Trip from Trinidad - part 2 - the end

April 21

Well I didn't have much luck with getting any more information about the other passengers that I felt was of importance to include. I spent some time talking to Herbert Greenlees about his distillery, and he tried his best to sell me on the idea of his whisky. He bought me one to show me how wonderful it was, and I thought it tasted like bacon and could hardly choke it down. “Perhaps not a woman's drink,” he conceded.

I still have half a journal to fill and thought it might be nice to write down what we have most appreciated about our time in Trinidad – not just things like our family, and the congregation and the work, which one might take for granted, but other little things about the island.

I always enjoyed the idea that Trinidad was discovered by Christopher Columbus and named Isla La Santissiama Trindad, on 15 December, 1521, on his third voyage to the Americas. He called it Trindad became it is rather triangular shaped, and also called it after the Trinity.

Being just off the coast of Venezuela, with a mountain range to the north, some people actually think it was once part of the Andes. The climate is humid and hot, the rainforest constantly dripping and sticky - full of biting insects even on the hottest days. The temperature never gets colder than the warmest spring day in England. At the moment I think I won't miss the weather, but when it is cold and wet in Worcester, I think perhaps I will.

There are coconut trees, pawpaws and Zabocas, called avocados in England.

The mapaplezanan, rarely seen, but moving on the water, is a black mamba snake that squeezes and unhinges its jaws to swallow its prey.

There are mangrove swamps, whistling frogs and many colourful birds. The people love partying, loud music, and they live on rum bunch, bush meat, Carabic lager and carnival.

Thinking around the island, so to speak, here are some of its highlights.

The northwest Peninsula has a safe harbour during the region's hurricane season. The densely forested Northern Range runs through the area. Along the coast are the Five Islands, one of them being Gasparee which has the famous Gasparee Caves and some old colonial fort ruins. From Macuiripe Beach on the northern coast one can see the Venezuelan coastline.

Nearby the Agnostura distillery produces not only fine rums but the world famous Angostura Bitters, developed by a Prussian doctor serving with Simon Bolivar in 1830. It continues to be produced in Trinidad and the recipe is one of the world's best kept secrets.

Arima has a community of Caribs descended from Trinidad's original Americindian settlers, who first arrived around 6,000 BC. The North east coast has some of the loveliest and most remote stretches of the coast with prime turtle nesting spots, protected during the nestling season.

Central Trinidal has a large wetland area home of the scarlet Ibis, who return to roost in the swamp every day from their trip to the wetlands on the Venezuelan coast.

Another place we really enjoyed was the Devil's Wood yard, a mud volcano near Princes Town. And near San Fernando, along the Gulf coast, is Pitch Lake, one of the wonders of the New World, an unending source of natural asphalt. It was formed by a fault in the underlying sandstone through which bitumen seeps. The pitch is used for making and repairing roads.

I will miss the blend of music that is quite unique in Trinidad, and especially the Chutney, an up-tempo rhythmic song accompanied by the Dholak, the harmonium and the Dhantal. The steel drum originated in Trinidad when the African descendants, started beating out rhythms on pieces of metal to accompany the people's songs and dances at carnival time.

As far as food goes, I will miss Callalloo soup, baked cassava pone, crayfish, cascadura fish, mangoes, passion fruit, pommerac, guineps, guava, tambu which are roots, pawpaw, tamarinds, breadfruit which is a vegetable, plantain and of course, run punch.

As far as religion goes, things are much more exciting in Trinidad. The country is noted for its religiosity and religious diversity. The majority of Indians are Hindu but many are Christians. And with the Africans and original native West Indians there are folk beliefs in jumbies.

I do think I must stop this as I am beginning to sound like a tourist brochure. Here is a bit about the history of our church, and I hope Ebeneezer will be prepared to write a bit about how the church changed during our years there. The land was sold to the Anglican church in 1845. It was called All Saints Chapel of Ease in deference to the Cathedral Church downtown. Our vicar, was Rev. Arthur Honkersley. Ebeneezer was always only an assistant and the clerk.

But now we are nearly home, as Lower Broadheath will be to us for the rest of our lives, I will have my sisters to get to know all over again, plus all the nieces and nephews that we both have in our extended families. Ebeneezer will have to get used to being retired and if we manage to get Yew Tree Cottage as we are hoping, at least we will have a reasonable garden to keep us busy. I have no doubt that the Vicar, the Rev. George Stephen Fasham  will find some work for Ebeneezer. Our new church is called Christ Church, built as recently as 1903 with space for 230.

The population of the town which is mostly farmers is no more than 750. My sisters live at Frenchlands on Frenchland Lane, which originated from a group of French soldiers who came to fight in the Battle of Worcester. There is  a little grocery, a fruit shop, a baker and a miller. There is a dairy herd run by some of our neighbours on Little Peachey farm for our milk. The publican of the Bell is called Frank and he is also the coal merchant.

We are due to dock at Avonmouth on the 24th of April, 1930 and then our new life will begin.

Bit added on by Ebeneezer:

When we first went to Trinidad, members of our church were very much a minority. Most of the residents were Roman Catholics, and there was considerable friction between us – as the government was British, and therefore, seemed to be favouring us over them. We both tried to get church schools established – as our main interest outside the church itself, was to see the native children educated to a higher standard than the state was willing to provide. We also were especially interested in seeing that girls were not discriminated against, and before we left, our new Bishop Anstey managed to open a High School for Girls, which was named after him. Later other Protestant sects came into the area, notably the Presbyterians from Canada, and they made quite an impact.

Everywhere there was felt a need for schools to help all the ills that beset parishes, mainly great poverty, migration, ignorance and declining church membership. The island governments were not sympathetic to church schools, and competition from other denominations was often acute. One of my associates, who worked with me in Trinidad and then went on to spend most of his time in Tabago is Archdeacon Herwald R. Davies. He is a great writer and his reports are unique in their length and importance, cleverly and amusingly illustrating everyday incidents and building up an amazing picture of life in a small tropical island. His reports demonstrate the continuing importance of white clergy, though some are West Indian born or, like himself, married into West Indian families, they seem to have been Creolised and show a special sympathy for their work, loving their parish and the children in particular.

Religious practices include of the desire to have babies baptised but from then on, there is a scarcity of communicants, few being confirmed or legally married. Superstition flourishes but cheerfulness in the face of hurricanes and volcanic eruptions such as the one in 1901 was wonderfully apparent. No voodoo or devil-worship flourished, but obeah doctors were still influential and there was an incident where a boy was murdered and his heart cut out and used for obeah charms.

We as missionaries, bemoaned the blindness of the governments in the islands who felt that the Negro should not be educated and had little understanding of the natives. Even now there is a growing lawlessness, not helped by food shortages and the rising cost of living and demand for higher wages among people 'who have ceased to fear the church'. Church workers have now become not only social workers but arbitrators in labour disputes, even at a time when membership among the young especially is falling off.

So my work is done, but Trinidad still has a great need for workers to help solve their enormous problems of poverty and lack of order.