Note XXXIV‑16 — Chapter XXXIV · HONDURAS. 1550-1800.

Carta de Galvez, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Bol., 2da ép. Very different accounts of this affair are given by Pelaez and Cavo. The first in Mem. Hist. Guat., iii. 107, says that the commander and the rest of his officers made no resistance, but left as hostages the second in command and two chaplains; the soldiers and many of the inhabitants were banished. Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. 35-6, says that on the last day of the defence, when the drums were about to beat to quarters in the castle, the British scaled the walls, and before the guards had recovered from their surprise over 100 Englishmen had already mounted the battlements; at the sight the negroes fled, leaving the English masters of the fortress. He adds that the castellan forseeing such a disaster had carried off 40,000 pesos and other valuables by a road unknown to the enemy, and would have saved all else had he been permitted to do so.