Grace Bank

History

Prior to English settlement

Pre-Columbian

Grace Bank's immediate surroundings were likely first settled by nomadic Paleo-Indians prior to the 8th millennium BC, during the Lithic period in Mesoamerica.Paleo-indian projectile points have been recovered from Lowe Ranch, Sandhill, and Burrell Boom, all within seven miles of Grace Bank (, , , ). Mayan farmers founded permanent settlements in the area by the 2nd millennium BC, during the Archaic period in Mesoamerica. By the 16th century, the region formed part of Dzuluinicob, a Postclassic Mayan state.

Columbian

Rise of Spanish dominion, 1528–1544

Sixteenth century residents of the area first became aware of Spaniards in 1502, with the 30 July landing of Christopher Columbus in Guanaja.During 30 July–14 August of 1502, Columbus surveyed the coast of present-day Honduras from Guanaja to Trujillo. Alternatively, residents may have become aware of Spaniards after

1. the 1508 (start of July–end of December) arrival of Juan Díaz de Solís and Vicente Yáñez Pinzón to Lake Izabal (, , ),
2. the 1511 (s.d.**s.d.) arrival of Gonzalo Guerrero and his marooned shipmates to Cozumel . On 8 December 1526, Francisco de Montejo was named adelantado of the Yucatán Peninsula (including the territory of Dzuluinicob). The Spanish conquest reached the area in the third quarter of 1528, during Montejo's southern entrada. Said conquest lasted until the first or second quarter of 1544, upon Melchor and Alonso Pacheco's defeat of Chetumal and Dzuluinicob, and their subsequent founding of Bacalar. Some or most of the area's surviving residents were (forcibly) relocated to reducción towns closer to Bacalar, and (forcibly) converted to Roman Catholicism.These reducción towns were held in encomiendas by Melchor Pacheco, Martín Rodríguez, Alonso Pacheco, Pedro de Avila, Alonso Hernández, Juan Farfán, and possibly Juan Pérez de Castañeda . A visita church was built in Tipu in 15431550 . A second was built in Lamanai in , 15441550, or in (, , , ), and a third (in Lamanai) in the 1560s or in (, , ). A Spanish plaza was erected in Tipu in 1568 .

A secular parish was (belatedly) established at Bacalar in 1565 by Pedro de la Costa. In the latter three quarters of 1568, an entrada and reducción by Juan de Garzón and the vecinos of Bacalar resulted in the further disintegration of Postclassic Mayan society in the area, thereby cementing Spanish dominion from Bacalar.Franciscan frays Francisco de Benavides, Martín de Barrientos and Alonso Toral possibly accompanied the Garzón entrada (, ).

Fall of Spanish dominion, 1638–1642

Bacalar began to lose control over its district in , as alcaldes ordinarios were forced to re-establish reducción towns near Tipu in 1615, to conduct a visita in 1620.Juan Sánchez de Aguilar led the 1615 reducciones , Juan Alonso Díaz de Aguilar the 1620 visita . In 1638, Tipu led the area into general revolt against Bacalar, resulting in the collapse of Spanish power over the region by 1642, and the relocation of a majority of the area's residents to Tipu.Tipu's efforts were likely aided by the Peten Itza kingdom, and by repeated piratical raids of the Bacalar district (, ). Spanish dominion over the (nominal) district of Bacalar was not re-established until the second or third quarter of 1695, during a visita by Francisco de Hariza y Arruyo (, , , ).

English settlement

Anglo-Dutch piracy, 1617–1650s

Pirates are first thought to have arrived near Grace Bank in 1617, during a raid of Bacalar by English pirates or privateers.The raiders further abducted Pedro Rojo, Antonio Gómez, and three other vecinos of Bacalar . Bacalar was thrice more raided on 22 November 1642 (, , ), in June 1648 (, ), and on 29 May 1652 (, , , ), resulting in its relocation first to Pacha, then to Chunhuhub , until 1729, when it was resettled as a military outpost (, , ). In the 1630s, pirates were further attracted to the region by the increasing willingness of Spanish residents to trade with non-Spaniards, and the possibility of abducting Mayan residents for impressment or sale at non-Spanish slave markets.Pirates' enslavement of Amerindians is thought to have lasted until . Belize City is thought to have been settled in 1638, by a crew of shipwrecked buccaneers.These buccaneers are further thought to have been led by Peter Wallace (, , , , , , ). The details of this story are debated (see eg , , , , , , ).

English logging, 1650s–1763

In the 1540s, Marcos de Ayala Trujeque, a vecino of Merida, is thought to have pioneered the use of logwood dyes in the Old World. The early buccaneer settlers (now Baymen) turned to logging logwood in the 1650s, when they are thought to have settled Grace Bank (then Barcadares).The use of logwood dyes in England was prohibited sometime during 21 March 158020 March 1581, per 23 Eliz. 1 ch. 9 . The prohibition was strengthened in 1597, per 39 Eliz. 1 ch. 11 . It was loosened on 29 February 1620 , and finally lifted sometime during 7 January 16623 May 1662, per 14 Chas. 2 ch. 11 (, ).

Anglo-Spanish hostilities, 1650s–1763

Barcadares's settlers opened conflict against Bacalar on 29 May 1652, when they are thought to have led or been involved in that villa's sacking.In addition to

1. the November 1652 raids of Mayan reducción settlements on the New River (, , ),
2. the 23 October 1654 interruption of an entrada by Francisco Pérez of Bacalar ,
3. the 1660s sacking of Bacalar-in-Pacha (, ),
4. (possibly) the August 1677 interruption (by Bartholomew Sharpe) of a misión by Franciscan fray Joseph Delgado (, ). Spanish Yucatan retaliated during 16 November 169428 February 1695 with a paramilitary campaign against the Baymen's camps and settlements, thereby presaging over a century of Anglo-Spanish conflict that would eventually lead to the relocation of Barcadares. This campaign led to the first (of many) evacuations of the Baymen's settlements.With similar evacuations occurring in
5. start of January 1700end of June 1703, occasioned by three paramilitary campaigns by Spanish Yucatan (, , , , ),
6. start of May 172920 October 1735, occasioned by an infantry campaign by Spanish Yucatan (, , , , ),
7. 3 June 1747prior to end of January 1748, occasioned by a Spanish campaign ,
8. 9 January 1752prior to mid-February 1752, occasioned by Spanish privateers or guardacostas (, , ),
9. start of May 1753end of May 1753, occasioned by Spanish privateers or guardacostas ,
10. 18 June 175412 April 1755, occasioned (first) by a Spanish infantry campaign and (later) by a Spanish naval campaign (, , , , , , , , , ),
11. prior to 20 July 1759, occasioned by Spanish privateers or guardacostas (, , ),
12. start of May 1760end of April 1763, occasioned by a naval campaign by Spanish Yucatan (, ). Spanish Yucatan also tightened its control of the waters off the Belize River beginning on 2 November 1705 with the arrival of privateers or guardacostas Archibaldo Magdonel de Narión and Francisco Joseph Jiménez with 30 men aboard two goletas.

The final campaign against Barcadares occurred on 25 December 1759, when 150 Spaniards aboard a 'great number' of periaguas landed in the port of Belize. This coup de grâce resulted in the imprisonment of a number of Baymen, the seizure of several loaded flats, the burning of Barcadares and nearby logging camps, and a nearly three-year evacuation of all settlements (in favour of the safer Mosquito Shore).Though in 1759, Baymen and the merchant shipping had been repeatedly harassed by Spanish privateers or guardacostas (, , , ).

Geography

Political

Grace Bank is not known to have been settled by Mayans.The closest (known) Mayan settlements are New Boston (four miles due east) and Boom (six miles due south) (, ). The closest Classic Mayan city-states are Altun Ha (eight miles northeast), Lamanai (18 miles northwest), and Camalote (39 miles southwest) (, ). The area is thought to have formed part of Dzuluinicob from the 10th or 12th century to .Based in Tipu, 60 miles southwest (, ). It was a de jure part of the municipio or district of Bacalar, in Yucatan, a province of New Spain, until 15 September 1821.Based in Bacalar, 71 miles due north . It was a de facto part of the English settlement in the Bay of Honduras from the 1650s to 11 February 1862, and thereafter a de jure and de facto part of British Honduras. It is presently part of the Belize District of Belize.

Physical

Grace Bank lies on the northern bank of the Belize River, near its confluence with Francisco Creek, some eight or nine miles inland (as the crow flies) from the Caribbean Sea. It is 33 miles up the river, past Davis Bank, just before Lime Walk. It lies just south of Jones Lagoon, and west of Potts Creek Lagoon.

Climate

Grace Bank has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification Am), with a MayNovember wet and a DecemberApril dry season.

Demographics

Government

Grace Bank is currently part of the Belize Rural South constituency, and is represented in Parliament by Marconi Leal MP.

Economy

Society

Legacy

Notes

Citations

References ==

News

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References