full steam; there she was in safety, for no Federalist cruiser dared follow her in this channel, the depth of which, on an average, was only eleven feet at low tide
"How?" cried Crockston, "is that all the difficulty?"
"Oh! oh! Master Crockston," said Captain James Playfair, "the difficulty is not in entering, but in getting out again."
"Nonsense!" replied the American, "that does not make me at all uneasy; with a boat like the Dolphin and a captain like Mr. James Playfair, one can go where one likes, and come out in the same manner."
Nevertheless, James Playfair, with telescope in his hand, was attentively examining the route which was to be followed. He had before him excellent coasting guides, with which he could go ahead without any difficulty or hesitation.
Once his ship safely in the narrow channel which runs the length of Sullivan Island, James steered bearing towards the middle of Fort Moultrie as far as the Pickney Castle, situated on the isolated island of Shute's Folly; on the other side rose Fort Johnson, a little way to the north of Fort Sumter.
At this moment the steamer was saluted by some shot which did not reach her, from the batteries on Morris Island. She continued her course without any deviation, passed before Moultrieville, situated at the extremity of Sullivan Island, and entered the bay.
Soon Fort Sumter on the left protected her from the batteries of the Federalists.
This fort, so celebrated in the civil war, is situated three miles and a half from Charleston, and about a mile from each side of the bay; it is nearly pentagonal in form, built on an artifical island of Massachusetts granite, it took ten years to construct and cost more than 900,000 dollars.
It was from this fort, on the 13th of April, 1861, that Anderson and the Federal troops were driven, and it was against it that the first shot of the Confederates was fired. It is impossible to estimate the quantity of iron and lead which the Federals showered down upon it. It resisted for almost three years, but a few months after the passage of the Dolphin, it fell beneath General Gillmore's three hundred-pounders on Morris Island. But at this time it was in
