ty of the scene. These ladies had their pet ships, in whose
captains they had confidence, and in which they sent private ventures
into the Confederacy; and in this way some of them made a nice little
addition to their pin-money. I don't know that any of them speculated in
Cockle's pills or corsages, but I heard of one lady who sent in a large
quantity of yellow soap, and made an enormous profit out of her venture.

Having completed the necessary alterations and repairs, and made all
snug for a fresh run, we started again from the port of Nassau. We had
scarcely steamed along the coast forty miles from the mouth of the
harbour, when we discovered a steamer bearing down on us, and we soon
made her out to be a well-known, very fast Yankee cruiser, of whom we
were all terribly afraid. As we were still in British waters, skirting
the shore of the Bahamas, I determined not to change my course, but kept
steadily on, always within a mile of the shore. On the man-of-war firing
a shot across our bows as a signal for us to heave to, I hoisted the
English colours and anchored. An American officer came on board, who,
seeing unmistakable proofs of the occupation we were engaged in, seemed
very much inclined to make a prize of us; but on my informing him that I
claimed exemption from capture on the ground of the vessel being in
British waters, he, after due consideration, sulkily wished me good
morning and went back to his ship. She continued to watch us till the
middle of the night, when I imagine something else attracted her
attention, and she steamed away. We, taking advantage of her temporary
absence, weighed our anchor and were soon far out at sea.

At the end of three days we had run into a position about sixty miles
from Wilmington without any incident happening worth mentioning. On our
nearing the blockading squadron at nightfall we heard a great deal of
firing going on inshore, which we conjectured (rightly as it afterwards
appeared) was caused by the American ships, who were chasing and
severely handling a blockade-runner. An idea at once struck me, which I
quickly put into execution. We steamed in as fast as we could, and soon
made out a vessel ahead that was hurrying in to help her consorts to
capture or destroy the contraband. We kept close astern of her, and in
this position followed the cruiser several miles. She made signals
continually by flashing different coloured lights rapidly from the
paddle-boxes, the meaning of