HAPPY TKINIDAD. 179 



which Defoe, always accurate, has immortalised in " Robinson Crusoe." Crusoe's island has 

 been thought by many to be meant for Tobago; Man Friday having been stolen in 

 Trinidad. 



No scenery can be more picturesque than that afforded by the entrance to Port of 

 Spain, the chief town in the colony of Trinidad, itself an island lying outside the delta of 

 the great Orinoco River. " On the mainland," wrote Anthony Trollope,* " that is, the 

 land of the main island, the coast is precipitous, but clothed to the very top with the 

 thickest and most magnificent foliage. With an opera-glass, one can distinctly see the 

 trees coming forth from the sides of the rocks, as though no soil were necessary for them, 

 and not even a shelf of stone needed for their support. And these are not shrubs, but 

 forest trees, with grand spreading branches, huge trunks, and brilliant-coloured foliage. 

 The small island on the other side is almost equally wooded, but is less precipitous." There, 

 and on the main island itself, are nooks and open glades where one would not be badly off 

 with straw hats and muslin, pigeon-pies and champagne. One narrow shady valley, into 

 which a creek of the sea ran, made Trollope think that it must have been intended for 

 " the less noisy joys of some Paul of Trinidad with his Creole Virginia." The same writer, 

 after describing the Savannah, which includes a park and race-course, speaks of the Government 

 House, then under repairs. The governor was living in a cottage, hard by. " Were I 

 that great man," said he, " I should be tempted to wish that my great house might always 

 be under repair, for I never saw a more perfect specimen of a pretty spacious cottage, 

 opening, as a cottage should do, on all sides and in every direction. . . . And then 

 the necessary freedom from boredom, etiquette, and governors' grandeur, so hated by 

 governors themselves, which must necessarily be brought about by such a residence ! I 

 could almost wish to be a governor myself, if I might be allowed to live in such a cottage." 

 The buildings of Port of Spain are almost invariably surrounded by handsome flowering 

 trees. A later writer tells us that the governors since have stuck to the cottage, and the 

 gardens of the older building have been given to the city as a public pleasure-ground. 

 Kingsley speaks of it as a paradise. 



Jack ashore, who, after a long and perhaps stormy voyage, would look upon any land 

 as a haven of delight, will certainly think that he has at last reached the "happy land." 

 It is not merely the climate, the beauty, or the productions of the country; nor the West 

 Indian politeness and hospitality both proverbial ; but the fact that nobody seems to do, 

 or wants to do, anything, and yet lives ten times as well as the poorer classes of England. 

 There are 8,000 or more human beings in Port of Spain alone, who "toil not, neither do 

 they spin," and have no other visible means of subsistence except eating something or 

 other mostly fruit all the live-long day, who are happy, very happy. The truth is, that 

 though they will, and frequently do, eat more than a European, they can almost do without 

 food, and can live, like the Lazzaroni, on warmth and light. "The best substitute for a 

 dinner is a sleep under a south wall in the blazing sun ; ar.d there are plenty of south 

 walls in Port of Spain." Has not a poor man, under these circumstances, the same right 

 to be idle as a rich one ? Every one there looks strong, healthy, and well-fed. The author 



* "The West Indies and the Spanish Main." 



