g the great highways of ocean commerce, keep a
sharp lookout for our merchantmen, and burn all they could find. The
first of these commerce destroyers to get to sea was the _Sumter_, which
ran the blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi in June, 1861, and
within a week had taken seven merchantmen. So important was it to
capture her that seven cruisers were sent in pursuit. But she escaped
them all till January, 1862, when she was shut up in the port of
Gibraltar and was sold to prevent capture.

%458. The Trent Affair, 1861.%--One of the vessels sent in pursuit of
the _Sumter_ was the _San Jacinto, _commanded by Captain Wilkes. While
at Havana, he heard that two commissioners of the Confederate
government, James M. Mason and John Slidell, sent out as commissioners
to Great Britain and France, were to sail for England in the British
mail steamer _Trent_; and, deciding to capture them, he took his station
in the Bermuda Channel, and (November 8, 1861) as the _Trent_ came
steaming along, he stopped and boarded her, and carried off Mason and
Slidell and their secretaries. This he had no right to do. It was
exactly the sort of thing the United States had protested against ever
since 1790, and had been one of the causes of war with Great Britain in
1812. The commissioners were therefore released, placed on board another
English vessel, and taken to England. The conduct of Great Britain in
this matter was most insulting and warlike, and nothing but the justice
of her demand prevented war.[1]

[Footnote 1: Harris's _The Trent Affair._]

%459. The Famous Cruisers Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah.%--The loss
of the _Sumter_ was soon made good by the appearance on the sea of a
fleet of commerce destroyers all built and purchased in England with the
full knowledge of the English government. The first of these, the
_Florida_, was built at Liverpool, was armed at an uninhabited island in
the Bahamas, and after roving the sea for more than a year was captured
by the United States cruiser _Wachusett_ in the neutral harbor of Bahia
in Brazil. Her capture was a shameful violation of neutral waters, and
it was ordered that she be returned to Brazil; but she was sunk by "an
unforeseen accident" in Hampton Roads.[1]

[Footnote 1: Bullock's _Secret Service of the Confederate States in
Europe,_ Vol. I., pp. 152-224.]

The next to get afloat was the _Alabama_. She was built at Liverpool
with the knowledge of the English government, and becam