CHAPTER X. 



PROSPECTS OF TRINIDAD — SUGGESTIONS. 



To judge fairly of the prospects of Trinidad, we should take into 

 account its geographical position and its many natural resources ; 

 we should not forget that it has already passed through periods 

 of prosperity and great depression. Not later than the year 

 1848, Lord Harris wrote as follows to Earl Grey : — 



" It is sad and painful to behold men expecting ruin quickly 

 to overcome them ; it is, perhaps, sadder and more painful to see 

 them struggling and toiling against adversity, but with their 

 energies dulled and their arms palsied from their knowledge that 

 their labours must be unremunerative, and that failure can be 

 the sole result ; it is most distressing to witness this, and, at the 

 same time, to be aware that much of the misery from which they 

 are suffering, and which awaits them, is of a nature which they 

 are unable to avert by any acts of their own. 



" It is pitiable to witness a fine colony daily deteriorating — a 

 land enjoying every blessing under heaven — suffering from a 

 shock from which it does not rally. Did I not see a prospect — 

 I think a better one than in any of the West Indies — of getting 

 this colony through the present crisis, I should not venture to 

 propose that advances should be made; but, looking at the 

 fertility of the soil, and the almost certainty of favourable 

 seasons, I believe that, with assistance, there can be little doubt 

 of its ultimate success/' 



Not through advances, but with the assistance afforded by the 

 Indian immigration, the colony was enabled to get over the 

 crisis, and to attain a certain amount of prosperity; and yet its 

 position, in consequence of the depreciation of its staple produce, 

 may be said to be precarious. Trinidad, nevertheless, possesses 

 many natural resources: what they are I have already stated; 

 only remains for me to add a few remarks. 



