The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-08-24
A LAKE OF BOILING PITCH.
WONDERFUL CURIOSITY ON THE
ISLAND or TRINIDAD.


The asphalt barks from the West Indies
are about the only vessels outside the
coasting schooners that ever favor
Washington with visit, says the WASH
ington Post.
Down in the hold the cargo looks like
the edge Of n dead lava field, black and
scanned, and apparently as hard as rock;
but the hardness Is deceptive. Break up
a bushel of the "pitch," as 1t Is known to
the trade, and pile the fragments on top
OF the big asphalt field which fills the
whole OF the lower deck, and by to-mor-
row morning they would disappear,
sunken slowly back into the parent mass.
This sIow-running quality makes the
cargo one of the most detested among the
captains on the island trade, for when the
ship has been listed over to port or star
board for couple OF days, while running
before strong wind, the whole cargo
will quietly shift over and have to DO
broken up and trimmed back to its proper
position to keep the ship on even keel.
Trinidad, the island from which prac-
tically all the asphalt OF the world Is now
drawn, is British possession in the West
Indies. It was one OF. the little spots OF
terra firma against which Columbus ran
when, in 1893, he pushed his explorations
further westward in search of that mar
iners' phantasm, the northwest passage.
The island was then inhabited solely by
Caribs, wild and Warlike but withal in
teiligent race, not unlike the North
American Indians, peculiar in their Ian
guage, which, like the Choctaw OF our
own Western tribe, has been mastered by
few II any white men. For many years
the island remained neglected depend
ency Of Spain, with constantly dwind-
ling population, mostly natives and inn
ported negroes. In 1897 it passed into
the hands OF the British Government,
and has remained an English colony
since.
There are but two towns of Importance
on the island, Port OF Spain and San
Fernando. These live mostly by their
imports, the chief productions Of the
island, beyond its own necessities, being
asphalt and cocoanuts. The sugar crop Ii
large, but at the present prices 1t does
not pay to export II. The population Of
the towns is mixed. English is the court
language, but the majority OF the people
are negroes, descendants OF the old slave
stock, who talk q patois OF mingled
French, Spanish, and English that is de-
scribed as the most back handedest
lingo" any heather ever invented. The
negroes are, like those OF the United
States, beginning to feel their freedom,
and on the strength OF 1t getting the big
head in the second and third generation.
The resident whites designate them a.
:" sassy" and as n class unbearable when
they have risen above the stage OF pick
ing asphalt. This is true OF all but the
French negroes from Martinique and the
adjacent tricolor provinces, who by long
association have acquired the suave man
ner of their former owners, and are all Of
them At instructors for an ordinary dane
ing master. Among them impoliteness
II unknown.
Some Of the original Caribs are still to
be found among the island people, but
they are rapidly disappearing, and in
their place Is now seen the imported
coolie. The coolie trade, which was orig
inally instituted to furnish cheap labor
for the plantations, was in former times q
terrible disgrace to the islands, and par
took OF more than all the horrors of the
African slave trade. Thousands of the
miserable Asiatics were sacrificed in the
business by the greed and inhumanity of
the masters who brought them over, and,
although imported under the guise of a
labor contract, not one in hundreds of
them ever lived to return home. Strin-
gent laws governing the traffic are now
enacted, and, what is more to the pur-
pose, are well enforced, and many of the
coolies by the time they have served their
eight years. contract out are we'll to do
citizens, being paid for their work by the
piece and saving all they earn.
The great pitch lake, which is the chief
wonder and attraction of the island, is
situated in a low, sandy stretch of the
southwest coast near Cape Corbaray. The
surrounding country is low and malarial,
in striking contrast to the high hills and
rich woodlands of the coast further back.
The lake is owned by the British govern
ment and leased by it to, the Barber
Asphalt Company, an American firm OF
immense capital, which controls the
trade for the United States. Their present
lease has iorty-two years yet to run. The
laborers are all negroes, even the coolies
shrinking from the heat and low fevers
of the place. The lake itself is about q
mile in diameter, hard at the edges, and
softening toward the middle. The sur
face is continually changing, apparently
from some subterranean action, and little
Gases of dry land, and even trees and
shrubs, will disappear in single night
and fresh islands of soil bereared in Other
places.
The lake is in all probability merely ar
unusually large deposit of bitumen OIL
soft coal that has undergone it's trans.
formation from decaying vegetable mat.
ter in contact with water, and too neal
the surface for the earth pressure above
to harden it thoroughly. Hundreds o.
negroes the year round toll at the lake.
edge, taking out cargo after cargo from
the supply that seems never to diminish
They work under overseers of their owl
color, and are paid at the rate of seventy.
two cents day. The asphalt crust i!
broken up with picks and crowbars, ant
is loaded on dump carts, drawn by /
single sun-dried mule, in whom the con,
slant boiling temperature seems to hav,
concentrated all the native meanness O
his species. The carts crunch through ,
long sandy road down to the wharf at tn,
waters edge, where the load is dumped
\ and carried by wheelbarrows on boart
the lighters, which III turn carry it GU
40 L. -. ~