144 



TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



begun to change considerably and I would Now be 

 glad to say what he said Then, " every one, plainly 

 can live and thrive if they choose. ' ' 



It is not, I am sorry to say, Now as it was Then. 

 There is at the present time a greater amount of ap- 

 parent poverty, and I am afraid some not apparent, 

 than when Kingsley was the guest of the governor 

 and had the opportunity of seeing the then accessible 

 part of Trinidad ; because I assure you there is more 

 poverty in our midst than one might think. Not 

 that Trinidad has begun to deteriorate, for the con- 

 trary is the case ; although, like other West Indian 

 islands, it has passed through bad days — happily 

 now tided over — this poverty has therefore to be 

 accounted for in other ways, and I endeavour to 

 account for it as follows : — 



On at least half a dozen occasions, within my 

 time, one or more of the neighbouring islands have 

 suffered from terrible calamities ; for instance a 

 water-spout which bursting on Mount Misery in St. 

 Kitts nearly devastated the prosperous little town of 

 Basseterre, or at least the poorer part of it, and 

 caused the poor people who suffered, — not field 

 labourers that would have been welcome, but trades- 

 men of an inferior sort and town loafers, who were 

 not wanted, — to flow in upon us in undesirable 

 numbers. 



Other islands, large and small, lying near to us 

 have suffered in like manner from hurricanes and 

 earthquakes which this colony has providentially 

 escaped, but, in the manner I have described relative 



