262 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



said to have been stranded near Cape Gracias-à-Dios, and the Africans, escaping 

 from the wreck, founded a petty republican state in the district. Later they were 

 joined by other fugitives from the West Indies ; then some English planters 

 introduced slaves and founded settlements in the hope of conquering the country. 

 Gradually transformed by interminglings, the whole of this black population 

 consisted at the end of the last century mainly of Sambos, that is, negro and 

 Indian half-breeds. They were numerous, especially about the lower Patuca and 

 the neighbouring Brus and Caratasca lagoons ; but a great invasion drove most of 

 them southwards to the Mosquito Coast in Nicaragua. 



The invaders were themselves exiles, some 5,000 Carib Indians removed in 

 1796 by the English from St. Yincent to Roatan, one of the Bay Islands. Many 

 remained as fishers and gardeners on this and other members of the group, but the 

 majority accepted the offer made them by the Spanish Government of some lands 

 near Truxillo on the Honduras coast. These Carib exiles from St. Vincent have 

 gradually become the dominant race, not only in the Bay Islands, but along the 

 whole of the Honduras and Guatemalan seaboard, as well as throughout the 

 southern part of British Honduras. They are at present estimated at about 

 20,000, and are a thriving industrious people, many already owning sugar and 

 tobacco plantations besides local factories. 



Nearly all are more or less familiar with three languages, English, Spanish, 

 and their "West Indian mother-tongue, which, however, appears to be dying out. 

 But while these communities are being gradually assimilated to the surrounding 

 Europeanised populations, there are many other Honduras Caribs who, while 

 calling themselves " Cristianos,'' still retain many of the usages of their pagan 

 ancestors. They practise polj^gamy on the condition of assigning to each wife 

 her separate establishment, cottage, and garden, and treating all exactly alike. 



On the Atlantic coast of Honduras, the English and Indian half-castes are the 

 most numerous element, and a more or less corrupt form of English is the 

 dominant language in many districts. This is partly due to the neighbourhood 

 of Belize, partly also to the repeated attempts made by the English Government to 

 acquire formal possession of the whole seaboard. In the last century the Jamaica 

 freebooters had become masters of the Rio Negro (Tinto or Poya), where their 

 plantations were protected by a fort, which, however, they had to evacuate in 

 virtue of the treaty of Versailles. 



But they attempted to return, as they had returned to Belize, and after seizing 

 the Bay Islands, spoke of Roatan as a " new Gibraltar," the " key to Spanish 

 America," and so forth. In 1819 Sir Gregor Macgregor, who had become cacique 

 of the Payas, settled on the Rio Negro and founded a paper kingdom embracing a 

 great part of Honduras and Nicaragua. Again in 1839 an English company, heirs 

 to the Scottish cacique, endeavoured to appropriate the Atlantic slope of Honduras 

 by founding the new province of " Victoria," with its capital. Fort William, over 

 against the Bay Islands. But all these attempts at gaining a footing in Honduras 

 were brought to a close by the intervention of the United States in 1850, when the 

 disputed territories were restored to Honduras. 



