The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-21 00:00:00

ENCOUNTER WITH PIRATES.

The following account of a bloody encounter with these
freebooters of the sea, is contained in a letter lately re.
ceived by Captain Jenkins, of Truro, from his gallant son :
" Wolfe, Aug. 16, Bay of Bengal.
" You will be surprised when I tell you I am now
doing
duty as First Lieutenant, not having one lieutenant left. It
does not give me any increase of pay, as the Admiral is not
authorised to give an acting order except in death vacan-
cies ; however, it gives me a comfortable cabin. We have
had some desperate fighting lately with the pirates off Trim-
gana, close to the Gulf of Siam, China Sea. Whilst at
anchor there, in a calm, last May, we observed six large
boats, which came from the island of Sooloo, near Borneo,
attack a large Chinese junk of 700 tons. It being a perfect
calm the ship could not move, and, being desirous of active
service, I prevailed on Captain Stanley to allow me to pro-
ceed in our boats and rescue the junk, if possible. On my
way we fell in with the Hon. Company's steamer Liana,
who took us in tow ; the sea breeze then setting in, we
steamed and sailed as fast as we could after them. The
Diana is a small vessel, about the size of the Ryde steam-
boat, armed with a long cross twelve, and manned with 30
Malays. I had about 36 as fine fellows as ever went on a
cutting-out expedition. On approaching within long gun-.
shot the pirates left the junk, and formed a close line on
the starboard tack, we passing them without firing on the
larboard to leeward. When some distance off they made
a signal, and all closed for about a quarter of an hour, when
they cut their stern-boats away, and bore right for us, as
we thought with the intention of covering the junk, but I
soon saw we were their objects, as they commenced firing
from their.headinost boat. We then gave them grape and
canister, right and left. The slaughter was immense, as we
could see them throwing their dead bodies overboard, and
baling the blood out of their boats by bucketsful. Their
own list taken in court, on oath, by the prisoners, is as fol-
lows :—Killed, 54 ; wounded, 82 ; and 27 prisoners in the
boat I captured, wherein 11 were killed. The court has
awarded us the following head-money :—For 54 killed, 201.
each ; 27 prisoners, all of whom are condemned to be hung,
20/. each ; and 5/. a piece for the 82 wounded, making al-
together 2,0301. The ship shares the same as those en-
gaged, and my share as a mate will b e 551. We had a
most splendid dinner given us by the inhabitants of Singa-
pore, and my health was drunk with three times three.
Captain Stanley was voted a sword of the value of 100
9,-ineas, to be presented to him on his arrival in England.
`lhave a most splendid creese, which belonged to the chief
of the pirates, who was cut in two by a round shot ; the
handle is made of ivory and gold. and they tell me itis
worth 10/. We engaged the pirates from 2 o'clock until
dark, when we lost them in a squall. We met the Admi-
ral on our return to Singapore, ar,d received our orders to
proceed to England."—lVest Briton.

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE OF AN ENGLISH GEN-
TLEMAN IN PARIS.—An English gentleman, whose initials
are given in the Paris Papers as Sir A— D—, attempted
to destroy himself on Saturday last, in the French capital.
He is represented to have been a man of large fortune,
which he spent in gambling and dissipation. He staked
and lost his last 500 francs at an ecarte table on Friday
night, and then, having drunk a quantity of brandy, applied
a razor to his throat. It appears that he had not nerve
the
finish the operation. He was found by the servant of _
house bathed in blood, She gave the alarm, medical aid
was procured, and the unfortunate gentleman removed to
an hespi al, where he now lies with some chance of recovery.
We find the following in Galignani's Messenger, in refe-
rence, we suppose, to the same unfortunate transaction :
" A young Englishman, who had only fifty pounds left out
of a considerable fortune, into possession of which he had
lately entered, came last week to Paris, and was enticed
into a private gaming house, where he lost every remain-
ing shilling. He immediately weft off to an inn at Cour-
bevoie, whre he had resided for some time last year, and
ordered supper, but previously drank a great quantity of
brandy, the effects of which rendered it necessary to carry
him to bed. The next morning he attempted to commit
suicide by opening the veins of his arms with a razor, but the
act was discovered in time to prevent the fatal effect in-
tended, and he was brought to the Hospital Beaujon, where
he is now doing well."
Charlemagne, with Mr. Ducrow and his horses,
Mr. Van Amhurg and his living lions, will be performed as
the first piece, on Fliday next, at the Theatre-Royal,
Drury-lane, to afford an opportunity of witnessing this
most extraordinary novelty at an early period of the
evening.