Captain William Parker, sailing from Ply mouth in November captured Porto Bello. In December 1616 the King of Spain informed the governor of Castilla del Oro that he and the commercial world believed that communi cation might be established easily between the oceans by constructing• a canal. This was the century of English depredations and of Spanish idle dreaming, Spain's centuries of vigorous expansion having passed. In J668 the Welsh buccaneer Morgan plundered Porto Bello, his foul cruelty rivaling any Spanish mis deed in this blood-stained region. Three years later, having at his a fleet of 37 ships and a force of 2,000 fighting men, he captured Panama (January 1671). The inhabitants set fire to their homes, and built a new city of the same name at a little distance in a locality less exposed to attack That was the beginning of the present city of Panama. Granada, in Nicaragua, was sacked by French and English pirates in 1686. A number of influential Scotchmen, chief of whom was William Pater son, the founder of the Bank of England, were authorized by the Scottish Parliament in 1695 to found colonies in savage lands. They after ward obtained letters patent from William III of England. Paterson chose Darien, believing the control of the traffic of the isthmus to be essential to the prosperity of England; he certainly was not, as is incorrectly and com monly stated, merely anxious to make money for his company, and reckless of consequences to the colonists. (Consult Bannister's (Life' ; Rodriguez's de Cuba,' etc.). The largest and most costly expedition that had yet been fitted out for colonization in America sailed from Leith, 26 July 1698, and founded 'New Saint Andrew?' Subsequently recruits were sent out to them; but the project came to a miserable end. More than 2,000 lives and several millions of money had been lost, when the survivors were starved into surrender by the Spaniards. A British squadron commanded by Adm. Edward Vernon (21 Nov. 1739), took Porto Bello, but was defeated at Carta gena. Meanwhile English settlements of a very peculiar character had been begun in Mosquitia and at Belize. The Misskito tribe, called by the Spanish and English uSambos” or ((Mos quitos,p a hybrid people, descendants of fugi tive slaves, uCimarrones,p and natives, ruled by an hereditary king, dwelt on the eastern coast of Honduras and Nicaragua in the 17th century. Unoccupied by the Spanish, this coast was frequented by buccaneers, who made Cape Gracias a Dios, on the dividing line between the colonies just mentioned, their rendezvous. Small settlements of English adventurers ex isted in this region. By the Treaty of Madrid (1670) certain rights were conceded to Great Britain, and the British claim was asserted (1744) by sending troops and building forts, but it was withdrawn (1786) when an agree ment was reached as to the cession by Spain of the territory on the north coast of the Gulf of Honduras. The ex-freebooters of Belize, reinforced by other adventurers, were able to exploit the rich forests and hold their own, or more, in the contest for the possessioh of this territory waged at intervals between the au thorities at Yucatan and the wood-cutters (regarded as interlopers) from 1733 until the end of the 18th century. The Treaty of Ver sailles (1783) defined the limits of Belize; but these were more precisely stated in the treaty signed at London, 14 July 1786. The bound aries were subsequently extended by encroach ments of the wood-cutters. Thus England, retaining the region now known as the colony of British Honduras, abandoned possession of the Mosquito coast, though her claim to exer cise a certain degree of influence in the latter territory (from which the Spaniards were expelled by the Sambos in 1796) was not ex pressly and absolutely surrendered until the middle of the 19th century. Before that de termination, several reverses were sustained in Nicaragua. An English force was repulsed at Fort San Carlos in 1769. A few years later the design to sunder the Spanish provinces of Central America, and, at the same time, to capture a route for an interoceanic canal, by taking possession of Lake Nicaragua and the cities of Granada and Leon (Consult Bancroft's America'), proved infeasible. An English force of about 1,800 men, including a party of marines under Horatio Nelson, was forced by the deadly fevers to abandon the attempt.
Except Belize, Mosquitia, and large tracts in which the Indians remained nearly undis turbed, Spain now held the land, but no longer had energy or opportunity to develop its natural resources. The natives, more docile
and serviceable tbah in other parts of America, seldom increased the difficulties of the situa tion by uprisings; there was, however, little incentive to accumulate property in a land menaced constantly for a hundred years by English, Dutch and French pirates. The sev eral divisions of an apathetic population were easily drawn together for administrative pur poses. The captain-general of Guatemala, by the middle of the 18th century, controlled the provinces of Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Salvador, beside others now within Mexi can boundaries. Revolt against Spain was the form in which the spirit of the people, awak ened from this lethargy, naturally expressed itself. Unfortunately armed revolt has ever since been too closely identified with progress in the popular conception. The first weak blow for Central American freedom was struck in San Salvador, 5 Nov. 1811. A sequel to this attempt (in Leon, Nicaragua, 13 Dec. 1811) duplicated this Salvadorean effort, in result as in motive. A third failure was recorded when the Colombian insurgents (1820) fitted out a combined sea and land ex pedition to operate against the towns of Omoa and Trujillo. The Isthmus of Panama cast in its lot with South America, rather than with Central America, by voluntary annexation to the republic of Colombia on 28 Nov. 1821. (For its subsequent history see COLOMBIA and PANAMA). The declaration of independence at the city of Guatemala, 15 Sept. 1821, was little more than an echo of the triumphant cry of othet Spanish-American colonies in revolt. It was followed (5 Jan. 1822), by a decree of the junta directiva annexing Central America to Mexico. Salvador refusing to join in this surrender, a war with Guatemala ensued. Be fore 18 months had passed the Central Ameri can provinces resolved to form a union and constitute a single nation. On 1 July 1823 a national constituent assembly expressed this purpose, the name chosen for the nation being Provincias Unidas del Centro de America. Though laggards in the race to win freedom, the Central Americans were prompt in bestow ing it. The laws of 31 Dec. 1823, and 17 and 24 April 1824, emancipated their slaves and declared that slaves of other countries on com ing to Central America should be freed. When dissensions and civil war broke up their con federacy, they had at least taken one step for ward, in advance of their neighbors. The con gressional decree of 30 May 1838, granting to the states the privilege of unrestrained action in most important matters, practically dissolved the union, though Salvador tried to maintain or renew it long after the other confederates had withdrawn. Nicaragua, on recovering her autonomy, became involved in a dispute with Great Britain the latter upholding the claim of the Mosquito King to all the territory lying between Cape Gracias a Dios and the mouth of the San Juan River, and sending (January 1848) two warships to occupy the port of San Juan. Nicaragua yielded provisionally to superior force. At this point the intervention of the United States was felt; and soon after ward the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, concluded at Washington 19 April 1850, between the United States and Great Britain, provided that neither power should occupy, fortify, colonize or exer cise dominion over any portion of Central American territory (except Belize), or make use of a protectorate in any form. This treaty guarantees Central American independence and encourages the maintenance of English influ ence, which was considered beneficial within certain limits. By the Zeledon-Wyke Treaty of 28 Jan. 1860, England ceded to Nicaragua absolutely the protectorate over the Mosquito coast. While the diplomacy of the govern ment of the United States was in the main considerate and helpful at this time, the con duct of some of her citizens left much to be desired.. San Juan del Norte, or Greytown, was bombarded by the United States sloop-of war Cyane, and burned to the ground by a landing party from that vessel, on 13 July 1854 (see WALKER, WiLuam). Renewal of the efforts to achieve Central American unity was due, in a measure, to President Barrios of Guatemala (1873-85). For the further de velopment of this design; the attempt (1895-98) to unite Honduras, Nicaragua and Salvador; the treaty of 20 Jan. 1902, and events of the years 1885 to 1916, see the separate articles on each of the five Central American republics.