TRINIDAD *. THEN AND NOW. 



IB 



testimony to its many good features, its certain 

 progress and growing prosperity. Read any of the 

 histories of Trinidad — not this one in particular — 

 and you will be able to speak with pride and au- 

 thority of this th'e land of your birth or of your 

 adoption;, thus making yourself worthy of Trinidad 

 and Trinidad worthy of you. 



I recently wrote a few sketches for a small 

 magazine, which I designated "Casual Wanderings.' 7 

 While I was penning the second it struck me that I 

 might, without trenching on the rule I have alluded 

 to, write something interesting about the progress of 

 Trinidad during my residence here, and I began the 

 following sketches, which I now publish in book 

 form, at the urgent request of a number of persons 

 who read them. I entertain the conviction that those 

 who read them will be impressed by the tremendous 

 strides made by this colony during the last 38 years 

 — the period over which my experience extends. 

 These sketches are culled from the storehouse of my 

 memory and may, therefore, in some respects, be de- 

 ficient or slightly inaccurate, but I am convinced 

 they will, in the main, be found to be correct. 



I am sorry that in relating incidents connected 

 with the great improvements wrought in many of the 

 public institutions it will be necessary to begin at a 

 time when they were literally, as well as figuratively, 

 in the mire, and in order to show the improve- 

 ments and progress made they must be shown 

 as they then were, but in doing so I shall touch as 

 lightly on the sore spots as circumstances, consistent; 



