During the seven years' war in Europe, which began in 1756, England, in her endeavors to induce Spain to join her against France, offered among other things to evacuate the establishments made by her subjects in the bay of Honduras since October 1748, including Mosquitia, all of which had been made the subject of complaint. This does not necessarily imply, as certain Spanish writers would have us believe, that England thereby acknowledged the illegality of the wood-cutter's right to occupy that territory.[XXXIII‑14]
THE WOOD-CUTTERS REËNFORCED.
Indeed, it is clearly evident that England considered, or pretended to consider, that her subjects in Belize had acquired the right to cut and ship dye-woods and mahogany in this and other districts, without molestation, for in the subsequent treaty with Spain, in 1763, although agreeing to demolish "all fortifications which her subjects may have constructed in the bay of Honduras, and other places of the territory of Spain in that part of the world," England insisted upon the insertion of a clause in the treaty whereby the cutters of log-wood were guaranteed the right to continue unmolested the cutting and shipping of the same, and the erection of the necessary buildings for this purpose, within those districts.[XXXIII‑15]
This weakness on the part of Spain, attributed to the incapacity of her commissioner, the marqués de Grimaldi, though apparently a simple relaxation in favor of the English of the law which excluded all foreigners from the Spanish colonies, was virtually a recognition of the right of the English to occupy indefinitely a portion of her territory; and though not explicitly surrendering her sovereignty, no limits were fixed to the encroachments of the wood-cutters, nor were they in any way made subject to the Spanish authorities. Thus the way to future complications was opened.[XXXIII‑16]
Soon after the ratification of this treaty, the English government commissioned Sir William Burnaby to proceed to Belize, establish the limits within which wood-cutting was to be confined, and draw up a code of laws for the regulation of the colony. This he did; and though we have no information as to the limits fixed, for many years the Burnaby Code, as it was called, formed the only laws by which Belize was governed. The establishment of limits, however, availed but little; for, emboldened by their previous success in resisting the Spaniards, and encouraged by the protection of the English government, they gradually extended their wood-cutting operations beyond these boundaries, and carried on smuggling to the great prejudice of Spanish commerce. In consequence, the governor of Yucatan forbade all communication between Belize and the Spanish settlements; required that all persons settling in Belize should present a permit to that effect from either the English or Spanish government; expelled the wood-cutters from the coast district of the Hondo River, and ordered that all wood-cutting should be confined to the region lying between the Belize and New rivers, and not farther than twenty leagues from the coast.
As a result of these measures the business of the wood-cutters was injured, as they claimed, to the extent of one hundred and eighty thousand pesos. In the latter part of 1764 a demand for the satisfaction of these losses was presented by the English minister at the court of Spain, who also insisted that the governor of Yucatan be reproved for his conduct, and that the wood-cutters be permitted to return to the Hondo River district. The English minister intimated that war would be the result if these demands were not granted; but after a protracted correspondence he succeeded only in obtaining permission for the return of the wood-cutters to the districts from which they had been expelled; and the claims were added, for future settlement, to the long list of those already pending between the two governments.[XXXIII‑17]
RIVAS ATTACKS THE ENGLISH.
During the next five years there is no evidence that the wood-cutters were disturbed; but in 1779, war having broken out afresh between Spain and England, the former determined to profit by the opportunity to give the final blow to the existence of the English settlements in her territory. In that year Don Roberto Rivas Vetancur, the recently appointed governor of Yucatan, in accordance with his instructions began to organize an expedition against Belize, Bacalar as before becoming the base of operations. The wood-cutters were soon informed of the declaration of war, and made all haste to fortify the mouth of the Belize River and St George Key, which lies directly opposite. Not content with this, they determined again to anticipate the Spaniards by capturing Bacalar, which ever since its reëstablishment they had regarded as a standing menace to their safety. In this, however, they were disappointed; for Governor Rivas, informed of their design, hastily organized a force of some eight hundred men, and procuring canoes and piraguas hastened on to Bacalar. Thence, though his men were ill equipped, he proceeded against the English; and having driven them from the Hondo River district, and captured and armed three small vessels, he sent a strong force against St George Key, and captured the fort with its garrison.
Further operations were prevented by the sudden appearance of three English vessels of war sent by the governor of Jamaica. The Spaniards had barely time to escape with their prisoners and prizes, the latter including many small craft. Proceeding up New River they drove the English from this region, destroying over forty establishments, and inflicting a loss on the wood-cutters of more than five hundred thousand pesos. At this juncture reënforcements arrived for the wood-cutters, and Rivas was compelled to abandon their territory; but in consideration of the important results accomplished with so small a force, his conduct was approved by the Spanish crown.[XXXIII‑18]
TREATY BETWEEN SPAIN AND GREAT BRITAIN.