310 TRINIDAD. 



There are in this district, besides the Mission — now Princes- 

 town, with a population of 3,991 — two settlements, formed 

 about the year 1817 by the location of some hundred American 

 black and coloured people, captured during the last war, and 

 brought to Trinidad by Admiral Sir A. J. Cochrane. A few 

 acres of land were allotted to each individual, in fee, on paying a 

 quit-rent. In the year 1848, these allotments were re-surveyed, 

 and each settler was granted six acres of land, in full property, 

 subject to the ward rates. These settlements, I must confess, 

 have not answered the object for which they were intended ; and 

 to these American settlers may be addressed the same reproach 

 which I have attached to the disbanded soldiers located at Man- 

 zanilla and Turure. They cultivate some provisions, it is true, 

 and occasionally employ themselves as jobbers on estates, mainly 

 as axe-men, cane-cutters, and trenchers ; but their principal 

 occupation is the chase, their hunting ground extending froi 

 Tamana to Moruga, and from the Mission to Mayaro. The] 

 generally belong to the Baptist persuasion. 



Savanna Grande communicates with San Fernando by meai 

 of a main road which follows the winding of the ridge extendii 

 from the Naparima mountain to the Mission. It is seven mih 

 long, without a bridge; and this same ridge continues to n 

 nearly due east for ten miles further, without a gap or ravin( 

 A track, or bridle-path, through the virgin forest leads south- 

 ward to Moruga ; and another one eastward to Mayaro. 



Population of the two wards, 1881, 11,765 ; 1871, 8,974. 



The county of Victoria, though second in population to thj 

 of St. George, may be regarded as the most important, in 

 agricultural point of view. Its surface is uniformly undulating 

 gradually rising from the sea-shore southward of San Fernando 

 and from the lagoon, in an E.N.E. direction, for about sixteei 

 miles, with a few hillocks here and there above the general leve 

 of the country. Every ridge sends its streamlet down hills to 

 the right and left, and small brooks or ravines collect the dimi- 

 nutive tributaries from every depression. On the N., the water- 

 courses bend towards the valley of the Guaracara ; on the S.S.E. 

 towards the lagoon, and contribute to the formation of the 

 Cipero in the centre. Those parts which are not under cultiva- 

 tion abound in cedars, robles, savanettas, &c, and the carat 

 palm, for thatching. There is also a great abundance of cabbage 



