The Island of Trinidad was ceded to the English by the Spanish government, and by the law of Nations the Spanish laws were to remain in force for twenty years after the transfer, which time had not expired. A Spanish governor is clothed with almost as much power as an emperor. Sir Ralph Woodford had been selected as governor, and was a tyrannical man, and very unpopular among the inhabitants. The city of Port Spain is one of the pleasantest places I have ever seen in the West Indies. The streets are kept very clean and in good order. No man can leave the Island without a permit from the governor. A merchant of Port Spain visited the Island of Tobago, a distance of about sixty miles, where he remained two or three days and then returned, when the governor had him arrested and committed to jail, where he remained six days: his only crime was leaving the Island without a passport signed by the governor.
A Mr. J. Robbins, an American, informed me that he owned a house in one of the principal streets in the city, which street the governor ordered to be paved, and a tax laid on the property in that street to defray the expenses of flagging. The tax on his house and lot amounting to over six hundred dollars, and not being able to pay it, the property was sold at a great loss.
The license to retail liquors in the city is sold annually at auction, to the highest bidder; one person purchasing the license for the whole town, gives security, and then divides it as he pleases. The soil of this Island is rich, producing sugar-cane and cocoa in abundance. Coffee, and all kinds of tropical provisions and fruits are raised here in large quantities. The Island abounds with snakes of an enormous size. I visited an American gentleman, residing in the country about twelve miles from Port Spain, who had a snake-skin stuffed which was twenty-three feet long; it was shot by one of his negroes, and on opening it they found a whole deer. A few hours before we left the port news was received from the interior of the Island that a snake had been shot containing the bodies of a black woman and child. The principal currency of the country is Spanish dollars punched through the centre, making a hole about the size of a five cent piece; the dollar still passing for the same value in the way of trade, and the plug which is taken out passes for one-eighth of a dollar. After passing through a few hands they find their way to some Jew, who reams the hole so large that you can pass a twenty-five cent piece through them, but they still pass for a dollar by way of trade. To prevent deception and loss, most bargains are stipulated to be paid in whole dollars.
The English government has made a strong effort to introduce the cultivation of tea into this Island, by importing a number of Chinese laborers; it has proved to be a thorough failure. After their arrival in the country they became so indolent that it was found impossible to make them cultivate the land. They intermarried with the negroes, and became useless to society, laboring only to supply their daily wants.
Having sold all my cargo, and taken on board over a hundred hogsheads of molasses, I sailed for New-York, where we arrived about the first of April, 1823. On the passage home we experienced a heavy gale of wind, which caused the loss of one thousand gallons of molasses.
On selling the cargo we found the West India trade unprofitable, in consequence of the low prices of the produce of the Islands, which caused heavy losses on return cargoes. I held a consultation with my partners in the vessel, when it was agreed to sell the Combine at auction and abandon the trade.
CHAPTER XXIII.
The following, copied from the Northern Whig of December 3d, 1822, is a correct account of the capture of the piratical vessels by Lieutenant Commandant Allen, who lost his life during the engagement:
"It becomes our painful duty to record the death of Lieutenant William Howard Allen, of the United States Navy. He commanded the United States Schooner Alligator, and on the 11th of November last, while leading his brave tars in the Alligator's boats to attack a nest of pirates near Matanzas, was shot by them in the head and breast, and survived but four hours. Undaunted, even in death, he cheered his men, and had the consolation of witnessing the surrender of one of the piratical vessels, and the re-capture of five merchantmen before he expired. He was buried on the succeeding day at Matanzas, with military honors.
"Lieutenant Allen was a native of this city, (Hudson,) was born on the 8th of July, 1790, entered the navy in the 20th year of his age. He was Second Lieutenant on board the Argus, in the summer of 1813, and during the bloody conflict between the Argus and the Pelican, the command of the former devolved for a time upon him. W. H. Watson, the First Lieutenant of the Argus, a brave and worthy officer, speaks of his conduct in high and merited terms. He was also in the Congress Frigate during her cruise in the Chinese Seas.
"He was attached to his profession, courted glory, and feared no danger. In the last war he saw much service; and whether in war or peace, never failed to do his duty.
"We shall conclude our brief observations with the following remarks, which have been kindly furnished us at the particular request of a number of the friends of Lieutenant Allen, and which were the conclusion of a discourse delivered from the pulpit, by the Reverend B. F. Stanton, on the Sunday succeeding the day on which the afflictive news of the death alluded to arrived here.
"After a reference had been made to the frequent instances in which, for a few years past, the inhabitants of Hudson have been suddenly and unexpectedly deprived of some of their most respected and valued fellow citizens, it was observed, that, in addition to all the previous calamities of the nature which we had experienced, we have recently been called upon by the righteous Providence of Him whose 'path is in the great deep, and whose footsteps are not known,' to contemplate another, which, in some of its features, perhaps, is the heaviest of all. I shall undoubtedly be readily understood, by most of my hearers, to refer to the tidings which have lately reached us of the lamented death of Lieutenant William H. Allen, a native of this town, and an officer in the United States Navy.
"It is not any design on this occasion to attempt to do justice to his memory by pronouncing his eulogy. This will probably be done by abler pens and more eloquent tongues. My aim at present is merely to advert to a few of the leading traits in his character, and to call on those who hear me to listen to the monitory voice of Heaven which addresses us in this afflictive dispensation. As a son he was filial, as a brother he was kind and affectionate, as a gentleman he was amiable and accomplished in his manners, as a friend he was trusty and sincere, as a man he was humane and generous: he had a soul that was indignant at meanness and vice! In his morals, I believe, he was free from those defilements which are too often known to tarnish the reputation of those in his profession, and to which they are so peculiarly liable: In his religious sentiments, if I am not mistaken, he was a candid believer in divine revelation: As a lover of his country, he was ardent and ever eager, when summoned by her call, to be foremost in her defence; and as an officer he was active, faithful, skilful, and courageous. In the engagement that terminated his naval career, he occupied a post most pregnant with danger, and though mortally wounded in the early part of it, he still animated his valiant tars, while the life-blood was fast ebbing from its seat, to persevere till the victory was gained. By these encomiums, however, it is not intended that he was exempted from a participation in that polution of our nature which is common to every individual of the human family. Though he was possessed of excellencies which we may be allowed to admire and applaud; in the sight of infinite purity, like every other human being, he was a ruined sinner,