nto the _bona
fides_ of this claim of neutral ownership, it was enough that the
sulphur was contraband, and that the fruit belonged to the same owner; I
destroyed both ship and cargo. No papers as to the latter were produced.
The second vessel was also a barque, the Investigator, of Searsport,
Maine. She being laden with iron ore, the property of neutrals
(Englishmen), I released her on a ransom bond; she was bound to Newport,
Wales. One fourth of the vessel was owned in South Carolina, and the
share of the South Carolina owner was omitted from the ransom
bond--amount of bond being less one-fourth fifteen thousand dollars.
Having burned the Neapolitan, I steamed in for Gibraltar at 2.30 P.M.
Passed under Europa point at about dusk, and stood in, and anchored in
the bay at about 7.30 P.M. Boarded in a few minutes by a boat from an
English frigate, with an offer of service. Sent a boat alongside the
health ship.

_Sunday, January 19th_.--We found early this morning we had _pratique_.
A number of English officers and citizens came on board. At 10 I called
on board the frigate that had sent the boat on board of us last night,
but was informed that the Captain (who was absent) was not the
commanding officer present, and that the latter lived on shore. At 2
P.M. I landed at the arsenal and called upon the commanding naval
officer, who received me very politely. I asked the loan of an anchor,
having but one, and the Captain promised to supply me with one if there
should be no objection on the part of the law officers of the Crown!
Walked from the Captain's little oasis--scooped out as it were from the
surface of the Rock, with a nice garden-plot and trees, shrubbery,
&c.--down into the town, and called on Lieutenant-General Sir W.J.
Codrington, K.C.B., the Governor, an agreeable type of an English
gentleman of about fifty to fifty-five years of age. The Governor
tendered me the facilities of the market, &c., and in the course of
conversation said he should object to my making Gibraltar a _station_,
at which to be at anchor for the purpose of sallying out into the Strait
and seizing my prey. I told him that this had been settled as contrary
to law by his own distinguished judge, Sir William Scott, sixty years
ago, and that he might rely upon my taking no step whatever violative of
the neutrality of England, so long as I remained in her ports, &c. The
garrison is about seven thousand strong, and it being Sunday, the
parade-grou