C H A P T E R X X X IV
MARTINIQUE
PE R H A P S the most interesting island in the
most attractive archipelago of all this world is
that in which the French ardour of soul is commingled
in the highest degree with the native blood
of the tropics. Martinique is about thirty miles due
south across the blue Caribbean waters from Dominica.
Columbus made its discovery on his last voyage
in 1502, but if he tried to fix a saint’s name upon it,
it did not stick. T h e native Caribs called it Ma-
diana, or, some say, Matinina, and, whichever it
was, the present name is a French corruption of it.
T h e English navigators used to call it Martinico.
T h e island has the same general characteristics as
its nearest neighbours, with some peculiarities of its
own. Its extreme length is about forty-five miles
from north-west to south-east, and the main part of
it is in shape an oval with rough edges, its greatest
width being fifteen miles. A t the lower end of this
main part, the old Fort Royal Bay — since the
French Revolution Fort de France Bay— cuts in so
deep as to come within six miles of meeting the in-
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