cleared, had to give them up, with grumblings and heart-burnings, to
the newcomers. The boundaries of these lands were uncertain. The
island had never been surveyed: and no wonder. The survey has been
only completed during the last few years; and it is a mystery, to
the non-scientific eye, how it has ever got done. One can well
believe the story of the northern engineer who, when brought over to
plan out a railroad, shook his head at the first sight of the 'high
woods.' 'At home,' quoth he, 'one works outside one's work: here
one works inside it.' Considering the density of the forests, one
may as easily take a general sketch of a room from underneath the
carpet as of Trinidad from the ground. However, thanks to the
energy of a few gentlemen, who found occasional holes in the carpet
through which they could peep, the survey of Trinidad is now about
complete.

But in those days ignorance of the island, as well as the battle
between old and new interests, brought lawsuits, and all but civil
war. Many of the French settlers were no better than they should
be; many had debts in other islands; many of the Negroes had been
sent thither because they were too great ruffians to be allowed at
home; and, what was worse, the premium of sixteen acres of land for
every slave imported called up a system of stealing slaves, and
sometimes even free coloured people, from other islands, especially
from Grenada, by means of 'artful Negroes and mulatto slaves,' who
were sent over as crimps. I shall not record the words in which
certain old Spaniards describe the new population of Trinidad ninety
years ago. They, of course, saw everything in the blackest light;
and the colony has long since weeded and settled itself under a
course of good government. But poor Don Josef Maria Chacon must
have had a hard time of it while he tried to break into something