Margarita. 73 



Blue Beard of the Antilles. Where did he recruit his 

 wives. Testigos lies N. E. of Margarita and is now un- 

 inhabited except by parties of fishermen who visit it from 

 time to time. The anchorage at Juan Griego is alive 

 with shipping ; faluchos, sloops, schooners, and fine fishing 

 boats, all owned in the country. There are no absentee 

 proprietors here. The people love their island and are 

 proud of it. The business houses do not differ much 

 from thriving country stores in Trinidad except that their 

 trade is on a rather more extensive scale. I observed piles 

 of cases of Lafitte, Pontet, Cane-Clicquot, etc. ; who drinks 

 these I don't know, as in every house I entered water 

 drinking was striftly the order of the day. As the 30 0/0 

 ad valorem duty is remitted here perhaps they sell it on 

 the main land ? Cement I observed was sold at $5 a 

 barrel retail, print dresses 12c. and 15c. a yard, white 

 pine boards at loc. a foot, English potatoes 12c. a pound, 

 lager beer 28c. a bottle, meat, either beef, mutton, goat, 

 or pork loc. a pound, fine fowls 25c. or 30c. each, fish 

 only to be described in the superlative degree, as at 

 Porlamar, at almost nominal value. It is remarkable 

 that no small fish are seen here and perhaps this accounts 

 for the high and superabundant quality of the fisheries. 

 There is no need of a close season as seines and fillettes 

 as used in the Gulf of Paria are unknown. In a few 

 years more if the present system is carried out in Trini- 

 dad, Port-of-Spain will have to dispense with fresh fish 

 altogether as an article of diet. Native rum is of course 

 dirt cheap, one cent purchases a glass a discretioriy but 

 the natives rarely indulge in it except on Feast-days ; the 

 canny people sell it dov/n the opposite coast, a rum 

 licence costing $1 20 a month. The thriving little town 



K 



