262 A HISTORY OF 



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 Indies 

 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 accident of the same kind, which happened at Belfast, in 

 Ireland, about twenty years ago, I will not take upon me to determine ; 

 but certain it is, there are some circumstances alike in both, though 

 more terrible in that I am going to relate. A Guinea captain was, by 

 stress of weather, driven into Belfast, with a lading of very sickly 

 slaves, who, in the manner above mentioned, took every opportunity 

 to throw themselves overboard when brought up upon the deck, as is 

 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 down into the wa- 

 ter. 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 around 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 animal; 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 hunting those 

 places where it expects the return of its prey. It is even asserted, that 

 along the coasts of Africa, where these animals are found in great 

 abundance, 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 differ- 

 ent colours are in the water together, it always makes choice of the 

 former. 



However this be, men of all colours are equally afraid of this ani- 

 mal, and have contrived different methods to destroy him. In gene- 

 ral, 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 amusement to observe this voracious 

 animal coming 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 the chain ; 

 he quits it for a little; but his appetite pressing, he returns again; 

 appears preparing to devour it, but quits it once more. When the 

 sailors have sufficiently diverted themselves with his different evolu- 

 "ions, they then make a pretence, by drawing 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 swallows it, hook and all. Sometimes, how 

 ever, he does not so entirely gorge the whole, but that he once more 



