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Rare separately published map of British Honduras, the future Belize, published by William Faden in 1787.

Faden created what would become the first modern map of what would become Belize on the occasion of the Logwood Treaty (1786), by which the Spanish transferred control of the region to Britain. Faden's map is the first accurate map of modern Northern Belize. 

Credited to a “Bay-Man”, the mapmaker's identity is not known, but is most likely a colonist with official responsibilities for land management. Faden's map shows the limits of the newly-confirmed colony, the first such map to delineate the region.

The map covers what is approximately the northern half of modern Belize (from Dangriga northwards), which was then the focus of British interest.  While not based upon a scientific survey, the map provides good detail for this previously unmapped region, including the British settlements concentrated on the New River, in the north, including several named properties.

The map illustrates the areas with Logwood and Mahogany stands, along with notes as to their qualities. In this sense, the work is a highly detailed natural resource map. 

Until the Treaty, Spain had contested the British presence in the Bay of Honduras. It was only in the period immediately before the present map was issued that British rights in the region were conferred international legitimacy, as agreed by Spain. As shown on map, the areas bathed in a pink wash, running between the Río Hondo, in the north, and the Black Creek and Belize River, in the south, were recognized as being open to British activities by the Treaty of Paris (1783). The tract to the south, located between the Belize River and the Sibun River,  shown in yellow, was opened to British development by the Convention of London, popularly known as the ‘Logwood Treaty’ of 1786. The small areas colored in orange indicate locations of British settlement prior to the aforementioned treaties. 

The two treaty tracts, would become the colony of ‘His Majesty’s Settlement in the Bay of Honduras’, later British Honduras, and modern Belize. Faen's map would become the authoritative map defining the parameters of the new colony.

As noted by Odile Hoffman, the present work is a “Mapped History” of the British presence in the Bay of Honduras, stubbornly carved out of the Hispano-American world. The map features innumerable British place names, the locations of British logging sites and a note reading “[home to] English Logwood Cutters [for] 30 years”, while some logging areas are noted as having already been “cut out”.  

Rarity

The map is extremely rare.  We note only 1 other example on the market in the past 20 years.