WHO NAMED THIS COUNTRY..? (book “Da Breezee Belizee”).

In January 1671, two thousand buccaneers and pirates led by the legendary privateer Henry Morgan sacked Panama. After plundering the city, the thugs returned to their ships with the booty. The pirates freed four thousand slaves, and some of them joined piracy in favor of freedom. Admiral Morgan sailed home to Jamaica, and his army began to disperse. Many freed slaves decided to go to the Yucatan, where there was a great demand for loggers at the time. Waving an axe they could make a little money without the risk of losing their head. And a lot happened to them during the long journey north. It was a time of colonial wars and pirates, a dangerous time for sailors traveling to the New World. We can only imagine what that time was like by reading old books.

My library has several books written by pirates. Their adventures and the stories of their descendants, among whom I live in a Caribbean paradise, inspired me to write a novel you might find interesting. So throw your bones in your armchair and grab a glass of your favorite rum punch. I’m going to tell you a story.

They spent the whole day shooting and salting wild boar and pigeons. As the sun set, the pirates were returning to their boat, tired and laden with booty and kegs with water. Lazy lagged and stopped to rest in the shade of a tree. And there he fell asleep. He awoke in the dark of the tropical night and ran ashore. But he couldn’t find the boat, and when the sun came up, he couldn’t see the schooner either. Perhaps his comrades thought he had been eaten by crocodiles, for there were many in the river from which they were drawing water. They forgot about the poor fellow and moved on to new adventures.
So what did Providence have in store for our “pirate”? Hoping that his footsteps would lead him somewhere, he walked along the shore for days and nights, sheltering from the scorching sun in the coastal thickets, protecting himself from the mosquitoes in the salty sea, and feeding on whatever he could find.

One day he was spotted by a local fisherman who brought the exhausted poor fellow to the village where he was fed and sheltered. When the villagers invited the stranger to stay with them, he fell to his knees and blessed God for his laziness, which had miraculously saved him from the dangers of the pirate life to which he had been forced against his will. Pouring out his feelings to the heavens, he exclaimed: “Lord, what happiness you have given me to be born lazy! I am happy to be lazy! Be lazy!
The land is spreading rumors, and the next day the local children, seeing a new man, were running after him shouting “BE LAZY! BE LAZY! They teased him, made faces, and laughed. With tears of happiness on his cheeks, Lazy smiled at the children, rejoicing in the sun of a new day and his new life. He soon married a local woman and they start making children. In this case, our Be Lazy showed such activity that the village began to fill with chocolate boys and girls. And when the locals saw another curly-haired toddler walking, they laughed: “Look, another Be Lazy…”.

Meanwhile, hundreds of slaves from Panama, freed by Morgan’s pirates, were on their way to Yucatan. They liked the land, full of fruit trees, the sea, full of fish, and a coral reef that protected them from the navy ships hunting for escaped slaves. So they decided to settle here. Soon all the inhabitants of this region became “BELAZIANS”, thanks to Belazy. This is the reality that can be seen when we look at the racial peculiarity of this small country, whose people are different from their neighbors in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Now, reader, you know all A-B-C life-proven facts, that are ignored by those who call themselves historians. (In my opinion, this country deserves the name ‘Morgana’, after the British privateer, who gave freedom to those people, settlers in this land).

AFTER WORK.

Want to see the image of a man who was once lucky enough to find his heaven on earth? Take a look at the Belizean Coat of Arms.

You see on it our Belazy next to his savior, a Mayan fisherman, an original inhabitant of this land. Behind them is a huge tree in whose shade our hero fell asleep, rescued from the vicissitudes of pirate life. And logger’s tool as well.

Below it is a sailing ship, which carried our hero to the blessed land. The ship has a red flag flying from its stern mast. In those days the red flag (the color of blood) was a pirate flag. Below is the Latin inscription “Sub Umbra Floreo”, which means “In the shade, I rest…”.

The meaning of these words, which have become the national motto, reflects an action that once miraculously saved our hero from the dangers of the pirate life. He fell asleep in the shade and woke up to a new life! A unique example of how laziness can make you happy!