PREFACE. THE importance of the Island of TRINIDAD, as a Commercial Settlement, may be inferred from the interest which the British Government evinced at the close of the last war, to preserve it as a part of the British Empire. Its proximity to the Spanish Main, certainly renders it an important acquisition, not less as a military depôt, than as affording an extensive demand for our manufactures. No sooner was it ceded to this country, therefore, than the attention of his Majesty's Ministers was accordingly very properly turned towards it, and plans were suggested for promoting its general improvement, by the introduction of colonial regulations, suited to the liberal and enlarged views of the British Government. These, indeed, every one, at all acquainted with the history of the Island, and the line of conduct which had been pursued by its Governors, whether British or Spanish, must know, were highly necessary. The wisdom of Mr. ADDINGTON and his Colleagues, was evinced in the choice of the person to whom this important mission was entrusted. COLONEL FULLARTON is too well known to his countrymen, by a life spent in the most active and beneficial services, both in Europe and Asia, to stand in need of any apology for the appointment of FIRST COMMISSIONER of the Island of Trinidad, with which he was vested. That he has not succeeded in effecting that amelioration of the state of the inhabitants which was in the view of the British Ministry, is a subject of deep regret; but the causes which prevented it, I have endeavoured to detail in the subsequent Letters with impartiality and a rigid adherence to truth. Should it be thought by any of my Readers, that, in reciting the atrocities of which the Island of Trinidad has unhappily been the theatre, I have indulged too freely the stile of asperity, I may, I trust, claim some excuse, when it is recollected that I was myself the victim of oppression. I am not sure whether I ought to apologise to my Readers for such language; the hatred which a FREE-BORN BRITON must ever bear towards a system of tyranny, will, if he have occasion to treat the subject at all, give point and energy to his language. The times in which we live demand an explicit avowal of our sentiments; and to be the spectator of a line of conduct on the part of a Brstish Governor, which would have disgraced the Tyrant of the Continent, without marking it by expressions of my most perfect hatred, was, with me, impossible. When the publication of my TRAVELS was first announced by an advertisement in the Liverpool Chronicle, an attempt was made to suppress them by the friends and partizans of Colonel Picton. A letter was addressed to the Printer of that Paper, by Joseph Marryat, Esq. of London, threatening him with a prosecution, which gave occasion to the following reply, which I inserted in the above-mentioned Paper, under date of the 12th December, 1804. To JOSEPH MARRYAT, Esq. New Bridge Street, SIR, I HAVE been favored with a sight of your letter of the 6th Instant to the Printer of this Paper: and as it wholly relates to my Travels in Trinidad, I shall make no apology for addressing you in this public manner. The uncommon interest you appear to take in every thing which affects Colonel Picton, reflects great honor on the nature of your friendship for that officer. As the Champion of a man who labours under some of the heaviest charges which the laws of England have power to punish, I cannot observe your active zeal without lamenting that such generous exertions are likely to be so unavailing, or that for the sake of the character of your discretion, you had not employed them in a more popular cause. But, is it not enough that you have become surety for Colonel Picton in the sum of 10,0001. that he shall appear to answer any bill or bills of indictment which may be found against him for murder or |