48 THE SERVICES OF LIEUT.-COLONEL FRANCIS DOWNMAN, R.A. 
Point a Petre, but it is now called Pitt Ville, and is much improved 
since the English have been here. A little further up the bay is 
another village called Abymes. 
Amongst the many amusements which this island affords, that of 
goat hunting is one of the principal, both as to pleasure, (as difficulties 
in hunting are accounted a pleasure), and profit. A very little distance 
from the fort, towards Le Gosier, are very high rocks which overhang 
the water and are almost inaccessible to us, but these cunning and sure¬ 
footed creatures have taken up their quarters here, and very good ones 
they are, for nature, considering their inability to provide for them¬ 
selves, has furnished them with large convenient caves which shelter 
them perfectly from wind and weather. I was one day out after these 
creatures, and luckily came in sight of them browsing upon the hill 
near the rocks. I daresay there were 30 young and old ; immediately 
upon my firing, they scampered away to the rocks, and notwithstanding 
the clumsiness of their feet, they jumped from the point of one rock to 
the other without making the least slip; indeed if they had, they must 
have tumbled headlong into the sea. 
I was determined to follow them if possible, and therefore went the 
same road I imagined they had taken, amongst monstrous broken rocks 
and roots of trees, but I was obliged to take the greatest care in my 
progress, for it was both difficult and dangerous. At length, after a 
good deal of fatigue, I discovered a little path made by the goats, 
leading under the precipice ; this I kept, but with much hazard of my 
neck, till I came to the mouth of a little cave. I looked into it but 
could not see one goat, but going further, 1 perceived by the track 
that they had another way from these caves. I therefore thought it 
best to sit down and wait till towards evening when they would be 
coming to their lodgings. I had not waited long when I heard some 
of them bleat, and in a few minutes I saw three or four coming in by 
the way I had taken. I fired immediately and wounded one, but before 
I could get to it, it had by its struggling fallen a great way down the 
rock, and where it was impossible for me to go, and the night coming 
on, I was obliged to get out of this dangerous and romantic place as 
fast as I could. I was out another day with some officers when we had 
better success, for we found the goats feeding in a wood, and before 
they could make their escape, killed two. After this they became very 
shy, and took so much care and kept so good a look out that we could 
not get a shot at them again. 
I must not omit to mention the land crab, which is, I think, of all 
creatures ! know, the most ugly and forbidding; they are made like 
the sea crab, but grow to a great size, and all their legs and some 
parts of their body are covered with long black hair. These creatures 
inhabit the low marshy ground, and are mostly found among the man¬ 
groves, and numbers have taken up their abode in the burying ground. 
Notwithstanding their frightful appearance and their filthy abominable 
feeding, they are eaten with great gout by the inhabitants and by our 
soldiers; for my own part I never could be brought to taste them. 
