A mail from the Leeward I...
The Times, 1824-06-18T00:00:00

A mail from the Leeward lslands arrived yesterday,with letters from St. Thomas's to the 17th of May. One letter dated the 13th contains a vague account from' Laguayra of an action having taltetplace in Pen between BOLIVAS and CANTARAC, in which the latter was victorious, aud in consequence gained possession of Lima. No 'datis are given, nor is any place assigned for this battle. The circuitous route by which the news kas travelled, rendeft it barely possible that the advices frem Peru can have been brought down to a- date so recent as has been previously received bv way of Jamaica, when it was known that a negotiation had been set on foot between the President and the Royalist Generals. That there should be an engagement at all, at least while the negotiation was proceeding, is a most un- likely event: but the credit of the story is perhaps more completel'destroyedtthanbyanyreasoning on its improbabi- lity, by the silence of all the other letters from St.Thomas's, some of which are dated two days later than that in which the account of the battle is contained. Some occurrences of an unpleasant nature are stated to have taken place at Mfaracaibo, where the irregularity in paying the troops had led to a mutiny, the result of which was not known, as no vessel had arrived from thence for more than a month. By the papers from the *Vest India Islands, we perceive that proclamations have been issued in the name of the KING, for the purpose of countracting the impression known to exist among the slavec that orders hadbeen seat out fer their emancipatioll, declaring such impression to be erro. nueous, and enjoininx to the slaves submission to the laws and obedience to their masters. At GBarbadoes advices had been received from Demerara of the 26th of April. These supply one very remarkable fact, taken in con- nexion with the late proceedings in Parliament re. lative to the case of the unfortunate Mr. SMITH, the Mlissionary, which is, that the Rev. Mr. AUSTIN, a clergyman of the Established Church, and Mr. ARRix- DELL, the prisoner's counsel, hail had the lboldness to cir- culate letters in the colony itself, after the proceedings had closed, expressing their belief of Mr. SHITR'S entire in- nocence. The general interest excited here by the case will justify ourgiving the extracts from the letters alludedto:- E; Extract from a letter of the Rev. IV. S. Austin :- "' I feel no hesitatioa in declaring, from the intimate knowledge which my most anxioas inquiries have obtained, that, in the late -coarge which the hand of an All-wise Creator has inflicted on this ill-fated country, nothing but those relgiour impressions which, under Providence,5 1r. Srmith has been instrumnental in fixing-no. thing but those principles of the Ofspel of Peace thich he has been prochiming-could have prevented a dreadfsl effifalon of bleod here, sd s~eal the'ives of those very persons who are now (I shudder to waite it) ecCkfngAi. - - xtract from a letter of Williamn AtizdeUE q. ofDemerara, Alr. Smith's counsel, addressed to Mlrs. imieb,Vr the proceedings of the Court-Mwartial wvere closei :- -- "' It is almost presumptuous in me to differ from the sentenoe of a Court; but, before God, I doibelieve Jlr. Smith to be innocent. Nay, I will go further, and defy any minister; of any sect whxtever, to have shown a more faithful attention to his sacred duties, than he has been proved, by the evidencea oh trfatl, to have doRe.' " A meeting was held on the 3d of May of the inhabitints of Barbadoes, for the purnose of preparing a petition against the Alien Act as in force in that island. His -Ma- jesty's ships Eden and Scout had returned to Barbadoes from Para, which they left in a state of tranquillity. It was said that the Scout had been fired at by the fort in passing up the river, but silenced the batteries by a couple of broadsides.