BRITISH HONDURAS. A Crown colony of Great Britain in Central America (\lap: Cen tral America, C 2). It is bounded by Guatemala on the south and west, Alexieo on the northwest, and the Caribbean Sea on the east, and covers an area of 756 square miles. The coast is, as a rule, low and swampy. and a large part of • the interior is covered with forests yielding large quantities of mahogany and logwood. The cli mate is hot and moist, and is very unhealthful for Europeans. The principal agricultural prod ucts include coffee, bananas, and cocoanuts. The exports consist mainly of woods, rubber, fruit, and sugar. The annual value of exports and imports is $1.300,000 and $1.200.000. re spectively. About 50 per cent. of the commerce is with Groat Britain. The revenue is derived chiefly from taxes, duties, and sale and letting of Crown lands. The revenue very seldom covers the expenditures, thereby necessitating a grant from the home Government. The budget at pres ent appropriates $290,000, and the public debt amounted at the end of 1900 to $169.164. There are 50 schools in the colony, almost all of them denominational and supported by the Govern ment. The colony is administered by a Governor,
and has an executive council, consisting of 3 official and 2 unofficial members, and a legis lative council, consisting of 3 official and 5 unofficial members. all appointed by the sover eign. United States gold currency was adopted as a legal tender in 1894. Population, in MI, 31,471. of which only •00 were whites, the rest being negroes, mulattoes. and Indians: in 1901, estimated at 37.500. The capital, Belize, is a busy port. with an extensive shipping and a pop ulation of about 91)0(1. The colony was first set tled at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century by the Scotch adventurer Wallis:, from \l'hoin it is supposed to have received its original name of Bel ize Ba i ze ) . Spain made numerous attempts to expel the early 'British settlers from the colony, and it was not until 1783 that a treaty was con cluded recognizing the sovereignty of Great Brit ain. From 1802 to 1884 the colony was admin istered as a dependency of Jamaica. In 1884 it was created a separate colony.