446 TRINIDAD. 



the enemy, he came to seek them in Trinidad. On his vessels 

 appearing off the north coast, alarm spread through the laud, it 

 being thought that they were the combined fleet. Martial law 

 was at once proclaimed, and the militia called out. The town 

 was declared untenable, and the inhabitants were invited to send 

 any valuable property to the fort, and the merchants their books. 

 The Governor marched up to the batteries with the regular 

 troops, militia, and volunteers, leaving the town at the mercy ol 

 the supposed enemy. Nelson entered the Gulf and immediateb 

 retired. It was only then that the mistake was discovered, whei 

 the inhabitants and the military returned to Port-of- Spain. 



Towards the end of this year, in December, a plot was dis 

 covered amongst the slaves in Diego-Martin, having for i1 

 object the massacre of the white men, and in which a great pai 

 of the negro population was implicated. It had originated, 

 it appears, with some French negroes from the old coloni( 

 Four slaves were executed, and others severely punished 

 flogging and banishment. 



It was under Governor Hislop that a first attempt was mad< 

 to introduce into the island Asiatic immigrants. 



Sometime in the year 1806 the ship Fortitude left Maca( 

 for Trinidad with 192 men and one single woman. She anchored 

 in the harbour on the 12th of October, but the poor deluded 

 Chinese would not stay, and, with the exception of twenty -three 

 who remained in the colony, the rest re-embarked for China in 

 the very same vessel which had brought them. These twenty- 

 three individuals were located at Cocorite, a very unhealthy 

 locality. They eventually turned gardeners, fishermen, or pork- 

 butchers. Of course this first attempt at introducing immigrants 

 from the East was a complete failure. 



In 1807 the slave trade was abolished by Act of Parliament. 



In 1809 an event occurred which sadly illustrated the state 

 of legislation in Trinidad, and the wanton negligence of the 

 Government in that very important matter. One Mr. Lebis, 

 having flogged one of his slaves to death, was brought before 

 the court. Judge Smith presided. The advocate of the defen- 

 dant, Mr. George Knox, argued in his defence that Lebis could 

 not be judged by the slave law of 1789, that law having never 

 been confirmed by the Audiencia at Caracas ; that he could not 

 be judged by Picton's slave law, as that law had not received in 



