_Monday, November 11th_.--Weather clear and pleasant, with refreshing trade-winds; watering ship. Visited the town, and went a-shopping in company with M. Guerin. Found French manufactured clothing, &c., reasonably cheap. In the afternoon strolled on the heights in rear of the town, and was charmed with the picturesque scenery on every hand. The little valleys and nooks in which nestle the country houses are perfect pictures, and the abrupt and broken country presents delightful changes at every turn. I saw but few signs of diligent cultivation. The negro race is here, as everywhere else, an idle and thriftless one; and the purlieus of the town where they are congregated are dilapidated and squalid. The statue of Josephine in the Savannah is a very fine specimen of sculpture. It represents her in her customary dress, and she appears, indeed, a charming woman. This is her native island. The United States consul came down to-day from St. Pierre, and I landed the remainder of the prisoners, twelve in number, putting them on parole. I had them all assembled in the gangway, and questioned them as to their treatment on board. They all expressed themselves satisfied with it. The officers returned from St. Pierre, and reported that coal was to be had, but that the Collector of Customs had prohibited the merchants from sending it to us. Wrote to the Governor on the Subject:--
Confederate States' steamer Sumter, Port Royal, Nov. 12th, 1861.
SIR,--In the interview which I had the honour to hold with your Excellency on Saturday last, the 9th inst. I understood your Excellency to assent to the proposition that I might go into the market at St. Pierre, and purchase such supplies as I might stand in need of, coal included. The precise position assumed by your Excellency was, that you would neither assent nor prohibit. On the faith of this understanding, I despatched one of my lieutenants and my paymaster to St. Pierre, to make the necessary purchases, and they have returned and reported to me that they found an abundance of coal in the market, and at reasonable rates, and that the owners of it are anxious to supply me with it, but that your Collector of the Customs had _interposed_, and prohibited the merchants from selling or delivering it to me. For the information of your Excellency, I will here state that I have been permitted to coal in all the ports I have heretofore visited, except only at the French port of Cayenne, where I was informed that there was no coal in the market, and where it was insisted that I should undergo a quarantine of five days before communicating with the town. As it was not convenient for me to undergo this quarantine, I sailed immediately. I have coaled at Cienfuegos in the island of Cuba, at Curaçao, at Trinidad, at Paramaribo, and at Maranham. It appears that Spain, Holland, England and Brazil have each deemed it consistent with their neutrality in the present war to permit me freely to supply myself with coal. Am I to understand from the action of your officers at St. Pierre that you have withdrawn the implied assent given me on Saturday last, and that France, through your agency, adopts a different and less friendly, rule? Will France drive a vessel of war of the Confederate States from one of her islands to a British island to procure coal? And if she does this, on what principle will she do it? It is a well-settled rule of international law, that belligerent cruisers have the right to enter freely into neutral ports for the purpose of replenishing their stores of provisions, or replacing a lost mast or spar; and why should not they be equally permitted to receive on board coal?