WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 289 



acquired by hearsay; and so I concluded that 

 it does not appear in Mexico, I suspect that it 

 is never found out of the Antilles. 



After leaving Dominica, you soon reach the 

 grand and magnificent island of Martinico. St. 

 Pierre, its capital, is a fine town, and possesses 

 every comfort. The inhabitants seem to pay con- 

 siderable attention to the cultivation of the trop- 

 ical fruits. A stream of water runs down the 

 streets with great rapidity, producing a pleasing 

 effect as you pass along. 



Here I had an opportunity of examining a 

 Cuckoo, which had just been shot. It was ex- 

 actly the same as the Metallic Cuckoo in Wilson's 

 ^'Ornithology." They told me it is a migratory 

 bird in Martinico. It probably repairs to this 

 island after its departure from the United States. 



At a little distance from Martinico, the cele- 

 brated Diamond Rock rises in insulated majesty 

 out of the sea. It was fortified during the last 

 war with France, and bravely defended by an 

 English captain. 



In a few hours from Martinico, you are at St. 

 Lucie, whose rough and towering mountains fill 

 you with sublime ideas, as you approach its rocky 

 shore. The town Castries is quite embayed. It 

 was literally blown to pieces by the fatal hurri- 

 cane, in which the unfortunate governor and his 

 lady lost their lives. Its present forlorn and 

 gloomy appearance, and the grass which is 

 grown up in the streets, too plainly show that 

 its hour of joy is passed away ; and that it is in 

 mourning, as it were, with the rest of the British 

 West Indies. 



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