Reproduction of the original: The History of the Island of Dominica by Thomas Atwood

Excerpt from 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 Th 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 Weft Indies; yet, from a want of knowledge of its importance, or inattention, it is at this time almost as much unfettled, 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 cafe 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 Weft Indies, by which there is a possibility for Great Britain to maintain the sovereignty of those fees. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Atwood's seminal publication was written about 30 years since the British had taken control of the island from the French as one of the colonial possessions lost to the French following the conclusion of the 7 years war in 1773. The first written history of Dominica comes from the memoirs of the first Europeans to sight Dominica in the 1400s. It was Christopher Columbus, the Italian navigator and explorer who on his 2nd voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, to the newly-discovered Americas, stumbled upon the island on Sunday, November 3rd 1493. It was him who named the island, Dies Dominica after the Latin word for Sunday.