The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-22 00:00:00

,NING SUN.

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NIGER EXPEDITION.
drrived
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tvhieifedgrhoefecrcottoal
October,
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relied on as the most accurate that hasc character,
appeared.
The The Albert, Wilberforce, and Soudana: with the Ilar-
riot transport, and Amelia tender, after a favourable
though somewhat tedious voyage, arrived oft' the Nun on
the 9th and 10th of August. In unloading the transisert
they were detained a considerable time, o wino- to the
heavy rolling of the vessels in the swell outside the bar
A further detention arose when they had crossed the
bar from the necessity of refitting the tails of the rud-
ders, which had been carried away on the passage from
Cape Coast, and without which the vessels were almost
unmanageable. These repairs the badness of the wea-
ther and strength of the tide did not permit of being com-
pleted till the 20th.
This necessary delay does not, however, appear to have
positively injured the health of the crews, as they enjoyed
a wholesome sea-breeze, and every precaution was taken
to preserve them from illness. Up to this period there
had been seven deaths--four from casualties, one of
apoplexy, and two of fever, not African, but typhus. Of
these last one only was an European.
Under these favourable auspices they commenced their
ascent of the river on the 20:11 of August (not the 13th,
as has been erroneously stated). Their progress was
necessarily slow, as they do not ordinarily make more
than six miles an hour, and the current runs at the rate
of three. They were delayed still further by looking for
the Wilberforce, which had gone up a different channel.
Thus the 22d (Sunday) was spent, and at last it was
found that she had gone ahead. They rejoined at Eboe
on the 26th. This deviation was, however, the means of
discovering a new branch of the river, with numerous
villages, and a larger population than had yet been seen.
Six days after they arrived at Iddah, when the fever
broke out, and continued to the Confluence (272 miles
up) with increased violence.
The following is a list of the number of persons on
board the expedition, from Sept. 3-17, with other par-
ticulars, according to returns sent home :—Victualled in
the three vessels and Amelia, total number of persons,
including officers and crew, 302. Placed on fever list
since Sept. 3, 70 ; died, 8 ; discharged to duty, 2 ; coiz-
valescent, 11.
In consequence of this alarming sickness, and their in-
ability to examine the higher grounds for a healthy 'sta-
tion, it was deemed advisable to send the sick to the sea-
side. Forty-three of the forty-nine remaining oases
were accordigly embarked in the Soudan on the 19th,
and reached the mouth early on the 22d. On their way
they lost two hopeless cases, Mr. W. B. Marshall, sur-
geon of the Soudan, and one of her men. They were
fortunate enough to fall in at once with her Majesty's
ship Dolphin, Commander Littlehales, by whom they
were taken on board, except two, and carried to Ascen-
sion. On their way eight more died, but the rest reco-
vered in a most sudden and striking manner.
Assistant-surgeon Stirling, who came home in charge
of the invalids, has since returned to the Niger, and
several medical men have volunteered to supply the place
of the two that were lost, and the number of whites who
have died of African fever.
The following returns show the entire mortality from
the first setting out, and the number of whites who have
died of African fever :-3 officers, 14 white seamen, 3
marines—total 20 ; and the number of deaths from all
causes was as follows :-3 officers, 19 seamen, 3 marines,
and 2 coloured men.
It appears, then, that of the entire number of whites,
one-eighth have perished by this dreadful disease ; of the
officers, one-seventeenth ; and of the men about one-
sixth. The scientific men attached to the expedition
have suffered very slightly, and the Rev. Messrs. Muller
and Scholl not at all.
This loss is certainly much less than that of former
expeditions. Park's whole retinue was annihilated.
Captain Tuckey, in 1816, died with nearly one-half of his
officers and crew, and all the scientific men, with a single
exception. Captain Owen lost nearly two-thirds, and
Laird, by the time he had arrived at the Confluence, had
buried half his white crew, and more than half his
officers. This latter gentleman, in a letter to the
Spectator (December 18), gives it as his decided opinion
that the fever was less malignant in this case than in his
own, that they have " passed through their greatest
danger with much less loss than any reasonable man an-
ticipated,"arul that those who have escaped are not likely
to be attacked again, unless by returning to the swamps.
This opinion, given with a frankness which does
honour, combined with the confirmation
which they give of the healthiness of the coun-
try above the Delta, goes far to remove the
natural fears for their future safety. The expedition, far
from being given up, is going steadily on. Treaties have
been concluded with Obi of 14.;b0e, and Attah of Egctrrah,
for the entire abolition of the slave trade and of human
sacrifices. Of the conduct and deportment of both these
Princes the Commissioners speak very highly. A tract
of ground, 16 miles in length, and 6 in width, dry and
elevated, and including a mountain of 1,200 feet in height,
has been purchased, and the Model Farm put in active
operation. The country is represented as fully open for
missionary or other enterprise, and the natives perfectly
peaceable and friendly. One of the steamers may de-
scend for the winter, for the purpose of surveying the
various outlets, but all are expected to join in pursu,ng
their mission up the river next spring. As the Albert
was on the point of ascending the Niger, and the Wilber-
force the Chadda, when the last accounts left, we may
perhaps shortly hear of various important interesting
discoveries up these rivers.

NEW MUSKET FOR THE SERVICE.
)
The musket that Colonel Hawker has suggested to the
Ordnance (subjected to a sercre trial, which has been
begun, and will continue through the winter months) is
the most simple and the most waterproof that has vet
been in use. He has availed himself of that clever in-
vention, called the patent spring-musket (without a lock)
of Wilkinson, and shortened the communication, by
doing away with the chimney, and cutting deeper the
concave under the stock; so that the stud of the
nipple now screws directly into the under part of the
barrel ; and, by taking Westley Richards's hermetically
sealed primer, he gets rid also of the distance which
is taken up in firing down the orifice of a copper-
cap nipple. The great advantages of these combinations
are, that the detonating flame fires directly into the body
of the charge, so that the soldier may use (and even
without biting oil' the end of his cartridge) the coarsest
cannon-powder, which stands all weathers, and which,
Colonel Hawker has proved, shoots much stronger, and
kerns its strength much longer than fine powder, and he
gets rid altogether of the copper-cap; which, like the
fine powder required for them, he never, he says, could
depend on in sea-coast shooting and all other continual
damp, although they answer extremely well for the "flood
and field " sportsman, and may even weather an occa-
sional wet day. With regard to the stocks, he Says,
in page 323 of his Bth edition On Guns and Shooting,
—" If strength and consequent cheapness require
them to be so straight that I defy a man to shoot
with them—put some elevation (similar to. that on
.a
rifle), instead of obliging the soldier. to incline his
head ohla-esr,adbdeyedondto therhe trsuweeklinoet.
theof Co-
lonelarnimus.ketTha.eowol
trial, a little knob of wood, merely. put. on . with one
screw, and similar to a pistol-grip, which gives great
steadiness in firing, and a firm hold for the soldier if au
enemy were attempting to disarm
slope
aSrhmosu,l”dthtehrie
being this
musket be adopted the motion of "support arms" would
require toetbmeksuoprerhsaeldnemderbyto that.it. But o
this would be -an
f o
advantage rather than an objection, as one motion less
would be called for, thus saving the jackets of the men
from being soiled by damp hands, or whitened by pipe-
cloyed gloves. Westley Richards has also a new patent
musket coming. out, which he anticipates will beat all
others ; and, if so, Colonel Hawker, who is to receive
one for trial, will not, we are sure, hesitate to give it a
preference, having no interest in either, beyond his desire
to benefit her Majesty's service.—United Service Gazette .

e followin
DISTRESS IN OS WALDTWISLE. SIR R.
'iConditionPEEL'Sdistressed
Deputies, at statement respecting
of about 6 50 parish
of,the inhabitants' of Oswald-
twistle_forwarded to the meeting of the Corn-law
Manchester, on Thursday last :—Oswalci-
twisle in the
in the of Whalley, contains a population
, 0 ; the dwellings of the working classes
township have been visited within the last few days,
and the following is the melancholy result of the in-
quiries. There are, in the township, 1,171 individuals,
constituting 248 families, whose average weekly earn-
ings is only Is. 34d. No account was taken of any
family, the members of which earned individually 2s. per
week, but a very great number were said to only just
exceed that limitation. The general destitution of the
population is truly pitiable; in some cases the visitors
found only one bed, and that of the
blanket humblest materials,
for 10 persons, without a particle of ,or anything
to warm the wretched occupants save their scanty wear-
ing apparel, and in many instances five and six had to oc-
cupy the same bed, with nothing to throw over them.
The visitors have had their feelings so shocked by the
sights of misary they have been called upon to witness,
that they have expressed their hope that this township is
surely without a parallel for its sufferings, and yet there
appears not the least prospect of amendment, but on the
contrary a gloomy anticipation that the worst has
not yet come, and that even the small pittance doled out
to keep them from absolute starvation, will be, during
the ensuing bitter months of winter, still further reduced-.
The charitable feeling of.the more wealthy has induced
a subscription to be got up in aid of the suffering poor f
the township, which amounts to 2801. .Among the list
of names of subscribers to this fund, we find that of the
liberal—charitable—kind-hearted ! !—Sir Robert peel,
.
who draws a rental of about 2,0001. a year from
this
parish, and who has presented to the starving labourers
on his own estate the overwhelming donation of 2
Is not Sir Robert Peel the friend of the poor ?—for, CI
starving the people by his odious Corn-laws' e gives
h ' after
them back the bone from which he has picked
the meat !
Blackbttrne Gazette.

of an over-
PUBLIC RECANTATION OF THE ERRORS OF
übinlicltyhere.cPanretesd.ennane d abjured the
THE ROMISH CHURCH.—On Wednesday, in St. Jude's
fiCohwuirncgh ,
congregation,fiy e persons,
p
eight in the whole) intended thus
errors of the Church of Rome, in which they had been
matured. In the first instance, three other Roman
inngto the communion. of the Church of
ietween the
.period when they intimated
CoEpanetgnhlloaylni
England
oc s ;
enterb(nu i
takb
ctheealierddeisrileannedeth; celNleobrkraetdionupoofnthteheseir
feicaer,s,
some con-
did not make their appearance at the appointed time. -
The Church of England has no prescribed form of re-
that they • •
ci‘tuvisetatiiieon,
theo of error;
incumbentand and, 0
fthe
therefore, the Rev. Hugh
church, prepared one-,,,,i5:
from Archbishops Tennison and Magee, which he has
printed for circulation. The service commenced at two
o'clock in the afternoon, and was conducted by the Rev.
Mr. M‘Neile.—Liverpool Times.