Captain, Willis 63
John Lloyd Stevens, Padre Lara, and above all the Baptist
minister Frederick Crowe are only three of a long list who
proclaimed the Willis origin.
 The Spaniards took great care to use the "W" in this name
to show that it was of non-Spanish origin and belonged to the
other side of the barricade. When they substituted the "B"
it was because foreign words are treated phonetically, as for
instance Draque, Aquines, Guataral, for Drake, Hawkins, and
Walter Raleigh. An instinctive sense of harmony and pro-
portion characterize their language.
 The mere similarity of two words does not prove relation-
ship. Relationship is only proved if the two words can stand
up to each other when weighed in the light of historical and
philological development. The modification of the name
Willis to Belize has numerous parallels in the colony. For
example, "gibnut" from "gibier aux nattes," game hunted
on the coast by the buccaneers and roasted on twigs before
taken aboard ship, and "clap and sawyer" from "le serpent
saillant," the snake which sallies forth or lances away.
 On Ruatan there is the ruin of a fort, built perhaps in
1641-42 by Captain Samuel Axe with those who had escaped
from Providence and such as had left the Stands intent on
going privateering on the seas from this base. Captain Axe
then returned to England and came back as vice-admiral un-
der Captain William Jackson when he took Jamaica for a
time in the spring of 1643 and raided Truxillo. They too
were commissioned and financed by the Earl of Warwick and
came by way of Barbadoes with three ships, "Charles," "Val-
entine," and "Dolphin." Captain Axe then had many volun-
teers from St. Christopher and the expedition had much
trouble with fever in the Bay. The Spanish ambassador,
Alonzo de Cardenas, protested at the English Court in April
1645 against Jackson's doings and this commission granted
to the Earl of Warwick.
 Captain Philip Bell, whose governorship of Providence
 lasted until 1636 became governor of Barbadoes with the
 rank of major and gave that colony the benefits of his experi-