Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-05-19
presence of Hon. Judah BENJAMIN.

factory arrangement TO us tnat, 50
long as the fire works were in sight,
we Rugged closely the North Caro-
linacoast, which trends Southeastern
ly at this point.
The show over, we put off from
shore in a direction a little South of
East and in about three days were
off the Bermuda islands. Here
there were some apprehensions of
meeting our enemies again, as some
of the cruisers were supposed to be
watching those waters for the arriv-
al of blockade runners; we saw
none however and found ourselves,
on the morning of the fourth, at
anchor in one of the most beautiful
harbors that the great Atlantic can
boast of.
A great expanse of blue water,
which looked more like lake than
a bay, was enclosed on all sides by
green islands studied by white vii
las like an immense sapphire set in
a rim of emeralds in which the few
points of gold requisite to complete
the setting, were madeout by lemon
trees in full bearing (the orange
season was over bythis time). But
we had other things more pressing
to interest us than landscape beau
ties, and we soon went ashore at the
little town of Bermuda We had
business here, both of our own and
in behalf of the Confederate States.
We will speak Of the latter first.
Our Confederate bonds were to be
handed to a banker or broker of the
Jewish persuasion, whose name we
are sorry to forget, for he was a cap
ital fellow and acted towards us a
friend in need.
We should say that when we en-
barked on the Asa, these bonds had
to be handed over to the Captain
with everything else which, in case
of our being overhauled by a cruiser
could furnish evidence of our hail
ing from a Confederate port; under
these circumstances they would
have been ruthlessly consigned to
the bottom of the sea, instead of the
care of our good friend the banker
or broker or whatever he was.
On our arrival they were handed
back to us and by us to the banker
and, after we had got his receipt for
them, that was all we had to do
with them.
But we had matters of our own to
think of-our route to England was
now by the West India mail pack
ct to Halifax, Nova Scotia and
thence by the Cunard line to Liver
pool. The West India packet
was not to touch at Bermuda for
a week after our arrival and that
compelled a weeks expenses at Ber-
muda, besides the passenger fare to
Halifax and LiverpoOl-we had
funds that could be drawn upon in
England, but there was no soul on
this Island, who had seen or heard
of us before our arrival, and how
could we convince anybody of the
fact. The day before the packet
was expected, we took stock Of our
resources and found that after pay
! ing our hotel bill we had left just
SIS, in gold; our fare to Liverpool was
5000, besides a considerable margin
for possible detention in Halifax
this was a most incOnVenient disprO-
! portion between the end proposed
and the means for attaining to it
we began to lose confidence in our
position that money aUdS no object
1Cjth as. Something had to be done;
we determined to test the value of
our cheek! This has always been a
prominent feature with US, but we
| had never had occasion to ascertain
its value in currency. We APP
preached our Israelitish friend the
banker, he knew nothing of us more
than any one else, except that Mr..
Benjamin's letter had designated us
as ian officer of good standing in
the Confederate service" that this
was not a satisfactory certificate of
solvency we were obliged to admit,
with all respect to the Confederate
service. However, we went to our
friend, who received us with much
politeness in his private rOOm-we
stated our case described the reSOur-
ces on which we proposed to draw
and designated the persons in whose
hands they were, and finally asked
him point blank, whether he would
cash our draft. We Observeda slight
ly perceptible raising of the eye
brOWS as our discourse eliminated,
which did not raise our hopes much
but when we had done there was a
pause of thought for few moments,
then a sort of a diffusive smile of
doubtful meaning-then the lips
opened, big with a sentence of life
or death to our hOpeS-the words
We're, elbow much do you want,
doctor ?" We were so little pre-
pared for such a sentence, that we
could not at first determine how
much we did want, but after a little
calculation, named a sum which al
lowed a considerable margin over
every possible contingency, still
doubtful whether we were going to
get it, but he quietly sat down and
wrote out a draft for us to sign on
one piece of paper, and check on
another, which he directed us to get
cashed at the counter in an adjOin-
ing room. We approached the
counter still in dream of beWilder-
ment, and did not realize the fact
that we were freed from our embar-
easements, still we found ourselves
shOvelling handsfuls of English
sOvereigns into our breeches pockets.
A few more minutes and we recOV-
cred our faculties sufficiently to re-