Wednesday, July 31.—Morning clear, afternoon rain, this being the rainy season. We have been all day negotiating about bringing off our coal, the excuse of the merchant being that he has to depend on free negro labor, which is difficult to procure. A large proportion of the population of the town is of this class, upon whom the whites are more or less dependent for labor and service of every description. This is another of those fine islands that Great Britain has destroyed by her act of emancipation. The abrupt and varied scenery of the hills at the foot of which the town is situated affords a charming picture of the luxuriance of tropical nature. * * *Landed the prisoners of the Joseph Maxwell, eight in number, having put all on parole except the two negroes.
Extracts from the journal of Commander Semmes, C.S. Navy, commanding C.S.S. Sumter
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