THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 105 



They cultivated the friendship of the native Indians, and, 

 though unrecognized and unauthorized to do so by England, 

 they established upon these swampy shores an_JCnglish set- 

 tlement, thus forming the nucleus of a future English pos- 

 session. In like manner, though many years later, another 

 band of English adventurers, who may doubtfully be spared 

 the name of pirates, took possession of points along the coast 

 of Yucatan, and appropriated to their own use certain islands 

 lying off the coast of Honduras, thereby founding the settle- 

 ment of Belize, later known as British Honduras, and more 

 recently created into a British colonial possession. 



The terrible assaults of these desperate men upon Spanish 

 commerce led to many angry protests from Spain, which 

 only drew from England an equal number of denials of 

 responsibility for her castaway and disowned subjects. Yet, 

 with her accustomed diplomatic shrewdness, England lost 

 no occasion to make political recognition of her settlements 

 on the mainland of Central America. This was particu- 

 larly evidenced in her treaty with Spain of 1670. All 

 Spanish efforts to dislodge these unwelcome neighbors of 

 her colonies, either by diplomacy or force, proved unavail- 

 ing. In course of time, however, and possibly through press- 

 ure of civilization, the character and aims of these piratical 

 settlers gradually assumed a better phase, and even before the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century the descendants of these 

 buccaneers became substantially honest and peaceful men. 

 They betook themselves to cutting logwood, cultivating the 

 soil, teaching morality to the Indians, and maintaining a 

 growing and profitable trade with the English colony of Ja- 

 maica. The early history of these two settlements of Belize 

 and Mosquitoland is but the story of a ceaseless struggle by 

 England to maintain her questionable foothold on the conti- 

 nent against the efforts of the Spanish in Central America 

 to loosen it. The degree of security enjoyed by these British 

 settlers in Central America depended largely upon the vary- 

 ing fortunes of England and Spain in the European wars in 

 which both powers were almost constantly involved. Thus, 

 as late as 1814, by the treaty of Madrid, England was com- 



