The Sun. — 1827-05-11 (London, England)

TURE.  Our party had now increased to six, mounted bag and baggage on donkeys and mules, most of them without bridles and stirrups, and furnished only with halters and pack saddles, so high, and large, and round, that even a man of ordinary length of limbs had the utmost difficulty in encompassing them. It is hardly possible to conceive a worse road. By-the-bye, I may mention that a sum of 35,0001. had been set apart, some Yearaago, for making and repairing roads in Portugal, but, as too often happens with our Sinking Fund, the Government has always contrived to apply it to other purposes, and the roads continue nearly in the state in which they were hundreds of years ago. At one place the mules even scramble with difficulty over the rugged stony pavement, and at another they are up to their knees in mud. The only part where the rider is at all at his ease, is in the open country, where the mules are left to take their own course. In about a mile from Santarem, on one hand, nothing but orange and lemon groves, with fig-trees, pomegranate-trees, and vines are to be seen. At present, the orange-trees are covered, both with fruit and blossom, and the pomegranatetree is in all its glory. On the other hand, there are vines and wheat. The fences consist chiefly of mud walls, raised about two feet high, covered with aloes, generally of an enormous size. In other places they are covered with brambles, myrtles, medlar-trees, honeysuckle, cistus, and plants and flowers of almost every description. llere and there a few ploughs are to be teen—with peasants digging the vineyards,*or weeding corn. Agriculture here is only in its infancy; I don't suppose the plough has undergone any alteration since the Romans introduced it first into Lusitania. It has only one handle —the mould board consists of a round piece of wood, attached by a.hook at the one end, to the body of the plough, and the sock:is shod with a small piece of iron. Every part of it is of the most coarse materials, and the furrow which it makes is far from a straight line, and as unequal in breadth and depth as a mole track. In some places, however, an improvement has taken place, particularly where extensive farms are in the hands of some rich individual,_ Near Vallada there is an extensive plain, where I saw twenty ploughs at work, drawn by four oxen each. The soil appeared to be very rich, and was tolerably well cultivated. After leaving the suburbs of Santarem, scarcely any thing is to be seen but groves of olives. The vineyards are neither very extensive nor numerous, and hi general are ill cultivated. Except in one or two villages, there is not an inhabited house—all having been destroyed by the French in their retreat. Pernes bears the same dismal marks of wanton destruction—one half of the houses are without roofs—the people are-poor and miserable, and naked, and seem destitute of any excitement to industry. On seeing such a country, with such a climw, and so many houses tha t could be made habitable; at so little expence, one is only astonished that agricultural companies should have sent out colonies to the deserts of South America, when industrious men could find, so near home, plenty of houses and employment, and be well rewarded for their labour. The inhabitants, too, as far as I have had an opportunity of judging, have many excellent qualities—they are affable and Obliging, and if we take our host and his family as specimens, they are not to be surpassed by any people in the world.  A dreadful murder was committed last night at eight o'clock, by a man of the name of Sheeney, a wood-chopper, upon his son, a child of four months old. Sheeney has been in the habit of threatening that he would cut the infant's head off, and last night he came home rather intoxicated, and having sent his wife out to get some tea, proceeded to effect his horrible purpose. He cut the head off the little innocent, and placing it upon the table, threw the body under the bed ; he then secured the door and made his escape. The poor mother's feelings may be easily imagined when she and the neighbours succeeded in forcing open the door, and discovered the mangled remains of her infant. Dalton, fan active officer of the police, at Lambeth-street, was immediately dispatched in pursuit of the murderer. The transaction took place only five doors from the police office, at No. 1, Christopher-court, Lambeth-street.— Sheeney had not been taken at ten o'clock last night.