Verily, the delusion of these men in the matter of this war is
unaccountable. No power on earth can subjugate the Southern States,
although some of them have been guilty of the pusillanimity of making
war with the Yankees against their sisters. History will brand them as
traitors and cowards. As for the tone of the English press, I am not
surprised at it. England is too rich to be generous. Our war for her is
a sort of prize-fight, and she is looking on in about the same spirit
with which her people lately viewed the prize fight between King and
Heenan. Hurrah one; well done the other."
* * * * *
From March 29th to April 22d there were no events calling for special
attention, save that on the sixteenth the intelligence was learned from
the master of a French ship that there were no American vessels at the
Chincha Islands, though in July, 1863, there were between seventy and
eighty American sail there. This speaks volumes of the terror the
Alabama had excited.
The night of the 22d of April was employed in giving chase to a strange
sail, which was overhauled at daybreak on the following morning; and the
United States flag having been responded to by a display of the same
colours, the Alabama boarded and took possession of the guano-laden
ship, Rockingham, which was employed as a target, and then set fire to.
The cargo being claimed as the property of neutrals, Captain Semmes
examined the ship's papers and entered the following in his journal:--
CASE OF THE ROCKINGHAM.
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