NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS STRONG 



37 



Strongly fortified. Piratical raids from here so annoyed the Spanish 

 that they sent Francisco Villalva y Toledo with four men-of-war to 

 drive out the invaders, but so forbidding- were the defenses that he 

 returned to the mainland for reinforcements. In March 1650 he 

 returned and, after some hard fighting, drove the freebooters from 

 the island. The struggle and the subsequent removal of the few re- 

 maining natives depleted the isands, and for some years they lay 

 waste, only feebly occupied by Spain. (Conzemius, 1928, p. 65, and 

 Squier, 1858, p. 615.) 



PORT ROYAL HARBOR 



(From US.Hydrographic 

 Map No. 999) 



Variation 5''55' E , 1930 



Fig. 8. — Map of Port Royal harbor showing buccaneer remains, Roatan. 



In 1742 the British made an attempt to obtain possession of most of 

 the Atlantic Coast of Central America. As part of this plan they 

 occupied Roatan and fortified Port Royal with materials brought from 

 the mainland. (Squier, 1858, pp. 615, 616.) Several English visitors 

 at a somewhat later date mention this and give some interesting 

 details. Strangeways states that there is a "Careening Kay" (for 

 beaching and scraping vessels) at the northeast end of Port Royal 

 Harbor, and quotes the following passage from the Columbian Navi- 

 gator : " In Port Royal Harbor British ships formerly obtained wood ; 

 and they procured water from a rivulet in the NW. part of the harbor. 

 The harbor is capacious enough to contain 20 or 25 sail of the line. 

 Formerly there were two batteries here ; one on the west end of 

 George's Isle, and the other on a high point of land on the SW. part 



