CONTAINS AN ACCOUNT OF THE DIVISION OF THE ISLAND INTO PARISHES
AND TOWNS, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF ITS CAPITAL, THE PRINCIPAL
BUILDINGS, FORTIFICATIONS, AND HARBOUR; TOGETHER WITH
OBSERVATIONS ON PRINCE RUPERT’S BAY, AND THE GRAND SAVANNAH IN
THAT ISLAND.
Dominica is divided into ten parishes, viz. Saint Mark’s, Saint
Luke’s, Saint Paul’s, Saint Peter’s, Saint John’s, Saint George’s,
Saint Andrew’s, Saint David’s, Saint Patrick’s, and Saint Joseph’s.
In each of these parishes a spot of land is marked out for
building a town on, which was appropriated to that purpose by the
Commissioners on the first cession of the country to England; but
few of them have more than two or three small mean houses on them,
and therefore do not deserve further notice.
The town of Roseau is at present the capital of the island, and is
situated in the parish of Saint George, being about seven leagues
from Prince Rupert’s Bay. It is on a point of land on the S. W.
side of the island, which point of land forms two bays, viz.
Woodbridge’s Bay to the north, and Charlotte-ville Bay to the
southward.
Roseau is about half a mile in length, from Charlotte-ville to
Roseau river, and two furlongs in breadth, but less in some parts,
being of a very irregular figure. It contains not more than five
hundred houses, exclusive of a number of small wooden buildings,
occupied by negros, which give it rather an unpleasing appearance
from the sea.
The streets of this town are also very irregular, not one of them
being in a straight line; but the whole of them form very acute
angles, which face nearly the entrance of each other, and appear
very incommodious and unsightly. They are, however, mostly well
paved, are in general from forty to fifty feet wide, and the town
is very pleasantly situated.
Previous to the capture of the island by the French, this town
contained upwards of one thousand good houses; but the fire which
happened there, as before-mentioned, consumed the major part of
them; and the ruins still remain, as a memorial of that unfortunate
event.
The public buildings in Roseau are, the Government-house,
Court-house, Secretary’s, Register’s, and Provost Marshal’s
offices, the church, market-house, and gaol.
The Government-house is situated in Charlotte-ville, which joins to
Roseau, or is rather the upper part of it, being included in the
map of that town. It is a large building of wood, built after the
French manner in the West Indies, two stories high, with galleries
all round, and joiced. It stands in the middle of a large lot of
ground, surrounded with a low stone wall, has a very fine garden at
the back of it, and in front a long gravelly walk, very prettily
ornamented on each side with cocoa-nut and other trees, which gives
it a very rural appearance from the sea-side.
The Court-house is a neat wooden building, on the next lot of land
to the Government-house to the southward. This building is two
stories high, has a neat portico on pillars in front, and large
open gallery backwards, the windows of it joiced. In the upper
apartments are a large council-chamber, rooms for the juries, and
a gallery for the spectators, or others having business at the
courts. In the lower apartments are raised seats for the judges,
a place enclosed for the lawyers and officers of the courts, jury
boxes, and a bar for the prisoners. In this building all causes,
civil and criminal, are tried; and all public business of the
colony is there transacted by the Governor, Council, and Assembly
of the island.
The public Secretary’s, Register’s, and Provost Marshal’s offices,
are two low stone buildings in the yard of the Court-house, and
are covered with tiles. These buildings are in no other respect
remarkable, than being very badly contrived, and no ways adapted
to the purposes for which they were intended; the tiles being
frequently blown off in the hurricane seasons, renders them damp,
and an improper place for keeping public records.
The church is a large lofty building of wood, but it is at present
much out of repair. It has a neat pulpit, reading desk, and a few
pews; but neither altar-piece, hangings, baptismal font, belfry,
nor bell. This, the only Protestant church in the island, is built
on a large lot of ground, has a good churchyard of very deep and
excellent black mould; but the yard is not enclosed. Adjoining
to it is a fine lot of land, which was laid out in the plan of
the town, and reserved by the Commissioners, for the purpose of
building thereon a public school; but it is at present appropriated
to a quite different use.
The market-house has been erected since the restoration of the
island to the English, and is of wood, built on pillars of stone,
between which are apartments for the butchers and fishermen, and
the public stocks for confinement of disorderly white people and
negros; and the middle passage is for the loaded fish canoes, that
they may be drawn up out of the heat of the sun while the fish
is selling. The upper part of this building is divided into two
apartments, one for the Clerk of the market, and the other for
the use of the Town Wardens of Roseau, who hold their meetings
there when they transact the public business. It is also used as
a guard-room for the militia, during the three days and nights
of Christmas holidays (a useless piece of ceremony, only putting
people to unnecessary trouble and expence) and in times of actual
need, as fire, or any danger which threatens that town.
It may not be improper here to take some notice of the
market-place, and market of Roseau. The former is a large open
square, nearly in the centre of the town, on the bay; it is paved,
and well adapted to the purpose for which it was designed; but the
market is very poorly supplied in general with butchers meat. This
is partly owing to the scarcity of horned cattle, few being killed,
unless they are brought from North America, which, however, has,
of late years, been seldom the case, on account of the difficulties
to which American vessels are subject in their trading with this
island, several of them having been repeatedly refused admittance
into the port with only that loading.
This has often greatly distressed the inhabitants of Dominica,
who having few cattle of their own, and these few being necessary
for the service of their plantations, it would have been highly
imprudent to have used them for the purpose of supplying the
market; as it would have impoverished their estates of those useful
animals, without the least probability of getting them replaced by
purchasing others: for the Americans, from having been so often
refused admittance to dispose of their cargos of cattle, took so
great a disgust against the inhabitants of the country, that even
when they have had permission to trade thither, they have actually
refused.
Nor is the market of Roseau, in general, well supplied with
poultry, owing to the very blameable neglect of the generality of
the planters, in not raising a sufficient quantity of feathered
stock on their estates, of which they are so very capable. It
is, however, well supplied with excellent fish of most kinds
peculiar to the West Indies; vegetables and fruit of almost every
description are to be had there, in great abundance, much cheaper
and better than in most of the other islands.
Sunday is the chief market day there, as it is in all the West
Indies; on this day the market is like a large fair, the negros
from the plantations, within eight miles of Roseau, come thither
in great numbers, each one bringing something or other to dispose
of for himself, often to the amount of three or four dollars; and
many of them, who bring kids, pigs, or fowls, seldom return home
without fifty or sixty shillings, the produce of their articles.
The price of butchers meat is there very high, being as follows,
viz.
_s._ _d._
Beef 1 1½ per pound.
Mutton 1 6 per ditto.
Veal 2 3 per ditto.
Goats flesh 1 1½ per ditto.
Pork 0 10½ per ditto.
There is no established price there for poultry, which, though
sometimes tolerably plenty, especially on the plantations of the
French inhabitants, who chiefly send that article to market, is
still excessive dear. A full-grown turky will cost from 16s. 6d. to
24s. 9d. and often 30s. a goose at the same rate; a duck from 6s.
to 9s. and a dunghill fowl at the same extravagant price.
The wild game of the woods, as pigeons, doves, and partridges,
which, though at times, in the seasons for killing them, are very
plentiful, yet bear a most extravagant price; a wild pigeon will
cost 3s. a dove or partridge 1s. 6d. and other small birds of the
country are at a very high rate. This is entirely owing to the
want of laws for regulating the prices of those necessary articles
in the island; as those who make a trade of them have the liberty
of fixing what price they please; thereby being guilty of great
extortion, to the sensible inconvenience of the inhabitants.
Eggs and milk are tolerably reasonable, and the latter is in
general very good; but those who chiefly supply the market with it,
adulterate it.
Notwithstanding fish of all sorts are caught in great plenty in all
the bays of the island, yet that article bears a much higher price
in Dominica, than in most other English settlements. This is also
owing to the want of proper regulations in the fish market; for
though there is an act for obliging every fisherman, who catches
fish within a certain distance from Roseau, to bring it there
for sale, yet the major part of the inhabitants, who are Roman
Catholics, fast the greatest part of the week upon fish; and the
fishermen, being all of the same religion, they contrive to evade
this act, by sending the best part of their fish to their friends,
and bring only what they cannot otherways dispose of to the market.
By this means that article is often scarce, as well as dear; and on
particular fast days, in Lent especially, the English inhabitants
are frequently obliged to fast without fish.
It has often been wondered at, that in Dominica there are no
English fishermen; and that a business, which is known to be
so very advantageous, should be entirely carried on only by
the French inhabitants. This neglect of the English is the more
remarkable, from the great inconveniences they labour under, from
not having a fishery of their own; but though a thing of the kind
was attempted by Mr. Beves, a respectable English inhabitant,
in the time of the French government of the island, it failed,
through the malice of some of the French inhabitants; and that no
other Englishman, since the return of the country to its former
government, has thought it worth while to repeat the trial, is a
matter of much surprize.
The present price of fish in the market of Roseau is as follows,
viz.
_s._ _d._
River fish 1 6 per pound.
Sea ditto, caught with hook and line 1 0 per ditto.
Seine and pot fish 0 4½ per ditto.
Turtle 1 6 per ditto.
This is certainly a very high price for that commodity; a pound
of river fish, at 1s. 6d. current money, is 10d. sterling per
pound, at eighty per cent, the present rate of exchange of money
in that island; and hook and line fish, at 1s. is 6d. sterling and
a fraction per pound, at the same rate of exchange, a price which
greatly exceeds that of the same commodity in England, where it is
not to be had in such great plenty as in Dominica, and by no means
in so great perfection, especially in the city of London.
The public gaol in Roseau has been erected since the restoration of
the island to Great Britain, but it is not yet quite finished. It
is of fine stone, erected in a very healthy situation, on a large
lot of land, and the building on a large scale, is commodious, and
well adapted to the design.
The expences of purchasing the land, and building a part of
this gaol, were defrayed out of the money humanely contributed
by several worthy persons in England, for the relief of the
unfortunate sufferers by the fire in Roseau, in the year 1781,
before noticed; but which money, after it was sent out to Dominica,
could not be distributed to the persons for whom it was intended,
owing to the deaths of some, and the removal of others from the
island soon after that heavy calamity; the rest consented with the
Governor, Council, and Assembly, to its being appropriated in that
manner.
This building will be a lasting monument of the generous and
praise-worthy endeavours of Englishmen, to alleviate the distresses
of their fellow-subjects, in a country so far distant from
themselves.
The road of Roseau, for it cannot properly be called an harbour,
it being rather an open bay, is very capacious; and from
Woodridge’s bay, which joins it to the northward, to the bay
of Charlotte-ville, contained the French and Spanish fleets,
consisting of upwards of four hundred sail of men of war and
transport ships, which lay at anchor for several days previous to
their sailing on their intended attack of Jamaica last war, in
1782. This road is often dangerous in the hurricane months, and
has frequently proved fatal to vessels, whose Commanders were so
imprudent as to keep them there at anchor, from the end of August
to October; during which time, almost every year, the sea very
often tumbles into this road from the southward in a very frightful
manner.
A very dreadful circumstance of this kind happened the last day
of September, 1780; at which time the sea arose to the amazing
height of twenty-one feet perpendicular above its usual surface,
and its billows broke upwards of one hundred yards from the common
shore. It destroyed several houses in front of the beach, drove
several small vessels from their anchors, and carried them up
into the town; other vessels foundered, or were dashed to pieces
in the night-time; the dead bodies of the crews, with the pieces
of the vessels, were driven on shore, and the morning of next day
exhibited the most shocking spectacle of its unbounded fury.
The fortifications of Roseau are, Young’s Fort, Melville’s Battery,
Bruce’s Hill Batteries, and Fort Demoullin.
Young’s Fort is just opposite the Government-house, from the front
wall of which it is separated only by the highway. It is well
mounted with cannon, has a powder magazine, an arsenal for small
arms, and commodious barracks for the officers and soldiers; but
owing to its bad construction, only two or three of the cannon in
it will bear on any particular object; and it is, besides, entirely
under command of all the other batteries of the town on the hills
above it.
Melville’s Battery, as before observed, was the principal place
from whence the most material service was done, in preventing the
French from entering Roseau on the 7th of September, 1778. This
battery has some very heavy cannon on it, but the works of it are
all gone to decay, and it is at present wholly neglected.
Bruce’s Hill, which is just above Roseau, has several fine
batteries, with one for mortars, commodious barracks, and several
blockhouses. It had a fine stone cistern in the time of the French,
but which, being built by them, they thought proper to destroy and
blew it up, a few days before they evacuated the island, thereby
rendering it useless. However, the aqueduct, by which it was
supplied with water, has been since discovered, and is of great use
to that fortification, which is, upon the whole, well calculated
for the defence of the town, when attacked only from the sea; but
being under the command of other heights above it, it would soon be
rendered untenable, was it to be attacked on the land-side, as was
the case the last war.
Demoullen’s Hill fort is also well mounted with cannon, and is
otherways well provided for the defence of the town; but it is
subject to the same inconveniences as the other fortifications,
being under the command of the heights above it.
These are the chief fortifications in Dominica at present, except
that at Cashacrou, which is rather a signal post; the other
batteries on the sea-coasts, at a distance from Roseau, being of
small importance for the defence of the island, save only the works
now raising at Prince Rupert’s Bay.
This last is in the parish of Saint John, on the north-west part of
the island, distant about seven leagues from the town of Roseau.
The bay is three miles across, and one and a half deep, that is to
say, from the extremity of each point, to the shore of the land
laid out for a town. In this bay the whole of the British navy may
safely ride at anchor all seasons of the year, and be well supplied
with necessaries not be found at English harbours in Antigua, or
any other part of the English West Indies, the rendezvous of the
British fleet. It is surrounded by two high mountains, called the
Cabrittes; the inner of which is about five hundred, and the outer
six hundred feet perpendicular; both of them are out of the reach
of other heights.
At the bottom of these mountains, between the inner one and the
main land, is a large piece of swampy ground, upwards of one
hundred acres in extent; which, if well drained, would pasture many
cattle, sheep, and other stock, for the use of the garrison; and
the stock, feeding under the muzzles of the guns, would be secure
from being pillaged, or destroyed by the enemy.
Soon after the arrival of Colonel Andrew Fraser, his Majesty’s
chief Engineer for that island, the Legislature of Dominica,
wishing to testify their readiness to co-operate with government,
in the important work of fortifying Prince Rupert’s Bay, well
knowing that it would be the only effectual means of preserving the
sovereignty of the country to Great Britain, they passed an act,
granting to his Majesty the labour of one hundred negros, for three
years, to be paid for by the colony.
The work was accordingly began, by cutting down the trees on the
Cabrittes, tracing roads to the tops of them, and draining the
swamps; from which, in a few months, fifteen inches of water was
carried off, and it was found that they could be effectually
drained; whereby the healthiness of fort Shirley, which lays
between the two Cabrittes, was established. But on the rumour of a
fresh war, expected between England and France in 1787, the negros
so granted by the colony were withdrawn from Prince Rupert’s Bay by
Governor Orde, who employed them on the fortifications of Roseau,
particularly on Demoullen’s Hill, the works of which were then
first began. However, the fortifying the Cabrittes has since been
re-commenced; and when completed, there is no doubt but that they
will be nearly as formidable as the rock of Gibraltar.
At the distance of about twelve miles from Roseau, and nine miles
from Prince Rupert’s Bay, is the grand Savanna, which also might
be well fortified, and rendered of great service, for the defence
of the island. The Savanna is a fine extensive plain, upwards of a
mile in extent; is on a tolerable height above the sea-shore, and
at a great distance from the mountains above it.
The occupying this place by the English, was strongly recommended
to the then English Ministry by General Robert Melville, on the
commencement of the last war with France; when, had it been
adopted, there is every reason to believe, that Dominica would
never have been attempted by the French; and it is probable, the
reduction of all our other settlements, in that part of the world,
would, by this means, have been prevented.
In the Savanna are large quarries of excellent free-stone, fit for
every purpose of building. Of these, great quantities were sent
by the French, while the island was in their possession, to their
other settlements; to that of Guadeloup in particular, where some
of their churches, and other capital structures, are wholly built
of those stones.