Page 108 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

The Isthmus and Sea Power, 89

the Belize, a strip of coast two hundred miles
long, on the Bay of Honduras, immediately
south of Yucatan, was so far from the Isthmus
proper, and so little likely to affect the canal
question, that the American negotiator was
satisfied to allow its tenure to pass unques-
tioned, neither admitting nor denying anything
as to the rights of Great Britain thereto. Its
first occupation had been by British freeboot-
ers, who " squatted" there a very few years
after Jamaica fell. They went to cut logwood,
succeeded in holding their ground against the
efforts of Spain to dislodge them, and their
right to occupancy and to fell timber was
allowed afterwards by treaty. Since the signa-
ture of the Clayton- Buiwer Treaty, this "settle-
ment," as it was styled in that instrument, has
become a British " possession," by a convention
with Guatemala contracted in 1859. Later, in
1862, the quondam "settlement" and recent
" possession " was erected, by royal commission,
into a full colony, subordinate to the govern-
ment of Jamaica. Guatemala being a Central
American state, this constituted a distinct
advance of British dominion in Central Amer-
ica, contrary to the terms of our treaty.