popular with the majority of the population on the island. The Carnival was often marred by clashes between groups of revellers carrying sticks and lighted torches. While the confrontations started in song duels between the chantwells, they often worsened to physical violence. The colonial authorities banned carrying sticks and torches in 1868 due to a clash between two groups. However, this ban was not enforced for some years. Riots Captain Arthur Baker became the head of Trinidad's police force in the early 1880s and was determined to end the canboulay, which he perceived as a threat to public order. In 1881, the colonial police force clashed with revellers in Port of Spain who had banded together against them due to their restrictions. This caused resentment amongst the general public in Trinidad who valued the festival despite the clashes. Due to the feelings of the population, Governor Sir Sanford Freeling confined police to barracks in order to calm down the situation. However, when Freeling was recalled in 1883, Baker sought to crack down at the canboulay in the southern cities of San Fernando and Princes Town during the carnival of 1884. In Princes Town, the masqueraders attacked the police station after magistrate Hobson decided to confine the police to barracks because the crowd was too large. After Hobson was felled with a stone, the police opened fire on the rioters killing a youth and seriously wounding two others causing the crowd to flee. There were also serious clashes between police and rioters in San Fernando during Carnival, with the police eventually being able to suppress the riots and restore order. Legacy The British colonial government’s attempt to ban canboulay in 1881 resulted in open riots between Afro-Creole revelers and police, a turn of events that caused deep resentment within Trinidadian society toward the colonial government. In 1883, drumming was banned in an attempt to prevent violence breaking out during the Carnival; with this injunction coming about after the Canboulay riots. Canboulays were processions during carnival that commemorated the harvesting of burnt cane fields during slavery. It was a labor-intensive process, involving forced marches of slaves from neighboring plantations in order to more efficiently harvest the cane. The open resistance of the revelers towards the police redoubled concerns among officials in the colonial government over this potential threat to public order and led to an alternative strategy - the banning of drumming