Australia -- Description and travel; New Zealand -- Description and travel; Windsor, Edward, Duke of, 1894-1972
The Prince was afterwards taken by motor into the interior, through some
of the most luxuriant vegetation in the world, past cocoa and nutmeg
plantations, up two thousand feet into the mountains, about the
forest-shaded depths of the circular lake of Grand Etang, the crater of
an extinct volcano. An official lunch and a garden-party at Government
House filled up the day, which ended with a reception given by the
Prince on the _Renown_ to the principal residents of the island.
Leaving Grenada at daylight the _Renown_ threaded her way through the
clustering Grenadine Islands and past the steep twin green cones of the
inaccessible Piton peaks, and anchored near the Pigeon Rock--Admiral
Rodney's eighteenth-century naval base.
The Prince, accompanied by Sir George Haddon-Smith, who had come on with
him from Grenada, landed at Castries at noon, where he was received by
Colonel Davidson-Houston, Administrator of St. Lucia, supported by Mr.
Anthony de Freitas, Chief Justice, and other members of the Executive
Council. St. Lucia's special arch was of coal, token of the colony's
importance as a West Indian coaling-station. From under it His Royal
Highness proceeded through decorated streets, the entire population of
which had assembled to welcome him. The first stopping-place was in
Columbus Square. Here, in the warm shade of big coco-nut palms and mango
trees, a thousand children were drawn up, each school flanked by
teachers, many of whom wore the black cassock of the Catholic Church.
The Prince afterwards climbed a hill overlooking the town, and wandered
through the deserted barracks of historic fort Charlotte, where his
great-great-grandfather, the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria,
hoisted the British flag in 1797, after the capture of the island by
forces under Sir Charles Grey and Sir John Jervis. Here, standing amidst
luxuriant tropical vegetation, he looked northward to the rocky Vigie
promontory, on which he could descry lines occupied by Sir William
Medow's thirteen hundred British, who in 1778 hurled back invading
enemies twelve thousand strong. Westward he looked over the muddy
Cul-de-sac Bay, where Sir Samuel Barrington, in the same year, fought a
desperate engagement with the French fleet under Count Destaing.
Eastward also the scene was full of historic interest, for here, beyond
the red roofs of Castries city, was visible a distant palm-shaded beach,
where Moore and Abercromby effected their landing in 1796.
Descending the steep grassy Morne, the Prince afterwards attended a
popular reception at Government House, and thence went back to the
_Renown_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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