(From the Morning Chronicle, September 11. [1848])

By the Prince Regent, arrived off Falmouth on the 7th, from Sierra Leone, we have advices from the slave coast to the middle of July, and from the more remote stations to the latter end of Jane. A letter from the Bight of Benin, dated the 22nd of June, states that her Majesty's ships Amphitrite, 26 guns; Captain Thomas Rodney Eden; the Cygnet, brigantine, 6 guns, Commander Kenyon ; the Blazer, steamer, Lieutenant G. T. C. Smith, R.N. ; the Star, 8-gun brig, Commander Riley ; and the brigantine Dolphin, 3 guns, Lieutenant the Hon. F. Boyle, R.N., commanding, were in the Bight then ; and that the Firefly, steamer, Lieutenant Ponsonby, R.N., commanding, was daily expected there to reinforce the squadron under Captain Eden's superintendence.

The Britomart, 12-gun sloop. Commander Chamberlain, and the Grappler, steamer, Lieutenant Lysaght, R.N., sailed from Benin to join the Commodore-in-Chief at the southward on the above day. The Sealark, 10 guns. Commander Moneypenny, the Bonetta, brigantine, 3 guns, Lieutenant F. E. Forties, R.N., commanding , and the Philomel, 10-gun brig, Commander W. C. Wood, were at Sierra Leone on the same date. The pendant ship Penelope, steam-frigate, Commodore Sir Charles Hotham, K.C.B., Commander-in-Chief : together with the Water Witch, 8-gun brig, Commander Quin ; the Syren, 16-gun sloop, Commander Chaloner ; the Rapid, 8-gun brig, Commander Dickson ; the Contest, 12-gun sloop, Commander Macmurdo ; the Bittern, 16 gun sloop, Commander Hope ; the Dart, 3-gun brigantine, Lieutenant Glynn ; and the Pluto, steamer, Lieutenant Richardson - were on the southern division of the station at the date of our letters.

The Dolphin captured a slaver a few days back, with 450 slaves on board, after a very hard chase of seven hours. Upwards of 80 shot from her long pivot 32-pounder were fired at the slaver, and about forty of the number, it is said, struck, committing fearful havoc with the vessel and horrible slaughter among her human cargo, affording another proof of the humanity (?) of our system for the suppression of this wicked trade. One shot is stated to have literally taken the heads off six slaves, and wounded double that number, in addition to which, in the hurry of shipment, no fewer than fifty poor enchained wretches were drowned in the surf. It is no uncommon thing to lose, 150 lives in that manner where the surf is bad.

The Star chased a slaver (a schooner) for twelve hours on the 21st of June, from Badagry to Palma, but the fleetness of the slaver saved her, and she got away - a very frequent occurrence. The Britomart this month (June) chased two full slaver schooners off Whydah, and after a most spirited run lost them both. A slave schooner, well rigged and handled, will elude the grasp of any sailing ship in chase of her, unless the latter get within range and knock the spars away ; but what an awful sacrifice of life and limb, even in that case, may follow the striking her, as seen in capture made by the Dolphin above mentioned. The captain of the vessel taken by the Dolphin has lately made several successful runs ; and the same man was taken in a slaver captured by the Grappler in last December. Such is only a trifling sample of the success (?) attending the efforts of the cruizers to put down the slave trade on this pestilential coast, and such the result of the risk of life of some of Britain's bravest defenders in the futile effort. " Verily," says our correspondent, " if the prayers of the poor coast cruizers will prove of any avail, our Exeter Hall friends will stand but a sorry chance of salvation."

Commodore Sir Charles Hotham is in the south, and the Dart had just left the Bight to join him ; Lieutenant Hill, of the Rapid, is appointed to relieve Lieutenant Glynn in the command. Sir Charles was expected at the Bight in August. The Amphitrite detained a schooner last month off Cape Lopez - her name was the Triumpho de Brazil ; she was sent to St. Helena for condemnation. The Amphitrite crew had been sickly, but were much better at the date of these advices ; she had sent six men to hospital at Fernando Po, on the 22nd of June, by the Grappler. Captain Eden did not seem to have such good health on the station this time as he had during the first commission he served on it. The coast threatened to be sickly, but the British squadron generally was free from contagion at the last dates. The Nimrod, 20-gun corvette, Commander Belgrave, arrived at St. Helena, from the Cape of Good Hope, on the 12th of July.

SG & SGTL Vol 6 page 40.

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