88 



TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



6 8 From this time until the end of the 18th cen- 

 tury, all prospered under Picton ; the commerce, 

 population and agriculture of the island increased 

 with a rapidity unexampled. The governor showed, 

 by his mental energy and personal activity, that he 

 was endowed with a frame of iron. I am obliged to 

 add, he ruled Trinidad with a rod of iron. The 

 Spanish inhabitants, who now in general became 

 quiet colonists and good subjects, petitioned Picton 

 that if peace was made, Trinidad should not be 

 given up for any equivalent. The governor backed 

 their petition with his own recommendation, and this 

 doubtless was the cause of Trinidad's remaining a 

 British possession at the peace of Amiens." 



I regret that want of space prevents me from 

 giving the petition and recommendation ; but both 

 can be seen in Robinson's Memoirs of Picton, pages 

 72-80. Is it therefore any wonder that the large 

 majority of the inhabitants of Trinidad, who but 

 recently owed allegiance to a weak and tyrannical 

 Spanish throne, should so soon become enamoured 

 of a good and just government as to petition Picton 

 to hold on to Trinidad. Picton went further than 

 that, he also recommended that the British govern- 

 ment should seize a certain part of Venezuela, then 

 belonging to Spain, as a protection to the commerce 

 of Trinidad in the future. I give a short extract 

 from the despatch relating to this. 



" The town of Cumana is centrally situated, so as 

 easily to communicate with the province of Guayana 

 on the one hand, and that of Caracas on the other, 



