the Cacao Plant. 263 
In 1780 a French gentleman, M. de St. Laurent, residing in 
Grenada, while paying a visit to Trinidad, was charmed with the 
fertility of the soil, which compared most favourably with that 
of the island he knew. He made representations to the Govern- 
ment, proposed a scheme, which was approved, and the result 
was the passing of a Cedilla, which led to the migration, in 1783, 
of a flock of foreign agriculturists, chiefly French, but with a 
goodly sprinkling of coloured people from the neighbouring 
islands. Thus in a very short space of time, and by the wit and 
foresight of a stranger, the resources of the colony developed, 
and the population increased. In the same eventful year of the 
Cedilla (1783) Port of Spain became the capital, and St. Joseph 
began to decline. 
The last of the Spanish governors, Don Joseph Chacon, who 
was much respected, and liberal-minded, amiable, and an honour- 
able man, was appointed by the Spanish Government to carry 
out the scheme of M. de St. Laurent, and he did it with such 
promptitude that in the course of a year or two from the passing 
of the Cedilla the population had increased from 1000 to 12,000. 
Numbers of French refugees from Martinique, Guadeloupe, and 
St. Domingo settled in Trinidad, so that the latter became a 
French colony in all but name. 
At length, in 1797, England, being then at variance with 
Spain, sent an expedition, under Sir Ralph Abercrombie and 
Rear-Admiral Harvey, to capture the island. Don Chacon, 
finding himself outnumbered, surrendered without an engage- 
ment, and ever since Trinidad has been a British colony. The 
unfortunate governor was tried before the Spanish Tribune in 
Madrid for deserting his post, and was banished, dying a few 
years after of a broken heart. 
Although Trinidad sends us some of the very finest qualities 
of cacao, the cocoa tree is a native of Tropical America, and is to 
be found mostly, in its wild state, on the land adjacent to the 
Great Amazon River, and near to the Equator. 
The cultivation of cocoa, however, is mostly to be found in 
Ecuador and Venezuela, on the mainland, and in the islands 
of the West Indies; by the English in Trinidad and Grenada, 
the French in Martinique and Guadeloupe, and the Spanish 
in Cuba. 
Although cocoa was not known in the Old World before the 
_ discovery of the New, it was at an early date introduced into 
the Philippine Islands by the Spanish, and by the Dutch into 
Jaya, and within the last thirty years into Ceylon by the 
English. 
The first knowledge Europe had of the cocoa plant was through 
a Columbus, who, finding it was a favourite drink of the Indians, 
took home some of the fruit to Spain with him. The Spanish 
