--* * * Gave chase to a barque, which,
discovering our purpose, made all sail and tried to escape. Came up with
her at 2 P.M., after a chase of about three hours. Hoisted the English
ensign, to which she refused to respond. Fired the starboard bow gun,
and ran up our own flag, when she shortened sail and hove-to. Sent a
prize crew on board, she showing the United States ensign. Brought the
master on board. She proved to be the whaling barque Elisha Dunbar, of
New Bedford, twenty-four days out. As it was blowing fresh and
threatening a gale of wind, we got all the prisoners on board in the
course of about a couple of hours, and set fire to the barque. Reefed
topsails, set the fore trysail with the bonnet off, and stood on a wind
on the starboard tack to the S. and E.
CHAPTER XVI.
_Successive gales--Uncomfortable quarters--Weather moderates--Blowing
again--The Emily Farnum and the Brilliant--Neutral cargo--Ransomed--In
flames--The Wave Crest--The Dunkirk--Religious smuggling--A deserter
caught--A court martial--The Tonawanda--Precautions--The Manchester
burnt--Hope--Parting company--The Lamplighter--A hurricane--Great
danger--A cyclone--Safely passed_.
After this burst of good fortune in the way of prizes, during which the
Alabama had destroyed upwards of 230,000 dollars' worth of United States
property--or an amount very nearly equal to her own entire cost--in
eleven days, a lull was experienced.
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