The Sun. — 1828-09-23 (London, England)

SPIRIT OF  THE PIRATES.  CADIZ, SEPT. Majesty's steam vessel Edo, Lieutenant Bullock, arrived here on the even bferopthro-:cOtiSiCln coning of the 19th ult, and on the following morning the. Admiralty, andT Mr.l3tillock, the bearer of despatches of some ice. portance, came 011 shore and delivered his desipatgttes fr sequence, waited in . person upon the Tribunal de Giterre, and the Comisernado Regin Especial,- then bfrotititih dated theForeignB h AOu :Ls. et . engaged in trying the pirates. •On the following morning, the 91st, the pack'et,from England arriving, • 111. i. George lkshby, mate; awl afterwards Commander of the Morning; Sta? ; • Mr. Andrew Beyerman, steward ; and Seijeatit Charles Henry Wit. kinson, Royal staff corps, a passenger to the Triinitial de Guerre, were sent with the Secretary to the consul. After the witnesses had been duly sworn, and their declarations taken, they proceeded: to the prison, where twenty-six individuals Were placed in -.6 room, thirteen of whom were the pirates; the ‘-witnesses identified eight, six of whodi were on board the Morning Star. At the examination of theiroxes, bags, clothes, &c., brought by the pirates, the witnesses recognized many articles of wearing apparel, principally shirts, stockings, and socks, as belonging to the different passengers of the Morning Star, some to the late commander, who was murdered, and others to themselves; the greater part of the shirts were marked with ink, some had their names at full length, and others merely the initials. They also recognized a large trunk as belonging to poor Captain Gibbs; the sabre and belt did not belong to Major Logie,  for-it had no arms upon it.; ,and the Oates have all declared that it was the sword of the original commonder of their vessel, Pedre Marion de Souza Sarmento; there was on searching only one watch found in the prison, a very common one, which none of the witnesses recognized ; all the valuable ones, there is no doubt, Were part of the property smuggled on shore in the night at Pontevedra,, in Galicia. An inventory was taken ,of them by the Spanish authorities at the time, and they will be ultimately restored to their original owners, whenever the pirates are executed.  On the 22d, at day-light, the steam-boat arrived. The witnesses proceeded to the Comisernado Regio Especial. We entered the prison about 10 a.m., and after the declaration of the witnesses had again been taken nearly in the same manner as the previ,ous day, by the Tribunal de Guerre, they again iden• titled the pirates; but it was not considered necessary to re-examine the clothes. On the morning of the 23d the declarations of the witnesses were legally ratified, both at the Tribunal de Guerre and at the Comisernado Regio Especial, and the Echo sailed the same evening with the witnesses for Gibraltar. The question of competency between the different tribunals here has been decided in favour of the Marine, and the trials of the criminals will commence forthwith. The witnesses sent out from England, it appears, have failed in identifying Benito de Soto, for this pirate, the principal person concerned in all the horrors committed by these criminals, never left his own vessel.- Mr. Shea, the professional gentleman employed in the prosecution of Benito Soto, at Gibraltar, arrived here on Friday afternoon by land, to ascertain from the Spanish authorities whether any and what evidence may be obtainable to supply the deficiency in the evidence against Benito Soto,•as there is one reason to believe that one or more of the crew of the Defensor do-Pedro were no_t willingly concerned in the atrocious act of piracy committed while they were on board. Now, supposing this to be the case, of which, by the bye, there is no evidence at the present moment, are they not all equally culpable, for when they were at large for a week here, not one of them made any communication to any Spanish authority, and when they were apprehended, not any of them confessed till after the letter written in the prison by Manuel Antonio Rodrigues, to the owner of the vessel at Rio Janeiro, disclosing the whole history of the villains, was intercepted by the authorities ? It is just possible that sonic of the guards who were employed on the beach for two or three days after the vessel was wrecked may be able to swear that they have heard Soto declare that he was contra maestre (mate) of the Defensor de Pedro, from the day she sailed from Rio Janeiro to the day she was wrecked near Cadiz. The Echo, Lieut. Bullock, commander, arrived here on the 30th of August, at day-light, and towed the Plover, Lieut. Downey, from Gibraltar to Cadiz Bay, against a strong westerly breeze, in 18 hours.