342 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE. 
being that its future was hopeless. The mountainous part or 
backbone of the island was for the greater part Crown land 
densely covered with primeval forest and had been strictly 
reserved in years past in order that the island might have a 
sufficient supply of rain, He also advised that the native woods 
should be preserved for building purposes and that the people 
should not have to buy American lumber, which was very 
expensive and of little use for outside work. Scarborough was 
an exceedingly prettjr town from the deck of a 'ship, but not so 
when you landed, and although there were traces of former 
magnificence and wealth, and about sixty years ago, Tobago was 
said to be the wealthiest island in the West Indies after St. 
Kitts, at the present day the stranger going through Scarborough 
pitied the dilapidated and miserable condition of the little town. 
The Baccolet lighthouse took its name from what was once an 
exceedingly wealthy and prosperous estate ; this estate was now 
the property of Mr. McFie, who was a short time ago Attorney 
of the Burnley estates in Trinidad ; it was almost out of cultiva- 
tion now, and the only hope was that the new owner would 
before long see his way to making things hum there once more. 
At Roxborough, Mr. Archibald had purchased considerable 
property and was laying out a very large sum of money. This 
would no doubt in time encourage others to go and invest their 
money there to the best advantage they could, and it was from 
men like that and what they did, that were to be gathered all 
their hopes of the future prospects of poor little Tobago. At 
Queen’s Bay there was an estate called Betse} 7 ’s Hope. He 
believed the name had now been changed to JLouis d’Or ; this 
estate had been bought by an English syndicate. The King’s 
Bay estate, he was glad to say, had passed into the hands of 
gentlemen in Trinidad, and he most heartily congratulated the 
gentlemen who had acquired that estate, because if they would 
only do for that estate what it deserved, it would do for them 
what they in turn deserved. There was a very considerable 
area of flat land in front and behind, the steep hills and the 
ravines were crammed with leafy mould that had been dropping 
there for ages, offering the most fertile soil. All that was 
wanted was that money should be poured in from both pockets 
for some little time, as the earth like everything else, would not 
give you anything unless you gave the earth something for it. 
After describing the beautiful scenery along the journey, His 
Lordship said that on the leeward coast owing to its having 
for years been given up to sugar, there was hardly a tree to be 
seen upon it, and at the present time it presented a rather 
melancholy and sterile appearance. He was sorry to say that 
the people of Plymouth, the second town, of the island, were in 
a state of poverty and great misery. At Mount Irvine Bay 
