Toco is one of the remotest districts in Trinidad. For a long time, it was almost completely cut off from the rest of the island by land, save through a bridle path over the mountains from Las Cuevas or an even more treacherous crossing through the woods to the east coast.
Amerindian tribes were known to inhabit the district as early as 650 AD and were of a variety of tribal origins. Colonisation of Trinidad by the Spaniards in 1592, had little impact on this inaccessible area which continued unchanged until 1631.
In that year, the British coloniser, Sir Henry Colt sent men to establish a settlement in this otherwise undetected area. A battery was constructed with several guns and somehow, word was leaked to the Spaniards who surprised the small force of 15 men with an overland attack (the terrain was so rugged the British little expected an approach from inland). Not having anywhere secure to lodge the prisoners they were transported in an open rowboat to Margarita where despite protestations of fair treatment, the governor executed the men in the dead of night and had them secretly buried. This was a base and dishonourable act which caused a stain on the integrity of the Spanish Governor of Trinidad, Don Luis de Monsalves.
Six years later, a party of Dutch privateers attempted to establish a toehold on this abandoned coast, but were again put to flight by the Spaniards.
Another grim and bloody episode of Toco history occurred in 1699. In that year, Amerindians of the Tamanaque tribe at a mission called San Francisco de los Arenales (near present-day San Rafael village) revolted and slaughtered three Capuchin monks and a Spaniard carpenter after refusing to labour in the construction of a mission chapel.
Retribution was swift and cruel with an armed party of Spanish soldiers being dispatched from the old capital of San Jose de Oruna to capture or kill the transgressors. The fleeing Tamanaques split into two groups…one headed for the Nariva Swamp and the other for Galera Point. The latter party was pursued and cornered at the cliff on the point where man, woman and child leapt into the crashing sea rather than be taken alive by the Spaniards.
In 1758, Capuchin monks from Aragon in Spain established a mission for the conversion of the Amerindians to Christianity, possibly in the vicinity of the present RC church. The mission would have been typical of Spanish townships, with the chapel being oriented east to west on the eastern side of a square, which on its other three borders sported Amerindian huts. It was this mission which received Black Carib refugees from St Vincent displaced by the First Carib war.
The First Carib War (1769–1773) was a military conflict between the Carib inhabitants of St Vincent and British military forces supporting British efforts at colonial expansion on the island. Led primarily by Black Carib chieftain Joseph Chatoyer, the Caribs successfully defended the windward side of the island against a military survey expedition in 1769, and rebuffed repeated demands that they sell their land to representatives of the British colonial government.
Frustrated by what they saw as intransigence, the British commissioners launched a full-scale military assault on the Caribs in 1772, with the objective of subjugating and deporting them from the island. British unfamiliarity with the windward lands of the island and effective Carib defence of the islands’ difficult mountain terrain blunted the British advance, and political opposition in London to the expedition prompted an enquiry and calls for it to be ended. With military matters at a stalemate, a peace agreement was signed in 1773 that delineated boundaries between British and Carib areas of the island.
Runaway slaves from Tobago were also a part of the society in Toco. In 1770 a slave named Sandy led the island’s first rebellion which ended in the deaths of 20 whites. Sandy escaped capture by jumping into the sea and swimming to Trinidad where some believe he lived out his life in Toco.
Indeed, the trade between Toco and Tobago was more frequent than that between the district and the rest of Trinidad due to poor communications.
The Cedula de Poblacion saw several land grants being made in Toco to French settlers and their slaves. Names which are recorded include Gurio, D’Godet and Traille. Supposedly they grew cotton since this was a staple crop of the island at the point and the conditions seemed suitable.
Next week, we will look at another chapter of Toco’s long history.