Dr Rita Pemberton
THE TRAJECTORY of the history of Tobago has been influenced by water, both by its presence on and around the island or its absence and the manner in which it influenced policy decisions pertaining to the island.
Water has determined the location and size of the First Peoples settlements on the island and, as Kamau Brathwaite indicates, 'The sea is history,' therefore the waters around the island were used by various groups of First Peoples in the region long before the European invasion. In addition, the survival of the resident First Peoples population was based on their exploitation of the marine resources in the surrounding waters.
Also, the presence of several bays and natural protected harbours around the island facilitated the activities of the various Europeans who competed for possession of the island and the pirates, privateers and buccaneers, who preyed on shipping, raided estates and/or engaged in illegal trading with the estates while serving as spies for one European country or another.
The water around Tobago was therefore the scene of battles between the European countries which were locked in conflict for possession of the island across the 17th and 18th centuries. Water, therefore, functioned as both a facilitator and inhibitor to human activities and water considerations influenced imperial policy.
Water was central to plantation operations, affected planter/worker relations during the post-Emancipation years and the lack of water affected the population and became a central issue in the politics of the island across the 20th century.
When the island was established as a British possession, the recognition that water played a vital role in agricultural resource exploitation, which was the primary interest of imperial Britain, led to the inclusion of a land reserve for the attraction of rains to feed the soil for production enhancement. This decision was guided by scientific influence, which used the Barbados situation as a guide with respect to land use in Tobago and other new island settlements.
The two islands were compared and while Tobago was described as 'wild and untouched,' in contrast by 1655 Barbados was totally deforested because its forest cover was removed to establish plantations and its sole remaining woodland was at Turner's Hall. Since the early 17th century, Tobago was used as a reliable source of hardwood timbers for Barbados, whose residents visited for cedar, locust and mastic, among other species.
Reports of declining fertility on that island helped to convince the British parliamentarians to support a measure in Tobago through which a management policy to control rainfall, in order to prevent the degeneration of land, would be implemented. Forests were seen as rain reserves and a component of climate control. The establishment of the first forest reserve in the hemisphere, which protected the forests to attract rain and the main water sources of the island, was the outcome.
The bounties of water and the healthy growth of wood w
