Wednesday, August 21.—Clear; temperature, pleasant. Returned the visit of the commander of the Abeille. He is a clever man, with pro-slavery sympathies, and seemed to understand well the cause of our quarrel with the North, but is a Frenchman all over and seemed to think we had not treated the pavillon Français with due respect in running down upon the Vulture with battery ready and men at quarters. I told him that both interest and inclination prompted us to conciliate the good will of the grand nation, and that we had only exercised one of the usual rights of war, both in using his ?ag and running down upon his ship at quarters.
Extracts from the journal of Commander Semmes, C.S. Navy, commanding C.S.S. Sumter
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