was very necessary.

The distance from Bermuda to Wilmington (the port we were bound to) is
720 miles. We started in the evening. For the first twenty-four hours we
saw nothing to alarm us, but at daylight the second day there was a
large American cruiser not half a mile from us, right ahead, who, before
we could turn round, steamed straight at us, and commenced firing
rapidly, but very much at random, the shot and shell all passing over or
wide of us.

Fortunately, according to orders to have full steam on at daybreak, we
were quite prepared for a run; and still more fortunately a heavy squall
of wind and rain that came on helped us vastly, as we were dead to
windward of the enemy; and having no top-weights we soon dropped him
astern. He most foolishly kept yawing, to fire his bow-chasers, losing
ground every time he did so. By eight o'clock we were out of
range--unhit; and by noon out of sight of anything but smoke.

Luckily, the chase had not taken us much off our course, as the
consumption of coal during a run of this sort, with boilers all but
bursting from high pressure of steam, was a most serious
consideration--there being no coal in the Confederate ports, where wood
was only used, which would not suit our furnaces.

We were now evidently in very dangerous waters, steamers being reported
from our mast-head every hour, and we had to keep moving about in all
directions to avoid them; sometimes stopping to let one pass ahead of
us, at another time turning completely round, and running back on our
course. Luckily, we were never seen or chased. Night came on, and I had
hoped that we should have made rapid progress till daybreak unmolested.
All was quiet until about one o'clock in the morning, when suddenly, to
our dismay, we found a steamer close alongside of us. How she had got
there without our knowledge is a mystery to me even now. However, there
she was, and we had hardly seen her before a stentorian voice howled
out, 'Heave-to in that steamer, or I'll sink you.' It seemed as if all
was over, but I determined to try a ruse before giving the little craft
up. So I answered, 'Ay, ay, sir, we are stopped.' The cruiser was about
eighty yards from us. We heard orders given to man and arm the
quarter-boats, we saw the boats lowered into the water, we saw them
coming, we heard the crews laughing and cheering at the prospect of
their prize. The bowmen had just touched the sides of our vessel with
their boat-hooks when