FLORIDA.

FROM THE INGHAM PAPERS.

[The Florida, Anglo-Rebel pirate, after inflicting horrible injuries on
the commerce of America and the good name of England, was cut out by
Captain Collins, from the bay of Bahia, by one of those fortunate
mistakes in international law which endear brave men to the nations in
whose interest they are committed. When she arrived here the government
was obliged to disavow the act. The question then was, as we had her by
mistake, what we should do with her. At that moment the National
Sailors' Fair was in full blast at Boston, and I offered my suggestion
in answer in the following article, which was published November 19,
1864, in the "Boatswain's Whistle," a little paper issued at the fair.

The government did not take the suggestion. Very unfortunately, before
the Florida was got ready for sea, she was accidentally sunk in a
collision with a tug off Fort Monroe, and the heirs of the Confederate
government or the English bond-holders must look there for her, if the
Brazilian government will give them permission.

For the benefit of the New York Observer I will state that a despatch
sent round the world in a spiral direction westward 1,200 times, would
not really arrive at its destination four years before it started. It is
only a joke which suggests it.]

* * * * *

SPECIAL DESPATCH.

LETTER FROM CAPTAIN INGHAM, IN COMMAND OF THE FLORIDA.

[Received four years in advance of the mail by a lightning express,
which has gained that time by running round the world 1,200 times in a
spiral direction westward on its way from Brazil to our
publication-office. Mrs. Ingham's address not being known, the letter is
printed for her information.]

No. 29.

BAHIA, BRAZIL, April 1, 1868.

MY DEAR WIFE:--We are here at last, thank fortune; and I shall surrender
the old pirate to-day to the officers of government. We have been
saluted, are to be feted, and perhaps I shall be made a Knight Commander
of the Golden Goose. I never was so glad as when I saw the lights on the
San Esperitu head-land, which makes the south point of this Bahia or
bay.

You will not have received my No. 28 from Loando, and may have missed 26
and 24, which I gave to _outward_ bound whalemen. I always doubted
whether you got 1, 7, 9, and 11. And for me I have no word of you since
you waved your handkerchief from the window in Springfield Street on the
morning of the 1st of June, 1865, n