FRANCISCO RUIZ DE AGUIRRE
After the big events of the end of the 17th Century, such as the founding of the missions, which were destined to be Trinidad’s first villages - and an event such as the lamentable Arena Massacre, the 18th century opened in Trinidad as uneventfully as if nothing had happened.The governor who succeeded José de León y Echales was Francisco Ruiz de Aguirre, whose very name would have spread fear on the Spanish Main. This was because of the terror inflicted by two of his forbears on the Venezuelan coast. But Ruiz, carried out his term as governor of Trinidad without the records stating anything unfavourable about him. One thing that marked the administration of this Aguirre, though, was that a treaty, signed at Madrid on the 27th August, 1701, allowed a mercantile group of Frenchmen based in Paris and called “The Royal Company of Guinea,” to supply Spanish colonies with African slaves - slaves of both sexes and of all ages.

It is reported by Historian E L. Joseph, who had access to Cabildo records, that as a result of this treaty several ship-loads of Africans came to Trinidad from January 1702, and cocoa began to be extensively planted. Cocoa was planted extensively but Joseph exaggerated the number of African slaves who came.News of this cocoa came up shortly afterward when in 1716 the notorious pirate Edward Teach (known as Blackbeard) came into the Gulf of Paria and looted a brig laden with cocoa bound for Spain. He set fire to the brig a little way off Puerto España, the Port-of-Spain of today.

In 1725 because of a severe drought the entire cocoa crop failed, bringing penury to many well-to-do families in Trinidad.In these years not much was heard of the governors, and at least in Trinidad, with the passing of the de Berríos, the association with El Dorado had begun to fade. No talk of treasure dominated, and there were no expeditions. Nor were there letters stating, like Antonio de Berrío’s in 1593, that “Trinidad is ideal for an expedition to El Dorado because of the quantity of natives to bear the weight of the gold.” There was a Cabildo and a capital at San José de Oruña, thanks to Antonio de Berrío; and there was the growing village of Puerto España, where many Spaniards had settled.

However, very little took place that was noteworthy. Between Ruiz de Aguirre, for example, who had taken office in 1701, and the failure of the cocoa crop of 1725, there were no events of note except those already mentioned. The six governors who came and went in that period: Felipé de Artieda, Félix de Guzman, Pedro de Yarza, Juan de Orvay, Martín de Anda y Salazar, Agustin de Arrendondo and Bartolomé de Aldunate y Rada were able to do very little but supervise the militia, take part in cabildo ceremonies, and maybe indulge in a little contraband. In 1731, Trinidad, then linked with Guayana to form the Venezuelan province of Trinidad y Guayana, was incorporated into the province of Nueva Andalucia, and Trinidad was given its own local governor.

BARTOLOME DE ALDUNATE y RADA
This governor, Bartolome de Aldunate y Rada, died in 1733 - before the end of his term - and two alcaldes (magistrates) of the Cabildo, namely: Pedro Ximenes and Josef Orbale, administered Trinidad until the term ended in 1735. Stepping back to the year 1733 furnishes an important detail: in E. L. Joseph’s history of Trinidad there is this passage: In 1733 a census was taken, and every free man’s name was entered into the books of the Cabildo. It appears by this that there were 162 adult males; out of these, 28 only were white. The Indians were not considered inhabitants.

No account is taken of the slaves - there were few of them in the island. From these inhabitants a revenue of 231 dollars was raised; a part of this was appropriated to pay the Caroni guard, consisting of a corporal and three privates… the balance to go to the repairs of the Cabildo House. Yet this year, with all formality, the Contador Mayor sent a commission empowering Don Jacinto de Ocampo y Zuñiga to inspect the revenue. The Contador Mayor was the Chief Accountant. Anyway, as was said, in that year, 1733, Governor Bartolome de Aldunate y Rada died. Coming on the scene as the new governor was Esteban Simón de Liña y Vera.

GOVENOR LINA Y VERA
Governor Esteban Simón de Liña y Vera was received by the Illustrious Cabildo of San José de Oruña with all due honours and was installed as governor on October 11, in the year 1735. But the Cabildo soon fell out of love with him because the royal revenue that year fell short by half the amount that was due in, and maybe the Cabildo members felt the governor had suppressed the other half. The Contador Mayor, responsible for the contents of the treasury, kept close watch.

These were the years when the Cabildo had no great affection for the governors. The governors were as a rule Spaniards appointed from Spain, and the Cabildo, a body of local men, resented being bossed around by people from “away.” Maybe this was the awakening tide of feeling against Spanish colonialism, that led to the Venezuelan War of Independence many decades later.

Another reason why the Cabildo did not care for their governors was because the governors were showing a tendency to live, not at San José de Oruña, but at the seaside place, Puerto España.

These governors complained frequently of having to make the journey to San José which was an uncomfortable mule-ride along a roughly-made track, to a decrepit town of unkempt, thatched houses, and on the other hand they praised Puerto España as a place where one could see the ships coming in. But the members of the Cabildo, to a man, was bitterly opposed to them, for the Laws of the Indies had stated quite clearly that the capital was the place where the Cabildo was sited, and that the governor was required to live in the capital.

Meanwhile, distracting from the “war” between the governors and the Cabildo came a small pox scare in 1739. It raged in Venezuela and in other parts of the “Spanish Main,” and in Trinidad people were almost panicking, a meeting of the principal inhabitants was held at San José and they decided on placing a strong guard at the Bocas to see that the epidemic was not introduced into Trinidad.

Notwithstanding the precaution, small pox did hit Trinidad that year, 1739, and was especially severe on the natives, wiping out great numbers of them, and also getting rid of thousands of monkeys.

In 1740, because of a conflict between Spain and England the inhabitants petitioned the king of Spain to “commiserate with them,” by waving their taxes, and they went on to tell the king they could not even afford to go to mass without having to borrow clothes from each other.

This was no new story. In fact, in 1733 the inhabitants of San José were so poor that the cabildo had to call a special meeting to tax the inhabitants “according to their means” in order to thatch the Cabildo roof.

The petition also helps to give an idea as to what Trinidad was like in the mid-18th Century, for it also asks the king that in order to protect the island from the English, he “be pleased to send a guard of 50 men, in addition to the 20 stationed at the Caroni.” They asked the king further to pay them in copper coins the same as he did for Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo, so that the money could circulate to their benefit. They also made the request that the women might be allowed to marry amongst the soldiers he might choose to send because women greatly out-numbered men in Trinidad.

J.E. Farfan and Josef M. Farfan, Diego Arrieta and J. Ximenes were amongst the members of the Cabildo who signed that petition. In the little cemetery on the right hand side of the church of St Joseph today, can be seen a tomb, dated 1683, of one of the Farfans, probably the oldest San José family still in the area.

On July 9, 1843, however, all thoughts of marriages involving the military, and all thoughts of old residents like the Farfans were far from the mind as a fierce debate between the Cabildo and the military commander, Governor Liña y Vera, took place.

The governor had left his post and gone to Cumana on the mainland. He had gone without permission although the Laws of the Indies said distinctly that governors had to obtain the permission of the Cabildo before leaving their posts. The Cabildo decided that two of their members must take over the governor’s post, and with the inhabitants in favour of the Cabildo the military had to back down.

When Governor Liña y Vera returned a crowd fell upon him in Puerto España, arrested him, and put him in chains, with two pairs of irons on his feet. He was kept in confinement for about a year, near to a military camp in Puerto España, and it appears the soldiers themselves kept a watch on his movements.

In the end a militia from Granada on the Venezuelan mainland came to crush the rebellion. They released Liña y Vera, rounded up his chief persecutors and banished them, and allowed the ex-governor to leave Trinidad and go in peace.

SIR THOMAS PICTON: 1797-1801
Picton came on Sir Ralph Abercromby’s expedition which took Trinidad from Spain in February 1797. He was left here by Abercromby as governor, and was not officially appointed because the British were not sure they would retain Trinidad at the Peace Treaty which followed the war. In the meantime Picton used strong-handed methods against anyone he suspected of trying to undermine his government, and went so far as to erect gallows on the premises of Government House to show he meant business! According to reports, the gallows were not allowed to rust. He was also very much on the alert for a counter-attack from the Spanish Main, and used up a great deal of effort to prevent this. For this purpose he built a fort (called Fort Picton) on the Laventille Hills but it was later nicknamed Picton’s Folly because he never had the occasion to use it. His style of government may not have pleased the British, who withdrew his sole governorship and appointed three commissioners - First Commissioner William Fullerton, Picton himself being Second Commissioner, and Commodore Samuel Hood, third.

First Commissioner, William Fullerton had such a tense and tumultuous relationship with Picton that within a year the British suspended the Commission Government and imposed silence on the two officers. Shortly afterward Picton was recalled over the report of the First Commissioner that he had tortured a 14-year-old girl called Luisa Calderón, over the question of gold in her father’s possession. Torture was contrary to British law, and Picton was court-martialed, but he was treated with some leniency by the British court because of the number of years the case dragged on - eight - and because Picton, in the time between, had seen distinguished service in several battles, including the Battle of Badajoz in Spain. His final battle was the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. There, charging at the head of his men, he was killed.