Thanks to a natural deep channel, and despite lacking modern infrastructure, Amapala long served as the main Honduran port in the Pacific Ocean.

He and his men were considered by the inhabitants of the area as wild and bloody beasts, so they called the island "Cerro de El Tigre".

During the 19th century it exported large quantities of gold, silver and other ores, although its progress was retarded by the delay in constructing a transcontinental railway from Puerto Cortés.

[3] A description of the town in 1881 can be found in the book A Lady's Ride Across Spanish Honduras by Mary Lester (a.k.a.

[4] In 1895, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua signed the Treaty of Amapala that established the short-lived Greater Republic of Central America.