TAHITI.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 90, 15 September 1863, Page 3

TAHITI.

Via Sydney we ha^e Tahitian newsI apers up to the 2*7 ih of June, and give a resume of some of the principal items of intelligence. ' The Slave Trade in the Pacific. — The arrival of the Adelante. from the Penrhyn Islands, at Peru, is notified. She re?ched America with 202 slaves — 77 men, 73 women, 15 boys, and 32 little children. Another vessel, the Carolina, from the island of Proa, came about the same time as the Adelante. She reached Peru with 122 Polynesians. The Hermosa Dolores came in with 160 Polynesians from Easter Island — 138 men and 22 women. The slaves —colonists as they are most audaciously termed — that were brought to Peru by the Hermosa Dolores hnd been collected for transmission to Peru in the- Guillermo, the Micacia Miranda, the Rosa Patricia, the Jose Castro, the Rosa y Carmen, and the Cora ; all of which appear to have been lying at Easter Island before the departure of the Hermosa Dolores. We have here most probably the majority of the names ofthe infamous slave fleet of Peru. In a letter dated the 9th of February, from an English irentleman to a resident at Tahiti, he states that "at least fifteen hundred Polynesians have been sold at Lima." The Cora — one of the slave fleet — appears to bave been abandoned and sold by auction iTahiti. The following passage is found in tht Comercio of Lima, published on the 28th of March last. It shows that those who have embarked 'in the violent deportations of the Polynesians are losers by their traffic in flesh and blood :— " The Polynesians who have been brought to (his country have proved completely useless for the purposes of agriculture, and find few purchasers amongst the planters. They are not accustomed to labor, and obstinately resist everything like work ; tints, through pure slothfulness they become victims to the climate, and a dead loss to their importers. Since Government did not take timely measure-, to prevent this disgraceful commerce, it is consoling to see so abominable a speculation turn out more loss than profit."

An Ohio Steamboat. — The finest boat, all things considered, that I ever saw on the American waters, was on the river Ohio, one of the mail packets between Cincinnati and Louisville, named, after her owner, the Jacob Stvader, a worthy citizen of Cincinnati, who had the ambition to build the finest steamboat in the world; and, of her kind, a high pressure western boat, I have nowhere seen lier equal. The western boats have striking peculiariiies. They are broad of beam, and almost fiatbottomed. The rivers which chain the vast basin between the Alleghannies andthe Rooky Mountains, some of them navigable 4000 miles from their common mouth on the Mexican Gulf, vary greatly in their depth. The Lower Mississippi is 150 feet deep The Ohio and Upper Missouri may he thirty or forty feet at one season ofthe year, and scarcely as many inches at another. There are times when the Great Ka-dern, if past ihe bais at the mouth of the Mississippi, could steam up to Pittsburg among the Alleghannies, or to the foot of tlie Rocky Mountains; and there arc others, when the hoys at Cincinnati can wade across the Ohio, and a steamboat, drawing but twenty inches, may stick fast on a sandbar at the mouth of tho Cumberland and tennesse. — Once a Week.

Tin*: Pkn an]) the Swoud. — The post of war correspondents to the newspapers has hecome rather a ticklish one of late. Last week four correspondents belonging to different journals fell into the hands ofthe Confedevates in attempting to run past the Vicksburg butteries in a barge. The Herald correspondents have been particularly unfortunate. Mr. Finlay Anderson, wlio was captured on the Queen of the West, is still in prison at Alexandria, Louisiana, awaiting his trial as a spy, being tlie fifth newspaper man now in cr.ptivity. Some three weeks ago Mr. J H. Vosburgk was taken prisoner on the Rappahannock. During Banks' campaign, Mr. George W. Clarke, another of our correspondents, fell into the hands of the rebels at Winchester; but, having had Stonewall Jackson for hi* captor, was politely treated by him, and after a short retention released, These risks are scarcely to be avoided when a correspondent has a proper understanding of his duty. It is his business to be where he can see most. There are, however, other annoyances and dangers to which they are suhject, which , if our own Generals understood their duty as well as they do, might very well be .spared them. Of these, the arrest, trial, and expulsion- from the Federal lines of our coi respondent, Mr. Thomas W. Knox, by General Sherman, and the equally harsh treatment of Mr. Deyse, another of our attaches, hy General Hooker, are noiahle examples. It is a bad sign when Generals exhibit this excessive sensitiveness to criticism. There has not been an instance yet where stringent measures have been resorted to against newspaper correspondents tliat any considerable success has attended the military efforts of those enforcing them. Sherman heir an an independent command with a failure, and lias just consummated another. Ho )ker no sooner entered upon his recent campaign than lie issued an order increasing the restrictions against the press. When in addition to such risk, it is taken into consideration that our conespondonts are constantly braving death in the field and on the sea, it will he admitted that their position is anything but an enviable one. Liable to be cashiered or put to hard labor hy our own Generals, to be tried and hung as spies hy the rebels, or to encounter ihe dangers without receiving any of the rewards and honours of the soldier, they exhibit an amount of spirit and nerve which, perhaps no other class of men are capable of. One reason why Generals are averse to the presence of correspondents j with their armies is, that numbers oftheir staff engnged in speculations find them very much in tlieir way, and that some rival journals desire to get rid of wholesome compel ition and stories with two sides. — New York Herald.

A Nkw Method of Shoplifting. — A lady (!) lias displayed a new method of shoplifting. She went into one ofthe great silk merchants' on tho % Boulevard des 1 .aliens and, going up toasheepish-looking young man behind the counter, told him she had the misfortune to drop her garter, and that in consequence, her stocking was falling over her foot ; she requested him to accommodate hey with a piece of tape, and allow hey to put it on behind the counter. The young man, blushing crimson, instantly gave her the tape, and in the most respectful manner, vacated the daik side ofthe counter, and left the lady, who at once helped herself to a silk dress, which she tied under her crinoline with the ta|>e. She then came forward and thanked the civil shopman, and vanished. When the man returned to his quarters he found the dress gone, and instantly knew he had been robbed, but to late — the garterless lady was out of sight.