233
the English to compete with them; while, in addi-
tion, his majesty stood engaged to protect, by the
naval strength of England, a company whose success
was incompatible with its existence." This address
his majesty received graciously, observing " that he
had been ill-served in Scotland, but he hoped some
remedy might yet be found to prevent the incon-
venience that might arise from the act." To satisfy
his English parliament that he was in earnest, Wil-
liam dismissed his Scottish ministers, and among
the rest the Earl of Stair.
The English parliament, with a spirit worthy of
the darkest ages and the most barbarous nations,
proceeded to declare Lord Belhaven, William Pa-
terson, and twenty-two other members of the com-
pany, guilty of a high misdemeanour. Those of their
own people who had become partners in the com-
pany were compelled to withdraw their subscriptions.
Upwards of £200,000 sterling were afterwards sub-
scribed to the scheme by the merchants of Holland
and Hamburg, and the English resident at the latter
city, Sir Paul Rycault, was instructed to present a
remonstrance on the part of the king to the magis-
trates, complaining of the countenance they had
given to the commissioners of the Darien Company.
The answer of the city was worthy of itself in its
best days. "They considered it strange that the
King of England should dictate to them, a free people,
how, or with whom, they were to engage in the
arrangements of commerce, and still more so, that
they should be blamed for offering to connect them-
selves in this way with a body of his own subjects
incorporated under a special act of parliament."
From this interference, however, the Hamburgers,
aware that the company was to be thwarted in all its
proceedings by the superior power of England, lost
confidence in the scheme, and finally withdrew their
subscriptions. The Dutch, too, equally jealous of
commercial rivalry with the English, and influenced
perhaps by the same motives with the Hamburgers,
withdrew their subscriptions also, and the company
was left to the unassisted resources of their own poor
and depressed country. But nothing could exceed the
eagerness with which all classes of the Scottish people
hastened to enrol themselves in the magnificent co-
partnery now forming. Every burgh, every city,
and almost every family of any consequence became
shareholders. Four hundred thousand pounds were
subscribed—an astonishing sum when it is known
that at that time the circulating capital of the king-
dom did not exceed £800,000 sterling. To this
enthusiasm a variety of causes contributed. The
scheme of Paterson was politically good. It was
drawn up with great ability, and promised important
results in a moral and religious as well as in a com-
mercial point of view. Many of the subscribers,
indeed, were influenced solely by religious motives,
as they considered the setting up of a church re-
gularly constituted on that continent the most likely
means for spreading the gospel among the natives,
and as affording facilities for that purpose which
could not in any other way be obtained. But it
must also be admitted that the scheme, having become
a national mania, was not left to work its way by its
own intrinsic merits. The scene of the intended
operations became the subject of numberless pam-
phlets, wherein fancy was much more largely em-
ployed than fact. The soil was represented as rich,
and teeming with the most luxuriant fertility; the
rivers as full of fish, and their sands sparkling with
gold; the woods smiling in perpetual verdure, at all
times ringing with the melody of spring, and loading
every breeze that swept over them with the most
delightful odours.
Having completed their preparations, and the
public authorities having assured them of protection
and encouragement, the colony, in presence of the
whole city of Edinburgh, which poured out its in-
habitants to witness the scene, embarked at  Leith,
from the roads of which they sailed on the 26th of July,
1698. The fleet consisted of five ships purchased at
Hamburg or Holland—for they were refused even the
trifling accommodation of a ship of  warwhich was laid
up at Burntisland—and were named the Caledonia,
St. Andrew, Unicorn, Dolphin, and Endeavour;
the two last being yachts laden with provisions and
military stores. The colony consisted of 1200 men,
300 of them being young men of the best Scottish
families. Among them were also sixty officers, who
had been thrown out of employment by the peace
which had just been concluded, and who carried
along with them the troops they had commanded;
all of whom were men who had been raised on their
own estates or on those of their relations. Many
soldiers and sailors whose services had been refused
—for many more than could be employed had offered
themselves—were found hid in the ships, and when
ordered ashore clung to the ropes, imploring to be
allowed to go with their countrymen without fee
or reward. The whole sailed amidst the praises,
the prayers, and the tears of relations, friends,
and countrymen; "and neighbouring nations," says
Dalrymple, "saw with a mixture of surprise and
respect the poorest nation of Europe sending forth
the most gallant colony which had ever gone from
the old to the new world." The parliament of
Scotland met in the same week that the expedition
for Darien sailed, and on the 5th of August they
presented a unanimous address to the king, request-
ing that he would be pleased to support the company.
The lord-president, Sir Hugh Dalrymple, and Sir
James Stuart, lord-advocate, also drew out memorials
to the king in behalf of the company, in which they
proved their rights to be irrefragable, on the prin-
ciples both of constitutional and public law. All
this, however, did not prevent orders being sent
out by the English ministry to all the English gov-
ernors in America and the West Indies, to with-
hold all supplies from the Scottish colony at Darien,
and to have no manner of communication with it,
either in one shape or another. Meanwhile, the
colony proceeded on its voyage without anything
remarkable occurring; and on the 3d of November
landed between Portobello and Carthagena, at a
place called Acta, where there was an excellent
harbour, about four miles from Golden Island.
Having obtained the sanction of the natives to settle
among them, they proceeded to cut through a pen-
insula, by which they obtained what they conceived
to be a favourable site for a city, and they accord-
ingly began to build one, under the name of New
Edinburgh. They also constructed a fort in a com-
manding situation, for the protection of the town
and the harbour, which they named St. Andrew;
and on the country itself they imposed the name of
Caledonia. The first care of the council which had
been appointed by the company, but of which Mr.
Paterson was unfortunately not a member, was to
establish a friendly correspondence with the native
chiefs, which they found no difficulty in doing. To
the Spanish authorities at Carthagena and Panama
they also sent friendly deputations, stating their
desire to live with them upon terms of amity and
reciprocal intercourse. On the 28th of December,
1698, the council issued a proclamation, dated at
New Edinburgh, to the following effect:—"We do
hereby publish and declare, That all manner of per-
sons, of what nation or people soever, are and shall