in a northerly direction
as a blind, altered her course to east half-south, with the intention of
avoiding the current by which she had on the former occasion been so
baffled, by keeping along the coast in soundings where its strength
would be less felt.

The 4th September found her well past the mouth of the Amazon, bowling
along under all fore-and-aft sails, with bright, clear weather, and a
fresh trade-wind from about east by south. This was about her best point
of sailing, and there being no longer any current against her, her log
showed a run of 175 miles in the twenty-four hours. On the same day a
strange sail was seen, but time and coal were now too valuable to be
risked, and the temptation to chase was resisted. In the evening the
equator was crossed, and the little Sumter bade farewell to the North
Atlantic, and entered on a new sphere of operations.

The 5th September was a day of misfortunes. The weather was thick and
lowering; the wind rapidly increasing; to half a gale, and the little
vessel straining heavily at her anchor. In heaving up, a sudden jerk
broke it short off at the shank, the metal about the broken part proving
to have been very indifferent. She now ran very cautiously and anxiously
towards the light, and into the bay, no pilot being in sight. For some
time all went well, and the chief dangers appeared to be over, when
suddenly the vessel ran with a heavy shock upon a sandbank, knocking off
a large portion of her false keel, and for the moment occasioning
intense anxiety to all on board. Fortunately, however, the bank was but
a narrow ridge, and the next sea carried the little vessel safely across
it, and out of danger. Much speculation, however, was excited by this
unlooked-for mishap, but a careful examination of the ship's position on
the chart failed to elucidate the mystery: the part of the bay where the
Sumter had struck being marked as clear ground. It was fortunate, at all
events, that the vessel escaped clear, for within the next hour and a
half the tide fell five feet, which with so heavy a load as that on
board the Sumter could not but have occasioned a terrible strain had she
been lying on the top of the bank.

Finding the soundings still so irregular as to threaten further danger,
the Sumter now came to an anchor, and some fishing boats being perceived
on the shore at a little distance, a boat was despatched which speedily
returned with a fisherman, who piloted her safely to the