An item reported that on the 8th the ship Louiza Marie left Ostende, Belgium towards Guatemala. On board was Simons and other people with the intention to found a Belgian community in Guatemala. The ship Theodorus was soon to follow her with on board more colonists and around 200.000 examples of what Belgian plants produced.(1)
Note
1. In 1843 bought the Belgian Compagnie Belge Colonisation owned by count de Hompesch supported by the Belgian king Leopold I the district Santo Tomás de Castilla (concession dated 4 May). The intention to get rid of small criminals and other disadvantaged people and find a new market for Belgian products. False propaganda of the Belgian cabinet suggested that Verapaz was an El Dorado. In 1854 ended this colonisation project as a fiasco.
