nothing left to us but to put on full
speed, and if possible force her from the obstruction, which after two
or three hard bumps we succeeded in doing.

After steaming quite close to the beach for a little way, we stopped to
watch the gun-boat, which, after resting for an hour or so, weighed
anchor and steamed along the beach in the opposite direction to the way
we had been steering, and was soon out of sight. So we steamed a short
distance inshore and anchored again. It would have been certain capture
to have gone out to sea just before daybreak, so we made the little
craft as invisible as possible, and remained all the next day, trusting
to our luck not to be seen. And our luck favoured us; for, although we
saw several cruisers at a distance, none noticed us, which seems almost
miraculous.

Thus passed Christmas Day, 1863, and an anxious day it was to all of
us. We might have landed our cargo where we were lying, but it would
have been landed in a dismal swamp, and we should have been obliged to
go into Wilmington for our cargo of cotton.

When night closed in we weighed anchor and steamed to the entrance of
the river, which, from our position being so well defined, we had no
difficulty in making out. We received a broadside from a savage little
gun-boat quite close inshore, her shot passing over us, and that was
all. We got comfortably to the anchorage about half-past eleven o'clock,
and so ended our second journey in.

I determined this time to have a look at Charleston, which was then
undergoing a lengthened and destructive siege. So, after giving over my
craft into the hands of the owner's representatives, who would unload
and put her cargo of cotton on board, I took my place in the train and,
after passing thirty-six of the most miserable hours in my life
travelling the distance of one hundred and forty miles, I arrived at the
capital of South Carolina, or rather near to that city--for the train,
disgusted I suppose with itself, ran quietly off the line about two
miles from the station into a meadow. The passengers seemed perfectly
contented, and shouldering their baggage walked off into the town. I
mechanically followed with my portmanteau, and in due course arrived at
the only hotel, where I was informed I might have half a room.

Acting on a hint I received from a black waiter that food was being
devoured in the coffee-room, and that if I did not look out for myself I
should have to do without that essen