The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-05-04 00:00:00

NATAL INTELLIGENCE.
PORTSMOUTII. M. *.Y 2.
Lan urtning after post sailed the Alegfaita fire.
ship, Capt. buff, oa a cruise.
It is understood the Recobaiclaiee will shortly sail
for Lisbon, for the purpose either of taking His
Royal Highness the Duke .11 Su,scx to Malta, or
else bringing him to England. • ,
Several letters have been received here by rela.
lives of the survivors of His Majesty's ship Apollo, by
which we learn that ship did not go down in a short
time after she struck, as the survivors were three
days on the wreck without the least nourishment.
The ship was wrecked in the mid-watch, and the
water poured into her so fast that hut few of those
below could get on deck, and fiont SO to 100 perish-
ed, only the poop remaining above water.

WEST INDIA OONVQY.

EXTRACT Op • 1./:TT/'R PROM RR orylcilt or HIS
CA ILIFSFOR r, DATip OFF OPORTO,
APRIL C. 1804.

" his Majesty's ships, Apollo and Cnrys.firt sailed
from Cork the 26th ult. with a convoy of sixty-
seven sail for the West Indies, to which destination,
the former ship was direted to escort them, and the
latter to a certain latitude.
" A gale of wind took place on the night we
left Cork, and continued (haring the ensuing day ;
the convoy was, however, kept snug and col-
leCted, and proceeded with a most promising :Op-
pearance of a pleasant passage, until the very night
of the unforeseen, and utterly unespcdted disas-
ter; a disaster, whose occurrences can only be
ascribed to the setting of a current to the East—
ward, which carried the convoy into the longitude
of Oporto, when, by their reckoning (taking that of
nine in tea of the ships composing it), they were
more than one hundred miles to the westward there-
of ; trusting to which reckoning, a course was steered
by the ilpalie (the Commodore), and the majority
of the country, calculated to clear Cape St. Vincent ;
but between one and three this morning, melancholy
to relate, the ilpalto, aod five or six and twenty o
the conve—, went on shore on and near Cape Mon-
dego. Whether all the ships are lost, and taw crews
have perished. I cannot inform you ; but I trust the
Almighty will have rescued from the waves, and
restored to their families and friends, the greater
part, if not the whole, of the valuable lives, so noel.
p.ledly, 1 believe I may say unprecedently, ship-
wrecked.
" The Carsferr having split mina and fore top-.
sails about midnig.rt in a most violent squall, and
the wind soon after hcazi:.:g her three or four points,
wore, in order i,rgt her head off shore, about two
o'clock in the morning; but, observing that the Com-
modore and body of the convoy w-::e out of sight,
she again stood towards the shore till about six
o'clock, viler., ;A:rceiving several ,satiated . ships
under a press of sail, with their heads to the north.
ward, Fhe again wore off shore, and, about nine
o'clock, hailed one of the convoy, winch o his
culty had cleared tire land, and reported seeing stlllll
or two sail on shore. At eleven o'clock. the Closer,
' don of Bristol, reported her having sei.n 26 sail on '
shore (mostly :::.rnaitea) among which she feared
was the Onnmodare, tholes: certain sight of whom
she had WAS about throe in the morning, toen burn
ing false fires, blur liguts, and firing buns in the di-
re:tion the ships (at day-lght) were seen on shore.
Site herself very nearly ercapad shipwreck, having
bees. aft nal ly among the breakers, when she most pro.
videotrally wore.' lire wind still continuing dead on
shore, strong anrrehensions were entertained that, '
as it blew very several ships which escaped in
the night must Lave been driven on shore in the
course of the day; by cariy:ng all possinle sail they
however held their course, and, towards evening, the
wind most providentially shifted to the nortnward,
which enabled the Ceroiwt to colleit thirty-eight
sail, wherewith she is now proceeding to their place
of destination:
I shall forbear making any comments on this
mast lamentable event, wither than flint nothing
eotild exceed the zeal and attention of Captains
Dixon and Fanshavie, in keeping their convoy to-
gether ; and the promptitude and celerity wherewith
Captain Fanshawe colleted the scattered ships
which were saved, and proceeded with them towards
the places of their destination, merit unqualified
approkation r and will, I am persuaded, receive
from the Owners and Underwriters, their most cor-
dial and justly-due thanks."

A letter from Jamaica, dated 12th March, gives a
most distressing account of the state of St. Domingo.
It says, "lhe Negroes of St. Domingo, in imitauou
of the French, have plunged into all kinds of disorder.
They have murdered almost all the Whites, and
have savei only a few physicians, surgeons, la-
bourers, and American fa/tors. They have taken
as many white women as they thought fit, as
servants ; the rest they employ naked in the public
works, or take by force those they please as wives.
A Kadarie .(iituaaLs, at the Cape, a rvspeelable
widow, arid mother of three ,laughters, the oldest
only fifteen years, bad the mi4ortune to be applied
to by a Negro, who asked her daughter. She
declined, on tree ground of her daughter being
so young. The Negro seized her with her two
sisters, sent them to the country, and drowned
thens,. At the time of .he evacuation of the Cape, this
Mad.. GECASES lot having money to pay her pan.
sage, met with a Nantese Captain, named RousseAu
D-4 PA RIMY' commuusding the brig Neciaseite, who
ofere.l her a passage gratis, as well as thirty other
women. General ltocuemer au caused them all to
be landed, sending a guard on board with orders to
hang the Captain if he made any opposition. A
rodigioas number of %iFtims have remained at St.
Domingo in the same manner, although the English
Admiral,who blockaded the Cape. offered the means
of transporting the inhabitants v.-ho wished to quit
the plate. ROCU•IIISEAU pr,ferted leaving them
' to the Negroes, as well as I!oocfhis sick, in order
to outdo the affair oflaffa, 5•w00 cartridges, 500
weigh; of powder, an arsenal worth above a nail-
Lon sterling, *c."