Nine men from these two ships enlisted on the Alabama. On April 4th the Alabama chased a fine large ship all day, and, the wind having failed, sent a boarding crew in a whale boat to her at five o'clock p. m., although she was still two miles distant. Just before dark the ship was seen to turn her head toward the Alabama, and in a few hours she was alongside. The prize was the Louisa Hatch, of Rockland, Maine, with a cargo of coal, and bound from Cardiff, Wales, to the island of Ceylon. There was a certificate of foreign ownership among her papers, but not being sworn to, it was treated as so much waste paper. Coal on the coast of Brazil was worth seventeen dollars per ton. The Alabama's supply of that necessary article was running low, but the Agrippina was expected soon, and the appointed rendezvous was close at hand. The character of the Agrippina, however, as a supply ship to the Alabama was becoming pretty well known, and it was stated that at least one Union captain had threatened to treat her as a hostile craft, notwithstanding her English flag. It was therefore quite possible that she might not be able to reach the place designated by Captain Semmes for the transfer of her cargo. On the other hand, Captain Semmes knew from experience that to transfer coal from the Louisa Hatch to the Alabama in the open sea would be a slow and difficult process in the best weather, and impossible in even a moderate wind. Under the circumstances he determined to take the prize in tow and enter the port of Fernando de Noronha, an island belonging to Brazil, and used as a penal colony by that government, and run the risk of official interference. It was fortunate for the Alabama that the Louisa Hatch was not destroyed. The Agrippina was several weeks behind the appointed time In reaching the coast of Brazil. Besides her cargo of coal she had on board two more guns for the Alabama's armament. Those guns were never delivered, and the Alabama went into her final combat with her original eight guns only. Captain Semmes ran boldly into the harbor of Fernando de Noronha in the afternoon of April 10th, 1863, followed by the Louisa Hatch, and after dark began taking coal from the prize. The next day he visited the governor of the island, and found that official disposed to be very friendly. He took the Confederate captain on a tour of inspection about the island, and invited him to dine with the aristocracy of the place, consisting chiefly of gentlemanly forgers and other polite convicts, together with a few army officers from the battalion under his command. To the mind of the gentleman of Southern breeding the climax of incongruity was reached when he was introduced to the governor's mulatto wife. The opinion of Captain Semmes in regard to the black and mixed inhabitants of Brazil may be gathered from the following excerpt from his memoirs: