The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-05 00:00:00

The newspapers give an account of the attempt to put
;It-tr.-It a ;pied of pir4tes in the north of Sumatra.

(From a Correspondent of the Chronicle.)
BOMBAY, M 1, 1844.

The Pluto steamer, which arrived this morning from
Kurrachee, brings news of an unpleasant nature from
Sinde. Tho Beloochees had been ravishing the
country around Shikarpore, had approached within
six miles of our cantonments, burnt several large
villages within our sight, and carried off 1,100 head
of cattle and fi.ty mules. They were followed
by Lieutenant Fitzgerald, who, in the course
of the pursuit, was attacked by Doomie Murrees,
and compelled to retire with a loss, it is sail, of twenty
killed and as many wounded. The successful leader of
the assailants is said to have been Beja Kam, a Doom-
kik celebrated for his freebooting exploits in 1840. He
was offered by Government at that time 3,000 rupees a
month to leave off his thieving practices, and protect the
road betwixt Shikarpore and Dadoor. He afterwards
surrendered himself, upon a pledge being given him
that his life would be spared, and was dotained for a time
as a prisoner at Sukkur. His detention was considered

a breach of faith on our part, and though he was after-
wards relieved, his clansmen vowed vengeance against
us, and this is in obligation they rarely faileato carry into
effect. lam as yet without particulars of this unfortu-
nate affair. So much us I have stated is universally
believed in. Two troops of irregular horse, with
Captain Foster's artillery, were immediately pushed
on from Sukkur, while the 9th Native Infantry, pre-
viously under orders to proceed to Ferozepore, were
;commanded to hold themselves in readiness to
' push on to Shikarpore at a moment's notice. The
present reverses took place near Poolagse. close by the
scenes of Clark and Clibborn's disasters in May, and Au-
gust, 1840. The system these warriors invariably 'pur-
sue is to dash down upon us from the mountains in the
hot season, and so draw us into the desert, where the
quickness of their horses enables them to escape from
us. I tremble at the thought of another hot wea-
ther campaign of however limited extent or dura-
tion. It was thus our mishaps begun in 1840,
which terminated in the siege of Caubul. We taught
the enemy to defeat us on a small scale, till they
learned to put in practice against us the bloody
instruction we had given them on the largest. I
do not know whether or not this will do anything to en-
lighten yen as to the geography of the western frontier
of young Egypt. You all seem to be content to assume
that our boundary has actually been improved, and
then proceed to argue on the illegitimacy of the means
resorted to for its improvement. If you turn to the
map you will find that Shikarpore, Larkhana, Kolra,
Tatta, &e., are on the western bank of the Indus, with
our own strong posts in our rear; those of the enemy
in our front. Should the Murrees manage to sack one or
two of these posts, the people at home may discover that,
at least in a military point of view, it is anything
but an expedient arrangement. The editor of the
Naral and Military Magazine I observe, recommends
to station posts on the Beloochee hills ; I thought Khan
Kelat and Quetta had cured you of this nonsense ; a
map of Belooehistan would show you that the hills that
skirt the Indus extend for 500 miles in the direction of
Persia, resting on an unexplored country, about the de-
bouchure of the Heiman. You must double the Indian
army before you can supply this without posts. A
great noise will doubtless be made about the collec-
tion of 130,3001. of revenue, reported to have taken place
at Hyderabad and Kurrachee. It must be kept in
view that this has to meet an expenditure of a million
awl a quarter on troops alone. The mutiny amongst the
Bengal regiment o dered for Sinde has, for the present,
been subdued. The men have been frightened by the dis-
bandonmeat of the 34th N. 1., one of the least offending of
the mutinous corps, and the publication of a juggling " ge-
neral order," which is interpreted one way by the soldiers
and another by the Government. The men believe that
everything which they desired has been conceded to
them ; whereas, Government, in reality, intends to
give them no more than what they previously pos-
sessed. The 64th, in which mutiny first made its ap-
pearance, having afterwards volunteered its services, ar-
rived at Sukkur on the 9th of April, and it is said broke
out into mutiny afresh so soon as they discovered the
trick that had been put upon them. Should this
prove true, it will be pleasant to have one regiment
disaffected and two others nearly devoid of officers, in
presence of a fierce, vindictive, and indefatigable
enemy. The facts above given are chiefly de-
rived from Kurrachee letters. At Sukkur they are all
Beugallees, and have but little correspondence with us
in Bombay. Sir Charles Napier left Kurrachee on the 2d
and arrived at Hyderabad on the 7th April; and after re-
viewing troops, inspecting cantonments, and flying about
everywhere, returned again to the sea-coast on the'l7th.
The building of a Government house has been com-
menced at Kurrachee, and here the general treasury,
medical stores, and general head-quarter establishments,
have been sent. It is believed that Lord Ellen-
borough will find himself compelled to rescind the
order that Sinde should be occupied by Bengal
troops alone, and once more commit the charge of the
line of the Indus to the Bombay army. An absurd sys-
tem of mystery-mongering has obtained since the news-
papers become somewhat free in their strictures on the
recent conquest. A register is kept at all the post-
offices both of the addresses of letters and the mimes
of the party who send them ; and these are very
unscrupulously used for the detection of news-
paper correspondents. It is curious how the
General forgets how easily this may be evaded. It is
said that he, when he used to write for the ***, sent his
letters to his wife, Lady Napier forwarding them not to
the editor, but to a friend high in the staff: The
Aineers of Sinde have been sent round from Bombay to
Calcutta ; while here they were treated with the utmost
kindness and attention by the Governor, Sir George
Arthur. G walior wears a somewhat threatening aspect.
Lord Ellenborough appears to be equally unfortu-
nate in his policy, either in going tco far, or not far
enough. Sinde is an example of the first, *than coun-
try of the second of these. The regency which we have
set up in G‘,salior has become Li the last degree unpopu-
lar. Earn Pas Phalkea, our protege, is now suspected
of having been the author of the disturbances which
occasioned our advance. Determined to be revenged on
his opponents he betook himself to the plan not
unfrequently resorted to in Europe in the 15th
century, of bringing in a foreign foe to upset the indepen-
dence of his country for the sake of overwhelming a rival
party. His confederates doubt, his brother chiefs despise,
and his victims detest, a traitor such as this set over them
by the force of foreign bearance. The Gwalior contingent,
powerful as it is, would do little against a general rising of
the Maarattas ; and should the Government we have
set up be overturned, we have nothing for it but the
commencement of a new war, and the ultimate appro-
priation of the country altogether. Insurrection and
disorder continue to prevail in the Punjaub, and the
period is obviously not very far removed when we shall be
called upon by one party or another to act as allies or ar-
bitrators, in either case ultimately to take the place of
principals, and make a quarrel first and the country sub-
sequently our own. Dost Mahomed is said to be rapidly
consolidating his power around Caubul, and should he
seize upon Peshawur, as is most likely, and we conquer
the Punjaub, as is next to certain, we shall find Akbar
Khan, whom we would have hanged if we could
have caught him, our next door neighbour, and
probable our most able ally. Lord Ellenborough
is at present at Calcutta, but it is said
that be was about to proceed to Allahabad, conceiv-
ing that nothing in the way of civil or military ar-
rangements can be properly managed without his
personal presence. The death of Sir William Case-
ment will be a great loss at the Council Board. From
China we have news to the 18th of March. The
difficulties attendant in carrying the various com-
mercial arrangements of Sir li. Pottinger into effect
begin already to be experienced. It is singular that the
first instance of this has arisen from a British merchant
putting himself forward as an informant against opium
smuggling, with a view it is said of gratifying private
malice. The hot weather has set in all over India, and in
this quarter apprehensions of inconvenience for want of
water begin to be entertained, in consequence of the defi-
ciencies of last year's rains. Trade during the past
month has been done to a fair extent, although in prices
no improvement is observable. The short period of the
active season now remaining, and the large supplies
of goods arriving and expected, have produced in
holders an anxiety to get rid of their stocks, which
being thus pressed upon the market can only be realised
at declining prices. We have suffered a severe loss in
our society by the death of Dr. John Grant Malcomson,
formerly of the Madras medical service, lately of the
house of Forbes and Co. He was a man of great talent
and learning, of the highest integrity and utmost bene-
volence of character ; he was cut off' by dysentery when
engaged in a tour through Goozerat.
0. P. Q. IN THE EAST.

DEPARTURE OF THE NEW GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF •
INDlA.—Yesterday the Right Hon. Major-General Sir Henry
Hardinge, K.C.8., the newly-appointed Governor-General of
India (who goes out to replace Lord Ellenborough, recalled
by the Hon. the Court of East India Directors), took his
leave of the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel and his late col-
leagues, and will leave this morning for Boulogne, Paris, and
Marseilles, where a steamer is waiting to convey him to
Alexandria. Ills Excellency will embark, at Suez, on board
that line steamer, the Hindostan, for Calcutta. The luggage
and carriages of the new Governor have been sent down by
railway to Southampton, and are shipped on board the Great
Liverpool steamer, which takes out the Gibraltar, Malta,
Egypt, and India mails of yesterday morning, the 3d inst.
THE DEBTS OF THE LATE DUKE or SAXE COBURG
GuritA.—A paragraph under this title has been travelling
through the newspapers, with numerous variations, for some
time past. It states, " that the Duke at his decease was in-
volved in liabilities to the amount of nearly half a million of
money, and that the several branches of his family are now
devising every means in their power to raise that sum before
the next meeting of the Germanic Diet, and that the recent
reductions in her Majesty's household were made in order
that the money thereby saved might be applied by his Royal
Highness Prince Albert to the payment of his father's debts."
We are authorised to state in the most distinct and emphatic
terms, that these reports are false, and without the slightest
foundation. Instead of being in debt, the late Duke left his
eldest son money to the amount of 300,0001. after the payment
of his debts. We have already fully answered the misrepre-
sentations that have been made respecting the recent dis-
missals from the Palace. We are satisfied that inquiry would
amply justify those changes. and that the order, regularity,
and just, yet liberal, economy that has been introduced into
the royal establishment, is in the highest degree creditable
o her Majesty.—Times.

CAUTiON:-A correspondent, whose own late ex-
perience enables him to speak with authority, suggests that
it is a practice for women, in league with burglars, to adver-
tise for situations as domestic servants, and to take advantage
of the opportunity of gaining admission to respectable houses
thus afforded them to reconnoitre the premises, and to observe
what bolts, bars, or fastenings, are likely to impede the
operations of their friends. A late case of burglary in the
neighbourhood of the Hampstead-road would seem to favour
this supposition.