222 
SHARK. 
drown herself, pitched upon her as a proper ex- 
ample 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 appeared 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. 
“ Lur’d by the scent 
Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death. 
Behold ! he rushing cuts the briny flood. 
Swift as the gale can bear the ship along ; 
And, from the partners of that cruel trade 
Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons. 
Demands his share of prey, demands themselves.” 
Swimmers frequently fall a prey to the voracious 
shark : those are lucky, who, like a gentleman well 
known in this city, escape with the loss of a leg or 
an arm. Many perish entirely by them, and are 
for ever swept away from their family and friends. 
The melancholy instance which happened in the 
island of St. Christopher’s, and which forms the 
substance of a pathetic ballad by Grainger, should 
prove a warning to others not to trust themselves 
to the mercy of those seas. This ballad is so in- 
teresting, that we shall beg leave to introduce the 
latter part of it, where the person, of all others the 
