, for the purpose of an explanation. Your
Excellency must be under some misapprehension as to the character of
this vessel. She is a ship of war, duly commissioned by the Government
of the Confederate States, which States have been recognised as
belligerents in the present war by all the leading Powers of
Europe--viz., Great Britain, France, Spain, &c., as your Excellency must
be aware. It is true that these Powers have prohibited both belligerents
from bringing prizes into their several jurisdictions, but no one of
them has made a distinction either between the prizes or the cruisers
themselves of the belligerents, the cruisers of both Governments being
admitted to the hospitalities of the ports of all these great Powers on
terms of perfect equality. Am I to understand from your Excellency that
Holland has adopted a different rule, and that she not only excludes the
prizes, but the ships of war themselves of the Confederate States, and
this at the same time that she admits the cruisers of the United States,
thus departing from her neutrality in this war, ignoring the
Confederate States as belligerents, and aiding and assisting their
enemy? If this he the position which Holland has assumed in this
contest, I pray your Excellency to be kind enough to say as much to me
in writing.

I have the honour to be, &c., &c.

(Signed) R. SEMMES.

Governor Crol, St. Anne's, Curacao.

This explanation removed all difficulties, and by 11 A.M. the requisite
permission had been obtained, and the Sumter was safely at anchor in the
lagoon.

Here she lay for some days, surrounded by bum-boats filled with
picturesque natives of all colours, chattering like parrots, and almost
as gaudy in their plumage. Meanwhile the crew were hard at work
replenishing the coal-bunkers, filling up wood and water, taking in
fresh provisions, and effecting the necessary repairs after the late
cruise. While thus employed, a visit was received from a Venezuelan, who
in very good English represented himself as a messenger or agent of
President Castro, now in exile at Curacao with four of his cabinet
ministers. This emissary's object was to negotiate a passage in the
Sumter for Don Castro and some twenty of his officers, with arms,
ammunition, &c., to the mainland opposite. This proposition, however,
Captain Semmes politely but very promptly declined, on the grounds,
firstly, that he was not going in the direction indicated; and secondly,
that if he were,