The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-10-01 00:00:00

THE PERILS OF THE GUANO TRADE.

Captain Northwood has published a narrative of the
capture and destruction, by the Moors, of a portion of
the crews of the ships Margaret and Courier, both be-
longing to the port of Loi,don, while in search of guano,
at the island of Arguin, on the coast of Africa.
The Margaret sailed from Gravesend last April, and in
the follosing month reached Arguin. Landed, but found
no guano. Visited other is:ands with like success; and,
while in the boat, was, with part of the crew, captured
by some Arabs. "As soon as they got me into their
boat," he says, " they almost pulled me to pieces, one
dragging my watch out, othcr3 my pockets, and one pul-
ling at my stock, which was buckled. Samuel Phillips,
John Ward, Geo. Horsborn, James Litchfield, and my-
self, were saved ; John Sims was shot ; and 'William
Fransham drowned. Ido not know how we got into the
island, in the middle of the night, for we were all very
bad, and all complained of their limbs, it was so very
cold."

They were in hopes that the men in the vessel would
ransome them ; and their hopes were further raised by
the arrival of a second vessel, which greatly alarmed the
Arabs, as they feared she was a man-of-war. The two
vessels, however, sailed away. In a few days the ship
Courier appeared, and the captain sent a boat with men
to the shore with presents. " Mr. Wilson landed with
some of his men, and I kept calling to them to keep
their boats off. I got to the beach and spoke to a man
named Griffiths, and begged of him to go back to his boat
and get on hoard. He said it was of no use going on
board, as they had brought every thing they had got in
the brig. He went to the boats, while I kept begging of
him to shove off, but he paid no attention, and said to
them, " Give me the captain. and I will give you all."
Mr. Wilson then ordered the sails, tobacco, cloths, and
every thing else to be handed out of the gig, and ordered
the longboat to haul in. The Arabs at once got hold of
the longboat's bowsprit, and two of them took hold of
my wrist. The muskets belonging to the brig were lying
at the bottom of the boats. A signal was given by the
Arabs, and firing commenced. Mr. Wilson was shot
through the breast, face, and head. William Penny,
George Jones, and the carpenter were also shot dead.
William Hunney was badly wounded. John M'Donald,
Peter I'l'Kenzie, George Griffiths, George Pilkington,
and Mr. Deane, second mate, swam towards the brig—
supposed to be wounded. Edward Balcomb and John
Coston, when the carpenter fell against them dead, got
under the oars, and escaped unhurt. They dragged me
and George Griffiths through a piece of water that was
behind them, holding clubs and spears over us. Griffiths
not moving quick enough, they ran a spear into his back,
and beat him about the head with clubs. I found it was
of no use resenting, and escaped unhurt. This was all
over in a few minutes, and not a gun was fired by the
brig's crew, as they could not fire without injuring us.
The Arabs stripped the dead and threw the bodies over-
board, and also William Hunney, who they thought was
dead ; he had two balls in his left arm close up to the
shoulder; the poor fellow came from the crowd bleeding
and quite naked, and I covered him over with the rest of
the wounded."

" June 2, at 8 a. m., the brig got under weigh and left
us. The wounded wished to see me, and one of the chief
men came and led me to them. They wished to have
their wounds dressed, and asked if 1 Chou glit they would
recover. They were in a deplorable ataterli.davlittle hut,
lying on sea weeds, and complained of the co
I made the chief understand that they wanted thjirrywoundsmuch
.
dressed, and after I left they got little boys, and made
them make water into their wounds. Next day they
scraped their wounds, and burnt them round with a laree
nail-head made hot, and gave them dried fish and water.
Wm. Hunney haditwo balls in his left shoulder, and the
bone was-badly fractured. Two days after he had been
there they probed the balls out with a brass rod, scraped
his wounds and burnt them round. They bathed them
with fish oil some days after, and they smelt very bad.
They also cut from one hole where one of the balls went
in to the other with a common rough knife. When dyes -
sing him they had him held down, and his cries were hor-
rible, and they were a long time about it, the Arabs
always laughing all the time. When I left him he had

t~

been 42 days under their hands, and looked shockingly
ill. The wounds had got through the arm into his breast,
and they sponged them with reeds bound round with
oakum. I was afraid of mortific -Con taking place. He
was ruptured, and they took his truss away, for the sake
of the spring, and would not let him bind himself up,
although he suffered very much. John M'Donald had
three balls in the abdomen, and one above the left knee
through the thigh and groin. He had the same kind of
treatment as Hunney ; but when I left he was doing well.
George Pilkington was shot in the left arm and back, and
had a severe cut above the foot on the shin, the leader of
the great toe being cut. He was doing well, and could
walk a little. These three men were left behind. Pete
M'Kenzie had two very bad sabre cuts in the head, and
his scull was fractured. They scraped his head and skull
twice a—day very roughly, and stuffed it with powder like
the bark of a tree. They would not allow him to keep
anything on his head. George Griffiths was lanced in the
back, and they cut another hole with a knife a-breast of
it, burnt round it, and scraped and stuffed it twice a-day.
He recovered. The Arabs now stated that a Captain
Leunty, meaning a captain over all the captains and land,
was coming to take us to the Canary vessels, to see if he
could get anything for us. This I doubted, as I knew
they were very much afraid of the Canary vessels, they
being well manned and armed." He did come, and ulti-
mately they reached Gambia, where Captain Isemonger,
of the Africanus, received them kindly. He had heard
of their captivity, and arranged with an Arab chief for
their liberation. Of the three poor fellows behind, no-
thing has been heard.
Captain Northwood and his companions had, for eleven
weeks, nothing to eat but dried fish and water.

IRELAND.

MEETING OF THE DUBLIN CORPORATION.

On Wednesday last, as announced in our last, a special
meeting of this body was held for the purpose of consi-
dering the adoption of a petition to the Queen, upon the
motion of Dr. Maunsell, praying " that her Majesty will
be graciously pleased to hold her Court, and to summon
an &pedal Parliament, to meet at least once in every three
years, in her loyal city of Dublin ; also, that she will re-
commend to the consideration of Parliament the propriety
of making such provisions as shall secure that the same
shall be done in future times." For an hour previous to
the time announced for the commencement of the pro-
ceedings, every available seat in the body of the Assem-
blv-room---and in the gallery was crowded to excess. The
chair was taken by the Lord Mayor, and shortly after the
opening of the meeting _ _

. ,
Dr. Maunsell, after -a
few introductory remarks, said,—
Let us consider the probable operation upon. Irish Pro-
testants of an arrangement for the periodical transference
of the court and legislature to Ireland, and I will ask
would not such an arrangement be, at the least, as safe for
Protestants as is the present plan ? What is now the po-
sition, and what may be the reasonable expectations of
Irish Protestants ? Two institutions, and two only, in
which they have a special interest, have been suffered to
remain—the University and the Church. Now, I ask
any reflecting man will he engage that the Protestant Uni-
versity (already threatened) will not, within a year, be
thrown as a sop to the monster of agitation ? On this
matter the handwriting of the Premier has but recently
appeared upon the wall : the vision of those who cannot
read it must be strangely distorted, either by their wishes
or their interests. The question is no longer a moot one :
the days of the University of Dublin, as an exclusively or
special Protestant institution are numbered, and I will
again ask, when the university shall have been sacrificed,
how long do Irish Protestants suppose their church, as a
national establishment, will survive ? Surely, if the his-
tory of the last fifteen years be remembered, no one, not
the most sanguine truster in statesmen, can in his sober
moments fail to see that this establishment is already
doomed—that the purses of the great English proprietors
of Irish soil already gape for that remnant of the patri-
mony of the church, to the appropriation of which they
have already made a first step, by converting it from an
actual property in the land to a stipendiary rent-charge?
The ostrich hiding his head in the sand in the belief that
he thereby conceals himself from his pursuers is a type of
exalted wisdom in comparison with our example of folly,
if we continue obstinately to shut our eyes to those facts.
No ; let no one hope that a minister whose mind is trained
in manoeuvres for riding over politidal shoals—(l adopt
the simile from the Quarterly Review)—will hesitate to
slip these the two only remaining anchors of Irish Pro-
testantism, as a national establishment, if doing so will
enable him to escape official wreck. even were it but for a
session. I presume I need scarcely ask are the personal
and individual interests of Protestants at the present time
likely to be star( r than those of a collective kind ? I will
waste no time in proving at this time of day, that if there
be any patronage in question, it will be exercised, less in
recompensing the services of former friends, than in pur-
chasing the future support of renegade repeaters or nomi-
nal Protestants. (Cheers.) This policy has been frankly
enough avowed by the Prime Minister himself—it has
been defended without scruple by the organs of his govern-
ment—yet though all these concessions shall be made to
the popular outcry, a period must arrive when to concede
more will become impossible ; and I ask those who know
Ireland will not that period be the commencement of the
real, struggle for repeal. By sacrificing the university and
the church, and by postponing the individual interests of
Protestants, the consummation may perhaps be delayed ;
but it will no less certainly arrive at last, and when it
does come, it will find the Irish Protestants a betrayed,
weakened, denationalised garrison of England, not even
possessed of a spoil to mollify their conqueror. To my
Protestant brethren I would then say—make your terms
before the breach in your bulwarks becomes indefensible.
Despair not of saving your strong places, or, at least, if
treason within obliges you to sacrifice them, secure the
honours of war. This can only be done by some exhibi-
tion of national Protestant strength—for there is a Pro-
testant nation in Ireland, and they can show that such is
the case—by a demand that before further legislation shall
be engaged in to our ruin, legislators shall see Ireland,
Protestant as well as Roman Catholic Ireland, with their
own eyes. We must no longer be objects of barter and
sale between Irish lawyers and place-hunters. and English
ministers, ignorant of our real position. If Irish Protes-
tantism is to be sold, we ought to insist upon the bargain
being made in our presence. But saould the plan which
I have taken the liberty of proposing to the consideration
of this house ever be brought to perfection, I confess I
see a future very different from that which now awaits us.
Holding the court and parliament here alternately could
not render the condition of Irish Protestants worse than it
now is ; but it would render them, in common with other
Irishmen, more respectable as a body—it would enable
Englishmen to learn, what they do not now know, the ac-
tual position of Protestants in Ireland ; and if that was
once known to legislators, a due weight would be given to
Protestant as to other Irish interests. I will hang out no
false colours in the hope of gaining a vote from gentlemen
opposite. I tell you frankly, my lord, it is my hope and
firm belief, that by giving Irishmen their due share in le-
gislation, and at the same time protecting them from the
domination of the Romish church, a long step would be
taken towards Protestantising Ireland, and that, too,
without curtailing the liberties of my fellow-countrymen
in any particular—nay, with the certain effect of raising
an impregnable bulwark for the defence of the common
liberties of all. Thus, I think the plan I propose would
vastly benefit the collective interests of my brethren in
religion. As to their private interests, I will only ask,
would it be less advantageous to the Protestant than to the
Catholic barrister to have the field of imperial parliamen-
tary practice thrown open to him ?—to the physician to
have the squares of Dublin, and the provincial mansions
of the aristocracy filled with the noble and the wealthy ?
—to the speculator to have the opportunity of urging his
railway bill within a walk of his own office ?—to the
tradesman to have his employers cuadrupled ?—to the
peasant to have his landlord resident at his door, as a
sympathiser and supporter in his daily toils and wants, not
an occasional visitant in the capacity of a collector of rent ?
If these would be benefits, they would, I submit, be se-
cured to the Protestants well as to the Catholic resident
in Ireland, and that wi bout risk,hy the plan I now propose.
The learned gentleman proceeded to argue that the.plan he
proposed would be beneficial to the interests of England
by fixing another political centre in the empire and thereby
raising a greater probability of the landed gentry residing
permanently amongst them—and by making English
capitalists acquainted with the economical resources of
Ireland. He also spoke at great length to show that the
legitimate objects of the repealers would be advanced by
the proposed plan, and concluded as follows :—" What
benefit have the masses of the Protestant or Catholic
people of Ireland obtained from Whig or Tory ? I
ask this house have they been sufficient to recompense
either party for the cruel injuries that the feuds of the
English parties have brought upor, our country ?—for the
neglect of our social interests that these political feuds
have engendered and perpetuated among ourstAves ?
Would it not be for the common good of all, if we could
give the world a practical demonstration that English
political parties in Ireland are (as is the fact) resolving
themselves into their elements ; and that, in the ordinary
course of nature, those elements must, sooner or later,
enter into new combinations—(loud and long continued
cheering from both sides). It will be remembered that I
am now speaking of political dissensions—l make no al-
lusion to religious differences. I advocate no latitudina-
rianism—no conciliatory concessions on points of reli-
gious doctrine or religious practice. Even here, where so
many differ from me in religion, I do not fear to avow
that 'I
feel the stronger interest in the welfare of my Pro-
testant fellow-countrymen—but the plan for which I ask
the support of the council involves no religious conces-
sion. Let us agree to differ in religious matters—but let
us break the spell that has so long bound us to the tails
of English Whigs and English Tories. Let us, if it were
but far the sake of novelty, give one unanimous vote for
old Ireland—(long-continued cheering.) When the ap-
plause subsided, Dr. Maunsell again rose and fomally
moved the resolution set forth in his speech, stating at
the same time that he had consulted but two members on
his side of the house, one of whom was Alderman Butt,
upon the subject, and they had declared their approval of
his proposition. He had expected that one of these
gentlemen would have seconded his motion, but it now
appeared that they had changed their minds, and he there-
fore withdrew his motion.
Mr. O'Connell congratulated Dr. Maunsell, warmly on
the tone, temper, and manner of his address, and closed
his speech in the following emphatic language :—" Things
cannot remain as they are; there must be a change, and,
God forbid that that change should be effected without
the assent of men of all persuasions and all religions. I
would consider it not a blessing but a curse, if a change
were forced upon any portion of the Irish people. I am
rejoiced to see every hour symptoms which tell me that
other combinations are about being formed, which will
meet more than half way every assistance which we can
give towards attaining those advantages to Ireland,
which the learned doctor would have extended to us once
in three years, but which I should like you should have
every summer season—cheers. That period is approach-
ing, and 1 believe in the course of a few weeks a manifes-

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