SEMMES.
To His Excellency M. Maussion de Conde,
Admiral and Governor of Martinique,
During this night the Iroquois did not approach us so near as on the
past night. Closed in the gun-deck ports, got the swinging booms
alongside, and directed the crew, in case of being called to quarters
during the night, to repair to the spar-deck as boarders, boarding being
the mode in which the enemy would attack us, if at all.[4]
[Footnote 4: On the 14th, at 4 P.M. when we had nearly finished coaling
and other arrangements for sea, a steamer was seen rounding the north
point of the island. She was under Danish colours, and had made, it was
evident, some ludicrous attempts at disguising herself--such, for
instance, as a studied disarrangement of her yards, and some alteration
of her head-booms. I was under the impression at the time that we were
very old birds to be caught with such chaff. She came up slowly at
first, evidently not seeing us as we lay concealed in the shadow of the
hills; but when within about two miles, we could see, with the aid of
our glasses, the water curling from her bows, and we knew that the
Yankee had scented his prey; or, to employ the expressive phrase of our
rough old signal quartermaster, "she had got a bone in her mouth." All
the good citizens of St. Pierre came down to the beach to witness the
scene, and a great many indulged their aquatic instincts by swimming out
to us to await the _denouement_.
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