The Loss of El Dorado

Title: The Loss of El Dorado – A Colonial History

Author: V S Naipaul

Publisher: Picador, 2010 (First published 1973)

ISBN: 9780330522847

Pages: 376

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul is a Nobel Prize-winning author of Indian origin, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago. He is basically a novelist who has published more than thirty books of fiction as well as non-fiction in the genre of autobiography and history. Medieval Europeans believed in the existence of a city constructed of gold somewhere in South America. Fevered quests for locating the city obviously failed, resulting in considerable loss of life. As a corollary to the pursuit, Spanish conquistadores established many colonies scattered over the area. The British and the French soon intervened, with disastrous results for the Spanish. This historical narrative describes two distinctive phases in the development of Trinidad as a British colony – the wiping off of Indians from the island and two centuries later, of establishing a slave colony. As slavery was abolished in the 19^th century, plantations died down. Indentured labour from the Gangetic plains emigrated to the Caribbean to tide over the shortage of labour as a result of manumission. The author himself is a descendant of them.

The dismal plight of the Black slaves who toiled in Trinidad is distressing to modern minds accustomed to social justice and racial equality. They were grabbed from Africa by slave traders and sold to the Caribbean islanders to provide much needed manpower to get its plantations going. Many died due to diseases and overwork, and then unceremoniously disposed off. Naipaul uses the term ‘Negro’ throughout the book to heighten the sense of affront against the despised practice of slavery. They were bought and sold like commodity and the government even taxed the transactions. Immigrants in Trinidad who came with their own slaves would pay no taxes on their Negroes for ten years, and they could import slaves duty-free for ten years. If the money was used to buy Negroes, goods could be taken out of the island and sold subject only to a five per cent tax, whereas trade with foreign nationals were banned in all other cases (p.113). Severe restrictions were imposed on the slaves’ social life after working hours. Negroes from one plantation was not allowed to mix with Negroes from others. Their diversions were to end before prayers. Marriage was to be encouraged between slaves to increase the number of them. The owner of the husband was to have the option of buying the wife at a fair valuation, or he was to sell the husband to the owner of the wife (p.115). The white masters literally ensured conditions ripe for the ‘breeding’ of Negro populations. A woman who had more than three children and kept them healthy was to be given a dollar a year per child; a woman who had seven would be spared all field labour (p.167). The native Indians were free, but their numbers quickly diminished due to diseases, extermination in large numbers and conversion to Christianity. Trinidad’s Indian population of 40,000 dwindled in a century to a tenth of that number, at 4000.

Though authored by a Nobel laureate, the book is unimpressive to general readers from other parts of the world. Naipaul recounts the history of his native island, which is much relevant only to its society. Perhaps this indifference of other societies in what is going on in the Caribbean and Americas might have been one of the reasons why slavery persisted there for more than it prevailed elsewhere. But anyway, the highly localized narrative of a small colonial island is, unfortunately rather dull. What rescues the readers from boredom is the lucid and artful depiction of the events, suffused thoroughly with dry humour.

We are presented with a ringside view of the rapid changes in colonial equations as far as Trinidad was concerned. The island was first colonized by the Spanish, but adventurers like Walter Raleigh conquered it on behalf of Britain. This ended up in a curious situation, in which the island was administered by British governors under Spanish law, even though people of French, English and other nationalities also inhabited the island. When a case went in appeal to England, its judges were expected to pass verdict based on Spanish law, which they didn’t know. People with an enlightened mind who came to Trinidad with the firm resolve to end slavery, were also forced to put up with the practice on account of prudence. There are a few people who still argue that the condition of the free working class was in fact worse than slaves immediately after slavery was did away with. Their point is basically an economic one, that is, harming a slave physically was not in the interest of the master, because his capacity for work is diminished. But human nature, particularly in its vindictive genre, is unpredictable as can be seen in many places in the book in which owners maltreat their slaves in a fit of anger which may even result in death or mutilation, like cutting off ears.

The book is not recommended.

Rating: 2 Star