TRINIDAD: THEN AND NOW. 



99 



Of Gallagher's case Joseph says : — "I have care- 

 fully read over this man's trial by court-martial and 

 must say, if ever offence of that abominable nature 

 were clearly proved, and unless three witnesses com- 

 mitted the most deliberate perjury, he died a guilty 

 man." (page 289). 



The other case is that of Luisa Calderon. It is 

 one of a different nature and on account of the 

 amount of excitement which it created — not in Trini- 

 dad, where it was recognised as legal, but in England 

 — requires the most delicate reasoning as to its merits 

 or demerits ; and in order to do so the whole case 

 must be set out. 



Luisa Calderon was a young coloured girl over 

 15 years of age, — although, in order to bring Picton 

 in guilty of a crime, it was alleged that she was not 14, 

 at which age it would not have been lawful to apply 

 what was, in Spanish law, called the "question," 

 which I will describe in due course. She lived with 

 Pedro Ruiz in the double capacity of house-keeper 

 and mistress. Not satisfied with this connection she 

 struck up an intimate acquaintance with a married 

 man named Carlos Gonzalez, and on a day when her 

 master, Ruiz, was absent, assisted her more favoured 

 lover, Gonzalez, to rob Ruiz of a large sum of 

 money. On the return of her master, he, requiring 

 a part of this money, found that it had all disap- 

 peared. Enquiries were made and it was ascer- 

 tained that Gonzalez had been seen in the house with 

 Luisa Calderon, and further enquiries revealed the 

 fact of her closer intimacy with him. An effort was 



