MR. DUCHATEL, _commanding H. I. F. M.'s steamer Acheron_.
As the lawyers say, "I took nothing by my motion," with Governor Condé. The United States were strong at sea, and the Confederate States weak, and this difference was sufficient to insure the ruling against me of all but the plainest points, about which there could be no dispute, either of principle, or of fact. Whilst the Governor would probably have protected me, by force, if necessary, against an actual assault, by the _Iroquois_, he had not the moral courage to risk the ire of his master, by offending the Great Republic, on a point about which there could be any question.
The _Iroquois_ was very much in earnest in endeavoring to capture me, and Captain Palmer spent many sleepless nights, and labored very zealously to accomplish his object; notwithstanding which, when my escape became known to his countrymen, he had all Yankeeland down on him. It was charged, among other things, by one indignant Yankee captain, that Palmer and myself had been school-mates, and that treachery had done the work. I must do my late opponent the justice to say, that he did all that vigilance and skill could do, and a great deal more, than the laws of war authorized him to do. He made a free use of the neutral territory, and of his own merchant-ships that were within its waters. He had left St. Thomas in a great hurry, upon getting news of the _Sumter_, without waiting to coal. In a day or two after his arrival at St. Pierre, he chartered a Yankee schooner, and sent her to St. Thomas, for a supply of coal; and taking virtual possession of another--a small lumber schooner, from Maine, that lay discharging her cargo, a short distance from the _Sumter_--he used her as a signal, and look-out ship. Sending his pilot on shore, he arranged with the Yankee master--one of your long, lean, slab-sided fellows, that looked like the planks he handled--a set of signals, by which the _Sumter_ was to be circumvented.
The anchorage of St. Pierre is a wide, open bay, with an exit around half the points of the compass. The _Iroquois_, as she kept watch and ward over the _Sumter_, generally lay off the centre of this sheet of water. As the _Sumter_ might run out either north of her, or south of her, it was highly important that the _Iroquois_ should know, as promptly as possible, which of the passages the little craft intended to take. To this end, the signals were arranged. Certain lights were to be exhibited, in certain positions, on board the Yankee schooner, to indicate to her consort, that the _Sumter_ was under way, and the course she was running. I knew nothing, positively, of this arrangement. I only knew that the pilot of the _Iroquois_ had frequently been seen on board the Yankee. To the mind of a seaman, the rest followed, as a matter of course. I could not know what the precise signals were, but I knew what signals I should require to be made to me, if I were in Captain Palmer's place. As the sequel will prove, I judged correctly.