be understood that the inducements offered to
blockade-runners must have been immense to persuade men to run such
risks. The officers and sailors made money easily, and spent it
royally when they reached Nassau. "I never expect to see such flush
times again in my life," said a blockade-running captain, speaking of
Nassau. "Money was as plentiful as dirt. I have seen a man toss up a
twenty-dollar gold piece on "heads or tails," and it would be followed
by a score of the yellow boys in five seconds. There were times when
the bank-vaults could not hold all the gold, and the coins were dumped
down by the bushel, and guarded by soldiers. Men wagered, gambled,
drank, and seemed crazy to get rid of their money. I once saw two
captains bet five hundred dollars each on the length of a certain
porch. Again I saw a wager of eight hundred dollars a side as to how
many would be at the dinner-table of a certain hotel. The Confederates
were paying the English big prices for goods, but multiplying the
figures by five, seven, and ten as soon as the goods were landed in
Charleston. Ten dollars invested in quinine in Nassau would bring from
four hundred to six hundred dollars in Charleston. A pair of
four-dollar boots would bring from fourteen to sixteen dollars; a
two-dollar hat would bring eight dollars, and so on through all the
list of goods brought in. Every successful captain might have made a
fortune in a year; but it is not believed that five out of the whole
number had a thousand dollars on hand when the war closed. It was come
easy, go easy."

CHAPTER VIII.

DUPONT'S EXPEDITION TO HILTON HEAD AND PORT ROYAL. -- THE FIERY
CIRCLE.

The great joint naval and military expedition, which in August, 1861,
had reduced the forts at Hatteras Inlet, and, continuing its progress,
had, by successive victories, brought Roanoke Island, Newbern,
Elizabeth City, and the Sounds of Pamlico and Albemarle under the sway
of the Federal Government, was but the first of a series of
expeditions intended to drive the Confederates from the Atlantic
seaboard, and secure for the United States vessels safe harbors and
coaling stations in the bays and inlets along the South Atlantic
coast. The proper maintenance of the blockade made it necessary that
the seaboard should be in the hands of the Federals. For a blockader
off Charleston or Wilmington to be forced to return to Hampton Roads
to coal or to make repairs, would entail the loss o