The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-25 00:00:00

HORRORS OF SLA VE7:-RE

_
An officer of the 17th Massachusetts Regiment,
writing from Newborn, N.C., gives the following
account of his recent experiences, copied from the
Washington Repubb..can
I had intended to have answered your last letter
more fully, but for the last two days I have been
questioning contrabands about slavery, and the
stories they told me have so unsettled my mind,
that I can scarcely think or write of anything else.
I will give you one of the stories, and I wish you
would tell me 'what you think of it. I am some-
times inclined to suppo e that their stories are
blacker than their skin.
There was one pretty yellow girl, about fifteen
years of age, passed over tl..e ferry on Sun-
day night, who seemed very sldy and afraid. she,
with several other contrabands, passed on with
the regiments to Newbern... Many of us noticed
her melancholy appearance, but all were too busy
working the ferry-boat to speak to her.
Yesterday two other contrabands came over, man
and wife, and as they seemed tired, and said they
had had nothing Vs.) eat since Sunday morning, I
told them to sit down, and I would get them
something to eat. They readily accepted my in-
vitation, and soon entered into conversation about
their late master. In the course of conversation
they inquired if I had seen a yellow girl, de-
scribing the one who passed over the previous
night, and after a great amount of detail, 'which
would be superfluous here, I learned the following
history of her :

She was the daughter of her master, her mother
being a rich man's slave, not 20 miles from where I
now sit writing. She was brought up on the plan-
tation of her father until about 14 years old, when
the old planter, her father, began to think her old
enough for use. She now carries the scars on her
back where she was whipped before she would sub-
mit to her own father's lustful embraces. Day after
day she went through the flogging, but at last her
spirit, as well as the flesh, was broken. She could
withstand the monster no longer. The master and
father triumphed over his helpless victim, and after
due course of time, she had a baby by her own
father. This baby, a few days ago, was forcibly
taken from its mother (when they heard the Yan-
kees were coming) and sent into the country to-
wards Goldsboro, thinking of course the mother
would sooner sacrifice liberty than her child ; but
the woman had made up her mind that when the
Yankees did come she would go with them, no
matter what the consequence.
Well, the mother is here ; the child is—she
doesn't know where.

DISTRESSING SUICIDE FROM STAR VA•
TION IN KENSINGTON-GARDENS.

Dr. Lankester, the Central Middlesex coro-
ner, held an inquest at the Bank of England
Tavern, Cambridge-place, Paddington, yesterday,
touching the death of Charles Pritchard, 41 years
of age, an upholsterer, formerly a resident of No. 2,
Margaret-terrace, Kensington.
Gibson, a park-keeper in Kensington-gardens,
stated that on the afternoon of the 13th inst.i , as he
was,ae pa Wood,ssingt h
that part
found theartof
deceased
the
gardens
lyng
called
Back Lion
on
the ground with his head resting on his left hand,
with the elbow on the ground, foaming
at the
mouth and groaning_ No
person was near him.
Witness said to
ill m My man, you appear very
; what is the matter with you ?" 11/3 looked up
and answered " I have him what h e had ave
poisoned
myself." I asked
" 0 • taken, and he further replied
oxalic acid, and the bottle is in ray pocket."
Witness ran off for a brother constable to convey
him to St. Mary's Hospital. When he returned
deceased had partly risen up. In his pocket they
found a small bottle and a tea-cup, and on their
way to the hospital he became inseaasible ; but pre-
vious to that taking place Ile pulled out
of his pocket a piece of paper -which appeared
to have been used for the oxalic acid, and had
"poison" written upon it. W:tm-ss produced two
letters found upon his person, one; addressed to his
wife, dated Sept. 3, and the other addressed to M.o.
Cole, his sist( r, dated Aug. 22. The one to his wife
was to the effect that that lettep would be the last
he should ever write. He said h(3 was almost driven
mad from having no sign of getting employment,
arising from his having sunk too low in the world,
and described how miserable had been his life dur-
ing the last fcur years, mainly from reduced cir-
cumstances. The other to his sister C.isclosed the
painful statement that he had not I L penny in his
pocket, and had not eaten. a crust of 1 )read for seve-
ral days ; that he had wandered a out until he
could walk no longer ; that he we ga a friendless,
homeless wretch, and prayed her forgiveness for
committing the dreadful crime of su' ,cide.
d Cole,
A brother-in-law of the decease. 3, name
addicted
deposed that deceased had been fog maeriy
to intemperate habits, and that h a had not been
seen for 15 months.
• 1 's Mr. Mahon, house surgeon of St tl .
ary 3
Hospi-
tal, said deceased was admitted hospital
the
from the nr weal effects of
on the 13th, and died
oxalic acid last Friday night. Hi 3 told witness
before he died that ho swallowed E n ounce of the
poison, because he was starving, to e nd his life.
The jury
deliberated, and returne d a verdict of
" Suicide," but left the state of dece 9.sed's naiad at
the time he committed the Act an op at question.

The screw steam gunvessel Mohawk, 6, purchased
by Capt. Osborn for the Chinese Government, has
been removed from Hamoaze into the basin at Key-
ham Steam-yard, for the purpose of having her ma-
chinery examined and overhauled.
The iron-cased frigate Royal Oak, 50, 1,000 horse
power, was removed from Chatham harbour into
No. 3 dock yesterday afternoon, for the purpose of
having the remainder of her armour plates bolted to
her sides. At the time of her launch the Royal
Oak drew about 19ft. aft and 13ft. forward, but
since she has been lying in the harbour she has
shipped her iron masts and bowsprit, together with
her six boilers, condensers, and other heavy
portions of her machinery, amounting in the whole
to several hundred tons, which has brought her
down considerably more than a foot. To enable
her to enter the dock the height of the blocks on
the floor was considerably reduced, and a few
minutes before 1 o'clock she was successfully floated,
the depth of water being between three and four
feet between her keel and the bottom of the dock.
The projecting granite sides of the dock had also
been cut away, allowing the frigate just sufficient
room. During afternoon the the Royal Oak
was shored up on the blocks, and last evening the
operation of pumping out the dock was commenced.
Every exertion will be used to complete the vessel
for sea, to accomplish which some 300 hands will be
daily employed on her for several months to come,
About 70 of the iron armour plates have already
been bolted to her sides, leaving between 200 and
300 more still to be fixed. Most of these, however,
have already been annealed, bent, drilled, and
otherwise prepared, so that as little time as pos-

Bible will be lost in the operation of plating her,

the Admiralty being desirous that no time should
be lost in having one of the squadron of the new
armour-plated frigates actually at sea.
The short supply of coals at Portland, recently
alluded to in The Sun, will soon be remedied, Mr.
Leather, the contractor, having ordered large sup-
plies to be immediately forwarded to that port for
the use of her Majesty's ships.
The undermentioned gentlemen have been nomi-
nated to naval cadetships:—R. W. Okes, Voysey,
S. H. Kay, A. Haggard, and C. S. Naylor.
The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :—Capt. W. M. Dowell, to the
Barrosa ; Commander A. J. Kingston, to the Per-
seus ; Commander R. C. Mayne, to the Eclipse ; R.
Coen, master, to the Barrosa; R. Gilpin, master, to
the Perseus; A. J. A. Parks, master, to the Eclipse;
B. Gregory, assist-surg., to the Sutlej ; T. H.
Atkinson, acting assist. -sung., to the Satlej ; H. J.
R. Miall, paymaster to the Barrosa ; C. G. Smith,
aymaster, to the Perseus ; C. E. Phillips, pay-
master to the Eclipse; A. Hughes, assist-pay -
master, to the Perseus ; W. J. C. Row, assist.-
paymaster, to the Barrosa; F. A. Keogh, assist.-
paymaster, to the Cornwallis ; John N. Colborne,
assist.-paymaster, to the Hawke; J. Roffey, chief
engineer, to the Sutlej ; J. Sumner, engineer, to the
Sutlej ; J. Orchard, first class assist.-engineer, to
the Asia, for the Savage; D. Langlands, first class
assist.-engineer, to the Asia, for the Foam ; R. H.
Dobney, H. R. Wills, and T. Gray, first class assist.-
engineers, to the Sutlej ; J. G. Taylor, first class
assist.-engineer, to the PhoThe ; G. W. Robins, first
class assist.-engineer, to the Indus, for the Delight ;
A. S. Reeve, second class assist.-engineer, to the
Sutiej ; 11. Rigby, acting second class assist-engi-
neer, to the Sutlej ; A. Le B. Corrie, clerk, to the
Eclipse ; F. J. Mould, clerk, to the Barrosa ; H. C.
Jenkins, clerk, to the Pembroke ; E. R. Nettleton,
clerk, to the Russell ; R. C. Webb, clerk, to the
Blenheim ; and C. 31. F. Zorr, assist.-clerk, to the
Revenge.