CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



" There dwells a wife by the Northern Gate, 

 And a wealthy wife is she ; 

 She breeds a breed o' rovin' men 

 And casts them over sea. 



The good wife's sons come home again 



With little into their hands, 

 But the lore of men that ha' dealt with men 



In the new and fragrant lands ; 



Kipling. 



I have quoted these lines as I think them pecu- 

 liarly applicable to my advent to, and residence in, 

 Trinidad. To Trinidad as " the new and fragrant 

 land/' and to myself as one of " the good wife's sons 

 come home again with little into their hands, " 

 — except, as in my case, the enjoyment of a good, 

 or as the newspapers would say " well-earned," 

 pension, which is not inconsiderable, for services 

 rendered. 



I have lived close upon 38 years— something 

 more than half my life — in this delightful, "fragrant 

 land," and only once, after an absence of 34 years, 

 6 i come home again" to the land of my birth, to return 

 to Trinidad after an absence of only a few months. 

 Of wealth — except such as I have indicated — " with 

 little into my hands but the lore of men who ha' 



