“What ship is that?” shouted Lieutenant Kell through his trumpet.
“This is her Brittanic Majesty’s ship Diomede,” was the reply. And so vanished alike the captain’s hope of a rich prize and the sailors’ thoughts of a battle. As ships of war are not expected to obey a summons to heave to and show papers, the Diomede flew away on her course, and the Alabama shortened sail and banked her fires.
July 6th the Express, of Boston, bound for Antwerp, with a cargo of guano, said to be the property of the government of Peru, was captured. Captain Semmes found flaws in the certificate of neutral ownership, and the vessel was burned.
July 29th the Alabama reached the coast of South Africa and anchored at Saldanha Bay, an excellent but secluded harbor about ninety miles north of Cape Town. Here the Alabama was repaired and painted and word sent to the governor of the colony that the neutrality laws would be carefully respected. The first loss of life since the beginning of the cruise occurred August 3d, when one of the engineers accidentally shot himself while returning from a hunting expedition. Three days later, finding that there were no Union cruisers about the colony, and the Agrippina not having put in an appearance, the Alabama proceeded to Cape Town. On the way she spoke the Tuscaloosa, and Lieutenant Low reported that he had captured the Santee, which ship, having a neutral cargo, he had released on bond.
CHAPTER XVII.
HIDE AND SEEK WITH THE VANDERBILT.
The fame of the Alabama had preceded her, and her reception at the capital of the colony was an ovation. One of the Cape Town newspapers thus describes her arrival: