squ'a la mort dans la
religion chretienne qu'on leur feroit embrasser.--Vol. iv. p. 14.

CHAPTER X.

Leeward and Windward Islands--The Caribs of Dominica--Visit of Pere
Labat--St. Lucia--The Pitons--The harbour at Castries--Intended
coaling station--Visit to the administrator--The old fort and
barracks--Conversation with an American--Constitution of
Dominica--Land at Roseau.

Beyond all the West Indian Islands I had been curious to see
Dominica.[10] It was the scene of Rodney's great fight on April 12. It
was the most beautiful of the Antilles and the least known. A tribe of
aboriginal Caribs still lingered in the forests retaining the old look
and the old language, and, except that they no longer ate their
prisoners, retaining their old habits. They were skilful fishermen,
skilful basket makers, skilful in many curious arts.

The island lies between Martinique and Guadaloupe, and is one of the
group now called Leeward Islands, as distinguished from St. Lucia, St.
Vincent, Grenada, &c., which form the Windward. The early geographers
drew the line differently and more rationally. The main direction of the
trade winds is from east to west. To them the Windward Islands were the
whole chain of the Antilles, which form the eastern side of the
Caribbean Sea. The Leeward were the great islands on the west of
it--Cuba, St. Domingo, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. The modern division
corresponds to no natural phenomenon. The drift of the trades is rather
from the north-east than from the south-east, and the names serve only
now to describe our own not very successful political groupings.

Dominica cuts in two the French West Indian possessions. The French took
it originally from the Spaniards, occupied it, colonised it, planted in
it their religion and their language, and fought desperately to maintain
their possession. Lord Rodney, to whom we owe our own position in the
West Indies, insisted that Dominica must belong to us to hold the French
in check, and regarded it as the most important of all our stations
there. Rodney made it English, and English it has ever since remained in
spite of the furious efforts which France made to recover an island
which she so highly valued during the Napoleon wars. I was anxious to
learn what we had made of a place which we had fought so hard for.

Though Dominica is the most mountainous of all the Antilles, it is split
into many valleys of exquisite fertility. Throu