The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-26 00:00:00

THE ATTACK ON PETROPAULOVSKI.

The following interesting letter has been re-
ceived by a gentleman in Plymouth, from an officer
of one of her Majesty's ships in the Pacific :
" H.M.S.—, at sea, lat. 49 N., 177 W.,
9 185 i.
"My dear Parents Since— my last letter to you
from Callao we have been continually on the move. I
'have not set my foot on shore since. We went from
,Callao to the Marquesas Islands and not finding the
squadron there we sailed immediately for Honolulu
(Sandwich Islands), and arrived on the 22d of July,
having made our 18,000 miles since leaving
Plymouth. Here we found the English and French
squadrons, consisting of President (flag), Amphitrite,
and Virago (English); Forte (French flag ship, GO guns),
two smaller frigates, and a brig; commenced watering
the ship and getting ready to sail ; all hands in good
spirits, hearing we are to go to Petropaulovski (Kama-
chatka), a Russian place, in search of the Russian
frigates, a distance of 4,000 miles. After a few days at
sea the Amphitrite and a small French frigate left us to
protect the merchant vessels on the coast of America.
We have had a very miserable passage ; nothing but
thick fogs since to the northward of 30 N., a very ha-
rassing time, keeping company with the squadron in fogs
—we were three days off the island, in sight of it, but
could not get in. Our admiral went in to reconnoitre
the day before the squadron, so on the 29th of Au-
gust we all sailed in with a fair wind ; no sooner
did we near the town than three batteries opened fire
on us. Being rather late to commence action, we
hauled out ofgun-shot, and anchored for the night, the
Virago keeping them in play with her long Tom.
Everything was all arranged for us to go in next morn-
ing. The Virago came alongside of us, with the French
frigate on the other side, and the President astern. The
anchor was just out of the ground when the signal was
made from the President to the squadron to anchor im-
mediately. What the matter was no one could answer.
Here comes thefatal blow. Our admiral had gone into
his quarter-galleryand shot himself with a pistol, for what
no one can tell ; so all operations were put a stop to for
the day. He lived a few hours, and quite sensible to the
last ; all he said was, 'Mutt have I d erne thisfor, my brave
men r You can easily imagine what a state of confu-
sion it threw us all in. Now the French admiral takes

,
the command, and all was arranged to go in the next
morning., so the. Virago came alosig4i4o as before, and
in we proceeded. Directly we were within gun-shot,'
the three batteries opened fire on us, and we all
corrumnced in right good earnest; the shot, whist-
ling through our rigging like peas, cut a good deal
of our gear away. We soon silenced a little fort

that was annoying us very much, raking us, and
pitching the shot just in our cuteeiter. We landed
the marines and spiked the guns. 'We commenced
action at nine a.m., and kept up firing till three p.m.,
before we silenced the other two batteries ; we had not
time to go in further, far a strong breeze sprung up, and
we saw inside the harbour, snugly moored, the Aurora
frigate and a corvette ready to give it us as soon as we open-
ed them out, so we hauled out for the night without any
hurt, with eight shots in our hull, and the French and Pre-
sident the same. The next morning we found the black-
guards had built up all the forts again, so the old French
admiral held on till the 4th of September before we went
at it again, the ships 'taking up another position to-
day, with 700 men ready to land immediately the bat-
teries were silenced. At half-past eight the men landed
—a great many never to return. They had scarcely been
on shore five minutes before they were shot down like
birds by the Itus-ians, from field-pieces on the top of the
mountain. They were on shore one hour, and during
that time out of our three ships 107 were kilt„ and
wounded. Oh, what an awful sight it was to see poor fel-
lows who, an hour before, were all alive, lying dead, some
with legs and arms off, others with heads oft, nearly all
shot about the head and shoulders ! Our Master-at-
Arms was the first shot dead (with five shots in him),
two senior serjeants killed, and 16 men ; and 22 men
wounded, five of whom have since died. Our two
marine officers wounded, one very severely, shot about
the head and face. Our senior lieutenant and a mate
were slightly wounded. The President lost about the
same number ; her captain of marines was shot dead
and left ashore, and about three of her lieutenants
wounded. The French lost about the same, but out
of the crew of the brig 6.5 landed, 37 were killed and
wounded. The French frigate's masts were cut up a
good deal. Thank God we have come out clear, but
not without a slight crack ; a 32-pounder shot came
through our quarter, a splinter hit me on the leg, and
the purser on the arm. We picked the shot out of the
wood; it was not six inches from me, quite close enough
to be pleasant. We found the place too muck for us ;
it is full of guns, and in such a snug place that you can't
get in, so the old Ral gave it up till we could got a
stronger force. We are now on our way to Vancouver's
Island to water, being now on short allowance. We are
all sick of this station—nothing but sea ; the shortest
cruise you can take is 3,000 or 4,000 miles, then you
get to some ' savage place. The China station is a
king to it. • We have not had a thing washed since
we left Rio, so a rough-dried shirt is a great luxury;
on salt provisions, and likely to be so for the next
two months. I hope, if we go at it next year, we will
have a strong force with us ; but we must never attempt
to land sailors—they don't understand it. Our fellows
behaved like bricks--they fired remarkably well, and
very cool ; took their time, like firing at a target, and
made all their shots tell. I send you a plan of the place,
so you can imagine what a nest of guns it is. We have
fired better than half of our powder and shot away, and
have no place to get more, there being no stores of any
kind on the station. If they have Cronstadt fortified
like this place, and fire as well, they will give us a job
to take it. I hope the Admiralty will send out some
young admiral. The nice old men are very well in
peace, but to lead you into a snare, and then go and
shoot themselves, is not exactlty the style. It's very bad
having Frenchmen with you; you can't understand.thern,
and their ideas of warfare are different from ours. They
leave us shortly, and go to San Francisco. We join them
after watering, and then I believe go to the Sandwich
Islands. We have not heard from England since May,
so we are quite out of the world. It will be a long time,
I am afraid, before I shall hear from you, trusting I may
come out of the next affair like this. We took two Rus-
sian vessels outside the harbour, the schooner we burnt,
and the ship with stores is on her way with us ; she is
a vessel of 800 tons, worth about 10,0001. ; it will be
rather a sell for the Russians at Petropaulovski our
taking their vessel with their winter stock of provisions on
board. I pity any poor Russians we come across, for our
fellows will show them no mercy. We find that all their
men-of-war have stowed themselves away in snug har-
bours, and fortified the entrances, so they will be frozen
in all the winter. We are now fifty men and marines
short of our complement. I don't know where we are to
get more. I hope we will be complete Lefore we begin
our next year's expedition. 'We have taken several
officers prisoners, one of them a colonel, and another a
captain of engineers, just out from St. Petersburg; they
appear rather disgusted to be nabbed just arri!ing at
their place. We have been rather unlucky with our
killed, for they were the flower of our ship's company.

VALUE OF LAND IN IVlELBouram—T. he price of town
land is almost beyond credit. There is no limit to the
extravagant opinion that buyers and sellers entertain of
its value. Innumerable instances might be quoted. In
one case, a house purchased for 2501. lately fetched
12,0001. Another offered to Government for the use of
the military officers for 3,0001., a month after was
valued at 5,0001. They still hesitated, and the price
gradually rose to 6,0001., which sum Government de-
clinol giving, having about that time received iron
,"
'
bar-
racks. As another instance, Government have lona
desired pegrave s fine blue-stone store, and have made
many liberal overtures, but without tempting the pro-
prietor to sell. They at lad asked him to name a price
—a final figure—in order that they might settle the
affair one way or another. Ile meditated awhile, and
tktpi Ida Uffiniff‘igh iihunci 00M