It has been said that the governor was poisoned, and that the mixture, or whatever other form it was administered in, was so prepared as to have the effects of unsettling his reason; but possibly it was a case of _delirium tremens_, without the assistance of any deleterious drug or herb. This circumstance is related in a different manner; and as I am not aware which is the most correct, will lay them both before my readers, that they may judge for themselves. General Burt, it is said, was dining at a party at “Pensive Hall,” (the name of the great house upon Martin Byam’s estate, now belonging to Messrs. Shands, of Liverpool, England,) when he saw an apparition, which informed him, that ere twelve moons had waxed and waned, this mandate should be issued to him—“Thou shalt die and not live!” He related the circumstance to the party, and expressed his firm belief in it. His friends removed him to the Great House upon Weir’s estate, (the present seat of Francis Byam Ottly, Esq.,) and by convivial parties, strove to overcome his melancholy forebodings; but all was of no effect. He finally sailed for England, and died upon his passage, the _very day twelve months_ he saw the apparition. After the death of General Burt, in 1781, Major-General Sir Thomas Shirley, Bart., was appointed to the office of commander-in-chief. No events of importance marked the first year of his government, except that the gallant Admiral Vernon obtained a complete victory over the French fleet, between this island and Guadaloupe, and followed up his success by many other naval conquests. General Prescott, commander of the 69th regiment, and the Antiguan troops, landed at St. Kitt’s, and drove the enemy before them with great slaughter. In 1782, St. John’s again suffered severely from a destructive fire, which broke out in one of the most densely-populated parts of the town. It was this disaster which gave rise to the establishment of the “Friendly Fire Company,” every member of which pledged himself to keep in good order a certain number of buckets; as also to practise themselves in the use of their engines. Soon after the formation of this society, the “Phœnix Fire Office,” in Lombard-street, London, sent out proposals for insurance—the first which were ever made in Antigua, and for many years, that office was the only one which would grant security upon West Indian property.