Arrived in Table Bay, Captain Semmes received intelligence of the seizure of the Tuscaloosa, upon which he at once wrote a despatch to Admiral Walker.[15]

[Footnote 15:  For papers relating to the seizure of this vessel, see Appendix.] The Cape was left on the 25th of March, the vessel’s head being laid towards Europe, and on the 29th the following entry is found in the journal:—­

“I have at length had a little leisure to read the late papers received at the Cape.  The Yankee Government and people, and with them a great portion of the English press and people, seem to have jumped suddenly to the conclusion that we are beaten, and that the war must soon end by our submission!  Mr. Lincoln has even gone so far as to prescribe the terms on which our States may re-enter the rotten “concern”—­to wit, by a reorganization of the States government by one-tenth of the people.  Verily, the delusion of these men in the matter of this war is unaccountable.  No power on earth can subjugate the Southern States, although some of them have been guilty of the pusillanimity of making war with the Yankees against their sisters.  History will brand them as traitors and cowards.  As for the tone of the English press, I am not surprised at it.  England is too rich to be generous.  Our war for her is a sort of prize-fight, and she is looking on in about the same spirit with which her people lately viewed the prize fight between King and Heenan.  Hurrah one; well done the other.”

* * * * *

From March 29th to April 22d there were no events calling for special attention, save that on the sixteenth the intelligence was learned from the master of a French ship that there were no American vessels at the Chincha Islands, though in July, 1863, there were between seventy and eighty American sail there.  This speaks volumes of the terror the Alabama had excited.

The night of the 22d of April was employed in giving chase to a strange sail, which was overhauled at daybreak on the following morning; and the United States flag having been responded to by a display of the same colours, the Alabama boarded and took possession of the guano-laden ship, Rockingham, which was employed as a target, and then set fire to.  The cargo being claimed as the property of neutrals, Captain Semmes examined the ship’s papers and entered the following in his journal:—­

CASE OF THE ROCKINGHAM.

“Ship under United States colours and register.  Is from Callao, bound to Cork for orders, and loaded with guano.  This guano purports to be shipped by the Guano Consignment Company to Great Britain.  One Joseph A. Danino, who signs for Danino and Moscosa, certifies that the guano belongs to the Peruvian Government; and Her Britannic Majesty’s Acting Consul at Lima certifies that the said Joseph A. Danino appeared before him and ‘voluntarily declared’ ’that the foregoing signature is of his own handwriting, and also that the cargo above mentioned is truly and verily the property of the Peruvian Government.’