The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-02 00:00:00

by the boatswain's whistle, -a -nautical civility to per-
sonages of dit,tinction. But he receives no fa'rourable
iinpression from his first glance at the crew, a less
prepossessing party than even those of Benoit himself,
who, ‘• though engaged in a trade not lauded by
everybody, yet carried it on, as he declared, for the
support of the colonies." The deck had a still more
sinister aspect.
" Everything was confused and thrown together ; arms
scatteredhere and there, that they night be always at hand.
The planks moist and dirty, covered in sonic pk..ces with
large spots of a Idackih red. You have taken loll;
enough for heaving to, old curmudgeon,' was the salutation
addressed to him by a man with a very forbiddir,g aspect
and but one eye. This winning character was but half clad,
in ragged trowsers, an old red woollen shirt, filthy with
grease, and tied round his waist with a rope, under which
was thrust the huge blade of a knife with a wooden handle.
Benoit rallied his dignity, his courage, and replied calmly,
lon have zixteen guns, and I have not one ; it is easy
work to be overhauling us at this rate.' More Nas.m, my
old puffer ; good sense is always on the side of the guns.'
But you have hailed me,' said Benoit impatiently, what
do you want? I am losing the wind ;dhow much more
yain are you going to spin ?"
After a little more conversation, in which Benoit is
knocked down for too free a style of answering,

"'A huge hideous curly-head now appear.d above
hatches, calling out " Le Borgne, Le Borgne, Captain
wants to know what's all this jaw on deck?' It's this
here old alligator that owns the brio ; he is being kept
quiet.' Down went the great head ; up it came again,
Here,' said the cabin-boy, here, Le Borgne, Captain
says that 'ere gentleman is to come below." Cut him in
two if he an't quiet,' cried a voice of thunder. Benoit
buttoned his coat, passed his hands through his grey
hair, coughed twice, blew his nose, and entered
the cabin, where he found M. Brulart, the com-
mander of the Ilycena, equipped in a half-worn-out blue
shirt, tied round the waist with a rope's end. The
conversation was opened by Benoit with an air of dignity—
' I want to know what for'—but Brulart's voice inter-
rupted him with, What for yourself, dog! don't ask me
questions. Where are you bound from ?" I'm from the
African coast ; I have made a purchase, got my cargo on
board, and am going to Jamaica (qu. Cuba ?) to sell my
blacks." I know that better than you ; I only asked to
see if you'd tell me a lie.' You knew it ?" I have been
after you from Goree.' It was you, then, that I saw be-
fore the storm, in the fog ?" A glimps2 ; hold there,
shipmate, your servant,' said Brulart, pulling a lock of his
thick hair as if it had been a corner of a cocked hat ; Ay,
ay, we make a treaty, and so will I. I'm quite delighted.'
I was sure we should understand each other,' answered
Benoit, a little reassured by this parity of situations. But
tell me where did you get your blacks, for the hurricane
parted us, and I have only found you again this evening?
On the coast ; mouth of the Fish River ; they were sold me
by a chief of the kraal of the Great Namaquois ; it is a party
of Little Namaquois taken in war." Indeed ! I get my
blacks in another way.' But now, you see, lam losing
time ; all I can do for you is to give you six casks of water
and two barrels of biscuit ; and considering I have twenty
in crew and eighty blacks on board, it is a great deal. I
am giving my blood for you." That's the word,' observed
Brulart, with a peculiar smile. I can't spare a particle
more,' said Benoit with an air of decision. I swear, never-
theless, that you shall do more for :me, you Mister of the
Grand Namaquois." Will you betray me?' said Benoit,
pale as death. I betray you!' Offended by the laugh
that followed, the choleric Benoit. assaults the corsair.
But Brulart seizing his two arms in his iron fist, while
with the other hand he untied the cord round his waist,
Benoit was in a few moments bound neck and heels, so
that he could not stir ; Brulart placed him across his great
sea-chest, saying, ' By-and-bye we'll have a laugh to-
gether, shipmate.' And he mounted the deck amidst all
the imprecations, abuse, insult, and outcries of the unhappy
Benoit, who moved by leaps upon the chest, just as a fish
on a sand-bank.
" The conference is shortly resumed, on the return of
Brulart to his prisoner in the cabin. But now, let us
play at some game—at guessing ; come, guess, guess ;
come now, guess what I am going to do with you and your
crew.' Rascal, is it not infamy ? To rob us, villain ?'
No, go on—try again: To make us prisoners, monster?"
No, try again." Well then, to murder us ; you are
capable of any thing." You burn, but that is not it
exactly." Ten thousand thunders ! to be here tied up,
unable to move, like an anchor lashed to the bow.' You
give up guessing—well, listen.' He tossed off a large glass
of rum, and Benoit began to gabble, bawl, sing, and swear,
to drown the voice of M. Bralart, and avoid hearing his
atrocious jests. Two or three of the sailors, alarmed by
this infornA uproar, ran to the cabin-door, thinking some-
body was cutting his throat. on deck again, rascals,'
said Brulart ; 'don't you see it is only the gentleman
amusing himself by singing Namaquois airs ? Ah, wretch
of a musician.' Poor Benoit continued his cries in every
variety of tone, but he was speedily gagged, his eyes be-
came blood-shot, and seemed starting from his head."
At length he was apprised of his fate, and it was
mercilessly fulfilled. The pirate took him with his
crew to the Little Namaquois to be slaughtered by these
cannibals, in revenge for the prisoners of their tribe
bought by Benoit from King Taroo, not without lucre
to the pirate, who, in exchange for the white men
thus surrendered to the knife, received from the little
Namaquois an equal number of blacks, to he sold by
him for the profit of the Hyena. So much for the
slave-traders. We have left no room for the literature
of our Dutch neighbours. Where the Parnassus is a
flat, and the Helicon a dike, the reader will hardly
look for a very lofty inspiration, but it is something
" not to have despaired of the republic." However,
between the tragic and the comic muses of Holland
we feel somewhat less of hesitation than Garrick ex-
hibits in the picture. Our preference is clearly for
the ludicrous, of which a tolerable specimen is given
to the English public in the extracts selected by time
Reviewer from " The Village beyond the Frontiers," a
dramatic satire by Van Lennep on the Belgians. The
piece has attained a great popularity from this political
bearing, but we fear it must be admitted at last, that
but for some such seasoning the wit would scarce have
savoured the mass.—Times.

_ -
PADDLE BOARDS.—It appears, from the Report
of the Commission of Railways in Ireland, that great m,stakes have
been made in the size of the paddle boards. Their area has been suc-
cessively reduce.l from about 12 feet area to 8 feet, and the speed of the
vessel has been as successively increase I. But what is still inure re-
markable, the tremulous motion was re.lucel at the s.it2 time. The
maximum effect was somahing above 6 feet.—Bail way Magazine.

BILLIARDS.—TiIe Paris Jockey Club, it seems,
has lately invented a singular amusement. Two amateurs made a bet
that they would play a game at billiards on horseback ! The grand dlr.
ficulty, however, appeared to be that of getting the horse up s'airs to the
billiard room. A recent attempt had quite failed to make the horses
walk up the staircase of the Theatre Francais, in order to draw the car
of Caligula on the stage. The horses of the Jock( y Club were, how.
ever, lighter and better trained, and they succeeded accordingly. In the
ante-room they had worsted stockings put en, to deaden the noise of
their iron shoes. The players then mounted, cue in hand, and the game
commenced The time allotted was four hours, and the game (12 points)
was won at 20 minutes within the limited period, the loser marking 10
points. Considering the numerous diflkulties, this was co: tain:y a
great effort of skill. The horses jumped. danced, jibbed, and took every
advantage of their riders having both hands engaged while trying to
strike the b.:11.

ADVANTAGE OF A GOOD CIIARACTER.-A
young man, named Holder,was yesterday charged at Guildhall with having
defrauded Mr. Surredge, a shoe agent in Newgate street, of property to
the amount of SOI, by representing himself as still in the employment
of a bootmaker named Reeve, with whom he had at one time lived.
The only novelt} in the case was that Mr. Reeve had been paying his
monthly bills, in which the property obtained by the prisoner was
charged to his account, without detecting the fraud, although in one
instance the sum was 231. out of 461. In exp'anation of this seeming
carelessness, Mr. Reeve said he had so strong a penua6lon of Holder's
integrity that he merely looked at the sum total of the hills. The pri-
soner, whose delinquencies were discovered through mere accident, was
remanded.

INCREASING PROSPERITY OF PARIS.—In a
speech, which the Paris journals of Wednesday publish, the Prefect of
the Seine gives a flattering account of the progress and prosperity of tl •
French capital. He addressed it to the notables of the city assembled
for the purpose of electing the judges of the Tribunal of Commerce for
the ensuing year. All p.mple with shops, or in business, pay a certain
tax or patent. The number of patent.payers in Paris in 1831 was nearly
45,000; it had increased to 70,000 in '1836, and to 75,000 in 1837.
The highest notables or patent-payers had increased in the same propor-
tion. The ()arm', in consequence, having proportionaidy increased, had
allowed the diminution of certain duties, especially that on coals.
Schools and asylums for children had been founded in great numbers;
and Paris in 1837, compared with Paris in 1830, leaves certainly no
occasion of regret for the revolution of 1830.

A letter from Pestlt states, that though the late
thunder storms and heavy rains have occasioned not a little damage in
Hungary, yet the harvest promises to be so abundant that grain of
every kind has fallen considerably in price.
On the 21st of June the Right Hon. Lord John
Russell presented to her Majesty a splendidly bound copy of the Scrip-
tures, in eight or nine languages, from a number of ladies among the
Protestant Dissenters of London, as a token of their deep interest in
the happiness and devoted attachment to the person and government of
their beloved Sovereign. The book, which was prepared expressly for
the purpose, in a truly elegant and most costly manner, her Majesty was
most graciously pleased to accept, expressing to his Lotedhip her sense
of its high value.
During the late hurricanes in the Black Sea the
following Russian ships of war were completely wrecked :—A frigate of
65 guns, a sloop, two brigs, two cutters, the armed steam-boat Jason, and
five armed transport vessels. During the same gale thirteen merchant
vessels were lost; but it does not appear that there were any British
vessels among them.
A fellow named Birmingham was yesterday charged
at Worship.street with being one of the principals in a prizefight that
took place at Tottenham on Sunday last, but was interrupted by the
police. He was held to bail ; and fifteen others, who were charged as
aiding and abetting, were fined Is. each, and discharged.