ABSTRACT
Foreigners first appeared in Honduras as aggressors and then as illegal traders and settlers. From the middle of the sixteenth century foreign corsairs led by the French and followed by the English attacked Spanish vessels and ports, notably Trujillo and Puerto Caballos. The English first settled in Providencia in 1629 and within five years they had occupied the islands of Tortuga and Roatan; they had also established settlements on the neighboring mainland at Cabo de Gracias a Dios, Bluefields, and Belize. By the second quarter of the eighteenth century it was recognized that an offensive was needed to root the English out of the Mosquito Shore. This was to be undertaken by two means: first, by strengthening coastal fortifications; second, by increasing missionary activity on the frontier with the aim of extending the area of Spanish control and creating a buffer zone between the rival nations.
