62 The Beginning of British Honduras
Caye there is a strategically important spot called Spanish
Lookout. Lookouts were also kept on the land.
 Early in the 18th century when Marlborough and Prince
Eugene were proving to Louis Fourteenth that the Pyrenees
had not ceased to exist, the captain-general of Yucatan, Alvaro
Rivaguda, sent out men to make a careful reconnaissance of
the settlements of the English logwood cutters and the waters
thereabout in order to find out the exact approaches. When
he disclosed his desire to attack the little fort at the mouth
of the Walis he was told by these surveyors that such was not
possible because the surrounding waters were still insufficient-
ly known to them, and that the region was full of reefs and
cayes which made dangerous the entrance to the settlement.
Yet these surveyors informed him that the logwood cutters
were in relations with Jamaica and that they had seen some
large vessels frequenting the place without any inconvenience
whatever, though they could not discover the intricate chan-
nels that were being used. Nobody who was not in their
confidence could enter the place.
 The Archives of British Honduras show the evolution of
this name. In 1705 the river Bullys, 1737 Beleze, 1742 Bel-
lese, 1743 Belize. The Bayman's Map of July 4, 1786 gives
the River Wallis or Belleze, and Cayo Casina. In Chapter 63
of Coxe's Memoirs of the Spanish Bourbon kings, under date
of December 1763, the Rios Hondo, Nuevo, and Wallis are
mentioned. The Spanish Government in a communication
dated 2, June 1727 asked Manuel Salcedo, captain general of
Yucatan, about the state of affairs in Rio Walis. In a letter
from Captain the Hon. John Luttrell of H. M. Charon, writ-
ten on October 27, 1779 from the harbour of Omoa to the
Admiralty the River Belez is twice mentioned. The Hon-
duras Almanack of 1829 says-"the town of Belize, situated
at the mouth of the river of the same name, was so called
after its first discoverer, Wallice, a noted buccaneer who made
this the place of his retreat. The Spaniards wrote it Waliz,
corresponding with the English name, but it subsequently
became corrupted into Balleze, or as it is now called, Belize."