(As published in Week’s News London)

A Cadiz correspondent, writing on July 10, gives the following account of a robbery on the coach from Seville to Huelva : On Monday the diligence from Seville to Huelva was robbed at 10 p.m., hardly three miles from San Lucar La Mayor. Every one in Huelva is giving the most contradictory versions of the affair, but the story is as follows : The robbers were ensconced in the some dry trenches near the road, and some among growing crops near Molinillo, when a passenger saw that, although the night was calm, the wheat-ears were moving. In a moment up sprang twenty men, five of whom were mounted, and cried “Alto !” (halt) to the coachman. The horses were stopped, the postilions thrown to the ground, one being hurt. Then the robbers drew the diligence a good way off the main road, made the passengers lie down on their faces, bound them with cords, and then pacified them in their terror by saying, “No one here shall be harmed ; it is not our purpose to harm any one.” To one gentleman travelling with his wife they said, “Your wife is safe here as in her own house ; ” and they behaved like gentlemen to all. They then asked Don Antonio Sundheim for the keys of the cash-box, with contained $42,000 for the wages of the Rio Tinto miners. On his refusal they began to maltreat him, but one of the leaders, interposing said, “Never maltreat Don Antonio.” They then asked the conductor, “How many cash-boxes?” He said, “Nine.” “Come down.” One man had 20,000 reals in gold in a belt round his waist. They took his revolver and spared the gold, their object evidently being to rob the coach of the Rio Tinto Mines’ property. The robbery was committed by men who knew the time and way of sending the monthly payments. Some of the robbers had their faces blackened ; some seemed to be gentlemen and not in their usual clothes. They did not commit the robbery like men used to such deeds, as they actually left behind one of the cashboxes. They plundered the private passengers. The whole amount stolen would be, perhaps about $39,000. They took the cash-boxes away strapped on to coach mules. The Seville and Huelva road has always been a safe one, and this is the first case of robbery of this kind. So safe has been this route that the civil guards have never been asked to accompany the diligence. Nearly all the passengers carried money and valuables. The Huelva authorities say that they have a clue and can discover the robbers’ hiding-place.