The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS, MARCH 27, 1858.

by the Sikhs' camp; the walls are very much de-
stroyed in souls places, particularly the Moree
Bastion, nearly opposite Hindoo Rao's house, and
the little mosque, where our bastions were. Old
Delhi, which is about a quarter of a mile trom the
new city, is, they say, full of Mahomedans, most
of them Ghazies. All outside the walls are miser-
able little mosques and Mussulman burial-grounds.
On Wednesday the Nawab of Nijjur was hung ; it is
a great shame the horrid old King is not hanged
also, since he gave out fort:,-four poor Europeans to
be murdered ; many of them were hid in the purlieus
of the palace. On Thursday morning I drove with
Captain G— to see our camp and cantonments ;
all the houses are burnt and destroyed. I saw the
Flag Staff, and Captain G— told me when they
came there they found a cartful of skeletons, which
they burie d. He showed me the burial-ground where
they buried all the soldiers, and he had just marked
out a new one as the old one was full of our poor
soldiers. The ground all about our camp and
Hindoo Rao's house is very broken, covered with
very large stones and a prickly bush, which afforded
a capital cover for the enemy, who used to come out
in swarms the first month and try to drive our troops
from that position. We had two bastions close to
Hindoo Rao's house occupied by Ghoorkas and the
Rifles. The old mosque is marked all over with
round shot and shells, and so near the walls that
when oar men used to sing there the enemy could
hear them. The ground is rather high on which
Hindoo Rao's house stands ; it forms a sort of ridge,
from which ycu look down on one side into the city,
and on the other on our cantonments ; all the trees
are broken and injured by the shot, and the ground
marked by shells. The dead stillness was quite
painful, and it did not seem as if such dreadful
scenes had been enacted there so lately. Captain
G--- showed me a room in this house where the
killed and woundea had been brought after an en-
gagement, and said he had often seen it swimming
with blood and echoing with the screams of the
dying and wounded. I saw Sir Theophilus Met-
calfe the other day; he is held in great dread here
by the natives, and is every day trying and hanging
all he can catch. The room in which poor Miss
Jennings, her father, and Miss Clifford were killed
is now a messioom, and the stains of Miss Jennings'
blood and the hacks of the swords are to be seen on
the walls. The whole city teems with horrors; there
is scarcely a house in which some horrible scene has
not taken place. I would raze the place to the
ground; it is too fearful, and the atrocities too
horrible ever again to be a place for happiness. As
I drove with Captain and Mrs. G— they kept say-
ing, ' Here is the place where so many poor people
were massacred, and this is the house where So.and-
So was murdered, and here poor young Fagan was
cut down.'"

It may not be generally known that the King of
Delhi beguiled the cares of State by poetical
effusions. The following verses in the Hindustani
language were composed by him during his short
reign. They have been received, with an English
translation, from Colonel Burn, late Military Gover-
nor of Delhi :
Dila qhviit-i-hagg par kar to nazar,
Nazatu ki juti Nazarit xa sir.
Oh, heart! see the strength of the right !
The Christian M beaten with his own shoe.
liachh kara Rhin ne kiyie our na Rits ne;
Augrez ko tabah kiln kartns ne.
Nothing could be done either by Russia or Rome ; •
The English are rained by the cartridge.
Fauj ne Muir ghirii hai, nind ga i
Ji kityinit timbre.; subh gayit 3a sham ma.
The troop surrounded, sleep and rest are gone ;
Death is decided; it does little signify whether it
comes in the morning or evening.

comalee; the day was fine, with a light breeze
and smooth sea. At ebout five p.m. the coast
of Ceylon was sig:.te,l on the starboard bow.
Shortly after sunset, about half•past seven, the cap-
tain imagined he must be nearing the port, and ac-
cordingly altered the course a point towards the
shore. A light was there visible, and it appeared as
if there were a settlement of some kind on the coast.
Half an hour had not elapsed after this had been
done before a large rock was visible immediately in
the course of the ship. The ladies at this time were
sitting on deck, the gentlemen walking up and down,
or smoking on the forecastle. All of a sudden they
were roused from their occupations by cries, imme
diately following one another, of "Hard starboard,"
" Stop her." The words were scarcely out of the
captain's mouth before the ship struck on the rock,
and there remained hard and fast.

It was now just eight p.m., was quite dark, and as
any notion of getting the ship off, or indeed of saving
her if she slid off the rock, was speedily put an end
to by the terrible damage she had received, arrange-
ments were at once made to secure the lives of
the passengers. The ladies and other passen
gers were placed in boats, which were ordered to
keep clear of the wreck on the one hand and of the
shore on the other. On the wreck they could not
hope to remain with safety, and the breakers on the
beach precluded ail hope of executing a landing
with any reasonable prospect of success. In this
situation the night was passed, and when daylight
broke the boats with tie ladies pulled for Trinco-
malee, about twelve miles distant, which they suc-
ceeded in reaching, while the others attempted the
coast, upon which they successfully landed.
The moment the sad intelligence reached the au-
thorities there, a steamer was at once despatched to
the scene of the wreck, but too late to render much
assistance. Yet the conduct of the British residents
at Ceylon is spoken of in the highest terms ; every
care which generous interest could lavish on the
unfortunate passengers was bestowed upon them,
their comfort insured in every possible way, and
they were despatched by the first steamer to Suez,
en route to Southampton, where it is to be hoped
they will shortly and in safety arrive. The Ava has
since gone down, and only a few empty boxes, which
it appears the native servants on board the Ava
had plundered in the excitement, were washed on
shore. A strict investigation will he instituted into
the sin,gulAr loss of this fine vessel.
The Ava had on board a new shaft for the steamer
Alma, which remains at Aden, waiting for it, before
she can resume her work on the line. The loss of
the Ava is a parallel to that of the Erin, which took
place more than a twelvemonth ago, and concerning
which little inquiry appears to have been made by
the Company.

ortigu aub 6olonial jatelligentt.

FIZAICCE.

THE NEW FRENCH AMBASSADOR.
The Moniteur of Wednesday contains the follow-
ing Imperial decree :

His Excellency the Marshal Duc de Malakoff is ap-
pointed our Ambassador to her Majesty the Queen of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in place
of M. the Count de Persigny, whose resignation is accepted.
The French papers, in criticising the appointment,
express their hopes that it will be accepted with
satisfaction in England.