Sometimes there was a theatrical performance in one or other of the capitals of the various islands. Companies from England or France paid the principal cities a visit, and occasionally amateurs undertook to assist the professionals, or to supplement their efforts. The French theatre at St George's, Grenada, had a great reputation throughout the islands. It was opened about six times in the year, sometimes by an English and sometimes by a French troupe. We read in the _Grenada Gazette_ that "on Saturday, 31st August 1792, 'Douglas' was performed, Lady Randolph by a lady--her first appearance on any stage--and old Norval by a gentleman." "No admittance," the announcement goes on to say, "on any account behind the scenes. The gentility is invited to send their negroes early (to retain seats), who are to sit in their places till five minutes before the curtain rises, when they are to give up their places to the proper owners." The managers also remind the audience to "bring their own candles." The negroes filled the galleries, and were renowned for their judicious criticism, the warmth of their applause, and the vehemence of their disapproval. Ladies of great quality were accommodated with seats on the stage. We note that on one occasion, in 1798, the French company gives "Nina Folle par Amour." This must be either Copolla's or Paesiello's opera, composed about that time.
Cock-fighting, we learn from the same journal, was a fashionable sport of the gentry. "On Saturday, the 31st September 1792, at 10 o'clock, a match of twenty cocks will be fought by ten gentlemen. _N.B._--A genteel dinner will be provided." In the same day's issue is announced the appearance in England of "a new sect, called the Anti-Chartists," whom it describes as "another branch of those iniquitous wretches who are opposed to the slave-trade."
Jamaica, then said to be the "wickedest place on earth," is mentioned with great detail in _The British Empire in America, or the History of the Discovery, etc., of the British Colonies_ (published in London, _1708_). The island probably deserved its name, for, in point of fact, the inhabitants mainly gained their livelihood at that period by trading with pirates, an enormous number of whom infested the neighbouring seas, making raids upon the Spanish islands, and carrying off immense treasure to Jamaica, where it was spent in debauchery.