TRINIDAD: THEN AND NOW. 



77 



M Look upon this picture 



It now becomes my pleasing task to give a slight 

 and necessarily brief account of Trinidad's first 

 British Governor in the person of Sir Thomas Picton. 

 He was the son of Thomas Picton, of Poyston in Pem- 

 broke, South Wales, a man of considerable position 

 and wealth — the two things do not always go together 

 — and was born in August 1758, so that at the time of 

 his appointment as governor of Trinidad he was 39 

 years old — a sufficiently ripe age even for a governor. 

 He was a younger son, and, like most younger sons, 

 had to strike out a way for himself ; but fortunately 

 in his case, he inherited considerable property from 

 his mother, which in after years stood him as a valu- 

 able asset in the hour of his need. At an early age 

 he set his heart upon a military career and being 

 specially educated with that object, he entered the 

 academy of Monsieur Lachee to study all branches 

 of a military education. In addition to this he 

 studied Greek, Latin and Roman classics and be- 

 came a proficient in Euclid. While at Lachee 's 

 academy he particularly studied mathematics and 

 the art of war. While yet only thirteen years of age 

 he obtained an ensigncy — a rank not now known in 

 the army — in the 12th Regiment of Foot, then com- 

 manded by his uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel William 

 Picton, and in 1777 he was gazetted as Lieutenant in 

 the same regiment. He served for five years in Gib- 

 raltar where he acquired a thorough knowledge of 

 Spanish, which probably accounts for his selection in 

 after years by Sir Ralph Abercromby as Trinidad's 



