The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-04 00:00:00

ALLEGED DISCOVERY OF GUANO.

The Spanish Consul-General presents his com-
pliments to the Editor of The Sun, and begs to for-
ward the translation of an article relative to tha
probable discovery of guano on the southern coast
of the island of Cuba, which appeared in the
Madrid Gazette of the 23d ult., in hopes it may
prove of sufficient interest to merit ins,rtion.
JOSE J. DE MORA, Consul-General.
Consulado General de Espana, en la
Gran Bretana, 1, Cushion-court,
Old Broad-street, June 3.

" Savannah, March 24,

"We lia,ve lately spoken of the discovery of a
deposit of guano upon the Keys (Cayos) adjacent
to the island on its southern side ; we announced
the appointment and departure of a commission
deputed to make a detailed survey of the said
rocks, and also notified the fact of the arrival of
some cases of samples sent from Trinidad by the
commission ; from which place, according to the
intelligence published in our number of last Sun-
day, it was announced that. the guano had been
met with in abundance and of fine quality. We
this day propose t.) occupy ourselves more fully
with this discovery, entering (although briefly)
into its history; for we are of opinion that the
facts which have come to our knowledge, and
which we are now about to relate, will not, be
found wanting in interest, more especially since
the racent publication of the decree of his Excel-
lency the Governor-Superintendent..
. .

"According to our information, then, the exist-
ence of a species of guano upon the Cayos, adja-
cent to the island, and even upon some point of
the island itself, was a circumstance that had been
long since ascertained. One of our friends assures
us that, happening to be some years back at
Trinidad, he had been commissioned by a merchant
of Havannah t ) withdraw from the stores of that
city certain bags of guano, with the object of remit-
ting the same to France for the purpose of its being
examined with a view to ascertain whether its ship-
ment to that market would likely to be advanta-
geous, subsequent to which he had learned that
its transmission having taken place, the answer
which had been returned was that the guano was
found to be of excellent quality. Again, we learn
that D. Tranquilino Sandelio de Noda has declared
that among his youthful recollections he remembers
that upon the occasion of his sailing towards Bata-
bano from the direction of Vuelta Abajo his vessel,
having to make her escape from the pursuit of
pica es, had been obliged to take refuge upon one
of the southern Cayos, where the passengers found
that they could scarcely sustain the bad odour
emitted from the soil ; which strong smell, he pre-
sumed must have proceeded from an abundant de
posit of guano. But, at all events, we are not
aware that up to the present moment any serious
investigation has been made of the matter, al-
though it is certain that very powerful reasons
exist to lead us to suspect that the greater portion,
if not the whole, of the guano which for a long
time has beenconsumed in the United States under
the name of Mexican guano has been taken from
the Cayes upon our southern coast.
However this may be, in the course ofThelpast
year Captain Green, of the American brig Mon-
cure, succeeded in convincing the firm. of Tyng and
Co., of this city, that guano in large quantities did
actually exist upon the Cayos of Jardines and
Jardinillos, and that a largo profit would be de-
rived from its exploitation, if permission could be
obtained to work it. The house of Tyng and Co.
applied to his Excellency the Superior Civil
Governor, Captain-General and Superintendent of
Finance, requesting such exclusive privilege for a
certain term, and presenting a sample of the sub-
stance in question, submitting that they had este-
• blished a right to claim that or an equivalent re•
ward
,for the information which might be conceded
without prejudice to the State, since from the be-
fore mentioned Cayos alone as much as 150,000
tons might be annually extracted.
" As it may naturally be presumed, our supreme
authority gave immediate orders that the sample of
guano should be analysed, committing this task co
the case of the intelligent director of the. Labor-
atory of Chymical Investigations. Those who are
acquainted with the activity and scientific attain-
ments of that distinguished professor will not be
surprised to learn that this commission was promptly
and conscientiously performed. Although the an-
alysis did not furnish results entirely conformable
to the qualities which had been attributed to the
sample of guano submitted, it, ou the hand, gave
ethers more than sufficiently satisfactory and valu-
able to render it highly advisable to continue the
investigation ; for, although no guano equal to that
of Peru had been found, still the substance which
had been examined possessed qualities, as a man-
ure, of an exceedingly valuab:e nature, which would
render its employment iu our agriculture highly
profitable and even afford ample returns to the ex-
chequer by the granting licenses for its exp -,rtation,
which would, not have been so earnestly sought for
without well-grounded reasons for counting upon a
profit able return.
" The sample submitted to examination was a
substance which, taking the result of its qualitative
analysis, was found to contain sulphate of lime or
gypsum, traces of salt, chloride of sodium, phos-
phate of lime with oxide of iron, carbonate of lime
with indications of magnesia, silica and slicate of
iron, vegetable organic matter and water com
bined ; the quantitative analysis showing that the
sulphate of lime and the traces of salt en-
tered into its composition in the proportion of
40 parts in the 100, the phosphate of lime 20
parts, the carbonate of lime 12, and the silica and
silicate of iron 2, organic vegetable natter
6, and water and loss 20 parte. Mr. Casaseca very
justly called attention to comparison of this analysis
with that of the guano of Peru, from which the
sample examined materially differed, since the
latter contained neither uric acid, urate of ammonia,
or ammonia 2al salts. whi!e the average qualitative
analysis of the Pei uvian guano supplies no sulphate
of lime, the sample aualyeed contained no less than
40 per cent. of that substance, it being to be ob-
served that no guano hitherto examined had yet
furnished gypsum, on which account Mr. Casaseca
considered himself authorised in terming it a cal-
careous stone.

" But Mr. Casaseca was notwithstanding of
opinion that this substance. was to be considered as
a mineral manure of great utility, on account of
the large quantity of gypsum it contained, and to a
high degree valuable in particular descriptions of
cultivation, no less than On account of the remark-
able proportion it contained of phosphate of lime,
one of the best mineral manures known. He was
of opinion, therefore, as we have already stated,
that the subject was a matter calling for thorough
investigation ; and this accordingly is the object
with which the commission appointed has set out
on its voyage, accompanied by the before-men
tioned Captain Green, sent by the firm of Tyng and
Company.
" The commission left Batabano on the 6th ; on
the 7th the steamer arrived, conveying it nearly as
far as the extremity of the Rosario Channel; and
anchoring near the Cantiles Cayo. This cayo was
examined, and an abundance of white guano,
similar to that sold in the United States as Mexican
guano, was found upon it. On the Bth the Rosario
Cayo was examined, and on the 9th the Pasages.
Cayo, upon which was found guano equal to that of
the Cantiles. On the 10th after going in the direc-
of the Largo Cayo, their explorations were con-
Celled with various results, but they had found on
some islets in sight of the said cayo an immense
number of birds and a considerable quantity of
guano.
" On the 11th, directing their course along the
south of the Largo reef and. cayo towards the Bel-
lenatos Cayos, they found upon the larger one to
the east some guano of superior quality. On the
12th, at daybreak, the steamer went iu a direction
E. by S. of the Largo Cayo, and visited some cayos
which they had not examined on the 10th, meeting
with a dark-coloured guano, and upon one of them
so imreense an assemblage of birds that the very
sun was darkened by them ;' the soil of this cayo
was covered with eggs, it being calculated there
were as many as a dozen to every square yard. The
guano appeared to be abundant, and of excellent
quality. The steamer afterwards sailed to Trinidad,
from which place the commission was about to leave
for the cayos of Doce Legnas, and to continue their
explorations as far as the Cruz Cayo, alio reserving
fur examination the cayos situated between the Ro-
sario Channel and the Isle of Pings.
" But before resuming their labours the commis-
sion took care to remit to his Excellency the Go-
vernor and Captain-General six cases of samples of
the qualities of guano, to all appearance distinct,
which it had met with at different spots. Some at
least of these samples, which we have had the plea-
sure of inspecting, must differ considerably from
that previously analyzed by Mr. Casaseca ; for, if
we are not mistaken, it cannot be doubted that they
exhale ammonia in abundance, and that conse-
quently that essential point of distinction between
it and the guano of Peru no longer exists.
" The samples have now been since TUesday last
in the hands of Mr. Casaseca, with the view of his
making new analyses of the same, so that the de-
finitive results by which we are to abide cannot be
long in being made known. Be these what they
may, it is our firm conviction that they cannot fail
•

to prove of great importance, as well to the genera
prosperity of the island as to the interests of the na-
tional in asury. For if, as we consider in every way
improbable, the guano from the new depoQit4,
whence the samples collected by the commission
have been Wien, should not be found to be im-
mensely more rich than the former in fertilising
power, the information we have received of
.the
avidity with which the guano most resembling that
first analysed is received on the neighbouring con-
tinent would already assure us of its recognised
utility and value for exportation when once autho-
rised, as it has accordingly sinee been, by the de-
cree of bis. Excellency the Governor Superintendent
of the 12th inst. The liberal terms of this decree
deserve our warmest acknowledgments, as much on
account of the just discretion exercised in the total
avoidance of any grant of monopoly as on account
of the zealous desire shown on behalf of the agri-
cultural interests of this island.

" Such, then, are the facts and observations
which we proposed to enregister. That our agri-
culturists should not; show themselves indifferent
to the benefits thus conferred upon us by Provi-
dence, or ungrateful to the exertion; of the autho-
rities, is our sincere desire, as it must needs be of
whoever feels a true interest iu the prosperity and
enrichment of the island."

ASSAULT IN A RAIL WAY CARRIAGE.

--

, Mr.. James Algernon Stuart Austen, a middle-
aged man, of Headley, Surrey, stated to be a mer-
chant in the city, son of a baronet, and brother to
a county magistrate, was examinet before a bench
of justices at Reigate on Tuesday, on a charge of
committing a gross and indecent assault upon Miss
Emily Burley, lady's maid to the wife of the Rev.
Lord Char!es Hervey, in a railway carriage during
its passage through a tunnel, in the month of May
last. The complainant stated that she left London
by the 4.40 p.m. South-Eastern train hi a second-
class carriage on the 12th ult. There were two men
in the carriage with her. The defendant was ens
of them. (Complainant pointed him out in the
court.) During the journey she was grossly insulted
by the defendant. At first he spoke pleasantly to
her, but she only spoke to him when he spoke to
her. The other person in the carriage was a very
disagreeable-looking mar, with a swollen hand and
face ; he looked as if he had been fighting. She was
frightened at him, and objected to get into that
carriage, but as the train was just starting she had
no time to get into another. Defendant began by •
putting his feet on hers shortly after the train
started. She then moved back on her seat, but she
could not move back so far as she wished because
she had some parcels on her right hand. The.de-
fendant was sitting opposite. The defendant was
first sitting in the corner when ho put his fe,t near
to hers. Before coming to Merstham tunnel he put
his feet on each side of her feet and tried to raise
her clothes. When the train entered the tunnel
he took hold of both her hands and tried to pull
her towards him. She got one hand released and
then pushed him away. She t existed strongly, She did
not shout because she thought no one would hey,
and she thought she would be safer if she was quiet.
She was afraid to attract the notice of people in the
same carriage. When he found she resisted he de-
pisted. • The struggle last a few minutes. When
the train got to the first station after leaving the
tunnel she tried to atract attention by signs,
as she was afraid to speak. She had no opportu-
nity of calling anyone's attention. At the next
station she got to she told the porter she must
change carriages as she had been insulted. Se
then put her into another carriage. ".She was
going to Box-hill. She was positive it was the de-
fendant who insulted her. The complainant was
cross-examined by Mr. Morrison, who appeared
for the defendant,- but nothing was elicited to shake
her testimony. She said that she did not take any
steps against the defendant until last Friday, be-
cause it was not convenient. Mr. Morrison ad-
dressed the Bench for his client, and suggested
that the complainant might be mistaken in the
identity of the defendant. The Chairman said the
Bench was of opinion that there was no doubt in
the matter, and they had therefore unanimously
decided upon sentencing the defendant t. three
week's imprisonment. Mr. Morrison endeavoured
to induce the bench to change their decision, and
said the defendant would pay 501. to any charity if
they would mitigate the sentence, but this was re-
fused, and the defendant was removed to Wands-
worth prison. The Bench suggested that the c rin-
pany should have lights in the second-class car-
riages the same as in the first-class, when the train
was passing through tunnels. Mr. Rees, the soli-
citor to the South-Eastern Railway Company, said
he would emavey the suggestion to the board.