_Sunday, August 9th,_ 1863.--Weather has again become fine. At 6 A.M.
precisely, we moved out of the bay, and steamed along the coast towards
the Cape. We gave chase to two sail off the mouth of False Bay, and
overhauling them, one proved to be an English, and the other an American
barque. The latter we boarded; but when I came to get bearings and plot
my position, it unfortunately turned out that I was within a mile, or a
mile and a quarter, of a line drawn from the Cape Lighthouse to the
opposite headland of the bay, and therefore within the prescribed limit
of jurisdiction. The master of the barque, in the meantime, having come
on board, I informed him of those facts, and told him to return to, and
take possession of his ship, as I had no authority to exercise any
control over him; which he did, and in a few minutes more, we were under
steam standing up the bay. What a scene for the grim old Cape to look
down upon. The vessel boarded was the Martha Wenzell, of Boston, from
Akyab for Falmouth. At 2 P.M. anchored in Simon's Bay, and was boarded
by a Lieutenant from the flag-ship of Admiral Walker.
_Monday, August 10th._--Weather fine. I called on Admiral Walker at his
residence, and was presented by him to his family, and spent an
agreeable half hour with them, giving them a brief outline of our
quarrel and war. Dined on board the Chinese gunboat Kwang-Tung,
Commander Young. This is one of Laird's side-wheel steamers, built for
Captain Sherrard Osborne's fleet.
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