co: 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 445 



ntinue long. On the 20th of July Brigadier- General Hislop 

 landed in Port-of- Spain, with the commission of Lieutenant- 

 Governor. 



When Colonel Fullarton arrived in Trinidad as first com- 

 missioner in January, 1803, the colony was just emerging, thanks 

 to the prudent and energetic measures of its Governor, from a 

 disturbed and very difficult situation. Instead of showing common 

 discretion in his proceedings, he at once began to manifest his 

 opposition to General Picton, criticising his general conduct, 

 and bringing against him sweeping charges of the most serious 

 character. The result was discord and mistrust; the good under- 

 standing so necessary between the different classes of colonists 

 was disturbed, and the progress of the colony arrested. His 

 departure was hailed as a relief. General Maitland, who had 

 been appointed commander of the forces under the commission, 

 also left the island, on which occasion he received an address 

 from the Cabildo. In his reply we find the following words : 

 1 1 will not throw away this opportunity of expressing, in union 

 with you, that I greatly honour and esteem Brigadier- General 

 Picton. In a period of public danger, when the colony was 

 beset with traitors and shaken by the unruly behaviour of a 

 disorderly soldiery, his undisturbed mind awed the factions, sub- 

 dued the danger, and saved the colony/' 



General Hislop was a good soldier, but possessed little 

 abilities as a civil governor, and may be said to have taken little 

 interest in the administration of the affairs of the colony. 

 Fortunately he had secured the services of an able, active 

 secretary ; but that secretary was not over-scrupulous, and the 

 accusation of corruption brought against him, as it appears, was 

 but too well founded. Sir Thomas Hislop, on taking the 

 government of the island, re-appointed, with the consent of the 

 home Government, the council which had been dismissed by 

 Colonel Fullarton. On his arrival he found it necessary to stop 

 the construction, at Point Gourde, of considerable fortifications, 

 as wholly ineffective for the protection of the harbour ; but at 

 once proceeded to erect, at the Fort George mountain, strong 

 military works. I should here mention that about the middle of 

 1805 the combined fleets of France and Spain had been des- 

 patched to the West Indies; Nelson at once followed in pursuit. 

 Having received false information respecting the movements of 



> 



