Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

We have been favored with a Demerara paper of July 3, which contains the conclusion of the trial of a number of English seamen, on a charge of piracy. The names mentioned are, James Alexander, Peter Bennett, Samuel Allbrook, Samuel Medley and Henry Broomfield.

They were a part of the crew of the Spanish American armed brig Royal Africano, (part of her men shipped at Charleston) which sailed from Havana and Amelia, in 1816, reported to be bound to Africa. Not long after sailing, (as appears by a statement published in an old Demerara paper, signed by one M'Kinnen) a mutiny took place, headed by M'Kinnen, 2nd offi. cer, in consequence, as it was alleged, of her having plundered several American vessels. The American and Spanish captains, with ten others, were sent adrift, and M'Kinnen took command. The remaining crew, according to his account, being sent on plunder, he endeavored to keep out of the way of merchant vessels, but falling in with an English ship, bound to Demerara, he, (M'K.) went on board, and concerted measures with her commander, to prevent her being robbed. He sent ten men on board, slightly armed, who were secured. and he overawed the rest, (40 in number.) While M'Kinnen was on board the ship, consulting on the best port to carry the brig into, the latter made her escape, with an officer and one man of the ship on board. The eleven who were on board of the English vessel, were carried into Demerara, in October, 1816. The ship had only one gun-the brig mounted eight.

The above five men appear to have been brought to trial early in July last, as British subjects, on a charge of having conducted in a manner tending to show that they meditated plundering the ship, when they first came on board, and before boarding. After a full and patient hearing, they were acquitted July 3; but on the 7th, all of them were again brought up for trial, on an indictment for misdemeanor, founded on the same case of piracy. Alexander and Bennett were found guilty-the remainder acquitted.