TRINIDAD. 67 



tlie changed relations, have nearly all abandoned the plantations, and now culti- 

 vate their own little plots, which yield enough for all their wants. There exist 

 over 20,000 such small holdings, belonging, for the most part, to these 

 Africans. 



But the great landowners, deprived of the slaves who formerly garnered their 

 crops, have had to replace them by hands procured through agents from the Far 

 East. So early as the year 1800 some traders had already introduced from 

 Macao about a hundred Chinese, amongst whom was a solitary woman; at 

 present these " Celestials " are estimated at some 3,000, many of whom have in 

 their turn abandoned the large plantations, and taken either to petty dealings or 

 to cultivating small plots on their own account. 



Since the year 1845 the imported labourers are nearly all Hindus, engaged 

 directly by speculators, who are subsidised by the colonial government to the 

 extent of about £80,000 a year. The coolies, almost exclusively from Bengal, 

 are engaged according to the season, to the number of 2,000 or 3,000, for a term 

 of five years, after which they have the right of a free passage home. All but 

 700 or 800 remain in the island, where they contribute with the negroes to 

 increase the class of small freeholders. Some even return from their Asiatic 

 homes, and settle in Trinidad with their families and friends. Thus the 

 traveller may here recognise the natives as well as the scenery of India in 

 the coconut- groves of the east and west coasts. The effect is heightened by 

 the gay banners fluttering from tall bamboos to indicate from a distance the 

 Hindu temples, where the devotees come to make their floral offerings. 



The coolies, who at present form a third of the population, generally keep 

 aloof, contracting no alliances either with the whites or the blacks. Never- 

 theless, there have already sprung up some fine types of Eurasians, a class 

 daily acquiring an increasingly important position iu Trinidad society.* The 

 Sivaites, forming the majority of the Hindus, live on bad terms with the Moham- 

 medans, and sanguinary conflicts have even taken place between the votaries of 

 the rival religions. Nearly all their savings are spent by the coolies in the 

 purchase of jewellery for their wives, which in case of divorce gives rise to much 

 wrangling and lawsuits. 



Agricultural Resources. — Topographv. 



In his work on the Orinoco regions, published in 1727, the Jesuit Gumilla 

 informs his readers that the soil of Trinidad had been condemned to perpetual 

 sterility ever since the first settlers had refused to pay the tithes. Nevertheless, the 

 fecundity of the island has been amply vindicated by its white, black and yellow 

 cultivators. Although scarcely one-eighth of the land has been reclaimed, the 

 foreign trade, consisting chiefly of sugar, molasses and cacao, has long exceeded 

 £4,000,000, while the local traffic in fruits, vegetables and other provisions is 

 increasing still more rapidly. 



Nearly all the coffee-grounds have been abandoned, and tobacco also is now 



* F. H. Hart, Trinidad. 



