Dominica is divided into ten parishes, viz. Saint Mark’s, Saint Luke’s, Saint Paul’s, Saint Peter’s, Saint John’s, Saint George’s, Saint Andrew’s, Saint David’s, Saint Patrick’s, and Saint Joseph’s. In each of these parishes a spot of land is marked out for building a town on, which was appropriated to that purpose by the Commissioners on the first cession of the country to England; but few of them have more than two or three small mean houses on them, and therefore do not deserve further notice. The town of Roseau is at present the capital of the island, and is situated in the parish of Saint George, being about seven leagues from Prince Rupert’s Bay. It is on a point of land on the S. W. side of the island, which point of land forms two bays, viz. Woodbridge’s Bay to the north, and Charlotte-ville Bay to the southward. Roseau is about half a mile in length, from Charlotte-ville to Roseau river, and two furlongs in breadth, but less in some parts, being of a very irregular figure. It contains not more than five hundred houses, exclusive of a number of small wooden buildings, occupied by negros, which give it rather an unpleasing appearance from the sea. The streets of this town are also very irregular, not one of them being in a straight line; but the whole of them form very acute angles, which face nearly the entrance of each other, and appear very incommodious and unsightly. They are, however, mostly well paved, are in general from forty to fifty feet wide, and the town is very pleasantly situated. Previous to the capture of the island by the French, this town contained upwards of one thousand good houses; but the fire which happened there, as before-mentioned, consumed the major part of them; and the ruins still remain, as a memorial of that unfortunate event. The public buildings in Roseau are, the Government-house, Court-house, Secretary’s, Register’s, and Provost Marshal’s offices, the church, market-house, and gaol. The Government-house is situated in Charlotte-ville, which joins to Roseau, or is rather the upper part of it, being included in the map of that town. It is a large building of wood, built after the French manner in the West Indies, two stories high, with galleries all round, and joiced. It stands in the middle of a large lot of ground, surrounded with a low stone wall, has a very fine garden at the back of it, and in front a long gravelly walk, very prettily ornamented on each side with cocoa-nut and other trees, which gives it a very rural appearance from the sea-side.