The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-28 00:00:00

THE PENINSULAR MAIL,

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-ship
Poonah, Captain Sparkes, with the Peninsular and heavy
portion of the Bombay mail, has arrived. She brings 119
passengers, including the Hon. Mr Wingfield and Captain
Johnston from Gibraltar.

The Poonah has in freight S packages of specie, value
£1,511, also 90 packages of silks and shawls, 50 bales of
cotton, and 159 packages of sundries,
On the 19th the Pounah spoke the steamer Baioda and
steam-ship Himalaya bound to Malta. On the 22d she
spoke the steamer Liconia bound east.

Her Mujesty 'a gun-boats Procris and Redpole were at
Gibraltar, the PyEche, Tamer, Marlborough, and Cossack
were at Malta, and the Turkish frigate Raschel and French
frigate Perdrix were at Alexandria,
Her Majesty's screw-frigate Galatea, 26 guns, from Port-
land, arrived at Gibraltar on the 20th, and proceeded on
course up the Mediterranean.

GIBRALTAR, May 2.
The Riff pirates in the neighbourhood of Melilla seem
little disposed to be peaceful neighbours of the Spanish for-
tress, notwithstanding the settlement of the new territorial
limits by the Sultan's brother, Muley-el-Abbas, about a year
ago. The last letters from Melilla say that on the night of
April 22 the Ruffians had destroyed some of the Spanish
works in the r_Qwly-annexed territory. The Spanish engi-
neers, it seems, have been constructing roads, bridges, and
drainage works in the vicinity of their fortress, and the
Riffians, it is said, imagine that the roads were intended to
facilitate the transport of artillery into the interior, and
under this impression endeavoured to stop the progress of
the works.

Tho steamer Sydney Hall, which arrived on Monday from
the western coast of Balbary, brings no commercial intelli-
gence of importance. The Sultan's edict in favour of the
Jews, issued on the solicitation of Sir Moses Montefiore,
does not appear to be at once productive of the practical
benefit anticipated by the Hebrew portion of the Sultan's
subjects. The fact is, that equal treatment of Mahometan
and Jew is so alien to the spirit and practice of the Moorish
authorities that it must be some time before the principle of
even-handed justice to all his subjects inculcated by th 3
Sultan will be voluntarily carried out by his subordinates.
In the meantime, however, the Jews invoke the protection
of the representatives of the Christian Powers in the king-
dom of Morocco when Moorish governors commit acts of
violence or oppression in contravention of the Sultan's edict.
We believe that all the foreign representatives have now
received instructions from their r°spective Governments on
this subject. In addition to those before named, we are
informed that the consuls-general of Portugal and the
United States have been instructed to afford every protec-
tion to the Moorish Jew.

The French Government is reported to have made certain
demands on that of the Sultan in consequence of the murder
of a French subject some months ago near one of the gates
of Tetuan, and of the asylum afforded in Morocco territory
to one of the Arab chiefs implicated in the recent rebellion
in Algeria. The following are reported to be the specific
demands of the French, to which they require compliance
within 40 days, threatening to blockade the Morocco ports
if due satisfaction is not given :-1. The surrender of the
murderers of the French subject, or, if they cannot be dis-
covered, the payment of an indemnity of half a million of
francs. 2. The removal of Hash Hash, the governor of
Tetuan. 3, The surrender of the Arab chief se ho has sought
refuge in Morocco. It is generally supposed that those de-
mands will be complied with,
Another instance is reported of the sharp practice of the
Spanish artillery at Tarifa, which has lately, on several
occasions, inflicted damage on peaceful merchant vessels,
and iu one case killed an English seaman in a North Shields
vessel. The sufferer this time is the Bremen brigantine
Argo, which left the Bay of Biscay yesterday afternoon for
New York. According to the master's report, he was be-
tween three and four miles from the share and had not yet
arrived abreast of the Tarifa fort, when without any previ-
ous warning, he was fired into from the Spanish battery.
The ball passed through the galley and shattered the leg of
the cook. The Argo was to wed back into this bay by the
Lion Belge, and the wounded man is now under treatment
in the civil hospital here. It is not yet known, we believe,
whether amputation of the limb will be necessary.
The Gibraltar Chronicle of the 13th instant says—" Her
Majesty's gun-boat Procris has arrived here with the
master and six men of the British barque Nelson, of New-
castle, the vessel which was recently wrecked on the Riff
coast, near Alhucernas. The boat which was bringing
these men to Tangier was, it seems, compelled by strong
headwinds again to seek the shore two days after starting,
and the Procris on threading her way back along the coast
discovered their whereabouts from signals made by the
Moors on land. The master end crew were very kindly
treated and all their wants provided for by the Ruffians,
and the Moorish governor of the district in which they
were wrecked, Abd Islam Emkashed, The tribes of Riff
have hitherto had such a bad reputation from their acts
of piracy that it is pleasant to record this proof of their
humanity to shipwrecked mariners. The old tradition that
shipwrecked Christians are fair prey, and, if their lives are
vouchsafed them, can expect no better lot than to be carri,d
off into the interior as slaves, still lingers amongst the wild
tribes of the African coast. Some Spanish mariners,
wrecked on the coast below Mogador were a short time since
rescued from the hands of the local chiefs with some diffi-
culty, and after a captivity of considerable length. It seems
of importance, therefore, in the interest of shipwrecked sea-
men of every nation, that some pains sheuld be taken to en-
courage the natives of Africa to substitute for the barbarous
practices of a former time a humane and hospitable treat•
went of the mariners who may unfortunately be cast upon
their shores. A liberal reward for every shipwrecked sailor
brought in and safely delivered up to his consul at the
nearest port would be the most infallible means of securing
this object; and, if the Governments themselves do not
lundertake to pay such reward, it may safely he asserted that,
of all the benevolent associations which are formed in Eng-
land for the accomplishment of real or imaginary good in
every part of the world, not one would be more deserving of
public support than a society for saving the lives of wrecked
seamen, the subscribers to which would know that every
shilling they gave would be employed to prevent a ship-
wrecked ciuntryman being knocked on the head or carried
into captivity, and to ensure his being well treated, and
restored to his friends."