Grace Bank

Grace Bank, formerly Barcadares, is an unincorporated hamlet 33 miles up the Belize River. It was the second settlement founded by the first English settlers of present-day Belize. It was settled in the 1650s, relocated in 1760, and resettled in 1853.

Pre-Columbian
Grace Bank's immediate surroundings were likely first settled by nomadic Paleo-Indians prior to the 8th millennium BC, during the Lithic period in Mesoamerica. Mayan farmers founded permanent settlements in the area by the 2nd millennium BC, during the Archaic period in Mesoamerica. By the 16th century, the region formed part of Dzuluinicob, a Postclassic Mayan state.

Rise of Spanish dominion, 1528–1544
Sixteenth century residents of the area first became aware of Spaniards in 1502, with the 30 July landing of Christopher Columbus in Guanaja. On 8 December 1526, Francisco de Montejo was named adelantado of the Yucatán Peninsula (including the territory of Dzuluinicob). The Spanish conquest reached the area in the third quarter of 1528, during Montejo's southern entrada. Said conquest lasted until the first or second quarter of 1544, upon Melchor and Alonso Pacheco's defeat of Chetumal and Dzuluinicob, and their subsequent founding of Bacalar. Some or most of the area's surviving residents were (forcibly) relocated to reducción towns closer to Bacalar, and (forcibly) converted to Roman Catholicism.

A secular parish was (belatedly) established at Bacalar in 1565 by Pedro de la Costa. In the latter three quarters of 1568, an entrada and reducción by Juan de Garzón and the vecinos of Bacalar resulted in the further disintegration of Postclassic Mayan society in the area, thereby cementing Spanish dominion from Bacalar.

Fall of Spanish dominion, 1638–1642
Bacalar began to lose control over its district in c. 1615, as alcaldes ordinarios were forced to re-establish reducción towns near Tipu in 1615, to conduct a visita in 1620. In 1638, Tipu lead the area into general revolt against Bacalar, resulting in the collapse of Spanish power over the region by 1642, and the relocation of a majority of the area's residents to Tipu.

Anglo-Dutch piracy, 1617–1650s
Pirates are first thought to have arrived near Grace Bank in 1617, during a raid of Bacalar by English pirates or privateers. In the 1630s, pirates were further attracted to the region by the increasing willingness of Spanish residents to trade with non-Spaniards, and the possibility of abducting Mayan residents for impressment or sale at non-Spanish slave markets. Belize City is thought to have been settled in 1638, by a crew of shipwrecked buccaneers.

English logging, 1650s–1763
In the 1540s, Marcos de Ayala Trujeque, a vecino of Merida, is thought to have pioneered the use of logwood dyes in the Old World. The early buccaneer settlers (now Baymen) turned to logging logwood in the 1650s, when they are thought to have settled Grace Bank (then Barcadares).

Anglo-Spanish hostilities, 1650s–1763
Barcadares's settlers opened conflict against Bacalar on 29 May 1652, when they are thought to have lead or been involved in that villa's sacking. Spanish Yucatan retaliated during 16 November 1694 – 28 February 1695 with a paramilitary campaign against the Baymen's camps and settlements, thereby presaging over a century of Anglo-Spanish conflict that would eventually lead to the relocation of Barcadares. This campaign lead to the first (of many) evacuations of the Baymen's settlements. With similar evacuations occurring in –
 * 1) start of January 1700 – end of June 1703, occasioned by three paramilitary campaigns by Spanish Yucatan ,
 * 2) start of May 1729 – 20 October 1735, occasioned by an infantry campaign by Spanish Yucatan ,
 * 3) 3 June 1747 – prior to end of January 1748, occasioned by a Spanish campaign ,
 * 4) 9 January 1752 – prior to mid-February 1752, occasioned by Spanish privateers or guardacostas ,
 * 5) start of May 1753 – end of May 1753, occasioned by Spanish privateers or guardacostas ,
 * 6) 18 June 1754 – 12 April 1755, occasioned (first) by a Spanish infantry campaign and (later) by a Spanish naval campaign ,
 * 7) c. 10 November 1758 – prior to 20 July 1759, occasioned by Spanish privateers or guardacostas ,
 * 8) start of May 1760 – end of April 1763, occasioned by a naval campaign by Spanish Yucatan . Spanish Yucatan also tightened its control of the waters off the Belize River beginning on 2 November 1705 with the arrival of privateers or guardacostas Archibaldo Magdonel de Narión and Francisco Joseph Jiménez with 30 men aboard two goletas.

The final campaign against Barcadares occurred on 25 December 1759, when 150 Spaniards aboard a 'great number' of periaguas landed in the port of Belize. This coup de grâce resulted in the imprisonment of a number of Baymen, the seizure of several loaded flats, the burning of Barcadares and nearby logging camps, and a nearly three-year evacuation of all settlements (in favour of the safer Mosquito Shore).

Political
Grace Bank is not known to have been settled by Mayans. The area is thought to have formed part of Dzuluinicob from the 10th or 12th century to c. 1544. It was a de jure part of the municipio or district of Bacalar, in Yucatan, a province of New Spain, until 15 September 1821. It was a de facto part of the English settlement in the Bay of Honduras from the 1650s to 11 February 1862, and thereafter a de jure and de facto part of British Honduras. It is presently part of the Belize District of Belize.

Physical
Grace Bank lies on the northern bank of the Belize River, near its confluence with Francisco Creek, some eight or nine miles inland (as the crow flies) from the Caribbean Sea. It is 33 miles up the river, past Davis Bank, just before Lime Walk. It lies just south of Jones Lagoon, and west of Potts Creek Lagoon.

Climate
Grace Bank has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification Am), with a May – November wet and a December – April dry season.

Government
Grace Bank is currently part of the Belize Rural South constituency, and is represented in Parliament by Marconi Leal MP.

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