_"No.

290" at sea--The rendezvous--Small mishaps--Good qualities of the new ship--Nearly discovered--The captain--Terceira--Anxiety about the crew--Coaling and arming--Getting to rights--Ready for the cruise_.
"No.

290" ran rapidly before the S.W.gale up the Irish Channel, and past the Isle of Man and Ailsa Crag, till as the columns of the Giant's Causeway began to loom dimly through the driving rain she rounded to, laid her maintopsail to the mast, and sent a boat on shore with the pilot and Captain Bullock, who up to this time had been in command of the vessel.

She was now transferred to the charge of Captain J.Butcher, late of the Cunard service, her other temporary officers being--Chief Lieutenant, J.Law, of Savannah, Georgia; second, Mr.G.Townley Fullam, of Hull, England; Surgeon, D.H.Llewellyn, of Easton, Wilts; Paymaster, C.R.Yonge, of Savannah, Georgia; and Chief Engineer, J.McNair, an Englishman.

The crew, the greater number of whom had been taken on board in Moelfra Bay, numbered about seventy men and boys, and were shipped for a feigned voyage, the Confederate captain trusting to the English love of adventure, to induce them to re-ship when the true destination of the vessel came to be declared.
Bidding adieu to the Irish coast she now shaped her course for Terceira, one of the Western Islands, where she was to meet her consort, and receive on board the guns and other warlike stores, she had been restrained by respect for English law, from shipping in Liverpool.
Throughout this run, which occupied nine days, the wind still continued blowing a strong gale from the southward and westward, with a heavy sea running, through which "No.