The Sun. — 1846-11-16 (London, England)

ANOTHER FEMALE SAILOR.-011 Saturday, at the Lambeth Police-court, as the business was nearly disposed of, Maria Rosina Cook, a young woman, dressed in the garb of a sailor, was brought in, and placed at the bar before the Hon. G. C. Norton, on a charge of attempting to destroy herself by swallowing a quantity of laudanum. John Constable, 43 L, deposed that about ten o'clock on that day, while on duty at the Tower-street stationhouse, a person came in, and requested his immediate attendance at a coffee-house in the Waterloo-road, where a young sailor had poisoned himself. He instantly proceeded to the house, awl, finding the prisoner in a sroepy state, he went in pursuit of a in, dical man. The first shop he went into he was asked if it was not a young sailor who had destroyed himself ? and, on asking them why they should know the fact, they told him that a young sailor had been there a short time before to request three-pennyworth of laudanum, but they refused to serve him. lie subsequently removed the prisoner to Guy's Hospital, when the stomach pump was used, and she became sufficiently recovered to take her to the station-house, when he had the charge booked against her. From the statement she had made to him (the constable), it appeared that she was the daughter of a respectable veterinary surgeon, residing at Clutton, Som(r etshire, and having become enamoured of a private soldier belonging to the 37th Regiment of Foot, she had left her home, and had latterly lived at Chatham, where her lover was quartered. The regiment had latterly been ordered on foreign service, and was about to sail for Ceylon, and prisoner, discovering that the object of heraffections was to proceed thither by the ship Minerva, lying in the East India Dock, she sold her female apparel, at a great sacrifice, and purchased the sailor's clothe she then had on. She then went to the registry for seamen, and procured a registry note in the name of David Cook. She next went on board the Minerva and offered herself to the captain as a cabin boy, but to her great mortification found that the captain had shipped all hands on board and therefore did not require her services. Foiled in her object in accompanying her lover she had resolved upon committing suicide, and her 417.4 :intoitiPpr wad to have thrown herself off one of the bridges ; this she should have-done„she said. had she not been told by a sailor boy that she brought with her from Chatham that the Thames was so excessively crowded with craft that the probabilities were that she would drop on to one of them, break her bones, and die a lingering death. She then made up her mind to take poison, and procured a small quantity of poison at different shops, all of which she swallowed off with some coffee, before the constable found her. The witness here handed to the Bench a letter, which Mr. Norton read, and of which the following is a copy:— " Dear Thomas,—l have overstepped the bounds of prudence and modesty, in hopes of being able to reach Ceylon with you. I have put on boy's apparel and come to this sink of iniquity, London, to enter the " Minerva" as a boy, but when I got here, the captain had shipped all his hands. I have tried to get on board several vessels, but cannot, on account of not being able to find money enough to provide enough of clothes to get to sea. I have sold all my own to get what I have on, and have no money to get others. I have no friends here, no plaee to go to—but I cannot blame anybody but myself! Think of me no more, Thomas, as it is useless— you will never see nor hear from me again. Remember, me to Harriet and Charles. Don't make yourself uneasy about me. I have no more to say, but remain yours, till death,  THE RELIEF WORKS in