The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16

As there has been so much discus sion about the first Confederate flag that ever floated on the Atlantic Ocean the following little bit of history writ ten by c. H.. Beale, of Montgomery, Ala, and published in the Maconi Ga, ''TelegFaph and Messenger in 1884, and confirmed by Capt. Robbins, who died only few years since in Lou renburg, N. C., may tend to greatly settle this discussion:
 When the wave of secession began to roll over the South, l was living in Newberne. N. C., which was con siderable of a seaport town. My hon. ored father was one of the first to espouse the cause, and l, his oldest son, followed him.
 "Too young to aid our cause, how ever, but full of love and adventure, my school companion. John Hall, and I persuaded our Barents to let us take a voyage in one of the many mer- chant vessels that piled between New berne and northern ports and the West India Islands. Owners of these merchant vessels Is the South, fearing trouble because of the agitation of war. refused to allow them to take cargoes to northern points. We nnal- ly enlisted with Capt. Bob Robbins, commander of the schooner Pearl, bound for the island of Demarrar. in the West Indies. This schooner was owned by Theodore Hughes.
 "On the fifth day of March, 1861. the schooner Pearl PAT tons burthen, sailed from Newberne loaded under matches with white oak slaves and deck load of lumber. She was a flat bottomed schooner, centre board with two masts Her sails consisted of a mainsail; fore-sail standing gib, fly ing glib and a gibgib; two gaff top sails and a staysail. Her crew con
 hft al gi l. ors and one cook who were all free negroes; John Hall and myself.
 At our main topmast we had un- Furled the first Confederate flag that ever kissed the breeze of the Atlantic, so we claim and believe. The de- sign of this flag was adopted in Mont Romery and telegraphed throughout the country.
 On the ninth of March. 1861, we crossed the bar at Hatteras Inlet, he ad- cd for Demarra. On the l2th we were struck by a gale that lasted four days and nights, during which time We were compelled to reef all sails except the standing gib; that was double reefed, and we scudded under bare poles with tbe standing glib holding her to the wind After repairing damages. We found that our gallant little vessel was taking in considerable water by req son of leaks caused by the severe
  covery compelled us to keep up some extra pumping which was done by hand, and right here our love of ad- venture had vanished and we did some tall praying for boys of our age.
 "The leaks were stopped, and the sails were unfurled and everything went along lovely. The first land We sighted in three weeks was the island of antigua which belonged to the English. and which, of course, We hailed with delight We set our col ors for a pilot to take us in to the harbor of St Johns, nice little city When entering the harbor which was commanded by fort, boom" came a shot across the bow of the vessel which meant for us to lay to. and We did
 '-The commandant of the fort came out to us in small boat and when aboard asked where We were from and what flag we were flying. We in formed him that we hailed from North Carolina and the flag was that of the anticipated Confederacy He remarked that he had sighted the flag as we were coming in. and had consulted the man of all nations and flags and found nothing like it, and for that req son had caused up to lay-to
 After complimenting the flag, he -auA his permission for us to enter