The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-10 00:00:00

ST. LUCIA.

(Frcm the St. Lucia Independent Press, June 4.)
At length the weather has become such as to satisfy
even the planters. The ht.tely costive firmament is dis-
charging, freely, showers of water and electricity. In a
word the wet season has fairly set in. But let it not be
imagined by those abroad that the effects of the recent
protracted drought are to be thus easily rerai •,l. Such
damage has been done both to this year's crop, and to
that of next year, as the present rains, however season-
able, cannot remedy.
Favourable to agriculture, the weather is not the most,
wholesome for individuals. Hooping•cough has not en-
tirely disappeared, and dysentery is prevalent. Those
unexplained curses, the mosquitoes and sand-flies, dflict
the inhabitants, especially such as occupy low-tene-
ments, surrounded with shrubbery and stagnant wa-
ter, and cut off from the free action of the
wind. Let London cockneys complain of bugs and
fleas. Happy will they be if swarms of our inter-
tropical insects never assault their domestic comforts.
You sit on a cane-bottom chair. You are, literally
cupped in consequence. In a warm climate, the
veins of your ample forehead swell. In an instant the
winged and buzzing tormentors settle on the choice spots
with the skill of practised anatomists. It is said that
the old system of bleeding for all disorders has beon ex-
ploded. Pray blow up our sand-flies and mosquitoes,
and a statue shall attest your merit to a liberated pos •
terity.

M-oney has seldom been more scarce than it now is.
The peasantry, having none, cannot buy goods, and,
cons€ quently, the shopkeepers cannot make remittances.
Wages have fallen at least 33 per cent. The combined
court, however, which is irresponsible to the tax-
payers, has resolved to re- impose, for another year,
those exorbitant taxes on the common necessaries of
life, the effect of which is that wages, however de-
scribed as high, are only high nominally. This body
has not yet brought its most unpatriotic labours to a ter-
mination.

There have arrived 260 coolies by the Britannia,
and 139 by the Raymond ; and, to-day, 261 by the
Sir Robert Peel. Numbers of those people are to
be seen wandering on the streets and highways,
scantily clad and filthy. About a daring riot among
a portion of them on the west coast of Demerara
we shall say nothing until after the termination of
pending law proceedings. The coolies, when industrious,
are clean workers, but weak. For the heavy labour in-
cidental to the rainy season they are not by any means
fitted. But were they first-rate shovel men, which they
are not, they would still be a bad bargain under the con-
dition of re-transportation, at the public charge, at the
end of five years. Mr. Secretary Gladstone would con-
fer a solid benefit on the country, if he were to inter-
dict coolie immigration altogether, and thus rescue the
colonists from the misgovernment of their rulers ere it is
teo late to interpose with advantage. Africans and Ma-
deirans, so much more cheap of introduction, excel the
coolies incomparably in every qualification which our
plantation tasks require.
Of the projected railway between Georgetown and
Mahaica, a neat sketch is in the colony, drawn by the
talented engineer, Catherwood. The line, some 21
miles long, is divided into three portions, each quite
straight, and all united together at angles so open as to
form nearly a straight line throughout. Towards the
City, the buildings of the plantations are generally
to seaward of the line, towards Mahaica, mostly to
landward of it. The City terminus is at the northern
end of the city, that is, at the river's mouth ; from
which, however, a branch is to run up a main street to
the market and the public buildings. This arrangement
seems to be unexceptionable.
A long way above the spot at which the line strikes
the little river Mahaica, an expensive bridge has just
been constructed, the cost of which is to be defrayed by
a loan, redeemable out of the tolls. As soon as the rail-
way is completed, this bridge, as a matter of course,
will be deserted and unproductive. Notwithstanding
this, the public authorities are contracting for other
bridges on other small rivers, nearer Berbice, quite ir-
respectively of what stations the railway company may
decide on. Thus we shall have handsome and costly
erections, four at least in number, which neither man
nor brute will ever use.

A TIGER HUNT.

The following account is taken from a letter written
by an individual at Goonah to a relation in Edin-
burgh :
" On the evening of the 16th of December last word was
brought that a tiger had killed a buffalo and a cow, and
had carried them to a deep glen. It was too late to
start that night, but off I went by peep of day next
morning, got about a hundred beaters, with fellows to
beat drums and blow horns, enough to make Old Nick
bolt. A number of native gentlemen came, we put the
beaters into a likely-looking hill, and those armed with
guns took up their position : no tiger came out. A
hyena stole out opposite to where I was : I knocked
him over. Another consultation was held as to the pro•
bable place the tiger was in : agreed, off went the
beaters.
"All the Sirdars begged me not to remain upon the
ground, but to get up a tree, like them, and I should be
quite safe if the tiger came out. I humoured the poor
fellows, but had not been perched there ten minutes when
bang, bang, bang went the matchlocks. I w a rush of
men, swords flashed in the air, and spears were bran-
dished, ar.d I heard the roar of the tiger as he was hit.
I saw the people driven back in all directions : he
had charged them. To remain up the tree when all
this was going on was not my nature, so down I
jumped, calling to my servants to bring my spare
guns. They followed me very well, and we rushed
to the ravine. The tigress (for it turned out to be
one) had gone off to a dense thicket on a rising ground,
standing by itself. She was seen to go in, and no one
saw her coming out. Thither we went, and all stood
fifteen or twenty yards outside, stretching their necks
and straining their eyes. At last I was sure I saw her
watching us, just a small red patch among the green
foliage. I pointed out to the men what I felt convinced
was the tigress, put the rifle to my shoulder, and fired.
I was right ; she gave a roar and fell. It was impos-
sible to see her for the long grass and underwood, but
we distinctly heard her growling. But how to get her
out was the question, for no one seemed desirous of
being better acquainted with the scenery inside.
" There were at this time upwards of 100 men assem.
bled, but the noise was such I could not make myself
heard. I lost all patience and moved towards the
thicket. All called out to me not to venture, but go I
wou'd, my mind was made up, so I looked round if there
were any volunteers—a fineyoung Rajpoot sepoy was at
my back, with his matchlock. We went to the end, and
entered the dense thicket of high grass, creepers, and
underwood, and some difficulty we had in making our
way. When we got in about fifteen yards, the tigress
must have got sight of us, for she growled in the most
savage manner. We could not see her. It was now
most exciting, at the same time the feeling most intense,
and, I must say, most ticklish work. My faithful Raj-
poot comrade kept side by side with me. There was a
dead silence among the people outside.
" We had got about twenty yards into this labyrinth,
guided by the growling of the tigress, when we got
sight of her, not ten paces in front, sitting up, her eyes
flashing fire, and growling at us most intensely. She
seemed all ready for a spring. The rifle was up in an
instant. I took a steady, deliberate aim at her head.
Yes, although I say it, who should not say it, I do give
myself credit for that affair. My hand was as steady as
ever it was in my life firing at a hare. Well, the ball
penetrated the centre of her head. She gave a roar.
No; I shall never forget it! She made one spring at
us, and we were driven back. I could almost feel her
warm breath. My clash tent-pitcher, unknown to me,
had followed with a spare gun. The stump of a tree
caught his foot, and, before the poor fellow could recover
hinuelf, she seized him, and died at the instant with him
in her mouth. Had she lived a quarter of a minute
after seizing him, she must have torn him limb from
limb. No; in the whole course of my life I never saw
or heard of such an escape. His arm was a good deal
lacerated by her claws—one claw had penetrated through
a thick silver charm, which he wore on his arm, to the
bone. She had seized him by the back with her teeth ;
but, most fortunately, the clashy had on my ammunition
bag, containing powder flask, bullets, and a little of
everything, and her teeth went through that.
"It was some time before I knew whether the brute
was really dead, or only shamming ; for she did not
move, and her eye still flashed fire ; but she was dead,
and no mistake My sallant Rajpoot comrade and I
carried home my poor clashy, and I am glad to say he is
doing well. Now, you have had my tiger adventure. It
had long been my ambition to kill a tiger on foot, face to
face ; and I have done it, and the skin is in pickle."

DEPARTURE OF THE GREAT BRITAIN.--LIVERPOOL,
TUESDAY EVENING. —The Great Britain sailed hence for
New York at a late hour this evening, taking out 103 pas-
sengers and an unusually rich freight list. Of her passengers
one has been out in this remarkable vessel no less than three
times ; two others are now making their second passage. It
is anticipated she will accomplish the passage within the
space of fifteen days.
ANOTHER CAPTAIN JOHNSON.—In last week's paper,
our readers were informed that a vessel had arrived at Kirk-
wall, the captain of which had been bound by the crew, in
consequence of his cruelty to them when in a state of intoxi.
oat ion, The following additional particulars have since been
furnii,hed i--" The vessels name is the Ariadne of Arbroath,
Captain John Stephens. She has on board a cargo of
railway sleepers from the Baltic. According to the state-
ment of the crew, the captain had been drunk four weeks,
cdruerN ivn—g s wt
i chkicshantr
oethheer sat,reuarc)k,
onskihcekiendg,
aapnpd threatenedhed,andl thenaded
pistols being held to their heads. At last the crew, unable
any longer to tolerate such cruelties, bound the fellow hands
and feet, brought the vessel to Kirkwall, and upon their
arrival, lodged a complaint of assault against him. The
officers, on receiving the warrant for his apprehension, pro-
ceeded to the vessel, where they found the captain in such a
beastly state of intoxication, that they had to haul him out
of the cabin by means of ropes, and then carry him on a
burly to prison. Being in such a condition, he was not in a
tit state to be examined, and it was expected to take several
days to make him sober after such a long 'speel' at the
bottle." The Procurator-Fiscal went on board the vessel
and sealed up his cabin, which, according to our correspon-
dent, who saw it, " was in an awful state of filth, and
contained a 'beggarly account' of empty aad broken
bottles and..rum casks. There was also a pair of pistols
shown, one of which the captain had threatened to fire at
one of the seamen, John Hewgs, an Irishman. He after-
wards broke the butt end of the pistol on Hewgs' back.
On Thursday Captain Stephens was tried before Sheriff
Robertson, for assault to effusion of blood, committed
within the jurisdiction of the Sheriff of Orkney. The cap-
tain pleaded guilty, and was fined 51., which he paid on the
spot. The glieriff, in passing sentence, said, he was glad the
panel had pled guilty, which saved him the exposure which
would have been made had the witnesses been brought for-
ward to give evidence- The captain denied some of the
accusations preferred against him by part of the crew, such
as that about the pistols. He admitted, however, having
" assaulted and repeatedly knocked down and kneeled upon
1114 breast when down, and otherwise maltreated Michael
faat# of the Ariadue."—John o' Groat Journal.