Bahía, Islas De

Islas De Bahía. The Bay Islands of Honduras, just off the north coast of that country, constitute the smallest and most distinctive of the eighteen departments of the Republic of Honduras. The elongated cluster of eight islands and sixty-five cays has a total land area of just under ninety-two square miles. The major islands (from west to east, Utila, Roatán, Barbaret, and Guanaja) are continental in geological structure and surrounded by reefs in unusually clear water. Perhaps no other part of the Caribbean has experienced more cultural diversity than these islands; they have been occupied by nine distinct groups since aboriginal times. Occupants have included Pech (Paya) Indians, colonial Spaniards, multinational pirates, Englishmen, Garífuna (Black Caribs), Anglo-Antilleans, Afro-Antilleans, North Americans, and Spanish Hondurans.

While the earlier archeological record indicates that aboriginal islanders were influenced by the high cultures of Mesoamerica (primarily Maya), later pre-Columbian artifacts are similar to those of the adjacent mainland, the home of Indians identified as Pech. Columbus visited these islands in 1502 during his fourth voyage, the first to Central America.

The native islanders, during the first century of uncontested Spanish colonization, were enslaved, Christianized, and used as a labor supply. Bartolomé de Las Casas exaggerated the contact population, saying it was "more than 150,000 souls"; it was more likely only several thousand strong when first encountered by the Spaniards. By 1544, documents show that only about 1,000 remained. The census of 1639 counted 400 souls. Shortly afterward, the Spaniards depopulated the islands because the natives were aiding pirate intruders.

Non-Spanish raiders found the islands particularly strategic and attractive because the gold-carrying Honduras Fleet called at nearby Trujillo, and other shipping routes passed nearby. Deep embayments on Roatán's south coast were the best refuges in the region. The largest attack was perhaps that of William Jackson, who with 1,500 men and sixteen vessels took Trujillo in 1642. The buccaneers wintered on Roatán.

The English military continued to disrupt the Spanish influence over the islands, particularly during 1742–1749 and 1779–1782. The ruined English fortifications around Port Royal, dating from these two major occupations, can still be seen. Anthony's Cay, also on Roatán, was another English site of this period.

In 1797, the British-organized importation of some 2,000 Black Caribs (now called Garífuna) from the island of Saint Vincent in the Windward Islands introduced another culture to the islands. This marked the beginning of a permanent settlement pattern that has persisted until today. Most of the Garífuna settled the beachlands around the Bay of Honduras, but their first village was Punta Gorda, on the north coast of Roatán.

English speakers, still dominant in the islands, became firmly established after Cayman Islanders arrived in 1835, a year after the abolition of slavery. For a decade during the mid-nineteenth century, when the English claimed the islands as a crown colony, the traditions and social inclinations of Anglo- and Afro-Antilleans became well embedded.

North Americans visited the islands in the 1860s, as traders in the banana and coconut commerce with New Orleans; since then they have come as tourists who enjoy diving and fishing in the clear waters.

A relict English-speaking enclave on the rimland of the western Caribbean, the Bay Islands are experiencing a modern Hispanicization from the mainland populations. Although the Republic of Honduras has had formal political power in the islands since 1859, only since the 1970s have there been effective attempts to incorporate the islands into the mainland system. Attracted primarily by economic opportunities represented by a developing tourism industry, Spanish-speaking Ladinos from the mainland are increasing their proportion of the population and asserting their culture. According to the national census of May 1988, the islands are home to 22,062 people, roughly three-fourths of whom live on Roatán, the most developed island. The largest settlements are the capital, Coxen Hole, on Roatán (3,901); Bonacca, the quaint stilt house settlement off Guanaja (2,027); Oak Ridge, on Roatán (1,304); and East Harbour, on Utila (1,261).

See alsoHonduras .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

William V. Davidson, Historical Geography of the Bay Islands, Honduras: Anglo-Hispanic Conflict in the Western Caribbean (1974).

Elissa Warantz, "The Bay Islands English of Honduras," in Central American English, edited by John Holm (1983).

Additional Bibliography

Jacobson, Susan K., Thorn, Sherry L., and Alevizon, William S. The Bay Islands: Nature and People. Honduras: Bay Islands Conservation Association, 1992.

Lytton Regalado, Alexandra; Trujillo, Federico; Vallerani, Andrea, and Rodas, César. Las Islas de la Bahía. El Salvador: Laffite Bloch, 2002.

                                    William V. Davidson