250 THE TEOPICAii AGRIOULTUEIST. [Oct. 1, 1902. 
TOBAGO AND THE WEST INDIES 
OVER 200 YEARS AGO. 
(By Old Colonist) 
I have been favoured with <a copy of a 
very interesting old book entitled, "The 
present prospects of the famous and fertile 
Island of Tobago, with a description of 
the situation, growth, fertility and manu- 
facture of the said Island," by Captain John 
Poyntz, first published In 1683, exactly two 
years after the work of our own Captain 
Knox on Ceylon. Tobago, as all readers of 
the Tropical Agricultvrist know, is a very 
tiny island, 28 miles long by 6 or 7 broad, 
lying within 18 miles of Trinidad, to the 
Government of which it was annexed only 
12 years ago, alter rather a chequered his- 
tory. It is only about l-15th the extent of 
Trinidad and botii together would only make 
l-l3thof the area of Ceylon. Yet, there is a cer- 
tain interest attached to anything published 
220 years ago, and the minute details of the 
product of this little Gem of the West might 
have been intensely interesting to the Tropical 
Agriculturist of today, had the descriptions 
been a little less exaggerated. 
The literary style of iVTr Poyntz, like that of 
good Mr Robt. Knox, is quaint in the extreme : 
— " The courteous reader is here presented 
with the present prospect of the Island of 
Tobago, about 40 leagues distant from Barba- 
does ; but far excelling that Island or in- 
deed any other of the Caribee Islands in 
the fertility and richness of the soil. Yet 
exempted from those affrighting and des- 
tructive hurricanes that have been often 
fatal to the rest of the Caribee Islands. I 
am persuaded there is no island in America 
that can afford more ample subjects to con- 
template the bounty of the Great Creator 
than this of Tobago, and I speak not by 
hearsay, or as one who has lived always at 
home ; but as one who has had experience 
in the world and seen almost all His Majesty's 
Foreign plantations, and after having 
viewed them all, have chosen this Island to 
take up my quietus est in." 
The " courteous reader " is now introduced 
to an array of plants, fruits, birds, beasts, 
and fishes rarely before heard of from one 
island, and some of which to this day are 
unrecognisable. I doubt for instance his 
plethora of luscious grapes as I have never 
found such in a moist tropical climate. 
Tea, also, he says : " grows naturally and 
plentifully here, meaning such tea as is fre- 
quently sold in English coffee-houses." Poor 
Poyntz had probably seen the Paraguayan 
article, but Thea Sinensis not at all likely. 
It might here be observed that tea and 
grapes are never produced commercially in 
the same country, the conditions which 
favour the one being the opposite of what 
■would suit the other. Pineapple, he con- 
fesses, " isa fruit of that excellency that Iioant 
Ehetorich and Oratory to express it," The 
papaw and mammee are grateful and ap- 
petising, 
"The plantam of all fruits the Negro loves 
best. A sovereign wholesome food, some eat 
them raw when nature has ripened them ; 
Qtbers boil them green, Novy to roast ^Ueuji 
they are bread, to boil them they are sauce 
or marmalade, but to barbecue or dry them 
in the sun they may rub them to a flour." 
(Curious to note the idea of desiccating the 
plantain, never yet commercially carried 
out.*) 
" The coconut the Indians idolize it, and 
call it God's tree : because it gives both meat, 
drink and cloth. It is true beyond dispute 
that the nut of itself is sweet beyond the 
sweetest almond and the liquor to my liking 
beyond Florens or Frontinack. Of 
the prodigious pumpkins, I blush to ex- 
press their magnitude ! " The book alto- 
gether is more curious than instructive, I 
have already stated that the date of publi- 
cation almost coincides with that of Kobt. 
Knox's Ceylon, and is written in the same 
quaint style. But here the similarity ends. 
Robt. Knox had no special axe to grind, 
was a man of inflexible honesty who studied 
an<l wrote from the sheer love of acquiring 
and imparting reliable information. 
Captan Poyntz was evidently a man of 
quite another type. Had he lived today he 
would have unquestionably been a great suc- 
cess as a Company promoter : a scrupulous 
veracity being by no means his strong point, 
and the whole object of his glowing des- 
cription crops out in the concluding chapter : 
— "Showing that he had acquired from the 
DuJce of Courland 120,000 acres of land on 
the said island for a Joynt Stock Co. for 
subscriptions of any persons who are willing 
to be adventurers in the same." 
The little island, since that day, has seen 
many vicissitudes, now British, now Dutch, 
French and Spanish, but finally conceded 
to Britain. And, small though it be, it is 
worthy of more attention by trained tropical 
planters than it has hitherto obtained. 
Being beyond the zone of eruptions and 
hurricanes, with good soil in a healthy, forcing 
climate, it offers excellent prospects for the 
planter and fruit-grower. 
No leaf blight there. No frost to frighten 
the orange-grower. Investors of recent years 
are, I know, well satisfied with their returns. 
The Season Upcountry this year is what 
would be described twenty-five to forty 
years ago as "a perfect coffee-blossoming 
season." Indeed, where a little coffee is 
still found, as in Dumbara, there has been 
a wonderful blossoming display; but then 
the rain is wanting to bring the pin-point 
beans to maturity, and in place of many 
thousands, probably, only as many hundreds 
of bushels will be gathered. In respect of 
"tea," a sign of the season is the great 
extent to which the bushes are flowering— 
not so much as yet in the higher as in the 
medium and lower districts, and this, of 
course, means a check to flush. In some cases, 
coolies may have to be put on to strip off 
the flowers. 
* Surely it has : plantain or banana flour is made 
in Jamaica and Queensland and desiccated plan- 
tains are sent froiq Singapoi'e, we believe ?-t 
Ep, T,A. 
