When about five miles from land both vessels were set fire to; Mr.Evans, the officer in charge of the brig, returning on board long before me, the strong westerly current rendering it extremely difficult to stem it.
'We remained painting and cleaning ship until the 22nd.

At 9.30 A.M.

we got under way, steering and cruising towards Bahia, at which place we arrived on the 11th of May, having captured and burnt four vessels between Fernando and Bahia.
'The news of our doings off the islands had preceded us, of course with additions and manipulations _ad lib._, the schooner having left Noronha the day previous to our departure.

The Governor of Pernambuco had sent three war vessels to the islands to enforce the neutrality of the place, which, according to Yankee representations, had been infringed.

Not content with this, the American representatives had succeeded in procuring the recall of the Governor, whose only crime was that he had let us anchor off the place--a crime of which he was necessarily guiltless, because he had no power to prevent our anchoring if we insisted on it.
'Whilst at Bahia I was shown a letter from the master of one of the whaling barques to an agent, in which he wrote that he would spare no money or time to follow to the uttermost ends of the earth, and bring to justice, the man who had so cruelly deceived him.