Friday, 29 May 2020

Welcome to the Virtual Museum of the Pitch Lake at La Brea

An exhibition mounted at the Visitor Centre at the Pitch Lake in La Brea in memory all who toiled in the oil & asphalt industries of Trinidad. 


The Visitor Centre at the La Brea Pitch Lake, where the Museum takes up the entire first floor.

During these times of the Coronavirus pandemic, when schools in Trinidad and Tobago and all over the world are closed, we would like to take visitors, teachers and students on a virtual tour of the  Pitch Lake Museum, which is located at La Brea in Trinidad. It is on the first floor of the visitor facility at the Pitch Lake and it overlooks the lake itself. The facility has an open-air, outdoor character to it, integrating beautiful views of nature with the novelty of the various exhibits.

You can double-click on the images and enlarge them, and download them for the information contained in them. We hope that you will take the virtual tour and get a lot of information about the Pitch Lake, the asphalt industry, and the people and events that shaped it over the years! The text that accompanies the visuals on this blog post will act as your "virtual tour guide".


Coming up the stairs, the visitor can interact with this welcoming panel, which, when opened, reveals the location and names of all the pitch lake locations in the world - of which there are not many!  The La Brea pitch lake is truly one of the wonders of the world, a very very special place.



This information panel as you enter the room gives an outline of the exhibit.


The Museum was commissioned in two phases. The first phase was opened to the public in March 2009, and the second phase in September 2016 by the Minister of Tourism, the Hon. Shamfa Cudjoe. The content and design was conceptualised by Gérard Besson using images from the Paria Publishing Archives. An important input was provided from Dr. Arie Boomert's archeological research into and books about pre-historic Trinidad. Dr. Boomert was the resident archaeologist at the UWI in the 1980s. The building of the exhibits was done by Mr. Brian Lyons and his team.  Artefacts were collected from various sources, some in the area, and models of the El Dorado figurine and gold coins were made by Alice Besson and Lea Löwe.


The Museum under construction.

Installation in progress of the First People Display on the curved western wall.


The museum has three elements: anthropological/archeological (demonstrating the settlement of the First People from the Orinoco River delta at La Brea in Trinidad), historical (the impact of the myth of El Dorado and the arrival at the Pitch Lake at La Brea of Sir Walter Raleigh, first exporter of Trinidad’s petroleum products), and technological and social (the growth, development and social and financial impact of the Pitch Lake on the society of Trinidad and Tobago).

So let us begin at the beginning, literally, of time, long before humans roamed the islands of Trinidad and Tobago and the Giant Sloth made its prehistoric way through the forested canopy of the jungle that covered the islands.

Double-click on the images to enlarge and read them!

Part 1: The Archeological/Anthropological Exhibit


The earliest image of the Pitch Lake, a drawing by Richard Bridgens from the 1820s, is combined with the type of flora and fauna that would have inhabited the earth when the Pitch Lake at La Brea was created, a long time before human beings appeared in nature.

From time to time, the Pitch Lake bubbles up fossilised remains of prehistoric creatures. One of those was bones the giant sloth, a huge bovine animal that stood up to 14 ft high. Sightings of the last of those before they were hunted to extinction may have given rise to the stories of Papa Bois, protector of the forest, in Trinidad and Tobago's folklore.

Pitch, also called asphalt or bitumen, was known in biblical times in some parts of the world. It was used by the alchemists of the Old World hundreds of years ago for various purposes.

The installations in this exhibit are hung from rafters in the ceiling and fixed to the hardwood floor with steel wires, giving the space an airy feel and allowing for the natural breeze to sweep through.

Installation of framed scenes of the usage of pitch in antiquity.


The Pitch Lake is a symbol of a world that ended and began again. This segment showcases Trinidad and Tobago’s First People. The First People had a creation myth that suggest the origin of the lake, linking the extinction or near-extinction of the hummingbird with the formation of the pitch. This myth, recorded by historian E.L. Joseph in 1837 explains why Trinidad is called “Land of the Hummingbird”.

Detail of the First People display as it was during Phase 1 of the Museum, showing pre-columbian pottery sherds, weaving techniques and the story of the hummingbird. 

Information panel about the pottery sherds of the First People.

The curved wall at the western end includes an installation, at right, of framed bits of asphalt from the Lake.

The Pitch Lake is remembered from ancient times in myths and legends handed down from our island’s Amerindian past. Edward Joseph, who wrote Trinidad's first history in 1837 tell's us of a time before the lake came into existence, when the entire area was covered with the sweetest and most luxurious pineapples imaginable, through which beautiful hummingbirds, variously coloured, flew and displayed their iridescence in the brilliant sunshine.

The story goes on to say that there came a time when strangers from another shore arrived and decimated the hummingbirds, turning their plumage into hats and capes. The Great Spirit of Trinidad rose up and overturned the pineapple field, taking away the strangers forever, and replacing it with a lake of asphalt. The Great Spirit had been angered, for the hummingbirds were no less than the souls of the ancestors of the tribal people long dead, who had returned as hummingbirds.

In fact, the island of Trinidad was known in olden times as “Iere”, Land of the Hummingbird. This motif is remembered today on Trinidad and Tobago’s coat of arms and is displayed on the badges of our protective services. 

Adaptation of the story of the origins of the Pitch Lake, as old to E.L. Joseph in 1834 by one Mr. Trinidado. Inset is a sketch of a settlement of the First People, who lived a nomadic lifestyle. All their architecture was basically biodegradable. 

                  As you come around the curve, you will be immersed in the life of the First People.

Scenes of domesticity of the First People



Overview of the First People Exhibit to which a selection of actual, prehistoric pottery sherds was added. These illustrations were done by Edward Goodall in 1841. He accompanied the 1841 - 1843 expedition to Guiana led by explorer-scientist Sir Robert Schomburgk.

The exhibit of woven artefacts and pottery,  giving a glimpse of the home life of the First People.




In the 16 century, the era of the First People in Trinidad and Tobago slowly came to an end, as they were decimated by imported diseases, like measles, and the cruelty imposed upon them by the introduction of "civilasition".  From then on, Trinidad and the Pitch Lake at La Brea entered the historically documented era, and we follow events and personalities as they interface with the Lake in the historical section of the exhibit.

View of the interior of the Museum.

View of the eastern end of the Museum.

Double-click on the images to enlarge and read them!

Part 2: The Historical Exhibit


To begin, the romantic story of Sir Walter Raleigh is told, how he stopped at the Pitch Lake on his quest for El Dorado, the legendary Golden Man and his city go gold on the South American mainland, to caulk his ship (the “Lion’s Whelp”) with pitch from the Pitch Lake. Raleigh thus became the first “exporter” of a petroleum product from our shores. It is also of significance that Raleigh exported from Tobago the first samples of tobacco, causing that island to be called on the most ancient maps “Tobacco” that would eventually be changed to “Tobago”. Raleigh is also of interest in the sense that he liberated from Spanish chains five caciques or kings of Trinidad, who had been held in captivity at St. Joseph, the ancient capital.

A depiction of Sir Walter Raleigh and his son "Wat". Raleigh was accompanied by his son Walter on the expedition to the Orinoco River in search of El Dorado. Wat, as Walter was known, was killed during an encounter with a Spanish musketeer on the banks of the Orinoco.

The Sir Walter Raleigh exhibition case.

Detail from the Sir Walter Raleigh exhibition case. In the centre a reproduction of the El Dorado. The imagination of Western Europe was excited by the idea of fabulous riches existing in hidden civilisations in the upper reaches of the Orinoco river system of South America. Several explorers, both Spanish and English, were to lose their lives in pursuit of gold.

El Dorado - the myth of the Golden Man may have sprung from the story of a cacique whose naked body was painted with a resin and theen covered in gold dust in a religious ceremony.
Sir Walter Raleigh's Map of the Orinoco River System. Following information gleaned from Spanish explorers and Carib traditions, Sir Walter produced a map of what is now Venezuela and the Guyanas, which was to a considerable extent imaginary.



Detail from the El Dorado exhibit, depicting models of gold bars and gold coins. Many objects made of gold stolen or bartered for trinkets from the tribal people were melted down, turned into bullion (gold bars) and exported to Europe.

SirWalter Raleigh being shown a sample of pitch by a companion at La Brea. Bringing a ship's boat ashore at La Brea, Raleigh examines pitch taken from the Pitch Lake and proclaims it useful to caulk his ships.
The Town of Port of Spain or Puerto de los Hispanioles was set on fire by Raleigh on his first expedition to Trinidad and the Orinoco in 1595, when the Spanish governor Don Antonio de Berrio was capture by him and taken up the Orinoco river as a guide to El Dorado.

Sir Walter Raleigh came to Trinidad in 1617 on his last voyage to the New World in search of the fabled El Dorado, the Golden Man who was king of a city made of gold.

Account of Sir Walter Raleigh of his visit to the Pitch Lake at La Brea.

Etching on glass of the "Lion's Whelp", Raleigh's ship, with the Pitch Lake in the distance.


The exhibit case that contains the leaves of the tobacco plant. During the 17th century, tobacco was one of the several items used as a means of payment by the European in the Caribbean. This was because there was a shortage of actual currency. Other agricultural products were also used, sugar, for example was used as payment for goods and also for fines, when someone broke the law.

Detail of the Tobaco exhibit. Fragments of an early 19th century tobacco pipe with the missing elements recreated in clay, and a clay jar used to keep tobacco.

Tobacco smoker. It is said that Sir Walter Raleigh introduced tobacco to Europe, that he both "far-fetched" it and "dear-bought" it in 1595. 


Early 17th century Dutch map of Tobago, where a variation on the name (Tobago) approximates the word "tobacco". It was believed in this period that Tobago produced a very high quality tobacco.


"The cannibals that each other eat, the anthropomorgai, the men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders..." - a fanciful 17th century description of the inhabitants of the New World.


Raleigh frees the Tribal Kings. In the ancient capital of Trinidad, San José de Oruña, Raleigh discovered and set free the five kings (caciques) of Trinidad held prisoner by the Spaniards. Their names were Wanawanare, Caroarori, Maquarima, Taroopana and Aterima. It should be pointed that the building in the picture did not actually exist, as there were no buildings built of masonry in Trinidad at that time. The artist who drew that picture lived in England and illustrated it how he knew a jail would be built there.

Sir Walter was the first of many famous visitors to the Pitch Lake.  Regarded as a wonder of the world it made its way onto the itineraries of many  visitors to Trinidad. Because of the several depressions on its surface, which are usually filled with water, the area gave the impression of a fresh water lake. This gave rise to this deposit of bitumen being called a lake.  

The Pitch Lake has had many famous visitors who recorded their experience, and this panel gives some of the accounts that they left behind.

The Cedula for Population of 1783, a Spanish law that invited people to come and develop Trinidad, also meant the introduction of enslaved Africans to the island on a much larger scale than previously. As a result a large number of sugar plantations were established at La Brea and environs adjacent to the Pitch Lake. African people who were not enslaved and Free mixed race people settled in the area as well contributing to the creation of an extensive agricultural economy in the pre-Emancipation period.

This timeline takes us from the 18th into the 19th century, showcasing how the economies and society of Trinidad developed during those fifty years between 1783 and 1834.
After the emancipation of the enslaved in 1838, the British colonial government sought to replace the labour force on the sugar plantations. From 1845 onwards, a large-scale Indian indentureship scheme filled that need. As the industrial revolution gained momentum in Europe, technological advancements led to the growth of the asphalt industry alongside the agricultural sector in the La Brea area.

Panel featuring the transition from the agricultural to the asphalt industry at La Brea in the mid-19th century.

Historical illistrations and photographs and postcards of La Brea from the 1830s to the present.

Map of La Brea and Guapo showing estate boundaries and some of the early oil fields of Trinidad in the area of the Pitch Lake .

Double-click on the images to enlarge and read them!

Part 2: Technological and Social Aspects of the Pitch Lake




Interior view of the Museum under construction.
The technological properties of pitch are of particular interest when told against the background of the social impact that the substance had. It is recorded that kerosine was invented by a man called Abraham Pineo Gessner in Halifax, Canada, with pitch from the Trinidad Pitch Lake! Lord Dundonald, an Englishman, was one of the early concessioners. Dundonald Street in Port of Spain is named for him. Conrad Frederick Stollmeyer was his local agent. Stollmeyer is remembered in history as the man who introduced the sale of coconuts from carts around the Queen's Park Savannah in Port of Spain in the 1860s.

Kerosine was first distilled from asphalt from the Pitch Lake at La Brea. This panel shows the people involved in this invention, along with a selection of images of historical kerosine lamps.

The Kerosine exhibit in the installation, showing how the street light images were suspended in front of the background with the kerosine lamps in individual frames, adding a three-dimensional effect to the exhibit.


When Phase 2 of the Museum at the Pitch Lake was built five years after Phase 1 a couple of changes were made to the exhibits in Phase 1 to streamline and harmonise the content better. Since the Museum is in one large room, this re-structuring of Phase 1 gave it a better flow.

For Phase 2, the Museum at La Brea also acquired a number of actual kerosine lamps, stoves and tools of various makes and shapes, which allowed us to restructure the exhibit as follows:

Installation of the exhibit with actual kerosine stoves and lamps.


Showcase with lamps, stoves, kerosine bottles, tools and lamp shades.

The finished exhibit.


A portable kerosine oven. It has a glass window in the front and was very popular for use in rural areas. In Trinidad, geologists would travel with this type of oven into the bush while conducting field research. But it was also popular with housewives. Yet another useful application of paraffin, kerosine or pitch oil as we know it in Trinidad and Tobago.


This exhibit outlines the influence of pitch as one of the petrochemical products of Trinidad and Tobago. With the advent of kerosene, street lighting on a very wide scale was introduced to the town of Port of Spain and to the outlying districts and villages, causing a change and upgrade of social life (see images below). Kerosine lighting also altered family life, in the sense that it was introduced in kerosine lamps and stoves, which caused a move away from coal- and wood-burning stoves, this brought an improved standard of living for all, especially the poor. The advent of kerosine altered the quality of life on all levels of the social spectrum and facilitated learning through reading at night. For street lighting kerosine replaced whale oil, which saved the lives of many of the great mammals (the Gulf of Paria was once called the Gulf of Whales). Pitch was also erroneously thought to be a preventative for cholera, which was held to be an air-borne disease. Pitch was burnt at street corners in the towns during the cholera epidemics of the 19th century.


Kerosine street lamp attached to a building at the corner of Broadway and Independence Square in the 1880s.

Kerosine street lamp at the corner of Chacon Street and Independence Square in the 1880s.

An early photograph of the kerosine street lamp at the foot of Frederick Street in the 1870s.

Kerosine street lamp in front of the Catholic Cathedral in in Port of Spain in the 1880s.

The light in the Lighthouse at Port of Spain was illuminated with kerosine.

A kerosine lantern used to advertise W.C. Ross, a pharmacy, on Frederick Street in Port of Spain .
The finished kerosine exhibit.

One of the more revolutionary new uses of pitch was, of course, the paving of roadways. Here is how it came about:

Earliest days of pitch used for roads

As the need for paved roadways increased throughout the world, especially after the invention of the motorcar, pitch from the Pitch Lake in La Brea began to be exported all over the world.


The Export of Pitch from Trinidad to the World



The science behind the Pitch Lake
After World War I, when thousands of Trinidadian and Tobagonian men came back from the theatres of war abroad, a new sense of pride and self made itself felt among the population. With the development of the oil sector subsequent to the growth in demand for petroleum-based products, the labour movement became more organised and more militant. Between 1917 and culminating with strikes and armed confrontation in 1937, the labour movement harnessed many stalwart personalities that set about changing conditions for workers not only in oil, but also in the sugar industry. This panel at La Brea commemorates and honours this development. It also honours the police officers, Major Power, Inspector Bradburn and Corporal Carl, "Charlie" King, who were killed in the line of duty on 19th June, 1937 during a strike in the oil belt.

Interior of the Museum with the Hummingbird exhibit on the western wall.


The installation showing the emergence of the labour movement in the oil belt in Trinidad.

Panel about the Labour Movement's history 1917 to 1937, featuring images of key personages and of the 1937 strike action.


Scientific equipment found at Vessigny. Over the centuries, a great many scientific studies were done on the Pitch Lake and its environs. Shown here are the remnants of the equipment of an unknown geologist who in the first years of the 20th century spent some time at La Brea. These objects were found in an abandoned planation house in the vicinity of the Vessigny estate. It contains the remains of a surveying and drawing kit made by Cooke, Troughton & Simms, a British instrument-making firm formed in 1922, and a Wallace & Tiernan altimeter.


A geology text  book of the 1920s. This book was once owned by P.E.T. O'Connor, the first Trinidadian graduate of the petroleum school at the University of Birmingham in the early 1920s. O'Connor worked at Antilles Petroleum Co. in Vessigny as the resident geologist, eventually becoming that company's General Manager, drilling for oil in the Brighton area. Upon Antilles' absorption into Texas Oil Company, he became a director of Texaco Trinidad, Inc.


Diagram of cross section of the Pitch Lake, which shows the diminishing level of the pitch between the years 1893 and 1925 due to mining activities.

Exhibit showing various items used by personnel in the early 20th century. At the top a Veritas portable stove. The photographs come the de Gannes/O'Connor photo album and show a glimpse of life of families in the oil industry in the 1930s. The soda syphon would have invigorated the rum cocktails of the geologist and planters in the La Brea area.


Silver-plated candle sticks and fine china of the period would be brought out to grace a table at Christmas, christenings or birthday parties.  Bottom right is a ceramic hot water bottle as a relief for gas pains, neuralgia, tired feet and attacks of gamp.

Surveyor's Map of the La Brea area.


This brings us to an end of the tour of the Pitch Lake Museum at La Brea! It was lovely having you and we hope you enjoyed to see and read about the Pitch Lake and its environs from pre-historic times to the early 20th century.

We now invite you to check out "The History of Oil", written by Gérard A. Besson and published by First Magazine, at the following links:







Click here to see the booklet about museums and exhibitions designed and built by Paria Publishing.

Thank you and come again! And in the meantime. don't forget to book your tour guide and visit the actual Pitch Lake itself, which truly is a Wonder of the World!


Sunday, 14 July 2019

Cocoa

Cocoa estate. Watercolour © Peter Shim.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the artist.
The Cocoa Economy in Trinidad

The Inca regarded cocoa as a drink of the gods, and it was reserved for the high nobility of this empire that once existed in the cloudy mountaintops of the Andes.
South America’s great jungles with their vast river systems of the Orinoco and the Amazon are the true home of the ‘Golden Bean’.
In Trinidad, cocoa has been cultivated since Spanish times, with varying degrees of success. After the abolition of slavery and the collapse of the French planters’ cane economy, the planters turned to cocoa cultivation so as to save the day. In the 1840s, when the nearly bankrupt planters, who were by now in their second generation, moved deeper into the valleys of the Northern Range, Grand Couva and the Montserrat Hills, cocoa was only moderately successful.
But little did those ‘cocoa pioneers’ know how right their timing was! Within another decade cocoa became a staple in Trinidad’s export market. Cocoa is a different crop than sugar: whereas cane is only viable with vast acreages, people with small plots of  land were able to participate in cocoa cultivation. 
The effect this had on the structure of the society was very positive: the middle classes of all races became if not wealthy but really very comfortable. Country people, the Hispanic-Amerindian population, also benefitted from the cocoa economy, clearing the forest and cultivating with loving care the cocoa fields. 
The cocoa industry in these islands played a key part in the socio-economic development between the 1860s and the 1920s. It was driven by the manufacture of eating chocolate which had been introduced by the Cadbury Brothers in Great Britain, as well as by technological advancements made in the production of cocoa as a drink.
The industrial revolution and the emergence of Europe’s middle class with its predilection for the ‘finer things of life’, served to create a very large market for cocoa and chocolate. For nearly three-quarters of a century, the Afro-Franco creole culture, together with its older ‘cocoa pagnol’ cousinage, boomed. Many small and medium businesses blossomed as a result of exporting cocoa and importing and distributing goods. Many families of the coloured lower and middle classes were able to own small cocoa estates, live comfortably, educate their children, and maintain the values and morals of that respectability so vital in colonial life in those years. In fact, the cocoa boom is what is referred to as the ‘good old days’, the longtime days of the collective memory of Trinidad as it has come down to us over the years.
Hon. Arthur Hamilton Gordon C.M.G., who was governor of Trinidad from 1866 to 1870, encouraged the opening up of crown lands for the cultivation of cocoa. As much as two thirds of the land were utilised, and by the 1870s, cocoa exports exceeded that of sugar. By 1884, with the depression of sugar releasing land, labour and capital, cocoa development increased in profitability.
In Port-of-Spain and the other main towns, development became increasingly apparent. New neighbourhoods came into existence. One could even say that the pretty little gingerbread houses of Woodbrook, Belmont, in San Fernando south of the Paradise cemetery, moving towards Rushworth Street, at St. Joseph and in Arima came about as the result of the ‘Golden Bean’.
The ‘cocoa pagnols’ were in fact the pioneers of the industry. They established the estates in two ways: one approach was for a family to acquire crown lands, fell the trees and plant the cocoa. Upon maturing of the trees, the family would sell the estate at a good profit, and go to repeat the process somewhere else. In so doing, they were making a small fortune over two or three genereations. 
The other approach for plantations to be established was through the contract system. These contracts would last about five or seven years, with an agreement made by the owner with peasant families to develop an area of forest into a plantation. The family had free usage of the land, with the stipulation to plant and care for a certain amount of cocoa trees per acre, and plant and sell their own market garden crops. When the trees reach maturity, the owner would take over the land and paid an agreed amount for each bearing cocoa tree to the family.


Cocoa served to develop Trinidad in those years in a variety of ways. New villages came into existence, with schools, churches, chapels, masonic lodges and friendly societies, post offices and warden’s offices, markets and shops. Old towns like Arima and Sangre Grande, Princes Town and San Fernando became active, busy and prosperous. The island’s population moved out of the original centres of settlement which had formed after emancipation. There was prosperity in the countryside. A new verve in the folk arts of the patois-speaking people expressed itself in dance and song. For the first time, it became possible for people of all races and combinations of races, to enjoy the benefits of the economy.

Historical and Statistical View of the Island of Trinidad  
This excerpt from Daniel Hart was written in 1890  

COCOA
The principal articles of produce exported are sugar, cocoa, coffee, rum, molasses, and cotton. Indigo is also exported, but not raised in the island; it is brought from Venezuela for exportation, but in 1783, there were plantations and manufacturers of the article established  in the island. The number of sugar estates does not exceed from 152 to 155, and those of cocoa and coffee, 700. The total extent of land under cultivation is as follows:—canes, 36,739 acres; cocoa and coffee, 14,238 acres; provisions, 9,914 acres; pasture, 7,356 acres. Total, 67,247 acres.
The correct name of the cocoa is ‘cacao’. The cultivation of cocoa, with the exception of a small quantity grown in the island of Grenada, is peculiar as an article of British production to Trinidad. With the exception just mentioned, Trinidad is the only colony throughout the wide extent of the British Colonial Empire producing the materials for this wholesome and palatable beverage. In 1827, the number of cocoa trees amounted to 3,091,945, and the quantity exported that year was 3,696,144, valued according to official returns at £57,851. The value of each tree being then taken at two dollars, or eight shillings and four-pence.
After 1827, a sudden depression in the price of the article reduced the cocoa proprietors, at once and without warning, from a state of affluence to one of comparative—nay, in many cases, real—destitution. For the last ten years, however, the article has maintained a fair and remunerative price. The culture of cocoa is the only one of our Tropical productions at all adapted to the constitution of Europeans. The cocoa tree itself of some 20 feet in height, and affording a grateful shade from the blaze of the sun, is again shaded in its turn by the bois immortel, whose protecting services have justly obtained for it among the South Americans the appellation of La Madre del Cacao. The weeding of the soil, picking of the pods, husking them, and carrying the produce to the drying house; in short, the whole of the agricultural operations and all but the last stage of the manufacturing process is carried on under this impervious and ever verdant canopy; the air gently agitated and refreshed by the river or mountain stream, upon whose vegas or banks these plantations are invariably established.
Here, and here only, the European may measure his strength with the descendants of the Africans and derive direct from the soil without the intervention of the latter, the subsistence which in every other kind of agricultural pursuits seems denied him by his own physical exertions. Under the double shade of the cocoa tree and the Madre del Cacao, the European feels himself as in his native climate. By official returns made in 1842, there were 182 small plantations having from 100 to 500 trees; 147 having from 500 to 1,000 trees, and 268 having from 1,000 to 5,000 trees; 55 having from 5,000 to 10,000 trees; 29 having from 10,000 to 20,000 trees; 28 having from 20,000 to 50,000 trees, and I above 50,000, making a total of 710. Upon a general average, each cocoa tree ought to yield annually two and a half pounds net of cocoa. The distance at which cocoa is planted in this island differs from four to five varas. I have taken the latter as the basis of my calculations. At that distance, there are about 800 trees in a quarrée, which is the old Spanish measurement of 3.1-5 English acres.
Consequently, 40,000 trees occupy fifty quarrées, and the average yield bring something near 2 ½ lbs. per tree, 22 fanegas per 1,000 trees, and $12 (with few exceptions) to be the highest price obtained in the market in 1865. Pruning is an essential operation. Five years would be sufficient to intervene between the pruning; and on an estate of 40,000 trees, I would do it by using the knife to 8,000 trees only in one year, and continue at such rate until the whole shall have been pruned-to re-commence again by the first 8,000 trees. Forty-eight dollars is put down to be expended in that operation, not that the whole of that amount would be expended (for the pruning should be light), but because in that sum is included the cleaning of trees from moss, parasites, ants, and guatepajaro—a work which, though strongly recommended to both men and women (for on many estates picking is performed by women) employed in picking pods, it is, nevertheless, very imperfectly done, or not done at all.
Hence, at the proper season, which is immediately after the December crop, say, in March and April, a skilful gang should be employed to trim and clean the 8,000 trees apportioned for the season. The expenses and net revenue of cocoa estates are subject to  variation, according to extent and locality:—an estate of 30,000 trees requiring almost the same establishment as one of 40 or 50,000—hence the increase or decrease of the net revenue and cost per bag of cocoa on different estates. The amount paid for cutlassing 100 trees varies from 30 to 60 cents. Some estates in the quarter of Maracas, not having labourers located on the property, are in the habit of cutlassing their estates by ‘gallapa’, a system much preferred by small proprietors, though it raises the expense to the ruinous amount of $1 20 per 100 trees. The 2 ½ lbs. that I have put down as the yield which each tree in the present imperfect state of cultivation can produce; but I am quite certain that with increased care and attention, a cocoa tree at 13 feet apart can be made to yield double that quantity. As a proof, on the estate of Mr. Victoriano Gomez, in the Ward of Maracas, there are 200 trees planted at 22 feet apart that yielded 6 lbs. per tree.
A quarrée planted at that distance holds 288 trees, giving a total of 2,128 lbs. At 13 feet, a quarrée, as already stated, contains 800 trees, at 2 ½ lbs. per tree gives 2,000 lbs—a difference of 128 lbs. in favour of wide planting. But is wide planting more profitable? The following particulars will show. Cocoa planted at 22 feet apart require 139 quarrées for 40,000 trees, at 6 lbs. per tree would give 24,000 lbs.; 139 quarrées planted at 13 feet apart would contain 111,400 trees, which, at 2 ½ lbs. per tree is 278,000 lbs.; planted at 22 feet in 50 quarrées there are 14,400 at 6 lbs. is 86,400; at 13 feet, there are 40,000 trees, which, at 2 ½ lbs. will give 100,000 lbs. Difference in favour of narrow planting in 50 quarrées, 13,000 lbs. or 123 ½ fanegas, which, at $12, would give a total profit of $1,480. In addition to the foregoing remarks, it is necessary to state, that on every well-regulated cocoa estate, there should be a nursery of cocoa trees of the best quality, in order to supply ‘fallos’ or missing trees. The following is a statement of the expenses of a cocoa estate of 40,000 trees, and cost per fanega (110 lbs.) or bag:—
It is worthy of remark that a cocoa estate by the planting of provisions and the raising of Stock ought to considerably tend to decrease the expenses above given, because the labourers are only required to pick twice in the year:—June and December. Each estate of the size herein given should also be provided with 8 or 10 good donkeys for crooking, and 25 good steady labourers would be sufficient to carry on the working of an estate of 40,000 trees. It is necessary, however, to state that for the last 3 or 4 years cocoa has been disposed of in the London Market from 65s., 70s., 80s., 90s. and as high as 110s. per cwt., nor has it been under nine dollars in the Trinidad Market. Indeed as much as 13 dollars the fanega (110 lbs.) has been paid, hence the net annual income should be much more than is herein given. There is however, a want of energy on the part of the cocoa planters in regard to planting provisions and the rear of stock. It is, at the same time, just to remark that they labour under great difficulties in the way of procuring labourers. A Negro can live for 24 hours on a sugar cane. Hence, he would rather work on a sugar estate for one shilling a day than for two shillings on a cocoa estate. In former years when the price of cocoa was low, little or no attention was paid to the cultivation; the increase of price has, however, acted as a real stimulus to the planters of the article, and greater attention is now paid both to the cultivation and to the curing and preparing of the article.

Santa Cruz, Trinidad. Originally the property and residence of Don Antonio Gomez, Senior Judge at the time of Governor Sir Ralph Woodford, 1813 to 1828. La Pastora was later acquired by Hippolyte Borde, Esq. This picture was originally published in J.H. Collens’ “A Guide to Trinidad” and was redrawn by Peter Shim in 1987, © Paria Publishing Co. Ltd. 

The largest cocoa estate in the island is the ‘La Pastora’, situated in the Ward of Santa Cruz, and belonging to Mr. H. Borde. On this estate there are 50,000 trees, but this estate, like others, in 1837 (a year also that the cocoa planter laboured under very great disadvantages for the want of labour) only yielded a crop of 70,200 lbs. In the year 1727, the cocoa trees were greatly injured by the severity of the north wind—a disaster which the priests represented as a judgement upon the inhabitants for their enormity in refusing the payment of tithes. Alcedo relates this ridiculous story—‘The production of the greatest value in this island’, he says, ‘is the cocoa which from its fine quality, is everywhere in request, in preference to that of Caracas, and the crops were even bought up before they were gathered, so that the person to whom they belonged refused to pay their tenths to the clergy, and strange to say, that, as it should seem, Heaven in chastisement of their covetousness had entirely deprived them of this means of emolument in as much as, since the year 1727, the whole of their crop have turned out fruitless and barren, with the exception of one that belonged to a certain man named Robles, who had continued to pay his tithes and whose estate is the only one in which that production is now furnished.’ Unfortunately for the theory of the monks, and the faith of Alcedo, the crops of cocoa have been, and I hope they ever will be, exuberant since Trinidad has been cultivated, as the tables of exports herein given fully proves. It is worthy of remark that the ‘Robles’ mentioned by Alcedo was the father of Christoval de Robles, who inherited from his father the San Antonio and Santa Catalina estates in the Ward of Santa Cruz.

A lovely old cocoa tree (from: http://sweetriot.com/riot/cacao-fun/cacao-story/)

Cocoa, the Golden Bean
Cocoa and the Second Frontier (1870-1920)
by Bridget Brereton
from: The Book of Trinidad

Trinidad was first opened up for plantation development and large-scale settlement in the 1780’s with the influx of French speaking immigrants after the Cedula for Population of 1783 was promulgated. (There were 1,093 European French people in Trinidad and 2,925 French speaking Afro/French people in Trinidad in 1797. The total 'Free' population was 7, 536, enslaved Africans 28,000) The first phase of rapid development—the first frontier—was dominated by the expansion of sugar production and could be said to have lasted from the 1780’s to the 1820’s. Yet, even by the 1830’s, Trinidad was still an undeveloped country. Vast amounts of potentially fertile land were still untouched by human enterprise. In 1838, only some 43,000 acres were cultivated out of a total acreage of 1.25 million. Much of the island was still in the hands of the Crown and under its original forest cover. Only a fairly narrow band of territory stretching west to east from Chaguaramas to Arima and north to south from Port of Spain to San Fernando was extensively settled and cultivated. The southern half of the island, the north coast and its hills and valleys, the whole of the east coast and much of Central Trinidad were virtually untouched and unpopulated. Trinidad was still a frontier colony by the middle decades of the nineteenth century. (In 1838, at emancipation, the population was:
Whites………………………………………..4,326


Free Black and people of Colour…............. 16,412

Carib…………………………………………   727

Slaves………………………………………22,436
                                                                                             Total  49,721)
The second phase of internal colonisation of the island began around 1870 and was associated above all with the expansion of cocoa, though later on (after 1910) the development of the oil industry was also important especially for the southern half of the island. But it was cocoa which dominated the second frontier; settlement and population followed the cocoa trees into the newly opened up districts.
Cocoa is indigenous to the New World—it was the Aztecs’ chocolate, Moctezuma’s favourite drink—and it had always been cultivated in Spanish Trinidad. By around 1850, it was quite insignificant as an export crop. Its take-off into a period of rapid expansion can be dated to around 1870. As eating chocolate, and cocoa as a beverage, became items of mass consumption in the industrialised countries, demand for cocoa in Europe and North America expanded tremendously; this was the most important single reason for the expansion of cocoa in Trinidad.
Locally, the opening up of Crown lands through a change of government policy in the late 1860’s and the gradual improvement of internal communications after 1870 (roads, railways, bridges) had the effect of removing serious obstacles to the progress of settlement and cultivation. Capital, labour, and some land became available in the years between 1884 and 1903 because of the sugar depression in that period. For instance, workers retrenched by the sugar estates might enter cocoa as wage labourers or as peasant growers, money received through sale of small, marginal sugar estates to big firms could be invested in the establishment of cocoa plantations, and in some cases, abandoned sugar land could be switched to cocoa. Since the establishment of a modest cocoa estate did not require a massive outlay of capital (unlike sugar), many local families could mobilise their personal resources and finance the gradual building-up of a cocoa property.
While the market situation remained favourable, therefore, and it did right up to 1920, all the ingredients for a rapid expansion of production were present. Exports had averaged 8 million lbs. a year in 1871-80; by the decade 1911-20 they averaged 56.3 million, a seven-fold increase. By the turn of the century, cocoa had overtaken sugar as Trinidad’s most valuable export; King Sugar had been dethroned.
The new King Cocoa, during his short ascendancy, profoundly influenced many aspects of Trinidad’s social and economic development. Previously inaccessible areas which had been barely populated at all were opened up  to cultivation and settlement, especially the valleys of the northern range, the country between Sangre Grande and the east coast, and parts of central Trinidad and the deep south. New villages sprang into life, with their churches and chapels, schools, lodges and friendly societies, post offices and warden’s offices, markets and shops. Old towns like Arima took on a new lease of life as cocoa marketing centres. The population spread out from the original centres of settlement along the Eastern Main Road to Arima and from Port of Spain to San Fernando. People of all races were involved in this movement:—the Creole blacks, the peons who had been the first pioneers of cocoa, the African and West Indian immigrants, the ex-indentured after 1870.
Cocoa, however, was never exclusively an estate crop. Thousands of peasants of all races cultivated the cocoa trees as contractors (raising trees on land belonging to estates) and as small producers on their own land. Cocoa contributed very significantly to the growth and prosperity of Trinidad’s peasantry, and these small farmers created new settlements and new social and cultural institutions all over the country. To take just one example:—parang and the culture associated with it are inseparable from the cocoa peasantry. As cocoa prospered, some of the profits filtered down to the labourers and small producers, and many of them were able to educate their children, contributing to the growth of the middle class and the general spread of literacy and modernisation.
King Cocoa fell, in his turn, in the 1920’s and 1930’s; but not before he had played a key role in opening up the island, strengthening its economy and enriching its social and cultural development.

San Juan Estate, Gran Couva.
Country residence of Francis Agostini, ca. 1900.
Illustrated by Peter Shim from a photograph by Hélène Farfan.
© Paria Publishing Co. Ltd.


Excerpt from the List of Trinidad Cocoa Estates 
in C.B. Franklin’s Year Book 1916

Arima Ward Union
Mon Repos, La Reunion Hrs L. Centeno
L’Espérance, Verdant Vale          “
Willow Vale, Trinidad Cocoa and Coffee Co. Ltd.
St. Patrick, La Razón, “
San Mateo, Cedar Hill “
Mount Pleasant Hrs. de Lapeyrouse
El Retiro Hrs. De Martini
Mon Plaisir F.J. Le Blanc
La Compensación S. De Gannes
San José          “
Buena Vista Hrs. Jules Cipriani
La Victoria, Belle Vue Wm. E. Foster
Prospect J.S. McDavid
Oropuna H. Machado
San Antonio A.M. Tinoco
San José A. Harry
Torrecilla M.S. Strickland
Santa Rosa Hrs. C.G. Seheult
Sin Verquenza, Hermitage F.A. Neubauer
La Ressource Robt. J. Miller
Mausica & Trianon Hrs. C. Cleaver
Valley Vale F.W. Meyer
San Francisco, Orange Hill C. Leotaud
El Ricon, San Felipe “
Mon Repos C.O. & L. Robertson
La Retraîte L. Hamel-Smith
S. Carlos de Caigual West Indian
St. Patience Trustees
Agua Santa C. Blasini
St. Adelaide L.A. Riley
Spring Bank, El Socorro Gordon Grant & Co.
La Solidad, Prosperidad “
Sta. Isabella, La Soledad “
Santa Crux S. Bercon
Felipé C. Pamphile
San Carlos C. Stollmeyer
Candelaria L.A. Sellier
Experanza A.D. Brown
Santa Cruz Jos. N. Maingot
San Antonio Heirs of Garcia
Santa Maria, Glencora, Perseverance F.A. Neubauer
Piedmonte, La Fertilité Paul Caracciolo
El Carmen, Monte Cristo “
Jouvence, Santa Barbara Hrs. of Hospedales
El Combata, La Concepcion H.J. Delisle
La Horqueta Hrs. Joa. Ribeiro
Belle Vue J.R. Metivier
Jouvence P. Stevens
San Rafael A. Angeron
Los Armadillos C. Faustino
Sta. Catalina Thos. Lacon
Santa Rosalia, San Gregorio Manuel Luces
San Rafael          “
Prosperite Hrs. C. de Verteuil
Havering W. Carpenter
Laventille Heirs of Llanos
Monte Cristo Paul Caracciolo
San Jose M.J. Roach
L’Agnesia Dr. R.C. Bennett
New Providence G. de Verteuil
La Cruz P.R. Pierre
La Soledad Carmona
El Regalo, La Corona A. Giuseppe
La India M.A. Vignale
La Esmeralda George F. Huggins
Arizona H. Monceaux
San Bartolo, Providence H.K. Viera
Murray’s Vale Henry E. Murray
Santa Maria Hy. Court
New Providence, Val de Cacao Alb. H. Cipriani
La Romancia Dr. A.H. Burt
La Marouna Heirs of J. Payne
C. Stollmeyer San Juan J.A. Aquie
Paradise C. Luces
Santa Maria, Spring W.S.E. Barnardo
Dios Me Ayudes A. de Matas
La Ventura, Good Hope Alfred Mendes
La Providencia M.D. Smith
El Carmen, San Antonio Heirs C. Lange
La Concepcion, San Juan “
El Carmen A.V. Stollmeyer
Prospect Madoo Lala
Santa Rosa Chas. Cleaver
Spring Hill F.W. Meyer
La Prospérité, San Antonio N. Cowlessar
San Antonio T. de Soublette
Melton R. Hamlyn Nott
Brothers F. Léotaud
El Cedro M. Quesnel
Naranjo Hrs. J.A. Rapsey
San Frederico & La Violeta C.O. & L.N. Robertson
La Trinidad S. Thannoo
Mon Bonheur, Providence G.R. Alston & Co.
San Expedito A. Albert
Mt. Hope H. Josse Delisle
San Salvador A.C. de Verteuil
Perseverance C. de Verteuil & J D’Abadie
La Conformidad A. Gómez
Buena Vista M. Martinez
La Gloria Jos. de Verteuil
St. Ann P. Pampellonne
Prosperidad A. de Verteuil
Talparo T.H. Warner
Spring W.E.S. Barnardo
Santa Ignalis, Santa Barbara C.A. Pollonais
Spring & Armonica Hrs. Edgard Borde


Above: PERSEVERANCE ESTATE HOUSE
Perseverance estate house at Moka in Maraval, was the home of Jeanne Besson, born 1822, and her husband Louis Latour. Jeanne was the daughter of François Besson III and Marie France Olivière. She took into her home the children of her husband, Louis Latour, and Léonide (Lorraine) Besson, as teenagers, upon the death of their mother who may have been a person of colour. It is likely that Louis Latour and Léonide, also called Lorraine Besson may have had a plaçage relationship over several years. The children’s names were Frederick Louis Latour and Louise Ultima Latour. I have not been able to discover the parentage of their mother. In her will she leaves them, as teenagers, in the care of their father, Louis Latour. Louise Ultima Latour married Jules Cipriani, also known as Cipriani de Rose or Jules De Rose Cipriani, reputed son of Léon Cipriani and a woman of colour by the name of Rosalie Labastide, (she may have been a relative of the Bessons and de la Bastides). One of their children was Michael, “Mikey” Cipriani, sportsman and pioneer aviator. Jules de Rose Ciprianis’ sister, Marie Alix, married Charles James Milne.This house and its extensive grounds, gardens and cocoa fields was eventually bought by Albert Henry Cipriani (Baba), son of Albert Henry Cipriani, brother of Emmanuel Cipriani, who had married Lucy Ganteaume, whose mother was Theresa Adèle Besson, the second wife of Pierre Alphonse Ganteaume.Albert Henry’s (Baba) brother was Captain Arthur Andrew Cipriani, several times Mayor of Port-of-Spain. He was a labour leader, and champion of the poor. Perseverance estate passed into the hands of the Battoo family and was used as a music hall for several years, until it was eventually abandoned, and destroyed by fire in the 1980s.
Illustrated by Peter Shim after an old photograph. © Paria Publishing Co. Ltd.


CEDROS WARD UNION
Annandale, Buenos Ayres, St. Michael L.F. Ambard
La Ressource, Providencia West Indian Estate Co.
Sta. Barbara, El Pilar          “
Bon Aventure, Santa Isabella          “
L’Union, La Stella and Buena Vista Edwin Clapham
St. Joseph Mrs. Solano
San Francisco Hrs. Mejias
Villanueva Malze Bros.
Erin G.F. Huggins
El Perial, San José and El Cocal Carmen Anduze
La Victoria G.F. Huggins
Good Hope Donatien Gervais
Sta. Maria A.S. Kernahan
Denmark Chs. Ker (Trustee)
Enterprise Geo. Grant
S. John A. Attin
Industry The Industry Est. Corporation of N.Y.
Monte Cristo L. Tanwing & Sona
Penbury E.C. Skinner
El Puerto P. Collington

COUVA & CHAGUANAS WARD UNION
Cocoloco J.B. Todd
Montrose Dr. A.P. Lange
Rich Ville A.B. Richards
Ednavale Geo. Bancroft
Edinburgh Hrs. S. Henderson
Esmeralda Gordon, Grant & Co.
Sta. Emilia Hrs. of Joyce Ltd.
La Providencia Fritz L. Boos
Henksdale Hrs. Hendrickson
Félicité Smith Bros. & Co.
Souvenir A.V.M. Thavenot
St. Marie Hrs. de Boissière
Roupell Park Dan McD. Hart
Bon Aventure Hrs. C. Robertson
St. Jules Jas. Stewart
Murrayvale Onnarey & Robertson
Eva’s Hope Heirs Langton
Waterloo Kleinworth, Sons & Co.
Pays Perdu, S. Madeleine J.R. Tom
Målaga Heirs H. Stone
St. Margaret J.W. Fletcher
Sta. Philippa, Hillandale W. Mills
Orange Field Beatrix A. Lange
La Soledad & Sta. Isabella E.W. Savary
Uquire, Las Lomas & Elibox E.L. Agostini
Palmiste Miss Léotaud
Tcarridonum Carr Brothers
Mes Voeux & Bon Accord Heirs of Smith and Langton
Friendship Hall Black and McLeod
St. Charles & Esperanza Heirs Hoadley
Verdant Vale Heirs Penco
Philippine Hrs. L. Preau
Balmain J.P. Bain
La Rosalia J.A. Ortiz
Belle Vue Boodhin
Peking Numa Nathaniel
Williams Nuseban
Good Luck Satuarine
Enaree Beddoo Bhagat
Sitar-i-Hind E.M. Madoo
Hope E.V. Downey
Carolina Agostini and McLelland
Prospect F. Isaac
Perseverance J.E. Bonneterre
Don José F.A. Gómez
The Hope & St. Luke Dyett & Grant
Bon Aventure & Mon Plaisir Heirs W.C. Dyett
St. Vale, Lee Vale C.P. Lee
L’Argenville Dr. A.B. Duprey

DIEGO MARIN & ST. ANN’S WARD UNION
La Chaguaramas & Mt. Hazard Chaguaramas Estates, Limited
Crystal Stream Heirs of J. Dickson
Fond Palmiste & St. Sophie J.C. Benlisa
St. Lucien Croney & Co.
Richplain Enroll & A. Artfield
Les Fontaines, La Ressource, Bagatelle Michael P. Maillard
Cedar Hill F. & J.A. Jones
Hermitage, Esperanza Anna Lange
La Puerta Dr. J.L. Senior
Tucker Valley T’dad Ltd. & Finance
Haleland Park Co.,  Ltd.
Moka W.G. Gordon
Val de Oro J.C. Benlisa
Mon Espoir, Cascabelle & Vineyard Trinidad Produce Company
Belle Vue L.E. Bernard
River and Cascade Trinidad Government
Mt. Carmel Pitman & de Suze
San Diego & Victoria George G. Brown
La Ressource Catherine R. Rist
La Ressource Jean Isidore
San Carlos W.T. Campbell
Perseverance L.S. Disney
St. Emelia L.D. Alcazar
Mon Repos Edgar Borde
Covigne E. Hamel-Smith
St. John & Grand Fond Madeleine Joseph
Jamson J.A. Brown
La Fromage Mrs. C Fitzwilliam
Mount Catherine Louis Julien
La Oferta André de Verteuil
La Sagesse, Zig Zag Hrs. J.E. Coryat
Santa Barbara, Prospéridad          “
Santa Carolina, La Madeleine          “
La Pastora, Tranquilidad J. Ribeiro
Maracas Bay Hrs. de Lapeyrouse
Paradis Terrestre, Mon Repos J. Penco
Perd Mon Temps          “
San Antonio Sir J. Needham
Soconusco Wilsons, Limited
El Castillo S. Bissessar
San Patricio François Tomasi
El Carmen Henrietta Kavanagh
La Soledad (Guanal) J.S. de Bermudez
Concordia Marie Duprey
Brasso Toco J.C. Poyer
North Laventille Morvant Gordon Grant & Co. Ltd.
South Laventille Earl of Dundonald
Beau Séjour J.A. Antoni
San Miguel Emma Dreyfus
San Antonio & El Corosal Joaquim Webster
Providence Louis de Gannes
San Carlos Mrs. Jul. Borde
L’Eugenie G. Ferrari
Union F. D’Heureux
Belle Air Heirs of B. Mussio
Hermitage Arthur Cipriani
La Regalada, San Rafael, El Guamal C.F. Stollmeyer
La Deseada C.C. Stollmeyer
Mon Valmont, La Fortunée A.V. Stollmeyer
Clydesdale, El Ordo & Sta. Ann’s          “
St. Luce & Mon Desir Mrs. C. de Verteuil
La Soledad Smith Bros. & Co.
El Socorro, Concord F. Herrera
Barataria & Aranjuez Hrs. J.A. Rapsey
Coblentz Carlos Rovedas
La Trinidad Solomon Dreyfus
Belle Fleur Ed. Manuel    
Ste. Marie H.F. Figeroux
La Ultima Jos. J. Ribeiro
Champs Fleurs M.M. Gransaull
Brothersville Jones Bros.

LA BREA & OROPOUCHE WARD UNION
Alta Gracia Albert A. Sobrion
Patna Boodhoosing
Nelson J.J. McLeod
La India Partap
S. Martin & S. Philip Hrs. of Allum
Santa Maria T. Geddes Grant
Perseverance C.C. Stollmeyer
El Socorro & El Kola W.C. Robertson & Others
Canton & Santa Cecilia Geo F. Huggins
Esperanza Mrs. Felix Smith
San Francisco & Good Intent A.M. & R.A. Low
Adventure J.B. & S. Waith
La Fortunée De Wolf & Mathison
El Campo Beatrice Huggins
Pluck Tennant’s Est. Ltd.
Common & Kingsland Shadrach Medford
La Siparia, La Tranquilidad Trinidad Properties Ltd.
Kimberley Geo. Blake
Cura John Bleasdell
La Pastora Smith Bros. & Co.
St. Mary, Paradise Pierre Bartlett
La Virgin y Tierra Linda Albert Mendes
Eureka and Cura E.D. Clarke
Otaheite Hrs. Clem. Lange
Boa Ventura Hrs. Joaq. Ribeiro
La Fortunée, Clifton Hill United Brit. Oilfields
St. Valentine Harold Fahey

MANZANILLA WARD UNION
La Josephina F.A. Neubauer
Sta. Estella General Pacheco
Windermere Croney & Co.
S. José de Comparo L.P. Pierre
St. Joseph Mrs. O. de Gannes
La Concordia, San Antonio C. Allard
La Union E. Hernandez
Brooklyn Percival Stevens
Barcelona J.B. Robinson
Non Pareil, St. Marie & Santa Rita E.A. Robinson
Concord A.P. Maingot
El Reposo Hrs. C. F. Sellier
St. Privat Dr. de Gannes
Santa Rita Geo. Jonson
Errolvale Thomas Lyder
Perseverance George McLean
St. Elizabeth Henry A. Reid
El Palmito A. Protheroe
St. Joseph J. Riley
Mt. Taldon B. Romney
La Mascotte R. Vignales
St. John John F. Wallen
Sta. Clara J. Jacelon
Santa Anna Ms. C. Kirton
St. Patrick Heirs of Logan
Montrose E. Damian
Williamsville George Williams
El Recuerdo Murray and Wake
May Vega Dr. C. F. Lassalle

TACARIGUA & BLANCHISSEUSE Ward Union
Glenside Commdr. W.H. Coombs, R.N.
Charles Vale S. Augustin
Redemption Hrs. B. de Lamarre
St. Michael Resal Maharaj
Mount St. Benedict Mayuel de Caigny
Trafford Marie Holler
Tumbason Dr. L Lota
Las Cabecerras Jos. Lota
Santa Barbara, San Pedro J.F. Alonzo
Santa Isabella J.M. Blanc
Mamoral Mrs. L. Johnstone
Magdaline, St. Antoine F.A.Neubauer
La Guadeloupe, St. Ignes “
El Socorro, La Pastora “
La Rosina, El Manacal “
Concordia, La Florida, Avondale Windward Islands Estates Co. Inc
San Vincente Joseph Gomez
La Véronica Mary L. O’Connor
El Socorro Margaret Rapsey
San José Robert de Freitas
Homburg W. Holler
San José M.A. Prieto
La Reconaissance C.J. La Coste
Wardour Bridget Jardine
Mon Deisr Berenice Garcia
Santa Basilio, La Soledad Manoel Alonzo
Mundo Nuevo, Valencia Max Reimer
La pastora Gordon, Grant & Co. Ltd.
Algarabo Heirs of J. Philip
La Soledad E. Lezama
Montserrat, San Francisco, La Deseada J.P Zepero
La Realista Mrs. M.E. Olivieri
Des Consue, La Florida, La Victoria Wilsons Ltd.
San Francisco Geo. B. Geoffroy
Santa Ignes, San Joachim Heirs Nakid
Tierra Nueva Heirs C. Leotaud
Cautira, Guamal, Hope Well, San Pedro “
Destin G. De Silva
San Domingo Josepfita de Léon
La Soledad Hrs. Of de la Rosa
Gonzales, San Isidoro Allan McD. Horne
Trafford Marie Holler
Redemption Edward Mohipath
Santa Rita Jos. Reyes
La Soledad Heirs Reyes
Maracas Valley, San Pedro Cadbury Brothers
Santa Barbara, La Sombadoura V.L. Wehekind
San Pedro del Valle J.B. Garner
Ortinola Tennants Est. Ltd.
Santa Rita D. Betancourt
La Providencia, La Fortuna A.A. Matas
Bickham Heirs of Wharf
San Lorenzo Fred Herrera
La Victoria, La Carola Caroline Borberg
Belle Vue Dhanoolall
Guiria Hrs J.V. de León
La Soledad E. Gonzales
El Retiro Heirs T.B. Meja
Buena Vista, San Miguel M.J. de Silva
San Antonio, San Juan, Santa Barbara Simon B. Pierre
Calcutta Cadamee
El Reposo, Esperanza Hrs. S. Castillo
El Discurso G.T. Brash
La Lucia E. Gabaira
St. Jena Xavier Hardy
Providence Margaret Hunter
San Juan, Rosalia Edm. Kelly
El Guamo C.A. Morrison
Santa Lucia Hrs. José Votor
Canaan Bennysingh and Rampersadsingh
La Belle View Hrs. Chinibas
St. Ann’s Rev. Dr. Maingot
El Choro, St. Helena Victor Adrien
Laurel Hill Juliana Bonair
La Soledad A.A. De Matas
St. Catherine, La Florida F. De Matas
El Broyo, Santa Margarita          “
La Merced, San Pedro Cadbury Brothers
San Miguel A.T. Eligon
La Soledad, Williams Field Fred Herrera
Lorete A.V.C. Gomez

Toco Ward Union
El Carmen, El Calvario, La Soledad W.G. Gordon
La Maravilla, Santa Barbara, St. John “
El Toco, Mon Plaisir, Belle Vue “
Susannah, Santa Teresa, St. Luke “
Aragua, St. Pasqual, San Philipe “
Cascabel, La Jalousie, Esperanza “
Woodford Valley “
Cumana Theresa Campbell
Sans Souci M.A. Bowen
La Soledad G.R. Alston & Co.
Buenos Ayres F.G. Scott
St. Antonio, St. Laurent, La Soledad Samuel Hosang
La Ardita, La Anicetta “
San Antonio, Belle Vue, San Isidore L.J. Gransaull
La Palmiste, La Providence “
La Juanita E. Paisley
Malgretout Mrs. M. Gransaull
Adventure Elizabeth A. Hosang
Diamond Field, Orphan, La Victoria Thomas Hosang
Nola Fana, California, Esperanza “
La Prosperité, Belle Vue A. Besson
Poor Man’s Progress McBurnie