240 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



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 and magnificent island of Martinico. 

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

 every comfort. The inhabitants seem to pay consider- 

 able attention to the cultivation of the tropical 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 exactly the same as 

 the metallic cuckoo in Wilson's " Ornithology." They 

 told me it is a migratory bird in Martinico. It pro- 

 bably repairs to this island after its departure from the 

 United States. 



At a little distance from Martinico, the celebrated 

 Diamond rock rises in insulated majesty out of the sea. 

 It was fortified during the last war with Trance, 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 



C/3.s1jriGS 



embayed. It was literally blown to pieces 

 by the fatal hurricane, 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. 



From St. Lucie, I proceeded to Barbadoes in quest of 

 a conveyance to the Island of Trinidad. 



