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Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume IV, Issue 98, 23 September 1852, Page 4

A Female Ship Captain.—Amongst the Heet lately wind bound in Lamlash last week, not the least, but perhaps the greater wonder was, the good old brig Cloetus, of Saltcoats, which, for more than twenty years, has been commanded by an heroic and exceedingly clover young lady, Miss llelsy Miller, daughter of the late Win. Miller, Esq., shipowner and wood merchant, of that town. He was concerned with several vessels, both in the American and coasting trade. Miss Betsy, before she went to sea, acted as 'ship's husband' to her lather; and, seeing how the captains in many cases behaved, her romantic ami advcnttnrous spirit impelled her to go to sea herself. Her father gratified her caprice, and gave her llu; command of the Cloetns, which she holds to the present day, and she has weal lured the storms of the deep when many commanders of llic other sex have been driven to pieces on the rocks Her position and altitudes on llu; quarter deck in a gale of wind are often of, and would do credit to an admiral. We must not omit to state that, din ing llic long period of this singular young lady's diverislied voyaging, uo seaman of her crew, or ollicer under iier command, could speak otherwise of her that with llie greatest respect. The Cloetns is well knows in the ports of Hellast, Dublin, Cork, Nc* She has ol'len been driven into this- loch, and is familiarly known by the rude Highlaad boatmen as the ship with the she eaplaiu.—Glasgow I'u.-I. An Attack iiv an Africa*: I'antui.ii.— The Alihbar, of Algiers, relates the following distressing scene, which took place, on the nisi lilt, at Kouba. In llie afternoon of thai day, the wife of an honest and industrious Spanish colonist was at work in a lield, a short distance from Kauba, and which was skirled by a thicket of bushwood. She had with her her daughter, a child of about four years of age, whom she had placed in tin; shade of some palm trees. Suddenlly she heard a shriek from llie child; anil, on looking up was hori ilied to see in the moulh tof a large panther. The mother remained for a moment as if heiri'lieit, and the monster prolittcd by this moment of indieision, made a bound inlo the thickcl and disappeared. I The poor woman, on recovering IVotn her I supprise, immediately rushed utter lierrhild, | without thinking of the danger which she herself incured. She was guided in her route by the movement of the bushes, and by the plainlilf cries of her child, which every moment became more and mine faint. For several ininules she continued her desperate chase: mad with dispair, she rushed inlo llie thickest of llie bushes. Ilercjolhes were lorn inlo rags, and hirl'ace, her arms, and legs horribly wounded by the thorns. At length the cries of her child ceased, and there was nothing further to direct hersleps. 11l her route she ibuihloncof the shoes worn by her daughter, next a piece of her dress haiigingloa branch of an aloe, Iheuauolher .shoe, next a handkerchief which had been round its head, and which hail been stained will) blood The sightof this object was too much for the unfortunate mother: she fainted away on the spot, and was not discovered until an hour after by her husband, who, on hearing her cries, had rushed to the spot. The poor woman was soon brought to life, but it is feared that she will never recover her reason. Fmia.irv or a IS'kwfouniii.ani) Doc.-—On Thursday night week, as an individual belonging to the I'itcairngreen, was returning home from Perth, he was set upon by a large Newfoundland dog, a little beyond Colonel Cunningham's porter-lodge, which caught him by llie coaltails and pulled him backwards some yards, where he. found a man lying across the road dead drunk. The night was very dark and rainy, so that objects were not easlv disrernable; but that as soon as llie animal perceived llial the man was discovered, he loused his hold, and commenced licking the face and hands of the uneoiicious and degraded being i still delighted to recognise as its mastc.i, Essaying to raise him, our friend found that it was a task beyond his strength, and to run for help was impossible, for the watchful animal, not knowing his purpose, was ever ready to check any attempt of this sort. In these circumstances, lie was completely at a loss how to proceed, when happily a cart coming up the driver discovered, in the still prostrate man, an old acquaintance, whose house lay on his road homeward. — Perthshire Advertiser.