Chapter 45:
- The Alabama continues her cruise on the coast of Brazil -- American ships under English colors -- the enemy's carrying-trade in neutral bottoms -- the capture of the Conrad -- she is commissioned as a Confederate States cruiser -- the highways of the sea, and the tactics of the Federal Secretary of the Navy -- the phenomenon of the winds in the Southern hemisphere -- arrival at Saldanha Bay, on the coast of Africa.
We captured our last ship off the Abrolhos, as related in the last chapter. We have since worked our way as far south, as latitude 22° 38′, and it is the middle of June— equivalent in the southern hemisphere, to the middle of December, in the northern. Hence the blows, and other bad weather we are beginning to meet with. On the 16th of June, we overhauled two more American ships, under English colors. One of these was the Azzapadi of Port Louis, in the Mauritius. She was formerly the Joseph Hale, and was built at Portland, Maine. Having put into Port Louis, in distress, she had been sold for the benefit of ‘whom it might concern,’ and purchased by English parties, two years before. The other was the Queen of Beauty, formerly the Challenger. Under her new colors and nationality, she was now running as a packet between London, and Melbourne in Australia. These were both bona fide transfers, and were evidence of the straits to which Yankee commerce was being put. Many more ships disappeared from under the ‘flaunting lie’ by sale, than by capture, their owners not being able to employ them. The day after we overhauled these ships, we boarded a Bremen bark, from Buenos Ayres, for New York, with hides and tallow,
