Early English Colonies in Trinidad. 



By N. Darnell Davis, 



[N the 1 8th of February 1797, Trinidad was 

 taken from Spain by a British Force under 

 Admiral Sir Henry Harvey and General Sir 

 Ralph Abercrombv.* When the news reached England 

 that the noble Island had been added to the Empire, 

 the guns at the Tower of London were fired off in honour 

 of the event. 



2. An account of the early history of Trinidad, in the 

 Shane MS. No. 3^66 2y which is preserved in the British 

 Museum, is herewith printed. It shows that early in the 

 Seventeenth Century, three attempts were made to estab- 

 lish an English colony in that island, but without success. 

 Before taking up that manuscript, it may be well to 

 glance at the Spanish conne6lion with the island, and to 

 observe how the place was frequented by English sailors 

 in Elizabethan and Stuart times. 



3. After its discovery by COLUMBUS in 1498 Trini- 

 dad was left very much to itself by the Spaniards. In 

 1499, that turbulent Cavalier Alonzo DE Ojeda, with 

 Juan de la Cosa and Amerigo Vespucci in his com- 



* Some account of the taking of Trinidad will be found in the 24th 

 Volume (pp, 181 to 182) of the Naval Chronicle, and in lose^h's History 

 of Trinidad (pp. 189 to 199). Don Joseph Chacon, the Spanish 

 Governor, was a high minded and brave man. Apodaca, the Spanish 

 Admiral, was a poor creature. Although the story may not be true, 

 that, on Chacon's saying, " All is lost !" Apodaca, exclaimed, '' Not 

 all, I saved the image of St. James of Compostello the Patron of my 

 ship, and my own !" it seems to indicate the estimation in which Apodaca 

 W4S held. 



