1822.] CCURRENCE S. осс stance which is stated to have diffused great consolation and satisfaction among that suffering people. INDIA. From the Cape Town Gazette of the 28th of September.-Papers from India have been received up to July the 13th, from which the following are extracts: The late storms, we regret to say, have produced fatal effects in the Bay of Bengal; to what extent we are unable to ascertain; but we trust that future accounts will not add much to what we have already heard. The ship Charles Mills, Captain Wise, left the pilot on the 11th of May, and foundered at sea on the 20th, in lat. 15. N. long. 85. 30. E. The hurricane which proved her destruction commenced on the 17th, and is represented to have been a most tremendous one-the wind blowing from every point of the compass at once. Every exertion was made to preserve the lives of those on board her; but the only survivors are captain Wise, Mr. Roberts (second officer), one gunner, two Seacunnies, one Sepoy, and one boy. Sixty-six individuals perished. The survivors were five days in a small open boat before they made the land, which they could not approach on account of the surf: they subsisted during this unhappy period upon a few pumpkins, which one of their number had the presence of mind to throw into the boat, even at the awful moment when they quitted the wreck. On the 25th they made the land, and saw the black pagoda. In at1822. (145) tempting to get on shore it is very likely that they would have perished in the surf; but providentially, they discovered a sail, which proved to be the French brig Scythe, from the Mauritius, bound to Calcutta. They succeeded in getting on board, and were received and treated all along by the commander and officers with the utmost kindness and attention. The Scythe reached Kedgeree on the 28th. The Lady Farquhar was dismasted in the same gale, and the probability is, that she would have been lost had she been manned by Lascars. The Lady Nugent also suffered severely, and was under the necessity of putting back; she reached the new anchorage on Tuesday. The Caroline was dismasted in the same tempest. A most violent storm burst over Calcutta in the night of the 5th of July. The furious peals of crashing thunder reverberating immediately overhead, were truly appalling, and in the pauses between each peal of the " artillery of heaven" the mind naturally reverted to the thousands who were exposed to the utmost horrors of the tempest, on the great deep. Accounts from Dinapour mention, that boats without number have been lost on the Ganges, and that the Patna shores were covered with wrecks. Several lives must have been lost, though no particulars have yet reached us. In the lower provinces the hopes of the indigo planters have been bitterly disappointed; these, however, are but trivial effects of the late storms, in comparison with the tremendous detail of devastation and misery which it is our painful duty to notice. What are we to expect from the next ship(K) ping ping accounts, when we are told, that in one place, upon land, 100,000 lives have been lost? It is truly dreadful to think of such a terrible misfortune. NEW SOUTH WALES. The governor of New South Wales has officially made known to the people of the colony that a passage from Sydney to the new country westward of the Blue Mountains has recently been discovered. The communication with the western country having been heretofore over a long and difficult range of mountains, alike ungenial to men and cattle, from their parched and barren state, it became an object of great importance to discover another route, whereby those almost insurmountable barriers would be avoided, and a more practicable and consequently less hazardous access effected to the rich and extensive plains of Bathurst. With this purpose Mr. Throsby obtained his Excellency's permission to explore those parts of the country which seemed to him likely to possess the desired facilities of intercourse; and undertook the expedition, notwithstanding the privations, difficulties, and dangers to which he was exposed in traversing wastes and forests, hitherto unexplored. On the 25th of April last he commenced his arduous tour, passing through the Cow Pastures, accompanied by Mr. John Rowley and two servants, together with two natives as guides, and brought it to a happy termination on the 9th of May, by his arrival at the hut of Lieut. Lawson, on the Campbell river, within a short distance of Bathurst; the whole time oc cupied in the expedition being fifteen days. The features of the country intervening between the Cow Pastures and Bathurst are represented, with few exceptions, to be rich, fertile, and luxuriant, abounding with fine runs of water, and all the happy varieties of soil, hill and valley, to render it delightful to the view, and suitable to all the purposes of pasturage and agriculture. The importance of these discoveries is enhanced by the consideration that a continuous range of valuable country, extending from the Cow Pastures to the remote plains of Bathurst, is now fully ascertained, connecting those countries with the present settlements on this side the Nepean. The governor had conferred on Mr. Throsby, for his services in this excursion, 1000 acres of land in any part of the country discovered by himself that he pleased: 200 acres on Mr. Rowley; 100 acres on each of his servants, and suitable rewards on the guides. Mitchill's Group. — The Independence, Captain Barretts, of Nantucket, bound from Tapan to New Zealand, when in the lat. of 9. 18. S. long. 179. 45. E. by lunar, discovered on the 6th of November last, a group of islands encompassed with a reef, and inhabited; which, as the captain did not find them laid down in any chart, and conceived them to be new discoveries, he named Mitchill's Group, in compliment to our worthy citizen Dr. Mitchill. Boats were sent to one of the islands for refreshments, where they obtained an abundant supply of cocoa nuts, being all the land produced. Two men went on shore, shore, and were kindly treated by the inhabitants, who made them presents. Another island, about five miles distant from Mitchill's Group," was ascertained to be uninhabited, about a mile long, and guarded all round by a coral reef, against which the sea broke with great force. The land is not more than fifteen feet above the sea, but being covered over with high trees it appeared very lofty, and could be seen at the distance of twenty miles, in clear weather. This island, also supposed to be a new discovery, was named Rocky Island by Capt. Barrett. It lay in lat. 10. 45. S. long. 170. 28. E. by lunar, variation 11. E. (K 2) SATURDAY, the 10th of August, being fixed for the embarkation of his majesty from Greenwich on his northern trip, at an early hour in the morning the road leading to Greenwich from London was thronged with eager passengers of every rank and condition in life, hastening towards the busy scene of expected gaiety and pomp, in vehicles of every description. At five o'clock the bells of Deptford and Greenwich struck up a merry peal, and continued to ring at intervals throughout the whole of the forenoon, and flags were displayed from the steeples. A little before eight o'clock a field officer's guard marched into the Hospital square, from which sentinels were placed at all the avenues, and a guard of honour kept in readiness to attend his majesty on his arrival. Soon afterwards some of the city barges were seen approaching down the river, preceded by an immense number of row galleys and pleasure boats, of all sizes and descriptions; and a little after eight o'clock the lord mayor arrived in the state barge, towed by the Royal Sovereign steam-boat, and filled with a large and splendid company, the vessels in sight hoisting their colours and flags at every mast head as he passed. The city barges, that of the lord mayor, the goldsmiths' company, and the skinners' company, decorated with flags and colours, ranged themselves in a double line from the yacht to the hospital stairs, leaving a space for the royal barge to pass between them. At half-past two o'clock the royal carriage having arrived at Carlton-house, his majesty took his departure, and as he passed through Parliament-street, the guard turned out and saluted the king. He rapidly passed over Westminster bridge, attended by the usual military escort. At a quarter past two o'clock several of his majesty's suite arrived at the western gate of the hospital. At half-past two the marquis of Conyngham, and his son, lord Francis, arrived in travelling carriages, and drove to the grand avenue leading to the place of embarkation, where they remained until the arrival of his majesty. Soon afterwards the earls of Harrowby, Westmoreland, and Liverpool, and several other noblemen, arrived. As the hour of three approached, the public expectation was at the highest possible pitch. The vessels immediately off Greenwich were completely filled: the shrouds and the yards of the whole of them were manned, and the river at this time presented a spectacle of the most imposing description. At five minutes past three a general "huzza!" announced the approach approach of his majesty, and in a short time the king arrived at the royal hospital, in a plain green carriage and four, escorted only by a party of the 15th hussars. His arrival was first known to the multitude on the Thames by the presence of a hussar, who gallopped down to the stairs in front of the royal hospital; and immediately after the flag, which had been flying all day on the roof of this noble edifice, was lowered, and the royal standard hoisted in its stead. The hoisting of the royal standard was greeted from the river and from the shore with astounding huzzas. In a few moments his majesty (he having rested for a very short time in the governor's house) appeared at the stairs at which he was to embark. He was attended by two or three noblemen, and was dressed in a plain blue surtout and foraging cap. He descended to the barge which was in waiting, with the national standard flying, and in a very few minutes was alongside the Royal George. At the moment that he descended the steps from the royal hospital he was greeted by the vast multitude ashore and on the river with cheers, which were truly astounding. The hats and handkerchiefs of tens of thousands of persons, of both sexes, were waving in the air. As his majesty embarked, the bands of music which were stationed on board the different vessels played the national anthem of "God save the King." As soon as his majesty had left the hospital, the royal standard was lowered, and the usual British flag hoisted in its stead. At exactly twenty minutes past three the king was alongside the Royal George, and he ascended the ladder at the gangway amid the cheers of the surrounding multitude, which at this moment beggared all description. When the hoisting of the royal standard on the roof of the hospital announced that the king had arrived, Capt. the hon. sir C. Paget, the commander of the Royal George, mustered the ship's crew upon deck, and in a moment all was ready for the reception of his majesty. The king was accompanied in. the barge attached to the royal yacht by the marquis of Conyngham, lord F. Conyngham, the marquis of Anglesea (who immediately afterwards went on board his own yacht,) and several other distinguished characters; and he was received upon the quarterdeck by Capt. Paget, and the whole of the ship's officers in full uniform. When the king and his retinue were safely on board the Royal George, the state barge of the lord mayor was unmoored, and rowed to the Royal Sovereign steam yacht, which vessel took her in tow, and proceeded to the centre of the river. Some delay occurred while the Royal George was getting her anchor; but this being done, a hawser was made fast from her bows to the Comet steam packet, appointed for that purpose, and at 20 minutes to four o'clock the royal yacht was in rapid motion. The moment the Royal George. moved from her anchorage, all the vessels, boats, and craft of every description on the river followed her example. The boats were breaking away in every direction, and many of them had great |