Monday, August 5.—Weather clear and fine. At 11 a.m. I was visited by Captain Hillyar, of the Cadmus, who brought me a New York Express of the 12th July, and made himself very agreeable. The war appeared a very extraordinary affair to him, and he could not suppose that it would continue long. He rather thought the supplying us with coal was touching upon the contraband, but this, he said, was a question for the law officers of the Crown, and might be decided differently in different places. I complained to him of the injustice of the neutral rule excluding us from bringing in our prizes, and he acknowledged that it did work unequally as I explained it, and ended by asking why I did not sell prizes in the ports of the [Spanish] Main, these fellows not being very particular. At 1 p.m. we got up steam and went to sea, passing out of the Eastern or Mona [Monos] Island Passage [Gulf of Paria], very narrow, about the third of a mile, with a rock standing off the northeast end of Mona [Monos]. Running along the very picturesque coast during the afternoon, many huts, but little or no cultivation being visible on the mountain sides. Passed out of the strait between Trinidad and Tobago at 10:30 p.m. and entered upon the broad South Atlantic.
Extracts from the journal of Commander Semmes, C.S. Navy, commanding C.S.S. Sumter
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