parations silently, so as not to awaken the
suspicions of the townspeople, who were always on the alert, at about
five minutes before eight o'clock gun-fire, I directed the chain to be
slipped, and the fasts to the shore cut, and put her under steam. The
enemy being on my starboard bow, and apparently standing towards the
north point of the roadstead, I headed her for the south point, giving
her full steam. So much on the _qui vive_ were the townspeople, that we
had scarcely moved twenty yards when a shout rent the air, and there was
a confused murmur of voices, as if Babel had been let loose. As we
neared the French steamer of war, Acheron, signals were made to the
enemy by means of blue lights from one of the Yankee schooners in port:
perceiving which, and knowing that the signals were so arranged as to
designate our direction, after moving a few hundred yards further, I
doubled, and came back under cover of the land, while I stopped once or
twice to assure myself that the enemy was continuing his course in the
opposite direction, in obedience to his signals; when, as soon as the
engineer could do so (for he had to cool his bearings, and this was
truly an anxious moment for me), I gave her all steam, and stood for the
north end of the island. As we approached it, the Fates, which had
before seemed unpropitious to us, began to smile, and the rain-squall,
which had come up quite unexpectedly, began to envelope us in its
friendly folds, shutting in our dense clouds of black smoke, which were
really the worst tell-tales we had to dread. The first half-hour's run
was a very anxious one for us; but as we began to lose sight of the
lights of the town and to draw away from the land, we knew that the
enemy had been caught in his own trap, and that we had successfully
eluded him. I had warned the French authorities that their neutrality
would be disregarded, and that these signals would be made. The
commander of the Iroquois had been guilty of a shameful violation of
good faith towards the French naval officer, to whom he made a promise
that he would respect the neutrality of the port, by sending his pilot
on shore, and arranging these signals with the Yankee skippers. Yankee
faith and Punic faith seem to be on a par. Our ship made good speed,
though she was very deep, and by half-past eleven we made up with the
south end of Dominica. Here the wind fell, and we ran along the coast of
the island in a smooth sea, not more than four