The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-28 00:00:00

WEST INDIA AND PACIFIC MAILS.

(REUTER'S EXPRESS.)

SOUTHAMPTON, Thursday.
The Royal Mail Company's steam ship Shannon,
Captain Abbott, with the above mails, arrived at
her anchorage off Netley Hospital shortly before
five o'clock this afternoon. She brings 113 passen-
gers, amongst whom are General Mosquera and
family, from Santa Martha; General Blanco, from
Venezuela ; Captains Knapp and Cook, from Bar-
badoes; and Lieutenant Gray, Dr. Jenkins, and
the Rev. Duncan Campbell, from Jamaica.
The Shannon has on freight specie value
£464,573 sterling, of which amount £9,502 are on
account of the Mexican dividends. Her cargo
comprises 491 serons of cochineal, 255 cases cigars,
448 bales tobacco, 25 casks coffee, 16 casks ginger,
176 bales bark, 275 bags silver ore, 149 bags cocoa,
and 401 packages sundries.
Her Majesty's ships Pylades and Buzzard were at
Sacrificios; the Phaeton, at Antigua; the Ariadne,
at Carthagena ; and the Galatea, Desperate, and
Aboukir, at Jamaica. The French screw frigate
Bellona, the gunboat Tempete, and transport En-
treprenante, were at Sacrificios. The French paddle-
wheel frigate Montezuma was lost off the bar of
the Goatzacoalcos River, the latter end of July ; the
crew were all saved.
The Spanish squadron was still at the Havannah.
There is no important news from Mexico. The
Vera Cruz Railway was to be opened to Solidad on
the 15th inst.
Very severe weather has been experienced along
the South Pacific coast. On the 11th July the
British barque Atahualpa, 78 days from Liverpool,
with general cargo, on entering Valparaiso Bay
struck on a rock called the Buey, near the light-
house. The sea was breaking very heavily, and
though every effort was made to save the cargo,
nearly the whole went down with the ship on the
14th, The loss was estimated at 300,000 dollars.
The crew were all saved.
The Tamaya, British barque, put into Valparaiso
on the 13th, with loss of topmasts, topsail yards,
and sails, in a gala off Valdivia, after leaving Tal-
cahuano with wheat' for Liverpool.
The Chilian barque Toulon went ashore at
Coronel ; all hands saved, and the Chilian barque
Jesus Ramos is supposed to have foundered.
Anxiety was felt at Valparaiso for the Pacific
Navigation Company's steamer Cloda, due there on
the 12th, but had not been heard on the 18th.
The British ship Cairngorm and the French
ship Grand Pacifique, both with guano for Callao,
had put into Valparaiso with damage.
A fire had destroyed in Valparaiso a building
valued at 30,000 dols., wholly uninsured.
The weather at Demerara had set in fair, and
sugar •making was expected to become general
throughout the colony ; many estates had already
commenced. Produce of all kinds was scarce, and
sugar in demand for the United States at 3 dols. 70c.
to 3 dols. 90c. Molasses, 19c. to 21c. Rum, for
shipment to England, 36a. to 38c. per gallon. Ton-
nage was ample, but a large supply would be re-
quired from Ist of September to the end of the year.
Charters had been effected at ls. 6d. for sugar and
2d. for rum to London. Exchange on London, 90
days' eight, 476 dols. for private bills ; bank rate,
480 dols.
The weather at Barbadoes has been fine fir the
crops, which had considerably improved. Provi-
sions, although scarce, were being extensively
planted. The prodace shipped to date amounted
to—Sugar, 38,292 hhds., 3,984 tierces, 8,896 barrels,
1,004 bags ; molasses, 8,919 puns,, 332 hhds., 317

barrels; rum, 29 puns., 122 hhds. Exchange.--
Bank bills, 90 days', 487/ dols.; 60 days', 490 dols.;
30 days', 4921 dols. There was a meeting of the
Legislature on the 28th ult. The business trans-
acted had reference only to the disturbed state of
some parts of the colony.

The weather at Jamaica up to the day prior to
the sailing of the packet had been very dry, and
the coffee and sugar crop seriously threatened by it.
The Pimento crop had also suffered, and ground
provisions were exceedingly scarce. The cattle had

also suffered seriously. The heat had been excessive,
vegetation completely parched, and the ponds and
streams dried up. Business continued very dull,
transactions being confined to demands for imme-
diate consumption. Coffee realised 56s to 58s;
pimento sold at lid; sugar, 16s to 21s, according
to quality; rum sold at 2s to 2s 3d, and at le 10d
to is 10Id for proof 18 in bond. Exchange on
London at 90 days was -i- per cent. prem.; 60 days,
1 per cent. ditto; and 30 days, li per cent.
Freights little offering.
The news from Trinidad is devoid of interest.
The following is the latest news from Central
America :

" The Government of Salvador (General Barrios)
was still in San Salvador on the 27th of July, but
may be said to be reduced to that city ; for their
communications (except with the port of Libertad)
are cut off, and the Guatemalan troops are at Opica,
Suchitoto (north), and Cojutepeque, and are reported
to have moved on San Vicente, with the intention,
of course, of cutting off the connection of the capital
with the department of San Miguel. They are
without revenues of any kind, except such sums as
are derived from the sale of goods (seized and con-
fiscated and sold for half their value in the plaza)
belonging to those who have refused to support this
government or pronounced against it.
"General Hernandez, who had been sent by Bar-
rios to Suchitoto with arms and men to oppose
Cerna, at first hid himself and finally joined Cerna.
" On the whole, the position seems to be almost a
hopeless one for General Barrios, and unless some
accident should occur in his favour it seems likely
he will have to leave before the end of the month."
The Panama Star and Herald of the 9th instant,
in its summary of news from the Pacific Coast,
publishes the following :

" CHlLL—Public attention has been turned dur-
ing the past fortnight to internal politics, and to a
struggle in Congress to displace the present Govern-
ment. The attempt has been unsuccessful, and the
ministry will now be in better position for carry-
ing out projects of improvements before them.
Little attention is paid to the declaration of war by
Bolivia.

"We are happy to say (says the Mercurio of July
7) that the railway between Valparaiso and San-

tiago is so far advanced that on the Ist inst. a loco-
motive ran right through from Valparaiso to the

capita'.

"The Spanish squadron, after a stay of some ten
days in Callao Bay, has sailed north. The French
admiral with his vessels is still in the bay.

" The 28th of July, the day of declaration of
Peru's independence, has been celebrated in Lima
and Peru with more than ordinary enthusiasm."

MADLLE. A. PATTI, as the Atheneum prettily
expresses it, is playing and singing her way through
Germany along paths strewn with gold. Some of our con-
temporaries profess themselves to be outraged at the sums
this young lady receives. She is engaged to M. Bagier for
Paris and Madrid, they tell us, at £l2O for each perform-
ance. Let us remind them that they have chosen to present
her to the public as a first-class singer—the equal of Mali-
bran, Mesdames Grisi and Persiana, havingan added charm
of her own—that of youth. If they be right in their esti-
mate (to which wo have never subscribed) they are wrong
in their logic, by which she is proved to be exorbitant. Set-
ting aside the known fact, that first-class singers are becom-
ing rarer and rarer every day, Madlle. Patti is not paid
more than Malibran—net so much as Madlle. Lind—but a

little in excess of La Bastardella, who, in Burney's time,
when he was managing the concerts at the Pantheon (this
was 80 years ago or thereabouts), received 100 guineas
nightly, for two songs I " Falsegods are made by fanatics,"
says the poet, but the fanatics do ill to cry out against the
worship of the idols which "themselves have made."
UNREALITIES inevitable in the feebler writers of
fiction ! There is the ball, with its jealousy, and
bliss, and moralisings ; whore the author gently ventilates
his views about the relation between the mental powers of
men and of women,g marshalling his
.scraps of arguments
under little labels—" said Lady Edith,' exclaimed " exclaimed Mild-
easy," or " oiled Lord Charles." There's the hunt, where the
lover tempts his mistress to break her neck, or the mistress
tempts her suitor to break his, followed by exclamations of
of "rly life—my love--I have killed you"—exclamations
which give us no sort of concern, because we are calmly
confident that in the next page he or she will heave a huge
sigh, faintly smile, and finally lock up with eyes beaming
with ineffable tenderness. And lastly, there is the young
man who at once rushes into a hands Noe income by writing
for the towspaPers,