The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-10 00:00:00

THE BLACK SEA.

Letters from Constantinople of the 31st ult. an-
nounce that three English merchant vessels were
fired into by the Russians near Sulina, in the Black
Sea. The Anna, laden with grain, was sunk. The
steamer Oreaccut was damaged. Tile combined
fleets were before Kavarna.

The Courrier de Marseille gives the following
news brought by the Caradoc, which left Constan-
tinople on the 26th. The day before the departure
of the combined fleets for Varna, the. Mogador and
Inflexible, French and English steam-frigates, left
for the same destination, with 1,000 Ottoman troops
armed with Millie rifles to reinforce the garrison.
The object of the combined fleets was, it is stated,
to support the operations of the Turks, and to
attack, if necessary, the Russian fleet, which had
been seen by several ships near Varna, for the pur-
pose of supporting the movements of Prince Gorts-
chakoff. The Sampson and Cacique steamers,
during their last cruise, saw the Russians burn and
blow up a certain number of fortresses on the coast
of Asia ; they also saw the Circassians enter and
pillage Soubachi after it had been set fire to and
abandoned by the Russians. Scotcha met with
a similar fate. They visited in succession Bora-
bary, Psizouapi, Galindzik, and Loujak-Bey. The
fort of Pshad was on fire and had been also pillaged.
The Circassians, with whom the frigates communi-
cated, stated that Schamyl was in the south with
40,000 men, and only waited for instructions to
act. The Russians were makinp: greatpreparations
at Anapa, and repairing all the fortifications. The
Russians on all the coast were in a state of extra-
ordinary panic. At the sight of the steamers they
fired guns to warn the neighbouring forts to put
themselves on the defensive. Soukoum Sale ap-
pears to be the place which the Russians intend
to make the centre of their operations.
Other letters from Constantinople to the 26th of
March, announce that the fleets, which re-entered
the Black Sea on the 24th, had been fallen in with,
steering in the direction—a part for Varna, and
another part for Cavarna, opposite to Sebastopol,
leaving only the Tiger, Retribution, Niger, and
Sampson, at Beycos ; the last two awaiting the
Leander and Arethusa from Malta, with provisions,
to tow them into the Black Sea.
We extract the following from another letter
of 25th March, respecting the departure of the
fleets :—At last the fleet has sailed. A week of ex-
pectation and readiness has taken away the novelty
from this event, but from to-day every vessel that
arrives in the Bosphorus from the north will excite
a deeper curiosity and a sterner interest. People
feel that the crisis has come at last, and that the
Crimean and Circassian shores must shortly be the
scene of a fieroer struggle, by land and sea, than any
which the world has seen since the days of Trafalgar
and the Peninsula. The town has lately been alive
with seamen of all ranks, purchasing the necessaries
of war or of private comfort, in expectation of a
prolonged absence not passed in idleness ; and the
tradesmen of the place must lament the loss of their
free and honest customers (doubly valuable, as thei
have never learned to make a bargain) as much as
all conviyial spirits among the English loungers are
mournful '6l- tilt loss of congenial society, and of
the pleasant object of many an excursion. The now
famous Bay of Beycos returns for a time to its old
tranquillity, and when the noble vessels which have
so long floated on its waves repair again to
their old anchorage, let us hope it will be with still
further claims to the admiration of their respective
countries, and that the loss of many a brave spirit
who has been consigned to the cold waves of the
Euxine will be compensated by the double reflec-
tion that he died for his country, while his country
was combatting in a just cause. Many of the mer-
chantmen from Odessa are at present in the Bos-
phorus. They left (full or empty) in the expecta-
tion of immediate hostilities. _

A letter from Constantinople of the 27th ult., in
the Post Ampt Gazette of Frankfort, says that the
first military operations will take place before
Odessa.