The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-10 00:00:00

SPAIN AND MOROCCO.

A letter from Tetuan, dated March 25th, sa•rs:,
—The most severely contested and, as it has pr
the decisive and final action of the Spanish I sa
paign in Morocco, was fought the day before y,
terday. Of the bare facts of what has occurr 3d, of
the battle, the Moors' courageous defence, thi 3ir
final complete defeat, the heavy loss of the S: )a.
niards (larger than has been admitted by of fie
returns to have been suffered in any other acti On of
this war), of the renewed negotiations, and, 'the
final signature of peace by Marshal O'Donnell and
Maley Abbas, you will already have rec tived
tidings.
At four o'clock on the morning of the 23d i
the (liana sounded in the streets of Tetuan ar d iti
the camps in front and rear of the city; tents here
struck, mules loaded, and before six the w hole
Spanish army, between 20,000 and 25,000 str
was in motion westwards. In Tetuan remain ed a
slender garrison of barely 1,500 men ; the t area
forts near the sea, known respectively as Mai tin,
Custom-house, and Star, were intrusted to the o
of a small force of infantry of the line and of a f.hia.
companies of the Basque contingent, besides ll] e
necessary artillerymen for working the guns. at
was evident the General-in-Chief expected to I Lave
occasion for every man he could muster.
The action commenced at a short league f emu
Tetuan ; the ground where it terminated, and wl :ere
the Spaniards encamped, is about Weague furt LIS r
off. The river Guad el hitt, or Martin, changes its
name it more than one place, and at a league : tnd
a half from Tetuan, where it makes an abrupt l am
to the right and crosses the road under a bri( ge,
it is known as the Guad el Ras. The road to 'I hn-
gier is rather more like a road than the imper rect
tracks which generally bear that name in 1 Jais
country. The positions successively held and al tan-
doned by the Moors on the line of advance of the
main body of the Spanish army were of an adva rata-
geous nature, a series of hills partially covered vtith
brushwood with here and there a dollar, or hanaret,
of the poor huts the rural population herabouts
habit. To give you a correct detailed account; of
the action is scarcely possible, owing to the extant
of the ground over which it was fought, and beca use
it was in great measure a collection of desult, ry
combats. The plan of the Moors was evid, t
enough. They are, as you know, but poor tacticia m;,
and judging, it may be supposed, of others by
themselves, they imagined that the Spaniards woe thl
advance along the valley without guarding tbo
lofty and extensive heights upon their rig ht.
Thither, however, General Rios betook hims elf,
and soon became aware of the presence of a la- ,^,ge
force of the enemy, estimated at about 12,000 men.
-While that general, making a wide circuit checl ced
the advance of this left wing, Eshague, Prim, ar ,d a
small portion of the 3d corps, were fighting tlAeir
way along the lower ground and over the hills t lie t
diversified it. The most severe conflict was after x,h e
passage of the river, where the Moors held ve
strong positions opposite to the Spanish left. 11 zre
the army changed its front about their quarters -to
the left, and Prim attacked a village in wb
the Moors had established themselves in great for ea,
and where they made a most obstinate resistan De.
A charge of cavalry directed against it proved, as
might have been expected, utterly fruitless, and w 'as
repulsed with the loss of about 80 men and hors es.
Twice was the village taken and retaken, until at
last the Spaniards permanently occupied it. The Te
can be no question that the Moors fought on Friday
better than they have ever yet done in this ca X-
paign. Their leaders had found means to inspi it
them, notwithstanding their many previous defea ts,
to redeem which they made a desperate effo et.
Fresh troops had evidently been brought up ha na
remote parts of the empire. The black cavalry w, re
there in force, and displayed great intrepidil,T.
There were several hand-to-hand conflicts, in whi th
bodies of Moorish infantry boldly attacked Spani
battalions. In one instance a mere handful of in, m,
rushed fearlessly upon the Spanish line, dying up, zn
the bayonets, but not until some of them had : ,c-
-tually penetrated the battalion. Wherever tln re
was a position favourable to the irregular mode of
fighting of the Moors, these stubbornly defended
and were more than once driven out only at the
point of the bayonet. Doubtless, the leaders were

for some time in hopes of their fire being responded
to by that of the force which had been sent along
the heights to get into the Spanish rear, but to
which Rios opposed a barrier. Owing to the natu
of the ground, and to avoid being himself outflank 3d
by the large body of the enemy he encountered,
Rios had to make a very wide circuit, and f
Moors, seeing this, attempted to push in betwei
him and the main body of the army, and to turn toe
flank of the latter. They were repulsed, and after
that, as already mentioned, the principal contest Ras
on the left. From ridge to ridge, from one captured
position to another, the Spaniards at last came in
sight of the Moorish camps, These were three in
number, and great hopes were entertained that, as
on the ith of February, they would become the prize
of the victors. But the enemy had profited by ex-
perience, and no longer entertained a blind confi-
dence in their power of successfully defending any
position. With extraordinary celerity their camps
were raised. It is true that they are not generally
encumbered with much baggage, and most of them
had probably little to transport beyond their can-
vas dwellings and a few old clothes and blankets;
nevertheltss the rapidity of the operation was sur-
prising. A staff officer, who was observing and
sketching, assured me that not more than 10 or 12
minutes elapsed from the time when every tent
was standing to the moment when the last had
disappeared.

Soon after four o'clock all was over, and nearly
the last shots fired were by the two batteries of
field artillery at the dispersed Moorish cavalry.
After half-past four no more shots were heard, and
this is worthy of note, as showing how completely
the Moors must have considered the game up and
have felt themselves proportionately disheartened,
for in previous actions (except in one or two, when
heavy rain seemed to have the effect of rendering
their firearms unserviceable) they have invariably,
even after they felt themselves beaten, kept up
skirmishing until dark. The killed were nume-
rous, the wounded much more so, but the hurts
of many of the latter were slight, and at least
200 or 300 were able to walk back to Tetuan,
and the next day to the seashore for embarka-
tion. There was considerable loss of officers,
as usual, in this war. All the commanding
officers of C'a:adores, light infantry battalions, en-
gaged were hit. The heaviest loss (about one-half •
of the whole) fell upon Prim's corps, which was the
most engaged ; Echague's trcop3 had nearly 300
killed and wounded, including 3 colonels or lieu-
tenant-colonels and about 30 officers. The official
return gives 7 officers and 130 men killed, 97
officers and 1,026 men wounded. General Alcale
Galiano, commanding the cavalry,
was slightly
wounded. Colonel Jovellar, of the head-quarters
staff, received a ball through the arm. The total
loss
iios
n 1 ,02f6
the
e w killedoun
wounds
and
are
of wounded,little
ibmutpoartlaanrgeee, and
those who have received them will be able to return.
to their duty in two or three weeks.

BOATa
very
melancholy
nkgT accident,wlo 'mOaßnEO.neCall::•;
is reAside in Manchester, and
(niatrhae
iriiavnierpseouns,ew,
hnxplroeVitt
r Ai
dNa Cy
H O
afternoon, L Y
who has acted as shopwoman in the wholesale millinery
Goodli El'''.
establishment of Mr. Purdy, of York ; Jabez Davies a
clerk to Mr. M'Cullock, coal agent to the Great Northern
Railway ; and Jonas Smith, in the service of the North-
Eastern Railway Company, hired a boat at King's Stairh,
for the purpose of proceeding up the river. Davies teak
the oars, Miss I-lampson sat near the stern of the boat, and
Smith sat behind her for the purpose of steering. After the
party had reached the curve of the river, near the Water-
works, about a mile and a half from the place where they had
started, Smith, at the request of Davies, rose for the pur-
ps: of having a turn at the oars. As he was passing ;,p
the boat his foot caught in Miss Harnpson's dress. Tile
young lady immediately arose to her feet, when thebo.rt
becoming suddenly overbalanced, Smith fell backwards -II
on The latter, in hlr
the water, followed by Miss Ramps .
by the
struggles in the water, seized the former throat, and
they went to the bottom ton ether. Smith, however, by
some means liberated himself, and on rising to the surf ace
the second time, was saved by Davies. Miss liampson was
only seen once after she first sank,and, about an hotter-
_ inquest Saturday,
wards, was taken out a corpse. At the on atuiday,
it was stated that only a few minutes before the fatal occur-
rence, jolting
whilst with her companions, Miss Hampson
had remarked. " It I should fail overboard, I should not
drown on account of my crinoline." A v ~t,lik.t of " Acci-
dental death by drowning" was returned.