Port of Spaia was a curious compound of English,
French, and Spanish buildings placed on broad streets
or around tree-planted squares, with tramways along
the chief avenues, dirty gutters and hundreds of
disgusting black and gray buzzards, gobbling up
refuse or roosting on the trees. I use the past
tense in speaking of the town, for a few days after
we left the place, a fire broke out and spread
rapidly, destroying the business portion of the



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town and entailing a loss of four millions of dol-
lars. It was only through the efforts of the
marines of the American men-of-war New York,
Cincinnati, and Raleigh that a more terrible loss
of property and of life was averted. The marines
to the number of two hundred and fifty rendered
prompt and efficient service with their fire hose,
which was taken ashore in the ships' boats. This
is the third great fire which has occurred here in
the past dozen years. A fire broke out in the
Union Club House on the morning of January 28,
1884, and in a short time the whole southeastern
portion of the town was in ruins. The principal
hotel and the largest dry-goods establishment were
entirely destroyed. The loss was estimated at
more than 1400,000. At that time there was no
fire department in Port of Spain, and the flames
subsided only when everything before them was
consumed.
