PREFACE.

For some time previous to his departure from that tract of the American Continent, the government of which he had administered during a period of eight years, the Author of the following historical sketch had determined on writing, principally for the satisfaction of the Settlers, an account of the origin, the rise, and the development of one of the most remarkable possessions of the British Crown. It did not however occur to him then, that it would be necessary for the completion of his design to trace the connection of European enterprise with Central America to an earlier period than 1662, when the British logwood-cutters first commenced their operations on the coast of Yucatan. On the journey however of the Author to England, he became acquainted at New York with a gentleman whose know

*

* Hon. E. G. Squier, United States Chargé d'Affaires to the Republic of Nicaragua.

ledge of American history induced him to consider the advantage of extending his plan; and, at his suggestion, and by the advice of another*, to whose information and kindness he has been much indebted, he was led to consult the earliest and most authentic sources of information as regards the discovery of Yucatan, and the first, but abortive, pacification of the whole of that region in which the settlement now called British Honduras is situated. The result has been the preliminary volume which is now submitted to the Public, and which, perhaps, may claim the merit of being a faithful record in English of transactions at present only to be found in Spanish authors, the majority of whose works are very scarce, many of them existing only in national libraries, or, if in private collections, almost impossible of access.

With as little delay as possible, the Author will lay before the Public an additional volume, which will comprise the History of Yucatan, from the period when the British logwood-cutters commenced their operations at Cape Catoche, to the close of the administration in British Honduras of his immediate predecessor MajorGeneral Alexander Macdonald.

*Henry Stevens, Esq., of Vermont.

These preliminary remarks cannot be concluded without recording the obligations of the Author to his old friend and schoolfellow, Dudley Costello, Esq., to whose skill he is indebted, not alone for the map which illustrates these pages, but for much valuable assistance and counsel during the progress of the work.