Dominica

“ The wind is a great warm caress; the sky a spotless blue. We are steaming on Dominica,—the loftiest of the lesser Antilles. While the silhouette is yet all violet in distance, nothing more solemnly beautiful can well be imagined: a vast cathedral shape, whose spires are mountain peaks, towering in the horizon, sheer up from the sea. ”

“ Tall Dominica was now half green; but there yet appeared no smoke, no sail, no sign of life.
And the tints of the two vast Shapes that shattered the rim of the light shifted as if evanescing,—shifted like tones of West Indian fishes,—of pisquette and congre,—of caringue and gouôs-zié and balaou. Lower sank the sun;—cloud-fleeces of orange pushed up over the edge of the west;—a thin warm breath caressed the sea,—sent long lilac shudderings over the flanks of the swells. Then colors changed again: violet richened to purple;—greens blackened softly;—grays smouldered into smoky gold. ”

“ Dominica was a strong girl, as girls go in the Venetian Alps, which is saying a great deal. Before Legrand could recover from the impetus following his thrust, Dominica lashed at him with her mandola, striking him full in the face. ”

“ Neither the Bishop nor Podbury has invited us, or knows we are here at all; but that is a sort of detail which counts for nothing in foreign parts.
Dominica is very beautiful, with the same beauty as many other islands already mentioned. Great wooded hills rise, peak upon peak, to the clouds, and between them lie deep gorges and fertile ravines. The margins of the sea are fringed with palms; Roseau itself lies glimmering upon the shore, with white walls and red and grey roofs. Inland, winding out under low cliffs behind the town, flows forth the river over a rocky bed to the sea. ”

“ There is another little island belonging to France, at the back of Guadaloupe to the westward, called Marie-Galante; but I believe it is but of little value.
To my mind, Dominica, as seen from the sea, is by far the most picturesque of all these islands. Indeed, it would be difficult to beat it either in colour or grouping. It fills one with an ardent desire to be off and rambling among those green mountains—as if one could ramble through such wild, bush country, or ramble at all with the thermometer at 85. ”

“ Promise him the respect and praise of all good men if he does well; and if he calls to his help intelligent persons who understand the cultivation of soils and the management of men, in half a score of years Dominica would be the brightest gem of the Antilles. From America, from England, from all parts of the world, admiring tourists would be flocking there to see what Government could do, and curious politicians with jealous eyes admitting reluctantly unwelcome conclusions. ”

“ Dominica, with its rugged mountains, roaring cataracts, and brilliant verdure; Trinidad, with its terrible cliffs, infinitely coloured valleys, mountain masses; its groves of citron, and hedges of scarlet hybiscus and white hydrangea, towns set in the green amphitheatres of gentle hills, impenetrable [Pg 195] forests, and lakes of boiling pitch: Warner and Anne lingered on all of them, climbed to the summit of volcanoes hidden in the clouds and gazed into awful craters evil of smell and resounding with the menace of deep, imprisoned, persistent tides ”

“ Dominica is, beyond dispute, the most valuable island belonging to Great Britain in that part of the world, for the vast quantities and excellency of the farinaceous fruits and roots of the West Indies ”

“ Dominica, the next island which Stuart passed after he had left Martinique, besides being one of the scenic glories of the world, described as "a tabernacle for the sun, a shrine of a thousand spires, rising tier above tier, in one exquisite fabric of green, purple and grey," has many claims to fame. Here, the cannibal Caribs were so fierce that for 255 years they defied the successive fleets of Spaniards, French and English who tried to take possession of the island. Some three hundred Caribs still dwell upon the island upon a reservation provided by the government. ”

“ Whereas, was the contrary practice more in use, there is no doubt but that education would be as attainable in the West Indies, as in any part of Europe, and at a much less expence.
The French inhabitants of Dominica are more numerous than the English; and as before observed, have the most valuable coffee plantations in that island. Their manners and customs differ but little from the people in the other French islands; and their religion is the same, for they are all Roman Catholics. ”

“ Emigrations of English subjects from our other settlements, or even from Great Britain, might be turned to great advantage to the island of Dominica; as the lands there, if cleared of the excessive forests of woods, are capable of far greater improvements than the lands of Trinidad, or of any other still unsettled country in the West-Indies. And if ample encouragement was to be given by Great Britain, there is no doubt, but that in a few years this island would be in a very flourishing situation. ”

“ A French patois is the language of the peasantry, but English is generally understood. The capital, Roseau (5764) , is a fortified town and a port; Portsmouth, the only other town, possesses the better harbour in Prince Rupert’s Bay on the north-west. In religion the Roman Catholics predominate, and a bishop resides at Roseau, but there is no established church. Education is free and compulsory, and the Cambridge local examinations are held annually.
Dominica was so named on its discovery by Columbus in 1493, in commemoration of the date, Sunday (Dies Dominica) the 3rd of November. ”

“ Dominica was the last of the Caribbean islands to be colonized by Europeans, due chiefly to the fierce resistance of the native Caribs. France ceded possession to Great Britain in 1763, which made the island a colony in 1805. In 1980, two years after independence, Dominica's fortunes improved when a corrupt and tyrannical administration was replaced by that of Mary Eugenia CHARLES, the first female prime minister in the Caribbean, who remained in office for 15 years. Some 3,000 Carib Indians still living on Dominica are the only pre-Columbian population remaining in the eastern Caribbean. ”

“ Dorothea was enchanted with Dominica, and kept exclaiming every few minutes: “Oh, if only Great Britain would sell us this island! I think I’d choose to live in Dominica, because if I had a sausage-tree in my garden I should laugh every day, and the children wouldn’t need any playthings.”
S.S. Diana, February 1, 1918
We have had a glimpse of France through a day at Martinique. ”

“ They had several children, of whom the youngest was named Dominica, who was brought up to the life of labour and hardship ordinary among the poorer peasantry of Italy, and whose daily task it was to help in the cultivation of the garden on which the whole family depended for support. Beyond the first rudiments of the Christian faith, Dominica received no education; for her parents were in no way superior in intelligence to others of their class in life. ”

“ These attempts failed, and in 1748 it was once more agreed by France and Great Britain that Dominica should be left in the undisturbed possession of the natives. Nevertheless the French settlers increased, and the island came under the rule of a French governor. It was captured by the British in 1761 and formally ceded by France at the peace of Paris, 1763, French settlers being secured in their estates. In 1778 a French force from Martinique seized the island. Rodney’s victory over De Grasse in the neighbouring sea in 1782 was followed by the restoration of the island to Britain in 1783 ”

“ For men there is shooting and fishing in the rivers. An introduction by a member of the club should be obtained, for there are golf links, and, as in all hot countries, plenty of tennis.
The chief charm of life in Dominica consists in the exquisite rides amongst the mountains where there are sulphur springs, a boiling lake, and waterfalls to be visited. I have on a previous page alluded to the very promising condition of things in Dominica, and I have also mentioned that limes and cocoa are its principal exports. ”

“ The land of Dominica is quite new, very little of it having been more than thirty years under cultivation, and a great part of it, it is probable, never since the creation; the soil thereof produces vegetation so quick, that it is truly amazing; and this vigour is particularly conspicuous in the sugar-cane, for it has been seen there of the length of sixteen feet and upwards, and double the thickness that it in general attain in other islands. ”

“ The Marquesas are five in number, viz. La Magdalena, St Pedro, La Dominica, Santa Christina, and Hood's Island, which is the northernmost, situated in latitude 9° 26' S., and N. 13° W., five leagues and a half distant from the east point of La Dominica, which is the largest of all the isles, extending east and west six leagues. It hath an unequal breadth, and is about fifteen or sixteen leagues in circuit. It is full of rugged hills, rising in ridges directly from the sea; these ridges are disjoined by deep vallies which are clothed with wood, as are the sides of some of the hills ”

“ We the Governor-general of the French Windward islands in America, for his most Christian Majesty the King of France; and the Lieutenant-governor and Commander in Chief of Dominica, for his Britannic Majesty, the King of England, do ratify these Articles [137] of Capitulation in twenty-seven Articles as above, and oblige ourselves reciprocally to abide by the same. ”

“ The English inhabitants then of Dominica were, in consequence, greatly distressed; as few of them could afford to purchase those necessary articles, the planters, and lower order of people especially; the latter having no trade, and but little to do, were unable to be at so great an expence; and the planters having a number of negros on their estates, were distressed to furnish a necessary supply of provisions for their slaves, or for themselves. ”

“ After I had furnished my selfe with some fresh water, very good and excellent, which sprang out of a rocke at the foote of this mountaine, I continued my course toward the West, wherein the windes fauoured me so well, that 15 dayes after our ships arriued safe and sound at the Antilles: and going on land at the Isle of Martinino, one of the first of them, the next day we arriued at Dominica, twelue leagues distant from the former.
Dominica is one of the fayrest Islands of the West, full of hilles, and of very good smell. ”

“ AFTER her narrow escape from assassination by Legrand, Dominica gave up her apartment, telling the concierge that she was going to America, then took another, next door to a local bureau de police in Montmartre. She really valued her young life and thought she might keep it longer if she were to disappear for a while. The prefect tried to enlist her services for the Bureau de Sûreté, but Dominica would not consider this. ”

“ There was much to be seen in Dominica of the sort which travellers go in search of. There was the hot sulphur spring in the mountains; there was the hot lake; there was another volcanic crater, a hollow in the centre of the island now filled with water and surrounded with forest; there were the Caribs, some thirty families of them living among thickets, through which paths must be cut before we could reach them. We could undertake nothing till Captain C. could ride again. Distant expeditions can only be attempted on horses. They are bred to the work. ”

“ Since 1872 Dominica has formed part of the colony of the Leeward Islands, but local affairs are in the hands of an administrator, aided by an executive council of ten members. In 1898 the local legislature, in consideration of pecuniary assistance from Great Britain, passed an act abrogating the semi-elective constitution and providing for a legislative council of twelve nominated members, six of whom sit ex officio. ”

“ Dominica was indeed attacked, by a scratch force of 2,000 men, soldiers and volunteers, raised by the governor of Martinique, and ferried over to Dominica on board a number of country vessels, escorted by three frigates and some privateers. ”

“ In no country ought a government to exist for which respect is impossible, and English rule as it exists in Dominica is a subject for a comedy. The Governor-General of the Leeward Islands resides in Antigua, and in theory ought to go on progress and visit in turn his subordinate dominions. ”

“ Shortly afterward he saw another island, northeast of Dominica, and then another, and another after that, more northward. For this blessing which God had been pleased to bestow on them, all the men assembled on deck and sang the Salve Regina [147] and other prayers and hymns very devoutly, giving thanks to God, because in twenty days after departing from Gomera, [one of the Canary Islands,] they had made that land, estimating the distance between them to be between seven hundred and fifty and eight hundred leagues. ”

“ Even the English adventurers became accustomed to obtain wood and water from Dominica, but this island was not conveniently situated for the French corsairs. They wanted an uninhabited place near enough to Hispaniola and the track of the Spanish vessels for them to be quickly pounced upon and for the corsairs to as quickly escape. Then there must be a food supply, and on the great island of Hispaniola were countless herds of wild cattle which ranged over a wilderness utterly depopulated. ”