The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-07 00:00:00

The Capture of the Confederate Steamer
Florida.

SOUTHAMPTON, Saturday.
Captain C. M. Morris and Paymaster R. Taylor,
of the Confederates States Navy, late of the Florida
steamer, arrived here this evening in the Royal
mail steamship Magdalena, from Bahia. An inter-
view since held with Mr. Taylor at Kelway's Hotel,
supplemented by information received from Bahia,
enables me to furnish you with the following par•
ticulars connected with the capture of the Florida
by the Federal steamer of war Wachusetts, of which
a telegraphic announcement has been received via
Labon :
_ _ _

It appears that the Florida arrived at Bahia at 9
p.m. on Oct. 4, having put in at that port for a sup•
ply of stores and coals, and to effect some slight re-
pairs in her machinery. Soon after she had anchored
in the outer harbour a boat went alongside and de-
manded the name of the vessel. The answer was
given, " The Confederate States steamer Florida,"
and a person in the boat called out, "This boat is
from her Britannic Majesty's steamer Curlew." The
next morning it was found that neither the Curlew
nor any other British steamer of war was at the
pert, and the officers of the Florida came to the
opinion that the boat must have been sent from the
Federal steamer Wachusetts, which was lying in
the harbour.

On the morning of the sth the Florida was visited
by a Brazilian naval officer, to whom Capt. Morris
stated hie requirements, and the officer told the
captain that he would carry his message to the
Giver nor of the Province, but until an answer was
received from that official the Florida must not com-
municate with the shore. At 12 o'clock at noon a
letter from the Governor was received by Captain
Morris informing him that he was then ready to
receive him. The captain immediately went on
shore and had an interview with the Governor, who
informed him that he would be allowed 48 hours to
get in stores and coals, and that should the repairs
require a longer time, he would grant an extension
fur that purpose. The Governor was very urgent in
his request that Captain Morris would strictly ob-
serve the laws of neutrality during his stay, and
informed the captain that the American Consul,
Mr. Wilson, had given him his word of honour
that the Wachusetts would not violate the laws of
neutrality within the Brazilian waters. Capt. Mor-
ris gave the Governor the same assurance on the
part of the Florida. An admiral of the Brazilian
navy was present during this interview, and when
Captain Morris requested that he should be allowed
to move the Florida from the outer to the inner
roads, so as to be out of danger and to facilitate
coaling operations as well, the admiral said, " Oh,
yes, move her in and come inside of me, and you
will be out of all danger." Immediately after the
interview the Florida was removed to the berth des
signated for her, having two Brazilian vessels of war
between her and the Wachusetts, and close under
the guns of a steamer of war and a Brazilian fort.
The Brazilian engineer who examined the broken
machinery of the Florida reported that it could not
be repaired in less than four days, and Captain
Morris at once cams to the determination to let part
of his crew go ashore for liberty for twelve hours.
A number of the men accordingly went ashore in
the evening. Just after dark, about 7 o'clock, a
boat went alongside the Florida, and on being hailed
the reply was that she was from the Wachusetts,
with the United States Consul on board, who had
an offieial communication from the captain of that
ship to the captain of the Florida. The Consul
sent up his card with the letter, which was addressed
" Captain Morris, sloop Florida." The letter was
sent back to the Consul, who was told that it could
not be received, as it was not properly addressed
but that any communication addressed to Captain
Morris, of the Confederate States navy, would be
received. The boat then loft.
On the morning of the 6th a Mr De Vidiky went
on board the Florida, having received a letter from
the United States' Consul enclosing one to Captain
Morris. Mr Da Vidiky read to the captain his
letter from the Consul, requesting him to deliver
the enclosed challenge to Capt. Morris, and offering
to use his influence with the Brazilian Government
to have the Florida fitted out quickly if he would ac
cept the challenge to go out and fight the Wachusetts,
The letter to Capt. Morris was improperly directed
as beforta, and that gentleman declined to receive it,
but told Mr Do Vidiky to say that he had come to
Bahia for a special purpose, which being accom-
plished, ho should leave again—that he should
neither seek nor avoid a contest with the Wachue
sett?, bat should he meet her he would try to de-
stroy her. Having received this answer Mr. Do
Vidiky left. The same afternoon, the first batch of
liberty men having returned to the Flc rids, the
starboard watch was released, and Captain Morris,
and some of the officers also, went ashore at the
same time.
Oae of the six men who subsequently swam
ashore stated that about 3 15 a.m. on the '7tb, Act-
ing•master T. T. Router, jun., being in charge of
the deck, the Wachnsetts left her anchorage, and
taking advantage of the darkness, steered for the
Florida, from whom she could not be seen until she
was close to her: She was hailed by Acting-master
Hunter, who received no answer, and he conse-
quently called hands to quarters. Before the officers
and crew could all get on deck the Wachnsetts
struck the Florida on the starboard quarter, cutting
her rail down to the deck and carrying away her
mizenmast. At the same time the Wachusetts
poured a volley of musketry and a charge of canister
from her forecastle pivot gun upon the Florida's
decks. The Wachusetts then backed off, and
demanded a surrender, to which Lieutenant Porter
declined to accede. The Wachusetts fired again
and again, which was returned by the officers and
crew of the Florida. Another demand was made to
surrender, and Lieutenant Porter answered " I
will surrender conditionally." ThelWachusetts then
ceased firing, and the commander called out for
Captain Morris to come on board her. Lieutenant
Porter answered that he was on shore, but that
he, as commanding officer, would come as soon
as he could get a boat ready. A number of
armed boats were then sent from the Wachusetts
to take possession of the Florida. As soon as Lieu-
tenant Porter was heard to say that he would sur-
render, 15 of the Florida's crew jumped overboard
to escape capture, of whom only six succeeded in
reaching the shore, the other nine it is alleged being
shot in the water by men on the forecastle and in the
boats of the Wachusetts. Mr Hunter was wounded,
and a number of men killed. The Wachusetts then
made fast a hawser to the foremast of the Florida,
and after Blipping her cable towed her out to sea.
While this was being done a boat from the Brazilian
flagship went alongside the Wachusetts and ordered
her to return to her anchoring ground, and a reply
was given telling the boat to keep off, as she was
about to go back to her anchorage. Capt. Morris
was sleeping ashore, at an hotel overlooking the
water, and when called up by persons at the hotel,
who suspected that something wrong was going on
by belaying the report of guns, he got down just in
time to make out what in the darkness appeared to
be the vessels steaming out of the harbour.
On the 12th ult. the Wachusetts, with the Florida
in tow, passed within sight of Pernambuco.
Mr De Vidiky wrote a letter to Captain Morris
on the 7th, expressing his regret at having accepted
the mission from the American Consul, whom he
could not find on his return from the Florida to
hand him back the lettere, and stating that after
what had transpired he believed the challenge had
not been made in good faith.
The Florida had only 25 tons of coaldust on
board at the time of her capture. The machinery to
bo rtlmired—v.z., the pipe of ter donkeyi.engine
end frEshswater condenser—is still on shore at the
Brazilian arsenal at Bahia.
W hen the Florida arrived at Bahia she had a crew
of 17 officers and 129 men, of whom 5 officers and 71
men (inc'.uling the 6 who swam ashore at the time
of her capture) were on shore, and consequently pre•
sensed their liberty. The other 12 officers and 58
were either captured, killed, cr wounded. The
names of these 12 officers are—First Lieutenant
Thomas K. Porter, Second Lieutenant S. G. Stone,
First Assistant Surgeon S. J. Charlton, Chief En-
cney W. S. Thompson, Acting Masters R. S.
Toyd, G. D. Bryan, and T. T. Hunter, jun., As-
tet-Snrgeon Th unes Emory, Midshipman G. T.
ion,, First AsELgant-Eaginctr W. Ahern,

'TI& air;

second do. J. B. Brown, and Captain's Clerk W. D.
Hough.
The five officers who are free are Captain C. M.
Morris, Paymaster R. Taylor, Third Lieutenant S.
Barron, jun., Midshipman J. H. Dyke, and Mas-
ter's Mate J. B. King. Of these the first two have
arrived in the Magdalena, and the others, with the
71 of the crew, are coming home passengers in a
sailing ship, to leave Bahia for London about the
15th of October.

The American Consul, Mr. Wilson, went away in
the Wachusetts, leaving no one in charge of his
consulate at Bahia. All business with the States
was consequently interrupted. The indignation of
the Brazilians at the conduct pursued towards the
Florida was very intense, and the populace tore
down the American Consulate arms and broke it in
pieces in the street. Nearly all the merchants at
Bahia had signed a document, and forwarded it to
the Chamber of Commerce at New York, requesting
them to withhold any judgment on the matter until
they have full and correct accounts of the outrage.
Captain Morris proceeds to London by to-night's
mail train, and Mr Taylor follows in the morning.
Those gentlemen wish it to be stated that the reports
in some Brazilian papers of the deaths of certain
officers of the Florida are untrue, and calculated to
give unnecessary alarm to their friends and rela-
tives.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Death of a Great National Favourite.

The following epigram—the two last lines of
which are admirable—we are indebted for to a
correspondent of our able contemporary the
Examiner, an epigrammatist signing himself " D."

29TH OCTOBER, 1864.
Death may laugh now athwart the glooms of Earth,
And make his aspect horrible with smiles;
For he has struck a blow that murders mirth,
And silences the laughter of the isles.

" taking down." It is a str;king but not altogether melan-
choly fact to record that a man gifted in such a way and to
such a degree should have died at 47, a victim to overwork.
That seems to have been the truth. His morbid hatred of
organ-grinders, and indeed of all causes of noise, was merely
a symptom of the nervous irritability produced by continu•
ous and exhausting labour. To say, as has been said every-
where, that he was killed by organ-grinders is absurd. He
was killed by the cause which kills half the literary men in
London, and everywhere else except Germany, a continuous
strain upon the mental powers producing in him nervous
sensitiveness and ultimately disease of the heart, as it pro-
duces in others paralysis and in a few the habit cf intoxica •
tion. There is no cure for that disease excepting idleness,
and we do not know why writer or artist should be blamed
for not skulking work any more than the soldier is blamed
for not skulking the bullets. It is only for us that it is im-
moral to die rather than put off harness ? Among reflecting
men the manner of Mr Leech's death will increase their
sense of the vacancy caused by the fact, for it proves that
he laboured in his vocation with loving zeal, that his genial
drawings were no result of accidental facility, but of that
absorption, that energetic, persistent struggle to do the very
best .;ircumstances will admit that separates the true artist
from the man gifted with powers which will never yield to
the world the result those powers were given him to pro-
duce. Mr Leech's death, like his best work in life, was a
protest against pretension.

THE READER.—John Leech, one of the greatest of
English artists, one of the bravest and tenderest of English
gentlemen, died in his prime on Saturday evening. The
announcement of his death shocked us as when we learn
of some great calamity. To his friends his loss is, indeed,
irreparable; but it will also be felt through the length and
breadth of the land. All will comprehend that a great
light has been quenched. A pure as well as a great light,
set up on high to show us what sort of men and women we
are in the nineteenth century, his place may be occupied,
but it is too great to be filled by any of his living contem-
poraries. Like his schoolfellow Thackeray, he has met his
death in the plentitude of his powers, while engaged
in producing his most carefully considered works
with what appeared to be extraordinary fertility of
invention and ease. Yet we know that he had
been ailing for some time, that his system had become sub-
ject to a nervous irritability which deprived him of rest and
induced a peculiar susceptibility to noise. He has often
been heard to complain bitterly of the pain to which he was
subjected by the presence of street-organs in his neighbour-
hood ; and he had his revenge, though not his remedy, in
the drawings by which he illustrated this form of street
nuisance in the pages of Punch. The torments he endured
from the grinding of these instruments were beyond his
powers of endurance; and to these and the never-ceasing
monotonous hammering of some small mechanic in his
neighbourhood, acting upon an overwrought brain, his
death is attributed. It an artist is to be measured
by the ideas he is able to express without reference to