Belize

Belize, or BRITISH HONDURAS, a British colony washed on the E. by the Bay of Honduras, in the Caribbean Sea, and elsewhere surrounded by Guatemala and Mexico. It forms the south-east part of the peninsula of Yucatan, and measuring 180 by 60 miles, has an area of 7562 sq. m., or a little larger than Wales. In 1891 the population was 31,471, of whom about 1600 were whites. The river Belize traverses the middle of the country, and the Rio Hondo and the Sarstoon form respectively its north-western and its southern boundary. The Cockscomb Mountains (4000 feet) are the highest eminences, the land all along the coast being low and swampy. The country has a general tropical fertility; its chief exports are mahogany and logwood, besides sugar, coffee, cotton, sarsaparilla, bananas, plantains, and india-rubber. The yearly value of the imports ranges between £160,000 and £269,000; of the exports, between £124,500 and £317,500. The name Belize is probably a Spanish corruption of the name Wallis, one of the early British settlers; otherwise it is usually referred to the Fr. balise, 'a beacon.' Those early settlers, buccaneers at starting, then logwood-cutters, were frequently attacked by the Spaniards; but since 1798, when they repulsed a fleet and a land-force of 2000 men, their occupation has been formally acquiesced in. Since 1862 Belize has ranked as a British colony, with a lieutenant-governor, whose rank was raised in 1884 to that of governor. Belize, the capital, is a depôt for British goods for Central America, and has a pop. of about 6600. See A. R. Gibbs's British Honduras (Lond. 1883).