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Utila
Utila (Spanish: Isla de Utila) is the smallest of Honduras' major Bay Islands, after Roatán and Guanaja, in a region that marks the south end of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the second-largest in the world. It has been documented in history since Columbus' fourth voyage.
The eastern end of the island is capped by a thin veneer of basaltic volcanic rocks, erupted from several pyroclastic cones including 74 m (243 ft) Pumpkin Hill which forms the highest point on the island.
The people of Utila are of African (Garifuna), English and Dutch descent. At the time of the 2013 Honduras census, Utila municipality had a population of 3,947. Of these, 82.32% were Mestizo, 13.42% White, 2.10% Black or Afro-Honduran, 0.26% Indigenous and 1.91% others.
The island is part of the Islas de la Bahía y Cayos Cochinos Important Bird Area (IBA), designated as such by BirdLife International because it supports significant populations of white-crowned pigeons, chimney swifts and yellow-naped amazons. Since 2013 the entire island and its cays have been designated as a protected Ramsar site. Popular cays include Water Cay, Pigeon Cay and Sandy Cay.
Archeological, historical and ethnographic evidence of the Bay Islands indicates that they were inhabited before the European's arrival in 600 AD by a pre-Columbian culture known as the Paya and now known as Pech. The Paya people may have entered Central America in the great North to South America migration in 5,000 BC, although linguistic studies indicate that the Paya may have been descendants of South American tribes.
Christopher Columbus, on his fourth voyage to the new world, landed on the island of Guanaja on 30 July 1502, after encountering a small fleet of dugout canoes destined from the mainland to the Bay Islands. These vessels were filled with cotton cloth, maize, cacao, beans, copper goods and wooden swords with sharp flint edges, and on this meeting one dugout canoe carrying 25 men, women and children was captured. On land, Columbus encountered a fairly large population of Paya whom he believed to be cannibals.[citation needed] In 1516, licensed slavers were sent to the Islands under the authority of Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar and captured 300, killing others who put up resistance. The slaving vessel returned to Havana harbour, Santiago de Cuba, where it was taken over by the Paya who demanded repatriation. On hearing that the Paya had been repatriated, Velasquez commissioned two ships back which then captured 400 Paya on Utila and on one of the other islands, and during this raid 100 Paya were reported to have been killed. After their capture, this and future shipments of Paya slaves were forced to work in mines, farm sugar cane plantations and tend livestock on Santiago de Cuba, and were also sent to work in the gold and silver mines of Mexico.
Later on, English, French, and Dutch pirates established settlements on the islands and raided the Spanish cargo vessels laden with gold and other treasures from the New World. The Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan established his base at Port Royal on Roatán, about 30 kilometers from Utila, in the mid-17th century; at that time as many as 5,000 pirates were living on that island.[citation needed]
Colonisation by the Spanish began in the early 16th century. Over the next century, the Spanish plundered the island for its slave trade and eliminated the island of its natives by the early 17th century. Britain, in its aggressive attempt to out-colonize the Spanish in the Caribbean, occupied the Bay Islands on and off between 1550 and 1700. During this time, the buccaneers found the vacated, mostly unprotected islands a haven for safe harbour and transport. Utila is rich in pirate lore, and even presently, scuba divers look for sunken treasure from Captain Morgan's lost booty from his raid on Panama in 1671.
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Utila AI simulator
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Utila
Utila (Spanish: Isla de Utila) is the smallest of Honduras' major Bay Islands, after Roatán and Guanaja, in a region that marks the south end of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the second-largest in the world. It has been documented in history since Columbus' fourth voyage.
The eastern end of the island is capped by a thin veneer of basaltic volcanic rocks, erupted from several pyroclastic cones including 74 m (243 ft) Pumpkin Hill which forms the highest point on the island.
The people of Utila are of African (Garifuna), English and Dutch descent. At the time of the 2013 Honduras census, Utila municipality had a population of 3,947. Of these, 82.32% were Mestizo, 13.42% White, 2.10% Black or Afro-Honduran, 0.26% Indigenous and 1.91% others.
The island is part of the Islas de la Bahía y Cayos Cochinos Important Bird Area (IBA), designated as such by BirdLife International because it supports significant populations of white-crowned pigeons, chimney swifts and yellow-naped amazons. Since 2013 the entire island and its cays have been designated as a protected Ramsar site. Popular cays include Water Cay, Pigeon Cay and Sandy Cay.
Archeological, historical and ethnographic evidence of the Bay Islands indicates that they were inhabited before the European's arrival in 600 AD by a pre-Columbian culture known as the Paya and now known as Pech. The Paya people may have entered Central America in the great North to South America migration in 5,000 BC, although linguistic studies indicate that the Paya may have been descendants of South American tribes.
Christopher Columbus, on his fourth voyage to the new world, landed on the island of Guanaja on 30 July 1502, after encountering a small fleet of dugout canoes destined from the mainland to the Bay Islands. These vessels were filled with cotton cloth, maize, cacao, beans, copper goods and wooden swords with sharp flint edges, and on this meeting one dugout canoe carrying 25 men, women and children was captured. On land, Columbus encountered a fairly large population of Paya whom he believed to be cannibals.[citation needed] In 1516, licensed slavers were sent to the Islands under the authority of Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar and captured 300, killing others who put up resistance. The slaving vessel returned to Havana harbour, Santiago de Cuba, where it was taken over by the Paya who demanded repatriation. On hearing that the Paya had been repatriated, Velasquez commissioned two ships back which then captured 400 Paya on Utila and on one of the other islands, and during this raid 100 Paya were reported to have been killed. After their capture, this and future shipments of Paya slaves were forced to work in mines, farm sugar cane plantations and tend livestock on Santiago de Cuba, and were also sent to work in the gold and silver mines of Mexico.
Later on, English, French, and Dutch pirates established settlements on the islands and raided the Spanish cargo vessels laden with gold and other treasures from the New World. The Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan established his base at Port Royal on Roatán, about 30 kilometers from Utila, in the mid-17th century; at that time as many as 5,000 pirates were living on that island.[citation needed]
Colonisation by the Spanish began in the early 16th century. Over the next century, the Spanish plundered the island for its slave trade and eliminated the island of its natives by the early 17th century. Britain, in its aggressive attempt to out-colonize the Spanish in the Caribbean, occupied the Bay Islands on and off between 1550 and 1700. During this time, the buccaneers found the vacated, mostly unprotected islands a haven for safe harbour and transport. Utila is rich in pirate lore, and even presently, scuba divers look for sunken treasure from Captain Morgan's lost booty from his raid on Panama in 1671.