•
Presented to the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY
by the
ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE
LIBRARY
1980
PREFACE.
^^1 Y object in writing this book is to bring to the
jf \ notice of those unacquainted with Trinidad some
of the many attractions to be found there, how to reach
the island, its resources and productions, a brief history
of its discovery and settlement, thus forming a complete
index and guide for visitors and tourists to all points of
interest in Trinidad. Some of the chapters were written
in Trinidad, amid the beautiful scenes they describe. As
for the rest, the author is under obligations to various
works from which he obtained much valuable informa-
tion, especially from " The History of Trinidad," by
L. M. Frasier; "A Sketch of the Island of Trinidad,"
written for the Chicago World's Fair, by Henry J. Clark ;
and the " Mirror Almanack " of Trinidad, and W. G.
MacFarland. The author has also endeavored, by the
aid of maps and numerous reproductions of photographs,
to present the best illustrated work ever published on
Trinidad. The photographs for this purpose were fur-
nished by Felix Morin, W. A. Dunn, L. Placide & Co.,
and L. F. Sellier.
1
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Discovery and settlement of Trinidad. — Discovered
by Columbus. — Settlement by the Spaniards. —
Captured by Sir Walter Raleigh. — Colonized by
the French. — Conquered by the British. — Gen-
eral Picton's Rule. — Governor Woodford. — Lord
Harris' Rule. — Governor Hamilton ... 3
CHAPTER II.
How to reach Trinidad. — Cost of living. — Con-
veyances.— Steamship lines. — Current money. —
Cab regulations. — Fares by distance. — Fares
by time. — Hotels and boarding-houses. — Cost
of travelling ....... 25
CHAPTER III.
Port-of-Spain. — Great fire of 1808. — Great fire of
1895. — New buildings. — Streets and squares. —
Governor's residence. — Botanical gardens. —
Public buildings. — Borough council. — Public
Library. — Victoria Institute and Museum. — The
press. — Amusements and recreations . . -32
vi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
PAGE
San Fernando. — St. Joseph. — Arima and Princes'
town. — Description of the route. — Coolie
silversmith. — Mud volcano . . . .54
CHAPTER V.
Inhabitants. — Aborigines. — Spanish and French. —
Negroes. — Chinese and East Indians. — .Intro-
duction of Coolies. — Benefit of Coolie immigra-
tion. — What would result from negro rule. —
Peculiar characteristics of the East Indians. — Caste
distinction. — Physical appearance of the East
Indians. — Domestic life of the coolie. — Vene-
zuelans ........ 70
CHAPTER VI.
Government. — Froude on home rule in Trinidad. —
Negro rule in the United States .... 84
CHAPTER VII.
Climate and scenery. — Mountains and valleys. —
Waterfalls . . . . . . . -93
CHAPTER VIII.
Commerce and agriculture. — Sugar industry. —
Cocoa plantations. — Opportunities for starting
plantations. — Other industries . . -103
CONTENTS. vii
CHAPTER IX.
PAGE
Pitch lake. — Description of the route. — Appear-
ance of the lake. — Discovery of the Pitch lake. —
Commercial value of the asphalt . . . 1 1 5
CHAPTER X.
A trip up the Orinoco. — Description of the
Orinoco — Ciudad Bolivar. — Venezuela. — Mac-
areo river. — The Upper Orinoco. — Inhabitants.
— Government . . . . . . .122
CHAPTER XL
The great Venezuelan Pitch lake. — Its discovery
and development. — How to reach there . .140
CHAPTER XII.
Tobago. — Settled by the English. — Description
of the island. — Government. — Grenada. — St.
George. — The Caribs. — Productions. — St. Vin-
cent. — Kingston. — Volcano. — Carib war. —
Defeat of the Caribs . . . . .151
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
HARBOR OF PORT-OF- SPAIN . . . Frontispiece
COLUMBUS STATUE, COLUMBUS SQUARE . Facing 5
AVENUE OF PALMS, QUEEN'S PARK SAVANNA . " 9
RESIDENTIAL STREET, PORT-OF-SPAIN . . " 13
ST. ANN'S ROAD . . . . . . «« 17
PRIVATE RESIDENCE . . . . " 21
MAP SHOWING STEAMER ROUTE . . . «« 27
QUEEN'S PARK HOTEL . . . . . " 29
PORT-OF-SPAIN . . . . . . " 33
COLONIAL HOSPITAL . . . . . " 37
BRUNSWICK SQUARE . . . . . " 39
ENTRANCE TO GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE . . " 41
GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE " 43
POLICE BARRACK . . . . . . " 45
ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL . . . «« 47
TRINITY CHURCH ......" 49
POLICE HOSPITAL . . . . . . «« 51
ENTRANCE TO TRINITY CHURCH . . . «« 53
ENTRANCE TO COUNTRY RESIDENCE, SANTA CRUZ " 55
ST. JOSEPH'S .......-< 57
MAP OF TRINIDAD «« 61
HIGH STREET, SAN FERNANDO . . . " 65
NEWLY ARRIVED COOLIES . . . , «« 73
HINDU PRIESTS ......«< 77
x ILLUSTRATIONS.
I'AGB
COOLIE BELLE Facing 79
COOLIE MAN AND WIFE " 81
NEGRO TYPES "83
ROAD AND RIVER OF CAURA . . . . " 97
MARACAS WATERFALL . . . . . " 99
WASHING CLOTHES IN RIVER . . . . "103
COOLIES IN CANE FIELD "107
TRINIDAD PITCH LAKE — A SOFT SPOT . . " 117
NEGRO HUT "120
INDIAN WOMAN, MACAREO RIVER . . . " 123
CARIB INDIAN . . . . . . . "125
INDIAN GRAVES, MACAREO RIVER . . . «« 127
OLD SPANISH CATHEDRAL, BOLIVAR . . •« 129
LAGOON IN REAR OF BOLIVAR . . . . " 131
PRINCIPAL BUSINESS STREET, BOLIVAR . . " 133
SUBURBS OF BOLIVAR «« 135
MAP OF DELTA OF THE ORINOCO . . . "136
COUNTRY RESIDENCE, BOLIVAR . . " 139
SHIPPING PITCH FROM THE DEPOSIT . . " 145
TERMINUS OF RAILWAY, PITCH LAKE, VENEZUELA " 149
ST. GEORGE, GRENADA . . . . . "159
FRUITS OF GRENADA . . . . . "165
ST. VINCENT . . " 167
STARK'S GUIDE BOOK
AND
HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
CHAPTER I.
DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF THE ISLAND.
Trinidad is best known in the United States in
connection with the asphalt used in paving the
streets of nearly all the large cities of the country,
which is obtained from the Pitch Lake in this
island. Its name and location, however, have
lately been confounded with that of the small,
uninhabited, rocky island of Trinidade, off the
coast of Brazil, since the controversy arose between
that country and England concerning its ownership.
Trinidad was discovered by Columbus on his
third voyage of discovery. It was then he dis-
covered the continent of America without knowing
the fact, all his past discoveries having been islands.
This lovely island is situated about 10° north of
the equator, between the 6 1 st and 62d degrees, west
longitude, in the southern part of the Caribbean
Sea. It is only separated from the Venezuelan
coast of South America by the Gulf of Paria, and
the narrow passages or channels of the Bocas. It
is the largest of the British West India Islands,
4 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
except Jamaica, being about fifty-five miles long
and forty broad, with an area of 1,750 square miles
of territory.
DISCOVERY BY COLUMBUS.
Trinity Sunday, in the year 1498, fell on the last
day of July. On that day there was not more than
one cask of sweet water remaining in each of the
six leaky ships of Columbus. The parching heat
had opened the seams of his vessels; they were
momentarily in danger of sinking: and much need
there was to steer to a harbor where they might be
careened and recalked, where provisions might be
procured and the water-casks might be refilled.
The distress of the mariners was pitiful ; day after
day had passed, and still no land appeared in sight.
In his anxiety, the admiral made a vow to name
the first country he should discover in honor of the
Holy Trinity, if he were shown the blessed land
that day.
About mid-day a sailor at the mast-head of the
admiral's own ship beheld dimly the summit of
three mountains rising above the horizon. On
nearer approach Columbus discovered that the
three great hills were united at the base, thus
figuring to his mind the " Three in One ; " he
was reminded of his vow, and accordingly gave to
the island the name of " La Trinidad," by which it
is known until this day. The ships of Columbus
entered the Gulf of Paria from the south, passing
through the Serpents' Mouths, for so are called
the channels between Trinidad and the mainland.
Tarrying a few days at the island of the three
AND HISTOR Y OF TRINIDAD. 5
mountains, the squadron sailed away through the
Dragons' Mouths to the sea again, and Colon con-
tinued on his voyage of discovery. Prior to this,
the island had borne the Indian name of " lere,"
or land of humming birds. The natives held these
little creatures in the greatest veneration, and would
on no account allow them to be injured or de-
stroyed.
Since Columbus' day, many sea-faring heroes
have entered the Gulf of Paria, but none of them
half so grand and famous as the one-armed, one-
eyed sailor-man who passed through Boca de
Navios, on June 7, 1805, in the frigate Victory,
one of a fleet of thirteen sail that had chased twenty-
eight French and Spanish war-ships from the
Straits of Gibraltar to the Caribbean Sea.
SETTLEMENT BY THE SPANIARDS.
" Had Nelson," says a writer, in prophetic
strain, " found the hostile squadron under the lee
of Trinidad, the mouths of the Orinoco would now
be as famous in naval history as the Delta of the
Nile." Not finding his enemies at Trinidad, he
sought them at Martinique, whence they retreated
like flying-fish before a hunting-shark. He had
hoped to fight them where Rodney destroyed the
fleet of Count de Grasse ; but the allied navy
escaped to sea, and so he hunted them back to
the Mediterranean, overtook them at Trafalgar,
won a hundred monuments, and died, leaving
England an all but broken-hearted nation.
For more than thirty years after the discovery
of the island, no formal attempt to take possession
6 S7'AXX'S GUIDE BOOK
of it by force of arms was made by Spain. About
the end of that period, Don Antonio Sedeno, then
holding the office of Royal Treasurer of Porto Rico,
proceeded to Spain, and obtained a license for the
conquest of Trinidad, the King at the same time
appointing him, by letters patent, Governor and
Captain-General of the island.
Returning to Porto Rico, he completed his
preparations, and sailed for Trinidad early in the
year 1530. On their arrival, Sedeno and his fol-
lowers were well received by the native Indians,
whom he at first treated with consideration and
justice, and so for a time all went well. Sedeno
improved this short period of peace by building
a fort, and otherwise preparing to defend himself
and his followers against any treachery on the part
of the Indians. From various causes, the Span-
iards soon began to be harsh and exacting. This
treatment the Indians resented, and on the Span-
iards attempting to use force, they became exas-
perated and fighting began — fighting which lasted
all through the period of Sedeno's rule, and con-
tinued intermittingly for many years after. Before
long, his own followers also became discontented
and rebellious, their insubordination amounting
O
sometimes to open rebellion against his authority.
After a precarious occupation of the island for
a period of about ten years, during which he ex-
perienced many vicissitudes of fortune, being often
reduced to great straits and exposed to imminent
danger, Sedeno died — poisoried, it is alleged, by a
female slave — while on a visit to the neighboring
mainland. From the death of Sedeno, in 1540,
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 7
little or nothing of an authentic nature is known
of the history of Trinidad until the arrival, in 1 584,
of Don Antonio de Berrio y Oruna, an honest and
upright man of great energy and firmness of char-
acter. Don Antonio de Berrio, although holding
no direct appointment from the Spanish Crown,
appears to have considered that he had been
specially appointed by the Captain-General of New
Grenada (the famous Gonzalo Ximenes de Que-
sada) to prosecute the search for, and conquest of,
the fabled El Dorado. As this was believed to be
situated in the province of Guiana, he had ample
authority to select Trinidad as the base of his
operations. With this object in view, he obtained
reinforcements from Margarita and Cumana, and
with their aid, succeeded in subduing many of the
Indian tribes who had resisted his predecessor, and
so secured a tolerably strong footing in the island.
CAPTURED BY SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
Finding that, from its situation on the shore of
the Gulf of Paria, the town of Puerto de los His-
panoles (Port-of-Spain) was constantly exposed to
attacks from the corsairs who infested the Gulf, he
decided to build another town some six miles in-
land. The site chosen, on rising ground two miles
above the junction of the St. Joseph and Caroni
rivers, was well adapted for the purpose. To this
town De Berrio gave the name of San Jose de
Oruna, making it at the same time the capital, a
position which it continued to hold till within a few
years of the capture of the island by the British.
For some years previous to this date and for
8 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
many years afterwards, owing to the wide-spread
opinion that El Dorado, with its golden city of
Manoa, was to be found somewhere in the near
vicinity of the great river Orinoco, many expedi-
tions in search of this grand prize touched at
Trinidad, and it was during the occupation of the
island by De Berrio that one of these, commanded
by Sir Walter Raleigh, entered the Gulf of Paria.
Sir Walter had, in the previous year, sent out
Captain Widdhon with the object of obtaining
information respecting El Dorado. During his
stay in the island, eight of his crew, who had been
induced by the Indians to accompany them on a
deer hunt, were never again heard of, the Indians
alleging that they had been killed by a party of
Spanish soldiers posted in ambush. Whatever
representations Widdhon may have made to De
Berrio, he does not appear to have taken any steps
either to discover the murderers of his men or to
bring them to punishment. But the sequel will
show how soon the avenger appeared on the scene,
and how savage and merciless was his retaliation.
Sir Walter Raleigh entered the Gulf on the 2 id
of March, 1595, and soon after came to anchor
off Puerto de los Hispanoles. De Berrio, who
had received Captain Widdhon with every show of
friendliness, and granted him permission to obtain
the water and other supplies he stated he was in
need of, extended to Sir Walter a most favorable
reception. At the same time, it is evident that he
suspected the intentions of the English, for he sent
to Margarita and Cumana, asking for immediate
reinforcements. Notwithstanding his favorable
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 9
reception and his apparent good faith with the
Spaniards, Sir Walter entered into secret commu-
nication with the Indians, and after obtaining full
information as to the route to San Jose (where
De Berrio was then staying), the small number of
soldiers in the island, and other matters, he decided
to attack De Berrio and his town. Taking advan-
tage of a favorable opportunity, he surprised the
guard of Port-of-Spain in the evening, and, having
put the soldiers to the sword, he sent forth Captain
Colfield with sixty men to attack San Jose, follow-
ing, himself soon after with forty more. The town
was taken at daybreak, and set on fire at the request
of the Indians, De Berrio being made prisoner
while fighting bravely at the head of his men.
Sir Walter then returned to Port-of-Spain, bring-
ing with him De Berrio and one of his lieutenants
as prisoners. In view of the plea that this other-
wise totally unjustifiable attack was made in order
to punish the Spaniards for the alleged murder, in
the previous year, of the eight men of Widdhon's
crew, it is only fair to state that Sir Walter admits
himself that the only evidence he had against the
Spaniards was that of an Indian Cacique, who was
one of their bitterest enemies, and who, at the risk
of his life, went on board Raleigh's vessel in order
to incite him to attack them. Raleigh doubtless
felt the weakness of any plea resting on such evi-
dence, and he therefore fell back on the necessities
of his position.
He says : " To depart 400 or 500 miles from my
ships, and leave a garrison in my back, interested
in the same enterprise, which daily expected
10 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
supplies from Spain, I should have savoured very
much of an ass." Having, as we have seen, sum-
marily disposed of the "garrison in his back,"
Raleigh now set out on what was the real object
of the expedition, namely, the search for the
El Dorado. He took De Berrio with him, doubt-
less in the hope of obtaining from him valuable
information in regard to the wonderful land of
gold, in the existence of which they both seem to
have had implicit faith. This expedition, like all
the others, ended in failure, and Sir Walter with
his prisoners returned to Trinidad.
When Sir Walter left the island to return to
Europe, De Berrio was released, and again re-
sumed the governorship. Being, however, still
firmly bent on the discovery and conquest of
El Dorado, he decided to place one of his lieu-
tenants in command of Trinidad, and to take up
his residence at San Tome on the mainland, as
being a better position from which to prosecute
his life-long purpose. After many failures and
misfortunes, there he died — disappointed, if not
broken-hearted.
The belief in El Dorado, with its golden city of
Manoa, does not seem to have been much affected
by the failure of Raleigh or the death of the brave
but unfortunate De Berrio. Other expeditions
followed, and towards the end of 1617 Sir Walter
Raleigh again returned to Trinidad. Entering the
Gulf by the Serpents' Mouth (Boca de la Sierpe) or
southern passage, he brought his ships to anchor
under Punta de los Gallos at the southwestern
extremity of the island, from which an expedition
AND HISTOR Y OF TRINIDAD. 1 1
under command of Sir Lawrence Keymis was
despatched to attack the Spanish town of San
Tome. The town was taken by storm after a
stubborn resistance, and the expedition ascended
the Orinoco, in the hope of finding provisions and
discovering gold. Finding neither, they rowed
down the river and returned to Trinidad, where
Sir Lawrence Keymis was so scornfully received
by Raleigh that he committed suicide. With the
failure of this expedition and its tragic sequel, the
long-continued search for El Dorado may be said
to have come to an end, and the whole story of
its existence was in a few years relegated to the
realm of myths and fables.
Strange though it may appear, this phantom
land of golden promise which had been the day-
dream of Sir Walter Raleigh and the many other
adventurous spirits of the sixteenth century, and
which, like a golden "will-o'-the-wisp," had allured
so many to endure hardship, danger, and often
cruel death in its pursuit, has, in our days, proved
to be a reality. The Indians' stories of the lake
with the golden sands, on whose banks stood the
fabled city of Manoa with its untold stores of gold,
and which the Spaniards located in the province
of Guiana, have received singular confirmation by
the discovery some thirty years ago of the rich
and valuable gold mines of Caratal in Venezuelan
Guiana, by the subsequent discovery of gold in
both Dutch and French Guiana, and again, quite
recently, by the discovery in British Guiana of
a gold district which promises to equal, if not
exceed, the famous Caratal district in its wealth
of precious metal.
12 STAKE'S GUIDE BOOK
The history of Trinidad, during the two hundred
years that elapsed between the death of De Berrio
and its capture by the Briiish, presents few features
likely to prove interesting to general readers.
In addition to being successively attacked by
the Dutch in 1640, the British under Sir Tobias
Bridges in 1672, and the French under Marquis
de Maintenon in 1677, the island suffered severely
from the frequent raids of roving adventurers,
who, although described as buccaneers, were in
reality little better than pirates. Although Trini-
dad as a Spanish colony was so unfortunate, and
its population had so dwindled that, in 1773, there
were in the whole island only 162 male adults,
exclusive of slaves and Indians, and the total
revenue was $221, or less than 48 pounds sterling.
COLONIZED BY THE FRENCH.
In 1778, a French colonist resident in Grenada,
M. Roume de St. Laurent, paid a visit to Trini-
dad, and was so struck with its many and great
natural resources, and the extraordinary fertility
of its soil, that he decided not only to settle in the
island himself, of which he gave an earnest by the
immediate purchase of land at Diego Martin, but
to do all he could to induce his countrymen and
others to follow his example. He drew up a
liberal scheme of colonization, which, after many
difficulties and delays, was approved by the Court
of Spain; and a new Cedula of Colonization was
signed at Madrid on the 24th of November, 1783.
This Cedula was brought to Trinidad by one
who was destined to be the last of its long line
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 13
of Spanish Governors. Don Jose Maria Chacon,
appointed some time previously Governor and
Captain General of the island, arrived in Septem-
ber, 1784. He was, to use the words of another,
" a man of ability and education, honorable, philan-
thropic and intelligent, but wanting in decision
and strength of mind." He spoke both French
and English, and was, in all respects, specially well
qualified to carry into execution the scheme of St.
Laurent; and he lost no time in doing so. The
Cedula, translated into French and English, was
published soon after his arrival, and copies circulated
in the neighboring English and French colonies.
The real colonization of the island dates from
the promulgation of this Cedula, the success of
which is shown by the fact that, during the five
years, 1784—1789, the population had increased
from 1,000 to 10,422. The large majority of
these immigrants were of French descent, so that
the island, although still a Spanish possession,
soon became virtually French in population. A
further increase to the French element in the popu-
lation took place in 1793, due to a considerable
immigration from San Domingo, caused by the
terrible events that occurred there in June of that
year. These new comers, if not all Royalists pur
rang, were all staunch upholders of Monarchical
government. A year or two later, on the capture
of the French islands by the British forces, another
addition to the French element was caused by the
arrival of immigrants from those islands, nearly all
of whom were Republicans of the most pronounced
character. And thus it happened that a colony
i4 STARK 'S GUIDE BOOK
which had never belonged to France became largely
peopled by persons of French descent, many of
them holding diametrically opposite political views.
To this hostility of opinions may be traced much
of the turbulence and excitement, and many of
the actual disturbances, which marked the closing
years of the British rule in the island.
Governor Chacon reorganized the whole adminis-
tration of the colony. Royal decrees were issued,
reducing the duties on various kinds of goods,
and making permanent privileges which had been
granted for a limited time only. Encouraged by
the success of the Cedula, and anxious to promote
in every way the welfare and prosperity of the
largely increasing numbers over whom he ruled,
Governor Chacon was busily engaged in schemes
of further advancement and improvement, when
he learned of the somewhat sudden but not unex-
pected approach of that expedition which was to
result in the transfer of the island from the Span-
ish to the British Crown.
CONQUERED BY THE BRITISH.
This expedition consisted of a British fleet of
seven ships of the line, and thirteen smaller vessels,
under command of Admiral Harvey, having on
board General Sir Ralph Abercromby with a
land force of nearly 8,000 men. While it must
be admitted that Governor Chacon had made no
defensive preparations, yet it is not easy to see
what defence was possible. To meet the power-
ful armament of the British, Chacon had under
his command barely 500 regular Spanish troops.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 15
It is true that a Spanish squadron of four ships of
the line, and a frigate, under command of Admiral
Ruiz de Apodaca, was anchored in Chaguaramas
Bay; but the crews of these vessels had been greatly
reduced by sickness and death. The British fleet
entered the Gulf of Paria in the afternoon of the
1 6th of February, 1797, and took up a position so
as to prevent the escape of the Spanish squadron.
Admiral Apodaca immediately assembled a Coun-
cil of War of the captains of the vessels under his
command, and it was unanimously agreed that as
escape was impossible in the face of so vastly
superior a force, the ships should be burned rather
than allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy.
The crews were landed during the evening, and
shortly after midnight the ships were set on fire
and burned fiercely until almost daybreak. One
line of battle-ship, the San Damaso, was captured,
the flames having been extinguished by the crews
of two of the British ships.
During the forenoon the British troops were
landed, and advanced upon Port-of-Spain. The
only show of resistance was at a point about two
miles outside the town, where a few shots were
exchanged with a party of Spanish troops sent out
to reconnoitre. The British troops continued their
march, and, passing to the north of the town, took
up a commanding position on the Laventille hills.
At eight o'clock in the evening, Sir Ralph Aber-
cromby sent an officer with a flag of truce to the
Spanish headquarters. This officer was instructed
to point out the superiority of the British forces
and the impossibility of resistance, and to offer
1 6 Sl'AXX'S GUIDE BOOK
Governor Chacon an honorable capitulation. A
conference was held next morning when the terms
of surrender were agreed upon, and before the
close of the day, i8th of February, 1797, .the
capitulation was signed, the Spanish troops laid
down their arms, and the island became a British
possession.
About two months after the capitulation, Sir
Ralph Abercromby left the colony, leaving as
Governor and Captain-General thereof his aide-de-
camp, Lieutenant-Colonel Picton. The responsi-
bilities and difficulties of the position, to which
Colonel Picton was thus appointed, were such as
would have deterred any man of less firmness of
character from accepting it. Not only was the
island a conquered country, with a population
almost entirely alien, but that population was
composed of a motley aggregation of different races
and nationalities, divided into hostile sections —
all more or less dominated by the strong national
antipathies and violent political animosities of the
period.
GENERAL PICTON's RULE.
Such were the people over which Picton was
called to rule, and among whom he was instructed
" to execute Spanish law as well as he could, and
do justice according to his conscience." But Pic-
ton was one of those men whom no dangers daunt,
and whose energy and determination overcome all
difficulties ; and, with all that firmness which so
marked a feature of his character, he set to work
to bring order out of chaos, and to compel respect
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 17
for, and obedience to, the existing law — such as it
was. Although, like all the military men of the
time, a strict and stern disciplinarian, he was never-
theless an energetic and able administrator, and his
government of the colony, under most trying and
difficult circumstances, during six of the stormiest
years of its history, if marked by acts of stern but
needed repression and punishment, was also dis-
tinguished by great administrative ability. The
population of the colony, when he assumed the
government in 1797, was 17,643 ; when he left, in
1803, it had increased to 29,154, while the exports
of sugar, then as now, the staple product of the
island, had increased from 75,177 cwts. to 142,982
cwts.
To attempt a description, however brief, of the
troubles that occurred just before Picton left Trini-
dad, of his subsequent trial, of his ultimate acquittal,
of his heroic bravery during the Peninsular cam-
paign, and of his death on the field of Waterloo,
" while gloriously leading his division to a charge
with bayonets," would be to go far beyond the
scope of the present sketch. Nor is it possible to
do more than notice very briefly the leading events
which have marked the administration of the more
prominent of Picton's successors.
During the ten years immediately following Pic-
ton's administration, the colony continued to be
governed by military men. At the end of that
period, however, the whole aspect of international
affairs in Europe had so changed as to permit of,
if indeed it did not suggest, some deviation from
the strictly military system of government hitherto
1 8 STARK'S GUIDE BOOK
existing in the West Indian colonies ; while the
condition and circumstances of Trinidad were such
as to call for an able and progressive civil adminis-
tration, rather than a strong military one.
GOVERNOR WOODFORD.
Under these circumstances, the selection of Sir
Ralph James Woodford, Baronet, to be the first
civilian Governor of the colony, was alike fortunate
for it and creditable to the Home Government.
Sir Ralph arrived on the i4th of June, 1813, and
at once took over the governor from his prede-
cessor, General Monroe. He belonged to a good
old English family, was graceful and dignified in
person, and, although somewhat haughty in man-
ner, was always accessible and ready to receive all
who wished to see him. Young, active and ener-
getic, he accepted nothing at second-hand, but went
everywhere, saw everything, and made his own
enquiries. In this way he not only obtained a
personal knowledge of the different districts of the
island and their various wants, but also made him-
self acquainted with the views and feelings of all
classes of the inhabitants. Under his administration
the colony underwent a complete transformation.
By his own exemplary life and character, as well
as by precept and counsel, he did much to raise
the social and moral tone of the community. He
brought all schools under Government supervision
and control, and issued a code of " Rules for
Schools" which, for conciseness and brevity as
well as in several other particulars, might well serve
as a model for the educationists of the present
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 19
day. He encouraged agriculture, stimulated com-
merce, and greatly improved both the internal and
external means of communication. It is to his
taste and foresight that Port-of-Spain owes the
width and regularity of its streets as well as its two
beautiful squares. He laid the foundation stones
of the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Anglican
(Trinity) Cathedral, and the Roman Catholic
Church of St. Joseph, all of which he had the
satisfaction of seeing completed during his term
of government. It is to him also that the colony is
indebted for the formation of the Botanic Gardens
at St. Ann's — now considered one of the sights
of the colony.
There is one fact connected with the period of
Sir Ralph Woodford's government that, perhaps
more than any other, shows the progressive spirit
that animated him, viz.: the formation, in 1817,
of the "Trinidad Steamboat Company." The
company was stated to be "under the patronage of
His Excellency the Governor and the illustrious
Board of Cabildo," and both the Board and His
Excellency became shareholders. Although to a
large extent a commercial venture — all the principal
merchantile firms being shareholders — yet, to the
encouragement and support of Sir Ralph, is due,
in great measure, the ultimate success of the under-
taking, resulting as it did in the building of the
steamer Woodford, which began to ply between
Port-of-Spain and San Fernando on the 2Oth of
December, 1818. This fact is all the more note-
worthy, seeing that not only was the Woodford
the first steamer to ply in West Indian waters,
20 STARK 'S GUIDE BOOK
but that her first trip in the Gulf of Paria was
made only six years after Henry Bell's Comet had
begun to ply on the Clyde, and within three years
of the first appearance of a steamer on the Thames.
Sir Ralph Woodford left for England, on sick
leave, in April, 1828, but did not reach his desti-
nation, having died at sea on the i6th of May.
LORD HARRIS' RULE.
Eighteen years afterwards, on the 22d of May,
1846, Lord Harris arrived as Governor of the
colony. During these eighteen years, the emanci-
pation of the slaves throughout the British West
Indian colonies had taken place, an event which,
as is well known, was followed by an immediate
scarcity of labor and a consequent depression in the
sugar industry throughout these colonies. Trini-
dad, owing to the comparatively small number of
its laboring population, and to the almost unlimited
field for squatting afforded by its thousands of acres
of virgin soil, suffered more severely than any of
the neighboring islands from the effects of this
want of labor.
It was indeed fortunate for Trinidad that at such
a time the government had been intrusted to one
whose great ability was more than equal to the
situation — critical and well-nigh desperate though
it was — whose confidence in the great natural
resources and wonderful capabilities of the colony
never wavered, and whose high position, as a peer
of the realm, gave such weight to his opinions as
to make them almost invariably all-powerful at
the Colonial Office. Lord Harris, as has already
STAKX'S GUIDE BOOK 21
been seen, fully realized the critical position of
affairs; and, although the remedy proposed 'by
him — Indian immigration — had been suggested
many years previously, and had actually been com-
menced before his arrival, still it is to his persistent
efforts that the colony owes the inauguration of
that improved system of Indian immigration, which,
with the modifications suggested by later experience,
has been continued up to the present time.
A system which involved the transport of immi-
grants from such a distance was naturally a costly
one, particularly at the outset, and it was only by
Lord Harris' all-powerful advocacy and the un-
flagging zeal of the then Attorney-General, the
late Charles William Warner, that the difficult
task of providing ways and means to carry out the
scheme was at length successfully accomplished.
Whatever differences of opinion may now exist in
regard to the further continuation of Indian immi-
gration, there can be no doubt as to the necessity
which called it into existence, or the undoubted
benefit it has proved to the colony.
It is not, however, in connection with immi-
gration alone that Lord Harris will always be
remembered as one of Trinidad's best and ablest
Governors. He left many other mementos of
the deep interest he took in the material and moral
welfare of the colony, and of the marked ability
and success of his administration of its affairs
during seven years of great depression, com-
mercial as well as agricultural. He was the first
to introduce an organized system of primary
education.
22 AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
It is to Lord Harris that the colony owes the
introduction of municipal institutions similar to
those existing in the mother country, as well as
the division of the island into counties, ward unions,
and wards, and the inauguration of the ward sys-
tem of local government, under which each ward
raised its own revenue by levying rates, etc., while
the expenditure was controlled by a Board of
Auditors elected annually by the rate-payers.
The ward system has since undergone many and
sweeping changes, and, as at present existing, can
scarcely be said to be more than a shadow of its
former self, or of local government, properly so
called.
GOVERNOR HAMILTON.
Thirteen years after Lord Harris had left the
colony, Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon, then Gov-
ernor of New Brunswick, was appointed to the
governorship of Trinidad. Sir Arthur arrived in
the colony on the 9th of November, 1866, and
although his administration was a short one, lasting
only till June, 1870, it was one of great activity
and marked progress. Of the many important
measures introduced during his administration, the
one by which, more than any other, his name is
inseparably linked with the history of Trinidad,
is the Crown Lands' Ordinance, passed in October,
1868. By this enactment he threw open the Crown
lands of the colony, the natural result of which
was the increase both of revenue and cultivation
—an increase which, with all its other benefits,
both to the Government and the people, has been
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 23
more or less steadily maintained ever since. Al-
though this measure was strongly opposed at the
time, still such have been the wonderful results
accruing from it, that even its bitterest opponents
now readily admit the greater wisdom and clearer
foresight that induced Sir Arthur to carry it through
in the face of much opposition.
Of Sir Arthur's numerous successors, the ma-
jority held office for short periods only, the two
longest administrations having been those of Sir
Henry Turner Irving (1874— 1880) and Sir William
Robinson (1885—1891). The former remodelled
and improved several branches of the Public Ser-
vice, established the Volunteer Force, and further
amended the system of primary education, first
introduced by Lord Harris, and subsequently
amended by Sir Arthur Gordon. The latter took
a marked interest in the development of the agri-
cultural resources of the colony, established Dis-
trict Agricultural Boards with a Central Board
meeting in Port-of-Spain, and by exhibitions,
prizes, and other means, endeavored to stimulate
agriculture generally, and to encourage the culti-
vation of a greater variety of products. He estab-
lished a fortnightly steam service round the island,
thereby greatly facilitating communication with
the outlying districts. Sir William must also be
credited with largely increasing the revenue, and
that without any addition to the burdens of the
tax-payers ; for, notwithstanding the wide differ-
ences of opinion that exist as to his policy in regard
to the Pitch Lake, the fact remains, that when he
assumed the government, in 1885, the total annual
24 STARK' 'S GUIDE BOOK
revenue derived from that valuable Crown property
was only 1,574 pounds ; whereas, when he left the
colony, in 1 8 9 1 , it was no less than 3 1 ,9 8 8 ; while
in the past year (1892) it amounted to 37,232
pounds, or within 434 pounds of the total charge,
on account of the public debt. The granting of
" The Concession," under which this large revenue
has accrued, was as bitterly opposed as Sir Arthur
Gordon's Crown Lands' Ordinance ; but it is more
than probable that, in this case also, the results
will, before long, bring home conviction even to
the fiercest of the anti-monopolists.
Sir Frederick Napier Broome assumed the
government of this island on the I9th of August,
1891. He has shown himself intimately ac-
quainted with the future development of the
colony ; his views and opinions were equally as
liberal as those of his predecessors. He has
endeavored in every way to induce an " increasing
occupation of the island," by the extension of the
railway service, and other means.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 25
CHAPTER II.
HOW TO REACH TRINIDAD ; COST OF LIVING,
CONVEYANCES, ETC.
One of the first questions that will arise to a
person intending to go to Trinidad is, How shall
we get there — what are the ways and means of
reaching the island ? We will, therefore, give a
statement with regard to the different line of
steamers that run with more or less regularity to
Trinidad, from Europe and America.
STEAMSHIP LINES.
The most direct line from the United States is
the " Trinidad Line," from New York to Trini-
dad and Grenada. There is also from New York
the Quebec Steamship Co. and the Royal Dutch
West India Mail. From the Dominion of Canada
there is Pickford and Black's Line, sailing from
Halifax via Burmuda and the Caribbee Islands.
There are more steamers from Europe than from
America. There is the Royal Mail Steam Packet
Company, sailing from Southampton via Barbador,
St. Lucia and Grenada. The "London Direct"
Line, sailing from London, calling at Dartmouth
for passengers. West India and Pacific Steamship
Company, sailing from Liverpool ; Harrison Line,
also from Liverpool ; Clyde Steamship Company,
from Glasgow direct to Trinidad. From France
5TARKS GUIDE 1«f WEST INDIES
k \
H\ *«.
MAATINigUE V^.
ST. VINCENT
GRENADA*
""•I*"' t'/t^
J^pr^TtV<SpfM.
,y>
.l^ERAF
«lL
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD, 27
is the " Compagnie Generale Transatlantique,"
sailing from St. Nazaire, Havre, Bordeaux, and
Marseilles, via Martinique, St. Lucia, and South
American ports.
Single fare from United States and Canada
$60 and upwards, return $100 and more accord-
ing to steamer and location of room. From
Europe single fare is $100, and return $175 and
upwards. For further information the intending
tourist will consult the advertisements in the back
part of this book, or write to the steamship
companies.
CURRENT MONEY.
Travellers before leaving England or the
States should obtain a letter of credit, which can
be drawn on at all the West Indian branches of
the Colonial Bank. This will be advisable, as
each British colony has its own notes, which are
not, as a rule, cashed at par except in that par-
ticular colony. English gold and Bank of Eng-
land notes are acceptable at par everywhere.
American gold is at i per cent, discount, and
bank notes can be passed only at a great discount.
CONVEYANCE.
If a person intends to make a stay of two or
three months, it would be well to purchase a sec-
ond-hand buggv and harness before starting. In
OO .
the fall of the year they can be obtained very
cheap, and the freight and duty on same are not
high. If they are bought right the owner can
sell them for twice as much as they cost. A
pony can be bought for $100, and if he is well
28 STARK' S GUIDE BOOK
taken care of he will do good service and will
fetch a fair price when sold. Carriage hire is
very costly in Trinidad, $5 being charged for an
ordinary drive, and unless you own your outfit
you will be hampered at every movement, and
will have to hire or borrow continually if you
intend to see all there is to be seen in Trin-
idad. Most of the private houses of any size
are provided with stabling. The following are
the
CAB REGULATIONS, PORT-OF—SPAIN.
Fares to be paid for any Hackney Carriage hired in
Port-of-Spain, or within one mile thereof.
FARES BY DISTANCE.
For any distance not exceeding one mile, one
shilling; and for every quarter of a mile beyond,
three pence. Between 8 P.M. and 6 A.M. the
charges are half as much more.
FARES BY TIME.
For any time, not exceeding one hour^ four shil-
lings ; and for every subsequent quarter of an
hour, nine pence. Between 8 P.M. and 6 A.M.
the charge is four shillings for the first hour, and
one shilling for every subsequent quarter of an
hour.
Fares to be paid according to distance or time,
at the option of the hirer, expressed at the com-
mencement of the hiring ; if not otherwise ex-
pressed, the fare to be paid by distance. Provided
that no driver shall be compelled to hire his
carriage for a time fare between the hours of
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 29
8 P.M. and 6 A.M. When more than two
persons shall be carried inside a carriage drawn
by one horse only, a sixpence extra is charged
for each person above the number. Two children
under ten years shall be considered as one adult.
When more than two persons are carried inside
a hackney carriage with more luggage than can
be taken inside, four pence extra must be paid for
each package carried outside. Any agreement to
pay more than the legal fare is not binding, and
sums paid beyond the usual fare may be recovered.
The driver may not charge more than the
sum agreed upon. A driver is bound under
penalty to keep any engagement he may make,
but he may demand a reasonable sum as a deposit
from hirers requiring him to wait, over the fare
to which he is entitled, and is subject to penalty
if he refuse to wait, or if he go away before the
expiry of the time for which the deposit shall be
sufficient compensation, or if he refuse to account
for such deposit. If the hirer refuse to pay the
fare, or for any damage, or any compensation for
loss of time, he may be committed to prison.
The number of every carriage, and the number
of persons to be carried therein, is to be marked
on each carriage ; and the driver shall, if required
by hirer, carry this number of persons, or any
less number. No driver shall demand or receive
any sum by way of back fare for the return of
the carriage from the place where discharged.
When the driver, to be paid according to dis-
tance, shall be required by the hirer to stop for
fifteen minutes, or for any longer time, he may
30 STAXK'S GUIDE BOOK
demand a further sum of six pence for every
fifteen minutes that he shall have been stopped.
HOTEL AND BOARDING— HOUSES.
Formerly Trinidad was very badly sup-
plied with hotels, so that travellers hesitated
to come here when not actually compelled by
business. There has, however, been a great
change in this respect. The Queen Park
Hotel, opposite the Savanna, built in 1893, is
one of the very best hotels in the West Indies.
It contains all the modern conveniences ; the
situation is delightful and the charge reasonable —
from $2 to $3 per day. There is also the " Ice
House," in King street, and the comfortable
Family Hotel adjoining it, and the American
Hotel, a spacious building opposite the post-
office, in Vincent street. There are some very
respectable boarding-houses, where a lady or
gentleman may obtain lower rates, but of course
the style of living and the surroundings are more
homely. Most of the best hotels have the tele-
phone attached, are furnished with excellent
baths, and all conveniences and comforts which
tend to make life easy. The cost of living in
Trinidad is about the same as in the other British
West Indian Islands. Servants' wages are some-
what higher than 'in Barbados ; as a rule the
domestics find "their own food. Cooks' wages
are $6 to $8 per .month ; female butler $5 to $8,
and if a male $3 more; groom $10 to $12. A
pleasant six-roomed house in town costs about
$30 a month. Rents vary from $30 to $60,
according to size of house.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 31
COSTS OF TRAVELLING.
At a cost of $ 1 50, visitors can visit St.
Thomas, Santa Cruz, Antigua, St. Kitts, Mar-
tinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, Bar-
bados, Demerara, Trinidad, and other islands,
besides having ample time at his disposal to
make a trip up the Orinoco.
For four months, during our severest winter
weather, he can wander among these islands,
living on board of steamers all the time, costing
about the same as staying at a hotel, only paying
extra when he goes on shore; and coming home,
after evading at least one winter, at a cost some-
what less than $2.50 per day; while his mind
will be opened and his intelligence improved by
the sight of wonders, all the descriptions of which
fail to give an idea of their brilliancy and beauty.
Go, then, you who are in pursuit of pleasure,
health, or game, and on your return you will
never regret having taken the advice here given.
i - . . *
32 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
CHAPTER III.
PORT— OF— SPAIN.
Port-of-Spain, the capital of Trinidad, is pleas-
antly situated on a semicircular and almost level
plain, at the north-east corner of the, Gulf of
Paria.
It is admittedly one of the finest cities in the
West Indies, but the level nature of its site pre-
vents it from being seen to any advantage from
the harbor, while, owing to the large number of
trees in the various squares and around the
houses, the view from the neighboring hills
shows more of the foliage by which it is every-
where shaded than of the city itself.
GREAT FIRE OF l8o8.
On the 24th of March, 1808, the then existing
town, said to have been the second in point of
size in the British West Indies, was almost com-
pletely destroyed by fire. With the exception of
a few stone buildings covered with tiles, all the
houses were built of wood and covered with
shingles or thatch. Under such circumstances,
and occurring as it did in the middle of the dry
season, it is not surprising that the conflagration
was as rapid as it was widespread. All the public
buildings, nearly all the stores, and four hundred
AND HISTOR Y OF TRINIDAD. 33
and thirty-five dwelling-houses were, in a few
hours, reduced to smoking ruins. Thousands
were utterly ruined, and hundreds reduced to
absolute beggary. Nearly five thousand persons
were rendered homeless, and, to add to the misery
of the situation, a second and still more appalling
calamity threatened to follow on the heels of the
first. The entire stock of American and other
provisions, on which the people mainly depended
for food, having been consumed in the general
conflagration, famine stared them in the face.
This terrible sequel to the burning of the town
was, however, prevented by the prompt, if some-
what high-handed, action of the Admiral on the
station, who, in obedience to the dictates of
humanity, which he evidently considered a higher
authority than that of " My Lords," gave orders
to the captains of his cruisers to board all vessels
arriving in West Indian waters and oblige those
loaded with provisions to proceed to Trinidad,
without regard to their original port of destina-
tion. Other and immediate assistance came from
different quarters. Vessels had been despatched
to the neighboring colonies to purchase provi-
sions, and these soon returned bringing not only
the much-needed supplies of food, but also liberal
gifts both of money and provisions for the relief
of the poorer sufferers. Parliament voted 50,000
pounds, the Governor, Brigadier-General Hislop,
gave 1,000 pounds, and General Picton nobly
contributed 4,000 pounds — a sum which had
been presented to him by the colonists in token
of their appreciation and approval of his admin-
34 STARK 'S GUIDE BOOK
istration. This latter sum was declined. One
result of this dire calamity was the enactment of
a law forbidding the erection or covering of build-
ings with inflammable material.
To the enactment above referred to, and to the
good taste, energy, and personal care and attention
of Sir Ralph Woodford, the Port-of-Spain of to-
day is indebted for its proud position among West
Indian cities.
GREAT FIRE OF 1895.
On Monday, March 4, 1895, Port-of-Spain
was again visited with a destructive conflagration
which destroyed two and a half million dollars'
worth of property in the very heart of the busi-
ness portion of the city. At half-past four o'clock
in the afternoon, when the stores were all closed
to allow the clerks to see a cricket match being
played on the Queen's Park Savanna, between
all Trinidad and an English eleven, flames burst
out in the store of Messrs. James Todd & Son
(the Trinidad Arcade) on Frederick street, and
quickly the whole structure was wrapped in flames.
A strong easterly wind fanned the fire, and the
darting tongues of flame leaped high, sending out
showers of sparks which caught the adjoining
buildings. The flames spread with lightning
rapidity up and down Frederick street on both
sides, and attacking Queen, King, Chacon, and
Henry streets. The spacious stores filled with
the finest wares from every quarter of the globe
were laid low, and splendid blocks of buildings
filled with thousands of pounds' worth of goods
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 35
were in the twinkling of an eye nothing but
ashes.
The local fire-brigade was small and inefficient,
and they had only a small hand-engine. They
could do nothing to stay the onward rush of the
destroyer. Moreover the crowd that had col-
lected choked the streets and prevented them
from working to advantage. Then came unex-
pected help. An English and three Ameri-
can ships of war happened to be in the harbor,
and these sent men ashore to help save the town.
From H.M.S. " Buzzard " came 50 blue-jackets,
and from the United States cruisers came 200
sailors and 50 marines under command of Lieu-
tenant-Commander Swift, Lieutenant Roper, of
the " New York," Lieutenant Webb, of the
" Cincinnati," and Lieutenant Boyer, of the " Ral-
eigh." Where discipline had previously been lack-
ing, these men, with their admirable naval train-
ing, restored order, and effective and concentrated
work was done. The marines in a trice had
driven away the crowd, while the sailors set to
work to attack the flames from five different
points. There seemed to be very little water
available, and so buildings had to be destroyed.
They were either torn down, or blown up with
explosive powder and gun cotton. Their ef-
forts were aided by the wind changing, and after
a time the fire was held in check, but not until
the two most important blocks in the city had
been laid waste. At 10.30 P.M. the fire was
gotten under sufficient control to allow the naval
men to return to their ships.
36 STARK' S GUIDE BOOK
The fire was a magnificent sight. The flames
illuminated the heavens for many miles around,
and buildings went down like packs of cards.
What the origin of the fire was has never been
ascertained. It is a mystery, and a mystery it
will likely remain.
There is no doubt that it was due to the naval
men that the whole city was saved from destruc-
tion. The " Port-of-Spain Gazette," the chief
exponent of public opinion, thus speaks of their
work : " The men did splendid service, and it is
due to them that the conflagration did not devas-
tate ten times the area it did." His Excellency
the Governor, Sir Frederick Napier Broome, ad-
dressed letters to Commander Farquharson, R.N.,
of H. M.S. "Buzzard," Rear Admiral R. W.
Meade, commanding U.S. Naval Force, North
Atlantic Station, expressing his acknowledg-
ments of the services rendered. In the latter
letter he spoke as follows : " The large body of
men which you sent ashore, under Lieutenant-
Commander Swift and other officers, worked most
gallantly and admirably in situations often of
considerable danger, and it is greatly owing to
their indefatigable exertions that the fire was not
more extensive than it was, and that much valu-
able property was saved. It will be my pleas-
ing duty to report in this sense to Her Majesty's
Government."
Though there was such a large amount of
destruction done by the fire, and the merchants
of the city sustained heavy losses, it is gratifying
to know that none of the poor quarters of the
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 37
city were burned, nor was there that consequent
misery and starvation which so frequently fol-
low such large conflagrations. There was about
350,006 pounds' worth of insurance upon the
buildings and stocks destroyed, and the merchants
were in a pretty fair position to rebuild.
Since this fire a new style of architecture has
been adopted, a steam fire-engine procured, and
the fire brigade trained to greater efficiency ;
and though there were in 1896 two big fires
on Frederick street, they were not allowed to
spread in either case beyond the walls of a single
building.
NEW BUILDINGS.
As a consequence of the fire, a new and much
more handsome Frederick street has arisen, and
the wealth that was there before the fire has very
materially increased. Port-of-Spain can boast of
handsome public buildings, and it can also boast
of emporiums of commerce that would do credit
to a European or American metropolis. On
both sides of Frederick street, and facing Marine
square, are the ornate glass fronts of spacious
departmental stores, with shelves lined with staple
goods in all lines of merchandise, and with the
latest novelties that make their appearance in the
old or new world. And the competition between
these merchants is so keen that prices are as low
as they are anywhere in the world. New blood
is always coming into the business life of Trini-
dad, and the colony is in • close touch with all
parts of the globe, and readily assimilates to itself
new ideas. The colonists are always on the
38 STAXX'S GUIDE BOOK
move, frequently going " home," as they term a
trip to Europe, to get the latest tips in their
various lines of business.
The architecture of these large bazaars is
worthy of a special description, for it is pretty,
substantial, light and airy, and fairly fire-proof.
They are iron-framed buildings, with stone and
concrete outside walls, and are two-storied, with
what are called lantern roofs of iron and glass.
The first story is one immense compartment,
and the second is really a gallery with a broad
well, through which the light, shining through
the blue glazing of the lantern roof, sheds a soft
radiance over the whole store. The second story
and the roof are supported by ornamental iron
columns capped with Corinthian or composite
capitals. The fronts are decorated with large
plate-glass windows, overshadowed by light iron
galleries, and as these extend in one long line
down the whole length of Frederick street on
both sides, it gives the thoroughfare a handsome
appearance. Plate-glass fronts, iron galleries,
and lantern roofs succeeding one another make
the tout ensemble most harmonious.
These stores are conducted on the same lines
as metropolitan establishments. Messrs. Smith
Bros, have, for instance, four stores (the Bonanza,
Golden Boot, etc.), wherein they sell dry goods,
men's furnishings, household goods, boots and
shoes, hardware, furniture, etc., both wholesale
and retail. The Caledonian House (Goodwille
& Stephens), the Public Supply Store (Miller
Bros.), Wilson & Co. and Wilson, Son, & Co.,
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 39
the Trinidad Arcade (James Todd & Son), the
Bon Marche (I. Pereira & Sons), and Glendin-
ning & Hendy are all large establishments
employing large staffs of clerks, and doing a big
business in supplying the wants not only of the
colony, but also, to some extent, of the neighbor-
ing republic of Venezuela.
The merchants of Port-of-Spain are aggressive
men of business, and their activity and push
would not suffer by comparison with that of
those in larger spheres. Moreover, any one who
thinks that Trinidad is a place where the most
you do is to try and kill time, and where the
people go in for siestas lasting about three hours
in the middle of the day, should disabuse him-
self of that idea at once. You have only to see
the way they boom cheap sales and resort to the
latest advertising devices, the way in which
the clerks hustle from seven in the morning to
five at night, taking a quarter of an hour at noon
for breakfast in a room provided for the purpose
in the store, to know that Trinidad people have
considerable " goaheaditiveness."
STREETS AND SQUARES.
Arriving in the colony when the new town
was just beginning to rise on the ruins of the
old after the fire of 1808, Sir Ralph Woodford
threw his whole heart into the work of laying
out streets, regulating buildings, reserving open
spaces, — in a word, doing all he possibly could
to assure not only the safety and symmetry of
the new town, but also the comfort and health
40 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
of its inhabitants. To him, as has already been
stated, Port-of-Spain owes not only the width
and regularity of its streets, — most of them
being from thirty to forty-five feet, and all
running either due north and south or due east
and west, thus intersecting each other at right
angles, — but also its two great " lungs " or
" breathing spaces," Marine square and Bruns-
wick square. The former, an avenue or walk
rather than a square, is situated in the northern
part of the city, extending across its entire
breadth from the St. Vincent's wharf to the Dry
river. This beautiful avenue is about a hundred
feet wide, and is shaded by rows of noble forest-
trees planted on either side. The latter, a " true "
square, but smaller in size, is a cool and shady
spot near the centre of the city. It was formerly
known as the " Place d'Armes," but this, it is
said, was a popular corruption of a still older
designation — " Place des Ames," a name it
received from having been the scene of a sangui-
nary encounter between two tribes of Indians.
In the middle of this square is a handsome
bronze fountain, the gift of the late Gregor
Turnbull, a well-known merchant and estate
proprietor, long connected with the colony.
These old-established squares are not, however,
the only " lungs " of the city ; there are several
other squares of more recent formation, while to
the north is the beautiful park known as " The
Savanna" or" Queen's park," and containing
over two hundred acres of almost level pasture
or meadow-land, enriched by a belt of large
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 41
umbrageous trees, — a home-park which royalty
itself might envy, and which Kingsley describes
as " a public park and race ground such as neither
London nor Paris can boast."
GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE. BOTANICAL GARDENS.
On the other side of this beautiful park, and
only separated from it by the road or drive that
encircles it, are the Governor's residence (St.
Anne's) and the Botanical Gardens.
The residence — a palace on a small scale —
was erected in 1875, on tne Indian model, from
designs by Mr. Ferguson. It is built of dressed
native limestone, and cost between 40,000 and
50,000 pounds. It has a fine entrance with a
lofty hall, from which the grand staircase leads
to the upper story, occupied by the Governor's
private apartments.
On the lower floor are the large and splendid
reception-room and drawing-room, as also dining-
room, billiard-room, etc. The Botanical Gardens,
which have justly become one of the sights
of Trinidad, were established during the ad-
ministration of Sir Ralph Woodford, circa i 8 1 8-
1820, under the direction of Mr. D. Lockhart.
In 1846 Mr. Lockhart was succeeded by Mr.
Purdie, under whose direction, and with the ever-
ready aid and encouragement of Lord Harris,
the Gardens were greatly improved and their area
considerably extended. Mr. Purdie died in 1857,
and was buried in the lovely " God's acre " within
the grounds, now known as " The Cemetery."
His successors were Dr. Herman Cruger, 1857
42 STARK'S GUIDE BOOK
to 1864, and Mr. Henry Prestoe, 1864 to
both of whom did much to increase the reputa-
tion of the Gardens. The present superintendent,
Mr. J. H. Hart, F.L.S., formerly of Jamaica,
was appointed in March, 1887.
While it is quite true that none but a botanist
can fully realize all the riches of the world of
plant-life represented in these Gardens, yet to
every lover of nature, whether versed or unversed
in botanical science, they present an endless suc-
cession of new and beautiful forms, ranging from
the most delicate mosses and tiny film-ferns to
the stately palms and giant forest-trees, a field for
contemplation and study as wide as it is wonder-
ful. Even the visitor blind to all the charms of
nature — and "if such there be, go mark him
well " — cannot fail to derive pleasure from an
early morning ramble through these Gardens,
their shady walks and groves being, especially at
that time, deliciously cool, while the air is made
fragrant by .the perfume of flower and blossom,
and the morning breeze is laden with the aroma
from the nutmeg and other spice trees.
Among some of the more striking features of
the Gardens may be noticed several specimens of
the Amherstia nobilis, the tallest, nearly 50 feet
high, being annually covered with numbers of its
peculiar and beautiful flowers ; the Poui trees,
Tecoma serratifolia and Texoma specfabi/is, per-
haps the most striking of the forest giants, their
towering stems carrying, when in flower, what
looks like one huge bouquet of golden-yellow
flowers ; the Traveller's tree, Urania spedosa, —
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 43
known as the Ravenala Madagascar ensis^ — with
its graceful crown of plantain-like leaves growing
in a fan shape at the top of a lofty trunk 35 to
40 feet high ; the Brazil-nut tree, Bertholetia ex-
ce/sa, which fruits prolifically every year, each
shell or large nut containing ten to twenty seeds
— the Brazil nut of commerce ; the Leopard-
wood tree, Brosinum Guianensis^ from the heart-
wood of which are made the pretty walking-sticks
of that name ; the Cannon-ball tree, Couroupita
Guianensis, so graphically described by Kings-
ley ; the tall, smooth white-barked Piihecolobium
filiciflum and many splendid Samans, Pithecolo-
bium saman^ the latter producing extremely sweet
pods much relished by cattle. Among the
palms may be noted the Palmyra palm, Borassus
Flahelliformis ; a noble specimen of the Corypha
Elata ; the Talipot palm, Corypha umbracilifera ;
and several fine specimens of Date palms.
Some of what may be familiarly described as
the " climbers and twiners " are both interesting
and beautiful ; one of them, known by the chil-
dren visiting the Gardens as " the swing," is
deserving of special notice. It is thus described
by Mr. Hart in his report for 1888: "A
special feature in the Pleasure Grounds, and one
much admired by visitors, is the large plant of
Anodendron paniculatum, A.D.C., one of the
Apocynacea^ one part of which forms a natural
swing, and the other produces numerous strands,
twisted in the same manner, and quite as large as
a ship's cable. The plant rests upon a large
Mora tree, Mora excelsa^ some 40 feet in height,
44 STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
among the topmost branches of which it produces
annually its panicles of greenish flowers."
There is one view in the Gardens which no
visitor should miss. Near the centre of the
grounds is an eminence about 30 feet in height,
on the top of which is a cosey kiosk or summer-
house — if such a term may be used in this land
of never-ending summer ; and although the hill
is a little steep, yet the view from this quiet and
beautiful spot amply repays the climb. Behind
tower the densely wooded hills 1,000 feet high ;
below lie the beautiful Gardens, or rather such
glimpses of them as can be seen through the
dense mass of green foliage formed by the tree-
tops ; while directly in front the beautiful sa-
vanna, with its wide extent of greensward and its
many noble trees, stretches away till it meets the
outlines of the city in the distance — the outlines
only, for little else save the church-spires and
the house-tops stands out clear among the mass
of foliage ; to the east the view is closed by an-
other spur of the northern hills, its slopes
wooded to the very peak, while to the west the
eye rests on a scene that is as picturesque as it is
impressive.
In the foreground is the St. Clair pasture and
the Rifle Range, another green strip of meadow-
land, while beyond are seen the deep-blue waters
of the ever-placid Gulf of Paria, the beautiful
" Five Islands," looking like green specks on
the blue expanse, and far away mid the mist
on the western horizon the shadowy outlines of
the Venezuelan mountains. The view is indeed
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 45
a lovely one, and while the eye is now and then
attracted for a moment to the white wings of
some passing vessel or the smoke-curls of some
steamer swiftly gliding across the bit of blue, yet
it quickly returns to scan, with ever-increasing
delight, the beautiful landscape in all its peaceful
glory, and those lovely islets that form so charm-
ing a feature in the picture.
PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
Although the city possesses a large number of
public buildings, yet only a few of them have
any pretensions to architectural style or beauty.
Preeminent among these few are the Roman
Catholic Cathedral, situated at the eastern end of
Marine square, and the Anglican Cathedral
(formerly Trinity Church), to the south of
Brunswick square, both of which are really fine
buildings and reflect great credit on the architect,
Mr. P. Reinagle, from whose designs and under
whose personal superintendence they were both
built. The Colonial Hospital, designed by Mr.
Samuel, a native of the island, although of quite
a different style of architecture, is an equally fine
building. The Police Barracks, a more recent
erection, in the Italian Gothic style, and built of
native limestone, is a massive and imposing struct-
ure. Among the other public buildings of more
or less elegant design, there is one deserving of
particular mention, the beautiful Roman Catholic
church known as " The Church of the Sacred
Heart." It is built in the early English Gothic
style, and the most perfect symmetry and harmony
46 STARK -'S GUIDE BOOK
are preserved in every detail of the structure, as
well as in all the internal fittings and decorations.
It is undoubtedly one of the most elegant
and artistic of the churches of Port-of-Spain, of
which, it may perhaps be well to add, there are
quite a number. The city proper — that is, within
the municipal metes and bounds as laid down
some forty years ago — contains about 35,000
inhabitants ; but taking in the eastern and western
suburbs, which lie just outside the city limits,
and are included within its bounds as defined by
the new Municipal Ordinance, the population is
between 45,000 and 50,000. The city is well
supplied with water of excellent quality from two
reservoirs, the larger one situated in the Maraval
valley as already mentioned, and the smaller in
the St. Anne's valley.
The principal places of business, the bank,
the stores, and all the larger shops, as well as
the government offices, the law courts, the post-
office, town hall, public library, etc., are situated
in the southern part of the city. The merchants,
officials, and leading citizens generally, reside in
the northern part of the city or in the suburbs,
so that on Sundays, and after business hours on
week-days, the southern part of the city is
almost as quiet and deserted as the " city " part
of London.
Many of the villa residences in the town and
suburbs are models of tasteful architecture, and
are made still more attractive by the trees, shrubs,
and flowers amidst which they are all but hidden
from view.
ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, MARINE SQUARE.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 47
BOROUGH COUNCIL.
For municipal purposes the town is divided
into five wards, each electing three councillors,
who form the council, formerly called the town
council, but since 1853 the borough council.
The mayor is elected by the councillors, one-
third of whom retire annually. The qualification
for electors is the occupancy of a house rated at
a rental of not less than twenty pounds, while
that of a councillor is ownership of real property
assessed on an annual value of fifty pounds, or
tenancy of property assessed on an annual rental
of seventy-five pounds sterling. The annual
rental value of the house property within borough
bounds, according to the assessment of 1892, was
161,985 pounds, but this is exclusive of all
public buildings, churches, and schools. The
municipal revenue for 1892 amounted to 17,039
pounds, while the expenditure, including that
from loans, was 28,331 pounds. The debenture
debt of the city on 3ist of December, 1892,
amounted to 40,933 pounds. The care of the
streets, of which there are over thirty miles
within the borough bounds, is one of the heaviest
items of municipal expenditure, especially in the
wet season, when the heavy rains wash away the
road metal to an enormous extent. The streets
are, however, well looked after and kept in
excellent order, any damage being quickly re-
paired.
There are three public markets, — the Eastern,
Western, and Southern Markets, — all the prop-
erty of the municipality, which, in addition to
48 STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
other city property, is also the owner of " The
Cocal " at Mayaro, — the finest cocoanut estate
in the island, — and of the small islands of
Monos, Huevos, Chacachacare, and Patos.
PUBLIC LIBRARY, VICTORIA INSTITUTE AND
MUSEUM.
Among the local institutions of Port-of-Spain
are the Public Library and the Victoria Institute
and Museum. The former was founded in 1851
under the administration of Lord Harris, and
contains about 20,000 volumes. It is under the
management of fifteen members, of whom six
O
are nominated by His Excellency the Governor
and two by the Borough Council of Port-of-
Spain, the other members being elected annually
by the subscribers. It is supported by an annual
grant of 400 pounds from the Colonial Govern-
ment, one of 100 pounds from the Borough
Council of Port-of-Spain, and the subscriptions
of members, which in 1892 amounted to 152
pounds. The subscription is 12 shillings per
annum, payable in advance, yearly, quarterly, or
monthly. There is a free reading-room con-
nected with the institution well supplied with
journals and periodicals- — English, American,
French, and West Indian. The Library is open
daily from 8 A.M. to 9 P.M., and strangers visit-
ing the colony will meet with every attention
from the courteous secretary and librarian. Miss
M. L. Woodlock.
The Victoria Institute and Museum, founded
in commemoration of Her Majesty's Jubilee, was
TRINITY CHURCH.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 49
opened on lyth September, 1892. It contains
the nucleus of what will no doubt in time become a
museum worthy of the colony. Among some of
its more interesting contents are a fine collection
of stuffed birds, representative of the ornithology
of the island, presented to the colony by the late
Dr. Leotaud ; a very fine and valuable collection
of shells, the gift of the widow of the late Robert
William Keate, who was governor of the colony
from 1857 to 1864; an interesting collection of
reptiles and insects presented by the late Dr.
Court ; and many minor collections and specimens.
Thq. Institute is the headquarters of the Central
African Board, and also the meeting-place of the
Medical Council, the Scientific Association, the
Field Naturalists' Club, and the Literary Asso-
ciation.
In former years Trinidad possessed one of the
best militia forces in the West Indies. It con-
sisted of a troop of light dragoons, a troop of
hussars, a brigade of artillery, three regiments of
foot, and three corps of mounted chasseurs, eight
district companies, and two battalions ; the whole
kept up with strict military discipline. This fine
body of citizen soldiers, numbering about 3,000
of all ranks, was disbanded in 1839. At the
present time, although the colony has not as large
a body of men under arms, it can still boast of
a well-drilled and efficient volunteer force, con-
sisting of three troops of cavalry, two batteries of
field artillery, and six companies of infantry, the
total strength of the force being about 550 of all
rank.
5o STARK' S GUIDE BOOK
Among local corporate companies and enter-
prises are the Tramway Company, the Telephone
Company, the Building and Loan Association,
the Crop Advance and Discount Company, an
ice factory (The West Indian Ice and Refriger-
ating Company, limited), a soap factory, and a
tannery.
THE PRESS.
Trinidad is blessed with a free and untram-
melled, and with an active, up-to-date press.
The first paper in the colony was started on
August i, 1799, by Mr. Gallagher, and was
called the " Trinidad Weekly Courant." Dur-
ing the early days of the press, there was a very
strict censorship, and those in authority held the
reins very tightly over the heads of the poor
editors, and if they attempted to kick over the
traces they were pulled up with a jerk. The
proofs of the articles had to be submitted to the
Governor or his deputy, and if there was any-
thing of which he did not approve he struck it
out. Sometimes the erring editor would be
sent to jail, or, if he did not wish to resort to
such extreme measures, the Governor would
graciously send down to borrow the handle of
the press, which was an official notification to
suspend publication during the time that His
Excellency wished to continue the enforced loan.
These little official attentions, such as borrowing
' O
the press and inviting the editor to partake of
the Government's hospitality for a time, extended
until Governor Woodford's time, in 1813.
The chief moulder of public opinion in Trini-
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 51
dad is the " Port-of-Spain Gazette," a six-page,
penny daily paper, and, judging it from the
point of view of price, editorial opinion, news
catering, and advertising patronage, it has no supe-
'rior in the West Indies. The proprietor is Mr.
T. R. N. Laughlin, who purchased it in 1874
from Mr. H. J. Clark, the present Superintendent
of the government printing-office. It was then
a small weekly paper, selling for twenty cents a
copy. Mr. Laughlin built it up through suc-
cessive enlargements, greater frequency of issue,
diminished price, and growing circulation, and it
is now a power in the colony. It has been issued
daily for the last four years, and is printed by
electricity. The owner and proprietor, and
director of its policy, is Mr. T. R. N. Laughlin,
who is a thorough newspaper man, and the edi-
torial writer, Mr. L. M. Eraser, a talented writer
and the author of a valuable and elaborate
" History of Trinidad," published by the Gov-
ernment. The paper was established in 1825
by Mr. J. H. Mills, and it has therefore the
prestige of age to add to its influence. Dur-
ing its seventy-two years of life, it has been
published almost continuously, there being
breaks of only a month or two at a time. The
paper is one of the leaders of reform sentiment
in the colony, and is helping with all its might
and main to bring the day when the franchise
will be extended to the people of the colony.
The other papers are the " Daily News," a
four-page daily penny paper, owned by a syndi-
cate of merchants ; the " Reform," a bi-weekly
52 STARK'S GUIDE BOOK
political paper; the "Catholic News," a weekly ;
and " El Pasellon Venezolano," a bi-weekly
Spanish paper.
AMUSEMENTS AND RECREATIONS.
Port-of-Spain is well supplied with the means
for recreation and amusement. There are pleas-
ant drives and cycling routes all about ; there is
the balmy trip by steamer to the islands in the
gulf, where a delicious bath may be enjoyed ; there
is a variety of evening amusements in the way of
entertainments by local dramatic clubs, orches-
tras and church organizations, dramatic and
operatic performances by occasional travelling
companies, and public and private dances, balls,
and dinners galore. On the broad Queen's Park
Savanna there are sports of every kind in prog-
ress every Saturday, cricket, golf, polo, football,
etc. There are two flourishing golf-clubs in the
colony, chief of which is the St. Andrew's Golf
Club, and there are dozens of cricket clubs, where
French and English Creoles, Englishmen, Scotch-
men, blacks and colored men, Germans, Vene-
zuelans, Hindoos, and even Chinamen meet in
friendly rivalry with the willow. Then there
is horse-racing, yacht-racing, etc., there being sev-
eral jockey organizations and two aquatic clubs.
The head and front of the sporting life of the
community is the Queen's Park Cricket Club, which
is established on beautiful and spacious grounds
at St. James, a mile or so from town, in one of
the suburbs and on the tram line. The grounds,
which cover ten acres, were opened in the fall of
ENTRANCE TO TRINITY CHURCH.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 53
1896, and they will compare very favorably with
the homes of the metropolitan athletic clubs ot
the great centres. Some $3,000 was expended
in relaying the cricket ground, and there are three
large and handsome pavilions, and stands for
spectators. A bicycle track, three laps to the
mile, is to be laid, and a gymnasium erected, and
a boat-house built on the shore near by, and the
total expenditure will, it is expected, amount to
fully $3,000.
There are two lines of tram cars, both starting
from opposite the railway station on the wharf,
one proceeding in a north-westerly direction, pass-
ing up St. Vincent street, and along Tragarete
road, and stopping at the top of Tranquillity
boulevard near the south-west corner of the sa-
vanna ; the other proceeding in a north-easterly
direction, passing up Frederick street, along Park
street into St. Ann's road, and stopping at the
north-east corner of the savanna, in the near
vicinity of Government House and the Botanical
Gardens. The cars run regularly every twenty
minutes, with occasional extra ones at shorter
intervals.
The town is also well supplied with cabs, and
hackney carriages can be hired by the hour or
day. Communication by telephone is general
throughout the city, all the principal places of
business, the public offices, as well as numbers of
private residences, being connected with the Tel-
ephone Exchange.
54 STARK -'S GUIDE BOOK
CHAPTER IV.
SAN FERNANDO, ST. JOSEPH, ARIMA, AND PRINCES*
TOWN.
San Fernando is distant from Port-of-Spain
about forty-two miles, and is the second largest
town of the colony.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ROUTE.
It is reached by rail from Port-of-Spain, and
the route passes through a very interesting coun-
try. The first object noticed after leaving Port-
of-Spain is a plain white stone building on a hill.
This is the government magazine for the storing
of gunpowder, dynamite, ammunition, and other
explosives and inflammable commodities, which
the public are allowed to keep in limited quanti-
ties. The quarries at the foot of the hills are
worked by gangs of convicts, and furnish good
material for road-making. High upon the hill
is the little Church of our Lady of Laventille, a
landmark for many miles ; near to it is Fort Pic-
ton. The estate of Laventille belongs to Messrs.
Turnbull ; the manager's house on the hill stands
alone in its glory in a magnificent situation, the
views from which are far-reaching.
Mr. Andre Blazini's Barataria plantation is on
the left just before coming to the village of San
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 55
Juan. This village is situated about half a mile
back from the track, and said to be older than
St. Joseph's, and the inhabitants, in spite of its
proximity to the town, are very primitive in their
habits. To the right of the San Juan railway
station are seen five iron chimneys ; these are the
works of the Colonial Company's El Socorro,
where the system known as that of Fryer's Patent
Concreter is in use. The road to the left leads
to the lovely Santa Cruz valley. Rolling over
the iron bridge, a glimpse is caught of the Roman
Catholic church between the trees.
On the right is the Aranjuez estate, also be-
longing to Mr. A. Blazini ; it is considered very
fertile. Besides its steam power, it can be also
worked by a water wheel ; the odd-looking gutter
which is seen supplies the motive power. A
large building has been recently constructed for
a complete vacuum pan plant.
A little further on is a curious circular-shaped
house, the original factory of the old St. Clair
estate, where the mill was worked by cattle. The
building near it, fenced in with iron railings, is
the hospital for coolies. The crossing known as
Le Vivier gap, just where the line curves, was
the scene of one of the few serious accidents that
have occurred since the formation of the railway.
St. Joseph's District Hospital is seen on the left,
near the railway station.
Valsayn, the next estate on the right, belong-
ing to Mr. P. Giuseppi, is a historic spot. The
residence, though old, is certainly, from its asso-
ciations, one of the most interesting places in the
56 START'S GUIDE BOOK
colony. In the drawing-room was signed by
Don Chacon the Capitulation Treaty by which
Trinidad became a British possession. Sir
Ralph Abercrombie and Admiral Harvey were
the two representatives of England on the occa-
sion, and amongst those present was a certain
Don Jose Mayan, who, as Teniente de Justicia
Mayor of San Jose de Oruna, was an important
functionary. The portraits of this gentleman,
his wife and daughter, adorn the drawing-room
now as they did nearly a hundred years ago, and
Mr. Giuseppi points to these interesting heir-
looms with justifiable pride. In 1525, when Sir
Walter Raleigh steered his boats up the Caroni,
landed his men, and set fire to St. Joseph, he
marched through what is the Valsayn Orchard.
This orchard contains all kinds of rare tropical
fruit-trees, such as litchi, wang-pi, lokatu, from
far-off quarters of the globe. One rare specimen
planted by Don Mayan is said to be the only
one of the kind on the island. A few of the
trees have been planted by royal hands ; thus
two fine young palmistes were planted by the
two English princes, sons of the Prince of Wales,
when they were here in the " Bacchante " in
1 88 1, and a couple of Portugal orange-trees in
1886 by the Count and Countess de Bardi, a
delicate compliment to the latter, who is a prin-
cess of the House of Braganza.
ST. JOSEPH.
St. Joseph, which for many years was the
Spanish capital, was founded about 1584 by Don
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 57
Antonio de Berrio y Oruna, one of the first con-
quistadores. It is beautifully situated on the
rising ground at the foot of the northern ridge of
hills. The Roman .Catholic church, the only
one in town, is a lofty edifice accommodating six
hundred people. The foundation stone was laid
by the energetic Sir Ralph Woodford in 1815.
The fine stained-glass window representing the
Holy Family was presented by the late Mrs.
Bernard; the two smaller ones of SS. John and
Andrew, by the late Mgr. Orsini. This hard-
working priest, who was of noble Corsican birth,
has a monument, with well-executed bust, to his
memory on the south side of the chancel. In
the church choir are buried Mgr. Nicolas Ger-
vais de la Bride and his two chaplains, Franciscan
monks, all of whom were killed by the Indians
in 1733. In the churchyard are several curious
old tombs which will bear inspection.
The oldest society in the island is one con-
nected with this church ; it still retains its Spanish
name, " Sociedad de Santissima Hermanidad,"
founded by Don Antonio de Berrio in 1644.
Some of its records, which are carefully kept,
date back far into the last century. Beyond the
church is a savanna, where the barracks formerly
stood, the main buildings being on the left of the
road, the parade ground and stables on the right.
In 1838 a serious mutiny broke out amongst the
negro troops then stationed there, which was
quelled only by considerable loss of life. Three
of the ringleaders were sentenced to death, and
were shot almost exactly where the convent now
58 STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
stands, at the east end of the savanna. A railed
enclosure marks the graves of several English
officers.
From St. Joseph the railroad branches off in
two directions ; one branch runs south to San
Fernando, and the other east to Arima, which is
the only other town besides Port-of-Spain and
San Fernando that enjoys municipal government,
which was granted by Royal Charter, Aug. i,
1888. It is situated on the right bank of the
Arima river sixteen miles from Port-of-Spain.
The road from St. Joseph to Arima passes
through some of the finest estates on the island ;
from the estate of El Dorado, which is passed on
the left, there runs a bridle-path which leads to
one of Trinidad's most lovely valleys. To come
to the island on pleasure and not ride up the
Cura valley would be a great mistake. The
luxuriant tropical vegetation, with its giant trees,
gorgeous shrubs, fantastic creepers, and dainty
ferns lining the hillsides ; the deliciously cool
and sparkling stream, now meandering gently
along, then rushing down a miniature rapid,
tumbling over huge bowlders and suddenly turn-
ing round corners, — all gratify and charm the
senses. There is another attraction in this
vicinity that is not generally known ; in fact, so
little is known of some parts of Trinidad that it
was only in March, 1880, that Mr. L. J. Lange,
surveyor, discovered one of the most beautiful
waterfalls on the island. After riding about
seven miles from El Dorado plantation, and fol-
lowing a trail through the virgin forest for about
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 59
a mile and a half, the traveller is rewarded with
the sight of a splendid cascade, with a fall of about
three hundred and fifty feet, with a far greater
volume of water than thatot Maracas, and form-
ing a basin of clear cold water at the foot, in which
the bathing is superb.
ARIMA.
Arima was once the principal Indian settle-
ment on the island. Being gradually driven
eastward from the haunts of civilization, they
left Tacarigua and Arouca to congregate round the
heights of Arima, where the Capuchin monks
established a mission, and which continued in
charge of a priest, or padre ', and Corregidor^ or mag-
istrate, until after the British occupation, when
they were placed under the Corregidor alone.
The Indians enjoyed a sort of municipal govern-
ment of their own ; each head of a family had
his own allotment or conuco. They were treated
as minors, and were governed by a code of rules
which would at the present day be considered
more suited for the management of school chil-
dren than for the regulation of an able-bodied
community owning and cultivating their own
lands. The settlement, however, did not thrive,
notwithstanding all this paternal care, and the
aboriginal Indian race, which in 1783 had been
reduced to 2,000, gradually dwindled away, and
has now ceased to exist as a separate race.
Joseph, the historian, attributes the gradual ex-
tinction or absorption of the Indian race to the
following cause. He says : " The Indian men,
60 ST ARK'S GUIDE BOOK
since they are obliged to live in society, choose
mates of other races, and the women do the
same ; hence out of every seven children born of
an Indian mother during the last thirty years
there are scarcely two of pure blood." The
festival of Santa Rosa, the patron saint of the
mission, was in olden times a gala day with the
Indians, and retained some of its ancient splendor
even down to a comparatively recent period.
Dancing, sports, and games were publicly held
in Lord Harris's square, the inhabitants of the
surrounding districts coming sometimes a long
distance to take part in their gayeties. Even the
Governor with his staff honored the proceedings
with his presence. Now all is changed. Although
the day is observed as a holiday, yet how differ-
ent is the celebration ! The Indians with their
newly elected king and queen, their dances and
their sports, have long since passed away, and the
principal and only public amusements of the day
are the annual races, which have of recent years
become quite an important event in the local
sporting calendar.
Arima, however, is fast coming into impor-
tance. It is in the centre of one of the largest
cocoa districts of the colony. It occupies a pict-
uresque site at the foot of the northern range of
mountains, and is well laid out, its streets being
wide like those of Port-of-Spain, intersecting each
other at right angles, with a plaza or square in the
centre. The Arima Savanna, on which is the
grand stand and where the annual races are held,
is of good size. On the west side of the savanna
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 61
are the District Hospital and doctor's residence;
at the north-east corner, the market. On Lord
Harris's square is the stone Roman Catholic
church ; on one side of the church is the pres-
bytery, and on the other the convent school,
while on the opposite side of the square are the
Police Station and the Government School for
Girls, that for the boys being near the Episcopal
church. The different objects of interest on the
line of the railway between Port-of-Spain and St.
Joseph junction have been already described in
the first part of this chapter. It will be necessary
to take up the journey only from the point where
the line branches off at St. Joseph. Here it
turns off sharply and runs in a southerly direc-
tion, leaving St. Augustin estate on the left ; after
crossing the iron bridge over the Caroni the sta-
tion is reached, which is named, like the district,
after the river. Parties desiring alligator-shoot--
ing frequently have their boats sent from town
up the Caroni to meet them here or at the adja-
cent estate of McLeod Plain. Still better sport,
however, is to be obtained at a small lake about
two miles inland known as Bejucal. Here alli-
gators, wild birds, and the peculiar armor-coated
cascadoura are found in quantities. Leaving the
Caroni station on the right, the Wilderness plan-
tation is passed, then comes the Mon Plaisir
estate situated opposite the Cunupia station.
This part of the country is becoming famous for
the cultivation of tobacco and limes. The site
for the little Episcopal chapel at Cunupia was
given by a wealthy heathen coolie living here.
62 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
The next station is Chaguanas. A village is
gradually growing up in this neighborhood, and
the forest and high woods in this vicinity are worth
seeing; the railway passes through unopened
lands, the huge trees, with their burden of para-
sites, not having yet succumbed to the woodman's
axe. The next station is Carapichaima ; near this
village is the Orange Field plantation, where the
Ramie Fibre Company have commenced opera-
tions with about 150,000 plants. This gives
promise of being the foundation of a flourishing
and lucrative industry, the fibre working up
splendidly, making textures of various degrees of
strength and durability, from coarse sacking to
fine damask. Mr. John Cummings, who is the
largest resident proprietor in the island, and one
of the most liberally disposed, owns a series of
estates, extending a distance of fully seven miles
from Carapichaima. A part of this property is
as yet uncultivated, and is, to all appearance, high
woods, but is tenanted by a herd of wild cattle.
Some years ago about fifteen head of cattle es-
caped from Felicite estate, Chaguanas, and took
to the woods. There is now not less than three
hundred of them, and noble beasts some of them
are. Occasionally, sportsmen and hunters come
across a drove of them, when they immediately
stampede. The next station is Couva, which is a
fast-growing, flourishing district, comprising the
villages of Exchange, California, Spring, and
Freeport. Here in a cluster are the post-office,
wardens, and savings-bank office, a Roman Cath-
olic church and school, and police-station ; there
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 63
is also, a short distance away, a new Presbyterian
church and school, and the beautiful Episcopal
church of St. Andrew. The train then passes
over the muddy Couva river by the longest iron
bridge on the island.
California station is then passed and Claxton's
Bay station reached ; on the left after leaving the
latter station is the Plaisance estate ; here is one
of the most interesting curiosities in the island,
— two thermal springs. A bath-house has been
erected covering two spacious concrete baths.
The clear spring-water, apparently like any other
till you become aware of its warmth, flows di-
rectly into the baths from the hillside, in just
such a stream as might be poured from a bucket.
The temperature of the water is 100° to 105°
Fahrenheit. Bathing here is particularly pleas-
ant and soothing after the first strangeness of the
unusual warmth has subsided. As these baths
are private property, permission must be ob-
tained to use same from the owner or manager
of the estate.
Rolling over the viaduct, near which is the
government school, the Roman Catholic church
Pointe a Pierre is seen on the hill, commanding
a fine view. At Marbella junction passengers
going towards Princes' Town change to the
Guaracara railway, which here branches off. Pur-
suing our course to San Fernando, the Guara-
cara river is crossed and a good view of the gulf
obtained on the right, and Marbella works
owned by Mr. A. P. Marryat on the opposite
eminence. The pastures with their trees dotted
64 STARR'S GUIDE BOOK
about appear like an English park. As the
gulf is approached, quantities of pelicans are
seen flying busily about searching for their prey ;
sometimes they swoop down straight as an arrow
for the unwary fish they have spotted during
their flight. The white egrets, too, look very
pretty wading through the shallow water or
stalking along the muddy banks. Passing an
abandoned estate and skirting the Naparima hill,
we arrive at San Fernando de Naparima, as it
was originally named.
SAN FERNANDO.
The town was founded a few years before the
British occupation by Governor Chacon. It
soon had a market in a square called Plaza de
San Carlos, its church cemetery, and rest-house
for travellers called " Casa Real." In 1818 the
old town was completely destroyed by a large
fire.
High street, the chief business thoroughfare,
contains a number of well arranged, amply
stocked stores. Harris promenade is the centre
of a number of public institutions ; near here are
the hospital, market, the Presbyterian, Episco-
palian, Roman Catholic, Methodist, and Baptist
churches, police barracks, fire-brigade station,
town hall, and convent.
A large proportion of the inhabitants of San
Fernando are coolies. The houses of these
people are small and lightly built, and furnish-
ing the best of them involves but little expendi-
ture ; there is no glass in the windows, there are
•J-.
H
W
en
JC
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 65
no chimneys, all the cooking being done out-
doors ; no beds, tables, or chairs. The inmates
sleep on the floor, eat the few morsels of their
scanty meals while seated on their heels, cuddling
around a few jugs and dishes of the rudest earth-
enware set in the middle of the room. A recent
writer, describing the coolies at San Fernando,
says :
COOLIE SILVERSMITH.
" I was much entertained and interested in
watching a coolie man at work, squatting on his
heeis_jn the open doorway of a wrecked ~and dis-
jomte4_shanty. He was bending over an earth-
enware furnace, in size and shape resembling a
top-hat, beside which there were a block of wood
(twelve or fifteen inches square, overlaid with a
fragment of iron boiler-plate half an inch in
thickness) which served as an anvil, and a
few rude tools ; these, with the flower-pot fur-
nace, completed the outfit of a Hindu silversmith,
for of that craft was the object of my curiosity.
The implements of this artificer's profession were
ancient and worn, cumbersome and unwieldy ;
nevertheless, he plied his trade with no little
skill, and what he lacked in conveniences and
ingenuity he made up for by perseverance and
diligence.
" One of my companions, having made a bar-
gain with the smith, handed him three English
florins which he desired to have manufactured into
one bangle of the choicest East Indian design and
workmanship.
"The coolie man heated the coins, cut them into
66 STARK'S GUIDE BOOK
narrow pieces, of which he welded the ends to-
gether, using hammer and anvil, thus making a
bar four or five inches long, and, as I remember,
two or three lines in width and thickness. Cover-
ing one end of this strip of metal with damp
clay to protect his fingers from the heat, the
bangle-maker stuck the silver into the diminu-
tive charcoal fire, which he set aglow by blowing
through a tube similar in appearance to a glass-
blower's pipe. When the metal was at a dull-
red heat he beat it soundly, forging it round and
smooth to the diameter of telegraph wire ; then,
carefully bending it in a circle, joined the two
ends, welding them together neatly and with de-
spatch. This done, and the joint having been
covered with a rough mass of hot silver fashioned
into a ball of the size of a small cherry, the
Hindu held out the half-finished trinket for our
inspection and approval. He next smoothed and
polished the surface of the ball by hammering ;
then he graved and stamped it with various dies,
cutting simple, conventional patterns of irregular
design.
" Next, having selected a small silver serpent
from an assortment of ready-made devices and
charms which he kept in a cocoanut shell, he
plunged it into the fire, and blew through his
blow-pipe until the cobra became blood-red.
Pinching the reptile's tail between two bits of
moist clay, the Hindu drew it from the fire and,
before it lost its angry hue, deftly corkscrewed
the emblem of immortality around the wire of
the bangle in four complete coils, all the time
AND HISTOR Y OF TRINIDAD. 67
tapping the snake here and there gently with his
mallet, in this way fastening it securely in its
place. Plunging the ornament into a calabash
of cocoanut oil, he waited until the serpent ceased
hissing, and the Indian bracelet was then ready
to be clasped on the wrist of whomsoever my
gallant gentleman had in his mind when he
O O
found it in his heart to give the order for it.
" The jeweller handed the bangle to my friend,
and requested the payment of three shillings ;
one for business he explained, tapping himself
significantly on the breast-bone, and two for her,
indicating the coiled serpent. He thus gave us
to understand that he charged two shillings for
the silver of which the -coiling reptile was made,
and one shilling only for business ; that is, for the
time and labor expended in the manufacture of
the trinket.
" The price was reasonable enough, for at nine
shillings the bangle would have been cheap, even
if the metal in her (the serpent) had been of base
alloy, and we had no reason to believe it was not
of sterling silver ; moreover, we knew that the
wire of the ornament contained the six shillings'
worth of British coin which my companion had
supplied from his own pocket."
PRINCES' TOWN.
Princes' Town, formerly known as the mission
of Savanna Grande, is another of the old Indian
missions. It is a pretty and thriving township
situated about eight miles east of San Fernando.
Its change of name was made in 1880, in honor
68 STARK'S GUIDE BOOK
of the visit of the two sons of the Prince of
Wales. It can be reached easily either by the
Cipero tramway, which conveniently connects
High street with the heart of Princes' Town, or
by the railway, changing to the Guaracara line at
Marbella junction. A far pleasanter way, how-
ever, of seeing the Naparima country is to ride or
drive there, going by the north road and return-
ing by the south. Carriages can be obtained at
San Fernando.
The great attraction of Princes' Town is the
Mud volcano. This has always been an object
of interest to visitors, though many have been
disappointed at its tame appearance. It consists
of a flat bare mud-circle of about a hundred
yards in diameter, dotted here and there with
conical mounds- of from one to three feet in
height, the summit of these forming tiny craters
from which ooze bubbles of muddy water.
On Feb. 3, 1887, about five o'clock in the
morning, the residents of this neighborhood were
alarmed by a terrible roaring and rumbling sound
which seemed to issue from the adjacent woods.
This continued for about thirty seconds, then sud-
denly ceased, and on the proprietor of the Hin-
dustan estate hastening to the Mud volcano, he
found that an eruption had just taken place, and
had caused the surface to rise four or five feet
above its former height, and increased the area
fully half as much again. Several dry trunks
and branches of trees, and a few even of the
growing ones which had originally skirted the
mud, were now embedded in it. There appeared
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 69
to have been a series of explosions following each
other in rapid succession, the weight of the sec-
ond load of mud vomited forth causing the first
to bulge out, the third having a similar effect on
the second, and so on, giving the whole a strati-
fied appearance. The path approaching the
scene was rent in several places, the fissures
being from four to six inches wide at the top.
The negroes call this place " The Devil's Wood-
yard," and do not like it at all. " Too much jum-
bies," they say. The water is slightly brackish
in flavor, and at times emits a smell suggestive of
asphalt. Some persons suppose it to be con-
nected in some manner with the Pitch lake. On
analysis the water is found to contain common
salt iodine with traces of carbonate of lime.
There are other " salses " in the island, a very
large one at Cedros, another at Montserrat, and
a small one on a cacao estate in Caroni.
70 Sl'AXK'S GL'IDE BOOK
CHAPTER V.
INHABITANTS.
Trinidad contains the greatest mixture of races
it is possible to find anywhere ; in no part of
the globe of equal size is such a diversity of races
and nationalities found as in this colony.
ABORIGINES.
When Columbus discovered Trinidad it was
peopled by a race of Indians with fairer com-
plexions than any he had hitherto seen, people
of good stature, well made, and very graceful
bearing, with much smooth hair. They be-
longed to that portion of the Indian race whom
the Spaniards called Caribs, or man-eaters ; they
had come from Guiana on the mainland, and had
conquered all the Lesser Antilles as far as St.
Thomas, and destroyed the peaceable inhabitants,
as the Spaniards soon did on the Greater An-
tilles.
Of all the islands inhabited by the Caribs Trini-
dad was the first one occupied by the Spaniards,
and here as on the other Caribbee Islands they
found a more warlike race to deal with than the
natives of the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles.
In common, however, with all the Indian races
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD, 71
of the New World, they suffered ruthlessly at the
hands of the invaders. Many were stolen and
carried as slaves to the other Spanish possessions,
numbers fell in the incessant conflicts with the
Spaniards, and still greater numbers were carried
off by diseases introduced by the whites, until,
1783, the total Indian population numbered only
2,032. At the date of the capitulation that
number had declined to 1,082, and thirty years
later to barely 700. At the present time, the
only representatives of the original possessors of
the soil are a few scattered families of more or
less mixed descent.
SPANISH AND FRENCH.
Previously to the passing of the Ceduta in
1 7 83, which led to the emigration of the French
to Trinidad from St. Domingo, Martinique, and
Guadeloupe, the Spanish population, including
whites and negroes, amounted to only 1,000.
After the promulgation of the Cedula, the popu-
lation in a few years increased to 12,000, so that
Trinidad, although a Spanish possession, had be-
come in 1786 almost entirely French in popu-
lation. In that year the Cabildo or government
of Port-of-Spain was composed of seven French-
men, two Spaniards, and one Irishman. This is
the reason why French is spoken much more in
Trinidad than Spanish.
The population at this time and after the
conquest of the island by the British was still
further augmented by the importation of African
slaves.
72 STARK' S GUIDE BOOK
NEGROES.
This section of the population is fast dying
out. Of 8,0 1 o natives of Africa returned in the
census of 1851, only 2,055 remained in 1891,
more than half of whom were over sixty years of
age, so that in a few decades this once important
section of the population will become a thing of
the past. About one-half of the population
of Trinidad is of African descent, including many
from other British West Indies, principally from
Barbados.
CHINESE AND EAST INDIANS.
Nearly one-third of the population are from
the East Indies or of East Indian descent. The
remaining one-sixth consists of whites and their
descendants of British, French, Spanish, Portu-
guese, Corsican, and Venezuelan extraction, to-
gether with about 1,000 Chinese, imported at
first as laborers, but who, not taking kindly to
estate work, have developed into shopkeepers,
gardeners, and servants. Most of them appear
to do well, and many have amassed considerable
wealth. The Chinese, unlike the East Indians,
have intermarried freely among the negro or col-
ored women, and their descendants are being
gradually merged in the general population.
Very few East Indians have intermarried except
with their own countrywomen, including in that
term females born in the colony, of Indian
parents. This may be accounted for from the
fact that the East Indian coolies bring their
women with them, whereas the Chinese do not,
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 75
BENEFIT OF COOLIE IMMIGRATION.
The benefits that have accrued from Jndian_
immigration have_been twofold : it has benefited
'thecgjorry^oTiTidirectly_and indirectly, while the
immigrants^ have also derived many and solid
ad vaiitajTe£_jrarjx_ it, which may be judged from
tEe factthat at the end of 1892 their agricult-
ural holdings amounted to an aggregate of over
40,000 acres, while of a total of ,£157,769
deposited in the government savings banks,
^66,716 were coolie deposits, and this was in
addition to savings amounting to ^124,290
carried back to India by the immigrants who re-
turned during the ten years 1883 to 1892, as
well as a further sum of f 10,817 remitted during
i — • — 3 — — 1 — *ir~' i — • T T~— - i •
the same period to_ their friends in India^jnajking
a total of no less^than^^r^^i^. Since the im-
portation of the coolies, commerce has taken
wonderful strides, the export of sugar has in-
creased fivefold and that of cocoa threefold, yet
notwithstanding this favorable showing of the
great importance that the coolie element is to
the colony, there is a strong opposition by the
colored and negro part of the community against
its continuance ; they fear the Indian on account
of his great industry and frugality.
WHAT WOULD RESULT FROM NEGRO RULE.
If it were not for the coolie population in Trini-
dad and Demerara, the large estates would be
abandoned by the white cultivators, and they would
fall gradually into the bush or the hands of a
76 STARK 'S GUIDE BOOK
negro population who are invincibly idle and will
not do a stroke more work than will provide them
a bare subsistence. The Trinidad negro will not
work on the sugar estates ; the laborers other than /
coolies are from Barbados, that being the only
island where they do work, as they are compelled
to do so or starve ; for Barbados is over-popu-
lated, and there is not any wild land for them to
squat on, every foot of land being under cul-
tivation. Therefore if coolie immigration is
stopped and the labor supply dependent upon
the negroes, Trinidad will return to a state of
O y
savagery as bad as San Domingo or Hayti.
What motive have the negroes for work ?
Clothes except for display are cumbersome and
inconvenient in such a climate. No artistic tastes
have been developed among them. The shelter
of a few palm branches is quite as useful as the
grandest mansion. As to food, a plantain or
mango eaten in the open air suffices. They have
coffee, cocoa, and sugar at hand, and as to liq-
uors, new rum has hitherto held the palm over
champagnes, clarets, and all expensive European
products. Why, then, should they work ?
Nature provides them with all they want. In
some few generations, perhaps, they may recog-
nize class distinction, but unfortunately the
leaning of the negro race is back to barbarism,
and if the white element in these islands dis-
appears, then hats and clothes will disappear
also, and the natural man reappear. One great
incentive to work among Europeans is the main-
tenance of a certain position or rank, and a
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 77
desire to uphold the family. The negro has none
of this. He is, so to speak, his own ancestor.
He has no family pride. Whether he has be-
come rich and can ride in a carriage, or remains
poor and walks about with a breech cloth only,
he claims equal respect and attention from his
fellows. All are alike, the sons and daughters
of slaves, and the negro with irreproachable hat
and dress \vill chat with, as an equal, the negro
without any. The great difficulty that presents
itself to those who hope to excite emulation, and
so stimulate activity, in the negro population is
this total want of family or class pride.
PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EAST
INDIANS.
All this is reversed with the East Indians. They
congregate by themselves, avoiding as much as
possible the society of all mankind but their own
countrymen. They number about 80,000, or one-
third of the population. They may be classed
as Hindoos, Mohammedans, and Christians.
The Hindoos form by far the largest section,
and are divided into a number of castes. Here is
where the great difference lies between them and
the negroes. The East Indian goes to the other
extreme. Brahminism, with its elaborate system
of priesthood, castes, and mystic rites, attained its
full sacerdotal force about seven hundred years be-
fore the Christian era. Of all castes the Brahmin
is preeminent. The next in order is Kshatriya,
comprising the principal families and military;
then the Vaisiya, or persons engaged in commer-
?S STAKE'S GUIDE BOOK
cial or agricultural pursuits; Sudra, or servants
is .the lowest, although these classes are capable
of an almost infinite number of subdivisions or
grades, as for example the Chamars, or workers in
leather who are esteemed the lowest of the Sudras
since they mutilate the hide of the sacred fox
Some are thought so unworthy as not to be ad-
muted mto even the meanest of the above classes •
such are called pariahs or outcasts. The d ist nc'
sons are not easily denned by the uninitiated, but
they are none the less carefully observed, and the
smallest mfrmgement is a deadly sin. Different
castes cannot intermarry, and should hold scarcely
the slightest intercourse one with the other a de-
gree of exclusiveness which the haughty Brah-
mins carry to such an excess that the mere
hW "
CASTE DISTINCTIONS.
There is no doubt that Hindoos comine to
colonies like Trinidad, far awav from the land of
their birth would like to lessen the burden of
caste, but this they neither dare nor can do the
mere fact of crossing the ocean plunges any mil
whether Brahmin or Sudra, into depths of oCn
datum, though the relative distance between them
remains the same. This is an important point
for the general impression is that alfcastes sink to
he same level, which is by no means the case
hey fa 1 „ esual &^n^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ~_,
tinues to be immeasurably the superior of the
thence " f T °fuhe ^uLn\ labore
sceptre of the maharaja Brahmin dwindles
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 79
to the insignificance of a hoe handle," but all the
same he has a certain dignity to keep up, and he
looks, poor as he may be, with haughty disdain
upon his inferiors in caste.
The two chief Mussulman sects are the Shiahs
and the Sunnis. The former reverence Hassan
and Hosein, the two sons of Ali in whose honor
are the greatest festivals. The Sunnis for their
part do not reverence them, but merely recognize
them as holy men ; both sects anticipate the com-
ing of the " Mahdi," who will set right all wrongs
and restore peace and happiness to the universe,
but the Sunnis expect him more as a conqueror
than a peacemaker.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF EAST INDIANS.
Physically the East Indian coolie is well
shaped, with regular features and straight black
hair ; some have full beards, others mustaches
and imperials ; except in color they have the same
appearance as Europeans — in fact, they belong
to the Aryan race, from which all Europeans are
descended.
Many of the women are very beautiful. The
following description by a recent writer will give
a good idea of this type of beauty : " Strolling
along the shady side of a wide and busy street, I
overtook a young girl. I should have passed
her had I not slackened my gait when I came
within a few steps of her, and, walking softly,
measuring my paces with hers, followed behind
the unknown wayfarer — respectfully and*at a
proper distance — to study and admire her cos-
So Sl^ARK'S GUIDE BOOK
tume, which was so neatly fitted to her slight and
charming figure, so tastefully disposed, draped in
such dainty folds and graceful gatherings, that
the wearer of it made a most attractive picture.
" Her little feet were bare ; nevertheless, she
trod firmly, stepping lightly, with graceful poise.
From time to time the maiden stopped to gaze
into the shop-windows, viewing with eager, spark-
Jing eyes the wonders so attractive to her.
When she halted thus to feast her eyes, I passed
ahead of her ; then, halting, waited till she, in
turn, passed me again. In this way I was en-
abled to inspect, with approving criticism, the
object of my admiration, from tip to toe, and
from every point of view. In time, I made a
mental catalogue of her appearance from which
an ingenious artist could paint a full-length pict-
ure of her. I noticed that her teeth were regular
and white, mouth small and regular, lips full and
pouting ; head gracefully poised, face oval, Gre-
cian in type ; nose delicate, straight, finely
chiselled ; ears small, well shaped, and well put
on ; hair glossy, raven-black, straight and long,
braided carefully with dexterous fingers, and tied
at the ends with orange ribbons ; hands small
and covered with rings ; and now, alas ! I must
confess this Aryan kinswoman of mine was as
brown ars any coolie on the island, and all her
East Indian sisters are as dusky as richest rose-
wood, as brown and dark as rarest mahogany.
She was not a daughter of Ham nor a child of
Shem, but, like myself, a descendant of Father
Japhet, a pure-blooded Hindoo, albeit of low
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 81
caste. Except for her sable color, she might
have served for a study of a Caucasian beauty, for
the model of a Grecian Psyche, an Italian conta-
dina, a Gretchen, an English boarding-school
miss, a freshwoman of Vassar."
The coolies are happy and contented in Trini-
dad. They save money, and many of them do
not return home when their time is out, but stay
where they are, buy land, or go into trade. The
negro affects to look down upon them and regard
them as inferiors, because they are in bondage as
they themselves were once. The coolie, however,
knows his position, he is proud of his ancestry
and the ancient civilization of his race. His an-
cestors were the most highly civilized people on
the earth at a time when the white man, clothed
in skins, dwelt in caves and battled for his very
existence with the wild beasts, with only a club
for a weapon.
DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE COOLIE.
The coolie will not intermarry with the
African, and as there are not as many women
brought with them from India as formerly,
these women are tempted occasionally into in-
fidelities, and would be tempted more often,
but a lapse in virtue is so fearfully avenged.
There is but one serious crime prevalent in the
colony, and that is committed by the East Indian
who with one sweep of his machete beheads his
wife if she proves unfaithful to him. Such a case
as this is unknown among the negro population,
as very few of them are bound by the marriage
82 STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
tie. In fact, the negro woman does not care to be
married, forjiejihusband obliges her to work for_
Trim wmTene remains in idleness ; but if she is not
married, therThe has ^tq work to support the
family and7reat_her kindly or she will leave
hirru— This is shown by the statistics. About
seventy per cent, of the births in the colony are
illegitimate.
VENEZUELANS.
Port-of-Spain always swarms with expatriated
Venezuelan generals of all sorts and kinds, mostly
impecunious and ready to accept a dollar or a
dinner from any one disposed to offer either of
these articles, while they retain all the pride and
dignity of heroes fallen from high estate. Here
they wait until some bolder spirit makes a new pro-
nunciamento, when they hurry eagerly to fall like
vultures on their poor native country, plunder-
ing everywhere, and murdering without remorse
any unfortunates of the other party who may
chance to fall into their hands. If the venture
succeeds, then they become an everlasting drag
on the new government, claiming rewards for
services never rendered, often obtaining grants
and concessions ruinous to all trade ; or if the
venture fails, either the leader having come to
some private understanding with the government,
by which he is to be paid to retire and desert his
followers, or by some other general making some
private arrangement to betray his leader and all
the rest, — then, in either of these cases, the sur-
vivors return to their lair in Trinidad to await a
more fortunate opportunity. There is, however,
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD, 83
another ciass of Venezuelans in Trinidad that is
an honor to the colony. I refer to the merchants
and planters of Venezuela that have been obliged
to leave that country on account of the insecurity
that exists there in regard to life and property,
and who have taken up their residence perma-
nently in Trinidad.
84 STARK' S GUIDE BOOK
CHAPTER VI.
GOVERNMENT.
The government of Trinidad is vested in a
Governor, an Executive Council, and a Legisla-
tive Council, all of whom are nominated by the
Crown. The Governor ranks as Commander -
in-Chiefand Vice-Admiral and receives a salary
of ^5,000. His private secretary and aid-de-
camp ranks as captain.
The Executive Council consists of the Gover-
nor, who is the President, and the Colonial
Secretary, Attorney-General, Auditor-General,
Commandant of the Local Forces, Col. D.
Wilson, Dr. Lovell, and Hon. Walsh Wrigfit-
son.
The Legislative Council consists of the Gover-
nor, who is President, the Colonial Secretary, At-
torney-General, Solicitor-General, Auditor-Gen-
eral, Director of Public Works, Surgeon-General,
Protector of Immigrants, Receiver-General, and
Commissioner of Tobago. There are also eleven
unofficial members appointed from the different
districts of the island which they represent.
FROUDE ON HOME RULE IN TRINIDAD.
To say anything concerning the government
of Trinidad is touching on a very tender subject
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 85
on which the inhabitants are very sensitive. I
am reminded of this by the storm of abuse that
broke over the devoted head of James Anthony
Froude, the well-known historian, when he pub-
lished in his book1 the opinions he held on this
subject. He said in part : " The popular ora-
tors, the newspaper writers, and some of the
leading merchants in Port-of-Spain had dis-
covered that they were living under what they
called ' a degrading tyranny.' They had no
grievances, or none that they alleged, beyond
the general one that they had no control over
the finance. They very naturally desired that the
lucrative government appointments for which
the colony paid should be distributed among
themselves.
" But why, it may be asked, should not Trin-
idad govern itself as well as Tasmania or New
Zealand ? Why not Jamaica, why not all the
West Indian islands ? I will answer by another
question. Do we wish these islands to remain a
part of the British empire ? Are they of any
use to us, or have we the responsibilities con-
nected with them, of which we are not entitled to
divest ourselves ? A government elected by the
majority of the people (and no one would think
of setting up constitutions on any other basis)
reflects from the nature of things the character of
the electors. All these islands tend to become
partitioned into black peasant proprietaries. In
Grenada the process is almost complete. In
Trinidad it is rapidly advancing. No one can
1 " The English in the West Indies."
86 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
stop it. No one ought to wish to stop it. But
the ownership of freeholds is one thing, and
political power is another. The blacks depend
for the progress they are capable of making on
the presence of a white community among them ;
and although it is undesirable or impossible for
the blacks to be ruled by the minority of the
white residents, it is equally undesirable and
equally impossible that the whites should be
ruled by them. The relative numbers of the two
races being what they are, responsible govern-
ment in Trinidad means government by a black
parliament and a black ministry. The negro
voters might elect to begin with their half-caste
attorneys, or such whites (the most disreputable
of their color) as would court their suffrages.
But the black does not love the mulatto, and
despises the white man who consents to be his
servant. He has no grievances. He is not
naturally a politician, and if left alone with his
own patch of land will never trouble to look
further. But he knows what has happened in
San Domingo. He has heard that his race is
already in full possession of the finest of all the
islands. If he has any thoughts or any hopes
about the matter, it is that it may be with the
rest of them as it has been with San Domingo;
and if you force the power into his hands, you
must expect him to use it. Under the constitu-
tion which you might set up, whites and blacks
would be nominally equal, but from the enor-
mous preponderance of numbers the equality
would be only in name, and such English people,
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 87
at least, as would be really of any value would
refuse to remain in a false and intolerable posi-
tion.
" Already the English population of Trinidad
is dwindling away under the uncertainties of their
future position. Complete the work ; set up a
constitution with a black prime minister and a
black legislature, and they will withdraw of
themselves before they are compelled to go.
Spaniards and French might be tempted by
advantages of trade to remain in Port-of-Spain,
as a few are still to be found in Hayti. They,
it is possible, might in time recover and reassert
their supremacy. Englishmen have the world
open to them, and will prefer lands where they
can live under less degrading conditions. In
Hayti, the black republic allows no white man
to hold land in freehold. The blacks elsewhere,
with the same opportunities, will develop the
same aspirations. In the Pacific colonies self-
government is a natural right ; the colonists are
a part of ourselves, and have as complete a claim
to the management of their own affairs as we
have to the management of ours. The less we
interfere with them, the more heartily they iden-
tify themselves with us. But if we choose,
besides, to indulge our ambition with an empire,
if we determine to keep attached to our domin-
ions countries which, like the East Indies, have
been conquered by the sword, countries, like the
West Indies, which, however acquired, are occu-
pied by races enormously outnumbering us,
many of whom do not speak our language, are
88 S7'AXA''S GUIDE BOOK
not connected with us by sentiment, and not
visibly connected by interest, with whom our
own people will not intermarry or hold social
intercourse, but keep aloof from, as superior
from inferior, — to impose on such countries
forms of self-government at which we ourselves
have but -lately arrived, to put it in the power of
these overwhelming numbers to shake us off if
they please, and to assume that, when our real
motive has been only to save ourselves trouble,
they will be warmed into active loyalty by grati-
tude for the confidence which we pretend to
place in them, is to try an experiment which we
have not the slightest right to expect to be suc-
cessful, and which, if it fails, is fatal."
NEGRO RULE IN THE UNITED STATES.
This view of Mr. Froude's is a correct one.
The experiment has been tried in the Southern
States, the result of which is fully set forth by
the writer in a recent publication.1 The great
Civil War in the United States ended in 1865,
and the Confederacy lay crushed and dead.
Before admitting the lately revolted States into
the Union again, a bill was introduced into Con-
gress for the extension of the suffrage to the
negroes in the late Confederate States. The bill
was passed in March, 1867, in spite of President
Johnson's veto, and the President was impeached.
Now, indeed, the Southern States were about to
pay dearly for their attempt at independence.
1 Stark's " History and Guide of Barbados and the Caribbee
Islands."
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 89
They had fought, and poured forth blood and
treasure ; they had been beaten, and they had
submitted, but they were not forgiven. Hence-
forth, for a season, the blacks, ignorant, super-
stitious, and corrupt, were to enslave them. A
solid South was created ; and the United States,
united only in name, became practically two
nations.
Here was the outcome, the ripe, perfected fruit
of the boasted civilization of the South after two
hundred years of experience. A white commu-
nity had gradually risen from small beginnings,
till it grew into wealth, culture, and refinement,
and became accomplished in all the arts of civili-
zation ; had successfully asserted its resistance to
unjust laws by deeds of conspicuous valor ; had
achieved liberty and independence, and distin-
guished itself in the councils of the nation by
orators and statesmen worthy of any age and
nation, and had just passed through a sectional
war in which it had poured out its blood and
treasure like water. Such a community was
reduced to this wretched condition, for eight
years lying prostrate in the dust, ruled over by
Africans but half civilized, gathered from the
ranks of its servile population, presenting such
a picture of corruption, extravagance, and legis-
lative wickedness as never prevailed elsewhere
outside of Hayti.
After eight years the bitter feeling in the North
towards the South gradually changed, and new
questions arose that divided the solid Republican
majority. Hayes, the Republican candidate for
90 STARK' S GUIDE BOOK
President, promised that if he was elected he
would remove the troops from the South. Here
was the South's opportunity at last, as it held the
balance of power. They trusted Hayes, and
gave him their electoral votes. He was as good
as his word ; the troops were removed. Federal
interference in State affairs ceased. United
States bayonets could no longer support the
negro in his constitutional rights. The Anglo-
Saxon reasserted his authority to rule, and from
that day a " Solid South " has existed. It has
created a political feeling that occupies the first
place in the heart of every Southern white man,
that feeling in itself a political creed, stronger
than the creed of Republican or Democrat, and
it may be thus formulated : " You have freed our
slaves, and, far from regretting, we rejoice in what
you have done. Without properly consulting
us, you have given those ex-slaves the suffrage
and civil rights. There you greatly erred.
While we will admit that some negroes and col-
ored persons are fit to exercise the suffrage, we
are of opinion that the vast majority of them are
incapable of it, either for their own welfare or to
the benefit of the white people among whom they
live, and to the general advantage of the nation.
Apart from this opinion of ours, and quite
regardless of the question whether that opinion
be sound or not, we are steadfastly determined
never to submit to any form, direct or indirect,
of negro government. We have experienced
this form of government, and we intend, there-
fore, to risk no more of it. The negroes in
AND HISTOR Y OF TRINIDAD. 91
some places may be more numerous than the
whites ; it must make no difference ; the white
must rule, no matter at what cost. You shall
never again, while we exist, compel us to relin-
quish this determination ; we would rather die at
once. Our view does not, it may be, accord
with the principles of your XVth Amendment to
the Constitution, but it accords with our idea of
what is necessary for our social comfort and
security, and we intend to steadfastly adhere to
it, even if it should cost in blood, and treasure,
and everything we hold dear."
The above position is one upon which the
whites of the South are practically unanimous.
The white who does not believe in it above all
else is regarded as a traitor and an outcast. It is
a position of danger, for if not an open, it is a
covert, hostility to the spirit of the laws of the
Union. It really amounts to this : the 10,000,000
negroes and colored people in the South are
denied the rights and privileges guaranteed them
by the Constitution ; they are deprived of their
political rights by fraud, force, and intimidation.
And, strange to say, even the most respected (and,
in ordinary dealings, upright) white people of the
South will admit this fact, and, stranger still, very
many honorable citizens of the North, Republi-
cans as well as Democrats, do not hesitate to
declare, " If I were a Southerner I should act as
the Southern white men do."
Hitherto, the negro has, upon the whole,
meekly submitted to this illegal deprivation of
his rights. Can he be expected to submit for-
92 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
ever, or will he some day attempt by force to
seize that to which he is by law entitled ? Should
he ever do so, there will be a scene of horror such
as the South never witnessed in the darkest days
of the War of Secession. This question hangs
like a black pall over the South ; it is but seldom
referred to publicly, although occasionally it
shows itself, as for instance in the recent Vene-
zuelan dispute with Great Britain. An editorial
appeared in the Memphis " Commercial Appeal,"
which says : " The negroes were a source of
strength to the South in the War of the Rebel-
lion, but they would be an element of weakness
there now. Then the negroes tilled the soil,
raised food for the armies, and protected the
families of the fighting men. The condition is
so much changed that the new generation is a
source of constant apprehension and terror even
in times of peace. Southern men would fear to
leave their families unprotected if war became
flagrant. It would require as much force to keep
the negroes under control as the South could
spare for military purposes." From the fore-
going account of negro rule it will be seen that it
is not a desirable thing for Trinidad to experi-
ment with, that with the mixed population it
contains it is much better that it should remain a
Crown colony.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 93
CHAPTER VII.
CLIMATE AND SCENERY.
Columbus, in relating the discovery of Trini-
dad to Ferdinand and Isabella, dwells on " the
stately groves of palm trees and luxuriant forests
which swept down to the seaside, with fountains
and running streams beneath the shade ; " and
on " the softness and purity of the climate, and
the verdure, freshness, and sweetness of the
country, which appeared to him to equal the de-
lights of early spring in the beautiful province of
Valencia in Spain."
The climate of Trinidad while inter-tropical is
at the same time insular, and is therefore much
cooler and more uniform than that of a conti-
nental country under the same conditions as to
altitude and latitude.
The natural physical formation of the island,
divided as it is into two great parallel valleys run-
ning almost due east and west, tends also to mod-
ify its climatic condition. The mean temperature
varies from 76 degrees during the cool season to
79 in the hot season. In the evenings and
mornings of the cooler seasons the temperature
seldom exceeds from 66 degrees to 68. The
transition from daylight to darkness, although,
as in all tropical countries, a rapid one, is not so
94 STAJtK'S GUIDE BOOK
sudden as is generally supposed. There is a
perceptible though very short twilight, darkening
into night as the last rays of the setting sun fade
away on the western horizon. With the close of
the day there is a marked change in the tempera-
ture ; the heat and glare of the day give way to a
delicious coolness, often made more refreshing by
the soft blowing of the evening breeze. Then
comes what Kingsley calls " the long balmy
night," to be in turn succeeded by daybreak and
sunrise. These latter have been graphically de-
scribed by a well-known traveller :
" A little before five o'clock the first glimmer
of light becomes perceptible ; it slowly becomes
lighter, and then increases so rapidly that in
about an hour it seems full daylight. For a
short time this changes very little in character ;
when suddenly the sun's rim appears above the
horizon, decking the dew-laden foliage with glit-
tering gems, sending gleams of golden light far
into the woods, and waking up all nature into
life and activity. The early morning possesses
a charm and a beauty that can never be forgotten ;
all nature seems refreshed and strengthened by
the coolness and moisture of the past night.
The temperature is the most delicious conceiv-
able. The slight chill of early dawn, which was
itself agreeable, is succeeded by an invigorating
warmth, arid the intense sunshine lights up the
glorious vegetation of the tropics and realizes all
that the magic art of the painter or the glowing
words of the poet have pictured as their ideas of
terrestrial beauty."
AND HISTOR Y OF TRINIDAD. 95
The climate of Trinidad has often been recom-
mended as being particularly favorable to persons
suffering from the milder forms of pulmonary
affections ; and that it is so is clearly shown by
the number of well-authenticated instances in
which young persons who had left their homes in
colder climates, with more or less marked symp-
toms of one or other of that numerous class of
ailments popularly called " chest complaints,"
have not only recovered their health in Trinidad,
but continued in the full enjoyment of it during
many years' residence, and in not a few instances
until, at a ripe old age, they have been laid to
rest beneath the palms in the land of their
adoption.
Although the scenery of Trinidad presents
none of that imposing grandeur which is derived
from altitude or vastness, it possesses a natural
charm and sylvan beauty that is all its own.
Foliage and flowers of unrivalled beauty and
endless variety everywhere adorn the landscape
in such rich and rare profusion as almost to
baffle description. So much so, indeed, that even
Kingsley was forced to confess that "In the
presence of such forms and such coloring one
becomes painfully sensible of the poverty of the
words, and of the futility, therefore, of all word-
painting."
MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS.
The mountains, or rather hills, of Trinidad, —
for, as has been already stated, with the excep-
tion of a few isolated peaks none of the ranges
rise much above 700 to 1,000 feet, — although
96 STARK' S GUIDE BOOK
neither " rugged nor " grand," are singularly
picturesque. Their slopes, covered to the very
summit with luxuriant forest growt)\ appear,
when seen from a distance, like one vast sea of
wavy woodland, presenting in the clear atmos-
phere and bright sunlight an ev( "-changing
diversity of shade and coloring, vai 'ing from
the lightest of greens to the deepest of russet
browns, lit up every here and there by dense
clusters of bright yellow or blazing crimson tree-
flowers, making the whole prospect more like a
scene in fairyland than a natural landscape, —
even in the tropics. It is, however, in the val-
leys that lie between those mountain spurs and
ranges that the real gems of Trinidad scenery are
to be found. Through these valleys meander
the crystal-clear streams described by Columbus
as " fountains and running streams beneath
the shade." These streams, rising high up in the
mountains, flow through the valleys with all
the wanton waywardness so characteristic of
mountain streams everywhere : twisting and turn-
ing hither and thither at their own sweet will, now
rushing with tumultuous din through s-; "ne narrow
gorge, anon widening out, until, " with scarce a
depth at all, they gently ripple o'er their pebbly
bed." In their general characteristics they so
closely resemble the " burns " so dear to all Scot-
tish hearts as at once to recall the well-known lines :
" Here, foaming down the shelvy rocks,
In twisting strength I rin ;
There, high my boiling torrent smokes,
Wild -roaring o'er a linn."
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 97
Nor does the similarity end here : the " bonny
bower," the " shady nooks," are all reproduced
with striking exactness — only with tropical
surroundings and under a tropical sun, the latter,
however, only making all the more refreshing
the delicious coolness of their shade. Such- a
bamboo-embowered scene is shown in our illus-
tration of a view in Caura valley. This view
brings 'out with great clearness and minuteness
the sylvan beauty of the spot, and gives an ex-
cellent idea of the valley scenery of the island
generally; but the real charm and chief attraction
of all tropical scenery — the ever-changing light
and shade, the rich coloring and endless variety
of leaf and flower — cannot be portrayed by pen
or pencil ; to be fully appreciated they must be
seen, but seen once they can never be forgotten.
But the Caura valley, while undoubtedly one
of the loveliest in the island, has many compeers
in beauty and diversity of scenery. Of these the
St. Ann's and Maraval valleys are within walking
distance of Port-of-Spain. Both possess many
natural beauties ; and the latter, in addition to the
rich adornments of nature, has in the reservoir
and its beautiful site " a sweet, quiet spot " that
has become a regular Mecca for visitors to the
island. It is indeed a lovely spot, with
the densely wooded hills in the background, the
large expanse of clear, bright water shaded by an
environment of gracefully arched bamboos and
surrounded by quite a unique collection of ferns,
crotons, oleanders, and other ornamental shrubs.
At the head of this valley is the Silla, or Saddle,
98 STARX'S GUIDE BOOK
a depression in the ridge of hills dividing it from
the Santa Cruz valley, over which the road passes
at a height of six hundred and twenty-eight feet,
both the ascent and descent being somewhat
steep. On the other side of the Saddle lies the
Santa Cruz valley, watered by a stream of the
same name, and one of the oldest and most noted
of the cocoa districts of the island, containing,
among many other splendid properties, the well-
known estates San Antonio, La Pastora, and
Soconusco.
Only two other of the many, and all equally
beautiful, valleys that nestle among the mountain
ranges of Trinidad can be noticed within the
limits of this sketch, — the Diego Martin and the
Maracas valleys. In the former, at a distance of
about nine miles from Port-of-Spain, is situated
the Cascade and Blue Basin. The Cascade is one
of the most picturesque waterfalls in the island.
It is formed by the junction high up in the
mountains of several small streamlets, whose
united waters, after several intermediate descents,
here fall into the valley below, the basin at the
foot of the fall being known as the Blue Basin.
The water of the fall is highly translucent, and
this may perhaps account for the bluish tint it
presents in the basin, especially on a bright and
cloudless day.
The Maracas valley, like that of Santa Cruz,
is one of the great cocoa districts ; and as the
visitor rides or drives along the winding road he
will see cocoa estates to both right and left of
him, — and splendid estates, too, for the soil of
MARACAS WATERFALL.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 99
these " vega lands " is of unsurpassed fertility.
Before reaching the head of the valley the river
has to be crossed some six or seven times. At
most of these " crossings," or fords, the stream
is but a rippling brook ; but at others, though
neither deep nor dangerous (except when " down,"
i.e., in flood), it asserts its right to a passage, —
huge boulders notwithstanding, — and rushes
onward fuming and foaming around these ob-
structions in true mountain-torrent style.
In ascending the valley the scenery on every
side is equally attractive and varied. In front
towers Tucutche, the highest peak in the island,
while every turn of the winding road brings into
view fresh natural beauties and more picturesque
scenes : here the eye is charmed by the light and
shade playing fitfully over the wooded hillside ;
there it catches a glimpse of some lovely bower,
shaded by forest giants, their forms reflected in
the clear stream that, flowing on its way, " mur-
murs sweet tales of love and joy and constancy."
WATERFALLS.
The great sight of the valley is, however, the
Chorro, or Cascade. This fall, three hundred and
forty feet in height and distant about thirteen miles
from Port-of-Spain, forms the subject of illustra-
tion facing this page.
To attempt to describe the Cascade, admittedly
the most picturesque of all Western Indian
waterfalls, would be more than presumption on
the part of the writer, seeing that even so great a
master of word-painting as Kingsley preferred to
ioo STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
fall back on the description written many years
before by that ripe scholar and enthusiastic
botanist, Herman Cruger.
Before reproducing that glowing word-picture,
the writer ventures to lay before his readers the
following extract from a description of another
fall :
"The rocks of the rift close to the heart of the
fall are bare and lifeless, but at the entrance
they are bespread with moss and flowers; while
the whole reaches are covered with the film fern,
the Hymenophyllum Wilsoni^ which no one can
get at, and only the clear-sighted can distinguish
from moss.
"The water here is perfectly colorless, — pure,
limpid, unstained, — which splashes merrily at
your feet and flies daintily, all refined to spray,
into your face as you scramble up the wet rocks
and front the whispering naiad shrouded behind
her long white veil."
This description, especially the latter part of
it, cannot fail vividly to recall to the mind of any
one who had visited the Maracas Cascade the
whole scene as it comes into view from the valley
below.
Cruger, with all that intense love of nature
born of close communion and deep study, thus
describes the approach to the fall : " To reach
the Chorro, or Cascade, you strike to the right
into a * path ' that brings you first to a cocoa
plantation, through a few rice or maize fields,
and then you enter the shade of the virgin forest.
Thousands of interesting objects now attract
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 101
your attention : here the wonderful Norantea or
the resplendent Calycophyllum, a Tabernamon-
tana or a Faramea filling the air afar off with the
fragrance of their blossoms ; there a graceful
Heliconia winking at you from out some dark
ravine. That shrubbery above is composed of a
species of Bohmeria, or Ardisia, and that scarlet
flower belongs to our native Aphelandra.
" Nearer to us, and low down below our feet,
that rich panicle of flowers belongs to Begonia ;
and here, also, is an assemblage of Ferns of the
genera Asplenium, Hymenophyllum, and Tri-
chomanes, as well as of Hepatica and Mosses.
But what are these yellow and purple flowers
hanging over our heads ? They are Bignonia
J . ^
and Mucunas — creepers, straying from afar,
which have selected this spot, where they may,
under the influence of the sun's beams, propagate
their race."
Of the fall, he says :
" Here it is, opposite to you, — a grand specta-
cle indeed. From a perpendicular wall of solid
rock of more than three hundred feet, down rushes
a stream of water, splitting in the air, and produc-
ing a constant shower, which renders this lovely
spot singularly and deliciously cool. Nearly the
whole extent of this natural wall is covered with
plants, among which you can easily discern num-
bers of Ferns and Mosses, two species of Pitcairnia,
with beautiful red flowers, some Aroids, various
Nettles, and here and there a Begonia. How dif-
ferent such a spot would look in cold Europe.
Below, in the midst of a never-failing drizzle,
102 STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
grow luxuriant Ardisias, Aroids, Ferns, Costas,
Heliconias, Centropogons, Hydrocotyles, Cype-
roids, and Grasses of various genera, Tradescan-
tias and Commelynas, Billbergias, and, occasion-
ally, a few small Rubiacaea and Melastomacea."
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 103
CHAPTER VIII.
COMMERCE, AGRICULTURE, AND OTHER INDUSTRIES.
The geographical position of Trinidad prom-
ises to the colony a commercial development
in the future as great as, if not even greater than,
its agricultural. Standing like a geographical sen-
tinel at the entrance to one of the greatest water-'
ways of the world, it must sooner or later become
a great commercial centre.
Sir Thomas Picton, the first British Governor
of the island, a man of great shrewdness and fore-
sight, and a military commander of no mean
reputation, was so convinced of its importance,
both from a strategic and commercial point of
view, that during the period between the capitula-
tion and the final cession of the island to Britain
by the treaty of Amiens he repeatedly urged its
retention, stating, " it would be extremely unpoli-
tic to restore it to Spain on any terms or for any
equivalent" But Picton was not the only one
who thus early realized the full value and im-
portance of Trinidad. The great Napoleon,
then First Consul, has left on record a document
that shows how well he understood the advan-
tageous position of the island, and its value to the
British Crown. In a letter written in August,
1 80 1, to the French Plenipotentiary in London,
104 STARK -'S GUIDE BOOK
after instructing him firmly to oppose any pro-
posal for the cession of the island to Great
Britain, he adds : " Trinidad, from its position,
would not only afford a means of defence for the
English colonies, but also of attack on the Span-
ish mainland. Its acquisition would, in other
respects, be of immeasurable importance to the
British Government."' Nor does Napoleon stand
alone among the great men of the period in his
estimate of the value of the colony. That calm,
thoughtful, and most practical of statesmen, Mr.
Canning, in introducing his well-known motion
in regard to Trinidad, spoke eloquently in favor
of making the island a strong naval and military
station, and a sanatorium for the British troops
in the West Indies, while at the same time he
pointed out, with much force and clearness, that
from its geographical position it ought to be the
emporium of the trade of South America.
So impressed was Trinidad's first British Gov-
ernor with the idea of making the island the
great entrepot of the Orinoco and its tributaries,
that he did not hesitate to propose a plan of
armed interference in the affairs of the neighbor-
ing Spanish Provinces, in which there were
already signs of that growing spirit of resistance
to the Spanish yoke which was to culminate in
the protracted but ultimately successful struggle
for independence which ended in the battle of
Carabobo, fought June 24, 1821, when Bolivar
defeated La Torre with a loss of six thousand
men, which victory was principally due to the
intrepidity and firmness displayed by the English
and Irish volunteer contingent.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 105
Picton's proposals were not acted upon, and in
the ever-shifting current of events we find him,
a few years later, bravely fighting side by side
with the troops of the very nation against whose
South American Provinces those hostile pro-
posals were made. There is, however, a force
more powerful even than that of armed battalion,
- the spirit of commercial enterprise, which, it
is hoped, will, before long, bring the whole trade
of New Granada and of the rich and fertile coun-
tries lying between the Andes and the Atlantic by
way of the Meta, the Rio Negro, the Casanare,
the Apure, and a hundred other streams down
the broad bosom of the Orinoco into the Gulf
of Paria. Trinidad will then become a second
Liverpool.
SUGAR INDUSTRY.
In Trinidad, as in all the West Indian colonies,
sugar has been, and still continues to be, the
principal product. Here, however, it is not, as
in the other colonies, the one great staple ; nor
was it even the first in the field, for cocoa had
been cultivated for a century or more before the
first sugar-estate was established. Although
sugar-cane was indigenous to this as well as
other West Indian islands, three species of which
are to be found growing wild in the uncultivated
parts of the island, yet the sugar-cane generally
cultivated here is, however, an exotic, known as
Tahiti cane, and was introduced from Martinique
in 1782, by M. St.-H. Begorrat. The first
sugar estate was established by M. Picot de
Lapeyrouse in 1787 ; and from that time up to
106 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
the date of the capture of the island by the
British the cultivation of the sugar-cane increased
slowly but steadily. The British occupation
gave a great impetus to the sugar industry, and
cultivation was so rapidly extended that within
the next few years the exports of sugar were
more than doubled.
From that time down to emancipation the
sugar industry continued to advance and prosper.
Then came the crisis, the same as all the British
West Indian islands experienced except Barba-
dos, — the refusal of the negroes to work. Then
the exports declined, but with the advent of
coolie immigration the industry began to revive,
and in a few years not only regained its former
position, but advanced far beyond it, the exports
rising from 11,000 tons in 1840 to 54,000 tons
in 1880. In the meantime another and darker
cloud than any that had yet overshadowed the
great staple product was gathering on the hori-
zon. The production of beet sugar, stimulated
by a system of bounties, had increased enormously,
and both England and the United States were
flooded with it. The result, long foreseen, of
this unfair competition turned out far more dis-
astrous than could have been possibly antici-
pated. Every one knew that a fall in prices was
inevitable, and that the fall was likely to be a
heavy one ; but few, if any, anticipated that the
decline in price would reach a figure at which
neither beet nor cane sugar could be produced.
In consequence of this unprecedented fall in the
value of their chief product, a wave of com-
AND HISTOR Y OF TRINIDAD. 107
mercial and agricultural depression passed over
the West Indian colonies, bringing many of them
to the verge of ruin.
That Trinidad, although by no means exempt
from the general effects of the crisis, was yet able
not only to weather it, but to make steady prog-
ress all the time, is due to two causes : first, and
chiefly, to the fact that in its second staple, cocoa,
the colony possessed a sheet* anchor of which no
other West Indian colony could boast ; and,
secondly, to the fact that for some time previ-
ously many estate proprietors had been gradually
introducing improved machinery, and were already
making or preparing to make a higher grade of
sugar. The advance then begun in the direction
of improved modes of manufacture has been
steadily continued, the result being that vacuum-
pan sugar forms three-fourths of the crop at the
present time. Under all these circumstances, it
is alike creditable to the owners of sugar estates,
and to those directly in charge of them, that the
sugar industry of the colony has, so far, been able
to hold its own, and to be now, apparently, in a
fair way to do better still. There is yet, how-
ever, much to be done before the position of the
industry can be considered as secure. Experi-
ments are being made in the Botanical Gardens to
produce improved varieties of sugar-cane. It is
claimed that a species has been discovered that
will produce twenty-five per cent, more saccharine
matter than the cane now in use. If this is the
case, it will more than make up the difference of
the bounty paid on the beet sugar. The cultiva-
io8 SJ'ARK'S GUIDE BOOK
tion of the sugar-cane is almost entirely carried
on by coolie labor ; very few Trinidad negroes
work as laborers on the sugar estates, the laborers,
other than coolies, being chiefly negroes from the
neighboring West Indian islands, many of whom,
like the Irish reapers in England and Scotland,
come here only for the crop season, returning to
their homes at its close.
COCOA PLANTATIONS.
Cocoa, or more properly " cacao," the second
staple product of the island, bids fair to equal if
not exceed its rival, sugar ; for while, as already
stated, the former only holds its own, the latter
has in recent years advanced by giant strides.
This is clearly shown by the exports, which have
risen from 29,900 cwts. in 1840 to 98,210
cwts. in 1880, while the exports during the last
few years have averaged no less than 225,000
cwts.
There is reason to believe that cocoa is in-
digenous to Trinidad and the northern part of
South America. It has been exported from
Trinidad from a very early period of the Spanish
occupation, and has always been held in high
repute.
In 1725 the entire cocoa cultivation was
destroyed by some species of disease or blight.
What was the exact nature of this disease it is
impossible at this distance of time to determine.
There is, however, ample testimony as to the
general ruin that was occasioned by it. Of all
West Indian cultivation, cocoa is undoubtedly
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD, 109
the one best suited for natives of colder climates.
Europeans cannot work in the open fields under
a tropical sun. In this case the cocoa tree itself,
of some twenty feet in height, and affording with
its thick foliage a grateful shade from the blaze
of the sun, is again shaded in its turn by the
Bois immorte/, whose protecting services have
justly obtained for it among the South Ameri-
cans the appellation "La Madre del Cacao," for it is
necessary to protect the cocoa tree from the sun.
It will thrive only in the shade. The weeding
of the soil, picking of the pods, husking them,
and carrying the produce to the drying-house, —
in short, the whole of the agricultural operations
and all but the last stages of the manufacturing
process, — are carried on under this impervious
and ever verdant canopy. The air is gently agi-
tated and refreshed by the river or mountain stream
upon whose banks these plantations are invariably
established. Here, under this double shade, the
white man feels himself as in his native climate.
On a cocoa estate he can do something more
than merely superintend and give directions : he
can take an active part in all the operations,
aiding with his hands as well as his head in the
general working of the property ; and if he be
active and intelligent he will find his own exer-
tions, whether he be working for himself or for
another, in addition to the direct benefit they may
produce, will indirectly do immense good by
infusing energy and activity into all those em-
ployed under him.
no STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
OPPORTUNITIES FOR STARTING PLANTATIONS.
In view of the fact that inquiries are often
made as to whether there is any opening in the
colony for active young men possessed of only a
limited amount of capital and anxious to find an
occupation as well as an investment, it may not
be out of place to mention that there are three
ways in which intending settlers can become cocoa
proprietors : First, by the purchase of Crown
land and the clearing and planting up of the
same under their own supervision. Second, by
the purchase of Crown land and the employment
of " contractors," who clear the land and plant it
up with cocoa, receiving as payment all the wood
cut down and the free use of the land to plant
provisions for their own use and benefit for a fixed
term, generally five years, at the end of which
time they give up the land, receiving one shil-
ling for each cocoa tree. Third, by the purchase
either of several small estates or of one such
bordering on Crown lands, so that it can be
gradually extended according to the means of
the purchaser. The first method entails the
immediate outlay of further capital for the erec-
tion of at least a temporary dwelling and the
payment of wood-cutters and other laborers
employed ; and the capital so invested must
remain dormant for some time, as the cocoa tree,
although beginning to bear in the fourth or fifth
year, does not come into full bearing till some
years later. Some return is, however, obtained
from the land during that time : plantain shoots
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. in
and corn (maize) are planted in order to shade
the young cocoa trees, and the returns from
these two crops help to defray the expenses of
the first two or three years. The timber cut
on the land is also more or less valuable, either
for firewood or for building and other purposes.
The second method is only to be recommended
where the purchaser can find some profitable
means of employing his time during the five
years of the contractor's occupation. A combi-
nation of these two methods has been found
to work well, part of the estate only being given
out to contractors.
The third plan is by far the simplest and best
where suitable properties can be obtained. In
this way many of the smaller properties which
were purchased from the Crown, from ten to
twenty years ago, and gradually cleared and
planted up in cocoa, have of late years been
bought up by larger capitalists, at very remuner-
ative prices to the original purchasers, and have
either been formed into larger estates or in-
creased by the purchase of adjoining Crown
lands.
The cocoa-palm grows luxuriantly all along
the sandy shore of the southern and eastern
coasts of the island, and its cultivation, although
the simplest of agricultural industries of the
colony, is far from being the least profitable.
For persons of small capital there are few if any
investments less troublesome or more profitable
than the cocoanut estate. That the industry is
a profitable one is abundantly proved by the
ii2 STARK' S GUIDE BOOK
large increase in the cultivation, as shown by the
quantity of cocoanuts exported.
OTHER INDUSTRIES.
The most important manufactured article in
the colony is the world-wide known Angostura
Bitters. This article was originally manufactured
by the inventor and founder of the firm, Dr. J.
G. B. Siegert, at Angostura, Venezuela, from
which it derives its name. Dr. Siegert died in
1 870, and the manufacture was carried on at An-
gostura by his two eldest sons until 1875, wnen>
through the exactions of the Venezuelan govern-
ment and the uncertainty of protection to life and
property, they removed to Trinidad and estab-
lished their factory in Port-of-Spain, where it has
been carried on ever since. Messrs. Siegert have
gradually extended their factory until it now
occupies a large block of buildings with a frontage
on both George street and Nelson street. The
exports of Angostura Bitters, which for the first
five years after the transfer of the manufacture to
this colony only averaged 19,000 gallons per
annum, have for the past five years averaged
41,622 gallons — a striking proof, were any
needed, of the purity and excellence of these
celebrated Bitters, which have now become one
of the manufactures of Trinidad.
Of the minor agricultural products of the
colony, coffee is perhaps the most important.
The coffee plant thrives well and bears abun-
dantly in every part of the colony, yet the quantity
produced is not even sufficient to meet the home
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 113
consumption. Of late years, however, coffee has
been receiving more attention, and the area under
cultivation has been considerably enlarged. The
fact that the beans can now be profitably shipped
" in the parchment " is likely to give a further
stimulus to this industry. The quality of Trini-
dad coffee is equal to any produced either in the
East or West Indies. The soil of certain dis-
tricts of the colony is admirably adapted to the
growth of tobacco, and samples grown in the dis-
trict of Siparia have been pronounced by compe-
tent judges to be second only to the finest
Havana. As yet, however, the cultivation is
confined to a few patches scattered here and
there throughout the colony, but principally in
the above-named district.
Cotton was, in former times, extensively culti-
vated and formed a considerable item of export,
and Trinidad cotton is said to have been of
superior quality and to have commanded high
prices. The cotton plantations were, however,
subsequently abandoned for the more profitable
cultivation of the sugar-cane.
Indigo was also, at one time, an article of ex-
port ; but now, although the plant grows wild
throughout the colony, all the indigo used locally
is imported.
Indian corn, or maize, thrives well in even
the poorer lands, while in the richer soils the yield
is higher than in Europe or America. It is,
however, only cultivated to a limited extent, the
large local consumption being principally sup-
plied by imports from the United States. Rice
grows well in almost every part of the colony, the
ii4 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
average yield being from six to seven barrels per
acre. The area planted in rice has been gradually
increasing, and the annual crop is now consider-
able, and affects to some extent the sale of East
Indian rice, of which, however, the quantity im-
ported is still very large. There is a sufficient
quantity of land, well adapted to this cultivation
and almost useless for any other purpose, to pro-
duce all the rice required for home consumption,
but this desirable result is not likely to be attained
for very many years to come.
The soil of Trinidad is so. highly fertile, and
so diversified in its nature, as to render the island
capable of growing successfully not only every
vegetable product of the tropics, but also many
of those of more temperate regions. In addition
to sugar, cocoa, and the other products already
mentioned, tropical fruit-trees of every kind grow
luxuriantly, and fruit abundantly; and all tropical
vegetables or roots, whether exotic or indigenous,
such as plantains, yams, cush-cush, sweet potatoes,
tanias, ochroes, etc., grow readily, require little
care, and are generally highly productive ; while
many non-tropical vegetables, such as cabbage,
turnips, carrot, beet-root, etc., can, with a little
care and attention, be brought to almost as great
perfection as in Europe or America.
The forests of the colony abound in valuable
timber, but up to now little or no effort has been
made to develop this source of wealth. At
present the exports of timber, other than fire-
wood, are confined to occasional small shipments
of cedar or locust boards, chiefly to the other
West Indian colonies.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 115
CHAPTER IX.
PITCH LAKE DESCRIPTION OF THE ROUTE.
Pitch lake is reached from Port-of-Spain by
steamer, which runs there several times each week,
touching at all the intervening ports. The trip
is very interesting. After leaving Port-of-Spain,
the northern range of mountains is seen extend-
ing towards Venezuela, appearing to be connected
with that country. About two miles from the
town the Caroni river is passed, the largest stream
in the island, being twenty-eight miles in length ;
its banks are the haunts of the alligator, igua-
nas, and other saurians. For about ten miles
the shores are a continuous mangrove swamp.
Chaguanas is then reached, named after the river.
Here is a landing-place on the Felcite estate ; next
comes Claxton's bay, where there is a good jetty
thirteen hundred feet long. OffPointe a Pierre is
a greater depth of water than at any other of the
west coast. The mouth of the Guaracara river is
then passed, and the pretty little town of San
Fernando is reached. The next stopping-place
of the steamer is off the village of St. Mary's,
where the steamer will pick up or drop passen-
gers. From this village a road runs to the
famous Siparia mission. Here in the very
heart of the forest is a Roman Catholic church
n6 STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
with an image of the Virgin said to be endowed
with extraordinary virtues. Tradition says that
this statue was picked up by the Spaniards in the
depths of the forest ; it remained here for some
time, and was removed to Oropouche church.
It made no stay there, however, for on the
morning after its arrival it was found to have
mysteriously disappeared during the night, and
on search being instituted it was discovered in the
precise spot of the forest where it first appeared.
To the superstitious Spaniards this was clearly
a sign from heaven. Accordingly, in 1758 a
church was erected and a mission established con-
ducted by the Aragonese Capuchin monks. La
Divina Pastora, as the image is called, is richly
dressed and bedecked with valuable jewelry, the
offerings of pious pilgrims.
Beyond St. Mary's are some high woods in
which there is good hunting, especially for deer.
There are also several villages — Delhi, Fyabad,
and Barrackpore, inhabited chiefly by free coolies
engaged in raising rice and ground provisions.
There are also two African villages in this section,
Yarraba and Krooman. After passing Roussillac
swamp, and Point Sable, which probably receives
its name from the black mangroves lining the
shores, — beyond this is Point La Brea, so called
from a Spanish word meaning pitch. Here a
fine jetty is built out for a long distance into the
water, for the shipping of asphalt. From the pier
extending inland for about a mile, at a height of
about fifteen feet, is an endless chain of buckets
in which the pitch is brought from the lake and
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 117
deposited in the hold of the vessel lying along-
side of the wharf, — a great saving over the former
method of bringing it in carts and loading it into
boats through the surf. The overflow of pitch
from the lake has flowed down to the shore, and the
deposit is visible on the beach from the steamer.
On the ocean end of the pier, in a delightfully cool
and pleasant situation, are the dwelling-house and
office of the Barber Asphalt Company.
APPEARANCE OF THE LAKE.
" Trinidad Asphalt " is a name that of late
years has become well known in the United
States, since the Barber Asphalt Company has
used this material for paving the streets in the
principal cities. The Pitch lake, from whence
this asphalt is obtained, has been considered as
one of the natural wonders of the world. The
photographic print of it, which is shown here, is
an exact reproduction, true to nature in every de-
tail, and from which the reader can form a more
correct idea of this wonderful natural phenome-
non than from any written description, however
clear or minute. Indeed, it is scarcely possible
to give any description of the Pitch lake that
would convey a correct idea of its actual appear-
ance. It is stretched out like a plateau, more or
less circular, having an area of from ninety to one
hundred acres, the whole surface seamed and
scarred by deep fissures filled with water. The
general surface of the lake is not, even during the
heat of the day, softer or more yielding than an
ordinary asphalt pavement under a summer's sun.
nS STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
In certain places, however, it is much softer, and
no doubt there are spots where, if a man stayed
long enough, he would be slowly engulfed ; for in
the centre of the lake, where the pitch comes up
from the earth, the lightest footstep leaves an
impression, and you feel yourself almost imper-
ceptibly sinking, unless you continue constantly
in motion. Here and there liquid pitch may be
observed oozing out ; you may handle it without
sticking to the fingers. The best time to come
to the Pitch lake is in the early morning while
it is cool, otherwise the heat of the sun is so
attracted by the black ground as to n.ake the
whole atmosphere oppressive. Of course, to pay
a morning visit you must go to San Fernando by
rail or steamer the day before, and take a small
boat to La Brea as early as you can rise, before
daybreak if possible. It has been estimated that
the lake contains four million five hundred thou-
sand tons of asphalt. This has proved to be a ver-
itable mine of wealth to the colony. The yearly
revenue from same pays the total charge of the
interest on the whole public debt of the colony.
DISCOVERY OF THE PITCH LAKE.
Sir Walter Raleigh, who entered the gulf by
the southern Bocas, states that in coasting along
the western shores of the island he found a large
quantity of pitch of superior quality with which
he caused his vessels to be newly payed.
Subsequent experiments prove that Sir Walter
must have mixed the pitch with a large quantity
of grease or other unctuous matter before using
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 119
it for such a purpose. In any case he appears to
have succeeded, and thus to have been the first
to turn the product of the lake to a profitable use.
In this he was more fortunate than many of the
subsequent experimenters. Early in this century
Sir Alexander Cochrane conveyed to England two
shiploads of pitch from the lake for the_ purpose
of pitching or " paying " the ships of the navy,
but on examination it was found to require the
admixture of too large a quantity of oil to render
it applicable to such a purpose. Sir Ralph Wood-
ford, being anxious to have a beacon placed on
the tower of Trinity Church, gas made from the
pitch was used in the experiment, and burnt
brightly and steadily, and no doubt but the bea-
con would have become a permanent institution,
but the idea had to be given up, owing to the
intolerable stench given off by the gas. Many
years after an able and enthusiastic American
scientist succeeded in making excellent illuminat-
ing gas from the pitch, but unfortunately the cost
of production was too great to permit of its be-
coming a commercial success. Lubricating oils of
good quality have also from time to time been
made from the pitch, but none of them proved
successful from a business point of view. Nor
do the first attempts to export the crude asphalt
to Europe and the United States for paving pur-
poses appear to have been more fortunate. In-
deed, it is only within the past twenty years that
Trinidad asphalt can be said to have obtained its
long-expected commercial value in the markets of
the world.
120 STARK ~'S GUIDE BOOK
COMMERCIAL VALUE OF THE ASPHALT.
No sooner had Trinidad asphalt become a
regular marketable product with a recognized
market value, than the Pitch lake, hitherto
neglected and even despised on account of the
repeated failures, became the cynosure of all eyes.
It would be entirely beyond the scope of this
work to attempt to describe the different events
that led up to the granting of the existing con-
cession. Suffice it to say that the Government
have granted to the Trinidad Asphalt Com-
pany, Limited, the exclusive right to dig, work,
search for, and win pitch, asphaltum, etc., from
the Pitch lake for a term of forty-two years from
the ist of February, 1888. The terms on which
this concession is held are shortly as follows : A
minimum annual export of forty-six thousand tons
of asphaltum for the first twenty-one years, thus
securing to the colony an annual minimum reve-
nue of ,£15,333 ; an annual minimum export for
the second twenty-one years of thirty thousand
tons, securing an annual minimum revenue to the
colony of ^£ 10,000; or a total minimum of ^525,-
ooo for the forty-two years.
The granting of the concession at the time was
bitterly opposed, opinions on the subject were
widely divided, but the results so far have been
far more satisfactory than was even anticipated
when the concession was granted.
The increased revenue from asphalt that has
accrued to the colony since granting of the con-
cession has been very large. In the five years
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 121
previous to it, 1883 to 1887, the total revenue
accruing to the colony from asphalt was only
^£14,196 : in the five years subsequent to the con-
cession, 1888 to 1892, it has been ^£141,268.
The revenue for the year 1894 was ^34,410,
more than double what it was for five years pre-
vious to granting the concession, now held by the
Barber Asphalt Company.
122 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
CHAPTER X.
A TRIP UP THE ORINOCO DESCRIPTION OF THE
ORINOCO CIUDAD BOLIVAR VENEZUELA.
One of the most delightful excursions from
Trinidad is atrip up the Orinoco as far as Bolivar.
It is something to be remembered, and will never
be forgotten. It is exceedingly interesting and
well worth the time consumed in taking it.
The steamer " Bolivar " that runs up the river
is an American-built side-wheel steamer, with all
the cabins on deck and fitted up especially for use
in a hot country, and is capable of steaming sixteen
or eighteen miles per hour, with a very small
draught of water. She formerly belonged to an
American company, but when the Venezuelan
government closed the Macareo river (an estuary
of the Orinoco that cuts off several hundred
miles and is much safer for light-draught boats
than the entrance of the Orinoco), she was sold
to a Venezuelan company that held the " conces-
sion " to use the Macareo, and of which it is said
President Crespo is the principal owner. The
time occupied by the journey is two days and
nights each way, and three days at Bolivar. As
there are no accommodations there for travellers,
arrangements should be made with the steam-
boat company for staying aboard while at Bolivar.
The steamer makes two trips per month, and
INDIAN WOMEN, MACAREO RIVER.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 123
before embarking it is necessary to procure a pass-
port and produce a list of the baggage, signed by
the Venezuelan consul.
MACAREO RIVER.
The steamer leaves Port-of-Spain at six P.M.
and crosses the Gulf of Para, and arrives at the
bar at the mouth of the Macareo river at day-
break. The first thing that will strike the
traveller after leaving British waters will be the
sudden transforming of the deck hands into Ven-
ezuelan soldiers, all armed with repeating rifles.
They accompany the steamer on every trip, to
prevent her from being seized by revolutionists,
and robbed of the gold which she takes aboard
at the town of Las Tablas.
The channel is from one to two miles in width,
while down to the water's edge are the heavy pri-
meval forests. At intervals openings occur where
lawn-like banks of grass run down to the water's
edge, dotted here and there with trees, many
covered with blossoms. At other places the man-
groves hang heavy over the water, extending
their roots from their branches, like the banyan
trees, of which they are a species. While looking
through their dark foliage the still water can
be seen extending far away, terminating in dis-
mal swamps through which roam the jaguar or
South American tiger, puma, tapirs, ocelots, and
innumerable monkeys, at their own sweet will.
Flamingoes, storks, and cranes stalk about, of
varied and beautiful colors; parrots and macaws
fly overhead, while ducks, swans, and water-fowl
124 STARK 'S GUIDE BOOK
of all sorts are being constantly seen. Snakes
of all varieties are met with, including the great
pythons upward of fifty feet in length and as
large round as a man's body ; while caymans,
electric eels, and fish of carnivorous propensities
swarm in the water. It seems the paradise of
wild beasts. The jaguar will stop drinking or the
tapir look up from browsing on the grass, and
the monkey pause in swinging from tree to tree,
as the boats hurry noisily by, while the drowsy
alligator or manatee floats lazily on, his head half
out of water, until perhaps a conical bullet from
a Winchester rifle or from a revolver, which every
one carries, rouses him to a knowledge that it is
not good to trust too much to mankind.
As the day goes by, the steamer passes through
miles and miles of this beautiful tropical scenery,
every succeeding bend opening up new beauties.
Here islands clothed in verdure, there the banks
closing together so that the steamers almost pass
under the branches of overhanging trees, then
widening out till the shores seem to recede almost
from view ; and all under a burning, glistening
sun, while the river, with its dark-brown water,
runs on without a ripple. All noises cease, the
very air quivers with the heat, and the passengers
loll in their chairs or hammocks under the awn-
ing on the forward part of the upper deck, where
the motion of the boat produces a grateful breeze ;
drinking cooled iced drinks brought to them
from the bar by the accommodating steward.
With the evening comes a renewal of the wild
beasts' cries, the howlings of the monkeys, and
CARIB INDIAN.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 125
the screams of the birds. Then a great darkness
immediately succeeds the setting of the sun, for
there is no twilight in the tropics, and the steamer
beats on her way amid a gloom penetrable only
by the experienced eye of the pilot. Through
this vast solitude no human foot treads, except
that of the wild Indian, who lives precisely as
his forefathers did when Columbus discovered
his country. Their clothing consists only of an
apron six or eight inches square fastened around
their loins, a necklace of wild beasts' teeth, and
sometimes a head-dress of feathers ; they are
armed with the bow and arrows, spear and war-
club ; their canoes are made out of single logs
burnt and scraped, with shell or stone imple-
ments, into form; their houses are merely poles
stuck into the ground on the banks of the river,
and covered with thatch of palm leaves. Such
was the first sight we had presented to us of the
native Indians, on the first morning after leaving
Trinidad, as we passed through the Macareo
river, about half-way between the Gulf of Para
and the Orinoco. Several Indians paddled out to
meet the steamer, in their canoes, shouting and
gesticulating, while the women and children ran
out of their huts to the shore to look at us.
These Indians are harmless, and live principally
by fishing, and are very grateful for any tin can or
empty bottles thrown to them from the steamer.
They are of Carib descent, and were formerly
much more numerous ; but the cruelties practised
upon them by the Spaniards and Venezuelans
have driven them away, or at least much further
126 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
into the woods. Even of late years, the govern-
ment of Venezuela — if the parties in power can
be called a government — have levied taxes on
the Indians which they knew they were unable to
pay, then sent out soldiers to bring them in and
make them work on the government plantations
without pay, which is only another form of
slavery.
These villages have about four or five acres of
cleared land around them, on which they grow
corn, plantain, and yams, sufficient with the fish
and game they catch to keep them. Those that
came off in their canoes seemed fat and well. If
any one dies he is wrapped up in strips of fibre,
then put into his hammock, and suspended as far
from the ground as possible between two posts.
Such a burial-place we passed and obtained a
photograph of it which we have reproduced in
this work. Several Indian villages are passed
similar to the first one, and then the first white
settlement is approached. This proves to be a
single hut varying but little from the Indian ones,
except it is partly enclosed by walls made of mud
baked in the sun. The children, too, have some-
thing on, while some garments hang in the sun to
dry, and the garden shows a little more variety -
some sugar canes, a pawpaw tree, and several
cocoanuts. All these are signs of civilization, but
the canoe, and general dirt and squalor, and color
too, are very much the same. Leaving this
lonely squatter we push on, and presently on the
right bank we come in sight of a more preten-
tious abode. This is a small sugar plantation.
INDIAN GRAVES, MACAREO RIVER.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 127
We see the primitive appliances for crushing the
cane, and the open boiling-house, where, in large
iron pans, the juice is boiled and evaporated
until a coarse brown product is obtained. The
residue is converted into rum, in a still some-
thing like a teakettle. A Trinidad or Demerara
planter would recoil with horror from this primi-
tive mode of manufacture, but it answers the
owner's purpose well enough ; he has no competi-
tion to put up with, and it affords a good example .
what extreme protection will do for a country.
Sugar, coffee, cocoa, salt, cotton, and many other
articles are absolutely prohibited from entering
Venezuela. The result is that sugar sells for
thirty cents per pound, salt ten cent, etc.
THE ORINOCO.
Houses and plantations now become more
numerous until Barrancas is reached, a straggling
7 OO O
village with a large corral or pen, capable of
holding three or four hundred head of cattle,
from which they are shipped and carried by this
vessel on her return voyage to Trinidad, for the
supply of beef to that island.
After leaving Barrancas the river changes its
aspect, for now we are on the Orinoco. It is
much wider, huge stony bluffs appear, the land
is more open, while in the distance appear the
mountains of Guiana, a low spur or branch of
the Andes. Now, turning a sharp corner, a vast
sheet of water is opened up, at the lower end of
which in the distance appears a fortress. This is
where the famous fort was built by Sir Walter
128 STARK'S GUIDE BOOK
Raleigh, when that bold buccaneer forced his way
up the Orinoco and proceeded to search for the
land of El Dorado among the possessions of the
Spaniards. Curiously enough, Raleigh and his
followers, according to all traditions, must, in their
attempted passage through the country, have
actually passed over the spot where the greatest
quantities of gold are now produced — the wonder-
fully rich mine of El Callao. Raleigh mentions
frequently that he saw gold embedded in white
quartz, and it is singular that it is white quartz
which produces the most gold at that mine,
whereas in other mines the gold-bearing lodes are
blue. It was this expedition which eventually,
through the cowardice of James I. and his fear of
the Spaniard, lost Raleigh his head. The proud
viceroy of South America never forgot or forgave
the blow inflicted on his prestige and power by
the bold Englishman, and Raleigh's blood was
needed to quiet the fears and satisfy the pride of
the Spaniard whom he so often defeated. Pass-
ing Raleigh's fort, the small town of Las Tablas
is reached, on the river bank, at which persons
visiting the mines generally disembark, a process
attended with some difficulty unless you have pre-
viously been to Bolivar and obtained a permit.
CIUDAD BOLIVAR.
The next important stopping-place is Ciudad
Bolivar, or, as it was formerly called, " Angos-
tura." This city is the capital of the State of
Bolivar, which comprises about one-half of the
land-area of Venezuela, and contains a population
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 129
of about ten thousand. The city is built upon a
hill of solid rock, and commands an extensive
view of the Orinoco and the wide-stretching
plains on both sides of the river. The streets run
at right angles and parallel to the Orinoco, but are
very steep and poorly paved. It contains a
cathedral, — being the see of a bishop, — built in
the time of the Spanish colonists. There is also a
large and spacious government house, in which
a fine collection of documents relating to the his-
tory of this section of the country is kept in
excellent order. A federal college of the first class,
with a good library, and under the direction of a
staff of teachers, gives instruction to about one
hundred and twenty-eight boys, who receive a
good liberal education. A public square well kept,
in which is a fine statue of the liberator Bolivar,
stands on a handsome pedestal. This was the
first monument erected in honor of the hero of the
country in Venezuela, the man who sacrificed all
his large fortune to effect the liberation of Span-
ish America, and received so little recognition
•* O
from an ungrateful country that when he died his
friends had to pay the expenses of his burial.
There is also a market place, very poorly sup-
plied; two hospitals, one for men and one for
women ; a theatre well patronized, a Masonic
lodge, a Roman Catholic and Protestant ceme-
tery. The principal street, where the stores of
the merchants are, faces and runs parallel to the
river ; between it and the water a long line of
trees has been planted, affording a much-desired
shelter during the heat of the day, which here is
130 STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
very great. If it were not for the breeze which
blows up the river regularly every day it would
be unbearable ; no human being could stand it.
The thermometer ranges from ninety-six to one
hundred and twelve during the middle of the day
It is said there that at the creation, after the six
days were over, the devil stole a mean advantage
during the Sunday's rest and threw up Ciudad
Bolivar as an outpost. Inland behind the town
is a large lagoon which is dry when the river
is low. Almost all the houses are of the old
Spanish type, one story or at most two high,
with flat terraced roofs and windows heavily
barred ; generally whitewashed, with a dado or
border up to about three feet from the ground,
of some bright color. The little yards or gar-
dens behind, without which no Spanish house is
complete, have been brought into cultivation by
earth brought in baskets from long distances.
All the houses have large projecting balconies
supported on posts, under which the pavement
of the street runs, thus affording some shelter to
the passenger* There are no walks or drives
except up and down the principal street, by the
riverside ; all the country around is one dreary
desert, either swamp or lagoon or sandy savanna,
where only coarse grass can grow. The place
is not unhealthy, it is merely hot. The bare
black rock on which it stands gets almost red hot
at noon, and never at any time gets cool. The
women of the better class are seldom seen except
at early mass, about four A.M. It is considered
highly improper to visit ladies of a family except
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 131
in the presence of their husbands or fathers, in
fact, any lady who receives a call from a gentleman
friend, or was known to be alone with him, forfeits
her reputation. If a young man wants to see a
young lady he asks for her father and sees her
only in his presence, or with some duenna sitting
by her side.
THE UPPER ORINOCO.
The Orinoco here is very narrow, and a spur
of the same rock on which the town is built juts
far out into the river and renders navigation very
unsafe, while the narrowness of the channel enables
the town to command the waterway. The river
here is about eight hundred and fifty yards wide,
and right in the middle of the mighty stream rises
the immense rock called " Piedra del Medio,"
surmounted by a large cross. It is never over-
flowed by the great annual rise of the river, which
may be calculated at about seventy feet, and
serves as an excellent meter to gauge the rise of
the Orinoco. The river begins to rise in the
month of March, from the melting of the snow
in the Andes, and continues rising until August,
when it is at its highest ; it then commences to
fall until February, in which month it is always
lowest.
The head waters of this river have never yet
been reached, though several parties have at-
tempted to get there. The vast forests and
plains in which it rises are peopled by Indians
never yet subdued, and who will permit no white
man or stranger to intrude on their territory.
132 STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
With the tribes occupying this part of the country
remains the secret of the Worari poison ; with it
they smear arrows as well as their other warlike
implements, and a scratch means death without
remedy. These tribes have a habit of serving a
sort of notice on any traveller trying to pen-
etrate their country. If he retires on receipt of
it, all is well, and he is not molested by them.
If, after receiving it, he perseveres and tries to go
forward, an implacable and unseen enemy dogs
his every step ; by day and by night he is attacked ;
from every tree, from every bush, a poisoned
arrow flies, till at last, worn out and exhausted
by this continual strife, he and his party fall a
prey to their ferocious enemies.
There are no wharves on the Orinoco. The
great rise and fall of the river renders the erec-
tion of them nearly impossible. When the river
is high .the difficulties of unloading vessels are not
so great, as they lie alongside of the river-bank
and discharge from the deck thereon ; but when
low the steepness of the immense sand-bank
which exists in front of the city makes the use of
carts quite out of the question, and renders the
work of unloading not only expensive but very
long. The cargo has to be carried on men's
shoulders from the brink of the river to the
Custom House, and at the rate of twelve cents
per one hundred and twenty pounds. The dis-
tance from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, to this city
by the channel of the Macareo is about four
hundred and fifty miles, and this is as far up the
river as steamers can ascend when the river is
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 133
low. When the river is high it is entirely differ-
ent : steamers can go thousands of miles into the
interior, even to the Amazon. The Orinoco forms
the highway of communication of the whole re-
public, uniting as it does the northern as well as
the southern part, and with its tributaries forms a
network of internal navigation unrivalled in any
other country on the face of the globe. It flows
through thousands of miles of virgin forest
teeming with the most precious woods, through
vast territories abounding in varied and innumer-
able tropical productions, through immense plains
on which numerous herds of cattle roam, through
soils of the richest fertility, through different
zones of great heat, a genial spring-like tempera-
ture, and extreme cold. Indeed, it may be said
with truth that the Orinoco is the key to the
whole of the vast continent of South America.
By the Rio Negro it is joined to the Amazon, thus
rendering Brazil accessible to steamers from the
coasts of Venezuela. It requires no stretch of
the imagination to suppose that the commerce
which will some day be developed by means of
this noble river will unquestionably be of vast
importance.
INHABITANTS. GOVERNMENT.
Before that, however, the country will have to
be peopled with another race different from that
now inhabiting it. It is not under the dominion
of the white race ; two-thirds of the people are
of mixed Indian and Spanish descent, the other
third of white, negro, and all three races together.
134 START'S GUIDE BOOK
There is not more than one per cent, of pure
whites in Venezuela, and of those many are new-
comers, — English, American, German, and Cor-
sican. Crespo, the President of the republic, is
one-half negro, the balance white and Indian.
O 3
The Venezuelan of white and Indian blood con-
siders himself superior to one with negro blood.
The worst combination is a peculiar mixture called
Zamboes, the descendants of Africans and Ind-
ians, which has produced a breed which in Vene-
zuela is looked on as singularly ferocious ; and
out of ten crimes committed, at least eight are at-
tributed, and with reason, to Zamboes. During
the wars they have proved the most cruel and
blood-thirsty of all troops, neither taking nor
giving quarter, and have fairly outrivalled in that
respect the Llaneros or cowboys of the plains, to
which class Crespo belongs.
The constant changes of presidents or dictators,
and consequently the very unsettled condition of
the country and insecurity of property, have
been the great drawbacks to the prosperity of
Venezuela. It would seem that the Latin races
were incapable of self-government. When a
ruler once obtains power, it is difficult to dis-
possess him with anything short of a revolution.
Gusman Blanco had a longer lease of power
and had a firmer hold on the people than any of
their former presidents. By an article in the
constitution, the President was only elected for
two years, and the same person could not hold
two consecutive terms of office. Therefore be-
tween Blanco's presidentships there has been a
AND HISTORY OF TRINI-DAD. 135
succession of warming-pans as it were, he return-
ing to power as soon as the law permitted, and
the retiring Presidents falling back into their
native obscurity ; but each one while in power
did all he could to fill his own pockets, and
those of the needy set of adventurers who sur-
rounded him. Blanco's last dummy was An-
dreas Palacio, who was overturned by Crespo
and his cowboys, who upset this order of things.
When Crespo got into power he had the consti-
tution changed so as to give him a longer lease
of power. Blanco retired to Paris and is living
in a palace there with $20,000,000 which he
obtained from " concessions," and Palacio ditto
with $2,000,000.
When Bolivar freed Venezuela he gave, as the
only reward possible, the land and trade of
the country to those who had freed it. All
the generals applied for something, — grants of
land, special powers to trade, etc. For instance,
Tonka beans grow wild in certain districts, and
used to be collected by the natives and brought
down to the merchants at Bolivar, who bought
them up and shipped them to the United States,
making a considerable profit ; and a large trade
was done in them, which gave employment
to a great number of people. However, one
general, scenting plunder, applied and got a
" concession " to gather, sell, or export Tonka
beans. The merchants of Bolivar, seeing a very
considerable trade slipping from their grasp, met
and presented a respectful petition to the Presi-
dent, asking him to abolish this concession, on
136 STARK'S GUIDE BOOK
the ground that it was a great injury to trade.
The Governor of Bolivar called a meeting of the
merchants who had signed the memorial, which
they all attended, except one wary old fox, who
suddenly became unwell and went down to Trin-
idad for his health. On reaching the govern-
ment house they were informed that the President
had read their memorial, that he considered it
inimical to the government, and that he, the
Governor, was directed to give them a fortnight's
confinement in prison to reconsider the matter ;
and imprisoned they accordingly were. No
further memorial reached the President from
them. A German house in Bolivar paid a large
sum yearly to the concession holder, obtained
the privilege of collecting and exporting all the
Tonka beans. The people who collected them
had to pay for leave to do so, they must bring
them to this house, which buys at its own price,
and, fearing no competition, sells or holds back
as the foreign markets suit it.
Crespo owns many concessions, — gold mines,
the use of the Macareo river, which really means
the navigation of the Orinoco, the sale of butter
and milk in Caracas from his own farm, and the
shipping of cattle to Trinidad, etc. By the time
he is dispossessed of his office he will retire with
as much wealth as his predecessors, and then the
country will have to go through the process of
being robbed by another set of cormorants.
How a State gifted with one of the best codes of
law in existence could, through the utter deprav-
ity, greed, and cruelty of successive chiefs, have
138 AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
fallen into its present state is not within the scope
of this chapter to say. Foreigners who have
made loans to the government are openly
laughed at and their claims derided. Negotia-
tions with such a government are utterly useless.
Diplomacy is powerless with men who, while
stickling for the point of honor, lie without
scruple and cheat whenever it serves their pur-
pose. Without arms, or men to use them, all
their defences in ruins, and relying solely on the
forbearance of their victims, they talk and
swagger with the insolence of a first-class power.
The only way justice can be obtained by for-
eigners is through the presence of a gunboat at
Laguyar ; then all that is required is granted with-
out a murmur. Trinidad is a constant source of
irritation to Venezuela, as it affords a harbor for
smugglers and revolutionists. Blanco and Crespo
both started from here on their expeditions,
and while the island by its position at the
mouth of the Orinoco should command a great
trade with Venezuela, it is hampered and ob-
structed by the Venezuelan government, which
imposes an extra ad valorem duty of thirty per
cent, on whatever comes from or through Trini-
dad. This policy causes an immense amount
of smuggling of goods through Trinidad into
Venezuela, aided by the connivance of the Ven-
ezuelan custom-house officers. It is estimated
that not one-tenth part of the duties is collected
by the government.
The State of Bolivar, or Guiana as it was for-
merly called, is separated from the rest of the
STARK' S GUIDE BOOK iy)
republic by the Orinoco. This vast region is
as large as France, and comprises one-half of
Venezuela, and contains a population of only
about 50,000, only two inhabitants to the square
mile, while the island of Barbados contains 1,200
to the square mile, and Trinidad, although but
one-tenth inhabited, contains a population five
times greater than this great wilderness which has
been inhabited since 1575.
COUNTRY HOTEL IN VENEZUELA.
i ' •<*
140 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
CHAPTER XI.
THE GREAT VENEZUELAN PITCH LAKE ITS DIS-
COVERY AND DEVELOPMENT.
To a person visiting Trinidad, and having
time to spare, it would be a mistake to go away
without visiting one of the greatest natural
curiosities of the world. This is the newly
discovered Pitch lake in Venezuela. It is sit-
uated in the interior of the State of Bermu-
dez, on the westerly side of the Gulf of Paria,
opposite the Island of Trinidad. It can be
reached in a steamer of the New York & Ber-
mudez Company that goes weekly from Port-of-
Spain to Guanoco. It takes a day and night to
make the trip, each way. If a person desires to
go hunting, no better place can be reached from
Trinidad. Here will be found primeval for-
ests which abound with game of all descriptions,
jaguars, peccaries, monkeys, turkeys, macaws,
ibis, parrots, etc., and in the rivers fish of all
kinds, manatees and alligators. This wonderful
Pitch lake is one thousand acres in extent, and
as it is incessantly, though imperceptibly, in mo-
tion it may well be called inexhaustible.
A brief description of its discovery and devel-
opment may prove of interest to the reader.
During Gusman Blanco's administration an Eng-
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 141
lishman was granted the concession of all the
natural products of the State of Bermudez, and
a company was organized in the United States,
under the name of the " New York & Bermudez
Company," for the purpose of developing the
same. The company at first confined itself to
the exporting of the products of the forest, prin-
cipally timber. This, however, not proving re-
munerative, and the Indians reporting the exist-
ence of a vast deposit of asphalt in the interior,
it was determined to send a competent person to
explore the country, and examine into the genu-
ineness of the reputed Pitch lake. Mr. A. H.
Garner, a civil engineer then in the employ of
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, a man well
versed in the development of such enterprises,
was the person selected for the undertaking,
and, as future results showed, no better selection
could possibly have been made. The writer
met Mr. Garner in Port-of-Spain while obtaining
material for this work, and was kindly invited by
him to visit this wonderful pitch deposit. It was
during this visit that the information contained
in this chapter was obtained from this pioneer of
Venezuelan forests.
In the early part of 1887 Mr. Garner arrived
in Venezuela. After diligent inquiry and search
he fully ascertained that such a deposit existed,
but that it was only locally known to the Ind-
ians and half-breeds in that region. The only
known approach was by way of a small river,
known as the Guariquen river, having its source
some thirty-six miles inland among the hills,
I42 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
near a little village of the same name, reached
by the company's steamer " Mercedes." A
guide was obtained here who led the exploring
party over a trail which traversed dense virgin
forests, swamps, and mountains, and which ended
at what is now known as the Great Bermudez
Pitch lake. Here was found a vast deposit of
asphalt, ninety-five per cent, pure; in some
places liquid, in others hard and brittle ; this
latter is known to the trade as "glance pitch,"
from which varnishes and paints are made. The
larger portion of the lake was of the same
consistency and appearance as the Trinidad
Pitch lake, intersected with pools of water, and
in some places with great gas-bubbles as large as
a small-sized hut. In one place was found the
remains of a tiger whose feet having been caught
in the soft pitch had starved to death. Here
and there were clumps of bushes and grass grow-
ing out of the hard pitch, appearing like islands
in the lake; in one of these was found the lair
of a tiger or some other large wild beast.
The lake is about two miles across in its
widest part, and is bounded on the north by the
mountain just crossed, and surrounded on all
other sides by vast wildernesses of swamp and
forest.
As viewed from the mountains this wide ex-
panse of asphalt seemed to extend for miles in
all directions, its limits reaching beyond the vision
and fading into the horizon.
Some two months were spent in looking over
this natural wonder, with a view of ascertaining
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 143
the feasibility of bringing it into commercial uses;
during this time a few shipments were also
made, being carried over the mountains on the
backs of donkeys to the shipping place ; from
there put on board the steamer " Mercedes "
and sent to Trinidad, where it was transshipped to
the larger steamers plying between Port-of-Spain
and New York. After careful consideration Mr.
Garner reported to the company that the devel-
opment of this wonderful and valuable deposit for
commercial purposes was impracticable, owing to
the many physical and natural difficulties which
beset it on every side : a bar at the mouth of
the Guariquen river, with a silted bottom, which
never could be kept dredged, and with only a
depth of thirteen feet at high water ; a very
crooked river, with soft embankments and
a muddy bottom which low tide left high and
dry for more than a mile from the landing
place ; and a winding trail over swamp, hill,
and mountain, alternately, for a distance of
about twelve miles.
The construction of necessary facilities for trans-
porting the asphalt would have cost at least half
a million dollars, and would not then have been
complete, by reason of there not being sufficient
water for ocean-going vessels.
i*
On some of the various journeys over the
mountains, however, a bluish streak in the atmos-
phere was noticed far to the south of the asphalt
lake, just hovering over tree-tops ; this gave the
hope that one or more waterways might exist
in that locality. Preparations were immediately
144 STACK'S GUIDE BOOK
made to test and prove the possibility of this new
approach from the south. The old trail was
retraced, from the north, to the large and open
surface of the glistening pitch lake three-quarters
of a mile from its outer edge; its geographical
position was ascertained by nautical observation.
Returning to the port where the steamer
" Mercedes " was anchored, the exploring party
again started out on what proved to be a suc-
cessful though laborious expedition.
Leaving the Guariquen river they steamed
over the " Maturin bar," which contains an
abundance of water throughout, into the San
Juan river — a second Orinoco without its dan-
gers. They navigated this river for many miles,
to " Paraie," a little settlement which nestles at
the foot of" Buen Pasteur Mountain," or " Moun-
tain of the Good Shepherd," whose sides rise
almost perpendicularly from the river's edge to
a great height.
From the summit of this mountain the ex-
plorers took another observation, and found that
they must retrace their steps and seek an en-
trance into the interior by means of one of
the many small canons or branches of the San
Juan.
Procuring the services of Brito, a little Vene-
zuelan pilot, who has since been identified with
much of the pioneer life of Guanoco, the party
returned some thirty miles to a tributary on the
right hand, now known as the " Guanoco river,"
and which the Indians of the section said led
to a great lake of asphalt.
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 145
Into this river they turned and steamed slowly
on, sounding carefully with lead and line, until
arriving at the base of a chain of hills, and find-
O
ing farther navigation difficult and dangerous, the
anchor was dropped. Here was found the first
high ground since entering the river. It was
O O O
occupied by an Indian family, and was the future
site of Guanoco settlement. From the Guar-
auno Indian of this place it was ascertained that
a great lake of pitch existed not far away, where
they went to catch small fish found in the
pools of water which collects in the fissures of
the pitch. The pitch itself they use for their
canoes and arrows.
They also said that the moriche palm was found
in great abundance, from the fibre of which they
make their hammocks, and from the sap and
fruit of which they make an intoxicating bever-
age. The temiche palm, used by them as a
covering for their huts, was also said to abound.
The time required to reach the lake, or the
distance, they did not know.
With this meagre information the first expe-
dition started out, headed by Mr. Garner with
an assistant engineer, four Indian guides, Brito
the pilot, and a young interpreter. Leaving the
steamer they rowed on in a small row-boat until
they reached a narrow canon, or branch of the
main river ; into this they turned and stopped
at a narrow opening, where they landed and con-
tinued their journey on foot, following the guides,
who, in addition to the lunch-baskets, each
carried a " machete " or cutlass, with which to cut
146 STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK
away the low underbrush, which seemed almost
impenetrable. The mangrove trees, with their
twisted roots, formed formidable barriers, while
their leafy branches were so dense that the sun
could barely penetrate. Over the grotesque,
twisted mangrove roots they climbed, many
times sinking to the waist in the soft, black
mud which is found along the lowlands. After
what seemed miles of travel they were apparently
no nearer the object of their search. The guides
became exhausted by the constant struggle to
drag themselves out of the black mud into
which they sank at every step. It was noticed
also that they examined most carefully the trunk
of each tree passed, and now and then one of
the younger ones would climb one of the larger
trees, to sight the surrounding country.
The day was far spent, and darkness was
settling over the swamps, when the guides ac-
knowledged that they had lost the trail, marked
by notches cut in the trunks of the trees.
To continue would be useless, and to attempt to
find the trail just lost would be equally so, for
the shades of night gather very quickly in the
tropical forests.
A little farther on, however, was a fallen man-
grove tree whose twisted and distorted roots
formed natural seats, beneath and around which
were deep pools of muddy water. Upon this
they climbed, and resigned themselves to the
horrors of a night in a tropical forest and swamp.
The Indians made a camp-fire, to keep away not
only mosquitoes and sandflies, but tigers and
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 147
snakes, which were said to abound. To add to
their misery, the rain soon came down in
torrents, and the bright light of the camp-fire
soon grew dimmer and dimmer, until at last they
were left in total darkness, perched upon the
roots of the mangrove, and wishing most heartily
that pitch had never been heard of.
Fortunately the darkest nights pass, and dawn
seems all the brighter, and the first streak of
daylight was gladly welcomed by this little
party.
Finding the Indians were completely lost, it
was decided to find the way back to the steamer,
if possible, and send to the Indian village, not
far distant, for one of the older Indians, and
start out afresh.
The next trial was successful, and when the
direct trail was opened the distance was found to
be infinitely shorter and far more practical.
The title to the whole of the lake property
was then obtained in fee-simple, and in 1888 the
initial steps were taken toward locating the little
settlement now known throughout the shipping
world as Guanoco. Clearings were made in the
dense jungle, houses constructed for the laborers,
a temporary jetty made for landing machinery
and provisions, and the line opened and surveyed
from the lake to the jetty.
The cutting of a trail through the dense swamp
was only the commencement of the many diffi-
culties to be overcome ; to be appreciated, the rail-
road through this tropical swamp must be seen.
Many months were spent in cutting down the jun-
148 ST ARK'S GUIDE BOOK
gle and the great giants of the forest ; the Indians
cut away the brush and scrub, and the Vene-
zuelans and negroes felled the trees. Numer-
ous trips had to be made to Trinidad for negroes
and supplies. The negroes soon tired of hard
work in the swamp, where they were certain to
have the fever in a very short time. When the
roadway was cleared, then came the most difficult
task of all — the building of a solid road-bed for
a distance of over five miles.
In 1890 a vigorous start was made, suffering
frequent interruptions from scarcity of labor, want
of food, and fever ravages ; but the Yankee
courage never failedj and the work of laying the
rails still progressed until the close of '90, when
the last length of rails reached the pitch lake,
five and three-tenths miles distant from the ship-
ping wharf, over rivers, through one continuous
jungle of tropical growth and dismal swamp.
These first years of pioneer life were full of
thrilling incidents. Tigers abounded, and now
and then would pay a nocturnal visit to the stock-
yard and help themselves to a chicken or young
pig. Emboldened by their repeated successes, one
entered too close to the camp one night, and paid
the penalty of death. Snakes of all descriptions
were most plentiful, and many narrow escapes
did they have from these ugly reptiles. Coiled
among the green leaves of the low-hanging
branches of the mangrove tree, they could not
be detected, but a splash in the water, one dark
night, of a boa constrictor proved to the occu-
pants of the passing row-boat that they had just
AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD. 149
escaped what would have proved a very disa-
greeable embrace.
Centipedes and tarantulas abounded, the lat-
ter being most dreaded from its propensity to
hide itself in the crown of a hat or the folds of a
coat which had not been constantly in use.
The red howling monkeys swung among the
branches of the trees, and their howlings made
the early morning hours most doleful ; but the
whistle of the locomotives and steamers has
driven them farther back into the woods, for the
monkey does not like civilization any better than
did Juancito the Guarauno, who, with his family,
had lived in the quiet solitude of that wilder-
ness, content with fishing in the rivers or hunt-
ing with his dogs the game of the mountains, but
who at the first glimpse of the pale-faces, who
intruded themselves on their domain, silently
filled their long baskets with their chinchorros
and hastily fled through the dense underbrush to
the banks of the river, and stealthily paddled
away in their canoes, leaving their thatched hut,
with embers smoking on the rude stone fireplace,
deserted.
Once or twice only, since his departure, has
Juancito brought his squaw and children to view,
from afar, their old camping-ground ; but all is
changed, and nothing remains of his old home
but the lime and mango trees, which, to-day, cast
their shades and bear their fruits for strangers.
O
Probably in the depths of their stolid natures
was a feeling akin to the heart-aches felt by more
civilized individuals when they also have realized
150 ST ARK'S GUIDE BOOK
the changes in the old home wrought by time
and absence.
The development of this pitch lake, and the
bringing of the asphalt into the market, has been
a work requiring the greatest possible physical
endurance and determination, and the successful
conclusion is entirely due to the skilful manage-
ment and untiring zeal and enterprise of Mr.
Garner. Guanoco, the Pitch lake settlement,
owes its existence, name, and present state of
thrift and activity to him and his wife, who has
shared his toils and privations in this wilderness
for the past ten years.
The facilities are such that a vessel can now be
loaded in one day. A visit to this lake on the
company's steamer will amply repay the visitor.
It will be a trip unequalled in the world, never
to be forgotten.
STACK'S GUIDE BOOK 151
CHAPTER XII.
TOBAGO, GRENADA, AND ST. VINCENT.
A person coming to or going from Trinidad
by the Royal Mail Steamers will find it greatly
to his advantage to stop off at Tobago, Grenada,
and St. Vincent, on his way from or to Barba-
dos. The steamers run between Barbados and
Trinidad every two weeks, touching at the above-
named islands, and if the tourist has not suffi-
cient time at his disposal to stop off and wait
for the next steamer, he will still have sufficient
time at each island to go ashore for a drive or
walk about the island, and see most of the
sights.
TOBAGO.
The first island met with after leaving Trini-
dad is Tobago. This is the island where DeFoe
in his story located Robinson Crusoe, and Trini-
dad the island from whence the cannibal savages
came.
Tobago is situated a little over 18 miles from
Trinidad. It is 26 miles in length and 7 or 8
miles wide; its area is 114 square miles, contain-
ing about 73,3 13 acres. Its geological formation,
like all the Caribbee Islands, is principally vol-
canic. Its physical aspect is picturesquely irreg-
ular, consisting mainly of alternate ridges and
i53 AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
valleys running from the main ridge down to the
sea. The leeward end, however, is flat and of coral
formation, and has less of a rainfall and scantier
supply of water than the windward end. The
main ridge occupies the centre of the island for
about two-thirds of its length, is covered with high
woods (which form the " Rain Reserve ") that, in
order to attract and retain the rainfall, are never
allowed to be cut down. At Pigeon hill the
ridge attains the elevation of 1,900 feet from sea
level, and is considered the highest point in the
island. About one-third of the total acreage
consists of primeval forest, about one-third of
second-growth wood which has overgrown what
was once cleared ground, and the remainder of
more or less cultivated lands. It is supposed
that Columbus discovered Tobago in 1498, on
his fourth voyage, when he discovered Grenada
and Trinidad. But the only trace of his discov-
ery seems to consist of the statement that the
name Tobago or Tabago was bestowed on the
island by him on account of the fanciful resem-
blance of its shape to that of a pipe so called by
the Indians, which they smoked tobacco in.
SETTLED BY THE ENGLISH.
The authentic history of Tobago appears to
begin in 1580, by the hoisting of the English flag
by some enterprising English, sailors. Then from
1 608, when King James I. claimed it, down to
1803, it became the debatable land of the West
Indies — a bone of contention between the British,
Courlanders, Dutch, and French by turns, with
STACK'S GUIDE BOOK 153
occasional visits from Spaniards, Caribs, and
Yankees. When in June^ 1803, it finally passed
under the British flag, it was doubtless the most
heavily fortified island in the West Indies ; for,
in addition to the guns of Fort George at Scar-
borough, there are still to be seen at every four
to six miles round the island, in the most com-
manding positions, the remains of abandoned bat-
teries of two to three guns each, with the guns
still mounted, or lying about in all possible stages
of rust and decadence. Besides them, the only
souvenirs of those stirring times are a few old
tombs, with illegible inscriptions, on the north
side of the island, supposed to be the relics of
the Courlanders and Dutch who settled there ;
the French names of some streets in Scarborough ;
and the admirably engineered roads the French
laid out all round and across the island, which
have been so carefully looked after by us that the
greater part of them are now impassable and over-
grown with forest ; and the quaint old-time scrap
of history that in 1662 Mynheer Adrian Lamp-
sius, of Flushing, procured letters patent from
Louis XIV. creating him Baron de Tabagie, which
title, along with those of the Italian duchies of
Mantua and Monteferrato, was claimed not long
ago by Madame Ann Groom-Napier, the present
or recent owner of Merchiston estate in St. Paul's
parish. During those times (1608-1803) Tobago
was the scene of several naval battles. In 1666
Admiral Sir John Harnian defeated the combined
Dutch and French fleets which had rendezvoused
there. In 1677 a French squadron under Count
154 AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
D'Estrees fought the Dutch ships and batteries
in Courland bay from daybreak till sundown*
D'Estrees' ship, the " Gloriem," of seventy guns,
being blown up and two others stranded, but
Mynheer Binks and his " dour Dutch dogs "
were victorious, although with the loss of several
ships. However, later in the same year D'Estre'es
came back with a strong force and captured the
island, killing Binks with most of his officers,
and .sending three hundred Dutch prisoners to
France. Early in 1778 the United States equipped
a squadron composed of two ships, three brigs,
and a schooner, with the intention of capturing
Tobago, but they were met by Captain Vincent
in the " Yarmouth," of sixty guns, some leagues
to windward of Barbados, who in a short engage-
ment blew up one of their ships, the " Randolph,"
of thirty-six guns and three hundred and fifteen
men, while the rest of their squadron, " with a vast
deal of discretion," made their escape in a more
or less damaged state. Tobago can show a very
pretty list of land engagements too — about ten.
But the one she has most reason to remember and
be proud of was the most gallant and protracted
defence made by the colonists led by LieuL-Gov.
George Ferguson in 1781, against a strong
French force, under the Marquis de Buille, which
captured the island.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND.
Tobago is well watered by streams rising in the
Main ridge. In most of the valleys they are
large enough to drive machinery. Most of those
STARK' 'S GUIDE BOOK 155
in the Windward district were utilized in that
way before the introduction of steam-engines, and
would now again with improved water-wheels give
cheaper and better service than steam. None of
the streams are now navigable, but there are indi-
cations that in the last century some of the Wind-
ward streams took boats or punts up as far as a
mile and a half from the sea. The island is well
supplied with shipping bays, among which may
be named the magnificent and capacious harbor
of Man-o'-War bay (or, as it is called in the old
maps, Manowa bay), which is almost the shape of
a horseshoe, and about four miles across at the
widest part. In war time it used to be the ren-
dezvous where the sugar and other merchant
ships collected to meet the frigates and other
men-o'-war that convoyed them to their destined
British ports. In one corner of it there is a creek
called Pirates' bay, which the buccaneers of old
are said to have frequented for the purpose of
careening their vessels, and to lie in wait for
Spanish vessels bound home from the mouth of
the Orinoco ; and, as might be expected, stories of
their having buried immense treasure there are
current in the vicinity. All round the coast lie
valuable fishing-banks, one of which, the Great
Guinea bank, lies ofF the mouth of Man-o'-War
bay and stretches nearly half the way to Barbados.
These banks, if properly worked, are capable of
supplying most of the West Indies with cured fish
of a much superior quality to the imported article.
On and near the Boocoo and other coral reefs are
to be found the sponges, conchs, and sea-slugs
156 AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
(Halothuria\ etc., which in other tropical waters
are valuable articles of trade ; and a legend that
is well worth verifying states that the mother-o'-
pearl shell is also found in these localities. The
well-known red (bank) snapper is the great
bank fish, and among the numerous other valu-
able edible sea-fish are the various other kinds of
snappers, mackerel, and cavali, balahou, jack,
kingfish, grouper, blackjack, mullet, besides
several sorts of turtles.
The value of muscovado sugar has steadily
decreased since 1834, so that from about eighty
estates then cultivating it, the number is to-day
reduced to about half a dozen, and its total ex-
tinction appears not far off. Cocoanuts are now
largely planted in the Sandy point district, and
to Windward several large cocoa estates are com-
ing into existence, along with a considerable
number of small holdings which are planting up
cocoa and coffee. The price of land has de-
creased from £1 55. per acre in 1780 to ten shil-
lings per acre at the present time. The only
hurricanes on record occurred in August, 1790,
1 83 1 , and October, 1 847, which latter is estimated
to have done about ^150,000 worth of damage.
GOVERNMENT.
In 1764 King George III. gave an elective
constitution to the colony, consisting of a Legis-
lative Council and an Assembly. This existed
with very little change down to 1874, when by a
local act one Legislative Assembly was established
in place of the two Chambers. But in 1876 the
STARK 'S GUIDE BOOK 157
Legislative Assembly passed an Act abolishing
itself, and was succeeded in 1877 by a Crown
colony establishment of the ordinary type. In
1889 Tobago was annexed to the government of
Trinidad, but was given an elective Financial
Board which manages the revenue of the island.
The population, according to the census of
1891, was 18,353. The island is about the
healthiest in the West Indies, only one serious
epidemic being on record, in the end of 1820.
There are no large swamps to form malaria
magazines, and the average rainfall is about 65.90
inches, and average temperature about 8 1 degrees
Fahrenheit. Tobago is well adapted for stock-
raising, both on account of its luxuriant pastures
and its freedom from vampire bats and the various
insects which are so troublesome to cattle in
Trinidad and elsewhere ; sheep also thrive well
usually, but are subject (the negroes say) to an
epidemic disease which is very fatal about every
three years. There are a few snakes to be found,
but no poisonous ones. There are several vari-
eties of lizards, and some small alligators in the
larger streams. According to the late Mr. Kirk's
list, there are one hundred and forty-eight species
of birds found in the island, inclusive of the
"cockrico" (Qrtalida ruficauda]^ a game bird of
the pheasant tribe which is absent from Trinidad ;
the wild animals are, with some few exceptions,
notably that of the lappe (Clogenys paca], the
same as those found in Trinidad. In the streams
the " mountain mullet " takes the fly like trout,
in suitable weather.
158 AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
The first landscape and seascape artist who
comes to the West Indies in search of fresh pros-
pects ought to inspect Tobago. There is more
variety of hill and dale, forest and stream, islands,
bays, coral reefs, palm-trees and sunsets, to the
square mile than in all the rest of the West Indies
put together. There is a site for a sanitarium on
Telescope hill that has no peer in the tropics for
fresh air, sea breezes, and scenery. A perfectly
unique experience of the aesthetic kind may be
obtained by any one who will take the trouble
to sail at dawn into Man-o'-War bay, when the
cogwood and other Tecomas are in bloom, and
all the ridges bounding that immense horseshoe
are clothed in gorgeous vestments of green and
gold all the way from Rose point to Obiman
point. Every little puff of the breeze will en-
velop him in viewless clouds of a magnificent,
perfect, and quite indescribable scent.
GRENADA.
Grenada is about 96 miles north of Trinidad.
It is about 21 miles in length and 12 miles in
breadth, and contains a population of about 76,-
ooo. The island is of volcanic origin, abound-
ing in streams, mineral and other springs. There
are lakes in the mountain, and a volcanic crater
not wholly quiescent. Among the hills are
delightful valleys and beautiful scenery ; but the
especial value of Grenada to Great Britain is its
deep and land-locked harbor, the finest in all the
West Indies. The entrance to the harbor of St.
George is hid amid a confusion of crags and
STARK' S GUIDE BOOK
precipices where no one could guess there wis'*i4
refuge for even the smallest fishing-boat. The
sight of it conjures up the spirits of the pirates
who in olden times devastated the Spanish main.
At the entrance to the harbor, on the northern
side of it, extending along the crest of a bold
promontory, are the well-preserved walls and
battlements of an old fortification, a stronghold
constructed by the French, and afterwards
strengthened by their successors, the British,
whose soldiers and sailors have, except at short
intervals, kept watch and ward over it for a
century and a half. On three sides of the harbor
wooded hills rise till they pass into mountains ;
on the fourth is the castle with its slopes and
buttresses, the church and town beyond it, and
everywhere luxuriant tropical forest-trees over-
hanging the violet-colored water.
ST. GEORGE.
The town of St. George contains a population
of five thousand, who have builded their quaint
habitations under the crest, on one side of the
submerged crater that forms the harbor. The
houses extend upwards over a high ridge, a rocky
isthmus that connects the promontory, on the
summit of which is Fort George, with the inland
O '
heights called Hospital hill. The thorough-
fares, climbing at right angles to the wharf,
ascend a steep grade, and the dwellings on the
streets parallel to the sea-wall overtop those in
front of them. On the crest of the hill stands
the parish church, commanding an extensive
j6o AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
view over the harbor on one side, and on the
other far out to sea. The promontory on which
is Fort St. George, when viewed from Hospital
hill, resembles Monaco in miniature. The fort,
once strong and well garrisoned, is now left in
the keeping of a few militiamen. The cannon, of
ancient make, have nearly all been dismounted ;
the few remaining are rusty and time-worn. The
ditch enclosing the fortress is filled with rubbish
and choked with weeds, the parapet is broken
down in places, and the face of bastion, ravelin,
and curtain-wall are moss-grown and hidden by
beautiful shrubbery. Landward from the fort
the town spreads out like a map. Behind the
houses rise Richmond heights, along the brow
of which extends a line of fortifications of great
size, connected, it is said, with Fort St. George
by an underground gallery spacious enough to
permit the passage of troops. Half-way up the
slope, between the town and the fortress, stands
Government House, surrounded by a garder
and commanding a magnificent view. The
building is an attractive-looking country mansion,
substantially built and charming in all its sur-
roundings, and occupied by the Governor of the
Windward Islands.
THE CARIES.
Before the coming of the French, an old his-
torian says : " The natives were gentle and mild
in their manners, had many villages where they
lived pleasantly and without disturbance. They
were a hospitable race, and supplied strangers
STARKyS GUIDE BOOK 161
that came near their coast with the bread of their
country (cassava). They readily bartered their
possessions for such trinkets as were offered to
them." According to Du Tertre, an adventurous
priest, Du Parquet, the Governor of Martinique,
gave the Caribs some knives, hatchets, and a
large quantity of glass beads, besides two bottles
of brandy for the chief himself, and thus proudly
boasts the reverend father : " The island was
fairly ceded by the natives themselves to the
French nation in lawful purchase."
The Caribs did not long remain in ignorance
of the treachery practised upon them by the
French, whereby they had been defrauded of their
birthright and deprived of the land of their an-
cestors. They protested against the iniquitous
bargains into the making of which they had been
betrayed ; but they appealed in vain to their rapa-
cious and unjust invaders, and when driven to
desperation they declared war, eight months after
the arrival of Europeans on their island. A
fearful struggle ensued. On the northwesterly
part of the island is a rugged promontory called
Morne des Sauteurs — the Place of the Leapers.
Here Du Parquet found a band of about one
hundred Caribs, escaped from the indiscriminate
massacre by the French, who sought to drive
them from the island. The white men fell upon
the savages, killed such as made any resistance
or effort to defend themselves, put nearly one-
half of the band to the sword, and drove the rest
to the verge of the precipice. There the Caribs
made a last desperate stand. They were again
162 AND HISTOR Y OF TRINIDAD.
overpowered, and the last remnant threw them-
selves headlong down the cliff, preferring to be
dashed to pieces on the rocks or to perish miser-
ably in the sea, to being taken alive and sold into
slavery by their relentless foemen.
Among other atrocities of which the historian
Du Tertre makes mention is the story of a Carib
girl, twelve or thirteen years of age, who was
taken prisoner and claimed by two French
officers as their individual share of the booty.
Their dispute led to blows, and the quarrel be-
ing taken up by their respective commands, and
the discipline of the camp being disturbed, a third
officer, for the sake of peace and quietness, ended
the matter by shooting the girl through the head.
When the Caribs, save and excepting a few who
escaped to inaccessible mountain strongholds,
had been put to the sword, the white men
rooted up their plantations, burnt their villages,
and returned to Martinique to sing TE DEUM
over the success of their crusade, chanting masses
for the souls of their victims, who, according
to Du Tertre, were slain for the glory of God
and his church. Thus perished the Caribs of
Grenada. By these methods of warfare a jewel
was added to the crown of France. The new
owners soon fell into dispute over the division
of the spoils. A civil war ensued, which raged
with great fury for several years. Peace was
ultimately restored, and the colony flourished
under French rule for more than a century, until
1762, when it was captured by the English, who,
by the terms of a treaty made at the end of the
STARK' 'S GUIDE BOOK 163
following year, were confirmed in the possession
of it. It was, however, retaken by the French in
1779, and they continued to hold it till 1783,
when it was finally ceded to Great Britain by the
treaty of Amiens.
PRODUCTIONS.
The soil of Grenada is very fertile. The princi-
pal product is cocoa, the soil and climate being
particularly favorable to its growth and perfect
development. Its cultivation is increasing rapidly;
year by year land is cleared and laid out in
groves. Large quantities of fruit are also grown.
Grenada is, beyond doubt, the great fruit-produc-
ing island of the Caribbees. Oranges, mangoes,
pineapples, and bananas grow there better than in
any other place. Among the other products are
sugar, rum, coffee, and cotton. The whites, who
during slavery times were a wealthy and thriving
community, have now nearly all left Grenada.
Not more than five hundred English remain.
They have sold their estates to the negroes for what
they could get for them. The free blacks have
bought them, and about eight thousand negro
families share the soil between them. It has be-
come an island of peasant proprietors, and is now
the ideal country of modern social reformers.
The conditions are never likely to arise again
to bring back a European population. Under
the wise and just rule of England, and the
laws administered by English officials, the
negroes will do fairly well, but if left to them-
selves they would in a generation or two relapse
FRUITS OF GRENADA.
STARK' S GUIDE BOOK 165
into savages, the same as has occurred in Hayti.
This tranformation is going on in nearly all the
West India Islands, whether under English,
French, Dutch, Danish, or Spanish rule, but no-
where else is there a better example shown than
in Grenada. In fact, from the writer's personal
observation, it would seem that a large portion of
America was destined never to be occupied by the
white race. That section situated between thirty-
two degrees north latitude and thirty degrees
south latitude, bounded northerly by the Gulf
States and southerly by Chili, Argentina, and
Uruguay will be forever occupied by the colored
races, except in the mountain regions, where there
is a cold climate. During the past fifty years
the colored races in this section have increased
out of all proportion when compared with the
whites; in the portion within the tropics the
whites have greatly decreased. The best example
of this is the case of Barbados. Ligon, the histo-
rian, informs us that when he visited there in
1647 there were 50,000 whites and about double
that number of negroes. Two hundred and fifty
years have passed, and the whites number but
1 5,000 and the negro and colored 1 85,000. This
condition also exisits on the mainland. For exam-
ple, it is stated that of the population of Venezuela
but one per cent, is white. The only republics
that have made any progress since they obtained
their independence are the white republics of
Chili, Argentina, and Uruguay. Many of the
others can scarcely claim to be civilized states.
1 66 AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
ST. VINCENT.
This island is 68 miles north-west from Gre-
nada, and is about 95 miles west of Barbados.
It is 25 miles in length and 12 in breadth, com-
prising an area of 132 square miles and a popula-
tion of about 42,000. On approaching the island
there are no outlying islands or rocks, no jagged
cliffs or jutting promontories, but springing at
once out from the sea, every angle sharp and
clear-cut, the island presents the appearance of
a huge opaque crystal. Though twenty-five miles
in length, St. Vincent appears so small that one
might fancy he could row around it in an hour
or two.
KINGSTON.
Kingston, the capital of the island, is situated
upon a bay open to the west and south-west, deep
and spacious enough to float a navy. A sandy
beach curves from headland to headland, and
upon the northern promontory, six hundred feet
above the bay, is perched a fort with massive
walls, now used as a lighthouse and signal station.
A jetty affords a landing-place from the steam-
ers, fronting which and the sea is the police
station, a fine large building of stone, the best
public building on the island. A broad street
borders the bay, and two more run parallel to it
farther back, until the bordering amphitheatre of
hills prevents further building. Streets intersect
these at right angles and end at the base line of
the hills, save three or four which traverse the
valleys to estates among the mountains, and two
STACK'S GUIDE BOOK 167
that ascend the hills and extend around either
shore to windward and leeward. Valleys run
up from the bay far into the mountains, and the
various spurs of hills increase in height as they
recede from shore, so Kingston and its bay are
half encircled by a range of hills and mountains
above and around whose summits clouds contin-
ually play.
The highest peak is Morne St. Andrew ; rising
to the east of it and commanding the town is a
high steep hill known as Dorsetshire heights,
crested by a ruined fort. The sunset view from
here is superb. Conspicuous are the royal palms.
One house is encircled by them — a white house
with bright-red roof. They raise themselves
erect in clumps of a score or more, in rows like
white pillars with dark-green caps, and stand in
relief upon all the hills. A mile from town is an
avenue of seventy, which, though its symmetry
is marred by the loss of some by hurricanes, is
still a beautiful sight. Three miles from town,
one mile from the palm avenue in Arno's vale, is
a noted mineral spring. From a hole six inches in
diameter gushes out a volume of water impreg-
nated with salts that give it value as a medicinal
drink. It is equal in strength and beneficial
effects to any water from the spas of Europe.
It is stated that the water is more strongly im-
pregnated, and that the flow is stronger, on the
coming of the full moon. Water bottled at that
time will sometimes break the strongest case.
The coast alone the entire western shore is
picturesque in the extreme, with volcanic rocks
1 68 AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
worn into caves, beautiful bays and broad valleys.
Near Cumberland is an arched rock which bears
the appellation of " Hafey's Breeches," and in
the valley is a huge cliff of columnar basalt, both
of which are interesting to view.
VOLCANO.
St. Vincent contains the only West Indian
volcano from which the present century has wit-
nessed a destructive eruption ; the Soufriere that
towered above and overlooked the Richmond
plantation having, in 1812, burst upon the island
with terrible force. This eruption, which seemed
to relieve a pressure upon the earth's crust, ex-
tending from Caracas to the Mississippi valley,
was most disastrous in its effects, having covered
the whole island with ashes, pumice, and scoriae,
destroyed many lives, and ruined several estates.
It lasted three days, commencing on or near that
fatal day in 1812 when Caracas was destroyed,
and ten thousand souls perished in a moment of
time.
Ashes from this volcano descended upon Bar-
bados, ninety-five miles to windward', on the
first day of May, 1812, when the north-east trade
wind was in all its force. Enormous quantities of
ashes obscured the atmosphere above the island,
and covered the ground with a thick layer. It
is therefore certain that the debris was hurled, by
the force of the eruption, above the moving sheet
of the trade wind into an aerial river proceeding in
a contrary direction. Since that terrible outburst
the volcano has remained inactive ; having done
STARK ''S GUIDE BOOK 169
its allotted work, it has since rested. There are
three " dry rivers " proceeding from the crater,
the channel worn by that resistless flood of lava on
its way to the sea. It is two hundred yards in
width, barren of vegetation for a mile from the
sea, inclosed between high cliffs, clothed in verd-
ure, hung with vines and spiny palms and tree
ferns, a wonderful hanging garden. The crater
is a vast amphitheatre a mile in diameter, as
nearly circular as possible to be, three miles in
circumference ; the walls run straight down at
least twelve hundred feet to the lake at the bot-
tom, the shores of which are incrusted with sul-
phur, a gray and yellow rim lining the base of
the cliffs that dip down, no one knows how deep,
into the water of the lake.
CARIB WAR.
In St. Vincent and Dominica reside the only
remaining Caribs north of South America. To
the ethnologist the Caribs of St. Vincent present
an attractive subject for study, for there is among
them a people formed by the union of two distinct
races, the American and Ethiopian. They are
called " Black Caribs " to distinguish them from
the typical or " Yellow Caribs." Tradition is to
the effect that the Caribs attacked and burned a
Spanish ship in the sixteenth century, and took
its freight of slaves to live among them ; another
version, that a slaver was wrecked near St. Vin-
cent and the Africans escaping joined the Caribs.
The Yellow Caribs received them as friends,
but eventually the negroes possessed themselves
1 70 AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
of the best lands, and drove their benefactors to
the most worthless. Having intermarried with
the Yellow Caribs, they departed from the negro
type in a few years. They now form a small
community on the north-western shore of St.
Vincent, at a place called Morne Ronde. In a
valley of the Caribbean side of St. Vincent is a
large rock covered with incised figures which
are undoubtedly of great antiquity. The central
figure is a face enclosed in a triangle ; it seems
to resemble rude aboriginal representation of the
sun. It is conjectured that this was a sacrificial
stone used by the Caribs or their predecessors
the Arawaks, and this statement would seem to
be confirmed by the various channels leading
from the attendant satellites to the central figure.
A few miles below is another and smaller rock
having carved upon it a face surrounded by
scroll work. In British Guiana, the home of the
Caribs, there are numerous sculptured rocks of a
similar character.
There are but a few families of the pure Caribs
remaining in St. Vincent, and only a few of the
older men and women can speak the original
language. In a few years the Carib tongue, as
spoken by these insular people, will be a thing of
the past, of which there exists but an imperfect
record.
The Caribs fought bravely for their independ-
ence, and St. Vincent was the last of the Carib-
bees to come under the rule of the white man. In
1772, the best part of the Carib lands having
been seized, the Indians commenced hostilities,
STARR'S GUIDE BOOK 171
but soon came to terms. Six years later, insti-
gated and aided by the French from Martinique,
they revolted. Soon the entire island was in
French possession without much bloodshed. In
1784 the island was restored to Great Britain by
the treaty of Versailles. Incited by the French
republicans in 1795, the Caribs again revolted,
defeated the troops sent against them, and
swarmed upon the heights above the town. By
the opportune arrival of soldiers from Barbados
they were driven back, but again assembled, and
a fight ensued, in which the British were at first
O *
beaten, but finally, by aid of large reinforce-
ments, the Caribs were defeated.
Thus the war went on with varying fortunes
for a year and a half. At one time, having been
driven from Orvia, a point on the north-east side
of the island, the Caribs executed a masterly re-
treat over the volcano to the Caribbean coast and
committed great ravages. A party sent against
them there was defeated. In all their battles they
showed consummate skill and great bravery, seiz-
ing upon the most advantageous positions, forti-
fying them, and holding them to the last.
DEFEAT OF THE CARIBS.
General Abercrombie was at last sent against
them, with four thousand men, fresh from his
capture of St. Lucia. He pushed the French and
Caribs so hard that they were obliged to sur-
render. The French and colored officers and
soldiers were released on parole, with the privi-
lege of returning to their own island ; but the
172 AND HISTORY OF TRINIDAD.
poor Caribs, thus abandoned, were allowed only
unconditional surrender. Refusing these terms,
most of them fled to the mountains, and in the
dense forests found shelter for a long time, defeat-
ing several detachments of troops sent against
them.
Deprived of crops and all provisions, such as
a successful foray could obtain, they were gradu-
ally gathered in, by use of force and by the ne-
cessities of their situation, until of men, women,
and children nearly five thousand were captured.
These were removed to the small island, Balli-
ceaux, off the coast of St. Vincent, deprived of
canoes and arms, and kept there for months.
In 1797 they were all carried to the island of
Ruatan, off the coast of British Honduras. In
1 805 the few remaining Caribs were pardoned, and
a tract of two hundred and fifty acres near Morne
Ronde was granted them. Here the majority of
the Indians have lived in peace ever since.
The chief products of St. Vincent are sugar,
molasses, rum, arrowroot, cocoa, coffee, and
cotton, but, like nearly all West India Islands,
since the abolition of slavery its prosperity has
steadily decreased. There are now less than two
thousand white people here, and upward of forty
thousand negroes and coolies. The whites are
constantly decreasing. After the negro was
freed he refused to work, and his place was filled
by indentured Portuguese laborers from Madeira
and the Azores. In 1846 two thousand four
hundred came, and they proved a valuable acqui-
sition to the island. In 1861 coolie immigration
from India commenced.
ueen's
"Hotel
PORT-OF-SPAIN
TRINIDAD, B. W. L
'"T'HIS hotel has lately been completed, and it
•*• is fitted up in the most luxurious style.
The house is thoroughly equipped with all mod-
ern conveniences and improvements, including
Electric Light, Shower, Spray and Plunge
Baths
A complete system of sewerage from Hotel to
Gulf of Paria. Position of Hotel is unequalled,
being upon the Savannah, facing the Governor's
residence and the northern range of hills in the
background.
Eerms: ffrom $2.50 upward per
For further particulars apply to
THE MANAGER,
Queen's Park Hotel,
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
jfamtlg THotcl
NOS. 46, 47 AND 48 KING STREET
PORT-OF-SPAIN
This Hotel, situated in the most accessible
part of the city, recently enlarged, in connection
with the Ice Establishment, offers to the public
and visitors to the Island a spacious, cool and
respectable resort, where ladies and gentlemen
can be comfortably accommodated. The Hotel
is provided with numerous baths, electric bells,
lights, and all necessary requisites.
Special arrangement made as to length of
time parties may remain.
Cuisine and Liquors of the Very Best
TERMS MODERATE
C* L, Haley & Co., - Proprietors
THE
Trinidad Line of Steamers
Fortnightly Service between New York and
Trinidad, calling at Grenada coming and
going, by the fine A J Steamers " Grenada "
and "Irrawaddy"
These Steamers have exceptional passenger
accommodation, being specially built and
fitted for trading in the Tropics.
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, B.W.I., promises
to become a favorite resort for tourists or
those requiring to escape the rigors of the
American winter. A new and comfortable
hotel has been built, and special arrangements
have been made with proprietors for passen-
gers by this line.
For further information as to Fares and Dates of Sailing
apply to
Martin Dean & Co., Grenada
The Trinidad Shipping & Trading Co., Ltd.
PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD
OR
The Trinidad Shipping & Trading Co., Ltd.
29 BROADWAY, NEW YORK
Monthly Steam Service with Canada.
Messrs. PICKFORD & BLACK'S Line of Well-Found
and Finely-Appointed
Canadian
"DUART CASTLE" and "TAYHIOUTH CASTLE"
ARRIVE IN TRINIDAD EVERY MONTH
Via Bermuda, St, Thomas, St. Kitts, Antigua, Dominica,
Martinique, St. Lucia, Barbados.
RETURNING c \ ^ john^ New Brunswick,
via I To V — AND —
DEMERARA ( } Halifax, Nova Scotia.
For particulars of Freight and Passage— Apply to
GORDON, GRANT & CO.,
Shipping and Genera/ Commission Merchants
Companio General
Venezolano de Navegacion
Regular Fortnightly Trips up the
Orinoco River and the Venezuelan
Coastal Ports by Steamers of this
Company
The Steamers connect at Port-of-
Spain with the RoyaJ Mail Steam-
ers for Europe, and the Steamers
of the Trinidad Line for New York
Passengers may be booked and
information obtained from
ELLIS GRELL & CO., Agents
Excursion Around the Island!
The undersigned, contractors to the Local
O
Government, now run a Weekly Steam Service
around the Island, stopping at all the Bays for
passengers and cargo. The
S. S. "PIONEER"
Has been specially fitted for passenger accom-
modation, and visitors to the Island are invited
to go round by our boat.
For rates and all particulars, apply to
ELLIS CRELL & CO.,
Government Contractors.
ALEXANDER DECLE, JR.^^
Kntr^LSS" of ***** WATCHMAKER.
DEALER IN
Jewelry, Optical Goods, Clocks, Watches, etc.
Fine Watch Repairing a Specially. Chronometers Rated and Repaired. Fine
Plated Wares a Specialty. High Class DIAMOND GOODS from London and
Paiis always kept in stock. All kinds of Mounting and Jewelry Repaired.
46 KING STREET, Next Door to Family Hotel,
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, West Indies.
THK BEST PLACE FOR
PHOTOGRAPHS, ^ VIEWS,
and Photographic Materials
The Excelsior Studio*
L. F. SELLIER, M.S.S.E.
Ladies and Children a Specialty.
New York & Bermudez Co.
IMPORTERS AND REFINERS OF
BURMUDEZ LAKE
ASPHALT.
Sole owners of the Famous Bermudez Asphalt
Lake.
MAIN OFFICE,
NEW YORK, BOWLING GREEN BLDG,
BRANCH OFFICE,
Port of Spain, Trinidad, W. L, 49 King Street.
LAKE AND SHIPPING WHARF,
Guanoco, Venezuela, S. A.
The Bermudez Asphalt Lake is the largest lake of
Asphalt in the world. It is ten times larger than the
only other lake from which Asphalt is taken, and has an
area of over 1,000 acres. Bermudez Asphalt is unsur-
passed in purity and quality. It has no superior for use
in paving, reservoir lining, roofs, floors, etc.
Trinidad Asphalt Co.
CONCESSIONAIRES OF THE CELEBRATED
PITCH LAKE, TRINIDAO, B. W. I.
rf?
TP I N I PI A n T*A- Co's Pier'
LSrlLSl St. Vincent's \\
\\ li:u r. Port
of-Spaiii.
NEW YORK, »-«»•»— -*•
LONDON,
No. 2 Crosby Square, I . C.
Exclusive Shippers of and Dealers in
4*Genuine Trinidad
<§»Pitch Lake Asphalt
for Paving and other uses. Upwards of 22,000,000
square yards of Pavement have been constructed of
Asphalt taken from the Pitch Lake. Twenty -five years'
experience has demonstrated its superiority over all other
asphalts. It is acknowledged to be the Standard material
for asphalt Pavements and is used by all successful con-
tractors.
MILLER'S PUBLIC
SUPPLY STORES
2 AND 2A FREDERICK STREET
AND 53 A HENRY STREET
PORT-OF-SPAIN
BRANCHES AT ARIMA AND PRINCESTOWN
Always on hand a large and varied stock of
Staple anb jfanc^ S>r\> (Boobs
BOOTS AND SHOES
Cricketing and Lawn Tennis Implements
SOLE AGENTS FOR ONE OF THE BEST MAKERS OF
HARNESS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Furniture, Bedsteads, Spring Mattresses
of all qualities
Bedding, Firearms, Ammunition, Cutlery
Stationery, Perfumery and Fancy Goods in Great Variety
READY-MADE CLOTHING AND GENTLEMEN'S
HATS OF ALL KINDS A SPECIALTY
THE BOOT DEPARTMENT is the largest in
the Island
All Descriptions of Hardware to be had at the Country
Branches ; also the Best Qualities of Wines, Ales,
Spirits and Groceries
London Office : James Miller, J 7 Gracechurch St., E. C.
GLENDINNING & HENDY
16 FREDERICK ST., PORT-OF-SPAIN
(Seneral drapers
anb ©utfitters ^
High Class Goods, The Latest and Most Fashionable
Ladies' Dress Goods
Millinery, Hosiery, Gloves, Sunshades, Corsets,
Laces, Embroideries, Etc., Etc.
Ladies' and Children's Underclothing
Household and Domestic Linen Departments
A Large and Well Assorted Stock
Ready-Made Clothing Department
Juvenile, Boys' and Men's. All Sizes in Stock
Boys' and Men's Hats and Caps
All the Latest Styles
Men's Underwear of Every Description
Pyjama Suits, Shirts, Collars, Cuffs, Ties, Braces,
Belts, Umbrellas and Waterproof Goods
Bags, Portmanteaus, Rugs and Travelling Re-
quisites
Of All Kinds, in Stock
Boot and Shoe Department
Fully Assorted in Children's, Ladies' and Men's
Goods
NOTE THE ADDRESS
\6 FREDERICK ST. PORT-OF-SPAIN
W. C Ross er Co-
Tjje Colonial Dispensary
,
--, -
Wholesaler and .*
^ Retail
Cor. of Qaeen and FredericK 5treets,
PORT-or-SPAIN.
RUST, TROWBRIDGE & CO., CHACON STREET.
Rust, Trowbridge & Co.
Nos. 3 and 4 Chacon Street,
PORT-OF-SPAIN jt J* J* £
(Seneral flllercbants anb
Shipping Hgents
WHOLESALE DEALERS IN
American and Canadian Food Stuffs
Newfoundland and Nova Scotian Fish,
Etc., Etc.
SHIPPERS OF
SUGAR, COCOA, COKERNUTS
and Molasses
AGENTS FOR
THOM & CAMERON, Ltd., Glasgow
QEO. YOUNGER & SONS, Brewers, Alloa
NORWICH UNION FIRE INSURANCE, etc.
Cable Address "Randolph," Port-of-Spain
ABC Code, 1883 Edition.
H. STRONG
Tuner by Appointment to His Excellency the
Governor
Pianos, Organs
and Harmoniums
Made Expressly for the Climate and
GUARANTEED TWENTY YEARS
Hardest Stock of flDusic ant> pianos
in tbe Mest Unfcies
REPAIRING A SPECIALTY
INSPECTION INVITED
H. STRONG, Piano Warehouse
ST. JAMES STREET
Telephone 286 PORT-OF-SPAIN
...J. E McLoughlin...
HIGH ^e CLASS <* TAILOR.
Specialist in
LADIES' GARMENTS.
: : : ALSO : : :
NAVAL AND MILITARY UNIFORMS
OF ALL NATIONALITIES.
Fancy costumes of all styles and designs carefully made up.
Books for selecting designs always on hand.
My stock of Tweeds, Serges, Coatings and Trouserings are the
finest to be seen in the Colony.
No. 2 Frederick Street,
PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD, B. W. I.
= PEDRO PRADA, =
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL
Dry Goods, Furniture, Trunks,
Valises, Arms and Ammunition.
Corner of KING AND HENRY STS,,
Port of Spain, Trinidad, B. W. I.
Smith Bros. & Co.
17 Frederick Street and 1, 2 and 3 Chacon Street
PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD
IMPORTERS, MERCHANTS
AGENTS
The Largest and Most Varied Stock of
Fancy and Staple Dry Goods
In the West Indies
London and Paris Modes
Millinery, I ntrimmed Hats, Trimmings, Ribbons,
Flowers and Feathers
Ladies' and Children's Underclothing. Stays, Skirts
and Blouses
Silks, Satin, Broche and Poplins. Black Lyons Silks in
Gros Grain, Taille, Taffetta and Glace
W. P. Crape
Merinoes, Cashmeres and Fancy Dress Goods
De Laines Nuns' Veilings Lace and Spot Muslins
Victoria Lawns, Pongee Lawns, Plain and Figured
Sateens, Zephyrs, Prints, &c.
GENTS' DEPARTMENT
READY-MADE CLOTHING OF EVERY DESCRIPTION
All Sizes Always in Stock
Pyjamahs, Waterproof Coats, Etc.
GENTS' DEPARTMENT.-Continued
Straw Hats, Felt Hats, Soft Felt Hats, Travelling Caps
and Tropical Helmets
Trunks, Travelling Bags and Portmanteaus
White Shirts, Collars, Cuffs and Ties. Flannel and
Athletic Shirts from 36c. to $4.00 each
Silk Shirts and Pv jamah Suits
Tweeds, Coatings, Serges, Meltons and Flannel Suitings
and Trouserings of Choice Designs and Newest Styles
Immense Assortment of FURNITURE
English, American and Austrian Make
Iron Bedsteads, Spring, Hair and Fibre Mattresses
Steamer Chairs, Etc.
Our HARDWARE DEPARTMENT
Is Replete with Every Requirement for the Colony
BOOT AND SHOE DEPARTMENT
Ladies' and Gents' Walking Boots and Shoes in All Shapes
and in Every Size
Misses' and Youths' Boots and Shoes
Boys' and Girls' Boots and Shoes for Hard School Wear
Court Shoes, Pumps, Slippers, Planters' Boots
Athletic Shoes
IN THIS DEPARTMENT WE HOLD THE LARGEST
STOCK OF FOOTWEAR IN THE WEST INDIES
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL AT CHEAPEST
PRICES IN THE ISLAND
Smith Bros* & Co* "The Bonanza "
AGENTS FOR
The Lancashire Fire and Life Insurance Co.
and The Butterick Publishing Co.
{Travellers
PHOTOGRAPHIE
/Hborin
ESTABLISHED 1869
Cor. Frederick St and Brunswick Sq.
Next to Trinity Cathedral
Portraits, Views, Types
Stereographic Views
The Finest Collection of Selected Tropical Sceneries,
Types and Costumes, Interior of Guiana, Etc.
SPECIAL VIEWS TAKEN TO ORDER
CURIOS OF ALL SORTS
Mr. Morin is also a sworn Land Surveyor, and undertakes
all work of that profession in Trinidad and abroad
o
u
<
s
u
H
The Best in the City
BY UNIVERSAL CONSENT
Dunn's Studio
Is celebrated for its views of Trinidad, embracing the most
beautiful scenery on the Island, and everything novel
and of interest to strangers visiting Trinidad
Ibave l?our ipbotos Gafeen at
• • • HJunn's Stubio
PHOTOS OF DIFFERENT SIZES, FAMILY GROUPS,
RESIDENCES, &C., AT MODERATE CHARGES
The Trinidad Studio
W. A. DUNN, Photographer
Telephone 250 Frederick Street
At the last Agricultural Exhibition (1895) Mr. Dunn
was awarded first prize for Photography
X
c
J. A. RAPSEY
3BreaJ>, (Eafee an& Biscuit ffiaher
AERATED WATER MANUFACTURER.
WHOLESALE AM) RETAIL DEALER IN
Groceries, Provisions, Wines
Malt Liquors, Spirits and
FAMILY SUPPLIES GENERALLY.
Ice and Fresh Meats.
EAST END FOUNDRY
Engine and Copper Works
PORT-OF-SPAIN TRINIDAD, B. W. I.
proprietor has the pleasure to call the attention
of Steamers' Owners, Agents, Ship Chandlers, Ma-
riners, Planters, Merchants, etc., that the supplying of new
parts of machinery, etc., and the foundry of any broken
pieces thereof are specialties at the above establishment at
prices to meet the limits of all ; all works are despatched
with promptness and civility.
A single trial ensures continued patronage.
JOHN A. REID, Prop.
Bitters
REGISTERED IN ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD
Awarded the Highest Distinction and Most Honorable Men-
tion at the Exhibitions of
London, Paris, Vienna, Philadelphia, Santiago de Chile,
Sydney, Melbourne, New Zealand, New York, Am-
sterdam, Calcutta, New Orleans, St. John (Canada),
Kimberley (South Africa), Jamaica, Chicago
and Bordeaux
Analyzed and Highly Praised and Recommended by Leading Chemists
'and Members of the Medical Profession of Berlin, London, Phila-
delphia, &c., &c.
DEPOTS TO BE FOUND IN ALL THE VARIOUS
COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD
Sold by all Respectable Grocers, Wine and Liquor Dealers
Hotel and Restaurant Keepers
JgiF" Every bottle is enveloped in a label or wrapper with Directions for
Use in Four Languages printed thereon, with a fac-simile of the Signature
of the Inventor, as shown on the opposite page between both sides of the
Medal of Merit obtained at Vienna.
DR. J. G. B. SIEGERT AND SONS, formerly of Angostura, and
since 1875 removed to PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD, B.W.I., are the
Sole Manufacturers of the Genuine and World-Renowned "ANGOS-
TURA BITTERS," discovered by the late DR. SIEGERT in ANGOS-
TURA in 1824, but FIRST EXPORTED in 1830, from which date this
manufacture may be said to have commenced, the Bitters becoming
known from the place of their origin as "ANGOSTURA BITTERS."
The name of the town of ANGOSTURA was in 1846 changed to that
of CIUDAD BOLIVAR, which it still retains.
Siegert's Bouquet
An Agreeable Cordial, to be taken either plain or with water,
Soda Water or Lemonade, and also well adapted for
mixing Cocktails, Cold and Hot Punch, &c.
AGENTS FOR THE WEST INDIES
J. N. HARRIMAN & CO,, PORT-OF-SPAIN
TRINIDAD, B. W. I.
Gentlemen's Outfitting
Establishment
Albion House, corner of King
and Abercrombie Streets
PORT-OF-SPAIN
JOHN HOADLEY, PROPRIETOR
NAVAL AND MILITARY TAILOR, HABIT
MAKER, HATTER, HOSIER, GLOVER
AND SHIRT MAKER
Clerical anfc TLafctes' tailoring a Specialty
THE BEST HOUSE IN TOWN
FOR GENT'S FINE GOODS
OUTFITS FOR ALL CLIMATES
LIVERIES, Etc., on the Shortest Notice
<L Dtncent & Co.
FREDERICK STREET PORT-OF-SPAIN
C.VINCENT & C°. THE RED BOOT STORE
Ready-Made Clothing
Boots and Shoes, Hats and Caps
UMBRELLAS, TRUNKS, ETC
,..,
TRINIDAD ARCADE— TODD & SONS.
JAMES TODD & SONS,
GENERAL IMPORTERS.
Complete House Furnishers, Hardware, Glassware
and Earthenware Merchants.
Stationery, School Books, Publications.
English and American Electro Plate and Fancy Goods.
SADDLERY AND HARNESS.
lery and Perfumery. Estimates given for com;
Furnishing.
The Trinidad Arcade, Frederick and Henry Sts.
Lamps, Cutlery and Perfumery. Estimates given for complete House
Furnishing.
The ffiest End Carriage Factory.
Always a complete line of
Buggies, Victorias, Double Buggies
OX HAND.
American, Canadian and Creole Trade.
REPAIRS ESTIMATED FOR AXD CAREFULLY EXECUTED.
Carriages, Buggies and Dog Carts made to order.
JAMES TODD & SONS,
Queen Street.
JAMES TODD & SONS,
^(Sovernment Contractors.
Ironmongers and
Hardware Merchants.
OILS AND PAINTS, GALVANIZED IRON, ETC.
Chacon Street, South Quay.
(Soobwille & Stephens
THE CALEDONIAN HOUSE
GENERAL IMPORTERS
AND MERCHANTS
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL
Street * jport^of^Spain * Grinifcafc
HIGH CLASS DRY GOODS LATEST FASHIONS
LIST OF DEPARTMENTS
FANCY Department, which includes all kinds of ready-made and
price goods for Ladies and. Children, of the finest qualities, direct from
the best houses in England, France, Germany, the United States, etc.
HOUSEHOLD Department contains Irish and French Linens, Table-
cloths, Curtains, Cretonnes, and all kinds of artistic materials for deco-
rations, etc.
GENTLEMEN'S Department contains every requisite for Men,
Youths and Boys.
BOOT Department contains a very large assortment of the finest
Boots, Shoes, Slippers, etc. ; of English, French, Austrian and American
makes for Ladies, Gents, Girls, Youths, Boys and Infants. All shapes, and
wide and narrow fittings.
TAILORING Department is under the charge of a first-class home
cutter. All descriptions of Garments made for Gents and Ladies.
MILLINERY Department has always a fine show of trimmed and
untrimmed millinery from the best French and English houses, for Ladies
and Children.
HOUSE-FURNISHING AND WARE Departments contain every-
thing for completely furnishing ;Dining, Drawing and Bedroom, Hall,
Gallery and Kitchen.
TRAVELLERS' REQUISITES. This department has a full stock of
Trunks, Canisters, Bags, Fitted and Unfitted Hold-alls, Satchels, etc.
Highland Plaids, Travelling and Railway, Rugs in Seal, Plush, Wool and
Fancy Materials.
SILVER, ELECTRO PLATE AND FANCY ORNAMENT Depart-
ment. There is always a very pretty show of very handsome articles for
presents, etc., on view.
SADDLERY Department has a full stock of Riding and Driving
Harness — single and double sets — and stable requisites.
GROCERY Department always contains a fresh supply of the latest
delicacies and niceties.
WHOLESALE. This Department has always a splendid stock of
well-selected, salable goods.
CIGARS, TOBACCOS AND CIGARETTES. The best Havana Cigars
and a large variety of Tobaccos and Cigarettes always on hand.
PERFUMES, TOILET REQUISITES, NICNACKS AND SMALL-
WARE Department has an endless variety of useful, ornamental and
necessary articles.
Wilson, Son & Company
Wholesale and Retail
Dry Goods
and
Commission Merchants
Port-of-Spain
Trinidad
JOHN LOGIE
The " Scotia "
Tailoring Establishment
No. \ A MARINE SQUARE
Always on hand a Large Supply of Tweeds, Coatings,
Cheviot, Tennis Flannels, and everything requisite
for an Outfitting and Tailoring Establishment.
L. PLACIDE & CO.
No. 3 ST. JAMES STREET
«£ «g Paragon Photo Studio
General Views and Types of Trinidad on Sale
Plates Developed, Intensified, Retouched, Printed, Toned
and /Mounted
The Collotype Process a Specialty
G. A. Macfarlane & Co.
(general ant> 3fanq> Stationers
ant) Booksellers
PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS OF THE ISLAND
Newspapers, Magazines and New Novels by Every Mail
Visiting Cards Printed
No. 46 KING STREET, below the Family Hotel
THE HAMILTON^
Is the largest, finest, most complete and best hotel in the
Bermudas, or in the West Indies.
The house is of stone throughout, with fireproof walls
and partitions. It is provided with every improvement and
convenience, including the only passenger elevator in Ber-
muda. The greatest care has been taken to make the sani-
tary arrangements perfect in every respect. The mildness of
the climate renders artificial heat really unnecessary ; but in
order that the most delicate may suffer no inconvenience,
even in stormy weather, the dining-room and halls are pro-
vided with steam pipes, and a considerable number of desir-
able rooms are furnished with fireplaces.
The grounds are extensive and beautifully laid out, and
are filled with many varieties of exquisite flowers the entire
winter. The elevation is the highest in the city, thus insur-
ing dryness and perfect drainage, and also commanding a
delightful view of the city, the surrounding country, the
harbor, shipping, forts and adjacent islands. Tennis and
croquet grounds are provided for the amusement of the
guests.
An excellent orchestra has been engaged and will give
daily morning concerts during the season, and will play each
evening for dancing.
The hotel is open for the reception of guests from De-
cember until May, and no pains will be spared in making the
table and service equal to that of the best houses in less
isolated parts of the world.
For terms and further information apply to
MEAD & BROOKS, Managers.
Address from May until November 25, 220 Devonshire
Street, Boston, Mass., afterward at Hamilton, Bermuda,
Stork's Illustrated fermuda Suide,
Two hundred pages, profusely illustrated with Maps and Photo-
Prints, 12 mo. $1.50, post-paid.
"A most exhaustive book on Bermuda Mr. J. H. Stark spent several seasons
in Bermuda for the express purpose of collecting material for a history and guide
book, and nothing is omitted or overlooked which the invalid or traveller for
pleasure will wish to know." — Boston Transcript.
"The Illustrated Bermuda Guide, written by Mr. James H. Stark, of this city,
is the latest book on the Bermuda Islands. It contains twenty-four artistic photo-
prints, besides several handy maps of the islands, which will be of mucn con-
venience to the tourist who seeks rest and pleasure in the miniature continent,
700 miles from New York.
The text of the volume treats of the history, inhabitants, climate, agriculture,
geology, government and military and naval establishments of Bermuda, de-
scribing in an entertaining fashion the most noticeable features of the island,
r.nd furnishing a brief sketch of life in Bermuda from the original settlement
until to-day." — Boston Herald-
STARK'S HISTORY AND GUIDE
!^e BAHAMA ISLANDS.
Fully illustrated with Maps, Photo-Prints and Wood Cuts,
12 mo., $1.50, post-paid.
" I have read your Book on the Bahamas with great care and interest, and
can confidently speak of it as the most trustworthy account of the Colony that
has yet been published."
SIR AMBROSE SHEA,
Governor of the Bahamas.
"Your book has exceeded my expectations; you have filled up a gap in the
history of the English Empire, especially in the history of our colonies, that
deserve the encomiums of every Englishman, aye, and of every American who
reads your book. The colonists of the Bahamas owe you a debt that they
can never fully repay."
G. C. CAMPLEJOHN,
Judge oj the Court of Common Pleas, Bahamas.
STARK'S HISTORY AND &U1DE TO BARBADOS
And the CARIBBEE ISLANDS.
Two hundred and twenty pages profusely illustrated with
Maps and Photo-Prints, 12 mo., $1.50, post-paid.
Mr. JAMES H. STARK visited these islands and derived his information at
first hand. He has given a brief history of their discovery and settlement, and
also an account of the manners and customs of the inhabitants, which is supe-
rior to that of any other work on the subject. The book is richly supplied with
half-tone illustrations, which give a capital idea of the buildings, the localities,
and the people throughout these tropical islands.
The information is practical, ana the volume will be highly prized by those
who have interests in these islands or have occasion to visit them. Mr. Stark
has done much to lift them into notoriety by his careful, accurate and instructive
work. — Boston Herald.
FOR SALE BY
The Photo Electrotype Co., 275 'Washington Street, Boston.
S. \Velmes, and H. G. Recht, Bermuda.
Bretano, 5 Union Square, New York,
and at all of Cook's Ticket Agencies.
Stark's Quide=Book
TO
Bermuda and West Indies.
Fully Illustrated with Photo-prints and Maps.
Price, $1.50 each; postpaid, $1.60.
BERMUDA, JAMAICA, BAHAMAS, BRITISH
GUIANA, TRINIDAD, BARBADOES
AND CARIBBEE ISLANDS.
The most complete and authentic Guide-Book ever
published on the British West Indies. It contains a
description of everything relating to those colonies that
would be of interest to tourists and residents, respecting
then- history, inhabitants, climate, agriculture, geology,
government, and resources.
FOR SALE BY
JAMES H. STARK, Publisher,
275 Washington Street, Boston, U.S.A.,
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY, Limited,
London,
and by Booksellers throughout the British
West Indies.
The Suffolk Engraving Co.
275 WASHINGTON STREET,
BOSTON, ^ ^ MASS.
Engravers,
Printers,,.,.
Electrot^per;
COLOR PRINTING AND MAPS.
Estimates furnished for all kinds of Printing, Bank
Checks, Drafts and Commercial Stationery, Illustrations for
Books and Newspapers. Half-Tones and Zinc Etching.
This Book was Printed and the Illustrations Efl=
graved by us.
LIBRARY
T=
7?
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
AND
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11