The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-08 00:00:00

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weighed anchor, and steered for Sapri, in the Buy
of Salerno. Here the plot failed again, for it hail
been imagined by the conspirators that the prisons
of Ponza were filled with political offenders who
would eag,rly embrace their cause ; but instead of ,
that they found murderers, assassins, and the very
worst sort of criminal offenders ; all very Yfillintz
to beset at liberty, but havint; little inclination to
rally round the standard of Italy's freed an.
" Any person may imagine what a ship we had,
with 300 of the most vicious convicts on board,
and without subordination.

" From Ponzl we steered for Sapri in the Gulf
of Salerno, and upon nearing the same we passed
another steamer, when all our conTicts were ordered
to lie down on deck, in order to avoid raising
suspicion by their great number.
"At last we reached the place of destination, and
we were hap!)y to see the lawless gang of revolu-
tionists and felons leave our decks, to embark on
their perilous enterprise, and for the first moment
we felt ourselves free agents, which we instantly
took advantage of to set sail, and so part company
with our late masters.

" What course the insurgents took after leaving
us does not properly appertain to my story, but in a
few words it may be related. Many of the convicts
dispersed immediately upon lauding, and set to
work plundering the population ; and even some
charges of murder are brought against them.
Others deserted as foon as convenient, and the
revolutionists and remainder having penetrated
into the interior, expecting to find 600 msn in
arms to join them, met instead with the soldiers
sent after them, and, being without ammunition,
were soon overpowered, and partly slain, partly
taken prisoners.
"To return, however, to ourselves. As soon
as we got rid of our self-constituted captain, and
were our own masters, we steamed off, and
our Captain shaped his course towards Naples,
thinking it the wiser plan to proceed thither,
and make a declaration of what had occurred.
Upon our way, we were met by two
Neapolitan war steamers, that had been
sent in our pursuit (at which time we were
some 12 miles from shore), when we were brought
up by one of them firing a shot across u 4, and the
captain was ordered to go on board with his ship's
papers. Hereupon our ship was taken possession
of, and we were escorted back to Sapri, where we
lay several days ; the officers of the war steamers
telling us that they would give us coal to take
us on to Cagliari, whither we were bound before
the act of piracy took place. At list orders came
that we were to go to Naples, and upon our arrival
there were much sympathised with by the man-of-
war officers, who expressed themselves very sorry
to see us in such an unpleasant piece of business.
At last they said we would have to go on shore for
a few days, and that then the ship would be set at
liberty, we should have coals given to ua, and we
could depart. We, taking all these fair words for
truth, and never suspecting what was in the wind,
consented to everything, and went on shore with
the captain, crew, and passengers, when we were
put into carriages, and immediately handcuffed,
and, escorted by military, were conducted to the
Vicaria poison. I muet not forget to state that a
gentleman belonging to the arson d, seeing myself
and fellow-engineer handcuffed together, told who
we were, and the handcuffs were taken off, on the
road to the prison.
" Tou know that the Vioaria is the worst of the
prisons in Naples, and it richly merits its notoriety,
for it is beyond belief that in a European country
such an abominable den should exist, or that a
Government laying claim to being a Christian one
shoeld dare to offend the dignity of human nature
by confining human beings iu such damp and filthy
places.
"The first proceeding upon arrival at the prison
was to unclothe us entirely, and search our clothes
and persons, even to the hair ou our heads. We
were then conducted by a dark passage through a
number of massive doors, each of which was un-
locked and locked again as we passed, until wo
arrived at a cell into which eight of us were put.
This cell was so small that our mattresses placed
round the walls were touching each other ; we
had no chairs, but sat on the beds ; and the
only light was furnished by a window strongly
grated, and which we were prevented looking
out of, as a sentry (a Swiss mere nary), who paced
the courtyard, had orders to shoot any prisoner
who might stand at the window. Besides our cell
was horribly damp, so that we nearly all suffered
from its effects in pains in the legs ; and it was so
eer, tee ref y 1-11.47 i., r.na v,i0111; shortly 9,fter outy
arrival 1 caught seven large one 4, n„ mane
trap of one of my boots. But the worst evils were
the bad air and bad water. There was no v,
ntila-
tion, and a large wt.oden tub, which served us for
the most necessary wants, emitted such effluvia that
we lived in a constant state of nausea. This was
heightened by the turnkeys neglecting sometimes
j to empty it, in order to force a bribe trot us, and
in which they were generally successful. The
water, too, was served to us in a wooden pail,
which was so dirty that it gave a taste to the water,
which made it unfit to drink. This was also made
a source of emolument to the gaolers, for they
served us with drinkable water for one halfpenny
a glass.
" The King of Naples allows his prisoners straw
and a damp floor to sleep on, vermin and rats
for bedfellows, a small loaf of black bread and a
plate of soup for food, a pestiferous atmosphere to
inhale, and messy sale water to drink ; but he also
allows his gaolers to sell victuals and drink, and to
lot beds to such prisoners as are so for tuuaee as to
have friends with money to pay for them.
"Upon our entrance inio the gaol, the first ques-
tion we were asked by the a'ten !ants was, a It we
wanted beds?' as we could have them by pay ing 4d.
per night. Of course we asked for beds, and re-
ceived each a low hedstock and mattress, which lat-
ter was,'howevr, extremely uncomfortable, owing
to its being made, tmpick,ed oakum. - Sill the
greatest evil of the (beds' was ono which disnivered
itselt afterwardniatnely, their being full-Of ver-
min, with which 'we found ours-lv,s soon covered.'

" I must not forget to men ion anot'ier sort of
companions which were suffizient'y numerous—
namely, flat lizards, which ran up and down she
walls and added not a little to the repulsiveness of
the place.
" As we two (the English engineers) had some 60
francs on us when we enter. d, and as we l elieved
we were only going to stop a few days, we spent it
pretty freely (getting at ihe same time very little
for our money), but as day after day came and no
signs id liberty, we began to get rather anxious for
our future condition, more particularly as we had
fully expected to have been visited by the English
C msui, or some one in his name. But no consul,
no friend, and we were just on the verge of being
obliged to content ourselves with the black loaf
and plate of bean water yclept soup, and to see our
beds taken away, and substituted by the truss of
straw and the damp floor of our cell, when succour
arrived by the kind exertions of some private indi
viduals resident in Naples, who, aware of our des-
perate condition if left without help, had succeeded
in bribing the turnkeys to take us money in, so
that we were thereby enabled to avoid the miser-
able lot of the Sardinian crew, who were put into
large filthy dungeons, and obliged to sleep on the
floor without covers, and upon a straw litter that
was dirtier than any farmer would allow to lie in
stall or stable.

" Thus we two English subjects were kept for
three long months rotting in a filthy dungeon,
awaiting our trial in a town in which resided an
English Consul, and within gun-shot of an English
man-of-war, whilst the authorities at home were
blandly explaiuing to the house that the jurisdic-
tion of the government was beyond all doubt.
" I believe (being since informed) that upon
being moved by the aforesaid friends, the English
Consul at Naples had applied at the prison for
admittance, but was refused, so that if we had
perished in our prison, the fault would have lain
at the door of the government at home ; and
perished we certainly should, had we not been aided,l
as already explained, by our friends ; for who could
live three months in such a dreadful cot!
.i i.,_e
wi hont succumbing, if obliged to put up,wait_bd"ais
prison allowance 1 It has been atiirtpo . wail
stoutly denied, that torture was prActised J"
taini„g to my
piisons ; and, although not VP these
own history, it will perhaps be as an inmate
„7:4, arnivs to state
b e what has come under my observation as
was in the
of the prison in regard to dirt:
saw him, "
A. prisoner who, when we
his limbs as if
condition, ti• paralysis, told us he
most wretched
conveyed to the prison,
labouring under an
inattsck o
was arrested rope in the way known
by a
ested whilst bed,
as
and being tied
pinioned, "9 interrogated as to his knowledge of
the robbery. As lie denied all knowledge of it the
.K tightened up behind, and the question put
ro
113w-iollowed up by another strain, until his
aga.ol,
..p,0,4 were brought together ; but still denying
all knowledge, he was after a time taken away, and
eoutim d iu a subterraueous cell for 25 days, and
,vas, whim w. saw him, upon the po"nt of being art
at liberty upon ht, ptomising solemnly t' a 1 hi-
would never reveal outside to wha ueige he h d
be en subjected.
" 'lbis is what the man himself communicated to