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A HISTORY OF 



Mr. Pennant tells as, that the master of a 

 Guinea-ship, finding a rage for suicide pre- 

 vail among his slaves, from a notion the un- 

 happy creatures had, that after death they 

 should be restored again to their families, 

 friends, and country ; to convince them at 

 least that some disgrace should attend them 

 here, he ordered one of their dead bodies to 

 be tied by the heels to a rope, and so let 

 down into the sea ; and, though it was drawn 

 up again with great swiftness, yet, in that 

 short space, the sharks had bit off all but the 

 feet. Whether this story iS prior to an acci- 

 dent of the same kind, which happened at 

 Belfast in Ireland, about twenty years ago, I 

 will not take upon me to determine ; but cer- 

 tain it is, there are some circumstances alike 

 in both, though more terrible in that I am go- 

 ing to relate. A Guinea captain was, by 

 stress of weather, driven into the harbour of 

 Belfast, with a lading of very sickly slaves, 

 who, in the manner above mentioned, took 

 every opportunity to throw themselves over- 

 board when brought up upon the deck, as usual, 

 for the benefit of the fresh air. The captain 

 perceiving, among others, a woman slave 

 attempting to drown herself, pitched upon 

 her as a proper example to the rest. As he 

 supposed that they did not know the terrors 

 attending death, he ordered the woman to be 

 tied with a rope under the arm-pits, and so 

 let her down into the water. When the poor 

 creature was thus plunged in, and about half 

 way down, she was heard to give a terrible 

 shriek, which at first was ascribed to her 

 fears of drowning ; but soon after the water 

 appearing red all round her, she was drawn 

 up, and it was found that a shark, which had 

 followed the ship, had bit her off from the 

 middle. 



Such is the frightful rapacity of this ani- 

 mal; nothing that has life is rejected. But 

 it seems to have a peculiar enmity to man : 

 when once it has tasted human flesh, it never 

 desists from haunting those places where it 

 expects the return of ite prey. It is even 

 asserted, that along the coasts of Africa, 

 where these animals are found in great abun- 

 dance, numbers of the negroes, who are 

 obliged to frequent the waters, are seized 

 and devoured by them every year. The 

 people of these coasts are firmly of opinion, 



that the shark loves the black man's flesh in 

 preference to the white, and that when men 

 of different colours are in the water together, 

 it always makes choice of the former. 



However this be, men of all colours are 

 j equally afraid of this animal, and have con- 

 trived different methods to destroy him. In 

 general, they derive their success from the 

 shark's own rapacity. The usual method of 

 our sailors to take him, is by baiting a great 

 hook with a piece of beef or pork, which is 

 thrown out into the sea by a strong cord, 

 strengthened near the hook with an iron 

 chain. Without this precaution, the shark 

 would quickly bite the cord in two, and thus 

 set himself free. It is no unpleasant amuse- 

 ment to observe this voracious animal com- 

 ing up to survey the bait, particularly when 

 not pressed by hunger. He approaches it, 

 examines it, swims round it, seems for a while 

 to neglect it, perhaps apprehensive of the 

 cord and chain: he quits it for a little; but 

 his appetite pressing, he returns again ; ap- 

 pears preparing to devour it, but quits it once 

 more. When the sailors have sufficiently 

 diverted themselves with his different evolu- 

 tions, they then make a pretence, by draw- 

 ing the rope, as if intending to take the bait 

 away : it is then that the glutton's hunger 

 excites him ; he darts at the bait, and swal- 

 lows it, hook and all. Sometimes, however, 

 he does not so entirely gorge the whole, but 

 that he once more gets free ; yet even then, 

 though wounded and bleeding with the hook, 

 he will again pursue the bait until he is taken. 

 When he finds the hook lodged in his maw, 

 his utmost efforts are then excited, but in 

 vain, to get free; he tries with his teeth to 

 cut the chain ; he pulls with all his force to 

 break the line ; he almost seems to turn his 

 stomach inside out, to disgorge the hook : in 

 this manner he continues his formidable though 

 fruitless efforts; till, quite spent, he suffers 

 his head to be drawn above water, and the 

 sailors, confining his tail by a noose, in this 

 manner draw him on ship-board, arid despatch 

 him. This is done by beating him on the 

 head till he dies; yet even that is not effect- 

 ed without difficulty and danger; the enor- 

 mous creature, terrible even in the agonies 

 of death, still struggles witli his destroyers; 

 nor is there an animal in the world that is 



