ABSTRACT
Sir William Burnaby is one of the major heroes in the history of British Honduras. It is of interest to note that with Burnaby on this expedition to British Honduras was the famous explorer James Cook, serving his apprenticeship in the Royal Navy, but soon to survey New Zealand and Australia and to circumnavigate the Globe. In 1773 a large-scale Negro revolt took place on the upper reaches of the Belize river. Making a sudden attack on a group of wood-cutters, they killed six white men, and actually threatened to advance upon the capital. Once more it was a case of the Navy to the rescue. The declaration of war against England by the North American Colonies on July 4, 1776, added a new complication to the Baymen’s problems. Young Horatio Nelson had been appointed by Admiral Parker to his first command in 1778—Commander of H.M. Brig Badger, with orders to ply in the waters of the Bay of Honduras.
