TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



93 



Enquiries ! Enquiries of what ? Does this not 

 indicate that he was either sent or brought out to 

 make enquiries about something which he is not 

 manly enough to tell ? There are, however, people 

 who have no hesitation in saying that the person in 

 whose interest he was sent or brought from America 

 was Fullarton, and in pursuit of things connected 

 with the government of Picton. This veracious (I 

 had almost written voracious) author does not leave 

 the reader long in doubt as to his object, he begins 

 by giving a biography of Picton : — 



* 6 Thomas Picton, as being the leading character, 

 claims our first attention. He was born of obscure 

 parents, somewhere on the mountains of South Wales 

 I am totally unacquainted with his early progress in 

 life, or his relations, any farther than he has a 

 sister married in New York, to a peddling broker of 

 the name of Bette, who was originally an itinerant 

 showman or player in the United States : at other 

 times a sailor, etc. He came here about two years 

 ago to pay a visit to his brother-in-law, who being 

 elevated, in a most extraordinary manner, to the ap- 

 pellation of ' Excellency 9 which none of the family 

 ever enjoyed before or since the days of Caractacus. 

 It was some time before little Bette could be recollec- 

 ted in the pomp and grandeur of the great man's 

 court, and even then it was with that coldness, which 

 manifests a treasonable abuse of friendship, and an 

 inward perplexity, the constant companion of pride, 

 with a sort of secret sense of unworthiness that sunk 

 him amidst his triumph and fancied greatness. 9 9 



