The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-13 00:00:00

THE BRAZILIAN MAIL►

SOUTHAMPTON, WEDNESDAY.
Arrived the Avon, with the Brazilian and River
Plate mails. She brings 158 passengers, 6701. in
specie ; diamonds, &c., 76,000/. ; and full cargo.
Her dates are—Buenos Ayres, April 4 ; Video,
April 7 ; Rio, April 14 ; Bahia, April 18 ; Per-
nambuco, April 21 ; St. Vincent, April 30.
At Video business was at a stand-still, owing to
yellow fever carrying off 25 per day.,
The elections at Buenos Ayres have passed off
quietly. Business is improving. Exchange, 71s.
per doubloon.
No pews of importance from the Brazils. Yellow
fever was decreasing. Improvements in the harbour
of Rio are still going on. Business in Exchange of
importance, at ls. 3d. Coffee sales since last arri-
val amounted to 156,000 bags; prices nominal.
At Bahia, Exchange quoted at 2s. 4d. per mil
reis. Nothing effected. Tobacco market quiet.
Rum without alteration. No arrivals of cotton, and
none in hand

At Pernambuco there is a failure in the sugar
crop of about one-tenth on last year. In cotton
prices have advanced considerably, and same excite-
ment prevailed in the market. Freight transactions

The Cape de Verde islands were generally
healthy, but wanting rain. Blight has again made
its appearance at the Canaries. The cochineal
crop will be nearly double former years.
At Madeira rain has fallen abundantly, in time
to save the wheat crop, which was suffering for the
want of it. Blight still exists.

THE AFRICAN MAIL.
PLYMOUTH, WEDNESDAY.
The African Royal mail steamer Ethlope, Capt.
'\V. H. Ramwell, arrived here this morning. Her
dates are, from Camarooms, April 4 ; Fernando
Po, April 6 ; Bonny, April 9 ; Lagos, April 12 ;
Accra, April 13 ; Cape Coast, April 14 ; Monro-
via, April 19 ; Sierra Leone, April 21 ; Bathurst,
April 28 ; Goree, April 29 ; Teneriffe, May 4 ;
and Madeira, May 6. She brings 39 passengers,
among whom are Lieutenant Bushe, RN., from
Sierra Leon©; and Lieutenant Ramsford, from
Bathurst ; 3,000 ounces of gold dust, 400 barrels
of palm oil, ivory, pine apples, cochineal, wine, &c.
At Fer&ando Po were the Scourge and the Spy ;
the former was to proceed to the South Coast, and
return, touching at all the stations to Sierra Leone,
where her orders from home would be expected.
A d fference has arisen between the Governor and
the inhabitants, which at one time assumed a
serious aspect; it was hoped, however, that through
the mediation of Commodora Adams and her Bri-
tannic Majesty's Consul at Fernando Po, all would
be amicably arranged.

At Lagos were the Prometheus and V-ie Myrmi
don ; at Sierra Leone the Hecla and the Philo, and
the French man-of-war Euphrates.

On the 25th of March, died at Sierra Leone, the
Right Rev. Dr. Weeks, bishop of the diocese. The
deceased prelate had been on a visit b the most
distant parts of his diocese along the coast, return-
ing toiSi!-Tra Leone in the Candace on the 16th in
a very dllapidated state of health, and continued
gradually to sink up to the time of his death.
Her Majesty's ship Dover was at Bathurst. A
disturbance between two of the native tribes had
taken place at Bathurst, and some of the British
troops were sent in the Dover to the scene of action,
tog ard our territory.
At all other places along the coast matters were
quiet, and nothing of consequence occurring.

90
884
39-

Her Majesty's ships Colossus and Exmouth ar•
rived here this morning from the Mediterranean.

THE NAPIERS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,--In The Times of this morning I observe a
letter from Sir William Napier, stating that Sir

James Outram published in 1844. a letter full of the
most shameless calumnies and insinuations against
Sir C. Napier, " telling the soldiers (78th High-
landers), that the General had moved them through
pestilent marshes, and wilfully as well as ignorantly
caused the frightful calamity that had befallen
them. Mr. Buist, of the Bombay Times, reporting
the accusation, actually denounced Sir Charles Na-
pier as ' the murderer of the soldiers.' "
Sir James Outram, at the date referred to, was
political agent at Mundlassis, in the Indore domi-
nions. My conviction is, that he never published
any letter whatever on the subject. I am certain
he never employed any words in any way resemb-
ling those assigned to him.
It is with the accusation against myself alone that
lam concerned. I utterly deny the truth of the
charge brought against me, and challenge Sir Wil-
liam Napier to produce the pas4ao-e he professes to
quote. The Highlanders left Kurrachee for Suk-
kur in August or September, 1844, at a period of
the year when Sir Caries apier confesses that
Scinde is pre-eminently sickly froth the subsidence

of the inund.ation. Medical opinion, still to be

found on record in the public archives, was strongly
opposed to the movement at that season. Sick-
ness made its appearance before the troops reached
Hyderabad, and became frightful on their arrival
at Sukkur. I saw the regiment leave Bombay,
under Colonel Twopenny, just before a visitor in
my house, nearly 1,100 strong, and saw it return
18 months afterwards reduced to less than 400. 1
stated these facts on the authority of the official
records then in Sir C. Napier's hands, and still in
existence. When, en the 27th of January, 1851,
Sir C. Napier, in addressing the 78th on his laud- '
ing at Bombay, accused me of the conduct now
imputed to me, and asserted that sickness had first
made its appearance in the regiment in the hospital
at Sukkur iu November, 1844, I met him from the
regimental books, which showed that it had
broken out at Hyderabad in October, and chal-
lenged him to produce the words he had so un-
warrant ably put in my mouth. The answer was the
ordinary one—a " broomstick" or a court of law.
I was at the time on the spot, ready to meet him or
his friends in any way they desired. Of course, I
was never called upon. lam equally on the spot
now, equally ready to meet all reponsibilities,
equally convinced of full immunity from danger in
any of ite forms.

The present charges are quite as true as are about
a hundred others in Sir William Napier's book
against nee—they are not one whit more so. Two
of them may ba given as a sample of the whole.
lie asserts that, in 1844, I was "in Paris writing
to the French press"—knowing that, from 184 G
till 1845, I had never for an hour been out of

India. He charges me with having stolen at Bom-
bay a copy of "The Conquest of Scinde'' in July,
Ib4s—knowing that I had left Bombay it May,
and did not'return to it till the following year. Ho
adds, that his brother Henry endeavoured to pre-
vent my admission to the Royal Society in 1846 on
the imputation of a felony he knew I could not
have committed, as I was then refuting, under
my own name through the Loudon press, Sir
William's slanders—Sir Willi on quoting portions
of my letter of that date in one of his publications.
On looking over Sir William Napier 's volurne3,
just published, I find that iu the portion relating
to his Bombay career, about 800 pages in all, there
are on an average from two to three misstatements
a page, the majority of them capable of refutation
from fficial document?, a very large number of
them bearing his brother's signature.
Having in February, 1845, convicted Sir William
Napier of threaiicore deliberate misstatements
knowingly made, in about three times as many
pages, my contradictions being established by quo-
tations from official documents, I had of late years
given up all idea of noticing his romances, whi
lauched at as they are in India, I find in England
still command attention.

I have the honour to subscribe myself,
GEORGE BIIIST, LL. D., F.R.S.,
From. 1840 to the present date Editor of the
Jombay Times.
7, Sussex-place, New liensinizton, May 11.