Church and Society in Trinidad Part I & Ii: The Catholic Church in Trinidad 1498-1863

By REV. JOHN .T. HARRICHARAN M.A.

IT was a result of my initial thrust into research activity of the Christian Churches among the East Indians in Trinidad during the period of indentureship that I was led to research the history of the Catholic Church in Trinidad. I am therefore indebted to Dr. Brinsley Samaroo for suggesting this topic. My deepest gratitude goes to Professor K.O. Laurence, who guided my research for my M.A. degree.

I am thankful to Ildefons Schroots, O.S.B., my confrere, who made available to me the transcripts of the documents of the Vatican Archives, when they were lodged at the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and The Ugandan Martyrs. This was made possible by the kind permission of the then Vicar Provincial of the Irish Dominican Order in Trinidad, Fr. Damian Byrne.

I am indeed grateful for help I received in the various foreign archives, namely The Public Record Office, London; The National Archives, Madrid; The Simancas Archives at Simanca in Spain; and The National Academy of History in Venezuela. At home, I received immense help from the late Enos Siewlal, Government Archivist and also from Archbishop Anthony Pantin in Archbishops House Archives, which was extremely limited for the period under study.

I would also like to thank Miss Stephanie Thomas who typed the first draft, and June Prempeh who typed the final draft. I would like to thank the ex-Abbot Bernard Vlaar of Mt. St. Benedict, who gave me the green light for higher studies. Most of all I received the greatest help from Mr. Rupert Laydoo, for editing and putting an index to this book.

Any inaccuracies that may be found in this work I acknowledge them to be mine. However, I hope this book would be useful in Seminaries, Theological Colleges, Universities, Training Colleges and to all those who are interested in the Ecclesiastical History of Trinidad.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 3, 2005
• ISBN: 9781420813265

REV. JOHN .T. HARRICHARAN M.A.

FATHER John Thomas Harricharan is a Trinidadian. He was first educated at Presentation College, San Fernando, and then taught for two years at St. Benedict’s College, La Romain, before he joined the Benedictine Community at Mt. St. Benedict, in 1962. After the completion of priestly studies, he was ordained in 1970. He then read for a B.A. degree in Afro-Asian Studies, obtaining Second Class Honours at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. This book is a result of his researches in Church History at the same University. Currently, he is a Lecturer on the staff of the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and The Ugandan Martyrs, where he piloted an approved B.A. course in Church History of the Caribbean. He has already published a booklet on the Work of the Christian Churches among the Fast Indians in Trinidad 1845-1917. He is a Member of the Association of Church-Historians of Latin America and the Caribbean (CEHILA). He also participates in the International Congress of Researchers of the Americas held triennially. This book is the second major publication and others are expected to follow.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

© 2007 REV. JOHN .T. HARRICHARAN M.A.. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 3/1/2007

ISBN: 978-1-4208-1326-5 (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-4184-6856-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4259-4384-4 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2004099120

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

AUTHOR’S PREFACE and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PART I CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN TRINIDAD 1498-1852

CHAPTER 1 CATHOLIC MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES UNDER SPANISH RULE

CHAPTER II UNDER THE BISHOPRIC OF SPANISH GUYANA 1.

CHAPTER III THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, SLAVERY AND EMANCIPATION

CHAPTER IV THE EXPANSION OF CATHOLIC ACTIVITY 1820-1844

CHAPTER V THE SCHISM

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII Creation of Archbishopric

CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSION

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

PART II CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN TRINIDAD 1853-1863

PREFACE

Chapter 1 A COMPLEX SOCIETY

Chapter Two DISARRAY TO DISCIPLINE

Chapter Three THE STRUGGLE OVER ANGLICIZATION

Chapter Four FURORE OVER MARRIAGE ORDINANCE OF 1863

Chapter Five STRUGGLE OVER SYSTEM OF EDUCATION

CONCLUSION

A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIX I

APPENDIX II

Dedicated to my parents:

John and Edwardlyn

First teachers in the ways of the Faith.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

IT was a result of my initial thrust into research activity of the Christian Churches among the East Indians in Trinidad during the period of indentureship that I was led to research the history of the Catholic Church in Trinidad. I am there fore indebted to Dr. Brinsley Samaroo for suggesting this topic. My deepest gratitude goes to Professor K.O. Laurence, who guided my research for my M.A. degree.

I am thankful to Ildefons Schroots, O.S.B., my con frere, who made available to me the transcripts of the docu ments of the Vatican Archives, when they were lodged at the Regional Seminary of St. John Vianney and The Ugan dan Martyrs. This was made possible by the kind permission of the then Vicar Provincial of the Irish Dominican Order in Trinidad, Fr. Damian Byrne.

I am indeed grateful for help I received in the various foreign archives, namely The Public Record Office, London; The National Archives, Madrid; The Simancas Archives at Simanca in Spain; and The National Academy of History in Venezuela. At home, I received immense help from the late Enos Siewlal, Government Archivist and also from Arch bishop Anthony Pantin in Arch bishop’s House Archives, which was extremely limited for the period under study.

I would also like to thank Miss Stephanie Thomas who typed the first draft, and June Prempeh who typed the final draft. I would like to thank the ex-Abbot Bernard Vlaar of Mt. St. Benedict, who gave me the green light for higher studies. Most of all I received the greatest help from Mr. Rupert Laydoo, for editing and putting an index to this book.

Any inaccuracies that may be found in this work I acknowledge them to be mine. However, I hope this book would be useful in Seminaries, Theological Colleges, Uni versities, Training Colleges and to all those who are interested in the Ecclesiastical History of Trinidad.

Fr. John Thomas Harricharan,

M.A. Trinidad.

PART I CHURCH AND SOCIETY IN TRINIDAD 1498-1852

CHAPTER 1 CATHOLIC MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES UNDER SPANISH RULE

1. The Indigenous Peoples

WHEN Columbus came to the Caribbean, Trinidad contained an agglo meration of Amerindians comprising principally two groups — the Arawaks and the Caribs. The existing Amerindian civilisation was an extension of that which existed in Eastern Venezuela and formed an integral part of the culture — area stretching from the South American continent to the Lesser and Greater Antilles. One branch of the Arawaks, the Tainos, was found mainly in the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas, while the Igneris occupied the Lesser Antilles. The Caribs who subsequently dominated the smaller islands of the West Indies distin guished themselves as Oubaobonum, the island Carib, from Baloue bonum, the mainland Carib.

In Trinidad there were several distinct Amerindian tribes at the time when Sir Walter Raleigh visited the island in 1595. The densely populated areas were in the northern and the southern belts. The more bellicose group lived in the north in marked contrast to the more friendly group in the south. The main northern settlements were loca ted at Mucurapo, San Juan, Tacarigua, Arima, Cumana and Toco, while the pacific group had established settlements at Manzanilla, Nariva, Mayaro, Savonetta, Tortuga, Pointe-a-Pierre, Naparima, La Brea, Siparia, Iros, Cedros, Erin, Palo Seco, Quinam and Morne Diablo.

The Amerindian civilisation of the Arawaks and the Caribs, who had a knowledge of stone, pottery and axe-blades, had surpassed the cultural level of the earlier Ciboneys whom they found living mostly in caves, rock-shelters and in possession of an essentially primitive shell culture. The natives whom Columbus met had already made the transi tion from the stage of food-gathering to food-producing. With their advanced level of material culture they were able to carry out a systematic cultivation of the land. Cassava was the staple food and the Arawaks in particular had acquired the technique of distilling the poi sonous juice of the cassava to make a variety of delicacies. Two addi tional crops, cotton and tobacco, helped to supplement their mono crop economy and maintain their way of life. Cotton was used in the manufacture of clothing and hammocks, while tobacco, besides its use for smoking and snuff, in the form of rolls was for the Caribs a medium of exchange. The Amerindians also strengthened their agrarian eco nomy by hunting and fishing.

These aborigines of Trinidad usually built their villages near the coastal areas, mainly on windswept heights, for hygenic reasons and to guard against mosquitoes, sandflies and other tropical pests. Their dwellings were almost circular in shape, cool with thatched roof and walls of cane meshed together with lianes. These sparsely furnished huts contained a few wooden stools and hammocks and utensils. The villages were kept tidy as the inhabitants disposed of rubbish into a communal dump, which also served as a burial ground, on the leeward side.

These Amerindians had no knowledge of metals. Their weapons and tools were made from stone or shell or wood; select stones were shaped into axe and hammer-heads, and small knives from flints. They made awls and needles from bones, while wood was used in the manu facture of bows, arrows, shields and spades.

With the exception of the cacique, these indigenous peoples were monogamists but generally led a life of sensuality which they believed continued after death. They usually took as wives, young women cap tured as spoils of war or, in the course of their trading expeditions, the daughters of parents to whom a dowry was paid. Anklets made of bas ketry interwoven with rich-dyed cotton became a distinguishing mark of the native-born woman from the slave woman captured in war or in raiding expeditions. Orgies frequently occurred and lasted for several days. The Amerindians indulged in these hedonistic celebrations appa rently to relieve the monotony of daily existence. In addition to the feasting there was singing and dancing performed to the sound of drums. On important ceremonial occasions the men gaudily decorated themselves with feathercaps and stuck colourful feathers unto their bodies. The first natives Columbus saw in Trinidad had long dark hair cut in Spanish style, and wore gaily coloured headgears of elaborate de signs along with short tunics.

The Caribs were more aggressive and made long military expedi tions for which they used pirogues hewn from tree trunks by means of fire and stone axe. Once in enemy territory, they would carry out a surprise attack under the cover of darkness and set fire to the houses. The main weapons of war consisted of the boutou, a club studded with sharp fish bones used in hand-to-hand combat, a shield and bow with arrows tipped with deadly poison. Columbus noticed that the shield, square and made of light wood, was peculiar to the natives of Trinidad.

The Arawaks were relatively peaceful, preferring a sedentary way of life and were numerically superior. They carried on an enterprising trade with their neighbours on the Paria coast, the lower Orinoco, the northern coast of the continent and the island of Margarita. They bar tered their agricultural products of corn, bananas and cassava for amulets, bracelets and other fineries. While the men were away fighting, hunting or trading, the Amerindian women were engaged in gardening, weaving or other domestic tasks.

The Arawaks were indeed a very superstitious people. They were animists who saw spirits in trees, rocks and natural phenomena. To gain control over the spirits, they fashioned idols, called zemis, out of wood, stone, bone or clay, which embodied the spirits. Besides the household ones, there were also idols, of which the Bohitos or priests were custodians to be found carved in caves, on open rocks or on domestic utensils. The idols bore resemblances to vegetables, animals or humans. The zemis were believed to direct all human activities and to favour the crops, sea or forests. The more outstanding zemis were the objects of songs and incantations during religious ceremonies.

Besides their vague anthropomorphic belief in a future life, an earth like heaven, the Caribs believed in a plurality of souls. For them, the main soul resided in the heart while the other souls resided in the blood pressure-points or in the chief bones of the human body. After death these souls or spirits separated from the main one, became rest less and consequently harmful. To the spirits of the good, the Caribs assigned a fertile vale clothed with everlasting green lodged in some deep recesses inaccessible to their enemies. In this delightful region of Coyaba they hoped to find fruits and cool spots where they could wander in indolence and ease. In these quiet haunts they expected to revel in unending sensual delights in the company of their relatives and friends. As regards the wicked, their punishment consisted essentially of deprivation of this bliss and a continual exposure to the hostile for ces of nature.

To distinguish between different types of spirits, the Caribs called the good spirits Akambone, who made themselves visible only in the form of bats, and the evil spirits Mabouyas. As there was no common form of worship, unlike the Arawaks, each Carib selected a personal god called Icheiri. This god had no material expressions in the form of figurines or idols. Natural phenomena like earthquakes, hurricanes, shipwrecks, thunder and epidemics were the destructive activities of angry mabouyas who were propitiated by an invitation to ah all-night dance or drinking. This individualistic feature of the Carib religion was emphasised by a mixture of domestic rather than social ritualism and animism which brought about a strong form of Shamantism in which the piaje or boyez unmistakably made known his power to control the evil spirits.

In their nature worship the Caribs held the sun and the moon in high veneration. Some of the tribes regarded the sun as the First Cause and attributed to it the fertility of the earth, scanty or copious rains and other temporal blessings. Others believed that everything depended upon the moon and interpreted a lunar eclipse as a sign of the moon’s anger.

As Trinidad was situated close to the mainland the island was enriched with the infusion of Carib elements and other cultural in fluences that never reached the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The ranks of the Trinidad Amerindians were periodically swelled by their counterparts from the Orinoco delta. These were the peoples who would feel the historic impact of Spanish colonialism and towards whom the Christian missionaries would direct their efforts for the next three hundred years.

2. The Antillean Dioceses

By reason of discovery Trinidad formed part of Spain’s New World empire and came under the jurisdiction of the newly created Antillean dioceses. The Church in Spanish America was an over seas extension of the Church in Spain and for a long time was a re flection of Spanish culture, subject, of course, to the modifications im posed by the races, indigenous religions, customs and languages in the New World. The Church in Spain and the Papacy were the two out standing institutions influencing the birth, growth and character of the Church in Spanish America.

Towards the end of the 15th century, Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic monarchs of Spain, in pursuing their policy of royal absolu tism, sought to control the Church, now a powerful institution with enormous wealth and considerably entrenched privileges which were jealously guarded. The Archbishop of Toledo, Primate of Spain, alone realised a personal income of 80,000 ducats. Despite the destruction of churches and monasteries as a result of civil uprisings, intermittent disturbances and intra-peninsular wars, the Church’s hierarchy, consist ing of seven archbishoprics and forty bishoprics, continued to enjoy pre-eminent social rank, power and property. The clergy as a whole, exempt from taxes imposed by the Crown, cleverly evaded municipal dues. The higher ranks of the Church — bishops, abbots and canons — acquired extensive territories over which they exercised exclusive tem poral and spiritual sway. Centuries of the Church’s involvement in the campaigns to expel the Moors from Spain gave rise to the creation of Spanish military Orders and the phenomena of warrior-bishops. Bis hops like Alfonso Carillo of Toledo and Pedro Gonzales de Mendoza of Seville possessed fortresses and private armies. Maintaining the crusading tradition, these prelates did not hesitate to lead their troops in battle as the occasion demanded.

While Ferdinand and Isabella were gradually successful in disbanding episcopal armies and placing royal agents in charge of the for tresses, their most notable victory was to secure the royal prerogative to nominate candidates to vacant bishoprics. A vacancy which existed in the prestigious see of Cuenca in Spain led the monarchs to press their claims to appoint a candidate of their own choice. After an acrimonious dispute with the Pope, the Crown finally achieved their aim, a stepping stone to the generous Papal donation of the Patronato.

Pope Innocent VIII in 1486, as an act of gratitude for the extirpation of the Moorish infidels, conferred on the Spanish Crown the right of patronage to all the major ecclesiastical benefices in the newly conquered kingdoms which subsequently included Granada — the last Moorish stronghold in Spain to fall. This victory set the prece dent for future royal actions that later were to shape the Church in the New World when Ferdinand manoeuvred skilfully to obtain, from the Pope, control over ecclesiastical affairs in the newly discovered empire. The first step in this direction was the bull of Alexander VI Inter Caetera, which entrusted the task of evangelisation in the Indies to the Spanish sovereigns.

With the reform of the episcopate undertaken by the Crown, the Pope urged that vacant offices be filled by men generous, erudite and honest. This reform at the top coincided with a spiritual ferment the Church in Spain was experiencing and was advocated by the synods of Aranda, Duero and Seville held in 1473 and 1479. The reforming mea sures were designed to uplift the intellectual standards and deepen the spiritual life of the clergy. Colleges for the regular and secular clergy were established and a monastic-type discipline imposed upon clerical students to ensure sound piety and wholesome behaviour. In this way the Church in Spain was spared the agony of the Protestant revolt.

In the vanguard of this reforming movement was the illustrious prelate Cardinal Ximenes de Cisneros (1435 - 1517) whose rise to the highest rank in the Church destined him to play an active and decisive role in the establishment of the Church in the Indies. At the age of forty-eight he renounced the office of bishop-administrator and en tered the Franciscan Order of the strictest observance. For ten years, schooled in the virtues of ascetism, he lived an eremitical life until Queen Isabella summoned him forth as her confessor and endowed him with the Archbishopric of Toledo in 1495. Cisneros proved him- self equal to the task facing him as he brought to this new office his exceptional qualities and reforming zeal. The Cardinal not only urged reforms in the monasteries he visited personally, but also aimed at fashioning a model clergy in his diocese. He founded the University of Alcala to train a Catholic elite so necessary for the effectiveness of the Church in the New World. He also encouraged humanistic learning as the handmaid of Christianity. At the age of eighty he had attained the rank of Cardinal, Grand Inquisitor, Primate of Spain and Vicar of Spain’s New World Empire. His reforms influenced the rest of Spain and spread to the other religious orders, Dominicans and Jeronymites from whom were to emerge clerics equipped for the evan gelisation of the New World. The Church in Spain was now ready to meet the spiritual challenges of the Enterprise of the Indies.

Another formative influence on the Spanish American Church was the Papacy, the heart of Catholicism and the seat of universal ecclesiastical administration. The authority and influence of the Papacy had suffered greatly from the schism of the West and from mismanage ment. Papal administration had failed to remedy the abuses of the late medieval Church. Among these were the imposition of taxes, nepotism, plurality and absenteeism, and the inability of bishops to enforce dis cipline in the face of exemptions and immunities of privileged bodies. The excessive endowment of the Church created in the clergy and reli gion an aristocracy of wealth. The clergy by their involvement in secu lar affairs which led to the further acquisition of political and econo mic power, projected an image that fell far short of the evangelical ideals. The political prestige of the Renaissance Popes like Julius II and Leo X compensated to some extent for the moral abasement of the Papacy. However, while these Popes gave their patronage and at tention to the marvellous art, architecture and learning that charac terised the Italian Renaissance, the Papacy, on the eve of the New World discovery, found itself in dire need of reform.

The burden of instituting and organising missionary enterprises for the Indies rested on the shoulders of the Papacy. However, lack of adequate resources, personal and financial, coupled with ignorance of the geography of the New World made the Popes dependent on the Spanish Crown for the establishment of the Church in America. While the voice of the Papacy had been heard in varying degrees by Christian princes, yet in such a situation of dependence the Papal will could only make itself felt by bringing moral pressure to bear on temporal rulers.

There was a close alliance between Church and State, the inex tricable link between Altar and Throne in the extension of Spanish rule in the New World. Church and State complemented each other in Spanish colonialism. The Church in Spanish America became the touch stone in the Royal Crown when the Pope granted the latter the right of patronage — the patronato real de Indias. In November 1501, the Ar gonese Pope, Alexander VI, issued a bull conceding to the Spanish Crown the right to ecclesiastical tithes for building up the Church in the Indies and the conversion of the Indians to Christianity.

The first Vicar Apostolic to be appointed for the New World was Fr. Bernardo Boyl, once Acting Superior of the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat in Spain. Along with about twelve priests, he accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to Hispaniola. He was commissioned to preach, instruct and convert the natives to the Faith and to build churches. On the 6th of January, 1494, the Feast of the Epiphany, Mass was celebrated in the newly-built chapel of the town of Isabella for the first time. However, sharp disagreements between Fr. Boyl and Columbus over the latter’s harsh treatment imposed on the colonists and Indians, the maintenance of priests and other pioneering difficulties compelled the disgruntled prelate to return after a year’s work. Some of the missionaries returned with him but among those who remained were two friars, Juan Bergonon and Ponce. The former worked in the territory of Macoris and converted the Cacique Quaticagna to whom he gave the name John Matthew, while the other friar worked at La Vega. Cacique Guarionex of Magna also became a Christian.

In November 1504, following the colonising expedition of Gover nor Ovando to Hispaniola, the Spanish sovereigns obtained from Pope Julius II the permission for the erection of episcopal sees in the New World. The bull, Ilius fuleiti presidio, provided for the creation of an archbishopric and two bishoprics in the island, viz., the archdiocese of Ayguacense and its two suffragan dioceses of Bayunense and Maguacense. Subsequent shifts in population and delays over the appointment of candidates caused the annulment of these sees and the creation of new ones, viz., Santo Domingo and Concepcion in Hispaniola and San Juan in Puerto Rico. In 1508 the Pope granted to the Crown the right of patronage for all churches in her overseas terri tories by the bull, Universal ecclesiae regimini. Further bulls of 1510 and 1511 allowed the collection of tithes to be undertaken by the Crown and made Seville the metropolitan head of New World dioceses whose bishops were consecrated at Burgos in 1512.

With the patronage in hand, the Crown wielded an immense pow er in ecclesiastical administration in Spanish America. Viceroys and governors acted as vice-patrons for the King in Church affairs in the co lonies, whose administration at first lay in the hands of the Council of Castile and later the Council of the Indies. As a unique arrange ment between the Vatican and the Spanish Crown, the patronage em powered the King to nominate clerics to fill vacant benefices from arch bishop down to parish priest. In addition, the King enjoyed certain privileges and utilitarian rights. The monarch or his representatives in the New World received pride of place at religious functions, were specially prayed for and could be buried in cathedrals. The royal government, as patron and defender of the Church in the colonies, re ceived part of the tithe, an agricultural tax. The Crown not only enjoyed the right to appeal to the clergy for financial assistance in times of special need but also determined which clerics were to go to the In dies, paid for their journeys and decided upon the place and length of their assignment. The royal treasury contributed to the construction of monasteries and donated silver services, candles, wine and oil to im poverished religious institutions. No direct communication occurred between the Holy See and the clergy in America, nor could any papal briefs be published or circulated without royal approbation. Churches and hospitals could only be constructed in accordance with royal decrees.

As the seat of the bishopric and the audiencia, Santo Domingo sent out missionaries to other parts of the Caribbean. The Crown gene rally pursued a policy of establishing a bishopric as soon as a region was colonised. Trinidad by virtue of its strategic position was the spring board to early 16th century continental penetration, conquest and paci fication. As a result, the island became the scene of the earliest mission ary thrust towards the southern Caribbean.

In 1513 the Superior of the Dominicans in Hispaniola commis sioned two missionaries, Fr. Francisco de Cordova, Master of Theology, and Juan Garces, a lay-brother, to preach the gospel to the natives of Trinidad. According to Las Casas the indigenous peoples received them kindly and the missionaries, who lacked much knowledge of the native language, made themselves better understood through signs and gestures. The natives listened to the preaching and after some time a large number asked to be baptised and received Christian names. One of their chiefs obtained the name of Don Alonzo. As the missionaries progressed steadily in their evangelising work a Spanish ship arrived. Formerly the Indians would have taken flight but the presence of the friars was deemed a guarantee of their safety and they received the crew graciously. However, the captain had other motives; he enticed a large group aboard, including chief Don Alonzo, and set sail for Santo Domingo where the Indians were sold as slaves.

Naturally the natives ashore who witnessed this treacherous act were infuriated and would have taken reprisal action against the friars, who accused of complicity, pleaded innocence and requested a respite of four months to have the captives released. The missionaries protested in stern language to the authorities in Hispaniola and demanded a return of the captives. Their efforts were futile as the Indians were al ready sold, some of them having been bought by officials of the Vice Royalty, who were reluctant to see justice done. As no redress was forthcoming and the stipulated time had long passed, the Indians took to action, fell upon the friars and killed them. Thus was spilled the blood of the first two martyrs for the Faith in Trinidad.

This episode concerning the kidnapping of the Indians to be sold as slaves in Hispaniola was merely one in the series of sporadic raids carried on for several years in Trinidad and the nearby coastal areas. Las Casas gave an interesting account of the slave-dealer, Juan Bono, who executed a daring raid on the natives in Trinidad in 1510 and later sold them in Puerto Rico as slaves. By a specific decree in 1511, the King of Spain permitted the enslavement of Caribs in Trinidad and the other smaller islands on the basis of ther fierce resistance to the Chris tians and their refusal to accept the Christian faith. This royal per mission opened the flood gates to those who were, stealthily or un abashedly, engaged in transporting Indians for slave-labour on the plan tations or mines in Hispaniola. As the native population in Hispaniola dwindled because of wars, epidemics, forced labour and other forms of exploitation, there followed an acute labour shortage especially as Spanish colonisation spread to Cuba, Puerto Rico and Jamaica. Stimu lated by the demand for Indian labour in these colonies the Indian slave-traffic, allowed from Trinidad, expanded to include