"¡ Verde, Verde, Muy Verde !"
On his famed Fourth Voyage of the New World, in 1502, Christopher Columbus and his crew sailed near the coastline of Central America, still in search of a westward passage to the Indian Ocean. During this voyage, Columbus sailed near the Bay Islands, where he reportedly saw and perhaps landed on the island of Guanaja. Columbus encountered the Pech natives on his journey, who traveled via canoe to trade with the mainland Mayans.
Upon seeing the lush island, Columbus is believed to have either said or recorded in his journal, "Green, Green, Very Green” (in Spanish: “verde, verde, muy verde”).
Since many of Columbus’ journals are incomplete or lost, it is impossible to know if this story is true—although looking at the Bay Islands, it is easy to imagine Columbus would have noted their wonderful green color.
"I Bees an English Mon!"
Local islanders proudly consider themselves "Englishmen" in many respects, to this day! Roatan, although part of Honduras, was for much of its history English, and was turned over by England to Honduras in 1859 at the insistence of the United States.
After the handover, most English residents, although offered free land elsewhere in the Caribbean colonies by the Queen of England, decided to stay on their island and resolved to remain “English”, including in their language, food and culture—a sentiment that lives on and can be seen and heard on Roatan.
Since this time, Roatan and the Bay Islands have become host to thousands of Spanish-speaking Mainlanders seeking a new life in the islands. However, today, more than 150 years later, one still finds many villages where everyone converses in delightful “old island English”, and where an islander of any color may be heard boasting, “Me? Why mon, I bees an English mon!”
Pirates Harry Morgan and John Coxen
Many famous pirates settled in Roatan, leaving their everlasting footprint on the history of the island. In fact, the Bay Islands were originally settled by English buccaneers beginning in 1642. You can still listen for their names; for example, the famous pirate Henry Morgan and the renowned pirate Captain John Coxen’s surnames are found in abundance on Roatan. Downtown Roatan is even named Coxen Hole!
Britain, in its aggressive attempt to contest the colonization of the Caribbean from the Spanish, occupied the Bay Islands on and off between 1550 and 1700. During this time, the buccaneers found the vacated, mostly unprotected islands a haven for safe harbor and transport. English, French and Dutch pirates established settlements on the islands and raided the cumbersome Spanish cargo vessels laden with gold, silver and other treasures from the new world.
It has been estimated that during those years about 5,000 pirates lived on the island.
Discovery of the Mayan Civilization
American explorer John Lloyd Stephens "discovered" the Mayan ruins located throughout Central America in the 1840s, as chronicled in his Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (1843).
In 1839, President Martin Van Buren commissioned Stephens as Special Ambassador to Central America. Stephens and his traveling companion, architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood, first came across Maya ruins at Copán. They were astonished at their findings and spent weeks mapping the site. They surmised that this must have been built by some long-forgotten people, as they could not imagine the native Mayans as having lived in the city. Stephens was actually able to buy the city of Copan for a sum of US $50 and had dreams of floating it's treasures down the river and into museums in The United States.
They went on to Palenque, Uxmal, and visited a total of 44 sites. Stephens and Catherwood reached Palenque in April 1840. They documented the Temple of the Inscriptions, the Temple of the Cross, the Temple of the Sun, and the Temple of the Foliated Cross. Of even greater importance, their book provided descriptions of several ancient Mayan sites, along with illustrations by Catherwood. These were greatly superior in both amount and accuracy of depiction compared to the small amount of information on ancient Mesoamerica previously published.
The Little General that Could
William Walker was an American filibuster who attempted to conquer several Latin American countries in the mid-19th century. He appointed himself President of the Republic of Nicaragua in 1856 and ruled from that year until 1857. Ultimately, he was executed by the government of Honduras in 1860 at the age of 36.
After a short stint as a lawyer, Walker became co-owner and editor of the newspaper New Orleans Crescent. In 1849, he moved to San Francisco, where he worked as a journalist and fought three duels, in two of which he was wounded. Around that time, Walker conceived the project of privately conquering vast regions of Latin America, where he would create states ruled by English speakers. Such campaigns were then known as filibustering or freebooting.
Walker’s bizarre story and power grabbing ways form a basis for some Central American lore and storytelling. In Central American countries, the successful military campaign of 1856-1857 against Walker became a source of national pride and identity, and it was later promoted by local historians and politicians as a substitute for the war of independence that Central America had not experienced. April 11 is a Costa Rican national holiday in memory of Walker's defeat at Rivas. Juan Santamaría, who played a key role in that battle, is honored as the Costa Rican national hero.
