The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-12 00:00:00

WEST INDIA MAILS.

The royal mail steamer Trent, Captain Boxer, arrived
at Southampton, on Friday afternoon last, from Mexico,
Havana, and Bermuda, bringing thirty-two passengers.
She has on freight 343,177 80-100 silver dollars, 81-415
75-100 gold dollars, pearls, value £2OOO, 28 five-franc
pieces, 801 b. lloz. plata brula, 12oz. plata labrada, 1161 b.
13oz. silver bullion, 541 b. 691 Castellanos platina, 5760 z.
gold, 5910 z. gold dust. The following are the dates :
Tampico, September 25 ; Vera Cruz, October 2 ; Havana,
October 11 ; llonduras, September 19 ; Jamaica, Octo-
ber 9 ; Carthagena, September 29 ; Demerara, October
5 • Trinidad, October 7 ; Barbados, October 9 ; Grenada,
detober 11 ; St. Thomas', October 16; La Guayra, Sep-
tember 30; Bermuda, October 31, where she met the
royal mail steamer Medway, with the mails from St.
Thomas' and the West Indies.
The advices are not of importance, except in so far as
regards the particulars of the hurricane at Havana. The
state of the weather at Montego-bay and Cuba had also
caused damage to the shipping. In the majority of the
West India Islands the crops promised well, and the
reports from Barbados, Trinidad, Demerara, and Ja-
maica, show that the planters looked forward with some
expectation to next year's growth. Political affairs were
very quiet, and no great complaints are made of the want
of regularity on the part of the labouring population.
The following extract from a letter from Havannah,
dated the 9th ult., gives some graphic particulars of a
dreadful hurrica e at that place :—" Last week we were
visited by a terrific hurricane. This island, perhaps, has
never suffered so severely from a storm before. It began
on Friday evening, the 4th inst., increased in violence as
the night advanced, and became dreadful before Saturday
morning, the wind being N.E. N., and about 11 p.m.
changed to W., and raging until about 1 a.m. of the 5:11,
when it commenced gradually to lull. All the vessels that
left the harbour on Friday afternoon were lost except the
Spanish correo, and she returned to port on Sunday morn-
ing.

-`-` In the harbour scarcely a vessel escaped unhurt; of
the small coasters some were sunk, some thrown on the
wharf, and some drifted out to sea. I believe the number
lost amounts to 36. One Spanish man-of-war was com-
pelled to cut away her masts. The whole wharf is blown
away—l mean that part used by the merchants as a pro-
menade; the railing round the Machina is gone; the
Admiral's windows and part of his house have fallen in.
Not a tree is standing on the Paseo. The gardens round
the town are completely destroyed, and the whole face of
the country presents a truly melancholy picture of desola-
tion. People dread to hear the news from the country.
Planters are very downcast, as their estates will yield no
sugar. Everything that vegetates is as if it were scorched
up. Large palm trees have been torn up by their roots,
whirled into the air by the force of the wind, and flung to
a considerable distance.
"Of the smaller houses on the sea shore there is
scarcely one left standing, and the poor people have suf-
fered greatly in consequence. They say that at Matanzas
it was worse even than it has been here, and I tremble to
hear the news that arrives daily.
" And now for the effect of the storm upon our imme-
diate selves. You know how exposed our house is (front.
ing and about half a mile distant from the sea.) Well,
then, about midnight, our door burst open. It was
s-arcely secured when a window followed. For some
time my father tried to fasten them with what we call
trcincas (crossbars), but it was useless; so we removed
the furniture from the sitting-room, and while doing it
were soaked with the rain and sea spray that poured in
upon us. This is no exaggerated sketch, I assure you,
for my hair was saturated with salt water, and I tasted it
plainly upon my lips. Everything was crowded in the
comedbr (drawing-room), and we had scarcely finished
when locks were wrenched asunder, windows burst from
their frames and thrown into the rooms, so that we were
compelled to abandon everything. We sat in the comedbr
expecting every moment to see our last defence against
the fury of the hurricane fail us. Tie house shook to its
foundation. Our servants, frightened almost to death,
besought us to quit it and leave it to its fate.
"At length the storm abated. Sunday was a lovely
day, but the sea still turbulent, and looked perfectly
green, whereas on Monday it became as blue, as clear,
and as beautiful as if it could never commit such ravages
as those the island was then suffering from through its
agency. Five of our rooms are uninhabitable, and some
time must elapse before they can be again put in order.
No lime is to be had, as the quarries cannot be worked,
and when I tell you that masons are paid five and six dol-
lars a-day for their work, you will be able to form an idea
of the state of the buildings."