ll sorts of
prognostications were made that I should come to grief, in spite of
which omens of disaster, however, I went over the bar at four o'clock in
the afternoon in a fog, through which I could hardly see from one end of
the ship to the other, and took my chance. As we went on the fog seemed
to get if possible still thicker, and through the night it was
impossible for us to see anything or anything to see us.

In the morning we had an offing of at least a hundred and twenty miles,
and nothing was in sight. We made a most prosperous voyage, and arrived
at Nassau safely in seventy-two hours, thus completing our third round
trip.

CHAPTER XIV.

LAST DAYS ON THE 'D----N.'

As no vessel had succeeded since the blockade was established in getting
into Savannah (a large and flourishing town in Georgia, situated a few
miles up a navigable river of the same name), where there was a famous
market for all sorts of goods, and where plenty of the finest sea-island
cotton was stored ready for embarkation, and as the southern port pilots
were of opinion that all that was required to ensure success was an
effort to obtain it, I undertook to try if we could manage to get the
'D----n' in.

The principal difficulty we had to contend with was that the Northerners
had possession of a large fortification called Pulaski, which, being
situated at the entrance of the river, commanded the passage up to the
town.

To pass this place in the night seemed easy work enough, as it would be
hard for the sentry to make a vessel out disguised as we were; but to
avoid the shoals and sand-banks at the river's mouth, in a pitch-dark
night, seemed to me, after carefully studying the chart, to be a most
difficult matter. This, however, was the pilot's business; all we
captains had to do was to avoid dangers from the guns of ships and
forts; or, if we could not avoid them, to stand being fired at.

The pilot we had engaged was full of confidence; so much so, that he
refused to have any payment for his services until he had taken us in
and out safely. I may as well mention that there were few if any
blockading vessels off Savannah river, the Northerners having perfect
confidence, I presume, in Fort Pulaski and the shoals which surrounded
the entrance of the river being sufficient to prevent any attempt at
blockade-running succeeding. The lights in the ship off Port Royal, a
small harbour in the hands of the Northern Government, a few miles