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Wellington Independent, 19 January 1860, Page 1 (Supplement)

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[By Electric Telegraph.] (From a Correspondent of the Sydney Empire.) ADELAIDE. Saturday, 7th January, 1860. The P. and 0. Company's Hail Steamer Salsette, with the English mail to the 18th November, arrived at Kangarro Island at half past nine o'clock on Friday morning. lam sorry to say that the brings intelligence of a disaster greater even than that of the lamented loss of the ship Dunbar, at Port Jackson Heads. LOSS OF THE STEAMER ROYAL CHARTER, AND 400 LIVES. When last mail arrived, a portion of the nesvs telegraphed was the arrival of the steam-ship Koyal Charter, bfl the Cove of Cork, after a prosperous voyage of fifty nine days from Melbourne. We vow learn that this five vessel was totally wrecked on the 25 th October, on the coast of Wales. The scene of this disaster, was Red Wharf Bay, near Bangui-, exactly on the -„OPJ)OSile,side~of the. fJhanii©i~-ti> ■Qaccn.*tomi. It will thus be seen that the vessel was within a few hours steaming of Liverpool, when this melancholy catastrophe occurred. I give the following account from the papers just received. There were 450 souls on board only 41 of whom were saved. Sixteen of her passengers had previously landed at Queenstown. Intelligence of the disaster did not reach London till the morning of the 27th, when the most profound consternation was produced in the City, and Lloyd's was paralysed by the terrible tidings. A fearful gale was blowing all the previous night, in which an enormous amount of damage was done by sea and land. The vessel was drifted in by the hurricane on the rocky coast of Anglesea. The anchors parted one after another, and the masts and rigging which fouled the screw, rendering the ship utterly unmanageable. Drifting on helplessly, she first struck on the sands about 3 in the morning, and again on the rocks at 6 a.m., at a short distance from the beach. A hawser was brought ashore and fastened to the rocks, by which, ( a few lives were saved. But at 7 o'clock, wlien daylight broke upon the scene, and when passengers were cheered by a hope of soon being safe on shore, a mountainous billow broke over the ship She parted in the waist then lougitudiually and went down with her living freight. All the chief officers have perished. Only about seventy- five corpses have yet beeu recovered. Divers will search the wreck when the weather permits. The bullion room was shattered, and the gold dispersed. Considerable quantities, however, have been recovered, as also copper. The gold on board amounted to £400,000. Subscription lists have been opened for the sufferers. Of the forty-one persons rescued from the wreck, nineteen were passengers, seventeen crew, and five riggers, who with six others had been taken on board at Holyhead. „• 'IHE AFFAIRS O3F EUROPE. After the telegram of October 2uth, which was first published in the Melbourne Argus 13th December, European affairs somewhat brightened, but apprehensions of a war with France had been renewed within the last" week pre- _ c gdi D ? the departure of thft mi;il. '» — „ . ■"-"-.—rife Emperor of the French had instructed M. de Lessepsto proceed with his project of a canal through the Isthmus of Suez, notwithstanding the prohibition of the Sultan. This alone is somewhat threatening. But, on the other hand, the fears which arose from, the reported suspension of French preparations for China are at an end. . The joint Anglo-French expedition against that country was to sail in January. In England, local politics weie in a state of stagnation, public interest being wholly eugrossed by the affairs of the contiueut aud the opening war with Morocco. Preparations for defence continued with unabated vigour. The Victoria, a fine ship of 121 guns, had just been launched ; and the enrolment of a naval reserve of 30,000 volunteers was to commence on the Ist of January. The punishment of flogging has been abolished in the army, and the order has given great satisfaction to the so'diery. With reference to the Congress, Sir George Cornewell Lewis stated, at a civic dinner on the 9th November, that up to that date no formal application had beeu made to England to join it, but since then letters of invitation to Great Britain have been issued by f ranee. Two supplementary treaties, providing for an indemnity to Austria were signed at Zurich on the I Oth, and ratified on the 2 1st.