444 



The colony had, therefore, made fair progress under the stern, 

 but at the same time judicious, administration of Governor 

 Picton. The existing roads had been improved, and new on< 

 established. When the commission took charge of the govern- 

 ment there was found in the public chest the very fair sum ol 

 100,000 dols. 



It would seem that Colonel Fullarton had left England wit] 

 the mission, assumed or real, to find fault with the genei 

 administration of the Governor and to thwart his actions, for h< 

 had scarcely been in the island a few weeks than he began t< 

 censure the conduct of his brother commissioner, and to institul 

 a sort of inquiry into his administration. He actually brougl 

 most serious charges against Picton ; very soon all turned to coi 

 fusion and bickering. Colonel Fullarton had clandestinely lei 

 the island, and Picton, unable to bear any longer the vexations 

 to which he had been submitted, sent in his resignation ii 

 February. It was accepted, and in June he left the colony, 

 highly regretted by those whom he had saved from anarchy. 

 Before leaving Trinidad, he read to the council an address 

 which contained a full expose of what he had done, upon 

 which a resolution was passed, expressing the regret of the 

 council at the departure of the Governor, and their apprehensions 

 with regard to the tranquillity and the safety of the colony. 

 He was also presented with an address, signed by a large number 

 of the most respectable inhabitants of the colony. Commodore 

 Hood, who had seldom acted in his capacity of commissioner, 

 had also left for active service ; so Fullarton remained sole com- 

 missioner, virtually Governor-in-Chief. 



The council having declined meeting him on his return to 

 Trinidad, was dismissed, and a new one appointed. Fortunately, 

 however, this distressing condition of affairs was not allowed to 



