' So he went
below, and from out of some little hole took the bag containing the
gold. The officer asked him why he had hidden the money, as we had the
United States colours up. He said he thought it was the Sumter, and
wanted to be on the safe side. The whole scene between the officer and
the captain of the Joseph Park was ludicrous in the extreme. The answers
to questions with that Yankee nasal twang and Yankee cunning, the
officer seeing through it and enjoying it all the while, made many jokes
in our mess afterwards."]
This done, the crew were transferred to the captain's vessel, and a
prize crew passed on board of the Joseph Park, with instructions to keep
within sight of the Sumter, and signal her immediately on perceiving any
suspicious sail. So the two cruised for some days in company, the Joseph
Park keeping to windward during the day, and at night running down under
cover of the Sumter's guns. This capture was none the less welcome for
the news she brought in a file of recent papers from Pernambuco, of the
first victory of the South at Manassas, or Bull Run, as well as of the
successes achieved in Missouri over the troops of General Lyon. Poor
Joseph Park! she had little anticipated her fate, and not a little
amusement was created among her captors by an entry in her log of the
day after leaving Pernambuco:--"We have a tight, fast vessel, and we
don't care for Jeff. Davis!" "My unfortunate prisoner," remarks Captain
Semmes, "had holloa'd before he was out of the wood.
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