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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 5, Issue 268, 22 May 1865, Page 3

Wreck of the Sax Jacinto.— The United States steam sloop-of-war San Jacinto, rendered famous as being the vessel which, in November, 1861, under command of Captain Wilkes, took from on board the British steamer Trent, the commissioners Slidell and Mason, when on their way, is ministers of the Southern Confederacy, to France and England, was wrecked on the Bahama Banks on the morning of New Year’s day. Chasing a blockade runner into nentral waters, Captain Meade got too close in shore, and struck the reef. The crew were saved, and also the guns and most of the stores, the wreckers being probably driven off by the English and American war steamers that came to the assistance of the San Jacinto. The wreckers of the Bahama Banks are a peculiar clase of men. Nearly all negroes or creoles, strong, daring, and inured to hardships, good seaman, and well acquainted with every reef and current in (he Gulf Stream and the adjacent waters, they will put to sea in the darkest night, and in the most threatening weather, lured by the hopes of picking up a few boxes or bales from some stranded ship, or, perhaps, only a few masts and spars. Their vessels are usually small sloops, light, swift, and of but little draught. They are frequently the property of small capitalists of Nassau, Abaco, or Key West, and are manned by a captain, mate, and three or four bands. Instances have been known of a wrecking-master making a fortune in a single trip by coming up with a vessel abandoned with its crew. By the law he can claim the whole vessel and cargo as his. As a general thing, however, all that a wrecker can hope to get off a stranded ship are a few boxes of damaged goods, and a few masts, spars, and planks. With the result of his night’s work ho proceeds usually to Nassau, and there disposes of the articles. The frightul storms which rage in these waters at this season of the year, the blind reefs and perplexing currents give the wreckers ample employment, and render this portion of the coast a terror so the mariner. More wrecks take place here than any other portion of the world, and it is affirmed that the inhabitants of Nassau are, in a great measure, dependent for their suport on the wrecking trade. It is certain that enormous quantities of wrecked goods are annually sold here at merely nominal prices, money being scarce on the island. —New York Times. Nigger Science. —A contraband explains how bloodhounds sent in pursuit of fugitives may be thown off the track :—“lfde houuds gets closer into you, why jist get a long pole and hop about twenty feet if you kin. You do dis four or five times, and put some pepper hi de holes what your heels make, and when de hounds come dey lose dar scent, and den dey goes snuflin, and bymeby dey snuffles up dafc ar pepper into dar nostrils, and den dey’ll go chee! choe ! chee I and dat’ll be de last of dogs can do dat day.” Diogenes, being asked which beast’s bite was the most dangerous, replied, “ If you mean wild beasts, ’tis the slanderer’s ; if tamo ones, the flatterer’s.”