The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-19 00:00:00

A NATION OF TRAVELLERS.

S N7 SEPTEMBER 19, 1848
•

SIR JAMES ROSS'S EXPEDITION.
The following are accounts of the progress of the ex-
pedition of Captain Sir James Ross, in search of Sir
.John Franklin and his companions, in the Erebus an,4
Terror:—

An American whaler, that had called at Lievely Dis
covert' Island, July 2, brought home the information.
ten days since, that Sir James Ross, in the Enterprise.
and Captain Bird, in the Investigator, had passed
Lievely. The expedition reached Whale Island, Davis',
Straits, lat. 69 N., June 22, and sailed thence June 29;
and at Lievely Sir James Ross put his dispatches on
board a Danish ship lying there. The expedition was
in good health and spirits; but nothing had been heard
of the gallant fellows of whom they aro in quest. The
dispatches of Sir James Ross reached the Admiralty
yesterday.

" Whale Fish Islands, June 29, 1848.
" I will now give you a short notice of our proceedings
since I left you. We got through the Pentland Forth on
the night of the 19th of May, and then carried a fair
wind for Cape Farewell till the end of the month, when
we got light breezes from the west, which detained us for
some time.

" On the 7th of June, in the afternoon, we fell in with
the first stream ice, and we passed through the last on
the I2th. This, lam given to understand, is a strange
place to meet stream ice. We were then clear until we
came within two days' sail of this place, when we fell
in with some magnificent bergs, :upwards of 200 feet in
height, and bulky in proportion. We fired a 24-pound
shot into one of them, which, of course, produced no
effect.

" We sail to-morrow for Melville Bay, and from
thence to Lancaster Sound, if we can get through.
" I suppose there unever were happier ships' crews
than ours. Sir James Ross does everything he pos•
sibly can to make everything comfortable for man and
officer.

" Whilst here we have formed some pleasant shooting
parties. I have just returned with one, nearly knocked
up, having been out from nine, i M., until five A.m. I
may mention, however, my consolation in having bagged
two dozen fine ducks.

" I hope to shake hands with you in the course of
eighteen, months. Send to me in the spring, as I
believe there will be a chance, if we do not return this
season."

The following particulars of the daily progress of the
expedition commence from our last notice of it. The
details will not be uninteresting to the general reader:—
" Her Majesty's ship Enterprise, Whale Island,
Davis's Straits, lat. 69 N., June 29.
" No news of Franklin yet. I wrote in haste, for wt
are on the point of weighing anchor for the northward.
We are all well and hearty. I have sent you a journal
of our proceedings from first making the ice up to this
day. I shall, perhaps, have another opportunity of writ•
ing by a Greenlandman. This will go by a Danish ship
❑ow lying at Lievely.
" Wednesday, 7.—Twenty-seven days from Green-
hithe; one P.M., ice observed from the mast-head, rather
extraordinary to meet with it so far to the southward,
Cape Farewell bearing N.W. by W., 160 miles; seven
P.M., fell in with a considerable body of drift ice, bore
away on purpose to clear it; thermometer 43. Investi-
gator in company.
" Thursday, B. Wind from the northward, reaching
to the westward; three P.M., tacked in order to weather
a stream of ice; five P .M., made a passage through it.
Thermometer 38.

" Friday, 9.—Wind from the northward, reaching to
the westward; no ice in sight this day; thermometer 40.
Investigator in company.
" Saturday, 10.—Light wind, and hazy; 'steering
course for Cape Farewell at noon, bearing N.W. by W.,
140 miles. No ice in sight to-day; Weather rather
mild; thermometer 45. Investigator is company.
" Sunday, 11.—Fine breeze from the S.E., steering
course Cape Farewell, at noon bearing N.W. by W., 46
miles ; no ice in sight ; thermometer 42. Investigator
in company.
" Monday, 12.—Strong breeze from the S.E., running
before it up 'Davis's Straits under all sail ; passed by
several ice-bergs during the day ; thermometer 40. In-
mitigator in company. Latitude by observation, 62 deg.
34 min. N. •

“Tuesday, 13.—Light breeze, running before it; strag-
gling pieces of ice in sight ; thermometer, 38. Investi-
gator in company. - • •
•' Wednesday, 14.—Light winds from the N.E., ships
reaching to the westward ; 1.30 P.M. sounded to a depth
of 450 fathoms, no bottom. Communicated with In-
vestigator by boat ; straggling pieces of ice in sight.
Thermometer, 32, freezing point ; temperature of the
sea, 36.

[PRICE SD.

ESCAPE AND CAPTURE OF A
NOTORIOUS PRISONER FROM NEWPORT
GAOL.
About two months since a young man of fashionable
exterior and manners visited the Isle of Wight. His
prepossessing demeanour and amusing conversation gave
him a welcome entree to society. He represented him-
self as the nephew of a Southampton banker, and proved
his connexion with various distinguished provincial
families. Our narrative will show that his relatives
had discarded him before his arrival in the Isle of Wight,
where he had not long been before he resumed his
former practices of levying contributions on inn and
hotel keepers. In consequence he was apprehended,
taken before the magistrates, and committed to Newport
gaol, to be tried for obtaining money under folse pre-
pretences.

On the night of the 30th of August last he escaped
from prison in the following manner:—He feigned
illness, and deceiving the surgeon by assumed symptoms,
he was transferred to the prison infirmary, all the
officers of which thought him in reality very unwell.
Not so, however, Mr. Allen, the governor of the prison,
who warned the turnkey, Webb, in whose charge
Alexander Ford, the prisoner, was, that the latter was
reigning indisposition for the purpose of effecting his
escape. As the hour of locking up for the night ap-
proached, Ford always entreated the turnkey, Webb, to
allow him as much law as possible before his cell-door
was finally locked fur the night, pleading weakness and
inability to arrange his cell with the speed of the other
prisoners. On the evening of the 30th ult., Ford retired
to his cell, and having arranged his bed in such a manner
that any one, not minutely examining it, would suppose
him in it from the appearance it exhibited of head, body,
and legs beneath the clothes, he concealed himself in an
adjoining, unoccupied cell. At a late hour he com-
menced his operations for evasion, getting through an
unbarred window, then climbing on to the top of a wall,
and dropping from it, a depth of 18 feet, into the garden
of Mr. Mue, the brewer. He then got over several
fences, waded through a deep brook, and finally reached
the town. He hastened into the Pig and Carrot public-
house, as it was about to close, and, detailing with great
jocularity to the landlord the minutia of a glorious spree
he had just had with several companions whom he had
left behind, and during which he had got a ducking and
lost his hat, he bought a cap from the landlord, and even-
tually borrowed from him on a promise of large pay-
ment, a horse and gig to convey him to Ryde. Arrived
there he met with a policeman on duty on the pier, and
representing to him that he had urgent business in Lon-
don in the morning, and wanted to be in Southampton
in time for the first train, the constable (Ford givinc, him
some silver) procured a boat and two watermen, who, for
IL, safely landed the runaway at Southampton. Isle of
Wight boatmen frequently, when no steamer is running
between the Isle and Southampton, convey persons
pressed for time across. Ford arrived in London the
morning of his escape by an early South-Western train.
On the turnkey Webb visiting Ford's late cell at the
usual hour, be found his gaol bird flown. The fact he
communicated to the governor, Mr. Allen, who promptly
sent for Mr. Campbell, superintendent of the county
police. Measures of pursuit and detection were instantly
adopted, and Ford was traced to the Waterloo Bridge-
road station, but there for a time all scent of him was lost.
Mr. Allen caused the following hand-bill to be printed
and circulated:—
_

"ESCAPED.—On the night of the 30th August inst.,
from the gaol at Newport, Alexander Ford (committed
for trial at the next adjourned quarter sessions, charged
with obtaining money under false pretences from several
persons); describes himself as a medical student, but
about four years since carried on the business of a che-
mist at Swansea. He is between 20 and 30 years of age,
of a superior education, of very prepossessing manners
and address, about five feet eight inches in height, of
rather slender make. When he escaped he had a good
head of hair, (dark) and looked very delicate, with much
hair on his chin and upper lip, apparently not to have
been shaved for a considerable time, but no whiskers;
was dressed in a dark biown coat, black trousers, low
shoes, white socks, black satin cravat, and white calico
shirt; is believed to be the same person as Benjamin
Alexander Ford, convicted at the Central Criminal
Court, on the 17th August, 1840, of uttering a forged
order, and removed from Millbank prison on the 26th
of January, 1847, to the Warrior hulk at Woolwich.
While in prison he has been visited by two fashionably-
dressed females."

14.4
LAST Zimi" E IN WHIT—Ed, - j"—\
C • EL.
• - Yesterday, an inquest was held at th London
Hospital, on the bodies of Samuel Taylor fit;-aged
thirteen, and Priscilla Pitt, aged nine, w
consequence of injuries received at the disas -F-;-..t.-:=Z,/
in Whitechapel on Saturday, the particulars tif,Which
were-published-in-yesterday's Sun.
James Morris, belonging to the fiftlr.compa4-&:'
the second battalion of the Grenadier Guards, laid'
that on -Sattrdayl morning last, between two and
three o'clock, whilst passing through Whitechapel,
he saw smoke issuing from the premises of Mr.
Watkinson. He immediately raised an alarm, and
then attempted to break open the shop door. He saw
some parties standing at the first floor windoW ; he
called to them to jump out, but they refused at that
time.- He, h9wever, had one child handed down to
him, which he conveyed to a house opposite, and
from thence it was removed in a cab to the-hospital.
It was very much burned over the legs and feet. He
went back and tried to get into the house for the
purpose of saving the boy, but could not, on account
of the fire raging so furiously. He next assisted to
get the mother out of the window. When he first
noticed the smoke no one appeared to be stirring in
the house.
This witness, from the testimony of the other'par-
ties, appeared to have rendered the most essential
service in saving those persons who escaped; and se-
veral of the jury recommended the coroner to write
to Colonel Astell, the head of the battalion to which
the witness belonged, requesting him to overlook the
witness's dereliction of duty in not being in barracks
on the night of Friday, on account of his meritorious
conduct at the fire.

;Mr. Wetkinson said that the premises No, 45,
Whitechapel-road, were in his occupation. On Fri-
day night he was awoke whilst asleep in bed by a
knocking at the street door. He got up, heard glass
cracking, and found the room filled with smoke. He
immediately shook the deceased boy, who was sleep-
ing in the same bed, and told him to escape out of
window, as the place was on fire. This he considered
he had done, He then ran up stairs to Mr. Pitt,
who, with his wife and family, were sleeping on the
second floor, and told them that the house was on fire,
and ordered them to get out es quickly as possible.
He next took up a little boy and ran down stairs with
him to the first floor, and handed 'him out of window.
The father of the children had previously got out of
window, and witness considered that he had taken
the deceased boy with him, as he had to pass
through the room in which he was. The mother
having come down to the same window with the de-
ceased girl at her side, she fainted at the window. He,
however, at length succeeded in pulling her out of the
window, but she fell upon the pavement below. The
furniture and clothes were insured by witness for 501.
He turned the gas off from the main at half-past
eleven o'clock on Friday night, and went to bed at
twelve, perfectly sober.
By Mr. George Brace, solicitor to the Legal and
Commercial Fire-office—The stock in trade was
insured for 2501., and the fixtur2s for 50/. more. He
had never been apprenticed to Mr. Pitt. He was not
aware that Mr. Pitt had premises in other parts of the
country. He knew that he had had a fire in Lambeth,
and then he was insured in the West of England Fire-
office. He claimed a sum which was disputed by the
company, and he was paid considerably less than he
charged. He was also aware that Mr. Pitt had had a
fire in Tooley-street, but was not then insured. He
also knew that he had been in business at Norwich,
but had failed there. Witness did not think there
was anything in the place likely to ignite sponta-
neously. The premises were to let six months ago.
The house surgeon having described the nature of
the injuries the deceased had received which were
the cause of death, the jury returned a verdict,
"That the deceased died from the effects of burns,
but how the fire occurred there was no evidence to
prove."

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