56 The Beginning of British Honduras
creeks of the Texach. The fact that Le Vasseur did not dare
to pursue to the beach makes us conclude that Willis had
made strategic dispositions for the retreat. With skilful
manoeuvring of his ship and the cannons well served by his
loyal adherents he could take care of the rest. We can con-
clude from the records that he was the type of man whom
others do not clap on the shoulder. They either despised him,
or admired him, according to the bent of their minds, but
could never feel that he was like them. Le Vasseur knew his
mettle from the half-traitors and gossips. As governor of
Tortuga Le Vasseur burnt the chapel of the Catholics and
even expelled the Protestant pastor. He acquired a huge
fortune, surrounded himself with luxury, kept his prisoners
in iron cages in which they could not stand up, until he was
murdered a decade later by two of his lieutenants.
 Willis now sailed west, to the opposite mainland. It was
 not easy to make men of his kind declare themselves van-
 quished. He more than singed Yucatan's beard with his
 eighty followers. The first land struck was Turneffe, made
 up of innumerable mangrove islands and lagoons with good
 passages for boats. Proceeding to the mainland, he stopped
 at a caye with sandy soil and magnificent sapodilla trees which
 they called "casinas," trees with which they were already
 familiar in Tortuga and Providence. Some of these men were
 here before as logwood cutters. Here Willis would start anew,
 and take all the necessary precautions against being dislodged
 in the former fashion, for his outlook was that of a feudal
 chief.
 The Mexican editor, Justo Sierra, whose information was
 based on documents long since rotted away, tells us that
 "Peter Wallace was a daring and enterprising Scotch buc-
 caneer who was moved by the reputation for riches of this
 region, and that in association with the most resolute of his
 comrades determined to search for a site where he could per-
 manently establish his lair. So he made a perfect survey and
 diligent examination of all those reefs and shoals and then
 found a river entirely protected by a series of cayes and shal-