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 OUTING ADVENTURE LIBRARY 
 
 HOBART PASHA 
 
 BY AUGUSTUS CHARLES HOBART-HAMPDEN 
 
 Blockade-Running, Slaver-Hunting, 
 and War and Sport in Turkey 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 HORACE KEPHART 
 
 NELSON DOUBLED AY 
 
 OYSTER BAY, N. Y.
 
 Copyright, 1915, by 
 OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 All rig hit reserved.
 
 SRLF 
 
 .urn, 
 514044J 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Hobart Pasha was one of the most remarkable 
 men of the nineteenth century. Nature had fitted 
 him for the role of an Elizabethan corsair, but 
 he was born out of his due time, and, by some 
 strange jugglery of fate, was projected into the 
 Victorian era. 
 
 Full of energy and overflowing with animal spir- 
 its, he craved a life of excitement and adventure. 
 The long dull intervals of naval routine in times 
 of peace bored and irritated him. He chafed un- 
 der the iron discipline of his period and rebelled 
 against the tyranny of superiors. Daring and 
 self-confident, he scorned the conventions that 
 frowned upon his fondness for romantic enter- 
 prizes. And so, finally, when convinced that the 
 royal navy offered no scope for his peculiar tal- 
 ents, nor prospect of the advancement he deserved, 
 Hobart abandoned the service to become a free 
 lance, a soldier of fortune, who might fight under 
 any flag he chose. 
 
 The following reminiscences, which he called 
 " Sketches from My Life," were jotted down in 
 the enforced leisure of the sick-room, from which 
 
 5
 
 6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 he was never to emerge alive. Despite the offhand 
 style in which they were composed, and the im- 
 possibility of revision, these memoirs are among 
 the most interesting in our literature. Hobart's 
 tales of his youthful experiences as a man-o'-wars- 
 man read like pages from " Midshipman Easy " 
 or " Peter Simple " ; his record of blockade-run- 
 ning during our civil war is as thrilling as a nau- 
 tical romance by Jules Verne. He is never prolix. 
 The stories are told in a plain, bluff, sailorlike 
 way, though with instinctive choice of the apt word 
 or phrase ; and when told, he quits. 
 
 Hobart has been accused of interweaving fact 
 and fiction to produce a story that would be ben 
 trovato if not vero. His critics admit that no 
 man of his time crowded more romantic and ex- 
 citing episodes into the span of a lifetime; but, 
 like that earlier paladin of adventure Captain 
 John Smith, he is taxed with inventing extraor- 
 dinary situations, whereas if he had been content 
 to tell the plain facts about his career they would 
 have been marvellous enough. This charge is 
 worth looking into. 
 
 An expert who had access to the British naval 
 archives put Hobart's " Sketches " to the test of 
 close comparison with the records. He found, in 
 the first nine chapters of the book (but not else- 
 where) that " times, places, and actors are so jum-
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 bled together as to make the unravelling of the 
 real thread a process something like that of wind- 
 ing off a silken cord from a badly tangled skein. 
 . . . Statements and narratives which on the face 
 of them we should receive with cautious doubt are 
 true enough; others which we should read with- 
 out the slightest suspicion are the veriest 
 dreams." 
 
 The best informed reviewers have absolved Ho- 
 bart from any intention to deceive. The inaccu- 
 racies and fancies in the fore part of the book 
 may be ascribed to the confused memory of an old 
 and sorely stricken man, who, in some instances 
 was unable to distinguish what he had heard from 
 what he had seen. The first nine chapters cover 
 the period of his youth and early manhood. On 
 the sick-bed he had no opportunity to check off 
 his recollections of that far-off time against writ- 
 ten or printed records. In the present edition all 
 errors that are of any consequence have been cor- 
 rected by footnotes. 
 
 Chapters ten to sixteen are of an entirely differ- 
 ent order. They narrate the author's experiences 
 as a blockade runner in our war between the States. 
 They were published by him at the close of the war 
 in a little volume entitled " Never Caught." All 
 the scenes and adventures were then fresh and 
 vivid in his memory, and they are accepted as un-
 
 8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 varnished truth by men who participated in the 
 thrilling events that are here portrayed. 
 
 The rest of the book relates to Hobart's serv- 
 ice as admiral and pasha in the Turkish navy. 
 This part of his life was the " to-day " of him who 
 described it, and the accuracy of his record has 
 not been questioned. 
 
 So it turns out that the really remarkable feats 
 he claims to have performed he did perform. Com- 
 pared with them it is of no consequence whether in 
 his youth, when he was rollicking or chasing 
 slavers, his ship happened to be where he says it 
 was, at a given time, or on the other side of the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 One will note that the names of the author's 
 personal enemies, and even of their ships, are pur- 
 posely obscured or merely indicated by initials. 
 He respected the feelings and dignity of his adver- 
 saries. Another likable trait in the man is his 
 modesty: there is no swashbuckling nor bragga- 
 docio here. 
 
 Of his ancestry he simply says " I was born of 
 respectable parents " not a pretentious claim, 
 in view of the fact that he was a younger son of 
 the 6th earl of Buckinghamshire, and lineal de- 
 scendant of no less a personage than John Hamp- 
 den. 
 
 Augustus Charles Hobart-Hampden was born
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 April 1, 1822. Entering the royal navy at the 
 age of thirteen, he immediately became not only 
 witness but victim of that cult of tyranny and ter- 
 rorism that made many a vessel in those days a 
 floating hell. Some of the examples he gives are 
 so outrageous that he has been accused of exag- 
 gerating; but one of his critics, in the Saturday 
 Review, declares : " It is within the memory of 
 many living men that a captain, who is called in 
 
 this volume Sir Wm. M ,* and who had, rightly 
 
 or wrongly, the reputation of being the smartest 
 officer in the navy, used regularly, and as a matter 
 of course, to flog the last man down from furling 
 the sails." 
 
 Hobart was of a kindly nature, but of very in- 
 dependent spirit, and such brutalities made him 
 blaze out and speak his mind. This only gained 
 for him the reputation of a " troublesome char- 
 acter " and a " sea lawyer." It had much to do in 
 retarding his promotion, which furthermore was 
 checked by the slenderness of his means. He did 
 not even reach the rank of post-captain until after 
 twenty-eight years' service, and then, soured or 
 despairing, he promptly retired on half pay. 
 
 By this time (1863) the civil war in America 
 was well advanced. Hobart, who believed that the 
 negro is fit to be only a white man's servant, sym- 
 * Admiral Sir William Martin. (Ed.)
 
 10 INTRODUCTION 
 
 pathized with the South. Had he been a rich man 
 he doubtless would have enlisted with the Confed- 
 eracy. Being poor, he determined to combine 
 principle with profit by running the blockade into 
 southern ports, just as in 1812 the bolder Amer- 
 ican merchants ran cargoes into the ports of 
 blockaded France. 
 
 Assuming the nom de guerre of Captain 
 " Charles Roberts," he took command of a swift 
 steamer and made several hazardous passages into 
 Wilmington and Charleston. His skilful seaman- 
 ship, canny precautions, ready wit, great daring 
 and presence of mind, together with the " luck " 
 that such qualities generally compel, brought him 
 and his ship scatheless through many a " close 
 shave " and exciting chase. 
 
 In 1867 Hobart entered the Turkish service as 
 naval adviser to the sultan, and at once utilized 
 his experience as arch-blockade runner by turn- 
 ing blockader himself and bottling up the Greek 
 ships that had been supplying insurgents in Crete. 
 Thus in a few days he suppressed the Cretan re- 
 bellion, and won the personal friendship of the 
 sultan. 
 
 Nothing could have made him more unpopular 
 in England than enlistment under the Crescent. 
 But Hobart was one of those cosmopolites who 
 can see and acknowledge the good that is in any
 
 INTRODUCTION II 
 
 people. He admired manliness wherever he found 
 it, and took keen relish in the valor of aliens or foes 
 as well as in that of his comrades in arms. Among 
 the Ottomans he won respect, in turn, for his cour- 
 age, ability, and unswerving honesty. In 1881 he 
 was appointed mushir or marshal of the empire. 
 
 Hobart was twice struck off the British naval 
 retired list for breach of the Foreign Enlistment 
 Act, but twice reinstated the second time 
 (1885) with rank of vice-admiral. 
 
 The malady from which he suffered while pen- 
 ning these " Sketches " was an affection of the 
 heart. It proved fatal before the book issued 
 from the press. He died at Milan, June 19, 1886, 
 and was buried in the English cemetery at Scu- 
 tari. 
 
 From one who knew him we have the following 
 sketch of Hobart's personality. " Though not 
 what would be called a handsome man, he had a 
 pleasant, well-featured face. In figure he was per- 
 haps below the middle size, and was remarkable 
 for the smallness of his hands and feet. His frame 
 was thick-set, firm and wiry, but with nothing 
 bulky about it had there been it would have 
 been carried off by the scrupulous niceties of his 
 dress. Wherever he went, Hobart was a favorite. 
 He was that sort of man who impressed all of his 
 acquaintances with his humor and bonhomie. His
 
 12 INTRODUCTION 
 
 equals were always ready to help him in emergen- 
 cies, and though he was no disciplinarian, his in- 
 feriors, both in the English and in the Turkish 
 services, were glad to obey his lightest behests." 
 
 For serving under the flag of the execrated 
 Turk he was roundly abused by many of his coun- 
 trymen, but others foresaw that history, in time to 
 come, would do him justice. One has said : " Our 
 grandfathers would have openly called Hobart 
 Pasha a renegade we only think him so our 
 grandchildren will do neither." 
 
 The London Daily Telegraph summarized his 
 character in these words : 
 
 " Altogether Augustus Charles Hobart was a 
 remarkable man bluff, bold, dashing, and some- 
 what dogged. There was in his composition some- 
 thing of the mediaeval * condottiere,' and a good 
 deal more of that Dugald Dalgetty whom Scott 
 drew. Gustavus Adolphus would have made much 
 of Hobart ; the great Czarina, Catherine H, would 
 have appointed him Commander-in-Chief of her 
 fleet, and covered him with honors, even as she 
 did her Scotch Admiral Gleig, and that other yet 
 more famous sea-dog, king of corsairs, Paul Jones. 
 It would be unjust to sneer at Hobart as a mer- 
 cenary. His was no more a hired sword than 
 were the blades of Schomberg and Berwick, of 
 Maurice de Saxe and Eugene of Savoy. When
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 there was fighting to be done Hobart liked to be 
 in it - that is all. Of the fearless, dashing, ad- 
 venturous Englishman, ready to go anywhere and 
 do anything, Hobart was a brilliantly represen- 
 tative type." 
 
 HORACE KEPHAET.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ...,., ,. ; ... ,., 5 
 
 I A ROUGH START IN LIFE .... 19 
 
 II PERILS BY SEA AND LAND . ... .31 
 
 III A TRAGICAL AFFAIR ...... 44 
 
 IV Rio DE JANEIRO .......... 53 
 
 V SLAVER HUNTING ....... 60 
 
 VI SLAVER HUNTING (Continued) . . 70 
 
 VII LOVE AND MURDER ...... 79 
 
 VIII THE QUEEN'S YACHT ..... 88 
 
 IX IN THE BALTIC 95 
 
 X BLOCKADE-RUNNING 104 
 
 XI EXCITING ADVENTURES 119 
 
 XII A VISIT TO CHARLESTON .... 136 
 
 XIII NEVER CAUGHT! ....... 149 
 
 XIV LAST DAYS ON THE " D N " . . .162 
 
 XV RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE . . .173 
 
 XVI THE LAND BLOCKADE 188 
 
 XVII I ENTER THE TURKISH NAVY . . . 199 
 
 XVIII THE WAR WITH RUSSIA 213 
 
 XIX THE TURKISH FLEET DURING THE WAR 228 
 
 XX SPORT IN TURKEY 246 
 
 XXI SPORT AND SOCIETY . . 263
 
 HOBART PASHA
 
 HOBART PASHA 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A HOUGH START IN LIFE 
 
 TO attempt to write and publish sketches of 
 my somewhat eventful career is an act that, 
 I fear, entails the risk of making enemies of 
 some with whom I have come in contact. But I 
 have arrived at that time of life when, while respect- 
 ing, as I do, public opinion, I have hardened some- 
 what into indifference of censure. I will, however, 
 endeavour to write as far as lies in my power 
 (while recording facts) " in charity with all men." 
 This can be done in most part by omitting the 
 names of ships in which and officers under whom I 
 have served. 
 
 I was born, as the novelists say, of respectable 
 parents, at Walton-on-the-Wold, in Leicestershire, 
 on April 1, 1822. I will pass over my early youth, 
 which was, as might be expected, from the time of 
 my birth until I was ten years of age, without any 
 event that could prove interesting to those who are 
 kind enough to peruse these pages. 
 19
 
 20 HOBART PASHA 
 
 At the age of ten I was sent to a well-known 
 school at Cheam, in Surrey, the master of which, 
 Dr. Mayo, has turned out some very distinguished 
 pupils, of whom I was not fated to be one; for, 
 after a year or so of futile attempt on my part to 
 learn something, and give promise that I might 
 aspire to the woolsack or the premiership, I was 
 pronounced hopeless ; and having declared myself 
 anxious to emulate the deeds of Nelson, and other 
 celebrated sailors, it was decided that I should en- 
 ter the navy, and steps were taken to send me at 
 once to sea. 
 
 A young cousin of mine * who had been ad- 
 vanced to the rank of captain, more through the in- 
 fluence of his high connections than from any merit 
 of his own, condescended to give me a nomination 
 in a ship which he had just commissioned, and thus 
 I was launched like a young bear, " having all his 
 sorrows to come," into Her Majesty's navy as a 
 naval cadet. I shall never forget the pride with 
 which I donned my first uniform, little thinking 
 what I should have to go through. My only con- 
 solation while recounting facts that will make many 
 parents shudder at the thought of what their 
 children (for they are little more when they join 
 the service) were liable to suffer, is, that things are 
 now totally altered, and that under the present r- 
 
 *Sir Charles Eden, afterwards vice-admiral. (Ed.)
 
 A ROUGH START IN LIFE 21 
 
 gime every officer, whatever his rank, is treated like 
 a gentleman, or he, or his friends, can know " the 
 reason why." 
 
 I am writing of a period some fifteen or twenty 
 years after Marryat had astonished the world by 
 his thrilling descriptions of a naval officer's life 
 and its accompanying troubles. At the time of 
 which I write people flattered themselves that the 
 sufferings which " Midshipman Easy " and " The 
 Naval Officer " underwent while serving the Crown 
 were tales of the past. I will show by what I am 
 about very briefly to relate that such was very far 
 from being the case. 
 
 Everything being prepared, and good-bye being 
 said to my friends, who seemed rather glad to be 
 rid of me, I was allowed to travel from London on 
 the box of a carriage which contained the great 
 man who had given me the nomination (captains of 
 men-of-war were very great men in those days), 
 and after a long weary journey we arrived at the 
 
 port where H.M.S. * was lying ready for 
 
 sea. On the same night of our arrival the sailing 
 orders came from the Admiralty ; we were to go to 
 sea the next day, our destination being South 
 America. 
 
 Being a very insignificant individual, I was put 
 into a waterman's boat with my chest and bed, and 
 *The Rover. (Ed.)
 
 22 HOBART PASHA 
 
 was sent on board. On reporting myself, I was 
 told by the commanding officer not to bother him, 
 but to go to my mess, where I should be taken care 
 of. On descending a ladder to the lower deck, I 
 looked about for the mess, or midshipmen's berth, 
 as it was then called. In one corner of this deck 
 was a dirty little hole about ten feet long and six 
 feet wide, five feet high. It was lighted by two 
 or three dips, otherwise tallow candles, of the com- 
 monest description behold the mess ! 
 
 In this were seated six or seven officers and 
 gentlemen, some twenty-five to thirty years of age, 
 called mates, meaning what are now called sub-lieu- 
 tenants. They were drinking rum and water and 
 eating mouldy biscuits ; all were in their shirtsleeves, 
 and really, considering the circumstances, seemed 
 to be enjoying themselves exceedingly. 
 
 On my appearance it was evident that I was 
 looked upon as an interloper, for whom, small as I 
 was, room must be found. I was received with a 
 chorus of exclamations, such as, " What the deuce 
 does the little fellow want here ? " " Surely there 
 are enough of us crammed into this beastly little 
 hole ! " " Oh, I suppose he is some protege of the 
 captain's," &c., &c. 
 
 At last one, more kindly disposed than the rest, 
 addressed me : " Sorry there is no more room in 
 here, youngster ; " and calling a dirty-looking fcl-
 
 23 
 
 low, also in his shirtsleeves, said, " Steward, give 
 this young gentleman some tea and bread and but- 
 ter, and get him a hammock to sleep in." So I 
 had to be contented to sit on a chest outside the 
 midshipmen's berth, eat my tea and bread and but- 
 ter, and turn into a hammock for the first time in 
 my life, which means " turned out " the usual 
 procedure being to tumble out several times before 
 getting accustomed to this, to me, novel bedstead. 
 However, once accustomed to the thing, it is easy 
 enough, and many indeed have been the comfort- 
 able nights I have slept in a hammock, such a sleep 
 as many an occupant of a luxurious four-poster 
 might envy. At early dawn a noise all around me 
 disturbed my slumbers: this was caused by all 
 hands officers and men being called up to re- 
 ceive the captain, who was coming alongside to as- 
 sume his command by reading his official appoint- 
 ment. 
 
 I shall never forget his first words. He was a 
 handsome young man, with fine features, darkened, 
 however, by a deep scowl. As he stepped over 
 the side he greeted us by saying to the first lieu- 
 tenant in a loud voice, " Put all my boat's crew 
 in irons for neglect of duty." It seems that one 
 of them kept him waiting for a couple of minutes 
 when he came down to embark. After giving this 
 order our captain honored the officers who received
 
 24 HOBART PASHA 
 
 him with a haughty bow, read aloud his commis- 
 sion, and retired to his cabin, having ordered the 
 anchor to be hoisted in two hours. 
 
 Accordingly at eight o'clock we stood out to 
 sea, the weather being fine and wind favorable. 
 At eleven all hands were called to attend the pun- 
 ishment of the captain's boat's crew. I cannot 
 describe the horror with which I witnessed six fine 
 sailor-like looking fellows torn by the frightful 
 cat, for having kept this officer waiting a few min- 
 utes on the pier. Nor will I dwell on this illegal 
 sickening proceeding, as I do not write to create a 
 sensation, and, thank goodness ! such things cannot 
 be done now. 
 
 I had not much time for reflection, for my turn 
 came next. I believe I cried or got into some- 
 body's way, or did something to vex the tyrant ; all 
 I know is that I heard myself addressed as " You 
 young scoundrel," and ordered to go to the mast- 
 head. Go to the mast-head indeed ! with a freshen- 
 ing wind, under whose influence the ship was be- 
 ginning to heel over, and an increasing sea that 
 made her jump about like an acrobat. I had not 
 got my sea legs, and this feat seemed an utter im- 
 possibility to me. I looked aloft with horror; 
 then came over me the remembrance of Marryat's 
 story of the lad who refused to go to the mast- 
 head, and who was hoisted up by the signal hal-
 
 A ROUGH START IN LIFE 25 
 
 yards. While thinking of this, another " Well, 
 sir, why don't you obey orders ? " started me into 
 the lower rigging, which I began with the greatest 
 difficulty to climb, expecting at every step to go 
 headlong overboard. 
 
 A good-natured sailor, seeing the fix I was in, 
 gave me a helping hand, and up I crawled as far as 
 the maintop. This, I must explain to my non- 
 nautical reader, is not the mast-head, but a com- 
 paratively comfortable half-way resting-place, 
 from whence one can look about feeling somewhat 
 secure. 
 
 On looking down to the deck my heart bled to 
 see the poor sailor who had helped me undergoing 
 punishment for his kind act. I heard myself at 
 the same time ordered to " go higher," and a little 
 higher I did go. Then I stopped, frightened to 
 death, and almost senseless; terror, however, 
 seemed to give me presence of mind to cling on, 
 and there I remained till some hours afterwards; 
 then I was called down. On reaching the deck I 
 fainted, and knew no more till I awoke after some 
 time in my hammock. 
 
 Now, I ask any one, even a martinet at heart, 
 whether such treatment of a boy, not thirteen 
 years of age, putting his life into the greatest 
 danger, taking this first step towards breaking his 
 spirit, and in all probability making him, as most
 
 26 HOBART PASHA 
 
 likely had been done to the poor men I had seen 
 flogged that morning, into a hardened mutinous 
 savage, was not disgraceful? 
 
 Moreover, it was as close akin to murder as it 
 could be, for I don't know how it was I didn't fall 
 overboard, and then nothing could have saved my 
 life. However, as I didn't fall, I was not drowned, 
 and the effect on me was curious enough. For all 
 I had seen and suffered on that the opening day 
 of my sea-life made me think for the first time 
 and I have never ceased thinking (half a century 
 has passed since then) how to oppose tyranny 
 in every shape. Indeed, I have always done so 
 to such an extent as to have been frequently called 
 by my superiors " a troublesome character," " a 
 sea lawyer," &c. 
 
 Perhaps in this way I have been able to effect 
 something, however small, towards the entire 
 change that has taken place in the treatment of 
 those holding subordinate positions in the navy 
 and that something has had its use, for the 
 tyrant's hand is by force stayed now, " for once 
 and for all." 
 
 With this little I am satisfied. 
 
 Now let us briefly look into the question, '* Why 
 are men tyrants when they have it in their power 
 to be so? " 
 
 Unfortunately, as a rule, it appears to come
 
 A ROUGH START IN LIFE 27 
 
 natural to them! What caused the Indian Mu- 
 tiny? Let Indian officers and those employed in 
 the Indian civil service answer that question. 
 
 However, I have only to do with naval officers. 
 My experience tells me that a man clothed with 
 brief but supreme authority, such as the command 
 of a man-of-war, in those days when for months 
 and months he was away from all control of his 
 superiors and out of reach of public censure, is 
 more frequently apt to listen to the promptings of 
 the devil, which more or less attack every man, 
 especially when he is alone. 
 
 Away from the softening influence of society 
 and the wholesome fear of restraint, for a time at 
 least the voice of his better angel is silenced. 
 Perhaps also the necessarily solitary position of a 
 commander of a man-of-war, his long, lonely hours, 
 the utter change from the jovial life he led previ- 
 ous to being afloat, to say nothing of his liver get- 
 ting occasionally out of order, may all tend to 
 make him irritable and despotic. 
 
 I have seen a captain order his steward to be 
 flogged, almost to death, because his pea-soup was 
 not hot. I have seen an officer from twenty to 
 twenty-five years of age made to stand between 
 two guns with a sentry over him for hours, be- 
 cause he had neglected to see and salute the tyrant 
 who had come on deck in the dark. And as a
 
 28 HOBART PASHA 
 
 proof, though it seems scarcely credible, of what 
 such men can do when unchecked by fear of con- 
 sequences, I will cite the following: 
 
 On one occasion the captain of whom I have 
 been writing invited a friend to breakfast with him, 
 and there being, I suppose, a slight monotony in 
 the conversation, he asked his guest whether he 
 would like, by way of diversion, to see a man 
 flogged. The amusement was accepted, and a 
 man was flogged. 
 
 It was about the time I write of that the tyr- 
 anny practiced on board her Majesty's ships was 
 slowly but surely dawning upon the public, and a 
 general outcry against injustice began. 
 
 This was shown in a very significant manner 
 by the following fact : 
 
 A post-captain of high rank and powerful con- 
 nections dared, in contradiction to naval law, to 
 flog a midshipman. This young officer's father, 
 happening to be a somewhat influential man, made 
 a stir about the affair. The honorable captain 
 was tried by court-martial and severely repri- 
 manded. 
 
 However, I will cut short these perhaps uninter- 
 esting details, merely stating that for three years 
 I suffered most shameful treatment. My last in- 
 terview with my amiable cousin is worth relating. 
 The ship was paid off, and the captain, on going
 
 A ROUGH START IN LIFE 29 
 
 to the hotel at Portsmouth, sent for me and offered 
 me a seat on his carriage to London. Full of dis- 
 gust and horror at the very sight of him, I replied 
 that I would rather " crawl home on my hands and 
 knees than go in his carriage," and so ended our 
 acquaintance, for I never saw him again. 
 
 It may be asked how, like many others, I tided 
 over all the ill-usage and the many trials endured 
 during three years. The fact is, I had become 
 during that period of ill-treatment so utterly 
 hardened to it that I seemed to feel quite indif- 
 ferent and didn't care a rap. But wasn't I glad 
 to be free! 
 
 I had learnt many a lesson of use to me in after 
 life, the most important of all being to sympathise 
 with other people's miseries, and to make allowance 
 for the faults and shortcomings of humanity. 
 
 On the other hand, experience is a severe task- 
 master, and it taught me to be somewhat insub- 
 ordinate in my notions. I fear I must confess 
 that this spirit of insubordination has never left 
 me. 
 
 On my arrival at home my relations failed to 
 see in me an ill-used lad (I was only sixteen), and 
 seemed inclined to disbelieve my yarns ; but this did 
 not alter the facts, nor can I ever forget what I 
 went through during that reign of terror, as it 
 might well be called.
 
 30 HOBART PASHA 
 
 People may wonder how was it in the days of 
 Benbow and his contemporaries no complaints were 
 made. To this I answer, first, that the men of 
 those days, knowing the utter hopelessness of com- 
 plaining, preferred to grin and bear; secondly, 
 that neither officers nor men were supposed to pos- 
 sess such a thing as feeling, when they had once 
 put their foot on board a man-of-war. Then there 
 were the almost interminable sea voyages under 
 sail, during which unspeakable tyrannies could be 
 practised, unheard of beyond the ship, and un- 
 punished. It must be remembered that there were 
 no telegraphs, no newspaper correspondents, no 
 questioning public, so that the evil side of human 
 nature (so often shown in the very young in their 
 cruelty to animals) had its swing, fearless of retri- 
 bution. 
 
 Let us leave this painful subject, with the con- 
 soling thought that we shall never see the like 
 again.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 PERILS BY SEA AND LAND 
 
 AFTER enjoying a few weeks at home, I was 
 appointed to the Naval Brigade on service 
 in Spain, acting with the English army, 
 who were there by way of assisting Queen Chris- 
 tina against Don Carlos. 
 
 The army was a curious collection of regular 
 troops and volunteer soldiers, the latter what would 
 be called Bashi-Bazouks. The naval part of the 
 expedition consisted of 1,200 Royal Marines, and 
 a brigade of sailors under the orders of Lord John 
 Hay. The army (barring the regulars, who were 
 few in numbers) was composed of about 15,000 of 
 the greatest rabble I ever saw, commanded by Sir 
 De Lacy Evans.* 
 
 For fear any objection or misapprehension be 
 applied to the word " rabble," I must at once state 
 that these volunteers, though in appearance so 
 
 * He had not yet been knighted. There is an evident 
 confusion of dates in this story, and it has even been 
 charged that Hobart was not present at this battle at all. 
 (Ed.) 
 
 31
 
 38 HOBART PASHA 
 
 motley and undisciplined, fought splendidly, and 
 in that respect did all honor to their country and 
 the cause they were fighting for. 
 
 Very soon after we had disembarked I received 
 what is usually called my baptism of fire, that is to 
 say, I witnessed the first shot fired in anger. The 
 Carlists were pressing hard on the Queen's forces, 
 who were returning towards the sea ; it was of 
 the greatest importance to hold certain heights 
 that defended San Sebastian and the important 
 port of Passagis. 
 
 The gallant marines (as usual to the front) 
 were protecting the hill on which Lord John was 
 standing; the fire was hot and furious. I can- 
 didly admit I was in mortal fear, and when a shell 
 dropped right in the middle of us, and was, I 
 thought, going to burst (as it did), I fell down on 
 my face. Lord John, who was close to me, and 
 looking as cool as a cucumber, gave me a severe 
 kick, saying, " Get up, you cowardly young ras- 
 cal; are you not ashamed of yourself? " 
 
 I did get up and was ashamed of myself. From 
 that moment to this I have never been hard upon 
 those who flinched at the first fire they were under. 
 My pride helped me out of the difficulty, and I 
 flinched no more. For an hour or so the battle 
 raged furiously. 
 
 By degrees all fear left me; I felt only excite-
 
 PERILS BY SEA AND LAND 33 
 
 ment and anger, and when we (a lot I had to do 
 with it!) drove the enemy back in the utmost con- 
 fusion, wasn't I proud! 
 
 When all was over Lord John called me, and 
 after apologising in the most courteous manner for 
 the kick, he gave me his hand (poor fellow ! he had 
 already lost one arm while fighting for his coun- 
 try), and said: "Don't be discouraged, young- 
 ster; you are by no means the first who has shown 
 alarm on being for the first time under fire." So 
 I was happy. 
 
 It is not my intention to give in detail the events 
 that I witnessed during that disastrous civil war in 
 Spain ; suffice it that after much hard fighting the 
 Carlists were driven back into their mountains so 
 much discouraged- that they eventually renounced 
 a hopeless cause; and at all events for a long pe- 
 riod order was restored in Spain. 
 
 After serving under Lord John Hay for six or 
 seven months, I was appointed to another ship,* 
 which was ordered to my old station, South 
 America. 
 
 The captain of my new ship was in every sense 
 i gentleman, and although a strict disciplinarian, 
 was just and kind-hearted. From the captain 
 downwards every officer was the same in thought 
 
 * Hobart's second ship was the Rose, which he joined in 
 October, 1838. (Ed.)
 
 84. HOBART PASHA 
 
 and deed, so we were all as happy as sand-boys. 
 It was then that I began to realise a fact of which 
 before I had only a notion namely, that dis- 
 cipline can be maintained without undue severity, 
 to say nothing of cruelty, and that service in the 
 navy could be made a pleasure as well as a duty 
 to one's country. 
 
 After visiting Rio de Janeiro, we were sent to 
 the River Plate ; there we remained nearly a year, 
 during which time several adventures which I will 
 relate occurred, both concerning my duties and 
 my amusements. 
 
 I must tell my readers that from earliest boy- 
 hood I had a passionate love for shooting; and, 
 through the kindness of my commanding officer * 
 while at Monte Video, I was allowed constantly 
 to indulge in sport. 
 
 On one occasion my captain, who was a keen 
 sportsman, took me with him out shooting. We 
 had a famous day's sport, filled our game bags 
 with partridges, ducks, and snipe, and were re- 
 turning home on horseback when a solitary horse- 
 man, a nasty-looking fellow, armed to the teeth, 
 rode up to us. As I knew a little Spanish we 
 began to talk about shooting, &c., &c. ; then he 
 asked me to shoot a bird for him (the reason why 
 he did this will be seen immediately). I didn't 
 * Lieutenant Christie. (Ed.)
 
 PERILS BY SEA AND LAND 35 
 
 like the cut of his jib, so rather snubbed him. 
 However, he continued to ride on with us, to within 
 half a mile of where our boat was waiting to take 
 us on board. I must explain our relative posi- 
 tions as we rode along. The captain was on my 
 left, I next to him, and the man was on my right, 
 riding very near to me. All of a sudden he ex- 
 claimed in Spanish, " Now is the time or never," 
 threw his right leg over the pommel of his saddle, 
 slipped on to the ground, drew his knife, dashed 
 at me, and after snatching my gun from my hand, 
 stuck his knife (as he thought) into me. Then 
 he rushed towards the captain, pulling the trigger 
 of my gun, and pointing straight at the latter's 
 head ; the gun was not loaded, having only the old 
 percussion caps on. (Now I saw why he wanted 
 me to fire, so that he might know whether my gun 
 was loaded; but the old caps evidently deceived 
 him.) 
 
 All this was the work of a very few seconds. 
 Now what was my chief doing? Seeing a row 
 going on, he was dismounting; in fact, was half- 
 way off his horse, only one foot in the stirrup, 
 when the man made the rush at him. Finding me 
 stuck to my saddle (for the ruffian's knife had 
 gone through my coat and pinned me), and the 
 fellow snapping my gun, which was pointed at 
 him, he as coolly as possible put his gun over his
 
 36 HOBART PASHA 
 
 horse's shoulder and shot the would-be murderer 
 dead on the spot. Then turning to me he said 
 quite calmly, " I call you to witness that that man 
 intended to murder me." How differently all 
 would have ended had my gun been loaded ! The 
 villain would have shot my chief, taken both guns, 
 and galloped off, leaving me ignominiously stuck 
 to my saddle. 
 
 The audacity of this one man attacking us two 
 armed sportsmen showed the immense confidence 
 these prairie people feel in themselves, especially 
 in their superior horsemanship. However, the fel- 
 low caught a Tartar on this occasion. 
 
 As for me, the knife had gone, as I said, through 
 my loose shooting jacket just below the waist, 
 through the upper part of my trousers, and so 
 into the saddle, without even touching my skin. 
 I have kept the knife in memory of my lucky 
 escape. 
 
 While laying at Monte Video there was on each 
 side of us a French man-of-war, the officers of 
 which were very amiably inclined, and many were 
 the dinners and parties exchanged between us. 
 
 In those days the interchange of our respective 
 languages was very limited on both sides, so much 
 so, that our frantic efforts to understand each 
 other were a constant source of amusement. A 
 French midshipman and myself, however, con-
 
 PERILS BY SEA AND LAND 37 
 
 sidered ourselves equal to the occasion, and pro- 
 fessed linguists ; so on the principle that in the 
 " land of the blind the one-eyed man is king," we 
 were the swells of the festivities. 
 
 I remember on one occasion, when the birthday 
 of Louis Philippe was to be celebrated, my French 
 midshipman friend came on board officially and 
 said, " Sir, the first of the month is the feast of 
 the King ; you must fire the gun." " All right," 
 said we. Accordingly, we loaded our guns in the 
 morning, preparatory to saluting at noon. It 
 was raining heavily all the forenoon, so we had 
 not removed what is called the tompions (to my 
 unprofessional reader I may say that the tompion 
 is a very large piece of wood made to fit into the 
 muzzle, for the purpose of preventing wet from 
 penetrating). To this tompion is, or used to be, 
 attached a large piece of wadding, what for I 
 never rightly understood. 
 
 Now it seems that those whose duty it was to 
 attend to it had neglected to take these things 
 out of the guns. 
 
 On the first gun being fired from the French ship 
 we began our salute. The French ships were close 
 alongside of us, one on either side. The gunner 
 who fires stands with the hand-glass to mark the 
 time between each discharge. On this occasion 
 he began his orders thus : " Fire, port ! " then
 
 38 HOBART PASHA 
 
 suddenly recollecting that the tompions were not 
 removed he added, " Tompions are in, sir." No 
 one moved. The gunner could not leave his work 
 of marking time. Again he gave the order, 
 " Fire, starboard," repeating, " Tompions are in, 
 sir," and so on till half the broadside had been 
 fired before the tompions had been taken out. It 
 is difficult to describe the consternation on board 
 the French vessels, whose decks were crowded with 
 strangers (French merchants, &c.), invited from 
 the shore to do honor to their King's fete. These 
 horrid tompions and their adjuncts went flying 
 on to their decks, from which every one scampered 
 in confusion. It was lucky our guns did not 
 burst. 
 
 This was a most awkward dilemma for all of 
 us. I was sent on board to apologise. The 
 French captain, with the courtesy of his nation, 
 took the mishap most good-humoredly, begging 
 me to return the tompions to my captain, as they 
 had no occasion for them. So no bad feeling wa 
 created, though shortly after this contretemps an 
 affair of so serious a nature took place, that a 
 certain coldness crept in between ourselves and 
 our ci-devant friends.* 
 
 It seems that there had been of late several 
 
 * This extraordinary incident of the tompions is a fact set 
 down in naval records. (Ed.)
 
 PERILS BY SEA AND LAND 39 
 
 desertions from the French vessels lying at IVJonte 
 Video, great inducements of very high wages beihg 
 offered by the revolutionary party in Buenos Ayrer 
 for men to serve them. The French commander 
 therefore determined to search all vessels leaving 
 Monte Video for other ports in the River Plate 
 a somewhat arbitrary proceeding, and one certain 
 to lead to misunderstanding sooner or later. 
 
 On the occasion I refer to, a vessel which, though 
 not under the English flag, had in some way or 
 other obtained English protection, was leaving the 
 port ; so we sent an officer and a party of armed 
 men to prevent her being interfered with. I was 
 of the party, which was commanded by our second 
 lieutenant. Our doing this gave great offence to 
 the French commander, who shortly after we had 
 gone on board also sent a party of armed men, 
 with positive orders to search the vessel at all 
 risks. On our part we were ordered not to allow 
 the vessel to be searched or interfered with. The 
 French officer, a fine young fellow, came on board 
 with his men and repeated his orders to Lieutenant 
 
 C . The vessel, I may mention, was a 
 
 schooner of perhaps a couple of hundred tons, 
 about 130 feet long. We had taken possession 
 of the after-part of the deck; the French crew 
 established themselves on the forepart. 
 
 Never was there a more awkward position. The
 
 40 HOBART PASHA 
 
 men on both sides loaded and cocked their muskets. 
 The English and French officers stood close to one 
 another. The former said, " Sir, you have no 
 business here ; this vessel is under English protec- 
 tion. I give you five minutes to leave, or take the 
 consequences." The other replied, " Sir, I am 
 ordered to search the vessel, and search her I 
 will." They both seemed to, and I am sure did, 
 mean business ; for myself, I got close to my lieu- 
 tenant and cocked a pistol, intending to shoot the 
 French officer at the least show of fighting. Never- 
 theless, I thought it a shockingly cruel and in- 
 human thing to begin a cold-blooded fight under 
 such circumstances. 
 
 However, to obey orders is the duty of every 
 
 man. Lieutenant C looked at his watch; 
 
 two minutes to spare. The marines were ordered 
 to prepare, and I thought at the end of the two 
 minutes the deck of the little vessel would have 
 been steeped in blood. Just then, in the distance, 
 there appeared a boat pulling towards us at full 
 speed; it seems that wiser counsels had prevailed 
 between the captains of the two ships: the French 
 were told to withdraw and leave the vessel in our 
 hands. 
 
 I was much amused at the cordial way in which 
 the two lieutenants shook hands on receiving this 
 order. There would indeed have been a fearful
 
 PERILS BY SEA AND LAND 41 
 
 story to tell had it not arrived in time; for I never 
 saw determination written so strongly on men's, 
 countenances as on those of both parties, so nearly, 
 engaged in what must have proved a most bloody 
 fight. 
 
 After this incident cordial relations were never 
 re-established between ourselves and our French 
 friends; fortunately, shortly afterwards we sailed 
 for Buenos Ayres. 
 
 Buenos Ayres, that paradise of pretty women, 
 good cheer, and all that is nice to the sailor who is 
 always ready for a lark ! We at once went in for 
 enjoying ourselves to our heart's content; we be- 
 gan, every one of us, by falling deeply in love 
 before we had been there forty-eight hours I 
 say every one, because such is a fact. 
 
 My respectable captain, who had been for many 
 years living as a confirmed bachelor with his only 
 relative, an old spinster sister, with whom he 
 chummed, and I fancy had hardly been known to 
 speak to another woman, was suddenly perceived 
 walking about the street with a large bouquet in 
 his hand, his hair well oiled, his coat (generally 
 so loose and comfortable-looking) buttoned tight 
 to show off his figure; and then he took to sport- 
 ing beautiful kid gloves, and even to dancing. He 
 could not be persuaded to go on board at any 
 cost, while he had never left his ship before, ex-
 
 42 HOBART PASHA 
 
 cept for an occasional day's shooting. In short, 
 he had fallen hopelessly in love with a buxom 
 Spanish lady with lustrous eyes as black as her 
 hair, the widow of a murdered governor of the 
 town. 
 
 Our first and second lieutenants followed suit ; 
 both were furiously in love; and, I said, every one 
 fell down and worshipped the lovely (and lovely 
 they were, and no mistake) Spanish girls of 
 Buenos Ayres, whose type of beauty is that which 
 only the blue blood of Spain can boast of. Now, 
 reader, don't be shocked, I fell in love myself, and 
 my love affair proved of a more serious nature, 
 at least in its results, than that of the others, be- 
 cause, while the daughter (she was sixteen, and I 
 seventeen) responded to my affection, her mother, 
 a handsome woman of forty, chose to fall in love 
 with me herself. 
 
 This was rather a disagreeable predicament, for 
 I didn't, of course, return the mother's affection 
 a bit, while I was certainly dreadfully spoony on 
 the daughter. 
 
 To make a long story short, the girl and I, like 
 two fools as we were, decided to run away to- 
 gether, and run away we did. I should have been 
 married if the mother hadn't run after us. She 
 didn't object to our being married, but, in the 
 meantime, she remained with us, and she managed
 
 PERILS BY SEA AND LAND 43 
 
 to make the country home we had escaped to, with 
 the intention of settling down there, so unbearable, 
 that, luckily for me as regards my future, I con- 
 trived to get away, and went as fast as I could on 
 board my ship for refuge, never landing again 
 during our stay at Buenos Ayres. 
 
 Fortunately, shortly afterwards we were ordered 
 away, and so ended my first love affair. 
 
 I shall never forget the melancholy, woebegone 
 faces of my captain and brother officers on our 
 reassembling on board. It was really most ludi- 
 crous. However, a sea voyage which included sev- 
 eral sharp gales of wind soon erased all sad mem- 
 ories ; things gradually brightened, and ere many 
 weeks had passed all on board H.M.S. re- 
 sumed their usual appearance.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 A TRAGICAL AFFAIR 
 
 WHILST I was at Buenos Ayres I had the 
 good luck to visit the independent prov- 
 ince of Paraguay, which my readers must 
 have heard spoken of, sometimes with admiration, 
 sometimes with sneers, as the hot-bed of Jesuitism. 
 Those who sneer say that the Jesuit fathers who 
 left Spain under Martin Garcia formed this colony 
 in the River Plate entirely in accordance with the 
 principles their egotism and love of power dictated. 
 It may be so ; it is possible that the Jesuits were 
 wrong in the conclusions they came to as regards 
 the governing or guiding of human nature; all I 
 can say is, that the perfect order reigning through- 
 out the colony they had formed, the respect for 
 the clergy, the cheerful obedience to Jaws, the 
 industry and peaceful happiness one saw at every 
 step, made an impression on me I have never for- 
 gotten; and when I compare it with the discord, 
 the crime, and the hatred of all authority which 
 is now prevailing, alas ! in most civilised countries, 
 I look back to what I saw in Paraguay with a sigh 
 
 44
 
 A TRAGICAL AFFAIR 45 
 
 of regret that such things are of the past. It 
 was beautiful to see the respect paid to the Church 
 (the acknowledged ruler of the place), the cleanli- 
 ness and comfort of the farms and villages, the 
 good-will and order that prevailed amongst the 
 natives. It was most interesting to visit the 
 schools, where only so much learning was intro- 
 duced as was considered necessary for the minds 
 of the industrious population, without rendering 
 them troublesome to the colony or to themselves. 
 Though the inhabitants were mostly of the fiery 
 and ungovernable Spanish race, who had mixed 
 with the wild aborigines, it is remarkable that they 
 remained quiet and submissive. 
 
 To prevent pernicious influences reaching this 
 " happy valley," the strictest regulations were 
 maintained as regards strangers visiting the 
 colony. 
 
 The River Plate, which, coming down from the 
 Andes through hundreds of miles of rich country, 
 flows through Paraguay, was unavailable to com- 
 merce owing to this law of exclusiveness, which 
 prevented even the water which washed the shores 
 being utilised. However, about the time I speak 
 of the English government had determined, in the 
 general interests of trade, to oppose this monopoly, 
 and to open a way of communication up the river 
 by force if necessary. The Paraguayans refused
 
 46 . HOBART PASHA 
 
 to accept the propositions made by the English, 
 and prepared to fight for their so-called rights. 
 They threw a formidable barrier across the stream, 
 and made a most gallant resistance. It was on 
 this occasion that Captain (now Admiral) 
 
 H * performed the courageous action which 
 
 covered him with renown for the rest of his life. 
 The enemy had, amongst other defences, placed 
 a heavy iron chain across the river. This chain 
 it was absolutely necessary to remove, and the 
 gallant officer I refer to, who commanded the at- 
 tack squadron, set a splendid example to us all by 
 dashing forward and cutting with a cold chisel 
 the links of this chain. The whole time he was 
 thus at work he was exposed to a tremendous fire, 
 having two men killed and two wounded out of 
 the six he took with him. This deed, now almost 
 forgotten by the public, can never be effaced from 
 the memory of those who saw it done. That the 
 fight was a severe one is evident from the fact that 
 the vessel I belonged to had 107 shots in her hull, 
 and thirty-five out of seventy men killed and 
 wounded. 
 
 It was after we had thus forced ourselves into 
 intercourse with the Paraguayans that I saw an 
 instance of want of tact which struck me as most 
 
 * Sir James Hope, at that time captain of the Firebrand. 
 The cable was really cut by an assistant engineer. (Ed.)
 
 A TRAGICAL AFFAIR 47 
 
 remarkable. Fighting being over, diplomacy 
 stepped in, and a man of somewhat high rank in 
 that service was sent to make friendly overtures 
 to the authorities. Can it be believed (I do not 
 say it as a sneer against diplomacy, for this 
 blunder was really itriujue), this big man had 
 scarcely finished the pipe of peace which he smoked 
 with the authorities, when he proposed to intro- 
 duce vaccination and tracts among the people? 
 Badly as the poor fellows felt the licking they had 
 received, and much as they feared another should 
 they give trouble to the invaders, they so resented 
 our representative's meddling that he found it bet- 
 ter to beat a hasty retreat, and to send a wiser 
 man in his stead. But their fate was sealed, and 
 from the moment the stranger put his foot into 
 this interesting country dates its entire change. 
 The system that the Jesuits established was quickly 
 done away with. Paraguay is now a part of the 
 Argentine Republic, it is generally at war with 
 some of its neighbors, and its inhabitants are poor, 
 disorderly, and wretched. 
 
 As I shall have, while telling the story of my 
 life, to relate more serious events, I will, after 
 recounting one more yarn, not weary my readers 
 with the little uninteresting details of my youth- 
 ful adventures, but pass over the next three years 
 or so, at which time, after having returned to
 
 48 HOBART PASHA 
 
 England, I was appointed to another ship going 
 to South America, for the purpose of putting 
 down the slave trade in the Brazils. The ad- 
 venture to which I have referred was one that made 
 a deep impression on my mind, as being of a most 
 tragic nature. 
 
 While at Rio de Janeiro we were in the habit 
 of visiting among the people, attending dances, 
 &c. I always remarked that the pretty young 
 Brazilian girls liked dancing with the fresh young 
 English sailors better than with their mud-colored 
 companions of the male sex, the inhabitants of the 
 country. 
 
 At the time I write of the English were not 
 liked by the Brazilians, partly on account of the 
 raid we were then making on the slave trade, 
 partly through the usual jealousy always felt by 
 the ignorant towards the enlightened. So with 
 the men we were seldom or ever on good terms, but 
 with the girls somehow sailors always contrive to 
 be friends. 
 
 It was at one of the dances I have spoken of 
 that the scene I am about to describe took 
 place. 
 
 Among the pretty girls who attended the ball 
 was one prettier perhaps than any of her com- 
 panions ; indeed, she was called the belle of Rio 
 Janeiro. I will not attempt to portray her, but
 
 A TRAGICAL AFFAIR 49 
 
 I must own she was far too bewitching for the 
 peace of heart of her many admirers, and un- 
 happily she was an unmitigated flirt in every 
 sense of the word. 
 
 Now there was a young Brazilian nobleman who 
 had, as he thought, been making very successful 
 progress towards winning this girl's heart if 
 she had a heart. All was progressing smoothly 
 enough till these hapless English sailors arrived. 
 
 Then, perhaps with the object of making her 
 lover jealous (a very common though dangerous 
 game), Mademoiselle pretended (for I presume it 
 was pretence) to be immensely smitten with one of 
 them a handsome young midshipman whom we 
 will call A. 
 
 At the ball where the incident I refer to oc- 
 curred, she danced once with him, twice with him, 
 and was about to start with him a third time, 
 when, to the astonishment of the lookers-on, of 
 whom I formed part, the young Brazilian rushed 
 into the middle of the room where the couple were 
 standing, walked close up to them and spat in A.'s 
 face. 
 
 Before the aggressor could look round him, he 
 found himself sprawling on the floor, knocked by 
 the angry Briton into what is commonly called 
 " a cocked hat." Not a word was spoken. A. 
 wiped his face, led his partner to a seat and came
 
 50 HOBART PASHA 
 
 straight to me, putting his arm in mine and lead- 
 ing me into the verandah. The Brazilian picked 
 himself up and came also into the verandah; in 
 less time than I can write it a hostile meeting was 
 settled, pistols were procured, and we (I say we, 
 because I had undertaken to act as A.'s friend, 
 and the Brazilian had also engaged a friend) 
 sauntered into the garden as if for a stroll. 
 
 It was a most lovely moonlight night, such a 
 night as can only be seen in the tropics. 
 
 I should mention that the chief actors in the 
 coming conflict had neither of them seen twenty 
 years, and we their seconds were considerably 
 under that age. The aggressor, whose jealous 
 fury had driven him almost to madness when he 
 committed an outrageous affront on a stranger, 
 was a tall, handsome, dark-complexioned young 
 fellow. A. was also very good-looking, with a 
 baby complexion, blue eyes and light curly hair, 
 a very type of the Saxon race. 
 
 They both looked determined and calm. After 
 proceeding a short distance we found a convenient 
 spot in a lovely glade. It was almost as clear as 
 day, so bright was the moonlight. The distance 
 was measured (fourteen paces), the pistols care- 
 fully loaded. Before handing them to the princi- 
 pals we made an effort at arrangement, an effort 
 too contemptuously received to be insisted upon,
 
 A TRAGICAL AFFAIR 51 
 
 and we saw that any attempt at reconciliation 
 would be of no avail without the exchange of shots ; 
 o, handing to each his weapon, we retired a short 
 distance to give the signal for firing, which was 
 to be done by my dropping a pocket-handkerchief. 
 It was an anxious moment even for us, who were 
 only lookers-on. I gave the words, one, two, three, 
 and dropped the handkerchief. 
 
 The pistols went off simultaneously. To my 
 horror I saw the young Brazilian spin round and 
 drop to the ground, his face downwards ; we rushed 
 up to him and found that the bullet from A.'s 
 pistol had gone through his brain. He was stone 
 dead. 
 
 Then the solemnity of the whole affair dawned 
 on us, but there was no time for thought. Some- 
 thing must be done at once, for revenge quick and 
 fearful was sure to follow such a deed like light- 
 ning. 
 
 We determined to hurry A. off to his ship, and 
 I begged the young Brazilian to go into the house 
 and break the sad news. The poor fellow, though 
 fearfully cut up, behaved like a gentleman, walk- 
 ing slowly away so as to give us time to escape. 
 As we passed the scene of gaiety the sounds of 
 music and dancing were going on, just as when 
 we left it. How little the jovial throng dreamt 
 of the tragedy that had just been enacted within
 
 52 HOBART PASHA 
 
 a few yards of them; of the young life cut down 
 on its threshold! 
 
 We got on board all right, but such a terrible 
 row was made about the affair that the ship to 
 which A. belonged had to go to sea the next day, 
 and did not appear again at Rio de Janeiro. 
 
 I, though not belonging to that vessel, was not 
 allowed to land for many months.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 RIO DE JANEIRO 
 
 ONE word about Rio de Janeiro. Rio, as 
 it is generally called, is perhaps one of the 
 most lovely spots in the world. The 
 beautiful natural bay and harbor are unequalled 
 throughout the whole universe. Still, like the 
 Bosphorus, the finest effect is made by Rio de 
 Janeiro when looked at from the water. In the 
 days of which I write yellow fever was unknown; 
 now that fearful disease kills its thousands, aye, 
 tens of thousands, yearly. The climate, though 
 hot at times, is very good ; in the summer the morn- 
 ings are hot to a frying heat, but the sea breeze 
 comes in regularly as clockwork, and when it blows 
 everything is cool and nice. Life is indeed a lazy 
 existence ; there is no outdoor amusement of any 
 kind to be had in the neighborhood. As to shoot- 
 ing, there are only a few snipe to be found here 
 and there, and while looking for these you must 
 beware of snakes and other venomous reptiles, 
 which abound both in the country and in town. 
 I remember a terrible fright a large picnic party, 
 53
 
 54- HOBART PASHA 
 
 at which I assisted, was thrown into while lunch- 
 ing in the garden of a villa, almost in the town 
 of Rio, by a lady jumping up from her seat with 
 a deadly whip-snake hanging on her dress. I 
 once myself sat on an adder who put his fangs 
 through the woollen stuff of my inexpressibles and 
 could not escape. The same thing happened with 
 the lady's dress; in that case also we caught the 
 snake, as it could not disentangle its fangs. 
 
 In the country near Rio there are great snakes 
 called the anaconda, a sort of boa-constrictor on 
 a large scale. Once, while walking in the woods 
 with some friends, we found a little Indian boy 
 dead on the ground, one of these big snakes lying 
 within a foot or so of him, also dead; the snake 
 had a poisoned arrow in its brain, which evidently 
 had been shot at him by the poor little boy, whose 
 blow-pipe was lying by his side. The snake must 
 have struck the boy before it died, as we found a 
 wound on the boy's neck. This reptile measured 
 twenty-two feet in length.* 
 
 By the way, a well-known author, Mrs. B , 
 
 tells a marvellous story about these snakes. She 
 says that they always go in pairs, have great 
 affection for each other, and are prepared on all 
 occasions to resent affronts offered to either of 
 
 * The anaconda sometimes attains a length of thirty feet. 
 (Ed.)
 
 RIO DE JANEIRO 55 
 
 them. She narrates that a peasant once killed a 
 big anaconda, and that the other, or chum snake, 
 followed the man several miles to the house where 
 he had taken the dead one, got in by the window, 
 and crushed the destroyer of his friend to death. 
 I expect that some salt is necessary to swallow 
 
 this tale, but such is the statement Mrs. B 
 
 makes. 
 
 The most lovely birds and butterflies are found 
 near Rio, and the finest collections in the world 
 are made there. The white people are Portuguese 
 by origin not a nice lot to my fancy, though 
 the ladies are as usual always nice, especially when 
 young; they get old very soon through eating 
 sweets and not taking exercise. There is very 
 little poverty except among the free blacks, who are 
 lazy and idle and somewhat vicious. I always 
 have believed that the black man is an inferior 
 animal in fact, that the dark races are meant to 
 be drawers of water and hewers of wood. I do 
 not deny that they have souls to be saved, but I 
 believe that their role in this world is to attend 
 on the white man. The black is, and for years 
 has been, educated on perfect equality with the 
 white man, and has every chance of improving 
 himself with what result? You could almost 
 count on your fingers the names of those who have 
 distinguished themselves in the battle of life.
 
 56 HOBART PASHA 
 
 Sometimes, while cruising off the coast of Rio 
 de Janeiro looking out for slave vessels, we passed 
 a very monotonous life. The long and fearfully 
 hot mornings before the sea breeze sets in, the 
 still longer and choking nights with the thermom- 
 eter at 108, were trying in the extreme to those 
 accustomed to the fresh air of northern climates; 
 but sailors have always something of the Mark 
 Tapley about them and are generally jolly under 
 all circumstances, and so it was with me. One 
 day, while longing for something to do, I dis- 
 covered that the crew had been ordered to paint 
 the ship outside ; as a pastime I put on old clothes 
 and joined the painting party. Planks were hung 
 round the ship by ropes being tied to each end of 
 the plank ; on these the men stood to do their 
 work. We had not been employed there very long 
 when there was a cry from the deck that the ship 
 was surrounded by sharks. It seems that the 
 butcher had killed a sheep, whose entrails, having 
 been thrown overboard, attracted these fearful 
 brutes round the ship in great numbers. As may 
 be imagined, this report created a real panic 
 among the painters, for I believe we all feared a 
 shark more than an enemy armed to the teeth. I 
 at once made a hurried movement to get off my 
 plank. As I did so the rope at one end slipped 
 off, and so threw the piece of wood, to which I
 
 RIO DE JANEIRO 57 
 
 had to hang as on a rope, up and down the vessel's 
 side, bringing my feet to within a very few inches 
 of the water. On looking downwards I saw a 
 great shark in the water, almost within snapping 
 distance of my legs. I can swear that my hair 
 stood on end with fear ; though I held on like grim 
 death, I felt myself going, yes, going, little by 
 little right into the beast's jaws. At that mo- 
 ment, only just in time, a rope was thrown over 
 my head from the deck above me, and I was pulled 
 from my fearfully perilous position, more dead 
 than alive. Now for revenge on the brutes who 
 would have eaten me if they could ! It was a dead 
 calm, the sharks were still swimming round the 
 ship waiting for their prey. We got a lot of 
 hooks with chains attached to them, on which we 
 put baits of raw meat. I may as well mention 
 a fact not generally known, viz., that a shark must 
 turn on his back before opening his capacious 
 mouth sufficiently to feed himself; when he turns 
 he means business, and woe to him who is within 
 reach of the man-eater's jaws. On this occasion 
 what we offered them was merely a piece of meat, 
 and most ravenously did they rush, turn on their 
 backs, and swallow it, only to find that they were 
 securely hooked, and could not bite through the 
 chains that were fast to the hooks in fact, that 
 it was all up with them. Orders had been given
 
 58 HOBART PASHA 
 
 by the commanding officer that the sharks were 
 not to be pulled on board, partly from the danger- 
 ous action of their tails and jaws even when half 
 dead, partly on account of the confusion they 
 make while floundering about the decks ; so we 
 hauled them close to the top of the water, fired 
 a bullet into their brains and cut them loose. We 
 killed thirty that morning in this way, some of 
 them eight to ten feet long. 
 
 The most horrid thing I know is to see, as I 
 have done on more than one occasion,* a man 
 taken by a shark. You hear a fearful scream as 
 the poor wretch is dragged down, and nothing 
 remains to tell the dreadful tale excepting that the 
 water is deeply tinged with blood on the spot where 
 the unfortunate man disappeared. These raven- 
 ous man-eaters scent blood from an enormous dis- 
 tance, and their prominent upper fin, which is gen- 
 erally out of the water as they go along at a 
 tremendous pace, may be seen at a great distance, 
 and they can swim at the rate of a mile a minute. 
 A shark somewhat reminds me of the torpedo of 
 the present day, and in my humble opinion is much 
 more dangerous. 
 
 Once we caught a large shark. On opening 
 
 * The reader may be pardoned for accepting this state- 
 ment in the same way that Hobart took "Mrs. B *s" 
 
 snake story cum grano salts. (Ed.)
 
 RIO DE JANEIRO 59 
 
 him we found in his inside a watch and chain quite 
 perfect. Could it have been that some poor wretch 
 had been swallowed and digested, and the watch 
 only remained as being indigestible? 
 
 It is strange to see the contempt with which the 
 black man treats a shark, the more especially when 
 he has to do with him in shallow water. A negro 
 takes a large knife and diving under the shark 
 cuts its bowels open. If the water is deep the shark 
 can go lower down than the man and so save him- 
 self, and if the nigger don't take care it will eat 
 him; thus the black man never goes into deep 
 water if he can help it, for he is always expecting 
 a shark.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 SLAVER HUNTING 
 
 SHORTLY after the duel at Rio I went to 
 England, but to be again immediately ap- 
 pointed to a vessel on the Brazilian sta- 
 tion.* 
 
 It was at the time when philanthropists of 
 Europe were crying aloud for the abolition of 
 the African slave trade, never taking for a mo- 
 ment into consideration the fact that the state of 
 the savage African black population was infinitely 
 bettered by their being conveyed out of the misery 
 and barbarism of their own country, introduced 
 to civilization, given opportunities of embracing 
 religion, and taught that to kill and eat each other 
 was not to be considered as the principal pastime 
 among human beings. 
 
 At the period I allude to (from 1841 to 1845) 
 the slave trade was carried out on a large scale 
 between the coast of Africa and South America; 
 and a most lucrative trade it was, if the poor devils 
 of negroes could be safely conveyed alive from one 
 coast to the other. I say if, because the risk of 
 *The Dolphin. (Ed.) 
 60
 
 SLAVER HUNTING 61 
 
 capture was so great that the poor wretches, men, 
 women, and children, were packed like herrings 
 in the holds of the fast little sailing vessels em- 
 ployed, and to such a fearful extent was this pack- 
 ing carried on that, even if the vessels were not 
 captured, more than half the number of blacks 
 embarked died from suffocation or disease before 
 arriving at their destination, yet that half was 
 sufficient to pay handsomely those engaged in 
 trade. 
 
 On this point I propose giving examples and 
 proofs hereafter, merely remarking, en passant, 
 that had the negroes been brought over in vessels 
 that were not liable to be chased and captured, 
 the owners of such vessels would naturally, con- 
 sidering the great value of their cargo, have taken 
 precautions against overcrowding and disease. 
 
 Now, let us inquire as to the origin of these poor 
 wretched Africans becoming slaves, and of their 
 being sold to the white man. It was, briefly speak- 
 ing, in this wise. On a war taking place between^ 
 two tribes in Africa, a thing of daily occurrence, 
 naturally many prisoners were made on both sides. 
 Of these prisoners those who were not tender 
 enough to be made into ragout were taken down 
 to the sea-coast and sold to the slave-dealers, who 
 had wooden barracks established ready for their 
 reception.
 
 62 HOBART PASHA 
 
 Into these barracks, men, women, and children, 
 most of whom were kept in irons to prevent escape, 
 were bundled like cattle, there to await embarka- 
 tion on board the vessels that would convey them 
 across the sea. 
 
 Now, as the coast was closely watched on the 
 African side, to prevent the embarkation of slaves, 
 as it was on the Brazilian side, to prevent their 
 being landed, the poor wretches were frequently 
 waiting for weeks on the seashore undergoing every 
 species of torment. 
 
 At last the vessel to carry off a portion of them 
 arrived, when they were rushed on board and 
 thrown into the hold regardless of sex, like bags 
 of sand, and the slaver started on her voyage for 
 the Brazils. Perhaps while on her way she was 
 chased by an English cruiser, in which case, so it 
 has often been known to happen, a part of the 
 living cargo would be thrown overboard, trusting 
 that the horror of leaving human beings to be 
 drowned would compel the officers of the English 
 cruiser to slacken their speed while picking the 
 poor wretches up, and thus give the slaver a better 
 chance of escape. (This I have seen done myself, 
 fortunately unavailingly. ) 
 
 I will now ask the reader to bring his thoughts 
 back to the coast of Brazil, where a good look-out 
 was being kept for such vessels as I have men-
 
 SLAVER HUNTING 63 
 
 tioned as leaving the African coast with live cargo 
 on board bound for the Brazilian waters. Rio 
 de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, was the head- 
 quarters of the principal slave-owners. It was 
 there that all arrangements were made regarding 
 the traffic in slaves, the despatch of the vessels 
 in which they were to be conveyed, the points on 
 which they were to land, &c., and it was at Rio 
 that the slave vessels made their rendezvous before 
 and after their voyages. It was there also that 
 the spies on whose information we acted were to 
 be found, and double-faced scoundrels they were, 
 often giving information which caused the cap- 
 ture of a small vessel with few slaves on board, 
 while the larger vessel, with twice the number, was 
 landing her cargo unmolested. 
 
 As for myself, I was at the time of life when 
 enterprise was necessary for my existence, and so 
 keenly did I join in the slave-hunting mania that 
 I found it dangerous to land in the town of Rio 
 for fear of assassination. 
 
 My captain, seeing how enthusiastic I was in 
 the cause, which promised prize-money if not re- 
 nown, encouraged me by placing me in a position 
 that, as a humble midshipman, I was scarcely en- 
 titled to, gave me his confidence, and thus made 
 me still more zealous to do something, if only to 
 show my gratitude.
 
 64 HOBART PASHA 
 
 Having picked up all the information possible 
 as regarded the movements of the slave vessels, 
 we started on a cruise, our minds set particularly 
 on the capture of a celebrated craft called the 
 Lightning, a vessel renowned for her great success 
 as a slave ship, whose captain declared (this made 
 our mission still more exciting) that he would 
 show fight, especially if attacked by English men- 
 of-war boats when away from the protection of 
 their ships. 
 
 I must mention that it was the custom of the 
 cruisers on the coast of Brazil to send their boats 
 on detached service, they (the boats) going in one 
 direction while the vessels they belonged to went 
 in another, only communicating every two or three 
 days. Proud indeed for me was the moment when, 
 arriving near to the spot on the coast where the 
 Lightning was daily expected with her live cargo, 
 I left my ship in command of three boats, viz., a 
 ten-oared cutter and two four-oared whale boats. 
 I had with me in all nineteen men, well armed and 
 prepared, as I imagined, for every emergency. 
 The night we left our ship we anchored late under 
 the shelter of a small island, and all hands being 
 tired from a long row in a hot sun, I let my men 
 go to sleep during the short tropical darkness. 
 As soon as the day was breaking all hands were 
 alert, and we saw with delight a beautiful rakish-
 
 SLAVER HUNTING 65 
 
 looking brig, crammed with slaves, close to the 
 island behind which we had taken shelter, steering 
 for a creek on the mainland a short distance from 
 us. I ought to mention that the island in ques- 
 tion was within four miles of this creek. We im- 
 mediately prepared for action, and while serving 
 out to each man his store of cartridges, I found 
 to my horror that the percussion tubes and caps 
 for the boat's gun, the muskets and pistols, had 
 been left on board the ship. What was to be 
 done? no use swearing at anybody. However, 
 we pulled boldly out from under the shelter of the 
 island, thinking to intimidate the slaver into heav- 
 ing to. In this we were grievously mistaken. 
 
 The vessel with her men standing ready at their 
 guns seemed to put on a defiant air as she sailed 
 majestically past us, and although we managed 
 with lucifer matches to fire the boat's gun once or 
 twice, she treated us with sublime contempt and 
 went on her way into the creek, at the rate of six 
 or seven miles an hour. Though difficult to attack 
 the vessel in the day time without firearms, I de- 
 termined if possible not to lose altogether this 
 splendid brig. I waited therefore till after sun- 
 set, and then pulled silently into the creek with 
 muffled oars. There was our friend securely 
 lashed to the rocks. We dashed on board with 
 drawn cutlasses, anticipating an obstinate resist-
 
 66 HOBART PASHA 
 
 ance. We got possession of the deck in no time, 
 but on looking round for some one to fight with, 
 saw nothing but a small black boy who, having 
 been roused up from a sort of dog-kennel in which 
 he had been sleeping, first looked astonished and 
 then burst out laughing, pointing as he did so to 
 the shore. Yes, the shore to which the slaver 
 brig was lashed was the spot where seven hundred 
 slaves (or nearly that number, for we found three 
 or four half-dea4 negroes in the hold) and the 
 crew had all gone, and left us lamenting our bad 
 luck. However, I took possession of the vessel 
 as she lay, and though threatened day and night 
 by the natives, who kept up a constant fire from 
 the neighboring heights and seemed preparing to 
 board us, maintained our hold upon the craft until 
 the happy arrival of my ship, which, with a few 
 rounds of grape, soon cleared the neighborhood of 
 our assailants. I may mention that, in the event 
 of our having been boarded, we had prepared a 
 warm reception for our enemies in the shape of 
 buckets of boiling oil mixed with lime, which would 
 have been poured on their devoted heads while in 
 the act of climbing up the side. As they kept, 
 however, at a respectful distance, our remedy was 
 not tried. The vessel, a splendid brig of 400 tons, 
 was then pulled off her rocky bed, and I was sent 
 in charge of her to Rio de Janeiro. And now
 
 SLAVER HUNTING 67 
 
 comes the strangest part of my adventures on this 
 occasion. 
 
 On the early morning after I had parted com- 
 pany with my commanding officer, before the 
 dawn, I ran accidentally right into a schooner 
 loaded with slaves, also coming from Africa, 
 bound to the same place as had been the brig, my 
 prize. 
 
 Without the slightest hesitation, before the 
 shock and surprise caused by the collision had 
 given time for reflection or resistance, I took pos- 
 session of this vessel, put the crew in irons, and 
 hoisted English colors. There were 460 Africans 
 on board, and what a sight it was! 
 
 The schooner had been eighty-five days at sea. 
 They were short of water and provisions ; three 
 distinct diseases namely, small-pox, ophthalmia, 
 and diarrhosa in its worst form had broken out, 
 while coming across, among the poor doomed 
 wretches. 
 
 On opening the hold we saw a mass of arms, 
 legs, and bodies all crushed together. Many of 
 the bodies to whom these limbs belonged were dead 
 or dying. In fact, when we had made some sort 
 of clearance among them we found in that fearful 
 hold eleven dead bodies lying among the living 
 freight. " Water ! water ! " was the cry. Many 
 of them as soon as free jumped into the sea, partly
 
 68 HOBART PASHA 
 
 from the delirious state they were in, partly be- 
 cause they had been told that, if taken by the 
 English, they would be tortured and eaten. The 
 latter practice I fancy they were accustomed to 
 seeing, but the former they had a wholesome dread 
 of. 
 
 Can Mrs. Beecher Stowe beat this? It is, I 
 can assure my readers, a very mild description 
 of what I saw on board the first cargo of slaves 
 I made the acquaintance of, and by which I was 
 so deeply impressed, that I have ever since been 
 sceptical of the benefits conferred upon the African 
 race by our blockade at all events, of the means 
 employed to abolish slavery. 
 
 The strangest thing amid this confusion of 
 horrors was that children were constantly being 
 born. In fact, just after I got on board, an un- 
 fortunate creature was delivered of a child close 
 to where I was standing, and jumped into the sea, 
 baby and all, immediately afterwards. She was 
 saved with much difficulty ; the more so, as she 
 seemed to particularly object to being rescued 
 from what nearly proved a watery grave. 
 
 After this unusual stroke of good luck, sending 
 a prize crew on board my new capture, and allow- 
 ing the slaver's crew to escape in the schooner's 
 boat, as I considered these lawless ruffians an im- 
 pediment to my movements, I proceeded on my
 
 SLAVER HUNTING 69 
 
 voyage, and arrived safely in Rio harbor with my 
 two prizes. 
 
 There I handed my live cargo over to the Eng- 
 lish authorities, who had a special large and roomy 
 vessel lying in the harbor for the reception of the 
 now free niggers. 
 
 It would be as well perhaps to state what be- 
 came of the freed blacks. First of all they were 
 cleaned, clothed (after a fashion), and fed; then 
 they were sent to an English colony, such for ex- 
 ample as Demerara, where they had to serve seven 
 years as apprentices (something, I must admit, 
 very like slavery), after which they were free for 
 ever and all. I fear they generally used their 
 freedom in a way that made them a public nuisance 
 wherever they were. However, they were free, and 
 that satisfied the philanthropists.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 SLAVER HUNTING 
 
 NOW to return to my " experiences." As 
 proud as the young sportsman when he has 
 killed his first stag, I returned, keen as 
 mustard, to my ship, which I found still cruising 
 near to where I had left her. Some secret in- 
 formation that I had received while at Rio led me 
 to ask my captain to again send me away with a 
 force similar to that which I had under me be- 
 fore (with percussion caps this time), and allow 
 me to station myself some fifty miles further down 
 the coast. My request was granted, and away 
 I went. This time, instead of taking shelter under 
 an island, I ensconced my little force behind a 
 point of land which enabled me by mounting on 
 the rocks to sweep the horizon with a spy-glass, 
 so that I could discover any vessel approaching 
 the land while she was yet at a considerable dis- 
 tance. 
 
 There happened to be a large coffee plantation 
 in my immediate neighborhood, and I remarked 
 that the inhabitants favored us with the darkest 
 70
 
 SLAVER HUNTING 71 
 
 of scowls whenever we met them. This made me 
 believe (and I wasn't far out) that the slave vessel 
 I was looking out for was bringing recruits to 
 the already numerous slaves employed on the said 
 plantation. Two or three mornings after my 
 arrival, I discovered a sail on the very far horizon ; 
 a vessel evidently bound to the immediate neighbor- 
 hood I had chosen as my look-out place. The 
 winds were baffling and light, as usual in the morn- 
 ing in these latitudes, where, however, there is 
 always a sea breeze in the afternoon. So, being 
 in no hurry, I sauntered about the shore with my 
 double-barrelled gun in my hand, occasionally 
 taking a look seaward. Suddenly I saw within 
 a hundred yards of me a man leading two enormous 
 dogs in a leash. The dogs were of a breed well 
 known among slave-owners, as they were trained 
 to run down runaway slaves. I believe the land 
 of their origin is Cuba, as they are called Cuban 
 bloodhounds. 
 
 Suspecting nothing I continued my lounge, 
 turning my back on the man and his dogs. A 
 few minutes afterwards I was startled by a rush- 
 ing sound behind me. On turning quickly round 
 I saw to my horror two huge dogs galloping 
 straight at me. Quick as lightning I stood on 
 the defensive, and when they with open mouths 
 and bloodshot eyes were within five yards, I pulled
 
 72 HOBART PASHA 
 
 the trigger. The gun missed fire with the first 
 barrel. The second barrel luckily went off, scat- 
 tering the brains of the nearest dog, the whole 
 charge having entered his mouth, and gone through 
 the palate into his brain. This occurrence seemed 
 to check the advance of the second brute, who, 
 while hesitating for a moment before coming at 
 me, received a ball in his side from one of my 
 sailors, who fortunately had observed what was 
 going on and had come to my rescue. Without 
 waiting an instant to see what had become of the 
 man who had played me this murderous trick, I 
 called my men together, launched the boats, and 
 put out to sea. 
 
 By this time the sea-breeze had set in, and I 
 could see the vessel I had been watching, though 
 still a considerable distance from the shore, was 
 trimming her sails to the sea-breeze, and steering 
 straight in for the very spot where I had been 
 concealed. Signal after signal was made to her 
 by her friends on the shore, in the shape of lighted 
 fires (not much avail in the daytime) and the 
 hoisting of flags, &c., but she seemed utterly to 
 disregard the action of her friends. Satisfied, I 
 imagine, that she had all but finished her voyage, 
 seeing no cruiser and unsuspicious of boats, on she 
 came.* 
 
 * It must be understood that both men and boats were
 
 SLAVER HUN 7 TING 73 
 
 We got almost alongside of her before the people 
 on board seemed to see us. When she did, evi- 
 dently taken by surprise, she put her helm down, 
 and throwing all her sails aback, snapped some of 
 her lighter spars, thus throwing everything into 
 confusion confusion made worse by the fact 
 that, with the view of immediate landing, two hun- 
 dred or three hundred of the niggers had been 
 freed from their confinement and were crowded on 
 the deck. Taking advantage of this state of 
 things we made our capture without a shot being 
 fired. 
 
 In fact everything was done, as sailors say, 
 " before you could look round you," the man at 
 the helm replaced by one of my men, the crew 
 bundled down into the slave-hold to give them a 
 taste of its horrors, and the sails trimmed for sea- 
 ward instead of towards the land. The captain, 
 who seemed a decent fellow, cried like a child. He 
 said : " If I had seen you five minutes before you 
 would never have taken me. Now I am ruined." 
 I consoled him as well as I could and treated him 
 well, as he really seemed half a gentleman, if not 
 entirely one. I found about six hundred slaves, 
 men and women and children, on board this vessel, 
 who as they had made a very rapid and prosperous 
 
 disguised so as to resembk tLe ordinary fishing coasters 
 about those parts.
 
 74 HOBART PASHA 
 
 voyage, were in a somewhat better state than those 
 on board the last capture. Still goodness knows 
 their state was disgusting enough. Ophthalmia 
 had got a terrible hold of the poor wretches. In 
 many of the cases the patient was stone blind. I 
 caught this painful disease myself, and for several 
 days couldn't see a yard. 
 
 Shortly after, having despatched our prize into 
 Rio in charge of a brother midshipman, we were 
 joined by another man-of-war cruiser, which had 
 been sent to assist us in our work. As the officer 
 in command of this vessel * was of senior rank to 
 my commander, he naturally took upon himself to 
 organise another boat expedition, placing one of 
 his own officers in command. With this expedi- 
 tion I was allowed to go, taking with me my old 
 boats and their crews, with orders to place myself 
 under the direction of Lieutenant A. C.,** the 
 officer chosen by the senior in command. 
 
 So we started with five boats provisioned and 
 otherwise prepared for a cruise of twenty days. 
 The lieutenant in charge did not think it wise to 
 land, as a bad feeling towards us was known to 
 exist among the inhabitants, who were all more or 
 less slave-dealers, or interested in the success of 
 the slave-vessels, so we had to live in our boats. 
 
 * The Frolic. (Ed.) 
 ** Arthur Gumming. (Ed.)
 
 SLAVER HUNTING 75 
 
 Rather hard lines, sleeping on the boat's thwarts, 
 &c. Still we had that balm of Gilead, hope, to 
 keep us alive, and our good spirits. Many a long- 
 ing eye did I cast to the shore, where, in spite of 
 the bloodhounds, I should like to have stretched 
 my cramped limbs. Ten or twelve days passed in 
 dodging about, doing nothing but keeping a good 
 look-out, and we almost began to despair, when 
 one fine morning we saw a large brig, evidently a 
 slaver, running in towards the shore with a fresh 
 breeze. Our boats were painted like fishing boats, 
 and our men disguised as fishermen, as usual; so, 
 apparently occupied with our pretended business, 
 we gradually approached the slave vessel. My 
 orders were strictly to follow the movements or 
 action of my superior. Then I witnessed a gallant 
 act, such as I have not seen surpassed during forty 
 years of active service that I have gone through 
 since that time. Lieutenant A. C., who was in 
 the leading boat, a large twelve-oared cutter, 
 edged pretty near to the advancing vessel, and 
 when quite close under her bows one man seemed 
 to me to spring like a chamois on board. I saw 
 the boat from which the man jumped make an in- 
 effectual attempt to get alongside the vessel, that 
 was going at the rate of six miles an hour, and 
 then drop astern. I heard a pistol shot, and sud- 
 denly the vessel was thrown up in the wind with
 
 76 HOBART PASHA 
 
 all her sails aback, thus entirely stopping her way 
 (sailors will understand this). Not knowing pre- 
 cisely what had happened, we pulled like maniacs 
 alongside of the slaver. To do this was, now 
 that the vessel's way was stopped, comparatively 
 easy. We dashed on board, and after a slight 
 resistance on the part of the slaver's crew, in which 
 two or three more men, myself among the number, 
 were wounded, we took possession of the brig. 
 There we found our lieutenant standing calmly at 
 the helm, which was a long wooden tiller. He it 
 was who had jumped on board alone, shot the man 
 at the helm, put the said helm down with his leg, 
 while in his hand he held his other pistol, with 
 which he threatened to shoot any one who dared 
 to touch him. 
 
 I fancy that his cool pluck had caused a panic 
 among the undisciplined crew, a panic that our 
 rapid approach tended much to increase. What 
 astonished me was that nobody on board thought 
 of shooting him before he got to the helm, in which 
 case we never could have got on board the vessel, 
 considering the speed she was going through the 
 water. What he did was a glorious piece of pluck, 
 that in these days would have been rewarded with 
 the Victoria Cross as the least recompense they 
 could have given to so gallant an officer. Poor 
 fellow all the reward he got, beyond the intense
 
 SLAVER HUNTING 77 
 
 admiration of those who saw him, was a bad attack 
 of small-pox from the diseased animals (there is 
 no other name for negroes in the state they were 
 in) on board the slave vessel, which somewhat in- 
 jured the face of one of the handsomest men I ever 
 saw. He is now an admiral, has done many gal- 
 gant acts since then, but none could beat what he 
 did on that memorable morning. 
 
 I have said that I was among those who were 
 wounded on this occasion. What my friend A. C. 
 did so far outshone anything that I had accom- 
 plished, that it is hardly worth while speaking of 
 my share in the fray. However, as I am writing 
 sketches from my life, I will not omit to describe 
 the way in which I was wounded. We were, as I 
 have said, making a rush to assist our gallant 
 leader, who was alone on board the slaver. The 
 reader will have seen that our business was board- 
 ing and fighting our enemy hand to hand. As I 
 was making a jump on board I saw the white of 
 the eye of a great black man turned on me; he 
 brandished a huge axe, which I had a sort of pre- 
 sentiment was intended for me. I sprang as it 
 were straight at my destiny, for as I grasped the 
 gunnel down came the axe, and I received the full 
 edge of the beastly thing across the back of my 
 hand. I fell into the water, but was picked up by 
 my sailors, and managed to get on board again.
 
 78 HOBART PASHA 
 
 Had it not been for a clever young assistant sur- 
 geon, who bound up the wound in a most scientific 
 manner, I should probably have quite lost the use 
 of my hand ; the mark remains across my knuckles 
 to this day.* 
 
 * An Edinburgh reviewer declares that Hobart was not 
 present when this incident occurred , but that he was familiar 
 with the country, intimate with Lieutenant Gumming, and 
 no doubt got the story from that officer's own lips. For an 
 explanation of this queer mental twist, see the Introduction. 
 (Ed.)
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 IX)VE AND MURDER 
 
 1WAS once sent from Rio to Demerara, an 
 English colony on the coast of Brazil, with a 
 cargo of blacks that we had freed. Then it 
 was that I had a good opportunity of studying 
 the character of these people certainly in their 
 primitive state, and if ever men and women re- 
 sembled wild animals it was my swarthy charges. 
 When I arrived at Demerara I handed them over 
 to their new masters, to whom they were appren- 
 ticed for seven years, and from all I can under- 
 stand they were, during their apprenticeship, 
 treated pretty much as slaves in every respect. 
 
 During the time I visited Demerara (and I 
 fancy it is very slightly changed now) it was one 
 of the vilest holes in creation. It is built on a 
 low sandy point of land at the entrance of a great 
 river, and is almost the hottest place on the earth. 
 Mosquitoes in thousands of millions; nothing for 
 the natives to do but to cultivate sugar-canes and 
 to perspire. There were two crack regiments 
 quartered at Demerara, who, having to withstand 
 
 79
 
 80 HOBART PASHA 
 
 the dreadful monotony of doing nothing, took, I 
 fear, to living rather too well; the consequence 
 was that many a fine fellow had been carried off 
 by yellow fever. For my part, I took a rather 
 high flight in the way of pastime by falling (as I 
 imagined) desperately in love with the governor's 
 daughter. The governor, I must tell my readers, 
 was a very great swell, a general, a K.C.B., &c., 
 and his daughter was a mighty pretty girl, much 
 run after by the garrison ; so it was thought great 
 impertinence on my part, as a humble sublieuten- 
 ant, to presume to make love to the reigning, if 
 not the only, beauty in the place. 
 
 However, audacity carried me on, and I soon 
 became No. 1 in the young lady's estimation. I 
 used to ride with her, spent the evenings in the 
 balcony of Government House with her, sent her 
 flowers every morning, and so on, till at last people 
 began to talk, and steps were taken by her nu- 
 merous admirers to stop my wild career. This 
 was done in a somewhat startling way (premedi- 
 tated, as I found out afterwards). One evening 
 I was playing at whist, one of my opponents being 
 a momentarily discarded lover of my young lady. 
 I thought he was looking very distrait; however, 
 things went off quietly enough for some time, till 
 on some trifling question arising concerning the 
 rules of the game, the young man suddenly and
 
 LOVE AND MURDER 81 
 
 quite gratuitously insulted me most grossly, end- 
 ing his insolent conduct by throwing his cards in 
 my face. This was more than I could put up 
 with, so I called him out, and the next morning 
 put a ball into his ankle, which prevented him 
 dancing for a long time to come. He, being the 
 best dancer in the colony, was rather severely 
 punished; it seems that he had undertaken to bell 
 the cat, hardly expecting such unpleasant results. 
 
 On returning home after the hostile meeting I 
 found a much more formidable adversary in the 
 shape of the governor himself, who was stamping 
 furiously up and down the verandah of my apart- 
 ment. He received me with, " What do you mean, 
 young sir, by making love to my daughter? You 
 are a mere boy." (I was twenty and did not rel- 
 ish his remark. ) " What means have you got ? " 
 
 After the old gentleman's steam had gone down 
 a little I replied, " Really, general, I hardly know 
 how to answer you. Your daughter and I are 
 very good friends, the place is most detestably 
 dull, there is nothing to do, and if we amuse our- 
 selves with a little love-making, surely there can 
 be no great harm." This rejoinder of mine made 
 things worse; I thought the old boy would have 
 had a fit. At last he said, " The mail steamer 
 leaves for England to-morrow; you shall go home 
 by her ; I order you to do so ! " I replied that I
 
 82 HOBART PASHA 
 
 should please myself, and that I was not under his 
 orders. The general went away uttering threats. 
 After he was gone I thought seriously over the 
 matter. I calculated that my income of 120Z. a 
 year would scarcely suffice to keep a wife, and I 
 decided to renounce my dream of love. I went to 
 pay a farewell visit to my young lady, but found 
 that she was locked up, so away I went and soon 
 forgot all about it. Shortly afterwards I heard 
 that the governor's daughter married the man 
 whose leg I had lamed for his impertinence to 
 me. 
 
 My last adventure while employed in the sup- 
 pression of the slave trade is perhaps worth de- 
 scribing. 
 
 By international law it was ruled that a vessel 
 on her way to Africa, if fitted out in a certain man- 
 ner, whereby it was evident that she was employed 
 in the nefarious traffic of slavery, was liable to 
 capture and condemnation by the mixed tribunals, 
 or in other words became the lawful prize of her 
 captors. 
 
 While cruising off Pernambuco we boarded a 
 Portuguese vessel bound to Africa, so evidently fit- 
 ted out for the purpose of slave trade that my 
 captain took possession of her, and sent me to 
 convey her to the Cape of Good Hope for adjudi- 
 cation. It was the usual thing to send the cap-
 
 LOVE AND MURDER 83 
 
 tain of a vessel so captured as a prisoner on board 
 his ship, so that he might be interrogated at the 
 trial. In this case the master and three of his 
 crew were sent. The prize crew consisted of my- 
 self and six men. Now the captain was an ex- 
 ceedingly gentlemanlike man, a good sailor, and 
 a first-rate navigator. 
 
 At first I treated him as a prisoner, but by de- 
 grees he insinuated himself into my good graces to 
 such an extent that after a while I invited him to 
 mess with me ; in fact, made a friend of him, little 
 thinking of the serpent I was nourishing. 
 
 For several days all went well. I was as unsus- 
 picious as a child of foul play. We lived together 
 and worked our daily navigation together, played 
 at cards together, in fact were quite chums. The 
 three men who were supposed to be prisoners were 
 allowed considerable liberty, and as they had, as 
 I found out afterwards, a private stock of grog 
 stowed away somewhere, which they occasionally 
 produced and gave to my men, they managed to be 
 pretty free to do as they wished. For all that, I 
 ordered that the three prisoners should be confined 
 below during the night. 
 
 As the weather was very hot I always slept in 
 a little place on deck called a bunk, a thing more 
 like a dog-kennel than aught else I can compare it 
 to, excepting that the hole for entrance and exit
 
 84 HOBART PASHA 
 
 was somewhat larger than that generally used for 
 the canine species. 
 
 I always slept with a pistol (revolvers were un- 
 known in those days) under my pillow. Luckily 
 for me that I did so, as the result will show. 
 
 I had remarked (this I thought of afterwards) 
 that the prisoner captain and some of his men had 
 been whispering together a good deal lately; but 
 not being in the slightest degree suspicious I 
 thought nothing of it. 
 
 One evening I retired to my sleeping place as 
 usual, after having passed a pleasant chatty even- 
 ing with my prisoner. I was settling myself to 
 sleep, in fact I think I was asleep as far as it would 
 be called so, for I had from habit the custom of 
 sleeping with one eye open, when I saw or felt the 
 flash of a knife over my head. The entrance to 
 my couch was very limited, so that my would-be 
 murderer had some difficulty in striking the fatal 
 blow. Instinct at once showed me my danger. 
 
 To draw my pistol from under my pillow was 
 the work of a second ; to fire it into the body of the 
 man who was trying to stab me, that of another. 
 A groan and a heavy fall on the deck told me 
 what had happened, and springing out of my sleep- 
 ing berth I found my ci-devant friend the captain 
 lying on his face, dead as a door nail. In the mean- 
 time I heard a row in the fore-part of the ship.
 
 LOVE AND MURDER 86 
 
 On going forward I saw one of the prisoners in the 
 act of falling overboard, and another extended full 
 length on the deck, while my stalwart quarter- 
 master was flourishing a handspike with which he 
 had knocked one of his assailants overboard and 
 floored the other. Now it will be asked what was 
 the man at the wheel doing? Hereby hangs a 
 tale. He swore that he heard or saw nothing. 
 Considering this sufficient evidence of his guilt, I 
 put him in irons. Shortly afterwards he confessed 
 the whole story. It seems that a conspiracy had 
 been planned among the prisoners to retake the 
 ship that the man at the wheel had been bribed 
 to let free two of the prisoners, under promise of 
 a large reward if the result had been the retaking 
 of the ship. 
 
 The only provision he made was that he was to 
 take no murderous action against his countrymen. 
 The man at the helm and the quarter-master being 
 the only men on deck, and I being gone to roost, 
 all seemed easy enough, but Providence willed it 
 otherwise. 
 
 I buried the captain in the sea without further 
 ceremony ; the man who fell overboard I suppose 
 was drowned (I did not try to pick him up) ; the 
 man knocked down was put in irons, and all went 
 smoothly for the rest of the voyage; but when I 
 arrived at the Cape of Good Hope without the
 
 86 HOBART PASHA 
 
 captain, the lawyers who defended the ship wanted 
 to make out that I had murdered him, and I was 
 very nearly sent to prison on the charge of murder. 
 
 In the above pages I have endeavored to give 
 some notion of what used to go on in old times 
 when there were no steam launches, and when, I 
 may be forgiven for saying it, sailors were in 
 every sense of the word sailors. 
 
 I could recount many more adventures some- 
 what similar to those I have described, but I do 
 not wish to bore my readers or appear egotistical 
 in their eyes. The only comparison I would make 
 in regard to our doings in those days is with the 
 work done by the blockading squadron during the 
 civil war in America; for if ever men required 
 plucky endurance and self-denial it was the poor 
 fellows who had to keep, or endeavor to keep, 
 blockade-runners if not slavers from communicat- 
 ing with the stormy shores of Florida and South 
 Carolina. They are too modest now to tell us 
 what they went through. Perhaps forty years 
 hence they will do as I am doing, and recount some 
 of their adventures, which I am convinced would 
 quite put into the shade anything I or my boat's 
 crew ever did. 
 
 I do not wish to be mistaken in my remarks 
 about the black race. I will not venture to give 
 an opinion as to what Providence meant to be done
 
 LOVE AND MURDER 87 
 
 with those interesting creatures. I only assert, 
 and this I do from my own personal experience, 
 that a black man is a happier and wiser man in 
 America than he is in his own wretched country, 
 North and South.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE QUEEN'S YACHT 
 
 I RETURNED from the Cape to England. 
 On arriving there I was appointed to the 
 Queen's yacht, as a reward for what their 
 lordships at the Admiralty were good enough to 
 designate my active and zealous services while em- 
 ployed in suppression of the slave trade. 
 
 To be appointed to Her Majesty's yacht was 
 in those days considered a very great distinction. 
 Even now the Queen invariably chooses officers 
 who have seen what is called " service." Such an 
 appointment, apart from the honor of being so 
 near Her Majesty, always tends to rapid promo- 
 tion. 
 
 The Queen at the time I write of was very fond 
 of cruising in her yacht, paying visits to foreign 
 potentates, &c. Her Majesty had been then five 
 years married, with a young family springing up 
 around her, and her beloved husband, the Prince 
 Consort, always with her, participating in all her 
 pleasures ; so we, the officers of the Royal yacht, 
 had a rare time of it, were made a lot of wherever 
 
 88
 
 THE QUEEN'S YACHT 89 
 
 we went, and thought ourselves very great men 
 indeed. Amongst other trips, we conveyed the 
 Royal family up the Rhine, where Her Majesty 
 visited the King of Prussia at Stolzenfels. 
 
 Afterwards we went to the Chateau d'Eu, where 
 Her Majesty was received by King Louis Philippe 
 and the Reine Amelie. 
 
 I shall never forget the condescending kindness 
 of Her Majesty and Prince Albert to all on board 
 the Royal yacht. As to the Prince Consort, he 
 treated the officers more in the light of companions 
 than subordinates, always ready to join us in a 
 cigar and its accompanying friendly conversation. 
 
 Apropos of smoking, I cannot refrain from men- 
 tioning a little incident that happened on board 
 the Victoria and Albert, that I, for one, shall 
 never forget. Her Gracious Majesty never ap- 
 proved of smoking, and it was only through the 
 kind consideration of the Prince Consort that we 
 were allowed to indulge in an occasional cigar in 
 the cow-house. The cow-house was a little place 
 fitted up for two pretty small Alderney cows, kept 
 specially for supplying milk and butter for the 
 Royal table. - 
 
 Her Majesty was very fond of these animals 
 and had the habit of visiting them every day, and 
 the young Princess used to be held up to look in 
 at the window, out of which there was room for
 
 90 HOBART PASHA 
 
 the favored cows to stretch their heads. One 
 evening we were smoking as usual when I espied a 
 pot of blue paint on the deck of the cow-house, 
 with, as bad luck would have it, a brush in the 
 pot. I cannot say what induced me, but I de- 
 liberately took the brush and painted the tips of 
 the noses and the horns of both animals a pretty 
 light blue. Having done this I thought no more 
 of the matter. The next morning Her Majesty 
 well, I think I had better say no more about it. 
 I, the culprit, was denounced and had to keep out 
 of the way for a day or two. Then it was that 
 the good-natured Prince proved himself a friend, 
 and got me out of my scrape. 
 
 I passed two of the happiest years of my life in 
 the Queen's yacht, after which I was promoted to 
 the rank of lieutenant,* and appointed to a ship 
 in the Mediterranean,** where I passed for several 
 years the usual humdrum life of a naval officer 
 during times of profound peace. 
 
 However, while serving as a lieutenant in the 
 Mediterranean, I had the advantage of taking part 
 in one of the most interesting political events of 
 the century, namely, the flight of Pius IX. from 
 
 September, 1845. (Ed.) 
 
 **The Rattler, Captain H. Smith. He then served for 
 about three years in the Mediterranean as lieutenant of the 
 Bulldog, Commander Key. (Ed.)
 
 THE QUEEN'S YACHT 91 
 
 Rome. The ship I was in was stationed at Civita 
 Vecchia, the sea-port of Rome, partly in order to 
 protect British interests that is, the persons and 
 properties of British subjects partly with the 
 object of taking that half-hearted part in religious 
 politics which has always been such a humiliating 
 role for England. 
 
 We had an accredited agent, a nondescript sort 
 of person, representing England at the court of 
 Pope Pius IX. This gentleman's duty was to 
 watch and report, but not to act. It was through 
 him that England's idea of the policy to be pur- 
 sued by the Pope was conveyed. We did not, and 
 we did, want to interfere. The question of the 
 balance of power of Italy as an independent nation 
 was too important to neglect; it was impossible 
 to separate altogether religion and politics. How- 
 ever, at the time I write of things were rushing to 
 a crisis. 
 
 The Pope, who a short time previously had 
 been considered the great supporter of liberty, was 
 now looked upon as its enemy. Garibaldi was, in 
 a mad sort of way, fighting in its cause at least, 
 he professed to do so. He had marched with a 
 band of howling volunteers to the gates of Rome, 
 and established himself there as its conqueror, 
 virtually making the Pope a prisoner in the Vati- 
 can. In the meantime France interfered in the
 
 92 HOBART PASHA 
 
 Pope's cause, and sent General Oudinot with a 
 small army to dislodge Garibaldi. England's 
 doubtful diplomatic relations made it necessary to 
 choose every sort of means of communicating with 
 the Pope, and I had the honor on more than one 
 occasion of being the messenger chosen to com- 
 municate, not only with His Holiness, but between 
 Garibaldi and the French commander. On the 
 first occasion I was sent to Rome with despatches 
 from Lord Palmerston to be delivered (so said my 
 orders) into the Pope's own hands. 
 
 On my arrival at Rome I went straight to the 
 Quirinal and asked to see Cardinal Antonelli. 
 When I informed him of my instructions, he said 
 at once, " You may give your despatches to me ; 
 you cannot expect to see His Holiness." " No, 
 sir ; to the Pope I will give my despatches, or take 
 them back again," and from this decision no per- 
 suasions or threats would move me. Finding me 
 obstinate the Cardinal at last took me with him 
 into a room where the Pope was sitting. His Holi- 
 ness seemed in a great state of anxiety, but was 
 most kind and condescending. He gave me his 
 hand to kiss, and congratulated me on having been 
 so firm in obeying orders in relation to my de- 
 spatches. I afterwards found that these de- 
 spatches influenced very much the important step 
 taken by Pio Nono a few days afterwards.
 
 THE QUEEN'S YACHT 93 
 
 Subsequently I several times conveyed communi- 
 cations between General Garibaldi and General 
 Oudinot. The former had most pluckily taken 
 possession of an important position inside the walls 
 of Rome, and it was a hard piece of work to dis- 
 lodge him. 
 
 I used to gallop in between General Oudinot's 
 camp and Garibaldi's head-quarters, having 1 on 
 my arm a red scarf for a sign that I was not a 
 belligerent. My scarf was not much use, however, 
 as I was generally fired at all the time that I was 
 passing the space between the French camp and 
 Garibaldi's head-quarters in Rome. 
 
 I was amused by the audacity with which Gari- 
 baldi resisted the French army. I fancy he 
 wanted to delay matters so that the Pope should 
 be induced to take the ill-advised step of leaving 
 Rome, and in this the republican general succeeded. 
 What went on in Rome, the way in which the Pope 
 escaped, &c., I am not able to relate. All I know 
 is that one fine morning a simple carriage arrived 
 from Rome at Civita Vecchia, bringing a portly 
 individual enveloped in the large cloak of an Eng- 
 lish coachman, and another man in ordinary ap- 
 parel. They strolled down to the place of em- 
 barkation, and went quietly on board, not (as was 
 expected) the English man-of-war, but a French 
 vessel-of-war which was lying with her steam up.
 
 94 HOBART PASHA 
 
 This vessel then left the harbor, almost un- 
 noticed, and it was not for hours afterwards that 
 we heard that His Holiness Pius IX. was the 
 humble-looking person who had embarked before 
 our eyes, and thus got away safely to Gaeta.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 IN THE BALTIC 
 
 IN 1854 the war (commonly called the Crimean 
 war) broke out, and I was appointed first 
 
 lieutenant of H.M.S. * for service in the 
 
 Baltic. 
 
 I shall never forget the excitement among us 
 all when, after so many years of inactivity, we 
 were called upon to defend the honor of our 
 country. Unfortunately for old England the 
 Baltic fleet was put under the command of Sir 
 
 C. N ,** " fighting old Charley " as he was 
 
 called, though it was not long before we discovered 
 that there was not much fight left in him. It might 
 well be said by those generously inclined towards 
 him, in the words of the old song, that the 
 
 Bullets and- the gout 
 
 Had so knocked his hull about, 
 
 That he'd never more be fit for sea, 
 
 A finer fleet never sailed or steamed from Spit- 
 head than that destined for the Baltic in 1854. 
 
 * The Bulldog. (Ed.) 
 
 'Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Xapier. (Ed.) 
 95
 
 96 HOBART PASHA 
 
 The signal from its commander, " Lads, war is de- 
 clared! Sharpen your cutlasses and the day's 
 your own," sent a thrill of joy through every 
 breast. After following the melting ice up the 
 Baltic Sea to within almost reach of the guns of 
 Cronstadt, we waited till the ice had disappeared, 
 and then went in as we thought for the attack. 
 
 The ship to which I belonged being a steamer, 
 and drawing much less water than the line-of-battle 
 ships, led the way. A grander sight could not be 
 conceived than that of twenty splendid line-of- 
 battle ships, formed in two lines, steaming straight 
 up to the frowning batteries of Cronstadt. On 
 our approaching the batteries a shot was fired, 
 and fell alongside the ship I was in, which, as I 
 said, was leading for the purpose of sounding, 
 when, to our astonishment and disgust, the signal 
 was made from the flag-ship to the fleet " Stop ! " 
 and immediately afterwards, to " anchor." 
 
 It is not for me to say " the reason why." All 
 that I can vouch for is that, in the general opinion 
 of competent judges, had we gone on we could 
 have taken or destroyed Cronstadt, instead of 
 which what was done? They sent to England 
 for special boats to be made ready for the next 
 summer, when the attack would be made on Cron- 
 stadt. 
 
 We remained a few days at anchor off that place,
 
 IN THE BALTIC 97 
 
 when some half of the fleet were detached to the 
 Aland Islands, where an insignificant fort called 
 Bomarsund was to be attacked not by the Eng- 
 lish and French fleets, who were fit to do any mortal 
 thing, but by an army fetched from France. When 
 the army came, the poor little fort attacked by the 
 fleet on the seaside, and on the shore by the soldiers, 
 after firing a few shots surrendered. During the 
 attack I was appointed acting commander of 
 
 H.M.S. ,* and was mentioned honorably in 
 
 despatches. 
 
 Many promotions were made for the taking of 
 Bomarsund, but I fancy I had as usual given my 
 opinion too freely, as I was left out in the cold. 
 I shall never forget old Charley's answer to me 
 when I applied for my promotion, it was so worthy 
 of him. He said, " Don't ye come crying to me, 
 Sir; you are a lord's son: I'll have nothing to 
 do wi' ye." 
 
 Immediately after the capture of Bomarsund, 
 the Admiral detached a small squadron under Cap- 
 tain S to reconnoitre the Russian port of 
 
 Abo. Of that squadron the vessel of which I was 
 commander formed one. We left with sealed 
 orders, which were not to be opened until we ar- 
 rived at, or near to, our destination. 
 
 On sighting the enemy's port we perceived that 
 *The Driver. (Ed.)
 
 98 HOBART PASHA 
 
 every preparation was being made to give us a 
 warm reception. A council of war was held on 
 board the senior officer's ship, at which council the 
 sealed orders were opened, when to our disgust it 
 wag found within that we were ordered " not to 
 fight, merely to reconnoitre." 
 
 Sickening humiliation ! There were the Russian 
 gunboats inside the bar of the harbor of Abo, firing 
 at us with all their might. The forts on the 
 heights, such as they were, very insignificant 
 temporary batteries of field-pieces, had commenced 
 to get the range of the ships ; but as we were not 
 to fight, we took a sulky shot or two at the enemy 
 and retired. 
 
 To this day I cannot understand the policy that 
 actuated this weak, vacillating conduct on the part 
 of our chief. But some idea may be given of his 
 fighting notions by the following occurrence, of 
 which I was a witness. 
 
 One morning despatches arrived from England. 
 A signal was made from the flag-ship * for com- 
 manding officers to repair on board that vessel. 
 On our arrival there, we were asked to sit down 
 to breakfast. Our chief, who was opening his 
 letters, suddenly threw a despatch over the table 
 
 to S , the admiral of the fleet, saying, " What 
 
 would ye do, mun, if ye received a letter like this ? " 
 *The Duke of Wellington. (Ed.)
 
 IN THE BALTIC 99 
 
 S , after reading the letter said, " If I re- 
 ceived a letter like that, I'd attack Revel or Svea- 
 borg if I lost half my fleet." Our chief's answer 
 I shall never forget. It was : " I haven't got 
 
 nerve to do it, and I'm sure C hasn't." There 
 
 are many living besides myself who can vouch for 
 the accuracy of this statement. 
 
 I shall say no more of the doings of the Eng- 
 lish fleet in the Baltic during that year. Suffice 
 it, that if ever open mutiny was displayed not 
 by the crews of the ships, but by many of the 
 captains, men who attained the highest rank in 
 their profession it was during the cruise in the 
 Baltic in 1854: and no wonder. 
 
 Many gallant deeds were performed by single 
 ships, but the fleet did absolutely nothing, except 
 help to capture Bomarsund. I returned to Eng- 
 land disgusted and disheartened. The next year 
 the commander-in-chief was changed; I was ap- 
 pointed to his ship, and we went again to the Baltic, 
 taking with us all the necessary appurtenances for 
 bombarding forts and attacking the enemy's coast. 
 
 As soon as the melting of the ice permitted we 
 arrived off Cronstadt, and found that the Russians 
 had not been asleep during our absence in the 
 winter months ; for they had defended the ap- 
 proaches to that place to such an extent, that an 
 attack was considered (and on this occasion there
 
 100 HOBART PASHA 
 
 was no difference of opinion) most unadvisable. 
 So we fell back on Sveaborg, which place was bom- 
 barded by the combined fleets, I venture to think 
 most successfully, and I believe, had we had a 
 force to land, we could have taken possession of 
 that large and important fortress. 
 
 Our losses during the operation were small on 
 board the squadron of mortar-boats which I had 
 the good luck to command some fifty-eight men 
 hors de combat. 
 
 In this service I received my promotion to the 
 rank of commander, and returned to England. 
 
 Peace was made between Russia and England, 
 previous to which, however, I was appointed to a 
 vessel in the Mediterranean which formed part of 
 the fleet off Sebastopol. Unfortunately, I arrived 
 too late to see much active service there. 
 
 While serving as a commander in the Mediter- 
 ranean, I was principally under the command of 
 Sir Wm. M ,* a man whose reputation as be- 
 ing the smartest officer in the navy, I must venture 
 to say, I think was greatly exaggerated, though 
 he was doubtless what is called a " smart officer." 
 
 His idea was to rule with a rod of iron, and 
 
 never to encourage anyone by praising zealous and 
 
 active service. He used to say, " I am here to find 
 
 fault with, not to praise, officers under my com- 
 
 * Sir William Martin. (Ed.)
 
 IN THE BALTIC 101 
 
 mand." So many a fine fellow's zeal was damped 
 by knowing that no encouragement would follow 
 in the way of appreciation from his chief, however 
 much he might have merited it. 
 
 I cannot refrain from recounting a very amus- 
 ing incident that occurred in connection with my 
 
 command of H.M.S. F . I may mention that, 
 
 differing as I did most materially with the system 
 of discipline followed by the commander-in-chief, 
 I was no favorite of his. 
 
 One day, however, I was somewhat surprised at 
 being ordered to prepare for the official inspection 
 of my ship, and by no less a person than Sir W. 
 
 M himself. I must mention that one of the 
 
 crotchets of the chief was that vessels such as 
 mine namely, a gunboat of the first class 
 could be floated off the shore, in case of their 
 stranding, by water-casks being lashed round them. 
 So orders were given that all vessels of that class 
 were to lumber their decks with water-casks. I 
 did so, according to orders ; but, not having the 
 least confidence in the manner in which the com- 
 mander-in-chief proposed to employ them, I uti- 
 lised them, as will be seen presently, for an entirely 
 different purpose. 
 
 The day of my ship's inspection was evidently 
 not one of my lucky days. To begin with, a horrid 
 little monkey belonging to the crew amusing
 
 102 HOBART PASHA 
 
 himself running about in the hammock-nettings 
 near to the gangway over which the great man 
 had to pass seeing something he thought un- 
 usual, made a rush as the commander-in-chief was 
 stepping on board, stooped down, and deliberately 
 took the cocked hat off his head, dropped it into 
 the sea, then started up the rigging chattering with 
 delight at the mischief he had done. The cocked 
 hat was at once recovered, wiped dry, and placed 
 in its proper place. The admiral, always stern 
 as a matter of principle, looked, after this incident, 
 sterner than usual, hardly recognised me except 
 by a formal bow, then proceeded to muster the 
 officers and crew. This over, he commenced to 
 walk round the deck. I remarked with pleasure 
 his countenance change when he saw how neatly 
 his pet water-casks were painted and lashed to the 
 inner gunnel of the ship. He said quite gra- 
 ciously, " I am glad to see, Captain Hobart, that 
 you pay such attention to my orders." I began 
 to think I was mistaken in my idea of the man; 
 but, alas ! for my exuberance of spirits and satisfac- 
 tion, while the admiral was closely examining one. 
 of his pet casks, his face came almost in contact 
 with the opening of the barrel, when, to his and my 
 horror, a pretty little spaniel put out his head 
 and licked the great man on the nose. . 
 
 J shall never forget the admiral's countenance;
 
 IN THE BALTIC 103 
 
 he turned blue with anger, drew himself up, ordered 
 his boat to be manned, and walked over the side not 
 saying a word to anyone. 
 
 The facts which led to this untoward occurrence 
 were that, seeing the necessity of having my decks 
 crowded with what I considered useless lumber, in 
 the form of water-casks, I had utilised them by 
 making them into dog-kennels. The admiral hated 
 dogs, hated sport of all kind, and, after what oc- 
 curred, I fancy hated me. Well, I didn't love him ; 
 I never saw him again. 
 
 The very next day I was ordered to the coast of 
 Syria: just what I wanted, i.e., to be out of the 
 commander-in-chief s way, and to have some good 
 shooting.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 BLOCKADE-RUNNING 
 
 ON receiving my rank as post-captain, I 
 found myself shelved, as it were, for four 
 years, while waiting my turn for a com- 
 mand. This was according to the rules of the 
 navy, so there was no getting out of it. What 
 was I to do? I consulted several of my friends 
 who were in a similar position, and, like myself, 
 did not wish to remain idle so long, so we looked 
 about us for some enterprise, as something to do. 
 The upshot of it was that we thought of trying 
 if we could not conceive some plan for breaking 
 through the much-talked-of blockade of the South- 
 ern States of America, then in revolt against the 
 government at Washington. Four of us young 
 post-captains took this decision, and as it would 
 have been, perhaps, considered infra dig. for real 
 naval officers to engage in such an enterprise, we 
 lent our minds, if not our bodies, to certain alter 
 egos, whom we inspired, if we did not personally 
 control, as to their line of conduct. My man I 
 will call Roberts, whose adventures I now give, 
 104
 
 BLOCKADE-RUNNING 105 
 
 and in whose name I shall write. There are people 
 who insist that I was Captain Roberts; all that 
 such people have to do is to prove I was that 
 " miscreant," whoever he may have been. The 
 following is his narrative: 
 
 During the late civil war in America the ex- 
 ecutive government undertook the blockade of more 
 than 3,000 miles of coast, and though nothing 
 could exceed the energy and activity of the naval 
 officers so employed, the results were very unsatis- 
 factory, inasmuch as it was not till absolute pos- 
 session was taken of the forts at the entrance of 
 the great harbors, such as Charleston, Mobile, and 
 Wilmington, that blockade-running was stopped. 
 
 I trust that our American friends will not be 
 too severe in their censures on those engaged in 
 blockade-running; for, I say it with the greatest 
 respect for and admiration of enterprise, had they 
 been lookers-on instead of principals in the sad 
 drama that was enacted, they would have been the 
 very men to take the lead. It must be borne in 
 mind that the excitement of fighting did not exist. 
 One was always either running away or being de- 
 liberately pitched into by the broadsides of the 
 American cruisers, the slightest resistance to which 
 would have constituted piracy ; whereas capture 
 without resistance merely entailed confiscation of 
 cargo and vessel.
 
 106 HOBART PASHA 
 
 The vessel I had charge of * which I had 
 brought out from England, was one of the finest 
 double-screw steamers that had ever been built by 
 
 D n ; of 400 tons burden, 250 horse-power, 
 
 180 feet long, and 22 feet beam and was, so far 
 as sea-going qualities, speed, &c., as handy a little 
 craft as ever floated. Our crew consisted of a 
 captain, three officers, three engineers, and twenty- 
 eight men, including firemen, that is, ten seamen 
 and eighteen firemen. They were all Englishmen, 
 and as they received very high wages, we managed 
 to have picked men. In fact, the men-of-war on 
 the West India station found it a difficult matter 
 to prevent their crews from deserting, so great was 
 the temptation offered by the blockade-runners. 
 
 I will begin by explaining how we prepared the 
 vessel for the work. This was done by reducing 
 her spars to a light pair of lower masts, without 
 any yards across them; the only break in their 
 sharp outline being a small crow's-nest on the fore- 
 mast, to be used as a look-out place. The hull, 
 which showed about eight feet above water, was 
 painted a dull grey color to render her as nearly as 
 possible invisible in the night. The boats were 
 lowered square with the gunnels. Coal was taken 
 on board of a smokeless nature (anthracite). The 
 
 * The Don; one of the first twin propeller steamers ever 
 built. (Ed.)
 
 BLOCKADE-RUNNING 107 
 
 funnel, being what is called " telescope," lowered 
 close down to the deck. In order that no noise 
 might be made, steam was blown off under water. 
 In fact, every ruse was resorted to, to enable the 
 vessel to evade the vigilance of the American 
 cruisers, who were scattered about in great numbers 
 all the way between Bermuda and Wilmington 
 the port at the time I write of most frequented 
 by blockade-runners. While speaking of the pre- 
 cautions used I may mention that among the fowls 
 taken on board as provisions, no cocks were al- 
 lowed, for fear of their proclaiming the where- 
 abouts of the blockade-runner. This may seem 
 ridiculous, but it was very necessary. 
 
 The distance from Bermuda to Wilmington (the 
 port we were bound to) is 720 miles. We started 
 in the evening. For the first twenty-four hours 
 we saw nothing to alarm us, but at daylight the 
 second day there was a large American cruiser not 
 half a mile from us, right ahead, which, before we 
 could turn round, steamed straight at us, and com- 
 menced firing rapidly, but very much at random, 
 the shot and shell all passing over or wide of us. 
 
 Fortunately, according to orders to have full 
 steam on at daybreak, we were quite prepared for 
 a run ; and still more fortunately a heavy squall of 
 wind and rain that came on helped us vastly, as 
 we were dead to windward of the enemy ; and hav-
 
 108 HOBART PASHA 
 
 ing no top-weights we soon dropped him astern. 
 He most foolishly kept yawing, to fire his bow- 
 chasers, losing ground every time he did so. By 
 eight o'clock we were out of range unhit ; and 
 by noon out of sight of anything but smoke. 
 
 Luckily, the chase had not taken us much off 
 our course, as the consumption of coal during a 
 run of this sort, with boilers all but bursting from 
 high pressure of steam, was a most serious con- 
 sideration there being no coal in the Confederate 
 ports, where wood only was used, which would not 
 suit our furnaces. 
 
 We were now evidently in very dangerous waters, 
 steamers being reported from our mast-head every 
 hour, and we had to keep moving about in all 
 directions to avoid them; sometimes stopping to 
 let one pass ahead of us, at another time turning 
 completely round, and running back on our course. 
 Luckily, we were never seen or chased. Night 
 came on, and I had hoped that we should have 
 made rapid progress till daybreak unmolested. 
 All was quiet until about one o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, when suddenly, to our dismay, we found a 
 steamer close alongside of us. How she had got 
 there without our knowledge is a mystery to me 
 even now. However, there she was, and we had 
 hardly seen her before a stentorian voice howled 
 out, " Heave-to in that steamer, or I'll sink you."
 
 BLOCKADE-RUNNING 109 
 
 It seemed as if all was over, but I determined to 
 try a ruse before giving the little craft up. So 
 I answered, " Ay, ay, sir, we are stopped." The 
 cruiser was about eighty yards from us. We 
 heard orders given to man and arm the quarter- 
 boats, we saw the boats lowered into the water, 
 we saw them coming, we heard the crews laughing 
 and cheering at the prospect of their prize. The 
 bowmen had just touched the sides of our vessel 
 with their boat-hooks when I whispered down the 
 tube into the engine-room, " Full speed ahead ! " 
 and away we shot into the darkness. 
 
 I don't know what happened; whether the cap- 
 tain of the man-of-war thought that his boats had 
 taken possession, and thus did not try to stop us, 
 or whether he stopped to pick up his boats in the 
 rather nasty sea that was running; some one who 
 reads this may know. All I can say is, that not 
 a shot was fired, and that in less than a minute 
 the pitch darkness hid the cruiser from our view. 
 This was a great piece of luck. 
 
 All the next day we passed in dodging about, 
 avoiding the cruisers as best we could, but always 
 approaching our post. 
 
 During the day we got good observations with 
 which our sounding agreed; and at sunset our 
 position was sixty miles due east of the entrance 
 to Wilmington river, off which place were cruising
 
 110 HOBART PASHA 
 
 a strong squadron of blockading ships. The 
 American blockading squadron, which had under- 
 taken the almost impossible task of stopping all 
 traffic along 3,000 miles of coast, consisted of 
 nearly a hundred vessels of different sorts and 
 size bond-fide men-of-war, captured blockade- 
 runners, unemployed steam-packets, with many 
 other vessels pressed into government service. 
 Speed and sufficient strength to carry a long gun 
 were the only requisites, the Confederate men-of- 
 war being few and far between. These vessels 
 were generally well commanded and officered, but 
 badly manned. The inshore squadron off Wil- 
 mington consisted of about thirty vessels, and lay 
 in the form of a crescent facing the entrance to 
 Cape Clear river, the centre being just out of range 
 of the heavy guns mounted on Fort Fisher, the 
 horns, as it were, gradually approaching the shore 
 on each side ; the whole line or curve covered about 
 ten miles. 
 
 The blockade-runners had been in the habit of 
 trying to get between the vessels at either ex- 
 tremity ; and the coast being quite flat and danger- 
 ous, without any landmark, excepting here and 
 there a tree somewhat taller than others, the cruis- 
 ers generally kept at a sufficient distance to allow 
 of this being done. The runner would then crawl 
 close along the shore, and when, as near as could
 
 BLOCKADE-RUNNING 111 
 
 be judged, opposite the entrance of the river, would 
 show a light on the vessel's inshore side, which was 
 answered by a very indistinct light being shown on 
 the beach, close to the water's edge, and another 
 at the background. These two lights being got 
 into a line was a proof that the opening was ar- 
 rived at; the vessels then steered straight in and 
 anchored under the Confederate batteries at Fort 
 Fisher. More vessels were lost crawling along 
 this dangerous beach than were taken by the cruis- 
 ers. I have seen three burning at one time, for 
 the moment a vessel struck she was set fire to, to 
 prevent the blockaders getting her off when day- 
 light came. 
 
 This system of evading the cruisers, however, 
 having been discovered, it was put a stop to by a 
 very ingenious method, by which several vessels 
 were captured and an end put to that little game. 
 Of course I can only conjecture the way in which 
 it was done, but it seemed to me to be thus. At 
 the extreme end of the line of blockaders lay one 
 of them with a kedge anchor, down so close to the 
 shore that she left but a very little space for the 
 blockade-runner to pass between her and the beach. 
 The captain of the runner, however, trusting to 
 his vessel's speed and invisibility, dashed through 
 this space, and having got by the cruiser thought 
 himself safe. Poor fellow! he was safe for a mo-
 
 HOB ART PASHA 
 
 ment, but in such a trap that his only chance of 
 getting out of it was by running on shore or giv- 
 ing up. For no sooner had he passed than up went 
 a rocket from the cruiser who had seen the runner 
 rush by, and who now moved a little further in to- 
 wards the shore, so as to stop her egress by the way 
 she went in; and the other vessels closing round 
 by a pre-arranged plan, the capture or destruction 
 of the blockade-runner was a certainty. 
 
 Some of the captains most pluckily ran their 
 vessels on shore, and frequently succeeded in set- 
 ting fire to them; but the boats of the cruisers 
 were sometimes too sharp in their movements to 
 admit of this being done, and the treatment of 
 those who tried to destroy their vessels was, I am 
 sorry to say, very barbarous and unnecessary. 
 Moreover, men who endeavored to escape by jump- 
 ing overboard after the vessel was on shore were 
 often fired at by grape and shell, in what seemed 
 to me a very unjustifiable manner. Great allow- 
 ance, however, must be made for the men-of-war's 
 men, who after many hard nights of dreary watch- 
 ing constantly under weigh, saw their well-earned 
 prize escaping by being run on shore and set fire 
 to, just as they imagined they had got possession. 
 On several occasions they have been content to tow 
 the empty shell of an iron vessel off the shore, her 
 valuable cargo having been destroyed by fire.
 
 BLOCKADE-RUNNING 113 
 
 But I have left my little craft lying as was stated- 
 about sixty miles from the entrance of the river. 
 I had determined to try a new method of getting 
 through the blockading squadron, seeing that the 
 usual plan, as described above, was no longer 
 feasible or, at least, advisable. I have mentioned 
 that our position was well defined by observations 
 and soundings, so we determined to run straight 
 through the blockaders, and to take our chance. 
 When it was quite dark we started steaming at 
 full speed. It was extremely thick on the horizon, 
 but clear overhead, with just enough wind and sea 
 to prevent the little noise the engines and screws 
 made being heard. Every light was out even 
 the men's pipes ; the masts were lowered on to the 
 
 deck ; and if ever a vessel was invisible the D n 
 
 was that night. 
 
 We passed several outlying cruisers, some un- 
 pleasantly near, but still we passed them. All 
 seemed going favorably, when suddenly I saw 
 through my glasses the long low line of a steamer 
 right ahead, lying as it were across our bows so 
 close that it would have been impossible to pass to 
 the right or left of her without being seen. A 
 prompt order given to the engine-room (where the 
 chief engineer stood to the engines) to reverse one 
 engine, was as promptly obeyed, and the little craft 
 spun round like a teetotum. If I had not seen
 
 114 HOBART PASHA 
 
 it, I could never have believed it possible that a 
 vessel would have turned so rapidly, and (although, 
 perhaps, it is irrelevant to ray subject) I cannot 
 refrain from bearing testimony to the wonderful 
 powers of turning that are given to a vessel by 
 the application of Symond's turnscrews, as he loves 
 to call them. On this occasion 50,000 of prop- 
 erty was saved to its owners. I do not believe the 
 cruiser saw us at all, and so very important to us 
 was the fact that we had turned in so short a 
 space, that I scarcely think we lost five yards of 
 our position. Having turned we stopped to re- 
 connoitre, and could still see the faint outline of 
 the cruiser crawling (propelled, probably, only by 
 the wind) slowly into the darkness, leaving the way 
 open to us, of which we at once took advantage. 
 It was now about one o'clock in the morning; our 
 lead, and an observation of a friendly star told 
 us, that we were rapidly nearing the shore. But 
 it was so fearfully dark, that it seemed almost hope- 
 less ever to find our way to the entrance of the 
 river, and no one felt comfortable. Still we 
 steamed slowly on and shortly made out a small 
 glimmer of a light right ahead. We eased steam 
 a little, and cautiously approached. 
 
 As we got nearer, we could make out the outline 
 of a vessel lying at anchor, head to wind, and con- 
 jectured that this must be the senior officer's vessel,
 
 BLOCKADE-RUNNING 115 
 
 which we were told generally lay about two miles 
 and a half from the river's mouth, and which was 
 obliged to show some sort of light to the cruisers 
 that were constantly under weight right and left 
 of her. The plan of finding out this light, and 
 using it as a guide to the river's entrance, being 
 shortly after this time discovered, the vessel that 
 carried it was moved into a different position every 
 night, whereby several blockade-runners came to 
 grief. 
 
 Feeling pretty confident now of our position, 
 we went on again at full speed, and made out 
 clearly the line of blockaders lying to the right 
 and left of the ship which showed the light; all 
 excepting her being apparently under weigh. See- 
 ing an opening between the vessel at anchor and 
 the one on her left, we made a dash, and, thanks 
 to our disguise and great speed, got through with- 
 out being seen, and made the most of our way to- 
 wards the land. As a strong current runs close 
 inshore which is constantly changing its course, 
 and there were no lights or landmarks to guide 
 us, it was a matter of great difficulty to find the 
 very narrow entrance to the river. 
 
 We were now nearly out of danger from cruisers, 
 who seldom ventured very close inshore in the 
 vicinity of the batteries; and our pilot, who had 
 been throughout the voyage in bodily fear of an
 
 116 HOBART PASHA 
 
 American prison, began to wake up, and, after 
 looking well round, told us that he could make out, 
 over the long line of surf, a heap of sand called 
 " the mound," which was a mark for going into 
 the river. 
 
 This good news emboldened us to show a small 
 light from the inshore side of the vessel; it was 
 promptly answered by two lights being placed a 
 short distance apart on the beach, in such a posi- 
 tion that, when the two were brought into line, 
 or, as the sailors call it, into one, the vessel would 
 be in the channel which led into the river. This 
 being done without interruption from the cruisers, 
 we steamed in and anchored safely under the bat- 
 teries of Fort Fisher. 
 
 Being now perfectly safe, lights were at once lit, 
 supper and grog served out ad libitum, everybody 
 congratulated everybody, and a feeling of comfort 
 and jollity, such as can only be experienced after 
 three nights' and three days' intense anxiety, pos- 
 sessed us all. On the morning breaking we counted 
 twenty-five cruisers lying as near as they dared 
 venture off the river's mouth, and a very pleasant 
 sight it was, situated as we were. There was evi- 
 dently a move among them of an unusual kind ; for 
 the smaller vessels were steaming in towards the 
 shore on the north side, and the ships' launches, 
 with guns in their bows, were pulling about from
 
 BLOCKADE-RUNNING 117 
 
 vessel to vessel. The cause of it as day advanced 
 was but too apparent. 
 
 Just out of range of Fort Fisher's heavy artil- 
 lery, on the north side of the river's entrance, a 
 splendid paddle-wheel blockade-runner was lying 
 on the beach, having been run on shore during the 
 night to avoid capture. 
 
 Her crew had evidently escaped to the shore, 
 and a smouldering smoke showed that she had 
 been set fire to, and that a little wind was all that 
 was necessary to make the flames break out. The 
 blockading ships do not appear to have been aware 
 of the damage they had done till daylight discov- 
 ered the vessel that they probably thought had 
 either got into the river or escaped to sea, lying 
 on the beach. However, they were not slow in 
 making preparations for capturing her, if pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Meanwhile, two of the crew of the blockade- 
 runner managed to get on board of her, and setting 
 her on fire in a dozen different places, everything 
 in the vessel was soon destroyed, and her red-hot 
 sides made boarding an impossibility. 
 
 So the gunboats retired out of range, and the 
 artillery with the Whitworth guns returned to Fort 
 Fisher. The shell of this vessel lay for months on 
 the beach and was by no means a bad mark for 
 the blockade-runners to steer by.
 
 118 HOB ART PASHA 
 
 Having witnessed this little bit of excitement 
 and received on board the crew of the stranded 
 vessel, we took a pilot and steamed up the Cape 
 Clear river to Wilmington. 
 
 It will be difficult to erase from my memory the 
 excitement of the evening we made our little craft 
 fast alongside the quay at Wilmington ; the con- 
 gratulations we received, the eagerness with which 
 we gave and received news, the many questions we 
 asked, such as, " How long shall we be unloading? " 
 " Was our cargo of cotton ready? " " How many 
 bales could we carry? " " How other blockade- 
 runners had fared?" &c. ; and the visits from 
 thirsty and hungry Southerners of all ranks and 
 denominations, many of whom had not tasted 
 alcohol in any form for months, to whom whatever 
 they liked to eat or drink was freely given, accom- 
 panied by congratulations on all sides. All these 
 things, combined with the delightful feeling of se- 
 curity from capture, and the glorious prospect of a 
 good night's rest in a four-poster, wound one up 
 into an inexpressible state of jollity. After break- 
 fast we lounged down to the quays on the river- 
 side, which were piled mountains high with cotton- 
 bales and tobacco tierces, and mixed in the lively 
 and busy scene of discharging, selling, and ship- 
 ping cargoes.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 EXCITING ADVENTURES 
 
 I MAY now, I trust, without appearing egotis- 
 tical, digress slightly from the narrative to 
 give an account of how I managed with my 
 own private venture, which I had personally to 
 attend to ; for it is scarcely necessary to mentior 
 that in blockade-running every one must look after 
 himself. If he does not his labor will have been 
 in vain. 
 
 Before leaving England I had met a Southern 
 lady, who, on my inquiring as to what was most 
 needed by her compatriots in the beleaguered 
 States, replied curtly : " Corsages, sir, I reckon." 
 So I determined to buy a lot of the articles she 
 referred to, and on arriving at Glasgow (the port 
 from which we originally started) I visited an em- 
 porium that seemed to contain everything in the 
 world ; and I astonished a young fellow behind the 
 counter by asking for a thousand pairs of stays. 
 Such an unusual request sent him off like a rocket 
 to higher authority, with whom I made a bargain 
 for the article required at one shilling and a penny 
 119
 
 120 HOBART PASHA 
 
 per pair, to be delivered the next day. At the 
 same time I bought five hundred boxes of Cockle's 
 pills, and a quantity of toothbrushes. Well, here 
 I was in Wilmington, with all these valuables on 
 my hands ; the corsages were all right, but the 
 horrid little Cockles were bursting their casements 
 and tumbling about my cabin in all directions. 
 I was anxious, with the usual gallantry of my 
 cloth, to supply the wants of the ladies first. The 
 only specimens of the sex that I could see moving 
 about were colored women, who were so little en- 
 cumbered with dress that I began to think I was 
 mistaken in the article recommended by my lady 
 friend as being the most required out here. After 
 waiting some time, and no one coming to bid for 
 my ware, I was meditating putting up on the ship's 
 side a large board with the name of the article of 
 ladies' dress written on it a pillbox for a crest, 
 and toothbrushes as supporters when an indi- 
 vidual came on board and inquired whether I 
 wished " to trade." I greedily seized upon him, 
 took him into my retreat, and made him swallow 
 three glasses of brandy in succession, after which 
 we commenced business. 
 
 I will not trouble my reader with the way in 
 which we traded ; regarding the corsages, suffice it 
 to say that he bought them all at what seemed to 
 me the enormous price of twelve shillings each,
 
 EXCITING ADVENTURES 121 
 
 giving me a profit of nearly eleven hundred per 
 cent. 
 
 On my asking where the fair wearers of the 
 article he had bought could be seen, he told me 
 that all the ladies had gone into the interior. I 
 hope they found my importations useful ; they cer- 
 tainly were not ornamental. 
 
 Elated as I was by my success, I did not forget 
 the Cockles, and gently insinuated to my now some- 
 what excited friend that we might do a little more 
 trading. To my disgust he told me that he had 
 never heard of such a thing as Cockle's pills. I 
 strongly urged him to try half-a-dozen, assuring 
 him that .if he once experienced their invigorating 
 effects he would never cease to recommend them. 
 But the ignorant fellow didn't seem to see it; for, 
 finishing his brandy and buttoning up his pockets, 
 he walked on shore. I never thought of naming 
 toothbrushes, for what could a man who had never 
 heard of Cockles know of the luxury of tooth- 
 brushes? So I sat quietly down, and began to 
 sum up my profits on the corsages. 
 
 I was deeply engaged in this occupation when 
 I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder. Turning 
 round I saw my friend the trader, who, after hav- 
 ing smothered my boot in tobacco-juice, said, " I 
 say, captain, have you got any coffin-screws on 
 trade? " His question rather staggered me, but
 
 HOBART PASHA 
 
 he explained that they had no possible way of mak- 
 ing this necessary article in the Southern States, 
 and that they positively could not keep the bodies 
 quiet in their coffins without them, especially when 
 being sent any distance for interment. As I had 
 no acquaintance, I am happy to say, with the sort 
 of thing he wanted, it was agreed upon between us 
 that I should send to England for a quantity, he, 
 on his part, promising an enormous profit on their 
 being delivered. 
 
 I cannot help remarking on the very great in- 
 convenience and distress that were entailed on the 
 South through the lack of almost every descrip- 
 tion of manufacture. The Southern States, hav- 
 ing always been the producing portion of the 
 Union, had trusted to the North and to Europe 
 for its manufactures. Thus, when they were shut 
 out by land and by sea from the outer world, their 
 raw material was of but little service to them. 
 This fact tended, more than is generally believed, 
 to weaken the Southern people in the glorious 
 struggle they made for what they called and be- 
 lieved to be their rights, a struggle, the horrors 
 of which are only half understood by those who 
 were not eye-witnesses of it. Whether the cause 
 was good, whether armed secession was justifiable 
 or not, is a matter regarding which opinions differ. 
 But it is undeniable that all fought and endured
 
 EXCITING ADVENTURES 123 
 
 in a manner worthy of a good and a just cause, 
 and many were thoroughly and conscientiously 
 convinced it was so. Such men as Lee, Stonewall 
 Jackson, and others would never have joined any 
 cause against their convictions ; but it won't do for 
 a blockade-runner to attempt to moralise. So to 
 return to my story. 
 
 My readers will be desirous of knowing what 
 was the result of my speculation in Cockles and 
 toothbrushes. Regarding the former, I am sorry 
 to say that all my endeavors to induce my South- 
 ern friends to try their efficacious powers were of 
 no avail, so I determined to take them with me to 
 Nassau (if I could get there), thinking that I 
 might find a market at a place where every one was 
 bilious from over eating and drinking, on the 
 strength of the fortunes they were making by 
 blockade-running; and there I found an enterpris- 
 ing druggist who gave me two chests of lucifer 
 matches in exchange for my Cockles, which matches 
 I ultimately sold in the Confederacy at a very fair 
 profit. My toothbrushes being not in the slight- 
 est degree appreciated at Wilmington, I sent them 
 to Richmond, where they were sold at about seven 
 times their cost. 
 
 So ended my speculation. The vessel's cargo 
 consisted of blankets, shoes, Manchester goods of 
 all sorts, and some mysterious cases marked " hard-
 
 124 HOBART PASHA 
 
 ware," about which no one asked any questions, 
 but which the military authorities took possession 
 of. This cargo was landed, and preparations 
 made for taking on board THE paying article in 
 this trade, namely, cotton. 
 
 I never bought it in any quantity, but I know 
 that the price in the Southern States averaged from 
 twopence to threepence a pound, the price in Liver- 
 pool at that time being about half-a-crown. 
 
 We were anxious to try the luck of our run- 
 out before the moon got powerful, so the cargo was 
 shipped as quickly as possible. In the first place, 
 the hold was stored by expert stevedores, the cot- 
 ton-bales being so closely packed that a mouse 
 could hardly find room to hide itself among them. 
 The hatches were put on, and a tier of bales put 
 fore and aft in every available spot on the deck, 
 leaving openings for the approaches to the cabins, 
 engine-room, and the men's forecastle ; then another 
 somewhat thinner tier on the top of that, after 
 which a few bales for the captain and officers, 
 those uncontrollable rascals whom the poor agents 
 could not manage, and the cargo was complete. 
 Loaded in this way, the vessel with only her fore- 
 mast up, with her bow-funnel, and grey-painted 
 sides, looked more like a huge bale of cotton with 
 a stick placed upright at one end of it, than any- 
 thing else I can think of. One bale for , and
 
 EXCITING ADVENTURES 125 
 
 still one more for (I never tell tales out of 
 
 school), and all was ready. 
 
 We left the quay at Wilmington cheered by the 
 hurrahs of our brother blockade-runners, who were 
 taking in and discharging their cargoes, and 
 steamed a short distance down the river, when we 
 were boarded to be searched and smoked. This 
 latter extraordinary proceeding, called for perhaps 
 by the existing state of affairs, took me altogether 
 aback. That a smoking apparatus should be ap- 
 plied to a cargo of cotton seemed almost astound- 
 ing. But so it was ordered, the object being to 
 search for runaways, and, strange to say, its effi- 
 cacy was apparent, when, after an hour or more's 
 application of the process (which was by no means 
 a gentle one), an unfortunate wretch, crushed 
 almost to death by the closeness of his hiding-place, 
 poked with a long stick till his ribs must have 
 been like touchwood, and smoked the color of a 
 backwood Indian, was dragged by the heels into 
 the daylight, ignominiously put into irons, and 
 hurled into the guard-boat. This discovery nearly 
 caused the detention of the vessel on suspicion of 
 our being the accomplices of the runaway; but 
 after some deliberation, we were allowed to go on. 
 
 Having steamed down the river a distance of 
 about twenty miles, we anchored at two o'clock in 
 the afternoon near its mouth. We were hidden by
 
 126 HOBART PASHA 
 
 Fort Fisher from the blockading squadron lying 
 off the bar, there to remain till some time after 
 nightfall. After anchoring we went on shore to 
 take a peep at the enemy from the batteries. Its 
 commandant, a fine, dashing young Confederate 
 officer, who was a firm friend to blockade-runners, 
 accompanied us round the fort. We counted 
 twenty-five vessels under weigh ; some of them oc- 
 casionally ventured within range; but no sooner 
 had one of them done so, than a shot was thrown 
 so unpleasantly near that she at once moved out 
 again. 
 
 We were much struck with the weakness of Fort 
 Fisher, which, with a garrison of twelve hundred 
 men, and only half finished, could have been easily 
 taken at any time since the war began by a resolute 
 body of five thousand men making a night attack. 
 It is true that at the time of its capture it was 
 somewhat stronger than at the time I visited it, 
 but even then its garrison was comparatively small, 
 and its defences unfinished. I fancy the bold front 
 so long shown by its occupiers had much to do with 
 the fact that such an attack was not attempted 
 till just before the close of the war. The time 
 chosen for our starting was eleven o'clock, at which 
 hour the tide was at its highest on the bar at the 
 entrance of the river. Fortunately the moon set 
 about ten, and as it was very cloudy, we had every
 
 EXCITING ADVENTURES 127 
 
 reason to expect a pitchdark night. There were 
 two or three causes that made one rather more 
 nervous on this occasion than when leaving Ber- 
 muda. 
 
 In the first place, five minutes after we had 
 crossed the bar, we should be in the thick of the 1 
 blockaders, who always closed nearer in on the very 
 dark nights. Secondly, our cargo of cotton was 
 of more importance than the goods we had carried 
 in ; and thirdly, it was the thing to do to make the 
 double trip in and out safely. There were also 
 all manner of reports of the new plans that had 
 been arranged by a zealous commodore lately sent 
 from New York to catch us all. However, it was 
 of no use canvassing these questions, so at a quarter 
 to eleven we weighed anchor and steamed down 
 to the entrance of the river. 
 
 Very faint lights, which could not be seen far 
 at sea, were set on the beach in the same position 
 as I have before described, having been thus placed 
 for a vessel coming in; and bringing these astern 
 in an exact line, that is the two into one, we knew 
 that we were in the passage for going over the 
 bar. The order was then given, " Full speed 
 ahead," and we shot at a great speed out to sea. 
 
 Our troubles began almost immediately ; for the 
 cruisers had placed a rowing barge, which could 
 not be seen by the forts, close to the entrance, to
 
 128 HOBART PASHA 
 
 signalise the direction which any vessel that came 
 out might take. This was done by rockets being 
 thrown up by a designed plan from the barge. 
 We had hardly cleared the bar when we saw this 
 boat very near our bows, nicely placed to be run 
 clean over, and as we were going about fourteen 
 knots, her chance of escape would have been small 
 had we been inclined to finish her. Changing the 
 helm, which I did myself, a couple of spokes just 
 took us clear. We passed so close that I could 
 have dropped a biscuit into the boat with ease. 
 I heard the crash of broken oars against our 
 sides; not a word was spoken. 
 
 I strongly suspect every man in that boat held 
 his breath till the great white avalanche of cotton, 
 rushing by so unpleasantly near, had passed quite 
 clear of her. 
 
 However, they seemed very soon to have recov- 
 ered themselves, for a minute had scarcely passed 
 before up went a rocket, which I thought a very 
 ungrateful proceeding on their part. But they 
 only did their duty, and perhaps they did not know 
 how nearly they had escaped being made food for 
 fishes. On the rocket being thrown up, a gun was 
 fired uncommonly close to us, but as we did not 
 hear any shot, it may have been only a signal to 
 the cruisers to keep a sharp look-out. 
 
 We steered a mile or two near the coast, always
 
 EXCITING ADVENTURES 129 
 
 edging a little to the eastward, and then shaped 
 our course straight out to sea. Several guns were 
 fired in the pitch-darkness very near us. (I am 
 not quite sure whether some of the blockaders did 
 not occasionally pepper each other.) After an 
 hour's fast steaming, we felt moderately safe, and 
 by the morning had a good offing. 
 
 Daylight broke with thick, hazy weather, noth- 
 ing being in sight. We went on all right till half- 
 past eight o'clock, when the weather cleared up, 
 and there was a large paddle-wheel cruiser (that 
 we must have passed very near to in the thick 
 weather) about six miles astern of us. The mo- 
 ment she saw us she gave chase. After running 
 for a quarter of an hour it was evident that with 
 our heavy cargo on board, the cruiser had the legs 
 of us, and as there was a long day before us for 
 the chase, things looked badly. We moved some 
 cotton aft to immerse our screws well; but still 
 the cruiser was steadily decreasing her distance 
 from us, when an incident of a very curious nature 
 favored us for a time. 
 
 It is mentioned in the book of sailing directions, 
 that the course of the Gulf Stream (in the vicinity 
 of which we knew we were) is in calm weather and 
 smooth water plainly marked out by a ripple on its 
 inner and outer edges. We clearly saw, about a 
 mile ahead of us, a remarkable ripple, which we
 
 130 HOBART PASHA 
 
 rightly, as it turned out, conjectured was that 
 referred to in the book. As soon as we had 
 crossed it, we steered the usual course of the cur- 
 rent of the Gulf Stream, that here ran from two 
 to three miles an hour. Seeing us alter our 
 course, the cruiser did the same; but she had not 
 crossed the ripple on the edge of the stream, and 
 the course she was now steering tended to keep 
 her for some time from doing so. The result soon 
 made it evident that the observations in the book 
 were correct; for until she too crossed the ripple 
 into the stream, we dropped her rapidly astern, 
 whereby we increased our distance ta at least seven 
 miles. 
 
 It was now noon, from which time the enemy 
 again began to close with us, and at five o'clock 
 was not more than three miles distant. At six 
 o'clock she opened a harmless fire with the Parrot 
 gun in her bow, the shot falling far short of us. 
 The sun set at a quarter to seven, by which time 
 she had got so near that she managed to send two 
 or three shots over us, and was steadily coming up. 
 
 Luckily, as night came on, the weather became 
 very cloudy, and we were on the dark side of the 
 moon, now setting in the West, which occasionally 
 breaking through the clouds astern of the cruiser, 
 showed us all her movements, while we must have 
 been very difficult to make out, though certainly
 
 EXCITING ADVENTURES 131 
 
 not more than a mile off. All this time she kept 
 firing away, thinking, I suppose, that she would 
 frighten us into stopping. If we had gone 
 straight on, we should doubtless have been caught ; 
 so we altered our course two points to the east- 
 ward. After steaming a short distance we stopped 
 quite still, blowing off steam under water, not a 
 spark or the slightest smoke showing from the fun- 
 nel; and we had the indescribable satisfaction of 
 seeing our enemy steam past us, still firing ahead 
 at some imaginary vessel. 
 
 This had been a most exciting chase and a very 
 narrow escape; night only saved us from a New 
 York prison. All this hard running had made an 
 awful hole in our coal-bunkers, and as it was neces- 
 sary to keep a stock for a run off the blockaded 
 Bahama Islands, we were obliged to reduce our ex- 
 penditure to as small a quantity as possible. 
 However we were well out to sea, and after having 
 passed the line of cruisers between Wilmington 
 and Bermuda, we had not much to fear till we 
 approached the British possessions of Nassau and 
 the adjacent islands, where two or three very fast 
 American vessels were cruising, although five hun- 
 dred miles from American waters. 
 
 I am ignorant, I confess, of the laws of block- 
 ade, or indeed if a law there be that allows its en- 
 forcement, and penalties to be enacted, five hun-
 
 132 HOBART PASHA 
 
 dred miles away from the ports blockaded. But it 
 did seem strange that the men-of-war of a nation 
 at peace with England should be allowed to cruise 
 off her ports, to stop and examine trading vessels 
 of all descriptions, to capture and send to New 
 York, for adjudication, vessels on the mere sus- 
 picion of their being intended blockade-runners ; 
 and to chase and fire into real blockade-runners so 
 near to the shore that on one occasion the shot and 
 shell fell into a fishing village, and that within 
 sight of an English man-of-war lying at anchor 
 in the harbor of Nassau. Surely it is time that 
 some well-understood laws should be made, and 
 rules laid down, or such doings will sooner or later 
 recoil on their authors. 
 
 Having so little coal on board, we determined 
 on making for the nearest point of the Bahama 
 Islands, and luckily reached a queer little island 
 called Green Turtle Quay, on the extreme north of 
 the group, where was a small English colony, with- 
 out being seen by the cruisers. We had not been 
 there long, however, before one of them came 
 sweeping round the shore, and stopped unpleas- 
 antly near to us ; even though we were inside the 
 rock she hovered about outside, not a mile from us. 
 
 We were a tempting bait, but a considerable 
 risk to snap, and I suppose the American captain 
 could not quite make up his mind to capture a
 
 EXCITING ADVENTURES 133 
 
 vessel (albeit a blockade-runner piled full of cot- 
 ton) lying in an English port, insignificant though 
 that port might be. We had got a large white 
 English ensign hoisted on a pole, thereby showing 
 the nationality of the rock, should the cruiser be 
 inclined to question it. After many longing looks, 
 she steamed slowly away, much to our satisfac- 
 tion. Coals were sent to us from Nassau the next 
 day, which having been taken on board, we weighed 
 anchor, keeping close to the reefs and islands all 
 the way. We steamed towards that port, and ar- 
 rived safely, having made the in-and-out voyage, 
 including the time in unloading and loading at 
 Wilmington, in sixteen days. 
 
 To attempt to describe at length the state of 
 things at this usually tranquil and unfrequented 
 little spot is beyond my powers. I will only men- 
 tion some of its most striking features. Nassau 
 differed much from Wilmington, inasmuch as at 
 the latter place there was a considerable amount of 
 poverty and distress, and men's minds were 
 weighted with many troubles and anxieties; 
 whereas, at Nassau, everything at the time I speak 
 of was couleur de rose. Every one seemed pros- 
 perous and happy. You met with calculating, 
 far-seeing men who were steadily employed in 
 feathering their nests, let the war in America end 
 as it might ; others who, in the height of their en-
 
 HOBART PASHA 
 
 thusiasm for the Southern cause, put their last 
 farthing into Confederate securities, anticipat- 
 ing enormous profits. Some men, careless and 
 thoughtless, living for the hour, were spending 
 their dollars as fast as they made them, forgetting 
 that they would " never see the like again." 
 There were rollicking captains and officers of 
 blockade-runners, and drunken swaggering crews ; 
 sharpers looking out for victims; Yankee spies; 
 and insolent worthless free niggers all these 
 combined made a most heterogeneous, though in- 
 teresting, crowd. 
 
 The inhabitants of Nassau, who, until the period 
 of blockade-running, had, with some exceptions, 
 subsisted on a precarious and somewhat question- 
 able livelihood gained by wrecking, had their heads 
 as much turned as the rest of the world. Living 
 was exorbitantly dear, as can be well imagined, 
 when the captain of a blockade-runner could realise 
 in a month a sum as large as the Governor's 
 salary. The expense of living was so great that 
 the officers of the West India regiment quartered 
 here had to apply for special allowance, and I 
 believe their application was successful. The 
 hotel, a large building, hitherto a most ruinous 
 speculation, began to realise enormous profits. In 
 fact, the almighty dollar was spent as freely as the
 
 EXCITING ADVENTURES 135 
 
 liumble cent had been before this golden era in the 
 annals of Nassau. 
 
 As we had to stay here till the time for the 
 dark nights came round again, we took it easy, 
 and thoroughly enjoyed all the novelty of the 
 scene. Most liberal entertainment was provided 
 free by our owner's agent, and altogether we found 
 Nassau very j oily : so much so, that we felt almost 
 sorry when " time " was called, and we had to 
 prepare for another run. In fact, it was pleas- 
 anter in blockade-running to look backwards than 
 forwards, especially if one had been so far in good 
 luck.
 
 CHAPTER XH 
 
 A VISIT TO CHARLESTON 
 
 ALL being ready, we steamed out of Nassau 
 harbor, and were soon again in perilous 
 waters. We had a distant chase now and 
 then a mere child's play to us after our ex- 
 perience and on the third evening of our voyage 
 we were pretty well placed for making a run 
 through the blockading squadron as soon as it 
 was dark. As the moon rose at twelve o'clock, it 
 was very important that we should get into port 
 before she threw a light upon the subject. 
 
 Unfortunately, we were obliged to alter our 
 course or stop so often to avoid cruisers that we 
 ran our time too close; for, as we were getting 
 near to the line of blockade, a splendid three- 
 quarter-size moon rose, making everything as clear 
 as day. Trying to pass through the line of 
 vessels ahead with such a bright light shining 
 would have been madness; in fact, it was danger- 
 ous to be moving about at all in such clear weather, 
 so we steamed towards the land on the extreme 
 left of the line of cruisers, and having made it 
 out, went quite close inshore and anchored. 
 136
 
 A VISIT TO CHARLESTON 137 
 
 By lying as close as we dared to the beach, we 
 must have had the appearance of forming part of 
 the low sand-hills, which were about the height 
 and color of the vessel; the wood on their tops 
 forming a background which hid the small amount 
 of funnel and mast that showed above the decks. 
 We must have been nearly invisible, for we had 
 scarcely been an hour at anchor when a gunboat 
 came steaming along the shore very near to the 
 beach; and while we were breathlessly watching 
 her, hoping that she would go past, she dropped 
 anchor alongside of us, a little outside where we 
 were lying so close that we not only heard 
 every order that was given on board, but could 
 almost make out the purport of the ordinary con- 
 versation of the people on her decks. A pistol 
 shot would have easily reached us. Our position 
 was most unpleasant, to say the least of it. We 
 could not stay where we were, as it only wanted 
 two hours to daybreak. If we had attempted to 
 weigh anchor, we must have been heard doing so. 
 However, we had sufficient steam at command to 
 make a run for it. So, after waiting a little to 
 allow the cruiser's fires to get low, we knocked the 
 pin out of the shackle of the chain on deck, and 
 easing the cable down into the water, went ahead 
 with one engine and astern with the other, to turn 
 our vessel round head to seaward.
 
 138 HOBART PASHA 
 
 Imagine our consternation when, as she turned, 
 she struck the shore before coming half round (she 
 had been lying with her head inshore, so now it 
 was pointed along the beach, luckily in the right 
 direction, i.e. lying from the cruiser). There was 
 nothing left to us but to put on full speed, and 
 if possible force her from the obstruction, which 
 after two or three hard bumps we succeeded in 
 doing. 
 
 After steaming quite close to the beach for a 
 little way, we stopped to watch the gunboat, 
 which, after resting for an hour or so, weighed 
 anchor and steamed along the beach in the oppo- 
 site direction to the way we had been steering, and 
 was soon out of sight. So we steamed a short 
 distance inshore and anchored again. It would 
 have been certain capture to have gone out to 
 sea just before daybreak, so we made the little 
 craft as invisible as possible, and remained all the 
 next day, trusting to our luck not to be seen. 
 And our luck favored us ; for, although we saw 
 several cruisers at a distance, none noticed us, 
 which seems almost miraculous. 
 
 Thus passed Christmas Day, 1863, and an 
 anxious day it was to all of us. We might have 
 landed our cargo where we were lying, but it would 
 have been landed in a dismal swamp, and we should
 
 A VISIT TO CHARLESTON 139 
 
 have been obliged to go into Wilmington for our 
 cargo of cotton. 
 
 When night closed in we weighed anchor and 
 steamed to the entrance of the river, which, from 
 our position being so well defined, we had no diffi- 
 culty in making out. We received a broadside 
 from a savage little gunboat quite close inshore, 
 her shot passing over us, and that was all. We 
 got comfortably to the anchorage about half-past 
 eleven o'clock, and so ended our second journey 
 in. 
 
 I determined this time to have a look at Charles- 
 ton, which was then undergoing a lengthened and 
 destructive siege. So, after giving over my craft 
 into the hands of the owner's representatives, who 
 would unload and put her cargo of cotton on 
 board, I took my place in the train and, after pass- 
 ing thirty-six of the most miserable hours in my 
 life travelling the distance of one hundred and 
 forty miles, I arrived at the capital of South 
 Carolina, or rather near to that city for the 
 train, disgusted I suppose with itself, ran quietly 
 off the line about two miles from the station into 
 a meadow. The passengers seemed perfectly con- 
 tented, and shouldering their baggage walked off 
 into the town. I mechanically followed with my 
 portmanteau, and in due course arrived at the
 
 140 HOBART PASHA 
 
 only hotel, where I was informed I might have 
 half a room. 
 
 Acting on a hint I received from a black waiter 
 that food was being devoured in the coffee-room, 
 and that if I did not look out for myself I should 
 have to do without that essential article for the 
 rest of the day, I hurried into the salle-a-manger, 
 where two long tables were furnished with all the 
 luxuries then to be obtained in Charleston, which 
 luxuries consisted of lumps of meat supposed to 
 be beef, boiled Indian corn, and I think there were 
 the remains of a feathered biped or two, to partake 
 of which I was evidently too late. All these 
 washed down with water, or coffee without sugar, 
 were not very tempting; but human nature must 
 be supported, so to it I set. . . . 
 
 Having letters of introduction to some of Gen- 
 eral Beauregard's staff, I made my way to head- 
 quarters, where I met with the greatest courtesy 
 and kindness. An orderly was sent with me to 
 show me the top of the tower, a position that com- 
 manded a famous view of the besieging army, the 
 blockading squadron, and all the defences of the 
 place. A battery had just been placed by the 
 enemy (consisting of five Parrot guns of heavy 
 calibre) five miles from the town, and that day 
 had opened fire for the first time. At that enor- 
 mous range the shell occasionally burst over or
 
 A VISIT TO CHARLESTON 141 
 
 fell into the city, doing, however, little damage. 
 The elevation of the guns must have been un- 
 usually great. I am told that every one of them 
 burst after a week's, or thereabouts, firing. Poor 
 Fort Sumter was nearly silenced after many 
 months' hammering, but its brave defenders re- 
 mained in it to the last, and it was not till a few 
 days before Charleston was abandoned that they 
 gave it up. At the time I speak of the whole of 
 the western beach was in the hands of the enemy, 
 Battery Wagner having succumbed after one of 
 the most gallant defences on record. While it re- 
 mained in the hands of the Southerners it assisted 
 Fort Sumter, inasmuch as from its position it kept 
 the enemy at a distance, but after its capture, or 
 rather destruction, the latter fort was exposed to 
 a tremendous fire from ships and batteries, and its 
 solid front was terribly crumbled. 
 
 Surrounded, however, with water as it was, it 
 would have been most difficult to take by assault ; 
 and from what I could learn, certain destruction 
 would have met any body of men who had at- 
 tempted it latterly. There it stood, sulkily firing 
 a shot or shell now and then, more out of defiance 
 than anything else. The blockading, or rather 
 bombarding, squadron was lying pretty near to it 
 on the western side of the entrance to the harbor ; 
 but on the east side, formidable batteries belong-
 
 HOB ART PASHA 
 
 ing to the Southerners kept them at a respectable 
 distance. Blockade-running into Charleston was 
 quite at an end at the time I am writing about. 
 Not that I think the cruisers could have kept 
 vessels from getting in, but for the reason that the 
 harbor was a perfect network of torpedoes and 
 infernal machines (the passage through which was 
 only known to a few persons), placed by the 
 Southerners to prevent the Northern fleet from 
 approaching the city. 
 
 Having had a good look at the positions of the 
 attacking and defending parties, I went down from 
 the tower and paid a visit to a battery where two 
 Blakely guns of heavy calibre, that had lately been 
 run through the blockade in the well-known Sum- 
 ter (now the Gibraltar), were mounted. These 
 guns threw a shot of 720 Ibs. weight, and were 
 certainly masterpieces of design and execution. 
 Unhappily, proper instructions for loading had 
 not accompanied them from England, and on the 
 occasion of the first round being fired from one 
 of them, the gun not being properly loaded, 
 cracked at the breech, and was rendered useless; 
 the other, however, did good service, throwing shot 
 with accuracy at great distances. I saw much 
 that was interesting here, but more able pens than 
 mine have already described fully the details of 
 that long siege, where on one hand all modern ap-
 
 A VISIT TO CHARLESTON 
 
 pliances of war that ingenuity could conceive or 
 money purchase were put into the hands of brave 
 and determined soldiers; on the other hand were 
 bad arms, bad powder, bad provisions, bad every- 
 thing; desperate courage and unheard-of self- 
 denial being all the Southerners had to depend 
 upon. 
 
 These poor Southerners never began to open 
 their eyes to the hopelessness of their cause till 
 Sherman's almost unopposed march showed the 
 weakness of the whole country. Even strangers 
 like myself were so carried away with the enthu- 
 siasm of the moment, that we shut our eyes to what 
 should have been clearly manifest to us. We could 
 not believe that men who were fighting and endur- 
 ing as these men were could ever be beaten. Some 
 of their leaders must have foreseen that the catas- 
 trophe was coming months before it occurred; 
 but, if they did so, they were afraid to make their 
 opinion public. 
 
 On returning to the hotel, I found it full of 
 people of all classes indulging in tobacco (the only 
 solace left them) in every form. It is all very 
 well to say that smoking is a vile habit ; so it may 
 be, when indulged in by luxurious fellows who eat 
 and drink their full every day, and are rarely with- 
 out a cigar or pipe in their mouths ; it may, per- 
 haps, be justly said that such men abuse the use
 
 144 HOBART PASHA 
 
 of the glorious narcotic supplied by Providence 
 for men's consolation under difficulties. But when 
 a man has hard mental and bodily work, and barely 
 enough food to support nature, water being his 
 only drink, then give him tobacco, and he will 
 thoroughly appreciate it. Besides, it will do him 
 real good. I think that at any time its use in 
 moderation is harmless and often beneficial, but 
 under the circumstances I speak of, it is a luxury 
 without price. 
 
 During the evening I met at the hotel a Con- 
 federate naval officer who was going to attempt 
 that night to carry havoc among the blockading 
 squadron by means of a cigar-shaped vessel of a 
 very curious description. 
 
 This vessel was a screw steamer of sixty feet in 
 length, with eight feet beam. She lay, before be- 
 ing prepared for the important service on which 
 she was going, with about two feet of her hull 
 showing above the water, at each end of which, on 
 the shoulder as it were of the cigar, was a small 
 hatch or opening, just large enough to allow a 
 man to pop through it: from her bows projected 
 a long iron outrigger, at the end of which there 
 was fixed a torpedo that would explode on coming 
 into contact with a vessel's side. 
 
 When the crew were on board, and had gone 
 down into the vessel through one of the hatches
 
 A VISIT TO CHARLESTON 145 
 
 above mentioned, the said hatches were firmly 
 closed, and by arrangements that were made from 
 the inside the vessel was sunk about six inches be- 
 low the water, leaving merely a small portion of 
 the funnel showing. Steam and smoke being got 
 rid of below water, the vessel was invisible, torpedo 
 and all being immersed. 
 
 The officer having thus described his vessel, 
 wished me good-night, and started on his perilous 
 enterprise. I met him again next evening quietly 
 smoking his pipe. I eagerly asked him what he 
 had done, when he told me with the greatest sang- 
 froid that he had gone on board his vessel with a 
 crew of seven men ; that everything for a time had 
 gone like clockwork ; they were all snug below with 
 hatches closed, the vessel was sunk to the required 
 depth, and was steadily steaming down the harbor, 
 apparently perfectly water-tight, when suddenly 
 the sea broke through the foremost hatch and she 
 went to the bottom immediately. He said he did 
 not know how he escaped. He imagined that after 
 the vessel had filled he had managed to escape 
 through the aperture by which the water got in; 
 all the rest of the poor fellows were drowned. 
 Not that my friend seemed to think anything of 
 that, for human life was very little thought of in 
 those times. This vessel was afterwards got up, 
 when the bodies of her crew were still in her hold.
 
 146 HOBART PASHA 
 
 I imagined that the vessel contained sufficient air 
 to enable her to remain under water two or three 
 hours, or maybe some method was practised by 
 which air could be introduced by the funnel; at 
 all events, had she been successful on that night, 
 she would undoubtedly have caused a good deal 
 of damage and loss to the blockading squadron, 
 who were constantly harassed by all sorts of in- 
 fernal machines, torpedoes, fire-vessels, &c., which 
 were sent out against them by ingenious Souther- 
 ners, whose fertile imaginations were constantly 
 conceiving some new invention. 
 
 On 'the next occasion that same officer was em- 
 ployed on a similar enterprise, his efforts were 
 crowned with complete success. 
 
 He started one dark night, in a submerged 
 vessel of the same kind as that above described, 
 and exploded the torpedo against the bows of one 
 of the blockading squadron, doing so much damage 
 that the vessel had to be run on shore to prevent 
 her sinking. 
 
 I must, before finishing my account of what I 
 saw and did in Charleston, mention a circumstance 
 that showed how little the laws of meum and tuum 
 are respected during war times. The morning be- 
 fore I left, I had a fancy for having my coat 
 brushed and my shoes polished. So having de- 
 posited these articles on a chair at the door of my
 
 A VISIT TO CHARLESTON 147 
 
 room, I went to bed again to have another snooze, 
 hoping to find them cleaned when I awoke. After 
 an hour or so I got up to dress, and rang the bell 
 several times without getting any answer. So I 
 opened the door and looked out into the passage. 
 To my surprise I saw an individual sitting on the 
 chair on which I had put my clothes, trying on 
 one of my boots. He had succeeded in getting 
 it half on when it had stuck, and at the time I 
 discovered him he seemed to be in a fix, inasmuch 
 as he could neither get the boot off nor on. He 
 was struggling violently with my poor boot, as 
 if it were his personal enemy, and swearing like a 
 trooper. Not wishing to increase his ire, I 
 blandly insinuated that the boots were mine, on 
 which he turned his wrath towards me, making 
 most unpleasant remarks, which he wound up by 
 saying that in these times anything that a man 
 could pick up lying about was his lawful property, 
 and that he was astonished at my impudence in 
 asking for the boots. However, as the darned 
 things would not fit him " nohow," he guessed I 
 was welcome to them ; and giving a vicious tug to 
 the boot to get it off, he succeeded in doing so, 
 and I, picking it up with its fellow, made good my 
 retreat. But where was my coat? I could not 
 get an echo of an answer, where ? So I went down- 
 stairs and told my piteous tale to the landlord,
 
 148 HOBART PASHA 
 
 who laughed at my troubles, and told me he could 
 not give me the slightest hopes of ever seeing it 
 again; but he offered to lend me a garment in 
 which to travel to Wilmington, which offer I gladly 
 accepted.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 NEVER CAUGHT! 
 
 ON my return to Wilmington I found that 
 my vessel was ready for sea, so I took 
 charge of her, and we went down the river. 
 We had to undergo the same ordeal as before 
 in the way of being smoked and searched. This 
 time there were no runaways discovered, but there 
 was one on board for all that, who made his ap- 
 pearance, almost squashed to death, after we had 
 been twenty-four hours at sea. We then anchored 
 under Fort Fisher, where we waited until it was 
 dark, after which, when the tide was high enough 
 on the bar, we made a move and were soon rushing 
 out to sea at full speed. There was a considerable 
 swell running, which we always considered a point 
 in our favor. By the way, writing of swells puts 
 me in mind of a certain " swell " I had on board 
 as passenger on this occasion, who, while in Wil- 
 mington, had been talking very big about " hunt- 
 ing," which probably he supposed I knew nothing 
 about. He used to give us long narratives of his 
 own exploits in the hunting-field, and expatiated 
 149
 
 150 HOBART PASHA 
 
 on the excitement of flying over ditches and hedges, 
 while apparently he looked upon blockade-running 
 and its petty risks with sublime contempt. Soon 
 after we crossed the bar on our way out a gentle 
 breeze and swell began to lift the vessel up and 
 down, and this motion he described as " very like 
 hunting." 
 
 Just after he had ventured this remark, a 
 Yankee gunboat favored us with a broadside and 
 made a dash to cut us off. This part of the fun, 
 however, my friend did not seem to think at all 
 " like hunting," and after having strongly urged 
 me to return to the anchorage under the protect- 
 ing guns of the fort, he disappeared below, and 
 never talked, to me at least, about hunting again. 
 
 But to return to my story, there was, as I said 
 before, a considerable swell running outside, which 
 was fortunate for us, as we ran almost into a gun- 
 boat lying watching unusually close to the bar. 
 It would have been useless to turn round and en- 
 deavor to escape by going back, as, if we had done 
 so, we should inevitably' have been driven on to 
 the beach, and either captured or destroyed. In 
 such a predicament there was nothing for it but 
 to make a dash past and take the gunboat's fire 
 and its consequences. I knew we had the legs of 
 her, and therefore felt more at ease in thus run- 
 ning the gauntlet than I otherwise should have
 
 NEVER CAUGHT! 151 
 
 done, so on we went at full speed. She fired her 
 broadside at about fifty yards distance, but the 
 shot all passed over us, except one that went 
 through our funnel. The marines on board of her 
 kept up a heavy fire of musketry as long as we 
 were visible, but only slightly wounded one of our 
 men. Rockets were then thrown up as signals to 
 her consorts, two of which came down on us, but 
 luckily made a bad guess at our position, and 
 closed with us on our quarter instead of our bow. 
 They also opened fire, but did us no injury. At 
 the moment there was no vessel in sight ahead ; 
 and as we were going at a splendid pace, we soon 
 reduced our dangerous companions to three or 
 four shadowy forms struggling astern without a 
 hope of catching us. The signaling and firing 
 had, however, brought several other blockaders 
 down to dispute our passage, and we found our- 
 selves at one moment with a cruiser on each side 
 within a pistol shot of us ; our position being that 
 of the meat in a sandwich. So near were the 
 cruisers, that they seemed afraid to fire, from the 
 danger of hitting each other, and, thanks to our 
 superior speed, we shot ahead and left them with- 
 out their having fired a shot. 
 
 Considering the heavy swell that was running, 
 there was the merest chance of their hitting us; 
 in fact, to take a blockade-runner in the night,
 
 152 HOBART PASHA 
 
 when there was a heavy swell or wind, if she did 
 not choose to give in, was next to impossible. To 
 run her down required the cruiser to have much 
 superior speed, and was a dangerous game to play, 
 for vessels have been known to go down themselves 
 while acting that part. 
 
 Then, again, it must be borne in mind that the 
 blockade-runner had always full speed at command, 
 her steam being at all times well up and every one 
 on board on the look-out ; whereas the man-of-war 
 must be steaming with some degree of economy and 
 ease, and her look-out men had not the excitement 
 to keep them always on the qui vive that we had. 
 
 I consider that the only chances the blockading 
 squadron had of capturing a blockade-runner 
 were in the following instances ; viz., in a fair 
 chase in daylight, when superior speed would tell, 
 or chasing her on shore, or driving her in so near 
 the beach that her crew were driven to set fire 
 to her and make their escape ; in which case a prize 
 might be made, though perhaps of no great value ; 
 or frightening a vessel by guns and rockets during 
 the night into giving up. Some of the blockade- 
 runners showed great pluck, and stood a lot of 
 pitching into. About sixty-six vessels left Eng- 
 land and New York to run the blockade during 
 the four years' war, of which more than forty were 
 destroyed by their own crews or captured; but
 
 NEVER CAUGHT! 153 
 
 most of them made several runs before they came 
 to grief, and in so doing paid well for their owners. 
 
 I once left Bermuda, shortly before the end of 
 the war, in company with four others, and was the 
 only fortunate vessel of the lot. Of the other 
 four, three were run on shore and destroyed by 
 their own crews, and one was fairly run down at 
 sea and captured. 
 
 I saw an extraordinarily plucky thing done on 
 one occasion, which I cannot refrain from narrat- 
 ing. We had made a successful run through the 
 blockade, and were lying under Fort Fisher, when 
 as daylight broke we heard a heavy firing, and as 
 it got lighter we saw a blockade-runner sur- 
 rounded by the cruisers. Her case seemed hope- 
 less, but on she came for the entrance, hunted like 
 a rabbit by no end of vessels. The guns of the 
 fort were at once manned, ready to protect her as 
 soon as her pursuers should come within range. 
 Every effort was made to cut her off from the 
 entrance of the river, and how it was she was not 
 sunk I cannot tell. As she came on we could see 
 N , her commander, a well-known successful 
 blockade-runner, standing on her paddle-box with 
 his hat off, as if paying proper respect to the 
 men-of-war. And now the fort opened fire at the 
 chasing cruisers, from whom the blockade-runner 
 was crawling, being by this time well inshore. One
 
 154 HOB ART PASHA 
 
 vessel was evidently struck, as she dropped out of 
 
 range very suddenly. On came the Old J , 
 
 one of the fastest boats in the trade, and anchored 
 all right ; two or three shots in her hull, but not 
 hurt. Didn't we cheer her ! The reason of her be- 
 ing in the position in which we saw her at day- 
 light was that she had run the time rather short, 
 and daylight broke before she could get into the 
 river; so that, instead of being there, she was in 
 the very centre of the blockading fleet. Many 
 
 men would have given in, but old N was made 
 
 of different stuff. 
 
 We got well clear of the cruisers before day- 
 break, and keeping far out to sea, were unmolested 
 during the run to Nassau, where we arrived safely 
 with our second cargo of cotton, having this time 
 been eighteen days making the round trip. 
 
 Having made two round trips, we could afford 
 to take it easy for a short time, and as the dark 
 nights would not come on for three weeks, we gave 
 the little craft a thorough refit, hauling her up on 
 a patent slip that an adventurous American had 
 laid down especially for blockade-runners, and for 
 the use of which we had to pay a price which would 
 have astonished some of our large ship-owners. 
 I 'may mention that blockade-runners always lived 
 well ; maybe acting on the principle that " good 
 people are scarce " ; so we kept a famous table.
 
 NEVER CAUGHT! 155 
 
 An English man-of-war was lying in the harbor, 
 whose officers frequently condescended to visit us, 
 and whose mouths watered at what they saw and 
 heard of the profits and pleasures of blockade- 
 running. Indeed, putting on one side the sordid 
 motives which I dare say to a certain extent 
 actuated us, there was a thrilling and glorious ex- 
 citement about the work, which would have well 
 suited some of these gay young fellows. 
 
 Time again came round too soon, and we had to 
 start on another trip, and to tear ourselves away 
 from all sorts of amusements, some of us from 
 domestic ties: for there were instances of anxious 
 wives who, having followed their husbands to the 
 West Indies, vastly enjoyed all the novelty of 
 the scene.* These ladies had their pet ships, in 
 whose captains they had confidence, and in which 
 they sent private ventures into the Confederacy ; 
 and in this way some of them made a nice little 
 addition to their pin-money. I don't know that 
 any of them speculated in Cockle's pills or 
 corsages, but I heard of one lady who sent in a 
 large quantity of yellow soap, and made an enor- 
 mous profit out of her venture. 
 
 Having completed the necessary alterations and 
 repairs, and made all snug for a fresh run, we 
 
 s 
 
 * Mrs. Hobart, whom he had married in 1848, was one of 
 them. (Ed.)
 
 156 HOBART PASHA 
 
 started again from the port of Nassau. We had 
 scarcely steamed along the coast forty miles from 
 the mouth of the harbor, when we discovered a 
 steamer bearing down on us, and we soon made 
 her out to be a well-known, very fast Yankee 
 cruiser, of whom we were all terribly afraid. As 
 we were still in British waters, skirting the shore 
 of the Bahamas, I determined not to change my 
 course, but kept steadily on, always within a mile 
 of the shore. On the man-of-war firing a shot 
 across our bows as a signal for us to heave to, I 
 hoisted the English colors and anchored. An 
 American officer came on board, who, seeing un- 
 mistakable proofs of the occupation we were en- 
 gaged in, seemed very much inclined to make a 
 prize of us; but on my informing him that I 
 claimed exemption from capture on the ground of 
 the vessel being in British waters, he, after due 
 consideration, sulkily wished me good morning and 
 went back to his ship. She continued to watch 
 us till the middle of the night, when I imagine 
 something else attracted her attention, and she 
 steamed away. We, taking advantage of her 
 temporary absence, weighed our anchor and were 
 soon far out at sea. 
 
 At the end of three days we had run into a 
 position about sixty miles from Wilmington with-
 
 NEVER CAUGHT! 157 
 
 out any incident happening worth mentioning. 
 On our nearing the blockading squadron at night- 
 fall we heard a great deal of firing going on in- 
 shore, which we conjectured (rightly as it after- 
 wards appeared) was caused by the American 
 ships, who were chasing and severely handling a 
 blockade-runner. An idea at once struck me, 
 which I quickly put into execution. We steamed 
 in as fast as we could, and soon made out a vessel 
 ahead that was hurrying in to help her consorts 
 to capture or destroy the contraband. We kept 
 close astern of her, and in this position followed 
 the cruiser several miles. She made signals con- 
 tinually by flashing different colored lights rapidly 
 from the paddle-boxes, the meaning of which I 
 tried my best to make out, so that I might be able 
 to avail myself of the knowledge of the blockade 
 signals at some future time ; but I could not man- 
 age to make head or tail of them. 
 
 Suddenly the firing ceased, and our pioneer 
 turned out to sea again. As we were by this time 
 very near inshore, we stopped the engines and re- 
 mained quite still, but unluckily could not make 
 out our exact position. 
 
 The blockading cruisers were evidently very 
 close in, so we did not like moving about ; besides, 
 the pilot was confident that we were close enough
 
 158 HOBART PASHA 
 
 to the entrance of the river to enable us to run in 
 when day broke, without being in any danger from 
 the enemy. 
 
 Thus for the remainder of the night we lay quite 
 close to the beach. Unfortunately, however, about 
 an hour before daylight we struck the shore, and 
 all our efforts to free the vessel were of no avail. 
 
 As the day dawned we found that we were about 
 a mile from Fort Fisher, and that two of the 
 American vessels nearest the shore were about a 
 mile from us when we first made them out, and 
 were steaming to seaward, having probably been 
 lying pretty near to the river's mouth during the 
 darkness of the night. They were not slow to 
 make us out in our unhappy position. I ordered 
 the boats to be lowered, and gave every one on 
 board the option of leaving the vessel, as it seemed 
 evident that we were doomed to be a bone of con- 
 tention between the fort and the blockaders. All 
 hands, however, stuck to the ship, and we set to 
 work to lighten her as much as possible. Steam 
 being got up to the highest pressure, the engines 
 worked famously, but she would not move, and I 
 feared the sand would get into the bilges. And 
 now a confounded vessel deliberately tried the 
 range with her Parrot gun, and the shot splashed 
 alongside of us. Her fire, however, was promptly 
 replied to by Fort Fisher. The shot from the
 
 NEVER CAUGHT! 159 
 
 fort's heavy artillery passed right over and close 
 to the cruiser, and made her move further out, and 
 thus spoiled the accuracy of the range of our de- 
 voted little craft, which the man-of-war had so 
 correctly obtained. We made a frantic effort to 
 get off our sandy bed, and on all hands running 
 from one extremity of the vessel to the other, to 
 our delight she slipped off into deep water. 
 
 But our troubles were not yet over. To get 
 into the river's mouth it was necessary to make a 
 detour, to do which we had to steer out towards 
 the blockading fleet for a quarter of a mile before 
 we could turn to go into the river. While we were 
 performing this somewhat ticklish manoeuvre, Fort 
 Fisher most kindly opened a heavy fire from all its 
 guns, and thus drew the attention of the blockad- 
 ers from us. In twenty minutes from the time 
 we got off we were safely at anchor under the Con- 
 federate batteries. The vessel that had been so 
 hard chased and fired at during the night was 
 lying safely at the anchorage, not very much 
 damaged. 
 
 This was by far the most anxious time we had 
 gone through. We had to thank the command- 
 ant and garrison of Fort Fisher for our escape. 
 Having paid our gallant rescuers a visit, we took 
 a pilot on board and steamed up to Wilmington. 
 Cape Clear river at this time was full of all sorts
 
 160 HOBART PASHA 
 
 of torpedoes and obstructions, put down to prevent 
 any gunboats from approaching the town of Wil- 
 mington, should the forts at its entrance be taken 
 possession of by the enemy. And as the where- 
 abouts of these obstructions were only known to 
 certain pilots, we had to be careful to have the 
 right man on board. We got up in safety, and 
 finding that our cargo of cotton was ready, made 
 haste to unload and prepare for sea again as 
 quickly as possible. 
 
 There was nothing interesting in Wilmington, 
 which is a large straggling town built on sand- 
 hills. At the time I write of the respectable in- 
 habitants were nearly all away from their homes, 
 and the town was full of adventurers of all de- 
 scriptions; some who came to sell cotton, others 
 to buy at enormous prices European goods brought 
 in by blockade-runners. These goods they took 
 with them into the interior, and, adding a heavy 
 percentage to the price, people who were forced to 
 buy them paid most ruinous prices for the com- 
 monest necessaries of life. 
 
 On this occasion we spent a very short time at 
 Wilmington, and having taken our cargo of cot- 
 ton, we went down the river to the old waiting 
 place under the friendly batteries of Fort Fisher. 
 We had scarcely anchored when a heavy fog came 
 on. As the tide for going over the bar did not suit
 
 NEVER CAUGHT! 161 
 
 till three o'clock in the morning, which I consid- 
 ered an awkward time, inasmuch as we should only 
 have two hours of darkness left in which to get 
 our offing from the land, I determined to go out in 
 the fog and take my chance of the thick weather 
 lasting. I calculated that if we had met with any 
 cruisers, they would not have been expecting us, 
 and so would have been under low steam. 
 
 I was told by every one that I was mad to 
 venture out, and all sorts of prognostications were 
 made that I should come to grief, in spite of which 
 omens of disaster, however, I went over the bar at 
 four o'clock in the afternoon in a fog, through 
 which I could hardly see from one end of the ship 
 to the other, and took my chance. As we went on 
 the fog seemed to get if possible still thicker, and 
 through the night it was impossible for us to see 
 anything or anything to see us. 
 
 In the morning we had an offing of at least a 
 hundred and twenty miles, and nothing was in 
 sight. We made a most prosperous voyage, and 
 arrived at Nassau safely in seventy-two hours, 
 thus completing our third round trip.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 LAST DAYS ON THE " D N " 
 
 AS no vessel had succeeded since the block- 
 ade was established in getting into Savan- 
 nah (a large and flourishing town in 
 Georgia, situated a few miles up a navigable river 
 of the same name), where there was a famous 
 market for all sorts of goods, and where plenty of 
 the finest sea-island cotton was stored ready for 
 embarkation, and as the southern port pilots were 
 of opinion that all that was required to ensure 
 success was an effort to obtain it, I undertook to 
 
 try if we could manage to get the D n in. 
 
 The principal difficulty we had to contend with 
 was that the Northerners had possession of a large 
 fortification called Pulaski, which, being situated 
 at the entrance of the river, commanded the pas- 
 sage up to the town. 
 
 To pass this place in the night seemed easy 
 work enough, as it would be hard for the sentry to 
 make a vessel out disguised as we were; but to 
 avoid the shoals and sand-banks at the river's 
 mouth, in a pitch-dark night, seemed to me, after 
 162
 
 LAST DAYS ON THE " D N" 163 
 
 carefully studying the chart, to be a most difficult 
 matter. This, however, was the pilot's business ; 
 all we captains had to do was to avoid dangers 
 from the guns of ships and forts ; or, if we could 
 not avoid them, to stand being fired at. 
 
 The pilot we had engaged was full of confidence ; 
 so much so, that he refused to have any payment 
 for his services until he had taken us in and out 
 safely. I may as well mention that there were few 
 if any blockading vessels off Savannah river, the 
 Northerners having perfect confidence, I presume, 
 in Fort Pulaski and the shoals which surrounded 
 the entrance of the river being sufficient to prevent 
 any attempt at blockade-running succeeding. 
 The lights in the ship off Port Royal, a small 
 harbor in the hands of the Northern Government, 
 a few miles from the entrance to Savannah, were 
 as bright as in the time of peace, and served as a 
 capital guide to the river's mouth. After two 
 days' run from Nassau we arrived without ac- 
 cident to within twenty miles of the low land 
 through which the Savannah river runs, and at 
 dark steered for the light-vessel lying off Port 
 Royal. Having made it out, in fact steaming 
 close up to it, we shaped our course for Fort 
 Pulaski, using the light as a point of departure, 
 the distance by the chart being twelve miles. We 
 soon saw its outlines looming through the darkness
 
 164 HOBART PASHA 
 
 ahead, and formidable though it looked, it caused 
 me no anxiety, compared with the danger we 
 seemed to be in from the shoal water and breakers 
 being all around us. However, the pilot who had 
 charge of such matters seemed comfortable enough. 
 
 So we went cautiously along, and in ten minutes 
 would have been past danger, at all events from 
 the batteries on the fort, when one of the severest 
 storms I ever remember of, wind and rain, accom- 
 panied by thunder and lightning, came on, and 
 enveloped us in a most impenetrable darkness. 
 Knowing that we were surrounded by most danger- 
 ous shoals, and being then in only fifteen feet of 
 water, I felt our position to be a very perilous 
 one. The pilot had by this time pretty well lost 
 his head ; in fact, it would have puzzled any one to 
 say where we were. So we turned round and 
 steered out to sea again, by the same way we had 
 come in ; and when we were as near as we could 
 guess twenty miles from land, we let go our anchor 
 in fifteen fathoms of water. 
 
 Then came on a heavy gale of wind accompanied 
 by a thick fog, which lasted three days and nights. 
 I never in my life passed such an unpleasant time ; 
 rolling our gunnels under, knowing that we were 
 drifting, our anchor having dragged, but in what 
 direction it was difficult to judge; unable to cook, 
 through the sea we had shipped having put our
 
 galley-fire out ; and, worse than all, burning quan- 
 tities of coal, as we had to keep steam always well 
 up, ready for anything that might happen. 
 
 One day it cleared up for half an hour about 
 noon, and we managed to get meridian observa- 
 tions, which showed us that we had drifted thirty 
 miles of latitude, but we still remained in ignorance 
 of our longitude. On the fourth day the gale 
 moderated, the weather cleared up, and we ascer- 
 tained our position correctly by observations. 
 
 When it was dark we steered for the light-vessel 
 off Port Royal, meaning, as before, to make her 
 our point of departure for the entrance of the 
 river. But we went on and on, and we could not 
 see the glimmer of a light or even anything of a 
 vessel (we found out afterwards that the light- 
 ship had been blown from her moorings in the 
 gale). This was a nice mess. The pilot told us 
 that to attempt to run for the entrance without 
 having the bearings of the light to guide us would 
 have been perfect madness. We had barely enough 
 coal to take us back to Nassau, and if we had 
 remained dodging about, waiting for the light- 
 vessel to be replaced, we should have been 'worse 
 off for fuel, of which we had so little that if we 
 had been chased on our way back we should cer- 
 tainly have been captured. 
 
 So we started for Nassau, keeping well inshore
 
 166 HOBART PASHA 
 
 on the Georgia and Florida coast. Along this 
 coast there were many small creeks and rivers 
 where blockade-running in small craft, and even 
 boats, was constantly carried on, and where the 
 Northerners had stationed several brigs and 
 schooners of war, who did the best they could to 
 stop the traffic. Many an open boat has run over 
 from the northernmost island of the Bahamas 
 group, a distance of fifty miles, and returned with 
 one or two bales of cotton, by which her crew were 
 well remunerated. 
 
 We had little to fear from sailing men-of-war, 
 as the weather was calm and fine, so we steamed 
 a few miles from the shore, all day passing several 
 of them, just out of range of their guns. One 
 vessel tried the effect of a long shot, but we could 
 afford to laugh at her. 
 
 The last night we spent at sea was rather nerv- 
 ous work. We had reduced our coals to about 
 three quarters of a ton, and had to cross the Gulf 
 Stream at the narrow part between the Florida 
 coast and the Bahamas, a distance of twenty-eight 
 miles, where the force of the current is four knots 
 an hour. Our coals were soon finished. We cut 
 up the available spars, oars, &c., burnt a hemp 
 cable (that by the way made a capital blaze), and 
 just managed to fetch across to the extreme west-
 
 LAST DAYS ON THE " D N " 167 
 
 era end of the group of islands belonging to Great 
 Britain, where we anchored. 
 
 We couldn't have steamed three miles further. 
 On the wild spot where we anchored there was for- 
 tunately a small heap of anthracite coal, that 
 probably had been part of the cargo of some 
 wreck, of which we took as much as would carry 
 us to Nassau, and arrived there safely. Thus the 
 attempt to get into Savannah was a failure. It 
 was tried once afterwards by a steamer which man- 
 aged to get well past the fort, but which stuck on 
 a sand-bank shortly after doing so, and was cap- 
 tured in the morning. 
 
 It is not my intention to inflict on my readers 
 any more anecdotes of my own doings in the 
 
 D n; suffice it to say that I had the good 
 
 luck to make six round trips in her, in and out of 
 Wilmington, and that I gave her over to the chief 
 officer and went home to England with my spoils. 
 On arriving at Southampton, the first thing I saw 
 in the Times was a paragraph headed, " The 
 
 Capture of the D n." Poor little craft! I 
 
 learned afterwards how she was taken, which I 
 will relate, and which will show that she died game. 
 
 The officer to whom I gave over charge * was 
 as fine a specimen of a seaman as well can be im- 
 * His first officer on the Don. (Ed.)
 
 168 HOBART PASHA 
 
 agined, plucky, cool, and determined, and by the 
 way he was a bit of a medico, as well as a sailor ; 
 for by his beneficial treatment of his patients we 
 had very few complaints of sickness on board. 
 As our small dispensary was close to my cabin, 
 I used to hear the conversation that took place 
 
 between C and his patients. I will repeat 
 
 one. 
 
 C. " Well, my man, what's the matter with 
 you?" 
 
 Patient. " Please, sir, I've got pains all over 
 me." 
 
 C. " Oh, all over you, are tney ; that's bad." 
 
 Then, during the pause, it was evident some- 
 thing was being mixed up, and I could hear C 
 
 say : " Here, take this, and come again in the 
 
 evening." (Exit patient.) Then C said to 
 
 himself : " I don't think he'll come again ; he has 
 got two drops of the croton. Skulking rascal, 
 pains all over him, eh ! " I never heard the voice 
 of that patient again ; in fact, after a short time 
 we had no cases of sickness on board. C ex- 
 plained to me that the only medicine he served out, 
 as he called it, was croton oil; and that none of 
 the crew came twice for treatment. 
 
 Never having run through the blockade as the 
 commander of a vessel (though he was with me all 
 the time and had as much to do with our luck as
 
 LAST DAYS ON THE " 
 
 I had), he was naturally very anxious to get safely 
 through. There can be no doubt that the vessel 
 had lost much of her speed, for she had been very 
 hardly pushed on several occasions. This told 
 sadly against her, as the result will show. On the 
 third afternoon after leaving Nassau she was in 
 a good position for attempting the run when night 
 came on. She was moving stealthily about wait- 
 ing for the evening, when suddenly, on the weather, 
 which had been hitherto thick and hazy, clearing 
 up, she saw a cruiser unpleasantly near to her, 
 which bore down under steam and sail, and it soon 
 
 became probable that the poor little D n's 
 
 twin screws would not save her this time, well and 
 often as they had done so before. 
 
 The cruiser, a large full-rigged corvette, was 
 coming up hand over hand, carrying a strong 
 breeze, and the days of the D n seemed num- 
 bered, when C tried a ruse worthy of any of 
 
 the heroes of naval history. 
 
 The wind, as I said, was very fresh, with a good 
 deal of sea running. On came the cruiser till the 
 
 D n was almost under her bows, and shortened 
 
 sail in fine style. The moment the men were in the 
 
 rigging, going aloft to furl the sails, C put 
 
 his plan into execution. He turned his craft head 
 to wind, and steamed deliberately past the corvette 
 at not fifty yards' distance. She, with great way
 
 170 HOBART PASHA 
 
 on, went nearly a quarter of a mile before she 
 could turn. 
 
 I have it from good authority that the order 
 was not given to the marines on the man-of-war's 
 poop to fire at the plucky little craft who had so 
 fairly out-manoeuvred the cruiser, for out-manoeu- 
 vred she was to all intents and purposes. The 
 two or three guns that had been cast loose during 
 the chase had been partially secured, and left so 
 while the men had gone aloft to furl the sails, so 
 that not a shot was fired as she went past. Shortly 
 after she had done so, however, the cruiser opened 
 fire with her bow guns, but with the sea that was 
 running it could do no harm, being without any 
 
 top weights. The D <n easily dropped the 
 
 corvette with her heavy spars astern, and was soon 
 far ahead; so much so that when night came on 
 the cruiser was shut out of sight in the darkness. 
 
 After this the D n deserved to escape, but 
 
 it was otherwise fated. The next morning when 
 day broke she was within three miles of one of the 
 new fast vessels, which had come out on her trial 
 trip, flying light, alas! She had an opportunity 
 of trying her speed advantageously to herself. 
 
 She snapped up the poor D n in no time, and 
 
 took her into the nearest port. I may mention 
 
 that the D n and her captain were well known 
 
 and much sought after by the American cruisers.
 
 LAST DAYS ON THE " D N " 171 
 
 The first remark that the officer made on coming 
 aboard her was : " Well, Captain Roberts, so we 
 have caught you at last ! " and he seemed much 
 disappointed when he was told that the captain 
 they so particularly wanted went home in the last 
 mail. The corvette which had chased and been 
 
 cheated by the D n the day before was lying 
 
 in the port into which she was taken. Her cap- 
 tain, when he saw the prize, said : " I must go on 
 board and shake hands with the gallant fellow who 
 commands that vessel ! " and he did so, warmly 
 
 complimenting C on the courage he had shown, 
 
 thus proving that he could appreciate pluck, and 
 that American naval men did not look down on 
 blockade-running as a grievous sin, hard work as 
 it gave them in trying to put a stop to it. They 
 were sometimes a little severe on men who, after 
 having been fairly caught in a chase at sea, wan- 
 tonly destroyed their compasses, chronometers, 
 &c., rather than let them fall into the hands of 
 the cruiser's officers. I must say that I was 
 always prepared, had I been caught, to have made 
 the best of things, to have given the officers who 
 came to take possession all that they had fairly 
 gained by luck having declared on their side, and 
 to have had a farewell glass of champagne with 
 the new tenant at the late owner's expense. 
 
 The treatment received by persons captured en-
 
 173 HOBART PASHA 
 
 gaged in running the blockade differed very ma- 
 terially. If a bond fide American man-of-war of 
 the old school made the capture, they were always 
 treated with kindness by their captors. But there 
 were among the officers of vessels picked up hur- 
 riedly and employed by the Government a very 
 rough lot, who rejoiced in making their prisoners 
 as uncomfortable as possible. They seemed to 
 have only one good quality, and this was that 
 there were among them many good freemasons, 
 and frequently a prisoner found the advantage of 
 having been initiated into the brotherhood. 
 
 The D n's crew fell into very good hands, 
 
 and till they arrived at New York were comfort- 
 able enough; but the short time they spent in 
 prison there, while the vessel was undergoing the 
 mockery of a trial in the Admiralty Court, was far 
 from pleasant. However, it did not last very long 
 not more than ten days ; and as soon as they 
 were free most of them went back to Nassau or 
 
 Bermuda ready for more work. C came to 
 
 England and told me all his troubles. Poor fel- 
 low! I am afraid his services were not half ap- 
 preciated as they ought to have been, for success, 
 in blockade-running as in everything else, is a vir- 
 tue, whereas bad luck, even though accompanied 
 with the pluck of a hero, is always more or less a 
 crime, not to be forgiven.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE 
 
 AFTER the excitement of the last six or 
 eight months I could not long rest in Eng- 
 land, satisfied with the newspaper accounts 
 of the goings on in the blockade-running world. 
 So I got the command of a new and very fast 
 paddle-wheel vessel, and went out again. The 
 American Government had determined to do every- 
 thing in its power to stop blockade-running, and 
 had lately increased the force of blockaders on the 
 southern coast by some very fast vessels built at 
 New York. Being aware of this, some of the first 
 shipbuilders in England and Scotland were put, 
 by persons engaged in blockade-running, on their 
 mettle, to try and build steamers to beat them, and 
 latterly it became almost a question of speed, es- 
 pecially in the daylight adventures, between block- 
 aders and blockade-runners. 
 
 Some of the vessels on this side of the water 
 
 were constructed regardless of any good quality 
 
 but speed, consequently their scantling was light, 
 
 and their seagoing qualities very inferior. Many 
 
 173
 
 174 HOBART PASHA 
 
 of them came to grief; two or three swamped at 
 sea ; others, after being out a few days, struggled 
 back into Queenstown, the lamest of lame ducks; 
 while some got out as far as Nassau quite unfit 
 for any further work. 
 
 My vessel was one of the four built by R 
 
 and G of Glasgow, and was just strong 
 
 enough to stand the heavy cross sea in the Gulf 
 Stream. She was wonderfully fast, and, taking 
 her all in all, was a success. On one occasion I 
 had a fair race in the open day with one of the 
 best of the new vessels that the American Govern- 
 ment had sent out to beat creation wherever she 
 could meet it, and I fairly ran away from her. 
 
 On arriving at Wilmington in my new vessel I 
 started to have a look at Richmond, which city 
 was then besieged on its southern and eastern sides 
 by General Grant, who, however, was held in check 
 by Lee at Petersburg, a small town situated in 
 an important position about eighteen miles from 
 the capital. To get to Richmond was not easily 
 accomplished without making a long detour into 
 the interior (for which we had no time), for the 
 outposts of the contending armies disputed pos- 
 session of the last forty miles of the railroad be- 
 tween Wilmington and Petersburg, the latter town 
 being on the line to Richmond. As telegraphic 
 communication was stopped, it was a difficult mat-
 
 RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE 175 
 
 ter to ascertain, day by day, whether a train could 
 pass safely. 
 
 We had in our party the young General Custis 
 Lee, a nephew of the Confederate commander-in- 
 chief, on his way to his uncle's headquarters, who 
 kindly offered his assistance in getting us through. 
 When we arrived at a station some forty miles 
 from Richmond we found, as we feared would be 
 the case, our further progress by rail impractic- 
 able, but we got hold of a couple of wagons drawn 
 by mules, into which we managed to stow ourselves 
 and baggage. We travelled through all sorts of 
 by-lanes, bumped almost to pieces for four miles, 
 steering in the direction of the headquarters of 
 the cavalry outposts, which were commanded by 
 a celebrated raiding officer, also a nephew of the 
 commander-in-chief. At last we found ourselves 
 in a beautiful green valley surrounded by thick 
 woods, where the general and his staff were quar- 
 tered. He had with him two or three thousand 
 cavalry, who, in spite of their bad clothing and 
 somewhat hungry appearance, were as fine-looking 
 a body of men as one would wish to see. 
 
 The general and his staff gave us a hearty 
 welcome. Poor fellows, it was all they had to 
 offer ! We on our part produced sundry cases of 
 sardines, Bologna sausages, and other tempting 
 condiments wherewith to make a feast.
 
 176 HOBART PASHA 
 
 All these good things were duly appreciated, 
 not only by our new friends, who for months past 
 had tasted nothing but coarse rye-bread and pork 
 washed down with water, but also by well-shaken 
 travellers like ourselves. Lying on the grass in 
 that lovely spot, it seemed as if the war and all its 
 horrors were for the moment forgotten. There 
 were several Englishmen among the officers com- 
 posing the staff, who had (they said) come out 
 here to see active service, which they unquestion- 
 ably had found to their hearts' content. They 
 seemed the sort of men who would do credit to their 
 country. I often wonder what has become of 
 them ; in one of them I was particularly interested. 
 He said his name was Cavendish, but it may have 
 been a nom de guerre. 
 
 While we were in the camp a picket came in, 
 whose officer reported having had a skirmish with 
 the enemy, in which the Northerners had been 
 whipped. The way the cavalry outposts engaged 
 with each other was curious enough. The ground 
 they met on did not admit of cavalry charges be- 
 ing made, as thick underwood covered the country 
 for miles round. So, when they were inclined for 
 a brush, they dismounted, tied their horses to trees, 
 and skirmished in very open lines, every man pick- 
 ing out his special enemy. When the}' had had 
 enough of it, they picked up their killed and
 
 RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE 177 
 
 wounded, and, mounting their horses, rode away. 
 
 After passing four or five hours with our cavalry 
 friends we bade them good-bye, and started (still 
 accompanied by our valuable companion, the 
 young general) on our way to the headquarters 
 of the army, where we were to pass the night. It 
 was well for us that we travelled in such good com- 
 pany, for having to pass all along the outskirts 
 of the Southern army, we were constantly stopped 
 and interrogated by patrols and pickets. Besides 
 which we were sometimes disagreeably near to the 
 outposts of the " boys in blue," as Grant's men 
 were called. 
 
 Having arrived very late in the evening at our 
 destination, we bivouacked under the trees close 
 to the headquarters of the general commanding, 
 who was away at the front, and not expected back 
 till the next evening. The rattle of musketry and 
 the boom of heavy guns all through the night re- 
 minded us of our vicinity to the theatre of war, 
 and somewhat disturbed our rest. But if we were 
 a little nervous, we took care not to show it. In 
 the morning we started in our wagons, and, after 
 travelling a few miles across the country, came to 
 the railway that connected the camp with Rich- 
 mond. A train shortly afterwards picked us up 
 and landed us at the capital of Virginia, where 
 we took up our quarters at a comfortable-looking
 
 178 HOBART PASHA 
 
 hotel. There was more to drink and eat here than 
 at Charleston, consequently people had cheerful 
 countenances. . . . Here we found that the people 
 had that wonderful blind confidence in the Southern 
 cause which had mainly supported them through 
 all difficulties. 
 
 At this moment, though a line of earthworks 
 hurriedly thrown up in a few hours at Petersburg 
 was nearly all that kept Grant's well-organised 
 army from entering the capital ; though the neces- 
 saries of war, and even of life, were growing alarm- 
 ingly short; though the soldiers were badly fed, 
 and only half-clothed or protected from the in- 
 clemency of the weather (one blanket being all that 
 was allowed to three men), still every one seemed 
 satisfied that the South would somehow or other 
 gain the day, and become an independent nation. 
 
 While in Richmond I had the pleasure of mak- 
 ing the acquaintance of the talented correspondent 
 of the Times, who, although in a position to 
 look on calmly at passing events, was so carried 
 away by his admiration of the wonderful pluck 
 shown by the Southerners, and by the general en- 
 thusiasm of the people among whom he lived, that 
 he allowed himself to be buoyed up with the hope 
 that something would eventually turn up in their 
 favor, and in his letters never seemed to despair. 
 Had he done otherwise he would have stood alone,
 
 RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE 179 
 
 so he swam with the tide; whereas all of us, es- 
 pecially those who were mere lookers-on, should 
 have seen the end coming months before we were 
 obliged to open our eyes to the fact that it was 
 come. Through his acquaintance with the big- 
 wigs, we managed to get a few of them to accept 
 an invitation to a feed, as we could offer luxuries 
 such as could not be found in Richmond. 
 
 Some of the first men in the Confederacy hon- 
 ored us with their company, and made themselves 
 uncommonly agreeable, seeming quite a jolly set of 
 fellows. I fear that they have nearly all come to 
 grief since then, except Mr. Benjamin, the Minis- 
 ter of Foreign Affairs, who before his death, which 
 occurred several years after the time that I write,* 
 made himself a name in England worthy of his 
 high talents and education. 
 
 I had the honor, while in Richmond, of being 
 invited to a tea party by Mrs. Davis, the Presi- 
 dent's wife, which I thought very interesting. 
 The ladies were all dressed in deep mourning ; some 
 (the greater part) for the sad reason that they 
 had lost near and dear relatives in the wretched 
 war; the others, I suppose, were in mourning for 
 their country's misfortunes. Mrs. Davis moved 
 about the room saying something civil to every 
 one, while the President, though a stern-looking 
 *This was penned in 1867. (Ed.)
 
 180 HOBART PASHA 
 
 man who never smiled, tried to make himself agree- 
 able to his guests, and gave one the idea of a thor- 
 ough gentleman. I saw there military officers who 
 had lately come from the front, surrounded by 
 groups of people anxious for news ; delegates from 
 distant seceding States; messengers from Hood's 
 army, about which many were beginning to be anx- 
 ious ; sympathising foreigners, government offi- 
 cials, and many others. The whole of the con- 
 versation naturally related to the prospects of the 
 cause, and no one would have guessed from what 
 he heard in President Davis's house that the end 
 was so near. 
 
 I was anxious before my return to see something 
 of the army that had so long defended Richmond. 
 So I only remained a few days at the capital, after 
 which I left it and its, alas ! too confiding inhabit- 
 ants, and made my way as best I could to the 
 headquarters of the commander-in-chief. There I 
 presented my letters of introduction to General 
 Lee. 
 
 It would perhaps be impertinence on my part 
 to attempt to eulogise the character of this excel- 
 lent man and good soldier, who, most thoroughly 
 believing in the justice of the Southern cause, had 
 sacrificed everything he possessed in its behalf, and 
 had thrown all his energy and talent into the scale 
 in its favor. Many who knew him well have done
 
 RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE 181 
 
 and will continue to do justice to his patriotism 
 and self-denial. I had a very long conversation 
 with him, which I wish I could repeat without being 
 guilty of a breach of confidence, as evidence of the 
 sensible notions he had formed of the state of af- 
 fairs in the South. He was the only man I met 
 during my travels who took a somewhat gloomy 
 view of the military prospects of the country of 
 which, as a soldier, there could be no better judge. 
 After spending twenty-four hours in the camp, 
 we went to the railway station to see if we could 
 get places for Wilmington. We found that the 
 line was in the hands of the Southerners, and that 
 although the *' boys in blue " had a vulgar habit 
 of firing into the carriages as they passed, the 
 trains were running each night. But a train run- 
 ning and a non-combatant passenger getting a 
 place in a carriage were widely different things, 
 every available seat being taken up by sick and 
 wounded soldiers. I made a frantic effort to get 
 into the train somehow, and after a severe struggle 
 succeeded in scrambling into a sort of horse-box 
 and sat me down on a long deal box, which seemed 
 rather a comfortable place to sleep on. It was 
 pitch dark when I got into the train, and we were 
 obliged to keep in the dark until we had run the 
 gauntlet of the Northern pickets, who favored us 
 with a volley or two at a long range from the
 
 182 HOBART PASHA 
 
 hills overlooking the railway. When we were 
 clear of them I lighted a match, and to ray horror 
 found that I was comfortably lounging on a coffin. 
 I wished I had not thrown a light on the subject, 
 but by degrees, becoming accustomed I suppose 
 to my position, I sank into a comfortable sleep 
 and was really quite sorry when, on arriving at 
 some station just before daylight, people came to 
 remove my peculiar though far from uncomfort- 
 able couch. I felt its loss the more, for in its place 
 they put a poor fellow wounded nearly to death, 
 whose moans and cries were, beyond anything, dis- 
 tressing. We were a long time getting to Wil- 
 mington, as it was necessary to stop and repair 
 most of the bridges on the line before the train 
 could venture over them, an operation at which 
 all passengers sound in wind and limb had to as- 
 sist. 
 
 On arriving there we found all the world in a 
 state of great excitement, on account of there hav- 
 ing been a terrible fire among the cotton lying on 
 the quays ready for embarkation, supposed to have 
 been the work of an incendiary. 
 
 The recollections of my last proceedings in the 
 blockade-running are far from pleasant, and I 
 shall pass them over as briefly as possible. 
 
 When we had only the American Government
 
 RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE 183 
 
 cruisers to fear, we enjoyed the excitement in the 
 same way as a man enjoys fox-hunting (only, by 
 the way, we were the fox instead of the huntsmen), 
 but when dire disease, in the worst form that Yel- 
 low Jack could take, stalked in amongst us, and 
 reduced our numbers almost hourly, things be- 
 came too serious to be pleasant. 
 
 However, before the fever showed itself we made 
 one successful round trip in the new vessel (in 
 and out) in capital form, having some exciting 
 chases and little adventures, all very similar to 
 what I have described before, the vessel doing 
 credit to her designers on all occasions. We 
 landed one thousand one hundred and forty bales 
 of cotton at Bermuda, and it was after we had 
 started from Wilmington on our second trip that 
 the horrid yellow fever broke out among us. I 
 believe that every precaution was taken by the 
 Government of the island to prevent the disease 
 from spreading, but increased by the drunken- 
 ness, dissipation, and dirty habits of the crews of 
 the blockade-runners, and the wretchedly bad 
 drainage of the town of St. George, it had lately 
 broken out with great violence, and had spread 
 like wildfire, both on the shore and among the ship- 
 ping. It must have been brought on board our 
 ship by some of the men, who had been spending
 
 184 HOBART PASHA 
 
 much time on shore; we had not been twenty-four 
 hours at sea before the fever had got deadly hold 
 on our crew. 
 
 We went to Halifax, where we landed our sick 
 and inhaled some purer air ; but it was of no avail. 
 The fever was in the vessel and we could not shake 
 it off. The poor fellows as soon as we were out 
 at sea again began to drop off. I never can for- 
 get an incident of that voyage, which, as it could 
 only have happened during blockade-running 
 times, I will mention, melancholy though it was. 
 Two men died in the middle watch one night, when 
 we were in very dangerous waters. Their bodies 
 were wrapped in rough shrouds, ready to be com- 
 mitted to the deep when daylight broke, as we 
 dared not show a light whereby to read the Fu- 
 neral Service. I never waited so anxiously or 
 thought the dawn so long in coming. I was wait- 
 ing with my Prayer-book in my hands straining 
 my eyes to make out the service; the men with 
 their hats off, standing by the bodies, ready to 
 ease them down into the sea. Our minds I fear 
 wandered towards the danger that existed (almost 
 to a certainty) of a cruiser making us out by the 
 same light that enabled us to perform our sad 
 office. However, as soon as there was light enough, 
 the service was read without any indecent hurry,
 
 RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE 185 
 
 and fortunately nothing was in sight to disturb 
 us for several hours afterwards. 
 
 It was miserable work. That morning about 
 seven o'clock a man came up from the engine- 
 room, and while trying to say something to me 
 fell down in a fit, and was dead in half an hour. 
 There was quite a panic among us all, and as if 
 to make things worse to the superstitious sailors, 
 whenever we stopped several horrid sharks im- 
 mediately showed themselves swimming round the 
 vessel. The men lost all heart, and would I think 
 have been thankful to have been captured, as a 
 means of escape from what they believed to be 
 a doomed vessel. Taking into consideration that 
 if we got into Wilmington we should, with this 
 dreadful disease on board, have been put into al- 
 most interminable quarantine (for the inhabitants 
 of Wilmington having been decimated before by 
 yellow fever, which was introduced by blockade- 
 runners, had instituted the most severe sanitary 
 laws), I determined to go back to Halifax. 
 
 On arriving there I was taken very ill with yel- 
 low fever, and on my recovery made up my mind 
 to give up blockade-running for ever and all. The 
 game indeed was fast drawing to a close. Its 
 decline was caused in the first by the impolitic 
 behavior of the people at Wilmington, who, pro-
 
 186 HOBART PASHA 
 
 fessedly acting under orders from the Confederate 
 Government at Richmond, pressed the blockade- 
 runners into their service to carry out cotton on 
 Government account, in such an arbitrary manner 
 that the profit to their owners, who had been put 
 to an enormous expense and risk in sending ves- 
 sels in, was so much reduced that the ventures 
 hardly paid. And when at last Fort Fisher was 
 taken, and thus all blockade-running entirely put 
 an end to, the enterprise had lost much of its 
 charm; for, unromantic as it may seem, much of 
 that charm consisted in money-making. 
 
 However, I will mention one or two instances 
 to show what the love of enterprise will lead men 
 to do, and with these I will close my narration. 
 
 On the first night of the attack on Fort Fisher, 
 which it may be remembered was a failure entirely 
 through bad management, though its little gar- 
 rison fought like lions, a blockade-runner unaware 
 of what was going on, finding that the blockading 
 squadron was very near inshore and hearing a 
 great deal of firing, kept creeping nearer to the 
 fort, till she was near enough to make out what 
 they were doing. Judging rightly that they would 
 never suspect that any attempt would be made to 
 run the blockade at such a time, she joined a de- 
 tachment of gunboats and went deliberately in 
 as one of them. When they, being repulsed, had
 
 RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE 187 
 
 steamed away, our friend remained at anchor under 
 the fort, much to the astonishment of the garrison. 
 It would have been rather awkward if the fort had 
 been taken, but in such times no one looks very 
 far ahead. 
 
 Another vessel went out from Wilmington the 
 same night, and was unmolested. But fortune 
 does not always favor the brave. Fort Fisher was 
 at last taken unbeknownst, as the sailors say, to 
 the blockade-runners at Nassau or Bermuda, at 
 which places the blindest confidence was still felt 
 in everything connected with the fortunes of the 
 South, and where to whisper an opinion that any 
 mishap might happen to Wilmington was posi- 
 tively dangerous. The crafty Northerners placed 
 the lights for going over the bar as usual. The 
 blockade-runners came cautiously on, and, con- 
 gratulating themselves at seeing no cruisers, ran 
 gaily into the port. The usual feasting and re- 
 joicings were about to commence when a boat full 
 of armed men came alongside, and astonished them 
 by telling them that they were in the lion's mouth. 
 This happened to four or five vessels before the 
 news had reached the islands. It was hard lines, 
 no doubt, but quite fair play. It was the blockad- 
 ers* turn to laugh now.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE LAND BLOCKADE 
 
 I HAVE now come to the end of my blockade- 
 running yarns. I have endeavored to avoid 
 giving offence to any one: to the American 
 officers and men who manned the cruisers I can, 
 as a nautical man, truly and honestly give the 
 credit of having most zealously performed their 
 hard and wearisome duty. It was not their fault 
 that I did not visit New York at the Government's 
 expense ; but the old story that " blockades, to be 
 legal, must be efficient," is a tale for bygone days. 
 So long as batteries at the entrance of the port 
 blockaded keep ships at a respectable distance, the 
 blockade will be broken. 
 
 A practical suggestion that my experience dur- 
 ing the time I was a witness of the war in America 
 would lead me to make is, that, both for the pur- 
 poses of war and of blockade, speed is the most 
 important object to attain. Towards the end of 
 that contest, blockade-running became much more 
 difficult, in fact, was very nearly put a stop to, 
 not by the ports becoming more effectually closed 
 188
 
 THE LAND BLOCKADE 189 
 
 to traffic, but by the sea being literally covered 
 with very fast vessels, who picked up many block- 
 ade-runners at sea during the daytime, especially 
 when they had their heavy cargoes of cotton on 
 board. The Americans are also perfectly alive to 
 the fact that, for purposes of war, speed is all 
 important. An American officer of rank once re- 
 marked to me : " Give me a fifteen-knot wooden 
 vessel armed with four heavy guns of long range, 
 and I'll laugh at your lumbering iron-clads." 
 Perhaps he had prize-money in view when he said 
 so ; or, what is still more important, he may have 
 felt how easily such vessels as those he proposed 
 would sweep the seas of foreign privateers. In 
 these views I can but think he was right and far- 
 seeing. Time will show. 
 
 It may have struck my readers as strange that, 
 in a country with so large an inland boundary, the 
 necessaries of life and munitions of war could not 
 have been introduced into the Southern States by 
 their extensive frontiers: but it is only a just trib- 
 ute to the wonderful energy shown by the Northern 
 Americans during the civil war, to state that the 
 blockade by land was as rigid as that enforced by 
 their fleets; and almost as much risk was run by 
 persons who broke the land blockade as by those 
 who evaded the vigilance of the cruisers at sea. 
 The courses of the large inland rivers were pro-
 
 190 HOB ART PASHA 
 
 tected by gunboats, and on account of the rapids 
 and other impediments, such as snags, with which 
 they were filled, the fords or passes for boats were 
 few and far between, and thus easily guarded ; be- 
 sides which, it was always a difficult matter to avoid 
 the pickets belonging to either party, who were 
 very apt to suspect a man they found creeping 
 about without any ostensible object, and any one 
 suspected of being a spy in those days had a short 
 shrift and a long rope applied before he knew where 
 he was. More from a spirit of enterprise than 
 from any other reason, I determined to see what 
 the land blockade was like, and while at Richmond, 
 happening to meet another adventurous individual 
 also so inclined, we commenced our plan of cam- 
 paign. 
 
 First of all (by the way, I ought to mention 
 that we were both nautical parties) we engaged 
 a pilot, thereby meaning a man who had a canoe 
 or two stowed away in different parts of the woods, 
 and who was well acquainted with the passes on 
 the river. Our amiable friend, the correspondent 
 of the Times, showed so much confidence in our 
 success that he entrusted to our care a packet of 
 despatches, which were intended, if we got through 
 successfully, to delight the eyes of the readers of 
 the " Thunderer " some weeks afterwards. 
 
 We had to buy a horse and buggy, as naturally
 
 THE LAND BLOCKADE 191 
 
 enough no one would let them out on hire for such 
 an enterprise; besides, those were not days when 
 men let out anything on hire that they could not 
 keep in sight. However, we sent a man on before 
 us, in company with the pilot, to a station some 
 miles from the frontier, whose business it was to 
 bring the trap back when we had done with it. 
 We stowed in our haversacks a pair of dry stock- 
 ings, a good stock of tobacco, and a couple of 
 bottles of brandy, against the road; we also had 
 passes to produce in the event of questions being 
 asked by the patrols on the Southern side of the 
 frontier. 
 
 All being ready, we started, leaving Richmond 
 at four o'clock in the morning. We travelled on 
 a long, dreary, dusty road all day, stopping about 
 noon for two hours at a free nigger's hut, where 
 we got some yams and milk, and about sunset ar- 
 rived at the station above mentioned, at which we 
 were to dismiss our conveyance ; and right glad 
 we were to get rid of it, for we were bumped to 
 death by its dreadful oscillations. 
 
 At this station our pilot was waiting for us. 
 There were also bivouacking here a picket of cav- 
 alry, who told us they had seen some of the enemy's 
 patrols that morning, scouring about on the op- 
 posite bank of the river just where we proposed 
 to land. Somehow or other, people always seem
 
 192 HOBART PASHA 
 
 to take a pleasure in telling you disagreeable things 
 at a time when you rather want encouragement 
 than fear instilled into you. We had some sup- 
 per, consisting of eggs and bacon ; and at nine 
 o'clock, it being then pitch dark, the pilot informed 
 us it was time to start. I must say I should have 
 been more comfortable if I had been on the bridge 
 of my little craft, just starting over the bar at 
 Wilmington, with the probability of a broadside 
 from a gunboat saluting us in a very short time, 
 than where I was. But it would never do to think 
 of going back, so we crawled into the wood. 
 
 Our land pilot informed us that the bank of the 
 river, from whence we should find a clear passage 
 across, was about two miles distant. I never re- 
 member seeing or feeling anything to be compared 
 with the darkness of that pine wood, but our guide 
 seemed to have the eyes of a basilisk. We formed 
 Indian file, our guide leading, and crept along as 
 best we could. At last, after stealthily progress- 
 ing for half an hour, a glimmer 01 starlight 
 through the trees showed us that we were getting 
 to the borders of the wood. 
 
 A few minutes afterwards we were desired to lie 
 down. Feeling helpless as bajbes, we passively 
 obeyed, and watched our guide as he moved about 
 like a spectre in the long grass on the banks of 
 the Potomac, looking for his canoe. At last he
 
 THE LAND BLOCKADE 193 
 
 returned and whispered that the boat was all right, 
 and we all crept like serpents to where it was con- 
 cealed. Nothing could be heard but the wind 
 blowing through the trees, and the discordant 
 noises of frogs and other denizens of the swamp. 
 So dark was the night that we could hardly see 
 fifty yards across the river. I suppose this was 
 all in our favor ; but how our guide knew the marks 
 by which to steer was a puzzle to me, and as I 
 never meant to profit by this experience I asked 
 no questions. 
 
 Not a word was spoken as we (myself and my 
 friend) launched the canoe silently into the water 
 and seated ourselves, or rather obeyed orders and 
 lay down, the pilot sitting in the stern, with his 
 face towards the bow of the boat, having a light 
 paddle in his hand, which he worked wonderfully 
 well and silently. The distance across the river 
 was about three miles. 
 
 We shot ahead at a rapid pace for about five 
 minutes, when suddenly, bump went the canoe 
 against something. To lie flat down was to our 
 guide the work of a second, and the canoe was at 
 once transformed into a floating log. 
 
 Well it was so, for it seems we had struck a 
 small boat that was fastened astern of the gun- 
 boat guarding the river. That the noise of the 
 collision had been heard on board was evident, for
 
 194 HOBART PASHA 
 
 a sentry hailed, " Boat ahoy ! " and fired his 
 musket, and one of those detestable bright lights 
 which the American men-of-war have a nasty habit 
 of showing flashed over the water, making every- 
 thing visible for a hundred yards round. The 
 current of the river, however, was very strong, 
 and I fancy we had drifted out of the radius cov- 
 ered by the light, as we were fortunately not dis- 
 covered; or perhaps the diligent watchman on 
 board the man-of-war thought some huge croco- 
 dile or other monster had come in contact with 
 their boat.* Be that as it may, we were safe, and 
 twenty minutes more paddling brought us to land 
 on the opposite bank of the river; but unfortu- 
 nately our little adventure had thrown us out of 
 our line, or as we sailors should have called it, out 
 of our course. We hauled the canoe out of the 
 water, and hid her in the long grass. All we 
 could see around us was a dismal swamp, with the 
 dark wood in the background. Our guide honestly 
 told us that having been thrown out of his " reck- 
 oning " in regard to our position, to move from 
 where we were before daybreak would be madness, 
 so we lighted our pipes and waited patiently, hav- 
 ing moved well in under cover of the long grass, 
 so as to be out of sight of any vessel lying in the 
 river near to us. 
 
 * Not in the Potomac. (Ed.)
 
 THE LAND BLOCKADE 195 
 
 When the day dawned, our pilot after having 
 reconnoitred told us that we were very well placed 
 for starting for Washington ; but that it would 
 be impossible, on account of the patrols that were 
 constantly watching the river's bank, for us to 
 move during the daytime, so we were doomed to 
 remain all day in the damp grass. Luckily we 
 had put in our pockets at last night's supper 
 some black bread and an onion or two ; so we made 
 the best of things, and so did the sandflies. How 
 they did pitch into us, especially into me! I sup- 
 pose the good living I had been accustomed to on 
 board the blockade-runner, or my natural disposi- 
 tion to good condition, made me taste sweet. Sev- 
 eral times during that fearful day I was tempted 
 to rush out from my hiding-place, and defying 
 patrols, gunboat's crew, and all authorities, make 
 my escape from that place of torture. 
 
 Any one who has experienced the necessity of re- 
 maining quiet under such an infliction as an attack 
 of millions of sandflies on a hot sunny day will ap- 
 preciate my feelings. About one o'clock we got 
 as a diversion from our tormentors a great fright. 
 A boat's crew of a gunboat lying about a mile 
 distant from our retreat landed, and out of sheer 
 idleness set fire to the grass about a hundred yards 
 from where we were lying concealed. 
 
 We heard the crackling of the grass and thought
 
 196 HOBAHT PASHA 
 
 of leaving our concealment at the risk of discovery ; 
 but our guide wisely remarked that the wind was 
 the wrong way to bring the fire towards our hid- 
 ing-place, so we felt safe. The feeling of security 
 was more pleasant, because we distinctly heard 
 the men belonging to the gunboat conversing with 
 others, who clearly were patrols on the river's 
 bank. 
 
 The evening at last closed in, and as soon as it 
 was quite dark we moved on, and after struggling 
 through a thick wood for half an hour, got on 
 the high road to Washington. We travelled by 
 night, meeting occasional patrols, whom we dodged 
 by either lying down or getting behind trees till 
 they had passed. 
 
 We concealed ourselves carefully during the day, 
 and on the third morning before daylight we were 
 within half a mile of the city. As we got near 
 the bridge close outside Washington, we tried our 
 best to look like the rest of the people who were 
 going on their ordinary business; and though 
 somewhat severely scrutinised by the guard we man- 
 aged to pass muster, and got safely into Washing- 
 ton, footsore, hungry, and regularly done up. 
 
 We went to a small inn that had been recom- 
 mended to us when we were in Richmond, where 
 probably they had some Southern proclivities. 
 No questions were asked as to where we came from,
 
 THE LAND BLOCKADE 197 
 
 though, I take it, the people of the house had a 
 shrewd guess. We found ourselves among friends 
 and perfectly safe from meddling inquiries. 
 
 Thus the land blockade was run. I do not think 
 much experience was gained by this particularly 
 unpleasant exploit, which after all there was no 
 very great difficulty in performing, and I certainly 
 prefer my own element. 
 
 After a short stay we made our way easily to 
 New York, not feeling any anxiety from the fact 
 of our being staunch Southerners in our opinions, 
 inasmuch as there were numbers of sympathising 
 friends wherever we went, more perhaps than the 
 authorities were aware of. I stayed a few days 
 in New York to recruit my strength after the 
 fatigue of the journey, and saw all the sights and 
 enjoyed all the pleasures of the most delightful 
 city in the world, except perhaps Paris and Lon- 
 don. I shall not attempt to give my readers any 
 description of New York. This has already been 
 done by abler pens than mine. 
 
 While in New York I was greatly struck with 
 the calm confidence of the bulk of the Northerners 
 in the ultimate success of their arms against the 
 South. If I gained nothing else by running the 
 land blockade, I at least got an insight into the 
 enormous resources possessed by the North, and a 
 knowledge of the unflinching determination with
 
 198 HOB ART PASHA 
 
 which the Federals were prepared to carry on the 
 struggle to the end. I must confess that I left 
 New York with my confidence that the Confeder- 
 ates would achieve their independence very much 
 shaken. 
 
 Not being desirous of going through the risk 
 and inconvenience of running the land blockade 
 again, I returned to Nassau by steamer from New 
 York.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 I ENTER THE TURKISH NAVY 
 
 AFTER superintending, as it were, the ad- 
 ventures just detailed, I found that there 
 was still a year to pass before my time 
 for service as a post-captain came on ; so I de- 
 termined on making a Continental tour to fill up 
 the space. After wandering about in different 
 countries, I more by accident than design visited 
 Constantinople. 
 
 While there, I called upon that great statesman 
 Fuad Pasha, the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman 
 Empire, to whom I presented my letters of in- 
 troduction. He received me most cordially, and, 
 during our conversation, mentioned that for some 
 years Turkey had had to deal with a serious in- 
 surrection in the island of Crete, which it was 
 found difficult to suppress, owing to the assistance 
 from without which the revolutionary party re- 
 ceived from Greece; also on account of the some- 
 what doubtful laws existing as to blockade-run- 
 ning. For, although Turkish men-of-war were 
 continually on the look-out, vessels mostly under 
 199
 
 200 HOBART PASHA 
 
 the Greek flag, carrying warlike stores, provisions, 
 &c., evaded the watch of the cruisers on one pre- 
 text or another, and so managed to keep a lively 
 communication with the insurrectionary subjects 
 of the Sultan in Crete. Only one vessel had been 
 captured m flagrante delict o after a sharp fight, 
 and had been condemned as a lawful prize. 
 
 The Turkish authorities were told that, accord- 
 ing to international law, a blockade-running vessel 
 could not be followed more than ten miles from 
 the coast, though having been seen breaking the 
 blockade, and that as soon as a blockade-runner 
 was within four miles of any island not belonging 
 to Turkey, she could not be touched, &c. &c. ; in 
 fact, laws were fabricated to defend the blockade- 
 running, which fed the revolution to such an ex- 
 tent that, while it continued, it was hopeless to 
 attempt to put down the revolt. 
 
 I accidentally hinted to His Highness, Fuad 
 Pasha, that I thought the blockade-running could 
 be put a stop to without infringing any law, espe- 
 cially where laws were so elastic. He seemed 
 much struck with my remark, and asked me to call 
 on him again in a few days. Now I had merely 
 mentioned casually what I thought. I had no 
 idea of anything serious resulting from our inter- 
 view. I was indeed surprised on my return to His 
 Highness by his saying : " I have consulted His
 
 I ENTER THE TURKISH NAVY 201 
 
 Majesty the Sultan, who desires me to tell you that 
 if you would wish to take service with the Ottoman 
 Government, arrangements can be made whereby 
 you can do so, only you must take the risk and 
 responsibility of offending your own people." 
 
 I had to consider a little before replying. I 
 bore in mind that there were some two hundred and 
 fifty post-captains in the English navy clamor- 
 ing for employment, and that there were at the 
 moment I speak of only about forty employed. I 
 remembered that for twenty-four years an Eng- 
 lish officer of the same rank as myself had held 
 the post now offered to me, namely, that of Naval 
 Adviser to the Turkish Government, that the post 
 was just vacant through the retirement of Sir 
 Adolphus Slade (who had served honorably for 
 twenty years, and had retired from old age). I 
 calculated in those days of profound peace there 
 was more probability of active service in the East- 
 ern world than elsewhere. So I answered: 
 " Well, your Highness, I am ready if the terms 
 offered me are satisfactory." 
 
 I may say they proved most satisfactory; so, 
 to make a long story short, I accepted and was 
 booked as a Turkish employe for five years, always 
 retaining my rank and position as an English 
 naval officer, and my nationality as a British sub- 
 ject.
 
 202 
 
 I found afterwards, as regards my position as 
 an English naval officer, I had somewhat reckoned 
 without my host. It seems that this post was 
 considered by the English Admiralty as one of 
 their choice gifts, and many were the applicants 
 for it on Sir A. Slade's retirement, so much so 
 that their lordships made great capital of this ap- 
 pointment, and were furious at my action in the 
 matter. They said I had " cut out " a good old 
 servant to whom they had intended to give it. 
 They suggested my coming home at once, &c., &c. 
 I didn't see it in the same light as their lordships, 
 and I signified my determination to remain where 
 I was ; for which, as will be seen, they paid me off 
 in course of time. Luckily, I could afford by the 
 arrangement I had made with the Turkish Govern- 
 ment to be in the Admiralty's bad books, and even 
 the frowns of the English Ambassador did not 
 affect me a bit. I believe they called me " ad- 
 venturer," " artful dodger," &c., but it must be 
 remembered that I was in every way as much en- 
 titled to this position as the Admiralty " pet," 
 whoever he may have been. 
 
 From the day of signing my contract (which 
 has been constantly renewed) to the time } write, 
 some sixteen years, I never have had cause to re- 
 gret the step I took. 
 
 Shortly after my installation as vice-admiral in
 
 I ENTER THE TURKISH NAVY 203 
 
 the Turkish navy, it was decided that I should be 
 sent to Crete to put a stop to the blockade-run- 
 ning. " Set a thief to catch a thief," as one of 
 my, what may be called, unfriendly critics has 
 written about me, and the remark was ben trovato 
 at all events, for I certainly did know something 
 about blockade-running. 
 
 I accordingly hoisted my flag in a fine fifty-gun 
 wooden frigate, and arrived at Suda Bay, the 
 principal port of Crete, where six or seven Turk- 
 ish men-of-war were stationed, of which I took 
 command. Here I heard all the naval officers had 
 to say about the blockade, the impunity with which 
 it was carried on, &c. I found, as I before men- 
 tioned, that the Turkish naval officers' hands were 
 tied by all sorts of imaginary difficulties. They 
 had most zealously done their duty while trying 
 to stop the blockade-running. They had shown 
 great pluck and endurance, but they always feared 
 to break the law and so get the ever-bullied Turk- 
 ish Government into trouble. Here I also heard 
 of the triumphant manner in which the blockade- 
 runners left the ports of Greece. How the mayors 
 of Syra, Poros, and other Greek towns, conducted, 
 with flags flying, bands playing, and the hurrahs 
 of the entire population, the hitherto triumphant 
 blockade-running captains and crews to their 
 ships, on the way to feed the flame of revolt against
 
 204 HOBART PASHA 
 
 a nation with whom the Greeks professed to be on 
 most friendly terms. 
 
 I heard all this, and was moreover told that if 
 the blockade-running was stopped, the insurgents 
 in Crete would at once lay down their arms for 
 want of food and warlike stores. 
 
 I determined to stop it at all risks. 
 
 Picking out of my squadron a couple of fast 
 despatch boats and a quick steaming corvette to 
 accompany my flag-ship, I started on a cruise, and 
 once out of sight of the harbor of Suda, steamed 
 straight for Syra. Now this port had been the 
 principal delinquent in fitting out and sending 
 blockade-runners to Crete; so I thought that by 
 going as it were to the starting-point, I should be 
 somewhat nearer to my quarry than by waiting for 
 them in Crete. Circumstances favored me in the 
 most marvellous manner. As morning broke the 
 day after I left Suda, I was about eight miles from 
 Syra harbor steaming slowly, when I saw what 
 made my heart leap into my mouth, viz., a regular 
 blockade-runner exactly of the type used in the 
 American war, going at full speed for Syra har- 
 bor. 
 
 He was outside my little squadron, and must 
 pass within a mile or so ahead to get to his port. 
 
 A somewhat similar position I have so often seen, 
 in fact, taken part in, of a craft running for dear
 
 I ENTER THE TURKISH NAVY 205 
 
 life into Charleston or Wilmington, across the bows 
 of blockading ships just at daylight. I saw that 
 he was firing up all he knew, and was going at a 
 tremendous speed. I signalled to my despatch 
 boats to chase, and when my flag-ship was within 
 about a mile and a half I fired a blank gun to make 
 him show his colors. To this he replied by firing 
 his long Armstrong gun with such effect that the 
 shot cut away the stanchion of the bridge on which 
 I was standing. Now, gallant fellow as he was, 
 in doing this he was wrong; he should have shown 
 his colors and run (if he knew he wasn't honest) 
 for the shelter of a neutral flag, but not fired at 
 a man-of-war, who in her duty as forming part 
 of the police of the seas fires a blank gun asking 
 for colors from a suspicious vessel. He undoubt- 
 edly committed an act of piracy and gave me a 
 splendid hold on him. 
 
 My despatch boats chased the blockade-runner 
 close to Syra harbor, both parties keeping a warm 
 running fight. When I recalled them, I found that 
 this vessel was called the Enossis. Her captain 
 was a most courageous Greek, who thought of 
 nothing but carrying his cargo and fighting to the 
 last for his ship, evidently ignoring all laws, nor 
 did he even think that on this occasion some one 
 was acting against him who knew something of the 
 rules of blockade, and who could have told him
 
 206 HOBART PASHA 
 
 that an armed blockade-runner is a pirate, that is 
 to say, if she uses her arms against a man-of-war. 
 
 I was so satisfied with what had occurred that I 
 sent off one of my despatch boats to the Governor 
 of Crete, telling him that he need not fear the 
 blockade-runners any more, as they (the two others 
 were lying in Syra harbor) had put themselves in 
 so false a position that at all events for several 
 weeks I could detain them at Syra. I knew that 
 one week would suffice to stop the revolt in Crete, 
 as without the blockade-runners the insurrection- 
 ists had positively nothing to eat. 
 
 (I may as well at once observe that I was per- 
 fectly justified in saying this, for within three 
 days, no blockade-runner arriving at the island, 
 the insurgents laid down their arms and begged 
 for bread. And so ended the Cretan revolt.) 
 
 Having recalled the vessels I had sent to chase 
 the Enossis into Syra harbor, I steamed in the 
 roads off that port, and anchored with three ves- 
 sels. 
 
 I then sent to the authorities on shore at Syra, 
 and demanded their assistance in arresting a vessel 
 that had taken shelter in their port, which, as I 
 stated in my despatch, had committed an act of 
 piracy on the high seas, by firing at my flagship 
 when the latter called upon her to show her colors 
 by firing a blank gun. At the same time I in-
 
 I ENTER THE TURKISH NAVY 207 
 
 formed the authorities of Syra that, as the com- 
 panions of the Enossis were in the harbor, I should 
 allow none of them to go to sea until the question 
 of that vessel's illegal action was cleared up. By 
 doing this I took the wind out of the sails of the 
 authorities of Syra. They of course were furious, 
 and at once despatched a vessel to Athens for 
 orders. At the same time they made a semblance 
 of meeting my demand by stating that the Enossis 
 should be tried by international law. They also 
 requested me to make my protest and to leave Syra, 
 as the populace were in a state of excitement be- 
 yond their power of control. In this request all 
 the foreign consuls joined. 
 
 I positively declined to leave ; had I consented I 
 am convinced the Enossis and her companions 
 would have left for Crete as soon as I was out of 
 sight. In the meantime I sent a despatch boat to 
 Smyrna with telegrams for Constantinople asking 
 for assistance, stating my position. I remained 
 off Syra with two ships, one being a despatch boat, 
 watching the movements of the three blockade-run- 
 ners, whom I notified that I would sink them if 
 they attempted to leave the port. 
 
 I often wonder they didn't make a rush for it 
 on the first night of my arrival, when I was almost 
 alone. The Greeks never want pluck. If they 
 had done so, one vessel out of the three would cer-
 
 208 HOBART PASHA 
 
 tainly have escaped, taken food to the insurgents, 
 and capsized all my calculations. 
 
 It merely corroborated my view of blockade- 
 running peoples, namely, that they go for gain 
 (some perhaps for love of enterprise) ; don't fight 
 unless very hard pressed, and not always then if 
 they are wise; that is what it should be. It is 
 outrageous that adventurous persons not engaged 
 in war should become belligerents, as well as car- 
 riers of arms and provisions to an enemy. 
 
 The first night I passed off Syra was one of 
 great anxiety, as I had promised the Governor of 
 Crete that no blockade-runner should go to the 
 island. 
 
 In the morning a small steamer arrived from 
 Athens with a Turkish official on board. He came 
 to me pale as a sheet, and told me that as he left 
 the Piraeus a Greek frigate was on the point of 
 leaving for Syra, whose captain, officers, and crew 
 had sworn to bring back Hobart Pasha dead or 
 alive. Half an hour afterwards I got under 
 weigh, and as I steamed about in the offing I saw 
 the Greek frigate coming round the point. 
 
 It was a moment of intense excitement. The 
 tops of the houses at Syra were covered with 
 people. It looked like the old story of the Chesa- 
 peake and Shannon, where the people turned out
 
 I ENTER THE TURKISH NAVY 209 
 
 to see the fine sport, and the band played, " Yankee 
 doodle dandy, oh ! " 
 
 However, I steamed towards my supposed enemy, 
 went almost alongside of him, expecting momen- 
 tarily to receive his broadside, when to my astonish- 
 ment and I must say satisfaction he steamed into 
 the anchorage, and let go three anchors. This 
 didn't look like fighting. I found afterwards that 
 the Greek frigate had no powder on board. It 
 was a shame to put her captain in so false a posi- 
 tion, as everyone knows what gallant stuff the 
 Greeks are made of, and swagger is a mistake 
 where real pluck exists. 
 
 I felt for him very much, as he seemed so sorry 
 for himself. 
 
 A few days after this I was reinforced by six or 
 seven Turkish ironclads, and in fact commanded 
 the position in spite of all remonstrances on the 
 part of foreigners and other declared enemies of 
 Turkish rule. 
 
 We went through the laughable farce of a trial 
 of the Enossis on board a vessel lying in port (I 
 dared not land), which of course ended in nothing. 
 
 The Governor-General of Crete sent all the in- 
 surgents in Turkish ships to me to deal with, and 
 this was the most difficult thing I had to do. Poor 
 beggars, they were fine though misguided men.
 
 210 HOBART PASHA 
 
 After giving them a good feed, for they were ter- 
 ribly hungry, I distributed them among the neigh- 
 boring Greek islands, and so finished the affair. 
 
 There are those who say that my acts off Syra 
 were illegal, especially as to stopping the Enossis's 
 companions from leaving the port. All I can say 
 is, the Greeks en masse, from the Government down- 
 wards, had paid so little regard to international 
 law during three years, as regards their action in 
 encouraging revolution in the territory of a 
 friendly country, that a little stretch of the law 
 on my part was quite justifiable. 
 
 While on the subject of Crete, which is always 
 supposed to be in a chronic state of revolt, I would 
 say a few words. 
 
 I maintain that the Cretan people, of whom I 
 know a good deal, do not "want an alliance with 
 Greece, and if the always over-excited ambitious 
 Greek committees would only keep quiet and give 
 up agitation, the Cretans would be the happiest 
 community in the Mediterranean. 
 
 While I commanded for more than a year a large 
 squadron of Turkish ironclads stationed in Crete, 
 I had many opportunities of judging as to the 
 sentiments of the Cretans. 
 
 I never saw a more orderly, well-disposed people 
 if let alone by agitators. 
 
 On my return to Constantinople the reception I
 
 I ENTER THE TURKISH NAVY 211 
 
 received from several of the European Powers was 
 most gratifying. 
 
 I received high honors in the shape of decora- 
 tions, for having, as they said, by my conduct pre- 
 vented a European war. My own country alone 
 stood aloof from me. The Admiralty went so far 
 as to tell me that if I did not immediately return 
 to England, my name would be erased from the 
 list of naval officers. An officer of high rank, a 
 member of the Board of Admiralty, wrote to me a 
 semi-official letter, in which he said, " Unless you 
 leave the Turkish service, you will be scratched 
 off the list." Feeling exceedingly hurt at such 
 treatment, at a moment when I expected encourage- 
 ment for having maintained the honor of my 
 country while acting as a naval officer should have 
 done, I wrote to him, " You may scratch and be 
 d d." This letter was, I think, very unfairly 
 quoted against me some time afterwards in the 
 House of Commons. However, my name was 
 erased from the list of naval officers, and was not 
 replaced there for several years. I was well and 
 kindly received by His Majesty the Sultan, pro- 
 moted to the rank of full admiral, and settled down 
 to my work as a Turkish naval officer, head of the 
 staff of the Imperial Navy. 
 
 It becomes a most delicate task to continue 
 sketches of my life during the latter time that I
 
 HOBART PASHA 
 
 have been in Turkey, because such anecdotes strike 
 nearer home, that is to say, become more what may 
 be called personal as regards my public and private 
 doings. However, I will endeavor, somewhat 
 briefly perhaps, to do so in a way that may be in- 
 teresting to my readers, and offensive to no one. 
 
 It is not difficult to serve such masters as the 
 Turks ; they are always kind and considerate to 
 strangers in their service, and if one avoids offend- 
 ing them in certain matters on which they are sup- 
 posed to have prejudices, and if one while giving 
 advice avoids offensive censure, it is easy to get 
 on. While serving in Turkey my principal busi- 
 ness has been relating to naval matters, regarding 
 which I have had to propose certain progressive 
 changes such as are being constantly introduced 
 into foreign navies, more especially the English. 
 These changes proposed by me have generally been 
 accepted, and I can but think that many beneficial 
 alterations have been introduced into the Turkish 
 Navy tending to improve that service. 
 
 His Majesty the Sultan has named me one of 
 his special A.D.C.'s, and in that capacity I have 
 had at times, and still have, important duties. 
 
 His Majesty always treats me with the greatest 
 kindness and consideration, and I have a sincere 
 respect and affection for him, both as a sovereign, 
 and, if I may presume to say so, as a friend.
 
 CHAPTER XVHI 
 
 THE WAR WITH RUSSIA 
 
 IN 1877 the war with Russia broke out, and 
 through the absence of any powerful naval 
 enemy, little in the way of hard fighting was 
 done; still some very important service was per- 
 formed by the Turkish fleet, much more so than is 
 generally known. 
 
 In the first place we had to hold the Black Sea, 
 with its extensive sea-board. We defended Sulina 
 and Batoum against Russian attack by land, and 
 by torpedo on the sea. We had to watch the little 
 swift packet boats equipped as men-of-war, which 
 constantly made a rush from Sebastopol and 
 Odessa (as they did, by the way, in the Crimean 
 War, when twenty to thirty English and French 
 ships were watching them), and when they could 
 get a chance burnt some unfortunate little coast- 
 ing craft, sending the crews of such vessels adrift 
 in small boats to make the best of their way to the 
 nearest land. In addition to the above-named 
 
 services, the Turkish fleet was called upon con- 
 213
 
 214 HOBART PASHA 
 
 stantly to transport large bodies of troops from 
 port to port. 
 
 On one memorable occasion the Turkish men- 
 of-war and transports conveyed the whole of 
 Suleiman Pasha's army, consisting of forty thou- 
 sand men, from the coast of Albania to Salonica, 
 a distance of some eight hundred miles, within the 
 short space of twelve days, a feat, I venture to 
 say, unheard of in the naval annals of this cen- 
 tury. Sulina was held safely by the Turkish fleet 
 until the end of the war. 
 
 Batoum could not have been held by Dervish 
 Pasha and his army had not the Turkish fleet been 
 there to help him. In short, that fleet kept the 
 command of the Black Sea during the whole of 
 that disastrous war, cruising at times in the most 
 fearful weather I have ever experienced, for twelve 
 months in a sea almost without ports of refuge; 
 and it is a remarkable fact that the Turks never 
 lost a ship, constantly attacked though they were, 
 as I shall show hereafter, by the plucky Russian 
 torpedo boats, who frequently made rushes at them 
 from Muscovite ports, and were only saved from 
 destruction through the precautions taken against 
 these diabolical machines, which come and go like 
 flashes of lightning. It is true that in the Danube 
 two small Turkish vessels of war were destroyed 
 by torpedoes, but it must be borne in mind the
 
 WAR WITH RUSSIA 
 
 Danube was under military law, and that the look- 
 out kept on board these vessels was not by any 
 means what it should have been. 
 
 But I must repeat, as so many contrary reports 
 have been spread, that no Turkish ironclad was 
 injured by torpedoes in the Black Sea. 
 
 I will explain hereafter how many attacks were 
 made with no result whatever. Some few days 
 before the war broke out I was sent to examine 
 the Danube from a professional point of view, and 
 it was soon made clear to me that much could be 
 done, in the way of defending that great estuary, 
 had nautical experience and the splendid material 
 of which the Turkish sailor is made been properly 
 utilised. But alas ! I found that, contrary to the 
 views of His Majesty the Sultan, a line of action 
 was followed showing that pig-headed obstinacy 
 and the grossest ignorance prevailed in the councils 
 of those who had supreme command in that river. 
 I found that my advice and that of competent 
 Turkish officers, in comparatively subordinate posi- 
 tions like myself, was entirely ignored, and that 
 few, if any, proper steps were taken to prevent 
 the enemy's progress into Roumania, and later on, 
 to stop his passing the Danube almost unopposed. 
 
 On the day that war was declared I was at 
 Rustchuk, the headquarters of the Turkish army. 
 On that occasion I made a final effort, by making
 
 216 HOBART PASHA 
 
 propositions which events have proved would have 
 arrested the advance of the enemy. 
 
 I was simply told to mind my own business, and 
 ordered to immediately rejoin my ships, which 
 were at the moment lying at the Sulina mouth of 
 the Danube. 
 
 It was all very well to tell me to do this; but 
 to do so was apparently not so easy of execution, 
 for the reason that the Russians had no sooner 
 declared war than they took possession of the 
 Lower Danube, by planting fortifications on the 
 hills commanding the river in the neighborhood 
 of Galatz and Ibraila, at the same time laying 
 down torpedoes across the river in great quantities 
 (as regards the latter, it was so reported, though 
 in my opinion it was no easy matter so quickly 
 to place torpedoes). I informed the military 
 commanders of this ; their answer was, " Go, and 
 rejoin your ships via Varna, if you will only get 
 out of this; we don't want your advice." By 
 this time, however, my professional pride was 
 wounded, and I determined to do something to 
 show my contempt for them all. 
 
 The only thing left for me to do for the mo- 
 ment was a little blockade-running, so I resolved 
 to bring my ship back past the Russian barrier 
 in the Lower Danube at all risks, instead of tamely 
 returning by land. So great was the jealousy
 
 WAR WITH RUSSIA 217 
 
 against me that I almost think the Turkish author- 
 ities commanding in the Danube would have been 
 pleased if I had failed, and so come to grief. I 
 had with me a very fast paddle-steamer called the 
 Rethymo; her captain and crew were what the 
 Turks always are brave as lions and obedient 
 as lambs. 
 
 I took on board a river pilot, whom I gave to 
 understand that if he got me on shore I would 
 blow his brains out. Before starting I sent for 
 my officers and crew and told them of the perhaps 
 unnecessary dangers we should run in passing the 
 Russian barrier, and gave to all the option of 
 leaving or going on. They decided to a man to 
 go on. I arranged my time so as to pass Ibraila 
 and Galatz during the night. We arrived to 
 within thirty miles of the former place at about 
 five o'clock in the evening, when I was met by a 
 Turkish official who was leaving Ibraila on the 
 war having broken out. He was fearfully ex- 
 cited, and begged of me on his knees not to go to 
 what he called certain destruction. He told me 
 that he had seen the Russians laying down tor- 
 pedoes that same day, that the batteries were 
 numerous, and that they were aware of my com- 
 ing, &c., all of which I took with a considerable 
 large grain of salt, and left him lamenting my mad 
 folly, as he called it.
 
 218 HOBART PASHA 
 
 Now I must be candid. I did not feel the 
 danger. I calculated that to put down torpedoes 
 in a current such as was in the Danube would be 
 a matter of time, and probably they would not 
 succeed after all. I had a plan in my head for 
 passing the batteries, so as to render them harm- 
 less. So in reality I was about to attempt no 
 very impossible feat. Three hours after dusk we 
 sighted the lights of Ibraila. The current was 
 running quite five knots an hour; that, added to 
 our speed of fifteen, made us to be going over the 
 ground at about twenty knots. It was pitch dark, 
 and I think it would have puzzled the cleverest 
 gunner to have hit us, though they might have 
 done so by chance. I determined not to give them 
 that chance, by going so close under the bank that 
 the guns could hardly be sufficiently depressed 
 to hit us. 
 
 As we approached the batteries to my horror a 
 flash of red flame came out of the funnel (that 
 fatal danger in blockade-running), on which sev- 
 eral rockets were thrown up from the shore, and 
 a fire was opened at where the flame had been 
 seen. Meanwhile we had shot far away from the 
 place, and closed right under the batteries. I 
 heard the people talking ; every now and then they 
 fired shot and musketry, but I hardly heard the 
 whiz of the projectiles. My principal anxiety
 
 WAR WITH RUSSIA 219 
 
 was that we might get on one of the many banks 
 so common in the Danube, and I had perhaps a 
 little fear of torpedoes, especially when we passed 
 the mouths of the little estuaries that run into 
 the Danube; once we just touched the ground, but 
 thank goodness we quickly got free, and though 
 fired at by guns and rifles, went on unhurt. It 
 took us exactly an hour and forty minutes to pass 
 dangerous waters, and the early summer morning 
 was breaking as we cleared all danger. I could 
 not resist turning round and firing a random shot 
 at the banks studded with Russian tents, now that 
 I was able to breathe freely again. 
 
 I must say that my pilot, whom I at first sus- 
 pected of being a traitor in Russian pay, behaved 
 splendidly. 
 
 He told me he had never passed such a night 
 of fear and anxiety: what with my cocked pistol 
 at his head and the constant fear of putting the 
 vessel on a bank, he certainly had had a bad time. 
 However, I rewarded him well. On arrival at 
 Toultcha, a small town near the mouth of the 
 Danube, still held by the Turks, I found telegrams 
 from headquarters at Rustchuk (the place I had 
 left), inquiring if Hobart Pasha had passed 
 Ibraila and Galatz, and ordering that if he had 
 done so he was immediately to leave the Danube. 
 
 I cannot express my annoyance, as even at that
 
 220 HOBART PASHA 
 
 moment I could have brought a couple of small 
 ironclads that were lying at Sulina into the river 
 and played " old Harry " with the Russian army, 
 then advancing into Roumania, via Galatz. The 
 bridge near Galatz could certainly have been de- 
 stroyed. It was hard on the gallant Turks, hard 
 on the Sultan and his government, and hard on 
 me, to see such magnificent chances thrown away. 
 From that moment I trembled for the result of 
 the war. I felt that, although the Turks had a 
 splendid army, and a fleet even for a first-class 
 European Power to be proud of, the obstinacy and 
 stupidity of the commanders of the Danube were 
 sure to cause disaster. 
 
 Unhappily my prognostications came true. In 
 war the first blow is half the battle, and it was 
 sad to see such glorious troops outmanoeuvred at 
 the very outset. His Majesty the Sultan in his 
 wisdom has justly punished by banishment and 
 disgrace these men who, instead of covering the 
 Turkish nation with glory through the deeds of 
 its army, were the cause of the defeat of the finest 
 troops in the world. That the Russians might 
 and would have been beaten, had the means in the 
 hands of those commanding the Turkish army 
 been properly utilised, is as clear as day. How- 
 ever, it is not my business to comment on such mat- 
 ters.
 
 WAR WITH RUSSIA 
 
 I now return to my own element, and will en- 
 deavor to describe some of the occurrences of the 
 war in the Black Sea. The Russians had three 
 lines of action in those waters. First, to capture 
 Sulina, and to destroy the squadron lying at 
 anchor in its roadstead ; second, to capture 
 Batoum and its much-envied harbor; third, the 
 somewhat undignified action of sending out fast 
 vessels, mostly mail boats, armed with a couple of 
 guns, their object being to destroy the Turkish 
 coasting trade. These vessels were most difficult 
 to catch, as they always watched their opportunity 
 to slip out of their strongholds when the Turkish 
 ships were employed carrying troops, or otherwise 
 engaged. There was, I venture to think, some 
 illegality in this conduct of the Russian mail boats. 
 
 These vessels were not regular men-of-war, and 
 they did not take their prizes into port for adju- 
 dication, as is usual in war, always burning what 
 they could catch and capture. However, during 
 war I suppose all must be considered as fair play. 
 
 While on the subject, I will recount one or two 
 exploits performed by these enterprising mail 
 boats. When lying off Sulina, one of the iron- 
 clad corvettes under my command arrived from 
 Constantinople, where her captain reported having 
 chased a well-known Russian mail steamer called 
 the Vesta; that they had exchanged a few shots;
 
 222 HOBART PASHA 
 
 that he had not followed her because his deck was 
 loaded with guns for the Sulina batteries. I 
 thought no more about it till about a fortnight 
 afterwards I saw in the Times a paragraph 
 headed, " Turkish ironclad driven off and nearly 
 destroyed by the Russian mail boat cruiser Vesta. 
 This paragraph, which was founded on the official 
 report of the captain of the Vesta, was almost 
 sensational. It gave a graphic description of how 
 the Vesta had engaged at close quarters a Turkish 
 ironclad, killing her crew ; how officers in European 
 uniform had been seen directing the working of 
 the ironclad's guns, &c. ; how her sides were crim- 
 son with the torrents of blood pouring from her 
 decks, and how she would have been surely cap- 
 tured had the Vesta been provided with sufficient 
 ammunition to enable her to continue the bloody 
 fight. It added that the gallant Russian com- 
 mander was received with the greatest enthusiasm 
 on his arriving at Sebastopol, and immediately 
 promoted to high rank and covered with decora- 
 tions. 
 
 I could hardly believe my eyes when I read this 
 utter nonsense. I know the Russians ; they are 
 brave and loyal fellows, and few indeed are there 
 among them who have done (to say the least of 
 it) so foolish an act as to make so unfounded a 
 report.
 
 WAR WITH RUSSIA 223 
 
 However, the commander, whose name I will not 
 mention, did not long wear his laurels. I sup- 
 pose he trusted to the Turks saying nothing about 
 it ; but the truth was at last made public. A court- 
 martial was assembled to try the case, and I be- 
 lieve he was dismissed from the service and de- 
 prived of his decorations. At all events I know 
 for certain that he was disgraced by his superiors, 
 and held up to ridicule by his brother officers. 
 Served him right! Swagger is always an error, 
 and I don't think naval officers are generally given 
 to it. 
 
 The next exploit of these cruisers I shall refer to 
 was one that came under my own eyes, and was 
 exceedingly interesting. ' 
 
 I was anchored with my flag-ship, a fine thirteen 
 knot ironclad, and a couple of other vessels, at 
 a port some few miles to the north of Varna, tak- 
 ing in coals, when the look-out man reported that 
 _he saw on the horizon a column of smoke. I knew 
 that this was not a Russian cruiser, because these 
 vessels always burnt smokeless coal. I guessed, 
 however, what it was ; namely, that one of the Rus- 
 sian cruisers was burning an unfortunate coasting 
 vessel. On looking more closely from, the mast- 
 head of the flag-ship, I saw the masts and two 
 funnels of a steamer very near to the burning ship. 
 The cruiser was somewhat inshore of the place
 
 224 HOBART PASHA 
 
 where I was lying. He seems to have made my 
 squadron out about the same time I had seen him, 
 and at once made tracks, as the Americans say, to 
 get out to sea. In doing so he had to near us 
 considerably, so much so that before steam was 
 ready in the flag-ship I could pretty well discern 
 what the enemy was. Some persons may be sur- 
 prised to hear that the marauding vessel was no 
 less a craft than the magnificent yacht of the Em- 
 peror of All the Russias, called the Livadia, which 
 had condescended to the somewhat undignified 
 work of capturing small Turkish coasting craft. 
 Who can fancy the Victoria and Albert being sent 
 to sea, during a war between England and France, 
 to capture and destroy small coasting craft on the 
 French shores! However, there was the fact; it 
 was the Livadia, and no mistake. And now com- 
 menced one of the most interesting chases I have 
 ever seen. On our starting the yacht was about 
 four miles ahead of us, steering a course that 
 would take her straight to Sebastopol. She had 
 got through all the necessary dangerous manoeuvre 
 of crossing our bows, from her having been inshore 
 of us, before we moved. 
 
 The weather was lovely, not a ripple on the 
 water, dead calm. 
 
 We commenced the chase at 4 :30 P. M. Un- 
 fortunately our decks were loaded with coal ; how-
 
 WAR WITH RUSSIA 225 
 
 ever, we made a clean thirteen knots. At first it 
 seemed as if we were coming up with the chase ; so 
 much so that I felt inclined to fire the long bow 
 gun at her. But I always think and I say, from 
 blockade-running experience, that firing more or 
 less injures a vessel's speed; so I refrained from do- 
 ing so. As night closed in, a beautiful moon rose 
 and made everything as clear as day. The equal- 
 ity of our speed was most remarkable, insomuch as 
 the distance between us did not vary a hundred 
 yards in an hour. All night we were watching, 
 measuring distances with nautical instruments, &c., 
 hoping at moments that we were nearer, despairing 
 at others that she was gaining from us. We threw 
 overboard fifty or sixty tons of coal, to no avail; 
 we could not get within shot of the Livadia, to 
 capture which I would have given all I possessed. 
 As day broke we saw the crew of the Livadia busily 
 employed throwing overboard coal and water. 
 Sebastopol was in sight, and she was running for 
 dear life to that haven of safety. Lightening her 
 had certainly a good effect, for it was sadly evi- 
 dent to me that on doing so she drew ahead a little, 
 but very little. Now I hoped she would burst her 
 boiler or break down ever so little; but so it was 
 not fated, and the Emperor's yacht escaped by 
 the skin of her teeth into Sebastopol, under the 
 protection of batteries that opened a tremendous
 
 226 HOBART PASHA 
 
 fire on my ship on my approaching, forgetful of 
 their existence: I was obliged to clear out of that 
 pretty sharply or we should have been sunk. 
 
 An ironclad corvette that accompanied me, 
 though some miles astern at the finish, ran so close 
 in that she had her rudder shot away, and we had 
 the unpleasant task of towing her out under a 
 fire more like a hailstorm of shot and shell than 
 anything I can compare it to. I am told the 
 Livadia would have shown fight. I have no doubt 
 she would ; Russians always fight well : but I think 
 the result would not have been doubtful, and the 
 Emperor's crockery and glass, to say nothing of 
 the magnificent gettings-up in the cabins, would 
 have lost much of their lustre during an engage- 
 ment. So the glory of taking the Emperor's 
 yacht into the Bosphorus was not to be mine. I 
 cannot express my disappointment at losing such a 
 chance. The only consolation I have is that I 
 really believe the brave Russians would have blown 
 her up, rather than allow such a disgrace to fall 
 on their flag. 
 
 Since the war a Russian naval officer told me 
 that he had under his command at Sebastopol, on 
 the day of my chasing the Livadia into that port, 
 seven torpedo boats, with which he volunteered to 
 go out and attack us. His request was not al- 
 lowed. We discussed at some length the probable
 
 WAR WITH RUSSIA 227 
 
 result. These are my views and arguments. I 
 said to him, " When I saw your boats coming out 
 I should have steamed away. Now the speed of 
 my frigate is thirteen knots. You would prob- 
 ably have had a speed of nineteen to twenty at 
 most. Thus your rate of approaching me would 
 have been six knots, no great speed with which to 
 approach a vessel armed with Nordenfelt guns, 
 and six other guns also, en barbette, firing grape, 
 shell, &c. I am convinced we should have de- 
 stroyed all the torpedo boats." " Well, then," 
 said the Russian officer, " I should have followed 
 and attacked you during the night." " There 
 again," I said, " I think you would have failed, 
 because before dark you could not have got near 
 enough to me, on account of the opposition you 
 would have met with from my fire, to remark the 
 course I steered after sunset, which course I should 
 have frequently changed during the darkness. A 
 ship cannot be seen in the dark, if she shows no 
 light, at more than five hundred yards' distance, 
 and a moving ship would have been most difficult 
 to hit; besides which, if I had stopped and put 
 down my defences, what could you have done ? " 
 This discussion ended in the Russian officer ad- 
 mitting that he did not think he could have done 
 much.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 TO return to the doings of the Turkish fleet 
 in the Black Sea during the war: Sulina 
 was a point from the beginning always 
 aimed at by the Russians. In fact, according to 
 my humble ideas, Russia went to war to get pos- 
 session of Bessarabia, the key of the Danube, and 
 Batoum, the key to Asia Minor, and in a great 
 measure to our Indian possessions. I think the 
 sentimental story of massacres in Bulgaria was 
 merely a blind whereby to catch the sympathetic 
 support of Europe, and more especially the Eng- 
 lish philanthropists. I think this, because when 
 the most awful cruelties were committed by the 
 Bulgarians on the Turks after the war, we heard 
 -no outcry about massacres. However, I must not 
 introduce politics into " Sketches " from a sailor's 
 life; such would be out of place. Constant at- 
 tacks were made by land and by sea on Sulina, 
 which was held and defended by Turkish ships 
 and their crews, who manned the small batteries 
 they had planted at the mouth of the river. To 
 228
 
 THE TURKISH FLEET 229 
 
 the Russians, to destroy the Turkish squadron 
 lying off that port was of great importance, as 
 Sulina is entirely surrounded by water and great 
 impassable marshes, which extend far inland, 
 through which marshes the Danube runs, and thus 
 can always be defended by ships. 
 
 The Turkish squadron generally consisted of 
 five or six ironclads, and as the Russians had not 
 ships wherewith to attack these ironclads, torpedo 
 attacks (of which so much was and is expected) 
 were their only chance. 
 
 My idea of defending these vessels when at 
 anchor was by a cordon of guard-boats, with ropes 
 made fast between them, so as to catch any at- 
 tacking torpedo boat, either by fouling her screw 
 as she advanced, or by stopping entirely her prog- 
 ress. Moreover, a torpedo boat thus stopped 
 would, by catching the rope, draw the guard-boat 
 on either side of her, or right on top of her. I 
 must admit that while torpedoes at that time were 
 supposed to be in their infancy, the defence pre- 
 pared against their attack was also very much in 
 its infancy, so these preparations were of the most 
 primitive description. 
 
 The squadron, as I said, consisted of five ves- 
 sels, which had been in the habit of standing out 
 to sea every night, to avoid torpedo attacks. On 
 the occasion I am writing about, they had returned
 
 230 HOBART PASHA 
 
 to the anchorage on account of bad weather. A 
 Russian steamer with five torpedo boats in tow 
 started (as we afterwards learnt) from Odessa to 
 hunt for the Turkish squadron, which, it was 
 known to them through their spies, was in the 
 habit of cruising off Serpent's Island, about eight 
 miles from Odessa. The Muscovites were unable 
 to find their enemy, and I don't wonder at it, for 
 they were not in their usual cruising ground ; even 
 had they been there, to find them would have been 
 difficult, as the Turkish ships always cruised in 
 open order, burnt smokeless coal, and showed no 
 lights. On being disappointed in finding what she 
 wanted at sea, the Russian vessel steamed towards 
 the anchorage off Sulina. As the weather was 
 bad, her commander decided not to attack, and 
 I fancy had to cast off his torpedo boats. 
 
 One of these boats, if not more (I have never 
 been able to ascertain precisely what happened to 
 the five torpedo boats that left Odessa), made a 
 dash at the Turkish squadron; the weather not 
 permitting him to use his Whitehead, he decided 
 to try what his pole torpedo would do. As he 
 approached the headmost vessel, he found (as he 
 explained afterwards to me) that something 
 stopped his way, and he saw at the same time sev- 
 eral black objects approaching him. Nothing 
 daunted, he struggled to get close to the bows of
 
 THE TURKISH FLEET 231 
 
 the ironclad ; when he got as near as he could man- 
 age he fired his torpedo, without, however, doing 
 any harm to his enemy. Scarcely had he done 
 this when he found himself in the water and his 
 boat gone from under him: the real facts being 
 that the black objects he had seen were the guard- 
 boats, which were closing on him, the ropes that 
 connected them together having fouled his screw, 
 and caused the disaster ; his boat was capsized and 
 went to the bottom. Four or five of her crew were 
 drowned, as he would have been, had he not been 
 fished out of the water by the Turkish guard-boats, 
 and made prisoner. 
 
 The name of this daring naval officer was Put- 
 skin. His cool courage was very amusing. When 
 interrogated, while still in a half-drowned condi- 
 tion, he exclaimed in excellent English, " Why the 
 devil didn't I blow that ship up ? " He was asked 
 if he had any idea what stopped him, and it was 
 suggested to him that something must have fouled 
 his screw. He answered, " I don't know what 
 stopped me, but why the devil didn't I blow the 
 ship up? " I told him that I had a sort of notion 
 he might be hanged for using such a fearful 
 weapon. He said, " No brave man would hang 
 me ; but why," &c. 
 
 He seemed to have only one idea, and that was 
 he was a fool for having failed. He was too good
 
 232 HOBART PASHA 
 
 a man to let go, so we kept him till nearly the 
 end of the war. 
 
 Wherever he may be now he is a fine fellow, 
 whose bravery I for one shan't forget in a hurry. 
 
 A short time after the above-named occurrence 
 the Russians attempted an attack upon Sulina by 
 land and water, with what object I have never 
 been able to understand ; as, if they had succeeded, 
 they could not have held it so long as our ships 
 were anchored in the offing. Perhaps their inten- 
 tion was, by driving us out of the river, to utilise 
 its position for torpedo attacks. 
 
 I have explained that Sulina was surrounded by 
 sea and vast marshes. Along the seashore there 
 was a narrow causeway of sand, on which ten men 
 could march abreast. The only other approaches 
 were by sea and by the river, the latter, at about 
 ten miles distance, being in the hands of the Rus- 
 sians. As a defence we had placed on the beach, 
 at about a gunshot's distance, several torpedoes, 
 buried in the sand, and connected by electric wires 
 with the batteries of Sulina. A simultaneous 
 movement was made by three or four Russian gun- 
 boats descending the river, and two regiments of 
 troops accompanied by artillery were sent along 
 the causeway. Suspecting something in regard to 
 torpedoes, they drove before them as a sort of
 
 THE TURKISH FLE^T 
 
 233 
 
 advance guard about two hundred and fifty horses 
 without riders, it being the duty of the poor 
 animals to take the shock of the explosion should 
 torpedoes be placed on the beach. And so they 
 did, for, on the horses passing the spot where the 
 torpedoes were placed, an explosion took place 
 through which several horses were killed. The 
 rest turned right back, and the causeway being 
 very narrow, dashed amongst the advancing troops, 
 causing the greatest confusion, so much so that 
 the whole party had to retreat and we saw them 
 no more. 
 
 It is true that one of the small ironclads had 
 about got the range of the advancing enemy along 
 the sea-beach, so making their position rather pre- 
 carious, but I believe that the real cause of the 
 failure was the action of the horses. 
 
 In the meantime, the light draft Russian gun- 
 boats came down the river, and began to fire shell 
 and shot at a long range at the small town and 
 fortifications of Sulina. This was answered by the 
 temporary batteries alone, the ships being out of 
 range. Desultory fighting went on for about 
 twenty-four hours, when the Russians, finding the 
 hopelessness of the enterprise, especially now that 
 the troops had retired, gave it up as a bad job 
 and steamed up the Danube again. This was the
 
 234 HOBART PASHA 
 
 only serious attack made upon Sulina, which Rus- 
 sia could never have taken and held till she had 
 destroyed the Turkish fleet. 
 
 After this I went to Batoum, which place Der- 
 vish Pasha was gallantly holding against Russia. 
 He was sadly in want of naval help, as the Rus- 
 sians had advanced by the sea-shore to within six 
 miles of that much-coveted port. On arriving 
 there I took the command of eight Turkish ships 
 of war, besides transports that were constantly 
 coming and going between Constatinople and 
 Batoum with provisions, ammunition, &c., for the 
 army and navy. Here, again, if the Russians 
 could have disposed of the Turkish fleet they would 
 have easily taken Batoum. By commanding the 
 sea, even with a couple of vessels, they would have 
 prevented supplies being sent. It must be remem- 
 bered there was no way of supporting the soldiers 
 and sailors except by sea. My first object was to 
 drive the Russians, by the fire of the ships, more 
 inland. This was easy enough, as of course the 
 enemy had no guns with them to compare in range 
 with those on board the ironclads. Some time 
 after my arrival, however, they brought down two 
 fifteen centimetre Krupp guns from Ardahan, guns 
 that had a considerably longer range than our 
 twelve-ton Armstrongs. They gave us some trou- 
 ble; however, the position of the attacking camp
 
 THE TURKISH FLEET 235 
 
 was changed so as to be out of range of our guns, 
 a move in every way satisfactory to the Turkish 
 military commander. 
 
 This action of our fleet gave great annoyance 
 to the enemy, and it was determined if possible to 
 make our lying at Batoum a dangerous if not im- 
 possible matter. This was to be done by the so- 
 called almighty torpedo. I received notice from 
 our secret agent at Sebastopol that a serious ex- 
 pedition was being organised, that the Turkish 
 ships at Batoum were to be destroyed or fright- 
 ened away at any cost. Frightened away, indeed! 
 To the uninitiated a torpedo is a thing to frighten 
 any one away. We had heard of magnificent re- 
 sults of torpedo trials in peace, how ships (I 
 fancy only hulks) had been blown up, columns of 
 water half a mile high being sent into the air, &c. 
 Nothing, it was said, could save you. Whatever 
 my ideas, however nervous I may have felt, I knew 
 that those I was commanding had no fear they 
 don't know what it means, the more especially of 
 a not understood possible casualty ; and though I 
 was more enlightened as to torpedoes and their ac- 
 cepted effects, I wasn't to show my people a bad 
 example. When lying in bed in the middle of the 
 night, having read the warning letter before re- 
 tiring, I thought : " Suppose one of these nasty 
 things goes off and blows the flagship up at this
 
 236 HOBART PASHA 
 
 moment. How pleasant! What cowardly things 
 these are; no fair fight, up you go, unshriven. I 
 have heard that a man who is hanged is likely to 
 go to heaven; I wonder if the same chance would 
 be given to him blown up by a torpedo ? " This 
 sort of feelings came over me. However, said I, 
 " Let us see if we can prevent their being 
 realised ; " so I went to work to try to do so. As 
 a sportsman I calculated that to fire at a dark 
 object in the night, especially when that object 
 had a background of high hills such as we had at 
 Batoum, was most difficult, so the first order I 
 gave was no lights, not even a cigarette light ; utter 
 darkness under severe penalties. Next, consider- 
 ing that Batoum is a very small port, with an 
 entrance difficult to find even in broad daylight, 
 almost impossible in the night without the light- 
 house as a guide, I ordered that the lighthouse 
 should not be lighted. Then I arranged with the 
 shore authorities that no lights should be seen in 
 the town ; this was more difficult, as there were 
 many Russian friendlies in Batoum. 
 
 However, the application of somewhat severe 
 discipline made Batoum like a city of the dead 
 after dark. 
 
 In addition to these precautions I put a barrier 
 of booms ahead of the ships lying in the port, 
 placed guard-boats to watch it at the entrance
 
 THE TURKISH FLEET 237 
 
 of the harbor, and having done all this, I bided my 
 time. For some nights, rather sleepless to me, 
 though to my disgust I heard my officers snoring 
 all round me, nothing happened (though, as I 
 heard afterwards, a good deal had been going on 
 outside the harbor), when, at about three o'clock 
 in the morning of the third or fourth night after 
 I had received the warning, I heard a row going 
 on in the direction of the guard-boats and an ex- 
 plosion near to one of the outlying ships. I had 
 hardly time to think, when something struck the 
 chain of my flagship and seemed to spin past, like 
 a fish in the water. Then dead silence. I im- 
 mediately sent orders to the two fast cruisers, 
 which were lying with steam up, to go to sea and 
 reconnoitre. 
 
 Suddenly I heard people on shore calling out (I 
 forgot to mention that ships in Batoum harbor 
 are always lashed to the shore). I sent my officer 
 to reconnoitre, who found a gaping crowd stand- 
 ing round what they thought was a large fish lash- 
 ing his tail, but what in reality was an unexploded 
 torpedo with the screw still in motion. 
 
 On things being calm I went myself to see what 
 had happened generally during the attack, and 
 found that a torpedo had struck the bows of one 
 of the ironclads on the belt, at the waterline at 
 an angle, had exploded, and scarcely left a mark;
 
 238 HOBART PASHA 
 
 that a second torpedo had, after passing through 
 the planks on the defensive barrier I had placed, 
 diverged from its course, and gone quietly on shore 
 as far as the left of the squadron; that a third, 
 as I said, had struck the chain of the flagship and 
 not gone off, but had run on to the beach. The 
 parts of another torpedo were afterwards picked 
 up, it evidently having exploded somewhere down 
 below. So we could account for four torpedoes 
 having been fired at us without effect; probably 
 there were more. Those that were on the beach 
 were in a very perfect state, and as soon as we 
 had rendered them harmless, we made prisoners of 
 war of them. 
 
 Now I have been since informed of what 
 went on outside Batoum. It seems that for three 
 nights two fast Russian steamers, carrying tor- 
 pedo boats, had been looking for Batoum, and 
 as one of my informants said, " We could not find 
 it for love or money." A couple of hours before 
 daylight they had steamed off, so as to be out of 
 sight before break of day. At last they had 
 bribed a man to light a fire in the hills behind the 
 town, and so on the fourth night they got some- 
 where near it, but they could not make out the 
 ships on account of the dark land behind them. 
 The time for steaming off having nearly come, they 
 determined to have a shot at us, so fired five tor-
 
 THE TURKISH FLEET 239 
 
 pedoes into what they thought the centre of the 
 Turkish fleet, with what result we have seen. The 
 person who told me was one of them, and said it 
 was sickening work looking for Batoum. It is 
 true the nights were fearfully dark, so that the 
 shape of the land could not be made out. He said 
 that without the traitor's light they could not 
 have found us. 
 
 I am not saying by this that one should always 
 trust to darkness ; there are many other ways now 
 of taking the sting out of torpedo attacks. It is 
 needless to say that the steamers I sent out re- 
 turned, having seen nothing. While the fleet was 
 at Batoum, two or three more torpedo attacks 
 were made on a smaller scale without effect; but 
 I have bored my readers enough about torpedoes 
 all I know is that I can sleep now when in their 
 vicinity. While in the Black Sea I several times 
 went with two or three ships that could be spared 
 from other duties and reconnoitred Sebastopol 
 and Odessa, but being fully convinced of the help- 
 lessness of few or even of many ships against the 
 heavy batteries of the present day, I did.no more 
 than look about me, occasionally exchanging shots 
 with the enemy. 
 
 As to burning defenceless towns and villages, I 
 have always been thoroughly adverse to such 
 things, so I never undertook it. Some people
 
 240 HOBART PASHA 
 
 think war should be made as horrible as possible ; 
 in this I do not agree. I could easily have burnt 
 the Emperor's palace at Yalta, but did not think 
 it expedient to do so. 
 
 I have already spoken in general terms of the 
 great services rendered by the ironclads in moving 
 the troops about, but I feel that, in justice to the 
 gallant crews of the squadron I had the honor to 
 command during the war, I ought not to bring this 
 portion of my narrative to a close without mention- 
 ing more particularly a piece of work of that 
 nature executed under my immediate direction. 
 
 The capture of Soukhoum-Kaleh had been fol- 
 lowed up by the despatch of an expedition of some 
 4,000 men of all arms to a place some thirty miles 
 down the coast, called Tchamchira. The military 
 commander at Soukhoum had some idea, I believe, 
 that this force would be able to make its way in- 
 land, and thus encourage risings amongst the tribes 
 against the detested Muscovite rule. The country, 
 however, was too unfavorable for the advance of 
 invading troops, being swampy ground with thick 
 bush where it was not an impenetrable forest. 
 The Russians also got wind of the intended move- 
 ment, and to make a long story short, had managed 
 to collect a large opposing force. The expedition 
 was landed, but that is all. Before much could 
 be done to secure the position as a base whilst
 
 THE TURKISH FLEET 241 
 
 the men in fact were making entrenchments the 
 Russians, who under cover of the forest that ex- 
 tended right down to the beach on either side had 
 been stealthily making their preparations, at- 
 tacked them on all sides, and but for the covering 
 fire of the ironclads, fortunately still at anchor 
 there, would undoubtedly have driven them into 
 the sea. 
 
 The result of this action enabled the force to 
 establish itself in the village, and hold possession 
 of the small belt of cleared ground around it, the 
 extreme limit of which was still within the range 
 of the guns of the ironclads. 
 
 The position of this force, however, daily grew 
 worse. The Russians had captured the fords, by 
 which their retreat to Soukhoum was cut off. 
 They were completely surrounded, and only owed 
 their preservation to the continual presence of 
 an ironclad. Under these circumstances it was 
 thought advisable to withdraw the men, and Derv- 
 ish Pasha entrusted me with the task. To give 
 an idea of the precarious position of this force, 
 I may mention that, as I approached the place in 
 my flagship, we heard the sound of smart can- 
 nonading, and I found the guard-ship engaged 
 with a battery of field-pieces. The Russians had 
 recently received a large accession of force, and 
 several field-guns of large calibre ; and so, not
 
 HOBART PASHA 
 
 tent with troubling the camp daily with an enfilad- 
 ing fire, had thought to try conclusions with the 
 heavy guns afloat. On our appearance the action 
 ceased, the Russians withdrawing their battery 
 into the safe shelter of the forest. The Russian 
 fire had been well directed, and had the guns been 
 of heavier calibre, considerable damage would have 
 been inflicted. As it was, the upper works and 
 rigging were cut about a great deal, and two men 
 killed and four wounded on board the ironclad. 
 
 After a conference with the general in command, 
 I proceeded to Soukhoum to make arrangements for 
 transport. I had hardly arrived there when a 
 message from Tchamchira arrived, urgently de- 
 manding assistance, as the Russians were advanc- 
 ing in great force. I hurried back with all the 
 vessels I could collect to Tchamchira, three iron- 
 clad corvettes and two wooden paddle-wheel trans- 
 ports. Fortunately the Russian attack had not 
 commenced, and the arrival of my squadron prob- 
 ably led to its postponement until too late. To 
 remove 4,000 men, bag and baggage, with several 
 batteries of field-pieces and a large amount of am- 
 munition, was no easy task with the small amount 
 of transport at my command. I made, however, 
 what I considered to be the best disposition pos- 
 sible under the circumstances. 
 
 The corvettes and the paddle transports were
 
 THE TURKISH FLEET 243 
 
 moored in as close to the shore as possible, my 
 intention being to cram them with men and stores 
 first, leaving my flagship free to the last to ma- 
 nreuvre off the Russian camp and shell it, should 
 the slightest opposition be offered to the embarka- 
 tion. The work commenced at daylight, and was 
 actively carried on throughout the day and follow- 
 ing night, the last batch of men coming off at 
 dawn. The men were taken away from under the 
 very teeth, as it were, of the Russians. The ships 
 in shore were well within rifle range, and the boats 
 passing to and fro were exposed the whole time to 
 a fire from hidden foes. The enemy had been evi- 
 dently overawed by my preparations, and doubt- 
 less thought it would be better for them to allow 
 the invading force to retire unopposed. 
 
 To avoid the chance of grounding, in case I 
 should have to use the frigate fire to cover the 
 embarkation, a volunteer crew had proceeded off 
 the Russian camp during the night, and laid down 
 a line of buoys, to show the limit of distance to 
 which the shore might be approached with safety. 
 These buoys, glistening in the sunlight, doubtless 
 suggested to the Russians that something dreadful 
 was in store for them if they attempted to fire a 
 gun, and so they contented themselves with watch- 
 ing from the trees, amongst the branches of which 
 we saw a number of them perched like so many
 
 244 HOBART PASHA 
 
 birds of prey. The whole credit of the embarka- 
 tion is due to the efficient manner in which the 
 naval officers under my command carried out the 
 instructions given them, and the great docility of 
 the Turkish soldiers. Soon after sunset the gen- 
 eral and staff left the shore, and their example 
 was followed by every military officer of any rank ; 
 so that the whole work devolved upon those I had 
 placed in command of the beach and the boats. 
 
 The men marched down quietly by themselves 
 and everything went on like clockwork. I must 
 confess that I passed a most anxious night, as I 
 knew not but what at any moment the enemy might 
 make a rush into the entrenchments the Turks were 
 abandoning, in order to claim a victory. My own 
 ship was getting lumbered up, and I knew that 
 before long it would be impossible to work more 
 than one or two of the guns in case of need. That 
 the Russians, however, could not know this, was 
 my comfort; but I must own that it was a great 
 relief to me when the last detachment left the shore. 
 The poor fellows had been holding the outposts 
 all night. They came in at the double, and little 
 time was lost over their embarkation. 
 
 We steamed off at once to Soukhoum, and there 
 disembarked the expedition. Shortly after this I 
 was called upon to prepare for a veritable exodus. 
 The evacuation of Soukhoum had been decided
 
 THE TURKISH FLEET 245 
 
 upon, but His Imperial Majesty felt that the poor 
 people, who had been expecting a permanent de- 
 liverance from the Russian yoke, could not be aban- 
 doned to those whose vengeance they had excited. 
 Intimation was therefore given that all those de- 
 sirous of leaving the country should be carried to 
 Turkish territory, and provided with lands to 
 form new settlements. The whole population 
 pretty well made up its mind to leave, and came 
 marching into Soukhoum with their flocks and 
 herds, and household goods and chattels. Suffice 
 it to say that, with the vessels under my command, 
 I shipped off and landed at Batoum, Trebizonde, 
 Sinope, and other ports on the Turkish coast some- 
 thing like 50,000 people, counting men, women, 
 and children, within the space of a fortnight.
 
 CHAPTER! XX 
 
 SPORT IN TUKKEY 
 
 I WILL now endeavor to give my readers some 
 idea of life at Constantinople. If the resi- 
 dent is a sportsman he can find plenty of 
 amusement, game of all descriptions being plenti- 
 ful. I may say that the shooting begins about 
 September 1, when great flights of quails pass the 
 environs of Constantinople, from the threatening 
 winter of Russia to the warmer climate of Egypt, 
 and afford capital amusement. But really to en- 
 joy the sport it is necessary to go somewhat far, 
 within ten miles of Constantinople. The fields 
 during the quail season are filled with so-called 
 sportsmen to such an extent that one has every 
 chance of being mistaken for a quail, and potted 
 accordingly. I have counted at St. Stephano, a 
 place about nine miles from Stamboul, celebrated 
 for treaties and quails, both in due season, more 
 than five hundred sportsmen accompanied by howl- 
 ing curs of every description. Such a sight is 
 worth looking at, but for sport, well it is better 
 to leave gun and dogs at home. 
 
 246
 
 SPORT IN TURKEY 247 
 
 I once ventured out among the motley crowd of 
 quail-shooters ; there happened to be a flight of 
 quails, so the fire kept up very much resembled a 
 field-day on Southsea Common. I was hit all over 
 with (thank goodness!) very small shot, and made 
 a rapid retreat to save my skin from perforation. 
 
 However, going some distance along the coast, 
 away from the enemy, one may at times get capital 
 sport during the months of September and Octo- 
 ber; for example, a single gun may bag a hundred 
 and fifty to two hundred quails in a day. 
 
 After the quail comes the partridge shooting, 
 which is very good, especially in the islands of the 
 Turkish archipelago, where there are great num- 
 bers of red-legged partridges affording famous 
 sport. 
 
 To properly enjoy the shooting in Turkey a 
 yacht is necessary, as the best of it is to be found 
 in the islands and near to the sea-coast, in places 
 quite inaccessible to roads. 
 
 For example, the islands of Mitros, Lemnos, and 
 Mytilene abound in partridges, and the shooting 
 there is really capital. 
 
 Either by bringing a yacht from England, or by 
 hiring one at Constantinople, the real sportsman 
 may have great amusement while shooting, with 
 Constantinople as headquarters. He will find in 
 Asia Minor deer of all descriptions, wild boars and
 
 wolves. Then he will have capital sport with 
 geese, ducks, woodcocks, partridges, and snipe. 
 
 Occasionally he must rough it somewhat while 
 sleeping in villages some little distance from the 
 sea-coast for a night or two, instead of retiring 
 on board his floating home, and on this head I 
 would give a word of advice to the sportsman. 
 Always take up your quarters in a Turkish village, 
 if possible, in preference to a Greek village. At 
 the former you will find the traditional hospitality 
 of the Oriental, even among the very poor people, 
 practised in every sense of the word ; whilst in the 
 latter you will be exploit e (there is no English 
 word that signifies as well what I mean) to the 
 last degree, even to the pilfering of your car- 
 tridges. 
 
 I have seen on arriving at a Turkish village 
 every one vie with the other, and doing their very 
 utmost to make the sportsman and his party com- 
 fortable. I have seen " harems," such as they 
 are, cleaned out and prepared as a sleeping apart- 
 ment, all the inmates huddling together in some 
 little corner. I have remarked one old woman 
 arrive with a couple of eggs, another with what 
 was perhaps her pet fowl, to be sacrificed at the 
 altar of hospitality in fact, only one idea 
 seemed to animate them, namely, hospitality, and 
 it is touching to see how they shrink from the prof-
 
 SPORT IN TURKEY 249 
 
 fered reward made by the sportsman on leaving 
 these kind though poor and long-suffering people. 
 
 There are different kinds of deer to be found 
 in Asia Minor, which strangely enough imitate the 
 habits of the inhabitants, Greek, Turk, and Arme- 
 nian, by not herding together. 
 
 First, there are the large red deer which gen- 
 erally inhabit the high mountains and are difficult 
 to get, except when the winter snow drives them 
 down into the lower grounds. I have been fortu- 
 nate enough to kill several of these splendid animals 
 during my sojourn in Turkey. I will give my 
 readers an account of how I shot two of them. 
 One day during the winter, when the mountains 
 were covered with snow, I received news that three 
 deer of the largest description were in a ravine 
 at the foot of a mountain some six hours' distance 
 from Ismidt. I immediately started off in pur- 
 suit. I must mention that all persons of high 
 rank in Turkey have, or had at the time I write 
 of, by their shooting firman, the right to call upon 
 the villagers in the neighborhood in which they 
 are shooting to assist in driving or searching for 
 game. In my case it was not necessary to take 
 advantage of such an offer; every one was on the 
 alert for my arrival. The people told me that 
 that very morning they had seen the noble beasts 
 J was after, grazing outside the wood. So
 
 250 HOBART PASHA 
 
 gathering the villagers, boys carrying horns, men 
 (much against my will) carrying guns, accom- 
 panied by every available dog, from the grand 
 shepherd's dog to the yapping cur of the village, 
 off we started. 
 
 The ravine was thickly wooded, and extended 
 far up the mountain, where it ended in a bare spot 
 without trees. To this place I went alone, leav- 
 ing the crowd behind me with directions not to 
 move till I was in my place, which instruction they 
 most strictly followed. After half an hour's walk 
 I arrived at the place I have named. I had hardly 
 time to regain my breath when I heard a row below 
 me as if Bedlam had been let loose. I loaded my 
 gun with buckshot in one barrel and ball in the 
 other, and remained as quiet as a mouse. As the 
 noise of the beaters and dogs approached me, I 
 heard a crash in the bushes within about forty 
 yards of me, and presently a magnificent stag as 
 big as a cow came slowly out of the cover, looking 
 behind him, evidently not expecting an enemy in 
 front. As soon as he was well clear of the bushes, 
 I fired at him with buckshot and killed him dead. 
 
 I hardly had time to think, when, with a tremen- 
 dous rush, two other large deer broke out of the 
 wood straight at me at full gallop. I fired a bullet 
 at the foremost one, which turned back into the 
 woods apparently wounded, and so it proved, for
 
 SPORT IN TURKEY 251 
 
 it ran among the beaters, evidently having lost its 
 head, and was soon despatched among dogs, men 
 and guns. He was a stag also, and as I claimed 
 to have shot him, I may say that I had the luck 
 to shoot a brace of splendid stags right and left. 
 
 There is not a sportsman in Europe who would 
 not have been delighted at such a chance of red 
 deer like these; such as are not seen anywhere ex- 
 cept in Asia Minor. The largest one had nineteen 
 points to his antlers, weighed when cleaned a hun- 
 dred and fifteen okes, equal to three hundred and 
 twenty pounds English measure, and certainly was 
 larger than any stag I have ever met with either 
 in Scotland or in Austria. During the sixteen- 
 years that I have passed in the East I have only 
 succeeded in killing four of these splendid animals. 
 This I attribute very much to the want of proper 
 deerhounds, which unfortunately I have not been 
 able to procure. 
 
 The crowd of beaters make so much noise that 
 the deer slip away at the sides of the thick covers 
 unseen, whereas dogs would drive them more in a 
 straight line towards the shooters if they are prop- 
 erly posted. In addition to this, it is always a 
 great advantage when the hounds give tongue, 
 and so warn the sportsman of the whereabouts of 
 the game. These hounds, called " colpoys," can 
 be procured in Roumania and Hungary.
 
 252 HOBART PASHA 
 
 There is another description of deer found near 
 the sea-coast in some parts of Asia Minor, which I 
 will describe. It is in fact the pure wild fallow 
 deer that stocks the parks of Europe, and if I am 
 rightly informed is only to be found wild in Asia 
 Minor, and even there it is rare. I understand 
 that in India or in Africa, where there are hun- 
 dreds of different sorts of deer, the real fallow is 
 not to be found. 
 
 While shooting at a place called Camaris, near 
 to Gallipoli, two years since, I discovered several 
 herds of these deer, beautiful creatures, wild as 
 hawks, and accordingly laid myself out to shoot 
 some of them if possible. I tried driving, stalk- 
 ing, and every manoeuvre to circumvent them, with- 
 out success. At last one day I started with my 
 beaters to a place where there were many tracks 
 of fallow deer. I was posted at a sort of small 
 mountain pen, having on one side of me a young 
 friend of mine, and at the other a native (these 
 fellows won't go out unless they are allowed to 
 carry their guns). 
 
 Shortly after the beaters had begun to halloo, 
 a fallow hind glided by between me and my young 
 friend, like a ghost. Not a sound in the wood 
 gave notice of its approach. It was even quieter 
 in its movements than a hare would have been. I 
 put up my gun to fire, but seeing my friend's head
 
 SPORT IN TURKEY 253 
 
 right in the way and in a line with its muzzle, I 
 waited a second, but the deer was gone. I had 
 scarcely got over my disappointment when I heard 
 the branches breaking in the wood very near to 
 me, and suddenly a deer sprang right over my 
 head, taking a flying leap, like a hunter would 
 do over a fence. 
 
 This unusual action on the part of the deer 
 called for unusual action on my part. As he had 
 taken a flying leap over my head, I took a flying 
 shot at him a second before he landed on the other 
 side of me. The result was that he rolled over 
 like a rabbit, shot from underneath through the 
 heart. This deer proved to be a very fine speci- 
 men of the fallow, every point showing him to be 
 of that species, except his antlers, which were 
 quite straight. This I cannot account for; the 
 natives, who had remarked this deer on several 
 occasions feeding with the herd of fallow deer, 
 called it the cassic boa, which means " straight- 
 horned." Some time after this I had some good 
 sport with the fallow deer. Having got more ac- 
 customed to their habits, I found that it was of 
 no use trying to approach them, their scent being 
 too keen, their eyesight too sharp; the only way 
 to get them is by very careful, in fact I may say 
 scientific, driving. 
 
 Good boar shooting may be had by going some
 
 HOBART PASHA 
 
 little distance from Constantinople. It usually is 
 done either by beaters or with boarhounds ; but I 
 have had very good sport at boar while hunting 
 for woodcocks and pheasants, in what may be 
 called covert shooting not exactly English cov- 
 ert shooting, in which almost every tree is known 
 by the keepers, but in coverts of great extent, in 
 which there are almost impassable thickets, made 
 still more so by a well-known bramble called the 
 " wait-a-bit," a thing that hooks on to your eye- 
 lids as you pass. 
 
 There it is that in these coverts spaniels, half- 
 English, half country-bred dogs, do frequently 
 the work of beaters, and it is a strange fact that 
 while piggy starts at once from his lair at the 
 approach of the boarhounds, he will not budge an 
 inch for the little yapping spaniel, whom he treats 
 with contempt. 
 
 I have known many instances when, on hearing 
 a jolly row in the covert, I have crawled in on 
 my hands and knees, and found a boar being 
 bayed by my spaniels in fact, I have killed more 
 pigs in this way than in any other. The danger 
 is that you may have your dogs killed by the 
 boar; this has happened to me on one or two oc- 
 casions, more especially with young dogs. 
 
 I had once a cunning old spaniel dog (poor 
 Dick well known to most sportsmen out here),
 
 SPORT IN TURKEY 255 
 
 who has frequently come out of the wood with hi 
 mouth full of pig's hair, he evidently having torn 
 the hair off the animal while laying in his lair. 
 (Dick was never hurt by a pig.) I have often 
 surrounded, with my brother sportsmen and my- 
 self, large bushes in which the piggies were se- 
 curely hidden, driven them out, and shot them as 
 one would do hares or rabbits. 
 
 I have heard a good deal of the danger of pig 
 shooting, on account of the savage propensities 
 of the animal; but I have found that, with very 
 rare exceptions, the Anatolian wild boar always 
 runs. It is true that they (she or he, the females 
 are the most savage) have a nasty knack of giving 
 a sort of jerk with their heads, when fighting or 
 even passing an enemy, and that jerk means to a 
 man the ripping up of his leg from his heel to his 
 thigh, to a dog the tearing open of his entrails. 
 
 On one occasion I was out cock shooting, when 
 some shepherds' dogs in a valley adjoining that 
 in which I was walking started a large wild boar, 
 a beast they call a solitaire, from the fact that 
 he is always seen after a certain time of life alone. 
 The animal made for a ridge dividing the valleys ; 
 on getting there he passed along the sky-line, 
 about eighty yards from where I was. I changed 
 my cartridges and fired a ball at the pig, who 
 rushed away, apparently unshot; on going to the
 
 256 HOBART PASHA 
 
 spot, however, where he had passed when I fired, 
 I found some drops of blood. This blood I traced 
 for about half a mile, till I came to a large clump 
 of bushes into which my spaniels dashed, evidently 
 close to their game. I heard a tremendous row 
 in the bushes, and had hardly time to prepare when 
 the great beast with his eyes all bloodshot and 
 foaming at the mouth rushed straight at me. I 
 was on a narrow path, from which there was no 
 escape, as the boar was tearing up it, followed by 
 the dogs. I fired a ball straight in his face, at 
 the distance of about two yards, in spite of which 
 he rushed straight on, knocked me clean over, and 
 while passing me made the usual dangerously effec- 
 tive jerk I have alluded to above, by which he 
 cut my boot from the ankle to the thigh, and 
 drew a little blood just above and inside of the 
 knee ; after which the boar rushed headlong for 
 about thirty yards and dropped dead. I found 
 that my bullet had smashed through his forehead 
 straight between the eyes and gone into his brain. 
 He was an enormous brute, weighing when 
 cleaned twenty-one stone, and carrying the finest 
 tusks I have seen anywhere as belonging to a wild 
 boar. I only had one man with me ; we were what 
 may be called eight miles from anywhere. Still I 
 was determined not to leave my prize ; so I sent my 
 man for a country wagon, and sitting down on my
 
 SPORT IN TURKEY 257 
 
 now harmless beast, smoked cigarettes and waited 
 quietly till the vehicle came. 
 
 Now, apropos of wild boar attacking people, 
 I am convinced that this animal had no intention 
 of attacking me. He was, though badly wounded 
 by the first shot, running from the dogs, and I 
 got in his way. Voila tout! 
 
 On only one other occasion I nearly came to 
 grief while boar-shooting. On my arriving at a 
 Turkish village one night, I was told that there 
 was an enormous boar in the neighborhood, who 
 for a long time had been the terror of the country, 
 inasmuch as he, accompanied by a large party of 
 the pig tribe, had rooted up the crops all round 
 the village, destroyed gardens, and tradition even 
 said had killed children and eaten them (this latter 
 story I don't take in). However, the poor people 
 prayed me with tears in their eyes to rid them of 
 their enemy, which I promised to do if possible. 
 So the next morning off we started in the follow- 
 ing order: first, myself and friends, accompanied 
 by the elders of the village armed with old-fash- 
 ioned guns; then the young men with knives and 
 big sticks, the women and children bringing up 
 the rear as lookers-on. 
 
 I and my two friends were escorted into the 
 centre of a large wood, in which very original 
 seats m trees had been knocked up for us. The
 
 258 HOBART PASHA 
 
 object of these seats was for our personal safety, 
 but I as a sportsman saw at once that to be up 
 a tree was not only advantageous in that respect, 
 but also that we should be much more invisible, 
 hidden among the branches of a tree, than by 
 being stationed on the ground. So we mounted 
 our trees, and the beaters went into the woods 
 some half a mile from us. I never heard such a 
 row as they made when they began the drive ; they 
 beat drums, fired guns, rang bells, and it was 
 evident to me that no wild beast would hold to his 
 lair under such a torrent of abuse. I found the 
 words they were using were curses on the wild 
 boar. I saw two or three fallow deer glide past 
 me, with their usual ghostlike silence, and shortly 
 afterwards the woods very near me seemed to shake 
 with something coming. Suddenly some fifteen to 
 twenty wild boar appeared among the bushes, com- 
 ing straight towards me. The first of these was 
 an enormous brute, evidently the boar we wanted. 
 
 I heard shots on either side of me from my 
 friends, but I kept my eye on the big boar. To 
 my astonishment he came right under the tree 
 where I was sitting, and stopped to listen. 
 
 He cocked his head on one side, looked all round 
 him, but forgot to look up the tree he was quite 
 close to, in which was his enemy. 
 
 Taking advantage of this I fired a ball and an
 
 SPORT IN TURKEY 259 
 
 S.S.G. cartridge into him, before he could make 
 up his mind which way to go ; he gave a tremendous 
 grunt and rolled over. I had not time to be over- 
 joyed at my luck before I found myself rolling 
 on the ground alongside of my victim, who, not 
 being dead, was by no means a pleasant compan- 
 ion. The fact is that the seat on which I had 
 been perched, having been very carelessly put up, 
 had given way, and down I came from a height of 
 about twelve feet. The branches of the tree had 
 broken my fall, but my gun had fallen out of my 
 hand and I had sprained my ankle, so that I was 
 in rather an awkward position. The boar was 
 shot through the spine, and could not get along, 
 though he made frantic efforts to get at me. 
 
 It was of no use my calling out for help ; 
 .everybody was calling out, everybody was excited, 
 firing at the pigs that were running about 
 in all directions. At the moment when I began 
 to think affairs somewhat serious (I tried to get 
 up and walk, but could not do so on account of 
 my ankle), as the boar was crawling towards me, 
 looking very mischievous, two great shepherd's 
 dogs arrived on the scene, and went straight in 
 for my enemy. Poor beast! He made a gallant 
 fight ; he could hardly move, but he could use his 
 head, and he tore one of the dogs open in a fright- 
 ful way ; then two or three men came up, but they
 
 260 HOBART PASHA 
 
 were afraid to go near to the boar. I made them 
 hand me my gun that was lying on the ground near 
 me, with which I soon put a stop to the battle. 
 
 Then all the people began to muster round their 
 dead enemy, and it was laughable to see and hear 
 how they abused and kicked the body of the pig. 
 How to get the carcass away was the next ques- 
 tion. We sent for two wagons and four or five 
 Christians (as the Turks won't touch pig), one 
 to carry me, the other the boar; so, after being 
 placed in the wagons, we made with piggy a tri- 
 umphant return to the village. Luckily the vil- 
 lage was on the sea-shore, and my yacht was lying 
 close to the land, so I got on board comfortably ; 
 but it was several days before I could walk. 
 
 I believe that that pig was nasty, and would 
 have given me the jerk if he could have done so. 
 Five other boar were killed on that occasion, one 
 of my friends killing two ; but I had the honor of 
 killing the boar of the period in that part of the 
 world. While referring to that neighborhood, I 
 would mention that it was within five miles of the 
 place I have been writing about that poor Cap- 
 tain Selby, of H.M.S. Rapid, was killed, some 
 two years ago. There are people who think that 
 he was attacked and murdered by robbers. Such 
 is not the case ; his death was a most unfortunate 
 occurrence brought on by a misunderstanding.
 
 SPORT IN TURKEY 261 
 
 It is true that the man who shot poor Selby 
 was an ignorant savage, but there was no pre- 
 meditation. It was a word and a blow. The lat- 
 ter, though inexcusable to the last degree, was 
 given by a ruffian whose class is in the habit of 
 shooting and stabbing one another (let alone 
 strangers, whom they detest) at the slightest 
 provocation. They are not natives of Turkey, 
 but come of strange tribes who live far away and 
 are hired to guard the sheep in the winter months, 
 returning to their homes in the summer. I went 
 myself to the spot where the sad occurrence took 
 place shortly afterwards, and found the people 
 very penitent and very frightened. Let us hope 
 that the punishment awarded to the principal 
 actors in the sad affair will be a salutary warning 
 for the future. 
 
 As brigandage may be considered as in some 
 way connected with sporting, inasmuch as many 
 refrain from going out shooting when they fear 
 being robbed and murdered, I will say a few words 
 about brigandage in Anatolia. 
 
 I have been for seventeen years an ardent lover 
 of sport in Turkey, and have generally shot in 
 Asia Minor. I have slept in villages that were 
 supposed to be inhabited by brigands. I have 
 been almost alone among an armed crowd of beat- 
 ers, all of whom had the reputation of being rob-
 
 262 HOBART PASHA 
 
 bers, but I have never been robbed or threatened 
 with robbery. Perhaps there exists a sort of sym- 
 pathy between brigands and sportsmen, for I can- 
 not call to mind any instance of a sportsman being 
 robbed. It is true that sometimes a fat financier, 
 or rich rentier, who may have called himself a 
 sportsman, has been carried off and ransom de- 
 manded for him, but a real sportsman never. 
 
 It is true that in some of the villages where 
 dwell the peoples of a nation I am not supposed to 
 love, you are liable to and probably will be exploits 
 to a considerable extent in the way of pilfering 
 cartridges, &c., but it is their nature to. So, 
 brother sportsman, when you come out here take 
 your abode in Turkish villages.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 SPOET AND SOCIETY 
 
 I HAVE mentioned, in what I have written 
 above relating to sport, the name of a some- 
 what celebrated spaniel of mine, whose name 
 was Dick. 
 
 The commencement of this bow-wow's career was 
 as strange as the many adventures he afterwards 
 went through. When he was quite a young dog, 
 he once worked with me all day in ice and snow, 
 and at last fell down lifeless. A heavy snowstorm 
 was raging, and as poor Dick seemed quite dead, 
 we made him a grave in the snow and covered him 
 up with leaves and bushes. We accomplished this 
 with difficulty, on account of the blinding snow 
 and the streams that were much swollen by tor- 
 rents from the mountains. Dick's burial-place 
 was about eight miles from where the vessel was 
 lying. We all got on board that night. I was 
 deeply grieved at the loss of the dog, who had 
 already shown great promise as a first-class sport- 
 ing dog, a most difficult thing to procure in this 
 country. What was our astonishment the next 
 263
 
 264 HOBART PASHA 
 
 morning at daylight to see Dick on the beach, 
 making piteous howls to draw attention to his 
 whereabouts. He was warmly welcomed, as may 
 be supposed; he did not seem a bit the worse for 
 his brief sojourn in the grave, and went out shoot- 
 ing again the same day as happy as ever. This 
 enthusiastic little spaniel was always doing strange 
 things; he followed every fox and every badger 
 into their holes, and we have had, time after time, 
 to dig him out covered with blood and fearfully 
 mauled, after having passed perhaps twenty-four 
 hours in the earth. 
 
 Mr. Dick generally hunted alone, occasionally, 
 coming near to see that I was all right. Now 
 this sounds bad for Dick's qualities as a sporting 
 dog, but such a dog is necessary in a thickly- 
 wooded region such as I shot in, when one wants 
 to know what is in the country. 
 
 Dick, when he found anything, barked loudly; 
 and this drew attention to the fact that there was 
 game in that quarter. Sometimes, of course, he 
 drove the game away; at others he drove it to- 
 wards me. At all events he went to places where 
 I never could have gone. On one occasion I heard 
 a great noise among some long reeds near a lake 
 where I was duck shooting Dick barking, some 
 other animal making a strange noise. This went 
 on so long that at last I went to see what was the
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 265 
 
 matter. After much trouble I got into the reeds 
 and approached the noise, which was momentarily 
 getting worse. On coming close I found an ani- 
 mal about Dick's size standing on its hind legs 
 and fighting with its fore paws, Dick covered with 
 blood, fighting hard and watching an opportunity 
 to close with his enemy. On my approach the 
 animal dropped on to fore paws and endeavored 
 to escape, on which Dick jumped on to him, thus 
 making it very difficult for me to use my gun. 
 However, at last, by watching my opportunity, I 
 fired a shot which disposed of the fighting powers 
 of the beast, which turned out to be a very large 
 badger. I never could understand what he was 
 doing so far away from his place of refuge. Was 
 he after ducks, or what? The animal was at least 
 a quarter of a mile away from dry land, being 
 in the middle of a marsh overgrown with reeds. 
 Another of Mr. Dick's adventures ended more 
 unfortunately for him, as I fear he never got over 
 its effects. I again, as on the last occasion, heard 
 him evidently furiously engaged with something 
 in a thick wood. After crawling on my hands 
 and knees for some time, I found Dick and two 
 other of my spaniels in furious combat with an 
 enormous wild cat, which when I came up was hold- 
 ing her own against the dogs. The beast got her 
 back against a tree, and was fighting all three
 
 266 HOBART PASHA 
 
 dogs, keeping them at a respectful distance. My 
 man seized a piece of wood, more like a little tree 
 than a stick, and made a blow at the cat, which 
 blow unfortunately came down with great force 
 on Dick's head. The poor dog lay senseless for 
 some time, and then crawled away, seeming to say, 
 " I'll have nothing more to do with you." He 
 never recovered from that blow, and became quite 
 a different dog, dying some months afterwards. 
 
 The feathered game shooting is very good in 
 the neighborhood of Constantinople. Pheasants, 
 though rare, may be obtained, five or six in a day. 
 I have killed fifteen to my own gun, and with a 
 party of three we bagged sixty-six in three days. 
 
 Snipe shooting is also very good. An idea of 
 the bags that may be made will be seen when I 
 say that at Besika Bay, close to the Dardanelles, 
 I killed in three days three hundred and three 
 snipe, an average of one hundred and one a day. 
 When there is snow lying on the hills there are 
 plenty of cock ; myself and two friends having 
 killed in three days two hundred and ninety-eight 
 long-bills. 
 
 My best bag in cock has been sixty-three in one 
 day's shooting alone. I have lately taken to punt- 
 ing after ducks, and have been very successful. 
 One gets twenty to thirty a day, and occasionally 
 a swan. I once killed four of the latter with one
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 267 
 
 shot from my punt gun (one of Holland & Hol- 
 land's). 
 
 Hares are not very numerous; to get three or 
 four in a day is counted good luck; but one gen- 
 erally picks up one or two during a day's shoot- 
 ing. 
 
 Thus the sum of what you have in this country 
 is red deer, fallow deer, roe deer, pigs, wolves, and 
 bears (as to the latter, rare), hares, pheasants, 
 cocks, snipe, quails, and ducks ; so that a man 
 who lays himself out for sport, and has a yacht, 
 can have plenty of amusement between September 
 and March. 
 
 The coast of Karamania, taking in all the coast 
 from some distance below Smyrna, passing Rhodes 
 and so on to the Gulf of Ayas, affords all the way 
 along capital sport to yachting men. For ex- 
 ample, in the large gulfs of Boudroum and 
 Marmorice, capital anchorage will be found, and 
 a country almost virgin as far as sport is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Some years ago, while commanding an Eng- 
 lish ship-of-war, I had the good fortune to be sent 
 on a roving commission against pirates that were 
 supposed to infest that coast. Somehow I always 
 imagined that pirates were more or less sports- 
 men, so I hunted for them in places that looked 
 gamey, and thus made the acquaintance of many
 
 268 HOBART PASHA 
 
 almost unknown, or at all events unfrequented, 
 harbors and creeks, in which I had famous sport. 
 
 On the coast of Karamania the ibex is to be 
 found in considerable quantities ; the red-legged 
 partridge and the francolin are also very abun- 
 dant, and give capital sport. 
 
 There are also at the head of the gulf I have 
 alluded to large marshes for duck and snipe. The 
 most celebrated, because the best known place in 
 the part I am alluding to, is the Gulf of Ayas, 
 into which runs the well-known (to all naval 
 sportsmen ) river called the Jiboon. A yacht must 
 anchor at some distance off the entrance of this 
 river, but the anchorage is quite safe in all weath- 
 ers. Getting over the bar of the river is a matter 
 at times of considerable difficulty, but once inside 
 the bar you are in the paradise of shooting. A 
 small steam launch is necessary to stem the strong 
 current, and to tow another boat up with tents, 
 provisions, &c. It is true that in my time we had 
 no steam launches, and I shall not forget the hard 
 work we had to take two boats sufficiently far up 
 the river to get well into the shooting grounds, 
 and even after two days' struggling we did not 
 arrive so far as I should have wished (we, in fact, 
 only got four miles up the stream). Still we had 
 some rare sport, the more especially with pigs and 
 francolin.
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 269 
 
 The morning after we had pitched our tents 
 some wandering Arabs came to us and offered to 
 beat the woods, which they declared to be full of 
 wild boar. They told us that the habit of these 
 animals was, on being driven, to take to the river 
 and swim to the other side; so we placed our guns 
 along the banks and told the boat to guard the 
 river from pigs swimming across, and try to stop 
 them as best they could. The gunners available 
 for the shore work consisted of myself and two 
 friends and my coxswain, who was armed with a 
 ship's rifle. The Arabs went into the bush on 
 horseback ; the beat had hardly begun when a lot of 
 pigs were started, all making for the river; three 
 of these were knocked over. As they approached 
 several others dashed into the river, and a most 
 amusing hunt was made after them by the sailors. 
 Not being armed with rifles, their weapons of of- 
 fence against piggy were revolvers, ropes> and the 
 stretchers of the boats. 
 
 There was, as may be supposed, great excite- 
 ment among the men when the pigs took to the 
 water ; they at once went at them, firing revolvers, 
 pulling after them as they swam, using language 
 not allowed in these refined days in the navy ; and, 
 before we got to the scene of action they had 
 lassoed as it were two fine pigs, and tied them to 
 trees on the riverside, and when we arrived were
 
 270 HOBART PASHA 
 
 firing their revolvers at them apparently with very 
 little effect ; however, we soon gave the animals 
 the coup de grace. Thus we killed five pigs in 
 our first drive. We took the liver, alias fry, out 
 of the pigs to eat (it is most excellent), cut off 
 the heads of the tuskers, and hung the remaining 
 parts on a tree to wait our return, changing our 
 camp further up the river the same night. 
 
 The next morning early I took a stroll into the 
 woods by myself. While looking about me I saw 
 what I thought was a large animal sleeping in the 
 bushes. I began accordingly to stalk him. I got 
 within eighty yards, put my gun up to shoot, but 
 as I could not pitch on a vital part to aim at, only 
 seeing a mass of what was evidently an animal 
 rolled up, I went nearer and nearer; in fact, little 
 by little, I got within ten yards of the quarry ; 
 then I fired a ball into what I now saw was a 
 huge pig. No move! What did it mean? I 
 could not have killed it sleeping. However, I took 
 courage and went close and put my hand on the 
 beast ; what should it be but an immense boar 
 lying dead in his lair. He must have died months 
 before I found him, as the skin fell to pieces on 
 being touched, the hair into powder ; his head was 
 a splendid one, but I could only save the jawbones, 
 in which were a grand pair of tusks. The moral
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 271 
 
 of this is that pigs, like everything else, die 
 sometimes quietly in their beds, be that retreat 
 only a lair in the forest; but it is a rare occur- 
 rence to find relics of wild animals in so perfect 
 a state. I fancy their friends and relations gen- 
 .erally eat them. The bed or lair he was lying in 
 was a most snug spot, and he would have been 
 quite invisible had not some of the brushwood been 
 burnt away, Arab fashion, a short time before I 
 found him. 
 
 I must warn any sportsman intending to shoot 
 in the Jiboon river country that the wandering 
 Arabs who are to be found there, though not brig- 
 ands of a high order, are petty thieves to the last 
 degree. We were always obliged to keep a watch 
 in our tents, leaving a man behind in charge when 
 we went on shooting excursions. On one occasion 
 we found on our return that our watchman had 
 captured an old woman whom he caught in the act 
 of creeping under the tent and stealing a spoon. 
 
 I had myself a curious adventure. An Arab 
 told me that he knew where a boar was lying in 
 the long grass, and that he would take me to the 
 spot if I would accompany him. We started off 
 together, and on getting well into the wood we 
 went on our hands and knees, crawling under the 
 trees and brushwood, towards the spot where the
 
 272 HOBART PASHA 
 
 boar was supposed to be. We had to keep quite 
 close together. I carried round my neck a very 
 pretty silver whistle, which I prized exceedingly. 
 Suddenly, when we were in a very thick part of 
 the bush, the Arab seized hold of my whistle and 
 held it tight. I immediately grasped the hand 
 that held the whistle; this I did with my right 
 hand holding his left. He, with his right hand, 
 tried to draw a knife. I, with my left, tried to 
 get my gun to bear on him, but there was so little 
 room to spare on account of the thick bush that 
 both our operations were difficult of performance. 
 As soon as I saw him trying to draw a knife, I 
 dropped the hand with the whistle, and seized that 
 with which he tried to draw the knife. Thus the 
 play went on for two or three minutes ; neither of 
 us spoke, all our energies were directed on our 
 different games. At last, by turning round a 
 little, I succeeded in giving him a tremendous kick, 
 which rolled him over on his back; then my gun 
 was free, and I held it to his head, upon which he 
 took an attitude of supplication on his knees, and 
 prayed for quarter. I made him give me his 
 knife, go on all-fours again, and creep before me 
 out of the wood. This was a most audacious at- 
 tempt at petty robbery. I should like to have 
 peppered him a little, but he was so penitent, I 
 decided to let him go. I don't think he meant to
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 273 
 
 stab me; I think he merely wanted to cut the 
 string that held the whistle. These men were not 
 generally murderers. 
 
 On this trip we killed twelve pigs, a hundred and 
 seven francolin, one lynx, and lots of cock and 
 ducks. 
 
 Coming back to the ship I, and those with me in 
 my boat, very nearly came to utter grief. There 
 was a good deal of sea on the bar of the river. 
 The cutter that was with me got over all safe, but 
 my whale-boat being loaded heavily with pigs, &c., 
 refused to rise with the waves, and not doing so, 
 the consequences were that she filled and capsized. 
 We had all to jump and make for the shore, a 
 distance of nearly a mile, being in the greatest 
 danger while doing so of getting into the current 
 of the river. Any one who had done this must 
 have been washed away and drowned; however, 
 thank goodness, all hands were saved. The whale- 
 boat was afterwards picked up, having been washed 
 out to sea, but we lost all tents, spare guns, &c. ; 
 the pigs remained in the boat, as they were stowed 
 under the thwarts, and hadn't room to float out; 
 so, friends, take warning of the bar of the Jiboon 
 river. 
 
 It was about this time that I received a report 
 from some American missionaries to the effect that 
 one of their comrades had been robbed and mur-
 
 dered by some Arabs who inhabited the mountains 
 near Alexandretta, people whose evil deeds had 
 for some time past brought them into notoriety. 
 Although I was under orders to join the com- 
 mander-in-chief, I took it upon myself to remain 
 and assist the Americans in hunting down if pos- 
 sible the murderers of their comrade. 
 
 I confess I was made more zealous in the cause 
 from hearing that there were " lots of big game on 
 the hills." I invited two or three of these Amer- 
 ican missionaries to join my mess, and off we went 
 to look for the murderers. As this is a chapter 
 on shooting, I will as briefly as possible state what 
 we did in the official way. In the first place we 
 anchored at the head of the Gulf of Ayas, near 
 a large town where resided the chief authority of 
 the neighborhood in which the murder had been 
 committed. I landed with the missionaries, sev- 
 eral of my officers, and some marines to act as an 
 escort, and paid an official visit to this gentleman, 
 who was called the caimakam, or chief magistrate. 
 This great man told us that we should certainly 
 with his assistance find the people we were after. 
 He suggested that we should accompany him with 
 a small body of our men, to which he could add 
 some of his zeptiehs ; that thus accompanied he 
 would go to a place on the hill where we should 
 find what we wanted. He said that a little " back-
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 275 
 
 sheesh " was necessary. This latter we found, 
 and the next day we started. 
 
 We ascended amongst the most magnificent 
 wooded hills I ever saw. " Such places for 
 game ! " thought I, till at last we halted at a clump 
 of splendid oak trees. Under one of these a grand 
 luncheon was spread, of which we were all invited 
 to partake. During the luncheon a man rushed 
 up to our host and whispered in his ear something 
 which seemed to give him great satisfaction, for 
 he at once smilingly said, " Captain, I have found 
 the men you are after ; " and sure enough we saw 
 approaching two ruffianly looking fellows, tied to- 
 gether, and being dragged along by men on horse- 
 back. I hope they were the right men. I will 
 presume that they were, but they had been very 
 quick in catching them. After my missionary 
 friend who spoke their language had interrogated 
 the prisoners, he requested that they might be kept 
 apart, which was done, and they were given in 
 charge of separate sentinels, to whose horses they 
 were tied. We then returned to our lunch, our 
 pipes, and our coffee. Suddenly we heard a pistol 
 shot, a rush, and a scream from the neighborhood 
 of the prisoners. It seems that one of them had 
 drawn the pistol from his guardian's belt, shot him 
 dead, jumped on to the horse, and galloped off. 
 Everybody, marines and all, tried to follow. Such
 
 276 HOBART PASHA 
 
 a row never was heard; but the man knew the 
 country, and we saw him no more. I was rather 
 glad, for he must have been a plucky fellow. 
 
 The other prisoner was doubly secured and 
 taken down to the village. He was afterwards 
 hanged, so justice was satisfied and my work 
 finished. I got a letter of thanks from the Presi- 
 dent of the United States, of which I was and am 
 still very proud, and meant to have used had block- 
 ade-running brought me to grief. 
 
 This business being satisfactorily concluded, I 
 asked my friend the caimakam if there was any 
 big game to be had. His answer was, " ChoJc au 
 va," which meant there was plenty: and he under- 
 took to beat the neighboring woods that very day 
 with his men. We were told that there were plenty 
 of roe deer, foxes, jackals, &c., so we loaded our 
 guns with S.S.G. cartridges (which means, I may 
 tell it to the uninitiated, buckshot). We were 
 stationed on the outskirts of a splendid oak wood 
 that looked like holding any mortal thing in the 
 way of game. Soon as the beaters set to work 
 cocks began to fly about in all directions, but we 
 had an instinct that something more important 
 would turn up, so took no notice of feathered 
 game. 
 
 I was watching close, trying to look through 
 almost impenetrable brushwood, when I heard a
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 277 
 
 rustling sort of noise near me, and suddenly I 
 caught sight of something which almost made my 
 hair stand on end a great tiger leopard, creep- 
 ing, stealthily as a cat, out of the wood, within 
 twenty yards of where I was standing. Fortu- 
 nately he did not look my way. What was I to 
 do? My gun, as I said, was loaded with buck- 
 shot; a miss or a wound would have been sure to 
 bring the brute on top of me. However, I did 
 not hesitate more than a couple of seconds; I 
 pointed my gun at his heart just behind the 
 shoulder, and pulled the trigger. The whole 
 charge went straight where I pointed it, and the 
 tiger rolled over on his back. I put a ball into 
 my gun and approached him very gingerly. When 
 I got close to him I found he hadn't a kick in him. 
 His claws were crunched up as if grasping some- 
 thing, his grand eyes were growing dim, and 
 though, to make all sure, I fired a ball into his 
 head, it was not necessary, as I found nine buck- 
 shot in the heart. He was a splendid beast, eleven 
 feet from tip of tail to end of nose. It was said 
 that he had killed a shepherd some days before, 
 so he deserved his fate. 
 
 Before returning to the ship that evening, we 
 arranged that the Arabs should turn out the next 
 day to drive the covers on the beach near the ship, 
 which were supposed to hold deer and pigs. I
 
 must mention that these Arabs are very different 
 to the wandering tribes we had lately been amongst ; 
 they are warlike, unscrupulous, and dishonest. 
 We made an arrangement with them that all game 
 killed should belong to us, the beaters being paid 
 in gunpowder, which they prized very much. The 
 Arabs thought we should only find pig, and as 
 Mussulmans won't touch it, the bargain was con- 
 sidered satisfactory to both parties. 
 
 It so happened that at the first drive a very 
 fine deer, of a species I had never seen before, 
 broke cover. I had the luck to shoot him, and 
 as the ship was lying very near, we hailed her for 
 a boat in which to send off our game. I saw a 
 good deal of whispering among the Arabs, who, 
 after some discussion, informed us through one of 
 the missionaries, who kindly acted as interpreter, 
 that the deer must belong to them, as they only 
 promised to give the pigs, and they openly de- 
 clared we should not take it on board. I wasn't 
 going to stand this, for many reasons. In the 
 first place it was necessary to show these people 
 that we were their masters, secondly, by our agree- 
 ment the deer was ours. When the boat (a cutter 
 with ten men unarmed) had come on shore, I gave 
 orders for the men to return and bring their arms 
 and ten marines, also armed. The Arabs, of 
 whom there were about one hundred armed to the
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 279 
 
 teeth, seemed firm in their decision ; so was I. 
 When I pointed to my armed men, who were by 
 this time landing, they pointed with the same 
 significant gestures to their armed men. At this 
 critical moment, my first lieutenant, seeing that 
 something was wrong, fired a shell right over our 
 heads to intimidate the Arabs, and the result 
 showed that it had that effect. The deer was lying 
 on the beach. I ordered the marines to form a 
 cordon round him, and the sailors to bring up the 
 boat stretchers on which to lay the animal. 
 
 When all was ready I gave the command to 
 carry it away and put it in the boat. The Arabs 
 cocked their muskets and made a move forward ; 
 the marines turned and faced them. I thought 
 we were in for a fight ; however, the bearers carried 
 off their charge and placed it in the boat, when 
 to my astonishment the Arab chief put down his 
 musket and came and made his salaam to me, ask- 
 ing if he might be allowed to visit the ship. I, of 
 course, was delighted. We took him and several 
 of his friends on board. So passed off what might 
 have been a serious affair. I might have become 
 involved in a long explanation to show that I was 
 right in protecting my game by armed force, but 
 under all the circumstances I feel that I was fully 
 justified in doing so. 
 
 I should like before finishing these sketches to
 
 280 HOBART PASHA 
 
 say something about the society of Constantinople. 
 As one cannot always be out shooting, it is very 
 important to our happiness to have something to 
 fall back upon in the social way. I was told once 
 by a very great friend of mine, who saw that I 
 was inclined to fret, " to take everything as a 
 joke." If one's liver is in good order it is very 
 easy to do so, but sometimes the contrary is the 
 case, and it makes one at times quite savage to 
 see the airs that are temporarily put on by those 
 that form the so-called upper or diplomatic society 
 of Pera. Here are really amiable people so ut- 
 terly spoilt by the exalted idea of their own dignity 
 that they become absolute bores, especially to any 
 one accustomed to good society. If you go to 
 a soiree you see grouped together, for fear of con- 
 tamination with the outsiders (without which a 
 successful party cannot be formed), the members 
 of the so-called " sacred circle," talking to each 
 other in dignified (or undignified, as the case may 
 be judged) whispers. While all others are cheer- 
 ful and gay, you scarcely see a smile on the coun- 
 tenances of these tremendous swells. 
 
 If you go in the street you will meet a creature 
 dressed in most gorgeous apparel, armed to the 
 teeth with firearms that probably won't go off, 
 knives and daggers covered with precious stones, 
 walking solemnly along. If you look carefully
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 281 
 
 among the crowd in his wake you will discover 
 some one, or ones, walking with an indignant 
 swagger at being hustled by the vulgar crowd. 
 The man in gold, armed to the teeth, is what is 
 called a cavass, and these swells behind are the 
 representatives, male or female, of some foreign 
 potentate, taking a walk. It would be quite infra 
 dig. to go without one of these useless appendages. 
 Again, if an individual not belonging to the 
 " sacred circle " meets a foreign representative 
 who condescends to speak to him, and while he is 
 doing so another member of an embassy " heaves 
 in sight," the first swell will immediately sheer off, 
 looking ashamed at having so far forgotten him- 
 self as to be seen speaking to any one outside " his 
 circle." 
 
 You may occasionally be invited to the houses 
 of these exalted personages, but there is always an 
 implied condescension in their attitude which tends 
 to negative the effect of their good intentions. 
 And all this is a great pity, because these people 
 must be tired of each other, and would find quite 
 as much intelligence outside as inside their circle. 
 Besides, there are charming people among them 
 who would ornament any society, but their ill-acted 
 airs of " brief authority" quite spoil them, and 
 make them, as I said, bores to themselves and to 
 those who would be their friends.
 
 282 HOBART PASHA 
 
 I will, in proof of what I say, relate a short 
 anecdote as to what occurred in the house of a 
 friend of mine. 
 
 This friend gave a very large fancy dress ball, 
 at which two or three hundred people were present. 
 The ball was in every way a success, but as the 
 giver did not belong to the " sacred circle," the 
 members of that body only condescended to go for 
 a short time. I have no doubt (for there are lots 
 of jolly people among them) that they would have 
 liked to have stopped much longer, but it was not 
 thought " dignified." So, after a short time, most 
 of the " sacred circle " sneaked away. One of 
 them who had two charming daughters, devoted to 
 dancing, not having noticed the departure of the 
 great people till that moment, came hurriedly to 
 my friend and said, " Good-night, I must go, every 
 one is gone." " Every one ? " said my friend, 
 " why, look at the rooms, there are at least two 
 hundred people dancing and amusing themselves." 
 " Yes, I see," said the diplomat (he was rather a 
 small one), "but I mean the ambassadors and 
 their parties are gone, so I must go ; but for once, 
 to please you, I'll leave my daughters." This is 
 a fact, and shows the unfortunate system that 
 ruins to a great extent the sociability of society in 
 Pera. 
 
 Now it is true that all these people are called
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 283 
 
 barons, counts, viscounts, &c., but my friend be- 
 longs to a right good family, and would have been 
 more than the equal of many of them had they 
 met in Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Berlin, or 
 Vienna. 
 
 The title of baron, &c., seems to me to be always 
 given to a diplomat ex-officio. However, barons 
 or no barons, the rule of exclusiveness laid down 
 by the " sacred circle " at Constantinople is to be 
 deplored, as it injures society sadly. Few large 
 parties are given now except those got up by the 
 great people. When an outsider sends out in- 
 vitations for a ball, or any other kind of reunion, 
 the negotiations that go on between the swells as 
 to whether they should patronise it or not are 
 comical in the extreme. Should ever so slight an 
 omission in the form of these invitations, or a 
 mere accident in the delivery thereof, appear to 
 them to touch their dignity, they will probably all 
 absent themselves in a body, even were it question 
 of the marriage or the funeral of one of their 
 oldest and most respectable acquaintances. Not 
 being one of them, and not caring very much for 
 artificial society, I look on with great amusement. 
 Some one gave great offence on a late occasion, 
 while describing society in Pera, by suggesting 
 that if there were a European court here things 
 would be very different; so they might. People
 
 284 HOBART PASHA 
 
 would then find their level, as they do in other 
 capitals. 
 
 I feel very sorry for the members of the " sacred 
 circle." Not only do they lose much now, but it 
 will be awkward for them when they go back whence 
 they came. A short time ago I asked a very high 
 and mighty personage if she did not fear the 
 change that must come when she left Constanti- 
 nople. She answered with great frankness : " I 
 feel that most of what you say is correct, but be- 
 fore I came here I was very small fry ; now I know 
 I am a swell, and mean to enjoy myself." She 
 was like those reckless ones who cried : " Let us 
 eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." I have 
 seen a stand made by one or two o these mighty 
 ones, an attempt to break down the system of 
 pompous exclusiveness, but that attempt unfortu- 
 nately failed. 
 
 I must say that the foreign colonies in Pera are 
 much to blame, for they worship with all their 
 minds and all their strength their different chiefs 
 and chieftainesses, and human nature being weak, 
 &c., &c. 
 
 Apart from the " sacred circle " there is a nice 
 little society where people go in for en j oying them- 
 selves, and succeed in doing so very comfortably; 
 but even there, with some few exceptions, there is 
 that secret Ipnging for one or two of the swells
 
 SPORT AND SOCIETY 28o 
 
 even a junior secretary of an embassy is looked 
 upon as a desideratum. 
 
 The Greeks keep very much to themselves ; so 
 do the Armenians. The Turks are exceedingly 
 fond of going into society, but their domestic ar- 
 rangements tend to prevent their entertaining. 
 
 His Majesty the Sultan frequently invites Euro- 
 pean ladies to his dinner parties, and those who 
 have had that honor must have thoroughly en- 
 joyed the delicious music and the pleasant enter- 
 tainments after dinner at the Palace of Yildiz. I 
 don't see why His Imperial Majesty's example is 
 not followed by some of his subjects ; perhaps we 
 may come to that by-and-by. 
 
 In what I have said about society in Pera I have 
 not meant to be personal or offensive in any way. 
 My object has been to show up a rotten system 
 whereby everybody suffers. 
 
 If I bring these pages to a somewhat abrupt 
 conclusion, it is because I have had the bad luck 
 to get a chill out shooting, and have been some- 
 what seriously ill. However, I have hope that 
 there is " life in the old dog yet," and that I may 
 before long have some other adventures of a sim- 
 ilar description to add to these " unvarnished 
 sketches " of my life. 
 
 THE END