The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-07-24 00:00:00

GALLANT REPULSE OF PIRATES.

We have been politely favoured with the followingextract
from a letter, giving an account of an attack made by two
piratical proas on the ship Mary Dugdale, of this port, Capt.
Harrison, in the Straits of Comback, on her voyage hence
to China. The writer, Mr Robert Woodnorth, is mate of
the vessel, and son to Mr. Peter Woodnorth, of 33, Paradise-
street:—

" WAMPOA, CHINA, MARCH 2, 1838.
" I take this opportunity of writing a few lines to you, in-
forming you of our safe arrival out here, after a long passage
of 104 days, and some danger. You will most probably, ere
this reaches you, have heard of the skirmish we had with
some piratical vessels, while coming through the straits of
Comback. There were three of them, and a narrow escape
we had of it. We were, at the time, but ill provided for such
a dust. I think there could not have been fewer than 70 men
on board of each of the proas, and much better provided with
tire arms than I expected such a set of savages to be. Two
of them had each a large brass piece, from which they dis-
charged some shot about six inches in diameter, with three
or four small ones, and musketry. However, to it we went,
for there was nothing but do or 'die for it. We had two of
them at one time, within twenty yards of us, and I fully ex-
pected they would have boarded us; but there seemed to be
an interference of that undeniable power—the Almighty, for
they did not succeed, though I am sure that one-third of their
numbers and force had done much more on many occasions.
They sent their shot pretty thick, without killing or wound-
ing any one. Twenty or thirty musket balls went through
the sails and bulwarks, and a large piece of stone (about
seven inches in diameter) went over the poop and through
the spanker. All this time we fought in a very exposed and
disorderly manner; but one shot was allowed to tell a tale,
for we raked one of them fore and aft with a balland canister
shot from one of our swivels, which caused them to haul off
to amore respectful distance, yelling like so many devils:
we then worked out two heavy guns, wben we could get them
to bear upon them. Soon afterwards a breeze sprang up,
and we got clear of them, after being engaged with the
scoundrels for two hours, and expending nearly half of our
ammunition."—Mercury.

FEMALE INTREPIDITY.—On Wednesday evening, just
before locking up time, Mrs. Jones, the wife of the governor
of the Warrington Bridewell, discovered Edward Boys (a
prisoner in custody upon the charge of stealing a silver
spoon from Mr. H. Clare's house, at Sankey) sitting upon
the outside wall, and in the act of lowering his shirt, which
he had made into a rope, over the outerside, in order to effect
his escape. Mrs. Jones, with a presence of mind well be-
coming her situation, ascended to one of the upper rooms of
the Bridewell, and with a long pole gave " my gentleman"
two or three awkward taps on the head, threatening at the
same moment to knock him off the wall if he did not imme-
diately descend. This he unwillingly did. Mrs. Jones then
gave him a " good thrashing" with the keys of office, and
locked him up in the strong room for the rest of his sojourn
at her house. The walls of this prison are in a very defective
state.

POCKET-PICKING EXTRAORDINARY. A correspondent
says, "Returning on foot from the races on Wednesday even-
ing, between the hours of five and seven o'clock, when the
road was crowded with vehicles of every description, and the
causeway crowded with pedestrians like myself, I observed a
gig with a lusty gentleman and lady drive past, (the horse in
full trot.) On the back on the cross-bar stood a prig, evi-
dently in the act of rifling the lady's right hand pocket; half
his body was bent down into the gig, and his right arm ap-
peared in the lady's pocket. The crowded state of the road,
and the rapid motion of the vehicle, prevented any alarm be-
ing given to the inmates. How far the villain succeeded it
is not for me to say ; but as this is a novel way of picking
pockets, I think it my duty to caution the public against it.
The hurry and bustle occasioned at those times, and the atten-
tio❑ it requites to drive through a crowd, are favourable to
the thieves' designs, and it would be at the risk of any per-
son's life to attempt to arrest them amongst so many violently-
driven vehicles."—Mercury.

WARRINGTON FAIL—The fourteen-day fair held in this
town commenced on Tuesday last. The show of cattle was,
perhaps, one of the worst ever witnessed in Warrington.
They were for the most part Irish. The few fat beasts of-
fered fetched from s'd to qd per lb on the average, sinking
the offal. Mitch cows were in good demand. The horse fair,
on Wednesday, was well attended by dealers. There were
several excellent strings of cart horses, which realized fair
prices.