mile of latitude of the last importance, as the Alabama
groped her way slowly to the southward and eastward in search of the
little island at which she was to take in her supplies, and which she
might at any moment run past in the darkness altogether! Trying work,
indeed, for the patience of men cooped up in their narrow floating
prison, and longing to be at work again.

Too trying, at last, to be borne any longer without an effort at action;
so a bold attempt was made at coaling while under way upon the open sea!
Steam was got up, and the prize taken in tow, and then two boats were
lowered, and set to work. But the scheme, bold and ingenious as it was,
was soon found to be impracticable. The boats managed to get loaded from
the captured collier, but they had then to be warped up alongside the
Alabama, and the lowest speed that could be given her was too great for
them to be hauled up against it. So each time, as they were filled, it
was necessary to stop the engine, and thus occasion another difficulty.

We now--says Captain Semmes--began to part our tow lines by these
stoppages and startings, and it took a long time to get the line fast
again; so after a sleepless night, during which, as I lay in my cot
trying to sleep, it seemed as if a dozen stentors on deck were rivaling
each other in making the night hideous, I sent word to get the boats run
up again, and to continue our course to Fernando de Noronha without
interruption.

At daylight we made the peak of the island a long way off, some
thirty-eight or forty miles, and in the afternoon at 2.30 came to, with
the peak bearing S.W. 1/2 S. and the N.E. end of the Rat Island N.E. by
E. 1/2 E., depth of water thirteen and a half fathoms. Anchored the
prize near us. But for our steam we should have been still drifting to
the S.W., as the day has been nearly calm throughout. Fernando de
Noronha, in the wayside of the commerce of all the world, is sighted by
more ships, and visited by fewer, than any other spot of earth. It is a
broken, picturesque, volcanic rock, in mid ocean, covered with a
pleasing coat of verdure, including trees of some size, and the top of
the main island is cultivated in small farms, &c. Awfully hot when the
sun shines, and indeed, when he does not shine. Just after dark hauled
the prize alongside, and commenced coaling.

CHAPTER XXVII.

_An official "in trouble"--On shore again--A breakfast party--On
horseback--Blowing hard--Taken in the