312 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



tlie capital, is but a small town, and lias nothing attractive 

 except the well-known hospitality of the present harbour- 

 master, who is particularly attentive to strangers, and 

 furnishes them with a world of information concerning the 

 West Indies. Eoseau 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, wdiich smote it so severely, that it has never 

 recovered its former appearance. A strong French fleet 

 bombarded it ; wdiile a raging fire 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. ]\Ien, women, and children, 

 houses, and property, were all swept away by this mighty 

 torrent. The terrible scene w^as said to beggar all descrip- 

 tion, 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 changino- 

 purple. I have searched for this bird in Brazil, and 

 through tlie wdiole of the wilds from the Eio Branco, 

 which is a branch of the Amazons, to the river Paumaron, 

 but never could find it. I w^as 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 to have been 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 



