TKINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



197 



one hundred thousand pounds and the country, 

 through its unhealthy site, many precious lives. 



Having reached the western end of Peru Village 

 we come to the place where the English forces landed, 

 wading waist deep through mud and water, to the 

 conquest of Trinidad. Turn to the right up " Fort 

 George " military road ; visit each of the twelve 

 sites on which the — (in those days) — big guns were 

 placed to overawe the recently conquered inhabitants 

 of Port-of-Spain, mostly French, in case of an at- 

 tempt at revolution, and to defend it from outside 

 attack. The making of this road, the placing of 

 the " big guns," the erection of the Artillery bar- 

 racks lying underneath " Fort George," — now used 

 as the leper asylum, — St. James Barracks, and " Pic- 

 ton Fort," cost over £1,000,000 ; all of which with the 

 exception of St. James Barracks, had within a year 

 to be abandoned, on account of their unhealthy posi- 

 tions, being found unfit for European occupa- 

 tion. St. James was also condemned, but as there 

 was no palce ready for the troops they were allowed 

 to remain as a temporary ( ?) makeshift till better 

 could be found, but there they remained for years in 

 a hot-bed of yellow and malarial fever, no better 

 having been found. They were, however, as time 

 advanced improved and they are Now much more 

 healthy than they were Then. 



Shortly after the forts were abandoned, they be- 

 came so overgrown with bush and bramble as to be 

 unrecognisable and their very position forgotten, 

 except the one on the top where the signalling station 



