Around 1640 the Scottish pirate Peter Wallace settled in the region south of the Rio Hondo from where he attacked ships carrying precious wood and other products to Europe. Discovering the great value of Logwood cargos (a tree used as a natural source of dye) he decided to dedicate himself and his men to the logging and selling of this wood. This way the first British settlement south of the Rio Hondo was established protected by pirates and with consent of the British government. Later this settlement would be knows as Belize (derived from the name Wallace, Wallis, Ballis, Balise, Belize).