180 



TRINIDAD: THEN AND NOW 



less than three — I speak of the days before the rail- 

 way was open to Arima. The rivers on this road 

 were more frequently in flood and were the worst 

 and most dangerous in the colony ; I once had to get 

 the people on the opposite bank to draw myself, 

 servant and mules by ropes across a flooded river. 



A favourite way of making or repairing a bad 

 piece of road was by " corduroy/ ' that is cutting 

 roso or other small hardwood trees and laying them 

 horizontally across the road, and then spreading clay 

 or as it is called " dirt " over them. This answered 

 the purpose for a time until the small trees began to 

 rot and then many a mishap occurred as the animals 

 were frequently badly lamed. 



Let me give here an illustration of the difficulties 

 one had to encounter in travelling even a short dis- 

 tance. Many of my readers know the road from the 

 Warden's house at Sangre Grande to the old police 

 station at Manzanilla, a distance under eight miles, 

 which can now be driven over in an hour or by motor 

 in half an hour. The first time I rode over this short 

 piece of road in the early eighties it took me over 7 

 hours to do it. I left the rest-house on the site now 

 occupied by the Doctor's and Warden's residences, 

 at 2 p.m. and did not reach Manzanilla until 10 p.m. 

 About an hour of the time was spent in sheltering 

 from a severe rain and thunder storm, and the other 

 7 in plodding through mud and slush — the thinner 

 the better — reaching higher than the mule's knees. 

 Were it not that the rivers on this road had been 

 bridged over a few years previous, it would have 



