By Rail to San Fernando

by J.H. Collens (abridged), 1886

When hundreds of wild cows roamed Caripichaima

The different estates and objects of interest on the line between Port of Spain and St. Joseph junction have already been enumerated in the previous chapter (published in last month's digest). It will therefore be necessary to take up the journey only from the point where the line branches off, viz., at the signal box between St. Joseph and Tunapuna. Here, you will turn sharply round in a southerly direction, leaving St. Augustine estate works on your left and passing through the estate. After crossing the iron bridge over the Caroni, you reach the station, which is named, like the district, after the river. To the right are the hospital and factory  Frederick estate (Mr. Gregor Turnbull). On the public road to the west of Frederick is another substantial iron bridge spanning the river. The road from the back of the station leads to St. Clair estate (Mr. Zurcher), Mon Jaloux (Mr. Q. Kelly), and several cacao estates along the bank of the river. Beyond these is St. Helena estate (Messrs. G. Turnbull & Co.), where is the very fine new iron bridge alluded to in the former chapter as being on the road from Golden Grove. Still farther is an Indian settlement, with several more cacao estates, the principal being those of Mr. Centeno.

It was originally proposed to extend the railway system to Cumuto. Three and a half miles of embankment were thrown up, bridges constructed, and a mile and a quarter of rails laid down at a cost of £5,000, when the work was abandoned, I believe by order of the then Secretary of State. The first station would have been St. Helena, and from Cumuto in all probability the line would have eventually reached Mayaro.

Parties bent on alligator shooting frequently have their boat sent from town up the Caroni to meet them here or at the adjacent estate of Mc Leod Pain. Still better sport, however, is to be obtained at a small lake about two miles inland, known as the Bejucal. Here alligators, wild birds, and the queer armour-coated cascadoura positively swarm.

Following the rail again from Caroni station on the right is Wilderness estate (Mr. J.W. Warren); Mr. F. Zurcher's Mon Plaisir faces the Cunupia station. This part of the country is becoming famous for the cultivation of tobacco and limes by Mr. C. Fabien, who has been successful both with regard to the growth and the manufacture of the fragrant weed. Apropos of tobacco, His Excellency has just published a smart little brochure advocating the growing of this plant, and certainly the recent experiments have clearly shown that there is no earthly reason why we must either pay an exorbitant price for the Havana article, or else as an alternative have badly made up cabbage-leaf foisted upon us. Mr. Fabien's best cigars at the recent exhibition were of very good quality. Mr. Anderson, who has had some experience in that line, is also going in for the cultivation and manufacture of tobacco and cigars.

Leaving Cunupia station, Reform estate (Messrs. Coryat and E. Cipriani) is the next estate on the right, and beyond it Léonice (Mr. Cornilliac). I omitted to state the rather interesting fact that the site of the little Anglican Chapel at Cunupia was given by a wealthy heathen Indian living in the quarter.

St. Charles, a small estate belonging to Mr. C. Smith, is on the right near Chaguanas, while beyond it on the left is Endeavour (Mr. René de Verteuil). Opposite the latter is Woodford Lodge, the property of the Hon. G. Fitt and Mr. S. Henderson. The oscillated centrifugal sugar system, adopted first on Messrs. Tennant's estate, Inverness, has been improved upon here, with highly satisfactory results. The soil of Chaguanas, especially in the vicinity of the sea, is of the description commonly known as "crab-land", from the innumerable holes in the surface made by the land crabs.

Chaguanas has generally the reputation of being a dreary kill-joy sort of place, suggestive of muddy roads and legions of mosquitoes and sand flies. So it may be, but the forests and high woods are full of hidden treasures that the keen and vigilant eye of the naturalist will spy out and gloat over. The Noel Baptist Chapel in McDonald valley of this district is interesting as having been built partly by subscriptions of the neighbouring planters, but mainly by contributions form the Sunday School Children of John Street Church, Bedford Row, London.

You cross the Chaguanas Road immediately before entering the station. To the east lies the Montrose cacao estate (Hon. G. Fitt), and Mr. Latour's sugar estate, Edinburgh. Beyond these is the convict depot. To the west lies Perseverance (Messrs. T. Daniell & Sons), and Chaguanas village with its Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. A new church is being built for the former denomination quite close to the line. Beyond the village are Trafalgar (Messrs. Cadet and Ambard), Petersfield (Mr. Burgos), Adela (Mr. J. Coryat), and near the bay Messrs. Daniell's large estate Felicité. The proprietors of the last named generously gave a site for a new Wesleyan Chapel, erected in 1878.

Taking up the route again from the railway, you pass through unopened lands, the huge trees, with their burden of parasites, not having yet succumbed to the woodman's ax. When nearing Carapichaima, on the right you catch a glimpse of the fine Waterloo works (Mr. J. Cumming), furnished with the Brush Electric Light. Opposite these is a road leading to the village and to Orange Field (Mr. L. Preau).

From Carapichaima, Mr. Cumming, who is the largest resident proprietor in the island, and one of the most liberally disposed, owns a series of estates, extending a distance of fully seven miles. A part of his property is as yet uncultivated, and is to all appearance high woods, but it is tenanted by a herd of wild oxen. Some twelve or fourteen years ago, about fifteen head of cattle escaped from Felicité estate, Chaguanas, and took to the woods. There must be now not less than two hundred of them, and noble beasts some of them are! Occasionally, sportsmen and hunters come across a drove them, when they immediately do a stampede.

Passing another of Mr. Cumming's estate, Exchange, on the right, and crossing the road, we enter the Couva station. Here in a cluster are the post office, warden's and savings bank offices, Roman Catholic church and school, and police station. The last is a creditable building of concrete, containing also the magistrate's court. Couva is a fast-growing flourishing district, comprising four villages—Exchange, California, Spring and Freeport. The eastern direction of the road lately crossed leads to the new Presbyterian church and school now in course of erection, near which is an excellent manse; the site for all these have been generously given by Mr. Cumming from the lands of Camden estate; then Spring village, Spring and Caracas estates (Mr. J. Henderson),  and finally Montserrat. It is proposed to lay a tramway between Couva station and the junction of the two roads to Gran Couva and Mayo. This is very much needed, as it will open up the way to what is practically an unknown region to a great many even of the residents in Trinidad.

But the train has started again; rolling over the muddy Couva river by the longest iron bridge in the island, you see on the right the fine works of Brechin Castle estate (Mr. G. Turnbull) in the Savonetta part of Couva (Savonetta—little savanna). These were the first vacuum pans worked erected in Trinidad, and the fine crystals made here took the first prize at the local exhibition in February this year (1886). On the left is Sevilla, worked in connection with Brechin Castle. the first building is the estate hospital; a little further, on the rising ground, is the residence of Mr. John S. Wilson, planting attorney of Messrs. Turnbull, Stewart & Co. There is a telephonic communication between Brechin castle and Sevilla, and from the former to the shipping place. Behind Sevilla, in the direction of Montserrat, are Milton estate (Messrs. C. Tennant, Son & Co.) and Rivulet (Mr. G. Turnbull).

Leaving California station, on the left is the residence of Mr. Bernard Kenny, a genial son of Erin,  who has charge of Mr. W. F. Burnley's Couva estates, Esperanza, Phœnix Park and Providence. Phœnix Park is easily recognisable by the avenue of coco palms on the left. On the opposite side are Providence works and about a quarter of a mile beyond the distillery.

Nearing Claxton's bay village and school, you cross the road just before entering the station. The eastern direction of this road leads through the village and on to the four estates of Mr. Abel Devenish—Mount Pleasant, Forest Park, cedar Hill and Diamond, in the direction of Montserrat.

The westerly direction of this same road brings one almost immediately to the Gulf, and to the jetty, 1,300 feet in length and ten feet in breadth. This is now the property of the Mr. Devenish just mentioned, and was built in 1871 by his uncle, Mr. Le Roy, at a cost of nearly £2,000. It stands on cast iron screw piles, with runners and decking of balata, one of our most durable native woods. Being connected with the estates by a tram line, Mr. Devenish thus avoids much of the expense of carting, the sugar being conveyed to the extreme end of the jetty, where the lighters lie alongside to receive it.

Claxton's bay railway station is grimy-looking, like all the rest of them for want of clean new paint, but the collector, all honour to him, does his best to improve it by planting creepers, and attaching orchids to the woodwork. I have not the pleasure of his acquaintance, but I feel convinced he must be a good man. Would it be a liberty to suggest to the authorities that this horticulturist should be removed to each station in turn along the line, say for six months at a spell, so that he may continue the work of reformation at each, and show what nature can do when she is helped a little?

Leaving Claxton's bay, you approach Plaisance estate (Messrs. C. Tennant) on the left. Here is one of the most interesting curiosities in the island, the thermal spring, or rather springs, for there are at least two distinct ones. A bath house has been put up, covering two good-sized concrete baths. The clear spring water, apparently like other water till you become cogniscant of its warmth, flows directly into the baths from the hillside, in just such a stream as might be poured from a bucket. The temperature of the water is from 100º to 105º Fahrenheit. On the occasion of my visit, by the courtesy of the manager, I was allowed to take a bath, which I found particularly pleasant an soothing, after the first strangeness of the unusual warmth had subsided. It is curious that hi water cools more rapidly than ordinary water would if heated artificially to the same pitch.

Rolling over the viaduct, near which is the government school, you see Pointe-à-Pierre R.C. church on the hill, commanding a fine view. The building, a wooden one, is of good size; over the altar are two large figures of St. Peter and St. Joseph. The Pointe-à-Pierre railway station is the merest apology for anything of the kind that I ever saw. Near it is Mr. Le Gay Johnstone's Plein Palais estate. The cutting a quarter of a mile long through the Pointe-à-Pierre hill was one of the chief engineering difficulties in the construction of the line, owing to the tendency to landslips.

At Marabella junction, passengers going towards Princes Town change to the Guaracara railway, which here branches off. As our destination is San Fernando, we keep our seats, and crossing the Guaracara we have a good view of the Gulf on the right and Marabella works (Mr. A.P Marryat) opposite on the eminence. The pasture, with its trees dotted about, strike one as resembling an English orchard. You will see plenty of pelicans flying busily about the Gulf, sometimes suddenly swooping down straight as an arrow for the unwary fish they have spotted during their flight. The white egrets, too, look very pretty wading through the shallow water, or stalking along the muddy banks. Passing and abandoned estate, Vista Bella (Mrs. J. Lambie), and skirting the Naparima Hill, you come to San Fernando.

San Fernando

It would appear from very early historical references from the 16th century, that Mariquire Bay under the shelter of Naparima hill was regarded as a safe and healthy place to drop anchor and come ashore. The Aruacs, the missionaries and the Spanish all in turn settled here and, it would appear, thrived.

It was one of the more important centres of the Aruac people in the south of Trinidad. The ridge above the Cipero, cutting and bordering the Paradise Pasture near to where the hospital now stands, is said to be from end to end one large midden, as Amerindian grounds are described.

Tribal people may have regarded this as a principal port for that part of the island, and it was used by them as the western end of their main trackway across Trinidad to villages on the east coast. The Naparima-Mayaro Road is still referred to as Indian Walk. Sir Robert Dudley, the English explorer, crossed the island using this track in the 16th century.

It is recorded in ancient records that ‘annaparima’ is a word of Aruac stock; the prefix ‘amar’ or ‘abar’ meaning ‘one’. In this language, the number five is ‘abar dakabo’ (my one hand) and ten is ‘biam dakabo’ (my two hands); twenty is ‘abar loko’ (one man or two hands and two feet); ‘parima’ is the Aruac word for hill. Hence, Annaparima signifies one hill.

The second phase of settlement began with the Spanish Capuchin monks in the 1680s, with Fr. Thomas de Barcelona landing at the mouth of the Mariquire river. He created the mission Purissima Concepcion de Naparima, with the villages of eight caciques on the hills nearby.

The actual site of the mission at San Fernando is not recorded, but it is reasonable to suggest that it was placed just to the north of St. Vincent Street, since an old dilapidated church building was known to be there long before the Spaniards founded San Fernando or made any land grants in that area.

The Cedula of Population of 1783 brought French-speaking people and slaves to Trinidad. Many were attracted by the excellence of the soil in the Naparimas.

This expansion in the south caused governor Chacon to establish an administrative centre there in 1786.

The town was named for the Infante, the Prince of Asturias. The crown grant of 1786 to Don Isidore Vialva reserved an area for the founding of the town, amounting to about 10 acres and divided into 78 lots of 50 x 100 ft each. The reserved area was bounded on the north by the hilly lands above St. Vincent Street and on the east by Mon Chagrin Street.

Vialva sold his land to Don Juan Bautista Jaillet who called it ‘Mon Chagrin’ and developed a sugar estate of some 260 acres on it. This estate extended from Vistabella on the north, to Paradise on the south, to Mon Repos to the east and to the town and sea on the west. It virtually surrounded the town.

Among the early inhabitants of San Fernando was Don José Vincent Bontur from San Domingo, who had married Doña Maria de Pazadoas of Trinidad and was the owner of Paradise estate. Don José Rambert of St. Vincent, another early San Fernandian, is remembered to this day in Rambert Village. Don Salvadore Domenici was the owner of Vistabella estate in 1785. Don Juan Bautista Juillet had married Miss Maria Fotheringay. At his death, Mon Chagrin was valued at £2,500.

K.S. Wise, in his ‘Historical Sketches’ (1932), describes the laying out ot the town (abridged):

“In laying out the town the town the usual Spanish custom was followed and a central square formed which was named Plaza de San Carlos (now the ‘Old Cemetery’). On the north was the ancient dilapidated church, presumably the site of the abandoned mission. This church was in 1786 replaced bya new one built at the southeast corner of the plaza (now corner of Penitence and Chacon Streets). The presbytery was on the west side and the ‘Casa Real’ on the north. The principal places of business in 1792 were along St. Vincent Street, and the Mariquire Bay must have been a busy shipping place.”

Wise states further that in 1811, the Naparimas had a population of 192 whites, 297 free coloureds and 3,000 slaves. Under the terms of the Cedula of Population, about 18,000 acres had been granted to the Catholic settlers. About a third of the acreage had been cleared and cultivated, yielding 2,600 tons of sugar, 71,000 gallons of rum, 78,000 gallons of syrup, 41,000 lbs of cotton and 21,000 lbs of coffee.

Seven years later, in 1818, a great fire destroyed most of the town. It was quickly rebuilt and expanded beyond what are now High and Coffee streets. A wharf was constructed by the government in 1820, which was destroyed in 1839 by a storm and rebuilt in 1842. Between 1836 and 1842, the town expanded south up to Harris Promenade (Lord Harris being the governor in the 1840s) and east up to Pointe-a-Pierre Road. In 1846, San Fernando had outgrown its popular name ‘Petit Bourg’ (small village) and the town was granted a municipal constitution.

San Fernando of the Purest Conception

Not only did the ‘southern capital’ get electricity first, but the interest of its inhabitants always kept San Fernando neck on neck with Port-of-Spain.

In 1687, Capuchin priests from Spain were sent to the colony of Trinidad with the goal to convert the Amerindian sinners to Catholicism. Among the several missions the priests founded, was one called ‘Puríssima Concepción de Naparima’. The three or four shacks which the priests constructed in the jungle as living quarters, outhouses, school and church were the cradle of what was to become the biggest city in southern Trinidad. Some 100 years later, in 1786, Governor Chacon had named it the settlement ‘San Fernando’ in honour of little Fernando, the infant prince of Asturias.

In those years, San Fernando consisted of a market square, the ‘Plaza de San Carlos’ with adjacent church and ‘Casa Real’ (royal house), a boarding house for travellers and visitors, as well as four main streets: St. Vincent Street, Chacon Street, Penitence Street and Quenca Street.

With the opening of the land by the European and free coloured immigrants and their African slaves around San Fernando, the Naparimas became vast sugar plantations. Its proximity to the Gulf of Paria facilitated the shipping of produce for the Naparima planters.

In 1818, San Fernando, which had by then grown into a multitude of wooden buildings, burnt to the ground. It took more than 12 years to restore it. However as it often occurs in history: the ‘tabula rasa’ that the fire had left, served to be fertile for rapid growth. In 1839, the first wharf was built, and by 1846, the town was made a municipality and got a town council. Four years later, Trinidad’s governor Lord Harris took an interest in San Fernando which was to benefit the townsfolk up to this day.

“San Fernando needs a place where people could enjoy a leisurely walk on an afternoon,” the governor must have thought, when he granted the town a strip of land on a ridge on the southern side of High Street. The Roman Catholic church had completed Notre Dame de Bons Secours (Our Lady of Good Help) already in 1849. The promenade which Lord Harris conceptualised alongside the public buildings on the granted land was named in his honour and memory.

In 1853, still under the governorship of Lord Harris, San Fernando was converted into a borough, with Dr. Robert Johnstone as its first mayor. A year later, its population was diminshed by about half by a terrible cholera epidemic. But the economic life of the planters around San Fernando continued, and the freeport of San Fernando, whose wharf was frequently visited by ships from Venezuela, continued to be busy.

Traffic between San Fernando and Port-of-Spain in the 19th century was mainly - and quite logically - conducted via the Gulf of Paria. The only road to San Fernando from Port-of-Spain was a dirt track, known as the ‘royal road’. The first regular paddlesteamer took up service between the two towns in 1813. While a train service had been in operation between San Fernando and the Cipero Creek since 1859 (first mule-drawn, then with steam locomotives) the rails between San Fernando and Port-of-Spain were completed in 1882, allowing for greater traffic of passengers and goods and a regular mail service.

One year later, in 1883, a part of the town was again reduced to ashes by a great fire. This fire led to the formation of the Volunteer Fire Brigade, and in Stark’s Guide to Trinidad in 1897 the following places are listed on and around Harris Promenade: hospital, market, the Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Methodist, and Baptist churches, police barracks, fire-brigade station, town hall and convent. A very Christian city, it seems, even though in those days a large proportion of San Fernando’s inhabitants were East Indians, many of them had been Christianised through the continuous efforts of the misisonaries, and no mosque or mandir were yet to grace the town.

Public Buildings in San Fernando

1857 - First public school

1859 - Hospital at a cost of L 11,093 by Mr. Samuel, architect of the Port-of-Spain Hospital

1869 to 1877 - construction of the Police Barracks at a cost of L 25,000

1875 - St. Paul’s Church

Fire, Riots and Disasters

In the years of the Spanish conquistadores, it was cannibalism, tribal warfare, yellow fever, malaria and terrible acts of piracy that plagued the settlers. But as the population grew, so did the catastrophes.

1699 - The Arena Massacre

In 1688 missionaries from Cataluñia in Spain set up a mission in central Trinidad which they named ‘San Francisco de los Arenales’. Eleven years later, three priests at the mission oversaw some Amerindians from the neighbourhood building a new church. Since the work was proceeding slowly, the priests threatened to report the Amerindians to the governor. These threats made the apprehensive Amerindians hysterical, and rather than face punishment they attacked the priests, clubbing them to death, and threw their bodies in the foundation of the new church. Afterwards they ambushed the visiting party of the Governor, killing him and several others.

The Amerindians at the mission fled eastwards into the dense forest. They were pursued by Spanish soldiers of the Cabildo at San José (St. Joseph, then the capital of Trinidad), and the Amerindians were caught at the Cocal on the east coast. In their pride, the Amerindians resorted to suicide rather than submitting to punishment: some of the women drowned their children in the streams of the Nariva Swamp, and others threw themselves into the sea at Point Radix. After the two massacres, 22 of the Amerindians were brought back to San José , where they were tried and hung.

1727 - Failure of the cocoa crop, death of the cocoa trees, witchbroom

26 years after the first slaves were landed in Trinidad, and the island began to reap its first successful cocoa crops, the greatest desaster possible struck: the whole cocoa crop was lost due to a blight that prevented the cocoa pods from growing and ripening. Six years later, in 1733, the misery into which the colony was thrown due to this failure is reflected in a rapid decline of population: only 162 adult inhabitants were registered in Trinidad, of whom only 28 were ‘white’, that is, landowners and cultivators. The public revenue in that year amounted to the ridiculous sum of $ 231.00!

1808 and 1895 - Port-of-Spain is destroyed by fire

“At about 10 pm on March 24th, 1808, a certain Doctor Shaw (apothecary) in Frederick Street, was reported to have started the famous fire of Port-of-Spain by dropping, when not quite sober, a brand of fire on some wood shavings in an out-house,” says H.C. Pitts in his historical notes. The ensuing fire destroyed three quarters of the city, which miraculously only caused two deaths.

Some 90 years later, in 1895, people were again lucky to escape with their lives. While literally the whole town was watching a cricket match at the Queen’s Park Savannah, fire broke out on the premises of Messrs. James Todd & Sons at about 4.30 in the afternoon. The fire brigade was slow to arrive, and the fire spread quickly and the heart of the town was consumed by the fire.

Only two years later, another fire broke out around 4 am on a Sunday morning, and many people were caught asleep. It originated in the Hotel Guiria on the corner of Almond Walk (now Broadway) Marine Square, and rapidly spread with a strong wind blowing.

1817 - Trinidad ravaged by epidemic of yellow fever

1818 - San Fernando destroyed by fire

1848 - A wake turns riot (From POS Gazette, 3.10.1848)

“On Thursday last, the 29th September, one of those infamous admixtures of superstition, debauchery, profanity and riot, so peculiarly the disgrace of Trinidad, known as a ‘wake’, took place in the yard of a residence in Port-of-Spain. It occurred in consequence of the death of a man who, in extremis, was kicked out of the house by the woman with whom he cohabited, and was brought here expressly to die; which the poor wretch did in two days. At 7 pm the riot began with psalm singing over the corpse, and by 9 o’clock at night the yard was literally crammed with women and girls of very doubtful character, a host of drunken sailors, and all the lawless ruffians of Port-of-Spain, yelling in chorus, dancing in circles, and clapping their hands together. The uproar was fearful, the saturnalian orgies being further enlivened by every variety of swearing and prfance language. To such a height at last were these revels carried that at last the police were sent for; but on arrival they were utterly powerless to quell the disturbance.”

1849 - Debtors have to become skinheads

If you owe money and can’t repay it, you will get your head shaved, and you will have to do ‘gaol work’ in prison dress. Well, that new regulation didn’t go down well with respectable Trinidadians at all! Multitudes of them gathered in front of the recently opened government building (later on the Red House) to protest against such medieval measures.

After the Council had already abrogated the gaol clause - under the pressure of 3000 demonstrators in front of the government buildings - riots spread through the city and various estates in the neighbourhood and as far as Oropouche. Residences of the Attorney General, the gaol keeper and the stipendiary magistrate were attacked. Three women and a young boy were wounded in the riots, the boy and a woman subsequently died.

1854 - Cholera Epidemic and Small Pox

In December 1853, cholera had broken out in Nevis and spread quickly to Antigua and St. Kitts. Inspite of the call for quarantine regulations, the highly contageous disease spread to Trinidad in 1854.

Before the vaccine against small pox was invented, people felt protected from the desease when pitch was burnt in barrels at the street corners in Port-of-Spain. To the populace, it seemed that the authorities ‘were doing something’ against the spread of small pox - even though the thick clouds of pungent smoke might have been done more harm than good...

1881 - Carnival Riots

The canboulay parades had been frowned upon by the English authorities ever since slavery had been abolished. In 1881, the were forbidden altogether. People being people, however, still gathered in the mas camps in east Port-of-Spain, Belmont and Newtown, and when they started the processions with lighted torches just after midnight on Monday morning, it came to a serious and bloody confrontation with the police. Eventually, the governor promised to confine police to the barracks, because he was just afraid that the lighted torches (cannes brulées) would lead to fire in the city! And to everybody’s amazement, he did just that and the revelleres were free to enjoy themselves throughout the following day.

1884 - Hosay Riots

Only three years after the Carnival riots, police and East Indian immigrants got into a fight in San Fernando on the 30th October.

Hosay had been originally a Muslim festival, introduced by Indians who were part of the Shiah, a Muslim sect. It commemorates the death of Hassan and Hussain, both grandsons of the prophet Mohammed. The ‘tadjahs’ signify the tombs of the two brothers.

In Trinidad, Hindus joined into Hosay. The procession was also a time of drinking and feteing, and spurned on by the rhythms of the tassa drums and the heat of the rum in their blood, it often came to fights amongst the participants. In 1881, a man called Harracksingh was killed in one of those fights, and the authorities imposed severe regulations on it in 1884. It was feared that the Hosay celebrations would turn into agression against outsiders, that is, non-Indians. It was a nervous year on the whole, with Carnival disturbances in San Fernando and Princes Town, where the riot act had to be read and the police fired upon an attacking mob, resulting in two deaths and two or three people wounded.

The Indians, however, maybe in ignorance of the regulations still gathered in the annual Hosay processions in the usual manner, which had grown into a parade of thousands of people from the Naparima plantations.

Even though it had been strictly forbidden for the various parades from the plantations to enter San Fernando, and even though Hosay participants knew that police in San Fernando had been reinforced by soldiers and armed to the teeth, the revellers still came, dancing, swirling and drumming, and armed with formidable hakka sticks as well.

The police guarded the entrance to San Fernando at Bushy Park and Mon Repos entrances, and read the riot act to the oncoming revellers. WHen they did not disperse, shots were fired, and a general melee ensued, which left ten dead and 83 wounded.

1903 - Water Riots

It started with a peaceful demonstration in Brunswick Square, organised by the Ratepayers Association. They demonstrated against the passing of a proposed waterworks ordinance, which - much like today - introduced fixed water rates, calculated by number of faucets in the house and not by actual consumption. People found this unfair, since poor people would have to pay the same water rates like wealthy households with a much larger water consumptions.

While the Legislative Council was debating the new ordinance in the chambers, the atmosphere in the crowd outside was growing more tense. People sang the National Anthem, Rule Brittannia, beat drums, blew whistles, and waved flags, and after the first stones were thrown and most of the downstairs windows were broken, the situation quickly went from bad to worse.

In the terrible riot that followed, the old Red House was completely burnt down, and with it much of our recorded history was forever lost. 42 people were wounded by shots and bayonets, and 16 lost their lives.

After the water riots, the Red House was rebuilt to its present state, and the new building was to enjoy many peaceful decades until 1990, when the attempted coup again set it on fire.