TRINIDAD: THEN AND NOW. 



65 



claim has been set up and recognised in our courts of 

 law as a sufficient title to landed property, by any 

 person who can establish the fact that their family 

 had been in possession of such at the time of this 

 decree. 



The portion of Article IV which alluded to the 

 slaves " brought into the colony " was very much 

 abused, because it encouraged that which afterwards 

 became such a constant outrage as to induce the 

 Grenada government to pass a law against it. For 

 instance, a former inhabitant of Grenada who had 

 settled in Trinidad, and decided to engage in this 

 nefarious traffic, had nothing to do but go over there, 

 and, under a friendly pretext, induce former free 

 black or coloured acquaintances to pay him a visit 

 on board his sloop or other kind of ship and then 

 kidnap them, bring them over to Trinidad and declare 

 them to be his slaves. There were no questions 

 asked, so that these unfortunate men who had been, 

 perhaps, the owners of property in their own country, 

 were no sooner landed in Trinidad than they became 

 slaves — an outrage which could not long be tolerated, 

 and met with very strong protests. 



From the English West Indian colonies, from 

 Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent — then French 

 colonies — as well as from the worn-out colonies of 

 Guadeloupe and Martinique and the pestiferous 

 swamps of Cayenne, quite a number of persons were 

 found to take advantage of the generous offer of 

 land and protection ; so that in 1784 Trinidad be- 

 came a French colony in all but name, which to the 



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