34 



TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



"He found it inhabited by a race of fine physique, 

 which Sir Robert Dudley, a hundred years later, des- 

 cribed as ' a fine shape gentle people.' Thus he gave 

 Trinidad to the world with a good character in all 

 respects, and Europeans first knew it as a fertile, in- 

 habited, and partially cultivated island." 



"Whoever the natives of Trinidad were, they 

 appear, like the inhabitants of Hispaniola, not to 

 have been Caribs, for Dudley says that the latter 

 were 6 man-eaters or cannibals, and great enemies to 

 the islanders of Trinidad. ?# Had they been Caribs, 

 as sturdy and savage as the natives of Dominica or 

 St. Vincent, they would have made short work of the 

 Spaniards who found their way to Trinidad. 5 ' 



" At the beginning of the sixteenth century 

 Spaniards appear to have resorted to Trinidad for 

 man-stealing, and an account is given by Las Casas 

 of a horrible raid made on the natives, about 1510, 

 by one Juan Bono, a slave-catcher in the employ of 

 the authorities of Hispaniola. About 1532 a more 

 definite attempt was made to conquer the Indians 

 and form a colony by a man named Sedeno (pro- 

 bably merged into Centeno), who obtained a royal 

 licence for that purpose, as well as the appointment 

 of Governor and Captain-General of the Island 

 (which shows that he was a man of considerable 

 position). He built a fort, but met with resistance 

 by the natives, and though, in consequence, a decree 

 was issued by the Council of the Indies declaring it 

 to be lawful to make war upon the Indians and 



* It is even said that, a tribe of them was introduced into Trini- 

 dad for the purpose of exterminating the aborigines. 



