The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-07 00:00:00

5-ICrystal Palace

2 Crystal Pal. pf France
1 Eastern Steam
1 Electric. Teleg. of Ir
14 Gen. Steam Navigat
50 General Screw Steam

24 Irish Beetroot Sugar
all Nat. Pat. Steam Fuel
2 Netherlands Land....
21 Nrtli.otEuropeSteam
all Peninsular & Oriental
25 Do. Do.

20
50
50
100
25

60 Royal Mail Steam....
25 South Austral. Land
1 Submar. Telegraph...
2 Universal Emigration
...

82 i
53 4

and Colonia;.tion...
28 Vaa Diemen!s Land..

THE COAST OP AFRICA SLA FE TRADE.

( From the Portsmouth Times.)

For the last 12 or 14 months the Sherboro country,
lying between the colony of Sierra Leone and Gallinas,
has been in a disturbed state, owing to the presence of
an active Spanish slave merchant, who, by distributing
large sums among the petty chiefs, has succeeded in
fomenting quarrels which are got up for the purposes of
slave-hunting. The English traders 'from Sierra Leone
have been plundered, some even kidnapped, and have
been at length summarily ordered to quit the country,
the chiefs preferring the profits of a slave trade to legi-
timate commerce, considering themselves secure from
molestation by the tremendous surf which beats their
coast on the one hand, and the pestiferous exhalations
from their rivers on the other.

This state of things has just undergone some severe
checks, which, if followed up vigorously, will, it is
hoped, extinguish the slave trade entirely.
An empty slaver hovering near the River Sherboro
has been captured by her Majesty's ship Bloodhound,
and on Christmas-day Captain C. G. Phillips, of her
Majesty's ship Polyphemus, having obtained a clue to
the spot where a number of slaves were hid, and waiting
an opportunity for embarkation, dashed through a fright-
ful surf in his boats just as day broke, pushed through
the jungle, rescued a number of the slaves, and burnt
their barracoon, as well as the houses of the man-
stealers, who, however, managed to drive off a number
of their victims by favour of the thickly-wooded country,
intersected by numerous creeks and marshes.

It seems they took shelter 40 miles up the river, which
here, however, runs parallel to the coast, and afforded
the active officer who commands the Polyphemus an
opportunity for another raid a few days later, when he
again landed through the surf and marched across the
country to the river, but was then foiled foi want of
means to cross it, the slave-dealers having taken shelter
under the protection of a strongly stockaded village
called Damma.

It was therefore necessary to assail them from another
quarter. Accordingly, Captain Phillips crossed the bar
of the Sherboro, and ascended the river with six armed
boats from the Polyphemus and Teazer, sent his first
lieutenant, Mr. Strickland, with a peremptory demand
for the surrender of the slaves, agreeably to existing
treaty, and the chief having refused, an attack was made
at daylight of the 21st January upon the stockade, the
suddenness of which, covered as it was by the fire of a
field-piece, was completely successful. The enemy fly-
ing in confusion out of their stronghold, the gates of
which being promptly battered in, the whole of the town
and its defences were speedily in flames, and in a few
minutes burnt to the ground, but not till the slaves had
been driven deeper into the woods, where pursuit was
impossible to Europeans.
Another barracoon and village were burnt the next
evening, as were three other places which had molested
the British traders, or taken an active part in the slave
trade.

The only loss sustained by our boats was one seaman,
of the Polyphemus, wounded by a shot fired from be-
hind a tree ; to which may be added the severe contu-
sions of Mr. S. Moriarty, the master, and Mr. Ricalton,
purser of the Polyphemus, who were badly bruised in
the rapid landing through the surf at the surprise on
Christmas morning.

OPENING OP A GRATUITOUS INFANT SCHOOL.--This
morning the committee and trustees of the Holborn
estate, anxious to carry out the wishes of instruction
for young children, this day opened a gratuitous school
for children of both sexes—very properly, as the
school was to be erected in the parish of St. Clement's
Danes, the committee selected that densely populated
neighbourhood, Milford-lane Strand, where proper
teachers have been appointed to carry out the wishes of
the committee. Such a valuable institution has been
long wished for, and it is hoped the example will be
followed by other parishes for the benefit of the poor.
A 11.EArr null OF GOODS.--There is a woman Cincinnati, named Mrs. Schooley, who
Nve% • h
seven
hundred and sixty-four pounds.