[Footnote 2: The writer of the Notes in the Index remarks on this curious proceeding:—"Rather a strange idea we thought. It put us in mind of a sportsman in California who was very anxious to kill a grisly bear. At length he found the trail, and after following it for some hours gave it up and returned to camp. On being questioned why he did not follow in pursuit, he quietly replied that the trail was getting too fresh. It must have been so with the Keystone State—the trail was getting too fresh.">[
But if the United States war vessels were somewhat eccentric in their notion of a hot pursuit, it must be admitted that the United States consuls and other agents on shore were by no means equally scrupulous. Every possible expedient to prevent the Sumter from obtaining the necessary supplies of coal was tried by the consul at Paramaribo, but with less success than his strenuous exertions deserved. His first idea was to buy up all the coal in the port, and a handsome price was offered—in bonds on the United States government—for that purpose. But with singular blindness to their own interests the merchants of Paramaribo declined to put their trust in these bonds, and the ready money not being forthcoming the hopeful scheme was compelled to be abandoned. Undismayed by this first failure, the gallant Yankee next sought to charter all the lighters by which the coal could be conveyed on board, and here he was very nearly successful. One or two of the owners however declined to be bought up, and in the lighters supplied by them the process of coaling commenced. Still the persevering consul was not to be beaten. Failing the owners of the contumacious barges, their crews were yet accessible to the gentle influences at his command, and some forty tons of coal found their way to the bottom of the harbour, instead of to the Sumter's bunkers for which they had been destined.
At length, however, in spite of both active Yankee and dilatory Dutchmen, the operation was completed, and the little Sumter once more ready for sea. Even now, however, she was not to get away without a parting arrow from her indefatigable enemy. On the morning of her proposed departure the captain's negro servant went on shore as usual for the day's marketing, when he was waylaid by the worthy Yankee and persuaded indefinitely to postpone his return. Poor fellow! if his fate was anything like that of thousands of others "set free" by their so-called friends of the North, he must have long ere this most bitterly repented his desertion.
There was no time, however, to spare for searching after the runaway, so after a brief conference with the authorities, who were apparently not over anxious for his arrest, the Sumter got up steam and once more proceeded in the direction of Maranham.
CHAPTER V.
Leave Paramaribo—Across the equator—A day of misfortunes—On a sandbank—A narrow escape—Maranham—A Yankee protest—Bold assertions—A visit to the President—News—False alarms—Paying bills—A patriot—Off again—A prize—The Joseph Park—News of Bull Run—A sad birthday.
A whole month had thus been lost through the failure of the Sumter's coal off the mouth of the Amazon. News, too, had been received at Paramaribo that six or seven large fast steamers were in hot pursuit; and as it was not likely that all of these—the larger, perhaps, more especially—would adopt the tactics of the Keystone State, it was an object with the solitary little object of their vengeance to make the best of her way to some safer cruising ground.
On the 31st August, then, she took her final leave of Paramaribo, and running some eight or nine miles off the coast in a northerly direction as a blind, altered her course to east half-south, with the intention of avoiding the current by which she had on the former occasion been so baffled, by keeping along the coast in soundings where its strength would be less felt.
The 4th September found her well past the mouth of the Amazon, bowling along under all fore-and-aft sails, with bright, clear weather, and a fresh trade-wind from about east by south. This was about her best point of sailing, and there being no longer any current against her, her log showed a run of 175 miles in the twenty-four hours. On the same day a strange sail was seen, but time and coal were now too valuable to be risked, and the temptation to chase was resisted. In the evening the equator was crossed, and the little Sumter bade farewell to the North Atlantic, and entered on a new sphere of operations.
The 5th September was a day of misfortunes. The weather was thick and lowering; the wind rapidly increasing; to half a gale, and the little vessel straining heavily at her anchor. In heaving up, a sudden jerk broke it short off at the shank, the metal about the broken part proving to have been very indifferent. She now ran very cautiously and anxiously towards the light, and into the bay, no pilot being in sight. For some time all went well, and the chief dangers appeared to be over, when suddenly the vessel ran with a heavy shock upon a sandbank, knocking off a large portion of her false keel, and for the moment occasioning intense anxiety to all on board. Fortunately, however, the bank was but a narrow ridge, and the next sea carried the little vessel safely across it, and out of danger. Much speculation, however, was excited by this unlooked-for mishap, but a careful examination of the ship's position on the chart failed to elucidate the mystery: the part of the bay where the Sumter had struck being marked as clear ground. It was fortunate, at all events, that the vessel escaped clear, for within the next hour and a half the tide fell five feet, which with so heavy a load as that on board the Sumter could not but have occasioned a terrible strain had she been lying on the top of the bank.