136 CAPTAIN WILKES’S SEIZURE OF MASON AND SLIDELL.
in praise of the Confederatecruiser. They had in timespast shown great pleasure inselling turtle and fresh beef andvegetables to the United States war vessels, but now their sym-pathy for the Southern causewas uppermost, and they reallyshowed indifference to sellingus provisions. This feeling haddisplayed itself wherever we hadstopped either at St. Thomas oron the southern coast of Cuba ,and when we reached Havanait was still more apparent. Itwas evident, even at that earlyday, that the South had thesympathy of nearly all Eu-rope — particularly of Englandand France . When CaptainWilkes first took me into hisconfidence, and told me whathe purposed to do, I earnestlyreminded him of the great riskof a war with these two Gov-ernments, supported as they were by powerful navies; and when we reachedKey West I suggested that he consult with Judge Marvin, one of the ablestmaritime lawyers. I soon saw, however, that he had made up his mindto intercept and capture the Trent as well as to take possession of thecommissioners, and I therefore ceased to discuss the affair. As the nextin rank to Captain Wilkes, I claimed the right to board the mail-packet.Captain Wilkes fully expected that I would tender my services for this “deli-cate duty,” and rather left to me the plan of carrying out his instructions. &I was impressed with the gravity of my position, and I made up my mindnot to do anything unnecessary in the arrest of these gentlemen, or any-thing that would irritate the captain of the Trent, or any of his passengers,particularly the commissioners — lest it might occur to them to throw thesteamer on my hands, which would necessitate my taking her as a prize.
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& Following is the text of Captain Wilkes’s in-structions, which, as will be seen from the narra-tive, were not literally observed by LieutenantFairfax:
“U. S. Steamer San Jacinto. At sea, Nov. 8th, 1861.Sir : You will have the second, and third cutters of thisship fully manned and armed, and he in all respects pre-pared to board the steamer Trent, now hove to underour guns.
“ On boarding her you will demand the papers of thesteamer, her clearance from Havana, with the list ofpassengers and crew.
“ Should Mr. Mason , Mr. Slidell, Mr. Eustis, and Mr.McFarland be on board, you will make them prisonersand send them on board this ship immediately, and takepossession of her as a prize.
“ I do not deem it will be necessary to use force, thatthe prisoners will have the good sense to avoid anynecessity for using it; but if they should they must bemade to understand that it is their own fault.
“ They must he brotigftt on board.
“ All trunks, cases, packages, and bags belonging tothem you will take possession of, and send on board thisship; any dispatches found on the persons of the pris-oners, or in possession of those on board the steamer,