Amount not stated, and no letter.
* * * * * The Golden Rule furnished a supply of papers containing an abundance of welcome news.

From them the Alabama learned of the safe escape of her sister cruiser, the Florida, from Mobile, as well as of the foundering of the United States gunboat Monitor in a gale, during her passage down the coast.

The good news was also received of the entire failure of an attack on Vicksburg.
The time was now pretty much taken up in reinstating the discipline which had been somewhat shaken by the brief stay at Port Royal, and in awarding due punishment for the various offences there committed.

On the whole, however, considering the hard service the men had undergone, and the length of the confinement they had sustained without a single "spell" on shore, the offences could not be considered very numerous.

A few of the petty officers were disrated, and various minor penalties inflicted, and on the 31st of January the court-martial, which had been employed on this unpleasant but necessary service, terminated its sittings and was dissolved.
Meanwhile another prize had fallen into the Alabama's hands, in the shape of the United States brig Chastelain, of Boston, from Martinique and Guadaloupe for Cienfuegos; and the following day, after duly committing her prize to the flames, the Alabama arrived at San Domingo, dropping anchor off the town at 6 P.M.
In the harbour were two other vessels: one a New York brig, under English colours.