22 



TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



rather a misfortune than otherwise, that many of 

 these writers should have written as they did, for in 

 the number of books and series of sketches published 

 from time to time, such lamentable ignorance has 

 been displayed in writing of the customs and man- 

 ners of these islands and their inhabitants, and such 

 wrong impressions made as will never be entirely 

 eradicated, even though dozens of books be written 

 proving the contrary to be the case. Although 

 it is not my intention to attempt to write a gene- 

 ral history of the West Indies, or to tread again 

 over the beaten track by a long recital of oc- 

 currences relative to the West Indies in general — 

 of which the great majority of people are not igno- 

 rant — still as it is possible that some of my readers 

 may desire to know more about them than they do at 

 present, I trust the others will forgive me if I endea- 

 vour to give a brief summary of a few events common 

 to all, which have some bearing on Trinidad. 



Shortly after the West Indies were discovered 

 by Columbus, and the Spaniards began to take pos- 

 session of them, the news of the discovery of this so- 

 called New World spread like wildfire, and every 

 leading European nation wanted to have " a finger 

 in the pie" # and so swarmed towards it like flies. The 

 Spaniards, however, tried to restrain this, to them, 

 unpleasant desire. Mr. C. H. Haring in his book, 

 " The Buccaneers in the West Indies in the 17th 

 Century, ' ■ gives some interesting facts, which I will 

 occasionally quote. 



* See the reference to the voyage of the Cabots, page 60. 



