PREFACE. 



IT is to me somewhat surprising that geographical works, in 

 general, should contain so many and such glaring errors, even 

 respecting countries which, certainly, ought to be better known. 

 Not to deviate from the subject in hand, and selecting Trinidad 

 as a case in point, I may remark that such errors are of frequent 

 occurrence in some of the best works that have made mention 

 of the island, and also in books of very recent publication. 



Adrien Balbi, speaking of Trinidad, has only these few words, 

 " Spanish Town (jadis Puerto Espana), ville fcrtifiee et com- 

 me^ante, avec un port et peut-etre 10,000 habitants ; Saint- 

 Joseph d'Oruila, autrefois capitale : Charagaramus, importante par 

 son beau port, et les chantiers que les Anglais y ont etablis." 



Thus Balbi alters the name of the modern capital from Port- 

 of -Spain to Spanish Town ; he terms it fortified, whilst it is an 

 open, unwalled town ; also, instead of Chaguaramas, he writes 

 Charagaramus a misnomer, adopted by all the French geo- 

 graphers making it, besides, an important place " on account of 

 the dry docks therein established by the English" 



In Mr. Montgomery Martin's work, " The British Colonies," 

 and the volume on the West Indies, published as late as 1854, I 

 find the following erroneous statements : " The chief ports re- 

 sorted to, on the Trinidad side (of the Gulf of Paria), are : 

 Chaguaramas Bay, where the extremity of the north-western 

 peninsula, Gaspar Grande, and other islets, form an immense 

 natural dock, sheltered from all weathers and all winds, and 



