nt out to be most advisable.

In the event of packets arriving from England at Barbadoes within a
day or two of each other, as is sometimes the case under the existing
arrangements, then on the Barbadoes and Demerara stations, let a good
sailing vessel, on the arrival of such packet, take the place of the
steamer for the voyage. Unless, in case of calm weather, this sailing
vessel could do the work thus:--Barbadoes to Demerara, four days; stop
there two days, forwarding the mails for Berbice by land; thence with
the return mails proceed on by Tobago and St. Vincents in five days,
to the packet at Grenada, found, in such a case, either waiting one
day longer at Grenada, or else beating up to St. Vincents, there to
meet the Guiana and the Tobago mails, and which the packet has time to
do. This would occasion little irregularity or delay, because the
cause of the detention, should detention occur, would always be known.
Moreover, the season of the year when the outward packets arrive at
Barbadoes the most irregularly, is during the winter months, from (p. 033)
November to March, and in which period the calms--the greatest
obstructions, in many cases, to sailing vessels amongst the Windward
Islands--are almost unknown.

The same temporary substitute could be applied, under similar
circumstances, on the stations between Jamaica and Chagres, and
between Cuba and Vera Cruz. Even if these places were once or twice in
the year to miss a return mail to Europe, it would not be of such
great importance, because each place having then two mails every
month, the detained mail would go forward by the next opportunity,
while it would save to Government, or to a contracting company, a very
serious expense, which would otherwise be incurred if they were
obliged to have additional steamers for this _probable_ part of the
service.

Further, in the event of any accident happening to any steam-boat on
the great line from Barbadoes to Jamaica, &c., a sailing vessel could
always carry the outward mails westward, when breezes hold, with
almost the same rapidity as steamers; and in her course westward, such
a sailing vessel could scarcely fail to meet a return or a spare
steamer at some of the stations, to relieve it from proceeding
further.

Moreover, it may be observed here, once for all, that by the
conveyance of the mails from Falmouth to Barbadoes by steam, or even
only so far as from Falmouth to Fayal by this power, the irregularity