Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

AMERICAN HUMANITY AND INTREPIDITY.

Extract of a letter to the Editors of the Franklin Gazette, dated Gibraltar, March 10.

"I have just received the enclosed from Madrid, and hasten to forward it to you, that you may publish it, and that the generous act of Lieutenant Whipple, therein referred to, may be made known, and appreciated by his friends and countrymen, as well as by those among whom his gallant conduct was displayed."

Madrid. Feb. 15.

"We have received a letter from Alicant, of the 10th instant, which among other matters, mentions the following, worthy of publication. You cannot imagine what dreadful storm we have had here: shipwrecks daily occurring, nor will you be less pleased with the exploit of a lieutenant of a vessel of the United States, whose name is Whipple: it should be engraven upon the monuments of humanity.

On the 8th inst. at past 12 in the morning, a terrible gale arose at sea, which upset a Swedish boat with two men on board. These unfortunate persons, in spite of all their efforts, could not reach the land. At this moment lieut. Whipple arrives on the shore strips off his coat, and with his boots throws himself into the sea. With some difficulty, he succeeds in saving these two men, to the admiration of all the spectators.

Nor is this all. On the following day, the storm continuing the boat of Whipple's vessel, with twelve men sunk. Notwithstanding an indisposition caused by the occurrence of the preceding day, he jumped in, and assisted in saving 8 of the 12 men. He has been in consequence very ill.

You can scarcely conceive the enthusiasm with which the bystanders admired these actions; he knows that we are not slaves who look with indifference on the misfortunes of our fellow creatures. All sought to relieve the shipwrecked at their houses; and those who have received them appear to be well contented, all the neighbors contributing to the assistance which has been given them. The portrait of Whipple is to be taken; and we are making a subscription to cause a plate to be engraved in Valencia."