Buccaneers > English Buccaneers > Peter Wallace
Peter Wallace
Background
Peter Wallace (?? - ??) was an early British buccaneer from Scotland who was the first to become what later became known as the Baymen. He was a buccaneer captain of the Swallow out of Tortuga who first anchored off the coast of Belize and later developed a haven at the mouth of the Belize River around 1638.
The Spanish called him "Wallix" and later "Valis" or "Ballese" and also used this same name to describe the pirate settlement that was his haven. Wallace was a forerunner of a long line of buccaneers that began a lucrative logwood cutting operation that saw the plundering of the Spanish claimed resources of the Yucatan peninsula.
