Black River was a British settlement on the Mosquito Coast of present-day Honduras. It was established in 1732 by a British colonist named William Pitt (likely a distant relative of contemporary British politician William Pitt the Elder). The settlement, made on territory claimed but never really controlled by Spain, was evacuated in 1787 pursuant to terms of the Anglo-Spanish Convention of 1786. The Spanish then attempted to colonize the area, but the local Miskitos massacred most of its inhabitants on September 4, 1800. The settlement was abandoned, and its remains can still be seen near the village of Palacios in the Gracias a Dios Department in Honduras.
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In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Black River (settlement)
- Black River (settlement) in the context of Convention of London (1786)
- Black River (settlement) in the context of Capture of Cayo Cocina
Black River (settlement) in the context of Convention of London (1786)
The Convention of London (Spanish: Convención de Londres), also known as the Anglo-Spanish Convention, was an agreement negotiated between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Spain concerning the status of British settlements in Mosquitia and the Bay of Honduras. It was signed on 14 July 1786.
According to the terms of the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the American War of Independence and included Spain as a signatory, British settlements on the "Spanish Continent" were to be evacuated, using language that was similar to that in the 1763 Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years' War. British settlers in the area resisted implementation of the 1783 agreement, observing (as they had after the 1763 treaty) that the Spanish had never actually controlled the area, and that it therefore did not belong to the "Spanish Continent" but the "American Continent". After both sides increased military activities in the area of the Black River Settlement, where most of the British settlers lived, it was decided to engage in further negotiations to resolve the issue.
View the full Wikipedia page for Convention of London (1786)Black River (settlement) in the context of Capture of Cayo Cocina
The Capture of Cayo Cocina (also known as Saint George's Caye) was the result of a Spanish military operation on the 15 September 1779 against a British settlement on Saint George's Caye, just off the coast of present-day Belize, during the Anglo-Spanish War. The settlement was at the time the major British population center in the area, until Spanish forces from the Captaincy General of Guatemala attacked it.
The Spaniards removed the entire population (140 Baymen along with 250 of their slaves), forced them to march overland from Bacalar to Mérida, and then transported them by sea to Havana. Settlers who had been working on the mainland eventually made their way to other nearby British settlements at Roatán or Black River. In 1782 the Spaniards released the prisoners and sent them to Jamaica. The entire Belizean territory was abandoned until 1784, after British logging rights were confirmed in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
View the full Wikipedia page for Capture of Cayo Cocina