WEST INDIES. [From the Lyttelton Times, May 7.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 812, 14 May 1853, Page 3

WEST INDIES. [From the Lyttelton Times, May 7.]

I By the* Hampshire we have accounts from the West India Islands to the middle of December. The yelldw fever was prevailing to a fearful extent in Demerara, Barbadoes, St. Thomas, Jamaica, and the French islands. H.M. S. Daunltessjy'mg inCarlisleßay,Barbadoes,had lost no less than 1 2 officers and 60 men from this frightful epidemic. Several of the R.M.S. Company's vessels have likewise experienced severe losses in men and officers. The Magdalena, which arrived at Southampton on the Bth of January, lost eight of her ciew and two passengers on ber homeward passage, and the chief steward died after pratique had been granted. Mortality had likewise occurred on board the steamers Dee, Eslc, Convoy, Thames, and Great Western. We give a few extracts from the papers. The Demerara Royal Gazette, on the subject of the mortality among the shipping from fever, says:— " The daily mortality among seamen must press some remedial measure upon the Government. Our merchant ships lie in the stream of a tidal river, exposed to the hourly contamination of the filth of a filthy city. The deposit under our wharves gives out at all times an impure eifluvium ; coupled with hot berths on board, heavy night dews, a little intemperance, and the annoyance of mosquitos, there is no wonder that this tropical scourge sets its B<=al on so many of our unfortunate seamen. The garrison, like the city, is comparatively quite healthy." With regard to th 6 Escape of French exiles from Cayenne, the following extract of a letter from Surinam appears in the Demerara Colonist :— " A few days since the American brig " Mermaid from Cayenne for Boston, discovered three of the expatriated Frenchmen concealed on board. The Mermaid being a regular trader between Boston and Cayenne, the captain was apprehensive of difficulty on his return should he take them to the United States, and therefore put into Surinam, where the French war steamer Voyageur was lying, and communicated with the United States' Consul, who recommended the unfortunate individuals to remain on board the Mermaid. The Captain of the Voyageu? then demanded of the captain of the Mermaid, that they should be delivered up to him, which was refused, and he immediately sailed for Cayenne, for instructions from the Governor. The steamer returned on the 20th November, when the Mermaid had sailed, and the refugees had left, either in her or some other vessel, for the United States." From Barbadoes we learn that the yellow fever bad not ceased its ravages, and the death of Col. O'Brien is reported. The West Indian of the 4th Dec. states :— " Last week and this the gradual disappearance of yellow fever in the city led us to indulge the hope that we should soon have to read the form of Thanksgiving in our places of worship for deliverance from ' this grievous plague and sickness ;' but God has ordered it otherwise. The epidemic is still severely prevalent. With sincere regret we hear that the mortality among I the officers and men landed from H. M, Ship

Dauntless continues to a dreadful extent. Since the death of Mr. Flood, the first Lieutenant, the fever hns carried off three more officers, (making 13 officers in all), viz., Mr. Crispin, midshipman ; Mr. Kent, second lieutenant ; and Mr. Divis, third engineer, and several seamen. Additional* c tses of a severe type are brought on shore daily. The latest reports of the state of the Dauntless mention that her crew were still very sickly, and she had lost 13 officers and 60 men." Considerable exports of " pozzolano" having taken place from St. Vincent, the Mirror of that island gives the subjoined account : — " We are glad to find that the peculiar properties of this description of earth, with which our island abounds, of quality far superior to what may be had from any other island, are now being very generally understood, and that the article, from the inci-easing demand for it, is likely to become before long one of regular exportation from St. Vincent. Nearly 2,000 tons have been exported hence to Bermuda during the last three years, where it is used by Government upon the erection of an extensive breakwater at Ireland Island, and is found to be very far superior to anything hitherto used for similar purposes. It has also been recently analysed by eminent chemists in England, and pronounced by them an invaluable manure, superior to guano. In Trinidad and several other colonies it has been tried successfully for various purposes, and we have the attestations of reputable scientific men that, for every description of constructions under water, the pozzolano is far preferable to Roman Cement."