COUNTY OP ST. GEORGE. 277 



George is the hamlet of Cocorite, which occupies a small portion 

 of this plain towards the sea-side, and is traversed by the Royal 

 Road. At the back of the village, some extensive buildings, 

 formerly occupied by the Ordnance department, are now used as 

 a leper asylum. The number of inmates at present in the asylum 

 is 133. A female quarter, quite distinct and completely sepa- 

 rated from the male quarters, has been built lately. The 

 establishment is altogether under the management of European 

 Dominican nuns, and admirably conducted ; the poor patients 

 are tended and nursed by the good nuns with maternal solicitude. 

 Both Mucurapo and Cocorite are subject to intermittent fever. 

 The village is flanked on the west by an extensive swamp ; it 

 is, however, to a certain extent, protected from malarial effluvia 

 by a spur of the Fort George Mountain. 



Northward of Mucurapo and Cocorite are the two wards of 

 Maraval and Diego Martin, and westward of Diego Martin, 

 Carenage and Chaguaramas. The three wards of Maraval, 

 Diego Martin and Carenage have the same general aspect, being 

 formed respectively of the three valleys of the same name, with 

 their intervening hills ; they are therefore partly flat and partly 

 hilly — highest peak 1,830 feet. The soil is light in the valleys, 

 loamy on the hills, and, in general, fertile ; the soil of the valley 

 of Maraval, however, is not so good as that of Diego Martin and 

 Carenage. Sandstone, slate, and limestone are met with in the 

 ridges, which also grow valuable timber — such as poui, cip, 

 cedar, &c. There is, in the Maraval ward, one small sugar estate, 

 and one in Diego Martin. Diego Martin was one of the first 

 districts of the colony in which the cane was cultivated. Coffee, 

 cacao, and provisions are grown in the hilly parts of the three 

 wards. A good ward-road branches off from the Circular Road, 

 and leads up the valley to the Moka estate. There the ridge, 

 separating Maraval from Santa Cruz, becomes rather lower at 

 the place called La Silla, or the Saddle. At this point the 

 road crosses over to Santa Cruz. The dam and the reservoir 

 forming part of the Port-of-Spain water-works are built near 

 the road on the right bank of the river, about two miles and a 

 half from the town. Another road follows up the ridge be- 

 tween Maraval and Diego Martin to the north coast, near Sant 

 d'Eau, sending a branch to Diego Martin ; these are mere bridle- 

 paths. 



