The local legend has it that the name of the island on which Amapala is based is due to the fact that in the 16th century a group of pirates led by the pirate
Francis Drake operated on the island. He and his men were considered by the inhabitants of the area as wild and bloody beasts, so they called the island "Cerro de El Tigre". In fact Drake probably never stayed here though some later pirates, like
William Dampier, did. The name Amapala derives from
Nahuatl and means "close to amates". However, there is an alternate theory that states that it comes from the words "
ama" (corn) and "
palha" (hill) of the
Goajiquiro dialect, and therefore would mean "hill of corn". Amapala was founded in 1838, and its port was opened and declared free in 1868. During the 19th century it exported large quantities of gold, silver and other ores, although its progress was retarded by the delay in constructing a transcontinental railway from
Puerto Cortés. By the mid-1970s, Amapala was gradually replaced in importance by the port of
San Lorenzo on the mainland. A description of the town in 1881 can be found in the book ''A Lady's Ride Across Spanish Honduras'' by Mary Lester (a.k.a. Mary Soltera). In 1895,
El Salvador, Honduras, and
Nicaragua signed the Treaty of Amapala that established the short-lived
Greater Republic of Central America. ==Demographics==