The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-01 00:00:00

EnATuttii.'

TEMPLE'S TRAVELS IN 'PERU, 2 \rots.
Lowrox, 1830.

This is a very lively, amusing work, full of
anecdote, description, and incident. Mr. Temple
describes scenery with the gusto of a professed
landscape painter; and in his sketches of charac-
ter almost rivals Captain Basil Hall. Among
his anecdotes we may quote the very entertain-
ing one on sharks :

" There is not a creature, perhaps, of which more ex-
traordinary stories are toll than of the shark; and to
people who know no snore of these animals than what they
may have seen in a dried-up skin in a museum, such sto-
ries may appear embellished ; but those who have any in-
tercourse with seamen, have many opportunities of being
assured that such stories are not exaggerated, but are bona
fide true stories. One of these I shall here relate, because I
beard it from very good authority, and afterwards had it
oorroborated by still better. The principal facts are these :
—Some years ago, in the West Indies, a British ship of
war fa in with an Amerisan merchant-vessel, which,
front circumstances, was generally supposed to be a good
and lawful prize; but no papers being found on board to
condemn the vessel, and her Captain swearing that all was
correct, the British Captain, after the detention of a day
or two, was induced to relinquish his capture. Shortly
after this (I forget the precise space of time), a shark was
caught by another British ship of war on the same station,
and in cutting it up (a delightful operation seldom
omitted) a tin sale, containing sundry papers, was found
in its stomach. They proved to have belonged to the
merchant-vessel before mentioned, and had been thrown
overboard by the Captain when about to he examined by the
British cruiser. The fact win soon discovered; the papers were
taken to Port Royal, where the American Captain had ac-
tually commenced an action for damages against the Bri-
tish Captain for unlawful detention. The tables were im-
mediately turned on the astonished Jonathan, whose ship
was condemned as a good and lawful prize. The shark
was one of the largest size, and the jaws are preserved to
this day in the Justice-hall, at Spanish Town, to the an-
noyance of many a Yankee captain, srho, when ' swear-
ing' about the destination of his ship and the correctness
of his papers, is reminded of this extraordinary detection,
by some one in Court significantly pointing to the jaws of
the shark, and saying—' Take care, the truth will out,
though from the bottom of the sea.'

" I have heard this story corroborated by several per-
son*, and ♦ery lately by an officer who was acquainted with
the Commander of the ship, on board which the shark
that bad swallowed the tin-box was taken.

" Of the voracious nature of the shark we have all fre-
quently read or heard. The following stories on that sub-
ject were related to me this day by the Captain and gunner
of the Frolic, just afterNhey had each caught a young one,
which gave rise to the conversation. When the Diana
frigate was lying at anchor off Vera Cruz, one of the ma-
rines, who was sentry in the stern of the ship, by some
occident fell overboard in the night ; and the Ciptain, who
was in bed at the time, hearing the splash in the water,
jumped up, arid looking out of the stern-gallery, asked
Is that a man overboard ?" Yes, Sir, it is me,' said
the marine. ' Well, have yon got hold? are you safe?'
said the Captain. Yes, Sir, I have hold of the rudder-
chains, hut my musket is gone !' said the marine.
- your musket,' said the Captain, and ran upon
deck to order a boat to he lowered, which, in a man-of-
war is an operation of but a very few minutes. In the act
of lowering the boat, a loud shriek was heard, and whe❑
the boat's crew went to picl. up the man, be was not to
be seen. Two days after this event, a shark was caught,
and hauled on board the Diana, in the stomach of which
was.found part of the jacket and a sloe of the unfortunate
marine.

" The gunner of the Frolic, in the course of the last
Year, was employed in the enterprise of cutting out a
trench frigate, in which one of his comrades lost a leg,
and in a few days died ; when, as is customary on board
ship, he was sewn up in his hammock with a heavy weight
in it, commonly a couple of twenty-four pound shot.
Scarcely tu;enty minutes had elapsed after the body bad
been committed to the deep, when the hammock and the
bedding were seen floating round the ship, Win to pieces :
it is unnecessary to add who or what had so soon robbed
them of their oontents.

"_There is no fish so easily caught as the shark, and
nese perhaps snore difficult to deprive of life. It is really
astonishing to see their exertions with both jaws and tail,
long after they have been opened, their intestines and other
viscera eat out, and the skin stripped from the body.
" A few years ago, the master of the ship on board
which I now am, caught a shark so large, that to rvoid
accidepts in hauling bins on board to kill him, they cut
him open alongside; and he assured me, that after open-
ing him down the middle, from the j tws to the tail, and
thoroughly cleaning him, they hoisted him up to the fore-
yard-arm, where he hung upwards of an hour, (Le vrai
pent quelquefois n'etre pas vraisemblable.) lie was then
taken down, and hauled on board where he lay stretched
alnsj the deck, to all appearance dead as a herring!'
Bathe. soon exhibited symptoms of being still a shark, by
a/sapping at any person that approached his head, and at last
a boy passing heedlessly hy, the animal made a desperate ef-
fort.towards him with extended jaws, and would inevitably
have seised him, bad not one of sailors, who perceived
thahoy"itlanget:, pushed him away. After this, they were
tAliged to have recourse to a common practise when kill-
ing their monsters, that of putting across the jaws a crow-
bar,., or ony other substantial implement, capable of pre-
ventiiitg: mischief.'. The only observation I have to make
on my story is, that it is faithfully repeated."

The following is an amusing anecdote—it may
fairly rank among anecdotes of obesity

" Stopped at the post of Arecife, the master of which
is probably the greatest man in the New World—if size
and weight constitute greatness. He seldom walks above
a few yards from the door of his house, and then drags a
chair with him for the convenience of immediate rest.
Of the importance of his person he seems himself to be
fully aware, as are all the vassals of his domain, for he
employs it occasionally as a punishment for the idle and
refractory. When a culprit is brought before him, he
orders him to lie upon the ground, and then seats himself
upon him and smokes a cigar, or perhaps two, according
to the nature of the offence; and the poor groaning wretch
can no more move under the weight than if buried beneath
Mount Athos. The protuberance of this great man's
stomach is so large, that the hands of others are required
to adjust the buttons of his waistcoat and nether garment,
it being impossible for his own to meet for that purpose;
and yet he is married to a respectable and good-looking
woman, by whom he hits three very fine children. We
may reasonable suppose that, as a Gaucho, he is in easy
circumstances, from the simple fact, that he has at this
slay upwards of ten thousand bead of horned cattle,
sheep, and horses, grazing on the Pampas round his
premises."

FOUR YEARS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA.
LONDON, 1830.

This is a truly elegant book, full of just
thoughts, striking descriptions, and graceful
pictorial language. It does infinite credit to the
abilities of its author, Mr. Cowper Rose, an
officer, we understand, in the Royal Engineers,
who modestly under-rating the information he
is here the means of communicating to the pub-
lic, asserts that " his object in his rambles being
to seek amusement, he writes but with the view
of amusing others." As a specimen of his
powers of amusement, we subjoin a ghost
story—or something akin to it—as detailed to
Mr. Rose by one of the parties concerned in it.
The anecdote has an evident reference to the
well-known legend of the " Flying Dutchman."

" I had command of the W—, a small brig, and
was cruising off Madagascar, on the look-out for slave-
ships :—it was near two o'clock in the day, when I dis-
covered a sail between us and the coast. We saw it clearly,
myself wad the two midshipmen, and determined to keep
her in eight, and to watch, but without altering our
course, or appearing to notice her; she still continued to
creep along the shore, and then, as if suddenly perceiving
us fur the first time, hoisted mote sail. I now felt certain
that it was a slaver, sad bore down upon her. We had
to tack, in order to clear a reef of rock that ran far out ;
still, however, we were gaining, when, on her making a
small headland, I said, Do you still see her?' to a young
officer, whose glass was directed towards her. No, she
has disappeared behind that paint, and it was so suddenly
that I thisk she must have struck her masts and lowered
her sails, to lie concealed. am certain now she is a
slaver,' I and-she shall not escape us.' We reached
the headlapsl, -which formed one of the boundaries of a
small bay, in which I felt certain the vessel must be ; but
the ereninK was coming on; the- coast was wild and rocky,
and I brought my brig to anchor at the month, so that