Panama City pilot., 1908-03-05

men; they took good care, however,
to keep out of harms way. For a
whole week we sent out armed boats
to recOnnoitre in all directions, and
to destroy all boats, salt pans, &C., in
the neighborhoOd. On the morning
of the oath of November, at a. M,
| started off with an expedition under
my command in the direction of
North Bay. The BOhiO furnished two
boats and thirty men, one of the
boats having a hOwitzer; and the
Albatross armed and equipped three
boats with thirty men, besides a
working gang of coal beavers, and
firemen with sledge hammers, top
mauls, cOld-chisels and axes. The
officers belonging to the Albatross
which accompanied the expedition
were Acting Master Theodore b. Du-
bois and Acting Ensign John H.
Harris.
We proceeded up an arm of st An
drews bay, called North bay, for
| about twelve or fourteen miles, and
reached point of land, where we
concluded to rest until broad day
light.
The bay was very wide at this
point and fog hung over the water,
preventing us from seeing which way
to go. AS soon as we lay on our oars
we thought we heard voices on shore.
Pulling in the direction. we soon as
certained that we were near quite a
number of people, and as we came
nearer we not only heard voices, but
we heard dogs barking and horses
neighjng and we felt quite sure we
had stumbled upon a company of
cavalry and soldiers, for day was
breaking, and what we afterwards
found out were canvas-covered
wagons we then mistOOk for tents.
thought | would startle them, and
ordered shell to be sent over their
heads, and in a minute there never
was heard such shouting and cOnfu-
sion; they seemed not to know which
way to run.
Some of their mules and horses they
succeeded in Harvesting to the
wagons, and some they run off to the
woods beyond as fast as they could
be driven, a shell every now and then
over their heads making them hurry
faster. The water was so shOal that
our men had to wade over two hun
dred yards through the water over
muddy bottom to the shore, and Ee
fore they reached it the people had
all left, and we could just see them
through the woods at a long distance
off. We threw our picketS, and
Acting Master Brown, with the men
belonging to the Bohio, took one di-
rectiOn, and |, with my men and
officers, took the other, and with top
mauls, axes, sledge-hammers and
shOvels, we commenced the destruc-
ton of salt-kettles, salt-pans, and
mason work, for we had got into
settlement of salt-workers.
To give you an idea of our seven
hours labor refer you to the accom-
panying report of Acting Master
Brown, and list, and also my list of
salt kettles.
To oy-arN-t binCr
unfit for future use we had to knock
down all the brick work, to dstroy
the salt already made, to knock in
the heads and set fire to the barrels,
boxes and everything that would
hold salt; to burn the sheds and
houses in which it was slowed, and
to disable and burn up the wagons
that we found loaded with it. The
kettles being such as are used in
making sugar, We knew the capacity
by the marks on them, but the salt
pans we could only tell by measure
ment, which we had no time to do:
so that our total estimate of the
amount of sea water that was boiling
in them when we arrived is far short
of what it really was. Our pickets
brought in five white men, and three
negroes; the white men were parolled
and the negroes were brought away
by us.
To our surprise we heard that we
boys, all of whom had been here for
some months.
They had all heard of the frequent
attacks upon them by the boats of
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