The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-06 00:00:00

THE CREW OF THE ST. ABBS.

A few days ago we published a statement made before
the British Agent at Aden by a native of Eastern Africa.
This statement was to the effect that the narrator had
been driven by stress of weather on the Somali coast, and
had there seen a man of light complexion who was acting
as a slave. Contriving to speak a few words to this slave,
the East African was told that he had been wrecked on the
Somali coast some thirteen years ago, and with some of
his companions, who were then in the interior, had been
subjected to bondage by the Somali people. A correspon-
dent of the Standard is disposed to believe that this slave
was one of the crew of the St. Abb s. It is true that he
called himself a Banyan—a Hindoo believer in the trans-
migration of souls--but his account did not bear out this
assertion. A Banyan can eat no meat without immedi-
ately losing caste ; whereas this slave acknowledged that
he ate meat and yet retained his religion. A Banyan always
speaks Arabic, besides other languages ; but this slave
could speak no Arabic, nor indeed Hindustani. These
facts prove the man's ignorance of the Banyan faith; and
the correspondent of the Standard therefore concludes
that he was an Englishman, but fearful of acknowledging
his Christian faith to an East African, who was of the
same complexion as his captors.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
The Coloured Men's National Convention, which
last week we reported as being in session at Wash.
ington, paid a visit to General Grant on the 19th
January, through a committee, whose chairman
delivered to him an address in the name of four
millions African citizens and 700,000 electors of
African descent, a number he asserted reduced by
assassination and murder in exercising the franchise
guaranteed by American law. Ile expressed the
great confidence felt by the coloured men in the
General's ability and determination to administer
the Government according to the " principles of
morals and law announced by the fathers." To
the address General Grant thus replied :
"I thank the Convention, of which you are the repro-
seniative, for the confidence they have expressed, and I
hope sincerely that the coloured people of the nation may
receive every protection which the laws give to them. They
shall have my efforts to secure such protection. They should
prove themselves by their acts, their advancement, pros-
perity, and obedience to the laws, worthy of all privileges
the Government has bestowed upon them ; and by their
future conduct prove themselves deserving of all they now
claim."

Nor was that Grant's only speech on the 19th
January, for the Mississippi Republican Delegation
called on him to secure the restoration of the State
to the Union under the Constitution voted on last
summer. In reply, the General said the Recon-
struction Committee reported a bill embodying
substantially what the committee desired, and in
the course of conversation about political affairs in
the South, including those of Mississippi, he re-
marked he wanted the matter settled as soon as
possible, or before the beginning of his Administra-
tion. Then the committee of the Baltimore City
Council was introduced to present resolutions of
friendly feelings, and to tender a hospitable invita-
tion to the city. General Grant replied he was
" under obligations to the City Council and their
committee for the kind invitation, and would be
very glad to accept it were it in his power; that he
was one of the trustees of the Peabody Educational
Fund, who held their annual meeting in Baltimore
on Thursday and Friday ; but he had private en-
gagements for those evenings." In reply to a ques-
tion, he said " he could not now name any hour to
receive the citizens of Baltimore. If the business
of the Institute occupied Thursday and Friday it
was probable he would do so on Saturday morning,
but he would see the committee again and name the
place and hour."
On Thursday morning, Jan. 21, Camden-street,
in front of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad depot,
was densely thronged by the citizens of Baltimore
to receive the President Elect at their city. The
General was accompanied by Admiral Farragut and
wife, Hon. W. H. Evarts, wife and daughter, Mr.
Riggs and wife, and Generals Dent and Comstock.
In response to the loud cheering Grant lifted his
hat an almost imperceptible distance from his head,
took the arm of the Hon. W. 'r. Albert, entered his
carriage, and with his suite drove to that gentle-
man's house. The rest of the party were accom-
modated as guests in the 11Iount Vernon Hotel.
There they stumbled on the celebrated Confederate
General T. B. Magruder, to whom Mrs. Riggs ex-
tended her band, having known him as a captain in
the United States army, warmly asking, " How do
you, Captain Magruder?" General Grant's first
visit was to the Peabody Institute, when the trus-
tees immediately went into executive session. It
is extraordinary how men now discover that in
Grant's unpretending appearance there is an indefin-
able, indescribable something which impresses on
the observer that here is no ordinary man. It took
a great deal of impressing on the part of Grant,
however, before he made this generally known.
The New York Commercial Advertiser came out
with another smashing article on the evening of
January 20 against Senator Fenton. Last week
we gave one for which, with other allegations, that
paper was threatened with a suit for libel. But
this only seemed to spur on the Advertiser in the
course it had chosen, and it openly dared the late
Governor.
"Governor Fenton fears to bring a libel suit. * * *
He and his back-door-go- betweens understand too well that
we know too much. * * * No honest, upright citizen,
much less a Governer and United States Senator, can sub-
mit to the brand we have put upon him. * * * We
knew men who, for the last four years, have been acting as
brokers of the Executive Chamber—one who levied black
mail on the Dry Dock Railroad Company for $20,000, to
obtain the signature of his Excellency ; another, who made
the Insurance Companies of this city pay toll to the
amount of $10,000; another, who received $lO,OOO for
Fenton's approval of the Erie Railroad Bill, &c., &c."
The Tribune had " thrown itself into the quarrel as
a matter of course, for there could not be a little sen-
sation of that sort without Horace Greeley's inter-
ference. On the morning of the same day this is
what the Tribune said, Mr. Hastings being the
editor of the Advertiser—
"lt may possibly be that Governor Fenton deserves
abuse ; but the fact that Mr. Hugh J. Hastings stigma-
tizes and scandalizes him creates a strong presumption in
favour of his integrity. For what:rottenness was ever re
vealed iu the recent political history of our State that this
Hastings was not implicat3d in ? Who has had a bad re-
putation for jobbery if ho has not? And how can a
Governor ha venal and yet have Hugh for his enemy ?"
Of course Mr. Greeley did not escape, for an article
almost as severe appeared in the Advertiser of that
evening, charging him with corruption at Washing-
ton, if not at Albany. This is a nice fight among
the Republican party, and it seems to have been
copied pretty closely in Indiana, where the war-
ring Radicals nearly ended in losing the seat in the
Senate, and only succeeded in returning a man
who was not the one the party caucus had selected,
by a compromise.

The Evening Post came down upon the Tribune,
why, we do not profess to know, perhaps in self-
glorification, taking up the great Radical organ to
point the contrast of that journal's shortcomings
with its superiority. "We are not like !the Tri-
bune, a mere party paper," says the Evening Post,
" nor a Protectionist." We work for the benefit of
the whole nation ; but
" The Tribune, on the other hand, is engaged, in cora.