36 



tkinidad: then and now 



he speedily overcame, and then going up the St. 

 Joseph river he captured the town of St. Joseph 

 and set it on fire. It will be observed that I do 

 not give this account as one copied from another 

 source ; it w r as given to me by the late Mr. Paul 

 Giuseppi, whose family owned considerable property 

 in that neighbourhood, — in fact the St. Joseph river 

 ran through his property. It was in his dwelling 

 house on Valsayn Estate that the Articles of Capitu- 

 lation of Trinidad were signed. This ancient building 

 was only removed within the last dozen years, 

 to make way for the present house now occupied by 

 Mr. John Mclnroy, the genial and capable Super- 

 intendent of the Trinidad Government Stock Farm. 

 Before the end of the century in which Raleigh burnt 

 St. J oseph, Trinidad, its weakness and its advantages 

 were well known to Englishmen. But to resume the 

 account given by Lucas. 



' ' So the island drifted on in Spanish hands, only 

 not in decay because it had never known great pros- 

 perity. The Indians decreased in numbers, the sur- 

 vivors of slavery and persecution living in villages 

 and missions and paying a poll tax to the govern- 

 ment. Slaves grew cocoa for a handful of white 

 settlers ; and subject first to the authority of the 

 Viceroy of New Granada, subsequently to that of the 

 Captain-General of Caracas, the colony was adminis- 

 tered by a governor assisted by a 6 Cabildo,' a small 



corporate body At length in 1780 



Trinidad woke out of its sleep. A Frenchman from 

 Grenada, St. Laurent by name, had visited the 



