TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



809 



ly do so, but I can bear testimony to the fact that 

 that district has gone ahead by leaps and bounds, or 

 to use the words of the gentleman alluded to, ' 6 its 

 progress has been phenomenal." I have used his ex- 

 pression and I hope he will be satisfied, I could use 

 it with, to my mind, more appropriateness to San- 

 gre Grande, Manzanilla, Siparia and Bande FEst 

 Road. I have a very vivid recollection of the difficul- 

 ties met by cocoa pioneers in these districts. 



I remember my first ride from Arima to Mayaro 

 along the eastern main road, between Sangre Grande 

 and Manzanilla, seeing the land on which the fine 

 estates of Mr. Hernandez, Mrs. Murray and others are 

 now situated. They were in the course of prepara- 

 tion for planting cocoa and it then struck me as a 

 miserable prospect, so miserable indeed that I doubt 

 if I would have taken any of them as a gift had they 

 been offered to me. Look at them now ! Flourishing 

 beyond conception, making their thousands of bags 

 each year. 



Let me give another example. I remember 

 accompanying Mr. Alexander Eiddell from San Fer- 

 nando to the place on Bande l'Est Road where he 

 contemplated making a cocoa plantation. I, in my 

 ignorance, wondered at the folly, as I considered it, 

 of the cute Scotchman, and wished that I was safe 

 out of the dreary morass, for in those days dt was 

 nothing better. Look at it now, and the neighbour- 

 ing plantations begun at the same time, and what do 

 you see ? Places to delight the eye of the visitor 

 and gladden the heart of the owners ! No longer a 



