Undoubtedly much could still be done to better conditions, but the small estates are generally mortgaged and their owners are in no position to borrow more money to enable them to operate on a more extended scale. On the other hand, they are extremely tenacious of their holdings and will not part with them to capitalists who might establish large central factories. It therefore seems altogether improbable that there will be any expansion in the sugar industry of the colony in the near future. The production of Barbados during the last twenty years in long tons has been as follows: 1895 33,331 1896 45,170 1897 51,275 1898 46,878 1899 40,442 1900 44,250 1901 56,912 1902 45,576 1903 33,795 1904 55,785 1905 41,210 1906 50,630 1907 33,033 1908 31,353 1909 15,571 1910 36,389 1911 32,514 1912 exports 30,548 1913 ” 11,479 1914 ” 33,387 1915 ” 32,578 1916 ” 50,000[69] TRINIDAD Trinidad lies six miles off the northeastern coast of Venezuela, between 10 degrees 3 minutes and 10 degrees 50 minutes north latitude and 60 degrees 39 minutes and 62 degrees west longitude. Its average length is forty-eight miles, it is thirty-five miles in width and has an area of 1754 square miles. It is the largest of the British West Indian islands, with the exception of Jamaica, and the population in 1914 was estimated to be 255,148, one-third of whom were East Indians. The surface is level or rolling, with a mountain range in the north, which rises to 3100 feet at its highest point, Tucuche Peak. In the south there is a ridge of hills about 600 feet high, and in the central part an upland belt runs from east to west by south. There are a number of small rivers, none of them navigable. The island enjoys an equable climate, the temperature varying from 70 degrees to 87 degrees Fahrenheit, the mean being 78.6 degrees. The seasons are regular, rainy from May to January, with a four weeks’ interval of fine weather in October, and dry from the end of January until May. The average rainfall is 66.26 inches, but in the cane-growing region it is about 80 inches. Hurricanes, earthquakes and long spells of drought are unknown. Christopher Columbus discovered Trinidad in 1496 and the Spaniards occupied it ninety years later. It remained in their hands until 1797, when it was taken by the British, to whom it was formally ceded in 1802.