THE ALABAMA AT SINGAPORE--PANIC AMONG THE ENEMY'S SHIPPING IN THE CHINA
SEA--THE MULTITUDE FLOCK TO SEE THE ALABAMA--CURIOUS RUMOR CONCERNING
HER--AUTHOR RIDES TO THE COUNTRY, AND SPENDS A NIGHT--THE CHINESE IN
POSSESSION OF ALL THE BUSINESS OF THE PLACE--ALABAMA LEAVES
SINGAPORE--CAPTURE OF THE MARTABAN, ALIAS TEXAN STAR--ALABAMA TOUCHES AT
MALACCA--CAPTURE OF THE HIGHLANDER AND SONORA--ALABAMA ONCE MORE IN THE
INDIAN OCEAN.
It turned out as I had conjectured in the last chapter. The _Wyoming_ had
been at Singapore on the 1st of December. She had gone thence to the Rhio
Strait, where a Dutch settlement had given her a ball, which she had
reciprocated. Whilst these Yankee and Dutch rejoicings were going on, the
_Alabama_ was crossing the China Sea, from Borneo to Pulo Condore. All
traces of the _Wyoming_ had since been lost. She had doubtless filled with
coal at Rhio, and gone northward. We had thus a clear sea before us.
A very gratifying spectacle met our eyes at Singapore. There were
twenty-two American ships there--large India-men--almost all of which were
dismantled and laid up! The burning of our first ship in these seas, the
_Amanda_, off the Strait of Sunda, had sent a thrill of terror through all
the Yankee shipping, far and near, and it had hastened to port, to get out
of harm's way. We had recent news here from all parts of the China seas,
by vessels passing constantly through the Strait of Malacca, and touching
at Singapore for orders or refreshments. There were two American ships
laid up in Bankok, in Siam; one or two at Canton; two or three at
Shanghai; one at the Phillippine Islands; and one or two more in Japanese
waters. These, besides the twenty-two ships laid up in Singapore,
comprised all of the enemy's once numerous Chinese fleet! No ship could
get a freight, and the commerce of the enemy was as dead, for the time
being, as if every ship belonging to him had been destroyed. We had here
the key to the mystery, that the _Alabama_ had encountered no American
ship, in the China Sea, since she had burned the _Contest_. The birds had
all taken to cover, and there was no such thing as flushing them. This
state of things decided my future course. I had, at first, thought of
running up the China Sea, as far as Shanghai, but if there were no more
than half a dozen of the enemy's ships to be found in that part of the
sea, and these had all fled to neutral ports for protection, _cui bono_?
It would be far better to return to the western hemisphere, where the
enemy still had some commerce left. Indeed, my best chance of picking up
these very ships, that were now anchored under my guns in Singapore, and
disconsolate for want of something to do, would be to waylay them on their
homeward voyages. They would not venture out in a close sea like that of
China, so long as I remained in it. After I should have departed, and they
had recovered somewhat from their panic, they might pick up partial
cargoes, at reduced rates, and once more spread their wings for flight.
I had another powerful motive influencing me. My ship was getting very
much out of repair. The hard usage to which she had been subjected since
she had been commissioned had very much impaired her strength, and so
constantly had she been under way, that the attrition of the water had
worn the copper on her bottom so thin that it was daily loosening and
dropping off in sheets. Her speed had, in consequence, been much
diminished. The fire in her furnaces, like that of the fire-worshipping
Persian, had never been permitted to go out, except for a few hours at
rare intervals, to enable the engineer to clink his bars, and remove the
incrustations of salt from the bottoms of his boilers. This constant
action of fire and salt had nearly destroyed them. I resolved, therefore,
to turn my ship's head westward from Singapore, run up into the Bay of
Bengal, along the coast of Hindostan to Bombay, through the Seychelle
Islands to the mouth of the Red Sea, thence to the Comoro Islands; from
these latter to the Strait of Madagascar, and from the latter Strait to
the Cape of Good Hope--thus varying my route back to the Cape.
We were received with great cordiality by the people of Singapore, and, as
at the Cape of Good Hope, much curiosity was manifested to see the ship.
After she had hauled alongside of the coaling wharf, crowds gathered to
look curiously upon her, and compare her appearance with what they had
read of her. These crowds were themselves a curiosity to look upon,
formed, as they were, of all the nations of the earth, from the remote
East and the remote West. Singapore being a free port, and a great centre
of trade, there is always a large fleet of shipping anchored in its
waters, and its streets and other marts of commerce are constantly
thronged with a promiscuous multitude. The canal--there being one leading
to the rear of the town--is filled with country boats from the surrounding
coasts, laden with the products of the different countries from which they
come. There is the pepper-boat from Sumatra, and the coaster of larger
size laden with tin-ore; the spice-boats from the spice islands; boats
with tin-ore, hides, and mats from Borneo; boats from Siam, with gums,
hides, and cotton; boats from different parts of the Malay peninsula, with
canes, gutta-percha, and India-rubber. In the bay are ships from all parts
of the East--from China, with silks and teas; from Japan, with
lacker-ware, raw silk, and curious manufactures of iron, steel, and paper;
from the Phillippine Islands, with sugar, hides, tobacco, and spices.
Intermixed with these are the European and American ships, with the
products of their various countries. As a consequence, all the races and
all the religions of the world were represented in the throngs that
crowded the coaling jetty, to look upon the _Alabama_, wearing the new
flag of a new nation, mysterious for its very distance from them. We were
to their eastern eyes a curious people of the antipodes.
The physical aspect of the throng was no less curious than its moral.
There was the Malay, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Siamese, the Hindoo,
the Persian, the wild Tartar, the Bornese, the Sumatran, the Javanese, and
even the New Zealander--all dressed, or undressed, as the case might be,
in the garb of their respective tribes and countries. Some of the most
notable objects among the crowd, were jet-black Africans, with the amplest
of petticoat trousers gathered at the knee, sandalled feet, and turbaned
heads--the more shining the jet of the complexion, the whiter the turban.
The crowd, so far from diminishing, increased daily, so that it was at
times difficult to pass into and out of the ship; and it was some time
before we could learn what had excited all this curiosity among those
simple inhabitants of the isles and continents. Some of these
wonder-mongers actually believed, that we kept chained in the hold of the
_Alabama_, several negro giants--they had heard something about the negro
and slavery having something to do with the war--whom we armed with
immense weapons and let loose, in time of battle, as they were wont to do
their elephants! They waited patiently for hours, under their paper
umbrellas, hoping to catch a sight of these monsters.
Singapore, which was a fishing village half a century ago, contains a
hundred thousand inhabitants, and under the free-port system has become,
as before remarked, a great centre of trade. It concentrates nearly all
the trade of the southern portion of the China Sea. There are no duties on
exports or imports; and the only tonnage due paid by the shipping, is
three cents per ton, register, as a lighthouse tax. The currency is
dollars and cents; Spanish, Mexican, Peruvian, and Bolivian dollars are
current. Great Britain, with an infinite forecaste, not only girdles the
seas with her ships, but the land with her trading stations. In her
colonization and commerce consists her power. Lop off these, and she would
become as insignificant as Holland. And so beneficent is her rule, that
she binds her colonies to her with hooks of steel. A senseless party in
that country has advocated the liberation of all her colonies. No policy
could be more suicidal. Colonization is as much of a necessity for Great
Britain as it was for the Grecian States and for Rome, when they became
overcrowded with population. Probably, in the order of nature, colonies,
as they reach maturity, may be expected to go off to themselves, but for
each colony which thus puts on the _toga virilis_, Great Britain should
establish another, if she would preserve her empire, and her importance
with the nations of the earth.
The most notable feature about Singapore is its Chinese population. I
consider these people, in many respects, the most wonderful people of the
earth. They are essentially a people of the arts, and of trade, and in the
changing aspect of the world must become much more important than they
have hitherto been. It is little more than half a century since Napoleon
twitted the English people with being a nation of "shop-keepers." So rapid
have been the changes since, that other nations besides Great Britain are
beginning to covet the designation as one of honor. Even military France,
the very country which bestowed the epithet in scorn, is herself becoming
a nation of mechanics and shop-keepers. Industrial Congresses, and Palaces
of Industry attract more attention, in that once martial country, than
military reviews, and the marching and countermarching of troops on the
Campus Martius. An Emperor of France has bestowed the cordon of the Legion
of Honor on a Yankee piano-maker! These are some of the signs of the times
in which we live. And they are signs which the wise statesman will not
ignore. A nation chooses wisely and well, which prefers the pursuits of
peace to those of war; and that nation is to be envied, which is better
constituted by the nature of its people for peaceful, than for warlike
pursuits. This is eminently the case with the Chinese. Nature has kindly
cast them in a mould, gentle and pacific. They are human, and have,
therefore, had their wars, but compared with the western nations, their
wars have been few. The Taeping rebellion of our day, which has lasted so
long, had its origin in the brigandage of an idle and leprous soldiery,
who sought to live at ease, at the expense of the honest producer.
It is only lately that we have been able to obtain an interior view of
these people. A few years back, and China was a sealed book to us. Our
merchants were confined to certain "factories" outside of the walls of
Canton, and we were permitted to trade at no other points. But since we
have gotten a glimpse of these wonderful people, we have been astonished
at the extraordinary productiveness and vitality of Chinese commerce. We
have been amazed whilst we have looked upon the wonderful stir and hum and
bustle of so immense a hive of human beings, all living and prospering by
the mechanic arts and commerce. The Chinaman is born to industry, as
naturally as the negro is to sloth. He is the cheapest producer on the
face of the earth, because his habits are simple and frugal. The proof of
this is, that no western nation can sell its goods in the Chinese market.
We are all compelled to purchase whatever we want from them, for cash.
When we can work cheaper than the Chinese, we may hope to exchange our
manufactured goods with them, but not until then.
Singapore is a miniature Canton, and the visitor, as he passes through its
streets, has an excellent opportunity of comparing the industry of the
Chinese with that of other nations. As a free port, Singapore is open to
immigration from all parts of the earth, on equal terms. There are no
jealous laws, guilds, or monopolies, to shackle the limbs, or dampen the
energy or enterprise of any one. Free competition is the presiding genius
of the place. The climate is healthy--the English call it the Madeira of
the East--and the European artisan can labor in it as well as the East
Indian or the Chinese. All nations flock hither to trade, as has already
been remarked. Now what is the result? Almost all the business of every
description is in the hands of the Chinese. Large Chinese houses
monopolize the trade, and the Chinese artisan and day-laborer have driven
out all others. Ninety thousand of the one hundred thousand of the
population are Chinese.
Now that the exclusiveness of China has been broken in upon, and
emigration permitted, what a destiny awaits such a people in the workshops
and fields of the western world! Already they are filling up the States on
the Pacific coast, and silently, but surely, possessing themselves of all
the avenues of industry in those States, thrusting aside the more
expensive European and American laborers. They will cross the Rocky
Mountains, and effect, in course of time, a similar revolution in the
Western and Southern States. In the latter States their success will be
most triumphant; for in these States, where the negro is the chief
laborer, the competition will be between frugality, forecast, and industry
on the one hand, and wastefulness, indifference to the future, and
laziness on the other. The negro must, of necessity, disappear in such a
conflict. Cheap labor must and will drive out dear labor. This law is as
inexorable as any other of Nature's laws. This is the probable fate,
which the Puritan has prepared for his friend the negro, on the American
continent. Our system of slavery might have saved his race from
destruction--nothing else can.
The Governor of Singapore was a colonel in the British army. He had a
small garrison of troops--no more, I believe, than a couple of
companies--to police this large population. I sent an officer, as usual,
to call on him and acquaint him with my wants and intention as to time of
stay. Mr. Beaver, of the firm of Cumming, Beaver & Co., a clever English
merchant, came on board, and offered to facilitate us all in his power, in
the way of procuring supplies. I accepted his kind offer, and put him in
communication with the paymaster, and the next day rode out, and dined,
and spent a night with him at his country-seat. He lived in luxurious
style, as do most European merchants in the East. The drive out took us
through the principal streets of the city, which I found to be laid out
and built with great taste--the edifices having a semi-English,
semi-Oriental air. The houses of the better classes were surrounded by
lawns and flower-gardens, and cool verandahs invited to repose. Mr.
Beaver's grounds were extensive, and well kept, scarcely so much as a
stray leaf being visible on his well-mown lawns. His household--the lady
was absent in England--was a pattern of neatness and comfort. His
bath-rooms, bed-rooms, library, and billiard-room--all showed signs of
superintendence and care, there being an air of cleanliness and neatness
throughout, which one rarely ever sees in a bachelor establishment. His
servants were all Chinese, and males. Chi-hi, and Hu-chin, and the rest of
them, ploughed his fields, mowed his hay, stabled his horses, cooked his
dinners, waited on his guests, washed his linen, made his beds, and marked
his game of billiards; and all at a ridiculously low rate of hire. If
there had been a baby to be nursed, it would have been all the same.
On my return to the city, next day, I lunched, by invitation, at the
officers' mess. English porter, ale, and cheese, cold meats, and a variety
of wines were on the table. An English officer carries his habits all over
the world with him, without stopping to consider climates. No wonder that
so many of them return from the east with disordered hepatic
arrangements.
When I returned to the ship, in the evening, I found that Kell and Galt
had made such good use of their time, that everything was on board, and we
should be ready for sea on the morrow. Our coaling had occupied us but ten
hours--so admirable are the arrangements of the P. and O. Steamship
Company, at whose wharf we had coaled. A pilot was engaged, and all the
preparations made for an early start. There was nothing more to be done
except to arrange a little settlement between the Queen and myself,
similar to the one which had taken place at the Cape of Good Hope. As we
were obliged to lie alongside of the wharf, for the convenience of
coaling, it had been found impossible, in the great press and throng of
the people who were still anxious to get a sight of my black giants, to
prevent the sailors from having grog smuggled to them. When an old salt
once gets a taste of the forbidden nectar, he is gone--he has no more
power of resistance than a child. The consequence on the present occasion
was, that a number of my fellows "left" on a frolic. We tracked most of
them up, during the night, and arrested them--without asking any aid of
the police, this time--and brought them on board. One of the boozy fellows
dived under the wharf, and played mud-turtle for some time, but we finally
fished him out. When we came to call the roll, there were half a dozen
still missing. A number of applications had been made to us by sailors who
wanted to enlist, but we had hitherto resisted them all. We were full, and
desired no more. Now, however, the case was altered, and the applications
being renewed after the deserters had run off--for sailors are a sort of
Freemasons, and soon learn what is going on among their craft--we
permitted half a dozen picked fellows to come on board, to be shipped as
soon as we should get out into the Strait.
The next morning, bright and early, the _Alabama_ was under way, steaming
through the Strait of Malacca. At half-past eleven A. M., "sail ho!" was
cried from the mast, and about one P. M., we came up with an exceedingly
American-looking ship, which, upon being hove to by a gun, hoisted the
English colors. Lowering a boat, I sent Master's Mate Fullam, one of the
most intelligent of my boarding-officers, and who was himself an
Englishman, on board to examine her papers. These were all in due
form--were undoubtedly genuine, and had been signed by the proper
custom-house officers. The register purported that the stranger was the
British ship _Martaban_, belonging to parties in Maulmain, a rice port in
India. Manifest and clearance corresponded with the register; the ship
being laden with rice, and having cleared for Singapore--of which port, as
the reader sees, she was within a few hours' sail. Thus far, all seemed
regular and honest enough, but the ship was American--having been formerly
known as the _Texan Star_--and her transfer to British owners, if made at
all, had been made within the last ten days, after the arrival of the
_Alabama_ in these seas had become known at Maulmain. Mr. Fullam,
regarding these circumstances as at least suspicious, requested the master
of the ship to go on board the _Alabama_ with him, that I might have an
opportunity of inspecting his papers in person. This the master declined
to do. I could not, of course, compel an English master to come on board
of me, and so I was obliged to go on board of him--and I may state, by the
way, that this was the only ship I ever boarded personally during all my
cruises.
I could not but admire the beautiful, "_bran new_" English flag, as I
pulled on board, but, as before remarked, every line of the ship was
American--her long, graceful hull, with flaring bow, and rounded stern,
taunt masts with sky-sail poles, and square yards for spreading the
largest possible quantity of canvas. Passing up the side, I stepped upon
deck. Here everything was, if possible, still more American, even to the
black, greasy cook, who, with his uncovered woolly head, naked breast, and
uprolled sleeves in the broiling sun, was peeling his Irish potatoes for
his codfish. I have before remarked upon the national features of ships.
These features are as well marked in the interior organism, as in the
exterior. The master received me at the gangway, and, after I had paused
to take a glance at things on deck, I proceeded with him into his cabin,
where his papers were to be examined. His mates were standing about the
companion-way, anxious, of course, to know the fate of their ship. If I
had had any doubts before, the unmistakable persons of these men would
have removed them. In the person of the master, the long, lean,
angular-featured, hide-bound, weather-tanned Yankee skipper stood before
me. Puritan, _May-Flower_, Plymouth Rock, were all written upon the
well-known features. No amount of English custom-house paper, or
sealing-wax could, by any possibility, convert him into that rotund,
florid, jocund Briton who personates the English shipmaster. His speech
was even more national--taking New England to be the Yankee _nation_--than
his person; and when he opened his mouth, a mere novice might have sworn
that he was from the "State of Maine"--there, or thereabouts. When he told
me that I "hadn't-ought-to" burn his ship, he pronounced the shibboleth
which condemned her to the flames.
The shrift was a short one. When the papers were produced, I found among
them no bill of sale or other evidence of the transfer of the
property--the register of an English ship, as every seaman knows, not
being such evidence. His crew list, which had been very neatly prepared,
was a mute but powerful witness against him. It was written, throughout,
signatures and all, in the same hand--the signatures all being as like as
two peas. After glancing at the papers, and making these mental
observations as I went along, I asked the master a few questions. As well
as I recollect, he was from Hallowell, Maine. His ship had been two years
in the East Indies, trading from port to port; and, as before remarked,
had only been transferred within a few days. The freshly painted assumed
name on her stern was scarcely dry. The master had sat with comparative
composure during this examination, and questioning, evidently relying with
great confidence upon his English flag and papers; but when I turned to
him, and told him that I should burn his ship, he sprang from his chair,
and said with excited manner and voice--"You dare not do it, sir; that
flag--suiting the action to the word, and pointing with his long, bony
finger up the companion-way to the flag flying from his peak--won't stand
it!" "Keep cool, captain," I replied, "the weather is warm, and as for the
flag, I shall not ask it whether it will stand it or not--the flag that
_ought_ to be at your peak, will have to stand it, though." In half an
hour, or as soon as the crew could pack their duds, and be transferred to
the _Alabama_, the _Texan Star_--_alias_ the _Martaban_--was in flames;
the beautiful, new English ensign being marked with the day, and latitude
and longitude of the capture, and stowed away carefully by the old
signal-quartermaster, in the bag containing his Yankee flags.
The cargo was _bona fide_ English property, and if the owner of it,
instead of combining with the master of the ship to perpetrate a fraud
upon my belligerent rights, had contented himself with putting it on board
under the American flag, properly documented as British property, he might
have saved it, and along with it, the ship; as, in that case, I should
have been obliged to bond her. But when I had stripped off the disguise,
and the ship stood forth as American, unfortunately for the owner of the
cargo, no document could be presented to show that it was English; for the
very attempt to document it would have exposed the fraud. Unfortunate
Englishman! He had lost sight of the "copy" he had been used to transcribe
at school--"Honesty is the best policy."
It was still early in the afternoon when we resumed our course, and gave
the ship steam. After a few hours had elapsed, and Captain Pike--for this
was the name of the master of the captured ship--had realized that his
ship was no more, I sent for him, into my cabin, and directing my clerk to
produce writing materials, we proceeded to take his formal deposition;
preliminary to which, my clerk administered to him the usual oath. I felt
pretty sure now of getting at the truth, for I had resorted to a little
arrangement for this purpose quite common in the courts of law--I had
_released_ the interest of the witness. As soon, therefore, as the witness
was put upon the stand, I said to him:--"Now, captain, when you and I had
that little conversation in your cabin, you had hopes of saving your ship,
and, moreover, what you said to me was not under oath. You were, perhaps,
only practising a pardonable _ruse de guerre_. But now the case is
altered. Your ship being destroyed, you have no longer any possible
interest in misstating the truth. You are, besides, under oath. Be frank;
was, or was not, the transfer of your ship a _bona fide_ transaction?"
After a moment's reflection he replied:--"I will be frank with you,
captain. It was not a _bona fide_ transaction. I was alarmed when I heard
of your arrival in the East Indies, and I resorted to a sham sale in the
hope of saving my ship." Upon this answer being recorded, the court
adjourned.
At a late hour in the night, the moon shining quite brightly, we ran in
past some islands, and anchored off the little town of Malacca--formerly a
Portuguese settlement, but now, like Singapore, in the possession of the
English. My object was to land my prisoners, and at early dawn we
dispatched them for the shore, with a note to the military commander
asking the requisite permission. It was Christmas-day, and as the sun
rose, we could see many signs of festive preparation on shore. The little
town, with its white houses peeping out of a wilderness of green, was a
pretty picture as it was lighted up by the rays of the rising sun. Back of
the town, on an isolated hill, stood the lighthouse, whose friendly beacon
had guided us into our anchorage over night, and near by was the barrack,
from whose flag-staff floated, besides the proud old flag of our
fatherland, a number of gay streamers. Our ship in the offing, and our
boats in the harbor, created quite a stir in this quiet Malay-English
town; and forthwith a couple of boats filled with officers and
citizens--ladies included--came off to visit us. It was still very early,
and the excitement of the morning's row, and the novelty of the presence
of the _Alabama_ seemed greatly to excite our new friends. The males
grasped our hands as though they had been our brothers, and the ladies
smiled their sweetest smiles--and no one knows how sweet these can be,
better than the sailor who has been a long time upon salt water, looking
upon nothing but whiskers and mustachios. They were very pressing that we
should remain a day, and partake of their Christmas dinner with them. But
we excused ourselves, telling them that war knows no holidays. They left
us after a short visit, and at half-past nine A. M., our boats having
returned, we were again under steam. Bartelli was seen lugging a
basketfull of fine Malacca oranges into the cabin, soon after the return
of our boats--a gift from some of our lady friends who had visited us.
I have observed by Mr. Seward's "little bill," before referred to, that
Pike, having been foiled in that game of flags which he had attempted to
play with me, has put in his claim, along with other disconsolate Yankees,
for the destruction of his ship. When _will_ naughty England pay that
little bill?
After a good day's run--during which we overhauled an English bark, from
Singapore, for Madras--we anchored at night-fall near Parceelar Hill, in
twenty-five fathoms of water. The only Christmas kept by the _Alabama_ was
the usual "splicing of the main-brace" by the crew. We were under way
again, the next morning at six o'clock; the weather was clear, with a few
passing clouds, and the look-out had not been long at the mast-head before
he cried "sail ho!" twice, in quick suggestion. Upon being questioned, he
reported two large ships at anchor, that looked "sort o' Yankee." We soon
began to raise these ships from the deck, and when we got a good view of
them through our powerful glasses, we were of the same opinion with the
look-out. They were evidently Yankee. As they were at anchor, and
helpless--waiting for a fair wind with which to run out of the Strait--we
had nothing to gain by a concealment of our character, and showed them at
once the Confederate flag. That flag--beautiful though it was--must have
been a terrible wet blanket upon the schemes of these two Yankee skippers.
It struck them dumb, for they refused to show me any bunting in return. I
captured them both, with the "flaunting lie" stowed away snugly in their
cabins. They were monster ships, both of them, being eleven or twelve
hundred tons burden. In their innocence--supposing the _Alabama_ had gone
up the China Sea--they had ventured, whilst lying at Singapore, to take
charter-parties for cargoes of rice to be laden at Akyab, for Europe; and
were now on their way to Akyab in ballast. They had left Singapore several
days before our arrival there, and had been delayed by head-winds.
Both were Massachusetts ships--one the _Sonora_ of Newburyport, and the
other, the _Highlander_ of Boston. The master of one of these ships, when
he was brought on board, came up to me good-humoredly on the quarter-deck,
and offering me his hand, which I accepted, said: "Well, Captain Semmes,
I have been expecting every day for the last three years, to fall in with
you, and here I am at last!" I told him I was glad he had found me after
so long a search. "Search!" said he; "it is some such search as the Devil
may be supposed to make after holy water. The fact is," continued he, "I
have had constant visions of the _Alabama_, by night and by day; she has
been chasing me in my sleep, and riding me like a night-mare, and now that
it is all over, I feel quite relieved." I permitted the masters and crews
of both these ships to hoist out, and provision their own boats, and
depart in them for Singapore. The ships when overhauled were lying just
inside of the light-ship, at the western entrance of the Strait of
Malacca, and it was only pleasant lake or river sailing to Singapore.
Having fired the ships, we steamed out past the light-ship, and were once
more in the Indian Ocean. We found on board one of the prizes a copy of
the Singapore "Times," of the 9th of December, 1863, from which I give the
following extract. At the date of the paper, we were at Pulo Condore, and
the Yankee ships were still flocking into Singapore:--
"From our to-day's shipping-list it will be seen that there are no
fewer than seventeen American merchantmen at present in our harbor,
and that they include some of the largest ships at present riding
there. Their gross tonnage may be roughly set down at 12,000 tons.
Some of these have been lying here now for upward of three months,
and most of them for at least half that period. And all this, at a
time when there is no dulness in the freight market; but, on the
contrary, an active demand for tonnage to all parts of the world. It
is, indeed, to us, a home picture--the only one we trust to have for
many years to come--of the wide-spread evils of war in these modern
days. But it is a picture quite unique in its nature; for the nation
to which these seventeen fine ships belong has a Navy perhaps second
only to that of Great Britain, and the enemy with which she has to
cope, is but a schism from herself, possessed of no port that is not
blockaded, and owning not more than five or six vessels on the high
seas; and yet there is no apathy and nothing to blame on the part of
the United States Navy. The tactics with which the Federals have to
combat are without precedent, and the means to enable them
successfully to do so have not yet been devised."