The government packets, sailing from Falmouth (England) at the commencement of each month, and the middle packets, sailing about the fifteenth, arrive, in due course, at Port Royal, in about five weeks from the actual day of departure. They formerly returned, the first after three weeks' sojourn in Jamaica; and the latter, after about twenty-four hours, but by a different route. The arrangement, however, is now much altered, and excessively inconvenient to the inhabitants, particularly to the mercantile classes; as the regular packets remain only four or five days in the island, merely to await the return of an express post from the West End.

The mail bags leave Kingston post-office during the afternoon of Saturday, at different hours. The windward post is first dispatched, then that of the north-side, and, lastly, the one for the south-side. Each is conveyed by a negro mounted on a mule, leading another mule, on which is affixed the mail-bags : unless when an accident occurs, from negligence in properly fixing the bags, the conveyance is tolerably expeditious, and pretty regular. But during the heavy seasons (rains) the post is frequently detained from the Rio Minho (dry river) being impassable, sometimes for days together, and there has never been a bridge thrown over it . No delivery of letters takes place in the country; consequently, whatever may be the distance, every individual is compelled to send to the post- office for his letters, &c . The charge is sevenpence-halfpenny (called “ a bit” ) for the first hundred miles, and any thing short of it, for a single letter, and twice that sum for the rest of the distance, whatever it may be. Of course double letters are charged in proportion. Between Kingston and Spanish Town, however, there is a daily post, leaving the former place in the morning, and returning in the evening; nor could this possibly be dispensed with, as the mercantile community is principally confined to Kingston, and most of the law business transacted in Spanish Town.

The General Post- Office next claims attention. This department comprises a deputy postmaster general, a chief and numerous other clerks, in Kingston, and deputy postmasters stationed at proper and convenient distances along the post roads in every direction . The windward post road extends 64 miles. That of the North side to Port Antonio, 60. North side to Port Maria, 42. North side to Green Island, 151 ; and that of the South side to Sav. la Mar, 119. In a climate like Jamaica, where the messengers are of the negro race, it is rather surprising so few accidents happen the conveyance of letters, particularly as the weather is sometimes extremely unfavourable.

The post in this island is by no means so well regulated as in the mother-country. A mail arrives but once a- week from Kingston at the different parts of the island, Spanish Town excepted. It is conveyed on a mule, the post-man (a negro slave) riding another, at the average rate of about seventy miles in the twenty-four hours. This very slow travelling is in a great measure owing to the delays in forwarding the mail at the intermediate post-offices: the more of these there are between any two places, the longer the post is in performing the journey. As the mules which convey the post are in general well-trained, accidents seldom occur, and very few instances of attempts to rob the mail have been known, though the post-men go quite unarmed; but it is sometimes placed in jeopardy by the swelling of the rivers in consequence of heavy rains. There are forty post-offices throughout the island, besides the general post-office. The rate of postage is 1s3d, and 7½d. according to the distance, for single letters.
The letters from Great Britain are conveyed , monthly, by the packets: these are fast-sailing ship -rigged vessels, of from two to three hundred tons burthen, well armed and manned, especially in war-time. They have been known to run the passage direct to Jamaica in twenty- four days. A master of a packet is entitled to one hundred guineas if he arrives in Jamaica on or before the twentieth of each month. All foreign post-letters for Jamaica, as well as those from the British possessions, must pass through the general post office of Great Britain.