The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-07 00:00:00

FATAL FIGIIT WITH NEGROES AT LAGOS.

At the moment that the Screw Company's Caps
mail packet Harbinger was leaving Sierra Leone for Bar
land, on the 17th December, her Majesty screw-ship Niger,
14, Commander Heath, arrived from Lagos, and bear/4
her, with dispatches from Commodore Bruce for llaetral.
These despatches, it was understood, contain official law.
nation to the Admiralty of a desperate and fatal Ilibe
with the negroes at Lagos by the Niger ship's-
- which affair Messrs. Dyer and Hall, mates of the Ingot,
were killed, and nine men were also killed and wounded.
It appears that for some time there has been a display of
stoma very between those on the coast who are
&thew of vegpssaleg slavery, and a party whose occu-
pies hes pan" by the activity of the cruisers in putting
lINSISIMO Mine trade. The former party have been scalous
k kik amisisvours to p t the latter from bringing
dews Item the interior to the coast market; and the
Maven, on the other hand, have attempted by every means
to coerce our friends, until at length they have come to
blows. The Niger, cruising on the coast, determining on
a

against the blacks, landed her boats to
protect our allies and to drive off their enemies,
when • bloody encounter ensued, and the seamen
and marines of the Niger, being overpowered by
numbers, were obliged to retreat, fighting their, way
to their boats, with the disastrous casualties above reported.
The commander-in-chief, Commander Bruce, in the Pene-
lope, 16, steam-frigate; Captain Lyeter, with the Sealers,
8, and one or two other men-of-war, arrived off Lagos, from
Ascension, after the fight, and remaining there, despatched
the Niger to Sierra Leone, to complete provisions, and to
take down a detachment to the West India regiment, whoa
it was expected the commodore would commence active
operations against the slave-dealing wretches, and, it is
hoped, will inflict upon them such a chastisement es shall
avenge the deaths of the gallant officers and seamen of the
Niger, and shall finally put a finishing stroke to slave deal-
ing in that quarter of the mast.

THE AUSTRALIAN DIGGINGS.

The ship Honduras, arrived off Dover, has brought
Port Philip papers to the let of September, containing
the most recent accounts of the gold-seeking opera-
tions in that district. Tho Honduras has brought
home the first samples from tho Clunes Diggings at
the Pyrenees. Further discoveries of gold had been
made at the Victoria, Buningyong, and Banke's
Marsh Diggings, just before the Honduras sailed,
and fears were entertained that the whole of the
labouring population would leave for the mines in
the summer, and thus cause considerable difficulty in
securing the next clip and harvest.
A letter, dated Clune's gold diggings, Saturday,
August 23, says:

Since last week little work has been done here owing to
the inclemency of the weather, and the creeks flooded by
the excessive and general rain. The Clune's people have
hardly been at work at all, and, althoughtei.i&n: was fa-
vourable, few seemed inedined le make a on what
is generally a broken day. dens sew polies have arrived
on the ground, bat the poplars is aarerkelly searinly
altered, as several poles= bays eberlased the pursuit.
To-day was ear membobidisp, mad. se and, I ern at the
" bank." The pried* trureerea wee the sole by Spriggs'
party of two, of 91 MINN% the pause of about three
Weeks' work, though of AM time ems days were wasted.
This is, perhaps, the peat= PlOes which has been met
with by may oa the prod ; they have been 'inertly
= sr
soil,their there alpha, but trinity that geed pin,
are sew prim scare, owl di ell Is led.
It eagbd to be mistimed Ant these area bar be.. able to
pins Sisk vesiivided eltreera le the week, as the wife of
em at Alm be. leaked tar Moir dinsentle eons/arts, and
washed aserty ea erre ea private riewat late the
blEtreds were ear eas about the preshar tioa sad ia-
tended Illemee res. Ira surprised to lad that so boa •
tee
se Ste. per ease* less bre impseed*vill
have the eibet et err away all the led patting
a step te asheatisa. rimy mw an ere* more
than this anommt, and few will have eserra wages left to
trim ear Negri for it.
the peepriwho so ;Precipitately lea here ter Buninyoug
have reteraed; they lived ia that seigblsowabood, end, bear-
ing the statammts that wife put forth of this richness of the
= the?
*sir scarcely baps and
away. They ea
new returat4 sod this _ simple
test speaks volutes ter the eireareey my spires be
supublished, sad Berta the 611111MINSII reports
lky have bra Biro
I latesied te have pre to IlemlaFg but
ea
I leers that aro three hat tetra abet I was there,
and se I have no wish te honk my one up, I shall defer
my visit. Already this week I have been at Climes, Barn
Beak, and Buninyong, at each within three days, halides
other necessary journeyings.
Wednesday, Aug. M.
I expected that I should have bad to record a temporary
lull in the proceedings here, owing to the absence of some
on a visit at Buninyong and the altered arrangements
consequent on the dissolutions of partnership, and the
leaving of some, and the purchase of their outfits by others
but when I arrived on the ground, on my return, I found
all business suspended, and the camp in oonfbeios, owing
to • sudden flood arising from the rains on Suoday and
Monday nights, which have filled the creeks, and rendered
many of them impanable. Mr. Cameron's creek, where
the diggings are, had risen to an unusual height, and car-
ried away the soil which the industrious diggers had
brought down ready for washing ; the water presented the
appearance of a small sea, on which it bore cradles, he.
like • fleet of miniature Noah's: arks ; they were, however,
all recovered. In consequence of this, very little has been
done, in feet business has been almost at a stand still for
the last two or three days. One man who crossed just be-
fore I came on the ground, had • narrow escape of being
washed away bone and all.
I have seen • gentleman from Becalm' Marsh, wino toils
me that he has found gold there ; he Weeded be arks
further search, and it is not improbable that pertisulan
will have reassured by the time reedy. this.
A diseevery d geld ea the is talked of here,
and I us eadeavoarlag to term set the truth, but have not
yet arrived at the bottom of the well, where she is said to
lie perdue.

Dracoveßv or Two DEAD CHILDREN IN FLEET-
rrasee.—Lut night, at nine o'clock, u police-constable
362, of the City foes*, oommeneed duty, his attention wail
drawn to a large bundle lying in the passage of No. 6,
Pleydell-street, Fleet-street. On proceeding to the spot, he
discovered the bodies of two male children enclosed in a
kind of white sheet ; he at once conveyed them to Dr.
Hutchinson, of Farringdon-street, who pronounced both to
be full-born infanta; life however, was quite eztinot. No
clue his been gained of the perpetrators of this unnatural
crime.