REMARKS ON A PASSAGE FROM The River BALISE, in the BAY of HONDURAS, to MERIDA; THE Capital of the Province of JUCATAN, In the Spanish West Indies. By Lieutenant COOK, Ordered by Sir WILLIAM BURNABY, Rear Admiral of the Red, in Jamaica; With Dispatches to the Governor of the Province; Relative to the Logwood Cutters in the Bay of HONDURAS, In February and March 1765. LONDON: Printed for C. PARKER, the Upper Part of New Bond Street. MDCCLXIX. [Illustration: [Fleuron]] REMARKS, &c. The first part of this passage from the road of Baleise to Baccalar, is entirely by water; first coast-ways to the entrance of the Rio Hondo, from thence through an arm of that river, that leads to three small Lagoons, till you arrive at the lake of Baccalar, on whose banks the town and castle of St. Philips is situated. The distance from Baleise to the entrance of the Rio Hondo, is near thirty leagues, and in sailing has much the appearance of a straight or broad river, from the number of small island or quays, (as they are there called) that lay at about five or six leagues distance from the main, and parallel with it; both the islands and main are very flat, the former of which are for the most part covered with the Mangrove and palmeta trees; ’tis rare to see a beach, on either the main or the quays, for the Mangrove; the course up is about the N.N.W. and in general very shoaly, so much so at many places, that the _Flatts_ which (the baymen use to carry their logwood) of about four or five feet draught of water often ground, and in some particular places, raise the mud for a mile together. In short, the navigation on this part of the coast, from Baleise to the Rio Hondo, is as much a pilot’s water for those boats, as the Thames is for ships from London to the Nore; the quays abound with Goannas, of which we shot several, going ashore for that purpose, and many Allegators lurk in the shoal water under the Mangrove bushes; we were accompanied by a master of a merchant ship (a lieutenant in the navy) in his long boat, partly out of compliment, and partly out of curiosity, to see the country and Baccalar; myself going into the Rio Hondo, with one Maud, one of the most considerable bay merchants, in one of his Flatts, which boats have a tolerable good cabbin, and are schooner rigg’d. The entrance of the Rio Hondo is narrow, not more than a hundred yards over, or a half cables length, and is very deep, as from its name Hondo, signifying the same in the Spanish. About a quarter of a mile from the river’s mouth, and open to the sea, on the north shore, is a look out, which is