TRINIDAD : THEN AND NOW. 



813 



they had to deal with in transforming what looked 

 like rugged inhospitable, barrenness into a " smiling 

 prosperous garden," let me take you for a ride or 

 drive oyer various parts of the colony where cocoa 

 now flourishes. You will not only be delighted, but 

 struck with wonder. But after all, we need not tra- 

 vel far. Let me take you to the top of the ' ' Saddle 

 Road. ' ' There let us pause and look round on the 

 hills and vast amphitheatre spread out before you. 

 The greater part of it once formed Moka sugar plan- 

 tation, but like many others it is now transformed 

 into what will in a short time be one of the most 

 magnificent cocoa estates in the colony. When I 

 carry my memory back, not so many years either, 

 and remember that looking over the hills to the west 

 and north it never entered my head that they 

 would ever be anything more than what they then 

 appeared to be, an almost impenetrable mass of 

 " bush and brake " overshadowed by huge forest 

 trees ; what do we see now ? The forest trees are 

 felled, the inhospitable " bush and brake " cut 

 down and burnt, the mountain sides in the course of 

 being prepared for, and planted in, suitable shade 

 for the young cocoa, which in a few years will be in 

 flourishing plantations — for I believe there is more 

 than one owner to what we see spread out before 

 us — showing what human energy can accomplish. 



Trinidad owes to her peasant contractors a great 

 deal more than she is prepared to admit. 



It must not be thought that the few places selec- 

 ted to illustrate my assertion are the only places in 



