y/ 



POPULATION. 155 



scarcely more than six or eight white proprietors in Naparima, 

 whilst nearly two-thirds of. Port-of- Spain belonged to the 

 coloured class. 



A few thousand Africans only had been directly introduced 

 by slavers, the great majority of the labouring class having either 

 accompanied their masters, or been clandestinely introduced by 

 them, from the neighbouring islands. About 4,000 Africans, 

 liberated from slavers, had been added to that class since eman- 

 cipation; 24,280 Asiatics, East Indian Coolies and Chinese, 

 formed part, in 1871, of our permanent population. The total 

 population may be estimated at present at 154,000 souls. S 



The population of Trinidad, therefore, consists of a motley 

 aggregation of Africans, Asiatics, Europeans, and a few indi- 

 viduals of American blood, together with their mixed descendants. 

 By Africans, I mean not only those born in Africa, and intro- 

 duced here as slaves or indentured labourers, together with the 

 emigrants from the sister islands and the United States, but 

 also those born in the island of African parents, and usually 

 called Creole Negroes. The European section is formed of 

 British (particularly Scotch), of French, Spaniards, a few Ger- 

 mans, and some Portuguese from Madeira, with the respective 

 descendants of those various people. The Asiatics consist of 

 Hindoos and Chinese, introduced partly at the public expense, 

 as agricultural labourers, for the cultivation of staples, and espe- 

 cially of the sugar cane. 



Heterogeneous as this population is, and has always been, 

 the greatest harmony long prevailed among the different sections 

 of which it was composed — a result which should be attributed 

 to the liberal policy of the local government, and which, if it did 

 not originate at the Colonial Office, was certainly sanctioned 

 there. Equal protection was afforded to all, and all were con- 

 tent to live under what they considered to be really and truly a 

 paternal rule. No distinction was drawn between those who 

 were of foreign origin and those of British birth or descent ; and 

 I daresay no essential difference of feeling prevailed. 



But there always had existed in the colony a party desirous 

 to upset this state of things, and to establish a purely British 

 — i. c, Protestant — ascendancy. They were, for many years, too 

 much in a minority to cause any uneasiness. 



A variety of circumstances, however, at length combined to 



