The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-07 00:00:00

been December, and the regiont.
wind came blowing down
gun-boats rolled in the -swell.
waters, Shortly bek.to noop,.
Frefich boats weighed and
reaching within some fifteen
which had fired upon 'us
the day before, opened with their long thirty-twos.
After a brief and resultless fire, however, they hauled
off and returned to their anchorage, satisfied with hay.
ing done as much as ,ourselves. In the afternoon, Ad-
miral Stewart went on board the Cracker, and, accom-
panied by the Grinder, proceeded across to the mouth of
the Dnieper to confer with the French rear-admiral, and
make inquiries as to a largo fire in that direction which
was visible.from our mooring ground. On his return in
the evening we learned that the latter was merely the
burning of some forage destroyed by a large party of Cos-
sacks near the coast, to prevent its falling into the hands
of our own or the French troops. As to the conference
with the French admiral, it appears to have been result.
less, for yesterday again was suffered to pass away without
a single anchor of the whole flotilla, with one exception,
leaving ground. The cold and windy roughness of Sun-
day ended with the day, and the weather was again excel-
lent, with only a slight breeze from the north-east. Shortly
before mid-day the Danube brought up Sir Edmund Lyons
from Kinburn, and, after a brief delay, he passed over on
board the Spitfire, in company with Admiral Stewart, to
the anchorage of the French rear-admiral in the Dnieper,
but with what result nobody as yet knows.

Thus I have to tell you of nothing but further delays—
of a waste of time, every day of which, at this season, is
precious, and doubly so under the circumstances. Already
have we seen large masses of troops marching on Nico-
laieff, and we nay rest well assured that every hour which
our admirals thus waste in feeble indecision is being turned
to the best possible account by the enemy in increasing and
strengthening their defences. Since leaving Sebastopol I
have had not a few opportunities of mingling with the
officers of the fleet, and from hardly an individual of them
have I heard any but such expressions of dissatisfaction,
almost bordering on disgust, as those which I ventured to
give utterance to in my last letter, when animadverting on
the marvellous hesitancy and waste of time with which the
expedition has asyet been conducted. So agaid in this minor
gun-boat affair. ..We 3/41,1ve steamed- Dem! 2crntilevi yynetir*'
days and literilly dOne nothing:- whatever. So far as any-
thing can be learned, there is as yet only one other (11-gun
battery, about five miles higher up the river than that
which was fired upon us ; whilst there is at the same time
an average depth of more than 20 feet of water right up to
the southern face of the town of Nicolaieff, off which our
gun-boats and steam-sloops could safely lie, and shell the
dockyard and other public buildings beyond, without being
in any degree exposed to the fire of a heavy fort on the
next bend of the river.

VISIT OF THE COLOMBO TO ODESSA.
OFF KTNBURN FORT, OCT. 23.
Since penning the above hasty record of our last four
days' idleness off the Boug and Dnieper, I have come down
hither, and find a ship just starting for Constantinople
with a largo number of exchanged English and Turkish
prisoners, received two days ago from the authorities at
Odessa, during my absence with Admiral Stewart's flotilla.
By the courtesy, however, of Capt. Methuen, in whose
ship, the steam transport the Colombo, they were brought
off, and are now about to be sent on to Constantinople, I
am enabled to send you a list of the Englishmen thus
liberated, and (from another source) some few particulars
of what took place on the occasion of their exchange. The
former may be of interest to the relatives of the captured
men, and I therefore append it in full, with the rank,
regiment, or ship of each.
After the receipt of a despatch from Constantinople on
the 19th inst., Sir Edmund Lyons sent off the Colombo to
Odessa on the following day, to deliver up two Russian
officers, and the wife and child of one of them, in ex-
change for the mate, boatswain, and two sailors of H.M.'i
gun-boat Wrangler, who had been surprised and taken
some weeks ago by a party of Cossacks, near Yenikale, on
the Sea of Azoff. On reaching Odessa, the Colombo hoisted
a white flag at her fore, and Captain Methuen, accompanied
by Messrs. Smith and Moser, the first and second pursers
of the ship, rowed towards the shore with a flag of truce. A
Russian boat, however, put off at the same time from the
landing-place, and met them about half way from the ves-
sel, when Captain Methuen was informed that, in addi-
tion to the four men of the Wrangler, the Russian autho-
rities were prepared to deliver over 132 others, English,
and 280 Turks—the latter captured at various periods
within the last two years in Asia and on the Danube. As
the lateness of the hour, however, rendered it impractica-
ble to embark so large a number of men that evening, it
was arranged tnat the exchange should be made on the fol-
lowing morning. Accordingly, about 10 a.m. on Sunday,
Capt. Methuen, accompanied as before and bearing with
him his prisoners, rowed ashore, and was received at the
landing-pier in the Quarantine by Gen. Krusenstern, Com-
mandant of Odessa; Lieut. Colonel Prince Mestschevsky,
Aide-do-Camp to Count Stroganoff, the Governor-General
of Bessarabia ; and the Chief of Police, with a numerous
staff of attendant officers. As it was necessary that the
documents connected with the exchange should be signed
by Count Stroganoff, an orderly was despatched to his Ex-
collesecy! who resides in a country house- on the outskirts of -
the town ; but in the meantimothe count himself caine_ina
and was present during the remainder of the proceedings
attending the embarkation. In the course of the conver-
sation at this interview, the commandant of Odessa put
several incidental questions about the recent capture of
Kiubourn, and, amongst others, inquired if any of our
(English) floating batteries had been present. On receiving
an answer in the negative—the French being the only ones
—ho replied iii a tong that gave additional force to the ez•
pression of his uncomplimentary estimate of our allies'
clump in naval operations, " II ne fact pas de grand
courage pour 2111, epuipage cache" —alluding to the shot-
proof construction of the batteries. He further inquired
the names of the two admirals, and was informed that, in
consequence of his recent promotion, M. Brunt, being
senior in rank, commanded in chief ; on which the general,
turning to one of the others present, remarked in German,
" /st es moglich!" (Is it possible !) In the meantime the
liberated prisoners were being taken on board a small
Gdessan steamer, and conveyed to the Colombo, in the
roads, at the end of which operation Captain Methuen and
his party returned on board their ship, much pleased with
the courtesy they had received.
During the progress of tho embarkation, none of our
people were permitted to make use of their legs on shore,
the locomotion of all parties been restricted to tho narrow
and enclosed limits of the Quarantine. It was impossille,
therefore, to gain any occular information as to the coast
defences the enemy have ar owe up for the protection of
their town ; but one of the Turkish prisoners, a bimbashi,
taken near Kars last year, tells me of three long and
heavily armed redoubts above the Quarantine, mounting
respectively 11, 14, and 23 guns.
Though I do net myself attach value to the information
of such an observer, it may be more or less accurate as far
as it goes, and I therefore make a note of it in passing.
How the bimbashi made his discoveries I do not pretend
to say, though he lays claim to having soon the above on
his way down to the pier; for none of the English priso-
ners—and I questioned many of them—had been able to
make out anything beyond the small earth-faced batteries
near tho Quarantine, which we had seen before from the
fleet. On approaching the town the Colombo had drawn
iu so near to the shore as to induce General Krusenstern
to remark to Captain Methuen that the proximity was
such as might probably provoke the fire of the botteriee,
in which case he would not be answerable for any;lni"h"
that might arise. The ship was consequently carried fal:7
ther out into the roads, and having there received her 412
passengers, weighed anchor on the following morning for
Kinburn, where the whole of the officers, soldiers, and
(naval) sailors have been transferred to the Agamemnon
and Royal Albert, for transmission to Balaklava. The re.
mainder, composed of Turks and merchant sailors—the
latter having belonged to ships cast away in the great gale
of the 14th November—are, as I have said, to he sent on
conveniently remark on what strikes me as a great hard-
ship and injustice, in the fact that these last, the trans-
portare not to receive a shilling
sailors, . of compensation
hero
their
Colombo to 1
rt o Constantinople.
kits,o r
of
p a for
dla
y may
for
entire eleven months' captivity. Such, however,
I learn
to be the custom ; and, if it be, I, for one, very ear-
nestly hope that it may in this extreme case be departed
from by Lord Panmure. During their long detention the
poor fellows have undergone hardships enough, heaven
knows, without being now cast adrift penniless, or nearly
so, without employment or any immediate means of pro-
curing it. I venture to think that not even the strictest
and racist peace-loving of Manchester economists would
find fault with his lordship's generosity if he paid these
poor men their wages for the whole term of their con-
finement. I have spoken with several of them, and find
all entirely destitute of everything excepting the clothing
given them by the Russians.
To this brief narrative of the proceedings at Odessa I am
glad to have an opportunity of adding what pppears to be
a well-merited tribute of praise to the Russian authorities
for their treatment of all the prisoners, both English and
Turks. Every individual of both with whom I have
conversed speaks in terms of high eulogy of the likeralitT
and general kindness which he experienced. As will
rtion of the
be seen from the enclosed list, our own po
batch embraces men of all grades, from that of private
to lieutenant, and of nearly every arm of the service,
who fell into the enemy's hands at widely distant
periods from each other, and were brought into contact
with the officials and nativepopulation of several provinces;
yet all concur in bearing testimony to the kindness with
which they were everywhere treated. So,again, even the
Turks, who, of course, fared rather worse, admit that they
were well lodged, abundantly fed, and warmly clothed—
which is more than they ever were on the Danube or at
Kars. Of our own men, some were taken as far back as
the battle of Balaklava, and others at various tines since
then in the trenches; whilst of the Turks the majority
were captured nearly a year and a half ago, during service
with the Asiatic army at Batoum and Bayazid. After
after having been;variously scattered about, the whole were
collected into one depot at Voronetz, a considerable town
300 miles south-cad of Moscow, whore they won lodged ill