Nassau was a natural resort for the blockade runners, for its people had been wreckers--had “thanked God for a good wrack”--for time out of mind. Besides that, it was not only near by the Southern coast, but it was surrounded by a host of reefs awash, every one of which was neutral territory, and was surrounded by its marine league of neutral waters, where a blockade-runner was safe. As the reader will remember, the blockade-running traffic was chiefly in the hands of the British, although Yankees were found not unwilling to turn a contraband dollar with one hand while they flapped the old flag in the air with the other and shouted over Union victories vociferously. At the beginning of the contraband business the vessels were loaded in England, cleared for Bermuda or Nassau, and sent thence to the Southern destination, Charleston being the chief port. Any vessel, even a condemned sailing schooner, was counted good enough; in fact, worthless vessels were preferred because the loss would be less in case of failure. The touch at the neutral port was, of course, a mere device to deceive the American government officials; but a change was soon made in that game, for the courts held to the doctrine of the continuity of a voyage. If the ultimate destination of the ship and cargo was Charleston, she might be lawfully captured anywhere _en route_ in spite of the fact that she was cleared for a neutral port when the voyage began. [Illustration: A Four-pound Cast-iron Gun Captured from a Blockade-runner.] There being no appeal from this decision, the contraband dealers resorted to shipping goods from England to the neutral port off the coast, and there unloading the goods. The papers, of course, were made out in proper form, under oath, giving the neutral port as the ultimate destination. They showed, for instance, that a house in Nassau was buying shoes, woollens, guns, gunpowder, swords, etc., sufficient to supply an army, and it was called legitimate trade. Perjury was as common in this contraband business as the drinking of wine. In fact, one cannot help quoting here the words of the favorite “Naval History of Great Britain”--the words of James where he is writing of American traders in the days of the “paper blockades” of 1812. He says: