The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-30 00:00:00

WSPAPI:h

WEST INDIA AND PACIFIC MAIL'
tll l M11
,
The Royal Mail Company's steameriga ••
R. Revett, arrived at Southampton 4.i: '4: ,
afternoon with mails of the following da e
pico and Santa Martha, Oct. 1 ; Vera rm ana. S
Carthagena, 2d ; Havanah, 7th,; Valparaiso (Chili),
Sept. 18 ; Coquimbo (do.), 10th ; Cobija (Bolivia),
21st; Arica (Peru), 23d; Callao and Lima (do.),
28th ; Payta (do.), Oct. 2 ; Guayaquil (Ecuador),
3d ; Panama and Colon, 6th ; Tobago, Bth ;
Georgetown (Demerara), POrt of Spain (Trinidad),
and Grenada, 9th ; Kingstown (Jamaica), and St.
Vincent, 10th ; Jacmel (Hayti), Bridgetown (Bar-
badoes), St. Lucia, and Montserrat, 11th ; San
Juan (Porto Rico), Carriacou, Martinique, Guada-
loupe, Dominique, Antigua, and Nevis, 12th ; St.
Kitts, Tortola, and La Guayra, 13th ; and St.
Thomas, 14th.
The Seine brought 74 passengers, among whom
were Governor Seymour, from British Columbia ;
Mr. Harrison, C.E., from Peru; Mr. Duffield, from
Bolivia; Captain Haintnill, of the Pacific Steam
Navigation Company, from Panama, &c. On
freight she had $1,346,071 (of which $746,071 were
gold, and $600,000 silver) ; jewellery, plating, and
precious stones, value $14,245. It is known that
the steamship Colorado, from San Francisco and
British Columbia, brought 20 millions of dollars to
Panama, six millions of which for England went
by way of the United States. The cargo of the
Seine comprised 175 bales of cotton, 307 cases of
cigars, 115 bales of tobacco, 101 serons of cochineal,
74 serons of indigo, 90 packages of bark, 50 live
turtle, 52 packages of indiarubber, and 229 packages
of sundries.
The Royal Mail steamers Conway, Derwent, and
Eider were at St. Thomas ; the Solent and Tyne on
the Spanish Main route ; and the Wye on the
Windward Islands route.
None of our usual advices from Jamaica or the
other West India Islands have come to hand by
this stef::mer.
••
We learn from British Columbia that the quantity
of gold raised was largely in excess of that of any
preceding year. Wages were steady at $lO a day
on the mines. The price of provisions had conside-
rably fallen. The telegraph had been completedup
to Soda Creek, 300 miles from New Westminster,
and it was expected that the cable under Behring's
Straits would be laid early next year. her Majes-
ty's ship Sutlej, Rear-Admiral Denman, and the
Cho were at Esquimault harbour, as also the con-
demned gunboats Grappler and Forward. The
Devastation, Sparrow Hawk, and Tribune were
expected. The United States ship Saranik had left
British Columbia in pursuit of the Shenandoah, and
the Suanee was looking for the privateer in Esqui-
mault harbour. The French flagship Arictoizte was
at Manzanilla. 4 French and tivo United Statey
gunboats were- at, Acapulco. • The United States'
steamer -Lancaster .was the only ship of war at
Panama.

The news from the West Coast is, as usual, of an
unsettled nature ; but it possesses some additional
interest on account of the mysterious movements of
the small Spanish fleet which has .riow for some
time occupied Callao, but which sailed 'forChili.oli
September 6, and arrived there on the eve of the
celebration of the annual national feast of
Dyoz y Ocho. A day or so before the arrival of its
admiral a special steamer, despatched from Callao,
entered Valparaiso, bearing the unpleasant news
that the settlement of the Spanish- question with
Chili by the Spanish Consul had heen rejected by
the Court of Madrid, and he ordered home to an-
swer for his conduct. What the. ultimatum was
which Admiral Pareja carried to Chili had not
transpired when the mail left for Valparaiso ; but
the Admiral's arrival, indicating as it did. to the
Chilians a hostile feeling, had called forth the most.
vehement enthusiasm on the part of the people..
Public meetings were held in Santiago and Valpa-
raiso, and many leading men took part in thein„
denouncing the conduct of Spain. and declaring that. *-;
they would resist her demands to the utmost. A
private meeting also of all the principal foreigh,
merchants took place, when it was resolved that a44••,,,_
bilkof exchange the Spanish goverilMent might dtlw
upon them should be protested, and this resolution •
was forwarded to the President of the republic, and.
'was subsequently posted-tat:Me the parer doors..
Whatever the intentions -of Spain marlyto;-it-is-eer--
taiu that she will meet with a very different recep-
tion in Chili from that which she met with in Peru.
The mail left two ships of the Spanish fleet in
Caldera, receiving coal from the Pacific Steam
Navigation Company.
From Bolivia the news is as conflicting as ever.
It was rumoured in Cobija that the head of Mel-
garejo had been carried on the point of a spear into
La Paz. 'We know from reliable sources that Mel-
garejo had met with a decided defeat at Oruro,
where he commanded in person. Balivian, another
aspirant for the Presidency, had taken the field
against the forces cf Melgarejo.

In Peru affairs had not altered. The position of
parties remained the same, and but little reliance
could be placed on the best formed opinions respec-
ting the probable issue of the ridiculous struggle
going on there. Al lkinds of produce had risen, and
the high price of the common necessaries of life in
the port of Callao was causing considerable appre-
hensions on the part of the resident foreigners there.
Business in Chili was completely at a standstill,
and it was little better elsewhere along the whole
coast.

Her Britannic Majesty's ships the Leander (Com-
modore Harvey) and Shearwater were at Callao,
and the Columbine at Valparaiso.

VONDOOIS3I.—In the good old days of Louisiana
Vondooism was religiously believed in by all the coloured
population, and by not a few who should have been of
more intelligence. For years past the infernal rites of this
dark superstition have been conducted near New Orleans,
only at long intervals and with the utmost secresy. We
have heard of such scones being enacted in or near Mobile
by the negroes, but never till last night did we witness
anything of the kind in this city. In company with a few
policemen we went to a house situated beyond the gasworks,
and occupied by an old negro who claims to be an " Obi
man." Approaching the house very carefully, and peering
through the crevices in the walls, a wild, weird spectacle
was presented. Around a small fire of pine in the middle of
the floor—or room, for floor there was none—and over
which was hung a pot, sat a group of negro men and
women entirely naked; their hair or wool twisted into
pig-tail curls and ornamented with sprigs of some kind of
herb intermingled with dried roots, their eyes closed, the
master of ceremonies, or high fetish priest, with a snake-
skin around his neck and his wool grizzled with age and
garnished more profusely than the rest, was chanting some-
thing in a droning voice, while the remainder of the
"congregation" responded with a low and a long-drawn
howl. The old negro with the snake skin clapped ht is
fhuar in
ds,
and the whole party rose and commenced a m ou s
greososuvmeredthehyf
and the " Obi man" aelltamsqPuaintgteind dao.:irrnc
chant, at the same time holding in h
again,l ero un d the pot.
i This
hand a covered
lizards,
and
his own and the
and last of all the herbs and roots from
dbeaaskdest,nafrkoem,
nwexhticah
frog,d rtehwenanadsdoruoupgpeadfliingtaotothreopor
ltf
Silencedepo swftashaodbsehervenedmabydea,lal
after
somehead s
minutes other
after negroes.the last
which the pot was taken from the fire, and while the nau-
seatingr e reeking
leftng h
hotd
they
intoeachit and p_
dipped
at he
middle
efinger
tof h
finger to their tongue ; another dip
pienlnitdeodotf thehthee mixture
epomtd of w
theira
was taken with the middle finger of the right
hand, and certain cabalistic figures described on the breasts,
forehead, and shoulders, one assisting the other in the
operation. Not a word was spoken until their clothes
had been resumed, and they had got clear of the house.
Although on high occasions the Fetish, or "Obi man," may
demand a human sacrifice in his inhuman rites, and which
sacrifice is generally a young child, nothing of the kind was
attempted in the Vondoo pow-wow of last night. The
presence of the police would, of course, have prevented
anything of this nature, had it even been thought necessary
by the old negro conducting the affair. Old negro women
were sometimes " used up" as " material" in these meetings
at Vondooton, near New Orleans, one of whom escaped the
sacrificial knife on ono occasion, and caused the arrest of
the whole gang,.-2lfobile Tribune.
The drought in Massachusetts is very severe
Prof. Snell, of Amherst, who has kept a meteorological
register for twenty-seven years, says that he never re-
corded so small an amount of rain for a single month as
during the month of September last. The
measured-only thirty-eight hundredth ofsa
is so scarce in Gloucester that it sells for 75 cents
to Si a,
wafteelrl
n inch. Water
thatvv
barrel,use sea andwtahteer.people are afraid they will soon be obliged
to

The Superior Court at Hartford, Conn., is now
trying the case of the " British rioters," some fifty of the
citizens of Plymouth and Bristol, who are accused of a
riot in that they compelled Silas 11. Carrington to take
down a secession flag that he raised the day of President
Lincoln's funeral.