ABSTRACT
In South-east Asia, and to a lesser extent in Jamaica and Trinidad as well, the Chinese assumed this role of secondary colonists; whereas in East Africa, Indians and in West Africa, Levantines did likewise. Successive governors not only admitted the importance of their numerical contribution to the white population and to the preservation of white interests in the colony, but also considered them a guarantee against the colony ever relapsing into barbarism through Creole ascendancy. It was primarily in the retail trade as hucksters, peddlars, grocers, druggists, butchers and spirit dealers, however, that the Portuguese established the economic base which promoted their rise as secondary colonists. Similarly in March 1889 when the colonial economy was still suffering from the effects of one of the worst depressions since emancipation, riots broke out in Georgetown. Consequently the Creoles decided to defend those interests by attacking Portuguese property in the vain hope that this would force them to leave the colony permanently.
