Opposite the north side of the court house is the arsenal, erected in 1757 or 1758. It is, as might be supposed, a strong building, and stands in a court yard, enclosed with iron railings. To the east of the arsenal is the old guard-house, erected in 1754, during the administration of Sir George Thomas. It is a plain building, with two projecting wings; but it is now very much out of repair, not being used for any purpose. Adjoining the guard-house is a long stone building, with its grated windows, formerly used as the gaol of the island, but within these last few years turned into the police office,—the goal being removed to the suburbs of St. John’s. This is a very great improvement; for this building, standing in one of the greatest thoroughfares of this populous town, and directly facing the market, the culprits who were immured for petty crimes, and kept in that part of the gaol, could look through their grated windows, hold converse with the passers-by, and thus disseminate their evil counsels among the idle and profligate of both sexes, who were always lounging about that spot. The dungeons where the felons used to be confined were gloomy dens indeed, and ran along the outer walls of the prison. One of these dungeons has been lately made into an engine-house, a door being broken through its massy walls facing the street. Upon passing this vault during its transformation, a sigh broke from my lips as memory carried me back to those fearful days when so many miserable creatures, who bore the name without the freedom of man, used to inhabit them, and often, it is said, from very trivial causes. Like Sterne, I fancied I could behold them in all their misery,—their bodies, perhaps, wasted with disease,—their eyes blood-shot and wild with despair,—their features sharpened by anguish of mind:—no one to soothe their grief,—no one to hear their complaint,—and without the _hope_, but not perhaps without the _fear_, of an hereafter, they left those cheerless vaults to be launched into eternity by the hangman’s hands! The picture was too dreadful; but sounds of laughter and gladness were abroad, our carriage rolled on amid crowds of blacks of every sex and age; and although at times I suffer, as many others do, from their impudence of manners and behaviour, yet I felt in my heart a pleasure at their being _free_. The present building was erected in 1772, the former gaol having been burnt to the ground in the great fire of 1769.