CHAPTER II.-TRINIDAD.

to the sea, intersected, but not intercepted by cross streets, thus catching every breeze that blows; and as in most tropical countries, there is a delightful embowered public walk. Among the principal buildings the Protestant church stands conspicuously and beautifully situate, with a large enclosed lawn in front, surrounded on two sides by the best houses of the capital; the interior of the church is superb, and at the same time elegant, its sweeping roof and aisleless sides being variegated with the various rich woods of the island, tastefully arranged; there is also a splendid Roman Catholic church, and well situate; and an extensive market-place, with market-house and shambles, all built since the burning of the town in 1808, of handsome cut stone.

The Port of Spain is divided into barrios or districts, each under the superintendance of alcaldes or magistrates and officers, who are responsible for the cleanliness of the streets, for the regulating and order of the markets, and for the due execution of the law in their several divisions; hence the policy and good order established in the capital is admirable. The St. James' barracks for the accommodation of 600 men are substantially, and I may add, beautifully erected, on a fine plain, about a mile from the capital.

to any great extent, for more than small boats; further S. is the fine river Moruga, while in every direction limpid brooks run murmuring over pebbly beds to the ocean, through lofty forests and the most picturesque scenery.

The gulf of Paria, formed by the W. shore of Trinidad, and the opposite coast of Cumana (which is 30 leagues long and 15 ditto from N. to S.), may be said to form one vast harbour, as ships may anchor all over the gulf in from three to six fathom water, on gravel and mud soundings. The principal ports are, first, the harbour of Port Royal, Chagaramus, on the N.W. peninsula of the island, at the entrance of the N. mouth, three leagues W. of Port of Spain, and comprehending a space of about seventy square miles; it is esteemed the best and safest port in the island, is capable of receiving the largest ships of war, has from four to 40 fathoms soundings of gravel and mud, or ouze, with bold and steep northern shores.

Port of Spain, on the W. coast, which gives its name to the capital, is the next best harbour, and has one of the most extensive bays in the world; the surrounding fortified heights completely command the town, and a fine stone quay, running several hundred yards into the sea, has a strong battery at its extremity. All the W. coast is a series of bays where vessels may anchor in safety at all times. The Careenage, not having more than from two to four fathoms, is only fit for small vessels; and Gasper Grande is an islet within the mouths, where the Spanish ships of war were wont to anchor under the safeguard of a battery intended for the protection of the

Fort George commands the pass leading to Diego Martin's valley, and in the event of war, a few judiciously disposed fortifications at the other entrances to the interior of the country would render the island impregnable. The entrenchments are elevated along several ridges and round backed divisions, with a variety of surface: some parts of which are sufficiently flat for the erection of military works, and on the best of these, at the elevation of 1000 feet, is the Block-passage. The N. and E. coasts are not equally well house barracks, calculated for 200 men. Fort George is inaccessible from behind, and not commanded by any hill in its neighbourhood, it is admirably fortified by batteries that are disposed, as it were, along the two sides of an acute angled triangle terminating on a point at the Blockhouse redoubt, each commands the other, according to the situation in which they are placed.

The highest range of land (about 3,000 feet) is to the N. near the sea; in the centre of the isle is a less elevated group of mountains, to the S. a series of lovely hills and mounds appear in delightful contrast to the northern shore; and as on the contiguous coast of Cumana, the chain of mountains in the N. of Trinidad runs E. and W. Las Cuevas has a double summit, with a magnificent platform in the centre, from which there is a view of the ocean E. and W.; four delightful vallies, watered by numerous rivulets, add beauty to this charming landscape.

On the W. coast the principal navigable streams are the Caroni, Chaguanas, Barrancones, Couva, Guaracara, and Sissaria; the first is navigable from its mouth in the gulph, to its junction with the Aripo, (also navigable) a distance of six leagues; the Guanaba, like the Aripo, flows into the Caroni, but has less water; there are many other streams on the W. coast, which being navigable for small trading vessels, afford great facilities for the cultivation of land, and the transport of its produce. The N. and E. coasts are well furnished with rivers and rivulets of pure and crystalline water; the principal on the E. coast are the Rio Grande, Oropuche, and Nariva, (called by the Creoles Mitan, from its flowing through a grove of cocoa trees). This latter has been sailed up seven and a half leagues, and found navigable for a 250 tons ship, at less than a league from its source. Guatavo, to windward of the island, is large, but not navigable

furnished with harbours and roadsteads, which is the more to be regretted, as the wind blows for threefourths of the year from the E. and N. The principal ports to the N. are the Maqueribe and Las Cuevas, (where fort Abercrombie is situate); to the N. E. are the ports of Rio Grande, Toco, and Cumana; on the E. is Balandra Bay, or Boat Island, where safe auchorage may at all times be found for small vessels; further E. are Guiascreek and Mayaro Bay; the safest port on the E. coast is Guaiguaire, from its being sheltered by a point of land against E. winds, and its entrance to the S. from which the winds are neither frequent nor violent.

Trinidad, as viewed from the Gulf of Paria, presents an alluvial country in an active state of formation; the primitive foundations of the land arranged in a form nearly semilunar, incline as with outstretched arms to receive into their bosoms the greater portion of the alluvies from the mouths of the mighty Ori. noco; the currents, deeply charged with this alluvial soil, drive along the cliffy sides of the northern ridge and southern shores, (from which they borrow in their course), to deposit their lading at the bottom of the gulf where the metropolis, at the base of its beautiful mountain stands. The tides, (which there rise higher by several feet than in any other part of the West Indies,) flow muddy and foul, and ebb with clear waters, which may be seen at some distance from the shore; each extent of new formation being marked by muddy banks of Mangrove bushes; in this way Port of Spain-like, as Dr. Ferguson says of the ancient Ostia, that was built upon the sea, may become in time an inland city, the metropolis of many other towns erected on the fertile and flourishing country. It has been observed, that the land encroaching on the sea on the coast S. W. of Trinidad increases the territorial extent of the island; and, at

some distant day, the Gulf of Paria will be a mere | top was cold; four poles, measuring sixty feet, did channel for the conveyance of the waters of the Orinoco and Guarapiche to the ocean.

not touch bottom, and disappeared on being let go. There is neither stone nor sand within the circumference of a league of the cone; but handsome rounded pebbles were found round the hill, together with small calcareous stones, encrusted with sulphur of a prismatic form. Contiguous to this crater, and encompassed by a marsh of mangroves, which communicate with the sea, is another hillock, with a circular shallow cavity full of a boiling liquid like alum; a dull subterraneous sound was heard, the earth was found to tremble under the feet of the explorers, and two poles pushed into the crater disappeared in an instant; detonations like distant cannon are heard every year in the month of March. It is re

tilles in 1797, were not perceived at Trinidad or in Cumana, and when the latter province was shortly after desolated by terrible earthquakes, the shocks were slightly felt in Trinidad, but not at all in the Antilles.

Forty miles S. of the Pitch Lake are several mud volcanoes, in a plain not more than four feet above the general surface; the largest is about 150 feet in diameter, and has boiling mud constantly bubbling, but never overflowing, remaining constantly within the surface of the crater. When the old craters cease to act, new ones invariably appear in the vicinity; thus resembling the mud volcanoes witnessed by Humboldt. Some of the mud volcanoes throw out salt water, heavily loaded with argillaceous earth :during the hottest months of the dry season, cold mud is thrown to the height of thirty feet, and the volcano is unapproachable to within fifty paces.

IV. The island (as also Tobago) is evidently a section of the opposite continent, formed either by a volcanic eruption or oceanic eruption-the same strata of earth, the same rocks, fossils, &c. are common to both. The nucleus of the mountains is a very dense argillaceous schistus, becoming laminated and friable when exposed to the atmosphere, and changing to the micaceous schistus in the inferior layers and near the beds of rivers; in the interstices of which latter, particularly to the northward, are found great quantities of sulphureous pyrites in cubic crystals. There is no granite on the island (while the Caribbean chain of mountains are principally composed of that sub-markable that earthquakes, felt violently in the Anstance); but blocks of milky quartz, of different sizes, are found in every valley, beneath which there is frequently to be found a light layer of sulphate of lime; on the precipitous sides of the mountains, washed by the torrents, may be seen layers of a coarse argile, mixed with ferruginous sand. Thus the absence of calcareous masses in Trinidad, Tobago, and Cumana offers a strong geological contrast to the Antilles, or Caribbean Mountains. Gypsum and limestone are rare in Trinidad. One quarry of calcareous carbonate, situate at the foot of a hill near the Port of Spain, is mixed with veins of silex and heterogeneous substances. Considerable quantities of pulverating feldspar are found on the rising ground, washed by the rains, near the Guapo mouth and on its left banks. The micaceous schistus has sometimes a transition into talcous schistus; thus giving an unctuous appearance to the soil. Near the coast are found rocks of a bluish calcareous nature, veined with white calcareous carbonate, chrystalized, rather hard, and resting on coagulated clay, with pebbles of primitive rocks. The magnetic needle indicates the presence of iron in many rocks; but volcanic convulsions have produced different effects from similar eruptions in Europe: thus gypsum is found abounding in sulphur and pyrites, mingled with granite. No vestiges of organic bodies have been discovered; maritime and land shells (many of unknown and extinct species) are found in the great alluvial plains; and, although madrepore are drifted on the coast, no coral banks exist. On the surface of the soil of the vallies where rivers run, rounded pebbles are observed; but in the plains they disappear: this is particularly the case on the E. and very rare on the W. coast. There are several extensive vallies and plains of a deep and fertile argillaceous vegetative earth, without a rock or even pebble to be seen.

There are several craters in Trinidad. S. of Cape Dela Brea is a submarine volcano, which occasionally boils up, and discharges a quantity of petreolum; in the E. part of the island and Bay of Mayaro is another, which, in March and June, gives several detonations resembling thunder,-these are succeeded by flames and smoke, and, some minutes after, pieces of bitumen, as black and brilliant as jet, are thrown on shore. Near the forest of point Icacos, on the summit of a hill of argillaceous clay, M. Levyasse found a great number of little mounds, about two feet high, whose truncated and open-coned tops exhaled a gas smelling like sulphurated hydrogen; one cone, of six feet high, on the most elevated part of the hill, continually discharged whitish matter, of an aluminous taste; a sound was heard, indicating a fluid in a continual state of agitation, and globules of an elastic gas evaporated continually; the scum at the

E

The precious metals have not been found in Trinidad, but the magnet discovers iron in the greater part of its rocks and pebbles; a very brilliant white metal, (specific gravity ten), more ductile and malleable than silver has been found, and M. Vauqueline thought it either a new metal or composed of several others; crystals of sulphate of copper have been found encrusted with alum among flints, as also arsenic with sulphurated barytes for a matrix; schistose plumbago has been discovered, and near it a mine of coal, about five miles from the sea-shore; but the most remarkable mineral phenomenon is the Asphaltum, or Pitch Lake, situate on the leeward side of the island, on a small peninsula, jutting into the sea about two miles, (opposite the Parian Mountains on the Continent,) and elevated 80 feet above the level of the ocean. The headland on which it is situate, when seen from the sea, resembles a dark scoriaceous mass; but, when more closely examined, it is found to consist of bituminous scoriæ, vitrified sand, and earth, all cemented together. In some places beds of cinders are found; and a strong sulphureous smell pervades the ground to the distance of eight or ten miles from the lake, and is felt on approaching the shore.

The lake is bounded on the N. W. by the sea, on the S. by a rocky eminence, and on the E. by the usual argillaceous soil of the country; it is nearly circular, and better than half a league in length, and the same in breadth, occupying the highest part of the point of land which shelves into the sea, from which it is separated by a margin of wood; the variety and extrordinary mobility of this phenomenon is very remarkable, groups of beautiful shrubs and flowers, tufts of wild pine apples and aloes, swarms of magnificent butterflies and brilliant humming birds enliven a scene, which would be an earthly representation of Tartarus without them. With regard to mobility,

where a small islet has been seen on an evening, a gulf is found on the following morning, and, on another part of the lake, a pitch islet is sprung up to be in its turn adorned with the most luxuriant vegetation, and then again engulphed.

The usual consistence and appearance of the asphaltum, (except in hot wheather, when it is actually liquid an inch deep,) is that of pit coal, but of a greyish colour, melting like sealing wax; ductile by a gentle heat, and, when mixed with grease, oil, or common pitch, acquiring fluidity, and well adapted for the preserving the bottoms of ships against the destructive effects of the worm termed the teredo navalis. Sometimes the Asphaltum is found jet black and hard, breaking into a dull conchoidal fracture, but, in general, it may be readily cut, when its interior appears oily and vesicular.

Deep crevices or funnels, inclining to a conic form, and sometimes six feet deep, are found in various parts of the asphaltum, (pitch), filled with excellent limpid running water, and often containing a great quantity of mullet and small fish. Alligators are said to have been seen in these extraordinary chasms. The bottom of some of these canals are so liquid that marked poles thrust in disappear, and have been found a few days after on the sea shore. Near Cape La Brea, to the S.W. (the place where this lake is) Capt. Mallet observed a gulf or vortex, which, in stormy weather, gushes out, raising the water five or six feet, and covering the surface, for a considerable space with the bituminous substance. A similar gulf is said to be on the coast, at the bay of Mayaro.

Pieces of what was once wood, are found completely changed into bitumen; and the trunk of a large tree, on being sawn, was entirely impregnated with petreolum; where the petreolum mixes with the earth it tends greatly to fertilize it, and the finest fruits in the colony come from districts bordering on this singular lake; the pine apples, in particular, being less fibrous, larger, more aromatic, and of a deeper golden colour than are to be had any where else. [For a detailed account of the pitch lake, and mud volcanoes see Vol. VI. of my Colonial Library.]

V. The dry and rainy seasons into which the tropical year is distinguished is more marked in Trinidad than in the Antilles. The dry season commences with the month of December, and ends with that of May, the E. N. E. and N. winds then become less cool; the heat increases and it is at its height by the end of June, storms commence and augment in frequency and violence during August and September, and in October they occur almost daily, accompanied by torrents of rain; there is seldom any fall of rain during the night, but a heavy shower without wind usually precedes sun-rise by half an hour during the season. Hurricanes are unknown in Trinidad or Tobago.

The hygrometer varies much in different seasons; during the rainy season it is usually between 85 and 90, in the spring between 36 and 38 in the day, and about 50 at night; on an average there falls about sixty-two inches of water during the winter, and about ten inches (including the heavy dews, which may be estimated at six inches) during the spring. The October rains are very gentle; in November they are less frequent and more slight; and from the end of December to the beginning of June of some years, there does not fall a drop of rain during the day: as the island has become cleared, the quantity of rain falling has diminished.

During even the hot and stormy season the thermometer rarely stands at Port of Spain before sun.

| rise, so high as 74 and in the country occasionally as low as 68; from sun-rise to sun-set 84 to 86, falling in the evening to 82 or 80; in August and September when the air is saturated with moisture, the mercury rises sometimes to 90-rarely above that height. When during the winter there is wind with the rain the mornings are less hot, as are also the evenings, when the rain has been preceded by thunder during the day; but the temperature of the whole island varies with the elevation above the sea and the aspect of the place, especially in spring, when the thermometer descends to 60, and sometimes to 50, in places of moderate elevation; on the whole it is less moist than Guyana, and not so dry as Cumana, and being an island, the winds are more constant, and the atmosphere therefore more frequently renovated; the vallies of Santa Anna, of Maraval, Diego Martin, Aricagua, and the heights of St. Joseph, to the N.W., as also the vallies on the N. coast, enjoy a mild temperature, and their inhabitants breathe during nearly the whole year a fresh, pure, and very elastic air, by reason of the simultaneous action of the evaporation of rains, dews, and winds, on the well-known eastern principle, by which liquids are cooled, and even ice formed, by solar evaporation or exposure to a current of air. From the coolness of the night, it is the ordinary custom to have a blanket folded up at the foot of the bed to draw up when necessary, during a residence in the country or in the high lands. The beneficial and abundant dews (arising from the numerous rivers of the island and surrounding ocean) cool and invigorate the atmosphere, and give a vigorous luxuriance to the vegetation of an isle, which, were it otherwise, would be nearly barren. The following table affords a Meteorological Register of Port of Spain

:

* These natives of the eastern hemisphere were brought to the west for the purpose of cultivating rice, and perhaps with the idea of forming a free labouring population; no Chinese women were induced to accompany them; the men soon became discontented, and there now remain but a few of them as fishermen.

The Slave Population, according to a Parliamentary Return, was in numbers,

Increase by Decrease by