Peter Wallace (buccaneer)

Peter Wallace is commonly held to have been an English or Scottish buccaneer who, in 1638 aboard the Swallow, founded the first English settlement in present-day Belize. Wallace's historicity is debated, first emerging in the 1829 Honduras Almanack; however, several scholars deem him a legendary protagonist of the country's founding myth, rather than an actual historical figure.

Buccaneering
In 1638, Wallace is believed to have landed at Swallow Caye aboard the Swallow, with a crew of some 80 British men. This is often regarded as the first non-Maya, non-Hispanic settlement in present-day Belize. Variations of this story exist. See English settling of Belize for a fuller discussion. For instance, states "1638. This year a few British subjects first inhabited Honduras, having been wrecked on the Coast." (which story is accepted by, by , by , and [broadly] by ), while (quoting ) states "The British Settlement of Honduras, of which Belize is the capital, cannot be traced to be of any greater antiquity than from the administration of Oliver Cromwell, in Great Britain, at which period it was, from its remote and secret situation, used by the English, rather as a place of refuge and concealment, from the dreadful and savage warfare then carried on by the Spaniards ...." (which story is accepted by ), whereas states while states that Wallace landed in 1603 or 1604.
 * 1) (quoting a column entitled Ojeada histórica sobre el establecimiento británico de Belice in the Fénix newspaper by Justo Sierra) that Wallace landed in the mid-17th century at the mouth of the Belize River, where he and his crew built defensive trenches (accepted by, and by ),
 * 2) (quoting a biography of Antonio de Figueroa y Silva by Crescencio Carrillo) that Wallace led British buccaneers from their base in Laguna de Terminos to the Belize River in 1717 (repeated in ),
 * 3) (quoting a geographical dictionary by Ungewitter) that Wallace landed in 1640 (accepted by  and ),
 * 4) (quoting a geographical dictionary by Egli) that Wallace landed in 1610,
 * 5) (quoting a geographical dictionary by MacCulloch) that Wallace landed after the signing of the Earl of Sandwich's Treaty on 23 May 1667,

Social
Wallace became the subject of local buccaneering myths and legends by at least the 1830s, emerging from the 1829 Honduras Almanack. Swallow Caye is believed to be named after the Swallow. Similarly, the 'Belize' toponym is commonly held to be a Spanish-mediated corruption of 'Wallace' or 'Wallis.'

19th century
The earliest mention of Wallace in print is thought to be that of the Honduras Almanack for 1829, which noted that 'Wallice' was a 'Lieutenant among the Bucaniers who formerly infested these seas [the Bay of Honduras] ... [and who] first discovered the mouth of the River Belize.' The same publication gave further notice of Wallace in 1839, now noting – "Belize owes its origin to a Scotch Corsair Chief of the name of Wallace, a native of Falkland in Kinrosshire. At the time that these formidable pirates were driven from Tortuga, a small island situated a few miles north of St. Domingo [Haiti], Wallace[,] to escape from the just vengeance of the Spaniards[,] fled for security amongs [sic] the numerous islands on the coast of Yucatan and finally settled at the mouth of the River Belize. Here[,] after many vicissitudes both by sea and land[,] Wallace fixed his residence, [and] erected a few log huts and a small fortalice, which stood on the site now occupied by the handsome premises of Messrs. Boitias and Delande."

This information was promptly popularised by John Lloyd Stephens, who, on 30 October 1839, landed in Belize with Frederick Catherwood en route to Maya ruins in Guatemala, further enriched by Justo Sierra O'Reilly on 5 September 1849, and repeated throughout scholarly and lay literature of the 19th century. By 1883, an historian described the state of affairs thus – "of romance surrounds the early history of British Honduras, legend assigning this region as the scene of many a daring exploit, many a riotous orgie, in the good old times when the adventurous sons of Albion roamed the Caribbean, partly under the protection of their own dreaded black flag, and sometimes under that of the country of their birth, [...]. The central hero of this romance was a Scottish rover named Wallace, or Wallis, 'who so distinguished himself,' naively remarks the Honduras Almanac fifty-six years ago, 'by acts of bravery and desperation that his name became a terror to the Spaniards.'"

20th century
A number of competing theories regarding Wallace's identity and arrival to Belize were proffered in the 20th century.
 * 1) In 1925, Guatemalan historian Francisco Arturias claimed that Wallace was Sir Walter Raleigh's chief mate at least during that privateer's El Dorado expedition, and further, that Wallace sailed from England on 14 May 1603, settled Belize shortly thereafter, but abandoned the settlement in 1617, finally dying in England in 1621. Notably, this theory was accepted by Sir Alan Burdon in 1931.
 * 2) In 1946, Belizean historian E. O. Winzerling claimed that 'Willis' set sail for Tortuga in 1639 with a group of men 'drawn mostly from those expelled from Nevis' and became their governor there, and further, that Wallace and company were routed from Tortuga by the French in August 1640 and arrived at the mouth of the Belize River, founding a settlement there 'approximately in September 1640.'
 * 3) In 1956, American geographer James Jerome Parsons suggested that Wallace may have been an Old Providence Puritan who, with a sizeable contingent of refugee settlers, arrived in Belize in 1641 after the Spanish capture of Old Providence.

21st century
Recent, 21st century literature has tended towards agnosticism regarding the identity and historicity of Wallace. However, some scholars have deemed this trend 'incorrect,' arguing that Wallace is demonstrably apocryphal. Most notably, historians Barbara and Victor Bulmer-Thomas argued in 2016 that the Baymen George Westby and Thomas Pickstock, and the Jamaican historian George Wilson Bridges, disseminated the account of Wallace's founding of Belize in the 1820s, despite lacking primary sources. They further note, 'an extensive search for a buccaneer called 'Wallace,' 'Wallice' or 'Willis' in the 17th century reveals not surprisingly that there was no such person.' This analysis was further supported by historian Matthew Restall who conducted his own research and concluded that 'if Wallace had existed, there would at least be one mention of him in seventeenth or eighteenth-century sources. But there is not even a passing mention of a Wallace in any of the printed sources from the era.'