Harpers-Ferry free press. [volume], May 28, 1823, Image 2

About Harpers-Ferry free press. [volume] (Harper's Ferry, Va. [i.e. Harpers Ferry, W. Va.]) 1821-1824

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VERY LATE FROM ENGLAND.
NEW YORK, MAY 19-2 o'clock.
The elegant new packet ship Leeds,
Captain Stoddard, (of the fourth, or Ex
change Line,} has just arrived in the re
markably quick passage of 23 days from
Liverpool, bringing advices to the 24th
of April, inclusive-—’sixteen days later
than before received.
We have only time to say that part of
the French army had entered spain, and
Had summoned St. Sebastian to surren
der-—which place resisted, and seme skir
mishing had taken place. Pampeluna
was closely invested. The French head
quarters, on the 14th, were at Villa Fran
ca.— [Mercantile Adv. Office.
\_From the N. Y. Daily Adv. Office.]
Courier Office; London, 3 o’clock.
We have just received by express from
Paris the following telegraphic commu
nication :
Paris, Afiril 22.—-The port and citadel
of Gutaria have been taken by our troops.
Two hundred men, among whom were
two colonels and ten other officers, have
been taken, together with five pieces of
cannon, and provisions.
It is said that the enemy have abandon
ed Burgos since the 14th. Every where
the French army meets with the best re
ception.
LONDON, APRIL 22.
City 12 o'clock.—There has been some
improvement in Consols this morning.
They opened at 96§, and before 12 o’
clock had reached 96J 7-8ths. The fluc
tuation in Spanish bonds has been great
—•opening at 32£, advancing to 34, and
again receding to 32|.
An embargo has been laid on all the
Spanish vessels in the ports of France.
A scarcity of provisions already began
to be experienced by the French troops,
who took with them 9 days supply, each
soldier, as is stated, carrying his own
share. An attempt is said to have been
made to bribe the Spanish governor with
800,000 francs, to surrender the fortress
©f St. Sebastian.
The summary of one of the morning1
papers says:
Conchy’s division is before Pampelu
na, but has not blockaded it. The garri
son Consists of 4000 men. The local
militia amounting to 15,000 men, have
joined the army of Ballasteros, whose
head quarters were at Tarazona. Con
chy and Molitar intended attacking him ;
it they fail the result will be very hazar
dous to the French—they have but small
parks of artillery. The bridge of Miranda
has been destroyed. The scarcity of
provisions is severely felt by the French
along their whole line.
“ Flying columns of guerrillas move
about between the Pyrennees and the
Ebro. They hover round the French,
harrass them, and leave them nothing to
eat. Morillo commands the army of re
serve in Gallicia, and takes a position be
tween Leon and Astroga, with from 15
to 20,000 men. It is stated by a respect
able gentleman from Cadiz, that the most
determined spirit prevailed, and the most
rancorous hostility towards the French
a-me and nation. Not the most distant
idea was harbored of submission; all
ranks united in the most determined re
solution to resist to the last extremity.
The Contribandistus, or smugglers, a
rhounting to 50,000 men, are all well
mounted and armed; they are men of
great courage and intrepidity.
“The army of Perpignan waited the
arrival of the Duke d’Angouleme on the
Ebro, and will move on the 22d. In a
few days, the Telegraph says, 100,000
men will be in line.
“ i he trench army is divided into
four corps, and ten divisions, and two
divisions of dragoons. The corps under
Marshal Moncey is on the frontier, op
posite Catalonia, and is opposed to the
army of Mina, the whole not more than
81,000 men. Col. Jarreguay, better
known by the name of El Pastor, has
left the main army, and organized his
Guerrillas—-a moue ot warfare adopted
in Spain since the days of Sertorius.—
The Spaniards will avoid severe general
actions,trusting to their usual mode of at
tack and defence/’
A private letter states, that Sir Charles
Stuart, the British Minister at Paris,
has had high words with Mbnsieur
Chateaubriand, and it was rumored that
the English Minister had demanded his
passports.
The following summary is from the
Ifrench papers:
The Constitutional troops had quitted
I run.
One of the French papers states that
the French Revolutionists hope, if their
brethren in Spain are obliged to quit
Seville, that they will be able to convey
the King off by the sea to America; this
measure, jt is said, will be prevented, as
two French frigates are cruising off the
entrance of the Guadalquiver.
All Navarre is rising against the Con
stitutional system. Mina has an army
on the Eastern Pyrenees; only 5 or 6000
men are armed, the remainder badly
clothed and destitute of arms.
The Royalists are masters of the en
virotis of Madrid. The Ambassador of
Portugal has quitted Paris.
The 4-th corps of the French army, un
der Marshal Moncey, is to assemble on
the 15th of April, to consist of 18,000
men.
There hacl been great desertions from
the Spanish army of the Faith, under Ea
ton de Erolks.
It is stated that the Spanish policy is,
to let the French troops get to Madrid.
In Cataloniu, many cons'itutionalists
have joined the Royalists. Navarre and
Biscay are in insurrection.
Reports were circulated that the loss
of the French in their first attack upon
St. Sebastians was much greater than
they were willing to acknowledge.
It is stated, in the Gazette de France,
that when the Duke d3Angouleme arriv
ed, Erani, the deputy from the three Bis
cayan provinces, presented to him their
recognition of a Provisional government
in Spain during the captivity of the King.
It was stated currently in Paris, that
accounts had been received that General
Mina, with 1500 men was marching into
France, which caused General Moncey
to fall back upon Toulouse. This, how
ever, is not authenticated.
London, April 21.—Extract of a letter
received from Paris, dated Saturday
evening“ The French frigate La Guer
riere has been taken almost in sight of
Brest, by two armed vessels bearing Span
ish colors, one of which was a brig car
rying 15 or 20 guns. The frigate was
peppered in high style.” You may rely,,
upon the truth of this.”
PORTUGAL.
Extract of a letter from a gentleman at
tached to Gen. Dearborn’a Legation to
his friend in JYew York, dated Lisbon,
YYoth March, 1823.
“There exists in this country an in
surrection of which you will probably
have been informed through the public
papers, and which appears every day to
assume a more serious aspect. It is
headed by a Count Afnorante, whose fa
ther, as well as himself, opposed the re
volution which resulted in the establish
ment of the present order of things, and
was treated on that occasion with great
indulgence by the liberals. The father
is since dead, and the son, seizing the
occasion afforded by the threatened in
vasion by the French army, and being
supplied with money by the French min
istry, has been able to seduce two regi
ments of cavalry, one or tw o battalions
of chasseurs, and a regiment of infantry.
With these troops, a body of militia,
and some countrymen, he has taken the
field in the province of Tras-los Montes,
and has been able to sustain himself, and
I fear has gained some accessions to his
party during the last month, viz: from
Feb. 23d to this date.
“Prompt and energetic measures ap
peared to be taking both by the military
and civil authorities of that district to
defeat and punish this faction; and it
was expected, from the character of the
military commander of the constitution
al party, who has a. high reputation for
courage and energy, as well as from that
of his antagonist, who it seems was not
thought very highly of by the comman
der in chief, Lord Wellington, or by any
of his brother officers in the late war,
that the affair would have been very soon
terminated by the destruction or the cap
ture and flight of the factious. These
hopes, I am sorry to say, have been hith
erto disappointed, and within a few days
have received the severest blow of all.
There had been several slight skirmishes,
in whiqh the constitutionalists are repre
sented as uniformly having the advan
tage ; at any rate their adversaries retir
ed before them at every encounter, and
finally concentrated their forte in Cheves,
a stmnff town hn ,111-!or
“ Rego, the Constitutional commander,
advanced within two or three leagues of
that place with his main body, and sent
forward two battalions of light troops,
who, according to the accounts, ap
proached within half a league of the
town on an extensive plain, giving an
opportunity for cavalry, in which the
strength of the factious chiefly consisted,
to act against them to the best advantage.
This oversight, the enemy, stupid as
they say he is, had sense enough to see
and profit by. His cavalry made a
vigorous attack on the two battalions
above mentioned, and appear to have
killed or captured them almost to a man.
I believe that none, except a Major and
the Brigadier General who commanded,
escaped, and the latter was subsequently
taken in an attempt to make a stand at
the head of some militia.
“This account *, believe to be substan
tially correct, although it may not be
circumstantially so, for the official ac
counts which have been published do not
go into details at all.”—[Statesman.
BUFFALO, MAY 6.
The Seasoji.—The month of April has
been uncommonly cold and wet; vegeta
tion is consequently very backward. For
the last three days we have been visited
withsnow,fros\t and ice, quite unwelcome
visitors in this month of flowers.
NEWS FROM GREECE.
NE-W-YORK, MAY 18—2 ?. M.
We are indebted to a gentleman who
came in the brig Shepherdess, Capt. Sto
rer, arrived on Saturday from Messina
and Gibraltar, for a file of Gibraltar pa
pers to the first of April, and for the fol
lowing information respecting the Greeks
which comes from the most authentic
source.—[Daily Adv.
The Greeks, in their struggle for free
dom, have succeeded beyond the hopes
of the warmest friends to their noble
cause. Reduced by the most abject sla
very for many centuries in civilization
to the level of the Turks themselves,
without any regular concerted plans and
little harmony among them, they have,
in the Morea arid some of the Islands in
the vicinity, resisted every effort the Ot
toman government has been able to make
to crush the renovating genius of their
ancestors. After a long continuation of
sanguinary engagements and horrid cru
elties on both sides, they have finally des
troyed the whole of the Turks excepting
the garrison of Coron, Modon, and Pat
ras; the two former consisting of about
three hundred men, and the latter of a
thousand, have demanded a capitulation,
but we have not yet received any infor
mation of its having been agreed to.
Several strong squadrons have been
sent by the Ottoman government to raise
the blockade of these and other forts in
the Morea, but their designs have been
constantly frustrated by a numerous
squadron of armed merchant vessels man
ned by old and enterprising sailors, com
manded principally by the owners of ves
sels, inhabitants of the Islands of Idra,
Ipsera, and Spezia. In these attempts
to relieve the garrisons, the Turks have
lost by conflagration three ships of the
line, several frigates, and the whole of
the troops that they conveyed in small
vessels.
-The last Turkish army stationed on
the North coast of the Gulf of Lepanto,
commanded by Oraer Pasha, has, by the
last accounts we have received, been
completely beaten near Monologdi. The
Greeks have pursued him and the strag
glers of his army as far as the port of
Velrizzo, which they have taken, and
Oraer Pasha has retired with fifteen of
his followers to Orta. This leaves t^he
whole of Livadia, drawing a line from
Vorrigio to Thermopylae, free of the
Turks, excepting a small garrison at Le
pante, which, in all probability, will ca
pitulate tvith that of Patras.
The inhabitants of the Isle of Candia,
who have suffered the greatest cruelties
since the arrival of the Turkish squad
ron there, have, assisted by the Greek
flotilla, retaken, with great loss on both
sides, the forts occupied by the Turks.
The troops of the Bashaw of Egypt,
wh,o is the brother of the Sultan’s mother,
forming part of the garrisons, have been
sent by capitulation to Alexandria; and
the others, who were Turks, have agreed
to live in harmony with the Greeks.
The inhabitants of this Island, com
posed of Greeks and Turks, familiarise
together more than in any other part of
the world ; they intermarry frequently,
notwithstanding the laws of Mahomet
punish by death their women who have
had connexion with Christians.
Since the surrender of Napoli di Ro
mania, the Greeks have established the
seat of their government in that city.
Lord North, or Clifford, arrived at
Zante the 25th of January, 1823, and sent
a person to the coast, to Messolongi, in
order to make an offer to the Prince Mor
rorcordato of the loan of two and a half
millions of dollars at the rate of 4 per
cent, per annum. This affair, though
treated by individuals, is a government
transaction.
Another Englishman is gone to Napo
li di Romania, to make another offer to
the Senate of five millions of dollars.
The Smyrna papers, tolhe 28th ofFeb.
received at Boston, repeat, (says the Cen
tinel,) that the Porte was taking vigorous
measures for the conquest of the Morea ;
and that a new squadron was ready to
sail. A young Frenchman had been kil
led, and the Chancellor of the Catholic
Archbishop badly wounded, in the streets
of Constantinople. The assassins were
said to have been arrested.
' The affairs between Russia and Turkey
grew more amicable daily; and commer
cial intercourse was re-established.
Great Fire at Constantinople.—-The '
English papers state that none of the
houses of the Ambassadors suffered at i
thelatefire. The number of houses and
shops destroyed is estimated at 8000,
with 50 or 60 mosques or chapels. Eve
ry thing was laid waste to the distance of
a league and a half. Forty thousand per
sons were without a habitation, and great
numbers were consumed, being unable
to get out of the reach of the fire, by sick
ness, See. This fire is said to have,made
a deep impression on the minds of the
Turks, who with astonishment beheld
the conflagration confine itself to Turk
ish dwellings, sparing, as if directed by
supernatural agency, the dwellings of the
) Christians.
HORRIBLE CATASTROPHE.
MALTA, FEB. 21.
It has been usual for many years past
in this Island, on the last days ol the
Carnival, to collect together, in Valletta
and in the three cities 'em the other side
of the harbour, as many boys ol the low
er classes, of from 8 to 15 years of age,
as chose to attend—to form them into a
procession, and to take them out to Pie
rian or elsewhere ; where, after attending
service in the church, a collection of
bread and fruit (provided from funds
partly given by Government and partly
by beneficent individuals) was distribut
ed to them—and this with the view of
keeping them out of the riot and confu
sion of the Carnival in the streets of the
cities.
The arrangement of this procession is
under the control of the Ecclesiastical
Directors of the Institution for teaching
the catechism.
It appears that this procession had,ta
ken place on the 10th instant—that the
children went to Florian, just outside of
Valetta, and from thence returned to the
Church of the Minori Osservanli, in
Valletta, and that the bread was on that
distributed in the Convent of that0'
»/
day
Order, without any accident or confu-j'6?
sion.
het
On the 11th, the procession was form- ^
ed as usual, proceeded to Florian, and
returned to the Church of the Minori1,
Osservanti, and the bread was to he Jis
tnbuted as on the preceding day, in the
same Convent.
Unfortunately, however, the ceremony
had been protracted to a later hour than
usual, and it appears (the Carnival be
ing over) that a multitude of boys and
fuilgrown people, passing by tne Church,
and knowiing that bread was to be dis
tributed, mixed with the children in the
Church with a view of sharing it with
them.
i ne ooys were to enter tne corridor
of the Convent from the door of the res- 'n
try of the Church, and were to lie let out iu
through the opposite door of the Convent '!1
into Strad-a St. Ursula, where the bread
was to be distributed; and it had been
customary when they were collected in
the corridor, to lock the door of the \es- {c
try, for the purpose of preventing those 01
boys who had received their share of the at
bread from entering a second time into ‘‘
the corridor.
On the door of the vestry, however,
being thrown open on the present occa
sion, which took place about sun-set, af
ter the entrance of the boys who origi- ^
nally attended the procession, and who e
could not have exceeded one hundred, *
the whole multitude of men and boys who '
had subsequently entered the Church,
forced themselves into the corridor to^»\
unknown extent, and pressed upon yjpfa
foremost, pushing them gradually to the f
other end of tne corridor, where the door t
was only half open, with the view of let- I
ting out one at a time. '
As soon as the people had all entered i
the corridor, the vestry door was as usu- ; 1
al locked, and, though there was one i
lamp lighted in the corridor, it appears 1
by some accident, to have been early pul l
out—thus leaving this immense crowd
! entirely in the dark ; and there being
unfortunately a flight of eight steps
| within the half closed door, at the oppo
| site end of the corridor, the crowd be
hind who pressed upon the foremost,
forced the boys down the steps, who fell
one upon the other, thus, unfortunately, I
cboaking up the half-shut door at the j
bottom (which opened inwards) and add
ed to the distress.
me snriefes ol the children were soon
heard by the persons employed in the
distribution of the bread which they had
just commenced issuing’, and by the in
habitants of the neighborhood; and it
appears that every aid was immediately
given. Some persons, after endeavour- I
ing in vain to get the boys out of the
half-closed door, rushed into the church
and got the keys ol the vestry-door,
which was then opened; while others
entered the corridor from the vestry,
passed through the crowd to the other 1
end, and broke down the door at the i
bottom of the steps—but unfortunately i
these exertions were not in time to save (
the unhappy sufferers. i
Many, however, were taken out faint- I
ing, but soon recovered; others, appa- <
rently lifeless, were afterwards brought i
to their senses; but, we regret to add, i
that one hundred and ten boys, of from ;
8 to 15 years of age, perished, on this t
occasion, from suhocatioo, by being ft
pressed together in so small space, o* i
trampled upon. I
Extract from a letter—MatanzaSf May 4. J |
u Com. Porter, t-ho’ his health has been 1
extremely bad, in consequence of expo- i
sure is making'the most active exertions ii
to protect the commerce of the country on
this coast, arid the privations and expo
sure ol officers and men are very great.
The Sea-Gull and two schooners came in
late last night; and to-day (Sunday) the
officers and crews of all the vessels have
been at work the whole day getting coal
and water to go out early to-morrow
| with the convoy, The barges have tak
| eu a piratical felucca to leeward.”
I