The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-20 00:00:00

THE WEST INDIA MAIL.

SOUTHAMPTON, THURSDAY ND:MT.—The Forth, Royal
Mail.steani-ship, Captain Chapman, arrived this evening, at
six o'clock, with the usual fortnightly mail. She has had an
exceedingly rapid passage,- -and -hew -arrived fttil a couple of
days before she was expected.
The Forth brings the large nnmber of 131 passengers,
amongst whom are his Excellency the Earl of Elgin,
daughter, sister, Lady Charlotte Bruce, and suite. His Lord-
ship is looking uncommonly well.
The latest dates brought by the Forth are, St. Jago de
Cuba, May 19 ; Demerara, May 19 ; Trinidad, 21; Jamaica,
24 ; Barbadoes, 24 ; Grenada, 25 ; St. Thomas's, 30 ;- and
Fay-al, June 12.
On frieght are 832 ounces of gold-dust, 8 serons of bark,
80 bales of sarsaparilla, 50 tierces of coffee, 46 barrels of
ditto, a quantity of ginger. 1,260 dollars, and sundry packages
of succades, tamarinds, &c.
The Forth passed the Medway, outward bound, this morn-
ing at seven o'clock,between Portland and the Lizard.
The news brought by the Forth is of no great moment,
excepting that the drought still continued in the Island of
Jamaica to an alarming extent. Some slight showers had
fallen in one or two parishes, which merely had the effect
of refreshing the parched-up ground for awhile ; in St.
David's, in particular, the weather has been extremely dry
and hot ; in Kingston, the thermometer, in the shade, has
been as high as 96.
Since the last advices some of the islands have been
blessed with rain, but not to any great extent. The long
drought has wrought so unfavourably upon the crops, that
in almost, if not quite, every island, they will fall off con-
siderably.
The Avon royal mail steam-ship was at St. Thomas's
when the Forth left ; the Clyde was at Jamaica; the
Glasgow on her usual station ; the Trent en route from
Jamaica to Bermuda, Havannah, &c. ; and the Teviot in the
Spanish main.
The following is a list of the passengers :
His Excellency Earl Elgin, Governor of Jamaica, Lady
Elms (daughter), Lady Charlotte Bruce and servants, Lieu-
tenant-Colonel Arbuckle, R.A., Captain Burrows, R.A., Mr,
Scott. R.N., Mr. W. Titley and lady, Mr. Lawrence Miss
Lewis, and Miss Martin, and nurse, lion. E. Thompson, and
servant, Mr. and Mrs. Gibson and child, Mr. Shaw and lady,
Mr. W. Hart, Mr. Jonas Hart, Mr. Bourke, Mr. and Miss
Ashby, and Mr. Ashby, jun., Mrs. Levy and Mr. Levy, jun.,
Mr. Sampson, Mr. Al‘Ken' Master Malone, Mrs. Farrell,
twelve non-commissioned officers, 38th Regiment, three non-
commissioned officers, one gunner and driver, R.A., and four
invalid seamen, from Jamaica; Colonel Plasaola, lady, chil-
dren, and two servants, Mrs. Courennan, two children and
son, Mr. Narino, and servant, from Santiago de Cuba; Mrs.
Van Waterschoodt, two children, two servants, Rev. Mr.
Phion, Mr. Irving, from Demerara; Mr. Ramsey, lady, three
children, one servant, Mr. and Mrs. Wynne, Mr. Caldwell,
Mr. Pinto, Dr. Barrow' Assistant-Surgeon, and Lieutenant
Chalton, Royals; Mr. Laughlin, Mr. Guissppe,Mr. Dickenson,
and Mr. Pascea, Hampland, and T. Al'Donough, privates,
Royals, from Trinidad; Mr., Mrs., and Master Briggs, Miss
Jackman and servant, Mr. Milner (manager of the Colonial
Bank in the West Indies), Mr. Packer, Mr. Innis, Mr.
Claremonte, and Mr. Drummond, from Barbadoes; Mr. and
Mrs. Gray and three children from Grenada; Lieutenant
L. Pagdt, Royal Artillery Horse, from St. Vincent; Lieut.-
Colonels Hort and Archer, from St. Lucia ; Mr. Dieudoune,
lady, governess, four children, and two servants, from Alar-
tinique ; Mr. Perez, Mr. Paris, Mr. De Larozire, and Mrs.
Eydoux, from Martinique; Count Coetlogon, Sir. Ramand.
and Mr. Farratt, from Guarialoupe ; Mr. Reynolds, from
Porto Rico; Rev. Mr. Weymouth and child, from Montserrat;
Mr. Costa, from St. Thomas's.

(From the Jamaica Times, May 25.)
We cannot better commence our present summary than
by directing attention to a report which, strange to say, ob-
tained almost universal currency among the press of the
mother country previous to the sailing of the last packet ;
namely, that the weather in the West Indies had been
generally favourable, and that the crops in Jamaica
and elsewhere " had a most favourable aspect." How
such an erroneous impression could have originated, we
are totally at a loss to conceive; for we are not aware
that there is a single colony in the West Indies
which answers to the above description. But even sup-
posing that some isolated instance could be found, and that
some equally isolated ignoramus connected with some English
journal had leaped to the mistaken conclusion, it says little
for the industry of our editorial brethren in general, that
instead of examining for themselves the contents of
the various West India papers, they, with only one exception
that we have been able to discover, were content with copy-
ing from each other, and thus permitted an error, unfortu-
nately for us, of the greatest magnitude, to go the round of
the whole British press. The exception, we must in justice
state, is the Colonial Gazette, which, as usual, had taken the
trouble to judge for itself, and consequently presented a pic-
ture of distress from the unparalleled drought with which we
have been visited, diametrically opposite to the report so
inexcusably circulated by its contemporaries. In Barbadoes,
in consequence of the late lone•-continued drought, the crop
will tall off at least one-fifth': In Trinidad, from a similar
cause, both the sugar and cocoa crop have suffered materially.
In British Guiana, the loss of stock and destruction of pro-
duce, from a drought of nearly eight months' duration,- are
stated to be deplorable in the extreme. In Tobago, the
House of Assembly, in reply to the expressed hope of the
that they have no
ectation, but on the contrary are assured
Lieutenant- Governore that the pterlelsehnitmcrop may prove at
least an average on
such favourable exBp _
will
long.
be remembered as having
that "the year 1 4ti
pressed
Wand. In ... on the cultivators of the sta-
ples" distress are told : and lastly, in
&c., similar tales of .
has fallen during he
lat
Vincent, Dominica, Grenada,
Jamaica, where little
uestion,.bly fall otf at least
nine months, the crop will unq
if the 'West Indies ship
inwitti3liait)eculiarles
one-fourth, so that altogether 2
8,
as can be expected
2,150,000 cwts., instead of the ,
exported last year, it will be as much
ii. , ,biovrilliec which
y theytn
under the circumstances, and certainly o els ,
ao
Nr. eni oi St
Yr*. a 1 n ,
tga,t to the "favourable aspect" aLegea to
West Indies in the report above referred to.
"Having given the gloomy side of the picture, it is now,
striking con-
-30,0010 cwbtaSe.
however, our more pleasing duty to state, that the weather
generally has taken a change for the better; although no
extent of rain which has yet fallen is at all calculated to
supply the present wants of the country, far less to provide
for the future, by any accumulation either in our pond,!, or
streams.
As a natural consequence of the deficiency in our crops,
and the comparative ceatation of cultivation during the last