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                                THE

                              HISTORY

                              OF THE

                        ISLAND OF DOMINICA.

                            CONTAINING

              A DESCRIPTION OF ITS SITUATION, EXTENT,
                    CLIMATE, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS,
                   NATURAL PRODUCTIONS, &c. &c.

                           TOGETHER WITH

         AN ACCOUNT OF THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT, TRADE, LAWS,
         CUSTOMS, AND MANNERS OF THE DIFFERENT INHABITANTS
                   OF THAT ISLAND. ITS CONQUEST
                  BY THE FRENCH, AND RESTORATION
                     TO THE BRITISH DOMINIONS.


                         By THOMAS ATWOOD.


                              LONDON:

      PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, NO. 72, ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD.

                            M DCC XCI.




INTRODUCTION.


It is greatly to be lamented, that although the island of Dominica
is so very capable of being rendered one of the chief, if not the
best, the English have in the West Indies; yet, from a want of
knowledge of its importance, or inattention, it is at this time
almost as much unsettled, as when it was ceded to Great Britain,
near thirty years ago.

This is the more remarkable, from the great consequence the
possession of it is to the English, in case of a rupture with
France, it being the key of the British dominions in that part
of the world, and from its situation between the two principal
settlements of the French, Martinique and Guadeloupe, it is the
only place in the West Indies, by which there is a possibility for
Great Britain to maintain the sovereignty of those seas.

It has moreover many conven