DE TERTEIIIL'S TRINIDAD. * THERE is a good deal of original

observation in this volume, es- pecially on topics that relate to the author's own profession, as the diseases of the island, its climate, physical features, and local influences in their bearing on health and disease. There is also later and more precise information on a variety of subjects, as the topographical divisions, local institutions, the actual details of government, and the general statistics of Trinidad. Like most colonial authors or writers about colonies, Dr. De Yerteuil over- does his theme' entering' too minutely into many things, and treating them too much in the eneyelopsedia or gazetteer style. There is also an assumption of ignorance in the world at large as to Trinidad, which may possibly be true ; but which does not arise from want of means of learning. Importation of free Ne- groes from America to the West India colonies at large, as well as to Trinidad individually, was not only discussed nearly twenty years ago, but tried and failed ; for bad as the position of the coloured people may be in the United States, it is doubtful whether they are not worse off, as far as money earnings are con-

* Trinidad : its Geography, Natural Besources, Administration, Present Con- dition, and Prospects. By L. A. A. De Verteuil, M.D.P. Published by Ward and Lock.

corned, in the British colonies. By field labour, even assuming a steady industrious adherence to it, they would. earn less than at home ; in mechanical or urban employments there are not many openings for such labourers in the colonies, and if there was a gain for the "imported" in social standing, there was a loss upon the whole in material advantages. The mistakes of Mr. Mont- gomery Martin as a colonial writer have not always escaped with- out remark in England ; and, not to speak of other reliable sources of information, we have the " blue-books " on Trinidad

as well as on other places. For using up stale matter we do not know that any-body, therefore, can be well excused. For fulness Dr. De Vertenil has this reason ; he is not only writing for Great Britain but Trinidad, whose knowledge does not begin at home, as it rarely does with large or small countries.

"It is really surprising how uninformed even Trinidadians are regard- ing their own country. Our best schoolboys are able to give the names of the chief rivers, and the position of the principal towns in Great Britain, France, and even in Russia and China ; but they are ignorant, perhaps, of the names of the Guataro and Oropuce, or through what county the Caroni has its course. They know that San Fernando exists, but may not be able to say whether it is on the Eastern or the Western side of the island; they can give the principal boundaries and dimensions of Europe, and its larger kingdoms, but are ignorant of those of their own island-home ; they can enumerate the chief productions of England or France, but they do not know what are the agricultural products of their own country, or whether the quantity of sugar exported is 35,000 or 56,000 hogsheads."

Nor, indeed, to say the truth, is the author himself, according to his own admission, so practically well informed as a descriptive historian and. reformer might be. "My personal knowledge of the island," he writes, "is confined to a few localities only," yet its extreme length is but fifty miles, and its average breadth is only thirty-five.

A. main motive of Dr. De VertetuTs publication regards one of the most important problems that could engage the attention of

this country, though it is but very lightly considered by the public at large, namely the real social and economical condition of the West India colonies consequent upon Emancipation, and what are the proper remedies for the evils under which some of those colo- nies are admitted to suffer. The point is perhaps not very difficult to decide as respects the smaller islands, with their sufficient sup- ply of labour, and their available soils appropriated if not ex- hausted. Emancipation has probably not done them more injury than has been amply repaired by their share of the compensation-

money. Their evils, if evils they labour under, arise from their limited surface and. their natural circumstances, and the general

character of the population high and low. They must look to

their remedy from stagnant provincialism through some Mr. Morten, who shall. Wadi them to develop "the resources of their

estates." Jamaica, Demerara, and Trinidad are in a different position, from the paucity of labour compared with the extent of fertile soil, and the facilities for vagrancy and squatting afforded by the large amount of unappropriated. land. What the social and economical position of these three colonies really is, we have never seen presented in a way to carry conviction, or to leave any satis- factory impression that we had reached truth, except of a very one-sided kind. The Abolitionist dwells upon the natural good qualities of the Negro and their improvement consequent upon Emancipation. Without altogether denying the good that is in the Negro, the planter is prone to bring forward his failings, especially those which affect the capitalist, as the indisposition to regular and sustained labour, his love of amusement not to say idleness, his childish familiarity approaching insolence, perhaps something worse when provoked, as well as a tendency, not always confined to coloured people, to take advantage of his position by making the best bargain he can for himself. It is pretty much the same with the more direct economical results. The planter

maintains that upon the whole in sickness and. in health, in bad.

times as well as good, the Negro is physically not better off than before ; his seeming luxuries, on which the "friends of the African" love to dwell, are a sign of his thoughtless expenditure, and are moreover unfairly obtained at the expense of the em- ployer. As regards his own condition, the planter is lugubrious enough ; absolute ruin is the all-but continual theme. There is a similar discrepancy as regards official representations. They are coloured ; perhaps, to speak more accurately, the reasons on which they are grounded are selected by the writer according to his bias. Passing travellers who have recorded their impressions have been too short a time in the colonies to learn much of their social or economical condition; if indeed they understood the importance of the inquiry, or the proper mode of conducting it. A searching truthtelling book on the three once great British sugar colonies, after the model of Mr. Olmsted's books on the Sonth American States, is a literary want of the clay. Even if they are fated to fall into stagnation and semi-barbarism, like some Spanish- American Republic, it would be desirable to have a record of the facts at some stages of the degradation.

A man in Dr. De Vertenil's position might have produced such a work on Trinidad ; but he has not. His account of the

colonial agriculturists and the coloured population is pervaded by the contradictions of which we have spoken, and of that ex- aggerated tone which mostly characterizes colonial writers. In one place the agriculturists are charged with "egotistical indi- vidnalis' ra," whatever that may be, and. other faults of a more definite kind. In other places we hear of some agricultural improvements, and of spirited. enterprise in the manufacture of sugar,—novelty in machinery, greater ingenuity in • processes. Irtmes and persons are confounded. The reader, for instance, might, unless careful, apply what is meant of the earlier importations of labour to the present time. The Doctor speaks of the island as absolutely infested by hucksters, by the pettiest shop or stall keepers, and by nominal artisans, a result of the prejudice against field labour surviving from the time of slavery, and perhaps of an aversion to hard work. Yet he wishes an immigration of

free coloured people from the United States, knowing that they would follow the same vocations, though in a more efficient way. Some of his suggestions are impracticable, requiring a change in the Black and White human nature to be dealt with ; others could scarcely be effected with the general apathy of public opinion On

colonial questions in this country, and the vigilant earnestness of the Anti-Slavery party. His idea of negooiating with the

United States for the importation of coloured people, meaning of course free coloured people, is absurd ; he might as well negooiate with Spain or Italy ; the American Government might perhaps give a moral impetus to such a movement, but never could by a state-act send away free Negroes. The most practical suggestion and a very .good one it is we think, is for the Trinidadians to discard their prejudice in favour of sugar and nothing but sugar, and apply themselves to productions of another kind, especially of provisions and. live stock, both which are now imported at a very heavy expense. The difficulty of reaching anything like a satisfactory conclu- sion upon this class of colonial questions is felt even in questions connected. with ,figures. It appears that after a long struggle Trinidad now produces a quantity of sugar equal to that she sup- plied before Emancipation. In 1829 the produce was 50,000,000 pounds, having risen to that quantity from 30,000,000 in 1819. In 1852 the quantity was at least equal to that of 1829. Quan- tity, however' is only one element of the subject. Owing to the admission of slave-grown sugar the price is much reduced. new; and the greater cost of production has to be taken into account. How much dearer are the wages of free labour than slave cultiva- tion, all things being taken into consideration ? Supposing exact truth attained on these two points, there is still to be brought into account that enormous waste of capital that went on during the long struggle of some dozen years in abortive experimental plans of importation. In Trinidad, as in other colonies, marriage has increased among the coloured population, and some say that immorality has decreased, though it seems generally admitted that there is still ample room for improvement. It Port of Spain in 1851 the legitimate births were 192, the illegitimate 321. By 1854 a considerable advance had. taken place, most probably in part accidental • the legitimate were 215, the illegitimate only 222. If it be true that the ratio of mortality is greater under freedom than it was under slavery, the fact is very startling ; but

i here again an element of uncertainty ; the registration is pro- bably not very exact.

What the final result of Emancipation throughout the West Indies may be, is one of the special mysteries of the future. In Trinidad it has diametrically falsified the predictions of the Anti- Slavery party, if the least reliance is to be placed upon Dr. De Verteuil'tt statements. Nearly a generation has elapsed since the partial freedom of apprenticeship, and some twenty years since complete freedom. So far from free labour being cheaper than slave-labour, the emancipated Negro will scarcely work at all ; the main reliance of the colony is on the Coolie ; for though the Chinaman is a sturdier labourer, he is insubordinate. Instead of the delightful picture which Sir James Stephen and other emancipators painted, of a coloured yeomanry producing all the necessaries and. luxuries of the Tropics on their own properties, and exchanging their superabundance with the traders of the towns, amid. planters ruined it might be, but ruined justly by their own faults, and, merchants by their extortions and usury, the towns appear to be inhabited by a race compounding the huckster, the "odd-man," and the thief, and the country by poor peasants or squatters imperfectly cultivating the land they oc- cupy and eking out their subsistence by plunder. A physician may be pardoned for remarking that they are bad patients. The most important conclusion in a general point of view, is the fact that voluntary work is a matter of training. The newly-im- ported Negro will not labour unless compelled ; even the East In- dian Coolie requires " stringent " regulations. But the China- man, whatever his other faults, is used to work, and will labour from the first. These conclusions are drawn from the general perusal of the volume, but they may be supported by a few passages. The Emancipated.—" From causes already stated, the emancipated classes have a strong inclination to retire from rural, and especially sugar labour, and to congregate in towns and villages, where they engage in petty trade, or adopt some handicraft. The number of shopkeepers, tailors, carpenters, he., is consequently out of all proportion, compared with the requirements of the country, and almost every small tenement in town or village is occu- pied by some retailer of fruit, charcoal, &c.; in addition to the tribe of huck- sters who perambulate the streets of the towns and the high roads of the rural districts. If this could be regarded as a sign of prosperity there would be ample cause to rejoice ; but quite the reverse. These shopkeepers., trades- men, and vendors, may be said to to have absconded from the agncultural occupations, and, as a consequence, are, in .,,general, wanting in those quali- fications which are necessary to success in their new avocations. As to the fruiterera and other petty dealers of the like genus, the stock-in-trade (I) displayed in their trays, before their doors, or on stands as apologies for counters, is really ridiculous, for I have no doubt, were an inventory of articles taken, in nine cases out of ten the value of property would not amount to ten shillings. Some fruit, a few pounds of charcoal, peas, plan- tains, he., constitute, generally, the whole stock; and, in a large majority, of cases, the vendor barely manages to eke out a most precarious livelihood.' Coloured Patiente.—"Immediately after, and on several occasions since Emancipation, attempts were made for securing medical aid to the class of artisans in towns, of labourers located on estates, and of small settlers gene- rally, en their contributing the small sum of ten cents per week for each worbeg person—children and old people being attended gratuitously ; in- credible, however, as it may appear, these attempts have invariably failed. After a few weeks, or two or three months at the utmost, such of the sub- scribers who had not been subject to any attack during that period withdrew their subscription, on the pretext that it was not fair they should pay for the doctor whilst they enjoyed good health. But these very people, when ail- ing, are unwilling, and in moat cases unable, to pay the fee ; and they then throw themselves into the hands of male and female quacks, or ()beak pram- users, who bleed, cup, prescribe nostrums, and give their own personal at- tendance, exacting more or less from their dupes, according to their own status or reputation in quackery or obeahism. They are punctually paid— chiefly from a superstitious dread infused into the minds of their patients— but always retire in time from any unprofitable field."

A Trinidad Areadia.—" In all these nooks and corners [of the ward of Oropuehe] are herded together large bands of immigrants, imported into the colony, particularly Congoes and Kroomen. In fact, the population of Oropuehe may be characterized as a heterogeneous collection of the inhabit- ants of different countries, in an unsettled and migratory state ; Congoes, Yarrabas, and Kroomen, from Africa ; Coolies and Chinese, from Asia ; Americans, Vegroesa from the United States; Spaniards, from the neigh- bouring continent ; [Coloured] emigrants from the British and French co- lonies, with a limited number of natives of Trinidad ; these compose the mass of this motley assemblage. Scattered far and wide throughout the vast extent of this district, removed from the influence of civilizing institu- tions, and left to the unfettered indulgence of a disorganized and half- savage life, moral depravity and ignorance of all social responsibility form their chief characteristics. Bound together by the ties of nationality or tribeship, they have generally banded in distinct settlements, where nought is to be found beyond the primary elements of social aggregation. Many of them are squatters, regarding with suspicion and as intruders those who enter their settlements. They have already on more than one occasion be- haved riotously, and resisted the agents of the Government : and unless stringent, but at the same time prudent, regulations be adopted and en- forced, it is to be apprehended that instead of improving, matters will be- come still worse."

The African Negro.—" Many of the Africans liberated from slavers, and who had been apportioned to the planters under certain conditions, viz., that they should work for a stated number of hours every day, on being pro- vided with lodging, food, clothing, and medical attendance, but who could not have understood what was meant, and considered themselves as no party to the contract, determinedly refused to work and absconded into the woods, prowling about in the neighbourhood of plantations on which they ventured at night for plunder. Others attempted to retrace their steps to their country, as they imagined, by travelling Eastward ; not only did they carefully avoid inhabited localities, but when they did encounter any of the inhabitants, being ignorant of the language apoken in the island, they could neither understand nor make themselves understood."

Trinidad Squatters.—" The great mass of these unsettled settlers is com- posed of Africans who more than the other classes require the lessons of civilization and the watchful eye of the law. Now, how can this be ob- tained whilst the objects of this aim are leading a half-savage life on the outskirts of civilization ? Their dwellings are mere huts ; their children are almost in a state of nature as to clothing, and so shy that they betake themselves to the bush around their retreats on the approach of strangers, particularly of those who may bear the marks of respectability. When the squatters are left undisturbed they generally cultivate ground provisions, such as plantains, manioc, &e., and occasionally, employ themselves in job- work on the neighbouring estates. They may be said to form in each dis- trict an association for mutual support, and generally manifest great dis- trust towards those who do not belong to this confraternity."

Subject to the discrepancies already dwelt upon Dr. De Ter- teuil's Trinidad may be recommended as a book telling the latest facts about the island. But the reader has somewhat to sift the facts for himself. The book would have told better with the busy English public had it been less diffuse.