The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-31 00:00:00

THE ALLEGED ILL-TREATMENT ON

BOARD IHE IIEARGIO POLO.

At the Liverpcel Police-court on Thursday the
captain of the ship was charged with an infringe-
ment of the Passengers' Act, in not having on the
homeward voyage from Australia supplied the pas-
sengers with proper food.
The principal witness was a Dr. Brown, who
was a second cabin passenger. He said—We left
Valparaiso on the 22d of May on the voyage home.
We had an allowance of beef. It was very bad ;
it was almost always bad, and it stunk occasionally.
As to the pork, it was indifferent—middling. The
preserved meat was also very bad. We had no
allowance of butter for 15 days; I had no sugar
supplied to me for 15 days, and during the whole
voyage I had no lump sugar, although I contracted
to receive it.

Four other passengers gave similar evidence as to
the bad quality of the provisions, but they generally
admitted that molasses had been offered in lieu of
sugar, ham instead of butter, and that coffee had
been substituted in the place of tea.
Mr. Forshaw, in addressing the Court for the
defendant, said, after the vessel had come in con-
tact with the iceberg, they made for Valparaiso,
where provisions were ordered at houses of respec-
tability, for which full prices had been paid ; and if
the provisions were bad, the captain had been
duped by these parties. It was true that they had
fallen short of butter on the voyage; but that was
in consequence of the parties who supplied it at
Valparaiso giving deficient quantities ; for when
they got to sea they found, when they opened the
casks of butter, that one cask had been placed within
another, so that the quantity was not sufficient; '
but they had had a substitute offered for the tea,
sugar, and butter ; and this being so, he did not
think that, under all the circumstances of the case,
they ought to be convicted for an infringement
of the act of Parliament. This case was brought
there by the doctor and others, in order to extort
money from his clients. Mr. Forshaw called James
Hunt, the purser of the ship, who stated that no
complaint had been made to him about the beef
and pork, except once, when a man brought a piece
that he said was not good, and it was changed. He
had never seen beef or pork thrown overboard on
account of its bad quality, and when they fell
short of butter, ham was substituted. Molasses
was substituted when they fell short of sugar, and
coffee instead of tea.

Mr. Raffles said that he was of opinion that
there had been a violation of the act ; but at the same
time it did not appear to him to be a very bad
case, because the deficiency might have arisen from
accidental circumstances. He thought the emi-
gration officers had done right in bringing the
case before the court ; but at the sama time he must
say that the owners of the ship had seldom any-
thing bad against their ships, and under all cir-
cumstances he would inflict a penalty of £5.

lIIE FISHERMAN'S EL DORADO.-
EXTRAO.RDIA_ARY STATEMENT.

Our readers may remember the statement of Dr.
Dawson, of the North Isles (Orkney), that the cap-
tain of two fishing smacks had discovered a rich
bank of cod near a solitary rock, called Rockall, far
away in the North Atlantic. Dr. Dawson again
writes to the Tines :—" Captain Rhodes and Gard-
ner have again made a most successful fishing,
having caught between 13 and 14 tons of codfish
each in about six days' fishing; while the account
they give of the vast numbers of great fish that
swarm around that insulated rock in the ocean is
even more wonderful than before. They
have no doubt millions of money will be
gathered from that lonely spot in the course of the
next two or three years. Two other fishing smacks
returned from Iceland about three weeks ago, were
instantly despatched to Rockall, and returned last
night, having also met with extraordinary success.
The names of the two vessels are the Howard, Cap-
tain Bolton, and the Victoria, Captain Cooper, both
of Grimsby. The statements they give of the great
fish they saw and the wealth to be gathered there
seems more like the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor
than proved facts by successful fishermen. They
tell of encounters with great sharks 30ft. long, with
mouths that could swallow calves and bodies as large
and round as tune; of their fears and surprises from
the numberless large whales sporting and rising
on every sine of them, one having actually grazed
the boom of the Victoria with its huge sides. They
also saw numbers of strange fish which they had never
seen before, and some black fish larger than por-
poises, with flat round heads, and which seemed very
numerous. Each of these two smacks has about
14 tons of cod, tusk, and living ling which they
caught in five days, about £lOO in value, and
no bait required ; any offal does for bait.
Captain Cooper also cadtured a young shark
there ; its liver was 4ft. long, and gave three
buckets of oil. They intend on their return
next season to take. out chain tackle on pur-
pose to catch the sharks, their cod hooks and
lines having been snapt by these monsters like pipe
shanks. So numerous are they, that on the escape of
a fish from the hook, after being above water, up
comes a great shark, turns on his back, giving it two
or three shakes as a dog would: and on one occasion
a ling which had so escaped was instantly seized by
a blue shark, but before it was swallowed another
shark appeared to dispute the prize. So fierce was
their contest that their battle-field, the top of the
long swell of on an Atlantic wave, was beaten to
foam ; while the combatants yore engaged, a
third monster, with a great open mouth that
would have easly swallowed a barrel, came
and sea lawyer-like, carried off the bone of conten-
tion and disappeared. Captain Rhodes states (and
he is corroborated by other captains) that it is
dangerous to go there again this season, as there
is no shelter, and in dark nights and fogs they
might be driven on the rocks or driven far
away from it ; and it is not easily found again, even
in a long summer day and a clear sky. He says
that all should be prepared to start again in
April or May, and fish on until August or Sep-
tember. I would again call attention to the
offals of those large fish. Tons of heads and in-
testines have already been thrown into the sea,
which would have been of inestimable value if
thrown on land, but do injury in the sea. They
foul the ground, and the cod leave the place. They
have done so wherever such has been practised. It
would be worthy of Government to send a vessel
out there early to buoy the Blind Rocks, to keep
order and possession, and prevent the destruction of
such a valuable bank. One of the men states to me
that he has been at Davis Straits whale fishing, but
he never saw whales so numerous and so easy to
get alongside of ; they were seen from the deck on
all sides—north, east, south, and west—blowing at
one time and floating with their great heads above
water for hours."

A MAN CHOKED TO DEATH BY A PIECE OF
BEEF.—Yesterday the body of a man named William
O'Donnell, a labourer, was removed from his lodgings, in
York-court, East-street, Marylebone, to the parish dead-
house, to await an inquest, in consequence of his death
having been occasioned by choking while eating his supper.
Abcut nine o'clock on Thursday night he partook of beef
for his supper in his usual state of health, and suddenly be-
came choked and almost purple from the effects of a piece of
the meat he had accidentally swallowed without proper
mastication, and before medical aid had been procureehe
expired. Mr. Roberts, one of the parish medical officers,
attended soon after the distressing occurrence, and found
life totally extinct.

At the suggestion of the Countess of Kintore, a
subscription has been set on foot among the volunteers of
Scotland, for the purpose of presenting a testimonial to
Lord Elcho.
MANCHESTER COURT OF REconn.—The ad-
journed sitting of the Manchester Court of Record will be
held on Monday, at the Court Houae, Bridge-street. The
cause list contains an issue from the Court of Exchequer,
a wrtt of inquiry, and 49 issues.
SHORT TIME AT ENFOLD.—Messrs. Felix, Leach,
and Co. resumed short-time working this week; Messrs.
Bates and Crowther, Messrs. Hindle Brothers, Messrs.
' Henry Hayes and Co. and Mr. William Brooks commence
next week, and from present symptoms it will soon be-
come general in this neighbourhood.
There has been a mutiny at the D uncannon Fort,
which commands the mouth of the Suir. The Waterford
jfail states that, on Tuesday morning, a party of the
Royal Artillery arrived at Waterford by the Tintern,
Duncannon steamer, with 16 of the mutineers-14 gunners
and one bombardier—on their way to Cork, where they are
to be tried by court-martian, with 15 others of the same
battery, who had been previously sent thither under an
escort of 50 men. _ _

HEALTH OF GARIBALDI.—The Pungolo of Milan
states that Gatibaldi is unwell at Caprera, and that, not-
withstanding the advice of his friends, he has taken to a
cptack remedy, which possessed considerable celebrity about
30 years ago under the name of Medecine Leroy. As it is
a most powerful cathartic, its use has reduced him tol. de-
plorable state of weakness. He is described as having given
up politics altogether, and as having his thoughts exclu-
sively bent upon the state of his health.
CRYSTAL PALACE.— One Shilling Day, Friday,
Aug. 30.—Admissions on payment, 6,995 ; ditto by season
tickets, 1,232; total visitors, 8,227.

Two STUDENTS DROWNED.—On. Wednesday a
party of nine young men, chiefly students, went to the
beach of Aberdeen to bathe and practise swimming. Sud-
denly they found themselves beyond their depth, and
though the alarm was instantly given and the lifeboat
launched without loss of time, two of the number, Alex.
Milne and Alex. Grant, both students, and from the coun-
try, were drowned. A third young gentleman W also,
when taken out, nearly dead.

,~:.:.~

ACCIDENT TO THE MALADETTA.

Mr. Charles Packe, in a letter to a contemporary,
says :—lt is too much the fashion of Alpine travel-
lers, more especially of members of the society to
which I have the honour to belong, altogether to
ignore the merits of these mountains, and to sup-
pose that the charm and danger of snowfields, or at
any rate of regular glaciers is altogether wanting.
That there are glaciers in the Pyrenees was suffi-
ciently shown in an ascent of the Maladetta which.
I made a few years ago. I send you a short ac-
count, should you think it worth while to publish.
it. I must premise that, owing to the unusually
hot and dry summer which has prevailed in these
parts, the mountains have not at all their average
coating of snow, and the glaciers are sensibly
diminished, which does not at all favour the
facility the ascents of the higher summits. I
had already experienced this in an ascent of the
Pic des Ponts, the second highest summit in the
Pyrenees, a little to the West of the Maladetta, and
only 120 feet lower than the Pic de Nethon, the
highest point of the last-named mountain. I may
here mention that those travellers who. care to try
their hands at chamois hunting will do well to
select the Pyrenees in preference to the Alps.
was five days in the neighbourhood of the Pic des
Ponts, and no day passed without my seeing izards,
more or less numerous ; and we constantly came
upon the perdrix blanche, or ptarmigan. On Mon-
day last 1 started, with three gentlemen and four
guides, for the Rencluse of the Maladetta, an over-
hanging rock at the toot of the glacier of the Mala-
detta proper, which is the usual sleeping place
preparatory to the ascent. At 4 a.m. we started,
with Mercury shining brightly for a morning
star, and by 30 minutes past 6 had reached
the Postilion, the spot where you quit the rock and
pass on to the Glacier de Nethou. The passage of
this generally occupies not quite two hours, but we
were obliged to make several detours to clear the
crevasses, which seemed wider'and more frequent
this year. About three quarters of the way across
we all sal, down to repose in a spot where the snow
seemed perfectly smooth. We -vere, of course, roped
together, with an interval between each of about
eight feet. There was a call for something to drink,
and the last guide detached himself to hand the wine
bottle to each of us. He was passing before us, and
when certainly not more than three yards from the
spot where I was sitting he suddenly dropped through
the snow and disappeared. There was no sound,
either cry or cracking of the ice, but the glacier
quietly swallowed up its victim. It was horrible to
witness; but, of course, there was only one thing
to be done. We speedily disengaged the rope from
our bodies, and carefully holding it in our hands
approached the hole, which was not a large one,
Pierre Barran, my guide, being the first. We let
down the rope through the hole, and anxiously
expected a reply to our shout ; for some seconds,
however, we could get none. A tlast it came, but
the voice sounded tearfully indistinct and distant,
stifled as it was by the snow and walls of ice.
The man, the guide said, fell 18 metres, isn't from
the rope let down I should say about 30 feet.
Thanks, however, to the bed of snow that fell
with him, and in which he was partly buried,
he was not hurt, and he was able to fasten the
rope round his body, so that in about five minutes
we drew him up, none the worse, but fearfully cold.
He described his position as having been very pei
il-
ous, having been caught on a ledge, below which
sunk an abyss, the bottom of which we could not
have reached. But in this he may have exagge-
rated. However, the man himself, whose name ks
Correge, showed plenty of courage and presence: of
mind, and all the guides behaved very well; so that
it was unanimously decided to continue our course
to the top, which we all reached, with the exception
of one of our party, a French gentleman, who de-
clined passing the Pont de Mahomet, a short but
precipitous arete of rock, between the glacier and.
the actual summit. I found that a miniinv.m
registering thermometer, which I had left OD. the
top in an ascent the previous year, had been
swept away by the wind. The height of the Pie
de Nethou is 11,168 feet. An Alpine. Z7mpiesome-
ter by Casella, marked 20.32 inches., The boiling
point, as shown by a portable 'tittle apparatus by
the same maker, was 193'3 deg. Fahrenheit, and
the temperature of the air was 42 deg. in the shade.
This was at 10 am. On the previous ascent last
year at 9 a.m, the thermometer had only marked
22 deg. Our descent to the Rencluse was effected
in about 31 hours, without anything remarkable.
An ascent of the Maladetta is not at all an uncom-
mon or very difficult occurrence, as ladies sometimes
accomplish it with the help of their guides, but this
was the first time a man had fallen in a crevasse
altogether out of sight since 1824, when Barran, the
grandfather of my guide, fell into one, and the body
was never recovered.

21 LE GENER,4L POS7IOFFICE.

The extraordinary increase in the number of
Post-office delinquencies, and. the very large
amount of plunder by letter-carriers and others
employed in this important branch of the public
service, appear to excite very great attention, and
the authorities of the establishment are directing
their serious attention to the subject, and have been
in communication with the judges whereby these
offences may be put a stop to. The number of cases
brought before the public, where persons in the ser-
vice of the Post-office are detected and sent for
trial, bears but an exceedingly small proportion
to the extent of the crime, and it probably
would be no exaggeration to state that the number
of cases in which detection follows does not bear
a proportion of one-twentieth part to the number
of cases in which property—in many instances to
a considerable amount—has been stolen from let-
ters passing through the Post-office, the detection
in most instances taking place by means of " trap"
or " test" letters, as they are termed, this step being
resorted to after repeated complaints being made of
the loss of letters in a particular district. At the
last sittings of the Central Criminal Court, no fewer
than nine post office letter-carriers, or sorters,
were convicted, or pleaded guilty to stealing
letters containing in some instances money and
property of eonsiderable value, and this number
is nearly double the usual average. In every
one of these cases it appeared that constant com-
plaints had been made previously of the loss
of letters containing money, and the Pest-office
authorities were consequently compelled to resort
to the expedient of the " trap" with a view to dis-
cover the depredator. This plan, although in some
respects it be considered objectionable, has always
been successful except in a few peculiar eases. A good
many observations have been made at various times
in reference to the amount of pay received by the
subordinates in the Post-office, and it has been
alleged that the small amount of wages received by
them has, to a considerable extent, tended to
tempt them to the commission of crime ;
but there is this remarkablv fact in connexion with
some of the cases, and particularly with reference
to those which have just been disposed of,
that the guilty parties were found to be in posses-
sion of considerable sums of money at the time
they were actually as it were, caught in the act of
committing a fresh offence. Is one instance the
officer who searched the lodging of the culprit,
found no fewer than 40 sovereigns in his desk ; in
the possession of another they() were 13 sovereigns ;
and a third had seven sovereigns, besides articles of
jewellery of considerable value, all of which had
been stolen from different letters that had been en-
trusted to him to deliver. Similar instances are
numerous with regard to these unhappy offenders,
and it would seem that when once the career of
crime had been entered upon by a Post-office letter-
carrier, he rarely ceases his depredations until de-
tection and ruin to himself and family follow. A
great deal of blame, of course, rests with that por-
tion of the public who, despite the facilities offered
by the money order system and the registration of
letters containing valuables, still persist in enclosing
money in letters. A suggestion, it appears, was
made by a learned judge, whose attention was called
to the subject, that there should be a post-office re-
gulation that the receiver of every letter containing
money or valuables should pay a registration fee of
half-a-crown ; but as it is obvious that in some
districts persons in a humble position of life
have no opportunity to avail themselves of the
money order system, and are compelled occasionally
to send small sums to their relatives, it
was felt that such a suggestion would
entail very great hardship upon persons in
that condition, and no attempt, therefore, was made
to put it into execution. A variety of other sug-
gestions have been made at various times connected
with the administration of justice, with. a view to
put a stop to this very serious offence ; but none of
them appear likely to effect the object, and in the
meantime it is to be feared that the crime goes on
steadily increasing, and that the question is be-
coming one of very considerable importance.

The brushwood covering one Of the hills over the
town of ',Toulon took fire on the 2`2d inst., and continued
burning for sixty houis. It presented the appearance dur-
ing the night of an ocean on fire. The ii:habitants of the
neighbouring villages hastened 410 the spot to prevent th
fire from extending to a valuable Wood.
' This was effects
without any great injury, except to a vast number of foxes
who were dislodged from their earth, and ran howling pi•e-
so dense that the
ously into the plain. The smoke was
monastery of Notre Dame de la Gard is'
situated at the top
of the mountain, was not visible. 7 !he origin of the fire
has not been ascertained but it is su .pposed to have been
caused by the iraprudenc;of some six nisman. Others say
that it was maliciously fired
sue, A the noghbourhoed by nom trampers who wet.