The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-13 00:00:00

Bay, and Cayman, in the Gulf of Darien. Tho command
of the forts was entrusted to De la Torre, and With him
were associated Brigadier General Don Antonio de Aretalo
and Garcia de Villalba.

The forts were established in ]785, and in the same year
Lieutenant Colonel Don Andres de Arisa founded Fuerte
del Principe, on the Savana, above the Lava mouth, and
placed in it a garrieon of 200.
Arisa was very anxious to establish a communication be-
tween the fort of Carolina, in Caledonia Bay, and that of
Principe, on the Savana. To promote that object he made
a treaty of friendship with Sulpani, or Urruchurchu, the
chief of Sucubti, who gave his consent to the clearing of a
road across the Isthmus, but the other chiefs decidedly re-
fused to let any Spaniard cross, or even to permit one of
Suspani's Indians to convey letters from one fort to the
other. After several fruitless attempts at negotiation on
the subject, Don Luis de la Carrera was sent with 300 men
of the Princesa Regiment (white soldiers) to open a read,
and had succeeded in clearing a path throug't the bush as
far as the bank of the Chuquanaqqa, opposite the mouth
of the Sucubti, when the hostile attitude of the Indians
obliged him to abandon the work.
The route by which Arisa proposed to open a communi-
cation between the forts, in accordance with the informa-
tion which he received from Sulpani, was, first, to ascend
the Aglatumati, one hour's journey from its mouth in
Caledonia Bay; then.to cross the Cordillera to the head-
waters of the Sucubti, an eight hours' journey; next, to
descend that river, half a day by water, or one day by land,
to its confluence with the Chiquanaqua, from the opposite
bank of which to Principe was a journey of six hours,
Arisa proposed forming a settlement, to be called Mira-
fibres, at the mouth of Sucubti, and another, to be called
Betanzas, between the Savana and the Chuquanaqua, but,
as the road never was made, those plans fell to the
ground.
Mates, who was governor in Arisa's absence, and
Donoso, an engineer, who was sent from Spain, with five
assistants, to survey the Stwana and Chuquanaqua, re•
commended descending the Chuquanaqua to Yavisa, and
crossing thence to Principe, evidently a much longer route
than Arise's.

It is worthy of note that, as appears from documents
existing in the archives of Bogota, from which I gleaned
the above scanty memoranda, no sickness of any kind oc-
curred amongst the Spanish soldiers, although they fre-
quently made expeditions into the forest, and sometimes
remained in the bush for a fortnight. Amongst the docu-
ments I found the diary of Sergeant Gabriel Morales, who
went from Principe with a party of soldiers with the object
of catching a stray Indian, and sending him with pacific
overtures to the chiefs. It concludes by stating that all his
party returned in perfect health. He advanced as far as
the Moreti mouth, and then returned, having seen no traces
of Indians anywhere, although doubtless his movements
had been watched by them. Arisa had gone previous'y
with 200 men to the confluence of the Sucubti with the
Chuquanaque, and remained there several days without
seeing any sign of an Indian. He then put a letter con-
taining an offer of peace in a bottle, which he suspended
from a tree, and returned to Principe. Immediately after
his arrival there a messenger came from the Indians to in-
quire what was the meaning of the paper in the bottle.
Arise, in his report to the Viceroy, states that none of the
men fell sick, although they had but recently arrived from
Spain.

I found that the old Granadiens in the south had a per-
fect recollection of the attempts made by Arisa, Donoso, and
Matos to open a way to the Atlantic. One of them, a very
aged negro, named Eulalio Aiva, of Chapigana, who was a
patient of mine, informed me that he accompanied his
father, who was a barqueano, or boatman, of Donoso's,
when that engineer was surveying the Chuquanaqua and
Savana. He stated that he saw Suspani when he came to
Yav!sa to make peace and be baptised. He also told me
that the people at Principe could hear the gun fired at
Carolina.—" The Isthmus of Darien," by Dr. Cullen.

(To be continued.)

Ironm3sters' Quarterly Meeting.

WOLVERHAMPTON, Wednesday Evening.

The meetings of the ironmasters of this district
for the current quarter commenced in this town to-
day, under circumstances more unsatisfactory and
depressing perhaps than was before experienced.
The collier's strike has had a most damaging effect
upon the trade; the mischief arising from it is in-
creasingly felt daily, and even under the most
favourable circumstances it 'will be a very long
time before the district recovers from the shock.
The attendance to-day was not large, and very little
business was transacted, the ironmasters not being
particularly anxious to take orders while there ie
so much of uncertainty about their execution, which
must necessarily be the case if the strike continues.
In this state of Woo it is most likely that this
will be a very quiet quarter day, but whatever con-
tracts are to be entered into were reserved for the
meeting at Birmingham on Thursday.
It was stated to-day that the principal iron-
masters are moderately supplied with orders; but
it was thought that if the colliers were all in there
would not be sufficient to keep the works in full
operation, the demand on account of the export
trade being limited.
The market for pig-iron is extremely dull ; few
sales were reported to-day, and, notwithstanding
the reduction which hes taken place, prices have
not materitklly improved. It appears that in the
district west of Dudley there are 14 furnaces only
in blast out of 56.

The colliers' strike was much discussed today ;
the prevailing opinion was that it will soon be over.
A good number of the men in this--the thin
coal district—have gene in ; on the Dadley side
also the men are dropping in at Lord Dudley's
pits, and some other of the collieries in that
locality. The town was perfectly quiet to-day, the
colliers not having made their appearance.
Sooa after the trade had assembled a very gloomy
feeling was produced by the announcement that MI
William?, the chairman of the Association, had died
at his residence, Wednesbury Oak, at half-past one
o'clock. As head of the firm of Phillip Williams
and Sons, the deceased had been largely engaged in
the iron and coal trade of South Staffordshire all
his life ; he was very highly respected, possessed
considerable influence, and having been looked up
to by all classes he will be much missed in the 1oca•
lity. Mr Williams was also a banker at Wednes-
bury, deputy-chairman of the Birmingham Canal
Company, and a director of the London and North
Western Railway Company. He was a magistrate
of the county of Stafford.