DEDICATION. 



It is, I believe, usual to dedicate a book to some 

 person from whom the writer has received some 

 special favour, or to some patron. As I have never 

 been under any particular obligation to any single 

 individual, have had no patron ; and as my success in 

 life — such as it is — is due solely to my own exertions 

 and to the occasional help of those with whom I hav& 

 associated, it struck me that I could not do better than 

 dedicate this work to the people of Trinidad in gene- 

 ral, from whom I have, with few exceptions, received 

 as much courtesy , kindness, and useful assistance in 

 my profession as I had any right to expect. 



There is a passage in biblical history which 

 reads : " Woe unto you when all men shall speak 

 well of you \ " I am glad that I have escaped that 

 calamity. 



Whenever any man filling a public position is 

 spoken well of by every one, then you may be sure 

 that he is not straight ; I do not mean to imply that 

 the converse is always the case. I remember, in my 

 early days in Trinidad, reading in one of the news- 

 papers of those days a series of articles, following 

 each other with weekly precision, recounting all the 

 misdeeds (?) of a certain official and using question- 

 able language in describing those about which a doubt 



