NOTES DU CHAPITRE X. I. (Thompson's Alcedo's Dictionary, art. Trinidad.) In the reign of Charles III great pains were taken for increasing the cultivation, population and commerce of this island; and there were planted in it coffee, cotton, and many other productions; at the same time a regiment of infantry was established for its defence in the capital, which is S. Joseph de Oruña.... It had been the intention of the Spanish government to have constituted Chaguarama Harbour and the. peninsula of Point Gourde their naval and military stations for the Windward Islands. Its importance was not noticed until the peace of Paris, when every measure was adopted for its rapid settlement. Encouragement was held out to all nations to colonize it (so unusual to the Spanish policy); lands were liberally granted; utensils for agriculture provided; and Negroes were imported at great expense by the king of Spain, and afterwards sold to the new Settlers at a very long credit, and comparatively at a small price. Induced by this, numbers of debtors and unfortunate people flocked thither from all the other colonies of the Antilles. The convulsions of France helped to increase the population; both royalists and regicides successively emigrating there with the property each had been enabled to save. The island assumed the most rapid and flourishing appearance, and had the happiness, during that period, to have for its governor Don Chacon, a man of the most unbounded liberality, and who, if he had a bias, it was in favour of the British. II. (Parliamentary papers, Report on titles to lands, p. 27.) Notwithstanding the threatening Proclamation of Governor Chacon, Basanta, after an absence from the Island of some months, found on his return all the old inhabitants still in possession of their lands; » and, he a 'ds, « they were never deprived of them. » So that Governor Chacon's Proclamation appears in truth to have been intended, to borrow an expression of Lord Bacon, « more in terror than in rigor. » The committee of landholders contended that it was seulement un décret mis en tête du Libro Becerro, and applying only to the old inhabitants before the Cedula (which seem inconsistent statements), and assert that «< it was never acted upon. » It does seem, however, to have been occasionally and partially applied; but it was at the best only a municipal regulation. III. (Parliamentary papers, App. to Report on titles to lands, p. 165.) ARTICLES which for the present specify the employ of the Commissaries, and point out the limits of their Duties. 1st The Island will remain divided in three divisions, each of which in the charge of one commissary: the first to consist of the quarters of las Cuebas, Salivet, Guanapo, Tacarigua, Zimmaronera, Ventilla, Santana, Mucurapo, Tragarete, Maraval, Diego Martin and Carenero; the second, of the quarters of Naparima, Galeota, Cocal and Otuare; the third, of Guapo, los Gallos and Guayaguayare. 2d The principal charge of the Commissaries is that of obtaining with the greatest exactitude a knowledge of the locality of their departments; to know the lands which have been granted. To know the strength of each inhabitant, the cultivation which each carries on, to examine the rivers therein navigable, the roads which have already been opened, and those which ought to be made, to facilitate the transport of produce, with whatsoever can further conduce to the agriculture, commerce and population of their departments, its police and the happiness of its inhabitants, etc., etc. Given in Port of Spain, the 3d january 1787. Before me, Josef Maria Chacon. Luis Centeno, IV. (Bryan Edwards, History of the B. W. Indies, t. IV, p. 300 et seq.) Under the enlightened government of Don Joseph Chacon, the colony rapidly attained to a flourishing situation. Discordant in habits and opinions, as the colonists necessarily were, he kept them in a state of peace and order, by a due mixture of mildness and firmness. Between the years 1787 and · 1791, a handsome and considerable town arose in a spot which shortly before had contained nothing but a few thatched huts, belonging to fishermen. This was the town of Puerto de España. The disturbances which now broke out in the French colonies also contributed greatly to the benefit of Trinidad. Many planters from St Domingo, Martinico, Guadaloupe, and St Lucia, took shelter here to avoid the disgusting spectacle of factious rage, or to escape from the persecuting rancour of their enemies; and their number was still further increased, after the breaking out of the contest between England and France. However opposite might be their political sentiments, they were all received with equal kindness by the governor, and were encouraged to become valuable subjects of the Spanish monarch. V. (Laws of Grenada, t. III, p. 232.). La clause 8e de la loi de la Grenade qui a servi de texte à toutes les calomnies lancées contre la population française de l'île est formulée dans les termes suivants : And whereas some persons have come from Trinidad for the purpose of seducing and carrying off slaves, and other persons residing in Trinidad have sent artful negroes and mulatto slaves for the like purpose, and it is but just and reasonable to proceed against those who reside on the very spot which holds out a retreat for fraudulent debtors and stealers of slaves, and where no redress or justice can be had, a bond of £ 1,000 sterling, etc., etc. En voici la traduction littérale : << Et attendu que des personnes sont venues de la Trinidad dans le dessein de séduire et enlever des esclaves, et que d'autres personnes résidant à la Trinidad out enlevé des nègres astucieux et des esclaves mulâtres dans le même dessein, et qu'il n'est que juste et raisonnable de procéder contre ceux qui résident dans ce même lieu qui offre une retraite aux débiteurs frauduleux et aux voleurs d'esclaves, et où nulle réparation ni justice ne peut être obtenue, un cautionnement de £ 1,000 sterling, etc., etc. >> Cette loi datant de l'année même de l'arrivée du gouverneur Chacon et de la promulgation de la cédule royale de colonisation (1784), ne concerne évidemment en rien la grande immigration française qui eut lieu sous l'administration de ce gouverneur; elle ne peut viser que ceux des colons de la Grenade qui, en bien petit nombre encore, étaient venus s'établir dans l'île à la suite du colonisateur Roume de Saint-Laurent et de la promulgation du règlement de colonisation de Don Manuel Falquez (1776). Or, ces quelques colons avaient déjà subi les vexations les plus cruelles des aventuriers anglais qui s'étaient établis dans leur île, et il est permis de penser que leur loi n'a été édictée que dans le but d'exercer une persécution, morale cette fois, à leur égard. Peut-être aussi espérèrent-ils par ce moyen arrêter une émigration qui menaçait dès lors de dépeupler leur île. Ce qui est hors de doute, c'est que ne visant que des intentions et non des actes, la loi ne peut être considérée que comme une loi des suspects. Son but de persécution morale ressort encore de l'expression de « débiteurs frauduleux qui y est introduite sans rime ni raison, comme aussi de cette affirmation, que nulle réparation ni justice ne peut être obtenue » à la Trinidad, affirmation mensongère qui tombe à faux, puisqu'elle ne peut frapper que le gouvernement espagnol. La loi, du reste, de l'aveu de tous, est manifestement |