The Sun.
London, England, 1850-12-13 00:00:00

WEST INDIA MAIL.

SOUTHAMPTON, DEC. 12.—The royal mail steam-
ship Clyde, Captain F. E. Moss, arrived this after-
noon at five o'clock from the West Indies, with the
usual mails, in charge of Lieutenant South, R.N.,
Admiralty agent. On her homeward voyage the
Clyde experienced for the first five days fine moderate
breezes from the eastward, with every prospect of a
speedy passage, after which she encountered a suc-
cession of heavy gales from the north-west and south-
east, with a tremendous sea running. On Sunday,
Dec. 8, at two rat., a very heavy sea struck the ship
abaft the starboard paddle-box, staving the pinnace
and knocking in two of the lower-deck ports.
Throughout the whole of this excessively bad weather
the ship behaved remarkably well, fully sustaining
her character as a most excellent sea boat.
The latest dates brought by the Clyde are—Vera
Cruz, Nov. 7 ; Tampico, 4 ; Chagres, 9; Carthagena,
11 ; Jamaica, 14 ; Demerara, 14 ; Trinidad, 11 ;
Barbadoes, 13 ; Grenada, 12 ; St. Kitt's, 15 ; Nevis,
15 ; Porto Rico, 18 ; St. Thomas, 20; Tortola, 15 ;
Antigua, 15 ; St. Vincent, 12 ; St. Lucia, 14 ; Mont-
serrat, 15 ; St. Juan de Nicaragua, 1.
The Clyde brings on freight 2,015,100 dolls. on
merchants' account, 71,000 dolls, for the dividends,
9811. old gold and silver, 1,4001. precious stones, 276
serons and 4 cases of cochineal. 6 cases of jalapa, 20
kegs of preserved ginger, 10 cases of saccades, 36
packages of sundries, and 4 cases of plants.
The accounts from Jamaica are to the 14th Nov.
inclusive. The cholera was making awful ravages
throughout the country. The mortality in Kingston,
St. Catherine, and Port Royal, was fearful ; and it is
said that in no portion of the world has the disease
done so much mischief as in Port Royal, when the
population are considered. From official reports it is
ascertained that 25 per cent. of the entire population
has been taken off. At the time of the packet's de-
parture it might be considered as having abated at
that place, or, according to the Kingston Daily Ad-
vertiser, it has '• exhausted itself." In Kingston the
boards of health had ceased to make official reports
of the mortality, in consequence, it is said, of the fear-
ful increase and their inability to ascertain the precise
amount. Our private advices, however, acquaint
us, and it is confirmed by the opinions of the local
press, that the amount of mortality for the month
during which the disease has raged could not have
been less than two thousand deaths. The local
board of health meet in Kingston daily, and were
doing the best in their power, to mitigate the dis-
tresses of the poor, who were likely from their
poverty to fall victims to the disease. In Kingston,
as elsewhere, the mortality was principally among
the lower orders ; but during the few days
anterior to the steamer's departure, it was be-
coming more general, and was not confined to any
particular locality or class. In the General Pene-
tentiary the deaths had been 118, or nearly one out
of every four of the prisoners. In the lunatic asy-
lorn several of the unhappy inmates bad fallen
victims to it; indeed there is not a district in
which the deaths have not become numerous, and
the whole c( inmunity, the whole island was el aided
in despair. St. Catherine's, the seat of Government,
was suffering still worse from the epidemic ; whole
families ha)e been taken off within a few hours,
and the greatest consternation prevailed. To add
to the painful state of things, there existed the
greatest difficulty in procuring the interment of the
dead, and on one occasion there were in one burial
place as many as 70 corpses uninterred. His Excel-
lency the Governor caused 20 convicts to be em-
ployed in the work, under promise of their respective
sentences being commuted. Among the victims of the
disease in Spanish Town, we are sorry to notice
John Gale Vidal, Esq , clerk to the Honourable
House of Assembly, and many other persons of re-
spectability.

The scourge was not confined to the three parishes
we have named, but was spreading fast all over the
country. Vere, St. Dorothy, Metcalfe, Manchester,
St. Andrew, St. Mary, and many other parishes
were likewise afflicted. In Metcalfe, which is cent-
rally a most unhealty parish, the mortality was truly
alarming, and only one medical man in the parish.
St. John's was even worse off in this respect, there
not being a single doctor in the whole of the district.
On the 14th, the day the packet sailed, there were
very slight marks of an abatement of the scourge in
Kingston.

Inconsequence of this painful visitation there be-
came a general scarcity of the most essential medicines
required. Commodore Bennett immediately dis-
patched her Majesty's ship Alban to St. Jago de Cuba,
with letters from Messrs. Lucas and Micholls, of
Kingston, to their agents at St. Jago de Cuba, who
promptly supplied the necessary articles, and within
fifty-eight hours the Alban had returned with them.
Wednesday, the 13th November, was observed as
another day of humiliation and prayer, in consequence
of the Ist November being a most inauspicious day,
and the various places of worship but thinly at-
tended. In addition to the aid afforded by the Legis-
lature, the merchants of Kingston had formed a
" benevolent society," for the purpose of furthering
the cause of humanity. The donations were most
liberal.

The Legislature stood adjourned to the 19th of
November, but whether they would meet then or
not, or, in the vent of meeting, do any business, was
most uncertain in the present painful state of the
public mind. The Revenue Bills, we believe, would
not expire until the 31st of December.

Business was, as a matter of course, entirely un-
settled in every department, nothing whatever doing.
The weather was most oppressive during the days.
At nights, occasionally, it was more pleasant.
Kingston and Spanish Town were enveloped in a
thick cloud of misery and despair, and " death"-had
become a "household word." Sincerely do we hope
that our next accounts may be more cheering.
EXCLIANOES.— On London—Jamaica Bank, 90
days, I per cent. prem.; ditto 60 days 11 per cent.
prem. ; ditto 30 days, 2 per cent. prem. ; Colonial
Bank, 90 days, 1 per cent. prem.; ditto 60 days, 4
per cent. prem. On New York—Merchants' bills,
60 days, 2i per cent. preen.
Stations of her Majesty's Ships.—The Imaum and
the Persian at Port Royal, the Inflexible at Greytown,
and the Scorpion at Tortola.
Her Majesty's troop-ship Apollo, steering for Port
Royal, was passed off St. Domingo, Nov. 15.
Stations of the Company's Steam-ships —The
Great Western and the Eagle, at St. Thomas's ; the
Tay is daily expected at St. Thomas's ; the Avon at
Chngres, tlie Derwent at Trinidad, and the Conway
at Honduras.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
(From De Cordova's Mercantile Intelligencer, Nov. 12.)

GENERAL REMARKS:

We have so little mercantile DV %isto report that the
issue of the Intelligencer might almost have been dis-
pen ed with on this °cession, business being all but ac..
militated by the general and rapid spread of cholera
throughout the island. The few items of intelligence
which we have been able to glean appear below in a con-
densed form. There is absolutely nothing doing at the
present moment, and no probability exists of au imme-
diate reaction.