Portsmouth

The Kalinago called the area Ouyouhao, and the French knew it as Grand Anse, the great bay. After Britain took the island, the Royal Engineer John Simpson surveyed the site in 1765 and laid out a town on a grid around a central square, today part of Benjamin's Park, with the House of Assembly, the court house and government offices meant to stand on its east side. It was named after the naval port of Portsmouth in southern England, and its streets after British figures of the day — Egremont, Queensborough, Rodney and others.

Portsmouth was chosen as Dominica's capital, but only briefly. The swamps around it bred malaria and yellow fever, and the seat of government moved to Roseau, where it has stayed. The bay remained strategically important: in 1765 the British began Fort Shirley on the Cabrits peninsula, which the French extended during their occupation from 1778 to 1784. In April 1802 the African soldiers of the 8th West India Regiment, recruited as slaves, mutinied there and held the garrison for three days in protest at poor conditions, lack of pay and fear of being sold back into slavery; the revolt influenced the Mutiny Act of 1807, which freed all serving soldiers recruited as slaves. The fort was abandoned in 1854 and decayed until restoration began in 1982.

The Cabrits became a national park in 1986. For years the Ross University School of Medicine at Picard brought large numbers of foreign students to the area, until Hurricane Maria caused extensive damage in 2017 and the school moved to Barbados.

Portsmouth shares the island's Creole culture: Kwéyòl in everyday speech, a strong Catholic tradition, and the music, Carnival and bélé drumming that run through Dominican life. The town has produced well-known figures for its size, including Gordon Henderson of the cadence-lypso band Exile One and Roosevelt Douglas, a former prime minister of Dominica, both born in the area.

Cricket is the town's sporting focus. Benjamin's Park, laid out partly on the old central square of the colonial plan, is its main venue and has hosted first-class matches for the Windward Islands.

The landscape around the town is part of its identity as much as its history. The Indian River, the widest river in Dominica, is one of the island's best-known attractions, and boat trips run up it. The Cabrits, named from the French word for goats after the animals that sailors set loose there, is the end of the Waitukubuli National Trail, which runs the length of the island from Scotts Head in the south. The restored fort is both a heritage site and a reminder of the soldiers' revolt of 1802.

Portsmouth has about 3,600 inhabitants, making it Dominica's second-largest town, though it is far smaller than Roseau. It sits in Saint John Parish on the shore of Prince Rupert Bay, a natural harbour, with the Indian River as its southern boundary and the Cabrits to the north, and the communities of Picard and Glanvillia close by.

The town has its own sea port on the bay, and a farmers' market runs on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. For years the medical school at Picard was the area's biggest economic presence, with over a thousand students arriving annually from the United States and Canada, and its presence was a major resource for local people. The school moved to Barbados after Hurricane Maria. Since the 2010s the town and the Cabrits in particular have been developing tourist infrastructure, and a scuba diving centre opened inside the national park in 2018.

The week follows the market on its set days, quiet Sundays and minibuses running to and from Roseau. Recovery from Hurricane Maria and building to withstand future storms remain everyday concerns, as across the island.

Portsmouth eats the island's Creole food, built on what Dominica grows and catches. The national dish is callaloo, a soup of leafy greens with coconut milk and sometimes salted meat or seafood. Green fig and saltfish — green bananas with salted cod, seasoned with onions, peppers and garlic — is a traditional meal, bake and saltfish (fried dough with salt cod) is a common breakfast, and fish broth, a soup of seafood and vegetables, is everyday food. Most plates pair fish, chicken or pork with provisions: dasheen, yam, green banana, breadfruit and plantain.

Roadside stands and small-town restaurants serve fried chicken, fish and chips and tasty bakes, a fried dough made with flour, water and sugar or sometimes salt, along with cold drinks. The farmers' market is where the town buys fruit, vegetables and provisions on its market days.

Cocoa tea, made by boiling local cocoa sticks with cinnamon and bay leaves, is drunk at breakfast, and bush teas are brewed from local plants. At Christmas the calyces of the sorrel plant are boiled into a bright red drink. Rum, coconut water and fresh fruit juice are everyday drinks, and Kubuli, the island's golden lager, is brewed with water from Dominica's own Loubière Springs.