he evening. After buffeting against it for two days, the
necessity for making a port became apparent, our supply of coal
beginning to get low. The course was, therefore, shaped for Bermuda, and
we anchored off the bar at St. George's on Monday morning, November 7th.

The Governor of the island gave us a vast deal of trouble and annoyance,
from this time until we finally left port. Lending apparently a willing
ear to the representation of the American Consul, he would not permit us
to enter the harbor until after a correspondence, in which I stated the
fact that our engines needed repairs; but we lay outside twenty-four
hours before even this permission was granted. He next forbade me to
coal the ship. After a protest from me he relented so far, only, as to
authorize a supply of coal, sufficient to carry the Chickamauga to the
nearest Confederate port, although he had been officially informed that
the vessel was regularly commissioned, and was then on a cruise.
Although I was never favored with a sight of the correspondence, which
must have been carried on between the American Consul and His Excellency
on the subject, I am satisfied that the former presented a favorable
case; but the Governor had no right to inquire into the antecedents of
the Chickamauga, or to question the title by which she was held by the
Confederate Government. She was, to all intents and purposes, as "bona
fide" a man-of-war as the Florida, which had entered that same port, and
been supplied with coal, and other necessaries, without question or
molestation. But the fortunes of the Confederacy were now waning; and
his Excellency wished perhaps--and may have received instructions--to
keep on good terms with the winning side, and in disregard of the
obligations of justice to the weaker party.[14] The result of his
partial, and unfriendly course, was to bring the cruise of the
Chickamauga to a speedy end; for it was impossible for her to keep the
sea without a supply of fuel--steam, which is merely an auxiliary in a
properly constituted man of war, being the Chickamauga's sole motive
power. Many of our crew, too, were enticed to desert; but the efficiency
of the vessel was rather increased than diminished by our getting rid of
the vagabonds. They were for the most part "waifs and strays," of
Wilmington, and "skulkers" from the army, who had been drafted from the
Receiving ship. They profited by liberty on shore to secrete themselves,
and many of them pe