But poor as the colonists were, their condition did not shield them from the depredations of freebooters, who during the latter portion of the century made several raids on the coast of Honduras. In 1576 Andrew Barker, a so-called merchant of Bristol, resolved to reimburse himself for loss of property confiscated by the Spaniards during a trading venture to the Canary Islands, and set forth on a piratical expedition. Fitting out two vessels, he sailed from Plymouth in June. After touching at various points and capturing a small amount of treasure, he arrived at the mouth of the Chagre, where men were sent in search of friendly cimarrones who might act as guides. As none could be found, the expedition sailed for Honduras, captured on the way a ship containing a little gold and a small quantity of arms, and anchored off the island of San Francisco. Here, on account of a quarrel with his chief officer, Barker was forcibly sent on shore, where, with thirty of his men, he was surprised by a party of Spaniards, and nine of the English were slain, himself among the number. A detachment from the ships was then sent in a pinnace to capture the town of Trujillo, where but slight resistance was encountered, and a good store of wine and oil was secured, but not an ounce of treasure. A squadron of Spanish men-of-war now appeared in sight, and the robbers were glad to regain their pinnace, leaving on shore eight of their number, of whom no tidings were afterward heard. On the homeward voyage one of the vessels was capsized in a squall, and fourteen of the men lost with most of the treasure. The survivors arrived in England without further adventure, and the proceeds of the expedition yielded but thirty pesos as the share of a common soldier. This was vengeance indeed!
In 1592, when Puerto de Caballos and Trujillo were attacked by pirates, affairs seem to have been more prosperous, for considerable booty was found at the former place. "Wee remained in the towne all night," says one who took part in the expedition,[XXXIV‑2] "and the next day till towards night: where we found 5 or 6 tuns of quick silver, 16 tuns of old sacke, sheepe, young kids, great store of poultrie, some store of money, & good linnen, silkes, cotton-cloth, and such like; we also tooke three belles out of their church, and destroyed their images. The towne is of 200 houses, and wealthy; and that yere there were foure rich ships laden from thence: but we spared it, because wee found other contentment."
In 1595 a raid was attempted on Puerto de Caballos by the French, but on this occasion the corsairs were defeated, many of them being killed or captured, and the remainder compelled to put to sea "blaspheming and averring that neither they nor the English had met with similar disaster in any part of the Indies."[XXXIV‑3] During the next year Trujillo and Puerto de Caballos were again assailed by the English under Sherley and Parker, and the latter town was once more sacked; but, says the chronicler who described the expedition: "It was the most poore and miserable place of all India."[XXXIV‑4]
Notwithstanding the depredations of freebooters, the colonies of Honduras appear to have been fairly prosperous at the close of the sixteenth century. The lands around Trujillo were then under cultivation, producing large crops of maize and fruit; grapes, oranges, and lemons being raised in abundance. On two sides of the town were rivers abounding in fish. Pasture was abundant, and the cattle introduced from Spain multiplied so rapidly that they were of little value except for their hides. The walls of the houses were of bushes interlaced, plastered within and without, and covered with palmetto-leaves. The cathedral and the convent of San Francisco, the latter being founded in 1589, were the most prominent buildings.
REMARKS OF THOMAS GAGE.
"This is a woody and mountainous Country," writes Thomas Gage, who journeyed through the western part of Honduras, on his way from Trujillo to Santiago in 1636; "very bad and inconvenient for Travellers, and besides very poor; there the commodities are hides, Canna fistula, and Zarzaparilla, and such want of bread, that about Truxillo they make use of what they call Cassave, which is a dry root, that being eaten dry doth choak, and therefore is soaked in broth, water, wine, or Chocolatte, that so it may go down. Within the country, and especially about the city of Comayagua (which is a Bishop's seat, though a small place of some five hundred inhabitants at the most), there is more store of Maiz by reason of some Indians, which are gathered to Towns, few and small. I found this Country one of the poorest in all America. The chief place in it for health and good living is the valley which is called Gracias á Dios, there are some rich farms of Cattle and Wheat; but because it lieth as near to the Country of Guatemala as to Comayagua, and on this side the ways are better than on that, therefore more of that Wheat is transported to Guatemala and to the Towns about it, than to Comayagua or Truxillo. From Truxillo to Guatemala (Santiago) there are between four score and a hundred leagues, which we travelled by land, not wanting in a barren Country neither guides nor provision, for the poor Indians thought neither their personal attendance, nor any thing that they enjoyed too good for us."
Small as may have been Comayagua—or as it was now termed by the Spaniards Nueva Valladolid—in comparison with other cities which Gage visited during his travels in the New World, it was the most flourishing settlement in the province, and continued to prosper until 1774, when it was destroyed by earthquake. In 1557 it was declared a city, and in 1561 its church was raised to cathedral rank. The seat of the bishop's diocese was soon afterward transferred there from Trujillo, the chapter including a dean, archdeacon, rector, and doctor of common law.[XXXIV‑5] In 1602 there were in Nueva Valladolid convents of the orders of La Merced, San Francisco, and Juan de Dios, and an endowed college under the patronage of the king.
ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.
The unseemly disputes which occurred among the ecclesiastics at an earlier period in the history of Honduras[XXXIV‑6] were now at an end. On the death of Bishop Pedraza, whose high-handed measures had rendered him unpopular with the colonists, and driven nearly all the religious from the province, Gerónimo de Corella, a Jeronimite, was appointed to the see. To Corella succeeded Alonso de la Cerda in 1572,[XXXIV‑7] and in January 1588 the mitre was bestowed on Gaspar de Andrade, a Franciscan, who held office until his decease in 1612.[XXXIV‑8]
The income of the bishopric at this date was three thousand pesos a year; there were five prebends; and within the diocese a hundred and forty-five Indian towns, with nearly four thousand heads of families.[XXXIV‑9] In 1610 the metropolitan of the diocese, the archbishop of Santo Domingo, empowered the dean of the chapter in Honduras, to hear and determine appeals in order that the expense and delay incident to the journey to Santo Domingo might be avoided. In October 1613 Alonso Galdo was consecrated bishop, and during this and the following year visited all parts of the province, confirming more than seven thousand persons, some of whom were over ninety years of age. During his administration two synods were held, the last one in April 1631. Three years before that date Luis de Cañizares was appointed coadjutor in the diocese at the request of the prelate, who was now aged and enfeebled by incessant toil. After the death of Galdo in 1645[XXXIV‑10] the see remained vacant until 1647, when Juan Merlo de la Fuente accepted the bishopric of Honduras, after having refused that of Nueva Segovia.