COUNTY OF ST. ANDREW. 291 



Cacao, a little coffee, and provisions, are the only productions. 

 The cacao plantations are on the banks of the rivers Oropuche 

 and Matura, and have lately been extended to Cumuto and 

 Cunape. Produce is brought to Arima on mules. The Oropuche 

 is a fine stream, receiving, on the right, Cuare, with its effluents 

 Turure, La Ceyba and Guayco, Cunape, Sangre Grande, and 

 Sangre Chiquito ; on the left, Melao and Rio Grande. It 

 is not, however, accessible to crafts, in consequence of the 

 bar at its mouth and the heavy surf along the Matura shore. 

 This river is also noted for the large number of Huillias, or 

 water boas, which find shelter there. Population, 1881, 956 ; 

 1871, 599. 



The county of St. David, as may be inferred from the above 

 sketch, is thinly populated and scantily cultivated. The hills 

 and undulating parts of this county are fertile, but the plain is 

 desperately barren, consisting of a variable mixture of clay and 

 sand, and stratified detritus containing an excess of quartz. 

 One single ward-road, or rather trace, branching off the eastern 

 road between Valencia and Aripo, connects Matura and Oropuche 

 with Arima; from the village of Matura it follows an easterly 

 direction to the bay of Salibia, and thence, across the hills, leads 

 to Toco. Population of the county, by last census, 2,025 ; in 

 1871, 1,877. 



3. County of St. Andrew. — Only one ward has been formed 

 out of this county, viz., that of Manzanilla, including Morne 

 Calabash. These were once settlements like those of Cuare, 

 Turure, and La Ceyba, formed of disbanded black soldiers, on the 

 same plan and with the same views ; they were brought under the 

 common law in the year 1849, fifteen acres being granted to 

 each settler or his descendants. For many years, the settlers of 

 St. Andrew had as their superintendent a medical man. They 

 were on half-pay, and every month a drogher was despatched 

 from Port-of- Spain with provisions for the settlement, and, in 

 return, took the produce to town, the owners of the articles 

 travelling generally by land. 



The ward of Manzanilla, and the county of St. Andrew 

 in general, are fertile ; in fact, Manzanilla and Morne Calabash 

 may be classed among the best districts of Trinidad. " Plant 

 a stampee" — the smallest silver coin — "and a doubloon will 

 grow/' was a common saying of the inhabitants, whereby to 



