PREFACE. IX 



have been overlooked. Being also under the conviction that 

 statistical facts and comparisons make a deeper and more lasting 

 impression on the mind than mere statements, I have taken 

 great pains in preparing a few tables which, I hope, will prove 

 useful in drawing and fixing the attention of those who can 

 judge for themselves, and in circulating correct notions regarding 

 the commercial and agricultural capabilities of Trinidad. I 

 hope that those among us who have fallen from comparative 

 affluence into poverty, will find in this sketch sufficient reasons to 

 encourage them to exertion. 



It now remains for me to give a few explanations, and to 

 accomplish a pleasant duty, in tendering my acknowledgments 

 to those who have supplied me with materials for, or have other- 

 wise aided me in, the completion of this work. 



During the eight years Lord Harris governed Trinidad, his 

 Lordship invariably manifested the liveliest interest in the 

 welfare of the island, not only as to the development of its 

 natural resources, but also in regard to the intellectual and moral 

 improvement of its inhabitants; and that interest he evinced 

 in various ways, but particularly by directly encouraging useful 

 information, and the diffusion of knowledge among all classes. 



After awarding a very liberal prize to the best Essay on the 

 Cultivation of the Sugar-cane and the Manufacture of Sugar, 

 his Lordship proposed for public competition another Essay on 

 the Vegetable and Mineral Resources of Trinidad. Various 

 reasons then prevented me from writing on the subject ; the pro- 

 posals, however, aroused in my mind a strong desire to bring 

 under public notice the natural resources of this important, but 

 comparatively unknown and much neglected, colony ; and to that 

 circumstance may be traced the origin of the present work. 



My personal knowledge of the topography of the island being 

 somewhat limited, I have availed myself of information drawn 

 from publications on the subject, and especially from the valuable 

 survey made by Captain Columbine of the northern and southern 

 coasts of the island; from the Geological Survey of Messrs. 



