The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-18 00:00:00

ENGLAND.

From a conversation with Signor Raffaele Settembrini,
the brave and affectionate son who, at the risk of his own
liberty, has achieved with such remarkable adroitness and
resolution the deliverance of his father and of his country-
men, we learn some particulars of the affair which have not
yet been published. It appears that this young officer, who
after serving a short time in the Sardinian navy, obtained
an appointment on 'board the Prince Albert, one of the new
Galway and American line of steampackets, was indebted
to Messrs. Bake, Adams, and Co., the chief proprietors of
the North African Steamboat Company's vessels, for per-
mission to go to Cadiz in the character of mate of their
steamer, the Warrior, for the purpose of seeing whether he
could do anything for his father, since it had been reported
in all the newspapers that the Neapolitan government
steamers, the Stromboli and the Ettore Fieramosca, wee
expected to bring the prisoners to the. ort of Cadiz prepara-
tory to their shipment for America. Signor- Raffaele Set-
tembrini expresses his gratitude to Messrs. Bake, Mani's,
and Co., as well as to Captain Cooper, the commander of
the Warrior, for the kind assistance he received from
them. His own intention at that time was simply to en-
deavour to effect the escape of his father in the harbour of
Cadiz. His precise age we do not know, but he looks, not
more than one or two and twenty, and since he had not
seen his father during a period of ten years' iuprisonment,
the loving recollections of childhood must have remained
without addition in his mind. Whilst the venerated patriot
and senator has lain immured in the chill dungeon of Santo
Stefano, buried in a seagirt rock of the Mediterranean, and
shut out from the hope and life of the world under a sen-
tence of perpetual incarceration, the gallant son has trodden
the decks of free Sardinie, or of free Britain, cherishing but
two desires—the first being to liberate his father, and the
second, that he might one day be enabled to contribute sure
effort for the liberation of his country. With a noble and
characteristic modesty, he will not hear a word of praise or
compliment upon what he has done, and only expresses regret
that he was not able to find an earlier opportunity of
contriving his father's escape from the prison. To return
to our narrative, accompanied by several of the officers and
crew of the Warrior, and dressed in his proper uniform, he
rowed towards the Stromboli, the Neapolitan frigate, in a
boat displaying the British Union Jack at its stern, and
having been received with due naval honours by the Nea-
politan officers, who ordered the guard to present arms to
him, supposing that he was an officer of our Royal Navy;
he introduced himself in his true name, as the son of the
prisoner, Luigi Settembrini, and begged permission to have
a farewell interview with his aged father previous to the
departure of the latter for transatlantic shores. The request
appeared so reasonable, and the young roan's official uni-
form was so imposing that the captain of the frigate Strom-
boli did not hesitate to comply, and sent to the other Nea-
politan Government vessel, the Eltore Fieramosca, which
lay close by, ordering the prisoner Settembrini to.come on
boardthe Stromboli, and 'meet his sou. We can imagine the
emotions with which they met upon the deck of the Strom-
boli, and poured out; with all the fervour of the Italian na-
ture, that affection which so many years of torture, loneli-
ness, and despair had not extinguished in the elder man,
and which the vicissitudes of education and enterprise, in
the opening of an active career, had not tempted the youth
to forget. But their interview was strictly watched. It took
place under the eye of the Neapolitan commander, and not
a word of any plan for the future could be exchanged. Raf-
faele Settembrini took a final leave of his father, and re-
turned to the Warrior, which was on the point of starting,
in order to continue her trip to Mogador, and the other
North African ports. He had hoped to be able to get a boat
alongside the Neapolitan steamer in the darkness of the
night, and help. his father to escape over the side. This was
his original design, but so vigilant a watch was kept in both
the Neapolitan ships, that it was impossible for any boat to
approach unobserved. He promptly altered his plan. Quit-
ting the English steamer, which presently left
,Cadiz with-
out him—but whilst the Neapolitans believed him also to
have gone—he lauded and proceeded to make his arrange-
ments in the city. He had got an introduction to Mr. Ben-
jamin Oliveira, our well-known countryman, who received
him most kindly and rendered him the greatest service. It
was understood by that time that the American clipper
David Stewart was chartered by the Neapolitan Govern-
ment to transport the 66 prisoners to New York—a transac-
tion of the illegality of which, to say nothing of its mean-
ness, we apprehend there cannot be any doubt—seeing that
they were not shipped as free stasaengers but as convicts or
slaves, on board a vessel of the United States, under sen-
tence of a foreign tribunal. However,.there was an honour-
able Spanish gentleman at Cadiz, the Count di Casabrunette,
who had some interest with the consignees to whom the
David Stewart had been sent, and he and Mr. Oliveira, en-
tering into young Settembrini's dutiful wish to accompany
his father, used their influence to have him taken by Capt.
Prentiss, of the David Stewart, as a seafaring lad, a native
of Cuba, who having been left at seine European port,
wanting to work his passage over to New York, in order that
he might afterwards get to his home at Havannah. This was
allowed as a favour, sines there were no other passergies
taken on board the American clipper, except the Neapolitan
prisoners themselves. The adventurous youth, disguised in
the rough clothes of a common shipbey, joined the crew of
the clipper, a mixed crewel Yankees, Irishmen, and negroes :
he had one narrow escape from discovery when' the captain
of the Ettore .Fieramesca, who had previously seen him
dressed in an English uniform, came on board the David
Stewart, and stood close to him, but without recognising
him. If he had been detected when on board the Neapolitan
frigate, he would assuredly have been claimed as a subject of
King Eon-the, and carried off to' pine away and rot in some
of the notorious and horrible caverns where, loaded with
irons, and starved with the privation of food and daylight,
the unhappy victims of that almost incredible cruelty are
doomed to endure a livingdeath. But at last the clipper, with
her noble freight of patient and suffering witnesses to the
cause of right and truth, towed by the Neapolitan steamer,
stood out to sea. It would be an error to suppose that, in what
was subsequently done to change the destination of the
vessel, Settembrini and his comrades had no other object
than to spare themselves the fatigue and loss of time of avoy-
ageto and fro across the Atlantic. It is true that those who
might survive on the arrival of the David , Stewart at
New York would have been exempt from personal restraint
after their landing, and free to come to Liverpool, or to
Havre, or to Genoa, if they conld obtain the means of doing
so ; but we are assured that some of them were already in
so shattered and exhausted a condition, having been sud-
denly removed from their loathsome cells, with constitutions
onfueLlca by theiA lung and painful ounfinconimt, and ex-
posed to sickness in an ill-found vessel upon a rough and
stormy sea, that it is probable they could not have been
landed at New York alive. At any rate, the discomforts
and perils of this "middle passage," and -the uncertainty
of their future fate at a distance from Europe, were well to
be spared • and it was for the sake of something more than
bravado diet they determined to avail themselves of the
gallantry of young Settembrini, and to get to England at
once. For the first two days he did his work with the
other seamen, and was treated as an extra hand—a stray
Cuban, making his way home from Spain ; but when the
clipper had got 200 miles to the west of Cape St. Vincent,
and the Ettore Fieramosca had cast her off and turned
about again, Raffaele Settembrini put on his uniform, and
walked up to Capt. Prentiss with that written protest signed
by all the Neapolitans which has been published. Quietly
and without any open demonstration they had imparted
to each other, as soon as their enemy disappeared below the
horizon, the plan which had been determined upon. They
now burst forth into joyful acclantations, and hailed the
young hero as their deliverer, embracing him, and kissing
his hand, as it is the matter of southern men sometimes to
do ; and even the sailors, inspired by this contagious excite-
ment, came thronging around him, cheering him altogether
lustily, and one by one begging his pardon for any little
incivility or practical joke which might have passed between
them whilst they only regarded him as a poor messmate
thrown by chance amongst them. The skipper, however,
like a cold-blooded, impassive Yankee as he was, remained
unmoved; and whereas the most despised "nigger" in his
motley crew did not appear insensible to the sentiments of
compassion and humanity, upon such an occasion, or refrain
from expressing his pleasure at this admirable surprise, in
the calculating mind of Capt. Prentiss those considerations
were outweighed by the almighty dollar, and it was not
until Settembrini invoked that potent American idol, that
he could prevail to alter the captain's purpose. Yet it should
be understood that of the sum of 8,600 dollars, which was
the amount of the freight, two .thirds had actually been
paid in advance, besides which a present of 400 dollars had
been made to Capt. Prentiss by the commanders of the
Neapolitan ships of war. However, on the first day, the
demand of the Neapolitans that they should be conveyed to
the nearest English port, though expressed in the most
courteous and respectful manner, was obstinately. refused.
Next day, the 21st of February, they renewed their impor-
tunities, and 'gave him notice of a regular suit and action
for damages, on account of their illegal detention, to be in-
stituted by every individual of the 66 Neapolitans before
the competent courts of the State of New York. This
argument it was that made Capt. Prentiss think better of
it. No violence was attempted or threatened; however
justifiable, in case of extreme neeessity, such conduct might
have been, none of the elder prisoners, and certainly not
Signor Luigi Settembrini, would have sanctioned it. Capt.
Prentiss wanted to put them off by promising to land them
at Madeira, but they were resolute, and would go their own
way. At last ho " caved in," if we may quote a phrase of
his own people, and turned the David Stewart about for
Cork, after calling his crew aft, and explaining to them that
the gentlemen obliged him to set aside his contract. We
should add that nothing could be more sulky and disagree-
able than his behaviour during the rest of his voyage.
Though not the slightest attempt was ever made by Set-
tembrini or the other Italians to interfere with his com-
mand of the ship, though they treated him with the utmost
civility and complaisance, offering him their cigars and in-
viting him to friendly conversation—he would scarcely
vouchsafe a word to any of them, and by supplying them
with filthy water and with the nastiest and most unwhole-
some food he aggravated the hardships and inconveniencet
of their voyage, ut, til after 14 days' tedious experience they
e to
at length reached Queenstown, and got ashor_einlsanat f and
receive the congratulations of all Ireland, n g
Scotland, as an earnest of their happy restoration to 'their
native land.