n Sunday the 30th. The next morning at
7.30 A. M., when about one hundred and fifty miles off the Capes of
Delaware, we sighted a square-rigged vessel, which changed her course in
the effort to escape, as soon as she discovered that we were steering
for her. At 9.30 we overhauled her and brought her to. It proved to be
the barque "Emma L. Hall," loaded with a cargo of sugar and molasses.
She was set on fire at 11.15 A. M. Hasty work was made of this prize, as
a full rigged ship hove in sight while we were transferring the crew,
and such stores as we needed, from the Emma L. Hall. The stranger bore
north by west when discovered, and was standing almost directly toward
us, with studding-sails and royals set to the favorable breeze, a cloud
of snowy canvas from her graceful hull to the trucks of her tapering
royalmasts. She approached within five or six miles, when her
studding-sails were suddenly hauled down, and she was brought close to
the wind in an effort to escape from us. We soon overhauled her, and at
1.15 were near enough to throw a shot across her bow, and to show the
Confederate flag at our peak. The summons was replied to by their
hoisting the Stars and Stripes, and heaving to. Our prize was the
clipper ship "Shooting Star," bound from New York to Panama, with a
cargo of coal for the U. S. Pacific squadron. While we were making
preparations for burning her, another square rigged vessel hove in
sight, steering toward us. It proved to be the barque "Albion Lincoln,"
bound for Havana, partly in ballast; and as her cargo consisted only of
a small lot of potatoes and onions, I determined to bond her, and to put
the prisoners, now numbering sixty (the wife of the captain of the
Shooting Star among them) on board of her. In truth, I was relieved from
an awkward dilemma by the opportune capture of the Albion Lincoln; for
there was absolutely no place for a female on board the Chickamauga. I
do not doubt, however, that the redoubtable Mrs. Drinkwater would have
accommodated herself to the circumstances by turning me out of my own
cabin. Heavens! what a tongue she wielded! The young officers of the
Chickamauga relieved each other in boat duty to and fro; and she routed
every one of them ignominiously.

After the Albion Lincoln had been bonded for $18,000, we were kept very
busy for several hours paroling prisoners, etc., and in the meanwhile a
gale of wind was brewing, and the sea growing very rough. By six o'clock
in th