File:The earth and its inhabitants (1891) (20505988333).jpg

Title: The earth and its inhabitants ..
Identifier: earthitsinhabita291recl (find matches)
Year: 1891 (1890s)
Authors: Reclus, Elisée, 1830-1905; Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913; Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry), 1833-1912
Subjects: Geography
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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192 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. municipalities, and organised forces were interdicted, and the country remained a political possession of Spain. These conditions were maintained by the treaty of Versailles of 1783; which, however, enlarged the area of the forest domain conceded to the descendants of the English intruders. But England was the stronger power, and the war Fig. 82.—British Honduras. Scale 1 : 2,800,000. that broke out towards the close of the last century, followed by the naval victory of 1798, enabled Great Britain to claim, by right of conquest, the territory which she had hitherto occupied by enforced concession. The sovereign dominion which the English now set up was never seriously contested, and the protests of the Spaniards were regarded as mere formalities. The settlers even continued from year to year to encroach on the territories lying beyond the stipulated frontiers. Thus the southern frontier, originally fixed at the Rio Sibun, was gradually shifted about 110 miles farther south to the Amatique inlet, at the head of the Gulf of Honduras. British Honduras, whose superficial area is approximately estimated at 7,560 "^^PI square miles, is but thinly peopled, the whole population numbering, in 1887, somewhat less than 28,000. In the sixteen years since 1871, the total increase had only been 3,000, and at present there cannot be more than about three persons to the square mile. Belize is thus by far the least densely-peopled region in Central America, a fact explained by the unfavourable climatic conditions, which make most of it unsuitable for Anglo-Saxon colonisation. There are scarcely more than 400 English settlers altogether, a number greatly exceeded by
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Oto 50 F.ithoms. Dsrfhs 50 to 500 Fathoms. 500 Fathoms and upwards. -60 Miles.

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