The Eastern Coast of Central America Commercial and Agricultural Company was a failed British venture of the 1830s to exploit logging and promote colonisation in a region of what is now northern

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

History

The company was set up as a project of Marshall Bennett, a

mahogany Mahogany is a straight-grained, reddish-brown timber of three tropical hardwood species of the genus ''Swietenia'', indigenous to the AmericasBridgewater, Samuel (2012). ''A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest''. Austin: Unive ...

trader operating in the region of

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

. From 1834

Juan Galindo Juan Galindo (1802 – 30 January 1840) was an Anglo-Irish political activist and military and administrative officer under the Liberal government of the Federal Republic of Central America. He represented the government in a diplomatic mission t ...

was opposing expansion of British wood-cutting interests in the area. Bennett diverted Thomas Gould, who was looking to revive the

Poyais General officer, General Gregor MacGregor (24 December 1786 – 4 December 1845) was a Scottish soldier, adventurer, and confidence trickster who attempted from 1821 to 1837 to draw British and French investors and settlers to "Poyais", a fic ...

venture (in a part of what is now

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

) towards colonisation based on an 1834 land grant around Vera Paz, in eastern Guatemala. His own aims concerned mahogany to be found in the vicinity of the Rio Dulce. The Guatemalan administration under

Mariano Gálvez José Felipe Mariano Gálvez (ca. 1794 – March 29, 1862 in Mexico) was a jurist and Liberal politician in Guatemala. For two consecutive terms from August 28, 1831, to March 3, 1838, he was chief of state of the State of Guatemala, within th ...

took a favourable line on colonisation, the Eastern Coast Company produced brochures in 1836, and emigrants from London arrived by boat at Vera Paz that summer. A competing group, based on the investors in the failed Poyais grant, then intervened, having secured a further land grant from

Robert Charles Frederic Robert Charles Frederic (also spelled Frederick in his own correspondence) was the King of the Mosquito Nation, 1824–1842. Succession Robert Charles Frederic was educated in Jamaica. He became "king" following the death of his brother and predec ...

. Thomas Hedgcock, himself interested in mahogany from the Black River area, manipulated the Poyais revival; and the rivalry was expressed in a corporate raid on the Eastern Coast Company in October 1837. From this point onwards third parties were invoked:

Francisco Morazán José Francisco Morazán Quesada (; born October 3, 1792 – September 15, 1842) was a Central American politician who served as president of the Federal Republic of Central America from 1830 to 1839. Before he was president of Central America h ...

of the

Federal Republic of Central America The Federal Republic of Central America ( es, República Federal de Centroamérica), originally named the United Provinces of Central America ( es, Provincias Unidas del Centro de América), and sometimes simply called Central America, in it ...

, and the British

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

. The Eastern Coast Company, however, was forced to fall back on a reduced colonisation scheme round Vera Paz. The Black River interests fell to a separate vehicle by 1838. In 1839 Peter Harriss Abbott was brought in to head the Board of the company. He was an accountant, who worked on reform in government financial administration, and an

official assignee An Official Assignee is an officer in the law court who distributes a bankrupt's assets to the creditors. He also assists the bankrupt to relieve of his obligations to the creditors. Under the bankruptcy system operating in the United Kingdom bef ...

under the recent bankruptcy legislation. In that year Bennett died. The Eastern Coast Company pursued its colony at "Abbottsville", which counted 80 colonists, after a shipload of February 1840. The whole area was descending into civil war, however, with Galindo and Morazán being killed. Abbottsville was in poor condition at the end of 1840, and was eventually deserted. Abbott absconded to Brussels in 1841, owing large sums, and was declared bankrupt.

Notes

{{reflist 1834 establishments in the United Kingdom