The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-16 00:00:00

The Tuam guardians are threatened with the ven-
geance of the Queen's Bench by the poor-law Commis-
sioners, for not issuing warrants to the collectors of the
rate, after having declared a rate in the union.
The perverse conduct of the poor •law commissioners
h2s a tendency to make repealers or federalists of the
union guardians.to Ireland.— Limerick Chronicle.
Captain O'Brien, 7.2 d, has got notice of an action at
law for breach of promise of marriage to Miss Forrest, of
Mitchelstown.

AFFRAY WITH PIRATES ON THE
WEST COAST OF AFRICA.
LOSS OF LIFE.
(From the Devonpart Independent.)
We have been favoured with a perusal of a very
interesting letter from her Majesty's brig Alert, 6,
Commander Bosanquet, from which we have made
the following extracts :
" Information having been given by the master of
the Courier, merchant brig, that a party of her crew,
as also of the Margaret, merchant barque, having
landed on the island of Anguin, near Cape Blanco,
hit. 20 47 N., long, 17 2 W., Western Coast of
Africa, for guano—which had been represented as
being very plentiful there—had been savagely mur-
dered by the natives (a tribe of Arabs) on that part
of the coast, their boats taken away, and that three
of the crew were still remaining on the island, se-
verely wounded, her Majesty's brig Alert was or-
dered up from the Galinas, to make the necessary
inquiries concerning the fate of the three men. She
arrived off Cape Blanco on the 7th of September,
and proceeded upwards of fifty miles within the
shoals ; but from the shallowness of the water and the
intricacy of the passage—it having never been sur-
veyed, and there oftentimes being no more than 13
feet of water, the brig drawing 12l feet, she could not
get nearer than Cape Salinas. Having reached this
point, the pinnace and two gigs, manned and armed,
with Captain Bosanquet, Lieut. H. B. Creyke, Mr.
Wilkes, surgeon, Messrs. Parker, purser, and Cooke,
and about thirty men, started on the endeavour to
find out the settlement; but from the place being so
imperfectly known, after exploring every little bay
alongside, and sounding all round, they returned the
next morning without success. The following morn-
ing the boats again left the ship, manned and
armed as before, and after pulling in another
direction for five or six hours, in the heat of the day,
(themr. 105 in the shade), when suddenly rounding
a headland, came in sight of the island of Anguin,
and observed the island literally covered with
armed men, with six large boats, three apparently,
English, on the sands near the town, in a strong posi-
tion, under an old French fort—the island having
formerly been in the hands of the French. Our boats
pulled within a few yards of the beach, but, having
heard of the treachery of these people, it was deemed
prudent, for the present, not to land ; all this time
the natives used every artifice in their power to in-
duce the boats to come on shore. At last Mr.
Parker, in the first gig, was ordered in shore, under
cover of the marines in the pinnace, and had a con-
ference with the chief, who stated that the three men
in question had died of their wounds, but he could get
no further information. The next thing to be
done was to get possession of the merchantmen's
boats taken by the natives, as before stated. About
nine o'clock in the evening, a murmuring noise being
heard on shore in the direction of the boats, sup-
posed to be the hauling them higher on the sand, we
immediately weighed our grapnel and pulled in, just
keeping afloat. Sergeant Symes, of the Marines,
was ordered to fire a musket, to intimidate the na-
tives, but he had no sooner done so than they gave a
most terrific yell, ran down to the edge of the water
in a mass, and commenced a very heavy and well-
directed fire of musketry on our boats. The firing
was returned pretty warmly by our gallant Marines
and small-arms party, but owing to the night being
more than ordinarily dark, we could only judge of
the position of the natives by the flashes of their
muskets ; our party was a better mark for them,
the ripple on the water, and the white jackets and
accoutrements of the Marines, making the objects
snore conspicuous, and enabling them to take deadly
aim. In a few minutes, in the pinnace, one of the
Marines was killed, and five wounded. It being then
too dark to land, and not knowing the strength of the
pirates, which, at least, must have been upwards of 100,
and well-armed, we hauled off, to renew the attack with
more advantage in the morning. At daylight, on
landing, we found that during the night this haunt
of pirates had been abandoned, and not the least
vestige of the people, boats, &c., could be seen, with the
exception of two guns, one of which—a very fine piece
of ordnance, a six-pounder, supposed to have belonged
to the Margaret—we brought oft: Not being able to
gain further intelligence of the pirates, and the wounded
in the boats being uneasy, we soon returned to the ship.
From the quantity of blood traced to the door of the
chief's house, it is presumed he must either have been
killed or wounded, which, in all probability, was the
cause of their decamping during the night, as they had
showed great spirit and determination on the preceding
evening. The names of the killed and wounded on our
side are, George Bailey, private, R.M., killed ; John
Cole, private, R.M., died from his severe wounds shortly
after returning on board ; Abel Seymour, A. 8., wounded
in the head, since dead ; Thomas Glanville, gunner's
mate, slightly ; George Lumb, gunner's mate, two mus-
ket balls in right arm, and one in right breast, recover-
ing fast ; Thomas Hancock, quarter-master, one musket
ball in neck and arm-pit, nearly well.
" P.S. Near Cape Blanco, it will be remembered, the
Medusa, French frigate, was wrecked in 1816. The
wind blowing exceedingly heavy, and an ugly sea rising
rapidly, it behoves seamen to be careful in approaching
that part of the coast."