Danbury Times

Burning of The Lexington. We have gathered from various sources the particulars of this deplorable casualty, with the occurrence of which, and many of its painful details, our readers have ere this become acquainted. The baleful tidings of this disaster, as they are borne far and wide, will send a thrill of fear through the breast of every one.

The mind cannot dwell, without overpowering emotions, upon the horrors of that awful night, when more than a hundred fellow-beings, in the midst of health and worldly prosperity, were suddenly aroused from their prospective calculations and dreams of personal security, and the paralyzing consciousness that they were doomed to an inevitable, and it might be a painfully protracted, death, burst upon them.

With what intense anxiety, must those who preferred to meet their fate upon the burning wreck, striven to pierce through the brooding darkness, to catch a glimpse of some succoring sail, "hoping against hope" that the lurid glare by which they were surrounded would call forth some rescuing power; and when this support failed them, who but the All searching Spirit can realize their despairing resignation, as with sinking hearts they watched the progress of the devouring element, as it rapidly consumed the feeble support which upbuoyed them from a watery grave.

On Thursday morning last, the proprietors of the Lexington despatched the steamboat Statesman, Capt. Comstock, to cruise in the Sound, in search of bodies, and the trunks of passengers. Capt. C. recovered only five bodies. In his report he says—

"We crowded the steamer near enough to the shore to converse with persons drawn to the beach by our signals. From them we learned the fact that David Crowley, second mate, had drifted ashore in the vicinity, upon a bale of cotton, on Wednesday night, at nine o'clock, having been forty-eight hours exposed to the severity of the weather, after which he made his way through large quantities of ice and snow, before gaining the beach, and then walked three quarters of a mile to the house where he now is. His hands are a little frozen, and his feet and legs considerably so. He is not able, however to be moved at present. This I have been told by persons who saw him to-day. It appears next to an impossibility, considering the severity of the weather, but it is undoubtedly true."

The report also states that Capt. William Terrill, master of the sloop Improvement, was with his vessel within four or five miles of the Lexington, at the time she commenced burning, and thinks that if he had immediately repaired to her assistance he could have saved a great number of lives. The reason he gives for not doing so, is, that he would have lost his tide over the bar, at the port to which he was bound. The mercenary and unfeeling motive which influenced this man on this occasion, have justly excited great indignation against him. The N. Y. Sun advises him not to venture too much in public, for his safety's sake. This threat, or intimation, however, is in bad spirit. If this person possesses one spark of the feelings natural to humanity, a self condemning spirit will wreak a punishment upon him a thousand-fold more agonizing than the extremest vengeance of his fellow-man. Who would not rather have been one of the sufferers of the Lexington, than endure the undying remorse which must be experienced for such a neglect of duty?

POSTSCRIPT. We find the following paragraph in the Journal of Commerce of yesterday morning :

"A letter to a gentleman in this city from Jonas Smith, dated yesterday, at Stony Brook, L. I., says :

'There is a report here this morning that two more men came ashore alive from the wreck of the Lexington, opposite from Greenport; making in all six persons saved from the wreck.' We fear this report will prove to be unfounded."