CHAPTER IV. 



DON CHACON : TRINIDAD'S LAST SPANISH GOVERNOR. 



In attempting a brief sketch of Don Jose 

 Maria Chacon, Knight of the Order of Calatrava and 

 Brigadier of the Spanish Royal Navy, as governor of 

 Trinidad at the time of its capitulation to English 

 arms, it will be advisable to relate a few important 

 details not already set out. At this time, and 

 for a long time prior to his appointment as 

 governor, Trinidad was in a state of stupor ; it had 

 made little progress in the art of civilizing since the 

 days of its first occupation, in fact, if anything, it was 

 growing gradually worse. The aborigines, a fine 

 developed, gentle race — as Columbus, and later, 

 Dudley described them to be — were fast disappearing 

 from the country, either by gradual extermination or 

 being kidnapped and sent to work as slaves in mines 

 on the mainland, — now more familiarly known as 

 Venezuela, Dutch, English and French Guiana — for 

 they at that time owed allegiance to Spain. 



Such was the state of Trinidad down to the time 

 when Mr. Rome de St. Laurent arrived from Grenada, 

 then a French colony, and conceived the idea of 

 colonizing it by outsiders from the neighbouring 

 islands. In consequence of which he addressed a 

 petition to the Spanish government at Madrid to 



