The city of Roseau sits on an alluvial fan formed hundreds of years ago as
the river after which it was named meandered across the area from what is now
known as Newtown to its current location. Over the last two thousand years Amerindians
migrating through the islands settled the area attracted by the nearby river.
With the arrival of the Europeans on the island in the 16th and 17th centuries,
a small settlement was established by the French who in their tradition of
naming places after what they found there named the settlement with their name
for the river reeds which grew along the river banks. A plan was created
