The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-21 00:00:00

THE HURRICANE IN THE WEST INDIES,

SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday.
New York papers to the 9th inst. have come to
hand, but all the intelligence they contain in refer-
ence to this calamity will be found in the subjoined
telegrams :

" Havannah, Cuba, Monday, Nov. 4.
" Advices from Porto Rico state that during the
hurricane on the coast on the 29th ult., the ship
Nuovo Apollo and four coasting lighters were sunk
in the Bay. 'Three ships, names unknown, dis-
mantled in the gale, are in the offing."

" November 5.

" Advices from St. Thomas represent that the
Bay is full of wrecks. Five steamers and 60
vessels have been lost in the great hurricane. The
dock, coal-yards, and factories at St. Thomas have
been destroyed. The Royal Mail steamer Rhone
was sunk. She had 145 passengers on board, of whom
only 25 were saved. Most of her crew were lost.
Forty of the crew of the Wye and another steamer,
name unknown, were saved. The steamers Conway
and Derwent were driven ashore, and the steamers
Tyne and Solent were dismasted. The Sarah New-
man, from New York, was ashore. Nearly 500
lives have been lost, and the town nearly destroyed
by a tornado. Pieces of wrecked vessels and wrecked
material are reported as having been fallen iu with
floating arouqd, off Santiago de Cuba. A French
steamer was also damaged by the hurricane at St.
Thomas, and the list of other vessels that received
injuries is very large."

" November 5, 10.5 p.m.

" Official advices have been received from the
superintendent of the Royal Mail line at St. Thomas
by the British Consul here to the effect that the
steamer Rhone was lost at Peter Island ; the
steamer Wye, Capt. Taylor, at Buck Island ; the
steamer Conway, Capt. Hammack, went ashore at
Tortola, and the steamer Derweut at St. Thomas.
The steamers Solent and Tyne have been dismasted,
and all the company's property is destroyed. The
town of St. Thomas is in ruins, and five steamers,
with 50 other vessels, are ashore. The loss of life
has been terrible. All the °Eileen and engineers of

the Rhone have been lost ; and out of all the pas-
sengers of the Rhone and the Wye only 4J have
been saved, including Capt. Taylor, of the 'Wye,
and Mr. Hodgeson, of Southampton, England. The
steamer had 150 passengers, mostly for Southamp-
ton, only 12 of whom are known to be saved."
The non-appearance up to the present time of the
anxiously looked-for steamship, the Douro,
strengthens the opinion which has been from the
first entertained by some persons well qualified to
judge as to the probabilities of the case that she will
not arrive till towards the end of the month, bring-
ing in regular course the mails and passengers due
on the 28th and 29th inst. Whatever may have
been the intentions of the Rnyal Mail Company's
officials at St. Thomas when the despatch was sent
away to Havannah announcing that " the Douro
will leave homewards on the 4th, and the Danube
will follow," it is believed that those intentions
could not be realized, or were changed from force of
circumstances. It appears from the meagre scraps
of information which have reached this country, via
Havannah and New York, that the coals, coal
depots, and wharves at St. Thomas shared in the
general ruin ; while the brief despatches to hand
this morning from New York afford too much
reason to fear that the passengers and mails had
been transferred from most, if not all, the intercolo-
nial steamers to the ill-fated Rhone before she was
overtaken by the hurricane. Hence it is argued with
much force of reasoning, that even if coals could have
been obtained for the Douro's homeward voyage,
probabilities are against the supposition that she
would have been sent home as an empty ship,
having few or no mails, passengers, or cargo to
bring. It is thought that, finding difficulties in the
way of obtaining the necessary supply of coals, the
Douro may have been sent on to Jamaica to coal,
and probably thence to Colon, embarking at that
place the homeward Australian and ,Pacific mails,
merely calling at St. Thomas on the way home. We
have now reached the 20th of the month, and in about
a week or eight days, should the steamers on the
Pacific side of the Isthmus arrive up in Panama in
proper time, the Atlantic steamer may be looked for
in England. If these conjectures prove to be cor-
rect, and the Douro do not earlier show herself,
another week must elapse before the anxious sus-
pense in which so many thousands have been kept
for the last 12 days can be relieved by a knowledge
of the actual facts, however sorrowful that know-
ledge may be. Meantime, the numerous relatives
and friends of those engaged in the devastated
regions of the west pass hour after hour in painful
anticipation and expectation of the Douro's arrival.
The subject of the public meeting, which, as stated
in The Sun of Monday, the Mayor (Mr. Stabbing)
has convened for 2 o'clock on Thursday afternoon,
was incidentally alluded to at a meeting of the
Chamber of Commerce last evening by Mr. Lan-
kester, who suggested whether, if the Douro had not
arrived previously to the hour named, it would not
be advisable to postpone that meeting until her ac-
tual arrival, in order that the real facts might be
placed before the public.
The MAYOR replied that he proposed, in the event
of the Douro not arriving, to postpone the meeting.
(Hear, hear.) There had, however, been a very-ear-
nest feeling that we should lose no time in the mat-
ter—(hear, hear)—and there were more reasons than
one why there should be no more delay than was
really possible. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. BucHAN said the Rev. M. Cooper had in-
formed him that he and his curate had been busying
themselves in getting up statistics as to the number
of orphans and widows that would be left in St
Mary's parish by the calamity. He therefore though
it unadvisable to defer the meeting.

Alderman COLES remarked that it was possible
this return might be based on data that would prove
comparatively worthless when the actual facts were
known.

The MAYOR said he felt that there were persons
here who could as well afford £5O as £5. If sub-

scription lists were got up in anticipation of the
misery, he feared there would be more £5 than £5O
given ; but in the presence of the actual calamity he
hoped the reverse would prove to be the case.
(Hear, hear.)

Nmv YORK, Nov. 9.
The following particulars of the late hurricane at
St. Thomas have been received here :

" HAVANA, Nov. 5.
" An official despatch from the superintendent of
the Royal Mail Steamship Company at St. Thomas
to the British Consul in this city says that all the
property of the company has been destroyed by a
terrible tornado which took place on the 29th of
October.

" The steamer Rhone was lost on Peter Island,
and the Wye, Captain Taylor, on Buck Island.
The Conway, Captain Hammack, went ashore on
Tortola Island, and the Derwent at St. Thomas.
The Solent and the Tyne were dismasted. All the
officers and engineers of the Rhone, and all others
on board of her, are lost. From the Wye 40 persons
were saved, including Captain Taylor Sand Mr.
Hodgeson. Over 50 vessels are wrecked.
" Of the passengers on board the regular steamer
for Southampton, which had sailed with 150 pas-
sengers, only 12 were saved.
" The town of St. Thomas is in complete ruins.
The loss of life has been very great, amounting to
100, and the destruction of property immense. The
tornado has, indeed, been a fearful one.

"A French steamer was also damaged by the
hurricane at St. Thomas, and the list of other
vessels that received injuries, large at first, is in-
creasing."

"HAVANA, Nov. 5, 6 p.m.
" Advices from St. Thomas represent that the
bay is full of wrecks. Five steamers and 60 vessels
have been lost in the great hurricane. The docks,
coalyards, and factories at St. Thomas have been
destroyed. The royal mail steamer Rhone was
sunk. She had 145 passengers on board, of whom
only 25 were saved. Most of her crew were lost.

" Forty of the crew of the Wye, and another
steamer, name unknown, were saved.

"The steamers Conway and Derwent were driven
ashore, and the steamers Tyne and Solent were
dismasted. The Tara Newman, from New York,
was ashore."

6' HAVANA, Nov. 6.

"Arrived, steamer Eagle from New York. She
reports having met the steamer Hendrick Hudson
with her machinery disabled, and towed her one
night, but in the morning her hawser parted, and
the Hendrick Hudson drifted on the coast. Tugs
have been sent to her assistance. Her stern is
ashore, but she will probably get off."

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION IN

DUBLIN.

DUBLIN, Nov. 20.

At nine o'clock this morning an attempt was made
to assassinate a pensioner of the 25th Regiment.
The man was walking down Peter-street, when he
was fired at from behind by some person unknown.
His hat was riddled by large shot, but he was not
wounded. It is supposed that his assailant mistook
him for a member of the detective police.
Yesterday evening the police made a seizure of
arms and ammunition in a public-house within the
liberties of Dublin, and at the same time arrested
four men, assistants in the establishment. The
constables found eight revolvers, and a quantity of
ammunition. The four prisoners were brought
before the magistrates this morning, who remanded
them for a week. Some of them openly avowed
Fenian sympathies.

PURE WATER! PURE BEER —The general ad-
mission that no process is known by which polluted water
can be rendered free from injurious qualities, and thus
harmless to health, is one which has spread a good deal of
alarm and anxiety amongst families, who know not who
ther, directly from their cistern, or compounded with their
beer, they may not be inviting an insidious and powerful
enemy into their homes. The sinking of Artesian wells
has often been pointed out as the remedy for this evil.
But an Artesian well involves expense and time. We have
before us an account of ono some 200 feet in depth, which
took three years to complete, and in which upwards of
£3,000 was expended before it gave the perfect water from
the chalk, secured against all other springs and surface
drainage. This, however, has just been effected by Messrs.
Docwrs, the eminent hydraulic contractors for the Messrs.
Savill, of the Stratford Brewery, whom, we should imagine,
in self-defence, have Wen compelled to Set this excellent
example to family brewers, more particularly after the
expose of the condition of the Lea water in the neighbour-
113g parish of Bow.—Globe.