26 



TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



the hunters after a fashion learned from the Caribee 

 Indians. The meat was cut into long strips, laid 



upon a crate of hurdles constructed of green sticks 

 and dried over a slow fire fed with the bones and 

 trimmings of the hide of the animal. By this means 

 an excellent flavour was imparted to the meat and a 

 fine red colour.* The place where the flesh was 

 smoked w r as called a ' boucan,' and the same term, 

 from the poverty of an undeveloped language, was 

 applied to the frame or grating on which the flesh 

 was dried. In course of time the dried meat be- 

 came known as i viande boucanee,' and the hunters 

 themselves as ' buccaneers/ When later circum- 

 stances led the hunters to combine their trade with 

 that of piracy, the name gradually lost its original 

 significance and acquired, in the English language, 

 at least, its better-known meaning of corsairs or free- 

 booters. The French adventurers, however, seem 

 always to have restricted the word 6 boucanier ' to 

 its proper signification, that of hunter and curer of 

 meat ; and when they developed into corsairs, by a 

 curious contrast they adopted an English name and 

 called themselves 'flibustiers'" — which really means 

 free-booters. 



" Between the hunter and the pirate no impass- 

 able line was drawn ; and soon the same person com- 

 bined in himself the occupation of cow-killing and 

 cruising, varying the monotony of the one by 



* Large quantities of meat, cured in a similar way, called 

 "tasso," — in Spanish tassajo — is an article of commerce between 

 here and Venezuela ; as I write it can be seen hanging outside the 

 stores in Almond Walk — or, as is now named, Broadway. 



