Black River (settlement)

[2] Early attempts by the Spanish to settle the area were frustrated by the terrain, tropical conditions, lack of valuable resources, and hostile natives, in particular the Miskito.

[6] Finally, the entrance to the lagoon from the sea was a narrow channel blocked by a shifting sand bar, making a seaborne attack virtually impossible.

[7] The British military fortified the lagoon entrance and maintained a small company of infantry at the settlement, but withdrew it in 1751 due to a lack of manpower.

According to a Spanish report, the settlement had 213 palm-thatched houses, 100 white inhabitants, 600 slaves, and 3,000 armed Miskito and zambos living nearby, along with 30 British regulars.

While King Charles ordered the taking of Black River and Belize, the British capture of Havana effective scuttled the idea, and the Miskitos raided many Spanish settlements, ranging as far as Costa Rica.

[11] The settlement began to expand more rapidly in the 1771 with major investments led by James Lawrie, a British captain who had been posted to the coast several times.

The Jamaican governor delayed until increasing complaints about Hodgson, among them affidavits concerning his attempt to gain possession of Great Corn Island by driving out its settlers, were reviewed and relayed to London that orders were issued in 1775 for his recall.

A Spanish captain reported in that year that the town, which he was able to see from his ship, had four wood-construction houses with shingled roofs, a hospital, and an active sawmill and shipyard.

The ongoing uncertainty over its legal status was also becoming of increasing concern to politicians in London, especially when Spain entered the War of American Independence in 1779, citing among other reasons the British failure to evacuate the coastal settlements in 1763.

Settlers and natives participated in the British capture of Omoa in October 1779, but Spanish colonial authorities recaptured the fort there after its garrison was reduced by tropical disease.

Most of Black River's military garrison, and a large number of Miskito allies, were recruited to participate in Britain's disastrous 1780 expedition against Nicaragua.

Lawrie resisted as best he could, but the arrival of even more Spanish troops, he abandoned the fortifications and fled with his men through the jungle to Cape Gracias a Dios.

Combined with a supporting force from Jamaica led by Edward Marcus Despard, he returned to Black River, where the Spanish garrison had been significantly reduced by disease.

[16] The 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the war confirmed Spanish sovereignty over Belize, but again contained ambiguous language concerning the Mosquito Shore.

This revived the old arguments that the settlements were not part of the "Spanish Continent" that the treaty referred to, and the British moved in 1785 to begin fortifying the area again.

In the Convention of London, signed 14 July 1786, Britain agreed to evacuate the "Country of the Mosquitos" in exchange for an expansion of rights in Belize.