EASTWARD HO! 71 



ment. However, it is better to have hooked and lost than 

 never to have hooked at all, we have had splendid sport, and 

 secured enough edible fish for a dozen men or more, so we 

 turn our faces shoreward. Of course on our homeward way 

 my "Jim Jeffries" which had started off at a presumably 30 

 lbs. weight had increased to 70 lbs., but that is a little custom 

 of fishermen who have lost a fish they have not seen. 



We had intended the next day going on to Toco via 

 Salibia, Tabateau, Balandra Bay and Tompire, but on our 

 return to the Matura Rest-house found a message calling us 

 back, so after a night's sleep, we rose at 4 a. m. and caught 

 the early train to Port of Spain. At the present date the 

 road to Matura has been considerably improved, so it is quite 

 easy for a traveller to engage a carriage or cab and drive right 

 up to the Matura Rest-house. 



Four years after, that is to say, in the present year of 

 grace 19 10, I turned my steps once more Eastward, but this 

 time alone, as my Kentucky friend having circumvented the 

 wily Castro was basking in the smiles of the Caracas sefioritas 

 and (I fervently hope), the doubloons of the sancochos. On 

 this occasion my arrangements were to go straight East one 

 time as Cutlifife Hyne would say, so I left Port of Spain by the 

 morning train arriving at the Sangre Grande terminus about 

 10 A. M. Here I was met by my host G. A. F. and his buggy, 

 which vehicle he said was entirely at my disposition, but he 

 himself had suddenly developed a patriotic frame of mind and 

 was going to town to crack a magnum. Brut '84, with that 

 doughty Laird, the Balfour of Burleigh, and incidentally he 

 thought to sing afterwards "The Maple Leaf Forever." I 

 should here mention that a motor bus meets each one of the 

 three daily trains and carries passengers to the beach at 

 Manzanilla, 8 \ miles for 40 cents. I regret to say that there is 

 no accommodation for strangers when they get there, but can 

 only trust that this want may be supplied in the near future. 

 I took possession of the buggy and Harris the groom, but as 

 the latter informed me, he had to "make message" (a Creol- 

 ism which covers many things, making market for the mis- 



