British Honduras

BRITISH HONDURAS, formerly called Belize, or Balize, a British crown colony, bounded N. and N.W. by the Mexican Territory of Quintana Roo, N.E. and E. by the Bay of Honduras; S. and W. by Guatemala. Area 8,600sq.m., including about 21 2 sq.m. of cays. The frontier, defined by conventions of 1859 and 1893 with Guatemala, ascends the Sarstoon from the Bay of Hon duras for about 25m. as far as the rapids of Gracias a Dios, and thence, turning northward, runs in a straight line to Garbutt's rapids on the Belize. From this point it proceeds due north to the Mexican frontier, where it follows the Hondo to its mouth in Che tumal bay.

Approach to the coast is through the islets known as cays, and through coral reefs, and is both difficult and dangerous. For some miles inland the ground is low and swampy, with mangroves and tropical jungle. Next succeeds a belt of rich alluvial land, seldom more than a mile in width, beyond which, and parallel to the rivers, are extensive tracts of sandy, arid land called "pine ridges," from the trees (Pinus cubensis) with which they are clothed. Further inland comes the less elevated "broken ridge" country, of mixed scrub. These tracts are intersected by what is called "Cahoon ridges," with a deep rich soil covered with myriads of palm trees and broad savannas, studded with clumps of trees which are threaded by streams from the mountains. The latter rise in a suc cession of ridges parallel to the coast. Nearest to Belize (the capi tal) are the Manatee hills, from Boo to i,000ft. high; beyond these the Cockscomb mountains rise to 3,68oft. Sixteen streams, large enough to be called rivers, descend from these mountains to the sea, between the Hondo and the Sarstoon. The uninhabited country between Garbutt's rapids and the coast south of the Cockscomb mountains consists of pine ridge and open grasslands, with fine pasturage in the west and valuable forests in the east. Its elevation varies from 1,200 to 3,3ooft. Auriferous quartz and traces of other minerals have been discovered, but not in workable quantity. The geology, fauna, and flora resemble those of Central America (q.v.). Although within the tropics, the climate is sub tropical. The highest shade temperature recorded is 98°F., the lowest 50°. Easterly sea-winds prevail most of the year. The dry season lasts from mid-Feb. to mid-May; rain occurs at intervals during the other months, and almost continuously in October, November, and December. The annual rainfall averages about 812m., but rises in some districts to 1 coin. or more. Malaria fever is endemic and other tropical diseases occur sporadically, but the country is not unhealthy in comparison with the West Indies or Central American states.

Inhabitants.

British Honduras is a little larger than Wales, and has a population of about 51,347 (census of 1931). white inhabitants number less than I in 25; the remainder are of mixed descent. The majority are hybrids of negro slaves, native Indians, and white settlers. There are (I) Maya Indians, chiefly in forest villages in the west and north, away from the sea ; (2) descendants of English buccaneers, mixed with Scottish and Ger man traders; (3) the woodcutting class known as "Belize Creoles," of more or less pure descent from African slaves or labourers, from the West Indies; (4) the Caribs of the south, descendants of the population deported in 1796 from St. Vincent, of mixed African and Carib origin; (5) in the south, a Spanish-Indian popu lation, from Guatemala and Honduras; and (6) in the north, a Spanish-Indian group which came from Yucatan in 1848. The population increases steadily ; about 45% of the births are illegiti mate and males are more numerous than females. Many tracts of uninhabited land and forest were once thickly populated. The country abounds in ruins of the ancient Maya civilization. The most important, at Lubaantun, are ,(1927) being systematically explored on behalf of the British Museum.

Natural Products.

British Honduras has long depended on timber, especially mahogany, logwood, cedar, and dye-woods and cabinet woods, such as lignum-vitae, fustic, bullet-wood, santa maria, ironwood, rosewood, etc. The coloured inhabitants are un surpassed as woodmen and neglectful of agriculture, so that there are less than 5o,nooac. of tilled land. Sugar-cane, coconut palms bananas, plantains, and citrus fruits are cultivated; vanilla, sarsa plrilla, sapodilla or chewing-gum, rubber, and the Cahoon or coyol palm, valuable for its oil, grow wild. The government has estab lished a forest department, administered by a board of trustees, with a view to conserving and replanting the most valuable kinds of timber. Most encouraging results have attended the experiment al treatment of a defined reserve. A concession has been granted for the exploitation of about 3oosq.m. of Crown pine-forest by means of the bleeding of turpentine and preparation of lumber for export.

Chief Towns and Communications.

Belize, pop. (1927) est. 12,600, the capital and principal seaport, is described in a sep arate article. Other towns are Stann Creek (2,500), Corosal (6, Orange Walk (1,200), Punta Gorda (926), the Cayo (500), Monkey River, and Mullins River. All these are administered by local boards. Telegraph and telephone lines connect the capital with Orange Walk and Corosal in the north, the Cayo on the west ern frontier, and Punta Gorda in the south. There is a light rail way for about 25m. up the Stann Creek river valley, built at public expense for a banana trade which has failed. There are no metalled roads except in or close to the principal towns. A graded earth road from Belize to the northern district is under construction. The principal means of communication are the steamers which ply along the coast and motor boats on the navigable rivers. Mail steamers from New Orleans, Liverpool, Colon, and Puerto Cortes in Honduras, regularly visit Belize.

Commerce and Finance.

The average annual value of im ports (chiefly cotton goods, breadstuffs, hardware, beer, wines, spirits, and groceries) for five years to 1925 was f775,185, of which £614,815 was entered for home consumption, £160,370 for re-ex port. The average annual value of exports during the same period was 1657,220, of which £305,760 was colony produce and £351,460 transit trade and re-exports. Forest products make up 78% of the domestic exports (mahogany and cedar 1196,915, chewing gum logwood 15,000). Agricultural products made up 20% (coconuts 132,540, bananas £25,000). In 1894 the American gold dollar was adopted as the standard coin. Government notes are issued to the value of 1, 2, 5, 10, 5o, and loo dollars, and there is a local currency of one cent bronze pieces, and of 5, 1o, 25 and 5o cent silver pieces. The British sovereign and half-sovereign are legal tender. There is a government savings bank in Belize, with branches in the principal towns ; and in 1903 the British Bank of Honduras was established at Belize. The average of the revenue received in the five years ending in 1926 was 1201,440—about 190,000 from customs duties. The expenditure, in which the cost of police and education are important items, averaged 1230,864 during the same period. The public debt amounted in 1926 to In 1927 the colony received a bequest under the will of Baron Bliss, who died at Belize, which provides an income of about £3,000 a year for public improvements and works of development.

Constitution and Administration.

From 1638 to 1786 the colonists were completely independent and their customs were codified as "Burnaby's laws," after the visit of Admiral Sir W. Burnaby in 1756, and recognized by the Crown. In 1786 a super intendent was appointed by the Crown, and although this office was vacant from 1790 to 1797, it was revived until 1862. An executive council was established in 1839, and a legislative assembly of three nominated and 18 elected members in 1853. British Honduras was declared a colony in 1862, with a lieutenant-governor, subject to the governor of Jamaica, as its chief magistrate. In 1870 the legis lative assembly was abolished and a legislative council substituted, which now consists of five official and seven nominated unofficial members. In 1884 the lieutenant-governor was created governor and commander-in-chief and the colony rendered independent of Jamaica. The governor is assisted by an executive council of three official and three unofficial members. There are six administrative districts—Belize, Corosal, Orange Walk, the Cayo, Stann Creek, and Toledo. The capital of the last named is Punta Gorda ; the others take the names of towns. English common law is valid throughout British Honduras, subject to modification by local en actments, and to the operation of the Consolidated Laws of British Honduras. Appeals may be carried before the privy council or the supreme court of Jamaica.

Religion and Education.

The churches represented are Roman Catholic, Anglican, Wesleyan, Baptist and Presbyterian; but none of them receives assistance from public funds. The bishopric of British Honduras is part of the West Indian province of the Church of England. Almost all schools are denominational. School fees are charged, and grants-in-aid are made to elementary schools. Most of these, since 1894, have been under the control of a board, on which the religious bodies managing the schools are represented.

See Hummel and Gibbs, Report on the Forests of British Honduras; Dunlop, Handbook of British Honduras (W. I. Committee, 1925) ; Gann, Mystery Cities (1925 and 1926) ; Joyce, Lubaantun (1926).

British settlement in Honduras, the scene of the ancient Maya civilization, begins with the coming of shipwrecked sailors or buccaneers in 1638. The first regular establishment followed in 1662, when settlers were attracted from Jamaica by the logwood and mahogany which soon became an important product of the bay. The woodcutters covered an area wider than Honduras, but for a century Spain did not admit their title, and English settlers tended to concentrate more and more on the Belize river, which gave an alternative name to the colony. In the 18th century they increased greatly in number, and African slaves were imported. The hostility of their Spanish rivals was keen and not unpro voked ; and it was only after resisting formidable attacks that the English "baymen" were recognized by the treaty of Paris in 1763, and gained Spanish consent, at the price of destroying their fortifications, "not to be disturbed or molested, under any pretext whatever, in their said places of cutting and loading logwood." This agreement did not lead to friendly relations, and in 1779 the Spaniards made a grand attack which destroyed the settlement at Belize, the inhabitants being taken to Yucatan and Havana, where most of them died. In 1783 the survivors returned with new adventurers and resumed the cutting of timber; and by the treaties made in that year and in 1786 between England and Spain, they were recognized as having the right to cut both logwood and mahogany in the northern half of what later became British Hon duras ; but they were not to erect fortifications. In compensation, England gave up her claims to the Mosquito coast. When war broke out again the Spaniards prepared another great attack on Belize, but this was repulsed, and after 1798 the British were left in peace.

The successful resistance to Spain has been regarded as estab lishing British sovereignty over Honduras ; but it is probably more correct to attribute the title to undisturbed possession than to conquest, as Spanish sovereignty appears to have been tacitly admitted in 1814, when the provisions of the earlier treaty were revived. With the break-up of Spanish power in Central America, any rights she might have were inherited by Mexico and Guate mala. The provisions of 1786 relating to this "settlement, for certain purposes, under the protection of his Majesty" were in corporated in a treaty with Mexico in 1826, and in the drafts of other treaties; and British authority over the greater area claimed in 1836 was later confirmed by the exception of Belize from the provision of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty (185o) which forbade the contracting nations to fortify points on the Central American mainland ; and by the boundary settlement with Guatemala (1859). The country progressed peacefully under British rule, although the northern borders were occasionally attacked by rebel bands in the second half of the century. In 1849 an influx of Spaniards in flight from the Indians of Yucatan did much to populate the desert areas of the colony.

While the status of British Honduras was in dispute, govern ment was by public meeting of the free inhabitants, who elected an unpaid magistracy of about seven, one being superintendent. The Crown granted a similar constitution in 1765. From this time gradual modifications were introduced, until in 1862 British Hon duras became a colony with a lieutenant-governor under the gov ernor of Jamaica. In 1871 it became a Crown colony and was separated from Jamaica in 1884. In 1890-92 a dispute, in which the minority of unofficial members resigned from the council, led to the reconstitution of that body, with a majority of unofficial members, the historical outcome of the colony's democratic origin.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The Handbook of British Honduras; J. A. Burdon, Bibliography.-The Handbook of British Honduras; J. A. Burdon, Brief Sketch of Brit. Honduras (1927), 43 PP. and works therein cited ; Sir Eric Swayne, "Brit. Honduras," Geographical Journal, vol. 5o, pp. 161-79 ; annual reports to the Colonial Office. (G. H. G.)