A Dominican Apostle in Trinidad

Extract

The island of Trinidad off the north-eastern coast of South America is considered part of the group of West Indian islands known as the Lesser Antilles, though it is nearer than any other to the coast of Venezuela. It was discovered by Christopher Columbus on July 31st, 1498, when on his third voyage he touched the American Continent. The natives called it Yere, and it belonged to Spain until 1797, when it was seized by the English and definitely ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. With the adjacent island of Tobago it forms a separate British Colony of about a quarter of a million inhabitants. The climate is tropical, with only a dry and a rainy season, since it is within ten degrees of the Equator.

That valiant Protector of the American aborigines, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, has left us an interesting account of the condition of the island at the time of its discovery, and the cruel treatment of the natives by adventurers of all nations who followed in the wake or Columbus. But it may be well to give first a brief sketch of this intrepid apostle before quoting from his hitherto unpublished manuscript, Historia General de las Indias 1492-1520, in the Royal Library of Madrid.