Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 07.djvu/278

270 Ship carpenters were immediately at work repairing damages, and at the same time a supply of coals was being taken on board. These operations had scarcely gotten fairly under way when it became known that there were other difficulties and dangers than those she had just escaped that beset the Stonewall. The intelligence of her arrival was not to be confined to Ferrol. There were here, as in every other part of Europe, curious gentlemen, whose avocation was to find out other people's business. The wires soon flashed the news of this arrival, under a novel flag, to the American Minister at Madrid, who forthwith protested to that Government that the admission of such a vessel—a pirate, an enemy to all mankind, a reckless rover of the sea—was an infringement of international law, a violation of the rights of nations, and that the Government should eject her from that port and prohibit her entering another, though she might go to the bottom—the only port the hospitalities of which she was entitled to. Now, it had been supposed that this unpretending little craft had come into the world all right; had been baptized in accordance with the strictest tenets of received public creed, and that she did not come under that class designated by such harsh epithets. She was aware that she was not exempt, in the eyes of some, from the imputation of having been conceived in sin, but, as she had been baptized in the purest of salt water, she intended to take upon herself the responsibilities of her sponsors, to strive hard to do her duty, and to this end she had sought while in distress the hospitable haven of Ferrol.

When a grave complaint is laid before a Government by a foreign minister, it is supposed to be actuated by important considerations and sustained by truthful arguments, in accordance with the dignity of the high position from which such complaint issues. It necessarily commands that respectful consideration demanded by international courtesy. The Government at Madrid was unwilling to believe that their trusted official, the Captain-General, had been delinquent in the discharge of the important duties assigned him, but it became necessary that they should be officially advised as to the status of this stranger in the port of Ferrol, thus denounced by such authority as a pirate and all the rest of it, for the pride of the nation would be compromised in extending hospitality to such an enemy to mankind.

The Captain-General was therefore required to furnish the Government with positive evidence as to the nationality of the Stonewall. There was no difficulty in doing this. The commanding