The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-09 00:00:00

THE GOLDEN AGE STEAMSHIP•

The following letter has been received from the ct;
taro of the Golden Age steamer, describing her, passl'a
from Sydney to Panama :
" Gentlemen,—l have the honour to acknowieug„,. the
receipt of your communication of June 21, asking;"; be•
formation respecting the establishment of a steam Itt;tielt
tween this place and Australia ; also about the OA
for coaling, &c. It affords me pleasure to gips per
the information you require. I am strongly in ,
of this route for side-wheel steamers, as I think it b
become the quickest route to England by ten ("700
and by far the most pleasant one. I will give 30
the facts connected with our voyage, and you..A, E.
judge for yourselves. We left Sydney deeply 17i.
with coal (and very bad coal it was); we =chi ot
Tahiti in thirteen days and a half—distance run 'a its
miles, and 144 of current against us. We remained
Tahiti six clays, and took on board, in eighty world
hours, 1,140 tons of coal, employing the natives, who, r. 0130,
proper arrangements, would do it in one-third less ti itt
We left Tahiti on the 31st of May, and arrived here„ 0;
eighteen and a half days—distance run 4,532 n 315.
515 miles of current against us—making the whole a
tance actually run on the trip 8,653 miles. Retnr4o.3
from here to Sydney a ship would only have to run
miles, owing to the current and winds being in her fay" of
the entire distance, which would make a differuneevest
six clays in the voyage ; and it might be made in se No
daysrir w
thanend wasthan
tfrom
Pacificthe o ?beer •,i,i%61
,1 e
voyage, with the exception of three or four days.
leaving Australia, when the weather was a little rougllp.
" Tahiti offers every facility for provisioning °'
The harbour is one of the most beautiful I ever saw, a;,;itlt
ship can lay alongside of the dock, and be supplied die
water in a very few hours. The island abounds with the
most ;delicious fruits belonging to the tropics, ann,c,ri•
health of the place is undisputed. The French snipe
ties are extremely anxious for the establishment of a To
of steamers, and offer every facility one could desire.soch
us they were exceedingly kind and attentive. Tba.thtest
a line will eventually succeed there is not the 84 to
doubt ; and the only thing that would be iik,elitieg
prevent travelling this way at present is the 11.'„„it;
difficulty about crossing the Isthmus. The follow
is the time which this ship would make on 313 cols
voyage, and the whole time it would take to 'cyan
England:—From Sydney to Tahiti, 11 days 12 hoursiours ;
Tahiti to Panama, 16 days; to cross the Isthmus, 7 0, j 9
from Aspinwall to England, 18 days; total, 45 aalthree
hours. Forty-five days and nineteen hours, with would.
days' detention in coaling at Tahiti; returning it ling•
take forty days, with three days' detention In Oa The
The overland route can never come up to this time-
cousequence will he that all the mails will come this w7Ol-
the specie will follow the mails as a matter of course'
the drafts on England will go in the mail bags. The tb°
discomfort in the whole route is the trifling passage 7witli•
isthmus, and that the railroad will soon do away e•
The weather is cool and delightful throughout the novges,
From the above facts you can draw your own cent' boa
and form quite as good an opinion as I (could, Wu° 23."
seen it all.—Steam-ship Golden Age, Panama, June

ST. PETERSBURG,— The advices from k Petersburgt
are to the let Inst., but they contain nothing new' occeP,
that the rate of exchange was a little higher, eonoce°
quence, probably, of the increased despatch of POclude
from Archangel before the commencement of the block&
on the Ist of August. At the last dates a thousfor:
casks of tallow were at that port for shipment, and 010
were expected.

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