i 



^20 



LETTER XXVI. 



Convoys and pachet (I ill delayed. Single vejfels arrive, Tranf- 

 ports taken by the enemy. Inhabitants anxious to have the 

 trcops employed. Sailors defert from the Lord Shef" 

 field. Alarm concerni?ig a boafs crew. Oars employed 

 OS fails. Negroes in Jlave /hips taught to be uJefuL 

 Captains of Guineamen walk on fhore with parties of the 

 pAp^s cargo. Book binding not among the trades of 

 Barbadoes. Preparations for an excurfon to Hackleton's 

 gliff. The church at Bridge -Town, The fignal code, 



Barbadoes, Feb, 

 W^E ftill remain without any accurate in- 

 telligence refpefting the great body of our 

 convoy ; and, having no tidings of the com- 

 mander in chief, we continue in equal uncer- 

 tainty when w^e may proceed to our original 

 deftination, at St. Domingo. All here is fuf- 

 penfe and anxiety. The folicitude of the 

 mercantile wwld is not lefs than that of the 

 military. No packet is arrived ; the affairs of 

 commerce are interrupted ; w^e have no news 

 of Europe or the war, and all feems fliut in 

 ignorance, or abforbed in painful uncertainty. 

 Straggling veffels of cur difaftrous fleet con-* 



