service. And, fortunately so for her, or she would have shared
the fate of the Golden Balance, the Daniel Trowbridge, and other "burnt
offerings" of the little Sumter. As it was, she paid a light toll in the
shape of small supplies of paint, cordage, &c., and entering into a
ransom bond for 20,000 dollars, to be paid to the Confederate States
Government at the end of the war, her captain and crew were paroled, and
she herself permitted to proceed on her voyage.

At 1.30 P.M., on the 26th November--writes Captain Semmes--showed first
the United States and then our own colours to an English schooner,
probably from the Bahamas to the Windward Islands, and at three captured
the United States schooner Arcade from Portland, Maine, to Port au
Prince, Guadaloupe, loaded with stores. The master and half-owner of the
schooner was Master of the barque Saxony at the time of the loss of the
Central America, and was instrumental in saving lives on that occasion,
for which a handsome telescope had been presented to him. I had the
pleasure of returning the glass to him, captured among the other effects
of his vessel.

Took the master and crew on board (a rough sea running), and set fire to
her. At 4.40 stood on our course. The blaze of the burning vessel still
in sight at 8 P.M. During the night the wind lulled and became variable.
Hauled down the fore and aft sails, and steered N.E. The prize had no
newspapers on board, but we learned from the master that the great naval
expedition which the enemy had been some time preparing had struck at
Beaufort, South Carolina, on Fort Royal Sound. No result known.

* * * * *

After five days of hard fighting with the strong N.E. trade, blowing for
the most part half a gale of wind, and with thick and dirty weather, the
enemy is at length overcome, the sky clears, and the Sumter's head is
turned towards Europe. And now for a time Yankee commerce was to have a
respite, its relentless little enemy directing its attention exclusively
towards maturing her voyage across the Atlantic. She had at this time
but sixty days' water for her own crew, in addition to whom there were
now the six prisoners taken from the schooner. The passage, too, would
have to be made for the most part under canvas, and would probably not
occupy less than fifty days. Of course, she had now but six or seven
days' supply of coal--a small reserve in case of emergency, and hardly
sufficient to enab