CHAPTER VI. 



THE AUTHOR'S ADVENT TO TRINIDAD. 



Having paved the way, in a manner which I hope 

 has not been unacceptable to my readers, for that 

 which is to follow as a synopsis of, and observations 

 on, my personal experience in Trinidad, I shall now 

 begin by setting them out in such a manner as will 

 enable me to contrast the Trinidad of Then with the 

 Trinidad of Now, and, I trust, also the Trinidad of the 

 Future. I shall endeavour to show a good deal of its 

 progress, prosperity and prospects — although the 

 latter " lies hidden in the lap of the gods," or per- 

 haps, to use a less poetic and more literal expression, 

 in the bowels of the earth, in the material known as 

 oil, in which it is confidently predicted, Trinidad has 

 a great future. 



It must not be presumed that from the day of my 

 advent to, or my arrival in, what I may without 

 flattery call this beautiful and prosperous island, I 

 began to set down every thing in the order in which 

 I might at some future day describe it. It was not 

 so, for I had not the most remote intention of writing 

 this or any other book. As the greater part of the 

 events which it is now my intention to write about 

 are mainly culled from the stores of my memory, I 



