1824, between his majesty the King of the Netherlands and his majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, that the subjects and ships of one nation shall not pay a higher duty on imports and exports in and from the ports in the eastern seas, belonging to the other nation, than double the amount paid by the subjects and ships of the nation to which the port belongs, and, with reference to the goods on which no duty is fixed, when imported or exported by the subjects, or in the ships, of the nation to which the port belongs, and the duty on which to be paid by the subjects of the other nation is fixed, in no case to exceed six per cent. "It having appeared necessary to us, for promoting the object of this agreement, without, however, compromising the interest of the state, to establish such an understanding respecting some of the regulations here fixed upon relative to in and outward duties, to which goods imported or exported, per foreign ships, are subjected, as will bring them in connection with the above-mentioned treaty. "We, by resolution this day taken in council of India, have approved and determined: "1. With alteration and extension of the 22d article of the regulation of in and outward duties, dated 28th August 1818, and inclusion of our publication of the 15th July 1823 (State Paper, No. 27), to fix that henceforth an outward duty shall be paid on coffee, exported in Netherland ships to foreign ports, of two and a half guilders per pecul. "2. With reference to and in support of articles No. 1 and 2 of our publication of the 9th July 1822 (State Paper, No. 36), and article 16 of the regulations for raising in and outward duties of 28th August 1818, to fix that henceforth a duty of six per cent. shall be paid on all goods, the produce of places situated in the Eastern archipelago belonging to the Netherlands, or to Indian powers and people with which the government of the Netherlands stands in friendly relations, on Java, and Madura, imported direct from those places in foreign vessels, without touching at any foreign ports; but when such goods are brought to Java and Madura by foreign ships, indirectly, and not without touching at any foreign ports, and do not otherwise fall within the above description, then double the amount of duties charged by Netherlands' ships, or inland vessels, placed on equality therewith, shall be paid. "And in order that no one plead ignorance hereof, these presents shall be published wherever such publication is cus tomary. "And we farther charge and command all high and low authorities and officers, justicium and officium, each, for so far as concerns him, to attend to the punctual Letter from the Hoppo of Canton to the Security Merchants, dated 4th year, 10th moon, 29th day. Tseih, Hoppo of Canton, &c. &c., to the merchants; I have received a communication from His Exc. the Viceroy as follows: "Leu-tze-pan, the Governor of Keung-chew-foo (capital of Hainan), has reported to me [that a ship] of the redhaired nation (English or Dutch), named Ammei (the Amboyna), laden from Canton with cassia, alum, blue cloth, thread, ginger, &c., having left Macao, was driven by the wind on the coast of 'Tseih-singfew, in Lo-hwng-Heen, and wrecked there. The district magistrates reported to him (the Governor), that a merchant of Pun-Yu-Heen, named Yew-bae, being acquainted with the foreign language, they had proceeded with him to examine the captain, named Hwa-ta, or Wa-ta, (Capt. Waddle), who stated that his ship was called the Am-meina (Amboyna), or the Ammei; that he was a private merchant of the red-haired nation, and with his partner Le shet-le (Mr. Yrasari), had fitted out the ship to trade with China. Last year he had taken a cargo to Canton, and brought away another, which he carried to a new port, not far distant from the redhaired nation (New South Wales); he again proceeded to Canton, and left it on the 7th of the 9th moon, with a cargo of cassia, &c. He sailed from Macao on the 11th, and was proceeding to the new port (Singapore), on his way home, when he was overtaken by a tempest, which drove im on the coast of Tseih-sing-few, wrecking wrecking his vessel, and destroying his merchandize; and so forth. "I, the Viceroy, have already directed the said governor to make further enquiries, and have also written to Hoppo on the same subject. "Since Capt. Hwa-ta's ship was laden at Canton and sailed from Macao, the hong merchants must be well acquainted with the particular nation of the foreigner, as well as the captain's real name. ** I have to request that the Hoppo will desire the hong merchants to ascertain these points, and address me on the subject. "I, the Hoppo, therefore, address this mandate to the merchants, requiring them to ascertain the above points, and present an address on the subject to both the Viceroy and myself. "Oppose not a special mandate." Arabia. INUNDATION AT BAGDAD. the Almorah was chartered by government, or by the commissary, in the early part of September last, to make a voyage to Batavia, to fetch a cargo of sundries, consisting of rice, of dollars, of sugar, of wheat, and of tea, to meet and provide against the horrors of an apprehended (by whom we know not) famine. Now, it so happens, that Batavia is in those limits within which the East-India Company have and possess the exclusive right of trading-more particularly in the article of tea. The privileges of the Company have, in some respects, been narrowed by recent enactments: still, however, they are in the full enjoyment of this branch of trade as formerly. It also further happens, that, although the Almorah, under certain conditions, and with a proper license, might have brought hither a general cargo, exclusive of tea-her three hundred chests, or rather, we believe, quarter chests of tea, were considered as subjecting her to all the pains and penalties of an illicit trader; so at least were the officers advised of his Majesty's ship the Slaney, which guards the entrance of Sydney Cove. A letter from Bagdad, dated the 28th Accordingly, on the day after her arrival, of May, states that this year the Tigris and when it was known where she had has considerably increased. The city of been, and what she had got, a boat's crew, Bagdad had been for three weeks as if it accompanied by the first lieutenant of were situated in the midst of extensive the Slaney, proceeded on board, clapped a marshes. The waters had begun to dimi- lock on the hatches, sealed up the ship's nish, but the city was not yet out of papers, a tiger and all, and declared the danger. There was previously great apAlmorah a lawful prize. The bonne bouche prehension of a general inundation. Many, which a certain personage anticipated in houses had been undermined, and, amongst his Rhenish, was not even allowed to quit them, a part of the Pacha's palace. The the hold. Despatches, telegraphic and ruins, which had fallen in Upper Mesopo- post, were immediately set a-going between tamia, and the melting of the snow on Paramatta and Sidney. The captain of the the mountains of Media and Kurdistan, man of war declared it to be his duty to have caused this deluge. A vast number seize the ship on behalf of the East-India of Arabian families, who live in Lower Company. The Governor, it is generally Mesopotamia, had been nearly overwhelm- rumoured, has disclaimed participation in ed by the flood. It is reported that the the greater part of this mercantile speculamass of the people contrived to tion. save His Excellency, it is understood, themselves by sacrificing many of their gave his sanction to only so much of the compatriots. In the precipitation of des- project as extends to a cargo of rice pair, human bodies were used to raise the government, therefore, are completedykes and battlements. Men, women, ly exonerated from the consequences; and children, and animals were seized alive, the conflict, if any there be, will be be and thrown together any how, in order to tween the East-India Company on-one make a barrier against the advance of the hand, and the charterers on the other. evil which threatened to destroy them all. The cargo is very valuable-it has been Provisions are trebled in price, and the variously estimated. The dollars, it has Arabs and Kurds are every where in a been asserted, amount to twenty-five thoustate of insurrection. sand pounds; there being, according to many accounts, fifty boxes, each contain ing 2,000 dollars. We have heard, indeed, that one hundred thousand dollars are actually entered in the manifest. The wheat cost at Batavia about twenty, shillings a bushel; and we have been assured, that this article will at any time fetch in the Batavian market full twelve shillings a bushel; if this be true, it is well worthy the attention of the Australian farmer, who may be sure of a remunerating price; Australia. NEW SOUTH WALES. Seizure of the Almorah.-The dull mo notony of Sydney events has been a little broken in upon by a comical incident which occurred last week. It is undoubtedly in the recollection of our readers, that and, and, in this respect, has a very great encouragement given him for the cultivation of his land. Treasury Bills obtained a premium of 17 and 18 per cent., which amply pays for the whole expense of sending for them, including commission, freight, &c., the rate of exchange here averaging between 14 and 15 per cent. The tea was bought tolerably cheap, it having cost only 1s. a pound-it is black tea. The rice is supposed to be worth about 15s. per bag. There are some private investments on board. The Captain liad a small venture of dollars.-[Australian, Feb. 24. A summary mode of recovering possession of the Almorah seems to have been advised by the attorney-general, who himself accompanied the party destined to carry it into execution; but upon a demonstration of resistance, by firing blank cartridges, they were obliged to return without accomplishing their object. The Almoral subsequently sailed for Calcutta, where the question will be brought to a legal decision.-[Ibid. DISTURBANCE AT SYDNEY. There has been a serious disturbance between the soldiery and the settlers; the former are stated to have committed great excesses, when in a state of intoxication. The Sydney papers mention that the soldiers were kept in their garrison after nightfall; and the promptitude and good conduct of the officers are highly praised. NEW SOUTH WALES RAT. The following circumstance occurred the other night at the house of Mr. Robertson, watchmaker, in George Street, near the King's Wharf.-It is well known that Mr. R. has a family of children. These children, five of them quite babes, have their bed-rooms up-stairs, and lay two in a bed. About midnight, on Friday or Saturday last, Mr. R.'s eldest son was disturbed by some animal, which he supposed to be a cat; he gave a kick, and it fell off the bed. In a few moments after the animal found its way into his sisters' bed-room, and there in like manner created an alarm; it was knocked off the bed, and expressed great displeasure by squeaking: it was then known to be a rat. The horrid animal was not to be retarded from the object in view by these rebuffs; he made another attack. Some moments after the second alarm, one of the little girls was heard to scream; but all the children being inclined to sleep, even the little creature that was wounded also fell asleep. The morning, however, presented a most dismal scene, The bed, containing Lavalette and Jenny, was drenched in blood. The rat had seized the children just above the nose, and immediately below the forehead. One of the teeth had entered a vein that caused the blood to flow most copiously. Lavalette was nearly in a state of insensibility, and quite colourless. It is supposed that the animal must have been satiated with blood, and then retreated. The houses in the lower end of the town are alarmingly infested with these horrid vermin. Plenty of good strong cats (instead of so many useless annoying curs) would be of great advantage to large houses where children constitute so great a portion of the inmates.-[Sydney Gazette, Dec. 2. 1) Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, the Go vernor of the Mauritius, has issued a singular proclamation from the Government House, Fort Louis, requiring proprietors of estates, lessees, and other occupants, to deposit at the civil commissaries of their respective quarters, in the course of the year, ten birds' heads, or twenty rats' tails, at their option, for every slave in their possession. The birds' eggs, young birds, or rats, found and destroyed in their nests, shall be counted in common with others. A penalty of six sols is fixed on every bird's head and rat's tail not fur nished. Every head of an ape or monkey shall be received as equivalent to six rats" tails, or twelve birds' heads. All those races are considered destructive to the harvest and culture on the island. Three naval officers, and a party of H.M.'s ship Andromache's men, in the York tender, visited that enterprizing offi cer, Lieut. Farewell, R.N., and party, at the third point Natal, commonly called Port Natal. Chaca, king of that part of the eastern coast of Africa, bad given Lieut. Farewell a grant of the harbour and territory surrounding, and demonstrated every civility and attention, frequently soliciting Lieut, Farewell to visit his hutted city, distance about two days' walk from the coast. Chaca's force about him conê sists of from thirteen thousand to fifteen thousand well-made fine young men, who are in a state of perfect nudity, and hardly! one of them but appears to have been: wounded. Their instruments of warfare are l simply a shield and spear, of a larger: size than are used by other claus, and only one of each is permitted to each warriors)! if in action a man returns without eithery he is instantly put to death. Their mode of of fighting, therefore, differs in some measure from the rest of the savage tribes in Africa, since with this shield they dex terously a y avoid the thrown arrows of their enemies, whose practice is to carry numbers, and then rush in. Chaca's marauding routes and attacks are generally noc turnal. The kraaled city is situated on a hill; the foot is walled in with a composition of manure, clay, and earth, which cements and becomes durable. The huts resemble bee-hives, with no other aperture than the one to creep in at, differing widely from those of their opposite neighbours, the Madagasses, whose huts are constructed of bamboo and palm-leaves, a floor risen something from the earth, and mats to repose upon. Chaca is a wellmade man, and above the common stature of his subjects; he does not allow of a plu rality of wives, giving to each as he thinks fit one; none dare ask, none dare seek another. His own concubines are nume rous; hitherto, so soon as they prove pregnant, they are put to death, saying, he is too young to have children now, though he is between thirty and forty years old; but so exceedingly averse is he to an overgrown population, that he frequently orders the infants of those whom he has united by his own mandate to be destroyed. When his subjects do not approach him with the bow and toss of the hand (the accustomed ceremony in his presence), or appear to be seeking other wives, nay, for numerous other minor of fences, he orders them instantly to be speared to death. The death of those unfortunate subjects, since Lieut. Farewell has been at Natal, average at least fifty a week. There has not been discovered or heard of, from the commencement of the Caffre country on the frontiers of Cape Colony, taking the whole extent of the coast to the third degree of south latitude, so consummate, cruel, and perfect a tyrant. So extraordinary was the appearance of that noble animal, the horse, to Chaca and his tribe, that when Lieut, Farewell first afrived among them, and Chaca saw the horse gallop, mounted, he offered, and actually gave Lieut. Farewell six live bul locks to gallop him again. He holds the animal in the greatest terror and fear, nor could be be reconciled to approach it. He has an abundance of bullocks; and to prevent their destruction from the intrusion of the numerous quadrupeds, they are kranled in every night. Since our enterprizing countryman has been at Port Natal, Chaca has established two kraals on a rising ground, commanding a view of Lieut. Farewell's location, containing about fifty blacks (as Chaca says) for the purpose of protecting him. Much it is feared, although the officer is at present a favoured participant of his grant and attention, that these blacks will be ordered VOL. XX. Asiatic Journ. No. 118. to embrace an unengaged moment, and himself fall a victim to the blood-thirsty appetite of this barbarian. Lieut, Farewell, while bartering for ivory, is also employed in fortifying himself, having already completed a wall eleven feet high, trenched without, and mounted on it four four-pounders, and is erecting a house in the centre, of the materials of the country, manure, clay, and earth; his party now consists, at Port Natal, of two Englishmen and four Hottentots. There is another enterprising young man, of the name of Flynn, in the service of Lieut. Farewell, about thirty miles from Port Natal: the natives seem much attached to him. He has adopted the custom of the country by going naked, except a piece of cloth round his waist down to the knees, and is qualifying his skin to the lubricity of the natives; he is also collecting ivory. Chaca says he is going into the interior for some moons, to destroy a nation; that when he returns he will proceed in the direction of Delagoa Bay; then he will return and slay all before him till he meets the "white king,"-pointing in the direction of our Cape Colony-as, he observes, he knows there is a white king, and there shall be but one white king and one black king. He will, however, find a powerful enemy in Gaika, king of the Caffres. The vessel Julia, which left Port Natal last December, with ivory, obtained in barter for beads and dungaree, with eleven of the settlers returning to the Cape, had not been heard of. Lieut. Farewell having been without à communication for some time, and having made himself proficient in the language, had requested, and Chaca had allowed him, a party, with one of Lieut. Farewell's men, to traverse an immense country, crossing the territories of chief Macasana and Samba, who are under subjection to him, and possessing the country near to the banks of Delagoa Bay, to intimate to such English vessels as might be there his exact situation. The last account from the remainder of Lieut. Farewell's party are of the 25th of May-all well, Asiatic Russia. Extract of a letter from Neishney Novogorod, dated Aug. 16.-A much smaller quantity of goods than usual has been brought this year from Kiachta, in consequence of which the prices are much higher. Tea, which was sold last year at 330 to 550 roubles per chest of 40 to 50 poods, is now worth from 400 to 750. Only 700 bales of nankeens have been brought, which were sold at 50 or 60 roubles. The consignments of this arti cle diminish, because the nankeens of Russian manufacture are in no respect inferior 3 P 10 474 Asiatic Intelligence.-Cape of Good Hope, &c.-Indian Securities. (OCT. to those of China; 25,000 bales of them have been brought hither, which sell from 35 to 50 roubles. Cape of Good Hope. NEW CONSTITUTION FOR THE COLONY. By a proclamation published at the Cape, it appears that a warrant received his Majesty's sign manual, the 9th February last, directing a council to be established for the colony" to advise and assist in the administration of the government thereof," to consist of the governor, the chief justice, and five other individuals of the first rank in the colony. ALTERATION OF THE CURRENCY. By an ordinance of the Governor in Council, dated 6th June 1825, it is enacted, in conformity with directions from his Majesty's government (it being determined that the British silver money shall be the circulating medium of all the colonial possessions of the crown), that British silver money shall be a legal tender in the colony, in discharge of all debts due to individuals and to the public, at the rate of 1s. 6d. for each paper rix dollar. From and after the 31st December next, all pub lic accounts are to be rendered in British money, and all contracts or purchases for the public service are to be made in the same. A public notice from the commissariat, dated Cape Town, June 8, intimates that persons desirous of tendering rix dollars for treasury bills, drawn at thirty days' sight, may receive them at the rate of a bill of £100 sterling for every £103 in paper rix dollars, computing each rix dollar as equivalent to 1s. 6d. British sterling money. The publication of the above ordinance has thrown the inhabitants of the colony into great consternation. They prayed the Governor to stay the measure; but his Excellency's orders being peremptory, he refused. The merchants assembled to deliberate on the subject, and it is expected that a memorial will be forwarded to England by the next conveyance. Egypt. A Roman journal (the Notizie del Giorno) publishes a letter, dated from Alerandria on the 11th of June, in which the following facts are stated:"The Pacha is entirely occupied with the augmentation of his military force. He is expending considerable sums on his expeditions to the Morea. In a few days 6,000 men were to sail from Egypt; 30,000 are organizing in the vicinity of Cairo; and it appears to be the intention of the Viceroy to raise his army to 60,000 men. The French general, Boyer, who has a salary of 12,000 francs, is at the head of these proceedings. He has several other French officers under his command, who endeavour to exclude the Italian refugees from the Egyptian service. One of the latter, in consequence of these intrigues, challenged Colonel Gaudin, and killed him in the duel with two thrusts of his sword. The Viceroy has denounced serious punishment against all those disorderly practices, by which be is likely to be deprived of his most valua ble officers. Egypt is filled to excess with cotton and indigo. The Americans readily supply the cultivators with the seeds of their best cottons." |