192 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AJ^IERICA, WEST INDIES. 



municipalities, and organised forces were interdicted, and the country remained 

 a political possession of Spain. These conditions were maintained by the treaty 

 of Versailles of 1783 ; which, however, enlarged the area of the forest domain 

 conceded to the descendants of the English intruders. But England was the 



stronger power, and the war 



Fig. 82. — British Honduras. 

 Scale 1 : 2,800,000. 



that broke out towards the 

 close of the last century, 

 followed by the naval vic- 

 tory of 1798, enabled Great 

 Britain to claim, by right 

 of conquest, the territory 

 which she had hitherto oc- 

 cupied by enforced conces- 

 sion. The sovereign dominion 

 which the English now set 

 up was never seriously con- 

 tested, and the protests of 

 the Spaniards were regarded 

 as mere formalities. The 

 settlers even continued from 

 year to year to encroach on 

 the territories lying beyond 

 the stipulated frontiers. Thus 

 the southern frontier, origi- 

 nally fixed at the Rio Sibun, 

 was gradually shifted about 

 110 miles farther south to 

 the Amatique inlet, at the 

 head of the Gulf of Hon- 

 duras. 



British Honduras, whose 

 superficial area is approxi- 

 mately estimated at 7,560 

 "^^P I square miles, is but thinly 

 peopled, the whole popula- 

 tion numbering, in 1887, 

 somewhat less than 28,000. 

 In the sixteen years since 

 1871, the total increase had 

 only been 3,000, and at present there cannot be more than about three per- 

 sons to the square mile. Belize is thus by far the least densely-peopled region 

 in Central America, a fact explained by the unfavourable climatic conditions, 

 which make most of it unsuitable for Anglo-Saxon colonisation. There are 

 scarcely more than 400 T^nglish settlers altogether, a number greatly exceeded by 



Oto 50 

 F.ithoms. 



Dsrfhs 



50 to 500 

 Fathoms. 



500 Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



-60 Miles. 



