On November 7 they sailed for the Danish island of St.Thomas, expecting thence to take a British steamer for Southampton.

The vessel on which they left Havana was the British contract mail-packet _Trent_, whose captain had full knowledge of the diplomatic character of his passengers.

About noon on November 8 the _Trent_ was stopped in the Bahama Channel by the United States sloop of war, _San Jacinto_, Captain Wilkes commanding, by a shot across the bows, and a boarding party took from the _Trent_ Mason and Slidell with their secretaries, transferred them to the _San Jacinto_, and proceeded to an American port.

Protest was made both by the captain of the _Trent_ and by Commander Williams, R.N., admiralty agent in charge of mails on board the ship[401].

The two envoys also declared that they would yield only to personal compulsion, whereupon hands were laid upon shoulders and coat collars, and, accepting this as the application of _force_, they were transferred to the _San Jacinto's_ boats.