368 CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



Fernando being the most notable. La Brea is the shipping- 

 place of the Trinidad asphalt. 



The Spaniards robbed the island of its inhabitants in 

 the earlier cenl aries and made them slaves. In the second 

 century of its discovery Sir Walter Raleigh touched at the 

 island and tarred his ships with the black asphalt found 

 native here, which now supplies the pavement-material for 

 so many American cities. Two centuries of conflict be- 

 t ween England, France, and Spain ensued (in which the 

 natives suffered the most), until 1797, when the English 

 came into permanent possession. Trinidad is historically 

 interesting as the place where Cortez parted from Governor 

 Velasquez, with all the vessels and men fitted out for the 

 conquest of Mexico. 



Politically, Trinidad is another British colony, with its 

 governor, staff, and legislature, constituting a distinct 

 government from the other West Indies. Like other Brit- 

 ish colonial governments, it has good roads, good police, 

 good schools, good public works and institutions of all 

 kinds, together with high taxation and a large public debt. 

 There are two colleges and one hundred and ninety-eight 

 public schools. There are fifty-four and a quarter miles of 

 railway in operation on the island, and thirty more in 

 process of construction. These are owned by the govern- 

 ment. 



The principal exports are fifty thousand tons of sugar 

 yearly, cocoa, Angostura bitters (of which rum is the 

 basis), molasses, asphalt, and cocoanuts, valued at $9,819,- 

 244, of which one half the value is for sugar. The exports 

 of asphalt to the United States in 1897 amounted to 109,- 

 243 tons. 



About one fourth of the soil is cultivated. A majority 

 of the sugar-estates are provided with modern machinery, 

 while the Usine St. Madeleine is the largest sugar-factory 

 in the British West Indies. The Agricultural Society and 

 Chamber of Commerce declare the sugar industry to be 

 " undoubtedly in danger of extinction." 



