by the Charaibs. These savage barbarians showed no quarter to the wounded who fell into their hands: they usually severed their heads from their bodies, which they mangled in a most cruel and atrocious

manner.

On that day the rebels did not advance beyond Jambour river, where they halted until Wednesday; then, however, they proceeded on their march to Kingstown; ravaging, plundering, and burning the cane fields and houses of all the estates on their way, and murdering the cattle and negroes.

These transactions were the commencement of the insurrection in the windward part of the colony. But, reader, before I continue my narrative, I have many other things to think of, many other duties to perform the first and most important of these is to repair to my dinner, which hath been already five minutes on the table; the next is to tell thee something of the aforementioned ball, given at Government House; and the third is, at present, enveloped in an uncertainty, which the future alone can clear. Suffice it to know, that my history of the Charaib war shall certainly be resumed as soon as I have the opportunity and the inclination to resume it.

READER, the turtle was exquisite, the punch delicious, the champagne divine, and the madeira at the "summum bonum" of cool and pleasant excellence; so that my dinner hath revived my poor body, and enlivened my drooping spirits; and now I will sit down with all the good nature. imaginable, to give thee my long promised description of the ball at Government House.

Perhaps, because I have delayed the said tale, you may think it was an occurrence of no immediate importance; but if so, you are mistaken.

The entertainment was given in celebration of an eventful period in the colony; and was, at the same time, a token of welcome and farewell. Transports had arrived with a fresh regiment of troops from Demerara and Berbice; and the same vessels were destined to bear away with them the old corps, just as the officers were entering into society, and had made acquaintance with the town's-people.

Perhaps it is one reason why the inhabitants of St. Vincent do not pay more attention to the military, that they are generally sent home, or to another station, as soon as their acquaintance is well formed, and any degree of intimacy and good fellowship commences between them. Be this as it may, it is at least a well known fact, that, on the arrival of a new corps, they always allow the officers and their ladies two good months to get settled in their quarters, before they trouble them with a visit, and sometimes they forget them altogether.

But I am now digressing from my tale of the ball, which was given to celebrate the arrival of the new regiment, and, also, as a farewell entertainment to the officers of the old.

There were more ladies at that assembly than I had ever seen before, or have ever seen since at any party in St. Vincent. The red coats were also pretty numerous, and the gentlemen of the colony were not backward in their attendance.

Of all things in the world, I so love to see a group of Creole ladies mingling in the sprightly dance; then it is that their spirits appear light and joyous, their hearts merry and glad, their conversation lively and interesting. From the ball room lassitude is expelled, and " ennui" dares not intrude itself into the fairy circle of so many charms and graces. If you pay a morning visit to a fair West Indian, you may find her reclining upon a sofa, indulging in that luxury of ease which the intolerable heat of a tropic climate appears to encourage and require. She may

seem lovely and beautiful, but she will still be languid and oppressed: follow her to the ball room, "elle a changé tout cela;" the countenance which, in the morning, looked lovely in its languor, in the evening looks more than lovely in its smiles. She is lively and animated-and hour passes upon hour, and quadrille follows quadrille, and the morning dawns, and the dance continues unabated, and the fair Creole is neither tired nor fatigued.

Perhaps some of the most beautiful girls in the West Indies were of his Excellency's party: those, however, who appeared to bear the belle, had but lately arrived from England, and were, I must confess, of surpassing loveliness. The dazzling whiteness of the Creole lily was delicately mingled with the redder tinge of the English rose; and in their manners were united the soft and amiable mildness of Creole conversation with the sparkling and animated sallies of English wit. I will confess, however, that the rose disappears, and the animation is dispelled by a long residence in the climate.

The young officers of the new corps were, doubtless, charmed with the scene; they at least entered into it with spirit; and their sweet partners in the merry dance appeared as much delighted with them as sweet partners usually are with the officers of his majesty's army. Nevertheless, I observed that the ensigns and lieutenants of the old corps, also one or two of the gallant captains, would now and then heave a sigh of regret; but whether it arose from their departure from the green hills and valleys of

the fair island of St. Vincent, or from their reluctance to leave some of the lovely inhabitants of the said green hills and valleys, I wis not.

The party had just finished the Spanish dance when the bands, for there were three present, played a march, in the midst of which supper was announced, and the gentlemen immediately handed their partners to the table.

Supper-loving reader, hast thou not discovered that I am the greatest gourmand under the face of Heaven? that I am a tolerable bacchanalian, and an intolerable epicurean; that I am fond of Tacitus and turtle, of French and fricassee, of Latin and lobster sauce? These very desirable qualities in an author, whose duty it is to mention the various names of the various niceties that grace the various tables of the various governors he may visit, will enable me to give thee a very perfect and delicate description of an equally perfect and delicate " petit souper."

First, then, in the midst of a very long table, around which sat, "in closest order ranged," a numerous family of our primeval mother Eve, stood a cake of huge foundation work, but which became, like the waists of some of our most fashionable modern “debutantes,"

"Small by degrees, and beautifully less:"

that is to say, it rose to a majestic height, tapering off, like the London monument, to a majestic point, in which was planted the flag yclept Union Jack. A lace petticoat was, moreover, the decoration that