The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-20 00:00:00

TIIE RED RIVER REBELLION.

The New York Tribune reports a conversation which
their correspondent at Prescott Junction held with Mr.
Donald Smith, the Canadian Commissioner to the
Red River insurgents. Mr. Donald Smith
was previously attached to the Hudson's Bay
Company, and this secured him a favourable recep-
tion at Foit Garry. He was asked to take oath
not to take up arms against the insurgents, but declined to
do so. He then asked if he was to consider himself a pri-
soner, and was answered in the negative, but in reality
was under restraint. His papers, the Queen's letter, his
commission, and public documents, were taken away from
him. He demanded their return, but was refused.
Afterwards, after almost daily representations to Riel,
a public meeting of English and French settlers was called
to receive him as Commissioner. At the mass meeting
there was great excitement. Riel refused to give up his
papers. After a rough debate, in which Riel warn-
ingly said, "I do not want to remember how
I took a pistol at you before on that platform "
referring to a former meeting at which he had threatened
Mr. Smith, the meeting agreed to a delegation to
Ottawa. The subsequent doings of the Convention
were the formation of a Provisional Government, which
was to be provisional or temporary in the
strictest sense, and the appointment of a committee
to arrange preliminaries for a basis of action. The
committee men, with the exception of Riel,
voted themselves into all the public offices, properly
pertaining to - the establishment of a govern-
ment, Riel being President. Public feeling was somewhat
against Mr. Smith on his return to Ottawa, as it was,
thought if he had urged his claim with proper force, as
representing the Dominion, Scott's life would have been
saved. The murder of a Canadian has excited the
strongest indignation
throughout the country, and the
peopl are clamouring for immediate action. -
Accounts from Ottawa state that Captain Rowe, of the
Madoc Volunteer Company, of which Thomas Scott was
a member, has written a letter to Colonel Brown, com-
mander of the regiment, expressing the ihdignation that
was felt by the officers and men of the company at Scott's
murder by Riel, and offering their services to go to Red
River and avenge his death.

AN ADVENTUROUS ENTERPRISE.—A little decked
sampan has been fitted out at Singapore, destined for an
enterprise that, whatever may be said of its prudence, is,
at all events, testimony to the pluck of those who under-
take it. The adventurous crew consist of three—Captain
Campbell Ma,efarlan, Capt. Hay Probyn, and Mr. George
Freeman—who were lately cast away on the coast of
Borneo, in the ship Sunshine. They arrived at Singapore
some time ago, but have been unable to obtain employ-
ment, and rather than wait on, hanging lazily about in
Singapore, exhausting the slender stock of means left
to them after shipwreck, have bought,e, fitted out, and,
stocked a little craft—measuring, when decked over, be-
tween four and five tons—in which they are about to
brave the perils of a voyage of some 3,000 miles. They
have given to their vessel the very appropriate name of
The Last Chance. She is cutter rigged, and has only
one mast, so that the labour of working her will not be
very heavy. The route they intend to pursue is down
past the island of Java to Timor, which will be their first
halting place. Thence they will make for the Gulf of
Carpentaria, and then through Torres Straits to their
destination.

FANATICISM.—TWO curious instances of fanati-
cism are reported from Singapore. A Mahommedan
priest, who also practised the curing of diseases by
charms, in which he was not always successful, deter-
mined to increase his sanctity by a temporary departure
to a better world. For this purpose he dug for him-
self a small cave under ground, into which he
retired with a candle and a copy of the Koran, and
requested his friends to cover the top of the cave with
boards and earth, which they accordingly did. He had
taken the
.precaution to put a hollow bamboo through
the covering, and through the bamboo a smaller
stick, by which he could get air and communicate with
his friends. After carefully covering him in, his friends
retired till the next morning, when they pulled up the
small stick from the bamboo and their signal was
answered. On the next morning, however, and on two
subsequent mornings no answer was returned, and the case
having been opened, the fanatic was found dead. A few
days afterwards a Malay priest was about to follow his
example, and large crowds had assembled to witness the
ceremony, but the police interfered and prevented his com-
mitting an act of self-destruction.—Calcutta Englishman,
March 22.

TANTIA TOPER'S lIEAD.—A discussion is going.
on in the India papers as to the fate of Tantia Topee's
head, which was cut off after his execution for participa.
tion in the mutiny. The ltfofussilite has the following, :--
" Our Madras and Mysore contemporaries have
been adorning their columns with biographical
sketches of Colonel Meade, and very pleasant
and instructive reading those sketches have been.
They one and all, however, fail to throw light on, or even
to mention, an incident in the gallant commissioner's
Indian career which, in the interests of current history, they
should have elucidated. We allude to the mystery which.
still envelopes the fate of the rebel Tantia, Tepee's head !
Tantia was hanged shortly after his capture, and—his
head was cut off, and was carried to England in a keg Of
spirits by—according to the account prevalent at the
time—Colonel, then Captain, Meade ! Its ultimate fate
or destination we have never been able to learn. Is it in
the British Museum, or in either of those at the Univer-
sities? Or has Colonel Meade, as one of the foremost
R gain
honegsiritQLhlearelreibmwsel's caVtorsl 4ccickci, thf4t shall be