Guatemala is the most important of the Central American republics and is the nearest to the United States in geographical situation. It is a short journey for the traveller in search of new and novel sights, and should not be overlooked by the merchant or manufacturer on the lookout for new fields of conquest. The near-west is just as good a field as the far-east and the exertion is less. The land is yet virgin, for the wants of the people have not been developed. The leaven is working, however, and the transition period is near at hand. It began in Mexico and is slowly working its way downward toward Panama. Its progress can be hastened by judicious and studied effort. It is not a thankless or profitless task, for the returns will compensate for the effort expended.
CHAPTER XI
BRITISH HONDURAS
It was with romantic feelings that I sailed along the coast of British Honduras, past the numerous little coral reefs, called cays, and into the beautiful harbour of Belize. For many years these shores were the rendezvous of organized bands of pirates, who practically ruled the Caribbean seas during a good part of the seventeenth century. Each wooded island and cay has its legend of buried treasure, but no one has ever been able to locate a single “caché,” although expeditions in search of this fabled treasure-trove are still organized and as often fail. Each new leader feels that he has discovered the true key to this hidden wealth, and comes to these shores armed with “magnetic needles” or “divining rods,” which will be sure to point out the exact location of the buried gold.
The pirates who sailed the Caribbean waters were of many nationalities, Dutch, French, Spanish and British. An old Scotch buccaneer, named Peter Wallace, with eighty companions, was the first to enter the port of Belize, which name was originally given to the whole settlement. These men immediately erected houses at that place enclosed by rude palisades for defence. From here they set out on their expeditions after stray merchantmen. It was not long, however, before the shrewd Scotchman discovered that there was more and surer money in marketing the native woods than in the uncertain and dangerous occupation of robbing ships. Logwood at that time was in such demand for the manufacture of dyes that it sometimes brought as much as one hundred dollars a ton, and is now worth not one-tenth of that price because of the cheaper chemical dyes. So prosperous had this colony become by 1733 that Yucatan sent troops and attempted to drive away the colonists by force.
A POLICEMAN OF BELIZE.
England had at one time laid claim to the “mosquito coast,” which is now a part of the Republics of Honduras and Nicaragua, and which was at that time nothing but a howling wilderness occupied by a hybrid race of negroes and Indians, called “Zambos,” who were ruled by a hereditary king. When difficulties arose with Spain England waived all her rights to that shore in return for the sovereignty of Belize, which since that time has been known as British Honduras. Spain afterwards repented of her bargain and sent a formidable (?) fleet in 1798 to capture the place which was ignominiously defeated in the “Battle of St. George’s Caye,” which is much celebrated locally. The United States and Great Britain entered into the treaty known as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850, which provided that neither country should occupy, fortify, colonize, or exercise dominion over any portion of Central American territory, except Belize, or make use of a protectorate in any form.
British Honduras forms a slice of land off the northeast coast of Guatemala and lying between that country and Yucatan. Its greatest length is one hundred and seventy-four miles and its greatest width sixty-eight miles, and, with the adjacent cays, contains an area of about seven thousand five hundred and sixty-two square miles. On the coast it is swampy and covered with dense tropical vegetation, but the interior is composed of ridges which reach the dignity of good-sized hills. There are a number of little villages along the coast from which bananas and other tropical fruits are shipped, and in the interior are the settlements of the logwood and mahogany workers, but none of the places pass beyond the dignity of villages. The total population is in the neighbourhood of twenty-five thousand, of which negroes predominate, and the whites are only a small percentage.
Belize, the principal town, and capital, is the largest and most important town on the Caribbean coast of Central America. As our steamer wended its way through the cays and low green islands, the long line of white buildings setting amidst rows of royal palms, with here and there a clump of cocoanut trees, made a picturesque and beautiful sight. As we came to anchor a mile from shore a number of fleet sail-boats manned by coal-black negroes came out to meet us and take the passengers ashore. I afterwards learned that this place is the negro’s paradise, for they have absolute social and political equality. They are the soldiers and policemen, and fill nearly all the other important positions except governmental. These places at least are reserved for the members of the small white colony.