The streets of a West Indian city must have presented a very picturesque spectacle at this period. Here groups of great ladies--in hoops and sarsenets, with powdered hair and "patches," escorted by their spruce cavaliers in the daintiest satin garments which the London or Paris tailors could supply, their white clad servants at a respectful distance behind them, carrying their parasols and fans, or lagging in the rear with their heavily gilt Sedan-chairs--pass up and down under the shadow of the tropical vegetation, hardly pausing, probably, to notice the public flogging of a couple of runaway slaves, or the edifying spectacle of a white servant caught in the act of stealing, seated with his legs and arms in the pillory, and his nose and ears freshly cut off. Yon learned-looking gentleman may be Dr Hans Sloane, the famous naturalist, with his friend Dr Burton, a noted preacher, who occasionally goes the round of the various islands to exercise his eloquence, and eat a series of good dinners in return for his pious endeavours to save the souls of his entertainers. The conversation is not of the most elevated description. Little or no literature is consumed and canvassed, save such as comes out in packages from England--_The Gentleman's Magazine_, _The Lady_, _The Tatler_, Miss Frances Burney's latest novel, Oliver Goldsmith's _Vicar of Wakefield_, or Fielding's _Tom Jones_. Through the open windows of the roomy houses, with their broad verandahs, floats the tinkling of the sempiternal spinette. Very occasionally, as we learn from the _Grenada Gazette_ (of which a complete file for the years 1792-3 are exhibited by Mr. J. G. Wells), "a grand pianoforte" makes its appearance, and is considered a great novelty, for which a very high price is asked and paid. The _History of the Barbadoes_ states that Lord Howe became Governor in 1733, but fortunately for the Colony, he did not hold the office long, "for if he had remained a few years longer, he would have ruined Barbadoes by his introduction of luxury."