FOURTH JOURNEY. 239 



tions, in places so abrupt and steep, that you would 



pronounce them almost inaccessible. Roseau, the 



capital, is but a small town, and has nothing 



Roseau. . _. 



attractive except the well-known hospitality 

 of the present harbour-master, who is particularly atten- 

 tive to strangers, and furnishes them with a world of 

 information concerning the West Indies. Roseau has 

 seen better days ; and you can trace good taste and 

 judgment in the way in which the town has originally 

 been laid out. 



Some years ago it was visited by a succession of mis- 

 fortunes, which smote it so severely, that it has never 

 recovered its former appearance. A strong French fleet 

 bombarded it ; while a raging h're destroyed its finest 

 buildings. Some time after, an overwhelming flood 

 rolled down the gullies and fissures of the adjacent 

 mountains, and carried all before it. Men, women, 

 and children, houses and property, were all swept away 

 by this mighty torrent. The terrible scene was said to 

 beggar all description, and the loss was immense. 



Dominica is famous for a large species of frog, which 

 the inhabitants keep in readiness to slaughter for the 

 table. In the woods of this island, the large rhinoceros 

 beetle is very common ; it measures above six inches 

 in length. In the same woods is found the beautiful 

 humming-bird, the breast and throat of which are of a 

 brilliant changing purple. I have searched for this 

 bird in Brazil, and through the whole of the wilds from 

 the Rio Branco, which is a branch of the Amazons, to 

 the river Paumaron, but never could find it. I was 

 told by a man in the Egyptian-hall, in Piccadilly, that 

 this humming-bird is found in Mexico ; but upon 

 questioning him more about it, his information seemed 



