262 
WANDERINGS IN 
FOURTH 
JOURNEY. 
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 w T as visited by a succession of 
misfortunes, which smote it so severely, that it has 
never recovered its former appearance. A strong 
French fleet bombarded it; while a raging fire de¬ 
stroyed its finest buildings. Some time after, ar 
overwhelming flood rolled down the gullies and fis¬ 
sures 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 w r as immense. 
Dominica is famous for a large species of frog, 
which the inhabitants keep in readiness to slaughter 
for the table. In the w r oods 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, w r hich 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 to have been ac¬ 
quired by hearsay; and so I concluded that it does 
