The Sun.
London, England, 1824-01-14 00:00:00

[THE TIMES.]

A very great,and we believe perfectly ground-
less alarm, was created yesterday in the City,
itt consequence of the arrival of intelligence by
the packet from Lisbon, which sailed on the 30th
" that all the dock-yards of the Tagus were
" in a state of great ectivity,and that orders had
" been issued for the repair and equipment of all
" the ships of war then in the port of Lisbon."—
This was a state .of things calculated to inspire
apprehension into the. timid or ill-informed, and
therefore gave rise to various rumours, invented
to account for the preparations supposed to be
rtiaking by the Portuguese Government. It
was asserted, that no less an enterprise was
meditated thau the re-conquest of the Bra-

ails ; and as the armament fitting out was
obviously inadequate to that purpose, it was
added that Count Palmella was forthwith to pro-
ceed on a special mission to Great Britain, to so-
licit further aid ; and, failing there of success,
he• was to repair with a similar application to the
Court of France. Among the speculators of the
Morley Market, this absurd story for a short
period obtained credence, and caused a depres-
sion both in the English and Foreign Securities.
The real truth of the affair turns out to be, on
consulting •the letters of the best-informed Lis-
bon merchants corresponding with this country,
that the Portuguese Government has determined
on placing the navy generally, which had been
much neglected, 'in a state of better repair ; and
that a few ships .of war are fitting out to be em-
ployed off the Cape de Verd islands, for their pro-
tection' against the Brazilian privateers, which
were daily increasing in numbers and audacity, to
thu great annoyance and detriment of the Por-
tuguese commerce. The Portuguese Ministry,
it is said, and the fact need. scarcely be repeated,
are extremely anxious, by negotiation, intrigue,
ormediation Of some Other Power, to regain their
old-footing in Brazil ; but since the return of
Madeira. from. Bahia, so insane a project as that
of reconquering the country by force of arms has
never entered into their contemplation.

[aluTrsu PRESS.;

Ferdinand'afirat manifesto against the emanci-
pated*Colonies of 'Spain was issued at Madrid On
tile:2d.' ft affects to legislate for these once-
proud' dependencies as unlimitedly as in the days
of his 'ancestor, Philip of Bonrbon, When Spain
exercised unbounded_COritroul in the New World.
doctmwn't has been issued, we are con-
vinced, at the. suggestion of Di Borgo and the
FrenCK,Cabinet; and has been some time prepared.
13x. it Hwretched despot, who now tram-
ples on. Spain, with scarce a foot .or territory in
the:New World; •declates, that the political. con-
stitution of the Spanish Monarchy is for ever

abolished in his dominions in America; and,
like the

" Thrones, dominatious, princedoms, virtues, powers,
" If these magnific titles yet remain
" Not merely titular,"
which we find in Milton, Ferdinand calls on " his
" Viceroys, Courts of Justice, Captains-Genece,
Governors and Intendants, and charges 'Vie
" Most Reverend Archbishops, Deans, and Chap-
"' ters of the metropolitan churches and• cathe-
drals of his kingdoms of the Indies and the
" Philippines, to execute, each as far as they are
" concerned, his Royal will." The raving of the
Bed lamite in his cell, who fancies himself ali
Monarch, and crowns his fevered head with
straw, is not more impotent than this decree of
the Spanish tyrant, as regards all Southern Ame-
rica. These provinces have been long indepen-
dent republics. " The political constitution of the
Spanish Monarchy," denounced by this Mani-H
festo, never existed there at all ; the framers of
this document knew that well : but this is only a
pretext; the real object is an assumption of au-
thority over America ; and this decree is in-
tended, we have no doubt, as the herald of some
new attempt by Ferdinand and his allies on those
shores. The deep designs of France and Russia
on the New World are dissembled, but not
abandoned ; and it is now our decided impres-
sion, that nothing but the strongest menaces of
armed opposition by Great Britain and America
will prevent their immediate execution. En-
feebled Spain, of herself, is utterly impotent;
any squadron sailing from Cadiz will be, in
effect, French.

[NEW TIMES.]
Chilian and Colombian Bonds have both ra-
pidly advanced within these few days,but they now
appear to be receding. The closing price of the
latter is quoted at 64-1 ; but our City informant
states, that before the business of the day termi-
nated there was some difficulty in procuring for
them 631. The business transacted in the other
foreign securities yesterday was unimportant.—
The absurd argument has met with universal de-
rision, that because the French Government
in 1823 marched an army into Spain, where
they knew that there was no force to oppose
them, which if they had not done they would have
had conspiracies and insurrections at home ;
therefore they will engage in a naval war against
Great Lritain and the two Americas, which
three Powers form an irresistible union on the
sea, and this when France has no direct interest
in any such contest. The mere statement of so
preposterous an opinion is its confutation. But
then to he sure it is advanced by a Journalist
who never was wrong in his former speculations
—witness the retreat behind the Ebro!

[MORNING LIERAI.D.]
The French Opposition Journals intimate
broadly that the King. of France finds the Ultra
Party going too fast, and that it was his personal
desire, rather than that of the Ministers, to
dissolve the Chambers, in order to obtain a ma-
jority of more moderate men. There is one fact
which countenances the opinion that Louis the
Eighteenth is disposed to restrain this party—
We have already alluded to a Pastoral
Letter of one of the new French Cardinals,
Archbishop of Toulouse, which put for-
ward pretensions for the French Clergy and
the See of Rome, inconsistent with the charter,
and with the independence of th* Gallican
Church. This pastoral letter has been taken
to account by the Council of State, and an
order made for its suppression, which, of
course, is a distinct censure upon the Cardinal.
There is but little intelligence from Spain;
but from that little even, it is clear that the
country is in a distracted and deplorable state.
—The Spanish Ministry is described as on
the eve of falling. M. Casa-Erujo, it "'ass
already known, had retired ; and the Ex-Minister
and Ex-Confessor, Saez, had returned to Madrid.
—His appearance in the capital proves his re-
storation to favour, as, without the ltovkl per-
mission, it would have been a high crime. The
existing Ministry has'done literally nothing. I t
is true that its duration has been brief, and that
Spain is in a state almost beyond redemption.—
Saez, however, if he succeeds, will not incur the
reproach of doing nothing. The only obstacle
which he encounters is stated to proceed from
the foreign Ambassadors at Madrid.

MELANCHOLY DEATH.-OR Saturday evening
last the following event happened :—Mr. PRIOR, of Clapham,
an eminent surgeon, &c. there, had been attending the .last
moments of one of his patients ; he stopped an hour after to
console the widow, and then went home in his carriage. Find-
ing himself unwell, he walked up stairs, sent for his wife and
partner, and on Mrs P. entering the room, he said, " My der,r,
lam dying." It was too true, he had burst a blood vessel,
and died in a quarter of an hour after the declaration. Ile Was
a delicate man, but a useful one to rich and poor : in the midst
of an extensive practice, and the meridian of life, he has left a
wife and family; he was much respected.

MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE.—The following
is a fuller account than the one before published This city
has been kept in a state of painful excitement during the past
week, by the sudden and mysterious disappearance of a respecta-
ble professional gentleman, Mr. Pierce, Solicitor of this City,
and Partner in the highly respectable firm of Palmer and Pierce,
for which nothing that hasyet transpired has been capable of ac-
counting. Apprehensions of the mist awful and distressing Mt-
ture are entertained by his family and friends, and large rewards
haVe been offered for the discovery of the body, dead or alive. It
appears that fie dined on Saturday se'nnight with a friend in
Park-street, whom he left about one o'clock on Sunday morning
to return home. Rumour, with her hundred tongues, has pre-
sented him in various places during the next hour; but nothing
we believe, has yet been discovered on which any reliance can
be placed. On. Sunday his hat was discovered in the
float, which excited the-most painful anxiety lest his body
Wight also be there • .but, although the water was exhausted,
there was not the slightest trace of the corpse. It has been
said, but we cannot vouch for the authenticity of the report,
that two individuali called'on the mother of Mr. Pierce, and
told her she need be. undor no anxiety for her son. The sin-
gularity of such a communication being made without leading
to some further dischisnre, renders the story highly improbable.
—A man called at the residence of Mr. Lean, banker, in Bell-
, Vue, on Wednesday lase, and dein-ended what recompense
would be given for the discovery of Mr. Pierce. Mr. bean was
from home, but his family instantly sent for him ; before he
arrived, however, the Man bee me iinpatient and departed.__
It is singular that assistance' was not immediately obtained to
detain this man ; for it-must be evident:that any one who is in
possession of information, and does not disclose it, is accessory
to the absence, whatever may be the cause of it. Mr. bean
his published a hand-bill, calling on this individual to repeat
his visit ; but we trust a lessOn will have ' been, taughtby the
recent dreadful events in Hertfordshire, which will prevent,
hopes beingeiCite3 in individuals that may interfere with the
even course Of justice. We heard late last night (Sunday) that
a clue hati'beeti sent to Mr. Palm:er,'Whieh might kid to the
diScoverv' of Mr Piera ;. but on malr.ug further inquirY, do
such information had been redeived.'%--(BritiorAter(uey.)

The EMIGRANTS of SOUTH AFRICA.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)

There has been communicated to us a " Report
of the Committee of the Society for the Relief of
Distressed Settlers in South Africa, with the Re-
solutions passed and Speeches delivered at a Ge-
neral Meeting, held at Cape Town, September
17, 1823, to which is subjoined an Appendix of
Letters, and other Documents illustrative of the
present condition of the Settlers." Our limits
will not allow us to give insertion, at this time,
to the whole of this publication, which has been
sent to England with a view of exciting the at-
tention of the benevolent to the distressed condi-
tion of the Settlers, with a view of obtaining as-
sistance. That the actual condition of the set-
tlement may be seen, we insert the Appendix,
consisting of Letters and Documents, and a part
of the speech of Dr. Phillip :
The two following letters were written by
gentlemen who are both heads of respectable
parties, and who had lived in genteel and com-
fortable circumstances in their native country :

" GRAHAM'S Towx, DEC. 23, 1822.—1 received your let-
ter, and am glad that some one thinks it worth while to in-
quire after so wretched a being as myself. I am sorry to tell
you our dear little Matilda is no more ; she was with me while
reaping some barley, when I told her to go to the house to
bring me some water to drink ; she ran off, and fell on one
of those vile reptiles that abound in this part of the
globe, and was stung. I attended my sweet babe for seven
days and nights, during which she was in the greatest agony,
until mortification took place. She then recovered her senses—
prayed for her poor mamma and papa, and expired quit easy,
on Tuesday, at four o'clock. She was a lovely child, only four
years old : all my misfortunes are nothing compared to this ;
she was our last and only child.
" You ask me for an account of our situation ; which I will
give you, and 1 believe it is applicable to all the settlers, as re-
gards our crops and prospect of food for the ensuing year. My
wheat, two months ago the most promising I ever saw in any
country, is now cut clown and in heaps for burning, before we
plough the ground again. The rust has utterly destroyed it ;
not a grain have we saved. My barley, from the drought, and
a grub which attacks the hla(le just under the surface, pro-
duced little more than 1 sowed: My Indian corn, very much
injured by the caterpillar ; cabbages destroyed by the lice; the
beans all scorched with the hot winds ; and carrots run to seed :
the potatoes are good; but I have but a small quantity. Our
cows are all dry for want of grass; not the least appearance of
verdure as far as the eye can reach. Nothing but one great
wilderness of faded grass something resembling a couchy fallow
in England. On Saturday, whilst watching by the sick-bed of
my dear little girl, I was startled by the cry of wild dogs.(a) I
ran to the window, and saw about 30 of those ferocious animals;
before I could drive them off, they killed 20 of my flock, which
consisted of 27 in all. I stood for a moment thinking of my
misery—my dying child—my blasted crops--my scattered and
ruined flock. God's will be done ! I have need of fortitude to
bear up against such accumulated misery. Farewell."
" Gusitharw's Tows, JAN-. 28, 1823.—We are all herestrug-
gling in the seine way in which you left us, or rather worse;
our prospects being still more gloomy, as the crops have again
very generally failed in this part of the country. We have
also this season been troubled with a new enemy—the
caterpillars and locusts have been so numerous, that our
gardens are totally destroyed. I took the greatest care of mine,
and the prospect of its producing something cheered us a
little; but this unexpected visitation has thrown a complete
damp on our exertions. The season has been so dry, that
many farmers in the Graaff-Reynet district have been obliged
' to leave their places for want of water. Several whom I know
here are forced to send three miles for what water they use for
domestic purposes. Bread is now quite out of the question ;
the scanty allowance of half a pound of rice is all we get. We
feel much the want of vegetables, sometimes being under the
necessity of living for several clays on meat alone. The Caffres
are very troublesome ; they lately stole 24 head of oxen from
me : but misfortune has so long been my companion, that we
begin to be reconciled to each other."
The next two extracts Are selected from letters nosy before
Ithe Conunittee, and are written by a gentleman who formerly
held a Captain's commission in his Majesty's service. They
are addressed to a private friend, who had collected a small
subscription for him in Cape Town :
" FEB. 17, 1823._T0 my friends, and the friends of huma-
nity, I am indebted, I may say, for the existence of myself and
family ; for really, but for their kind interference, we must
have perished. If I could only see any kind of bread of say
own growing, I should be happy. ,Tis now nearly three
months since we had any bread to eat, and indeed, very little
rice. If I could any way get a bag of meal, it would be a
great relief.
" I am very sorry to be so troublesome : however, necessity
compels me to do what my nature somewhat recoils at. We
are very badly off for breakfast,
which now usually consists of
a bit of fried cabbage, or pumpkin stewed. If we once again
get bread we will enjoy it sweetly.),
" MAY 23, 1823.—Every necessary is so extravagant in Gra-
ham's Town, that it is impossible to come at clothing. MY.
sons and myself are very naked, and the weather is now exces-
sively cold. If I could but get the price of a pair of new
wheels for my waggon, I would put m
and he would earn a little by drawingson J— on the road,
loads for the shopkeepers
in Graham's Town. The calico will be a great relief when it
arrives. A whole shirt will now be a "Teat luxury.
thatN:ae ": aursemaitilcp, w
resielineth
awsabsaadglyreat part of our support, are
off 'as ever. The four cows
dry, owing to a disease now prevailing among the cattle
throughout the country.
MS. Journal of Mr. F--
The following interesting passages are extracted from the
loi
os I:4
ed locations
many
of in (a gentleman well known to several
Members of the Committee), who travelled through the Engs
theiS facts which lie relates :
larch and April laSt, and personally wit_
" Mancii 31.—Visited Scanlarns party.—There are only.
three families remaining here, out of seven of which it origi-
nally consisted. They were all, but one, shoemakers, and
might have obtained plenty of employment among the settlers,
were it not that there is not one in twenty who has now money
sufficient to purchase a pair of shoes; and in fact, the -settlers
are generally found without them, These people have still a
few cattle, but have lost many by the Caffres. Indian corn and
•
pumpkins are their only produce."
" APRIL I.—Mr. Mandy informed me that many in his
neighbourhood were in the greatest distress, and that some had
killed their last cow for food."
". Bailie's party.—Mr. Adams who is head of one division
of this partyi informed me, that there were only thirteen or
fourteen famlies now remaining on the location, out of the
whole of this large settlement. He added that there was much '
distress among those who remained • and instanced one person
of the name of H ------, who had formerly been in good cir-
cumstances, but who, from the failure of every other resource,
had that day been forced to go to Graham's Town, to sell some
of the small remaining part of his clothes to keep himself rnd
his family from starving, for absolute want."
" APRIL 3.—Visited Smith and Coke's parties. Three per-
sons belonging to these two parties had some wheat grown this
year; and at one of their houses Fate the first and last bread
that I met with in Albany, made from wheat grown by any
settler. A few of the other settlers have bought some of this
wheat for seed, at two shillngs per pound."
" It is most distressing to see the husband and wife, with
scarcely any thing to cover them, and their children in the same
condition, lying on the ground on the outside of-their miserable
huts, roasting a few heads of Indian corn, probably the only
food they have. Many have nothing hut pumpkins. One fa-
mily of the name of H , had not tasted butcher's meat,
nor I believe bread, for about three months; and their chil-
dren were running about without clothes. As for shoes or
stockings, they are seldom to be seen on either old or young.
" I am sorry to be obliged to remark, that all that honest
boldness of character, so conspicuous in the yeomanry and la-
bourers Of England, seems to have left these wretched Emi-
grants; and they appear to meet their disappointments and
misfortunes with an indifference bordering,on despair."
" Hyman and Ford's party are in a truly miserable plight,
with scarcely any thing to eat, but a few vegetables. I here
saw an aged couple in almost a starving condition. On going
into their hut, I found the poor woman boiling a little pumpkin
soup, which was mixed with some milk. She said this was the
only food they had; and their wretched dwelling was neither
wind nor water-tight.
" At a little distance I met what had once been, as I was
told, a fine hearty-looking young woman, but so miserably
emaciated—apparently about twenty-four or twenty-five years
of age. She was leading one child, another was following, and
a third was on her arm; they were all without shoes or stock
ings. The woman's dress (if such it could be called), 'consist-
ed of the remains of an old tent tied about her : ths, children
were clad in the same manner ; and the canvas appeared so
rotten, that it would scarcely hang on them."
". APRIL 4.—On reaching Wilson's party, we met with many
persons who had formerly been in a respectable, situation of
life in England, and had brought out some property, with
them. 'This is the description of people who have suffered
the greatest privations and calamities. spoke to one or two

respectable women, who gave me a more lively idea of their
melancholy situation, by replying to me in a manner that im-
mediately convinced me that they had been well educated, and
brought up in good society ; though they now appeared to be
half starved, and almost broken-hearted, with their persons
neglected, and in rags. At this place their gardcna had gene-
rally failed, and the corn altogether.
" APR 6.—Captain —, and his two sons, were without
shoes or stockings ; and, actually, without sufficient clothing
of any kind to cover their naked limbs. The corn had totally
failed from blight, and their garden had scarcely produced any
thing, in consequence of drought and caterpillars."
" Mrs. Currie (who has a shop at Bathurst) told me, that
though almost every settler was in the greatest distress for want
of the common necessaries of life; and though the articles she
sells are chiefly of this description, yet, there was almost no
demand; because not one in fifty had a single six dollar to ex-
pend. Such, however, she added, was the distress of some, that
she could not help giving credit, though with little or no pros-
pect of ever being rapid."
The remaining selections have been furnished to the Secre-
tary from different most respectable quarters.
The first is extracted from a letter addressed to Mr. T. Prin-
gle, by a Medical Officer on the Caffer Frontier, and dated
August 29, 1823.‘
" During my recent stay at —, I had opportunities of see-
ing a good deal of the actual state of the settlers in Albany ;
and I can truly declare, I never witnessed so much poverty and
misery before. Whilst your friends on the Bavian River are
reported to be in comparative comfort and prosperity, our coun-
trymen in the Zuurefveldt are without the necessaries of life.(b)
Diseases too was amongst them, and some families presented a
deplorable picture."
The next is also taken from a private letter addressed to a
gentleman now in Cape Town. It is written. by an individual
of high character and connections, and who has honourably held
the office of Justice of the Peace in England, and that of
Heemraad in South Africa.

" SEPT. 1, 18:13.—My family are this day without bread,
and I can procure none in Graham's Town, at any price. Rice
s also very dear and scarce. Now, in our ourth year, our pri-
vations are greater than ever. The spring-bucks are increasing
so much, that all my own corn and my nearest neighbour's on
the plain has been entirely eaten down. My people are obliged
to take their turns in watching them all night. Barker and
Biggar have severally lost 30 and 40 head of cattle last week,
by the Callers. Stanly, all his yesterday."
The same gentleman, on the Bth of September, says :
" Before our present crop is ripe, much distress will be felt
for want of food. It is really lamentable to hear of and witness
the distress that now prevails from this cause.—A poor Irish-
man told me to-day, that many families, besides his own, were
living, like the soldiers' horses—on green forage ;' for he
had eaten nothing during the last two (lays, but lettuces and
leeks ! Times are so hard that we cannot employ labourers."

. .
In a communication dated Sept. 27, we have the following
statement from the same correspondent :
" I was yesterday asked to join in a petition to Government
to send down Indian corn for seed to the settlers, as it cannot
be produced here. 1 have been this week at the Bowie with
) toricey o
frrn two before.oithelitt w
little vesselas f(tolrie.
whichet flour
came o rand
in a da
tunate in getting one bag of brown rice for my share, for
which I paid 20 rds. The whole of her cargo was flour and
Gmoyo waggon,d I Intent) t
n
rice, and was disposed of in the boat as it was landed ; and
umbers went away without a morsel, declaring that their fa.
milies at home were without grain of any kind. It was, in-
deed, most pitiable to witness the disappointment of those who
had hoarded up a few dollars for this arrival, and returned
empty. I saw some of Thornhill's, Smith's, Cock's, the Not-
tingham's, Wilson's, Bradshaw s, Southey's, and Holder's
parties, to all of whom I put the question, whether they could
spare me half a mu;tl or so of Indian corn ? The universal
reply was, 'We have none for our own use—we have not even
Wight is very prevalent both in rye and solid
enough for seed.'
str:wlwlleieruat,st or
rit bI
sincerely hope they will not be materially
hurt. All the other forward wheats have suffered as usual—
nothing rema ns of them."
Another gentleman, whose high respectability and moderate
sentiments are also well known to the Committee, writes to a
friend on the 20th of September, as follows:_
" I am not one who wish to encourage the reports of gene-
ral distress for food; hut to say that the Settlers have plenty,
is too barefaced. I believe very few have sufficient Indian corn
for seed. Applications are made to me from all quarters for
it, as I happen to have a little to spare. With respect to our
crops—the Cape wheat has entirely failed ; the solid straw, or
Bengal wheat, I trust, will answer, and experience has taught
the settlers, that they must plant plenty of Indian corn and
pumpkins. Should these succeed, bread will not be absolutely
wanted. But the most serious thing is the distress occasioned
by the Caffers taking the mulch cows. Numbers of little far-
mers who had got together 20 or 30 cows, and were thereby
enabled to support their families, and sell butter sufficient to
spau:acgheass,e barntdadc,o lnialypeelbleeceintodepqruivitedthoefirthloeciratliiotrtllae,satoncdksbeeykthemese.
ployment in Graham's Town."
Mr. Collis, Proprietor of the only mill hitherto established
I in the new settlements, states' in a note dated 29th Sept.:—
" That no wheat grown by any Settler had ever yet been
brought to be ground at his mill ; but that it had been partly
occupied up to the end of July last, in grinding barley, Indian
corn, and a little rye, reaped by Settlers last season. Since
that period not six muids of grain of any sort had been receiv-
ed into the mill ; and out of that (he adds) several persons have
taken back maize for seed ;" so it is evident there is none in
hand to grind."

The correspondent referred to at page 27,
continues on the
30th September:—
" The report that the settlers have had abundant crops of
Indian corn, or that they have now any tolerable supply re-
maining, is utterly untrue. It is now selling at one shilling
( English), per quart, for seed. Since 1 came from home, lam
sorry to find that the prospects for harvest are worse ; rust and
drought are destroying every thing. The Coffers continue un-
commonly active. Pigot, Cooper, Beater, Delport, Erasnnis,
and Vandyke, have all lost cattle. If we have not effectual
relief in a very short time, we must quit our !locations. It is
become really distressing and alarming. Oh, for Van Dieman's
Land? I am heartily sick of it, and dread being a moment from
home on account of the Coffers."
Tha Rev. Dr. Philip, in moving that the Report be received
and printed, addressed the Meeting as follows :
" 'While I congratulate this Meeting on the talentand respec-
tability with which I see myself surrounded—on the import-
ance of the object for which we are assembled—and the. cha-
racter of the Report which has just been read—l cannot help
inquiring how it happens, that we are so thinly attended at
our General Meetings : that we have so few subscribers ; and
that on such an -extensive field held out to our cultivation, cur
operations should have been so limited ? I hope I shall be ex-
cused if I take up a small portion of your time, on the present
occasion, on this question.
" Shall I be told there is no surplus of misery among our
countrymen unprovided fbr Ido not stand here on this oc-
casion as the accuser of the Colonial Government, nor of the
Local Authorities of the Colony; but we may certainly allow
the possibility of of distress; without any reflection upon any
man, or any class of men. Reasoning a priori, I maintain his
impossible to remove 5,000 men from their native country, and
plant them in any other country under Heaven, without in-
volving a vast portion of suffering. For ar, illustration. of this
subject, we have only to look • to the different emigrations to
America in the first colonization of that country. Many of
the first settlers suffered greatly, and some whole parties pe-
rished fbr want of the nacessaries of life, on spots that are now
supporting a dense population. The history of the Sierra Leone
Settlement is well known, Many lives were lost, and much pro-
perty sunk before the experiment afforded any rational prospect
of success. The colonization of New Holland is also a case in
point. During the early period of that Settlement, the Colo-
nists were often in the greatest distress. Several times they
were tinder the painful apprehension of death by famine.—
For six years they continued to receive a great part of their
supplies from Batavia, from India, and from England, at con-
siderable expense to the mother country.
" From 1550 to 1570, including the first twenty years of the
history of this Colony, although the number of the first Settlers
was not one-third of' the number landed in Albany, it cost the
Dutch East India Company twenty millions of gilders.—
Though.it is not my intention at present to attempt to account
for the facts, yet it may be remarked, that there seems to be
something in a virgin soil . unfavourable to the support of
human life; and it seems to be with men as with vegetables,
—they must suffer after being transplanted, before they can
take root.

" One circumstance may be mentioned, in passing, which
has added to the distress of the Settlers. In the emigrations
constantly taking place to America, the emigrants having land-
ed at New York, Boston, Quebec, or some large town, find
employment, assistance, or the means of subsistence in the
countries through which they pass, and from the Colonists
settled in the immediate neighbourhood of their locations ;
but in the late emigration to this colony, we have between
four and five thousand people conducted at once to a coun-
try possessed by a few Dutch Boors, who, in case of any
failure, of the, Emigrants' hopes, could give them no assist-
ance.

" Arocng other means employed to give an unfavourable
impression of the Settlers, a charge of Radicalism was at-
tempted to be fixed upon them. In such a body of people there
are, no doubt, many worthiest and discontented individuals ;
but I can aver, from my own personal knowledge—and I have
visited their different locationsHthat I never met with an in-
stance where there was lest reason for this charge applied to
the people as a body, than in the present case. '%hat they are
at this- moment I will -not presume to say; but in the latter

end of 1821, I was surprised to find so few persons of this de-
scription among them.
" Shall we be told, to set aside their claims on our benevo-
lence, that they want industry ? If, after the failure of so
many crops, they neglect to cultivate the soil to the full extent
of the credit they may have given them for physical energies,
is it matter. of surprise ? They cannot command the clouds of
Heaven to rain upon their fields ; they cannot raise the water
from the deep ravines to which it is confined, to irrigate their
gardens ; they cannot arrest Omnipotence, and stop the pro-
gress of that blight, which, through successive years, has
destroyed the promise of the harvest. And, if under the re-
peated strokes of the Almighty, the mind loses its tone, when
nothing but the powerful aids of Religion can prevent de-
pression, and stimulate to perseverance, the unhappy suf-
ferers are more entitled to our sympathy than deserving of
censure.
" The claims of our unhappy countrymen upon our sym-
pathy, are of more than an ordinary character. The writers
of elegant fiction have been accused of injuring the cause of
benevolence, by dressing it out in all the bewitching enchant..
ments of eloquence, All is beauty to the eye, and harmony
to the ear.' Nothing is seen but pictures of felicity, and no-
thing is heard but the pleasing whispers of gratitude and af-
fection. The reader is carried along by soft and delightful
representation of virtue. He accompanies his hero through
all the fancied varieties of his history. He goes along with
him to the cottage of poverty and disease, surrounded, as he-
may suppose, with all the charms of rural seclusion, where the
murmurs of an adjoining rivulet accord with the finer sensi-
bilities of the mind. He enters the enchanting retirement, an-
meets with a picture of distress, adorned with all the fascina-
tions of romance. Perhaps a meritorious officer, who has fought
the battles of his country, is languishing on the bed of affliction,
without the means of subsistence, and without an attendant,
save a son of tender years, to sympathize with him in his dis-
tress, and whose helpless years and destitute condition add
poignancy to his grief. Perhaps, in the midst of a barren wil-
derness, and surrounded with wild beasts, he unexpected
meets a female, whose slender form, whose elegant motien,-
whose sudden confusion, and whose instant attempt to escape
excite the most powerful curiosity. She flies to allele his fur-
ther inquiries: he follows, and, entering a miserable hut, dig.,
covers himself an unwelcome intruder; lie apologizes—lie- is
shocked—he finds the inmate of this humble shed invested with
every female grace : he felicitates himself on his good for-
tune : his tears flow, his heart dilates with all the luxury of
tenderness : the visions of Paradise play before his fancy;'
his whole soul is absorbed in plans that embrace the future
felicity of this interesting family : he gives his last shilling, and
imparts it with so much delicacy, that he makes them feel that
he is receiving, not conferring, a favour.
"'The lovers of romance—the epicures of feeling can have
no pretext for treating the objects now calling for their sym-
pathy with indifference, for want of these romantic accompa-
niments. The admirers of this sort of fictitious history; our
modern sentimentalists, who revel in all the soft delusions of
an ideal philanthropy, may see all the high-wrought fiction of
the romantic tale—all the imagery of the poet's song,' ree
duced to sober reality ; if we exclude from the picture the be-
nevolence which wipes the tear from the eye of distress—
which affords relief to the necessitous, and restores to so-
ciety and happiness the destitute sufferers. Ilere we have
distress attended by all the attractions that ever fancy con-
ferred upon fiction. And what is the sympathy this distress
calls forth ? We are told that the sufferers are Radicals; that
they are worthless people; or that the alleged distress does not
exist. To this unsupported assertion I oppose incontrovertible
facts; I oppose a number of letters from the west respectable
individuals in Albany, which I now hold in my hand; I oppOse
the most respectable witnesses, who have lately visited the lo-
cations ; anti to the evidence of these witnesses 1 add my own
teeelmony : being able, from what I myself observed among
the Settlers, to corroborate many of these statements con-
taMed in the Report. In that country which was described in
all the glowing tints of eastern imagery ; which was held out
to the poor Settlers as a second Land of Promise, as a
Land literary overflowing with milk and honey,' you may
see the fingers, which seldom moved but to paint for the eye,
or to charm the ear, tying up cattle, or stopping up the gaps of
their inclosure ; females, on whom, in England, the wind was
scarcely allowed to blow, exposed to all the rage of the piti-
less storm ; mothers with large families, who used to have a
servant to each child, without an individual to assist them in
the drudgery of the house, the labour of the dairy, or
the
care of their children: families who used to sleep upon down,
with scarcely a sufficient number of boards, or a sufficient
quantity of straw, to keep them from an eartht'rn floor ; young
females, possessed of every accomplishment, reduced to feed a
few cows, almost the sole dependance of the family ; men,
who have held the ranks of Captains and Paymasters in the
army, driving waggons, without shoes or stockings !
" In a tour I made through the locations of the Settlers, I
found a Gentleman, whose connections at home I knew to be
respectable, with two lovely daughters, without a single ser•
vane, male or female, upon the place. I asked him, bow he
came to be in this situation ? In reply, he said, with much
mildness and apparent resignation, I have sunk my all, I
have spent my last shilling, and I have never reaped one hand-
ful of produce from my farm !' On another location, I entered
a house in which I was ushered into the presence of a female,
whose dress and circumstances exhibited such a contrast to her
manners and former connexions in life, that, when she began to
talk of Sir John —, Sir Wm. --, Gen. --, Lady—, as
her relations, and to ask me if I knew such persons, it required
a considerable effbrt to persuade myself that I was not listening
o describe
circumstances,
be to enumerate the greater part of them. I am fully satisfied
heads of eorfsotaheuiniadretriestrienintaelt under similar
that if, in some instance, clamorous individuals may. have ex-
aggeratedreal distress of the Settlers as a body, has neither met the public
eye, nor been made known by their.own.report.
the miseries of' their own condition, one-fifth of the
" If there be any thing interesting in the condition. of. an
land ;- any thing to excite pity for men smarting under the rod
all
nouthldB
emigrant, to him that knows the heart of a stranger in a strange
of the Almighty, like Job, when lie exclaimed, Have pity
upon me, Oh ! my friends, have pity upon me, fur the hand of
the Lord hath touched me ; any thing to excite sympathy, 01
old age, bending over the grave of a partner in life who has,
died of a broken heart : any thing touching in the name 01
widow ; any thing tender in the condition of fatherless chil-
dren ; any thing affecting in the sight of young accomplished
females, reduced not to the spindle and the distaff, but to
the drudgery that falls to the lot of the slave in the service of
the African Boor; if there be any thing in hunger and naked-
ness to excite pity—we have all these claims embodied in thin
Institution.

(a) The Wilde flond, or Wild Dog, of the Cape, is me'
-tioned by Burchell as an undescribed and very ferocious specie.
of the Hicena.

(b) The Scotch party are located far up in the interior, O
one of the sources of Great Fish River, parallel with the
Sneuwberg ; and have suffered less from the blight than an/
other Settlers.

COURSE OF EXCHANGE, January 13.
Amsterdam
Ditto, at Sight
Rotterdam l2 4
Antwerp l2 5

37 7 if V§
•
24 65 0 fii•
.5 83 t
2585 0t•.1
7 10
156 i Ex. Mond,

liamburgh
Altotia
Paris,3 Day's sight
Ditto
Mourdeanz, ditto
Berlin
Frankfort on the Main
Pat et sburgh
Vienna lO 14
Trieste to 14
Madrid
Cadiz
l3ilboa .. 2l:ri Fiectil
Barcelona
35
Gibraltar
Leghorn
',AA-Venice, Ital. Lir ei 0
Malta 4,5 -Naples 3l3}
Palermo
Lisbon
Oporto
ItioJanti v.)
Bahia
Dublin

49

.Corli 91 pet

BULLION.

Portugal Gold, i C -
oio 19
.0 0 pgl
Foreign Cold, in Bars 3 17 6
New Doubloons
New DoHari.,
Silver in Bars, Standard ii 4 Ili .

BIRTH.
At Genoa, on the 28th December, the Lady of Edward /1
Mesurier, Esq., of a daughter.

DIED.
Y

,str-
'6

on Friday, at his house in 01'k -street, Baker-.
Richard Dennison, Esq., in his 72d year.
On Saturday last, at his house at Kingston-upon-Tiw-
Sampel Cox, Esq. aged 75.

Printed and Published for the PRopkIETORS, at,tht 131;*
OFFICE, 112, Strand, by J. B. CARSTAIIte.

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