Chapter 51:
- Alabama crosses the Bay of Bengal -- the pilgrims to Mecca and the black giants -- burning of the Emma Jane -- the Town of Aujenga, and the Hindoos -- the great Deserts of Central Asia, and the cotton crop of Hindostan -- Alabama crosses the Arabian sea -- the Animalcule of the sea -- the Comoro Islands -- Johanna and its Arab population -- the Yankee whalers at Johanna -- Alabama passes through the Mozambique Channel, and arrives at the Cape of Good Hope.
On the afternoon after leaving the Strait of Malacca, we overhauled another American ship under neutral colors —the Bremen ship Ottone. The transfer had been made at Bremen, in the previous May; the papers were genuine, and the master and crew all Dutchmen, there being no Yankee on board. The change of property, in this case, having every appearance of being bona fide, I permitted the ship to pass on her voyage, which was to Rangoon for rice. For the next few days we coasted the island of Sumatra—taking a final leave of the North end of that island on the last day of the year 1863. A court-martial had been in session several days, settling accounts with the runaways at Singapore, whom we had arrested and brought back. Having sentenced the prisoners, and gotten through with its labors, it was dissolved on this last day of the old year, that we might turn over a new leaf. Clearing the Sumatra coast, we stretched across to the Bay of Bengal, toward Ceylon, overhauling a number of neutral ships by the way. Among others, we boarded a large English ship which had a novel lot of passengers on board. She was
