CHAPTER XV.

Arrival of the "Florida "-The Natural Ally-The South becomes Practical - Battles of Yorktown and Williamsburg— Capture of New Orleans.

ONE morning while we were all busily occupied by the studies, a gentleman was seen riding quickly up the road to Sylvania. An arrival was usually followed by so much whispering and watching among my curious flock, that my best policy was to allow them to ascertain who the fresh comer might be, and then resume the business of the day. In the present instance the news proved highly exciting, as I saw by the contact of heads, and renewed whisperings, when Jenny returned to the schoolroom.

"What news?" was a natural question.

"Oh, Miss Jones, a ship has run the blockade at St. Andrew's Bay, loaded with muskets; and Mr. Miller has come to ask mamma to send down a waggon directly, to help bring up the cargo before the Yankees chase her. They did see her come in; and the people expect every minute to have a battle down

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there. Everybody is sending their waggons to bring away the ammunition directly."

Such news, of course, created an entire suspension of studies for the time being, and for the next quarter of an hour the only study was to see who could talk the fastest.

"St. Andrew's Bay? How far is it?" I asked.

"Oh! it is about seventy or eighty miles from Marianna. They go down the river to get there."

"Mamma doesn't know what in the world to do," said Jenny. "Papa has the carriage-horses, with William, at Tallahassee: Uncle Steph has gone to the mill with one waggon and the other horses, and all the mules are on the farm."

"I suppose our boys will be ordered off down there directly," said Matty.

"Our boys" were the Marianna "Dragoons," a company lately organized; among whom was Matty's (one of my pupils) young brother of sixteen, who preferred volunteering to studying'; and several other brothers and cousins of all the girls in the county, were members of the company. They had, during the spring, been encamped within a few miles of Sylvania, and had been constant visitors, in twos, threes, and half-dozens at a time.

"Our bays" did set off in "double quick" to the bay, to protect the valuable cargo, which, with the assistance of many citizens and their waggons within eighty miles, was brought safely to the Arsenal. Though within reach of the Yankees, they had

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laboured unmolested, and the Marianna Dragoons came back quite disappointed at such an unaccountable fact.

The "Florida" brought some other useful articles besides muskets; which for a time occupied all the ladies, and all their horses and carriages within many miles, as they seized the opportunity of making purchases until the new stock was quite exhausted. For some weeks cotton bales were being conveyed across the country to reload the Florida,' which, although she had got so safely into port, was not allowed to escape again; but the shrewd Yankees had prudently determined to capture not only the ship, but her cargo of cotton too, and had postponed their attack until her rich freight presented a more tempting prize. Half the crew volunteered to go with the captors; the other half were, if I remember correctly, put on shore; but the pilot would not surrender, nor accept a bribe of 500 dollars to guide the ship out of Bear Creek. The consequence was she ran aground, and had to be lightened of a large portion of her cotton bales, which floated up the stream again, to the infinite amusement of the inhabitants.

Public affairs at that time were pregnant with impending battles and solemn events. In addition to the losses on the North Carolina coast, New Or leans, Mobile, and Richmond were threatened.

Island No. 10 in the Mississippi, Fort Pulaski, and other places on the eastern coast had sur

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rendered. Manassas was evacuated, which movement exposed the whole of that portion of Virginia, where I had so many friends.

The reader knows how, ever since those fearful slaughters around Richmond, all that section of the country has been torn by battles and skirmishes, and how it is now one vast devastated wilderness, producing food for neither man nor beast.

We saw by the papers that President Davis's Message had been received and read with lengthy comments by the English press; the laudatory tone of which was viewed with much gratification by the Confederate journals. I observed also that in adverse ratio as Dr. W. H. Russell became du trop in the North, he grew in favour with the South; and as a letter from Mr. Phillips Day, explaining the treatment of the Federal prisoners in Richmond had lately found its way into the Southern journals, "our own" and the "specials" were permitted to keep "the even tenour of their way" without further comment or abuse.

Public attention was turned much more towards France after the blockade had been pronounced "efficient" by the British Parliament; neither should I be surprised at any day to find that an alliance between that nation and the Confederates has been formed. This is an extremely presumptuous assertion of the Author, who, it is seen, has not enjoyed the confidence of one single person in the Confederacy

able or willing to impart such an idea. I am no politician, no diplomatist, only an observer; and have no other reasons in the world for asserting such an idea, excepting on my own responsibility and surmises. I have seen England loved, respected, trusted, and copied by the Southern population; I have received much attention from the mere fact of being English; and I have seen the right hand of fellowship held out to England, with sincerity and a yearning for her friendship, as "a natural ally." And I know also that from simple humanity the Southerners will stop this horrible war as soon as honourable means of doing so can be found. England received the first overtures, "but seeing ye put it from you""lo! we turn to " another."

The practical class, both old and young, were becoming daily more appreciated in the Confederacy.

Manufactories in Virginia, were for envelopes, blacking, lucifer matches, hats, caps, tanneries, shoes for the Government, and iron. Cotton and woollen goods, sword factories, saddles and harnesses, agricultural machines, oil-cloth, foundries for engines, &c., sash, door, and blind factories, gun carriages, waggons, wheelbarrows, camp stools, tents, tent-poles, &c., and every kind of implement of war.

In North Carolina-candles, lamp-oil, salt, cutlery; nearly all from recent invention and natural products. Gunpowder, bayonets, sewing-machines, and a repetition of many of those articles made in Vir