CHAPTER XXVII.
An official "in trouble"—On shore again—A breakfast party—On horseback—Blowing hard—Taken in the net—Easy captures—The Kate Cory—The Lafayette—A polite Governor—The Louisa Hatch burned, and Kate Cory burned—Landing prisoners—Tired of waiting—A scramble—Out of harbour again.
April 11th.—Light and variable airs; misty from the southward and eastward, and oppressive; ther. 83°. Last night the two vessels lay alongside of each other so roughly, and we received so much damage (our forechannels being crushed in, and our topsail mainyard being carried away) that we were compelled to haul the prize off, and continue coaling by means of our boats.
The authorities on shore having hoisted no colours, we have not set ours to-day. We were visited this morning by a couple of gentlemen from the shore, bearing a letter from the Governor in reply to an inquiry I had caused the Paymaster to address to him on the subject of supplies. Their interpreter very naively informed me that he was a German, who had been sentenced to banishment here from Rio, and that he had a year and a-half to serve. This was said while my servant was drawing the cork of a champagne bottle. The forger (for such was his offence) taking his glass of wine with the rest! The Governor informed me that I could procure supplies of beef, fresh pork, fowls, &c., and that he would be glad to exchange these articles with me for flour, wine, sugar, coffee, &c. I was glad to find that he raised no question of neutrality, though he had, no doubt, been informed by a boat's crew from the shore that got the information on board, of the ship in my company being a prize. He kindly invited me to visit the shore. During the night (one o'clock) we had a surprise in the way of a strange steamer making her appearance, coming round the point of Rat Island. I had all hands called to quarters, and the battery made ready, fires extinguished, and chains got right for slipping. Although she came within a mile of us, with the intention, as we thought, of coming to anchor, she kept on her course to the southward and we piped down, the men, much fagged from coaling, not having lost more than half an hour's rest by the operation.
Sunday, April 12th.—The exigencies of war compel me to work to-day in coaling ship. Weather clear and very hot during morning, clouding about noon and raining for several hours.
I visited the island this morning in company with the Surgeon, and called on the Governor. The surf was too heavy to land, but we found a bolsa moored at some distance from the shore, and transferring ourselves to this we were very skillfully put through the surf by three or four naked fellows, two of them not having even a breech-cloth about their loins. Fine, well-made fellows they were too. We found horses in waiting, and rode about a mile to the village and residence of the Governor—a Major in the Brazilian army; passing an immense sand-drift, which we had not expected to find on this volcanic rock.
We found the Governor at breakfast, and he insisted on our seating ourselves, and making a second breakfast with him in company with his wife—a sprightly, bright mulatto—and a pretty girl, quite white, of about sixteen, and the padre. After breakfast we were introduced to a number of what appeared to be the gentry of the island, and who had assembled thus early to meet us. Having smoked and chatted awhile, we remounted for a ride over the island.
We were not in the saddle more than twenty minutes when one of those showers, so sudden in this climate, overtook us, and gave us a complete drenching; we had other showers during the day, but were compensated by the sun hiding himself during the entire ride. We passed under the shadow of the gigantic peak, and soon reached the summit of the island, which spreads out into a most beautiful and productive plain of some two or three hundred acres. The soil is a ferruginous clay of the richest description, and covered with the choicest vegetation of wild grapes, Indian corn, the cotton plant, the castor bean, &c., &c. We stopped a few minutes to examine a manioc manufactory. Continuing our ride, we passed through a small but dense forest, to a cocoa-nut plantation on the south-west part of the island, where we found the water-melon growing in its choice soil—sand. Here we took shelter again from another heavy rain, and got some fine grapes. Whilst waiting for the shower to pass, I had quite a talk with the Governor on various topics; among others, on the state of the mixed races in the Brazils, &c., &c. The island, at the season at which we visited it, was a gem of picturesque beauty—exceedingly broken and diversified with dells and rocks, and small streams, &c., &c. It was the middle of the rainy season. The little mountain paths as we returned became small brooks that hummed and purled in their rapid course. I took occasion to inform his Excellency that my tender was a prize, so that he might be under no apprehension. Number of convicts 1000. Whole number of population, 2000. The Governor expressed himself our very good friend, &c., &c. Got on board at 5 P.M.
Monday, April 13th.—Another rainy day. Showers very heavy, but still we continue our coaling. Wind from northward and westward, and though light, there is considerable sea on. The bad weather continued all day, and the night having set in with threatening appearances, I caused everybody to be brought on board from the prize, to guard against the possibility of her being driven on shore, and endangering life. I had the steam got up, and the chain ready for slipping, and was fearful that I should be obliged to slip; but we held on during the night. Night very dark, with heavy rain, and much sea on.
Tuesday, April 14th.—Wind this morning from about W.S.W.; weather still louring. Our friends came off from the shore again this morning, bringing the fresh provisions ordered for the crew. Every thing is very dear here. Meat forty cents per pound; but still my crew has been so long on salt diet that flesh is an anti-scorbutic necessity for them. I have arranged to sell forty or more tons of coal for a Brazilian schooner there is in the harbour, and had a proposition for purchasing the prize, which I offered to sell as low as 20,000 dollars; but this sum seemed to alarm them, they saying there was not so much money in Fernando de Noronha. Continued our coaling.
Wednesday, April 15th.—Weather clear, and light wind from the eastward. Finished coaling ship this morning. At about 11 A.M. a couple of whale-boats from two vessels in the offing pulled into the harbour; went on board our prize, and thence to the shore. Although the two masters were told that we were the Iroquois, they seemed at once to have comprehended the true state of the case, and to make haste to put themselves out of harm's way. We were an hour and more getting up steam and weighing our anchor for the chase; and if in the meantime these whaling captains had pulled out to their ships, and run into shore so as to get within the league, they might have saved them. We gave chase, and came up with both of them on the south side of the island, about half-past 3 P.M., and captured them—both of them being without the league. One the hermaphrodite brig Kate Cory, of Westport, and the other the barque Lafayette, of New Bedford; the barque we burned, and the brig we brought into the anchorage, arriving after dark, about 7 A.M. We sounded in thirteen fathoms on a bank on the south side, on the southern extremity of which there is a breaker lying out from two and a half to three miles. There is also a reef off Tobacco Point running out half a mile. We saw no other dangers.
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With reference to these captures, the following amusing account is extracted from the private journal of the officer of the Alabama who was prize-master on board the Louisa Hatch:—
'At noon, on the 15th of April, two vessels were descried to the south, standing off and on, under reduced sail. At 12:30 two boats were observed pulling towards us, asking my ship's name, the port I hailed from, &c. I answered correctly. The person in charge of the other boat then inquired if the war-steamer was the Alabama. I replied, 'Certainly not, she was the Iroquois U.S. steamer.' 'Have you any news of the Alabama?' 'Yes, we had heard of her being in the West Indies, at Jamaica or Costa Rica, &c.' A conversation ensued, by which I learned that the boats belonged to the two vessels in the distance, that they were both whalers put in for supplies, and that seeing the steamer they were rather dubious as to her nationality, and had therefore spoke me, to gain the required information. A brisk conversation was then kept up; my object in engaging them in it was to enable the Alabama to get under way ere the whalers took the alarm, feeling certain that the preparations were being made to go after them.
'I then invited the masters to come on board my ship, which they cheerfully consented to do, and were within a boat's length, when a cry of alarm broke from the steersman in the foremost boat. Shouting to his crew to 'Give way, men; give way for your lives!' he with a few well-directed, vigorous strokes, turned his boat's head round, and made for the shore, the other boat following, blank astonishment being depicted on the face of each member of the crews. To the frantic inquiries of the person in charge of the other boat as to the cause of his (the steersman's) extraordinary conduct, his only reply was, 'There!' pointing to a small Confederate flag of about fifteen inches long and six inches broad, which I had inadvertently left flying at the gaff; the gaff being lowered down, the little flag having been used as a dog-vane, in order to tell the direction of the wind, &c. No sooner did the men perceive it than they redoubled their exertions to gain the shore; one of the masters calling out that they had spoken a ship a week ago, from whom they had obtained news of peace. No credence, however, could be, or was placed in this statement.
'Immediately after they left I despatched a boat to the Alabama informing them of the character of my visitors. At 9.15 the Alabama was observed to get under way, steaming out of the anchorage after the two vessels.
'The larger island being between the scene of the Alabama's operations and the Louisa Hatch, I was not, of course, an eye witness of the captures. But at 5.30 I observed a dense column of smoke, which, as it grew later, turned into a ruddy glare, leaving no doubt in our minds as to the fate of the whalers. At 7 P.M. observed the Alabama coming round the northern part of the island with a vessel in tow, both anchoring at 7.30. The next morning I learnt that the captures were the barque Lafayette, of New Bedford, and the brig Kate Cory, of Westport. The barque was burnt and the brig kept, it being our intention to send off all the prisoners we had on board, consisting of 140, including the women stewardesses, in her; but on communicating with the authorities, it was resolved to land them on the island, a Brazilian schooner engaging to convey them to Pernambuco. For this purpose provisions for twenty-one days were sent ashore, the prisoners, after being paroled, following.
The remainder of the day was spent in transferring provisions, &c., for ship's use. The next evening the prizes, the Louisa Hatch and Kate Cory, slipped cables, and stood seaward. When about five miles from land both vessels were set fire to; Mr. Evans, the officer in charge of the brig, returning on board long before me, the strong westerly current rendering it extremely difficult to stem it.
'We remained painting and cleaning ship until the 22nd. At 9.30 A.M. we got under way, steering and cruising towards Bahia, at which place we arrived on the 11th of May, having captured and burnt four vessels between Fernando and Bahia.
'The news of our doings off the islands had preceded us, of course with additions and manipulations ad lib., the schooner having left Noronha the day previous to our departure. The Governor of Pernambuco had sent three war vessels to the islands to enforce the neutrality of the place, which, according to Yankee representations, had been infringed. Not content with this, the American representatives had succeeded in procuring the recall of the Governor, whose only crime was that he had let us anchor off the place—a crime of which he was necessarily guiltless, because he had no power to prevent our anchoring if we insisted on it.
'Whilst at Bahia I was shown a letter from the master of one of the whaling barques to an agent, in which he wrote that he would spare no money or time to follow to the uttermost ends of the earth, and bring to justice, the man who had so cruelly deceived him. This sentence had reference to my denial of the Alabama and the substitution of the U.S. steamer Iroquois for that of C.S. steamer Alabama. The ingratitude of some people!!'
On the 16th April Captain Semmes resumes his diary as follows:—Weather clear; wind light from the southward and eastward. Our banner, last night a lurid flame, is a tall column of smoke advertising us for twenty-five or thirty miles round. My first intention was to ship all my prisoners, amounting to about one hundred and ten, in the prize brig, but the Governor having consented to my landing them, I am busy to-day getting them on shore, with their baggage and provisions, and receiving prisoners from the Louisa Hatch. Sun very warm. The Governor paid me a visit this morning, and requested that I would write him on the subject of the captures yesterday, stating the fact (with which he was satisfied, or at least, to which he made no objection) that they were captured beyond the league from the land, and requesting leave to land the prisoners, in order that our understanding should assume an official shape, which I did.
Friday, April 17th.—The weather still continues very warm; wind light from the S.E., and cloudy. Busy receiving and stowing away provisions, replacing the coal consumed, and getting ready for sea generally. The landing of so many prisoners amid so small a population has created a very great stir, and the excitable Brazilians are discussing among themselves and with the Yankee captains the question of the American war with great vehemence. Several sail have been reported as usual. The afternoon set in rainy, and the rain continued all night. Towards nightfall sent the prizes, Louisa Hatch and Kate Cory, a league outside the island, and burned them. Received four recruits from the Louisa Hatch, and more volunteered, but I am full.
Saturday, April 18th.—Morning cloudy, with wind light from the S.E. Loosed sails to-day. I am anxiously expecting the arrival of the Agrippina, my store ship, from England, which was ordered to rendezvous here—not so anxiously, however, as if my coal-bunkers were empty. But she has a couple of additional guns on board, that would make an important addition to my battery.
Sunday, April 19th.—Rain in the morning, with light airs. Our steam-tubes leak badly, and I am afraid the leaks will increase so as to give us trouble. Every time we get up steam, even a few pounds for condensing water, we find that large quantities of hot water flow into the hold; eight inches escaped in about twelve hours yesterday. Unfortunately, too, this tubing is laid so low in the bottom of the ship, as to be out of reach for examination or repairs without being taken up. The Governor sent me off a fine turkey and some fruit, and his lady a bouquet of roses. The roses were very sweet, and made me home-sick for a while.
Monday, April 20th.—A dull, heavy, rainy day—the rain coming down at intervals in torrents, as it is wont to do in these regions. Still laying at our anchors, waiting for the Agrippina. She should be out thirty-five days, to-day, from Cardiff. In the afternoon the rain ceased, except an occasional light sprinkle, but the dull canopy of clouds did not break, and we had a strong breeze from the S.E. for four or five hours, indicating the approach of the trades to this latitude.
Tuesday, April 21st.—Morning clear, wind light from S.E. The Island after the rain is blooming in freshness and verdure, and as my eye roams over its green slopes I long for repose and the quiet of peace in my own land: I do not think it can be far off. Fresh "trade" in the afternoon. Towards night the Brazilian steamer sailed with a load of our prisoners.
Wednesday, April 22nd.—Cloudy, with squalls for rain. At 9.30 got under way under steam, and stood to the eastward. Cut away four whale-boats that the islanders might have a scramble for them. They soon started in chase! Steamed due east, about forty-five miles, let the steam go down, and put the ship under sail. No sail seen.