east monsoon, which
+prevails at this season in the China Sea, to the northward of the equator,
+to stretch over to the coast of Cochin China, and hold myself for a short
+time in the track of the ships coming down from Canton and Shanghai. I was
+greatly tempted as I passed Sarawak, in the island of Borneo, to run in
+and visit my friend Rajah Brooke, whose career in the East has been so
+remarkable a one. Cruising in these seas, years ago, when he was a young
+man, in his own yacht, a jaunty little armed schooner of about 200 tons,
+he happened in at Sarawak. The natives, taking a fancy to him and his tiny
+man-of-war, insisted upon electing him their Rajah, or Governor. He
+assented, got a foothold in the island, grew in favor, increased his
+dominions, and was, at the period of our visit to the coast, one of the
+most powerful Rajahs in Borneo. Since my return from the China seas, the
+Rajah has died, full of years and full of honors, bequeathing his
+government to a blood relation. It would be difficult for even a Yankee to
+beat that!
+
+Upon reaching this coast, we struck a remarkable northerly current. It ran
+at the rate of two knots per hour, its general set being about north-east.
+The weather falling calm, we were several days within its influence. When
+it had drifted us as far to the northward as I desired to go, I was
+obliged to let go a kedge in fifty fathoms water to prevent further drift.
+The current now swept by us at so rapid a rate, that we were compelled to
+lash two deep sea leads together, each weighing forty-five pounds, to keep
+our drift-lead on the bottom. Here was another of those elliptical
+currents spoken of a few pages back. If the reader will look at a map of
+the China Sea, he will observe that the north-east monsoon, as it comes
+sweeping down that sea, in the winter months, blows parallel with the
+coasts of China and Cochin China. This wind drives a current before it to
+the south-west. This current, as it strikes the peninsula of Malacca, is
+deflected to the eastward toward the coast of Sumatra. Impinging upon this
+coast, it is again deflected and driven off in the direction of the island
+of Borneo. This island in turn gives it a northern direction, and the
+consequence is, that the south-westerly current which came sweeping down
+the western side of the China Sea, is now going up on the eastern side of
+the same sea, as a north-easterly current. We lay five days at our kedge,
+during a calm that lasted all that time. The monsoons were changing; the
+west monsoon was setting in in the East Indian archipelago, and the
+north-eastern monsoon in the China Sea. Hence the calms, and rains, and
+sudden gusts of wind, now from one quarter, and now from another, which we
+had experienced. At the end of these five days of calm, we took the
+north-east monsoon, from about N. N. E., and, getting up our kedge, we
+made our way over to the coast of Cochin China, in accordance with the
+intention already expressed.
+
+There is no navigation, perhaps, in the world, so trying to the vigilance
+and nerves of the mariner as that of the China seas. It is a coral sea,
+and filled with dangers in almost every direction, especially in its
+eastern portion, from the Philippine Islands down to the Strait of Sunda.
+The industrious little stone-mason, which we have before so often referred
+to, has laid the foundation of a new empire, at the bottom of the China
+Sea, and is fast making his way to the surface. He has already dotted the
+sea with ten thousand islands, in its eastern portion, and is silently and
+mysteriously piling up his tiny blocks of stone, one upon another, in the
+central and western portions. He is working very irregularly, having large
+gangs of hands employed here, and very few there, and is running up his
+structures in very fantastic shapes, some in solid blocks, with even
+surfaces, some as pyramids, and some as cones. The tops of the pyramids
+and cones are sometimes as sharp as needles, and pierce a ship's bottom as
+readily as a needle would a lady's finger. It is impossible to survey such
+a sea with accuracy. A surveying vessel might drop a lead on almost every
+square foot of bottom, and yet miss some of these mere needle-points. A
+ship, with the best of modern charts, may be threading this labyrinth, as
+she thinks, quite securely, and suddenly find herself impaled upon one of
+these dangers.
+
+To add to the perplexity of the navigator, days sometimes elapse,
+especially when the monsoons are changing, during which it is impossible
+to get an observation for fixing the position of his ship; and during
+these days of incessant darkness, and drenching rains, he is hurried about
+by currents, he knows not whither. And then, perhaps, the typhoon comes
+along--that terrible cyclone of the China seas--at the very moment, it may
+be, when he is, by reason of the causes mentioned, uncertain of his
+position, and compels him to scud his ship at hazard, among shoals and
+breakers! I lost many nights of rest when in these seas, and felt much
+relieved when the time came for me to turn my back upon them. The wind
+freshened as we drew out from the coast of Borneo, and by the time we had
+reached the track of the westward-bound ships, we found the monsoon
+blowing a whole topsail-breeze. We struck, at the same time, the
+south-westerly current described, and what with the wind and the current,
+we found it as much as we could do to hold our own, and prevent ourselves
+from being drifted to leeward. It soon became apparent that it would be
+useless to attempt operations here, unless assisted by steam. Every chase
+would probably carry us miles to leeward, whence it would be impossible,
+under sail alone, to regain our position. Still, we held ourselves a day
+or two in the track, in accordance with my previous determination,
+overhauling several ships, none of which, however, proved to be enemy.
+
+At the end of this short cruise, we made sail for the island of Condore,
+or, as it is called on the charts of the China Sea, Pulo Condore, the word
+"pulo" being the Chinese term for island. My intention was to run into
+this small island, which has a snug harbor, sheltered from the monsoon, do
+some necessary repairs with my own mechanics, refit and repaint, and then
+run down to Singapore, and fill up with coal. My future course would be
+guided by contingencies. We made Pulo Condore early in the afternoon of
+the second of December, and passing to the northward of the "White Rock,"
+bore up, and ran along the western side of the island until nightfall,
+when we anchored under the lee of a small, rocky island, near the mouth of
+the harbor. The scenery was bold, picturesque, and impressive. All was
+novelty; the shallow sea, the whistling monsoon, and the little islands
+rising so abruptly from the sea, that a goat could scarcely clamber up
+their sides. The richest vegetation covered these islands from the
+sea-level to their summits. Occasionally a break or gap in the
+mountain--for Pulo Condore rises to the height of a mountain--disclosed
+charming ravines, opening out into luxuriant plains, where were grazing
+the wild cattle of the country--the bison, or small-humped buffalo of the
+East.
+
+At daylight the next morning, upon looking into the harbor with our
+glasses, we were surprised to see a small vessel at anchor, wearing the
+French flag; and pretty soon afterward we were boarded by a French boat;
+Pulo Condore--lying off the coast of Cochin China--having recently become
+a French colony. The island had been taken possession of by France two
+years before. The vessel was a ship of war, keeping watch and ward over
+the lonely waters. This was a surprise. I had expected to find the island
+in the hands of the Malay nomads who infest these seas, and to have
+converted it into Confederate territory, as I had done Angra Peque�a, on
+the west coast of Africa--at least during my stay. And so when I had
+invited the French officer, who was himself the commander of the little
+craft, into my cabin, I remarked to him, "You have spoiled a pet project
+of mine." "How so?" said he. I then explained to him how, in imitation of
+my friend Brooke, I had intended to play Rajah for a few weeks, in Pulo
+Condore. He laughed heartily, and said, "_Ser� tout le m�me chose,
+Monsieur. Vous portez plus de cannons que moi, et vous serez Rajah,
+pendant votre s�jour_." I did carry a few more guns than my French friend,
+for his little man-of-war was only a craft of the country, of less than a
+hundred tons burden, armed with one small carronade. His crew consisted of
+about twenty men.
+
+I found him as good as his word, with reference to my playing Rajah, for
+he did not so much as mention to me, once, any rule limiting the stay of
+belligerents in French waters. We now got under way, and stood in to the
+anchorage, the French officer kindly consenting to show me the way in;
+though there was but little need, as the harbor was quite free from
+obstructions, except such as were plainly visible. The water in this cosy
+little harbor was as smooth as a mill-pond, notwithstanding occasional
+gusts of the monsoon swept down the mountain sides. There were mountains
+on two sides of us, both to the north and south. The harbor was, in fact,
+formed by two mountainous islands, both passing under the name of Condore;
+there being only a boat-passage separating them on the east.
+
+This was our first real resting-place, since leaving the Cape of Good
+Hope, and both officers and men enjoyed the relaxation. The island was
+full of game, the bay full of fish, and the bathing very fine. We felt
+quite secure, too, against the approach of an enemy. The only enemy's
+steamer in these seas was the _Wyoming_, for which we regarded ourselves
+as quite a match. We had, besides, taken the precaution, upon anchoring,
+to lay out a spring, by which we could, in the course of a few minutes,
+present our broadside to the narrow entrance of the harbor, and thus rake
+anything that might attempt the passage. The Governor of the island now
+came on board to visit us. He had his headquarters at a small Malay
+village on the east coast, where, by the aid of a sergeant's guard, he
+ruled his subjects with despotic sway. He brought me on board a present of
+a pig, and generously offered to share with me a potato-patch near the
+ship. What more could a monarch do? This was an exceedingly clever young
+Frenchman--Monsieur Bizot--he was an ensign in the French Navy, about
+twenty-two years of age, and a graduate of the French naval school. The
+commander of his flag-ship--the small country craft already described--was
+a midshipman. These two young men had entire control of the government of
+the island, civil and military.
+
+Kell having set his mechanics at work in the various departments, to
+effect the necessary repairs on the ship, I relaxed the reins of
+discipline, as much as possible, that, by boat-sailing, fishing, and
+hunting excursions, my people might recruit from the ill effects of their
+long confinement on ship-board, and the storms and bad weather they had
+experienced. The north-east monsoon having now fairly set in, the weather
+had become fine. The heat was very great, it is true, but it was much
+tempered by the winds. During the two weeks that we remained in the
+island, almost every part of it was explored by my adventurous
+hunters--even the very mountain tops--and marvellous were the reports of
+their adventures which they brought on board. Some small specimens of deer
+were found; the bison--the bull of which is very savage, not hesitating to
+assault the hunter, under favorable circumstances--abounded on the small
+savannas; monkeys travelled about in troops; parrots, and other birds of
+beautiful plumage, wheeled over our heads in flocks--in short, the whole
+island seemed teeming with life. The natives told us that there were many
+large, and some poisonous serpents in the jungles, but fortunately none of
+my people were injured by them.
+
+We found here the famous vampyre of the East. Several specimens were shot,
+and brought on board. Some of these monster bats measure from five to six
+feet from tip to tip of wing. The head resembles that of a wolf. It has
+long and sharp incisor-teeth and tusks, and would be a dangerous animal to
+attack an unarmed man. The reptile tribe flourishes in perfection. A
+lizard, measuring five feet ten inches in length, was brought on board by
+one of the hunters. Nature runs riot in every direction, and the vegetable
+world is as curious as the animal. The engineer coming on board, one day,
+from one of his excursions, pulled out his cigar case, and offered me a
+very tempting Havana cigar. Imagine my surprise when I found it a piece of
+wood! It had been plucked fresh from the tree. The size, shape, and
+color--a rich brown--were all perfect. It was not a capsule or a seed-pod,
+but a solid piece of wood, with the ordinary woody fibre, and full of sap.
+I put it away carefully among my curiosities, but after a few days it
+shrivelled, and lost its beauty.
+
+The apes did not appear to be afraid of the gun--probably because they
+were not accustomed to be shot at. They would cluster around a
+hunting-party, and grin and chatter like so many old negroes, one
+sometimes sees on the coast of Africa. One of the midshipmen having shot
+one, described the death of the old gentleman to me, and said that he felt
+almost as if he had killed his old "uncle" on his father's plantation. The
+wounded creature--whatever it may be, man or animal--threw its arms over
+the wound, and moaned as plaintively and intelligibly as if it had been
+gifted with the power of speech, and were upbraiding its slayer. During
+our stay I made the acquaintance--through my opera-glass--of several of
+these lampoons upon human nature. A gang of apes, old and young, came down
+to the beach regularly every morning, to look at the ship. The old men and
+women would seat themselves in rows, and gaze at us, sometimes for an
+hour, without changing their places or attitudes--seeming to be absorbed
+in wonder. I became quite familiar with some of their countenances. The
+young people did not appear to be so strongly impressed. They would walk
+about the beach in twos and threes--making love, most likely, and settling
+future family arrangements. The children, meanwhile, would be romping
+around the old people, screaming and barking in very delight. If a boat
+approached them, the old people would give a peculiar whistle, when the
+younger members of the tribe would betake themselves at once to the cover
+of the adjoining jungle.
+
+A hunting party, landing here one morning, shot one of these old apes. The
+rest scampered off, and were seen no more that day. The next morning, upon
+turning my opera-glass upon the beach, I saw the monkeys as usual, but
+they were broken into squads, and moving about in some disorder, instead
+of being seated as usual. I could plainly see some of them at work. Some
+appeared to be digging in the sand, and others to be bringing twigs and
+leaves of trees, and such of the debris of the forest as they could
+gather conveniently. It was my usual hour for landing, to get sights for
+my chronometers. As the boat approached, the whole party disappeared. I
+had the curiosity to walk to the spot, to see what these semi-human beings
+had been doing. They had been burying their dead comrade, and had not
+quite finished covering up the body, when they had been disturbed! The
+deceased seemed to have been popular, for a large concourse had come to
+attend his funeral. The natives told us, that this burial of the monkeys
+was a common practice. They believe in monkey doctors, too, for they told
+us that when they have come upon sick monkeys in the woods, they have
+frequently found some demure old fellows looking very wise, with their
+fingers on their noses sitting at their bed-sides. The ladies may be
+curious to know, from the same good authority, how the monkeys of Pulo
+Condore treat their women. As among the Salt Lake saints, polygamy
+prevails, and there are sometimes as many as a dozen females "sealed" to
+one old patriarch--especially if he be broad across the shoulders, and
+have sharp teeth. The young lady monkeys are required to form matrimonial
+connections during the third or fourth season of their belledom; that is
+to say, the parent monkeys will permit their daughters to sally out and
+return home as often as they please, after they have "come out," until
+three or four moons have elapsed. After that time they are expected to
+betake themselves to their own separate trees for lodging.
+
+I was frequently startled, whilst we lay at Pulo Condore, at hearing what
+appeared to be the whistle of a locomotive--rather shrill, it may be, but
+very much resembling it. It proceeded from an enormous locust.
+
+Pulo Condore lies in the route of the French mail-steamer, between
+Singapore and Saigon, the latter the capital of the French possessions in
+Cochin China, and the Governor receiving a large mail while we were here,
+was kind enough to send us some late papers from Paris and Havre. Every
+two or three days, too, he sent us fresh beef, fowls, and fruits. On the
+Sunday evening after our arrival, he, and his paymaster repeated their
+visit to us, and brought in the same boat with themselves, a bullock--a
+fine fat bison! In a country comparatively wild, and where supplies were
+so difficult to be obtained, these presents were greatly enhanced in
+value. Poor Monsieur Bizot! we all regretted to learn, upon our return to
+Europe, that this promising young officer, so full of talent, life,
+energy, hope, had fallen a victim to a malarial fever.
+
+Kell performed quite a feat at Pulo Condore in the way of ship-carpentry.
+Our copper having fallen off, some distance below the water-line, he
+constructed a coffer or caisson, that fitted the side of the ship so
+nicely, when sunk to the required depth, that he had only to pump it out,
+with our fire-engine and suction-hose, to enable his mechanics to descend
+into a dry box and effect the necessary repairs. We found our ship so much
+out of order, that it required two weeks to get her ready for sea. At the
+end of this time, we took an affectionate leave of our French friends, and
+getting under way, under sail, we again threw ourselves into the monsoon,
+and south-west current, and turned our head in the direction of Singapore.
+We crossed the Gulf of Siam under easy sail, that we might have the
+benefit of any chance capture, that might present itself. There was a
+number of vessels hurrying on before the brisk monsoon, but no Yankee
+among them. The Yankee flag had already become a stranger in the China
+Sea. On the evening of the 19th of December, we ran in, and anchored under
+Pulo Aor, in twenty fathoms water, within half a mile of the village, on
+the south-west end of the island. The island is high, and broken--its
+forests being composed almost entirely of the cocoanut--and is inhabited
+by the same class of Malay nomads already described. Their houses were
+picturesquely scattered among the trees, and several large boats were
+hauled up near them, on the beach, ready for any enterprise that might
+offer, in their line. The head man came off to visit me, and some piraguas
+with fowls and fruits came alongside, to trade with the sailors.
+
+These islanders appeared to be a merry set of fellows, for during nearly
+the whole night, we could hear the sound of tom-toms, and other musical
+instruments, as though they were engaged in the mysteries of the dance.
+Some very pretty specimens of young women, naked to the middle, came off
+in their light piraguas, handling the paddle equally with the men, and
+appearing quite as much at home on the water. The next day being Sunday,
+and the weather not being very propitious for our run to Singapore, it
+being thick and murky, we remained over at our anchors, at this island,
+mustering the crew, and inspecting the ship as usual. After muster, some
+of the officers visited the shore, and were hospitably received by the
+natives. They saw no evidences of the cultivation of the soil, or of any
+other kind of labor. Nature supplied the inhabitants, spontaneously, with
+a regular succession of fruits all the year round, and as for clothing,
+they needed none, so near the equator. The sea gave them fish; and the
+domestic fowl, which seemed to take care of itself, and the goat which
+browsed without care also on the mountain-side, secured them against the
+caprice of the elements. Their _physique_ was well developed, and life
+seemed to be with them a continual holiday. Who shall say that the
+civilized man is a greater philosopher, than the savage of the China seas?
+
+On the next morning, at a very early hour--just as the cocks on shore were
+crowing for early daylight--we hove up our anchor, and giving the ship
+both steam and sail, shaped our course for Singapore. Soon after getting
+under way, we fell in company with an English steamer running also in our
+direction. The navigation, as one approaches the Strait of Malacca, on
+which Singapore is situated, is very difficult, there being some ugly
+shoals by the wayside; and the weather coming on thick, and heavy rains
+setting in, we were obliged to anchor in the mouth of the Strait for
+several hours. The weather now lifting, and the clouds breaking away, we
+got under way, again, and taking a Malay pilot soon afterward, we ran into
+Singapore, and anchored, at about five P. M. The harbor was filled with
+shipping, but there was no United States ship of war among the number. The
+reader has seen that the _Wyoming_ was at Anger in the Strait of Sunda,
+only two days before we burned the _Winged Racer_. She must have heard of
+that event soon after its occurrence, and also of our burning the
+_Contest_ near Gaspar Strait. The English ship _Avalanche_ had, besides,
+carried news to Batavia, that we were off Sorouton, still higher up the
+China Sea. The _Wyoming_, if she had any intention of seeking a fight with
+us, was thus entirely deceived by our movements. These indicated that we
+were bound to Canton and Shanghai, and thither, probably, she had gone.
+She must have passed within sight of Pulo Condore, while we were scraping
+down our masts, tarring our rigging, and watching the funeral of the dead
+monkey described; and about the time she was ready to run into Hongkong,
+in the upper part of the China Sea, we had run into Singapore, and
+anchored in the lower part.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+THE ALABAMA AT SINGAPORE--PANIC AMONG THE ENEMY'S SHIPPING IN THE CHINA
+SEA--THE MULTITUDE FLOCK TO SEE THE ALABAMA--CURIOUS RUMOR CONCERNING
+HER--AUTHOR RIDES TO THE COUNTRY, AND SPENDS A NIGHT--THE CHINESE IN
+POSSESSION OF ALL THE BUSINESS OF THE PLACE--ALABAMA LEAVES
+SINGAPORE--CAPTURE OF THE MARTABAN, ALIAS TEXAN STAR--ALABAMA TOUCHES AT
+MALACCA--CAPTURE OF THE HIGHLANDER AND SONORA--ALABAMA ONCE MORE IN THE
+INDIAN OCEAN.
+
+
+It turned out as I had conjectured in the last chapter. The _Wyoming_ had
+been at Singapore on the 1st of December. She had gone thence to the Rhio
+Strait, where a Dutch settlement had given her a ball, which she had
+reciprocated. Whilst these Yankee and Dutch rejoicings were going on, the
+_Alabama_ was crossing the China Sea, from Borneo to Pulo Condore. All
+traces of the _Wyoming_ had since been lost. She had doubtless filled with
+coal at Rhio, and gone northward. We had thus a clear sea before us.
+
+A very gratifying spectacle met our eyes at Singapore. There were
+twenty-two American ships there--large India-men--almost all of which were
+dismantled and laid up! The burning of our first ship in these seas, the
+_Amanda_, off the Strait of Sunda, had sent a thrill of terror through all
+the Yankee shipping, far and near, and it had hastened to port, to get out
+of harm's way. We had recent news here from all parts of the China seas,
+by vessels passing constantly through the Strait of Malacca, and touching
+at Singapore for orders or refreshments. There were two American ships
+laid up in Bankok, in Siam; one or two at Canton; two or three at
+Shanghai; one at the Phillippine Islands; and one or two more in Japanese
+waters. These, besides the twenty-two ships laid up in Singapore,
+comprised all of the enemy's once numerous Chinese fleet! No ship could
+get a freight, and the commerce of the enemy was as dead, for the time
+being, as if every ship belonging to him had been destroyed. We had here
+the key to the mystery, that the _Alabama_ had encountered no American
+ship, in the China Sea, since she had burned the _Contest_. The birds had
+all taken to cover, and there was no such thing as flushing them. This
+state of things decided my future course. I had, at first, thought of
+running up the China Sea, as far as Shanghai, but if there were no more
+than half a dozen of the enemy's ships to be found in that part of the
+sea, and these had all fled to neutral ports for protection, _cui bono_?
+It would be far better to return to the western hemisphere, where the
+enemy still had some commerce left. Indeed, my best chance of picking up
+these very ships, that were now anchored under my guns in Singapore, and
+disconsolate for want of something to do, would be to waylay them on their
+homeward voyages. They would not venture out in a close sea like that of
+China, so long as I remained in it. After I should have departed, and they
+had recovered somewhat from their panic, they might pick up partial
+cargoes, at reduced rates, and once more spread their wings for flight.
+
+I had another powerful motive influencing me. My ship was getting very
+much out of repair. The hard usage to which she had been subjected since
+she had been commissioned had very much impaired her strength, and so
+constantly had she been under way, that the attrition of the water had
+worn the copper on her bottom so thin that it was daily loosening and
+dropping off in sheets. Her speed had, in consequence, been much
+diminished. The fire in her furnaces, like that of the fire-worshipping
+Persian, had never been permitted to go out, except for a few hours at
+rare intervals, to enable the engineer to clink his bars, and remove the
+incrustations of salt from the bottoms of his boilers. This constant
+action of fire and salt had nearly destroyed them. I resolved, therefore,
+to turn my ship's head westward from Singapore, run up into the Bay of
+Bengal, along the coast of Hindostan to Bombay, through the Seychelle
+Islands to the mouth of the Red Sea, thence to the Comoro Islands; from
+these latter to the Strait of Madagascar, and from the latter Strait to
+the Cape of Good Hope--thus varying my route back to the Cape.
+
+We were received with great cordiality by the people of Singapore, and, as
+at the Cape of Good Hope, much curiosity was manifested to see the ship.
+After she had hauled alongside of the coaling wharf, crowds gathered to
+look curiously upon her, and compare her appearance with what they had
+read of her. These crowds were themselves a curiosity to look upon,
+formed, as they were, of all the nations of the earth, from the remote
+East and the remote West. Singapore being a free port, and a great centre
+of trade, there is always a large fleet of shipping anchored in its
+waters, and its streets and other marts of commerce are constantly
+thronged with a promiscuous multitude. The canal--there being one leading
+to the rear of the town--is filled with country boats from the surrounding
+coasts, laden with the products of the different countries from which they
+come. There is the pepper-boat from Sumatra, and the coaster of larger
+size laden with tin-ore; the spice-boats from the spice islands; boats
+with tin-ore, hides, and mats from Borneo; boats from Siam, with gums,
+hides, and cotton; boats from different parts of the Malay peninsula, with
+canes, gutta-percha, and India-rubber. In the bay are ships from all parts
+of the East--from China, with silks and teas; from Japan, with
+lacker-ware, raw silk, and curious manufactures of iron, steel, and paper;
+from the Phillippine Islands, with sugar, hides, tobacco, and spices.
+Intermixed with these are the European and American ships, with the
+products of their various countries. As a consequence, all the races and
+all the religions of the world were represented in the throngs that
+crowded the coaling jetty, to look upon the _Alabama_, wearing the new
+flag of a new nation, mysterious for its very distance from them. We were
+to their eastern eyes a curious people of the antipodes.
+
+The physical aspect of the throng was no less curious than its moral.
+There was the Malay, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Siamese, the Hindoo,
+the Persian, the wild Tartar, the Bornese, the Sumatran, the Javanese, and
+even the New Zealander--all dressed, or undressed, as the case might be,
+in the garb of their respective tribes and countries. Some of the most
+notable objects among the crowd, were jet-black Africans, with the amplest
+of petticoat trousers gathered at the knee, sandalled feet, and turbaned
+heads--the more shining the jet of the complexion, the whiter the turban.
+The crowd, so far from diminishing, increased daily, so that it was at
+times difficult to pass into and out of the ship; and it was some time
+before we could learn what had excited all this curiosity among those
+simple inhabitants of the isles and continents. Some of these
+wonder-mongers actually believed, that we kept chained in the hold of the
+_Alabama_, several negro giants--they had heard something about the negro
+and slavery having something to do with the war--whom we armed with
+immense weapons and let loose, in time of battle, as they were wont to do
+their elephants! They waited patiently for hours, under their paper
+umbrellas, hoping to catch a sight of these monsters.
+
+Singapore, which was a fishing village half a century ago, contains a
+hundred thousand inhabitants, and under the free-port system has become,
+as before remarked, a great centre of trade. It concentrates nearly all
+the trade of the southern portion of the China Sea. There are no duties on
+exports or imports; and the only tonnage due paid by the shipping, is
+three cents per ton, register, as a lighthouse tax. The currency is
+dollars and cents; Spanish, Mexican, Peruvian, and Bolivian dollars are
+current. Great Britain, with an infinite forecaste, not only girdles the
+seas with her ships, but the land with her trading stations. In her
+colonization and commerce consists her power. Lop off these, and she would
+become as insignificant as Holland. And so beneficent is her rule, that
+she binds her colonies to her with hooks of steel. A senseless party in
+that country has advocated the liberation of all her colonies. No policy
+could be more suicidal. Colonization is as much of a necessity for Great
+Britain as it was for the Grecian States and for Rome, when they became
+overcrowded with population. Probably, in the order of nature, colonies,
+as they reach maturity, may be expected to go off to themselves, but for
+each colony which thus puts on the _toga virilis_, Great Britain should
+establish another, if she would preserve her empire, and her importance
+with the nations of the earth.
+
+The most notable feature about Singapore is its Chinese population. I
+consider these people, in many respects, the most wonderful people of the
+earth. They are essentially a people of the arts, and of trade, and in the
+changing aspect of the world must become much more important than they
+have hitherto been. It is little more than half a century since Napoleon
+twitted the English people with being a nation of "shop-keepers." So rapid
+have been the changes since, that other nations besides Great Britain are
+beginning to covet the designation as one of honor. Even military France,
+the very country which bestowed the epithet in scorn, is herself becoming
+a nation of mechanics and shop-keepers. Industrial Congresses, and Palaces
+of Industry attract more attention, in that once martial country, than
+military reviews, and the marching and countermarching of troops on the
+Campus Martius. An Emperor of France has bestowed the cordon of the Legion
+of Honor on a Yankee piano-maker! These are some of the signs of the times
+in which we live. And they are signs which the wise statesman will not
+ignore. A nation chooses wisely and well, which prefers the pursuits of
+peace to those of war; and that nation is to be envied, which is better
+constituted by the nature of its people for peaceful, than for warlike
+pursuits. This is eminently the case with the Chinese. Nature has kindly
+cast them in a mould, gentle and pacific. They are human, and have,
+therefore, had their wars, but compared with the western nations, their
+wars have been few. The Taeping rebellion of our day, which has lasted so
+long, had its origin in the brigandage of an idle and leprous soldiery,
+who sought to live at ease, at the expense of the honest producer.
+
+It is only lately that we have been able to obtain an interior view of
+these people. A few years back, and China was a sealed book to us. Our
+merchants were confined to certain "factories" outside of the walls of
+Canton, and we were permitted to trade at no other points. But since we
+have gotten a glimpse of these wonderful people, we have been astonished
+at the extraordinary productiveness and vitality of Chinese commerce. We
+have been amazed whilst we have looked upon the wonderful stir and hum and
+bustle of so immense a hive of human beings, all living and prospering by
+the mechanic arts and commerce. The Chinaman is born to industry, as
+naturally as the negro is to sloth. He is the cheapest producer on the
+face of the earth, because his habits are simple and frugal. The proof of
+this is, that no western nation can sell its goods in the Chinese market.
+We are all compelled to purchase whatever we want from them, for cash.
+When we can work cheaper than the Chinese, we may hope to exchange our
+manufactured goods with them, but not until then.
+
+Singapore is a miniature Canton, and the visitor, as he passes through its
+streets, has an excellent opportunity of comparing the industry of the
+Chinese with that of other nations. As a free port, Singapore is open to
+immigration from all parts of the earth, on equal terms. There are no
+jealous laws, guilds, or monopolies, to shackle the limbs, or dampen the
+energy or enterprise of any one. Free competition is the presiding genius
+of the place. The climate is healthy--the English call it the Madeira of
+the East--and the European artisan can labor in it as well as the East
+Indian or the Chinese. All nations flock hither to trade, as has already
+been remarked. Now what is the result? Almost all the business of every
+description is in the hands of the Chinese. Large Chinese houses
+monopolize the trade, and the Chinese artisan and day-laborer have driven
+out all others. Ninety thousand of the one hundred thousand of the
+population are Chinese.
+
+Now that the exclusiveness of China has been broken in upon, and
+emigration permitted, what a destiny awaits such a people in the workshops
+and fields of the western world! Already they are filling up the States on
+the Pacific coast, and silently, but surely, possessing themselves of all
+the avenues of industry in those States, thrusting aside the more
+expensive European and American laborers. They will cross the Rocky
+Mountains, and effect, in course of time, a similar revolution in the
+Western and Southern States. In the latter States their success will be
+most triumphant; for in these States, where the negro is the chief
+laborer, the competition will be between frugality, forecast, and industry
+on the one hand, and wastefulness, indifference to the future, and
+laziness on the other. The negro must, of necessity, disappear in such a
+conflict. Cheap labor must and will drive out dear labor. This law is as
+inexorable as any other of Nature's laws. This is the probable fate,
+which the Puritan has prepared for his friend the negro, on the American
+continent. Our system of slavery might have saved his race from
+destruction--nothing else can.
+
+The Governor of Singapore was a colonel in the British army. He had a
+small garrison of troops--no more, I believe, than a couple of
+companies--to police this large population. I sent an officer, as usual,
+to call on him and acquaint him with my wants and intention as to time of
+stay. Mr. Beaver, of the firm of Cumming, Beaver & Co., a clever English
+merchant, came on board, and offered to facilitate us all in his power, in
+the way of procuring supplies. I accepted his kind offer, and put him in
+communication with the paymaster, and the next day rode out, and dined,
+and spent a night with him at his country-seat. He lived in luxurious
+style, as do most European merchants in the East. The drive out took us
+through the principal streets of the city, which I found to be laid out
+and built with great taste--the edifices having a semi-English,
+semi-Oriental air. The houses of the better classes were surrounded by
+lawns and flower-gardens, and cool verandahs invited to repose. Mr.
+Beaver's grounds were extensive, and well kept, scarcely so much as a
+stray leaf being visible on his well-mown lawns. His household--the lady
+was absent in England--was a pattern of neatness and comfort. His
+bath-rooms, bed-rooms, library, and billiard-room--all showed signs of
+superintendence and care, there being an air of cleanliness and neatness
+throughout, which one rarely ever sees in a bachelor establishment. His
+servants were all Chinese, and males. Chi-hi, and Hu-chin, and the rest of
+them, ploughed his fields, mowed his hay, stabled his horses, cooked his
+dinners, waited on his guests, washed his linen, made his beds, and marked
+his game of billiards; and all at a ridiculously low rate of hire. If
+there had been a baby to be nursed, it would have been all the same.
+
+On my return to the city, next day, I lunched, by invitation, at the
+officers' mess. English porter, ale, and cheese, cold meats, and a variety
+of wines were on the table. An English officer carries his habits all over
+the world with him, without stopping to consider climates. No wonder that
+so many of them return from the east with disordered hepatic
+arrangements.
+
+When I returned to the ship, in the evening, I found that Kell and Galt
+had made such good use of their time, that everything was on board, and we
+should be ready for sea on the morrow. Our coaling had occupied us but ten
+hours--so admirable are the arrangements of the P. and O. Steamship
+Company, at whose wharf we had coaled. A pilot was engaged, and all the
+preparations made for an early start. There was nothing more to be done
+except to arrange a little settlement between the Queen and myself,
+similar to the one which had taken place at the Cape of Good Hope. As we
+were obliged to lie alongside of the wharf, for the convenience of
+coaling, it had been found impossible, in the great press and throng of
+the people who were still anxious to get a sight of my black giants, to
+prevent the sailors from having grog smuggled to them. When an old salt
+once gets a taste of the forbidden nectar, he is gone--he has no more
+power of resistance than a child. The consequence on the present occasion
+was, that a number of my fellows "left" on a frolic. We tracked most of
+them up, during the night, and arrested them--without asking any aid of
+the police, this time--and brought them on board. One of the boozy fellows
+dived under the wharf, and played mud-turtle for some time, but we finally
+fished him out. When we came to call the roll, there were half a dozen
+still missing. A number of applications had been made to us by sailors who
+wanted to enlist, but we had hitherto resisted them all. We were full, and
+desired no more. Now, however, the case was altered, and the applications
+being renewed after the deserters had run off--for sailors are a sort of
+Freemasons, and soon learn what is going on among their craft--we
+permitted half a dozen picked fellows to come on board, to be shipped as
+soon as we should get out into the Strait.
+
+The next morning, bright and early, the _Alabama_ was under way, steaming
+through the Strait of Malacca. At half-past eleven A. M., "sail ho!" was
+cried from the mast, and about one P. M., we came up with an exceedingly
+American-looking ship, which, upon being hove to by a gun, hoisted the
+English colors. Lowering a boat, I sent Master's Mate Fullam, one of the
+most intelligent of my boarding-officers, and who was himself an
+Englishman, on board to examine her papers. These were all in due
+form--were undoubtedly genuine, and had been signed by the proper
+custom-house officers. The register purported that the stranger was the
+British ship _Martaban_, belonging to parties in Maulmain, a rice port in
+India. Manifest and clearance corresponded with the register; the ship
+being laden with rice, and having cleared for Singapore--of which port, as
+the reader sees, she was within a few hours' sail. Thus far, all seemed
+regular and honest enough, but the ship was American--having been formerly
+known as the _Texan Star_--and her transfer to British owners, if made at
+all, had been made within the last ten days, after the arrival of the
+_Alabama_ in these seas had become known at Maulmain. Mr. Fullam,
+regarding these circumstances as at least suspicious, requested the master
+of the ship to go on board the _Alabama_ with him, that I might have an
+opportunity of inspecting his papers in person. This the master declined
+to do. I could not, of course, compel an English master to come on board
+of me, and so I was obliged to go on board of him--and I may state, by the
+way, that this was the only ship I ever boarded personally during all my
+cruises.
+
+I could not but admire the beautiful, "_bran new_" English flag, as I
+pulled on board, but, as before remarked, every line of the ship was
+American--her long, graceful hull, with flaring bow, and rounded stern,
+taunt masts with sky-sail poles, and square yards for spreading the
+largest possible quantity of canvas. Passing up the side, I stepped upon
+deck. Here everything was, if possible, still more American, even to the
+black, greasy cook, who, with his uncovered woolly head, naked breast, and
+uprolled sleeves in the broiling sun, was peeling his Irish potatoes for
+his codfish. I have before remarked upon the national features of ships.
+These features are as well marked in the interior organism, as in the
+exterior. The master received me at the gangway, and, after I had paused
+to take a glance at things on deck, I proceeded with him into his cabin,
+where his papers were to be examined. His mates were standing about the
+companion-way, anxious, of course, to know the fate of their ship. If I
+had had any doubts before, the unmistakable persons of these men would
+have removed them. In the person of the master, the long, lean,
+angular-featured, hide-bound, weather-tanned Yankee skipper stood before
+me. Puritan, _May-Flower_, Plymouth Rock, were all written upon the
+well-known features. No amount of English custom-house paper, or
+sealing-wax could, by any possibility, convert him into that rotund,
+florid, jocund Briton who personates the English shipmaster. His speech
+was even more national--taking New England to be the Yankee _nation_--than
+his person; and when he opened his mouth, a mere novice might have sworn
+that he was from the "State of Maine"--there, or thereabouts. When he told
+me that I "hadn't-ought-to" burn his ship, he pronounced the shibboleth
+which condemned her to the flames.
+
+The shrift was a short one. When the papers were produced, I found among
+them no bill of sale or other evidence of the transfer of the
+property--the register of an English ship, as every seaman knows, not
+being such evidence. His crew list, which had been very neatly prepared,
+was a mute but powerful witness against him. It was written, throughout,
+signatures and all, in the same hand--the signatures all being as like as
+two peas. After glancing at the papers, and making these mental
+observations as I went along, I asked the master a few questions. As well
+as I recollect, he was from Hallowell, Maine. His ship had been two years
+in the East Indies, trading from port to port; and, as before remarked,
+had only been transferred within a few days. The freshly painted assumed
+name on her stern was scarcely dry. The master had sat with comparative
+composure during this examination, and questioning, evidently relying with
+great confidence upon his English flag and papers; but when I turned to
+him, and told him that I should burn his ship, he sprang from his chair,
+and said with excited manner and voice--"You dare not do it, sir; that
+flag--suiting the action to the word, and pointing with his long, bony
+finger up the companion-way to the flag flying from his peak--won't stand
+it!" "Keep cool, captain," I replied, "the weather is warm, and as for the
+flag, I shall not ask it whether it will stand it or not--the flag that
+_ought_ to be at your peak, will have to stand it, though." In half an
+hour, or as soon as the crew could pack their duds, and be transferred to
+the _Alabama_, the _Texan Star_--_alias_ the _Martaban_--was in flames;
+the beautiful, new English ensign being marked with the day, and latitude
+and longitude of the capture, and stowed away carefully by the old
+signal-quartermaster, in the bag containing his Yankee flags.
+
+The cargo was _bona fide_ English property, and if the owner of it,
+instead of combining with the master of the ship to perpetrate a fraud
+upon my belligerent rights, had contented himself with putting it on board
+under the American flag, properly documented as British property, he might
+have saved it, and along with it, the ship; as, in that case, I should
+have been obliged to bond her. But when I had stripped off the disguise,
+and the ship stood forth as American, unfortunately for the owner of the
+cargo, no document could be presented to show that it was English; for the
+very attempt to document it would have exposed the fraud. Unfortunate
+Englishman! He had lost sight of the "copy" he had been used to transcribe
+at school--"Honesty is the best policy."
+
+It was still early in the afternoon when we resumed our course, and gave
+the ship steam. After a few hours had elapsed, and Captain Pike--for this
+was the name of the master of the captured ship--had realized that his
+ship was no more, I sent for him, into my cabin, and directing my clerk to
+produce writing materials, we proceeded to take his formal deposition;
+preliminary to which, my clerk administered to him the usual oath. I felt
+pretty sure now of getting at the truth, for I had resorted to a little
+arrangement for this purpose quite common in the courts of law--I had
+_released_ the interest of the witness. As soon, therefore, as the witness
+was put upon the stand, I said to him:--"Now, captain, when you and I had
+that little conversation in your cabin, you had hopes of saving your ship,
+and, moreover, what you said to me was not under oath. You were, perhaps,
+only practising a pardonable _ruse de guerre_. But now the case is
+altered. Your ship being destroyed, you have no longer any possible
+interest in misstating the truth. You are, besides, under oath. Be frank;
+was, or was not, the transfer of your ship a _bona fide_ transaction?"
+After a moment's reflection he replied:--"I will be frank with you,
+captain. It was not a _bona fide_ transaction. I was alarmed when I heard
+of your arrival in the East Indies, and I resorted to a sham sale in the
+hope of saving my ship." Upon this answer being recorded, the court
+adjourned.
+
+At a late hour in the night, the moon shining quite brightly, we ran in
+past some islands, and anchored off the little town of Malacca--formerly a
+Portuguese settlement, but now, like Singapore, in the possession of the
+English. My object was to land my prisoners, and at early dawn we
+dispatched them for the shore, with a note to the military commander
+asking the requisite permission. It was Christmas-day, and as the sun
+rose, we could see many signs of festive preparation on shore. The little
+town, with its white houses peeping out of a wilderness of green, was a
+pretty picture as it was lighted up by the rays of the rising sun. Back of
+the town, on an isolated hill, stood the lighthouse, whose friendly beacon
+had guided us into our anchorage over night, and near by was the barrack,
+from whose flag-staff floated, besides the proud old flag of our
+fatherland, a number of gay streamers. Our ship in the offing, and our
+boats in the harbor, created quite a stir in this quiet Malay-English
+town; and forthwith a couple of boats filled with officers and
+citizens--ladies included--came off to visit us. It was still very early,
+and the excitement of the morning's row, and the novelty of the presence
+of the _Alabama_ seemed greatly to excite our new friends. The males
+grasped our hands as though they had been our brothers, and the ladies
+smiled their sweetest smiles--and no one knows how sweet these can be,
+better than the sailor who has been a long time upon salt water, looking
+upon nothing but whiskers and mustachios. They were very pressing that we
+should remain a day, and partake of their Christmas dinner with them. But
+we excused ourselves, telling them that war knows no holidays. They left
+us after a short visit, and at half-past nine A. M., our boats having
+returned, we were again under steam. Bartelli was seen lugging a
+basketfull of fine Malacca oranges into the cabin, soon after the return
+of our boats--a gift from some of our lady friends who had visited us.
+
+I have observed by Mr. Seward's "little bill," before referred to, that
+Pike, having been foiled in that game of flags which he had attempted to
+play with me, has put in his claim, along with other disconsolate Yankees,
+for the destruction of his ship. When _will_ naughty England pay that
+little bill?
+
+After a good day's run--during which we overhauled an English bark, from
+Singapore, for Madras--we anchored at night-fall near Parceelar Hill, in
+twenty-five fathoms of water. The only Christmas kept by the _Alabama_ was
+the usual "splicing of the main-brace" by the crew. We were under way
+again, the next morning at six o'clock; the weather was clear, with a few
+passing clouds, and the look-out had not been long at the mast-head before
+he cried "sail ho!" twice, in quick suggestion. Upon being questioned, he
+reported two large ships at anchor, that looked "sort o' Yankee." We soon
+began to raise these ships from the deck, and when we got a good view of
+them through our powerful glasses, we were of the same opinion with the
+look-out. They were evidently Yankee. As they were at anchor, and
+helpless--waiting for a fair wind with which to run out of the Strait--we
+had nothing to gain by a concealment of our character, and showed them at
+once the Confederate flag. That flag--beautiful though it was--must have
+been a terrible wet blanket upon the schemes of these two Yankee skippers.
+It struck them dumb, for they refused to show me any bunting in return. I
+captured them both, with the "flaunting lie" stowed away snugly in their
+cabins. They were monster ships, both of them, being eleven or twelve
+hundred tons burden. In their innocence--supposing the _Alabama_ had gone
+up the China Sea--they had ventured, whilst lying at Singapore, to take
+charter-parties for cargoes of rice to be laden at Akyab, for Europe; and
+were now on their way to Akyab in ballast. They had left Singapore several
+days before our arrival there, and had been delayed by head-winds.
+
+Both were Massachusetts ships--one the _Sonora_ of Newburyport, and the
+other, the _Highlander_ of Boston. The master of one of these ships, when
+he was brought on board, came up to me good-humoredly on the quarter-deck,
+and offering me his hand, which I accepted, said: "Well, Captain Semmes,
+I have been expecting every day for the last three years, to fall in with
+you, and here I am at last!" I told him I was glad he had found me after
+so long a search. "Search!" said he; "it is some such search as the Devil
+may be supposed to make after holy water. The fact is," continued he, "I
+have had constant visions of the _Alabama_, by night and by day; she has
+been chasing me in my sleep, and riding me like a night-mare, and now that
+it is all over, I feel quite relieved." I permitted the masters and crews
+of both these ships to hoist out, and provision their own boats, and
+depart in them for Singapore. The ships when overhauled were lying just
+inside of the light-ship, at the western entrance of the Strait of
+Malacca, and it was only pleasant lake or river sailing to Singapore.
+Having fired the ships, we steamed out past the light-ship, and were once
+more in the Indian Ocean. We found on board one of the prizes a copy of
+the Singapore "Times," of the 9th of December, 1863, from which I give the
+following extract. At the date of the paper, we were at Pulo Condore, and
+the Yankee ships were still flocking into Singapore:--
+
+     "From our to-day's shipping-list it will be seen that there are no
+     fewer than seventeen American merchantmen at present in our harbor,
+     and that they include some of the largest ships at present riding
+     there. Their gross tonnage may be roughly set down at 12,000 tons.
+     Some of these have been lying here now for upward of three months,
+     and most of them for at least half that period. And all this, at a
+     time when there is no dulness in the freight market; but, on the
+     contrary, an active demand for tonnage to all parts of the world. It
+     is, indeed, to us, a home picture--the only one we trust to have for
+     many years to come--of the wide-spread evils of war in these modern
+     days. But it is a picture quite unique in its nature; for the nation
+     to which these seventeen fine ships belong has a Navy perhaps second
+     only to that of Great Britain, and the enemy with which she has to
+     cope, is but a schism from herself, possessed of no port that is not
+     blockaded, and owning not more than five or six vessels on the high
+     seas; and yet there is no apathy and nothing to blame on the part of
+     the United States Navy. The tactics with which the Federals have to
+     combat are without precedent, and the means to enable them
+     successfully to do so have not yet been devised."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+ALABAMA CROSSES THE BAY OF BENGAL--THE PILGRIMS TO MECCA AND THE BLACK
+GIANTS--BURNING OF THE EMMA JANE--THE TOWN OF AUJENGA, AND THE
+HINDOOS--THE GREAT DESERTS OF CENTRAL ASIA, AND THE COTTON CROP OF
+HINDOSTAN--ALABAMA CROSSES THE ARABIAN SEA--THE ANIMALCUL� OF THE SEA--THE
+COMORO ISLANDS--JOHANNA AND ITS ARAB POPULATION--THE YANKEE WHALERS AT
+JOHANNA--ALABAMA PASSES THROUGH THE MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL, AND ARRIVES AT THE
+CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
+
+
+On the afternoon after leaving the Strait of Malacca, we overhauled
+another American ship under neutral colors--the Bremen ship _Ottone_. The
+transfer had been made at Bremen, in the previous May; the papers were
+genuine, and the master and crew all Dutchmen, there being no Yankee on
+board. The change of property, in this case, having every appearance of
+being _bona fide_, I permitted the ship to pass on her voyage, which was
+to Rangoon for rice. For the next few days we coasted the island of
+Sumatra--taking a final leave of the North end of that island on the last
+day of the year 1863. A court-martial had been in session several days,
+settling accounts with the runaways at Singapore, whom we had arrested and
+brought back. Having sentenced the prisoners, and gotten through with its
+labors, it was dissolved on this last day of the old year, that we might
+turn over a new leaf.
+
+Clearing the Sumatra coast, we stretched across to the Bay of Bengal,
+toward Ceylon, overhauling a number of neutral ships by the way. Among
+others, we boarded a large English ship, which had a novel lot of
+passengers on board. She was from Singapore, bound for Jiddah on the Red
+Sea, and was filled with the faithful followers of Mohammed, on a
+pilgrimage to Mecca--Jiddah being the nearest seaport to that renowned
+shrine. My boarding-officer was greeted with great cordiality by these
+devotees, who exchanged salaams with him, in the most reverential manner,
+and entered into conversation with him. They wanted to know, they said,
+about those black giants we had on board the _Alabama_, and whether we fed
+them on live Yankees, as they had heard. The boarding-officer, who was a
+bit of a wag, told them that we had made the experiment, but that the
+Yankee skippers were so lean and tough, that the giants refused to eat
+them. Whereupon there was a general grunt, and as near an approach to a
+smile as a Mohammedan ever makes. They then said that they "had heard that
+we were in favor of a plurality of wives." They had heard of Brigham Young
+and Salt Lake. The officer said, "Yes, we had a few; three or four dozen a
+piece." They now insisted upon his smoking with them, and plied him with
+other questions, to which they received equally satisfactory answers; and
+when he got up to depart, they crowded around him at the gangway, and
+salaamed him over the side, more reverentially than ever. I have no doubt
+that when these passengers arrived at Mecca, and discussed learnedly the
+American war, half the pilgrims at that revered shrine became good
+Confederates.
+
+Having doubled the island of Ceylon, and hauled up on the coast of
+Malabar, we captured on the 14th of January, the _Emma Jane_, of Bath,
+Maine, from Bombay, bound to Amherst. Having removed from her such
+articles of provisions as we required, and transferred her crew to the
+_Alabama_, we burned her. She was in ballast, seeking a cargo, and there
+was, therefore, no claim of neutral property. The master had his wife on
+board. Being not a great distance from the land, we ran in for the purpose
+of discharging our prisoners; and descried the Ghaut mountains the next
+day. Coasting along a short distance to the eastward, we made the small
+Hindoo-Portuguese town of Anjenga, where we came to anchor at about four
+P. M. The town lies on the open coast, having a roadstead, but no harbor.
+We ran in and anchored without a pilot. We were soon surrounded by native
+boats--large canoes capable of carrying considerable burdens--filled with
+Portuguese and Hindoos, and a mixture of both. Though the dominion of
+Portugal, on the Malabar coast, has long since departed, there are many
+mementos of that once enterprising people still to be found. Her churches
+and fortifications are still standing, the blood of her people is still
+left--in most cases mixed--and her language, somewhat corrupted, is still
+spoken. There was no Englishman at Anjenga--the resident magistrate being
+a Portuguese. He sent his son off to visit us, and make arrangements for
+landing our prisoners. Later in the afternoon, I sent a lieutenant to call
+on him. The boat being delayed until some time in the night, and a firing
+of musketry being heard, I feared that my lieutenant had gotten into some
+difficulty with the natives, and dispatched Kell, with an armed boat to
+his assistance. It proved to be a false alarm. It was a feast day, the
+magistrate had gone to church,--which caused the delay of the officer--and
+the firing was a _feu de joie_.
+
+The next morning we sent the prisoners on shore. They were to proceed by
+inland navigation--parallel with the coast, through a series of lagoons
+and canals--to Cochin, a sea-port town about sixty miles distant, where
+they would find Englishmen and English shipping. I was to provision them,
+and the Resident Magistrate would send them forward free of expense. The
+prisoners landed in presence of half the town, who had flocked down to the
+beach to see the sight. As our boats approached the shore, on which there
+was quite a surf breaking, a number of native boats came out to receive
+and land the prisoners. These boats were managed with great dexterity, and
+passed in and out through the roaring surf, without the least accident.
+This matter of business accomplished, the natives came off to visit us, in
+considerable numbers, both men and women. They were a fine, well-formed,
+rather athletic people, nearly as black as the negro, but with straight
+hair and prominent features. Very few of them wore any other dress than a
+cloth about the loins. They were sprightly and chatty, and ran about the
+decks as pleased as children, inspecting the guns, and other novelties.
+Some of the young women had very regular and pleasing features. The best
+description I can give of them is to request the reader to imagine some
+belle of his acquaintance to be divested of those garments which would be
+useless to her in Anjenga--latitude 8�--and instead of charming him with
+the lily and the rose, to be shining in lustrous jet.
+
+Having received on board some fresh provisions for the crew, and gotten
+rid of our lady and gentlemen visitors, we got under way and stood out to
+sea, and were still in sight of the Ghaut Mountains when the sun went
+down. These mountains will be lost to our view to-morrow; but before they
+disappear, I have a word to say concerning them, and the fertile country
+of Hindostan, in which they are situated; for nature elaborates here one
+of her most beautiful and useful of meteorological problems. British India
+is the most formidable competitor of the Confederate States for the
+production of cotton, for the supply of the spindles and looms of the
+world. The problem to which I wish to call the reader's attention may be
+stated thus:--_The Great Deserts of Central Africa produce the cotton crop
+of Hindostan._ I have before had frequent occasion to speak of the
+monsoons of the East--those periodical winds that blow for one half of the
+year from one point of the compass, and then change, and blow the other
+half of the year from the opposite point. It is these monsoons that work
+out the problem we have in hand; and it is the Great Deserts alluded to
+that produce the monsoons.
+
+On the succeeding page will be found a diagram, which will assist us in
+the conception of this beautiful operation of nature. It consists of an
+outline sketch of so much of Asia and the Indian Ocean as are material to
+our purpose. The Great Deserts, the Himalayas and the Ghauts, are marked
+on the sketch. Let the dotted line at the bottom of the sketch represent
+the equator, and the arrows the direction of the winds. Hindostan being in
+the northern tropic, the north-east monsoon or trade-wind, represented by
+the arrow A, would prevail there all the year round, but for the local
+causes of which I am about to speak. The reader will observe that this
+wind, coming from a high northern latitude, passes almost entirely over
+_land_ before it reaches Hindostan. It is, therefore, a dry wind. It is
+rendered even more dry, by its passage over the Himalaya range of
+mountains which wring from it what little moisture it may have
+evaporated from the lakes and rivers over which it has passed. When it
+reaches the extensive plains between the Himalayas and Ghauts, which are
+the great cotton region of Hindostan, it has not a drop of water with
+which to nourish vegetation; and if it were to prevail all the year round,
+those plains would speedily become parched and waste deserts.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+Let us see, now, how this catastrophe is avoided. When the sun is in the
+southern hemisphere, that is, during the winter season, the north-east
+monsoon prevails in Hindostan. When he is in the northern hemisphere, the
+south-west monsoon, which is the rainy monsoon, or crop monsoon, prevails.
+This change of monsoons is produced as follows: Soon after the sun crosses
+the equator into the northern hemisphere, he begins to pour down his
+fierce rays upon Hindostan, and, passing farther and farther to the north,
+in the latter part of April, or the beginning of May, he is nearly
+perpendicularly over the Great Deserts marked in the sketch. These deserts
+are interminable wastes of sand, in which there is not so much as a blade
+of grass to be found. They absorb heat very rapidly, and in a short time
+become like so many fiery furnaces. The air above them rarefies and
+ascends, a comparative vacuum of great extent is formed, and a great
+change begins now to take place in the atmospheric phenomena. This vacuum
+being in the rear of the arrow A, or the north-east monsoon blowing over
+Hindostan, first slackens the force of this wind--drawing it back, as it
+were. It becomes weaker and weaker, as the furnaces become hotter and
+hotter. Calms ensue, and after a long struggle, the wind is finally turned
+back, and the south-west monsoon has set in.
+
+If the reader will cast his eye on the series of arrows, B, C, D, E, and
+F, he will see how this gradual change is effected. I say gradual, for it
+is not effected _per saltum_, but occupies several weeks. The arrow F
+represents the south-east trade-wind, blowing toward the equator. As this
+wind nears the equator, it begins to feel the influence of the deserts
+spoken of. The calm which I have described as beginning at the arrow A, is
+gradually extended to the equator. As the south-east wind approaches that
+great circle, it finds nothing to oppose its passage. Pretty soon, it not
+only finds nothing to oppose its passage, but something to invite it over;
+for the calm begins now to give place to an indraught toward the Great
+Deserts. The south-east wind, thus encouraged, changes its course, first
+to the north, and then to the north-east, and blows stronger and stronger
+as the season advances, and the heat accumulates over the deserts; until
+at last the south-east trade-wind of the southern hemisphere has become
+the south-west monsoon of the northern hemisphere! This monsoon prevails
+from about the 1st of May to the 1st of November, when the sun has again
+passed into the southern hemisphere, and withdrawn his heat from the great
+deserts. The normal condition of things being thus restored, the
+vanquished north-east trade-wind regains its courage, and, chasing back
+the south-west monsoon, resumes its sway.
+
+If the reader will again cast his eye upon the sketch, he will see that
+the south-west winds which are now blowing over Hindostan, instead of
+being dry winds, must be heavily laden with moisture. They have had a
+clean sweep from the tropic of Capricorn, with no land intervening between
+them and the coast of Hindostan. They have followed the sun in his course,
+and under the influence of his perpendicular rays have lapped up the
+waters like a thirsty wolf. The evaporation in these seas is enormous. It
+has been stated, on the authority of the Secretary of the Geographical
+Society of Bombay, that it has been found in the Bay of Bengal to exceed
+an inch daily. From having too little water during the winter months in
+Hindostan, we are now, in the summer months, in danger of having too much.
+The young cotton crop will be drowned out. What is to prevent it? Here we
+have another beautiful provision at hand. The reader has observed the
+Ghaut Mountains stretching along parallel with the west coast of
+Hindostan. These mountains protect the plains from inundation. They have,
+therefore, equally important functions to perform with the deserts. The
+south-west monsoon blows square across these mountains. As the heavily
+laden wind begins to ascend the first slopes, it commences to deposit its
+moisture. Incessant rains set in, and immense quantities of water fall
+before the winds have passed the mountains. The precipitation has been
+known to be as great as twelve or thirteen inches in a single day! The
+winds, thus deprived of their excess of water are now in a proper
+condition to fertilize, without drowning the immense plains that lie
+between the Ghauts and the Himalayas--which, as before remarked, is the
+cotton region of India. It is thus that the _Great Deserts of Central Asia
+produce the cotton crop of Hindostan_. To the ignorant Tartar who ventures
+across the margins of these deserts, all seems dreary, desolate, and
+death-like, and he is at a loss to conceive for what purpose they were
+created. Clothe these deserts with verdure, and intersperse them with
+rivers and mountains, and forthwith the fertile plains of Hindostan would
+become a great desert, and its two hundred millions of inhabitants perish.
+
+We captured on board the last prize a batch of Bombay newspapers--large
+"dailies," edited with ability, and filled with news from all parts of the
+world. It is the press, more than anything else, that indicates the growth
+and prosperity of a country. One only needed to look at the long columns
+of these immense dailies, filled with advertisements, to realize the fact
+that Bombay was a bee-hive, containing its three hundred thousand
+inhabitants. We were, indeed, in the midst of a great empire, of which, in
+the western world, we read, it is true, but of which we have no just
+conception until we visit it. The British empire in India, stretching from
+the Persian Gulf to the Strait of Malacca, is a creation which does honor
+to our race and language. I had coasted nearly its whole extent, and
+everywhere I found evidences of contentment, thrift, and prosperity. A
+constant stream of British shipping was passing to and fro, developing its
+immense commerce, and pouring its untold millions into the British
+exchequer. Powerful and swift steamships bring the home mails to three or
+four prominent points along the coast, as Aden, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong
+Kong, and from these points other steamers spread it broadcast over the
+empire. Railroads are pushed in every direction, there being as many as
+three thousand miles in operation, and the navigation of the coast
+districts of Hindostan has been carried, by means of a series of lagoons
+and canals, from Cape Comorin, hundreds of miles to the northward. These
+railroads and canals have opened up new fields of industry, and have been
+of especial service in developing that pet idea of England, the production
+of cotton.
+
+Up to the breaking out of our war, the cultivation of this valuable staple
+in India was a mere experiment. It is now an assured success. Those great
+fields lying between the Ghauts and the Himalayas of which we have been
+speaking, are being brought into connection with the sea-board, by lines
+of easy and cheap transportation. They have been found equal to our
+Southern plantations in the production of the article, and labor is a
+hundred per cent. cheaper, at least, than with us. Here are all the
+elements of cheap production. Our Yankee brethren have talked a good deal
+of what they "conquered" in the war, and have been quarrelling ever since
+over the fruits of their victory. Here is one of their conquests which no
+one can doubt--the transfer of the cotton supply of the world, from these
+Southern States to British India. The time is not far distant when Yankee
+spindles and looms will be spinning and weaving India cotton for the
+supply of their own people.
+
+The moral conquest of India, by the British people, is even more
+remarkable and more admirable than its physical conquest. Since their last
+Indian war, the whole country, from one end of it to the other, has
+settled down in the most profound peace. Nor is this the peace of
+despotism, for in comparison with the extent of territory, and the two
+hundred millions of people to be governed, the number of troops is
+ridiculously small. The conquest is one of arts and civilization, and not
+of arms. The railroad, the canal, the ship, the printing press, and above
+all, a paternal and beneficent government, have worked out the wonderful
+problem of the submission of teeming millions to the few. It is the
+conquest of race and of intellect. The docile Hindoo, not devoid of
+letters himself, has realized the fact that a superior people has come to
+settle in his country, to still domestic broils, strip former despots of
+their ill-gotten and much-abused power, and to rule him with humanity and
+justice. The torch of civilization has shone in dark places, dispelled
+many prejudices, and brought to light and broken up many hideous
+practices. Schools and colleges have sprung up everywhere, and the natural
+taste of the native population for letters has been cultivated. In the
+very newspapers which we are reviewing are to be found long dissertations
+and criticisms, by Hindoo scholars, on various matters of morals, science,
+and literature.
+
+A government whose foundations are thus laid will be durable. In
+Australia, New Zealand, and other colonies, where the white population, in
+the course of a few years, will greatly preponderate over the native, mere
+adolescence will bring about independence. But India will never become
+adolescent in this sense. She will remain indefinitely a prosperous ward
+in chancery--the guardian and the ward living amicably together, and each
+sharing the prosperity of the other.
+
+On the day after leaving the Malabar coast, we spoke a Portuguese bark,
+from Rio Janeiro bound to Goa, a short distance to the northward of us.
+This was the only Portuguese we met in these seas, of which they were, at
+one period of their history, entire masters. Vasco de Gama had made the
+seas classic by his adventures, and his countrymen, following in his
+track, had studded the coast with towns, of which Goa was one of the most
+ancient and important. As between the Hindoo and the Portuguese, the
+latter would probably long have maintained his ascendency, but there came
+along that superior race--that white race which has never submitted to any
+admixture of its blood--of which we have just been speaking, and nature,
+with her unvarying laws, had done the rest. The Portuguese gave place to
+the Englishman, as naturally as the African, and afterward the Hindoo, had
+given place to the Portuguese.
+
+Passing through the chain of islands which extends parallel with the
+Malabar coast for some distance, we stretched across the Arabian Sea in
+the direction of the east coast of Africa. We were now in the height of
+the season of the north-east monsoon, which was a fair wind for us, and
+the weather was as delightful as I have ever experienced it in any part of
+the globe--not even excepting our own Gulf of Mexico, and coasts of
+Alabama, and Florida, in the summer season. For twelve successive days, we
+did not have occasion to lower a studding sail, day or night! We had a
+constant series of clear skies, and gentle breezes. The nights were
+serene, and transparent, and the sunsets were magnificent beyond
+description. The trade wind is, _par excellence_, the wind of beautiful
+sunsets. Bright, gauzy clouds, float along lazily before it, and
+sometimes the most charming cumuli are piled up on the western horizon
+while the sun is going down. Stately cathedrals, with their domes and
+spires complete, may be traced by the eye of fancy, and the most gorgeous
+of golden, violet, orange, purple, green, and other hues, light up now a
+colonnade, now a dome, and now a spire of the a�rial edifice. And then
+came on the twilight, with its gray and purple blended, and with the
+twilight, the sounds of merriment on board the _Alabama_--for we had found
+a successor for Michael Mahoney, the Irish fiddler, and the usual evening
+dances were being held. We had been now some time at sea, since leaving
+Singapore; the "jail had been delivered," the proper punishments
+administered, and Jack, having forgotten both his offences, and their
+punishment, had again become a "good boy," and was as full of fun as ever.
+
+We had some fine fishing while passing through the Arabian Sea. The
+dolphin came around us in schools, and a number of them were struck with
+the "grains," and caught with lines--the bait being a piece of red flannel
+rag. And some of the seamen resorted to an ingenious device for entrapping
+the flying fish by night. A net being spread, with out-riggers, under the
+bow of the ship, and a light being held just above it, the fish, as they
+would rise in coveys--being flushed from time to time by the noise of the
+ship through the water--would rush at the light, and striking against the
+bow of the ship, tumble into the net beneath. Bartelli, on several
+mornings, spread my breakfast-table with them.
+
+On the 29th of January, we observed in latitude 2� 43' north, and
+longitude 51� east; and on the following evening passed through a
+remarkable patch of the sea. At about eight P. M., there being no moon,
+but the sky being clear, and the stars shining brightly, we suddenly
+passed from the deep blue water in which we had been sailing, into a patch
+of water so white that it startled me; so much did it appear like a shoal.
+To look over the ship's side, one would have sworn that she was in no more
+than five or six fathoms of water. The officer of the deck became
+evidently alarmed, and reported the fact to me, though I myself had
+observed it. There was no shoal laid down, within several hundred miles of
+our position, on the chart, and yet here was so manifestly one, that I
+shortened sail--we were running seven or eight knots per hour at the time,
+with a fresh breeze--hove the ship to, and got a cast of the deep-sea
+lead. The line ran out, and out, until a hundred fathoms had been taken by
+the lead, and still we found no bottom. We now checked the line, and
+hauling in the lead, made sail again. My fears thus quieted, I observed
+the phenomenon more at leisure. The patch was extensive. We were several
+hours in running through it. Around the horizon there was a subdued glare,
+or flush, as though there were a distant illumination going on, whilst
+overhead there was a lurid, dark sky, in which the stars paled. The whole
+face of nature seemed changed, and with but little stretch of the
+imagination, the _Alabama_ might have been conceived to be a phantom ship,
+lighted up by the sickly and unearthly glare of a phantom sea, and gliding
+on under the pale stars one knew not whither.
+
+Upon drawing a bucket of this water, it appeared to be full of minute
+luminous particles; the particles being instinct with life, and darting,
+and playing about in every direction; but upon a deck-lantern being
+brought, and held over the bucket, the little animals would all disappear,
+and nothing but a bucket full of _grayish_ water would be left. Here was
+an area of twenty miles square, in which Nature, who delights in life, was
+holding one of her starlight revels, with her myriads upon myriads of
+living creatures, each rejoicing in the life given it by its Creator, and
+dying almost as soon as born. The sun would rise on the morrow, over a sea
+as blue as usual, with only some motes in the pelluced waters glinting
+back his rays; and this twenty miles square of life would be no longer
+distinguishable from the surrounding waters.
+
+We crossed the equator on the 30th of January. The winds had now become
+light, and frequent calms ensued, though the bright weather continued. On
+the 9th of February we made the Comoro islands, that lie not a great way
+from the coast of Africa, and, getting up steam, ran in, and anchored at
+Johanna. This island is the most frequented of the group; ships bound to
+and from the East Indies, by the way of the Mozambique channel, frequently
+stopping here for refreshments. All these islands are volcanic in origin.
+They are of small extent, rise abruptly out of the sea, with deep water
+around them, and are mountainous. They are not claimed by any European
+nation; nor do any of the chiefs on the neighboring coast of Africa
+attempt to exercise jurisdiction over them. They are inhabited by a mixed
+race of Arabs, Africans, and East Indians, and each has its separate
+government, which is always a government of force, and is frequently
+overthrown by revolutions. Johanna, at the time we visited it, was under
+the rule of an Arab, who styled himself, the "Sultan Abdallah." From the
+circumstance that English ships frequently stop here, most of the
+inhabitants who live on the sea-coast speak a little English, and we were
+surprised, when we anchored, to find ourselves quite well known. The name
+of our ship was familiar to the dusky inhabitants, and they were evidently
+much delighted at our arrival. The "Sultan" did not come on board--he was
+busy, he said, putting up a sugar-mill--but he sent his Minister of
+Foreign Affairs, and Commander-in-Chief of his Army to see me; and with
+these, Galt, my paymaster, had no difficulty in contracting for the
+regular supply of bullocks and vegetables, to be sent off to us during our
+stay.
+
+I had come in solely for the purpose of refreshing my crew, and for this
+purpose we remained a week. During this time we became quite friendly with
+the Johannese--receiving frequent visits from them, and visiting them at
+their houses in return. We were quite surprised at the intelligence and
+civilization which characterized them. They nearly all read and write, and
+the better classes set up some pretensions to literature. They are
+Mohammedans in faith, and I found some of their priests, who were fond of
+visiting me, sprightly, well informed, and liberal men, acknowledging both
+Moses and Christ to have been prophets, and entertaining a respect for the
+Christian religion; doubtless the result of their intercourse with the
+English.
+
+I visited the houses of some of my friends with the hope of getting a
+glimpse at their domestic life, but was disappointed. They received me
+with all cordiality and respect, but the females of their families were
+carefully kept out of sight. A female slave would fan me, and hand me my
+coffee and sherbet, but that was all. Their slavery appeared to be of a
+mitigated form, the slaves being on easy and even familiar terms with
+their masters. The houries who fanned me could have been bought for twenty
+dollars each. The price of a slave fresh from the coast, is not more than
+half that sum.
+
+I gave my sailors a run on shore, but this sort of "liberty" was awful
+hard work for Jack. There was no such thing as a glass of grog to be found
+in the whole town, and as for a fiddle, and Sal for a partner--all of
+which would have been a matter of course in _civilized_ countries--there
+were no such luxuries to be thought of. They found it a difficult matter
+to get through with the day, and were all down at the beach long before
+sunset--the hour appointed for their coming off--waiting for the approach
+of the welcome boat. I told Kell to let them go on shore as often as they
+pleased, but no one made a second application.
+
+On the 15th of February, having received on board a supply of half a dozen
+live bullocks, and some fruits and vegetables, we got under way, and again
+turned our head to the south-west. The winds were light, but we were much
+assisted by the currents; for we were now approaching the Mozambique
+Channel, and the south-west current, of which I spoke when we left the
+Cape of Good Hope for our run before the "brave west winds," to the
+eastward, was hurrying us forward, sometimes at the rate of forty or fifty
+miles a day. As we progressed, the wind freshened, and by the time we had
+entered the narrowest part of the channel between Madagascar and the
+African coast, which lies in about 15� south latitude, we lost the fine
+weather and clear skies, which we had brought all the way across the
+Arabian Sea. We now took several gales of wind. Rain-squalls were of
+frequent occurrence. As we approached the south-west end of Madagascar,
+which lies just without the Tropic of Capricorn, we encountered one of the
+most sublime storms of thunder and lightning I ever witnessed. It occurred
+at night. Black rain-clouds mustered from every quarter of the compass,
+and the heavens were soon so densely and darkly overcast, that it was
+impossible to see across the ship's deck. Sometimes the most terrific
+squalls of wind accompany these storms, and we furled most of the sails,
+and awaited in silence the _denouement_. The thunder rolled and crashed,
+as if the skies were falling in pieces; and the lightning--sheet
+lightning, streaked lightning, forked lightning--kept the firmament almost
+constantly ablaze. And the rain! I thought I had seen it rain before, but
+for an hour, Madagascar beat the Ghaut Mountains. It came down almost
+literally by the bucketfull. Almost a continual stream of lightning ran
+down our conductors, and hissed as it leaped into the sea. There was not
+much wind, but all the other meteorological elements were there in
+perfection. Madagascar is, perhaps, above all other countries, the
+bantling and the plaything of the storm, and thunder and lightning. Its
+plains, heated to nearly furnace-heat, by a tropical sun, its ranges of
+lofty mountains, the currents that sweep along its coasts, and its
+proximity to equatorial Africa, all point it out as being in a region
+fertile of meteorological phenomena. Cyclones of small diameter are of
+frequent occurrence in the Mozambique Channel. They travel usually from
+south-east to north-west, or straight across the channel. We took one of
+these short gales, which lasted us the greater part of a day.
+
+Leaving the channel, and pursuing our way toward the Cape of Good Hope, we
+sounded on the Agulhas Bank on the 7th of March--our latitude being 35�
+10', and longitude 24� 08'. This bank is sometimes the scene of terrible
+conflicts of the elements in the winter season. Stout ships are literally
+swamped here, by the huge, wall-like seas; and the frames of others so
+much shaken and loosened in every knee and joint, as to render them
+unseaworthy. The cause of these terrible, short, racking seas, is the
+meeting of the winds and currents. Whilst the awful, wintry gale is
+howling from the west and north-west, the Mozambique, or Agulhas current,
+as it is now called, is setting in its teeth, sometimes at the rate of two
+or three knots per hour. A struggle ensues between the billows lashed into
+fury by the winds, and the angry current which is opposing them. The
+ground-swell contributes to the turmoil of the elements, and the stoutest
+mariner sometimes stands appalled at the spectacle of seas with nearly
+perpendicular walls, battering his ship like so many battering-rams, and
+threatening her with instant destruction. Hence the name of the "stormy
+cape," applied to the Cape of Good Hope.
+
+Arriving on our old cruising ground off the pitch of the Cape, we held
+ourselves here a few days, overhauling the various ships that passed. But
+American commerce, which, as the reader has seen, had fled this beaten
+track before we left for the East Indies, had not returned to it. The few
+ships of the enemy that passed, still gave the Cape a wide berth, and
+winged their flight homeward over the by-ways, instead of the highways of
+the ocean. We found the coast clear again of the enemy's cruisers. That
+huge old coal-box, the _Vanderbilt_, having thought it useless to pursue
+us farther, had turned back, and was now probably doing a more profitable
+business, by picking up blockade-runners on the American coast. This
+operation _paid_--the captain might grow rich upon it. Chasing the
+_Alabama_ did not. Finding that it was useless for us to cruise longer off
+the Cape, we ran into Cape Town, and came to anchor at half-past four, on
+the afternoon of the 20th of March. We had gone to sea from Simon's Town,
+on our way to the East Indies, on the 24th of the preceding
+September,--our cruise had thus lasted within a day or two of six months.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+ALABAMA AGAIN IN CAPE TOWN--THE SEIZURE OF THE TUSCALOOSA, AND THE
+DISCUSSION WHICH GREW OUT OF IT--CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND
+ADMIRAL WALKER--FINAL ACTION OF THE HOME GOVERNMENT, AND RELEASE OF THE
+TUSCALOOSA.
+
+
+After our long absence in the East Indies, we felt like returning home
+when we ran into Table Bay. Familiar faces greeted us, and the same
+welcome was extended to us as upon our first visit. An unpleasant surprise
+awaited me, however, in the course the British Government had recently
+pursued in regard to my tender, the _Tuscaloosa_. The reader will
+recollect, that I had dispatched this vessel from Angra Peque�a, back to
+the coast of Brazil, to make a cruise on that coast. Having made her
+cruise, she returned to Simon's Town, in the latter part of December, in
+want of repairs and supplies. Much to the astonishment of her commander,
+she was seized, a few days afterward, by Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker, under
+orders from the Home Government. Since I had left the Cape, a
+correspondence had ensued between the Governor, Sir Philip Wodehouse, and
+the Secretary for the Colonies, the Duke of Newcastle; the latter
+disapproving of the conduct of the former, in the matter of the reception
+of the _Tuscaloosa_. It was insisted by the Duke, that inasmuch as the
+_Tuscaloosa_ was an uncondemned prize, she was not entitled to be regarded
+as a ship of war; but that, on the contrary, having been brought into
+British waters, in violation of the Queen's orders of neutrality, she
+should have been detained, and handed over to her original owners. Under
+these instructions, the _Tuscaloosa_ was seized upon her return to the
+Cape. This correspondence between the Governor and the Duke had not yet
+been made public, and it was supposed that the seizure had been made by
+order of Lord John Russell. Under this impression I sat down, and
+addressed the following letter to Sir Baldwin Walker, the Admiral, on the
+subject:--
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER ALABAMA,
+     TABLE BAY, March 22, 1864.
+
+     SIR:--I was surprised to learn, upon my arrival at this port, of the
+     detention, by your order, of the Confederate States bark
+     _Tuscaloosa_, a tender to this ship. I take it for granted that you
+     detained her by order of the Home Government, as no other supposition
+     is consistent with my knowledge of the candor of your character--the
+     _Tuscaloosa_ having been formerly received by you as a regularly
+     commissioned tender, and no new facts appearing in the case to change
+     your decision. Under these circumstances, I shall not demand of you
+     the restoration of that vessel, with which demand you would not have
+     the power to comply, but will content myself with putting this, my
+     protest, on record, for the future consideration of our respective
+     Governments. Earl Russell, in reaching the decision which he has
+     communicated to you, must surely have misapprehended the facts; for
+     if he had correctly understood them, he could not have been capable
+     of so grossly misapplying the law. The facts are briefly these:
+     _First_, The _Tuscaloosa_ was formerly the enemy's ship _Conrad_,
+     lawfully captured by me on the high seas, in my recognized character
+     of a belligerent. _2dly_, She was duly commissioned by me, as a
+     tender to the Confederate States steamer _Alabama_, then, as now,
+     under my command. _3dly_, In this character she entered British
+     waters, was received with the courtesy and hospitality due to a ship
+     of war of a friendly power, and was permitted to repair and refit,
+     and depart on a cruise.
+
+     These were the facts up to the time of Earl Russell's issuing to you
+     the order in the premises. Let us consider them for a moment, and see
+     if they afford his lordship any ground for the extraordinary
+     conclusion at which he has arrived. My right to capture, and the
+     legality of the capture, will not be denied. Nor will you deny, in
+     your experience as a naval officer, my right to commission this, or
+     any other ship lawfully in my possession, as a tender to my principal
+     ship. British Admirals do this every day, on distant stations; and
+     the tender, from the time of her being put in commission, wears a
+     pennant, and is entitled to all the immunities and privileges of a
+     ship of war, the right of capturing enemy's ships included. Numerous
+     decisions are to be found in your own prize law to this effect. In
+     other words, this is one of the recognized modes of commissioning a
+     ship of war, which has grown out of the convenience of the thing, and
+     become a sort of naval common law of the sea, as indisputable as the
+     written law itself. The only difference between the commission of
+     such a ship, and that of a ship commissioned by the sovereign
+     authority at home is, that the word "tender" appears in the former
+     commission, and not in the latter.
+
+     The _Tuscaloosa_ having, then, been commissioned by me, in accordance
+     with the recognized practice of all civilized nations that have a
+     marine, can any other government than my own look into her
+     antecedents? Clearly not. The only thing which can be looked at, upon
+     her entering a foreign port, is her commission. If this be issued by
+     competent authority, you cannot proceed a step further. The ship then
+     becomes a part of the territory of the country to which she belongs,
+     and you can exercise no more jurisdiction over her, than over that
+     territory. The self-respect, and the independence of nations require
+     this; for it would be a monstrous doctrine, to admit, that one nation
+     may inquire into the title by which another nation holds her ships of
+     war. And there can be no difference, in this respect, between
+     tenders, and ships originally commissioned. The flag and the pennant
+     fly over them both, and they are both withdrawn from the local
+     jurisdiction by competent commissions. On principle you might as well
+     have undertaken to inquire into the antecedents of the _Alabama_ as
+     of the _Tuscaloosa_. Indeed, you had a better reason for inquiring
+     into the antecedents of the former, than of the latter; it having
+     been alleged that the former escaped from England in violation of
+     your Foreign Enlistment Act. Mr. Adams, the United States Minister at
+     London, did, in fact, set up this pretension, and demand that the
+     _Alabama_ should be seized in the first British port into which she
+     should enter; but Earl Russell, in pointed contradiction of his
+     recent conduct in the case of the _Tuscaloosa_, gave him the proper
+     legal reply, viz.: that the _Alabama_ being now a ship of war, he was
+     estopped from looking into her antecedents.
+
+     A simple illustration will suffice to show you how untenable your
+     position is in this matter. If the _Tuscaloosa's_ commission be
+     admitted to have been issued by competent authority, and in due
+     form--and I do not understand this to be denied--she is as much a
+     ship of war as the _Narcissus_, your flag-ship. Suppose you should
+     visit a French port, under circumstances similar to those under which
+     the _Tuscaloosa_ visited Simon's Town, and the French Government
+     should threaten you with seizure, unless you satisfied it as to the
+     antecedents of your ship, what would you think of the pretension?
+     Suppose your late war with Russia was still progressing--France being
+     neutral--and your ship had been captured from the Russians, and
+     commissioned by your Government, without having first been condemned
+     by a prize court, would this make any difference? You see that it
+     would not. The pretension would be an insult to your Government. And
+     in what does the supposed proceeding differ from the one in hand? In
+     both it is a pretension on the part of a foreign power, to look into
+     the antecedents of a ship of war--neither more nor less in the one
+     case than in the other.
+
+     I will even put the case stronger. If I had seized a ship belonging
+     to a power with which my Government was at peace, and commissioned
+     her, you could not undertake to inquire into the fact. You would have
+     no right to know, but that I had the orders of my Government for the
+     seizure. In short, you would have no right to inquire into the matter
+     at all. My ship being regularly commissioned, I am responsible to my
+     Government for my acts, and that Government, in the case supposed,
+     would be responsible to the friendly power whose ship had been
+     seized, and not to you. Nay, the case may be put stronger still. The
+     Federal States have captured a number of British vessels, in the act
+     of attempting to run the blockade of the ports of the Confederate
+     States. Suppose the Federal States had commissioned one of these
+     ships, without her having been first condemned by a prize-court, and
+     she had afterward come into British waters, could you have seized
+     her, even though you might know her capture to have been wrongful?
+     Certainly not. It would be a matter which you could inquire into in
+     another form, but not in this. The ship would have become a ship of
+     war, exempt from your jurisdiction, and you could not touch her. If
+     this reasoning be correct--and with all due submission to his
+     lordship, I think it is sustained by the plainest principles of the
+     International Code--it follows that the condemnation of a prize in a
+     prize-court, is not the only mode of changing the character of a
+     captured ship. When the sovereign of the captor puts his commission
+     on board such a ship, this is a condemnation in its most solemn form;
+     and is notice to all the world.
+
+     Further, as to this question of adjudication. Your letter to
+     Lieutenant Low, the late commander of the _Tuscaloosa_, assumes that
+     as that ship was not condemned, she was the property of the enemy
+     from whom she had been taken. On what ground can you undertake to
+     make this decision? Condemnation is intended for the benefit of
+     neutrals, and to quiet the titles of purchasers, but is never
+     necessary as against the enemy. He has, and can have no rights in a
+     prize-court at all. He cannot appear there, either in person or by
+     attorney. He is divested of his property by _force_, and not by any
+     legal process. The _possession_ of his property by his enemy, is all
+     that is required as against him. What right, then, has the British
+     Government to step in between me and my right of possession--waiving,
+     for the present, the question of the commission, and supposing the
+     _Tuscaloosa_ to be nothing more than a prize-ship? Does the fact of
+     my prize being in British waters, in violation of the Queen's
+     proclamation, give it this right? Clearly not; for we are speaking
+     now of rights under the laws of nations, and a mere municipal order
+     cannot abrogate these. The prize may be ordered out of the port, but
+     my possession is as firm in port, as out.
+
+     There is but a single class of cases that I am aware of, in which a
+     neutral power can undertake to adjudicate a prize-case, and that is,
+     where it is alleged that the capture has been made in neutral waters,
+     in violation of the neutral jurisdiction. In that case a neutral
+     Court of Admiralty may, in case the prize be afterward brought _infra
+     presidia_ of the neutral country, inquire into the facts, and may
+     even restore the prize to the enemy, if it should appear that the
+     neutral jurisdiction has been violated. But this restoration of the
+     property to the enemy depends upon an entirely different principle.
+     The right of capture does not exist within the marine league. There
+     was, therefore, no capture; and there having been no capture, as a
+     matter of course, the property belongs to the enemy, and must be
+     restored to him. To show the irrefragable nature of my possession,
+     permit me to quote to your Excellency, one of your own authorities.
+     On page forty-two of the first volume of "Phillimore on International
+     Law," you will find the following passage:--"In 1654 a treaty was
+     entered into between England and Portugal, by which, among other
+     things, both countries mutually bound themselves not to suffer the
+     ships and goods of the other, taken by enemies and carried into the
+     ports of the other, to be conveyed away from the original owners or
+     proprietors." Here two powers bound themselves, by treaty, to do what
+     the British Government is now attempting to do; that is, to interpose
+     between the captor and his prize, undo his possession, and hand the
+     prize back to its original owners. Great Britain said to Portugal, "I
+     will not permit your enemies to bring any ships they may capture from
+     you, into my ports, and if they do, I will restore them to you." In
+     1798, in a case before Lord Stowell, that great admiralty judge had
+     occasion to comment on this treaty, and used the following language
+     in relation to it:--"Now I have no scruple in saying, that this is an
+     article incapable of being carried into literal execution, according
+     to the modern understanding of the laws of nations; for no neutral
+     country can intervene to wrest from a belligerent prizes _lawfully
+     taken_. This is, perhaps, the strongest instance that could be cited
+     of what civilians call the _consuetudo obrogatoria_." The _custom_,
+     in the law of nations, _abrogated_ even a treaty, in that case. The
+     prize being once _lawfully made_, an English Court of Admiralty could
+     not intervene to wrest it from the captor, even though commanded so
+     to do by a treaty. Will Lord Russell undertake, in face of this
+     decision, and of his own mere motion, without even the formality of
+     process from an Admiralty Court, to wrest my prize from me, and hand
+     it over to the enemy? My Government cannot fail, I think, to view
+     this matter in the light in which I have placed it; and it is deeply
+     to be regretted, that a weaker people, struggling against a stronger
+     for very existence, should have so much cause to complain of the
+     unfriendly disposition of a Government, from which, if it represents
+     truly the generous instincts of Englishmen, we had the right to
+     expect, at least, a manly disposition to do us justice.
+
+Governor Wodehouse was, from the first, very clearly of the opinion that
+the _Tuscaloosa_ was entitled to be considered and treated as a ship of
+war, and in his correspondence with the Duke of Newcastle, before referred
+to, he maintained this opinion with great force and clearness. He was,
+besides, fortified by the opinion of the Attorney-General of the Colony.
+
+The seizure of the _Tuscaloosa_ made some stir among the politicians in
+England. The subject was brought to the notice of the House of Commons,
+and information asked for. The Cabinet took it up, and were obliged to
+reverse the decision of the Duke of Newcastle. On the 4th of March, 1864,
+the Duke wrote to Governor Wodehouse as follows: "I have received your
+despatches of the 11th and 19th of January, reporting the circumstances
+connected with the seizure of the Confederate prize-vessel _Tuscaloosa_,
+under the joint authority of the naval commander-in-chief and yourself. I
+have to instruct you to restore the _Tuscaloosa_ to the lieutenant of the
+Confederate States, who lately commanded her, or if he should have left
+the Cape, then to retain her until she can be handed over to some person
+who may have authority from Captain Semmes, of the _Alabama_, or from the
+Government of the Confederate States, to receive her."
+
+The London "Times," of the 8th of March, 1864, in reporting the
+proceedings of the House of Commons for the preceding day, contained the
+following paragraph:--
+
+     "_The Tuscaloosa._--Mr. Peacocke asked on what grounds the
+     _Tuscaloosa_ had been seized at the Cape of Good Hope. Lord
+     Palmerston said, that it was in conformity with the instructions
+     received, that the authorities at the Cape of Good Hope had seized
+     this vessel, but on representations that had been made to the
+     Government, and on full consideration of the case, it had been
+     determined that there had been no proper ground for the seizure of
+     the vessel, and its release had been ordered."
+
+The order to restore the _Tuscaloosa_ did not reach the Cape until after
+both Lieutenant Low and myself had left, and the war drew so speedily to a
+close, that possession of her was never resumed. At the close of the war,
+she fell, along with other Confederate property, into the hands of the
+Federals. Besides embalming the beautiful name "_Tuscaloosa_" in history,
+this prize-ship settled the law point I had been so long contesting with
+Mr. Seward and Mr. Adams, to wit: that "one nation cannot inquire into the
+antecedents of the ships of war of another nation;" and consequently that
+when the _Alabama_ escaped from British waters and was commissioned,
+neither the United States nor Great Britain could object to her _status_
+as a ship of war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+THE ALABAMA AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE--LEAVES ON HER RETURN TO
+EUROPE--CAPTURE OF THE ROCKINGHAM AND OF THE TYCOON--CROSSES THE EQUATOR
+INTO THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE, AND ARRIVES AND ANCHORS AT CHERBOURG ON THE
+11TH OF JUNE, 1864--THE COMBAT BETWEEN THE ALABAMA AND THE KEARSARGE.
+
+
+We entered Table Bay on the 20th of March, and on the next day we had the
+usual equinoctial gale. The wind was from the south-east, and blew very
+heavily for twenty-four hours. We let go a second anchor, and veered to
+ninety fathoms on the riding-chain. The usual phenomena accompanied this
+south-east gale, viz., a clear sky and a high barometer. The D----l kept
+his table-cloth spread on the top of the mountain during the whole of the
+gale, and it was wonderful to watch the unvarying size and shape of this
+fleecy cloud, every particle of which was being changed from moment to
+moment. Some boats visited us, notwithstanding the gale, and brought us
+off some of the delightful grapes and figs of the Cape. We were in the
+midst of the fruit season. Our old friend, Mr. William Anderson, of the
+firm of Anderson, Saxon & Co., who had acted as our agent, on the occasion
+of our former visit, so much to our satisfaction, also came off to arrange
+for further supplies. There was no occasion any longer for him to draw
+upon our public chest, the proceeds of the merchandise shipped by him to
+Europe, on our account, being sufficient to pay all bills.
+
+The gale having moderated the next day, lighters came alongside, and we
+began coaling, and receiving such supplies of provisions as we needed.
+Visitors again thronged on board, and the energies and address of
+Bartelli were freshly taxed. For a phlegmatic, impassible people, the
+English are, perhaps, the greatest sight-seekers in the world; and the
+Cape of Good Hope, being, as before remarked, a relay station on the
+principal highway of travel, is always filled with new-comers. Military
+and naval officers, governors, judges, superintendents of boards of trade,
+attorney-generals, all on their way to their missions in the Far East,
+came to see the _Alabama_. Though we were sometimes incommoded by the
+crowd, in the midst of our coaling and provisioning ship, scraping masts
+and tarring down rigging, we received everybody politely, and answered
+patiently their curious questions. When we were here last, we had had
+occasion to notice an American bark called the _Urania_, a trader between
+Boston and the Cape, which took every opportunity to display a very large
+and very bright "old flag," during our stay. The _Urania_ had made a
+voyage to Boston and back, during our absence, and now came in, tricked
+out so finely in her "bran-new" English flag that we hardly knew her!
+
+In three days we were ready for sea. On the morning of the 25th, we got up
+steam, and moved out of Table Bay for the last time, amidst lusty cheers,
+and the waving of handkerchiefs from the fleet of boats by which we were
+surrounded. As we were going out, it so happened that a Yankee steamer was
+coming in. The _Quang Tung_, a fast steamer, recently built for the China
+trade, and now on her way to the Flowery Land, not dreaming that the
+_Alabama_ was at the Cape, had made Table Mountain that morning, and now
+came steaming into the harbor. Both ships being within the marine league,
+we could not touch her, which was a sore trial, for the _Quang Tung_ was a
+beauty, and passed so close under our guns, that the Confederate and
+United States flags nearly touched each other; the crews of the two ships
+looking on in silence. Half an hour more, and the capture of the
+_Sea-Bride_ would have been repeated, to the gratification of our many
+friends at the Cape. Reaching the offing, we permitted our fires to go
+down, and put the ship, as usual, under sail. My intention now was, to
+make the best of my way to England or France, for the purpose of docking,
+and thoroughly overhauling and repairing my ship, in accordance with my
+previously expressed design.
+
+I had been so much occupied with business and visitors, at the Cape, that
+I had not even had time to read the newspapers. But my friends had brought
+me off a bountiful supply for sea, and I now had a little leisure to look
+at them. The news was not encouraging. Our people were being harder and
+harder pressed by the enemy, and post after post within our territory was
+being occupied by him. The signs of weakness, on our part, which I
+mentioned as becoming, for the first time, painfully apparent, after the
+battle of Gettysburg, and the surrender of Vicksburg, were multiplying.
+The blockade of the coast, by reason of the constantly increasing fleets
+of the enemy, was becoming more and more stringent. Our finances were
+rapidly deteriorating, and a general demoralization, in consequence,
+seemed to be spreading among our people. From the whole review of the
+"situation," I was very apprehensive that the cruises of the _Alabama_
+were drawing to a close. As for ourselves, we were doing the best we
+could, with our limited means, to harass and cripple the enemy's commerce,
+that important sinew of war; but the enemy seemed resolved to let his
+commerce go, rather than forego his purpose of subjugating us; rendering
+it up a willing sacrifice on the profane altar of his fanaticism, and the
+devilish passions which had been engendered by the war. Probably, if the
+alternative had been presented to him, in the beginning of the war, "Will
+you lose your commerce, or permit the Southern States to go free?" he
+would have chosen the latter. But he seemed, in the earlier stages of the
+war, to have had no thought of losing his commerce; and when it became
+apparent that this misfortune would befall him, he was, as before
+remarked, too deeply engaged in the contest to heed it.
+
+Among the speeches that met my eye, in the English papers, was another
+from my friend, Mr. Milner Gibson, President of the Board of Trade--him of
+the "ham and eggs," whom I quoted some chapters back. Mr. Gibson had risen
+above ham and eggs, this time, and was talking about English and American
+shipping. As President of the Board of Trade, he was good authority, and I
+was glad to learn from him, the extent to which, in conjunction with other
+Confederate cruisers, I had damaged the enemy's commerce. His speech was
+delivered at Ashton-under-Lyne, on the 20th of January, 1864, and among
+other things he said:--
+
+     "The number of British ships entering in, and clearing out with
+     cargoes in the United Kingdom, has increased in the present year to
+     an amount of something like fourteen million of tons and upward,
+     against seven million tons of foreign shipping; thus showing, that
+     with a great increase altogether, British shipping has kept gradually
+     in advance of foreign shipping in the trade with the United Kingdom.
+     But it would not be fair to take credit for this improvement in
+     shipping, as due to any policy in this country. I am afraid that some
+     of it is due to the transference of the carrying-trade from American
+     ships to British ships. And why this transference from American ships
+     to British ships? No doubt, partially in consequence of the war that
+     prevails in America, there may not be the same power in manning and
+     fitting out merchant vessels. But I am afraid there is something more
+     than that. There is the fear among the American merchant shipping of
+     attacks by certain armed vessels that are careering over the ocean,
+     and that are burning and destroying all United States merchant ships
+     that they find upon the high seas. The fear, therefore, of
+     destruction by these cruisers, has caused a large transfer of
+     American carrying to British ships. Now the decrease in the
+     employment of American shipping is very great in the trade between
+     England and the United States. It is something like 46 or 47 per
+     cent. I mention these facts to show you that it is right that the
+     attention of this great commercial nation should be seriously turned
+     to those laws which govern the action of belligerents upon the high
+     seas--(hear! hear!)--for if some two or three armed steamers, which a
+     country with no pretensions to a navy, can easily send upon the
+     ocean, armed with one or two guns, can almost clear the seas of the
+     merchant shipping of a particular nation, what might happen to this
+     country, with her extensive commerce over the seas, if she went to
+     war with some nation that availed herself of the use of similar
+     descriptions of vessels. (Hear! hear!)"
+
+Though the subject was done up in a new form, it was still "ham and
+eggs"--British interests--as the reader sees. Mr. Milner Gibson was not
+over-stating the damage we had done the enemy. He was unfriendly to us,
+and therefore inclined to under-state it. According to his statistics, we
+had destroyed, or driven for protection under the English flag, in round
+numbers, one half of the enemy's ships engaged in the English trade. We
+did even greater damage to the enemy's trade with other powers. We broke
+up almost entirely his trade with Brazil, and the other South American
+States, greatly crippled his Pacific trade, and as for his East India
+trade, it is only necessary to refer the reader to the spectacle presented
+at Singapore, to show him what had become of that.
+
+I threw my ship, now, into the "fair way," leading from the Cape of Good
+Hope, to the equatorial crossing, east of our old trysting-place, Fernando
+de Noronha; shortening sail, from time to time, and see-sawing across the
+highway, to give any Yankee ships that might be travelling it, the
+opportunity to come up with me. I held myself in check, a day or two, in
+the vicinity of St. Helena, experiencing all the vicissitudes of weather,
+so feelingly complained of by the "Great Captive" on that barren rock.
+Leaving St. Helena, we jogged along leisurely under topsails, the stream
+of commerce flowing past us, but there being no Yankee ships in the
+stream.
+
+  "Howl, ye ships of Tarshish,
+  For your strength is laid waste."
+
+On the 22d of April, having reached the track of the homeward-bound
+Pacific ships of the enemy, we descried an unlucky Yankee, to whom we
+immediately gave chase. The chase continued the whole night, the moon
+shining brightly, the breeze being gentle, and the sea smooth. The Yankee
+worked like a good fellow to get away, piling clouds of canvas upon his
+ship, and handling her with the usual skill, but it was of no use. When
+the day dawned we were within a couple of miles of him. It was the old
+spectacle of the panting, breathless fawn, and the inexorable stag-hound.
+A gun brought his colors to the peak, and his main-yard to the mast. The
+prize proved to be the ship _Rockingham_, from Callao, bound to Cork for
+orders. Her cargo consisted of guano from the Chincha Islands, and there
+was an attempt to protect it. It was shipped by the "Guano Consignment
+Company of Great Britain." Among the papers was a certificate, of which
+the following is the purport: One Joseph A. Danino, who signs for Danino &
+Moscosa, certifies that the guano belongs to the Peruvian Government; and
+Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Lima, certifies that the said Joseph A.
+Danino appeared before him, and "voluntarily declared, that the foregoing
+signature is of his own handwriting, and also, that the cargo above
+mentioned is truly and verily the property of the Peruvian Government."
+This was about equal to some of the Yankee attempts, that have been
+noticed, to cover cargoes. With the most perfect unconcern for the laws of
+nations, no one swore to anything. Mr. Danino certified, and the Consul
+certified that Mr. Danino had certified. _Voila tout!_ We transferred to
+the _Alabama_ such stores and provisions as we could make room for, and
+the weather being fine, we made a target of the prize, firing some shot
+and shell into her with good effect; and at five P. M. we burned her, and
+filled away on our course.
+
+A few days afterward--on the 27th of April--being in latitude 11� 16' S.
+and longitude 32� 07' W., the weather being fine, and the wind light from
+the south-east, we descried, at three P. M., a large ship standing
+directly for us. Neither ship changed tack or sheet until we were within
+speaking distance. Nor had we shown the stranger any colors. We now
+hailed, and ordered him to heave to, whilst we should send aboard of him,
+hoisting our colors at the same time. We had previously seen the Yankee
+colors in the hands of one of his seamen, ready to be hoisted. The whole
+thing was done so quietly, that one would have thought it was two friends
+meeting. The prize proved to be the _Tycoon_, from New York, for San
+Francisco. She had the usual valuable and assorted cargo. There was no
+claim of neutral property among the papers. The ship being only thirty-six
+days from New York, we received from her a batch of late newspapers; and a
+portion of her cargo consisting of clothing, the paymaster was enabled to
+replenish his store-rooms with every variety of wearing apparel. We
+applied the torch to her soon after nightfall.
+
+On the 2d of May, we recrossed the equator into the northern hemisphere,
+took the north-east trade-wind, after the usual interval of calm, and the
+usual amount of thunder, lightning, and rain, and with it, ran up to our
+old toll-gate, at the crossing of the 30th parallel, where, as the reader
+will recollect, we halted, on our outward passage, and _vis�d_ the
+passports of so many travellers. The poor old _Alabama_ was not now what
+she had been then. She was like the wearied fox-hound, limping back after
+a long chase, foot-sore, and longing for quiet and repose. Her commander,
+like herself, was well-nigh worn down. Vigils by night and by day, the
+storm and the drenching rain, the frequent and rapid change of climate,
+now freezing, now melting or broiling, and the constant excitement of the
+chase and capture, had laid, in the three years of war he had been afloat,
+a load of a dozen years on his shoulders. The shadows of a sorrowful
+future, too, began to rest upon his spirit. The last batch of newspapers
+captured were full of disasters. Might it not be, that, after all our
+trials and sacrifices, the cause for which we were struggling would be
+lost? Might not our federal system of government be destroyed, and State
+independence become a phrase of the past; the glorious fabric of our
+American liberty sinking, as so many others had done before it, under a
+new invasion of Brennuses and Attilas? The thought was hard to bear.
+
+We passed through our old cruising-ground, the Azores, sighting several of
+the islands which called up reminiscences of the christening of our ship,
+and of the sturdy blows she had struck at the enemy's whaling fleet, in
+the first days of her career. Thence we stretched over to the coasts of
+Spain and Portugal, and thence to the British Channel, making the Lizard
+on the 10th of June, and being fortunate enough to get a channel pilot on
+board, just as night was setting in, with a thick south-wester brewing. By
+eleven P. M., we were up with the "Start" light, and at ten the next
+morning, we made Cape La Hague, on the coast of France. We were now
+boarded by a French pilot, and at thirty minutes past noon, we let go our
+anchor in the port of Cherbourg.
+
+This was to be the _Alabama's_ last port. She had run her career, her
+record had been made up, and in a few days more, she would lay her bones
+beneath the waters of the British Channel, and be a thing of the past. I
+had brought back with me all my officers, except the paymaster, whom I had
+discharged at the island of Jamaica, as related in a former chapter, and
+the young engineer, who had been accidentally killed at Saldanha Bay. Many
+changes had taken place, of course, among my crew, as is always the case
+with sailors, but still a large proportion of my old men had come back
+with me. These were faithful and true, and took more than an ordinary
+interest in their ship and their flag. There were harmony and mutual
+confidence between officers and men. Our discipline had been rigid, but
+mercy had always tempered justice, and the sailors understood and
+appreciated this. I had been successful with the health of my men beyond
+precedent. In my two ships, the _Sumter_ and _Alabama_, I had had, first
+and last, say five hundred men under my command. The ships were small and
+crowded. As many as two thousand prisoners were confined, for longer or
+shorter periods, on board the two ships; and yet, out of the total of
+twenty-five hundred men, _I had not lost a single man by disease_. I had
+skilful and attentive surgeons, I gave them _carte blanche_ with regard to
+medicines and diet, and my first lieutenant understood it to be an
+important part of his duty to husband the strength of his men. The means
+which were resorted to by all these officers, for preserving the health of
+the crew, have been detailed. The reader has seen, not only how their
+clothing was changed as we changed our latitude, but how it was changed
+every evening, when we were in warm climates. He has seen how sedulously
+we guarded against intemperance, at the same time that we gave the sailor
+his regular allowance of grog. And last, though by no means least, he has
+seen how we endeavored to promote a cheerful and hilarious spirit among
+them, being present at, and encouraging them in their diversions.
+
+Immediately upon anchoring, I sent an officer to call on the Port Admiral,
+and ask leave to land my prisoners from the two last ships captured. This
+was readily granted, and the next day I went on shore to see him myself,
+in relation to docking and repairing my ship. My arrival had, of course,
+been telegraphed to Paris, and indeed, by this time, had been spread all
+over Europe. The Admiral regretted that I had not gone into Havre, or some
+other commercial port, where I would have found private docks. Cherbourg
+being exclusively a naval station, the docks all belonged to the
+Government, and the Government would have preferred not to dock and repair
+a belligerent ship. No positive objection was made, however, and the
+matter was laid over, until the Emperor could be communicated with. The
+Emperor was then at Biarritz, a small watering-place on the south coast,
+and would not be back in Paris for several days. It was my intention, if I
+had been admitted promptly into dock, to give my crew a leave of absence
+for a couple of months. They would have been discharged, and dispersed, in
+the first twenty-four hours after my arrival, but for this temporary
+absence of the Emperor. The combat, therefore, which ensued, may be said
+to be due to the Emperor's accidental absence from Paris.
+
+When the _Alabama_ arrived in Cherbourg, the enemy's steamer _Kearsarge_
+was lying at Flushing. On the 14th of June, or three days after our
+arrival, she steamed into the harbor of Cherbourg, sent a boat on shore to
+communicate with the authorities, and, without anchoring, steamed out
+again, and took her station off the breakwater. We had heard, a day or two
+before, of the expected arrival of this ship, and it was generally
+understood among my crew that I intended to engage her. Her appearance,
+therefore, produced no little excitement on board. The object which the
+_Kearsarge_ had in view, in communicating with the authorities, was to
+request that the prisoners I had sent on shore might be delivered up to
+her. To this I objected, on the ground, that it would augment her crew,
+which she had no right to do, in neutral waters, and especially in the
+face of her enemy. Captain Winslow's request was refused, and the
+prisoners were not permitted to go on board of him. I now addressed a note
+to Mr. Bonfils, our agent, requesting him to inform Captain Winslow,
+through the United States Consul, that if he would wait until I could
+receive some coal on board--my supply having been nearly exhausted, by my
+late cruising--I would come out and give him battle. This message was duly
+conveyed, and the defiance was understood to have been accepted.
+
+We commenced coaling ship immediately, and making other preparations for
+battle; as sending down all useless yards and top-hamper, examining the
+gun equipments, and overhauling the magazine and shell-rooms. My crew
+seemed not only willing, but anxious for the combat, and I had every
+confidence in their steadiness and drill; but they labored under one
+serious disadvantage. They had had but very limited opportunities of
+actual practice at target-firing, with shot and shell. The reason is
+obvious. I had no means of replenishing either shot or shell, and was
+obliged, therefore, to husband the store I had on hand, for actual
+conflict. The stories that ran the round of the Federal papers at the
+time, that my crew was composed mainly of trained gunners from the British
+practice-ship _Excellent_, were entirely without foundation. I had on
+board some half dozen British seamen, who had served in ships of war in
+former years, but they were in no respect superior to the rest of the
+crew. As for the two ships, though the enemy was superior to me, both in
+size, stanchness of construction, and armament, they were of force so
+nearly equal, that I cannot be charged with rashness in having offered
+battle. The _Kearsarge_ mounted seven guns:--two eleven-inch Dahlgrens,
+four 32-pounders, and a rifled 28-pounder. The _Alabama_ mounted
+eight:--one eight-inch, one rifled 100-pounder, and six 32-pounders.
+Though the _Alabama_ carried one gun more than her antagonist, it is seen
+that the battery of the latter enabled her to throw more metal at a
+broadside--there being a difference of three inches in the bore of the
+shell-guns of the two ships.
+
+Still the disparity was not so great, but that I might hope to beat my
+enemy in a fair fight. But he did not show me a fair fight, for, as it
+afterward turned out, his ship was iron-clad. It was the same thing, as if
+two men were to go out to fight a duel, and one of them, unknown to the
+other, were to put a shirt of mail under his outer garment. The days of
+chivalry being past, perhaps it would be unfair to charge Captain Winslow
+with deceit in withholding from me the fact that he meant to wear armor in
+the fight. He may have reasoned that it was my duty to find it out for
+myself. Besides, if he had disclosed this fact to me, and so prevented the
+engagement, the Federal Secretary of the Navy would have cut his head off
+to a certainty. A man who could permit a ship of war, which had
+surrendered, to be run off with, by her crew, _after they had been
+paroled_--see the case of the _Mercedita_ described in a former
+chapter--and who could contrive, or connive at the sinking of the
+_Florida_, to prevent the making of a reparation of honor to Brazil, would
+not be likely to be very complacent toward an officer who showed any signs
+of _weakness_ on the score of _honor_ or _honesty_. Judging from the tone
+of the Yankee press, too, when it came afterward to describe the
+engagement, Winslow seemed to have gauged his countrymen correctly, when
+he came to the conclusion that it would not do to reveal his secret to me.
+So far from having any condemnation to offer, the press, that chivalrous
+exponent of the opinions of a chivalrous people, was rather pleased at the
+"Yankee trick." It was characteristic, "cute," "smart."
+
+"Appleton's Encyclopedia of the War," much more liberal and fair than some
+of its congeners, thus speaks of Winslow's device:--"Availing himself of
+an ingenious expedient for the protection of his machinery, first adopted
+by Admiral Farragut, in running past the rebel forts on the Mississippi in
+1862, Captain Winslow had hung all his spare anchor cable over the midship
+section of the _Kearsarge_, on either side; and in order to make the
+addition less unsightly, the chains were boxed over with inch deal boards,
+forming a sort of case, which stood out at right-angles to the side of the
+vessel." One sees a twinge of honesty in this paragraph. The boxing stood
+out at right-angles to the side of the ship, and therefore the _Alabama
+ought to have seen it_. But unfortunately for the _Alabama_, the
+right-angles were not there. The forward and after ends of the "boxing,"
+went off at so fine a point, in accordance with the lines of the ship,
+that the telescope failed to detect the cheat. Besides, when a ship is
+preparing for a fight, she does not care much about _show_. It is a fight,
+and not a review that she has on hand. Hence, we have another twinge, when
+the paragraphist remarks that the boxing was resorted to, to make the
+armor appear "_less unsightly_!" And, then, what about the necessity for
+_protecting the machinery at all_? The machinery of all the enemy's new
+sloops was below the water-line. Was the _Kearsarge_ an exception? The
+plain fact is, without any varnish, the _Kearsarge_, though as effectually
+protected as if she had been armored with the best of iron plates, was to
+all appearance a wooden ship of war. But, to admit this, would spoil the
+_�clat_ of the victory, and hence the effort to explain away the cheat, as
+far as possible.
+
+In the way of crew, the _Kearsarge_ had 162, all told--the _Alabama_, 149.
+I had communicated my intention to fight this battle to Flag-Officer
+Barron, my senior officer in Paris, a few days before, and that officer
+had generously left the matter to my own discretion. I completed my
+preparations on Saturday evening, the 18th of June, and notified the
+Port-Admiral of my intention to go out on the following morning. The next
+day dawned beautiful and bright. The cloudy, murky weather of some days
+past had cleared off, and a bright sun, a gentle breeze, and a smooth sea,
+were to be the concomitants of the battle. Whilst I was still in my cot,
+the Admiral sent an officer off to say to me that the iron-clad frigate
+_Couronne_ would accompany me a part of the way out, to see that the
+neutrality of French waters was not violated. My crew had turned in early,
+and gotten a good night's rest, and I permitted them to get their
+breakfasts comfortably--not turning them to until nine o'clock--before any
+movement was made toward getting under way, beyond lighting the fires in
+the furnaces. I ought to mention that Midshipman Sinclair, the son of
+Captain Terry Sinclair, of the Confederate Navy, whom I had sent with Low,
+as his first lieutenant in the _Tuscaloosa_, being in Paris when we
+arrived, had come down on the eve of the engagement--accompanied by his
+father--and endeavored to rejoin me, but was prevented by the French
+authorities. It is opportune also to state, that in view of possible
+contingencies, I had directed Galt, my acting paymaster, to send on shore
+for safe-keeping, the funds of the ship, and complete pay-rolls of the
+crew, showing the state of the account of each officer and man.
+
+The day being Sunday, and the weather fine, a large concourse of
+people--many having come all the way from Paris--collected on the heights
+above the town, in the upper stories of such of the houses as commanded a
+view of the sea, and on the walls and fortifications of the harbor.
+Several French luggers employed as pilot-boats went out, and also an
+English steam-yacht, called the _Deerhound_. Everything being in readiness
+between nine and ten o'clock, we got under way, and proceeded to sea,
+through the western entrance of the harbor; the _Couronne_ following us.
+As we emerged from behind the mole, we discovered the _Kearsarge_ at a
+distance of between six and seven miles from the land. She had been
+apprised of our intention of coming out that morning, and was awaiting us.
+The _Couronne_ anchored a short distance outside of the harbor. We were
+three quarters of an hour in running out to the _Kearsarge_, during which
+time we had gotten our people to quarters, cast loose the battery, and
+made all the other necessary preparations for battle. The yards had been
+previously slung in chains, stoppers prepared for the rigging, and
+preventer braces rove. It only remained to open the magazine and
+shell-rooms, sand down the decks, and fill the requisite number of tubs
+with water. The crew had been particularly neat in their dress on that
+morning, and the officers were all in the uniforms appropriate to their
+rank. As we were approaching the enemy's ship, I caused the crew to be
+sent aft, within convenient reach of my voice, and mounting a
+gun-carriage, delivered them the following brief address. I had not spoken
+to them in this formal way since I had addressed them on the memorable
+occasion of commissioning the ship.
+
+     "OFFICERS AND SEAMEN OF THE ALABAMA!--You have, at length, another
+     opportunity of meeting the enemy--the first that has been presented
+     to you, since you sank the _Hatteras_! In the meantime, you have been
+     all over the world, and it is not too much to say, that you have
+     destroyed, and driven for protection under neutral flags, one half of
+     the enemy's commerce, which, at the beginning of the war, covered
+     every sea. This is an achievement of which you may well be proud; and
+     a grateful country will not be unmindful of it. The name of your ship
+     has become a household word wherever civilization extends. Shall that
+     name be tarnished by defeat? The thing is impossible! Remember that
+     you are in the English Channel, the theatre of so much of the naval
+     glory of our race, and that the eyes of all Europe are at this
+     moment, upon you. The flag that floats over you is that of a young
+     Republic, who bids defiance to her enemies, whenever, and wherever
+     found. Show the world that you know how to uphold it! Go to your
+     quarters."
+
+The utmost silence prevailed during the delivery of this address, broken
+only once, in an enthusiastic outburst of _Never! never!_ when I asked my
+sailors if they would permit the name of their ship to be tarnished by
+defeat. My official report of the engagement, addressed to Flag-Officer
+Barron, in Paris, will describe what now took place. It was written at
+Southampton, England, two days after the battle.
+
+     SOUTHAMPTON, June 21, 1864.
+
+     SIR:--I have the honor to inform you, that, in accordance with my
+     intention as previously announced to you, I steamed out of the harbor
+     of Cherbourg between nine and ten o'clock on the morning of the 19th
+     of June, for the purpose of engaging the enemy's steamer _Kearsarge_,
+     which had been lying off, and on the port, for several days
+     previously. After clearing the harbor, we descried the enemy, with
+     his head off shore, at the distance of about seven miles. We were
+     three quarters of an hour in coming up with him. I had previously
+     pivotted my guns to starboard, and made all preparations for engaging
+     the enemy on that side. When within about a mile and a quarter of the
+     enemy, he suddenly wheeled, and, bringing his head in shore,
+     presented his starboard battery to me. By this time, we were distant
+     about one mile from each other, when I opened on him with solid shot,
+     to which he replied in a few minutes, and the action became active on
+     both sides. The enemy now pressed his ship under a full head of
+     steam, and to prevent our passing each other too speedily, and to
+     keep our respective broadsides bearing, it became necessary to fight
+     in a circle; the two ships steaming around a common centre, and
+     preserving a distance from each other of from three quarters to half
+     a mile. When we got within good shell range, we opened upon him with
+     shell. Some ten or fifteen minutes after the commencement of the
+     action, our spanker-gaff was shot away, and our ensign came down by
+     the run. This was immediately replaced by another at the
+     mizzen-masthead. The firing now became very hot, and the enemy's
+     shot, and shell soon began to tell upon our hull, knocking down,
+     killing, and disabling a number of men, at the same time, in
+     different parts of the ship. Perceiving that our shell, though
+     apparently exploding against the enemy's sides, were doing him but
+     little damage, I returned to solid-shot firing, and from this time
+     onward alternated with shot, and shell.
+
+     After the lapse of about one hour and ten minutes, our ship was
+     ascertained to be in a sinking condition, the enemy's shell having
+     exploded in our side, and between decks, opening large apertures
+     through which the water rushed with great rapidity. For some few
+     minutes I had hopes of being able to reach the French coast, for
+     which purpose I gave the ship all steam, and set such of the
+     fore-and-aft sails as were available. The ship filled so rapidly,
+     however, that before we had made much progress, the fires were
+     extinguished in the furnaces, and we were evidently on the point of
+     sinking. I now hauled down my colors, to prevent the further
+     destruction of life, and dispatched a boat to inform the enemy of our
+     condition. Although we were now but 400 yards from each other, the
+     enemy fired upon me five times after my colors had been struck. It is
+     charitable to suppose that a ship of war of a Christian nation could
+     not have done this, intentionally. We now directed all our exertions
+     toward saving the wounded, and such of the boys of the ship as were
+     unable to swim. These were dispatched in my quarter-boats, the only
+     boats remaining to me; the waist-boats having been torn to pieces.
+     Some twenty minutes after my furnace-fires had been extinguished, and
+     when the ship was on the point of settling, every man, in obedience
+     to a previous order which had been given the crew, jumped overboard,
+     and endeavored to save himself. There was no appearance of any boat
+     coming to me from the enemy, until after my ship went down.
+     Fortunately, however, the steam-yacht _Deerhound_, owned by a
+     gentleman of Lancashire, England--Mr. John Lancaster--who was himself
+     on board, steamed up in the midst of my drowning men, and rescued a
+     number of both officers and men from the water. I was fortunate
+     enough myself thus to escape to the shelter of the neutral flag,
+     together with about forty others, all told. About this time, the
+     _Kearsarge_ sent one, and then, tardily, another boat. Accompanying,
+     you will find lists of the killed and wounded, and of those who were
+     picked up by the _Deerhound_; the remainder, there is reason to hope,
+     were picked up by the enemy, and by a couple of French pilot boats,
+     which were also fortunately near the scene of action. At the end of
+     the engagement, it was discovered by those of our officers who went
+     alongside of the enemy's ship, with the wounded, that her mid-ship
+     section, on both sides, was thoroughly iron-coated; this having been
+     done with chains, constructed for the purpose, placed
+     perpendicularly, from the rail to the water's edge, the whole covered
+     over by a thin outer planking, which gave no indication of the armor
+     beneath. This planking had been ripped off, in every direction, by
+     our shot and shell, the chain broken, and indented in many places,
+     and forced partly into the ship's side. She was effectually guarded,
+     however, in this section, from penetration. The enemy was much
+     damaged, in other parts, but to what extent it is now impossible to
+     say. It is believed he is badly crippled. My officers and men behaved
+     steadily and gallantly, and though they have lost their ship, they
+     have not lost honor. Where all behaved so well, it would be invidious
+     to particularize, but I cannot deny myself the pleasure of saying
+     that Mr. Kell, my first lieutenant, deserves great credit for the
+     fine condition in which the ship went into action, with regard to her
+     battery, magazine and shell-rooms, and that he rendered me great
+     assistance, by his coolness, and judgment, as the fight proceeded.
+     The enemy was heavier than myself, both in ship, battery, and crew;
+     but I did not know until the action was over, that she was also
+     iron-clad. Our total loss in killed and wounded, is 30, to wit: 9
+     killed, and 21 wounded.
+
+It was afterward ascertained, that as many as ten were drowned. As stated
+in the above despatch, I had the satisfaction of saving all my wounded
+men. Every one of them was passed carefully into a boat, and sent off to
+the enemy's ship, before the final plunge into the sea was made by the
+unhurt portion of the crew. Here is the proper place to drop a tear over
+the fate of a brave officer. My surgeon, D. H. Llewellyn, of Wiltshire,
+England, a grandson of Lord Herbert, lost his life by drowning. It was his
+privilege to accompany the wounded men, in the boats, to the _Kearsarge_,
+but he did not do so. He remained and took his chance of escape, with the
+rest of his brethren in arms, and perished almost in sight of his home,
+after an absence of two years from the dear ones who were to mourn his
+loss. With reference to the drowning of my men, I desire to present a
+contrast to the reader. I sank the _Hatteras_ off Galveston, in a _night_
+engagement. When the enemy appealed to me for assistance, telling me that
+his ship was sinking, I sent him all my boats, and saved every officer and
+man, numbering more than a hundred persons. The _Alabama_ was sunk in
+_open daylight_--the enemy's ship being only 400 yards distant--and ten of
+my men were permitted to drown. Indeed, but for the friendly interposition
+of the _Deerhound_, there is no doubt that a great many more would have
+perished.
+
+Captain Winslow has stated, in his despatch to his Government, that he
+desired to board the _Alabama_. He preserved a most respectful distance
+from her, even after he saw that she was crippled. He had greatly the
+speed of me, and could have laid me alongside, at any moment, but, so far
+from doing so, he was shy of me even after the engagement had ended. In a
+letter to the Secretary of the Federal Navy, published by Mr. Adams, in
+London, a few days after the engagement, he says:--"I have the honor to
+report that, toward the close of the action between the _Alabama_ and this
+vessel, all available sail was made on the former, for the purpose of
+regaining Cherbourg. When the object was apparent, the _Kearsarge_ was
+steered across the bow of the _Alabama_, for a raking fire, but before
+reaching this point, the _Alabama_ struck. Uncertain whether Captain
+Semmes was not making some _ruse_, the _Kearsarge_ was stopped." This is
+probably the explanation of the whole of Captain Winslow's strange conduct
+at the time. He was afraid to approach us because of some _ruse_ that we
+might be practising upon him. Before he could recover from his
+bewilderment, and make up his mind that we were really beaten, my ship
+went down. I acquit him, therefore, entirely, of any intention of
+permitting my men to drown, or even of gross negligence, which would be
+almost as criminal. It was his _judgment_ which was entirely at fault. I
+had known, and sailed with him, in the old service, and knew him _then_ to
+be a humane and Christian gentleman. What the war may have made of him, it
+is impossible to say. It has turned a great deal of the milk of human
+kindness to gall and wormwood.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+OTHER INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE ALABAMA AND THE KEARSARGE--THE
+RESCUE OF OFFICERS AND SEAMEN BY THE ENGLISH STEAM-YACHT DEERHOUND--THE
+UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT DEMANDS THAT THEY BE GIVEN UP--BRITISH GOVERNMENT
+REFUSES COMPLIANCE--THE RESCUED PERSONS NOT PRISONERS--THE INCONSISTENCY
+OF THE FEDERAL SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
+
+
+Notwithstanding my enemy went out chivalrously armored, to encounter a
+ship whose wooden sides were entirely without protection, I should have
+beaten him in the first thirty minutes of the engagement, but for the
+defect of my ammunition, which had been two years on board, and become
+much deteriorated by cruising in a variety of climates. I had directed my
+men to fire low, telling them that it was better to fire too low than too
+high, as the _ricochet_ in the former case--the water being smooth--would
+remedy the defect of their aim, whereas it was of no importance to cripple
+the masts and spars of a steamer. By Captain Winslow's own account, the
+_Kearsarge_ was struck twenty-eight times; but his ship being armored, of
+course, my shot and shell, except in so far as fragments of the latter may
+have damaged his spars and rigging, fell harmless into the sea. The
+_Alabama_ was not mortally wounded, as the reader has seen, until after
+the _Kearsarge_ had been firing at her _an hour and ten minutes_. In the
+mean time, in spite of the armor of the _Kearsarge_, I had _mortally
+wounded_ that ship in the first thirty minutes of the engagement. I say,
+"mortally wounded her," because the wound would have proved mortal, but
+for the defect of my ammunition above spoken of. I lodged a rifled
+percussion shell near her stern post--_where there were no chains_--which
+failed to explode because of the defect of the cap. If the cap had
+performed its duty, and exploded the shell, I should have been called upon
+to save Captain Winslow's crew from drowning, instead of his being called
+upon to save mine. On so slight an incident--the defect of a
+percussion-cap--did the battle hinge. The enemy were very proud of this
+shell. _It was the only trophy they ever got of the Alabama!_ We fought
+her until she would no longer swim, and then we gave her to the waves.
+This shell, thus imbedded in the hull of the ship, was carefully cut out,
+along with some of the timber, and sent to the Navy Department in
+Washington, to be exhibited to admiring Yankees. It should call up the
+blush of shame to the cheek of every Northern man who looks upon it. It
+should remind him of his ship going into action with _concealed_ armor; it
+should remind him that his ship fired into a beaten antagonist _five_
+times, after her colors had been struck and when she was sinking; and it
+should remind him of the drowning of helpless men, struggling in the water
+for their lives!
+
+Perhaps this latter spectacle was something for a Yankee to gloat upon.
+The _Alabama_ had been a scourge and a terror to them for two years. She
+had destroyed their _property_! _Yankee_ property! Curse upon the
+"pirates," let them drown! At least this was the sentiment uttered by that
+humane and Christian gentleman, to whom I have before had occasion to
+allude in these pages--Mr. William H. Seward--one of the chief Vandals,
+who found themselves in the possession and control of the once glorious
+"Government of the States," during the war. This gentleman, in one of his
+despatches to Mr. Adams, prompting him as to what he should say to the
+English Government, on the subject of the rescue of my men by the
+_Deerhound_, remarks: "I have to observe, upon these remarks of Earl
+Russell, that it was the right of the _Kearsarge that the pirates should
+drown_, unless saved by humane exertions of the officers and crew of that
+vessel, or by their own efforts, _without the aid of the Deerhound_. The
+men were either already actually prisoners, or they were desperately
+pursued by the _Kearsarge_. If they had _perished_ [by being permitted to
+be drowned, in cold blood after the action], the _Kearsarge would have had
+the advantage of a lawful destruction of so many enemies_; if they had
+been recovered by the _Kearsarge_, with or without the aid of the
+_Deerhound_, then the voluntary surrender of those persons would have been
+perfected, and they would have been prisoners. In neither case would they
+have remained hostile Confederates."
+
+No one who is not a seaman can realize the blow which falls upon the heart
+of a commander, upon the sinking of his ship. It is not merely the loss of
+a battle--it is the overwhelming of his household, as it were, in a great
+catastrophe. The _Alabama_ had not only been my battle-field, but my home,
+in which I had lived two long years, and in which I had experienced many
+vicissitudes of pain and pleasure, sickness and health. My officers and
+crew formed a great military family, every face of which was familiar to
+me; and when I looked upon my gory deck, toward the close of the action,
+and saw so many manly forms stretched upon it, with the glazed eye of
+death, or agonizing with terrible wounds, I felt as a father feels who has
+lost his children--his children who had followed him to the uttermost ends
+of the earth, in sunshine and storm, and been always true to him.
+
+A remarkable spectacle presented itself on the deck of the sinking ship,
+after the firing had ceased, and the boats containing the wounded had been
+shoved off. Under the order, which had been given, "Every man save himself
+who can!" all occupations had been suspended, and all discipline relaxed.
+One man was then as good as another. The _Kearsarge_ stood sullenly at a
+distance, making no motion, that we could see, to send us a boat. The
+_Deerhound_ and the French pilot-boats were also at a considerable
+distance. Meantime, the water was rushing and roaring into the ship's
+side, through her ghastly death-wound, and she was visibly settling--lower
+and lower. There was no panic, no confusion, among the men. Each stood,
+waiting his doom, with the most perfect calmness. The respect and
+affection manifested for their officers was touching in the extreme.
+Several gathered around me, and seemed anxious for my safety. One tendered
+me this little office of kindness, and another, that. Kell was near me,
+and my faithful steward, Bartelli, also, was at my side. Poor Bartelli! he
+could not swim a stroke--which I did not know at the time, or I should
+have saved him in the boats--and yet he was calm and cheerful; seeming to
+think that no harm could befall him, so long as he was at my side. He
+asked me if there were not some papers I wanted, in the cabin. I told him
+there were, and sent him to bring them. He had to wade to my state-room to
+get them. He brought me the two small packages I had indicated; and, with
+tears in his eyes, told me how the cabin had been shattered by the enemy's
+shot--our fine painting of the _Alabama_, in particular, being destroyed.
+Poor fellow! he was drowned in ten minutes afterward.
+
+Two of the members of my boat's crew being around me, when the papers were
+brought, insisted that I should give them to them to take care of. They
+were good swimmers, they said, and would be sure to preserve them for me.
+I gave each a package--put up tightly between small slats--and they thrust
+them in the bosoms of their shirts. One of them then helped me off with my
+coat, which was too well laden with buttons, to think of retaining, and I
+sat down whilst the other pulled off my boots. Kell stripped himself in
+like manner. The men with the papers were both saved. One swam to a French
+pilot-boat, and the other to the _Deerhound_. I got both packages of
+papers. The seaman who landed on the French coast sought out Captain
+Sinclair, who was still at Cherbourg, and delivered them to him. A writer
+in the London "Times" thus describes how I got the other package: "When
+the men came on board the _Deerhound_, they had nothing on but their
+drawers and shirts, having been stripped to fight; and one of them, with a
+sailor's devotedness, insisted on seeing his Captain, who was then lying
+in Mr. Lancaster's cabin, in a very exhausted state, as he had been
+intrusted by Captain Semmes with the ship's papers, and to no one else
+would he give them up. The men were all very anxious about their Captain,
+and were rejoiced to find that he had been saved. They appeared to be a
+set of first-rate fellows, and to act well together, in perfect union,
+under the most trying circumstances."
+
+
+[Illustration: The Combat between the Alabama and the Kearsarge, off
+Cherbourg, on the 19th of June, 1864.
+
+KELLY, PIET & CO. PUBLISHERS.----LITH. BY A. HOEN & CO. BALTO.]
+
+
+The ship settled by the stern, and as the taffarel was about to be
+submerged, Kell and myself threw ourselves into the sea, and swam out far
+enough from the sinking ship to avoid being drawn down into the vortex
+of waters. We then turned to get a last look at her, and see her go down.
+Just before she disappeared, her main-topmast, which had been wounded,
+went by the board; and, like a living thing in agony, she threw her bow
+high out of the water, and then descended rapidly, stern foremost, to her
+last resting-place. A noble Roman once stabbed his daughter, rather than
+she should be polluted by the foul embrace of a tyrant. It was with a
+similar feeling that Kell and I saw the _Alabama_ go down. We had buried
+her as we had christened her, and she was safe from the polluting touch of
+the hated Yankee!
+
+Great rejoicing was had in Yankeedom, when it was known that the _Alabama_
+had been beaten. Shouts of triumph rent the air, and bonfires lighted
+every hill. But along with the rejoicing there went up a howl of
+disappointed rage, that I had escaped being made a prisoner. The splendid
+victory of their iron-clad over a wooden ship was shorn of half its
+brilliancy. Mr. Seward was in a furor of excitement; and as for poor Mr.
+Adams, he lost his head entirely. He even conceived the brilliant idea of
+demanding that I should be delivered up to him by the British Government.
+Two days after the action, he wrote to his chief from London as follows:--
+
+     "The popular excitement attending the action between the _Alabama_
+     and the _Kearsarge_ has been considerable. I transmit a copy of the
+     "Times," of this morning, containing a report made to Mr. Mason, by
+     Captain Semmes. It is evidently intended for this meridian. The more
+     I reflect upon the conduct of the _Deerhound_, the more grave do the
+     questions to be raised with this Government appear to be. I do not
+     feel it my duty to assume the responsibility of demanding, without
+     instructions, the surrender of the prisoners. Neither have I yet
+     obtained directly from Captain Winslow, any authentic evidence of the
+     facts attending the conflict. I have some reason to suspect, that the
+     subject has already been under the consideration of the authorities
+     here."
+
+Mr. Seward and Mr. Adams were both eminently civilians. The heads of both
+of them were muddled, the moment they stepped from the Forum to the Campus
+Martius. Mr. Adams was now busy preparing another humiliation for the
+great American statesman. Some men learn wisdom by experience, and others
+do not. Mr. Adams seems to have been of the latter class. He had made a
+great many _demands_ about the _Alabama_, which had been refused, and was
+now about to make another which was more absurd even than those that had
+gone before. The "instructions" coming from Mr. Seward in due time, the
+demand was made, and here is the reply of Lord Russell:--
+
+     "Secondly,"--[his lordship had been considering another point, which
+     Mr. Adams had introduced into his despatch, not material to the
+     present question,]--"I have to state, that it appears to her
+     Majesty's Government, that the commander of the private British
+     yacht, the _Deerhound_, in saving from drowning some of the officers
+     and crew of the _Alabama_, after that vessel had sunk, performed a
+     praiseworthy act of humanity, to which, moreover, he had been
+     exhorted by the officer commanding the _Kearsarge_, to which vessel
+     the _Deerhound_ had, in the first instance, gone, in order to offer
+     to the _Kearsarge_ any assistance which, after her action with the
+     _Alabama_, she might stand in need of; and it appears further, to her
+     Majesty's Government, that, under all the circumstances of the case,
+     Mr. Lancaster was not under any obligation to deliver to the captain
+     of the _Kearsarge_ the officers and men whom he had rescued from the
+     waves. But however that may be, with regard to the demand made by
+     you, by instructions from your Government, that those officers and
+     men should now be delivered up to the Government of the United
+     States, as being escaped prisoners of war, her Majesty's Government
+     would beg to observe, that there is no obligation by international
+     law, which can bind the government of a neutral State, to deliver up
+     to a belligerent prisoners of war, who may have escaped from the
+     power of such belligerent, and may have taken refuge within the
+     territory of such neutral. Therefore, even if her Majesty's
+     Government had any power, by law, to comply with the above-mentioned
+     demand, her Majesty's Government could not do so, without being
+     guilty of a violation of the duties of hospitality. In point of fact,
+     however, her Majesty's Government have no lawful power to arrest, and
+     deliver up the persons in question. They have been guilty of no
+     offence against the laws of England, and they have committed no act,
+     which would bring them within the provisions of a treaty between
+     Great Britain and the United States, for the mutual surrender of
+     offenders, and her Majesty's Government are, therefore, entirely
+     without any legal means by which, even if they wished to do so, they
+     could comply with your above-mentioned demand."
+
+This reasoning is unanswerable, and adds to the many humiliations the
+Federal Government received from England during the war in connection with
+the _Alabama_, through the bungling of its diplomatists. The _Deerhound_,
+a neutral vessel, was not only under no obligation, in fact, to deliver
+up the prisoners she had rescued from the water, but she could not,
+lawfully, have put herself under such obligation. The prisoners had rights
+in the premises as well as the _Deerhound_. The moment they reached the
+deck of the neutral ship, _by whatever means_, they were entitled to the
+protection of the neutral flag, and any attempt on the part of the neutral
+master, whether by agreement with the opposite belligerent or not, to hand
+them over to the latter, would have been an exercise of force by him, and
+tantamount to an act of hostility against the prisoners. It would have
+been our right and our duty to resist any such attempt; and we would
+assuredly have done so if it had been made. It will be observed that Lord
+Russell does not discuss the question whether we were prisoners. It was
+not necessary to his argument; for even admitting that we were prisoners,
+hospitality forbade him to deliver us up.
+
+But we were not prisoners. A person, to become a prisoner, must be brought
+within the power of his captor. There must be a manucaption, a possession,
+if even for a moment. I never was at any time, during the engagement, or
+after, in the power of the enemy. I had struck my flag, it is true, but
+that did not make me a prisoner. It was merely an _offer_ of surrender. It
+was equivalent to saying to my enemy, "I am beaten, if you will take
+possession of me, I will not resist." Suppose my ship had not been fatally
+injured, and a sudden gale had sprung up, and prevented the enemy from
+completing his capture, by taking possession of her, and I had escaped
+with her, will it be pretended that she was his prize? There have been
+numerous instances of this kind in naval history, and no one has ever
+supposed that a ship under such circumstances would be a prize, or that
+any person on board of her would be a prisoner. Nor can the _cause_ which
+prevents the captor from taking possession of his prize, make any
+difference. If from _any_ cause, he is unable to take possession, he loses
+her. If she takes fire, and burns up, or sinks, she is equally lost to
+him, and if any one escapes from the burning or sinking ship to the shore,
+can it be pretended that he is a prisoner? And is there any difference
+between escaping to the shore, and to a neutral flag? The folly of the
+thing is too apparent for argument, and yet the question was pressed
+seriously upon the British Government; and the head of Mr. Gideon Welles,
+the Secretary of the Federal Navy, was, for a long time, addled on the
+subject. I question, indeed, whether the head of the old gentleman has
+recovered from the shock it received, to this day. He afterward had me
+arrested, as the reader will see in due time, and conveyed to Washington a
+prisoner, and did all in his power to have me tried by a military
+commission, _in time of peace_, because I did not insist upon Mr.
+Lancaster's delivering me up to Captain Winslow! Will any one believe that
+this is the same Mr. Welles who approved of Captain Stellwagen's running
+off with the _Mercedita_, after he had been _paroled_?
+
+But here is another little incident in point, which, perhaps, Mr. Welles
+had forgotten when he ordered my arrest. It arose out of Buchanan's
+gallant fight with the enemy's fleet in Hampton Roads, before alluded to
+in these pages. I will let the Admiral relate it, in his own words. He is
+writing to Mr. Mallory, the Secretary of the Navy, and after having
+described the ramming and sinking of the _Cumberland_, proceeds:--
+
+     "Having sunk the _Cumberland_, I turned our attention to the
+     _Congress_. We were some time in getting our proper position, in
+     consequence of the shoalness of the water, and the great difficulty
+     of manoeuvring the ship, when in or near the mud. To succeed in my
+     object, I was obliged to run the ship a short distance above the
+     batteries on James River, in order to wind her. During all this time
+     her keel was in the mud; of course she moved but slowly. Thus we were
+     subjected twice to the heavy guns of all the batteries, in passing up
+     and down the river, but it could not be avoided. We silenced several
+     of the batteries, and did much injury on the shore. A large transport
+     steamer, alongside of the wharf, was blown up, one schooner sunk, and
+     another captured and sent to Norfolk. The loss of life on shore we
+     have no means of ascertaining. While the _Virginia_ was thus engaged
+     in getting her position for attacking the _Congress_, the prisoners
+     state it was believed on board that ship, we had hauled off; the men
+     left their guns, and gave three cheers. They were sadly undeceived,
+     for, a few minutes after, we opened upon her again, she having run on
+     shore, in shoal water. The carnage, havoc, and dismay, caused by our
+     fire, compelled them to haul down their colors, and hoist a white
+     flag at their gaff, and half-mast another at the main. The crew
+     instantly _took to their boats and landed_. Our fire immediately
+     ceased, and a signal was made for the _Beaufort_ to come within hail.
+     I then ordered Lieutenant-Commanding Parker to take possession of the
+     _Congress_, secure the officers as prisoners, allow the men to land,
+     and burn the ship. He ran alongside, received her flag and surrender
+     from Commander William Smith, and Lieutenant Pendergrast, with the
+     side-arms of these officers. They delivered themselves as prisoners
+     of war, on board the _Beaufort_, and afterward were permitted, _at
+     their own request_, to return to the _Congress_, to assist in
+     removing the wounded to the _Beaufort_. _They never returned_, and I
+     submit to the decision of the Department, whether they are not our
+     prisoners?"
+
+Aye, these _paroled_ gentlemen escaped, and Mr. Welles _forgot_ to send
+them back. There was some excuse for Mr. Seward and Mr. Adams making the
+blunder they did, of supposing that the rescued officers and men of the
+_Alabama_ were prisoners to the _Kearsarge_, but there was none whatever
+for Mr. Welles. He was the head of the enemy's Navy Department, and it was
+his business to know better; and if he did not know better, himself, he
+should have called to his assistance some of the clever naval men around
+him. Nay, if he had taken down from its shelf almost any naval history in
+the library of his department, he could have set himself right in half an
+hour. James' "English Naval History" is full of precedents, where ships
+which have struck their flags, have afterward escaped--the enemy failing
+to take possession of them--and no question has been raised as to the
+propriety of their conduct. So many contingencies occur in naval battles,
+that it has become a sort of common law of the sea, that a ship is never a
+prize, or the persons on board of her prisoners, _until she has actually
+been taken possession of by the enemy_. A few of these cases will
+doubtless interest the reader, especially as they have an interest of
+their own, independently of their application.
+
+
+THE REVOLUTIONNAIRE AND THE AUDACIOUS.
+
+Lord Hood fought his famous action with the French fleet in 1794. In that
+action, the French ship _Revolutionnaire_ struck her colors to the English
+ship _Audacious_, but the latter failing to take possession of her, she
+escaped. The following is the historian's relation of the facts:--
+
+     "The _Audacious_, having placed herself on the _Revolutionnaire's_
+     lee quarter, poured in a heavy fire, and, until recalled by signal,
+     the _Russell_, who was at some distance to leeward, also fired on
+     her. The _Audacious_ and _Revolutionnaire_ now became so closely
+     engaged, and the latter so disabled in her masts and rigging, that it
+     was with difficulty the former could prevent her huge opponent from
+     falling on board of her. Toward ten P. M., the _Revolutionnaire_,
+     having, besides the loss of her mizzen-mast, had her fore and main
+     yards, and main-topsail yard shot away, dropped across the hawse of
+     the _Audacious_; but the latter quickly extricating herself, and the
+     French ship, with her fore-topsail full, but owing to the sheets
+     being shot away, still flying, directed her course to leeward. The
+     men forward, in the _Audacious_, declared that the _Revolutionnaire_
+     struck her colors, just as she got clear of them, and the ship's
+     company cheered in consequence. The people of the _Russell_ declared,
+     also, that the _Revolutionnaire_, as she passed under their stern,
+     had no colors hoisted. That the latter was a beaten ship, may be
+     inferred from her having returned but three shots to the last
+     broadside of the _Audacious_; moreover, her loss in killed and
+     wounded, if the French accounts are to be believed, amounted to
+     nearly 400 men. Still _the Revolutionnaire became no prize to the
+     British_; owing partly to the disabled state of the _Audacious_, but
+     chiefly because the _Thunderer_, on approaching the latter, and being
+     hailed to take possession of the French ship, made sail after her own
+     fleet." 1 _James_, 132, 133.
+
+It is observable in the above extract, that the historian does not
+complain that the French ship escaped; does not deny her right to do so,
+but remarks, as a matter of course, that she did not become a prize,
+_because she was not taken possession of_.
+
+
+THE ACHILLE AND THE BRUNSWICK.
+
+In the same action, the French ship _Achille_, struck to the British ship
+_Brunswick_, and _not being taken possession of_, endeavored to escape.
+The relation of this engagement is as follows:--
+
+     "At eleven A. M., a ship was discovered through the smoke, bearing
+     down on the _Brunswick's_ larboard quarter, having her gangways and
+     rigging crowded with men, as if with the intention of releasing the
+     _Vengeur_, [a prize made by the _Brunswick_,] by boarding the
+     _Brunswick_. Instantly the men stationed at the five aftermost
+     lower-deck guns, on the starboard side, were turned over on the
+     larboard side; and to each of the latter guns, already loaded with a
+     single 32-pounder, was added a double-headed shot. Presently, the
+     _Achille_, for that was the ship, advanced to within musket-shot;
+     when five or six rounds from the _Brunswick's_ after-guns, on each
+     deck, brought down by the board the former's only remaining mast, the
+     foremast. The wreck of this mast, falling where the wreck of the main
+     and mizzen-masts already lay, on the starboard side, prevented the
+     _Achille_ from making the slightest resistance; and, after a few
+     unreturned broadsides from the _Brunswick_, the French ship struck
+     her colors. It was, however, wholly out of the _Brunswick's_ power
+     _to take possession_, and the _Achille_ very soon rehoisted her
+     colors, and setting her sprit-sail endeavored to escape."
+
+The escape, however, was prevented by the appearance of a new ship upon
+the scene, the _Ramilles_. This ship, after dispatching an antagonist with
+which she had been engaged, perceiving the attempt of the _Achille_, made
+sail in pursuit, and coming up with her, took possession of her, and thus,
+for the first time, made her a _prize_. 1 _James_, 162-4.
+
+
+THE BELLONA AND THE MILLBROOK.
+
+In the year 1800, the French ship _Bellona_ struck to the British ship
+_Millbrook_, and afterward escaped. The following is the account of the
+engagement. The battle having continued some little time, the historian
+proceeds:--
+
+     "The carronades of the _Millbrook_ were seemingly fired with as much
+     precision, as quickness; for the _Bellona_, from broadsides, fell to
+     single guns, and showed by her sails and rigging, how much she had
+     been cut up by the schooner's shot. At about ten A. M., the ship's
+     colors came down, and Lieutenant Smith used immediate endeavors to
+     take possession of her. Not having a rope wherewith to hoist out a
+     boat, he launched one over the gunwale, but having been pierced with
+     shot in various directions, the boat soon filled with water. About
+     this time, the _Millbrook_, having had two of her guns disabled, her
+     masts, yards, sails, and rigging shot through, and all her sweeps
+     shot to pieces, lay quite unmanageable, with her broadside to the
+     _Bellona's_ stern. In a little while, a light breeze sprung up, and
+     the _Bellona_ hoisted all the canvas she could, and sought safety in
+     flight." 3 _James_, 57.
+
+
+THE SAN JOS� AND THE GRASSHOPPER.
+
+In 1807, off the coast of Spain, the Spanish brig _San Jos�_ struck to the
+British brig _Grasshopper_--having first run on shore--when the greater
+part of her crew escaped _before she could be taken possession of_. The
+affair is thus related:--
+
+     "At about half an hour after noon, having got within range, the
+     _Grasshopper_ opened a heavy fire of round and grape upon the brig.
+     A running fight was maintained--about fifteen minutes of its
+     close--until two P. M., when the latter, which was the Spanish
+     brig-of-war _San Jos�_, of ten 24-pounder carronades, and two long
+     sixes, commanded by Lieutenant Don Antonio de Torres, ran on shore
+     under Cape Negrete, and struck her colors. The greater part of her
+     crew, which, upon leaving Carthagena, on the preceding evening,
+     numbered 99 men, then swam on shore, and effected their escape." 4
+     _James_, 374.
+
+
+THE VAR AND THE BELLE POULE.
+
+In 1809, in the Gulf of Velona, the French ship-of-war _Var_, struck to
+the British frigate _Belle Poule_, but _before she could be taken
+possession of_, the officers, and a greater part of the crew escaped. The
+action is described as follows:--
+
+     "On the 15th, at daybreak, the _Var_ was discovered moored with
+     cables to the fortress of Velona, mounting fourteen long 18 and
+     24-pounders, and upon an eminence above the ship, and apparently
+     commanding the whole anchorage, was another strong fort. A breeze at
+     length favoring, the _Belle Poule_, at one P. M., anchored in a
+     position to take, or destroy the _Var_, and, at the same time, to
+     keep in check the formidable force, prepared, apparently, to defend
+     the French ship. The _Belle Poule_ immediately opened upon the latter
+     an animated and well-directed fire, and, as the forts made no efforts
+     to protect her, the _Var_ discharged a few random shots, that hurt no
+     one, and then hauled down her colors. _Before she could be taken
+     possession of_, her officers, and a greater part of her crew escaped
+     to the shore." 5 _James_, 154.
+
+
+THE VIRGINIA AND THE CONGRESS.
+
+In the year 1862, one Gideon Welles being Secretary of the Federal Navy,
+Admiral Buchanan, of the Confederate States Navy, in the engagement in
+Hampton Roads, already referred to, for another purpose, sunk the frigate
+_Congress_, and, _before she could be taken possession of, the crew took
+to their boats and escaped_. Buchanan did not claim that the crew of the
+_Congress_, that had thus escaped, were his prisoners; he only claimed
+that Commander Smith, and Lieutenant Pendergrast were his prisoners, _he
+having taken possession of them_, and they having escaped, in violation of
+the _special parole_, under which he had permitted them to return to their
+ship.
+
+It thus appears, that, so far from its being the exception, it is the
+rule, in naval combats, for both ship and officers, and crew, to escape,
+after surrender, if possible. The enemy may prevent it by force, if he
+can, but if the escape be successful, it is a valid escape. I have thus
+far been considering the case, as though it were an escape with, or from a
+ship, which had not been fatally injured, and on board which the officers
+and crew might have remained, if they had thought proper. If the escape be
+proper in such a case as this, how much more must it be proper when, as
+was the case with the _Alabama_, the officers and crew of the ship are
+compelled to throw themselves into the sea, and struggle for their lives?
+Take my own individual case. The Federal Government complained of me
+because I threw my sword into the sea, which, as the Federal Secretary of
+the Navy said, no longer belonged to me. But what was I to do with it?
+Where was Mr. Welles' officer, that he did not come to demand it? It had
+been tendered to him, and _would_ have belonged to him, if he had had the
+ability, or the inclination to come and take it. But he did not come. I
+did not betake myself to a boat, and seek refuge in flight. I waited for
+him, or _his_ boat, on the deck of my sinking ship, until the sea was
+ready to engulf me. I was ready and willing to complete the surrender
+which had been tendered, but as far as was then apparent, the enemy
+intended to permit me to drown. Was I, under these circumstances, to
+plunge into the water with my sword in my hand and endeavor to swim to the
+_Kearsarge_? Was it not more natural, that I should hurl it into the
+depths of the ocean in defiance, and in hatred of the Yankee and his
+accursed flag? When my ship went down, I was a waif upon the waters.
+Battles and swords, and all other things, except the attempt to save life,
+were at an end. I ceased from that moment to be the enemy of any brave
+man. A true sailor, and above all, one who had been bred to arms, when he
+found that he could not himself save me, as his prisoner, should have been
+glad to have me escape from him, with life, whether by my own exertions,
+or those of a neutral. I believe this was the feeling, which, at that
+moment, was in the heart of Captain Winslow. It was reserved for William
+H. Seward to utter the atrocious sentiment which has been recorded against
+him, in these pages. Mr. Seward is now an old man, and he has the
+satisfaction of reflecting that he is responsible for more of the woes
+which have fallen upon the American people, than any other citizen of the
+once proud republic. He has worked, from first to last, for self, and he
+has met with the usual reward of the selfish--the contempt and neglect of
+all parties. He has need to utter the prayer of Cardinal Wolsey, and to
+add thereto, "Forgive, O Lord! him who never did forgive."
+
+With the permission of the reader, I will make another brief reference to
+Naval History, to show how gallant men regard the saving of life, from
+such disasters during battle, as befell the _Alabama_; how, in other
+words, they cease to be the enemies of disarmed men, struggling against
+the elements for their lives.
+
+
+DESTRUCTION OF L'ORIENT AT THE BATTLE OF THE NILE.
+
+At the battle of the Nile, fought by Lord Nelson, in 1798, with Admiral
+Brueyes, the flag-ship of the French fleet, _L'Orient_, took fire and blew
+up, after having surrendered. Admiral Ganteaume, the third in command of
+the fleet, was on board the ill-fated ship, and being blown into the water
+by the explosion of the magazine, was picked up by one of his boats and
+conveyed to a French brig of war, in which he escaped to Alexandria. This
+escape, after surrender, was regarded as valid by Lord Nelson. The
+disaster is thus described by the historian. After giving the position of
+the French fleet, at anchor in the Bay of Aboukir, and describing the mode
+of attack by the English fleet, the narrator proceeds:--
+
+     "It was at nine P. M., or a few minutes after, that the _Swiftsure's_
+     people discovered a fire on board of the _Orient_, and which, as it
+     increased, presently bore the appearance of being in the ship's
+     mizzen chains. It was, in fact, on the poop-deck, and in the
+     admiral's cabin, and its cause we shall hereafter endeavor to
+     explain. As many of the _Swiftsure's_ guns as could be brought to
+     bear were quickly directed to the inflamed spot, with, as was soon
+     evident, dreadful precision. After spreading along the decks, and
+     ascending the rigging with terrific and uncontrollable rapidity, the
+     flames reached the fatal spot, and at about ten P. M., the _Orient_
+     blew up with a most tremendous explosion."
+
+The historian then describes the terrible night-scene that followed; how
+it put an end, for the time, to the action, and the efforts which were
+made by the English boats to save life. We have only to do, however, with
+Admiral Ganteaume. This gentleman describes his escape as follows:--
+
+     "It was by an accident, [he is writing to the Minister of Marine,]
+     which I cannot yet comprehend, that I escaped from the midst of the
+     flames of the _Orient_, and was taken into a yawl, lying under the
+     ship's counter. Not being able to reach the vessel of General
+     Villeneuve, [the second in command,] I made for Alexandria. At the
+     beginning of the action, Admiral Brueyes, all the superior officers,
+     the first commissary, and about twenty pilots, and masters of
+     transports, were on the poop of the _Orient_, employed in serving
+     musketry. After the action had lasted about an hour, the admiral was
+     wounded in the body, and in the hand; he then came down from the
+     poop, and a short time after was killed on the quarter-deck. The
+     English having utterly destroyed our van, suffered their ships to
+     drift forward, still ranging along our line, and taking their
+     different stations around us. One, however, which attacked, and
+     nearly touched us, on the starboard side, being totally dismasted,
+     ceased her fire, and cut her cable to get out of reach of our guns;
+     but obliged to defend ourselves against two others, who were
+     furiously thundering upon us on the larboard quarter, and on the
+     starboard bow, we were again compelled to heave in our cable. The 36
+     and 24-pounders were still firing briskly, when some flames,
+     accompanied with an explosion, appeared on the after-part of the
+     quarter-deck," &c.
+
+Admiral Ganteaume does not mention the striking of the colors of this
+ship, and the fact has been disputed. But Lord Nelson believed that she
+had struck, and that is all we need for our purpose, which is to show
+that, with the belief of this fact, he did not pretend to regard Admiral
+Ganteaume as a prisoner. In 2 Clarke's "Life of Lord Nelson," p. 135,
+occurs the following passage:--
+
+     "In a letter to his Excellency, Hon. W. Wyndham, at Florence, dated
+     the 21st of August, 1798, Sir Horatio had said, that on account of
+     his indifferent health and his wound, he thought of going down the
+     Mediterranean as soon as he arrived at Naples, unless he should find
+     anything very extraordinary to detain him; and this determination had
+     been strongly impressed on his mind by some of his friends, who
+     doubted the effect of his going into winter-quarters at Naples [where
+     the modern Anthony would find his Cleopatra, in the person of the
+     then charming Lady Hamilton] might have on a mind by no means adapted
+     to cope with the flattery of the Sicilian Court. He also informed Mr.
+     Wyndham, that _L'Orient certainly struck her colors_, and had not
+     fired a shot for a quarter of an hour before she took fire."
+
+Admiral Ganteaume resumed his duties as a naval officer immediately after
+his escape, repairing to Cairo, where Napoleon then was, to put himself
+under the orders of the Great Captain. He returned with his distinguished
+chief to France, in the frigate _Le Muiron_. The British Government did
+not demand him of the French Government as a prisoner of war. This case
+was almost precisely similar with my own. Both ships struck their colors;
+both ships were destroyed before the enemy could take possession of them,
+and both commanders escaped; the only difference being that Admiral
+Ganteaume escaped in one of his own boats, to one of his own brigs of war,
+and thence to Alexandria, and I escaped by swimming to a neutral ship, and
+to the cover of a neutral flag; which, as before remarked, was the same
+thing as if I had swum to neutral territory. Mr. Lancaster could no more
+have thrust me back into the sea, or handed me over to the _Kearsarge_,
+than could the keeper of the Needles light, if I had landed on the Isle of
+Wight.
+
+I have presented several contrasts in these pages; I desire to present
+another. The reader has seen how Mr. Seward, a civilian, insisted that
+beaten enemies, who were struggling for their lives in the water, should
+be permitted to drown, rather than be rescued from the grasp of his naval
+commander by a neutral. I desire to show how a Christian admiral forbade
+his enemies to be fired upon, when they were engaged in rescuing their
+people from drowning; even though the consequence of such rescue should be
+the escape of the prisoners. I allude to Lord Collingwood, a name almost
+as well known to American as to English readers; the same Lord
+Collingwood, who was second in command to Nelson at the famous battle of
+Trafalgar. This Admiral, from his flag-ship, the _Ocean_, issued the
+following general order to the commanders of his ships:--
+
+     "OCEAN, September 19, 1807.
+
+     "In the event of an action with the enemy, in which it shall happen
+     that any of their ships shall be in distress, by taking fire, or
+     otherwise, and the brigs and tenders, or boats which are attached to
+     their fleet, shall be employed in saving the lives of the crews of
+     such distressed ships, they shall not be fired on, or interrupted in
+     such duty. But as long as the battle shall continue, his Majesty's
+     ships are not to give up the pursuit of such, as have not
+     surrendered, to attend to any other occasion, except it be to give
+     their aid to his Majesty's ships which may want it."--_Collingwood's
+     Letters_, 235.
+
+But the American war developed "grand moral ideas," and Mr. Seward's,
+about the drowning of prisoners, was one of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV.
+
+THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND THE BRITISH STEAM-YACHT DEERHOUND--MR. SEWARD'S
+DESPATCH, AND MR. LANCASTER'S LETTER TO THE "DAILY NEWS"--LORD RUSSELL'S
+REPLY TO MR. ADAMS ON THE SUBJECT OF HIS COMPLAINT AGAINST MR.
+LANCASTER--PRESENTATION OF A SWORD TO THE AUTHOR, BY THE CLUBS IN
+ENGLAND--PRESENTATION OF A FLAG BY A LADY.
+
+
+The howl that went up against Mr. Lancaster, the owner of the _Deerhound_,
+for his humane exertions in saving my crew and myself from drowning, was
+almost as rabid as that which had been raised against myself. Statesmen,
+or those who should have been such, descended into the arena of coarse and
+vulgar abuse of a private English citizen, who had no connection with them
+or their war, and no sympathies that I know of, on the one side or the
+other. Mr. Welles, in one of those patriotic effusions, by which he sought
+to recommend himself to the extreme party of the North, declared among
+other things, that he was "not a gentleman!" Poor Mr. Lancaster, to have
+thy gentility questioned by so competent a judge, as Mr. Gideon Welles! If
+these gentlemen had confined themselves to mere abuse, the thing would not
+have been so bad, but they gave currency to malicious falsehoods
+concerning Mr. Lancaster, as truths. Paid spies in England reported these
+falsehoods at Washington, and the too eager Secretary of State embodied
+them in his despatches. Mr. Adams and Mr. Seward have, both, since
+ascertained that they were imposed upon, and yet no honorable retraxit has
+ever been made. The following is a portion of one of Mr. Seward's
+characteristic despatches on this subject. It is addressed to Mr.
+Adams:--
+
+     "I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the
+     21st of June, No. 724, which relates to the destruction of the
+     pirate-ship _Alabama_, by the _Kearsarge_, off Cherbourg. This event
+     has given great satisfaction to the Government, and it appreciates
+     and commends the bravery and skill displayed by Captain Winslow, and
+     the officers and crew under his command. Several incidents of the
+     transaction seem to demand immediate attention. The first is, that
+     this Government disapproves the proceedings of Captain Winslow, in
+     paroling and discharging the pirates who fell into his hands, in that
+     brilliant naval engagement, and in order to guard against injurious
+     inferences which might result from that error, if it were overlooked,
+     you are instructed to make the fact of this disapprobation and
+     censure known to her Majesty's Government, and to state, at the same
+     time, that this Government, adhering to declarations heretofore made,
+     does not recognize the _Alabama_ as a ship of war of a lawful
+     belligerent power."
+
+Mr. Seward, when this despatch was penned, had hopes that the "pirates"
+would be given up to him, and the _caveat_, which he enters, may give some
+indication of the course the Yankee Government intended to pursue toward
+the said "pirates," when they should come into its possession. It did not
+occur to the wily Secretary, that, if we were "pirates," it was as
+competent for Great Britain to deal with us as the United States; and
+that, on this very ground, his claim for extradition might be denied,--a
+pirate being _hostis humani generis_, and punishable by the first nation
+into whose power he falls. But these _mistakes_ were common with Mr.
+Seward.
+
+Laying aside, therefore, all his trash and nonsense about piracy, let us
+proceed with that part of his despatch which relates to Mr. Lancaster:--
+
+     "Secondly, the presence and the proceedings of a British yacht, the
+     _Deerhound_, at the battle, require explanation. On reading the
+     statements which have reached this Government, it seems impossible to
+     doubt that the _Deerhound_ went out to the place of conflict, by
+     concert and arrangement with the commander of the _Alabama_, and
+     with, at least, a conditional purpose of rendering her aid and
+     assistance. She did effectually render such aid, by rescuing the
+     commander and part of the crew of the _Alabama_ from the pursuit of
+     the _Kearsarge_, and by furtively and clandestinely conveying them to
+     Southampton, within British jurisdiction. We learn from Paris that
+     the intervention of the _Deerhound_ occurred after the _Alabama_ had
+     actually surrendered. The proceeding of the _Deerhound_, therefore,
+     seems to have been directly hostile to the United States. Statements
+     of the owner of the _Deerhound_ are reported here, to the effect
+     that he was requested by Captain Winslow to rescue the drowning
+     survivors of the battle, but no official confirmation of this
+     statement is found in the reports of Captain Winslow. Even if he had
+     made such a request, the owner of the _Deerhound_ subsequently abused
+     the right of interference, by secreting the rescued pirates, and
+     carrying them away beyond the pursuit of the _Kearsarge_. Moreover,
+     we are informed from Paris, that the _Deerhound_, before going out,
+     received from Semmes, and that she subsequently conveyed away to
+     England, a deposit of money, and other valuables, of which Semmes, in
+     his long piratical career, had despoiled numerous American
+     merchantmen."
+
+There was not one word of truth in this cock-and-a-bull story, of concert
+between Mr. Lancaster and myself, as to his going out to witness the
+combat, as to his receiving money or anything else from the _Alabama_, or
+as to any other subject whatever. We had never seen each other, or held
+the least communication together, until I was drawn out of the water by
+his boat's crew, and taken on board his yacht, after the battle.
+
+It was quite natural that Mr. Seward's Yankee correspondents in London and
+Paris, and Mr. Seward himself, should suppose that money and stealings had
+had something to do with Mr. Lancaster's generous conduct. The whole
+American war, on the Yankee side, had been conducted on this principle of
+giving and receiving a "_consideration_" and on "_stealings_." Armies of
+hired vagabonds had roamed through the Southern States, plundering and
+stealing--aye, as the reader has seen, stealing not only gold and silver,
+but libraries, pianos, pictures, and even the jewelry and clothing of
+women and children! The reader has seen into what a mortal fright the
+lady-passengers, on board the captured steamship _Ariel_, were thrown,
+lest the officers and crew of the _Alabama_ should prove to be the peers
+of Yankee rogues, epauletted and unepauletted. These men even laid their
+profane hands on the sacred word of God, _if it would pay_. Here is a
+_morceau_, taken from the "Journal of Commerce" of New York, a Yankee
+paper, quite moderate in its tone, and a little given, withal, to
+religious sniffling. It shows how a family Bible was stolen from a
+Southern household, and sold for a "consideration" in the North, without
+exciting so much as a word of condemnation from press or people:--
+
+     "_An Old Bible Captured from a Rebel._--H. Jallonack, of Syracuse,
+     New York, has exhibited to the editor of the 'Journal' of that city a
+     valuable relic--a Protestant Bible, printed in German text, 225 years
+     ago, the imprint bearing date 1637. The book is in an excellent state
+     of preservation, the printing perfectly legible, the binding sound
+     and substantial, and the fastening a brass clasp. The following
+     receipt shows how the volume came in Mr. Jallonack's possession:--
+
+     "'NEW YORK, Aug. 21, 1862.
+
+     "'Received of Mr. H. Jallonack $150 for a copy of one of the first
+     Protestant Bibles published in the Netherlands, 1637, with the
+     proclamation of the King of the Netherlands. This was taken from a
+     descendant Hollander at the battle before Richmond, in the rebel
+     service, by a private of the Irish Brigade.
+
+     "'JOSEPH HEIME, M. D., 4 Houston Street.'"
+
+"Semmes, in his long piratical career," scarcely equalled these doings of
+Mr. Seward's countrymen. He certainly did not send any stolen Bibles,
+published in the Netherlands or elsewhere, to the _Deerhound_, to be sold
+to pious Jallonacks for $150 apiece.
+
+But to return to Mr. Lancaster, and the gross assault that was made upon
+him, by the Secretary of State. Mr. Lancaster, being a gentleman of ease
+and fortune, spent a portion of his summers in yachting, as is the case
+with a large number of the better classes in England. Being in France with
+his family, he ordered his yacht, the _Deerhound_, to meet him, at the
+port of Cherbourg, where it was his intention to embark for a cruise of a
+few weeks in the German Ocean. A day or two before the engagement between
+the _Alabama_ and the _Kearsarge_, a steam yacht, under British colors,
+was reported to me, as having anchored in the harbor. Beyond admiring the
+beautiful proportions of the little craft, we paid no further attention to
+her; and when she steamed out of Cherbourg, on the morning of the
+engagement, we had not the least conception of what her object was. With
+this preface, I will let Mr. Lancaster tell his own story. He had been
+assaulted by a couple of Yankee correspondents, in the London "Daily
+News," a paper in the interests, and reported to be in the pay of the
+Federal Government. He is replying to those assaults, which, as the reader
+will see, were the same that were afterward _rehashed_ by Mr. Seward, in
+the despatch already quoted.
+
+     "THE DEERHOUND, THE ALABAMA, AND THE KEARSARGE.
+
+     "TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'DAILY NEWS.' SIR:--As two correspondents of
+     your journal, in giving their versions of the fight between the
+     _Alabama_ and the _Kearsarge_, have designated my share in the escape
+     of Captain Semmes, and a portion of the crew of the sunken ship as
+     'dishonorable,' and have moreover affirmed that my yacht, the
+     _Deerhound_, was in the harbor of Cherbourg before the engagement,
+     and proceeded thence, on the morning of the engagement in order to
+     assist the _Alabama_, I presume I may trespass upon your kindness so
+     far as to ask an opportunity to repudiate the imputation, and deny
+     the assertion. They admit that when the _Alabama_ went down, the
+     yacht, being near the _Kearsarge_, was hailed by Captain Winslow, and
+     requested to aid in picking up the men who were in the water; but
+     they intimate that my services were expected to be merely
+     ministerial; or, in other words, that I was to put myself under the
+     command of Captain Winslow, and place my yacht at his disposal for
+     the capture of the poor fellows who were struggling in the water for
+     their lives.
+
+     "The fact is, that when we passed the _Kearsarge_, the captain cried
+     out, 'For God's sake, do what you can to save them,' and that was my
+     warrant for interfering, in any way, for the aid and succor of his
+     enemies. It may be a question with some, whether, without that
+     warrant, I should have been justified in endeavoring to rescue any of
+     the crew of the _Alabama_; but my own opinion is, that a man drowning
+     in the open sea cannot be regarded as an enemy, at the time, to
+     anybody, and is, therefore, entitled to the assistance of any
+     passer-by. Be this as it may, I had the earnest request of Captain
+     Winslow, to rescue as many of the men who were in the water, as I
+     could lay hold of, but that request was not coupled with any
+     stipulation to the effect that I should deliver up the rescued men to
+     him, as his prisoners. If it had been, I should have declined the
+     task, because I should have deemed it dishonorable--that is,
+     inconsistent with my notions of honor--to lend my yacht and crew, for
+     the purpose of rescuing those brave men from drowning, only to hand
+     them over to their enemies, for imprisonment, ill-treatment, and
+     perhaps execution.
+
+     "One of your correspondents opens his letter, by expressing a desire,
+     to bring to the notice of the yacht clubs of England, the conduct of
+     the commander of the _Deerhound_, which followed the engagement of
+     the _Alabama_ and _Kearsarge_. Now that my conduct has been impugned,
+     I am equally wishful that it should come under the notice of the
+     yacht clubs of England, and I am quite willing to leave the point of
+     honor to be decided by my brother yachtsmen, and, indeed, by any
+     tribunal of gentlemen. As to my legal right to take away Captain
+     Semmes and his friends, I have been educated in the belief that an
+     English ship is English territory, and I am, therefore, unable, even
+     now, to discover why I was more bound to surrender the people of the
+     _Alabama_ whom I had on board my yacht, than the owner of a garden
+     on the south coast of England would have been, if they had swum to
+     such a place, and landed there, or than the Mayor of Southampton was,
+     when they were lodged in that city; or than the British Government
+     is, now that it is known that they are somewhere in England.
+
+     "Your other correspondent says that Captain Winslow declares that
+     'the reason he did not pursue the _Deerhound_, or fire into her was,
+     that he could not believe, at the time, that any one carrying the
+     flag of the royal yacht squadron, could act so dishonorable a part,
+     as to carry off the prisoners whom he had requested him to save, from
+     feelings of humanity.' I was not aware then, and I am not aware now,
+     that the men whom I saved _were, or ever had been his prisoners_.
+     Whether any of the circumstances which had preceded the sinking of
+     the _Alabama_ constituted them prisoners was a question that never
+     came under my consideration, and one which I am not disposed to
+     discuss even now. I can only say, that it is a new doctrine to me,
+     that _when one ship sinks another, in warfare, the crew of the sunken
+     ship are debarred from swimming for their lives, and seeking refuge
+     wherever they can find it_; and it is a doctrine which I shall not
+     accept, unless backed by better authority than that of the master of
+     the _Kearsarge_. What Captain Winslow's notion of humanity may be is
+     a point beyond my knowledge, but I have good reason for believing
+     that not many members of the royal yacht squadron would, from
+     'motives of humanity' have taken Captain Semmes from the water in
+     order to give him up to the tender mercies of Captain Winslow, and
+     his compatriots. Another reason assigned by your correspondent for
+     that hero's forbearance may be imagined in the reflection that such a
+     performance as that of Captain Wilkes, who dragged two 'enemies' or
+     'rebels' from an English ship, would not bear repetition. [We have
+     here the secret of the vindictiveness with which Mr. Seward pursued
+     Mr. Lancaster. It was cruel of Lancaster to remind him of the 'seven
+     days' of tribulation, through which Lord John Russell had put him.]
+
+     "Your anonymous correspondent further says, that 'Captain Winslow
+     would now have all the officers and men of the _Alabama_, as
+     prisoners, had he not placed too much confidence in the honor of an
+     Englishman, who carried the flag of the royal yacht squadron.' This
+     is a very questionable assertion; for why did Captain Winslow confide
+     in that Englishman? Why did he implore his interference, calling out,
+     'For God's sake, do what you can to save them?' I presume it was
+     because he would not, or could not save them, himself. The fact is,
+     that if the Captain and crew of the _Alabama_ had depended for safety
+     altogether upon Captain Winslow, _not one half of them would have
+     been saved_. He got quite as many of them as he could lay hold of,
+     time enough to deliver them from drowning.
+
+     "I come now to the more definite charges advanced by your
+     correspondents, and these I will soon dispose of. They maintain that
+     my yacht was in the harbor of Cherbourg, for the purpose of assisting
+     the _Alabama_, and that her movements before the action prove that
+     she attended her for the same object. My impression is, that the
+     yacht was in Cherbourg, to suit my convenience, and pleasure, and I
+     am quite sure, that when there, I neither did, nor intended to do
+     anything to serve the _Alabama_. We steamed out on Sunday morning to
+     see the engagement, and the resolution to do so was the result of a
+     family council, whereat the question 'to go out,' or 'not to go out,'
+     was duly discussed, and the decision in the affirmative was carried
+     by the juveniles, rather against the wish of both myself, and my
+     wife. Had I contemplated taking any part in the movements of the
+     _Alabama_, I do not think I should have been accompanied with my
+     wife, and several young children.
+
+     "One of your correspondents, however, says that he knows that the
+     _Deerhound_ did assist the _Alabama_, and if he does know this, he
+     knows more than I do. As to the movements of the _Deerhound_, before
+     the action, all the movements with which I was acquainted, were for
+     the objects of enjoying the summer morning, and getting a good and
+     safe place from which to watch the engagement. Another of your
+     correspondents declares, that since the affair, it has been
+     discovered, that the _Deerhound_ was a consort of the _Alabama_, and
+     on the night before had received many valuable articles, for
+     safe-keeping, from that vessel. This is simply untrue. Before the
+     engagement, neither I nor any member of my family had any knowledge
+     of, or communication with Captain Semmes, or any of his officers or
+     any of his crew. Since the fight I have inquired from my Captain
+     whether he, or any of my crew, had had any communication with the
+     Captain or crew of the _Alabama_, prior to meeting them on the
+     _Deerhound_ after the engagement, and his answer, given in the most
+     emphatic manner, has been, 'None whatever.' As to the deposit of
+     chronometers, and other valuable articles, the whole story is a myth.
+     Nothing was brought from the _Alabama_ to the _Deerhound_, and I
+     never heard of the tale, until I saw it, in an extract from your own
+     columns.
+
+     "After the fight was over, the drowning men picked up, and the
+     _Deerhound_ steaming away to Southampton, some of the officers who
+     had been saved began to express their acknowledgments for my
+     services, and my reply to them, which was addressed, also, to all who
+     stood around, was 'Gentlemen, you have no need to give me any special
+     thanks. I should have done exactly the same for the other people, if
+     they had needed it.' This speech would have been a needless, and,
+     indeed, an absurd piece of hypocrisy, if there had been any league or
+     alliance between the _Alabama_ and the _Deerhound_. Both your
+     correspondents agree in maintaining that Captain Semmes, and such of
+     his crew as were taken away by the _Deerhound_, are bound in honor to
+     consider themselves still as prisoners, and to render themselves to
+     their lawful captors as soon as practicable. This is a point which I
+     have nothing to do with, and therefore I shall not discuss it. My
+     object, in this letter, is merely to vindicate my conduct from
+     misrepresentation; and I trust that in aiming at this, I have not
+     transgressed any of your rules of correspondence, and shall therefore
+     be entitled to a place in your columns.
+
+     JOHN LANCASTER."
+
+"Mark how a plain tale shall put him down." There could not be a better
+illustration of this remark, than the above reply, proceeding from the pen
+of a gentleman, to Mr. Seward's charges against both Mr. Lancaster and
+myself. Mr. Adams having complained to Lord Russell, of the conduct of Mr.
+Lancaster, the latter gentleman addressed a letter to his lordship,
+containing substantially the defence of himself which he had prepared for
+the "Daily News." In a day or two afterward, Lord Russell replied to Mr.
+Adams as follows:--
+
+     FOREIGN OFFICE, July 26, 1864.
+
+     SIR:--With reference to my letter of the 8th inst., I have the honor
+     to transmit to you, a copy of a letter which I have received from Mr.
+     Lancaster, containing his answer to the representations contained in
+     your letter of the 25th ult., with regard to the course pursued by
+     him, in rescuing Captain Semmes and others, on the occasion of the
+     sinking of the _Alabama_; and I have the honor to inform you, that I
+     do not think it necessary to take any further steps in the matter. I
+     have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, your most
+     obedient, humble servant.
+
+     RUSSELL.
+
+The royal yacht squadron, as well as the Government, sustained their
+comrade in what he had done, and a number of officers of the Royal Navy
+and Army, approving of my course, throughout the trying circumstances in
+which I had been placed--not even excepting the hurling of my sword into
+the sea, under the circumstances related--set on foot a subscription for
+another sword, to replace the one which I had lost, publishing the
+following announcement of their intention in the London "Daily
+Telegraph":--
+
+     JUNIOR UNITED SERVICE CLUB, S. W.
+     June 23, 1864.
+
+     SIR:--It will doubtless gratify the admirers of the gallantry
+     displayed by the officers and crew of the renowned _Alabama_, in the
+     late action off Cherbourg, if you will allow me to inform them,
+     through your influential journal, that it has been determined to
+     present Captain Semmes with a handsome sword, to replace that which
+     he buried with his sinking ship. Gentlemen wishing to participate in
+     this testimony to unflinching patriotism and naval daring, will be
+     good enough to communicate with the chairman, Admiral Anson, United
+     Service Club, Pall-Mall, or, sir, yours, &c.
+
+        BEDFORD PIM,
+          _Commander R. N., Hon. Secretary_.
+
+This design on the part of the officers of the British Navy and Army was
+afterward carried out, by the presentation to me of a magnificent sword,
+which was manufactured to their order in the city of London, with suitable
+naval and Southern devices. I could not but appreciate very highly this
+delicate mode, on the part of my professional brethren, of rebutting the
+slanders of the Northern press and people. I might safely rely upon the
+judgment of two of the principal naval clubs in England,--the United
+Service, and the Junior United Service, on whose rolls were some of the
+most renowned naval and military names of Great Britain. The shouts of the
+multitude are frequently deceptive; the idol of an hour may be pulled down
+in the succeeding hour; but the approbation of my brethren in arms, who
+coolly surveyed my career, and measured it by the rules which had guided
+the conduct of so many of their own soldiers by sea and by land, in whose
+presence my own poor name was unworthy to be mentioned, was indeed beyond
+all price to me.
+
+To keep company with this sword, a noble English lady presented me with a
+mammoth Confederate flag, wrought with her own hands from the richest
+silk. There is not a spot on its pure white field, and the battle-cross
+and the stars, when unfolded, flash as brightly as ever. These two gifts
+shall be precious heirlooms in my family, to remind my descendants, that,
+in the words of Patrick Henry, "I have done my utmost to preserve their
+liberty."
+
+  "Furl that Banner, for 'tis _weary_;
+  Round its staff 'tis drooping dreary;
+    Furl it, fold it, it is best:
+  For there's not a man to wave it,
+  And there's not a sword to save it,
+  And there's not one left to lave it
+  In the blood which heroes gave it;
+  And its foes now scorn and brave it;
+    _Furl_ it, _hide_ it--let it _rest_.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Furl it! for the hands that grasped it,
+  And the hearts that fondly clasped it,
+    Cold and dead are lying low;
+  And that Banner--it is trailing!
+  While around it sounds the wailing
+    Of its people in their woe.
+
+       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Furl that Banner! true 'tis gory.
+  Yet 'tis wreathed around with glory,
+  And 'twill live in song and story,
+    Though its folds are in the dust;
+  For its fame on brightest pages,
+  Penned by poets and by sages,
+  Shall go sounding down the ages--
+    Furl its folds though now we must."
+
+Mr. Mason, our Commissioner at the Court of London, thanked Mr. Lancaster
+for his humane and generous conduct in the following terms:--
+
+     24 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE,
+     LONDON, June 21, 1864.
+
+     DEAR SIR:--I received from Captain Semmes, at Southampton, where I
+     had the pleasure to see you, yesterday, a full report of the
+     efficient service rendered, under your orders, by the officers and
+     crew of your yacht, the _Deerhound_, in rescuing him, with thirteen
+     of his officers and twenty-seven of his crew, from their impending
+     fate, after the loss of his ship. Captain Semmes reports that,
+     finding the _Alabama_ actually sinking, he had barely time to
+     dispatch his wounded in his own boats, to the enemy's ship, when the
+     _Alabama_ went down, and nothing was left to those who remained on
+     board, but to throw themselves into the sea. Their own boats absent,
+     there seemed no prospect of relief, when your yacht arrived in their
+     midst, and your boats were launched; and he impressively told me,
+     that to this timely and generous succor, he, with most of his
+     officers and a portion of his crew, were indebted for their safety.
+     He further told me, that on their arrival on board of the yacht,
+     every care and kindness were extended to them which their exhausted
+     condition required, even to supplying all with dry clothing. I am
+     fully aware of the noble and disinterested spirit which prompted you
+     to go to the rescue of the gallant crew of the _Alabama_, and that I
+     can add nothing to the recompense already received by you and those
+     acting under you, in the consciousness of having done as you would be
+     done by; yet you will permit me to thank you, and through you, the
+     captain, officers, and crew of the _Deerhound_, for this signal
+     service, and to say that in doing so, I but anticipate the grateful
+     sentiment of my country, and of the Government of the Confederate
+     States. I have the honor to be, dear sir, most respectfully and
+     truly, your obedient servant,
+
+        J. M. MASON.
+
+     JOHN LANCASTER, _Esq., Hindley Hall, Wigan_.
+
+Subsequently, upon my arrival in Richmond, in the winter of the same year,
+the Confederate Congress passed a joint resolution of thanks to Mr.
+Lancaster, a copy of which it requested the Secretary of the Navy to
+transmit to him. In the confusion incident to the downfall of the
+Confederacy, which speedily followed, Mr. Lancaster probably never
+received a copy of this resolution. Thus, with the indorsement of his own
+government, and with that of the yacht-clubs of England, and of the
+Congress of the Confederate States, he may safely despise the malicious
+diatribes that were launched against him by a fanatical and infuriated
+people, who were thirsting for an opportunity to wreak their vengeance
+upon the persons of the men whom he had saved.
+
+Upon my landing in Southampton, I was received with great kindness by the
+English people, ever ready to sympathize with the unfortunate, and
+administer to the wants of the distressed. Though my officers and myself
+were not to be classed in this latter category, as my drafts on the house
+of Frazer, Trenholm & Co., of Liverpool, would have been accepted to any
+extent, and were as good as cash in the market, there were many generous
+offers of pecuniary assistance made me. I cannot forbear to speak of one
+of these, as it came from a lady, and if, in doing so, I trespass upon the
+bounds of propriety, I trust the noble lady will forgive me. This is the
+only means left me of making her any suitable acknowledgment. This lady
+was Miss Gladstone, a sister of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who wrote
+me a long letter, full of sympathy, and of those noble impulses which
+swell the heart of the true woman on such occasions. She generously
+offered me any aid of which my sailors or myself might be in need. Letters
+of condolence for my loss, and congratulation upon my escape from the
+power of a ruthless enemy, came in upon me in great profusion; and, as for
+volunteers, half the adventurous young spirits of England claimed the
+privilege of serving under me, in my _new_ ship. The career of the
+_Alabama_ seemed to have fired the imagination of all the schools and
+colleges in England, if I might judge by the number of ardent missives I
+received from the young gentlemen who attended them. Mr. Mason, Captain
+Bullock, and the Rev. F. W. Tremlett came post-haste to Southampton, to
+offer us sympathy and services. The reader will recollect the
+circumstances under which I became acquainted with the latter gentleman,
+when I laid up the _Sumter_ at Gibraltar, and retired to London. He now
+came to insist that I should go again to my "English home," at his house,
+to recruit and have my wound cared for. As I had already engaged quarters
+at Millbrook, where I should be in excellent hands, and as duties
+connected with the welfare of my crew would require my detention in the
+neighborhood of Southampton for a week or two, I was forced to forego the
+pleasure for the present.
+
+In connection with the gratitude due other friends, I desire to mention
+the obligations I am under to Dr. J. Wiblin, a distinguished surgeon and
+physician of Southampton, who attended my crew and officers whilst we
+remained there, without fee or reward. The reader may recollect, that
+previous to my engagement with the _Kearsarge_, I had sent on shore,
+through my paymaster, the ship's funds, and the books and papers necessary
+to a final settlement with my crew. The paymaster now recovered back these
+funds, from the bankers with whom they had been deposited, paid off such
+of the officers and men as were with us at Southampton, and proceeded to
+Liverpool, where he was to pay off the rest of the survivors as fast as
+they should present themselves. Some of the crew were wounded, and in
+French hospitals, where they were treated with marked kindness and
+consideration; some had been made prisoners, and paroled by Captain
+Winslow, _with the approbation of Mr. Adams_, under _the mistaken idea_,
+as Mr. Seward afterward insisted, that they were _prisoners of war_, and
+some weeks elapsed, consequently, before they could all present themselves
+at the paymaster's table. This was finally accomplished, however, and
+every officer and seaman, received, in full, all the pay that was due him.
+The amounts due to those killed and drowned, were paid, in due time, to
+their legal representatives; and thus were the affairs of the _Alabama_
+wound up.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI.
+
+AUTHOR MAKES A SHORT VISIT TO THE CONTINENT--RETURNS TO LONDON, AND
+EMBARKS ON HIS RETURN TO THE CONFEDERATE STATES--LANDS AT BAGDAD, NEAR THE
+MOUTH OF THE RIO GRANDE--JOURNEY THROUGH TEXAS--REACHES LOUISIANA, AND
+CROSSES THE MISSISSIPPI; AND IN A FEW DAYS MORE IS AT HOME, AFTER AN
+ABSENCE OF FOUR YEARS.
+
+
+I considered my career upon the high seas closed by the loss of my ship,
+and had so informed Commodore Barron, who was our Chief of Bureau in
+Paris. We had a number of gallant Confederate naval officers, both in
+England and France, eager and anxious to go afloat--more than could be
+provided with ships--and it would have been ungenerous in me to accept
+another command. Besides, my health was broken down to that degree, that I
+required absolute quiet, for some months, before I should again be fit for
+duty. I, therefore, threw off all care and responsibility, as soon as I
+had wound up the affairs of the _Alabama_, and went up to enjoy the
+hospitality of my friend Tremlett, at Belsize Park, in London. Here we
+arranged for a visit, of a few weeks, to the continent, and especially to
+the Swiss mountains, which was carried out in due time. One other
+gentleman, an amiable and accomplished sister of my friend Tremlett, and
+two other ladies, connections or friends of the family, accompanied us.
+
+We were absent six weeks; landing at Ostend, passing hurriedly through
+Belgium--not forgetting, however, to visit the battle-field of
+Waterloo--stopping a few days at Spa, for the benefit of the waters, and
+then passing on to the Rhine; up that beautiful and historic river to
+Mayence, and thence to the Swiss lakes--drawing the first long breath at
+Geneva, where we rested a few days. There, reader! I have given you my
+European tour in a single paragraph; and as I am writing of the sea, and
+of war, and not of the land, or of peace, this is all the space I can
+appropriate to it. I must be permitted, however, to say of my friend
+Tremlett, that I found him a veteran traveller, who knew how to smooth all
+the difficulties of a journey; and of the ladies of our party, that their
+cheerfulness, good-humor, and kind attention to me, did quite as much as
+the Swiss mountain air toward the restoration of my health. I must be
+permitted to make another remark in connection with this journey. I found
+a number of exceedingly patriotic, young, able-bodied male Confederates,
+of a suitable age for bearing arms, travelling, with or without their
+papas and mammas, and boasting of the Confederacy! Most of these
+carpet-knights had been in Europe during the whole war.
+
+Returning to London, in the latter days of September, a few days in
+advance of my travelling party, I made my preparations for returning to
+the Confederate States; and on the 3d of October, 1864, embarked on board
+the steamer _Tasmanian_, for Havana _via_ St. Thomas. My intention was to
+pass into Texas, through the Mexican port of Matamoras. My journey, by
+this route, would occupy a little longer time, and be attended, perhaps,
+with some discomfort, but I should avoid the risk of the blockade, which
+was considerable. The enemy having resorted, literally, to the starving
+process, as being the only one which was likely to put an end to the war,
+had begun to burn our towns, lay waste our corn-fields, run off our
+negroes and cattle, and was now endeavoring to seal, hermetically, our
+ports. He had purchased all kinds of steamers--captured blockade-runners
+and others--which he had fitted out as ships of war, and he now had a
+fleet little short of five hundred sail. Acting, as before stated, on the
+principle of abandoning his commerce, he had concentrated all these before
+the blockaded ports, in such swarms, that it was next to impossible for a
+ship to run in or out, without his permission. I preferred not to fall
+into the enemy's hands, without the benefit of a capitulation. The very
+mention of my name had, as yet, some such effect upon the Yankee
+Government as the shaking of a red flag has before the blood-shot eyes of
+an infuriated bull. Mr. Seward gored, and pawed, and threw up the dust;
+and, above all, bellowed, whenever the vision of the _Alabama_ flitted
+across his brain; and the "sainted Abe" was, in foreign affairs, but his
+man "Friday."
+
+At St. Thomas we changed steamers, going on board the _Solent_--the
+transfer of passengers occupying only a few hours. The _Solent_ ran down
+for the coast of Porto Rico, where she landed some passengers; passed
+thence to the north side of St. Domingo, thence into the Old Bahama
+Channel, and landed us at Havana, in the last days of October. Here we
+were compelled to wait, a few days, for a chance vessel to Matamoras,
+there being no regular packets. This enforced delay was tedious enough,
+though much alleviated by the companionship of a couple of agreeable
+fellow-passengers, who had embarked with me at Southampton, and who, like
+myself, were bound to Matamoras. One of these was Father Fischer, and the
+other, Mr. H. N. Caldwell, a Southern merchant. Father Fischer was a
+German by birth, but had emigrated in early youth to Mexico, where he had
+become a priest. He was a remarkable man, of commanding personal
+appearance, and a well-cultivated and vigorous intellect. He spoke half a
+dozen modern languages,--the English among the rest, with great precision
+and purity,--and both Caldwell and myself became much attached to him. He
+afterward played a very important _role_ in the affairs of Mexico,
+becoming Maximilian's confessor, and one of his most trusted counsellors.
+He was imprisoned for a time, after the fall of the Empire, but was
+finally released, and has since made his way to Europe, with important
+papers belonging to the late unfortunate monarch, and will no doubt give
+us a history of the important episode in Mexican affairs in which he took
+part.
+
+No other vessel offering, we were compelled to embark in a small Yankee
+schooner, still redolent of codfish, though wearing the English flag, to
+which she had recently been transferred. This little craft carried us
+safely across the Gulf of Mexico, after a passage of a week, and landed us
+at a sea-shore village, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, rejoicing in the
+dreamy eastern name of Bagdad. So unique was this little village, that I
+might have fancied it, as its name imported, really under the rule of
+Caliphs, but for certain signs of the Yankee which met my eye. The
+ubiquity of this people is marvellous. They scent their prey with the
+unerring instinct of the carrion-bird. I had encountered them all over the
+world, chasing the omnipotent dollar, notwithstanding the gigantic war
+they were carrying on at home; and here was this little village of Bagdad,
+on the Texan border, as full of them as an ant-hill is of ants; and the
+human ants were quite as busy as their insect prototypes. Numerous
+shanties had been constructed on the sands, out of unplaned boards. Some
+of these shanties were hotels, some billiard-saloons, and others
+grog-shops. The beach was piled with cotton bales going out, and goods
+coming in. The stores were numerous, and crowded with wares. Teamsters
+cracked their whips in the streets, and horsemen, booted and spurred,
+galloped hither and thither. The whole panorama looked like some magic
+scene, which might have been improvised in a night. The population was as
+heterogeneous as the dwellings. Whites, blacks, mulattos, and Indians were
+all mixed. But prominent above all stood the Yankee. The shanties were
+his, and the goods were his. He kept the hotels, marked the billiards, and
+sold the grog.
+
+Pretty soon a coach drove up to the door of the _hotel_ at which we were
+stopping, to take us to Matamoras, a distance of thirty miles. Here was
+the Yankee again. The coach had been built in Troy, New York. The horses
+were all northern horses--tall, strong, and gaunt, none of your Mexican
+mustangs. The Jehu was Yankee, a tall fellow, with fisherman's boots, and
+fancy top-hamper. The dried-up little Mexicans who attended to the horses,
+harnessing and unharnessing them, on the road, at the different relay
+stations, evidently stood in great awe of him. He took us into Matamoras
+"_on time_," and at the end of his journey, cracked his whip, and drew up
+his team at the hotel-door, with a flourish that would have done honor to
+Mr. Samuel Weller, senior, himself.
+
+As great a revolution had taken place in Matamoras as at Bagdad. The
+heretofore quaint old Spanish town presented the very picture of a busy
+commercial mart. House-rent was at an enormous figure; the streets, as
+well as the stores, were piled with bales and boxes of merchandise, and
+every one you met seemed to be running somewhere, intent on business. Ox
+and mule teams from the Texan side of the river, were busy hauling the
+precious staple of the Southern States, which put all this commerce in
+motion, to Bagdad, for shipment; and anchored off that mushroom village, I
+had counted, as I landed, no less than sixty sail of ships--nearly all of
+them foreign. Fortunately for all this busy throng, Maximilian reigned
+supreme in Mexico, and his Lieutenant in Matamoras, General Mejia, gave
+security and protection to person and property, at the same time that he
+raised considerable revenue by the imposition of moderate taxes.
+
+Colonel Ford, the commandant at Brownsville, on the opposite side of the
+river, came over to see me, and toward nightfall I returned with him to
+that place. We crossed the river in a skiff managed by a Mexican, and as
+my foot touched, for the first time in four years, the soil of my native
+South, I experienced, in their full force, the lines of the poet:--
+
+  "Where shall that _land_, that _spot of earth_ be found?
+  Art thou a man?--a patriot?--look around;
+  Oh! thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam,
+  That land _thy_ country, and that spot _thy_ home!"
+
+There were no hotels at Brownsville, but I was comfortably lodged for the
+night, with Colonel Beldon, the Collector of the port. The next morning I
+breakfasted with a large party at a neighboring restaurant, who had
+assembled thither to welcome me back to my native land; and when the
+breakfast was over, a coach and four, which was to take me on my way to
+Shreveport, in Louisiana, drew up at the door. An escort of cavalry had
+been provided, to accompany me as far as King's Ranch, a point at which
+the road approaches the coast, and where it was supposed that some of the
+enemy's gunboats might attempt to ambuscade me. I found, upon entering the
+coach, in which I was to be the only traveller, that my friends had
+provided for my journey in true Texan style; my outfit being a stout pair
+of gray blankets, which were to form my bed on the prairies for the next
+hundred miles, as we should have to travel that distance before we reached
+the shelter of a roof; a box containing a dozen bottles of excellent
+brandy, and cigars at discretion! As the driver cracked his whip, to put
+his mustangs in motion, and my escort clattered on ahead of me, the crowd
+who had gathered in the street to see me depart, launched me upon the
+prairie, with three hearty cheers, such as only Texan throats can give.
+
+It so happened, that my _major-domo_ for the journey, Sergeant ----, was
+the same who had conducted my friend, Colonel Freemantle, over this route,
+some two years before. I found him the same invaluable travelling
+companion. His lunch-baskets were always well filled, he knew everybody
+along the road, was unsurpassed at roasting a venison steak before a
+camp-fire on a forked stick, and made a capital cup of coffee. I missed
+the Judge, whom Freemantle so humorously describes, but I found a good
+many judges on the road, who might sit for his portrait. And now, for want
+of space, I must treat this journey as I did my European tour, give it to
+the reader in a paragraph. We were fourteen days on the road; passing
+through San Patricio on the Nueces, Gonzales on the Guadalupe, Houston,
+Hempstead, Navasota, Huntsville, Rusk, Henderson, and Marshall, arriving
+on the 27th of November at Shreveport. I was received, everywhere, with
+enthusiasm by the warm-hearted, brave Texans, the hotels being all thrown
+open to me, free of expense, and salutes of artillery greeting my entrance
+into the towns. I was frequently compelled to make short speeches to the
+people, merely that they might hear, as they said, "how the pirate
+talked;" and, I fear, I drank a good many more mint-juleps than were good
+for me. At table I was always seated on the right hand of the "landlady,"
+and I was frequently importuned by a bevy of blooming lasses, to tell them
+"how I did the Yankees." Glorious Texas! what if thou art a little too
+much given to the Bowie-knife and revolver, and what if grass-widows are
+somewhat frequent in some of thy localities, thou art all right at heart!
+Liberty burns with a pure flame on thy prairies, and the day will yet come
+when thou wilt be free. Thy fate, thus far, has been a hard one. In a
+single generation thou hast changed thy political condition four times.
+When I first knew thee, thou wast a Mexican province. You then became an
+independent State. In an evil hour you were beguiled into accepting the
+fatal embrace of the Yankee. Learning your mistake, ere long, you united
+your fortunes with those of the Confederate States, in the hope again to
+be free. You did what it was in the power of mortals to do, but the Fates
+were adverse, and you have again been dragged down into worse than Mexican
+bondage. Bide thy time! Thou art rapidly filling up with population. Thou
+wilt soon become an empire in thyself, and the day is not far distant,
+when thou mayest again strike for freedom!
+
+At Shreveport, I was hospitably entertained at the mansion of Colonel
+Williamson, serving on the staff of the commanding general of the
+Trans-Mississippi Department, Kirby Smith. The Mayor and a deputation of
+the Councils waited on me, and tendered me a public dinner, but I
+declined. I remained with Colonel Williamson a couple of days, and the
+reader may imagine how agreeable this relaxation, in comfortable quarters,
+was to me, after a journey of fourteen consecutive days and nights, in a
+stage-coach, through a rough, and comparatively wild country. Governor
+Allen was making Shreveport the temporary seat of government of Louisiana,
+and I had the pleasure of making his acquaintance, and dining with him, in
+company with General Smith and his staff. The Governor was not only a
+genial, delightful companion, but a gallant soldier, who had rendered good
+service to the Confederacy at the head of his regiment. He had been
+terribly wounded, and was still hobbling about on crutches. He seemed to
+be the idol of the people of his State. He was as charitable and
+kind-hearted as brave, and the needy soldier, or soldier's wife, never
+left his presence without the aid they came to seek.
+
+My object in taking Shreveport in my route, instead of striking for the
+Red River, some distance below, was to meet my son, Major O. J. Semmes,
+who, I had been informed at Brownsville, was serving in this part of
+Louisiana. In the beginning of the war he withdrew from West Point, where
+he was within a year of graduating, and offered his sword to his
+State--Alabama. I had not seen him since. He was now a major of artillery,
+commanding a battalion in General Buckner's army, stationed at Alexandria.
+Thither I now directed my course. The river being too low for boating, I
+was forced to make another land journey. The General kindly put an
+ambulance at my disposal, and my host, with the forethought of a soldier,
+packed me a basket of provisions. My friend and travelling companion,
+viz., the Jehu, who was to drive me, was an original. He was from Ohio,
+and had served throughout the war as a private soldier in the Confederate
+army. He had been in a good many fights and skirmishes, and was full of
+anecdote. If he had an antipathy in the world, it was against the Yankee,
+and nothing gave him half so much pleasure, as to "fight his battles o'er
+again." As I had a journey of four or five days before me--the distance
+being 140 miles over execrable roads--the fellow was invaluable to me. We
+passed through several of the localities where General Banks had been so
+shamefully beaten by General Dick Taylor,--at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill,
+and Monett's Ferry. The fields were still strewn with the carcasses of
+animals; a few, unmarked hillocks, here and there, showed where soldiers
+had been buried; and the rent and torn timber marked the course of the
+cannon-balls that had carried death to either side. The Vandals, in their
+retreat, had revenged themselves on the peaceful inhabitants, and every
+few miles the charred remains of a dwelling told where some family had
+been unhoused, and turned into the fields by the torch.
+
+At Alexandria, I was kindly invited by General Buckner to become his guest
+during my stay, and he sent a courier at once to inform my son, who was
+encamped a few miles below the town, of my arrival. The latter came to see
+me the same afternoon. I remained in the hospitable quarters of the
+General a week before the necessary arrangements could be made for my
+crossing the Mississippi. The enemy being in full possession of this river
+by means of his gunboats, it was a matter of some little management to
+cross in safety. The trans-Mississippi mails to Richmond had been sent
+over, however, quite regularly, under the personal superintendence of a
+young officer, detailed for the purpose, and the General was kind enough
+to arrange for my crossing with this gentleman. The news of my passing
+through Texas had reached the enemy at New Orleans, as we learned by his
+newspapers, and great vigilance had been enjoined on his gunboats to
+intercept me, if possible. Our arrangements being completed, I left
+Alexandria on the 10th of December, accompanied by my son, who had
+obtained a short leave of absence for the purpose of visiting his home,
+and reached the little village of Evergreen the next day. Arrived at this
+point, we were joined by our companions of the mail service, and on the
+13th we crossed both the Red and Mississippi Rivers in safety.
+
+The journey through the swamps, leading to these rivers, was unique. We
+performed it on horseback, pursuing mere bridle-paths and cattle-tracks,
+in single file, like so many Indians. Our way sometimes led us through a
+forest of gigantic trees, almost entirely devoid of under-growth, and
+resembling very much, though after a wild fashion, the park scenery of
+England. At other times we would plunge into a dense, tangled brake, where
+the interlaced grape and other vines threatened every moment, to drag us
+from our saddles. The whole was a drowned country, and impassable during
+the season of rains. It was now low water, and as we rode along, the
+high-water marks on the trees were visible, many feet above our heads.
+From this description of the country, the reader will see how impossible
+it was for artillery or cavalry, or even infantry, to operate on the banks
+of these rivers, during a greater part of the year. Except at a few
+points, the enemy's gunboats were almost as secure from attack as they
+would have been, on the high seas. Occasionally, we had to swim a deep
+bayou, whose waters looked as black as those of the Stygian Lake; but if
+the bayou was wide, as well as deep, we more frequently dismounted,
+stripped our horses, and surrounding them, and shouting at them, made them
+take the water in a drove, and swim over by themselves. We then crossed in
+skiffs, which the mail-men had provided for the purpose, and caught and
+resaddled our horses for a fresh mount.
+
+We reached the bank of the Mississippi just before dark. There were two of
+the enemy's gunboats anchored in the river, at a distance of about three
+miles apart. As remarked in another place, the enemy had converted every
+sort of a water craft, into a ship of war, and now had them in such
+number, that he was enabled to police the river in its entire length,
+without the necessity of his boats being out of sight of each other's
+smoke. The officers of these river craft were mostly volunteers from the
+merchant service, whose commissions would expire with the war, and a
+greater set of predatory rascals was, perhaps, never before collected in
+the history of any government. They robbed the plantations, and
+demoralized them by trade, at the same time. Our people were hard pressed
+for the necessaries of life, and a constant traffic was being carried on
+with them, by these armed river steamers, miscalled ships of war.
+
+It would not do, of course, for us to attempt the passage of the river,
+until after dark; and so we held ourselves under cover of the forest,
+until the proper moment, and then embarked in a small skiff, sending back
+the greater part of our escort. Our boat was scarcely able to float the
+numbers that were packed into her. Her gunwales were no more than six
+inches above the water's edge. Fortunately for us, however, the night was
+still, and the river smooth, and we pulled over without accident. As we
+shot within the shadows of the opposite bank, our conductor, before
+landing, gave a shrill whistle to ascertain whether all was right. The
+proper response came directly, from those who were to meet us, and in a
+moment more, we leaped on shore among friends. We found spare horses
+awaiting us, and my son and myself slept that night under the hospitable
+roof of Colonel Rose. The next morning the colonel sent us to Woodville,
+in his carriage, and in four or five days more, we were in Mobile, and I
+was at home again, after an absence of four years!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII.
+
+AUTHOR SETS OUT FOR RICHMOND--IS TWO WEEKS IN MAKING THE
+JOURNEY--INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT DAVIS; WITH GENERAL LEE--AUTHOR IS
+APPOINTED A REAR-ADMIRAL, AND ORDERED TO COMMAND THE JAMES RIVER
+SQUADRON--ASSUMES COMMAND; CONDITION OF THE FLEET--GREAT
+DEMORALIZATION--THE ENEMY'S ARMIES GRADUALLY INCREASING--LEE'S LINES
+BROKEN.
+
+
+I telegraphed my arrival, immediately, to the Secretary of the Navy at
+Richmond, informing him of my intention to proceed to that capital after
+resting for a few days. The following reply came over the wires, in the
+course of a few hours. "Congratulate you, on your safe arrival. When ready
+to come on, regard this as an order to report to the Department." I did
+not, of course, dally long at home. The enemy was pressing us too hard for
+me to think of sitting down in inglorious ease, so long as it was possible
+that I might be of service. At all events, it was my duty to present
+myself to the Government, and see if it had any commands for me.
+Accordingly, on the 2d of January, 1865, I put myself _en route_ for
+Richmond. I was two weeks making my way to the capital of the Confederacy,
+owing the many breaks which had been made in the roads by raiding parties
+of the enemy, and by Sherman's march through Georgia. Poor Georgia! she
+had suffered terribly during this Vandal march of conflagration and
+pillage, and I found her people terribly demoralized. I stopped a day in
+Columbia, the beautiful capital of South Carolina, afterward so
+barbarously burned by a drunken and disorderly soldierly, with no officer
+to raise his hand to stay the conflagration. Passing on, as soon as some
+temporary repairs could be made on a break in the road, ahead of me, I
+reached Richmond, without further stoppages, and was welcomed at his
+house, by my friend and relative, the Hon. Thomas J. Semmes, a senator in
+the Confederate Congress from the State of Louisiana.
+
+I had thus travelled all the way from the eastern boundary of Mexico, to
+Richmond, by land, a journey, which, perhaps, has seldom been performed.
+In this long and tedious journey, through the entire length of the
+Confederacy, I had been painfully struck with the changed aspect of
+things, since I had left the country in the spring of 1861. Plantations
+were ravaged, slaves were scattered, and the country was suffering
+terribly for the want of the most common necessaries of life. Whole
+districts of country had been literally laid waste by the barbarians who
+had invaded us. The magnificent valley of the Red River, down which, as
+the reader has seen, I had recently travelled, had been burned and
+pillaged for the distance of a hundred and fifty miles. Neither Alaric,
+nor Attila ever left such a scene of havoc and desolation in his rear.
+Demoniac Yankee hate had been added to the thirst for plunder.
+Sugar-mills, saw-mills, salt-works, and even the grist-mills which ground
+the daily bread for families, had been laid in ashes--their naked chimneys
+adding ghastliness to the picture. Reeling, drunken soldiers passed in and
+out of dwellings, plundering and insulting their inmates; and if
+disappointed in the amount of their plunder, or resisted, applied the
+torch in revenge. Many of these miscreants were foreigners, incapable of
+speaking the English language. The few dwellings that were left standing,
+looked like so many houses of mourning. Once the seats of hospitality and
+refinement, and the centres of thrifty plantations, with a contented and
+happy laboring population around them, they were now shut up and
+abandoned. There was neither human voice in the hall, nor neigh of steed
+in the pasture. The tenantless negro cabins told the story of the war. The
+Yankee had liberated the slave, and armed him to make war upon his former
+master. The slaves who had not been enlisted in the Federal armies, were
+wandering, purposeless, about the country, in squads, thieving, famishing,
+and dying. This was the character of the war our _brethren_ of the
+North--God save the mark--were making upon us.
+
+To add to the heart-sickening features of the picture, our own people had
+become demoralized! Men, generally, seemed to have given up the cause as
+lost, and to have set themselves at work, like wreckers, to save as much
+as possible from the sinking ship. The civilians had betaken themselves to
+speculation and money-getting, and the soldiers to drinking and
+debauchery. Such, in brief, was the picture which presented itself to my
+eyes as I passed through the Confederacy. The _Alabama_ had gone to her
+grave none too soon. If she had not been buried with the honors of war,
+with the howling winds of the British Channel to sing her requiem, she
+might soon have been handed over to the exultant Yankee, to be exhibited
+at Boston, as a trophy of the war.
+
+My first official visit in Richmond was, of course, to the President. I
+found him but little changed, in personal appearance, since I had parted
+with him in Montgomery, the then seat of government, in April, 1861. But
+he was evidently deeply impressed with the critical state of the country,
+though maintaining an outward air of cheerfulness and serenity. I
+explained to him briefly, what, indeed, he already knew too well, the loss
+of my ship. He was kind enough to say that, though he deeply regretted her
+loss, he knew that I had acted for the best, and that he had nothing with
+which to reproach me. I dined with him on a subsequent day. There was only
+one other guest present. Mrs. Davis was more impressed with events than
+the President. With her womanly instinct, she already saw the handwriting
+on the wall. But though the coming calamity would involve her household in
+ruin, she maintained her self-possession and cheerfulness. The Congress,
+which was in session, received me with a distinction which I had little
+merited. Both houses honored me by a vote of thanks for my services, and
+invited me to a privileged seat on the floor. The legislature of Virginia,
+also in session, extended to me the same honors.
+
+As soon as I could command a leisure moment, I paid General Lee a visit,
+at his headquarters near Petersburg, and spent a night with him. I had
+served with him in the Mexican war. We discussed together the critical
+state of the country, and of his army,--we were now near the end of
+January, 1865,--and I thought the grand old chieftain and Christian
+gentleman seemed to foreshadow, in his conversation--more by manner than
+by words--the approaching downfall of the cause for which we were both
+struggling. I had come to him, I told him, to speak of what I had seen of
+the people, and of the army, in my transit across the country, and to say
+to him, that unless prompt measures could be devised to put an end to the
+desertions that were going on among our troops, our cause must inevitably
+be lost. He did not seem to be at all surprised at the revelations I made.
+He knew all about the condition of the country, civil and military, but
+seemed to feel himself powerless to prevent the downward tendency of
+things. And he was right. It was no longer in the power of any one man to
+save the country. The body-politic was already dead. The people themselves
+had given up the contest, and this being the case, no army could do more
+than retard the catastrophe for a few months. Besides, his army was,
+itself, melting away. That very night--as I learned the next morning, at
+the breakfast table--160 men deserted in a body! It was useless to attempt
+to shoot deserters, when demoralization had gone to this extent.
+
+After I had been in Richmond a few weeks, the President was pleased to
+nominate me to the Senate as a rear-admiral. My nomination was unanimously
+confirmed, and, in a few days afterward, I was appointed to the command of
+the James River fleet. My commission ran as follows:--
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA,
+     NAVY DEPARTMENT, RICHMOND, February 10, 1865.
+
+     REAR-ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES.
+
+     SIR:--You are hereby informed that the President has appointed you,
+     by and with the advice of the Senate, a _Rear-Admiral_, in the
+     Provisional Navy of the Confederate States, "_for gallant and
+     meritorious conduct, in command of the steam-sloop Alabama_." You are
+     requested to signify your acceptance, or non-acceptance of this
+     appointment.
+
+        S. R. MALLORY,
+          _Secretary of the Navy_.
+
+An old and valued friend, Commodore J. K. Mitchell, had been in command of
+the James River fleet, and I displaced him very reluctantly. He had
+organized and disciplined the fleet, and had accomplished with it all that
+was possible, viz., the protection of Richmond by water. I assumed my
+command on the 18th of February, 1865. My fleet consisted of three
+iron-clads and five wooden gunboats. I found my old first lieutenant,
+Kell, who had preceded me to Richmond, and been made a commander, in
+command of one of the iron-clads, but he was soon obliged to relinquish
+his command, on account of failing health. As reorganized, the fleet stood
+as follows:--
+
+_Virginia_, iron-clad, flag-ship, four guns, Captain Dunnington.
+
+_Richmond_, iron-clad, four guns, Captain Johnson.
+
+_Fredericksburg_, iron-clad, four guns, Captain Glassel.
+
+_Hampton_, wooden, two guns, Captain Wilson, late of the _Alabama_.
+
+_Nansemond_, wooden, two guns, Captain Butt.
+
+_Roanoke_, wooden, two guns, Captain Pollock.
+
+_Beaufort_, wooden, two guns, Captain Wyatt.
+
+_Torpedo_, wooden, one gun, Captain Roberts.
+
+The fleet was assisted, in the defence of the river, by several shore
+batteries, in command of naval officers; as Drury's Bluff; Battery Brooke;
+Battery Wood, and Battery Semmes--the whole under the command of my old
+friend, Commodore John R. Tucker.
+
+I soon had the mortification to find that the fleet was as much
+demoralized as the army. Indeed, with the exception of its principal
+officers, and about half a dozen sailors in each ship, its _personnel_ was
+drawn almost entirely from the army. The movements of the ships being
+confined to the head-waters of a narrow river, they were but little better
+than prison-ships. Both men and officers were crowded into close and
+uncomfortable quarters, without the requisite space for exercise. I
+remedied this, as much as possible, by sending squads on shore, to drill
+and march on the river-bank. They were on half rations, and with but a
+scanty supply of clothing. Great discontent and restlessness prevailed.
+Constant applications were coming to me for leaves of absence--almost
+every one having some story to tell of a sick or destitute family. I was
+obliged, of course, to resist all these appeals. "The enemy was thundering
+at the gates," and not a man could be spared. Desertion was the
+consequence. Sometimes an entire boat's crew would run off, leaving the
+officer to find his way on board the best he might. The strain upon them
+had been too great. It was scarcely to be expected of men, of the class of
+those who usually form the rank and file of ships' companies, that they
+would rise above their natures, and sacrifice themselves by slow but sure
+degrees, in any cause, however holy. The visions of home and fireside, and
+freedom from restraint were too tempting to be resisted. The general
+understanding, that the collapse of the Confederacy was at hand, had its
+influence with some of the more honorable of them. They reasoned that
+their desertion would be but an anticipation of the event by a few weeks.
+
+To add to the disorder, the "Union element," as it was called, began to
+grow bolder. This element was composed mainly of Northern-born men, who
+had settled among us before the war. In the height of the war, when the
+Southern States were still strong, and when independence was not only
+possible, but probable, these men pretended to be good Southerners. The
+Puritan leaven, which was in their natures, was kept carefully concealed.
+Hypocrisy was now no longer necessary. Many of these men were preachers of
+the various denominations, and schoolmasters. These white-cravatted
+gentlemen now sprang into unusual activity. Every mail brought long and
+artfully written letters from some of these scoundrels, tempting my men to
+desert. Some of these letters came under my notice, and if I could have
+gotten hold of the writers, I should have been glad to give them the
+benefit of a short shrift, and one of my yard-arms. If I had had my fleet
+upon the sea, it would have been an easy matter to restore its discipline,
+but my ships were, in fact, only so many tents, into which entered freely
+all the bad influences of which I speak. I was obliged to perform
+guard-boat duty on the river, and picket duty on shore, and these duties
+gave my men all the opportunities of escape that they desired.
+
+With regard to the defence of Richmond by water, I felt quite secure. No
+fleet of the enemy could have passed my three iron-clads, moored across
+the stream, in the only available channel, with obstructions below me,
+which would hold it under my fire, and that of the naval batteries on
+shore by which I was flanked. Indeed, the enemy, seeing the hopelessness
+of approach by water, had long since given up the idea. The remainder of
+the winter passed slowly and tediously enough. A few months earlier, and I
+might have had something to occupy me. For a long time, there was no more
+than a single iron-clad in the lower James, the enemy being busy with
+Charleston and Wilmington. An attack on City Point, Grant's base of
+operations, and whence he drew all his supplies, would have been quite
+practicable. If the store-houses at that place could have been burned,
+there is no telling what might have been the consequences. But now,
+Charleston and Wilmington having fallen, and the enemy having no further
+use for his iron-clad fleet, on the coasts of North and South Carolina, he
+had concentrated the whole of it on the lower James, under the command of
+Admiral Porter, who, as the reader has seen, had chased me, so
+quixotically, in the old frigate _Powhattan_, in the commencement of the
+war. At first, this concentration looked like a preparation for an
+attempted ascent of the river, but if any attempt of the kind was ever
+entertained by Porter, he had the good sense, when he came to view the
+"situation," to abandon it.
+
+I usually visited the Navy Department, during this anxious period, once a
+week, to confer with the Secretary on the state of my fleet, and the
+attitude of the enemy, and to receive any orders or suggestions that the
+Government might have to make. Mr. Mallory was kind enough, on these
+occasions, to give me _carte blanche_, and leave me pretty much to myself.
+At length the winter passed, and spring set in. The winds and the sun of
+March began to dry the roads, and put them in good order for military
+operations, and every one anticipated stirring events. As I sat in my
+twilight cabin, on board the _Virginia_, and pored over the map of North
+Carolina, and plotted upon it, from day to day, the approaches of Sherman,
+the prospect seemed gloomy enough. As before remarked, Charleston and
+Wilmington had fallen. With the latter, we had lost our last
+blockade-running port. Our ports were now all hermetically sealed. The
+anaconda had, at last, wound his fatal folds around us. With fields
+desolated at home, and all supplies from abroad cut off, starvation began
+to stare us in the face. Charleston was evacuated on the 17th of
+February--General Hardee having no more than time to get his troops out of
+the city, and push on ahead of Sherman, and join General Joseph E.
+Johnson, who had again been restored to command. Fort Anderson, the last
+defence of Wilmington, fell on the 19th of the same month. Sherman was,
+about this time, at Columbia, South Carolina, where he forever disgraced
+himself by burning, or _permitting to be burned_, it matters not which,
+that beautiful city, which had already surrendered to his arms. The
+opportunity was too good to be lost. The Puritan was at last in the city
+of the cavalier. The man of ruder habits and coarser civilization, was in
+the presence of the more refined gentleman whom he had envied and hated
+for generations. The ignoble passions of race-hatred and revenge were
+gratified, and Massachusetts, through the agency of a brutal and debauched
+soldiery, had put her foot upon the neck of prostrate South Carolina! This
+was humiliation indeed! The coarse man of mills and manufactures had at
+last found entrance as a master into the halls of the South Carolina
+planter!
+
+It was generally expected that Sherman would move upon Charlotte, North
+Carolina, one of the most extensive depots of the South, and thence to
+Danville, and so on to Richmond, to unite his forces with those of Grant.
+There was nothing to oppose him. In ten days at the farthest, after
+burning Columbia, he could have effected a junction with Grant before
+Petersburg. But the "great commander" seemed suddenly to have lost his
+courage, and to the astonishment of every one, soon after passing
+Winsboro', North Carolina, which lies on the road to Charlotte, he swung
+his army off to the right, and marched in the direction of Fayetteville!
+His old antagonist, Johnston, was endeavoring to gather together the
+broken remains of the Army of the Tennessee, and he was afraid of him. His
+object now was to put himself in communication with Schofield, who had
+landed at Wilmington and at Newbern with a large force, and establish a
+new base of operations at these points. He would be safe here, as his
+troops could be fed, and in case of disaster, he could fall back upon the
+sea, and upon Porter's gunboats. He effected the contemplated junction
+with Schofield, at Goldsboro', North Carolina, on the 21st of March. He
+had not touched any of Lee's communications with his depots since leaving
+Winsboro'; the destruction of which communications Grant had so much at
+heart, and which had been the chief object of his--Sherman's--"great
+march." At Goldsboro' he was still 150 miles from Grant's lines, and he
+took no further part in the campaign.
+
+His junction with Schofield had not been effected without disaster. At
+Kinston, Bragg gained a victory over Schofield, utterly routing him, and
+taking 1500 prisoners; and at Bentonsville, Johnston checked, and gained
+some advantage over Sherman. As the reader is supposed to be looking over
+the map with me, we will now stick a pin in the point representing
+Goldsboro', and throw Sherman and Schofield out of view.
+
+In the latter part of March, Sheridan, having overrun Early's small force,
+in the valley of the Shenandoah, found himself at liberty to join General
+Grant. He brought with him from 10,000 to 12,000 excellent cavalry.
+Grant's army was thus swollen to 160,000 men. Adding Sherman's and
+Schofield's forces of 100,000, we have 260,000. In the meantime, Lee's
+half-starved, ragged army, had dwindled to 33,000. With this small number
+of men he was compelled to guard an intrenched line of forty miles in
+length, extending from the north side of the James River, below Richmond,
+to Hatcher's Run, south of Petersburg. As a mere general, he would have
+abandoned the hopeless task long ago, extricating his army, and throwing
+it into the field, but _cui bono_? With Virginia in the enemy's
+possession, with a _beaten people_, and an army fast melting away by
+desertion, could the war be continued with any hope of success? If we
+could not defend ourselves before Richmond, could we defend ourselves
+anywhere? That was the question.
+
+Grant's object was to force Lee's right in the vicinity of Hatcher's Run;
+but he masked this intention, as much as possible, by occasionally
+threatening the whole line. I had frequent opportunity, from the deck of
+my flag-ship, to witness terrible artillery conflicts where nobody was
+killed. Suddenly, on a still night, all the enemy's batteries would be
+ablaze, and the heavens aroar with his firing. The expenditure of powder
+was enormous, and must have gladdened the hearts of the Yankee
+contractors. I would sometimes be aroused from slumber, and informed that
+a great battle was going on. On one or two occasions, I made some slight
+preparations for defence, myself, not knowing but Porter might be fool
+enough to come up the river, under the inspiration of this powder-burning,
+and booming of cannon. But it all amounted to nothing more than Chinese
+grimaces, and "stink-pots," resorted to to throw Lee off his guard, and
+prevent him from withdrawing men from his left, to reinforce his right.
+
+The final and successful assault of Grant was not long delayed. The lines
+in the vicinity of Petersburg having been weakened, by the necessity of
+withdrawing troops to defend Lee's extreme right, resting now on a point
+called the Five Forks, Grant, on the morning of Sunday, the 2d of April,
+made a vigorous assault upon them, and broke them. Lee's army was
+uncovered, and Richmond was no longer tenable!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII.
+
+THE EVACUATION OF RICHMOND BY THE ARMY--THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JAMES RIVER
+FLEET--THE SAILORS OF THE FLEET CONVERTED INTO SOLDIERS--THEIR HELPLESS
+CONDITION WITHOUT ANY MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION--THE CONFLAGRATION OF
+RICHMOND AND THE ENTRY OF THE ENEMY INTO THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL--THE
+AUTHOR IMPROVISES A RAILROAD TRAIN, AND ESCAPES IN IT WITH HIS COMMAND, TO
+DANVILLE, VA.
+
+
+As I was sitting down to dinner, about four o'clock, on the afternoon of
+the disastrous day mentioned in the last chapter, on board my flag-ship,
+the _Virginia_, one of the small steamers of my fleet came down from
+Richmond, having on board a special messenger from the Navy Department.
+Upon being introduced into my cabin, the messenger presented me with a
+sealed package. Up to this time, I was ignorant, of course, of what had
+occurred at Petersburg. I broke the seal and read as follows:--
+
+     CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA,
+     EXECUTIVE OFFICE, RICHMOND, VA., April 2, 1865.
+
+     REAR ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES,
+     _Commanding James River Squadron_.
+
+     SIR:--General Lee advises the Government to withdraw from this city,
+     and the officers will leave this evening, accordingly. I presume that
+     General Lee has advised you of this, and of his movements, and made
+     suggestions as to the disposition to be made of your squadron. He
+     withdraws upon his lines toward Danville, this night; and unless
+     otherwise directed by General Lee, upon you is devolved the duty of
+     destroying your ships, this night, and with all the forces under your
+     command, joining General Lee. Confer with him, if practicable, before
+     destroying them. Let your people be rationed, as far as possible, for
+     the march, and armed and equipped for duty in the field. Very
+     respectfully, your obedient servant,
+
+        S. R. MALLORY, _Secretary of the Navy_.
+
+This was rather short notice. Richmond was to be evacuated during the
+night, during which I was to burn my ships, accoutre and provision my men,
+and join General Lee! But I had become used to emergencies, and was not
+dismayed. I signalled all my captains to come on board, and communicated
+to them the intelligence I had received, and concerted with them the
+programme of the night's work. It was not possible to attempt anything
+before dark, without exciting the suspicions of the enemy, as we were no
+more than four or five miles from his lines; and I enjoined upon my
+commanders the necessity of keeping their secret, until the proper moment
+for action should arrive. The sun was shining brightly, the afternoon was
+calm, and nature was just beginning to put on her spring attire. The
+fields were green with early grass, the birds were beginning to twitter,
+and the ploughman had already broken up his fields for planting his corn.
+I looked abroad upon the landscape, and contrasted the peace and quiet of
+nature, so heedless of man's woes, with the disruption of a great
+Government, and the ruin of an entire people which were at hand!
+
+So unsuspicious were the Government subordinates, of what was going on,
+that the flag-of-truce boats were still plying between Richmond, and the
+enemy's head-quarters, a few miles below us, on the river, carrying
+backward and forward exchanged prisoners. As those boats would pass us,
+coming up the river, filled to overflowing with our poor fellows just
+released from Yankee prisons, looking wan and hollow-eyed, the prisoners
+would break into the most enthusiastic cheering as they passed my flag. It
+seemed to welcome them home. They little dreamed, that it would be struck
+that night, forever, and the fleet blown into the air; that their own
+fetters had been knocked off in vain, and that they were to pass,
+henceforth, under the rule of the hated Yankee. I was sick at heart as I
+listened to those cheers, and reflected upon the morrow.
+
+General Lee had failed to give me any notice of his disaster, or of what
+his intentions were. As mine was an entirely independent command, he,
+perhaps, rightly considered, that it was the duty of the Executive
+Government to do this. Still, in accordance with the expressed wishes of
+Mr. Mallory, I endeavored to communicate with him; sending an officer on
+shore to the signal station, at Drury's Bluff, for the purpose. No
+response came, however, to our telegrams, and night having set in, I paid
+no further attention to the movements of the army. I plainly saw that it
+was a case of _sauve qui peut_, and that I must take care of myself. I was
+to make another _Alabama_-plunge into the sea, and try my luck.
+Accordingly, when night drew her friendly curtain between the enemy and
+myself, I got all my ships under way, and ran up to Drury's Bluff. It was
+here I designed to blow up the iron-clads, throw their crews on board the
+wooden gunboats, and proceed in the latter to Manchester, opposite
+Richmond, on my way to join General Lee. Deeming secrecy of great
+importance to the army, in its attempted escape from its lines, my first
+intention was to _sink_ my fleet quietly, instead of blowing it up, as the
+explosions would give the enemy notice of what was going on. The reader
+may judge of my surprise, when, in the course of an hour or two after
+dark, I saw the whole horizon, on the north side of the James, glowing
+with fires of burning quarters, _materiel_, &c., lighted by our own
+troops, as they successively left their intrenchments! Concealment on my
+part was no longer necessary or indeed practicable.
+
+I now changed my determination and decided upon burning my fleet. My
+officers and men worked like beavers. There were a thousand things to be
+done. The sailor was leaving the homestead which he had inhabited for
+several months. Arms had to be served out, provisions gotten up out of the
+hold, and broken into such packages, as the sailors could carry. Hammocks
+had to be unlashed, and the blankets taken out, and rolled up as compactly
+as possible. Haversacks and canteens had to be improvised. These various
+operations occupied us until a late hour. It was between two and three
+o'clock in the morning, before the crews of the iron-clads were all safely
+embarked on board the wooden gunboats, and the iron-clads were well on
+fire. My little squadron of wooden boats now moved off up the river, by
+the glare of the burning iron-clads. They had not proceeded far, before
+an explosion, like the shock of an earthquake, took place, and the air was
+filled with missiles. It was the blowing up of the _Virginia_, my late
+flag-ship. The spectacle was grand beyond description. Her shell-rooms had
+been full of loaded shells. The explosion of the magazine threw all these
+shells, with their fuses lighted, into the air. The fuses were of
+different lengths, and as the shells exploded by twos and threes, and by
+the dozen, the pyrotechnic effect was very fine. The explosion shook the
+houses in Richmond, and must have waked the echoes of the night for forty
+miles around.
+
+There are several bridges spanning the James between Drury's Bluff and the
+city, and at one of these we were detained an hour, the draw being down to
+permit the passage of some of the troops from the north side of the river,
+who had lighted the bonfires of which I have spoken. Owing to this delay,
+the sun--a glorious, unclouded sun, as if to mock our misfortunes--was now
+rising over Richmond. Some windows, which fronted to the east, were all
+aglow with his rays, mimicking the real fires that were already breaking
+out in various parts of the city. In the lower part of the city, the
+School-ship _Patrick Henry_ was burning, and some of the houses near the
+Navy Yard were on fire. But higher up was the principal scene of the
+conflagration. Entire blocks were on fire here, and a dense canopy of
+smoke, rising high in the still morning air, was covering the city as with
+a pall. The rear-guard of our army had just crossed, as I landed my fleet
+at Manchester, and the bridges were burning in their rear. The Tredegar
+Iron Works were on fire, and continual explosions of loaded shell stored
+there were taking place. In short, the scene cannot be described by mere
+words, but the reader may conceive a tolerable idea of it, if he will
+imagine himself to be looking on Pandemonium broken loose.
+
+
+[Illustration: The Blowing up of the James River Fleet, on the night of
+the Evacuation of Richmond.
+
+KELLY, PIET & CO. PUBLISHERS.----LITH. BY A. HOEN & CO. BALTO.]
+
+
+The population was in a great state of alarm. Hundreds of men and women
+had sought refuge on the Manchester side, in the hope of getting away, by
+some means or other, they knew not how. I was, myself, about the most
+helpless man in the whole crowd. I had just tumbled on shore, with their
+bags and baggage, 500 sailors, incapable of marching a dozen miles without
+becoming foot-sore, and without any means, whatever, of transportation
+being provided for them. I had not so much as a pack-mule to carry a load
+of provisions. I was on foot, myself, in the midst of my men. A current of
+horsemen, belonging to our retreating column, was sweeping past me, but
+there was no horse for me to mount. It was every man for himself, and
+d----l take the hindmost. Some of the young cavalry rascals--lads of
+eighteen or twenty--as they passed, jibed and joked with my old salts,
+asking them how they liked navigating the land, and whether they did not
+expect to anchor in Fort Warren pretty soon? The spectacle presented by my
+men was, indeed, rather a ludicrous one; loaded down, as they were, with
+pots, and pans, and mess-kettles, bags of bread, and chunks of salted
+pork, sugar, tea, tobacco, and pipes. It was as much as they could do to
+stagger under their loads--marching any distance seemed out of the
+question. As I reviewed my "troops," after they had been drawn up by my
+captains, who were now all become colonels, I could not but repeat to
+myself Mr. Mallory's last words--"You will join General Lee, in the
+field, with all your forces."
+
+Yes; here were my "forces," but where, the d----l, was General Lee, and
+how was I to join him? If I had had the Secretary of the Navy, on foot, by
+the side of me, I rather think this latter question would have puzzled him.
+
+But there was no time to be lost,--I must do something. The first thing,
+of course, after landing my men, was to burn my wooden gunboats. This was
+done. They were fired, and shoved off from the landing, and permitted to
+float down the stream. I then "put my column in motion," and we "marched"
+a distance of several squares, blinded by the dust kicked up by those
+vagabonds on horseback, before mentioned. When we came in sight of the
+railroad depot, I halted, and inquired of some of the fugitives who were
+rushing by, about the trains. "The trains!" said they, in astonishment at
+my question; "the last train left at daylight this morning--it was filled
+with the civil officers of the Government." Notwithstanding this answer, I
+moved my command up to the station and workshops, to satisfy myself by a
+personal inspection. It was well that I did so, as it saved my command
+from the capture that impended over it. I found it quite true, that the
+"last train" had departed; and, also, that all the railroad-men had
+either run off in the train, or hidden themselves out of view. There was
+no one in charge of anything, and no one who knew anything. But there was
+some material lying around me; and, with this, I resolved to set up
+railroading on my own account. Having a dozen and more steam-engineers
+along with me, from my late fleet, I was perfectly independent of the
+assistance of the alarmed railroad-men, who had taken to flight.
+
+A pitiable scene presented itself, upon our arrival at the station. Great
+numbers had flocked thither, in the hope of escape; frightened men,
+despairing women, and crying children. Military patients had hobbled
+thither from the hospitals; civil employees of the Government, who had
+missed the "last train," by being a little too late, had come to remedy
+their negligence; and a great number of other citizens, who were anxious
+to get out of the presence of the hated Yankee, had rushed to the station,
+they scarcely knew why. These people had crowded into, and on the top of,
+a few straggling passenger-cars, that lay uncoupled along the track, in
+seeming expectation that some one was to come, in due time, and take them
+off. There was a small engine lying also on the track, but there was no
+fire in its furnace, no fuel with which to make a fire, and no one to
+manage it. Such was the condition of affairs when I "deployed" my "forces"
+upon the open square, and "grounded arms,"--the butts of my rifles not
+ringing on the ground quite as harmoniously as I could have desired.
+Soldiering was new to Jack; however, he would do better by-and-by.
+
+My first move was to turn all these wretched people I have described out
+of the cars. Many plaintive appeals were made to me by the displaced
+individuals, but my reply to them all was, that it was better for an
+unarmed citizen to fall into the hands of the enemy, than a soldier with
+arms in his hands. The cars were then drawn together and coupled, and my
+own people placed in them. We next took the engine in hand. A body of my
+marine "sappers and miners" were set at work to pull down a picket fence,
+in front of one of the dwellings, and chop it into firewood. An engineer
+and firemen were detailed for the locomotive, and in a very few minutes,
+we had the steam hissing from its boiler. I now permitted as many of the
+frightened citizens as could find places to clamber upon the cars. All
+being in readiness, with the triumphant air of a man who had overcome a
+great difficulty, and who felt as if he might snap his fingers at the
+Yankees once more, I gave the order to "go ahead." But this was easier
+said than done. The little locomotive started at a snail's pace, and drew
+us creepingly along, until we reached a slightly ascending grade, which
+occurs almost immediately after leaving the station. Here it came to a
+dead halt. The firemen stirred their fires, the engineer turned on all his
+steam, the engine panted and struggled and screamed, but all to no
+purpose. We were effectually stalled. Our little iron horse was
+incompetent to do the work which had been required of it. Here was a
+predicament!
+
+We were still directly opposite the city of Richmond, and in full view of
+it, for the track of the road runs some distance up the river-bank, before
+it bends away westward. Amid flames and smoke and tumult and disorder, the
+enemy's hosts were pouring into the streets of the proud old capital. Long
+lines of cavalry and artillery and infantry could be seen, moving like a
+huge serpent through the streets, and winding their way to State-House
+Square. As a crowning insult, a regiment of negro cavalry, wild with
+savage delight at the thought of triumphing over their late masters,
+formed a prominent feature in the grand procession. Alongside of the black
+savage marched the white savage--worthy compeers! nay, scarcely; the black
+savage, under the circumstances, was the more worthy of respect of the
+two. The prophecy of Patrick Henry was fulfilled; the very halls, in which
+he had thundered forth the prophecy, were in possession of the "stranger,"
+against whom he had warned his countrymen! My temporary safety lay in two
+circumstances: first, the enemy was so drunk with his success, that he had
+no eyes for any one but himself and the population of the proud city of
+Richmond which he was seeking to abase; and secondly, the bridges leading
+across the river were all on fire. Whilst I was pondering what was best to
+be done, whether I should uncouple a portion of the train, and permit the
+rest to escape, an engineer came running to me to say that he had
+discovered another engine, which the absconding railroad people had hidden
+away in the recesses of their work-shops. The new engine was rolled out
+immediately, steam raised on it in a few minutes, and by the aid of the
+two engines, we gave our train, with the indifferent fuel we had, a speed
+of five or six miles per hour, until we reached the first wood-pile. Here
+getting hold of some better fuel, we fired up with better effect, and went
+thundering, with the usual speed, on our course.
+
+It was thus, after I had, in fact, been abandoned by the Government and
+the army, that I saved my command from capture. I make no charges--utter
+no complaints. Perhaps neither the Government, nor the army was to blame.
+The great disaster fell upon them both so suddenly, that, perhaps, neither
+could do any better; but the naked fact is, that the fleet was abandoned
+to shift for itself, there being, as before remarked, not only no
+transportation provided for carrying a pound of provisions, or a
+cooking-utensil, but not even a horse for its Admiral to mount. As a
+matter of course, great disorder prevailed, in all the villages, and at
+all the way-stations, by which we passed. We had a continual accession of
+passengers, until not another man could be packed upon the train. So great
+was the demoralization, that we picked up "unattached" generals and
+colonels on the road, in considerable numbers. The most amusing part of
+our journey, however, was an attempt made by some of the railroad
+officials to take charge of our train, after we had gotten some distance
+from Richmond. Conductors and engineers now came forward, and insisted
+upon regulating our affairs for us. We declined the good offices of these
+gentlemen, and navigated to suit ourselves. The president, or
+superintendent of the road, I forget which, even had the assurance to
+complain, afterward, to President Davis, at Danville, of my usurping his
+authority! Simple civilian! discreet railroad officer! to scamper off in
+the manner related, and then to complain of my usurping his authority! My
+railroad cruise ended the next day--April 4th--about midnight, when we
+reached the city of Danville, and blew off our steam, encamping in the
+cars for the remainder of the night. Our escape had been narrow, in more
+respects than one. After turning Lee's flank, at the Five Forks, the enemy
+made a dash at the Southside Railroad; Sheridan with his cavalry tearing
+up the rails at the Burksville Junction, just _one hour and a half_ after
+we had passed it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIX.
+
+INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT DAVIS AND SECRETARY MALLORY--MY COMMAND ORGANIZED
+AS A BRIGADE OF ARTILLERY--BRIGADE MARCHES TO GREENSBORO', NORTH
+CAROLINA--CAPITULATION BETWEEN GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON AND
+SHERMAN--DISPERSION OF JOHNSTON'S TROOPS--AUTHOR RETURNS HOME, AND IS
+ARRESTED--CONCLUSION.
+
+
+My memoirs are drawing to a close, for the career of the Confederacy, as
+well as my own, is nearly ended. I found, at Danville, President Davis,
+and a portion of his cabinet--the Secretary of the Navy among the rest.
+Here was temporarily established the seat of Government. I called on the
+President and Secretary, who were staying at the same house, at an early
+hour on the morning after my arrival, and reported for duty. They were
+both calm in the presence of the great disaster which had befallen them
+and the country. Mr. Mallory could scarcely be said now to have a
+portfolio, though he still had the officers and clerks of his Department
+around him. It was at once arranged between him, and the President, that
+my command should be organized as a brigade of artillery, and assigned to
+the defences around Danville. The question of my rank being discussed, it
+was settled by Mr. Davis, that I should act in the capacity of a
+brigadier-general. My grade being that of a rear-admiral, I was entitled
+to rank, relatively, with the officers of the army, as a major-general,
+but it was folly, of course, to talk of rank, in the circumstances in
+which we were placed, and so I contented myself by saying pleasantly to
+the President, that I would waive the matter of rank, to be discussed
+hereafter, if there should ever be occasion to discuss it. "That is the
+right spirit," said he, with a smile playing over his usually grave
+features.
+
+I did not see him afterward. He moved soon to Charlotte, in North
+Carolina, and in a few weeks afterward, he fell into the hands of the
+enemy. The reader knows the rest of his history; how the enemy gloated
+over his captivity; how he was reviled, and insulted, by the coarse and
+brutal men into whose power he had fallen; how lies were invented as to
+the circumstances of his capture, to please and amuse the Northern
+multitudes, eager for his blood; and finally, how he was degraded by
+imprisonment, and the manacles of a felon! His captors and he were of
+different races--of different blood. They had nothing in common. He was
+the "Cavalier," endowed by nature with the instincts and refinement of the
+gentleman. They were of the race of the Roundheads, to whom all such
+instincts and refinements were offensive. God has created men in different
+moulds, as he has created the animals. It was as natural that the Yankee
+should hate Jefferson Davis, as that the cat should arch its back, and
+roughen its fur, upon the approach of the dog. I have said that the
+American war had its origin in money, and that it was carried on
+throughout, "for a consideration." It ended in the same way. The
+"long-haired barbarian"--see Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman
+Empire"--who laid his huge paw upon Jefferson Davis, to make him prisoner,
+was paid in _money_ for the gallant deed. A President of the United States
+had degraded his high office, by falsely charging Mr. Davis with being an
+accomplice in the murder of President Lincoln, and offered a reward for
+his apprehension; thus gratifying his malignant nature, by holding him up
+to the world as a common felon. All men now know this charge to be false,
+the libeller among the rest. Gentlemen retract false charges, when they
+know them to be such. The charge made by Andrew Johnson against Jefferson
+Davis has not been retracted.
+
+Upon leaving the presence of the President, and Secretary of the Navy, I
+sought out my old friend, Captain Sydney Smith Lee, of the Navy, the
+Assistant Secretary, who had accompanied Mr. Mallory, and arranged with
+him, and afterward with General Cooper, the Adjutant-General of the Army,
+the transformation of my sailors into soldiers. There were a great many
+other naval officers, besides those under my command, fugitives in
+Danville, and the President and Secretary had been kind enough to
+authorize me to employ such of them in my new organization, as I might
+desire. But the difficulty was not in the want of officers; it was the
+want of men. Already my command of five hundred had dwindled down to about
+four hundred on my retreat from Richmond, and since my arrival in
+Danville. I broke these into skeleton regiments so as to conform to the
+Brigade organization, and appointed Dunnington, late Captain of my
+flag-ship, the Colonel of one of them, and Johnston, late Captain of the
+_Richmond_, Colonel of the other. My youngest son, who had been a
+midshipman on board the School-ship at Richmond, and who had retreated
+thence with the School, on the night before the surrender, was ordered by
+Captain Lee to report to me, and I assigned him to a position on my staff,
+with the rank of a second lieutenant. Mr. Daniel, my secretary, became my
+other aide-de-camp, and Captain Butt, late commander of the _Nansemond_,
+was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General.
+
+We remained in the trenches before Danville ten days; and anxious, and
+weary days they were. Raiding parties were careering around us in various
+directions, robbing and maltreating the inhabitants, but none of the
+thieves ventured within reach of our guns. Lee abandoned his lines, on the
+3d of April, and surrendered his army, or the small remnant that was left
+of it, to Grant, on the 9th, at Appomattox Court-House. The first news we
+received of his surrender, came to us from the stream of fugitives which
+now came pressing into our lines at Danville. It was heart-rending to look
+upon these men, some on foot, some on horseback, some nearly famished for
+want of food, and others barely able to totter along from disease. It was,
+indeed, a rabble rout. Hopes had been entertained that Lee might escape to
+Lynchburg, or to Danville, and save his army. The President had
+entertained this hope, and had issued a proclamation of encouragement to
+the people, before he left Danville. But the fatal tidings came at last,
+and when they did come, we all felt that the fate of the Confederacy was
+sealed.
+
+A new impetus was given to desertions, and before I reached Greensboro',
+North Carolina, to which point I was now removed by the orders of General
+Joseph E. Johnston, my command had dwindled to about 250 men. Commissioned
+officers slunk away from me one by one, and became deserters! I was
+ashamed of my countrymen. Johnston, by reason of his great, personal
+popularity, and of the confidence which the troops had in his ability, was
+enabled to gather around him the fragments of several armies, whilst Grant
+had been pressing Lee; and but for Lee's disaster would soon have been
+able to hold Sherman in check very effectually. But the moment the news of
+Lee's surrender reached him, there was a stampede from his army. It melted
+away like a hillock of snow before the sunshine. Whole companies deserted
+at a time. Still, many true men remained with him, and with these he stood
+so defiantly before Sherman, that the latter was glad to enter into
+negotiations with him for the _dispersion_ of his troops. The reader will
+be pleased to pay attention to this expression. Johnston dispersed his
+troops, under the capitulation which will presently be spoken of. He never
+surrendered them _as prisoners_ to the enemy. The country is familiar with
+what occurred at Greensboro', between Johnston and Sherman, and I do not
+propose to rehearse it here. Sherman, yielding to the impulses of
+Johnston's master-mind, entered into an agreement with the latter, which
+would have achieved more fame for him in the future than all his
+victories, if he had had the courage and ability to stand up to his work.
+This agreement was that the Southern States should be regarded as _ipso
+facto_, on the cessation of the war, restored to their rights in the
+Union. The stroke was one of a statesman. It is in times of great
+revolutions that genius shows itself. The Federal Government, at the time
+that this convention was made, was prostrate beneath the foot of the
+soldier, and a military man of genius might have governed it with the
+crook of his finger. If such a one had arisen, he might have applied the
+scourge to the back of the Northern people, and they would have yelped
+under it as submissively as any hound. They _had_ yelped under the
+scourging of Abraham Lincoln. But Sherman was not the man to conceive the
+emergency, or to avail himself of it. He, on the contrary, permitted
+himself to be scourged by a creature like Stanton, the Federal Secretary
+of War, and if he did not yelp under the scourging, he at least submitted
+to it with most admirable docility. Stanton insolently rejected the
+convention which had been entered into between the two generals, and,
+reminding Sherman that he was nothing but a soldier, told him to attend to
+his own business. Stanton knew his man, and Sherman did, afterward, attend
+to his own business; for he now entered into a purely military convention
+with Johnston.
+
+The main features of that convention were, that Johnston should disperse
+his army, and Sherman should, in consideration thereof, guarantee it
+against molestation by the Federal authorities. It was in the interval
+between these two conventions, that my camp was astounded one morning, by
+the report that Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, was dead.
+He had gone to a small theatre in the city of Washington, on the evening
+of Good Friday, and had been shot by a madman! It seemed like a just
+retribution that he should be cut off in the midst of the hosannas that
+were being shouted in his ears, for all the destruction and ruin he had
+wrought upon twelve millions of people. Without any warrant for his
+conduct, he had made a war of rapine and lust against eleven sovereign
+States, whose only provocation had been that they had made an effort to
+preserve the liberties which had been handed down to them by their
+fathers. These States had not sought war, but peace, and they had found,
+at the hands of Abraham Lincoln, destruction. As a Christian, it was my
+duty to say, "Lord, have mercy upon his soul!" but the d----l will surely
+take care of his memory.
+
+The last days of April, and the first days of May, were employed, by
+General Johnston, in dispersing his army according to agreement.
+Commissioners, appointed by the two Generals to arrange the dispersion,
+and provide the dispersed troops with the guaranties that had been agreed
+upon, met in the village of Greensboro', on the 1st of May, 1865. On the
+previous evening, I had called at the headquarters of General Johnston,
+where I had met Beauregard, Wade Hampton, Wheeler, D. H. Hill, and a host
+of other gallant spirits, who formed the galaxy by which he was
+surrounded. He was kind enough to give me precedence, in the matter of
+arranging for my departure with the Federal Commissioner. Accordingly, on
+the morning of the 1st of May, accompanied by my staff, I rode into
+Greensboro', and alighted at the Britannia Hotel, where the Commissioners
+were already assembled. They were Brevet Brigadier General Hartsuff, on
+the part of the Federals, and Colonel Mason, on the part of the
+Confederates. Each guaranty of non-molestation had been prepared,
+beforehand, in a printed form, and signed by Hartsuff, and only required
+to be filled up with the name and rank of the party entitled to receive
+it, and signed by myself to be complete. Upon being introduced to General
+Hartsuff, we proceeded at once to business. I produced the muster-roll of
+my command, duly signed by my Assistant Adjutant-General; and General
+Hartsuff and myself ran our eyes over the names together, and when we had
+ascertained the number, the General counted out an equal number of blank
+guaranties, and, handing them to me, said: "You have only to fill up one
+of these for each officer and soldier of your command, with his name and
+rank, and sign it and hand it to him. I have already signed them myself.
+You can fill up the one intended for yourself in like manner." "With
+regard to the latter," I replied, "I prefer, if you have no objection, to
+have it filled up and completed here in your presence." "Oh! that makes no
+difference," he replied. "Very well," said I, "if it makes no difference,
+then you can have no objection to complying with my request." He now
+called an aide-de-camp, and desiring him to be seated at the table where
+we were, told him to fill up my guaranty after my dictation. I gave him my
+titles separately, making him write me down a "Rear-Admiral in the
+Confederate States Navy, and a Brigadier-General in the Confederate States
+Army, commanding a brigade." When he had done this, he handed me the
+paper; I signed it, and put it in my pocket, and, turning to the General,
+said, "I am now satisfied." The following is a copy of the paper:--
+
+     GREENSBORO', NORTH CAROLINA, May 1, 1865.
+
+     In accordance with the terms of the Military Convention, entered into
+     on the 26th day of April, 1865, between General Joseph E. Johnston,
+     commanding the Confederate Army, and Major-General W. T. Sherman,
+     commanding the United States Army, in North Carolina, _R. Semmes,
+     Rear-Admiral, and Brigadier-General, C. S. Navy, and C. S. Army,
+     commanding brigade_, has given his solemn obligation, not to take up
+     arms against the Government of the United States, until properly
+     released from this obligation; and is permitted to return to his
+     home, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities, so long
+     as he observes this obligation, and obeys the laws in force where he
+     may reside.
+
+        R. SEMMES,
+          _Rear-Admiral C. S. Navy, and Brigadier-General C. S. Army_.
+
+     WM. HARTSUFF,
+     _Brevet Brigadier-General U. S. Army,
+     Special Commissioner_.
+
+It was well I took the precautions above described, in dealing with the
+enemy, for, when I was afterward arrested, as the reader will presently
+see, the Yankee press, howling for my blood, claimed that I had not been
+paroled at all! that I had deceived the paroling officer, and obtained my
+parole under false pretences; the said paroling officer not dreaming, when
+he was paroling one Brigadier-General Semmes, that he had the veritable
+"pirate" before him. I dispersed my command, on the same afternoon, and
+with my son, and half a dozen of my officers, a baggage-wagon, and the
+necessary servants, made my way to Montgomery, in Alabama, and, at that
+point, took steamer for my home, in Mobile, which I reached in the latter
+days of May.
+
+Andrew Johnson, the Vice-President of the United States, had succeeded Mr.
+Lincoln as President. He was a Southern man, born in the State of North
+Carolina, and a citizen of Tennessee. He had been elected to the Senate of
+the United States, a short time before the breaking out of the war. He had
+belonged to the Democratic party, and had arisen from a very low
+origin--his father having belonged to the common class of laborers, and he
+having learned the trade of a tailor, which he practised after he had
+grown to man's estate. Gifted by nature with a strong intellect, he
+studied the law, and afterward embarked in politics. The word "embark"
+expresses my idea precisely, for, from this time onward, he became a mere
+politician. As a rule, it requires an unscrupulous and unprincipled man to
+succeed in politics in America. Honorable men do, sometimes, of course,
+make their way to high places; but these form the exceptions, not the
+rule. Andrew Johnson succeeded in politics. In the earlier stages of our
+troubles, he spoke and wrote like a Southern man, demanding, in behalf of
+the South, some security for the future, in the way of additional
+guaranties. But when these were all denied, and it became evident that his
+State would secede, and that he would be stripped of his senatorial honors
+so recently won, if he abided by his former record, and went with his
+State, he abjured his record, and abandoned his State. Like all renegades,
+he became zealous in the new faith which he had adopted, and proved
+himself so good a Radical, that President Lincoln sent him back to
+Tennessee as a satrap, to govern, with a rod of iron, under military rule,
+the Sovereign State for which he had so recently demanded additional
+securities.
+
+Still growing in favor with his new party, he was elected Vice-President,
+upon the re-election of Mr. Lincoln, in the fall of 1864. The Presidential
+mantle having fallen upon him, by the tragical death of Mr. Lincoln, he
+retained the cabinet of his predecessor, and made his zeal still more
+manifest to his party, by insisting on the necessity of making "treason
+odious"--the same sort of treason enjoined upon the States by Jefferson in
+his Kentucky Resolutions of '98 and '99, which formed the basis of the
+creed of the Democratic party, to which Mr. Johnson had belonged--and
+punishing "traitors." A grand jury in Norfolk, Va., found an indictment
+for treason against General Lee, and but for the interposition of General
+Grant, he would have been tried, under Mr. Johnson's administration; and
+probably tried by a packed jury that would have hung him. Mr. Davis was
+already in close and ignominious confinement, as has been related. Captain
+Wurz, of the late Confederate States Army, who had been, for a short time,
+in charge of the prison at Andersonville, was tried by a Military
+Commission, in the city of Washington, under the shadow of the President's
+chair, convicted, and executed, notwithstanding he was a paroled _prisoner
+of war_. Another Military Commission, _in time of peace_, had convicted
+and executed a woman--Mrs. Surratt--on the false charge, as is now
+admitted by the whole country, that she was an accomplice in Mr. Lincoln's
+assassination. Mr. Johnson signed her death-warrant.
+
+It was under these circumstances, that on the night of the 15th of
+December, 1865, or seven months and a half after I had received the
+guaranty of General Sherman, at Greensboro', North Carolina, that I should
+not be molested by the United States authorities, that a lieutenant of the
+Marine Corps, with a guard of soldiers, surrounded my house and arrested
+me, on an order signed by Mr. Gideon Welles, without the process of any
+court. I was torn from my family, under guard--the thieving soldiery
+committing some petty thefts about my premises--and hurried off to
+Washington. Arrived here, I was imprisoned, first, in the Navy Yard, and
+then in the Marine Barracks. I was kept a close prisoner, with a sentinel
+at my door, for nearly four months; the gentlemen about the barracks,
+however, doing everything in their power to render my confinement more
+endurable. It was the intention of the Government to throw me, as it had
+thrown Wurz, as a sop to the extreme Radicals of the New England States,
+whose commerce I had destroyed; and I was only saved by the circumstances
+which will be presently related. But before I relate these circumstances,
+I deem it pertinent to give to the reader the following letter addressed
+by me to President Johnson, from my place of confinement, charging his
+Government with a breach of faith in arresting me.
+
+     TO HIS EXCELLENCY ANDREW JOHNSON,
+     _President of the United States_.
+
+     SIR:--Being satisfied that you are anxious to arrive at a correct
+     decision in my case,--one that shall accord, at the same time, with
+     the honor and dignity of the United States, and with justice to
+     myself,--I venture to address you the following brief exposition of
+     the law and the facts of the case.
+
+     On the 26th day of April, 1865, the following military convention was
+     entered into at Greensboro', N. C., between General Joseph E.
+     Johnston, commanding the Confederate States Armies in North Carolina,
+     and Major-General W. T. Sherman, commanding the United States Army in
+     the same State, viz:--
+
+     "1. All acts of war on the part of the troops under General
+     Johnston's command to cease from this date.
+
+     "2. All arms and public property to be deposited at Greensboro', and
+     delivered to an ordnance officer of the United States Army.
+
+     "3. Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one
+     copy to be retained by the commander of the troops, and the other to
+     be given to an officer to be designated by General Sherman. Each
+     officer and man to give his individual obligation, in writing, not
+     to take up arms against the Government of the United States until
+     properly released from this obligation.
+
+     "4. The side-arms of officers, and their private horses and baggage,
+     to be retained by them.
+
+     "5. This being done, all the officers and men will be permitted to
+     return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States
+     authorities so long as they observe their obligation and the laws in
+     force where they may reside.
+
+        [Signed] "W. T. SHERMAN, _Major-General_,
+          "_Commanding U. S. Forces in North Carolina_.
+
+        [Signed] "JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, _General_,
+          "_Commanding C. S. Forces in North Carolina_."
+
+     Here, Mr. President, was a solemn military convention, entered into
+     by two generals, who had opposing armies in the field, in which
+     convention the one and the other general stipulated for certain
+     terms,--General Johnston agreeing to lay down his arms and disband
+     his forces, and General Sherman agreeing, _in consideration thereof_,
+     that the forces thus disbanded shall proceed to their homes, and
+     there remain undisturbed by the United States authorities. I beg you
+     to observe the use of the word "undisturbed," one of the most
+     comprehensive words in our language. I pray you also to remark the
+     formalities with which this convention was drawn. We were treated as
+     officers commanding armies, representing, of course, if not a _de
+     jure_, at least a _de facto_ government. Our proper military titles
+     were acknowledged. I was myself styled and treated in the
+     muster-rolls, and other papers drawn up by both parties, a
+     brigadier-general and a rear-admiral. The honors of war usual upon
+     surrenders, upon terms, were accorded to us, in our being permitted
+     to retain our side-arms, private horses, and baggage. In short, the
+     future historian, upon reading this convention, will be unable to
+     distinguish it in any particular from other similar papers, agreed
+     upon by armies of recognized governments. At the date of, and some
+     weeks prior to the ratification of this convention, I commanded a
+     brigade of artillery, forming a part of the army of General Johnston.
+     I was, of course, included in the terms of the convention. I complied
+     with those terms, under orders received from General Johnston, by
+     turning over my arms to the proper officer, and disbanding my forces.
+     The convention was approved by the Government of the United States.
+     Your Excellency may recollect that the first convention entered into
+     between General Johnston and General Sherman, which provided, among
+     other things, for the return of the Southern States to their
+     functions under the Constitution of the United States, was
+     disapproved by the Government, on the ground that General Sherman, in
+     undertaking to treat of political matters, had transcended his
+     authority. The armistice which had been declared between the two
+     armies was dissolved, and hostilities were renewed. A few days
+     afterward, however, new negotiations were commenced, and the
+     convention with which we have to do was the second convention entered
+     into by those Generals, and which was a substantial readoption of
+     the military portion of the first convention. It was this latter
+     convention which was formally approved, both by General Grant, the
+     Commander-in-Chief, under whose orders General Sherman acted, and by
+     the Executive at Washington.
+
+     Confiding in the good faith of the Government, pledged in a solemn
+     treaty as above stated, I returned to my home in Alabama, and
+     remained there for the space of seven months, engaging in civil
+     pursuits as a means of livelihood for my dependent family, and
+     yielding a ready obedience to the laws. I had, in fact, become an
+     officer of the law, having established myself as an attorney. It
+     would have been easy for me, at any time within these seven months,
+     to pass out of the country, if I had had any doubt about the binding
+     obligation of the Greensboro' convention, or of the good faith of the
+     Government. But I had no doubt on either point, nor have I any doubt
+     yet, as I feel quite sure that when you shall have informed yourself
+     of all the facts of the case, you will come to the conclusion that my
+     arrest was entirely without warrant, and order my discharge. While
+     thus remaining quietly at my home, in the belief that I was "not to
+     be disturbed by the United States authorities," I was, on the 15th of
+     December, 1865, in the night-time, arrested by a lieutenant and two
+     sergeants of the Marine Corps, under an order signed by the Secretary
+     of the Navy, and placed under guard; a file of soldiers in the
+     meantime surrounding my house. I was informed by the officer making
+     the arrest that I was to proceed to Washington in his custody, there
+     to answer to a charge, a copy of which he handed me. This charge, and
+     the protest which I filed the next day with the Commanding General of
+     the Department of Alabama, against my arrest, your Excellency has
+     already seen. The question for you then to decide, Mr. President, is
+     the legality of this arrest. Can I, in violation of the terms of the
+     military convention already referred to, and under which I laid down
+     my arms, be held to answer for any act of war committed anterior to
+     the date of that convention? I respectfully submit that I cannot be
+     so held, either during the continuance of the war, (and the political
+     power has not yet proclaimed the war ended,) or after the war shall
+     have been brought to a close by proclamation, and the restoration of
+     the writ of _habeas corpus_, without a flagrant violation of faith on
+     the part of the United States. If it be admitted that I might be
+     tried for any act _dehors_ the war, and having no connection with
+     it--as, for instance, for a forgery--it is quite clear that I cannot
+     be arrested or arraigned for any act manifestly of war, and
+     acknowledged as such, (as the act, for instance, for which I was
+     arrested,) whether such act be in consonance with the laws of war or
+     in violation thereof; and this for the simple reason that the
+     military convention was a _condonation_ and an _oblivion_ of all
+     precedent acts of war, of what nature soever those acts might be. I
+     am "not to be disturbed," says the military convention. Disturbed for
+     what? Why, manifestly, for any act of war theretofore committed
+     against the United States. This is the only commonsense view of the
+     case; and if the convention did not mean this, it could mean nothing;
+     and I laid down my arms, not upon terms, as I had supposed, but
+     without terms. If I was still at the mercy of the conqueror, and my
+     arrest asserts as much, I was in the condition of one who had
+     surrendered _unconditionally_; but it has been seen that I did not
+     surrender unconditionally, but upon terms--terms engrafted upon a
+     treaty ratified and approved by the conqueror's Government. Nor is it
+     consistent with good faith to qualify or restrain those terms, so as
+     to make them inapplicable to acts of war that may be claimed to have
+     been in violation of the laws of war; for this would be to refine
+     away all the protection which has been thrown around me by treaty,
+     and put me in the power of the opposite contracting party, who might
+     put his own construction upon the laws of war. This very attempt, Mr.
+     President, has been made in the case before you. I claim to have
+     escaped, after my ship had sunk from under me in the engagement off
+     Cherbourg, and I had been precipitated into the water, the enemy not
+     having taken possession of me, according to the laws and usages of
+     war, as your Excellency may read in almost every page of naval
+     history; the Secretary of the Navy claiming the contrary. The true,
+     and the only just and fair criterion, is, was the act for which the
+     arrest was made an act of war? If so, there is an end of the
+     question, and I must be discharged, for, as before remarked, the
+     convention, if it is anything, is an oblivion of all acts of war of
+     whatever nature.
+
+     But it may be said that, although I cannot be tried by a military
+     tribunal during the war, I may yet be tried by a civil tribunal after
+     the war. Let us look at this question also. I was, undoubtedly,
+     amenable to the civil tribunals of the country, as well after as
+     before the convention, for any offence of a purely civil nature, not
+     founded upon an act of war--to instance, as before, the crime of
+     forgery. If I had committed a forgery in North Carolina, I could not,
+     upon arraignment, plead the military convention in bar of trial. Why
+     not? Because that convention had reference only to acts of war. I was
+     treated with, in my capacity of a soldier and a seaman. But, does it
+     follow that I may be tried for treason? And if not, why not? The
+     Attorney-General tells you that treason is a civil offence, and in
+     his opinion triable exclusively by the civil courts, and he hopes you
+     will give him plenty of occupation in trying "many whom the sword has
+     spared." (See his letter to you of the 4th of January, 1866.) But
+     does not that officer forget that treason is made up of acts of war;
+     and is it not apparent that you cannot try me for an act of war? The
+     Constitution of the United States, which the Attorney-General says he
+     loves even better than blood, declares, in words, that treason
+     against the United States shall consist only in levying war against
+     them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and
+     comfort--all of which adherence, giving of aid and comfort, &c., are
+     equally acts of war. There is no constructive treason in this
+     country. Thus I can neither be tried by a military tribunal during
+     the war, nor a civil tribunal after the war, for any act of war, or
+     for treason which consists only of acts of war.
+
+     But it may further be said that this convention, of which I am
+     claiming the protection, is not a _continuing_ convention, and will
+     expire with the war, when, as Mr. Speed thinks, you may hand me over
+     to the civil tribunals. Whence can such a conclusion be drawn? Not
+     from the terms of the convention, for these contradict the
+     conclusion; not by implication merely, but in _totidem verbis_. The
+     terms are, "not to be disturbed, _so long as they shall observe their
+     obligation and the laws in force where they may reside_." A misuse of
+     terms, Mr. President, sometimes misleads very clever minds. And I
+     presume it is by a misuse of terms that the Attorney-General has
+     fallen into this error. (See his letter to your Excellency, before
+     referred to.) That officer, while he admits that PAROLE protects the
+     party paroled from trial during the war, yet contends that it does
+     not protect him from trial by a civil tribunal, for treason, after
+     the war. As I have shown that treason can only consist of acts of
+     war, and that the military convention is an oblivion of all acts of
+     war, the Attorney-General, when he says that a paroled party may be
+     tried for treason at the end of the war, (the parole being no longer
+     a protection to him,) must mean that the parole will have died with
+     the war. This is entirely true of a _mere parole_, for a parole is
+     only a promise, on the part of a prisoner of war, that if released
+     from imprisonment, he will not take up arms again unless he is
+     exchanged. This parole is as frequently given by prisoners of war,
+     who have surrendered unconditionally, as by those who have
+     surrendered upon terms. There cannot be any parole, then, without a
+     prisoner of war, and the status of prisoner of war ceasing, the
+     parole ceases--_cessante ratione cessat et ipso lex_. Thus far the
+     Attorney-General is quite logical, but by confounding in his mind the
+     certificates given to the officers and men of General Johnston's
+     army, stating the terms of the Greensboro' convention, and
+     guaranteeing those officers and men against molestation, in
+     accordance with those terms, with PAROLES, it is easy to see how the
+     mistake I am exposing can have been made. But the convention made
+     between General Johnston and General Sherman was not a mere release
+     of prisoners on parole; nor, indeed, had it anything to do with
+     prisoners, for none of the officers and men of General Johnston's
+     army _ever were prisoners_, as may be seen at a glance by an
+     inspection of the terms of the convention. It was a treaty between
+     commanding generals in the field, in which the word _parole_ is not
+     once used, or could be used with propriety; a treaty in which mutual
+     stipulations are made, one in consideration of another, and there is
+     no limit as to time set to this treaty.
+
+     On the contrary, it was expressly stated that the guaranties
+     contained in it were to continue and be in force, so long as the
+     parties to whom the guaranties were given, should perform their part
+     of the treaty stipulations. It was made, not in contemplation of a
+     continuation of the war, but with a view to put an end to the war,
+     and the guaranties were demanded by us as _peace guaranties_. It
+     did, in effect, put an end to the war and pacify the whole country;
+     General Taylor in Alabama and Mississippi, and General Buckner and
+     others in Texas, following the lead of General Johnston. Are we to be
+     told now by an Attorney-General of the United States, that the moment
+     the object of the convention, to wit, the restoration of peace, was
+     accomplished, the convention itself became a nullity, its terms
+     powerless to protect us, and that General Johnston's army
+     surrendered, in fact, without any terms whatever? You cannot sustain
+     such an opinion, Mr. President. It will shock the common sense and
+     love of fair play of the American people. But to show still further
+     that it was the intention of the parties that this should be a
+     _continuing_ convention, the words used were, "not to be disturbed by
+     the _United States Authorities_," these words being co-extensive with
+     the whole power of the Government. We were not only "not to be
+     disturbed" by General Sherman, or any other military commander or
+     authority, but by _any authority whatever_, civil or military. Nor
+     will it do to say that General Sherman, being merely a military man,
+     had no authority to speak for the civil branch of the Government, for
+     his action, as we have seen, was approved by the Administration at
+     Washington.
+
+     One more remark, Mr. President, and I will forbear to trespass
+     further on your time and patience. The act of war for which I was
+     arrested, was well known to the Department of the Government making
+     the arrest, ten months before the convention was entered into at
+     Greensboro'. It was also well known to the same Department, that
+     about the middle of February, 1865, I was assigned to the command of
+     the James River Squadron, near Richmond, with the rank of a
+     rear-admiral; being thus promoted and employed by my Government,
+     after the alleged illegal escape off Cherbourg. If the Federal
+     Government then entertained the design, which it has since developed,
+     of arresting and trying me for this alleged breach of the laws of
+     war, was it not its duty, both to itself and to me, to have made me
+     an exception to any military terms it might have been disposed to
+     grant to our armies? I put it to you, Mr. President, as a man and a
+     magistrate to say, and I will rest my case on your answer, whether it
+     was consistent with honor and fair dealing, for this Government first
+     to entrap me, by means of a military convention, and then, having me
+     in its power, to arrest me and declare that convention null and void,
+     for the course recommended to you by Mr. Speed comes to this--nothing
+     more, nothing less.
+
+     I have thus laid before you, tediously I fear, and yet as concisely
+     as was consistent with clearness, the grounds upon which I claim at
+     your hands, who are the guardian of the honor of a great nation, my
+     discharge from arrest and imprisonment. I have spoken freely and
+     frankly, as it became an American citizen to speak to the Chief
+     Magistrate of the American Republic. We live in times of high party
+     excitement, when men, unfortunately, are but too prone to take
+     counsel of their passions; but passions die, and men die with them,
+     and after death comes history. In the future, Mr. President, _when
+     America shall have a history_, my record and that of the gallant
+     Southern people will be engrafted upon, and become a part of your
+     history, the pages of which you are now acting; and the prayer of
+     this petition is, that you will not permit the honor of the American
+     name to be tarnished by a perfidy on those pages. In this paper I
+     have stood strictly upon legal defences; but should those barriers be
+     beaten down, conscious of the rectitude of my conduct, throughout a
+     checkered and eventful career, when the commerce of half a world was
+     at my mercy, and when the passions of men, North and South, were
+     tossed into a whirlwind, by the current events of the most bloody and
+     terrific war that the human race had ever seen, I shall hope to
+     justify and defend myself against any and all charges affecting the
+     honor and reputation of a man and a soldier. Whatever else may be
+     said of me, I have, at least, brought no discredit upon the American
+     name and character.
+
+        I am, very respectfully, &c.,
+          RAPHAEL SEMMES.
+
+     WASHINGTON CITY, January 15, 1866.
+
+At the time of my arrest, there was a newspaper called the "Republican,"
+published in the city of Washington, in the interests of President
+Johnson. There had been some little struggle between Congress and the
+President, as to who should take the initiative in the wholesale hanging
+of "traitors" which had been resolved upon. The "Republican," speaking for
+President Johnson, declares, in the article which will be found below,
+_his_ readiness to act. He is only waiting, it says, for Congress to move
+in the matter. Here is the article:--
+
+     "WHY DON'T CONGRESS ACT?
+
+     "As long ago as last October, the President of the United States
+     commenced an earnest effort to initiate the trials of prominent
+     traitors, beginning with the arch-traitor Jefferson Davis. It is now
+     a historical record, and officially in the possession of the Congress
+     of the United States, that, upon application to the Chief Justice of
+     the Supreme Court to know at what time, if any, the United States
+     Court for the District of Virginia would be ready to try certain high
+     crimes against the National Government, the President received an
+     answer from Chief-Justice Chase, that the Court would not sit in that
+     district, while that territory was under military control, and
+     suggested the propriety of delaying action in the matter, until
+     Congress acted. Congress assembled. The President referred the whole
+     subject, respectfully, to the consideration of Congress in his annual
+     message, and subsequently, in answer to a resolution of inquiry, he
+     sent, by special message, the correspondence alluded to above,
+     between himself and Chief-Justice Chase.
+
+     "All the facts were thus legitimately laid before the legislative
+     branch of the Government _three and a half months ago_! The
+     President, some time in November last, stopped the work of
+     pardoning, except in a few cases where the applications were
+     accompanied by the most positive evidence of good intentions toward
+     the Government. From among those who have applied for pardon, the
+     President has reserved for trial about _five hundred_ of the military
+     and political leaders of the rebel Government--a sufficient number to
+     begin with at least. This number, as classified by the President, we
+     published, by permission, some time since.
+
+     "Now, in view of the above statement of facts, what has Congress
+     done? Has Congress passed any law directing how the rebels shall be
+     tried? No. Has Congress passed any resolution requesting the
+     President to order a military court for the trial of Davis & Co.? No.
+     Has Congress agitated the subject at any time, in any manner, looking
+     to a trial of the cases referred to? No.
+
+     "But what have Congressmen done in their individual capacity? Many of
+     them, from day to day, have spoken sneeringly of the President,
+     because he has not done what he began to do, but which the Chief
+     Justice of the Supreme Court prevented, by refusing to hold the
+     court, and which the Congress of the United States has wholly
+     neglected, or _purposely ignored_. The people, through the press of
+     the country, and in private communication, are beginning to inquire
+     why Congress don't act. Governors of States, ignorant of the facts,
+     are haranguing the people about the _indisposition_ or _neglect_ of
+     the _President_ to try traitors. Why don't Congress act? The
+     President is ready, and has been ready from the beginning, to
+     co-operate with Congress in any constitutional measure by which
+     traitors can be tried, to the end, that treason may thereby be made
+     odious. We repeat the question with which we commenced, and which is
+     echoed by the people everywhere, 'Why don't Congress act?'"
+
+There is an old adage which says, "When rogues fall out, honest men get
+their rights." Fortunately for the "traitors" of the South, Andrew
+Johnson, and the Congress quarrelled. Johnson undertook to reconstruct the
+Southern States, in _his_ interests, and Congress claimed the right to
+reconstruct them in _its_ interests. The Constitution of the United States
+was equally disregarded by them both. Johnson had no more respect for it
+than Congress. His mode of reconstruction equally violated it, with that
+of Congress. It was a struggle between usurpers, which should be
+master--that was all. Johnson, with a single stroke of the pen, struck
+down all the State governments, called conventions of the people, and told
+the conventions what they should do. Congress might go a little further,
+but its violation of the Constitution could not, well, be more flagrant.
+The breach widened from day to day, and the quarrel at last became bitter.
+Neither party, opposed by the other, could afford to become the hangman
+of the Southern people, and the very pretty little programme, which,
+according to the "Republican" newspaper, had been arranged between the
+rogues, naturally fell to the ground.
+
+Johnson finding that his quarrel with Congress had ruined him with his
+party, now set about constructing a new one--a Johnson party. His scheme
+was to ignore both the Democratic, and the Republican parties. If he could
+succeed in reconstructing the Southern States, to the exclusion of
+Congress, he might hope to get the votes of those States in the next
+Presidential election. But to conciliate these States, it would not do to
+hang "_five hundred_ of the military and political leaders of the rebel
+Government," as a mere "beginning." He must pursue a different policy. He
+now issued first one amnesty proclamation, and then another--doling out
+amnesty, grudgingly, in broken doses--until he had issued three of them.
+By the last of these proclamations, the writer of these pages, who was
+true to his State, was "graciously pardoned" by Andrew Johnson, who had
+not only been a traitor to his State, but had betrayed, besides, two
+political parties. A glorious opportunity presented itself for him to show
+himself a statesman. He has proved a charlatan instead. He cowered in his
+struggle with Congress, and that body has shorn him of his prerogatives,
+and reduced him to the mere position of a clerk. This is the second act of
+the drama, the first act of which was the secession of the Southern
+States. The form of government having been changed by the revolution,
+there are still other acts of the drama to be performed.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] The _Cuba_ was hourly expected to arrive, but, as the reader has seen,
+was recaptured, and did not make her appearance.
+
+[2] "Now let us make a calculation of the annual saving to the commerce of
+the United States, effected by these charts, and sailing directions.
+According to Mr. Maury, the average freight from the United States to Rio
+Janeiro, is 17.7 cents per ton, per day; to Australia, 20 cents; to
+California, 20 cents. The mean of this is a little over 19 cents per ton,
+per day; but to be within the mark, we will take it at 15 cents, and
+include all the ports of South America, China, and the East Indies. The
+'Sailing Directions' have shortened the passage to California, thirty
+days; to Australia, twenty days; and to Rio Janeiro, ten days. The mean of
+this is twenty, but we will take it at fifteen, and also include the
+above-named ports of South America, China, and the East Indies. We
+estimate the tonnage of the United States, engaged in trade with these
+places, at 1,000,000 tons per annum. With these data, we see that there
+has been effected, a saving for each one of those tons, of 15 cents per
+day, for a period of fifteen days, which will give an aggregate of
+$2,250,000 saved per annum. This is on the outward voyage alone, and the
+tonnage trading with all other parts of the world is also left out of the
+calculation. Take these into consideration, and also the fact that there
+is a vast amount of foreign tonnage, trading between those places and the
+United States, and it will be seen that the annual sum saved will swell to
+an enormous amount."--_Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, May, 1854._
+
+
+
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
+
+Some quotes are opened with marks but are not closed. Obvious errors
+have been silently closed while those requiring interpretation have
+been left open.
+
+Punctuation has been corrected without note.
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "the the" corrected to "the" (page 18)
+  "Goverment" corrected to "Government" (page 51)
+  "emniently" corrected to "eminently" (page 87)
+  "requsite" corrected to "requisite" (page 98)
+  "lieutentant" corrected to "lieutenant" (page 142)
+  "Marauham" corrected to "Maranham" (page 207)
+  "longtitude" corrected to "longitude" (page 229)
+  "ludicruously" corrected to "ludicrously" (page 451)
+  "wlth" corrected to "with" (page 484)
+  "the of" corrected to "of the" (page 552)
+  "Christain" corrected to "Christian" (page 566)
+  "cannot-shot" corrected to "cannon-shot" (page 656)
+  "minature" corrected to "miniature" (page 695)
+  "no" corrected to "on" (page 721)
+  "bockade-runners" corrected to "blockade-runners" (page 737)
+  "Balwin" corrected to "Baldwin" (page 739)
+  "Kearsage" corrected to "Kearsarge" (Illustration between pages 764
+      and 765)
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and
+hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEMOIRS OF SERVICE AFLOAT, DURING
+THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES***
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