rd a
couple of guns. We thought it was another Yankee, and we up steam and
fired a gun for her to heave-to. On coming alongside her, we found she
was Her Majesty's frigate Dido. 'We did not take her, sir,' said the
captain, with a laugh; 'in fact, we never attempt to take any of Her
Majesty's frigates.'"

We said we would mention that, and we do, as Captain Semmes's last. "The
Dido people," he went on to say, "asked us if we had set the ship on
fire, and I answered we had, and had got the crew safe on board. 'All
right!' was the answer, and we parted. She was a vessel of about 1000
tons." We asked Captain Semmes if he could give us the names of the
vessels he had captured. He answered that he could. "For," he said, "you
English people won't be neighbourly enough to let me bring my prizes
into your ports, and get them condemned, so that I am obliged to sit
here a court of myself, try every case, and condemn the ships I take.
The European powers, I see, some of them complain of my burning the
ships; but what, if they will preserve such strict neutrality as to keep
me out of their ports, what am I to do with these ships when I take them
but burn them?" He then fetched his record books, and we took the
following down from his lips:--"The ships we have captured were--the
Ocmulgee, of 400 tons, thirty-two men on board; we burned her. The
Alert, a whaler of 700 tons; we burned her. The whaling schooner
Weathergauge; we burned her. The whaling brig Altamaha; we burned her.
The whaling ship Benjamin Tucker; we burned her. The whaling schooner
Courser; we burned her. The whaling barque Virginia; we burned her. The
barque Elisha Dunbar, a whaler; we burned her. The ship Brilliant, with
1000 tons of grain on board; we burned her. The Emily Farnum we captured
and released as a cartel, and having so many prisoners we put some of
them on board her, and sent them off. The Wave Crest, with a general
cargo on board for Europe, we set on fire. The Dunkirk brig, with a
general cargo on board, we burned. The ship Tonawanda we captured, with
a valuable freight on board, and released her, after taking a bond for a
thousand dollars. The ship Manchester, with a cargo of grain, we burned.
The barque Lamplighter, with an assorted cargo for Europe, we burned.
The barque Lafayette, with an assorted cargo, we burned. The schooner
Crenshaw, with an assorted cargo for the West Indies, we burned. The
barque Lauretta, with an assorted cargo on board for