Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1834-07-24
From TIC Netc Yo,k Times.
KINGATAyzA. TIE SOUTH SEA
MAIDEN.

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A friend has handed us the following
extract of letter from the South Sea
Islands, giving ou account of the sin
gular and melancholy departure Of
kingatara, the pride Of Tahete--who,
but few days before her death, had
bestowed her heart and hand upon q
hardy New England whaler. Most
of our readers are aware Of the fond
ness of all the South Sea Islanders for
sea sports. Our own Stewart has de.
lineated them with a graphic pen, and
Byron, in his poem of The Island, has
endowed his heroiues with swimming
powers and propensities scarcely sur
passed even by the inhabitants of the
ocean. A londsman must incur a
great risk in connecting himself for
life with being to whom the water is
as common as the earth, and who d.
vides her time between sea and land;
no might almost as we'll marry mer.
maid. But to the letter
"Mrs. kingatara Ororuth Spooncr,
one Of the most distinguished ladies Of
Otaheitc, whose marriage was duly
chroniclcd few weeks ago, has been
chawed up before the very eyes Of the
man of her choice. II cannot be said
that she has gone the way of all flesh,
for if such we're the case, the sharks
and other cannibnls ofthc deep would
be the most plentllIully fed OF all mon
sters. But few days before the mel.
ancholy and Jonah.like departure of
Mrs. kingatara Spooncr, she and a
hardy whaler had been made one flesh.
Scarcelya week. suns had risen aud
set, before she was made ono fish with
one of the most cruel and carniyerous
Of his sex, the hungriest ofall sea dwell.
lers-an enormous shark. The fair
kingatara, in the days OF her maiden.
hood, had passed the chief part Of her
play.time among breakers, where she
frisked and foundered about, and rode
upon the billow like sea goddess u.
mong the exulting waves Of her own
realm. The South SEQ Islanders are
a famous people for sea bathing, and
the lovely Kingotara had obtained the
reputation of being the best swimmer
the deepest diver, and the most grace.
full flip happcr of all the young virgins
of Otaheite. 1t is not wonder that
she should have gained the affections
of hardy whaIer, whose ideas Of
grace and beauty were probably deri-
we'd from exhibitions of the founder.
ings of the big whales which he encoun-
tered in the course of his ocean wan
derings.
He watched the duskv maiden ms
she ducked and dived among the break.
ers, and was completely overcome
with the graceful contortions of her
well turned limbs, as she padded a.
bout and wrestled with the angry bill.
lows. The whaler wooed and won
her, and the happy pair, after having
been joined together according to the
statute, set out on short voyage a.
mong the beautiful Islands Of the South
Pacific. But even the delights of the
honey moon could not entirely win the
young Kingatara from the exciting
sports Of her unwedded years; even in
her moments Of warmest transport she
would tear herself from her husbands
arms, and jump overheard, and splash
about in the waves like a north river
sturgeon.
There was degree Of GOODNESS in
this that might have quenched the pas
sion Of the most ardent lover-bnt the
gentle amphibial had no other object in
it than to delight her husband by dis
play of those graces which had first
caught his eye and won his heart. She
would dive down among the coral
reefs, and bring back precious gifts to
her bosom's lord, and more than once
she gathered from the ocean a store Of
the richest and rarest pearl oysters.
But KingaGara, like Sam Patch, took
one leap too much. In her last jump,
she jumped the life TO come. A keen
eyed and ravenous fellow of shark,
who had long Toasted on her beauties
in imagination, watched for, and obtain
ed an opportunity Of Teasing on them
in reality. The South Sea wife had
launched into her lov'd element, in
tending to cut only a few watery
capers, when she was herself cut short