before the curtain rises, when they are to give up their places to the proper owners.' owners." The managers also remind the audience to "bring their own candles." The negroes filled the galleries, and were renowned for their judicious criticism, the warmth of their applause, and the vehemence of their disapproval. Ladies of great quality were accommodated with seats on the stage. We note that on one occasion, in 1798, the French company gives "Nina Folle par Amour." Amour." This must be either Copolla's or Paesiello's opera, composed about that time. Cock-fighting, we learn from the same journal, was a fashionable sport of the gentry. "On Saturday, the 31st September 1792, at 10 o'clock, a match of twenty cocks will be fought by ten gentlemen. N.B.—A genteel dinner will be provided." In the same day's issue is announced the appearance in England of "a new sect, called the Anti-Chartists," whom it describes as "another branch of those iniquitous wretches who are opposed to the slave-trade." Jamaica, then said to be the "wickedest place on earth," is mentioned with great detail in The British Empire in America, or the History of the Discovery, etc., of the British Colonies (published in London, 1708). The island probably deserved its name, for, in point of fact, the inhabitants mainly gained their livelihood at that period by trading with pirates, an enormous number of whom infested the neighbouring seas, making raids upon the Spanish islands, and carrying off immense treasure to Jamaica, where it was spent in debauchery. The same book gives some interesting details of the earthquake in Jamaica on 7th June 1692. In many of the streets of Port Royal there were several fathoms of water, "a great mountain split and fell into the level land, and covered several settlements and destroyed many people." One settler's plantation was carried half a mile from the place where it formerly stood. Part of the mountain, after having made several leaps, overwhelmed a whole family and great part of a plantation, lying a mile off; "and a large mountain is quite swallowed up, and in the place where it stood there is now a vast lake, four or five leagues over." About 2000 people perished by this catastrophe. Owners would never consent to allow their slaves to become Christians, as will be seen by the following extract: "I took a great interest in a certain slave, Sambo, who wanted much to become a Christian, and spoke to the master of the plantation on his behalf. His answer was, that were Sambo once a Christian he could no longer be accounted a slave, and thus owners would lose hold on their slaves. Were he in this case to do so, such a gap would be opened that all the planters in the isle would curse him." We learn from another old volume (An Account of the Island of Domingo, 1668) that "there are several old mountains in the midst, which encompass an inaccessible bottom, where from the top of certain rocks may be seen an infinite variety of reptiles of dreadful bulk and length. The natives were wont to tell of a vast monstrous serpent that had its abode in the said bottom. They affirmed that there was in the head of it a very sparkling stone, like a carbuncle, of inestimable price, that the monster commonly veiled that rich jewel with a thin moving skin like that of a man's eyelid, and when it went to drink, and sported itself in the deep bottom it fully discovered it, and the rocks all about received a wonderful lustre from the fire issuing out of that precious gem." The original entry of the marriage of Lord Nelson in the register of the parish church where it took place was exhibited in the Nevis Court. Very singular also is the sales-list of the Byam estate in Antigua, from which we learn the prices of slaves to have varied from £10 to £150, "warranted sound." Some elderly ladies and gentlemen of colour are occasionally "thrown in gratis." Several copies of the slave Bible were also shown, in which all verses calculated to disturb the idea that slavery is an institution by right Divine are carefully eliminated. THE END. INDEX. A. ADDERLEY, Sir Augustus, 257. Duke of, Governor of Amedeo, Prince, accepts the Spanish Animals found by Columbus in Cuba, 6; Aquelera, Don Francisco, elected Presi- dent of the Cuban Republic, 93. Banyan tree, the, 148. Baracoa founded by Diego Velasquez, 49. Bats, enormous size of, 7. Bayamo, founded by Diego Velasquez, Beggars in Havana, the, 137. Blake, Lady, 231. Bobadilla, Doña Isabella de, Governess Borgian Maps, the, 258. Botanical Gardens of Havana, the, 127. Buchanan, President, threatening mes- and Butter, lack of, in Cuba, 154. Autos da fé, the frequency of, 56; B. BAHAMAS first sighted by Christopher 278 C. CACTUS, the enormous size of the, 126. Canovas, Señor, de Castillo, signs Treaty Caruba tree, the, 190. Cattle used as horses, 167 (in note). Caves of the Bellamar, the magnificent, Cays, the, dangerous to vessels, 5; their Cemeteries, Cuban, 202. Cereals, exported from Spain, 4. Cespedes, Carlos Manuel, begins the Chinese, the wretched condition of the, Churches, the, of Havana, 132; music in the, 138; flirtation in church, 138. Cipango, Columbus thinks Cuba is, 42. Cisneros y Bétancourt, Don Salvador, elected President of the Cuban Re- Clergy, the, of the rebel army, 109. filibustering expeditions to Cuba, 99. Coaches in Havana, 131. Cock-fighting in Cuba, 145; a century Cocoa, 4; the plant, 213. 3; replaced by the sugar cane, 69; a Columbus, Christopher, first sights the sion of it in the names of the Spanish Cook, the Cuban, 124. Cuba, Island of, its shape and size, I; |