288 
olde eftablifhment, and is the principal 
river, both in refpect to the length of its 
courfe, and the quantity of mahogany on 
its banks, the inhabitants have formed a 
town, not of extraordinary fize or ele- 
gance, but which is their principal ren- 
dezvous, where the courts are held, &c. 
»—and I may here mention, that in Sep- 
tember 1786, a tremendous hurricane and 
inundation of the fea took place, which 
not only deftroyed every houfe or hut in 
the town, but either funk or drove on 
fhore every fhip and veffel in the fettle- 
ment, and feveral hundred lives were loft 
at fea and on fhore. So great was the 
influx of the fea, that I, who was upon 
the {pot at the time, was up to the neck 
jn water on the higheft ground in the 
town, and might have been drowned, had 
I not, with a number of other pertons, 
pot into a large canoe.which we tfaftened 
to a ftout tree. As the greateft part of 
the town confifted of huts made of pal- 
metto poles, and covered with palmetto 
Yeaves, it was eafily rebuilt ; and there 
have been fince erected fome more com- 
fortable houles of wood and covered with 
fhingles. The place has been alfo necef- 
farily much enlarged to accommodate the 
emigrants from the Mafquito fhore. 
. The trade of Honduras is of greater 
Importance thanis generally fuppoied: I 
Jad occafion to keep an account of it of- 
ficially for feveral years. That account 
4% have not now before me; but from 
memory I give the following ftatement of 
it, as it was in the year 1790, when I leit 
the fettlement. . 
Tt employed nearly one hundred veffels 
of all defcriptions, (exclufive of tie coaft- 
ing craft of the country) to the amount 
of twelve thouiand tons burthen, having 
on board about one thoufand feamen. 
"The exports were above tour miilicns of 
feet of mahogany, anc eight hundred tons 
pf logwood, betides other articles of lefs 
confequence—The imports were al] the 
Yariety of European manufactures, and 
provifions. Befides the value of the ex- 
ports, and the advantage to the mother 
country from the coniumption of her ma- 
nufagtures; the reader will confider the 
number of feamen this trade employed—~ 
he will confider the number of artificers 
employed in England to work the maho- 
gany, and ke will confider the advantage 
to this nation from the’exportation of it 
in its manufactured fate. Of the dying 
woods the iame may be ebferved, and as 
thefe are now in confequence of the war 
become rouch higher priced, a greater 
guqatitv will be imported; for duping 
Account of the Settlement of tHonduras. 
[May 
my refidence at Honduras, logwood was 
not imported into Britain as an article of 
profit, but merely as duanage for the 
fips. 
For the want of {pecie, payments were 
generally made in wood. Theeftablithed _ 
price for that purpofe was 151. currency ~ 
(rol. 12s. 7d. iterling) per thoufand feet 
for mahogany, and 4l. currency (21. 17s, 
fterling) per ton for logwood, and thefe 
payments were not reckoned equal ta 
above two thirds of payments in ¢afa or 
bills*. et 
The number of inhabitants in the 
year 1790, amounted to nearly two thou- 
{and five hundred. Of thefe about four- 
fifths were negro flaves, and a great pro- 
portion of the remainder perfens of co- 
lour, or Mefices, being a mixture of 
whites with Indians, or of whites or In- 
dians with negroes. Of this population 
nearly three-fourths were emigrants from 
the Mufquito fhore, who evacuated that 
country in terms of the convention of 
1786. There are no Indians in the 
diftrict +. 
Captain Uring, whofe voyages I have 
before mentioned, gives no very favour- 
able pigture of the Baymen. He pro- 
nounces them a favage fet ef people, all 
failors and moftly pirates; who, while 
they could procure ftrong liquors, lived 
in the moft beattly way, and gave them- 
felves up to all manner of filthy debauch- 
ery. 1 am happy to fay that there are 
now many irffances of civilized, well 
behaved, and well informed men among 
the wood-cutters§, but, I] muft at the 
fame time confefs,.that the race of old 
Baymen is not quite extinét. One clafs 
in particular comes nearly up to Mr. 
Uring’s def{cription, the turtle fifhers, or 
turtlers, as they are ~ called, hele, 
(though not pirates) coniift of fome hun~ 
dreds of old failors whom idlenefs has 
led to this favage lite. They inhabit the 

* The price of mahogany in London wag 
then from 4d. to rod. per foet, now it is 
treble—the price of logwood not 51. pertony 
and now it is nearly five times that amount, 
, About the-year 1720, logwood fold in Eng- 
Jand for 100]. per ton. 
See more upon this fubjeé&t, as well ag 
on others reipeéting the Honduras fettlement, 
in the §¢ Ademoirs of Edward Marcus De~ 
fpard,” \ately king’s fuperintendant in that 
diftrict, jut publifhed by Ridgway. 
§ The reader will underftand, that this 
fettlerncnt has attained aconfiderable degree 
ef civilization, when heis informed, that in 
1789, an injured hufband recovered by law 
damages againd the feducer of his wife. 
keys 
