English, wherever dispersed on the Spanish territories, should concentrate themselves in the district thus defined within eighteen months. Affairs, notwithstanding the explicit stipulations of this treaty, do not appear to have proceeded favorably, for, three years after, in 1786, a new treaty was made between Great Britain and Spain, in which the King of Spain, "from sentiments of friendship toward his Britannic majesty and the British nation," grants an extent of territory additional to that conceded in the treaty of 1783, embracing the territory between the River Sibun, or Jabon, and the River Belize, so that, collectively, the grants embraced the entire coast between the River Sibun, in lat. 17° 20′ on the south, and the Rio Hondo, in lat. 18° 30' on the north, a coast-line of about ninety miles, with the adjacent islands and bays. But these extended limits were coupled with still more rigid restrictions. The English might cut and export wood, or any "other fruits of the earth purely natural and uncultivated,” but they were expressly prohibited from ever using this permission "for establishing any plantation of sugar, coffee, etc.," or manufactures of any kind; and "the lands in question being indisputably acknowledged to belong of right to the King of Spain, no settlements of that kind, or the population which would follow, could be allowed." The erection of all fortifications was expressly forbidden, as was also the formation of any system of government, either civil or military." And finally, to see that the precise and stringent provisions of the treaty were carried out, a Spanish officer or commissioner was to visit the establishments twice a year, "to examine into the real situation of things." Language is incapable of expressing more precisely the intention of Spain to retain her rights of sovereignty

over the district, the use of which was conceded to the English settlers for the sole purpose of cutting logwood and mahogany, and exporting the fruits of the earth purely natural.* It is not to be supposed that a population composed of so wayward and lawless a set of men, at a distance from England, was remarkably exact in its observance of either the letter or spirit of the treaty of 1786. They seem to have given great annoyance to their Spanish neighbors, who eagerly availed themselves of the breaking out of war between the two countries in 1796, and the consequent suspension of treaty obligations, to concert a formidable attack on Belize, with a view to a complete annihilation of the establishment. They concentrated a force of two thousand men at Campeachy, which, under the command of General O'Neill, set sail in thirteen vessels for Belize, and arrived off the place July 10th, 1798. The settlers, in anticipation of their approach, and effectively aided by the English sloop of war Merlin, had strongly fortified a small island off the harbor, called St. George's Cay. From this position they maintained a determined and successful resistance against the Spanish force, which, after a contest of two days' duration, was obliged to abandon its object and retire to Campeachy. This was the last attempt to dislodge the English, who took new courage from their success, and, it may be presumed, did not thereafter pay much regard to the stipulations of previous treaties. It is proper to remark that the defeat of the Spanish attack of 1798 has been adduced as an act of conquest, thereby permanently establishing British sovereignty over the terri

"Nothing can more clearly establish the sole right of Spain to these territories than the treaty and convention above mentioned [of 1783-86]. We never had any business there."-British Quarterly Review, vol. xxviii., p. 159.

tory. But the partisan writers who take this view entirely forget, or willfully overlook the important fact, that in 1814, Great Britain, by a new treaty with Spain, revived and re-enacted all the provisions of the treaty of 1786. They forget, also, that the British government, until possibly within a few years, never pretended to any rights acquired in virtue of this successful defense; for, as late as 1817-19, the acts of Parliament relating to Belize always refer to it as "a settlement for certain purposes, in the possession and under the protection of his majesty, etc."* The "certain purposes" here referred to are clearly those set forth in the treaty of 1786, and revived in 1814. But this is not all; after the independence of the Spanish American provinces, Great Britain, not knowing within which new republic the territory of Belize might fall, sought to secure her rights there by incorporating the provisions of the treaty of 1786 in all of her treaties with the new states. It was, in fact, incorporated in her treaty of 1826 with Mexico; was included in the project of a treaty which she submitted to Señor Zebadua, the representative of the Republic of Central America in London, in 1831,† but which failed from the want of ade

* June 27, 1817, the Parliament of Great Britain passed an act, which received the royal sanction and became a law, entitled,

"An Act for the more effectual punishment of murders and manslaughters committed in places not within his majesty's dominions."

Its enacting clause is as follows:

"Whereas grievous murders and manslaughters have been committed at the settlement in the Bay of Honduras, the same being a settlement for certain purposes, and under the protection of his majesty, but NOT within the territory and dominions of his majesty," etc., etc.

This act was amended in 1819, and is still in force. (See 57 George III., p. 183.)

"En el tratado que yo tenia sobre la carpeta del ministro Ingles, esperando los poderes de mi gobierno, cuando se me obligó á venirme trayendome el archivo de la legacion, se habia introducido un articulo por el qual se deberian conservar á los subditos Ingleses las concesiones que estaban hechos por el tratado

quate powers to negotiate on the part of that representative; and was incorporated also in the project of a treaty submitted to New Granada in 1825, from which it was omitted by New Granada, as relating to territory beyond and never within her jurisdiction. Great Britain, therefore, is without any legitimate rights in Belize beyond those conveyed by the treaties already quoted, which define with the greatest precision the area within which these qualified rights may be exercised. But it appears from a dispatch of Sir George Gray, Colonial Secretary, dated in 1836, that pretensions had been then set up to an additional wide extent of territory, including the entire coast as far south as the River Sarstoon, and inland to the meridian of Garbutt's Falls, on the River Belize. No pretext has yet been put forward to justify this new assumption, whereby the territory of Belize was more than doubled, and it stands as a simple arbitrary act of power against a weak and unresisting state. Still, the British crown hesitates to constitute Belize as a colony, nor will it guarantee titles to lands within the limits so positively set forth. Politically, Belize is still "a settlement for certain purposes, under the protection, but not within the dominion of the British crown." It is called "an establishment," and is governed by a superintendent. and local assembly, dependent on the Governor of Ja

de 1783 y Convencion de 1786, segun los quales solamente se les permitia el uso del terreno, y se fixaban los limites á que el establecimiento debia circunscribirse. Por este medio, la Inglaterra quedaba sujeta en virtud de un convenio expreso con Centro-America, á guardarle las estipulaciones del tratado y Convencion referida, y se dejaba abierta la puerta para ulteriores negociaciones respecto del mismo establecimiento. El gobierno Ingles estaba conforme en este punto peculiar á sus intereses con este pais, y nada mas se exigia de mi en ningun concepto."-Manifestacion publica del ciudadano Marcial Zebadua, sobre su Mision Diplomatica cerca de su Magestad Británica. Guatemala, 1832, p. 40.

*This dispatch, addressed to Samuel Coxe, Esq., and dated November 23d, 1836, is given in full in the chapter on "The Bay Islands."

maica. This anomalous state of things has no doubt seriously interfered with the material prosperity of Belize; and while it must be insisted that Great Britain has no technical rights of sovereignty over the territory, yet it can not be denied that the enterprise of her subjects has rescued a desolate coast from the savage dominion of nature, and carried industry, laws, and a qualified civilization where none existed before, and where, if left to the control of the Spanish race, none would have existed to this day. In the interest of civilization and humanity, there can be no doubt that the occupation of Belize by the English is a fact not to be regretted; and the sooner that occupation takes a definite form, the better for the establishment and the world. It was probably these considerations which induced Mr. Clayton, American Secretary of State, to consent to the exclusion of Belize from the operation of the Convention of July 5th, 1850, between the United States and Great Britain, whereby both powers bound themselves "not to occupy, fortify, or colonize any part of Central America."*

Taking the limits of Belize as laid down by Sir George Gray, and as extending from the Rio Hondo on the north to the Rio Sarstoon on the south, and inland to the meridian of Garbutt's Falls on the River Belize, we have a territory about 160 miles long by not far from 60 miles wide at its broadest part, equal to an area of 9600 square miles.

The approach to the coast is through cays and coral reefs, and the channels for ships are intricate and dangerous. For nearly sixty miles vessels wind among

"The treaty was not understood to include the British settlement commonly called British Honduras, nor the small islands in the neighborhood of that settlement, which may be known as its dependencies."-J. M. Clayton, Secre tary of State, to Sir Henry L. Bulwer, July 4th, 1850.