Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), Saturday 28 November 1812, page 2


On Thursday last arrived His Majesty's ship Samarang, Capt. Henry Case, of 20 guns, from Madras the

23d of September last with treasure for the use of Government.

This morning's market was very little attended, owing to the rains; and the sales were over by a little

after seven. There were not more than two or three boats from Kissing Point, and no carts. Two bushels of new wheat, the only sample in the markets sold at 10s. per bushel, and few bags of maize at 6s. 6d.

Reaping commenced at Hawkesbury the week before last ; but is much impeded by the frequent showers the last four or five days. At Sydney the heavy rains set in on Wednesday night, and continued with little intermission until early on Friday morning; but

occasional showers still continue.

The hail storm of Saturday se'nnight, the dreadful effects of which at George's River we noticed in our last, has been to Mr. Throsby's agricultural concerns the most distressing calamity that could possibly have befallen him. Out of 90 acres of wheat, all of luxuriant growth, a single ear has not been saved; and notwithstanding the excessive heat of the weather the day after the hail fell, yet, strange to remark, some of the hail stones, after laying on the ground twenty six hours, measured four inches round. The brains of a pigeon were

literary dashed out by one of the stones, and several sheep were killed, more probably, we should consider, from the cold, as they were newly shorn, than by the hail, though attributed to the latter cause.

Several farmers at Hawkesbury were considerable sufferers also from the hail.

Accounts from Windsor, by persons who left yesterday about noon, state that the lower banks of the South Creek were flooded, and that the water was several feet above Creek Bridge. We do not learn, however, that any alarming rise of the water had taken place in the

main River.

The Parramatta River had a considerable rise; as had also the water at Toongabbee, but no unpleasant consequences have been reported to us from these places. The fresh in the Parramatta River is such, that the people who came this evening down in the passage boat could drink the water half way between that place and Sydney.

At George's River some serious losses have been sustained. The water on the main River is stated to have been yesterday within a rod of Mr. Johnston's door, and must of course have risen ten feet perpendicularly, and flooded a large extent of ground. The Creek at Cabramatta overflowed to a great height, and some serious losses have been the consequence. Mr. MARTIN, Surgeon, has received information that 130 of his sheep are drowned; Mr. CONNELL, of Pitt-street, has also received the disagreeable intelligence of ten head of his horned cattle having perished and others missing. Hugh Burn, a settler on the Creek, has lost five head of cattle, and other losses of the same kind are apprehended. At Duck River the water was several feet above the Bridge on Thursday; a Gentleman travelling on horseback from Parramatta could hardly perceive the bridge rail, and in crossing was driven up against it by the rapidity of the stream. Yesterday, however, it had much

abated in height.

Much of the growing wheat has been borne down by the violence of the winds accompanying the rain, and the thickest and fullest crops are stated to have suffered the most injury in this way. Should the weather clear, and the proprietors be able to cut and take it off ground immediately, it may in great part be saved which cannot be the case should it remain long in that state.

With much satisfaction we have to state, that the report on the different qualities of wool sent from hence to the mother Country has induced several of our

principal Colonists to turn their attention to this object, which, from its promised importance it undoubtedly lays claim to and large samples have already been sent home. A Gentleman of Parramatta, to whose attention to the improvement of husbandry in general the Colony is much indebted, has sent thither by the Admiral Gambier between 4 and 5000 wt. and sends by the Minstrel from 3 to 4000 wt. more.

A gentleman now here, who last year commanded a ship in the Transport service, which was employed in conveying troops from England to Portugal, favours us with the following extraordinary account of an intrepid female, who in the capacity of a soldier joined Lord Wellington's army. Soon after she came on board he was induced fiom her tone of voice, to enquire whether she was a man or not, and was informed by one of her officers that she was not. Astonished at the information, he took an opportunity to converse with her; she answered his questions in the German tongue; and assured him that she had been in the army twenty years; that her father was a serjeant in an Austrian regiment, and the wish of serving as soldier had determined her to leave her father, when young, and in male attire enter the martial lists as a recruit in a regiment of cavalry, in which she served

fifteen years before her sex was discovered, which was in consequence of her receiving a wound. She went

to Portugal in a regiment of infantry, and when the gentleman, from whom we receive this extraordinary account left Lisbon, was in the list of wounded, and likely to recover. He saw and conversed with her in the hospital, and had no reason to suppose that her martial ardour had been impaired by the disaster, which she supported with a degree of fortitude worthy

to be emulated.

The wanton cruelties practised by the French when they were in Portugal upon inoffensive individuals are of too detestable a character ever to be forgiven by the present, or by future generations, to whom the legend or historic page shall extend the doleful tale of sufferings unprovoked, and stifle in the breast all sentiments but those of indignation and resentment. A report made on the subject by the Vicar General of the single Bishopric of Coimbra, to the Committee for Portuguese Contri-butions in London, contains a list of assassinations num-bering 2969 persons, and the destruction of 1144 houses, which were wantonly set fire to. The olive grounds were totally laid waste, and the unprovoked malignity of these vile aggressors even extended to the destruction of the parish registers, after robbing the churches of every thing they chose to take away. The following particular facts from a part of the distressing catalogue, are here selected, not on the account of their superior atrocity, but because they are less calculated to offend the delicacy of the reader, while they convey a a sufficient idea of the unhappy condition of an inno-cent, suffering people. "Many of the inhabitants of Canhi, and all of Antanhol, were in the latter place taken out and shot. At Tapeus they cut the sinews of an old man whom they found in his house, opened his veins, and then killed him with their bayonets. At As-salara, two priests 80 years old, were deliberately assas-sinated. At Figueiro des Vinhos they flayed an old man from the chin to the breast, and cut the throat of another. At Pemhal they hanged a peasant over a tree, and burnt him over a slow fire. At Vacarissa they tore open the mouth of an old woman of 80, so that her lower jaw fell upon her breast; another, who was blind, they cut down. At St. Jago des Guarda they burnt two women alive, and executed two men in presence of their wives and children; at Cuja, they tore out the tongue and jaws of a poor old palsied man; some were trampled to death by horses. In the village of Passes 55 persons of both sexes were murdered; and one a child, burnt alive. Many who escaped the sword of as-sassination became the victims of famine, as the oppres-sors, to complete their ravages, destroyed all grain, and every production of the earth they were not themselves

in want of.

BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTE.—The following letter, written by the celebrated GEORGE ALEXANDER STEVENS, is descriptive of the eccentricity of a char-racter with which the world is by no means unacquainted. It was written at a moment of distress, when in con-finement for a debt in Yarmouth; and to those who are acquainted with his writings, may doubtless prove acceptable.—"DEAR SIR—When I parted from you at Doncaster I imagined, long before this, to have met with some oddities worth acquainting you with. It is grown a fashion of late to write lives. I have now, and for along time had, leisure enough to write mine— but want materials for the latter part of it. For my existence cannot properly be called living, but what the painters term still life; having since February 18th been confined in this town gaol for a London debt. As a hunted deer is always shunned by the happier herd, so am I deserted by the company, my share taken off, and no support left, save what my wife can spare me out of hers.

"Deserted in my utmost need, "By those my former bounty fed."'

With an economy, which till now I was a stranger

to, I have made shift hitherto to victual my little gar-rison; but then it has been with the aid of my good

friends and allies—my clothes—This week's eating finishes my last waistcoat; and next I must atone for my errors on bread and water.

Themistocles had so many towns to furnish his table; and a whole city bore the charge of his meals. In

some respects I am like him; for I am furnished by the favours of a multitude. A wig has fed me two days, the trimmings of a waistcoat as long; a pair of velvet breeches paid my washerwoman, and a ruffled shirt has found me in shaving. My coats, I swallowed by degrees, the sleeves I breakfasted upon for weeks— the body skirts, &c. served me for dinner two months. My silk stockings have paid my lodgings, and two pair of new pumps enabled me to smoke several pipes. It is incredible how my appetite (barometer-like) rises in proportion as my necessities make their terrible ad--vances. I here could say something droll about a stomach; but it is ill jesting with edge-tools, and I am sure that is the sharpest thing about me—You may think I can have no sense of my condition, that while I am thus wretched, I should offer at ridicule. But, Sir, people constituted like me, with a dispro-portionate levity of spirits, are always most merry, when they are most miserable; and quicken like the

brightest the nearer a patient approaches to dissolution. How-ever, Sir, to shew that I am not entirely lost to all reflection, I think myself poor enough to want a favour, and humble enough to ask it. Here, Sir, I might make an encomium on your good nature, humanity, &c. but I shall not pay so bad a

compliment to your understanding, as to endeavour by a parade of phrases, to win it over to my interest. If you could, any night,

at a concert, make a small collection for me, it might be the means of obtaining my liberty; and you know, Sir, the first

people of rank abroad will perform the most friendly offers for the sick. Be not, therefore, offended at the request of a poor,

though a deservedly punished debtor.

G. A. STEVENS.

To Dr. Miller, P. M. Doncaster.

The following information on the subject of the caterpillar we copy from an Edinburgh Paper:—

A gardener at Glasgow practises a mode of destroying caterpillars which he discovered by accident. A piece of woollen rag had been blown by the wind into

a currant bush; and when taken out was found

covered with the leaf-devouring insects: on observing which he placed pieces of woollen cloth on every bush in his garden, and found next day that the caterpillars had universally taken to them for shelter; and in this way he destroys many thousands every morning.

A London Paper of Sunday, April 5, announces the death of John Horne Tooke, Esq. whose remains were interred on the previous Monday in a vault at Ealing, the burial-place of his family.