The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-11 00:00:00

MASSACRE OF MR. WARDLAW.

The following are the depositions of the mastet's-
assistant and crew of the Racer's whaleboat (who were
pre.,ent on the occasion of Mr. Wardlaw's landing mear
Atalaya), relative to the circumstances which led to the
capture and subsequent death of that officer :
Mr. Alexander James Dewar, inaster's-assistamf.,
states—" That he accompanied Mr. Wardlaw in the,
Racer's whaleboat to Atalaya, off which place they
arrived and anchored on Friday night, the 24th of April,
and the next morning proceeded a few yards up the
river of Atalaya, where they saw a small party of
soldier:;, who spoke to Mr. Wardlaw in Spanish, and
were answered by him.
" Mr. Wardlavv asked them if they would accept of a
flag of truce ? but they told him they had none ; on
which Mr. Wardlaw ordered the men to back out ; on
seeing which the soldiers divided and opened fire on the
boat. Mr. Wardlaw immediately ordered the flag of
truce to be taken down, and returned the fire.
" On getting out of the entrance we made sail to pro-
ceed along the coast, but had not proceeded a quarter of
a mile when we grounded on a bank, the water falling:
rapidly at the time, until there were only six inches
water alongside. We endeavoured to get her off by
starting everything overboard, but our efforts were un-
availin 0.. After being aground fur about two hours, we
observedr a party of soldiers, about 25 in number, coming
down with a flag of truce. One of them walked out
half way to the boat, and was there met by Mr. Ward-
law ; they shook hands and conversed for a few minutes,
when Mr. Wardlaw returned to the boat, and told me
that he had an hour allowed him to get the boat off, and
that at the end of that time he was to go up to the com-
mandant, or else the troops were to fire on us. In about
ten minutes the soldier returned, and being met by
Mr. Wardlaw as before, they both walked on shore, Mr.
Wardlaw hailing us for a flag of truce, which was taken
to him by the coxswain of the boat. They then pro-
ceeded to the point, where they got into a beat and went.
up the creek. At this time the number of soldiers was
increasing rapidly. In less than ten minutes after Mr.
Wardlaw had left us the tide rose, and floated the boat.
and we got everything ready for sailing, only waiting for
Mr. Wardlaw's return. In about twenty minutes we
observed Mr. Wardlaw come back in the boat, and land
at ths..point, still holding the flag of truce.
" Immediately afterwards another party of cavalry
came down, the officer jumping off his horse, and
snatching the flag of truce out of Mr. Wardlaw's hand,
on which the latter ran towards the beach, and hailed
me, saying, I'm sold; I'm done; fire, and save your-
selves if you can.'
" At this time a boat had been manned by about fifteen
or sixteen of the soldiers, and was pulling towards us.
On her approaching I weighed the anchor, and hoisted
the sail half way up, to :get into the channel, which was
inshore of us. When the soldiers saw this they imme-
diately fired a volley from the shore and also from the
boat, which I returned by firing the gun loaded with
musket balls, as also our muskets at the boat. I did not
see more than two of the soldiers in the boat after the
gun was fired, but she drifted to the shore, and was
tracked up the river by some soldiers. I continued
firing at the troops on shore until they retreated. I then
anchored at the mouth of the river, within thirty yards
of the shore, until half-past four o'clock, when, finding
no one came down, I weighed and Made the best of my
way to the Racer.
" Does not recollect seeing Mr. Wardlaw after he
hailed the boat. It was not possible to follow the boat
to take possession of her, on account of the shallowness
of the water. " A. J. DEWAR."

The depositions of the boat's crew are precisely to the
same effect as M. Dewar's, with the additional informa-
tion that Mr. Wardlaw's object in entering the Atalaya
was to make search for an English barque, which had
been cast away on the coast; that such was his reply
when first hailed by the soldiers on shore; and that
giving him to understand the vessel was further up, the
river, the soldiers invited him to enter. its they evaded
raising a flag of truce, Mr. Wardlaw suspected their in.
tentions, and ordered the boat to be backed astern, =the
river being very narrow. The boat was immediately
fired on by the soldiers, and then Mr. Wardlaw hauled
down his flag of truce and returned the fire; but-the