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Page 10
Much has been written of life on a cocoa estate; and all who have
enjoyed the proverbial hospitality of a West Indian or Ceylon planter,
highly praise the conditions of their life. The description of an
estate in the northern hills of Trinidad will serve as an example. The
other industry of this island is sugar, in cultivating which the
coloured labourers work in the broiling sun, as near to the steaming
lagoon as they may in safety venture. Later on in the season the long
rows between the stifling canes have to be hoed; then, when the time
of "crop" arrives, the huge mills in the _usine_ are set in motion,
and for the longest possible hours of daylight the workers are in the
field, loading mule-cart or light railway with massive canes. In the
yard around the crushing-mills the shouting drivers bring their
mule-teams to the mouth of the hopper, and the canes are bundled into
the crushing rollers with lightning speed. The mills run on into the
night, and the hours of sleep are only those demanded by stern
necessity, until the crop is safely reaped and the last load of canes
reduced to shredded _megass_ and dripping syrup.
But upon the cocoa estate there is lasting peace. From the railway on
the plain we climb the long valley, our strong-boned mule or lithe
Spanish horse taking the long slopes at a pleasant amble, standing to
cool in the ford of the river we cross and re-cross, or plucking the
young shoots of the graceful bamboos so often fringing our path.
Villages and straggling cottages, with palm thatch and _adobe_ walls,
are passed, orange or bread-fruit shading the little garden, and
perhaps a mango towering over all. The proprietor is still at work on
the plantation, but his wife is preparing the evening meal, while the
children, almost naked, play in the sunshine.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: The Home of the Cacao.
(_One of Messrs. Cadburys' Estates, Maracas, Trinidad._)]
The cacao-trees of neighbouring planters come right down to the ditch
by the roadside, and beneath dense foliage, on the long rows of stems
hang the bright glowing pods. Above all towers the _bois immortelle_,
called by the Spaniards _la madre del cacao_, "the mother of the
cacao." In January or February the _immortelle_ sheds its leaves and
bursts into a crown of flame-coloured blossom. As we reach the
shoulder of the hill, and look down on the cacao-filled hollow, with
the _immortelle_ above all, it is a sea of golden glory, an
indescribably beautiful scene. Now we note at the roadside a plant of
dragon's blood, and if we peer among the trees there is another just
within sight; this, therefore, is the boundary of two estates. At an
opening in the trees a boy slides aside the long bamboos which form
the gateway, and a short canter along a grass track brings us to the
open savanna or pasture around the homestead.
Here are grazing donkeys, mules, and cattle, while the chickens run
under the shrubs for shelter, reminding one of home. The house is
surrounded with crotons and other brilliant plants, beyond which is a
rose garden, the special pride of the planter's wife. If the sun has
gone down behind the western hills, the boys will come out and play
cricket in the hour before sunset. These savannas are the beauty-spots
of a country clothed in woodland from sea-shore to mountain-top.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Ortinola, Maracas, Trinidad.]
Next morning we are awaked by a blast from a conch-shell. It is 6.30,
and the mist still clings in the valley; the sun will not be over the
hills for another hour or more, so in the cool we join the labourers
on the mule-track to the higher land, and for a mile or more follow a
stream into the heart of the estate. If it is crop-time, the men will
carry a _goulet_--a hand of steel, mounted on a long bamboo--by the
sharp edges of which the pods are cut from the higher branches without
injury to the tree. Men and women all carry cutlasses, the one
instrument needful for all work on the estate, serving not only for
reaping the lower pods, but for pruning and weeding, or "cutlassing,"
as the process of clearing away the weed and brush is called.
[Illustration--Drawing: GOULET AND WOODEN SPOON.]
[Illustration--Drawing: CUTLASSES.]
Gathering the pods is heavy work, always undertaken by men. The pods
are collected from beneath the trees and taken to a convenient heap,
if possible near to a running stream, where the workers can refill
their drinking-cups for the mid-day meal. Here women sit, with trays
formed of the broad banana leaves, on which the beans are placed as
they extract them from the pod with wooden spoons. The result of the
day's work, placed in panniers on donkey-back, is "crooked" down to
the cocoa-house, and that night remains in box-like bins, with
perforated sides and bottom, covered in with banana leaves. Every
twenty-four hours these bins are emptied into others, so that the
contents are thoroughly mixed, the process being continued for four
days or more, according to circumstances.
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