each of them refreshments, solid and liquid.
They had crossed over to Ireland Island in a sail-boat, and when about
to return, were escorted to the wharf by a party of officers. Their boat
was lying outside of another, containing a fat old washerwoman; and
Col.----, who had had no experience in boating in his life, except
"paddling his own canoe" upon a mill pond in Amelia county, Va., stopped
to exchange farewell salutations with the party of officers on the
wharf, while he stood with one foot in the "stern sheets" of the
washerwoman's boat, and the other in his own. The boatman forward,
ignorant of the critical state of affairs, hoisted the jib, and the
boat, under the influence of a stiff breeze, began to "pay off" before
the wind. Before Col. ---- could "realize the situation," he was in the
attitude of the Colossus of Rhodes. The purser promptly seized one of
his legs, and the fat washerwoman with equal presence of mind, laid hold
of the other. Each was determined not to let go, and the strain upon the
Colonel must have been terrific; but he was equal to the emergency.
Taking in the whole situation, he deliberately drew his watch out of his
pocket, and holding it high above his head with both hands, he said,
with his usually imperturbable calmness, "Well I reckon you had better
let go!" His endeavors to protect his watch proved to have been
fruitless; the purser indeed always insists that he touched bottom in
three fathoms of water. He returned on board the Lee to be wrung out and
dried.

CHAPTER IX.

We sail for Wilmington.--Thick Weather on the Coast.--Anchored
among the Blockading Fleet.--The "Mound."--Running the Blockade by
Moonlight.--A Device to mislead the Enemy.--The man Hester.

After discharging our cargo of cotton and loading with supplies for the
Confederate Government, chiefly for the army of Northern Virginia, we
sailed for Wilmington in the latter part of the month of March. Our
return voyage was uneventful, until we reached the coast near
Masonborough Inlet, distant about nine miles north of the "New Inlet"
bar. The weather had been pleasant during the voyage, and we had sighted
the _fires_ from the salt works along the coast, but before we could get
hold of the land, a little before midnight, a densely black cloud made
its appearance to the north and east; and the rapidity with which it
rose and enlarged, indicated too surely that a heavy gale was coming
from that quarter