The National Intelligencer And Washington Advertiser

ROTTERDAM, JAN. 13.

A dreadful misfortune has happened to the city of Leyden, the seat of the principal University of the kingdom of Holland: it was yesterday, Monday, 12th January, partly destroyed and laid waste, and covered with mourning, by the explosion of a boat laden with 250 barrels of powder, which was passing through one of its canals, called the Rapenburg, about 4 o'clock in the evening. The number of the victims of this cruel accident has not yet been ascertained; but it appears to be very considerable. Among the killed are men whose loss is highly deplorable for that interesting city, the centre of the sciences and erudition, such as professor John Luzac and Adrian Kluit; a great number of young students of the college called het mung van't Algemeen, &c. The affrighted citizens are abandoning their shaken houses, which threaten to fall in every moment. The professor Rau and his family have been fortunate enough to be dug out of the ruins. The king immediately, and repeatedly repaired to that scene of desolation, and testified the most tender concern for the sufferers; who were sensibly affected with his paternal kindness. He has offered his palace of the house in the wood, as a provisional asylum to those who are without any, and he thus acquires, upon this melancholy occasion, a sacred title to the love and gratitude of a city, where one of the first effects of a liberal education is to know how to appreciate virtue and merit.

SCHEDAM, JAN. 13.

Last night, about five o'clock, the inhabitants of this city were alarmed by a most violent concussion, proceeding, as it was thought, from the North West. The windows of several houses here were forced open by the shock. At first it was imagined that the powder magazine at Delft had blown up; but, after the lapse of a few hours, it appeared that all was tranquil in that city. To-day we learn, with horror and astonishment, that the most magnificent part of Leyden was the scene of this terrific explosion. It seems that a vessel laden with 10,000 lbs. weight of gunpowder from Amsterdam, destined for Delft, and then lying in the Rapenburg canal there, by some means took fire, and instantly blew up, destroying all the houses in the vicinity of the canal, and occasioning the premature death of some hundreds of the inhabitants. When this account was written, the flames were said to be still raging. Of 60 children in a boarding school, five or six only are said to have been saved, but scorched dreadfully. Some say that the university is near destroyed, and that the Jewish Synagogue is reduced to ashes. Of the vessel on board of which were the owner's two sons and a servant, not an atom is visible.