AMERICAN ITEMS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 66, 6 March 1877, Page 3

AMERICAN ITEMS.

The American ship Dakota, has been struck by lightning and burned. The captain and his svife escaped after being in a boat four days. The Freemasons have refused to recognise the negroes. A fight occurred of whites against blacks in South Carolina. An ice gorge in the Ohio river caused a loss at Pittsburg estimated at three million dollars. Four hundred coal barques and nine steamboats have been destroyed. Only three or four fatalities are reported. The ice is piled up twenty and thirty feet high in places. The Indians captured a travelling party, and slaughtered twenty. Congress has appointed a Samoan Commissioner for the- purpose of securing American trade among the Islands. Cuban patriots .defeated the Spanish troops in two engagements. A Palmas telegram says that disturbances in Canca continue. A letter dated Palmas, January 3, says that Conservatives intended to rise, and incite Calipalinds and other places. On the 20th they attacked the city of Cali They overpowered a small guard at Cuarterl, freed political prisoners, and succeeded in organising a force of about 300, badly armed, and began to prepare for resistance. Before many days, however, the Liberals surrounded Cali with forces numbering between 2,000 and 3000, men. On the 24th they attacked the Conservatives, who soon succumbed. General Penaldier, of the Liberal forces at Cali, gave orders that no prisoners should be taken alive, and that the town should be delivered over to the troops. The consequence of this Avas, that every Conservative who was caught with or without arms was shot down ; houses were sacked ; all residents were shot down ; furniture was destroyed ; all other kinds of outrage were committed; all storerooms and warehouses of merchandise were sacked. Foreigners shared the same fate as natives. It is reported that the number killed reached 300, including women and children. Dr. Vicenenti Borrero, aged ninety, was one of the Columbians' slain. The town of Palmas was threatened, but escaped by paying a heavy ransom.