513 
J834.] FALKLAND ISLANDS. 
After the rupture of the negotiations, one Mestivier, a French- 
man, was appointed civil and military commandant of the Falk- 
land' Islands and their dependances in the Atlantic Ocean; on 
the tenth of September, the appointment was promulgated by a 
decree, signed by Rosas, the governor, and Balcarse, the minister 
of war and marine. The whole naval force of this maritime 
republic, which claimed to hold so many remote islands as colo- 
nies, beipg the Sarandi, a schooner of six or eight guns, was put 
in requisition to convey the governor, his suite, garrison, and col- 
ony, to the islands. A bloody mutiny broke out soon after his 
arrival, and the governor was assassinated. 
Notwithstanding the form, parade, and publicity which attended 
this new demonstration of the claim of sovereignty, the settlement 
was agam broken up by Captam Onslow,* of the British ship-of- 
war Clio, who rivalled Duncan in deeds of violence. John Bull 
had ships, and seamen, and commerce, and had no greater love 
for pirates than Jonathan. The wrath of the Argentine govern- 
ment was turned against that respectable nation, which had been 
represented by them, in their correspondence with Mr. Baylies, 
as incapable of such acts. The captam of the Cho resumed l^he 
possession of the islands m the name of WiUiam IV. No regular 
military garrison has as yet been placed there by Great Britain. 
Some of the settlers were left, among whom was Brisbane, the 
Scotchman, the agent of Vernet. To complete the melodrame 
or rather the mingled farce and tragedy of the Falkland Island 
settlement, Brisbane has been murdered. , ' ■ 
Though a person by the name of Smith, of whose office or 
character nothmg is known, has lately warned sealers not to visit 
these islands,-still it is presumed they can do so with perfect 
safety If they are molested, it is an easy sail for one of our 
sloops-of war on the Brazil station to run down there and break 
up Mr. Smith. 
Buenos Ayres has been in trouble too. Rosas, the governor, 
* In January, eighteen hundred and thirty-three, Captain Onslow took possession 
of these islands, and hoisted the British colours under a salute - hauling down at the 
same time the Buenos Ayrean flag,- and sending it on board, the schooner Sarandi, 
with a message, that it was a foreign flag, found on British sod. The Buenos Ayrean 
government, through an agent at London, has protested agamst th:s occupation^^ 
lithout having, as yet, received any assurance, on the part of Great Bntam, of hei 
intentions to abandon the islands. 
K k 
