The Express.
London, England, 1853-04-07 00:00:00

CUBA.

HAVANNAH, SIAILCH 13.
Oar community is rarely free from a feverish state
of excitement, which runs deep in the life current of
our social being, and gives a shadow of insecurity to
the government itself which there is no sunlight of
hope to disperse. At the present moment the termi-
nation of the trials of forty-nine Cubans for high
treason is causing mach uneasiness in our society,
while the bonds of nature and affection are ruth-
lessly broken without the decent forms of pleading,
merely upon the allegations of purchased malignity.
The secret denunciations of hired assassins, supported
only by the discovery of arms and ammunition,
secreted in the woods and covers of vast estates,
very likely by the very men who, for blood-money,
assume the office of denouncer, are sufficient grounds
fur the action of the tribunals. The parties con-
demned to die by the garotte are gentlemen of re-
spectability and wealth, and by all their interests
identified with the prosperity of Cuban industry
and the welfare of the people—men not likely
to involve all they have to make life worth,
and life itself, in an idle scheme of se-
creting muskets and powder, without any probabi-
lity of using them. Among the names given to Inc
were those of Juan Gonzalez Alvarez, Lawyer Mi-
randa, Dr. Gazie, who has a large family, and is some
56 or 37 years of age; Hernandez Perdomo, son of
the Conde Vallemar ; Captain Fortune, eon of Briga-
dier-General Fortune; and a Mr. Cristo, a young
gentleman from the country. Others are also em-
braced in the finding of the military
.tribunal, who
are not here to answer with their lives. Sen.
Estrampes, from the eastern end of the island, resid-
ing in the United States or England; M. Goicoria,
Porfitrio Valiente, and Garcia Teyada.
Some ten or fifteen days since we heard that 500
negroes bad been landed with some difficulty be-
tween Lague is Grand and Cardenas. The vessel
bringing them was run on shore and deserted, and
97 were reported drowned. The 90 missing negroes
have since been brought to Havana, under the ele-
ment observation of ben. Cando, and his secretary,
Martin Gallen°, and here sold. Captain Hobble, of
H.M. steamer Buzzard, has since found the vessel,
with the dead bodies of six negroes on deck. He has
placed the ship under guard.
The story of the fns coloured boy, Charles Coll-
wood, who was kidnapped by Spaniards, sold at
Porto Rico, and subsequently transferred to the Ha-
vannah for the purpose of eluding investigation, is
too fresh in my memory to prevent my repeating it iu
this connexion, as it shows a consistent determine-
d.. to hold no faith with any, people in honourable
regard of treaties and stipulations on the part of this
detached and, in wrong doing, independent, govern-
ment. The boy was born at Tortola, a British sub-
ject, and while on a fishing excursion from the
island of St. Thomas, where he was visiting relatives
or friends, was taken from his boat by a Spanish
brig, carried to Porto Rico, and there sold as
a slave. The boy was hurried to Hammel,
to be as far from English observation as pos-
sible, re-sold, and taken to the country, where
ho remains now concealed; the captain-general
refusing to have him called before him, on the ap-
plication of persons duly authorised aniaceredited to
seek him, furnished with proofs as to his identity,
and all the facts in connexion with his fraudulent
abduction and deprivation of freedom. The father
came here, with an English justice from Tortola,
and letters of application to General Caned°, for a
hearing of the case, from the governor of the Wind-
ward Islands. This application was most ungra-
ciously refused, and the boy must needs wear away
his life in chains.
The notorious Pedro Fooird, whose name has
been associated with baracoons and factories upon
the coast for the last twenty years, was the subject
of conversation last week.
_He had taken a slay, to

cross from Havanizah to "Casa Blanco," the " whip-
ping-post "of our city, for punishment with the lash.
The negro was heavily ironed, but under the terror
of the torments prepared for him, he watched his
opportunity and, when about half-way won the
bay, threw himself into the water, when, being
weighted with chains, he sunk immediately. A
boatman, under a !generous influence, sprang after
I him, sod brought lum to the surface, so lie was
'relined from death, but not saved from the cruelty of
his muter. Fooard offered the boatman who had ha-
zarded his life to save that of a fellow-creature one
dollar, to which the more noble sailor replied " that
he had not saved life for a dollar." The anecdote
having transpired and reached the ears of an aloalde,
at his suggestion i lawyer of the city wu induoed to
hunt up the sailor and make a case of salvage, in
order to compensate the poor man for his proper
conduct and to punish the master for his selfishness.'
The suit was instituted, salvage awarded by the
aloalde at SO per cent. on the valuation of 600 dollars,
which, on notice from the law officers on the II th
inst., Mr. Footed paid to the magistrate for the
sailor, and the eoets of the proceedings.