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

TEE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 13, 1864.

the better times. That) will be many such varia-
tions before the stream flows on as of old ; there
will be ebb and flow, prosperity and adversity, in
quick succession; but so long as there is the
prospect of a fair and increasing supply of cotton
from sources wholly independent of the
American war there is no ground for public un-
easiness. In the meantime the question is how to
deal with the present pressure, and the Central
Committee as usual are prompt in action. At their
monthly meeting held in Manchester on Monday
last it was decided that they should assemble
weekly for the next fortnight, so as to act with
the caution necessary under existing circumstances.
The comparative smallness of the balance in hand
renders it desirable to husband their means with a
view to the passible exigencies of the coming
winter, and accordingly at the two meetings of the
Executive and of the General Committees held on
Monday, various schemes were proposed with this
end. The Executive Committee have good right to
take credit to themselves for the prudent distribu-
tion of the funds entrusted to their care, for, as
they justly remark in their report, the balance now
in hand would not exist if they had not striven to
enforce as much economy as appeared consistent
with the wellbeing of the people. The precautions
hitherto observed are now again enforced, and the
Executive Committee especially recommend " that
an increase should take place in the number of face
tory operatives employed on public works, and that
a larger proportion of the unemployed hitherto
should receive relief from the Boards of Guardians
or from local subscriptions." They further advise
the separate action in all cases of the Boards
of Guardians and of the District Committees.
With regard to the Public Works Act, the state
of affairs now brought to light is not
altogether satisfactory. Some unforeseen and un-
necessary difficulties seem to lie in the way, and
the result is that although large sums are raised
and extensive works carried on those for whom the
Act was especially intended do not get a fair share
of its benefits. Thus in Manchester, where there
are about 9,000 people out of employment, only
155 cotton operatives are no•v employed on the
public works, although £85,000 have been received
from the Commissioners. The Mayor complains
that great difficulty has been experienced in getting
from the guardians as many men as they required,
and further stated that the guardians were in the
habit of making periodical returns of the number
of persons who were fit for employment on public
works, and that at the close of September there was
a total of 65, most of whom had since been absorbed.
But the standard of efficiency must be very rigid if
so small a proportion of 9,000 are certified, and we
cannot help thinking that such a result does not at
all meet the intentions of Parliament, or the neces-
sities of the population. Even in Blackburn, where
the number employed is much larger, only 340 fac•
tory operatives are employed to 500 labourers. It
appears to be a miracle to carry out these works by
contract, since the contractors naturally prefer to
get the best men they can for the money, so as to
get the work done well and quickly. if the object
is to give the unemployed operatives remunerative
occupation, and so relieve the rates, it is
by no means the best way to attain
it to employ ordinary contractors as agents.
The proportion of able-bodied men to the whole
number of factory operatives may very probably
be much smaller than is generally supposed, but
the best does not seem to be made of the matter.
The public will be inclined to echo Lord EGER-
TON'S remark, that "he never imagined it was
necessary that men s'iould be sent by the guar-
dians before they could come under the Public
Works Act, and that if it were so, he hoped steps
would be taken to extend its benLfits to others.'.
The less of a double agency there is the better, and
the local jealousies which are apt to exist between
two authorities are better avoided, as far as possible.
It would be very desirable to stretch the Act a

little further, and to be a little less rigid in the ex-
clusion of those who do not quite come up to the
recognised standard. The High Sheriff, Sir J.

KAY SHUTTLF,WORTII, remarked upon the neces

sits which existed for increased cffirts on the par

of the local authorities in this matter. He said
very justly that the pressure, which was likely to
occur during the winter months, ought to be met
by increased exertions in placing factory operatives
on public works. It is not fair those districts

which are profiling by the Act to raise money and
carry out lasting improvements in their vicinity to
neglect those to assist whcm the Act was specially
passed, and to leave them to depend upon the

diminished resources of the Relief Fund. An in.
crease of 12,000 in the recipients of
relief demands some corresponding exer•
Lion, and this is so plain and practical
a way of affording assistance that there is no excuse
for not carrying it out to the fullest possible extent.
It is also very wise on the part of the Committee
to int ist upon a fair share of relief being given by
the guardians, so that the two sources of aid may
be kept apart. If the Relief Fund is to be called

upon to supplement the allowance of the guardians
its stores will soon be exhausted, whereas, on the
other hand, if the relief administered is to be only
at the rate of Is. or 15. 31. per head a week, there
is good cause to apprehend disease and famine. We

are glad to find that previous to the resolution passed
by the Committee on Monday, the Blackburn guar-

dians had nearly doubled their rate of relief, and

he determination of the Committee not to make

grants to any town, unless the parochial relief

averages 2s. a head, is likely to induce other dis-
tricts to follow their example. It would be very

shortsighted kindness to the ratepayers were the

Committee to expend all the sum they have in

hand, and leave themselves without the power of

mitigating future pressure. There is little doubt

that, if need be, further subscriptions will be
promptly forthcoming, but there is every reason for

preserving a cheerful and hopeful spirit, since the

crisis is but of a temporary character, Not only
have we the past to look back upon with wonder
and thankfulness, but we have every ground for
anticipating the constant, if gradual, increase in
our supply of cotton which has already, indepen-
dently of American sources, been augmented to

an amount which most persons would have deemed

scarcely credible some two years since,

THE NEW REGISTRAR IN BANKRUPTCY.—The
Lord Chancellor has appointed Mr, James Stephen,
of the Middle Temple, barrister-at-law, to be a registrar of
the Court of Bankruptcy for the Leeds district, in the room
f Mr Samuel Payne,vcho retires on account of ago and
infirmity, after a service of upwards of twenty years. Mr
Stephen was called to the bar in 184 G, has obtained the
degree of LL. U., is Professor of English Law and Jurispru-
dence at King's College, and is also Recorder of Poole.
THE QUEEN'S HORSES.—It will be thought very
naturally that tLe finest stud elf all classes of horses
is to bo found in :he Queen's stables. And probably in the
days of Ge,rge IV. this was the case, but at present the
Sovereign's tastes do not include horseflesh. Probably the
influence of Prince Albert had a great deal to do with the
neglect into which the royal stables hag' fallen. Ills royal
highness neither knew nor cared anything about horse-
flesh, and the consequence is that at the present moment
there is scarcely a horse in the Buckingham Palace stables
that can be considered first rate, and many of them are
shocking jades. The public had an opportunity of witness-
ing the second rate character of the animals sent to convey
the Princess Alexandra into London--animals that our
leading nobility would not have in their stables. The
riding horses are of a more inferior nature still ; with one
exception, those used by the Prince .of Wales.—Once a
Week,
•

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

[REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

ALGERIA.

PARIS, OCT. 13

An official report has been received from Gene-
ral Folivet, describing a gallant engagement which
took place on Sept. 29zh and 30th, between his
column of troops and a very numerous body of the
Arab insurgents. The loss of the latter was 400
killed and 400 wounded. That of the French is
estimated at 80 killed and 27 wounded.

The History of Darien.

Terra Firma, or the mainland of New Granada, was
discovered by Columbus in 1493, and he visited Chagres
and Navy Bay on the 2d of November, 1502, on his fourth
voyage. Six years afterwards King Ferdinand commis-
sioned Don Alonzo de Ojeda and Don Diego de Nicuesa to
make discoveries and conquests in Terra Firma, giving to
the former jurisdiction over the country from the Gulf of
Uraba, or Darien, eastward to Cape do la Vela, and assign-
ing to the latter the Government over the country from the
Gulf of Darien westward to Cape Graciasa Dios. A dispute
which arose between them as to the boundary line of their
respective provinces was referred to the pilot, Juan de la
Cosa, by whom it was arranged that the River Atrato
should firm the boundary. Alonzo de Ojeda went to Car-
thagena and Turbaco, and was killed by the Indians.
Nicuesa went to Veraguas, where he was vigorously opposed
by the Indians, and thence proceeded to Nombre do Dios,
between Portobello and Cape San Blas. One of the vessels
of Nicuesa's small squadron was commanded by the licen
tiate or bachelor-in laws, Enciso, who sailed from the city
of Santo Domingo, on the Oz ima, in 1509, and proceeded to
the Gulf of Darien. Previ. us to his sailing, a young but
penniless cavallero, named Vasco Nuncz do Balbao, was
smuggled on board, concealed in an empty wine cask. 'To
this stratagem he was obliged to have recourse in order to
get a passage, in consequence of the great animosity borne to
him by Ends°, whose rival he was in the affections of La
Zenorita Teresa Davila, by whose father he was beheaded a
few years afterwards. Upon discovering him a few days
after sailing Enciso ordered him to be killed, but the crew,
with whom Vasco Nunez was a favourite, refused to obey
his order. Meeting with unexpected difficulties and obsta-
cles in the Gulf of Darien, he consented to take the advice
of Vasco, in accordance with which he selected a place on
the west side of the Atrato mouth for the site of a town, to
which was given the name of Santa Maria el Antigua del
Darien. This town, being the first actual settlement formed
on the continent of America, was declared to be the capital
of New Andalusia, and was governed by Ends°, and next
by Vasco Nunez, who was elected by the people in place of
Enciso, whom they deposed. From this place he sent to the
King of Spain 300 mares Of gold, which occasioned the
name of Castilla del Oro, or Golden Castile, to be given
to Terra Firma. S JOU after Enciso had settled at Santa
Maria, a party despatched from thence to the westward
found Nicuesa and his men in a famishing condition at a
place called afterwards Nombre do Dios, because on landing
there and finding no Indians, Nicuesa, who had been
severely harassed by the Indians of Veraguas, said,
" Quedamos aqui en el nombro do Dio" (let U 3 stop here,
in the name of God).
On St. Michael's day, Sept. 29, 1513, Vasco Nunez dis-
covered the Pacific Ocean, at the Gulf of San Miguel,
having sailed from Santa Maria to Carreto, and thence to
Caledonia Harbour, from whence he crossed, fighting a
battle on the way with the Indian chief Quarequa.
In July, 1514, Dan Pedro Arias Davila, surnamed El
Justador, succeeded him as governor of Santa Maria, hav-
ing been sent out to supersede him, in consequence of corn-
plaints carried to Spain by E aciso. Ho was afterwards be-
headed by Davila, at Panama, upon an unfounded charge
of treason to the king. IVi h Davila came Juan de Quevedo,
as Bishop of Darien, with the usual authority from Pope
Leo X., so that Santa Maria was the first episcopal city in
America.
In 1514, Agla, or Acta, in Caledonia B iy, probably at the
mouth of the Aglatumati, was founded by Gabriel de Rojas,
as the most convenient point from whence to cross to the
Pacific.

Iu 1515, King Ferdinand granted to the town of Santa
Maria the privilege of bearing as its arms—gules, a golden
castle, surmounted by a sun of the same, supported on the
right by a tiger, and on the left by a crocodile, with these
word—" La imagen de Nuestra Senora del Antigua,"
In 1516, Agla was fortified by Davila. In 1518 Panama
was founded by Davila, after the conquest of Tubanama,
its cac'coo, by Vasco Nunez. The word Panama, it may be
observed, means "plenty of fish!' In 1532 Agla and the
whole Isthmus of Darien were abandoned for Nombrede
Dios and Panama, a road having been opened from the
former place to San Juan and thence to Panama. Most
probably the hostility of the Indians of Darien obliged the
Spaniards to seek a transit route elsewhere ; for, although
Vasco Nunez conquered the Cacique of Carreto, whose
daughter he married, and caciques of Comagre, Ponca,
Quarequa, Chiapes, Zumtico, and Pocorosa, no settlements
were effected in Darien except those of Santa Mar;a and
Agla, which were so soon abandoned.
From 1532 to the days of the filibustieros, or buccaneers,
there is a complete hiatus in the history of Darien.
In 1572, indeed, Nombre de Dios was taken by Sir
Francis Drake, who plundered it of specie and commodities
of immense value ; but that place, being to the westward
of Cape Sans Thas, is included in the Isthmus of Panama.
Alter the sacking of Nombre de Dios, which is now a
hamlet with a population of about 100 negroes, it was aban-
doned for Portrbello, which was selected as being a more
defensible position and having a better harbour. Its insa-
lubrity, however, was so great the Spaniards removed from
thence to Chagres, whence passengers and goods were con-
veyed in canoes up the Chagres river to Gorgona in the
dry, and Cruces in the rainy season. From each of these
places there is a most execrable mule road to ranams,which
is 23 miles distant from the former and 21 from the latter,
In the lower course of the river, the canoes were propelled
by paddles (canaletas), and higher up they were shoved
along by poles (palancas), Chagres has lately been deserted,
and the Atlantic terminus of the Panama 12,i1road at,
Aspinwall or Colon, on the island of Manzanillo, Navy Bay,
is now the point if departure for the Pacific.
In 1680 the buccaneers crossed the isthmus by the Chu-
guanaqua, and took the fort and town of Real de Santa
Maria, on the Turfra, in the south of Darien. The follow.
lag is the account given in the MS. of Basil Ringrose, one
of the buccaneers, which is in the Ayscough Collection, in
the British Museum : —" On April 5, 1630, 331 buccaneers,
most of them English, passed over from Golden Island, and
landed in Darien, each man provided with four
cakes of bread, called doughboys, with a pistol
a fusil, and a hanger. They began their jour

ney, marshalled in divisions with distinguishing
flags, under their several commanders, Bartholomew Sharp
and his men taking the lead. Many Darien Indians kept
them company as their confederates, and supplied them with
fruit, plantains, and venison, for which payment was made
in axes, hatchets, knives, needles. beads, and trinkets ; all
of which the buccaneers had taken care to come well pro •
vided with. Among the Darien Indians in company were
two chiefs, who went by the names of Captain Andreas and
Captain Antonio. The commencement of their march was
through the skirt of a wood, which, having passel, they
proceeded about a league by the side of a bay, and after-
wards about two leagues directly up a woody valley, where
there was an Indian house and plantation by the side of a
river. Here they took up their lodgings for the night, those
who could not be received in the house building huts. The
Indians were earnest in cautioning them not to sleep on the
grass on account of adders. This first day's journey dis-
couraged four of the buccaneers, and they returned to the
ships. Stones were found in the river which, on being
broken, shone with sparks of gold. These stones, they
were told, wore driven down from the neighbouring
mountains by torrents during the rainy season. The next
morning at sunrise they proceeded on their way,
labouring up a steep hill, which they surmounted
about three in the afternoon, and at the foot on the
other side they rested on the bank of a river which Capt.
Andreas told them ran into the South Sea, and was the
same by which the town of Santa Maria was situated."
It was, in fact, the Sucubti, which rises from the Pacific
side of Mount Agla. By descending it and the Chuqua-
naqua, of which it is a tributary, they reached the Tuyra,
into which the latter falls, and on which Santa Maria, the
nearest town to the Mine of Cana, was situated. After
taking Santa Maria they proceeded to the Gulf of San
Migue and Panama.

In 1681, Surgical L'onel Wafer, with a party of the
buccaneers, when approaching the mouth of the Tuyra
with the intention of returning the way they had come,
observed a Spanish gunboat anchored off it. To avoid
being taken by the Spaniards they landed at the mouth of
the Congo, in the Gulf of San Miguel, whenca the Indians
guided the buccaneers to . the Atlantic. Wafer, having
scorched his knee by the accidental explosion of some gun-
powder, was left behind at a hut on the bank of the Congo,
and after a residence of some months with the Indians,who
treated him well, was by them conducted to the mouth of
Conception River, in San Blas Bay. On his return to Lon-
don he wrote a most interesting account of his journey. He
afterwards went to Edinburgh with Patterson to give infor-
mation concerning Darien to the company which organised
the Scotch colony.
In 1685 the gold mines of Darien were ordered to be
closed by royal decree, dated March the 12th,
In 1698 the Scotch colony settled on the extremity of the
promontory outside of Port Escoces, and began to build the
town of New Edinburgh and the Fort of St. Andrew. The

colonists were starved out, in 1699, by the infamous order
of King William tho Third, who was influenced in his

opposition to them by the remonstrances of the Spanish
Ambassador., and the intrigues of the Dutch East Indian
Company. The project of colonization was started by
Patterson from information given to him by 'Wafer.
In 1719 the Indians rose against the Spaniards, and the
few doctrinal, or missions, that had been established,

were broken up, It appears from a passage in the " Vidge"
of Dun Antonio de Ulloa and Don Juan Jorge, the Spanish
academicians, who went to the vicinity of Quito to measure
the length of a degree on the equator, th it, previous to
1719, there were doctrines at Maturnagenti (a branch of
the Savana) and Aglastniqua, in Caledonia Bay,
In 174') peace was concluded with the Inciliths by Lieu-
tenant-General Don Dionisio Martinez do bt Vega, in con-

sequence of which Don Sebastian de Eslaba, Viceroy of
Santa Fe, sent to North Darien two Jesuits, Padres Salve-

dor Grande and Pedro Fabro; and the President of
Panama sent to the South Padres Matias Alvarez and
Claudio Escobar, who formed the settlements of Mo•
lineca, Balsas, Tucuti, Chuquanaqua, Cups, and Yaviss.
But they had scarcely succeeded in establishing those

missions when the Indians deserted them, and the fathers
with difficuly escaped with their lives.

In 1784 a junta, convened at Santa Fe de Bogota, by tho
viceroy and archbishop, Don Antonio Caballero y Gon-

gcra, for the purpose of devising measures for the reduction
and pacification of the Indians, decreed the establishment
of forts at Mandinga, Concepcion, Carolina, is Caledonia

Bay, and Cayman, in the Gulf of Darien. The command
of the forts was entrusted to De la Tone, and with him
were associated Brigadier General Don Antonio de Arebalo
and Garcia de Villalba.

The forts were established in 3785, and in the same year
Lieutenant Colonel Don Andres de Arias, founded Puerto
del Principe, on the Savac a, above the Lava mouth, and
placed in it a garrison 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 Savena. 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 cr,:es, or even to permit one of
Suspani's Indians to convey letters from ono fort to the
other. After several fruitless attempts at negotiation on
the subject, Don Luis de la Carrera was sent with 300 man
of the Princesa Regiment (white soldiers) to open a read,
and had succeeded in clearing a path through the bush as
far as the bank of the Chuquanaqua, opposite the mouth
of the Sucubti, when tho 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 Suspani, 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-
flares, at the mouth of Sttcubti, 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.

Matos, who was governor in Arisa's absence, and
Donoso, an engineer, who was sent from Spain, with five
assistants, to survey the Sawana and Chuquanaqua, re-
commended descending the Chuquanaqua to Yavisa, and
crossing thence to Principe, evidently a much longer route
than Arisa'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 previously
with 200 mon to the confluence of the Sucubti with the
Chuquanaqua, 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 tho meaning of the paper in the bottle.
Arisa, 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 Granadians 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 Atva, of Chapigana, who was a
patient of mine, informed me that ho accompanied his
father, who was a barqueano, or Inatman, of Dunoso's,
when that engineer was surveying the Chuquanaqua and
Savana. He stated that he saw Suspani when he came to
Yav:sa to make peaco and be baptised. He also told me
that the people at Principe could hear the gun fired at
Carolina.—" The Isthmus of Daricn," by Dr. Cullen.

(To be continued.)

Irons Isters' Quarterly Meeting.

WOLVERHAMPTON, Wednesday Evening.
The meetings of the ironmasters of this distric

for the current quarter comtuenced 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
businesa was transacted, the ironmesters not being
particularly anxious to take orders while there is
ao much of uncertainty about their execution, which
must necessarily be the case if the strike continues.
In this state of things 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 materittlly 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 to-day ;
the prevailing opinion was that it will soon be over.
A good number of the men is this--the thin
coal district—have gene in ; on the Dudley 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.
Soon after the trade had assembled a very gloomy
feeling was produced by the announcement that Mr
Williams, 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 ►oca.
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.