curious kinds, one of which, called the drum fish,
makes music wherever it goes.
Trinidad, being close to “ the main,” was not
at first so completely neglected by the Spanish
discoverers as most of their smaller possessions,
and they held it longer. Finding no gold there,
the most that they did with it for a long time was
to get supplies of wood and water, and capture
the poor natives for slaves. A s they were Arawaks
and not Caribs, their resistance was overcome without
great difficulty. In 1588, the Spanish made
a settlement and founded San José de Orufia, still
known as San Josef, on the Caroni River, a few
miles from the coast. Soon after that the E ng lish
began to make perturbing calls on the way to
and from Guiana, and in 1595, Sir Walter Raleigh
made the visit during which he professed to be
so outraged at the cruel treatment of the natives
that he captured San Josef, and considered whether
the island was not worth keeping. Lured on by
greater attractions, he concluded to leave it to the
Spanish governor. Occasionally the corsairs gave
the little settlement a scare by prowling into the
gulf, but it was left pretty much to itself and must
have been a lonesome place for a century or two.
In 1783, the native population had been reduced to
2032, and there were only one hundred and twenty-
six white persons and six hundred and five negro
slaves on the whole island, with its vast wealth of
natural resources and attractions. Soon after that a
Frenchman from Grenada, named Roume de St.
Laurent, got from the Spanish authorities at Caracas
a suspension of the edict which forbade foreigners
to settle in Spanish possessions, and all “ good
Catholics ’] were thereafter permitted to dwell in
Trinidad and own property.
This brought settlers from the French islands,
and when trouble came in Haiti after the French
Revolution there were many emigrants from there.
Then came the good governor, Don Josef Maria
Chacon, who would not permit the inquisition or
monastic orders to get a foothold, and insisted
upon tolerating colonists from all quarters who
would people and develop the island. T h e English
came as well as others, the Spanish were soon in a
minority, and Chacon had a troublesome time with
his mixture of subjects. Immigration had been
stimulated by grants of land, thirty-two acres for
each person and sixteen more for each slave brought
in. In 1796-97, when the difficulty with the French
— royalist refugees and cantankerous republicans—
was at its worst, and the English were settling matters
here and there in the West Indies, Admiral
Harvey and General Abercrombie paid a visit to
the Gulf of Paria, coming down from Martinique
with 7000 troops.
There was a Spanish admiral named Apodoca
who took refuge with his ships in the deep Bay of
Chaguaramas, and Governor Chacon was much distraught
with the visit of so formidable an enemy.
The upshot was surrender to the English, and
Apodoca burnt his vessels rather than have them
captured, thereby vindicating “ Spanish honour,”
though the island was forever lost. Lieutenant