spectable educations, and are of very genteel and reputable connections and parentage; who, if they have a friend, or friends, to take them by the hand, may do pretty well even in this line of life. But it is lamentable to reflect, that inany a one, even with these advantages, is apt to contract low, vulgar, and profligate habits, through the general prevalence of example, and the abandonment of moral and religious duties and ideas in those with whom he is often obliged to converse and associate. He is by no means in a situation calculated to foster and revive such ideas. He does not, nor cannot, attend any religious. institution; for his Sundays are otherwise occupied by attending to see that the slaves work in their grounds; and he is, besides, generally at a distance from any place of worship. On his first entry into this way of life, this unhacknied youth shrinks with horror at the contemplation of every thing around him; he sees, and trembles at the sight of various practices which he has been taught are incompatible with virtue, and a decorous and religious life: and he often hears language uttered, which is designed to ridicule his correcter and more scrupulous opinions, and undebauched principles. These examples, and this general ridicule of whatever is decent and exemplary in moral and religious conduct, has, in time, the desired effect. The young tyro in vice and profligacy yields at length to their bale

ful influence, after a short and ineffectual resistance. He now can drink, wench, and blaspheme, without a sigh or a blush! He sports his sable mistress, he shews his wit and his smartness by ridiculing the clergy and the scriptures, and he can drink strong rum punch (denominated corkers here) and smoke segars, or chew tobacco, with the oldest and most confirmed sinners of his acquaintance. In short, his mind soon becomes a chaos of licentiousness, indecency, and profanation; while his constitution and person proportionably suffer by the excesses to which they instigate him. Formerly drinking debauches were carried to a most shameful and incredible excess by the white people employed on the estates. On the meeting together of a company of people of this class, they were accustomed invariably to sit and continue swilling strong punch (sometimes half ruin, and that not always ameliorated by age, half lime juice, sugar and water); and smoking segars till they could neither see, nor stand; and he who could swallow the greatest quantity of this liquid fire, or infuse in it the greatest proportion of ardent spirits, was considered as the cleverest fellow-the Alexander of the feast! That these horrid and wanton excesses sent more wretched men to their graves, than either the insalubrity of the climate, or the unavoidable diseases of the country, can hardly for a moment be doubted; and it is only astonishing, that men endowed with

the gift of understanding and reason, should thus wantonly rush on certain self-destruction! These riotous debauches are however growing fast into disrepute; and it is to be hoped, that they will in time be exploded and discountenanced. The inferior orders in the towns are by no means exempt from the reproach of intemperance; nor are the more opulent classes, generally speaking, behind hand in this respect. Sangaree (Madeira wine diluted with water, and sweetened) arrack punch, and other potations are pretty freely drank, early in the day, in the taverns.

Let us now take a view of the wealthy European (whether planter or merchant) whose abilities, diligence, and application, good fortune, or other nameless means, have raised him to a proud state of independence and authority over others. Perhaps this man may be of a mild, friendly, and conciliating disposition, beloved by his equals, amiable towards his inferiors and dependants, decent and exemplary (comparatively speaking) in his moral conduct, and faithful and diligent in the discharge of his public duties, if he has any to perform. In this case, he is a worthy and estimable character, and a valuable acquisition to the community of which he is a member. The country would be the better by having many such characters to boast of. But, if made giddy by this exaltation of fortune, he forgets his primitive situation in society, and affects the mighty

man, or nabob, without at the same time possessing any extraordinary share of brilliant talents, or considerable claim to public gratitude for services rendered, he only exposes himself to ridicule, dislike, and opposition. His purpose defeats itself; for as he rises preposterously in his own, he sinks, in proportion, in the public estimation. He is great only by the smiles of fortune, and obeyed, not respected, only because he is powerful. If this personage be not a married man, he has, as a companion, an over-grown black, or Mulatto woman, who has, perhaps, brought into the world for him a numerous illegitimate progeny, and has obtained over him a complete ascendency and sway. She is his friend, his adviser, and, in many things, his directress: she manages his household affairs, has the use of his equipage, and is the partner of his bed; only, perchance, when he can escape the jealous observation of this female Argus, that he consoles himself, at times, in the arms of some younger dingy nymph. His spurious issue he doats on with as parental a fondness as if they were the offspring of a more virtuous and tender union; he lavishes on them abundance, he sends them to Europe, where they are liberally educated, and, if the laws of the colony would permit him, he would, at his decease, bequeath the bulk of his fortune to them. This is the way in which ninetenths of the male inhabitants of Jamaica live.

Not one out of an hundred of this proportion is without his dingy female companion. Should this Nabob, this man of wealth, take it into his head, after all, to enter into the holy bands of matrimony, at an advanced period of life, when the feelings and affections of the heart are almost extinguished, it can only be an union of interest on one side, and of dotage on the other. He pays homage at the altar of Hymen too late, and finds that he has only the dregs of a mis-spent, dissolute life to bestow on his blooming but mere→ tricious bride. If he revisits his native country, he must of course make a grand dash. He attracts, by a splendid and ostentatious display, the stare and the envy of the empty and the avaricious; but excites in the breast of the wise and the thinking, a contempt of his vanity, and a sympathy for the hollowness of his comforts. This picture is equally applicable to the East as to the West India Nabob, of this cast.

The author has somewhere heard or read a humorous story of one of these great men of wealth. On returning home from abroad with an immense fortune, and wishing to astonish the quondam acquaintances of his youth, he drove, in princely state, with a splendid equipage, and numerous retinue of servants in gaudy liveries, to the humble village of his nativity. The poor people gazed with astonishment ou this pheno