Battle of the Black River

Matías de Gálvez, the Captain General of Spanish Guatemala, was ordered^[when?] by King Charles to "dislocate the English from their hidden settlements on the Gulf of Honduras".^[6] In 1782, he embarked on a series of actions to wipe out British settlements, which held long-established logging rights on the southern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula (present-day Belize), and also settlements on the Mosquito Coast (present-day Honduras and Nicaragua).

In March 1782, more than 800 Spanish troops led by Gálvez had captured Roatán, overwhelming the British garrison that then numbered just eighty men. With reinforcements of another 600 men, he went on to capture the Black River settlement the next month, which was defended by fewer than twenty men. James Lawrie, a major in the 49th Regiment of Foot who commanded the small British force, resisted as best he could, but abandoned the fortifications and fled with his men through the jungle to Cape Gracias a Dios.

The British governor of Jamaica, General Sir Archibald Campbell, was preoccupied by a planned Franco-Spanish attack on the island, and was unable to immediately send relief. However, the invasion of Jamaica was called off after the decisive British victory at the Battle of the Saintes where Admiral Rodney defeated the French fleet before it joined the Spanish.^[7] By the end of April the balance of power in the Caribbean had shifted to the British Royal Navy. With this in effect, Governor Campbell gave Edward Marcus Despard permission to retake the Black River settlement after learning that Lawrie had a force waiting to strike back.^[8]

Lawrie was able to regroup a force of about 800 locals (known as the Rattan (Roatan) and Black River Volunteers) and Miskitos in the Cape Gracias a Dios area.^[9] These men harassed the Spaniards in guerilla-style warfare. Despard, coming from Jamaica, landed at Cape Gracias a Dios and reached the mouth of the Plantain River with men of the Loyalist company known as the Loyal American Rangers; these eventually met up with Lawrie and his force. Combined with the supporting force that now consisted of 80 Loyalist Americans, 500 settlers (shoremen and freed slaves) and 600 Miskitos, there were 1,200 men in total. A squadron of Royal Navy and armed merchant ships stood by in support. Despard wasted no time in attacking the Spanish to gain the element of surprise.

Meanwhile, the Spanish garrison on Black River had been reduced by disease since its capture in early April.^[9] At Quipriva where Fort Dalling was located, a small Spanish contingent of 75 Spaniards was surprised, and all but one were either killed or taken prisoner: a survivor by the name of Manuel Rivas escaped to warn the other soldiers at Caribe.

On 22 August, Despard surrounded Caribe at Black River Bluff opposite the Eastern blockhouse, overwhelming the 140 Spanish soldiers, who surrendered after a short fight.^[7] A day after the surrender, a Spanish 16-gun polacre from Trujillo carrying reinforcements of 100 troops and provisions for the Spanish was captured by the small British squadron of ships just off the coast. What was left of the Spanish force from Gálvez's April expedition surrendered by the end of August. Articles of capitulation were proposed by Don Tomás Julia to Despard who accepted.