the blooming girls, who assist, and of course they bring custom. They have also a regular exchange for the transaction of business, assembling both in the morning and evening; great activity prevails with conciseness of method which facilitates the detail. The hours of breakfast, from 8 to 9:-Dinner, in dishabille at two, and supper at 9.-I have not yet been in the country. I am told it is really and beautifully romantic, asses are used for the saddle and carts, the same as horses, of the latter not very plentiful. We have very convenient hot and cold baths, divided very cleverly, so that you are perfectly private, having accommodations of chairs, a couch, table, looking glasses, towels, &c. afterwards you may have breakfast in the coffee-room. There are hotels in every third street, the cooks are superlative, and living not very dear; you may board at 4 dollars, or 8 rupees per day, and per month, you may have two excellent furnished rooms at 24 rupees. A single person, with genteel economy, can live, including every expence, at 120 dollars, or 240 rupees without having occasion for more than one servant,-a great convenience, which I like better than being tormented, as in Bengal, by a hord of lazy fools, or rather knaves. Washing is very dear; I paid 8 rupees for every 100 pieces of linen washed on my arrival, and am now obliged to pay monthly 10 rupees; European women perform this service, assisted by the negresses;-the generality are really very beautiful, and well formed. At present there is no good theatre, and the actors are execrable, but the new building will be very magnificent, though rather small; altho' not half finished, it has already cost 60,000 dollars, or 120,000 Sicca

rupees. The arrival of new actors from Paris is daily expected; this amusement will then shine. The public ball have not yet commenced; an Englishman unacquainted with the French steps must not pretend to dance. The waltzes, a strange dance of the taking the ladies round the waist with both hands, to form the oval, are quite in vogue, and I am told very laughable, for it requires activity, good ear, and taste, to keep the time, which gives one an inclination to see this specimen of agility.

THE WAHABEES-A NEW SECT.

Extract of a Letter from Mocha.

All the inhabitants below the mountains have either fled to them or to Mocha; but even at this place they do not find themselves in safety, for many of their cattle have been driven off, and several of themselves killed defending their property, within sight of the walls.

All communication being cut of by land, and owing to a strong south wind, which prevailed three weeks by sea also, a thing unknown before at that time of the year, no further intelligence was received of what was passing to the northward until the 7th July, when two dows arrived from Hodeida full of fugitives, bringing accounts that the Wahabees had made another desperate attack on that place, on the 3d July, when the Dola succeeded in repulsing them; but not without reducing nearly the whole of that town to ashes.

It appears the Dola went out to meet them, and was instantly put to flight, when in his retreat to the fort, he set the town on fire, to prevent them attacking him from the houses. Before this, Hodeida was

said.

said to contain about four hundred brick houses, and about four thousand grass ones, so intermixed that it was impossible to burn the one without many of the others undergoing the same fate; accordingly with thewhole straw houses half the others were consumed, and with them much property, leaving not above two hundred houses in Hodeida standing. The Wahabees pressed very close and did not retire before they sustained considerable loss by the fire from the forts, and by geting entangled among the burning houses; they then encamped near the wells, and next day had the mortification of seeing many of the heads of their friends, who had fallen, stuck on the walls of the fort; when they sent a message to the Dola, that if he did not surrender, the heads of him and his adherents should soon occupy their place, to which they received an answer of defiance.

The inhabitants flock into Mocha daily,in boats, as fast as they find conveyance, and it is apprehended, unless assisance is afforded, Hodeida cannot hold out fourteen days longer, every supply from the country having been completely cut off for more than two months past. Indeed, it would appear they have laid aside all hopes, for the Emar Bhar, who arrived from there a few days ago, has engaged houses here for the Dola and principal people of the place; and the eight dows, which had sailed from Mocha to Loheca, and had returned to Hodeida without effecting anything, had been detained there to bring them away, should they be obliged to evacuate the place; so completely is the country, to the northward of Mocha, under the controul of the Wahabees, that the dispatches between Hodeida and Sana are obliged

to pass between Hodeida and Mocha, reciprocally by sea.

Accounts from Sana represent nothing but a scene of confusion there; the Wahabees joined by a part of the Hoschet Bukel are said to be encroaching fast on the Imam in that quarter, while Iris eldest and second sons are at open war concerning the measures to be taken : lately their parties had actually come to blows, but no certain particulars of this circumstance had been received.

The government of Mocha are making great preparations for the defence of the town, by repairing the fort walls, and erecting new works, and calling in troops from the interior; but from the following circumstances all their preparations promise to be of little avail -on the 16th instant four hundred sepoys arrived here from Dorebat, sent at the Dola's request; but he would not suffer them to quarter in the town as they wished, nor agree to their demands, which he thought exorbitant; the consequence was, that in the night of the 18th of July, after plundering several of the inhabitants of the suburb, they went off, committing the like depredations on all they met with on the road;-by the last account there were not two hundred sepoys in Mocha, two-thirds of whom, together with an equal proportion of the inhabitants, wish the Wahabees in possession of it.

The disturbances at Hedy-as and Yeman have had the most ruinous effect on the trade to the Arabian gulph this season, and will continue for some time; several ships bound for Judda did not proceed farther than Mocha, and sailed for Muskat, without landing any of their cargoes; and several others were about to sail from Mocha for

By the above arrival, we learn the British establishments in the vicinity of Botany Bay are in the most flourishing condition. Agriculture is in a rapid state of improvement, and ship building carried on with success, with the timber found in the country; a coal-mine recently discovered, had also added very considerably to the progress of manufactures, and the comfort of the British inhabitants. The climate had proved salubrious beyond all expectation. The thermometer seldom rose above 74, or fell below 66.-Sickness, even among the convicts, was hardly known, and the deaths bearing no proportion to the numerous births.

GENERAL ORDERS.

Sidney Cove, June 5, 1803. The royal standard having been hoisted, for the first time, in this territory, on the anniversary of his Majesty's birth, his excellency is pleased to extend the royal grace, and free pardon, to colonial lieute

nant of artillery and engineers, George Bridges Belasis.

By command of his excellency, W. N. CHAPMAN, Secretary. Government House, June 4, 1803.

CEYLON

Occurrences for Sept. 1803.

Barbarous Execution.

During a late solemn festival held by the king of Candy, on some religious occasion, major Davy, of his Majesty's Malay regiment, and lieutenant Humphreys, of the Bengal Artillery, were brought out and executed, and that the native prisoners who then remained in possession of the king of Candy, were mutilated by cutting off their ears and noses, and dismissed to the British settlements.

From the very great insubordi. nation that prevails in many of the districts of Ceylon, the honourable has thought it governor North, expedient to put the island under

martial law.

HEAD QUARTERS. Columbo, September 2, 1803. G. O. By the Governor. The Governor has observed, with peculiar satisfaction, the rapid series of well-judged and well-executed operations by which captain Herbert Beaver, of the 19th regiment, has hitherto proceeded in recovering the important province of Matura, from the Canadians, and in bringing back its deluded inhabitants to their duty.The indefatigable activity, zeal, and ability, which that officer has displayed since his assumption of the command in that district, has fully

justified