EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 316, 10 November 1855, Page 4

EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE.

THE EVACUATION OF PETROPAULOVSKI. It will be recollected that the allied squadron in the Pacific made an attack upon Petropaulovski in the early part ol last September, and, having heen rather roughly handled, sailed southward without effecting ihe reduction of the place. Pe.tropauluvski is the"capital of Kamtschatka, and is a place of considerable importance. It is situated on a kind of inner bay, divided from the outer one by a sand b.ir which runs parallel to the town, leaving a narrow entrance for vessels seeking the inner harbour. It?will he recollected that the Diana was moored behind this bur when the first attack was made on the place, aud being completely sheltered from the guns of the allied fleet, did good execution. From time to time we have advised of the movement of all the vessels belonging to the allied fleet iv the Pacific to the northward during the past spring, and it appear- that it was determined that another attack was to be made on Pe*r->paulovski, and that its reduction was to be effected at any cost. Accordingly, iv the early part of last May the allied fleet, augmented by the arrival of other vessels of war, appeared before the devoted town, and commenced preparations for the attack. When ihey approached sufficiently near to be able to discern objects on ihe shore, they were greatly sirprised lo find that the American flag had been*-'! substituted for the Russian, and that a most extraordinary stillness reigned around. On landing they found that the town had been deserted, and no! a single human being remained save two Yankees, and a Frenchman who acted as their servant. From them they learned that orders had come from Siberia for the removal of the Russian troops to tbe garrison at the mouth of the A moor River, and that the inhabitants had also fled to the village of Avatscba, some miles distant. Immediately after the desertion of ihe place, the American flag was hoisted by the two Americans, who remained behind, as a signal to the allied fleet, which, it appear**, was expected. The town, after the desertion of t! c garrison and the inhabitants, presented, of course, a very lonely appearance. Packs of dogs

scoured through the silent streets in search of food. The houses were all tenaniless, and a solemn stillness reigned around. It appears that on the repulse of the allies last fall, it was determined to strengthen the fortifications of the place, iv order that they might be able to give them a wanner reception on their second appearance. The fortifications were composed of logs of wood, fascines and earth, about 15 feet in thickness, and the embrasures indicated the fact that no less than 51 guns were mounted, and these of the heaviest calibre ; but, strange to say, not one of the guns, nor any of the ammunition aud stores, could he found hy the allies when they arrived there last May. They were either carried to the Amour river, or buried. The probability is that they were disposed of in the latter way. The arsenals, magazines, Sec, which were principally frame buildings, were burned down by the allies, and all the property belonging to the Government which could be found was destroyed. The stores and private dwellings were, however, scrupulously respected. From the two Americans the allies learned the particulars of the exodus of the garrison and the inhabitants. It appears ihat on the receipt of the news of the defeat, on the first attack, in England, the English screw steamer Barracouta, 14 guns, and the steamer Encounter, six guns, were ordered from China to Petropaulovski, to watch the movements there. B"th lay off the coast, about 60 miles from Petropaulovski, during the whole sprin-j ; hut on the 17th April the whole garrison embarked on board the Aurora and the Dwina, and four merchantmen, and taking with them all their stores and ammunition, set sail for the Amoor river. The movement was not perceived on board the English steamers, in consequence of the thickness of the weather occasioned hy the snow and fogs. The inhabitants all moved to the village of Avatscha, where the wife of the Commandant also remained, not being able to proceed with the troops in consequence of the delicate state of her health at that time. Before leaving-, the allies destroyed all the fortifications and erected a fence around the graves of Admiral Price (who it will be recollected committed suicide just before the last attack was made on Petropaulovski,) and the English and French who fell on that occasion, having been drawn into an ambuscade while marching upon one of the batteries by which the harbour was protected. It is difficult to divine what were the reasons of the Russians for abandoning the place. It was well fortified both by nature and art, and the result of the first attack showed that the place could be successfully defended even against a larger force than the allies could muster in the Pacific. The Obligado, Captain de Rosencourt, left at Petropaulovski the British, vessel of war Trincomalee, on board of which two Russian prisoners had been placed, for the purpose of exchanging them for a French sailor who had both his arms cut off in the attack made on the place by the allies last fall, and was afterwards captured by the Russians. It' is stated that he received the kindest treatment. The British frigates Pique and Amphitrite, after the destruction of the works at Petropaulovski, sailed for the Ochotsk sea, and the remainder of the fleet for Sitka. The English vessels will proceed to Vancouver's island, and the French to this port, A portion of the fleet wilfremain at the North for the present, and will cruise around the Aleutian Islands. The French steamer Prony may be expected here in a few days. The population of Petropaulovski, previous to the arrival of the allied fleet, is estimated by Captain Rosencourt, of the Obligado, to whom we are indebted for the above information, to hare been about twelve hundred, Captain de Rosencourt brought back with him, as trophies, a sledge used by the inhabitants in travelling over the snow with dogs, an anchor found in Petropaulovski, a deer, and a Russian dog. Tbe Obligado mounts twelve guns, 32-pounders, and two mountain howitzers, finch as are used against the Indians in this country, and generally carried 'on the backs of -mules. These were intended to be used on land, and all the vessefs of the fleet were provided with them. The following description of the town of Petropauloski, from a work entitled the " Directory of the Pacific Ocean," by A. G. Findlay, may not prove uninteresting :—" The towu of Petropauloski, which is now at the head of the harbor, stands in an amphitheatre on the slope of two hills, which form the valley, and is simply composed of a group of small wooden houses covered

with reeds or dry grass, and surrounded by courts and gardens, with palisades. At the lower part of the town, in the bottom of the valley, is the church. It is remarkable for its fantastic construction and for its roof, which, painted green, seems to add considerably to the effect of the picture, surrounded as it is with lofty mountains. Arrived at the bottom of the port, you land on a plank, which holds the place of a mole, and pass directly before a guard house near which is a small battery. Turning to the left, down a good street, broad andmacadamized, after passing the Government workshops in the centre of Petropauloski, and turning to the right after passing them, and crossing a wooden bridge, you pass the church on the right hand, and then reach the Government offices. These two streets are all that merit the name. The greater part of the houses outside of them are placed without any attention to convenience or comfort. The general aspect of Petropauloski greatly resembles the French establishments at Newfoundland. Tbe appearance of the fishdryers' houses, and the strong smell of the fish, give a greater degree to the similitude. The bouses are generally alike, and are called Isbas (log houses): the windows are sometimes of glass but more generally of talc, from Ochotsk. When La Perottse visited it, the inhabitants generally lived on balagnans; now there is not a single one used. There is not a monument in Petropauloski except one; a simple column surmounted by a globe, surrounded by a railing which bears an inscription, " To Captain Vitus Retiring," in Russian. No edifice demands particular attention. In the church the rites of the Greek Church are conducted with great richness and solemnity. There is, besides, an hospital and a school." FURTHER PARTI CTJXARS. The Russian admiral, whose flagship, the Diana, was lost in Japan, had arrived at Petropaulovski in a small sloop or lugger with 150 of his men, a few days after the evacuation of the place. Without stopping, he proceeded to the Amoor. He, too, had the good fortune to escape the two English steamers outside, by taking advantage of the fog, and hugging the coast. The Russian ships of war are now all collected in the Amoor, and consist of the following : The frigates Pallas and Aurora, the corvette Dwina, two steamships, and a few transports. It is believed that they have all been partly disarmed and conveyed as high up the river as possible, so as to be placed beyond the reach of the guns of the allied squadrons. The mouth of the Amoor is defended by strong forts and garrisoned by from eight to tan thousand men. Reinforcements are constantly coming down the river from Siberia. Ihe British and French divisions on the China station, forming a collective force of twenty vessels, including seven large war steamers, had sailed for the Amoor, where they were expected to arrive about the loth of July. There will be some hard fighting. The two British steamers which were cruising off Petropaulovski had proceeded to the Amoor, with the Amphitrite. The latter vessel will return to San Francisco with the news of the result. The allied forces, including the French frigates Forte and Alceste, with the corvette Eurydice, and the British line-of-battle ship Monarch, the frigates President and Dido, and the screw steamer the Brisk, have gone to the Russian settlements in the Aleutian islands and to Kodiac. They will pick up any Russian trading vessels that they may meet with. They will afterwards look in at Sitka. If there are any Russian ships of war there, they will assail the place, and try io cut them out ; if not, they will respect it, unless provoked by the Russians opening the first fire. Sitka is placed beyond the sphere of hostilities by an agreement between the English and Russian companies, which their respective Governments have sanctioned. The French do not deem themselves bound this agreement. It is not, however, likely that there will be any fighting nt Sitka. The French squadron may be expected at San Francisco about the 10th of August. The English squadron will go to Vancouver's Island to refit the screw steamer Brisk ; one or two English vessels may, however, visit our port. j Admiral Fournichon, the commander of the French squadron, is a young officer of great energy and activity. His wife, an Irish lady, accompanies him in all his campaigns. The British sloop of war Pique has been ordered to the China. Seas.— Alto California.

The editor of the Melbourne Argus thus comments upon the establishment of a large Russian forcelon the Amour. " But why did the garrison go ? They were strong in numbers —it took five or six ships to carry them off. They were well fortified — with batteries that had a.ready beaten off one assault of the allies, and which had since been strengthened and enlarged. We conclude that they left in obedience to orders issued in pursuance of some general scheme, that it may he as well to guess at if we can do no more. They sailed for the A moor, a vast navigable river flowing from Siberia through Mancbooria, the north-eastern province of the Chinese empire. It is reported that an understanding has been come to between these two Governments, according to which the former was to have.had liberty to establish outposts upon the banks of the Amoor ; and iiot long since a correspondent, whose letter bore internal evidence of having been written by a well informed and reflective man, pointed out in our columns strong reasons for supposing that the Russians were building men-of-war far in the interior, on the banks of that stream, with which to sweep down unexpectedly on the British shipping and colonies of the Pacific. The snaugely sudden abandonment of Petropanloski tends much to corroborate this report. Petropauloski was the Russian port of that part of the world. The energy they disolayed in fortifying it showed the value they attached to it, and we can only interpret their retirement as indicative of their having established themselves in some more favorable place.and so having become indifferent to the destruction of the forts they had previously been at such pains to construct. If they have contrived to establish themselves a few hundred miles up the Amoor, it is not surprising that they should have deserted Petr paulovski. That fortification was obviously.established with offensive rather than defensive views. Nobody would care, we apprehend, to invade Kamschatka, and the only object in attacking Petropaulovski was to destroy the nest and place of retreat of the Russian mcii of war; to defend -which, again, was manifestly the only object of its construction. The Russian ships will be much safer up the Amoor, so why take further trouble about Petropaulovski. Again, the Amoor is navigable to within a compaiatively short distance of the Russian outposts in Siberia, and by these regular overland communications with head quarters could be maintained incomparably more easily than from Petropaulovski. Altogether, the abandonment of that place seems obviously rational and natural on ihe supposition that the Russians have established themselves firmly on the Amoor, and seems inexplicable except on that supposition. Political speculations of this nature acquire a v-erv peculiar interest when relating to topics so nearly affecting ourselves as the establishment of a Russian naval arsenal on the Amoor would do. Not only the English Government, but we also in these colonies have made ourselves very comfortable while counting the small Russian force in tbe Pacific, and reflecting that all other ships were safely locked up by our Baltic and Black Sea fleets. But no doubt that consideration, from which we ha.c derived so much consolation, has made Russia proportionally uncomfortable, and we can readily conceive that she would give her whole energies to the task of breaking a fresh outlet and defeating that strict blockade of a quarter of the world which a few French and English ships have so far contrived to maintain. We are no alarmists, but it would awaken in us no surprise to learn that a Russian fleet had issued from the Amoor ; and we ought certainly to prepare ourselves a. far as we can to receive the first intelligence of their proceedings from themselves.

Canal between the Black Sea akd the Danube.—lt is stated thai Mr. Thomas Wilson, formerly a Dutch merchant, has proposed a plan for opening a canal communication between the Black Sea and the Danube from a point in the Bay of Kosiendje to a part of tne river between Ohernovada and Rassova, the line followed being nearly identical with that of the remains of Trajan's wall. The distance to be traversed would be littie more than thirty miles, and the route would effect a saving of about '250 miles of navigation in transporting produce from Servia, Bulgaria, and most parts of Wallachia, while it would also have the advantage of being away from the neighbourbood of Russia. Mn Wilson is said to have sent out some engineers a few weeks ago to survey the

locality *and it is added that the Turkish authorities in London look favourably upon the subject The idea of constructing a canal at the St Geo.-.'* mouth of the Danube, to escape the impediments mirposely accumulated by the Russians at the SuHna mouth, has often in past years attracted attention *, but, if the face of the country should he nearly as favourable for such a work at Kostendje, the general superiority of that p»i»t would seem to be very great*.— Weekly Chronicle.