This is certainly a very high price for that commodity; a pound of river fish, at 1s. 6d. current money, is 10d. sterling per pound, at eighty per cent, the present rate of exchange of money in that island; and hook and line fish, at 1s. is 6d. sterling and a fraction per pound, at the same rate of exchange, a price which greatly exceeds that of the same commodity in England, where it is not to be had in such great plenty as in Dominica, and by no means in so great perfection, especially in the city of London.
The public gaol in Roseau has been erected since the restoration of the island to Great Britain, but it is not yet quite finished. It is of fine stone, erected in a very healthy situation, on a large lot of land, and the building on a large scale, is commodious, and well adapted to the design.
The expences of purchasing the land, and building a part of this gaol, were defrayed out of the money humanely contributed by several worthy persons in England, for the relief of the unfortunate sufferers by the fire in Roseau, in the year 1781, before noticed; but which money, after it was sent out to Dominica, could not be distributed to the persons for whom it was intended, owing to the deaths of some, and the removal of others from the island soon after that heavy calamity; the rest consented with the Governor, Council, and Assembly, to its being appropriated in that manner.
This building will be a lasting monument of the generous and praise-worthy endeavours of Englishmen, to alleviate the distresses of their fellow-subjects, in a country so far distant from themselves.
The road of Roseau, for it cannot properly be called an harbour, it being rather an open bay, is very capacious; and from Woodridge’s bay, which joins it to the northward, to the bay of Charlotte-ville, contained the French and Spanish fleets, consisting of upwards of four hundred sail of men of war and transport ships, which lay at anchor for several days previous to their sailing on their intended attack of Jamaica last war, in 1782. This road is often dangerous in the hurricane months, and has frequently proved fatal to vessels, whose Commanders were so imprudent as to keep them there at anchor, from the end of August to October; during which time, almost every year, the sea very often tumbles into this road from the southward in a very frightful manner.
A very dreadful circumstance of this kind happened the last day of September, 1780; at which time the sea arose to the amazing height of twenty-one feet perpendicular above its usual surface, and its billows broke upwards of one hundred yards from the common shore. It destroyed several houses in front of the beach, drove several small vessels from their anchors, and carried them up into the town; other vessels foundered, or were dashed to pieces in the night-time; the dead bodies of the crews, with the pieces of the vessels, were driven on shore, and the morning of next day exhibited the most shocking spectacle of its unbounded fury.
The fortifications of Roseau are, Young’s Fort, Melville’s Battery, Bruce’s Hill Batteries, and Fort Demoullin.
Young’s Fort is just opposite the Government-house, from the front wall of which it is separated only by the highway. It is well mounted with cannon, has a powder magazine, an arsenal for small arms, and commodious barracks for the officers and soldiers; but owing to its bad construction, only two or three of the cannon in it will bear on any particular object; and it is, besides, entirely under command of all the other batteries of the town on the hills above it.