366 
fire broke out at the printing-oflice 
of Mr. Samuel Hamilton, Falcon- 
‘court, Fleet-street, which, in the 
‘short space of two hours, entirely 
consumed the whole of his valuable 
‘and extensive premises. The prin- 
cipal booksellers of London, together 
with several private gentlemen, are 
more or less sufferers by this dread- 
tul conflagration. The property 
consumed is estimated at 11,000). 
and an insurance was effected to the 
amount of 3,0001. only. One cir- 
cumstance deserves to be recorded. 
Part of the works of the late Rev. 
Gilbert Wakefield remained in Mr. 
Ji.’s warehouses, and had been in- 
suredat theSun fire-office for 1,0001. 
-but which insurance had lately ex- 
pired. With a liberality for which 
our country is so distinguished, the 
directors have, upon a statement be- 
ing laid before them by a very aetive 
friend of his widow, presented her 
with 7501. a circumstance so much 
to the honour of the company, that 
"it will doubiless be amply re-paid by 
the continued patronage of the pub- 
lie.—The fire burst forth again in 
the morning of the 18th, but, in the 
course of an hour, was happily ex- 
tinguished. 
5th. A person of the name ‘of 
Warner lately lost himself in the 
woods on the banks of the Ohio, 
and continued in that state for 22 
, days, when he was found by some 
‘hunters. During that period he 
dived on the buds of the sassafras 
tree, a pole-cat, and a wild pigeon, - 
which he eat raw: having lost one of 
__ his shoes, he was bitten in the foot by 
a snake, and was obliged for several 
days to go on bis hands and knees. 
Letters from America, of this date, 
give the following well authenticated 
details of the mutual barbarities ex- 
ercised by the French-and blacks on 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1803. 
each other, in their warfarcof extermi. 
nation,now carried on between them, 
in the once flourishing settlement of 
St. Domingo; and which deserve to be 
recorded, as specimens of ‘the bitter 
fruit borne by the tree of liberty. 
‘¢ A dreadful) massacre of the 
black prisoners, on board the French 
ships at Cape Frangois, took place 
about the middle‘of last November. 
it was computed that, in the course 
of one day, not less than 6,000 of 
these miserable wretches, after being 
bayonetted, were thrown overboard. 
A person who was on board a ship 
in the harbour counted 240 floating 
by the side of his vessel. » About 900 
blacks, who held a garrison in the 
island, were poisoned by a stratagem 
of the French. At Port Repubii- 
cain the whites erected a gallows in 
the market-place, and the blacks 
another upon the hill, where execu- 
tions on both sides were hourly tak- 
ing place in sight of each other. 
‘¢'The French have invented a new 
way of getting rid of the blacks :— 
they get a ship, called a stifler, on 
board of which they shut down a 
hold full of blacks, and stifle them to 
death, by burning brimstone. The 
morning after, they discharge the 
bodies into boats and launches, carry 
them off the harbour, and throw 
them overboard. Zs 
‘6’ The French havedriven back the 
brigands from the cape; but, weary 
of shooting and putting them to the 
bayonet, and alarmed by the stench 
which issued from the numerous car- 
cases, they have adopted a new mode 
of extermination. ‘They now drown 
the negroes; they send them out in 
boats, tie their hands behind them, 
and carow them overboard. ‘Thou- 
sands haye perished in this way !” 
On the other hand, letters from 
Philadelphia mention the perpetra- 
tion 
