Hope, early in September, 1863, Semmes there refitted, effected some repairs, and then the Alabama sailed for the East. In the Straits of Malacca, near Singapore, she burned two ships. Off the coast of Burmese India she burned the bark Texan Star, from Moulmein for Singapore. Sweeping around Cape Comorin, and up the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal, she burned the ship Emma Jane, of New York, and landed her crew near Ojeoya, in the southern part of India. Her next appearance was at Cape of Good Hope, in March, 1864, from whence she cruised about until she entered Cherbourg, France. In the month of June, having just previously burned two more American ships -the Rockingham and Tycoon.

The e depredations induced the most active exertions, on the part of the Federal Navy Department, to arrest her course; but, coaled and provisioned in friendly ports, filling up her magazine from storeships dispatched from Liverpool to pre arranged points, the swift craft eluded every attempt for her capture, and, in her almost unchallenged career, vividly illustrated the powers for harm of a single armed ship when once out upon the high seas.

Dayton's Protest..

Her entry of the French port for repairs, as well as for supplies, elicited from Mr. Dayton, United States Minister to the French Court, a protest decided enough to call from the Minister of Marine an order for Captain Semmes to sail without repairs. Coming in from a long cruise, and having received but cold comfort from the shore authorities in the East, the Alabama needed considerable overhauling in minor matters. This order, therefore, somewhat disconcerted the rebel commander, and influential friends sought to effect its modification; but Mr. Dayton's attitude permitted no trifling,* and the cruiser, with his coal bunkers and provision hold refilled, was compelled to put to sea, without being admitted to use the marine railway.

"The American Minister could with more justice protest energetically, in view of the fact that the Alabama did not come into a French port under stress of weather; she seemed to have struck a straight line from the Cape to Cherbourg; she did not turn either to the right or to the left; she did

Off and on, before the harbor, hovered the United States gunboat Kearsarge, Captain John A. Winslow-a craft slightly smaller than the privateer in tonnage, but with superior power of engine and heavier metal : Alabama's armament: one 7-inch Blakely rifle; one 8-inch smooth bore (68-pounder), and six 32 pounders.

Kearsarge's armament: two 11-inch Dahlgren smooth bores; one 30 pounder (rifled), and four 32 pounders.

The Alabama and Kearsarge.

The national vessel, when the Alabama was announced at the port of Cherbourg, June 10th, was in a Holland port, and the Federal frigate St. Louis in a Mediterranean port. Both were ordered to the channel, to give the rebel her finishing dose. The first named arrived off Cherbourg June 13th, and on the 14th Winslow received a copy of the following note-sent by the Confederate port agent through the United States Consul:

"C. S. S ALABAMA, CHERBOURG, June 14, 1864.

"To Ad. BONFILS, Cherbourg:

"SIR-I hear that you were informed by the U. S. Consul, that the Kearsarge was to come to this port solely for the prisoners landed by me,* and that she was to depart in twenty-four hours. I desire you to say to the U. S. Consul, that my intention is to fight the Kearsarge as soon as I can make the necessary arrangements. I hope these will not detain me more than until to-morrow evening, or after the morrow morning at farthest. I beg she will not depart before I am ready to go out. "I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"R. SEMMES, Captain." This challege sprang less from any hope of success in a contest than from pride and nenot attempt to go into either the ports of England, or of Holland, or of Belgium, or of Spain, or of Por

tugal, as she might have done with the same facility. forcible point in declaring to the Foreign Minister Mr. Dayton, therefore, made a most apt and most that, by his indulgence, the rebels were using French ports exactly as if they were their own, that they paid no regard to the stress of weather clause, and that snch had been the hospitality shown them in France that they were fast learning to make it their only rendezvous."-Paris Cor. N. Y. Times. * An error. No such statement was made by the

Consul.

cessity. It was requisite for the Alabama to leave the harbor her right-of-tarry time having expired; and the national vessel being there to arrest her, Semmes could not hope to escape, even though favored by the three miles coast line beyond which the Kearsarge had to lay in order to fight. And, as the latter was the swifter craft, no escape, without fight, was possible. The rebel commander, therefore, having no choice, put on a bold front and sent the challenge. Paris and London were all excitement over the ex

pected combat, and great numbers of people visited the port and vicinity to witness the battle. Semmes report of the affair to Mr. Mason was as follows:

"SOUTHAMPTON, June 21, 1864. "SIR: I have the honor to inform you that, in accordance with my intention, as previously announced to you, I steamed out of the harbor of Cherbourg between nine and ten o'clock on the morning of the 19th June, for the purpose of engaging the enemy's steamer Kearsarge, which had been lying off and on the port for several days previously. After clearing the harbor we descried the enemy, with his head off shore, at a distance of about 6 seven miles. We were three-quarters of an hour in coming up with him. I had previously pivoted my guus to starboard, and made all my preparations for engaging the enemy on that side. When within about a mile and a quarter of the enemy he suddenly wheeled, and, bringing his head in shore, presented his starboard battery to me. By this time we were distant about one mile from each other,

when I opened on him with solid shot, to which he replied in a few minutes, and the engagement be

came active on both sides.

"The enemy now pressed his ship under a full head of steam, and to prevent our passing each other too speedily, and to keep our respective broadsides bearing, it became necessary to fight in a circle, the two ships steaming around a common centre, and preserving a distance from each other of from a quarter to half a mile. When we got within good shell range, we opened upon him with shell. Some ten or fifteen minutes after the commencement of the action our spanker gaff was shot away, and our ensign came down by the run. This was immediately replaced by another at the mizenmast-head. The firing now became very hot, and the enemy's shot and shell soon began to tell upon our hull, knocking down, kiling and disabling a number of men in different parts of the ship.

him but little damage, I returned to solid shot firing, and from this time onward alternated with shot and shell.

"After the lapse of about one hour and ten min. utes our ship was ascertained to be in a sinking condition-the enemy's shell having exploded in our sides and between decks, opening large apertures, through which the water rushed with great rapidity.

"For some few minutes I had hopes of being able to reach the French coast, for which purpose I gave the ship all steam, and set such of the fore and aft sails as were available. The ship filled so rapidly, however, that before we had made much progress the fires were extinguished in the furnaces and we were evidently on the point of sinking. I now hauled down my colors, to prevent the further destruction of life, and dispatched a boat to inform the enemy of our condition.

"Although we were now but four hundred yards from each other, the enemy fired upon me five times after my colors had been struck. It is charitable to suppose that a ship-of-war of a Christian nation could not have done this intentionally.

"We now turned all our exertions toward saving the wounded and such of the boys of the ship who were unable to swim. These were dispatched in my quarter boats, the only boats remaining to me, the waist boats having been torn to pieces.

"Some twenty minutes after my furnace fires had been extinguished, and the ship being on the point of settling, every man, in obedience to a previous order which had been given the crew, jumped over. board and endeavored to save himself.

"There was no appearance of any boat coming to me from the enemy after my ship went down. For tunately, however, the steam yacht Deerhound, owned by a gentleman of Lancashire, England, Mr.

John Lancaster, who was himself on board, steamed up in the midst of my drowning men, and rescued a number of both officers and men from the water. I was fortunate enough myself thus to escape to the shelter of the neutral flag, together with about forty others all told.

"About this time the Kearsarge sent one, and then, tardily, another boat.

Accompanying you will find lists of the killed and wounded, and of those who were picked up by the Deerhound; the remainder, there is reason to hope, were picked up by the enemy and by a couple of French pilot-boats, which were also fortunately near the scene of action.

"At the end of the engagement it was discovered by those of our officers who went alongside the enemy's ship with the wounded, that her midship section on both sides was thoroughly iron-coated; this having been done with chain constructed for the