Hibernaculum: When You Could Not Get Over, You Went Under...

...But You Did Not Die.

"The condition of the Amerindians was very inferior to that of the slaves. The slaves were protected by the humanity code which governed them, and by the interest which their owners had for their welfare. One could almost see them prospering and multiplying, whereas the Indians, relegated to the four missions of Arima, Toco, Siparia and Savana Grande, then far away from any populated area, lived under the rule and pleasure of an all-powerful magistrate and a curate of doctrine, and decreased and diminished in numbers day by day. Under this oppressive rule, the sons of our proud and hardy islanders who had rebelled against the Spanish conquest, were disappearing little by little from the land in which their ancestors had been lords and masters. They were already reduced to the insignificant number of about one thousand souls, and they had fallen into such a state of abject degradation, that one can say without exaggeration, that they retained only the external appearances of men. They had become beasts of burden who found no pleasure except in drunkenness and promiscuity. So brutalised, they contributed nothing to public prosperity."

Source: "The history of the island of Trinidad under the Spanish government: Second Part (1622-1797)"/ Pierre Gustav Louis Borde, Port of Spain: republished by Paria Publishing, 1982. p. 315 (First published in Paris : Maisonneuve Et Cie, 1883)

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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare