Excellency and Major D-- the whole account of Neptune's visit on board the Genoese: the listeners laughed heartily, the band struck up a tune, the pink of dandies blushed carnation deep, and the gentlemen led out their partners for the first dance.

Sir Charles and Lady Brisbane opened the ball with 'Speed the Plough;' a succession of quadrilles followed, and the whole party danced with unabated spirit until two o'clock in the morning, when they sat down to a splendid supper.

As I felt some fatigue from the day's exertion, which the dancing did not tend to dissipate, I took an early opportunity of escaping with one or two of my fellow-passengers from the scene of gaiety, and therefore did not witness the close of the entertainment; but I was informed the next day that the dancing was resumed after supper and continued till day-break.

When I repaired to the tavern, I blessed my fortunate stars at finding a luxuriant and downy couch; and throwing myself in peace thereon, in a few minutes I slept right soundly.

CHAPTER XXIII.

KINGSTOWN-THE CHAIN GANG.

"Well, then begin-'tis in this islet green,
"Two rude and rocky points of land appear;
"Low in the valley, Kingstown lies between,
"With mighty mountains rising in its rear."

MS. Poems.

“Admitted in, among the gang,

"He acts and talks as they befriend him.”

Prior.

Ox the following morning the Duke of York left Kingstown for the islands of Antigua, Trinidad, and St. Kitts, for the purpose of carrying Colonel B, Major W- and Lieutenant L to those stations. I accompanied these gentlemen to the boat, and they kindly promised to write me an account of the several islands to which they were going; a promise which they did not fail to keep, as my readers will hereafter see. After bidding them farewell, I returned to my hotel, where I remained three days longer; after which I took up my abode in a small house, in the village of New Edinborough. These three, however, gave me an opportunity of viewing the town at my leisure, and the reader shall shortly have an account of my peregrinations.

Kingstown, as I before said, is long and narrow.

There are three long streets running parallel from one end of the town to the other. The bay street, built on the sea beach; the middle street, and the back street, which is the principal of the three; they all connect with each other by intermediate cross streets, which are seen all along the town, some three hundred yards apart.

The back street is a level road of a tolerable width, and the only one that can boast of being in good order in that part of the island. The middle and cross streets are narrow and miserably paved, and it would be very purgatory to be obliged to walk therein in boots of a moderate thickness. The bay can hardly be called a street, for it is generally crowded with cargoes of lumber, pitch, pine, oak staves, rum puncheons, and other things of the sort that are piled up on the beach, before the stores of the merchants, who generally reside there, and consequently there is barely sufficient room for horse passengers; to attempt to pass in a carriage would be useless. The foot path is somewhat better, being paved with flag-stones, like the London paths, and having the advantage of being under covered galleries, which extend a considerable way along the bay. There are, however, parts, towards each extremity of the street, that have neither pavement nor covering. The bay street in St. Vincent is one of the hottest places I have ever seen in the West Indies. Even the galleries, which afford shelter from the rain, do not screen the pathway from the sun, which shines full upon it during the greater

part of the day. All the principal stores are in the bay, and the chief commerce of the island is there carried on. The middle street contains but a few good stores, and those chiefly for dry goods; there are, however, a number of little shops for the sale of caps, ribbons, and other articles of ladies' dress, which are generally kept by colored people. Also retail rum shops in abundance are therein contained; therefore there are always a number of sailors in the middle street. These detestable and abominable receptacles are the hells of the West Indies, even as the gin-shops and the gaming-houses are the hells of England. There are many hucksters' stores in St. Vincent, kept by the wives or mistresses of masters of small vessels, such as sloops and schooners, which are in the habit of trading between the British islands, or of running occasionally to and from Martinique, where they have an opportunity of procuring French sweetmeats and preserves, kid gloves,— noyau, annisette, crême de Chili, and other luxuries, for which they are sure to find their account in St. Vincent.

The back street, which, as I before said, was the best in the town, has no pavement, either in the road or on the pathway. There are few stores in it, and the houses are chiefly the residences of those who are not engaged in commercial affairs; it has, however, a very considerable quantity of small huts, some ten or a dozen of which are generally seen intervening between the more lordly and respectable mansions above-mentioned. This street is moreover.

adorned with the residence of his Excellency, the Governor. The court house, the church, the methodist chapel, and the government house, which I before stated had become venerable from age.

The Governor's residence is a yellow brick building, with a covered gallery, beneath which the sentinel parades to and fro.

The court house is a large building of solid masonry, with a lodge and iron gates in front. It contains very convenient rooms for the meeting of the Council and Assembly; and is, on the whole, a very creditable building. In ancient time, before the church was erected, it served the triple purpose of a chapel, a court house, and a ball room; and even now the gentlemen of the Emerald Isle, residing in St. Vincent, are wont to give annually a splendid entertainment beneath its venerable roof. The jail, which is close to the court house, is one of the best in the West Indies, and possessed, when I visited it, every thing necessary and convenient for the culprits, except a treadmill; perhaps by this time it may have that also, as the arrival of one was daily expected at the time I left the colony.

The church, which is considerably beyond the court house, on the way to New Edinborough, is a very large, awkward, capacious, and clumsy looking building, encircled by a large burying-ground, fronted by iron railings, and enclosed with a brick wall.

The interior, as well as the external appearance of this church, proves that it has been erected under the superintendance of an ignorant and unskilful ar