CONTINUANCE OF THE BLOCKADE.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 235, 30 March 1866, Page 3

CONTINUANCE OF THE BLOCKADE.

SUICIDE OF THE SPANISH ADMIRAL. (From the Southern Cross, 6th. March.) By the Annie Laurie we have newspapers from Valparaiso to the 2nd of | December, from which we give the following items of news .-— | The Spanish Admiral Pareja, whose conduct in instituting the blockade of the Chilian ports, and behaviour to the | Chilian authorities, had done so much to embitter the feeling against Spain, com*, mitted suicide on tpe 2sth of November. Aiter eating his evening r§n§et Oft that

day, Pareja shut himself up in his apartments, and soon after the report of a pistol was heard. When the servants entered the room, they found him lying dressed in full uniform, on a bed, with the pistol in his hand. He was bleeding profusely from the neck and chest, and breathed his last between eight and nine o'clock. The commander of the Blanche, one of the vessels of the Spanish fleet, went on shore and asked leave of the Chilian authorities to bring the body on shore for interment. This was granted, and next day the body of the Admiral was buried near Valparaiso. The newspapers say that the Admiral committed suicide because he felt overwhelmed by the great responsibility of a war undertaken by his advice. The blockade of the Chilian ports still ! continues ; but apparently a good many vessels contrive ti > elude the cruisers. | Under date of Valparaiso, December 31st, we learn that three vessels which had left a few days before had had to remain at the mouth of the harbor, and that the Vencedora was waiting for a favorable wind to get out of port. The Hamburg barque Penguin had called in at Valparaiso, on her way to Ctiraumillo, from Sydney, and had received part of her freight. The Chilian papers state that the war has been a great calamity, on account of the great rise it has caused in the price of goods. Spanish bills are at a great depreciation, and Chilian have been withdrawn by their holders to save them from any further fall. Great anxiety is shown to learn how England regards the blockade of Chili by Spain, and the Valparaiso papers contain copiour extracts from the London journals. II Ferrocarril (The Eailway) of January Ist says : — Wa learn that when the steamer Scotia left Liverpool, on the 18th November, the Southampton steamer had just left for the West Indies. She was detained by the English Government awaiting the decision of the great Powers of Europe with reference to the ChilianSpanish question. It is more than probable that the steamer brings a definitive solution of this point, since England and France would never suffer their commerce with the Pacific to be destroyed by frivolous eccentricities of "Spanish rapacity."