Benares, City Court, 15th Jan. 1799.-" Followed by a numerous train of armed dependants, as constantly has been his custom, Vizier Ally about eight o'clock yestesday morning made a sudden attempt to to massacre the Europeans residing here. He succeeded in regard to Mr. Cherry and Captain Conway, and also with Mr. Robert Graham, whom he met on the road between Mr. Cherry's and my house, where was his next visit. The mode of their approach apprized me of their intentions, and I had the good fortune to repel every attempt made by the assassins to gain the terrace where I had retired, though opposed to them singly at the top of the stairs leading thereto; and I have the satisfaction to think that the time spent in this fruitless attack contributed to enable the other Europeans either to conceal themselves or take refuge in General Erskine's camp. The General immediately hastened to our relief and proceeded at once to seize Mahdo Doss's garden, the ordinary residence of the assassin, to which

with his followers he had at this time retired. It was found that Vizier Ally had fled, and in the evening accounts came of his having been seen accompanied by no more that forty or fifty horsemen making his retreat towards Etzeen-Ghur."

Besides the letter from which we have made the above Mr. Davis has allowed us to see extract, the obliging courtesy of the copy of another which he addressed on the same subject to J. T. Harrington, Esq. then Register to the Nizamut Adawlut. This letter contains the depositions of several witnesses implicating the baboos of the Rajah's family in the projects of Vizier Ally, whose object was to excite in the pergunnahs a general insurrection against the Com. pany. On the discomfiture, however, of the assassin, he sought refuge with the Rajah of Berar, a powerful and independant chief, who refused to give him up unless under a stipulation of his life being spared. To this it was thought prudent to accede, 'and being accordingly delivered into our hands, he was brought down to Calcutta, and confined at Fort William in a sort of iron cage, where he died at the age of thirty six years, after an imprisonment of seventeen years and some odd months. The expenses of his marriage in 1794 amounted to thirty lacks of rupees, while seventy rupees were sufficient to defray all the cost of his funeral in 1817; a strange reverse of fortune, but one which no good man can regret.

MISCELLANIES.

where we hope he will find a good market to reward him for undertaking so new and hazardous an adventure. The following extract from Capt. Gordon's narrative begins where the greatest interest begins, after reaching the sea of Ochotsk; conducts us with the vessel to the desired port; and ends with the safe return of the Brothers to Calcutta. "At sunset we had the unspeakable joy to find ourselves arrive at length in the long looked for sea of Ochotsk; and notwith standing the lateness of the season, the frailty of our little bark, and our want of knowledge of the situation and nature of the port of our destination, we could not but anticipate a successful issue to the voyage; which at its commencement, appeared to be opposed by the elements and every adverse circumstance. Our hopes were more than realized; for we glided through this sea, if possible, more agreeably than we had passed through those of China and Japan; and on the evening of the 27th September our eyes feasted themselves in viewing the coast of Siberia. In the course of the night the wind headed us off so, that we fetched in shore considerably to the eastward of the point for which our course had been shaped. At noon being within a league of the shore, in nine fathoms, had to tack ship; the breeze freshening at N. W. drove us off shore, and until the 3rd of October we were unable to regain our station: then at 3 A. M. a fine little breeze favoured us from the N. E. and carried us by nine o'clock close in shore. Having six fathoms, bore up and

ran along the coast with regular soundings, at the distance of two miles off shore, eagerly looking for our own port as well as for some traces of human beings of whom we might be able to enquire concerning it. At ten o'clock we descried a flag-staff on the pitch of a point (Maruchan point), and soon afterwards the flag-staff on a small hill inland of it. Our hopes were now all alive; every rock and every valley was declared to be a house or a village, until a nearer approach proved it otherwise. At length we saw a house in reality, but such an one as made us all shudder; a few rough logs of wood piled on each other, enclosing a few feet of ground, and covered in with moss and rubbish, presented to our view an hovel, which we could only regard as the temporary abode of unfortunates wrecked on this inhospitable shore, and at the same time thought that some of the drift wood, which covered the beach, resembled the bleached remains of a vessel. We passed near enough to ascertain that the habitation had long been without inhabitants; and at half-past ten rounded Maruchan point very closely, hoping to find the river of Ochotsk as we luffed round, but in this we were disappointed, and had to heave to for a few minutes, in order to commit to the deep the body of a second victim to the severity of the climate. Having performed this melancholy task we bore away again and almost immediately got sight of three steeples, and in a few minutes saw other buildings near them; our joy now was complete, our toils were already for

gotten,

gotten, and we only wondered at arriving with so little difficulty. Curiosity was eager, to ascertain what kind of a place Ochotsk was, and to make out the shipping; but we could neither perceive ship nor boat of any description, even when near enough to observe the manner in which the gazers on the beach were dressed. On nearing the mouth of the river, we had the mortification to find it inaccessible without a pilot, as a heavy surf broke right across it, being in three fathoms sand, At half-past one P. M. came to anchor for the purpose of getting the boat out: whilst furling sails, a boat came out of the river towards us, and we were most agreeably surprised on being hailed in English. She contained an English captain and an American gentleman, besides the Russian pilot, and finding it was our intention to go into the harbour, we were desired to bear a hand, as the tide was just about to turn, and it would scarcely be practical, even as it was, to get in: the wind had just shifted in our favour, and freshening carried us in a few minutes over the bar, and we moored in the Ochotsk to the great joy of every one on board. Our vessel drew but seven feet water: had she drawn two feet more the pilot would not have attempted the river so late on the tide, hazardous as it is to remain in the road; which for the three days succeeding that of our arrival, presented to the view but a sheet of foam, in which imagine no vessel could long ride. "Capt. Eddis passed an hour or two on shore with our countrymen, and brought on his return

but dismal accounts regarding a market, as the dark side alone had been brought to view. Be-' fore morning we viewed things more favourably than they had been represented, and ventured to hope that some articles of the cargo might find a sale next season, although there was not the value of two dollars specie, neither any merchandize or merchant in the place. The last of the merchants had left Ochotsk about fourteen days before our arrival. The Governor, Capt. Menitsky, of the navy, also had quitted Ochotsk about a month, and left the port in charge of His Highness Prince Alexander Schakooskoy, a lieutenant in the imperial navy, from whom we received an uninterrupted series of the kindest attentions, which laid us under the most lasting obligations to this truly noble young man. The importation of a foreign cargo being without precedent in the archives of Siberia, the Prince was at first rather at a loss how to act, and felt his situation doubly disagreeable from the circumstance of having applied for leave to retire from the service; but meeting with some papere relative to goods imported into Kamtschatka, in or about 1812, by Mr. Dobell, on board of two American brigs, he found it remained doubtful if the tariff, with all its restrictive and prohibitory clauses, would be opposed to this attempt at opening a trade with these remote regions.

"Mr. Dobell's adventure, like our own, was chiefly owing to the representation of Capt. A. Von Krusenstern, the Russian circumnavigator. It was of con2 P2

siderable

siderable value, and contained a judicious, though far too plentiful an assortment of articles, for the use of the inhabitants of Kamtschatka, whose poverty soon showed the ruinous consequences which would attend this attempt to serve them, especially if the tariff was enforced. Repairing to the capital, Mr. Dobell met with a most gracious reception from the Emperor, who presented him with a valuable ring on account of services rendered Capt. Krusenstern at Canton, and issued an ukase, permitting the sale of prohibited articles then imported into Kamtschatka, on the payment of thirty per cent, reducing the duties chargeable by the tariff on articles to perhaps an average of about twelve per cent, and making free of duty articles of indispensable necessity, as provisions, clothing, furniture, stationary, &c. It was also noticed, at or about this time, that a deviation from the commercial policy of the empire must be made in favour of the insulated inhabitants of Ochotsk and Kamtschatka. Since then, a second ukase has been issued, declaring Mr. Dobell's goods duty free (whether the whole, or the remaining portion I cannot say) that gentleman has also been appointed Russian consul general at Manilla, and is expected to proceed there very shortly, but with what particular object in view is hard to say; possibly in the way of his own business rather than of that of the empire. One of his brigs, the Sylph, he begged the Emperor to accept of, and though declined, she yet remains at Kamtschatka in ordi

nary. Great part of their cargoes are yet on hand, though retailed by the pound of sugar and bottle of rum, and hawked about to every part of the peninsula by two Americans, who have married grand-daughters of Capt. Cook's friend, the worthy priest of Paratounka. The person who boarded us was one of these agents, who came over from Kamtschatka in the spring with some goods, which not disposing of, detained him at Ochotsk until the next year.

"The goods imported on the Brothers are considered as being within the meaning of the first ukase, and application has been made to have the second extended to them. My hopes for succeeding in this are sanguine, and founded on the character and intelligence of governor Menitsky, who, in unison with the government, I believe to be desirous of inviting commerce to the port for the sake of their own subjects, who it can never be doubted would thus be greatly benefited. Capt. Menitsky, it is to be feared, will not again return to Ochotsk, where he has presided five years, as he has the government of Yahutsh, and has applied to be permitted to retire from the navy. He, together with the governor of Kamtschatka, Capt. Rackard, was brought up in the British navy. During the last eight years, Kamtschatka and Ochotsk have been naval governments, and are likely to gain much by the change, the officers in that department of the imperial service being far more polished and intelligent than the military; these places are also garrisoned

entirely