Note III-11 — Chapter III · UNION WITH MEXICO. 1821-1822.

In the Spanish córtes, March 29, 1813, was read and passed to a committee a petition of the ayuntamiento of Comayagua, objecting to the limited scope of the decree of May 24, 1812, which authorized the establishment of only two diputaciones in the whole of Guatemala, and asked for one in Comayagua with Omoa, Trujillo, and the partido of Tegucigalpa, and that of San Miguel in Salvador, within its jurisdiction, which would give the new diputacion a territory of 140 leagues from N. to S., and as many from E. to W. Córtes, Diario, 1813, xviii. 61. I have no evidence as to when Honduras was granted the diputacion, but the fact appears that it had such a corporation in September 1821. The province was larger than Nicaragua, and divided into the partidos of Comayagua and Tegucigalpa, and the nine sub-delegations of Gracias á Dios, San Pedro Zula, Tencoa, Yoro, Olanchito, Olancho Viejo, Tegucigalpa, Choluteca, and Trujillo, having within it the ports of Omoa, Puerto Caballos, Puerto Sal, Triunfo de la Cruz, Trujillo, and Cartago. The bishopric of Comayagua embraced the whole intendencia, with 35 parishes, one mission, and 145 churches. Mendez, Mem., 8, 21. In 1821 there lived in Trujillo about 2,500 Caribs, the original inhabitants of Saint Vincent, later occupying the island of Roatan, whence they removed to Trujillo. They were a rather industrious, honest people. Coggeshall's Voy., 2d ser., 161-3.