Editing History of Honduras (section)

===The partially conquered northern coast===
[[File:Francoislollonais.JPG|thumb|European pirates, especially British, French, and Dutch attacked Honduran towns during the colonial era.|alt=]]

While the Spanish made significant conquests in the south, they had less success on the Caribbean coast, to the north. They founded a number of towns on the coast such as [[Puerto Cortés|Puerto Caballos]] in the east, and sent minerals and other exports across the country from the Pacific coast to be shipped to Spain from the Atlantic ports. They founded a number of inland towns on the northwestern side of the province, notably Naco and [[San Pedro Sula]].
 
[[File:Trugillo.jpg|thumb|Map of the town of Trujillo from the 16th century.]]

In the northeast, the province of Tegucigalpa resisted all attempts to conquer it, physically in the sixteenth century, or spiritually by missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries. Among the groups found along the [[Mosquito Coast]] were the [[Miskito people|Miskito]], who although organized in a democratic and egalitarian way, had a king, and hence were known as the [[Mosquito Coast|Mosquito Kingdom]].

One of the major problems for the Spanish rulers of Honduras was the activity of the British in northern Honduras, a region over which they had only tenuous control. These activities began in the sixteenth century and continued until the nineteenth century. In the early years, European pirates frequently attacked the villages on the Honduran Caribbean. The [[Providence Island Company]], which occupied [[Providence Island colony|Providence Island]] not far from the coast, raided it occasionally and had settlements on the shore, around [[Cape Gracias a Dios]]. Around 1638, the king of the Miskito visited England and made an alliance with the English crown.<ref>[[Karen Ordahl Kupperman]], ''Providence Island: The Other Puritan Colony, 1631–41'' (Cambridge, 19xx), pp.</ref> In 1643 an English expedition destroyed the city of [[Trujillo, Honduras|Trujillo]], Honduras's main port.<ref name="Apuntes para la Historia de Honduras">{{Cite book|last=Vera|first=Robustiano|year=1899|title=Apuntes para la Historia de Honduras|location=Tegucigalpa|publisher=Imprenta El Correo|language=es}}</ref>