ing toward the land, besides incurring the
additional risk of being intercepted and captured by some of the inshore
cruisers. I began to edge away therefore, and in two or three hours
enjoyed the satisfaction of seeing our pursuer clew up and furl his
sails. The breeze was still blowing as fresh as in the morning, but we
were now running directly away from it, and the cruiser was going
literally as fast as the wind, causing the sails to be rather a
hindrance than a help. But she was still gaining on us. A happy
inspiration occurred to me when the case seemed hopeless. Sending for
the chief engineer I said "Mr. S., let us try cotton, saturated with
spirits of turpentine." There were on board, as part of the deck load,
thirty or forty barrels of "spirits." In a very few moments, a bale of
cotton was ripped open, a barrel tapped, and buckets full of the
saturated material passed down into the fire-room. The result exceeded
our expectations. The chief engineer, an excitable little Frenchman from
Charleston, very soon made his appearance on the bridge, his eyes
sparkling with triumph, and reported a full head of steam. Curious to
see the effect upon our speed, I directed him to wait a moment until the
log was hove. I threw it myself, nine and a half knots. "Let her go now
sir!" I said. Five minutes afterwards, I hove the log again, _thirteen
and a quarter_. We now began to hold our own, and even to gain a little
upon the chaser; but she was fearfully near, and I began to have visions
of another residence at Fort Warren, as I saw the "big bone in the
mouth" of our pertinacious friend, for she was near enough to us at one
time for us to see distinctly the white curl of foam under her bows,
called by that name among seamen. I wonder if they could have screwed
another turn of speed out of her if they had known that the Lee had on
board, in addition to her cargo of cotton, a large amount of gold
shipped by the Confederate Government? There continued to be a very
slight change in our relative positions till about six o'clock in the
afternoon, when the chief engineer again made his appearance, with a
very ominous expression of countenance. He came to report that the burnt
cotton had choked the flues, and that the steam was running down. "Only
keep her going till dark, sir," I replied, "and we will give our pursuer
the slip yet." A heavy bank was lying along the horizon to the south and
east; and I saw a possible means of escape. At s