The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-30 00:00:00

MURDER AND PIRACY.

The Sag Harbour Corrector, of August 11, gi
the following account of an atrocious murder and piracy
Rent them by the American Consul at the island of
St. Helena, to put persons visiting the Nicobar Islands
on their guard

' After leaving Timor, in July, we cruised off San-
dalwood for three months, thence to the coast of Su-
matra, Java, &c. We had been rather unsuccessful in
not seeing whales, and every other ship we have seen
had been the same. In November we steered for the
Porgy Islands, off Sumatra, and took some whales,
but could not remain, the weather proving very unpro-
pitious ; therefore, Captain G. Wheeler determined to
run up the Bay of Bengal, and endeavour to obtain
refreshments, some of the crew having appearances of
scurvy. We made the Chowry Islands in December,
and by the winds being changeable, and calms, we were
delayed some days. At lingth a breeze sprang up, and
we made Teressa and Bempoka, but the captain con-
ceiving the shelter for the ship not sufficient, continued
a course intending to enter Nanchowry harbour. Oa
December 22, 1840, we made the land, and in the
afternoon came near. Several large canoes with na-
tives came off towards the vessel. They requested to
know what we had to trade for, and where we were going
to. Our answer wag—' Nanchowry harbour.' fhey
promised to bring pigs, yams, cocoa-nut=, &c, on the In-
lowing day, stating that they bad plenty. An-
other canoe came up alongside, and two or three natives
and one European, who said he was a Por'uguese, and
spoke broken English, as also the native', asking the
same questions as the others bad, and had the same re-
plies. They also proposed to come and trade on the
following day. We entered the harbour and anchored
in about 15 fathoms water, completely landlocked on
all sides. At about five o'clock in the afternoon of the
22d of December, some of the natives came to the ves-
sel from the several villages or towns around us, and
promised to come and trade on the morrow ; a little
before dark, the second and third mates, with one boat
and crew, went on shore at one of the villages, and re-
turned in about two hours, having purchased one small
tortoise shell, turtles' shells, and some few trifler, and
stated the natives appeared very friendly, and spoke a
little English. On Wednesday morning, about seven
o'clock, the Captain took his boat, containing William
Hardy and George Preston, and went to two of the
villages and requested the natives to come early rind
trade ; we saw plenty of fine pigs, poultry, &c. Du-
ring the day some pigs, cocoa-nuts, oranges, &c., were
brought on board. During the morning the Captain,
two boys, and myself, went to look at the water-
ing place, and on our returning to the vessel,
called at a small village ; the natives gave us
some toddy to drink. After dicner the Captain,
the same two boys, and myself, also J. Robin-
son, went on shore to another town, taking with us
some handkerchiefs, calico, dungaree, &e., to trade
with. By degrees a great many natives gathered round
the boat. I showed them the articles, and, although
there were plenty of pigs, fowl 4, &c., we only succeeded
in purchasing one pig for calico, and returned on board,
the rest of the ship's company being engaee:l in getting
up casks for watering the ship, and re-coopering some
dry provisions. Directly after four o'clock, in the af-
tereoon, when all work was put aside for the day, the
second mate, Mr. Snowden, and third mate Mr. Cask,
said they were going on shore, at the same village they
went to on the evening previous, and asked me to go
also ; we left the vessel almost immediately, in one of
the old whale boats, and nine hands, in all twelve of
us. Upon our nearing the village we perceived an-
other of our ell boats leaving the ship, containing
either the mate or the captain and some of.the ship's
crew ; they went towards another village, but cannot say
how many were is her. We went on shore, saw seve-
ral natives, and went up into one of their houses, and
gave them some tobacco and cigars, aad they gave us
fire, and we all commenced smoking (they are very
fond of tobacco) ; we did not make any purchases,
and they promised to come to the ship in the morn-
ing. In about a quarter of an hour we left this house,
and in walking amongst the others saw more natives ;
all of a sudden we heard a kind of howl or scream,
which appeared to proceed from the ship. Mr. Snowden
said it imported something he did not like to hear, and
said, "Let us go to the boat and return." At the
same instant he saw several natives arming themselves
with spears, and Robinson asked one old man in the
Malty language what they were going to do ; his
answer was, " I do not know ;" and immediately a
number of natives came running from the bush at the
back of the houses, and attacked us with spears. One
struck Mr. Snowden, the second mare, through the
body ; he fell, and the native then pierced him through
with another, and pinned him to the ground. James
Robinson was struck immediately afterwards by ano-
ther native in the same way. Mr. Clark was struck
through the side with a spear, close to the boat.
William Burt, wounded in two places. These two
and the rest succeeded in getting into the boat
and pushing off towards the vessel, although numbers
of spears struck the oars, hoat, &c. Upon our near-
ing the teasel, great was our consternation to find her
in the possession of the.nativee, who were standing all
round the rail, in the boats, and every one armed with
ship's cutlasses, cutting spades, lances, harpoons, &c.,
and in such numbers that we bad not the slightest
chance to get on board, being totally unarmed ourselves ;
therefore we had no other alternative than either to be
ladled there, or endeavour to proceed to sea and risk
being picked up by some vessel. As soon as the na-
tives saw us retiring from the ship, they immediately
pulled off in canoes from the village we had been at-
tacked at, as also from another village, bath being be-
tween us and the entrance of the harbour, but through
the good management of James Clark, who took the
steering oar, they could not come up with us sufficiently
to throw their spears to injure IF, although they pur-
sued us till dark ; we continued at the oars all night ;
in the morning Chowry Island hove in sight, about seven
miles off; we continued pulling against wind, tide, and
a heavy sea, and when it came near, about midday, saw
some natives fishing, and endeavoured to buy some
cocoa-nuts from them for hankerchiefs, tobacco, razors,
knives, &c., and one rupee, which we had about us.
We succeeded in inducing the natives to let us have
about 27 cocoa-nuts, and we then put to sea with-
out tweed. water, sail, or anything to subsist upon be-
sides the 27 cocoa-nuts, amongst ten men, in an open
boat, 1,000 miles from Ceylon, and 700 from any other
place we could pull towards, having no compass. We
agreed to live upon two cocoa-nuts per day if possible,
but our thirst became so great we were obliged to use
more ; we cut off the legs of our trousers to make a
sail, and tore up the boards from the bottom of the
boat, and tied them with handkerchiefs together and
made a sail, the mast being one of the oars ; in this
way we were picked up at set by her Majesty's ship
Cruiser, who took us on board on December 29th, at
half-past eight in the morning, and immediately gave us
sago, &c. In the afternoon the captain inquired the
particulars of us, and although he bad General Sir
Hugh Gough, for the China expedition, on board, pro-
ceeding to China, he altered his course, and on the 31st
of September, at five in the evening, we re-entered the
place, where the Pilot was still lyine, but not one of our
cre.v was to be found, and there was every appearance
of their having been all massacred. The vessel was
found to be plundered of every article of clothing,
beddinir, sails, rope, blocks, lances, harpoons, muskets,
guns (large), cutlasses, all the spirits, wine, ale, porter,
bread, and every piece of iron cut out from her bul.
warks, davit-he ads, the copper stripped off her bottom ;
and, in fact, such destruction committed in the short
space of one week, as no person can accurately de-
scribe, and in a day or two more she would not have
We visited the villages, but the
been worth removing.
natives had fled upon our coming in ; found a great
quantity of rope, canvass, sails cut in pieces, lances,
&c., iron hoop bands from masts, &c., but no clothing
or article of dress.
• •

" Twenty-one of the officers and crew are missing,
two we saw killed, and ten only escaped.
" There cannot be any doubt of every one missing
teing massacred—the decks stained with blood in many
places, also old sails, canvass, &c. In one part of the
fleck, the shape of a man Laving been apparently

smashed to pieces can be distinctly traced, and in several
places the print of a man's bloody hand can be seen.
" W. BLACKWELL,
" Surgeon, whaling bark Pilot, London."

A TALE OF SLAVERY.
(From a New York Paper.)
The following well attested facts are submitted to
the public, with a view of obtaining for the oppressed
family some immediate relief, and also to present the
claims of the Vigilance Committee, by which institu-
tion they are now protected, to the sympathy and
support of the Christian community. It may be well
to observe, that the following is by no means an ex-
treme case, but merely a sample of many, coming under
the care of the Vigilance Committee.
J. S. a coloured man now about fifty-three years of
age, was formerly held as a slave, by a lady in one
of the northern slave States. Early in life he mar-
ried a slave belonging to a man some short distance
from the place in which he lived. They appear to
have been much attached to each other ; and as far
as the degrading system of sl tvery would allow,
conducted themselves with Christian consistency.
They are both members of the Methodist church, and
appear to be truly pious people. Being permitted by
his mistress to work out, he obtained a little money for
himself, and was at length encouraged to beg the lady
who held him, to sell him his freedom ; this she con-
sented to do for 500 dollars. By perseveranceand industry
he raised'this sum, and soon become a free man. This im-
portant point being gained, his next solicitude was to pro-
cure the freedom of his wife, but this he could not
obtain, for the monstrous reason, that she was too
valuable to her owners, for raising slaves for the
southern market ; thirteen children having been
torn from those afflicted parents and sold, most of
them in childhood, to the traders for the south.
Oh ! said the distressed father, (while relating his
sufferings,) every one that was taken from me, was
like cutting away piece of my heart; they are gone,
1 shall never see them again. The mother could only
exprsss her anguish by a silent look of despair.
And yet, with Christian fortitude and patience, he
continued to labour, and by his industry he was en-
abled to buy two lots of ground, and build two cot-
tages, one of which he rented, the other he furnished
comfortably for himself. But another desolating
storm was yet to break over him, and sweep away
every vestige of happiness. His wile and last remaining
child, a fine little girl about five years old, were still
slaves, and at length the sad tidings were brought
him, that their owner lad sold them both to the
traders, who had removed them to the slave prison
in Alexandria. This was the wreck of all hopes.
The state of his mind can neither be here de-
scribed nor imagined by those whose colour pre-
serves them from such dire, inconceivable wretch.
ednev. What could he do ;he had some property
worth about seven hundred dollars, but all he had
was worthless compared with his wile and child ;
be therefore resolved to sacrifice it all to recover
them if possible, and hastened at once to Mr. 'l'., a
man of property and Member of Congress, to whom
he related his tale of sorrow, and offered to make
over to him the houses and land, if lie would go to
Alexandria and repurchase his wife and child for
him ! after some deliberation this was agreed to.
Tire poor man made over all his property to Mr.
T., who purchased the wife and child in his own
name, thereby becoming their owner. They were
indeed allowed to live with the husband, but
he could never obtain from Mr. T. a bill of sale for
them by which they might become legally his ;
they were still the slaves of Mr. T. in the eye of the
law, and, hence, another wave of trouble was permitted
to overwhelm them. This man, if such he may be
called, without insulting our common nature, with
monstrous crnelty, sold them last month to a
trader, after he had taken tl.e wLole of the poor
man's property as the price of their freedom ; he was
at this tine attending Congress, and ere the trader
arrived to remove them, some friendl.7 person brought
the melancholy tidings to them, in order that they
might take some measures to protect theiricelves.
The poor man immediately applied to a lawyer for
advice, but he told him it was useless to content
the point at law ; having no bill of sale from Mr. T.
and no money to carry on a suit he was sure to be
cast ; and therefore he declined any proceedings in his
defence. One thing only now remained to be done.
His wile and chid were not yet taken off. He de-
termined to leave everything, the little wreck of pro-
perty he had remaining, and flee with them to a land
of liberty. Friendless and almost penniless, he com-
menced hip journey in the severity of winter, and by
the care of a merciful Providence, has arrived thus far
in safety, and has thrown himself for protection and
support on the N. Y. Committee of Vigilance.

THE SLAVE TRADE.
(From the Cincinnati Philanthropist.)
During the last session of Congress, a call was made
upon the President of the United States for information
in relation to correspondence with the British Govern-
ment on the subject of the seizure of American vesse's
on the African coast, on account of being engaged in
the slave-trade. We are not aware that the call was
responded to. At all events, no papers of the kind
have been published. The subject ought not to be per-
mitted to rest. Certain prints are now assiduous in pre-
occupying the public mind with stories about the viola-
tion of our flag by British cruisers. We feel as sensitive
as any one can feel on this point, and would be willing
to go to the uttermost in resisting all impertinent inter-
ference with the naval rights of our country. But, the
conviction is forced upon us, that it is not the British
Government, but American citizens, on whom is
charge able the violation of the American flag. That
this flag is prostituted to shield an infernal traffic in the
bodies and souls of men ; that such prostitution is fa-
cilitated by accredited agents of the American Govern-
ment, and almost connived at by the Government itself,
there is but too much reason to believe. Years ago,
in reply to overtures of the British Cabinet for a Con_
vention against the slave-trade, Mr. Forsyth, after a de-
cided rejection of the proposition, complacently an-
nounced that America possessed within inself unassisted,
by the co-operation of any other Power, the means of de-
tecting and punishing those American citizens who
might violate its laws with respect to the slave-trade.
What has America done to verify this assumption ?
Just nothing at all, and the world knows it. And this
is not all—we do not believe that the Government,
when the announcement was made, intended to do any-
thing—it did not intend to keep its faith thus virtually
pledged to suppress the traffic so far as our citizens
were concerned. What slavers have been captured by
American cruisers, how many stolen men redeemed,
how many slave-factories destroyed So far from the
American traffic in African slaves having been arrested,
it has frightfully increased, and our flag now is the
favourite flag of the slave-trader. And what are
our two or tbree cruisers stationed on the coast, doing
to save the country from this horrible degradation ?
We will tell you :—They are watching the British
cruisers, lest they should interfere with the colony of
Liberia, and• in various ways, subserviog the purposes
of the Colonization Society. " The Government of
the United States continues to extend its power and
protection to the colony, through its operations to sup-
press the slave-trade." So says the Report of the
Board of Managers of the Colonization Society. Here
is testimony from those who know best, to the fact,
that American cruisers are subserving the purposes
of this Society ; but where is the evidence of
their efficiency in suppressing the slave-trade ?
Can any one tell ? Do you see in our newspapers, ac-
counts of the capture of slave-ships by American ves-
sels ? No—it is all sham—the Governivent has not
been in earnest—it has been lying to tie good people
of this country, and to the world. For, will any one
tell us, that American cruisers cannot show as much
skill, and activity, and vigilance, as the British ? There
was no lack of these qualities on the part of our sea-
men in the last war. But now, our commanders are
narcotized—they have no eye;—their cannon has lost
its voice. Eternal infamy be the heritage of a Govern-
ment, which has caused the name of this nation to stink
in the nostrils of even the priest•riddon, king-crushed
nations of the old world.

But why has the Government acted thus ? Is not
this a Christian people ? Are we, who make the Go-
vernment,
not men, republican men ? Have we no
humanity, no honour, no sensibility to shame ? Why
then has the Government dared to make us an object
of loathing to all hoi,est men every where ? Hear the
reason, and would that it could be spoken in thunder
to the ear and heart of every cit;zen of the free States
it is because slaveholders rule the Government—con-
stitute its exponents and administrators.
Our Secretary of State was a sl iveholder—our Se-
cretary of the Navy was a tool of the slaveholder— our
President was a. northern man with slaveholding prin-
ciples. Had anti-slavery men been at the head of Go-
vernment, should we have been plunged into this bot-
tomless pit of infamy ? Never. The glorious flag of
the republic, instead of waving over the floating hells of
the slave-trader, would, wherever unfurled, have made
the iron heart of the fiend melt away within him with
fear of coming venge ince.
Will the pieient Administration do better ? Let us
see :•—llaniel Webster, who offered up his northern
faith on the altar at Alexandria to propitiate the Mo-
loch of slavery, is Secretary of S.atr. A slaveholder
is Secretary of the Navy. The head of the Govern.
merit is a southern man with pro-slavery principles.
Flimsy foundation for hope, but still we will hope. Let
the people take the matter in hand—let hundreds of
thousands of remonstrances go up to the National
Legislature demanding the redemption of the national
flag from dishonour, and the effectual suppression of
the slave•trade us carried on by American citizens. Let
us see whether the new Administration bas more soul
, than the old one.

PAISLEY.--The ministers of Paisley, of all de-
nominations, have agreed to address her Majesty on the condi-
tion of the vvorkirg (lasses in all the manufacturing districts,
and to implore her not to prorogue P.,rliament till some effec-
tive measures have been taken for their relief. We hope a step
so honourable, and 'o full of sound policy, IA ill 1:12 se' y eaten.,
siveiy imitated.— Glayaow Aryus.