A DEFENCE OF THE SCOTS ABDICATING DARIEN: Including An ANSWER TO THE DEFENCE OF THE Scots SETTLEMENT there.  
Authore BRITANNO sed Dunensi  
Vitaret caelum Phaeton si viveret & quos,  
Optaret stulte Tangere nollet equos.  Ovid. de Trist. 
Printed in the Year, 1700.   

To the Right Worshipful, THE COURT of DIRECTORS OF THE Scots African and Indian Company; The DEFENCE of the Scots Abdicating of DARIEN, IS Humbly DEDICATED.  
Right Worshipful GENTLEMEN,  
THE immense Privileges and Immunities, wherewith your present Sovereign, and indulgent Father, WILLIAM the Second, hath invested your Company, by that Octroy of the Year, 1695, argues his good Inclinations towards you so far, that whilst he was in the warmest Trenches of Namure, (and not sure but that Act might be his last Legacy) authorised you and your Successors to Plant, and maintain Colonies in whatever Part, or Parts of Asia, Africa and America you pleased, provided these Places or Territories were not the Propriety of such European Princes or States, as were in Alliance of Amity with His Majesty; and freed you for the Space of Twenty One Years, from all Duties on the Product of such Plantations, etc. You were not only impower'd to defend your Colonies and Trade by Force of Arms, but likewise had His Majesty's Promise to interpose the Regal Authority, to do you Right, in case you were disturbed in such Legal Possession or Trade, and that at the public Charge (to be presumed) of the Ancient Kingdom.  
His Majesty having thus granted you so large and glorious a Patent, no to be paralleled by that of any Company or Society in the Universe; much less by any of his Royal Ancestors, your Native or Vnforeign Kings; both the present and after Ages will expect that the same should be transmitted by you, the present Directors, to your Successors, without any Stain or Blemish that may incur the Hazard of a Forfeiture: And that by your Management, your Children may reap the Benefits of it, with the same, if not with more Advantages.  
This emboldens the Author (who was the first Person employed in your Service for your Foreign Expedition, and the first who left it) to lay the following Sheets at your Feet. And he takes upon him to put you in Mind, that if you had not misapplyed the Money entrusted to your Management (the Want whereof is so much felt at Home by the great Number of needy Persons, who expected their Dividends before now.) And if you had listened to the wholesome Advice of Mr. Douglass, an eminent and experienced Man in India, who offered himself for your Pilot, and his Substance for your Security, which was more than the Three best Shares in your Capital Stock; and had not been bewitched to the Golden Dreams of Paterson the Pedlar, Tub-preacher, and at last Whimsical Projector; you might e'er now have been possessed of a good Colony in India, where no Body could disturb you: And not have run on an Airy Project, which (altho' you should have met with an Opposition from the Spaniard) four times your Capital Stock could not have brought to any reasonable Pitch of Answering the End. And had you been Masters of so much Management and Temper, as to have saved that Fifty Thousand Pounds, which you squandered away on those Six Hulks you built at Amsterdam and Hamburgh, purely to make a Noise there of your Proceed, whereby you thought to decoy the innocent Dutch Men, or at least their Gelt, into your Net; and had therewith bought a Couple of Second-hand Ships in the River of Thames, and dispatched them to India with a suitable Cargoe, (not of Scotch Cloth, Slippers, Periwigs and Bibles) you might have had such Returns e'er now, as would have buoyed you up so far above Water, as you needed not proclaim to the smiling World so many public Roping of the Shares of your Capital Stock.  
— Sed quos Deus or Jupiter perdere vult eos dementat.  
If you were thus persuaded to run headlong on a blind Project, at which the Trading Part of the World stand amazed; the India Companies of England and Holland laugh at in their Sleeve, and the rest of Mankind admire, that People in their right Senses should be guilty of: And if the same should miscarry by your own ill Management (to say no worse on't) 'tis not fair you should snarl at your Neighbours, who have no other hand in your Misfortune, than that they would not be accessary to any Act, which the World might judge Felonious; and wherein they could not join without engaging themselves in an unreasonable War, and in the End to assist you with Weapons, to break their own Heads.  
WILLIAM the Second, who, as you say, in an untainted Line, is the 112th King that hath wore your Regal Diadem, has wrought and fought sufficiently for the Gift, your Nation prudently thought their Interest to make him. Or admit it should be true, that there was no private Interest consulted by those generous Donators, yet it is obvious to the World, that by being Subjects of the King of Great Britain, you are not only shaded from the Insults of all Nations, but by the Authority of your British Sovereign, you are freed from the daily Feuds, and bloody little Wars, which, before the Union, for a Tract of Time, not less than 1900 Years, were continually raging amongst yourselves; which unnatural Massacres your Native Princes were so unable to suppress, that when the contending Clans or Parties were glutted with one another's Blood, and desired the Benefit of the Princely Mediation; those were pleased to accept of the Office of umpires, in Patching up the Feuds, till such time as the young Fry came of Age, to fight it out. These Barbarities have been quite turned out of Doors since the Union, and they are now, either almost or altogether forgot; neither are they to be revived, unless it be by this so-much-wish'd-for Separation of Three or Four months' Date. Your People now enjoy the Blessings of Heaven, and Product of the Earth, and Ocean without any interruption; and whereas formerly they lived on the Mountains, and under the Shelter of some strong Rocks or Castles, they are now come down to the Plains, and can sleep sound in Beds, without the least Apprehension of Blood and Rapine. And to Crown your Felicity, you have now a free Enjoyment of the Gospel, in the Fullness and Purity thereof, which has ever been reckoned the chief Care and Blessing of all Political Bodies. You are at Liberty to say your Prayers, either in Form, or out of Form, which you please, without any Dread of Sophistical Impositions by Romish or Malignant Priests. And now you praise your Maker in stately Churches, whereas, formerly these gallant Men, your Ancestors, were obliged to offer on such Altars as Jacob made, and to whisper their Prayers or Carols through the Cliffs of the Mountains, or the Chimney of some House, whose Wall was some Twelve or Fourteen Foot thick. All these Blessings you own to Heaven, and the British Monarchy, whatever some vitiated and depraved Palates persuade you to the Contrary.  
The masked Champion of your Company, whose Tongue is much too big for his Mouth, is in Pain because he cannot spurt out all his Venom at one Blast. However reasonable it be, that the Gentleman's Zeal should atone for his want of Power, yet I must acquaint you, that his Quarrel with the English Nation is as unjust and groundless, as your Settling a Colony in another Man's Dominions; unless by Virtue of your Presbyterian Tenent, viz. of Dominions being founded in Grace, you who are the Presumptive Elect pretend a Divine Right to the Goods of the Wicked, and so take upon you to  the Seven Councillors of your Colony with such another Commission, as God gave the Hebrews when they departed out of Egypt.  
I have no Inclination to offer any Thing in Opposition to the Gallantry of your Ancestors, who took so much Care to keep themselves independent of another Nation. And altho' I pretend to know the Thread of the Scotish and British Story full as well as the Author of the Defence, yet out of Respect to the Country where I drew my first Breath (tho' I own it nothing else) I will offer nothing to the Prejudice of its Ancient Fame: But if I point at some Erratas of this Author, I do it purely to reconcile Mistakes, and to make a Distinction betwixt the Scotch Company, and Scots Nation; I being so much the Latter's Friend, as to wish them not to embrak in so rotten a Bottom as this of your Company, until you are on an honester Footing than you appear to be at present, that the Honour of the Ancient Kingdom mayn't be sullied with so notorious a Mistake. I shall only say in Answer to this Paragraph, that altho' your Ancestors were never sparing of their Blood in defending their Country, nay, oftimes in making Reprisal when they could conveniently; yet I must put you in mind, that they were far better pleased with enjoying themselves in their old Caledonian Mountains, than you are now with both Hills and Plains: And I dare say, they had such a Value for their Native Blood, that they would not have been guilty of sending so many innocent and worthy Gentlemen (like Sheep to the Slaughter, or Spanish Mines) so far from Home on such an April Errand.  
'Tis both hard and unaccountable that this Gentleman, who sets up for your Champion, should use the English Nation so familiarly, and take such Liberty, not only of frightening them into an Ague, but to Bully a great General, who was never hitherto known to be daunted by more formidable Giants, than the Quixots of your Company. He, honest Gentleman, meant no Harm at the Granting of the Octroy; for, 'tis to be believed, that he could scarce hear what was whispered to him for the Noise of the Namure Guns. And as for this Project of yours to Darien, I dare be positive, that he knew nothing of the Matter till it was Five or Six Months done; and then he had it from other Hands.  
If your Colony has left Darien for Reasons not as yet public to the World, 'tis your Fault, Right Worshipful Gentlemen, in undertaking to manage a Project you so little understood, and not of the English Nation, whose Interest it is to advance and preserve their own Colonies, and to keep them from being rendered desolate by the Clandestine Artisices of yours, who industriously and tacitly spread their Declarations over all the English Islands and Plantations, making use of the King of Great Britain's Name, to give the more Authority to the Thing: And by these indirect Manifesto's, such Prosits, or rather Plunders were insinuated; that if the Government of England had not taken early Measures to prevent the ill Consequences, 'tis to be questioned, whether the greatest Part of the English West-Indies had not e'er now quitted their Settlements, and been decoyed into your Colony, under a Covered Notion, that you had a Patent from the King, to pick a Quarrel with the Spaniard; and to divide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru amongst the Servants and Adventures of the Company.  
This Project and Settlement, you know, was so secretly carried on, that it was not known to England, till the same Wind that brought the News likewise, informed the Nation, that the Scots were marched over to Panama (the chief City on the Isthmus of Darien, and the Treasury-Chamber of all the Spanish. Riches on the South-Sea) and had planted Eighty Guns against it. These Proceed were enough to startle this Nation, who had heard of no War with Spain, and who had no great Reason to suffer their own Subjects to desert their Plantations, to advance the Scotch Colony in their own Wrong. As for this Nation's curing into a War with the Spaniard, on the Score of your Company, who besides their Loss of Trade, must throw away more English Pounds (thrice over) than there's Scotch, in your Capital Stock; I'll leave it to any Man of Half an Ounce of Politics, to find out the Jest on't, save this  Author of your Colony's Defence.  
As for these ridiculous and bugbear Stories, which both you and your Champion insinuate, viz. that if the Scots should lose, or be expelled out of Darien, the French will certainly possess themselves of it. This Story is so far vain, that the French have another Game to play at present with Spain; and if they had any such Inclination that Way, they know that Coast far better than the Scots, and might have secured Carthagena, when they had it in their Power, and a Legal Title to it by their Arms in the Time of a declared War: Which Fortification is as far before your Fort St. Andrew, or any Thing that can be made of it; as Dunkirk is before Deale-Castle. But still, if France or Holland had any such Design (as you would make the World believe) why mayn't they still go sit down within a League of either Side of your Colony with as good a Title as yours, since you will coop the Spaniard up within his Walled Towns and Garrisons. But to leave this unnecessary Dispute.—  
And proceed to the obliqne Threaten wherewith he frightens King William, to wit, the Fate of those Mean-spirited Princes, who blemished, and were unworthy to wear the Imperial Crown of your Nation; I'll espouse His Majesty's Cause no further than to be confirmed, that he has been ill served by some Persons; and I am of Opinion, that he does not merit one Half of this ill Language at their Hands. Further, I dare say so much in his Behalf, by what has passed already, that the Scots Crown will receive no Blemish or Disreputation by his wearing of it; altho' he does not think it either sit or just to Countenance an indirect Action of any of his Subjects.  
By the Beacons which your Author sets up to scare him, to wit, of the Two Balliol's of James the First, and William the First; any Man without the Help of Spectacles may plainly perceive that he sticks at nothing to advance his Cause, either by wresting or perverting the Truth of the History; by reason there can be no Parity in the Example, between the several Cases of these dead Kings, whom he now brings on the Stage, and King William; nor is there any Colour of Allusion to introduce them here for Scare-crows. For the Truth of the Story runs thus: After the Death of Alexander the Third, Ten or a Dozen farfetched Relations of the Royal Family standing Competitors for the Scots Crown, it was agreed on by the different Parties (to prevent the Effusion of Blood) that the Trial of their several Claims should be referred to Edward the First of England. Edward accepting the Office came to Berwick, than a Scots Town, where, after a long time spent in canvasing the several Titles, he found Bruce, Balliol, and Cummin stand fairest for it. To make a long Tale short, he now found it in his Power to accomplish that which his Predecessors struggled for, for some Hundred Years before, to wit, a Submission of the Scots Crown to that of England. He felt Bruce's Pulse, but it did not beat to his Mind; then he sounded Balliol, who had more English Blood in him by half than Scotch, who easily condescended to his Terms. Edward declares John Balliol, King of the Scots; and the Scots Nobility having swore Allegiance to him in his Presence, proceeded to his Coronation. That being over, the new Scots King, with his Nobility, came to King Edward, to thank him for his Civility at Newcastle; where having been splendidly regaled for some time, and the English King being to set out for London, John Balliol, with his Train of Nobles, came in a full Body to kiss his Royal Fist; where on a sudden, King Balliol claps down on his Knee, and swore Fealty to Edward as his Sovereign Lord, and to hold the Scots Crown for ever, of him and his Successors, Kings of England. Balliol having ended this Ceremony, pointed to his Subjects to follow his Example; which being needless to dispute on that Ground, no Body stumbled at it, save a peevish Old Gentleman, by Name Douglass, who was Caged up for the Remainder of his Life, for want of good Manners. Balliol and his Nobility marched home to Scotland, as cheerfully as Half a Dozen Citizen's Wives return to their Husbands, after they have been decoyed into a Ramble, and kissed by strange Fellows; and they being all alike Scabby, made no Words on't for some Years, and, perhaps, had not then, if a rash Sentence had not been passed by Balliol in his own Court, in Prejudice of a certain Thane or Earl; who thinking himself injured, appealed to Edward as Sovereign Lord: King Edward being willing to show his Grandeur, summoned Balliol up to London, and being seated on a Throne in his Court of Judicature, his Fellow King had the Honour to set by him, till such time as the Trial came on, and then he was obliged to step down to the Common-Bar, and Plead for himself. The Gentleman had got so much Scotch Blood in him, by his Three Years Government of that Kingdom, that he stomached the Disgrace, and could not tell how to digest it, till he went Home and consulted his Nobility, who were all alike tardy with himself: It was soon agreed on, to bid Edward Defiance, declaring, That their King and they were only tricked into their Submission by his foul Artifice. Both Nations Armed, but Edward got the Better on't; for having overrun Scotland, and made them once or twice swear hearty anew; and having caught John Balliol by the Neck, would never afterwards trust him with such an Office; but kept him Prisoner at London for many Years, till at the Intercession of the Pope and French King, his Imprisonment was enlarged to France, where he died a Quondam King.  
Now, whether this Fate of John Balliol has any Relation to what your Author designs (since 'tis plain, that Edward both made and unmade him, and not the Scots) I refer it back to himself to reconcile. As for the other Balliol, by Name Edward, and Son to this John, he finding that Robert Bruce was the Second time dead, came from France to England; and, there having Edward the Third's Leave to raise what Men he could, to seat himself on his Father's Old Throne, found Volunteers enough (who were the Relations of those who were foiled at Bannocksburn) and with those, and a few of King Edward's Ships, he lands in the Heart of Scotland, and set young David Bruce's Crown on his own Head, without ask the Scots Leave; and kept it till D●vid, with the Assistance of his Father-in-Law the French King, took it from him again. Neither can I see the Parallel in this with King William's Case; for Edward Balliol took the Crown at his own Hand nolens volens, whereas King William had it pressed upon his Head by the unanimous Consent of the Scots Nation. As for the other Two Examples of James, and William the First, what they did while it was their Misfortune to be Prisoners in England, could not stand in Law; neither did I ever hear, that after their Freedom, and Restauration to their Dignities, their Scots Subjects did ever reckon it to them for Sin.  
But as there's no great Advantage or Credit to be purchased, by ripping up such old Sores, so I am willing to leave tracing this Gentleman's Evidences, and rather take Things on his own Authority, than foul Paper about it. Mean while, I'll be as impertinent as he is with his Earl of Strafford, and some others, and acquaint you with something that may be nearer the Case. It has been observed in Scotland, in the Course of several Ages, that it hath been ever fatal to Families when they became so powerful as to swell beyond their Proportion: Witness that of the Cummins, in Robert Bruce's Reign, the greatest that ever has been in Scotland: Witness that of the Goury's, of a latter Date: And if I should add that of a latter Family, within the Reach of our Memory, which might have reasonably been reckoned in the same Class, had it not been for the happy Accident of the Revolution, I cannot be far mistaken. I say, most of these Gentlemen being too great for Subjects, lost themselves with Jearus in their Flight: Some got red-hot Iron Crowns, and others Halters; but that which was more Tragical, their whole Families and Dependants were hung up like Haddocks to dry in the Sun, that they might never afterwards rise in Judgement. I hearty wish there may no such Examples happen in our Age; and that no suspected Persons sit so close to the Machine of your Colony, nor wind up its Spring further than it will go, lest it should snap, and the Ingineers get o'er the Fingers End.  
Being sensible that I have trespassed in the Epidemical Crime of my Fellow-Scribblers, by swelling my Dedication beyond its Proportion, and, perhaps, said more than some Persons care to hear; I'll proceed to the Reasons, why the Gentlemen of the Colony have dropped off by degrees; praying, that the same may serve, if it be true, that the whole Body has followed their Example; as likewise, that you mayn't hang those Two poor innocent Gentlemen, Mr. Montgomry and Mr. Jollie, late Councillors of your Colony, whom you have been pleased to find Guilty of a Design, to desert Caledonia, and run away with one of your Frigates. And, although ' I cannot profess myself a Friend to your Project, nor to your Way of Managing of it; yet I declare, that the Prosperity of the Ancient Kingdom, as likewise, that a true Sense of your Mismanagement of that great Octroy, be deeply engrafted in every Scots Man's Heart, is the hearty Wish, and Prayer of,  
Right Worshipful, PHIL. SCOT.   

A DEFENCE OF THE SCOTS ABDICATING DARIEN, etc.  
PREJUDICE being apt to bias a Man's Pen, the Purblind Pillars of the Scotch Company will not stick to taint me with it. That I mayn't deceive you, I don't profess myself their Friend, having the same Reason, or perhaps more, as those Skelletons who have narrowly escaped the Kingdom of Heaven, and are starved to Death. Nevertheless, I declare, that I will curb my Sentiments so far, as to keep myself close to the Matter of Fact, giving an impartial Account of the Procedure of that Company, and of the indirect Artifices they made use of, to decoy a great many honest Gentlemen, and other brave Fellows into their Service, and how they left them in the Lurtch, exposed to Famine, and the Spanish Mines: And if I deviate in any particular Passage from the Truth, I lay myself fairly open to the fiercest Steeled Pen of the Company, who, no doubt, will endeavour to vindicate them, and stifle my Credit. All the Favour I ask, is, that they give me fair Play, stick close to the Subject, and bring better Authority for what they writ, than what the Author of the Colony's Defence hath offered, to disprove the Spaniards Title to the Isthmus of Darien, and to advance that of the Scotch Company.  
William Paterson, the Author of this Project, and Penman (as it it is shrewdly guessed) of the Octroy, came from Scotland in his younger Years, with a Pack on his Back, whereof the Print may be seen, if he be alive; having travelled this Country some Years, he seated himself under the Wing of a warm Widow, near Oxford; where finding that Preaching was an easier Trade than his own, soon found himself gifted with an Anadab's Spirit. Prophet's being generally despised at Home, he went on the Propoganda side. Account to the West-Indies, and was one of those who settled the Island of Providence a Second time: But meeting some Hardships, and ill Luck there, to wit, a Governor being imposed on them by the King of England, which his Conscience could not admit of, the Property of their Constitutions was altered, and they could no longer a Free Port, or Sanctuary for Buccaneers, Pirates, and such Vermin, who had most need of being reclaimed into the Church: This Disappointment obliged Praedicant Paterson to shake the Dust from off his Shoes, and leave that Island under his Anathema. He returned to Europe some Twelve Years ago, with his Head full of Projects, having all the Achievements of Sir Henry Morgan, Batt Sharp, and the Buccaneers in his Budget: He endeavoured to make a Market of his Ware in Holland and Hamburgh, but without any Success: He went afterwards to Berlin, opened his Pack there, and had almost caught the Elector of Brandenburg in his Noose; but that miscarried too: He likewise imparted the same Project to Mr. Secretary Blathwait, but still with the same Success.  
Meeting thus with so many Discouragements in these several Countries, he let his Project sleep for some Years, and pitched his Tent at London, where Matter is never wanting to exercise plodding Heads. His former Wife being at rest as well as his Project, he wanted a Help that was meet for him, and not being very nice, went no further than the Red-faced Coffee-woman, a Widow in Burchin-Lane, whom he afterwards carried to the Isthmus of Darien; and at her first landing thrust her about Seven Foot under Ground, to make the Possession de facto of New Caledonia more authentic. While he sojourned in London, he found Employment for his Head; and like a true Quack, boggled at nothing that offered itself to his Thought. He was concerned in the Hampstead-Water; and had an original Hand in the Project of the Bank of England; but being obliged (as he says himself) to communicate his Thoughts to some Eminent Men, who were more able to carry it on, they bubbled him out of the Premium, and the Glory of the Project. The Man thinking himself ill used by the Managers of the Bank of England, studied how to be up with them; and in Opposition to it, he applies himself to the Project of the Orphan's Bank, where he was afterwards sometime a Director; but that missing of the Wish'd-for-Aim, by reason of the clipped Money, etc. and he meeting with some Disgrace there too, was resolved at once to be even with the Body of the Nation.  
Thus discontented, and uneasy in his Mind, he roused up his Darien Genius, and having vampt it up with some new Light he had purchased by conversing with Dampier, he marches Bag and Baggage to the Ancient Kingdom, where it met with such Encouragement at first sight, that Johnston's, or if you will Tweddale's Act was viis & modis, conceived and born in a Trice. At this time, and for some Months afterwards, Paterson had more Respect paid him, than His Majesty's High Commissioner; and happy was he or she that had the Favour of a Quarter of an Hours Conversation with this blessed Man: When he appeared in Public, he looked with a Head so full of Business and Care, as if he had Atlas his Burden on his Back; and if a Man had a Fancy to be reputed Wise, the first Step he was to make, was to mimic Patersons Fiz: Nay, some Persons had such a Conceit of the Miracles he could perform, that they began to talk of an Engine, to give the Island a half Turn-round, and to set the Orkneys where the Islands of Scilly stand.  
But to proceed to the Cream of the Story, you are to understand, that Esquire Paterson (for at his Arrival in Scotland, he acquired or assumed an English Title) brought a Couple of Tutors, or Nurse's along with him, who passed for Partners in the Project, tho' in Effect a Couple of subtle Youths, whose Office was to put Paterson's creud and indigested Notions into Form. One of these was a Walloon by Birth, whose native Name was Le Serrurier, and his English one James Smith. He was Master of most of the European Languages, and particularly of the English. He formerly acted as Secretary to the famed Italian Prince, who put so many Tricks on the Hollanders, with his Philosopher's Stone; but at this Juncture he passed for a considerable London Merchant. The others Name was Daniel Lodge, born of Yorkshire Parents in Leith, in Scotland, per Accident, bred a Merchant in Holland, but cracked, and turned to his Shifts in England. This was a pleasant, facetious Fellow, knew the World exactly, and acted his Part in this Tragicomedy to a Miracle.  
So much I have offered by way of Preliminary, that you may have a Glimpse of these dark Pillars, by which the Scotch Company was to be lighted down into the Spanish or Darien Mines, and over that Isthmus to the Phillipin Islands, California, China, and to Japan, it they could turn Dutch Men.  
The Companies Act being now touched with the Royal Sceptre, and for the more Dispatch, passed through the Seals per Saltum, they were empowered by Virtue of a necessary Clause thereof, to take in Foreign Subscriptions to a lesser half of the Capital Stock; so that the main Stress of the Project lay in fingering this Money. The Three Projectors frankly engaged to use their Interest with their Correspondents and Friends in England, Holland, and in the Hans Towns, for 300000 l at least; in Consideration of which, and of the Acquisition, and in Token of their Gratitude for the Project, the Company was to give the Triumvirate 20000 l So to work all Hands went.  
There being three different Parties in England jarring at that Time, about the India Trade, and the Old Company having got the Better on't, it was easy to draw a great many of the Malcontents into the Scotch Companies Net; nay, the Subscriptions came in so quick that he was the happiest Man that could get his Name first down in their Books: For Paterson preached up only an India Trade here in England, taking no Notice of Darien, but to some Select Heads that were able to bear it; when once the Money was in Scotl. they knew how to dispose of it. To be short, they had now more Money in their View than they knew what to do withal, if the House of Commons had not balked them, and reprimanded the Subjects of England for their Foolery. The Companies Books were carried Home with abundance of Secrecy and Care, tho' they had as good left them behind, there having been never a Groat of the English Money paid in as yet. The Projectors followed them as the Sons of Levi did the Ark in old Times; and when they came to Scotland, their chief Business was to preach up the vast Advantages which the House of Commons foresaw to acreu to the Scotch Company and Nation. by this Octroy and Trade, and to back their Sermons with the greater Authority, the Commons Address to the King was printed and reprinted at Edinburgh (but not a Syllable of the King's Answer mentioned) which confirmed the whole Country of the Riches they were like to be surfeited with by this Act and Trade. To be short, they came in Shoals from all Corners of the Kingdom to Edinburgh, Rich, Poor, Blind and Lame, to lodge their Subscriptions in the Company's House; and to have a Glimpse of the Man Paterson; who satisfied them as fast as they came, that altho' they signed such a Sum for Fashion's sake, to give the Company more Reputation Abroad, yet the Quarter Part would only be demanded, there being no occasion for any more; and that they could not lie out of the Use of their Money above 18 Months, or 2 Years at most, which by that time, and the Old Cant, of God's Blessing, would fetch good Returns, and large Dividends.  
The Companies Books had not been long opened in Edinburgh, before 400000 l was signed (when it will be all paid in, the Lord of Hosts knows) and it now being high time to shut the Books there, and go where the Money lay, to wit, the 300000 l in Holland, and the Hans Towns, the Projectors were consulted about it. The Result of which was, that they might not act precipitately in this Affair, it was necessary they should make some real Show of their Resolution and Forwardness, by sending a Couple of fit Persons over to Amsterdam and Hamburgh, to build half a Dozen of stout Ships of 50 Guns apiece; that by laying out their Money in the Dutch Country, the Dutchmen might be prepossessed with a kind Opinion of the Company, and thereby make it appear, how willing they were to extend the warm Rays of their Octroy, to People who deserved it better than their ungreatful Neighbours.  
Some warm Debates happened on this Occasion, what Two Persons should be entrusted with this mighty Affair, for by reason the Kirk and Church-money was equally in the Stock, both Parties endeavoured to employ their own Instruments. There were several Meetings on this Affair, and it was at long-run amicably concluded, that Alexander Stevenson, late Kirk-Treasurer, or Kirk-Warden of Edinburgh, a Zealous and Long-grace Sayer, and Capt. James Gibson, Merchant and Malignant of Glasco, should be the Delegates.  
The next material Thing that came in Course was to lodge a Stock of Cash in London to answer their Delegates necessary Occasions abroad: The Sum agreed on was either 18 or 20000 l but what Man to entrust with this Sum that was fed on English Beef and Puddin, was another Hesitation. The Oracle Paterson being consulted herein sagely responded, that his Brother Smith's Business requiring him to go and remain for some time at London, he expecting some Ships home from Carolina and New-England, wherein he had large Effects; he was of Opinion, that they could not lodge it safer than in his Hands. Smith returns to London, and having got the Gelt in his Sack, never broke his Rest afterwards about the Project. The Company at the same Time had substituted Two other Cashiers abroad, to wit, Mr. Francis Stratford, Mechant, at Hamburgh, (now Governor of that Company) and Alexander Hendersson, alias archbishop, at Amsterdam, who were to draw from Smith's Bank, as the Delegates had Occasion.  
This Walloon Banker, and Italian Secretary answered the Bills punctually till a better half of the Money was extracted; about which Time finding the Company balked of the Holland, as well as English Subscriptions, he thought it necessary to hold his hand, and was passive in suffering a Bill of 200 l of Stratford's drawn on him to be protested at London. I shall leave him here for sometime, that I may bring the rest along with me, and only tell you, that Smith now finding himself Master but of 8500 l of the Companies Cash, and not sure that he shouldever see so much of it again, and looking on this as little more than his Quota for the Project and Subscriptions (altho' the Latter happened to fail, not through any Fault or Neglect of him, but by the Frowns of the House of Commons in England, and Holland by some surly Dutch Men Proprietors in the East and West-India Companies, and Lords of Amsterdam) he thought the Premium wrought for sufficiently, and that it was but just he should pay himself, since his Intention was as honest as if it had succeeded; and if he had anything over his neat Share, it was convenient to hold it fast to enable him to go to Law the easier with the Company.  
The Company bitten their Lips, but endeavoured to keep it hush for some time, that the World might not perceive how they were deservedly bubbled. Smith knowing their Circumstances never went out of the Way for 15 or 16 Months afterwards; and then being sensible that if once the Compan. Ships were failed, there would be no great Occasion to pay him any more Civilities to keep the Project secret, and consequently he must expect the Company would be on his Back. On these Considerations he was on the Wing for his own Country, and was got so far on his Journey as Gravesend, when as Luck would had it, he was nabbed with a Capio te at the Companies Instance. Some of his own and Wife's Relations were in the Coach with him, to see him to Dover, when this Accident happened: But he on this Occasion composed himself with more Sedateness of Mind, than M. Bousfliers did at Namure; and being unwilling to part with the Money so dearly earned, bespoke Lodgings in the Marshalsea, till on the late Revolution of that Sanctuary, the Marshal and he went off together on a new Project to Carolina.  
Daniel Lodge was at Edinburgh, when the first Bill was protested, and had his Papers seized and carried to the Campanies Office, and a Couple of Sentries set over himself, but he being Yorkshire Blood, Scotch born, and Dutch bred, it was not easy to fasten any Thing on him.  
Paterson was at Hamburgh on the Embassy when he heard of the Misfortune of Stratford's Bill; but all the Mends he could make, was to sigh and look dull. Nevertheless it was observable, that altho' Paterson railed at Smith behind his Back, there was never an ill Word between them when they met: For you are to understand, that Smith was one of the Companies Commissioners in Holland and Hamburgh about the Time he suffered the Bill to be protested in London.  
But to return to the setting out of this Embassy; Stevenson and Gibson being for some time gone over the Water to build Ships, and beat the Way for Subscriptions; the next Step was to choose fit Persons to follow and manage this Point. Five such were appointed by Name of the Committee of Foreign Trade, who were clothed with an ample Commission from the Company, to take Subscriptions Abroad, to appoint Factors, to control the foresaid Two Legates, to provide Officers and Seamen; and, in a Word, to do what they thought necessary for the Company's Service. Paterson and Smith were the first Two,— a Scotch Merchant of London the Third. The Laird of Gleneagles for the Church, and Colonel John Erskin, Governor of Sterling-Castle, and Darling of the Kirk, made up the Quorum, the last Two being both Men of Honour and Worth, but altogether Strangers to Trade.  
Two of these were ordered to Holland directly from Scotland, and Gleneagles was to pass by London, where he was to do some business, and take Smith, and the other in his way. Gleneagles having arrived at London, and joined with the other two, articled with me at Moncreifs Coffee-house, in November, 1696. By the Articles of our Contract, I was to go in the Company's Service from London to Amsterdam, or Hamburgh; from thence to Scotland, and from thence on a Trading Voyage to either of the Indies, as the Company should appoint; and thence back to Scotland. I was at the same time made tacitly to believe that I was to go to the East Indies, and that the Ships would sail next March at farthest. The Encouragement (if I had been candidly dealt with, and honestly paid) seemed to be fair enough in Merchant's Service: So having ordered my Affairs in England to go to India, I went in Company of these Gentlemen to Amsterdam, where we arrived about Christmas following.  
Here the whole Committee or Embassy met; where having viewed their Ships in that Port, to wit, one of 46 Guns ready built, and another of 60 on the Stocks they applied themselves to the business of Subscriptions. The Scheme laid down to them was this; Henderson formerly mentioned, a Scotch Man, Cossart a French Man,— an English Man, and— a Ducth Man, all Merchants of Amsterdam, were to subscribe 8500 l amongst them (Smith's Sum) and were to draw in there Friends and Correspondents for as much as they could: In consideration whereof, these four were to be the Company's Factors in Holland, and to have 2 per Cent. for what they bought and sold. This was easily agreed to; and for their further Encouragement, they were invested likewise with the 2 per Cent. Commission of all the Money already laid out by Capt. Gibson on the two Ships, Canvas, Sails, Cables, Anchors, Powder, Guns, etc. in all above 10000 l which Properly was Gibson's right by his Commission from the Company. This was the first honest step they made by Virtue of their controlling Power.  
These new Dutch Factors plied their Friends all over Holland, who generally for some time before were mightily taken with the Scotch. East India, Trade, their Exemption from Duties for 21 years, and tickled with the Conceit that they should be Sharers in it. But through an ugly accident which happened in Camphire, at Patersons and the Colonels Landing, the whole Mess of the Companies Pottage was in danger of being miscook d. The Story runs thus: These Gentlemen had a rough and tedious Passage from Scotland, and it seems the Skipper had not laid in Provisions for his Passengers over plentifully, which was the occasion that Paterson at his landing in Camphire (and being welcomed and entertained by one Panton, a Merchant there) tasted more freely of the Creature than he used to do; (for he always set up for a Water-biber) which Panton perceiving, plied him warmly, and took the Liberty of pumping him. Paterson's Tongue running glib with the Hollands Cannal Water on the Eloginms of the Octroy, happened to babble out a Secret of the Company, viz, That their Act empowered them to give Commissions to any kind of People (without ask their Nation) to Trade to the Indies under Scots Colours; and that such People might dispose of their India Goods where they pleased, providing they made a shame Entry in Scotland. And if the Company should agree to take 3 per Cen. for the Goods, such Ships as Traded with their Commission were able to undersell the English and Dutch full 17 per Cent. Panton was glad of the News, & improved the Story amongst his Friends, who designed to sign in the Companies Books; and these run now on this Commission for the 3 per Cent. finding it a safer way of Trading, then by putting their Money in the Companies bottom; neither would they of Zealand ever afterwards enter on any other Terms.  
We were no sooner come to Amsterdam, than we met with this Story fresh in the Coffeehouses there. It was too late for Paterson to eat in his words; so that all the Salvo we could make to dash the Story, was by saying, that this was the Companies sho'el Anchor, if every thing else should fail them; but that they had no occasion to make use of that Power at present; nor that Mr. Paterson meant so when he spoke it. But that which gave us the dead stroke in Holland, just as the Companies Books were opened, the East and West India Companies run open mouthed to the Lords of Amsterdam, showing what was hatching by the Scotch Commissioners in their City, to ruin the Trade of the United Provinces. The Lords gave them satisfaction in the matter, and made no noise of it; for we were made to understand in a day or two afterwards, that our Subscriptions were dashed, and none to be expected there. On this occasion it was resolved in the Committee, that Paterson, and the Colonel should forthwith proceed to Hamburgh, to see what could be be done there, the rest being to remain in Holland for some time, to give the less Umbrage to the Hamburgh Project.  
The Hamburghers swallowed the bait to a wish; for the more opposition the English and Dutch offered to the project, confirmed them the more that it was their Interest to embrace it. The River Elve, on which Hamburgh stands, is Navigable for flat bottom Barges of 70 or 80 Tuns, for some 200. Miles up into the Country of Germany, which gives them an opportunity of serving all the North parts of that Empire with Goods more conveniently than the Hollanders can: And as they have no East India Goods but what they have at second hand from England and Holland, or a few from Denmark, by joining now with the Scotch Company, they have a prospect of worming the Hollander out of a good part of the Germane Trade.  
In Parenthesi I must own that this part of the Project was Reasonable on both the Scotch and Hamburgher side, if it had been meant as it was told; but the Devil on't was, the Hamburgers knew nothing of Darien, but builded altogether on Ships laden with India Goods, whereof their City and Port was to be the Receptacle and Mart; while Paterson wanted only their Money to raise Forces to overrun Mexico and Peru.  
The way being thus prepared by these two Fore-runers, the body of the Committee received advice to repair thither at sight, all things being ready for Signing and Sealing. And I receiving orders to accompany them, set out from Amsterdam, after we had spent three Mouths there in vain; and arrived at Humburgh on Lady-day, 1697. Our Affair was so generally favoured by the Burghers of this City, that at our arrival we printed Placaarts, and fixed them on the Exchange, and other public Places there, intimating that the Companies Books were to be opened in the Commercie Kamber the week following for Subscriptions; but they were to take notice (the best Jest on't) That by the Constitutions of the Company, no Man could sign above 3000 l. sterling for himself; as likewise, that their Books could not admit above 200000 l. in all.  
These Placaarts were no sooner pasted up on the Posts, than Pamphlets were crying up and down the Streets, full of ill Nature, and a great many sad Truths; advising the Hamburghers to inquire further into the Project, before they parted with their Money, lest they should never see it again. These Pamphlets contained 3 or 4 Sheets, and were printed in French, High and Low Dutch, under the Title of, A Letter from a Friend in Amsterdam, to his Friend in Hamburgh. But the Hamburghers having such a Confidence in Paterson's Phiz, and smooth Tongue, and by the forward appearance the Company made with their new Ships of 50 Guns all in a row, they believed all this stuff, to be hatched in Samaria, from whence no good can be expected.  
But that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, by the Elects meeting with Disappointments and Crosses while they sojourn here; or on the other hand, that of Honesty's being the best Policy, either you please; the Companies Book was likewise shut up here, without getting a Groat of the Hamburgers' Money, although that City got near 30000 l of the Company's. The human reason of this Disappointment, if I am not mistaken, was as follows; in the Octroy there was a certain unnecessary Paragraph, which occasioned a great many English and Holland's Speculations, viz. That in case the Company should be interrupted in their Trade, etc. the King had engaged to interpose the Regal Authority to do them Right, and that at the public Charge. Paterson, and the other Agents of the Company, to magnify their Charter, did insinuate in all Companies, That the King was to assist and defend them with his Ships of War, or otherwise, if there was occasion, and that out of his own Pocket, which they did not question to be English Coin; when at the same time, the words of the Act cannot bear it; much less, That a Scots Act of Parliament should dispose of English Ships and Money. But since the Scotch Company would force this gloss on the Text for their Advantage, the English Traders to India made as profitable a use of it the other way; for say they, Was it not enough that the King of Great Britain should pass an Act in favour of his Scots Subjects to Trade to India, and exempt them from Duties for 21 years, which is an evitable Prejudice to the English Trade, since it's impossible to hinder them from sending their India Goods by stealth over the Border, and underselling our Markets by 25, or 30 per Cent. but that they should be empowered to take in Foreigners to be Sharers with them in this Trade; and not only thereby suck the Blood and Marrow out of England for 21 years, but that our English Ships of War (for the maintenance of which great Taxes and Imposts are laid on our Trade and Goods) should defend this Scotch Company's Trade, and these Foreigners who run away with the whole.  
These weak Proceed of Paterson and the other Agents, with the Sentiments the English had of it, made the Government of England, send to the Senate of Hamburgh a Caution by Sir Paul Ricaut, Resident there, to take care how they suffered their Burghers to embark with private Men, the King's Subjects, under the hopes of the English Protection, which being to the Prejudice of their own Subjects, could not be reasonably expected. This was the Substance of the Memorial given in to that Senate, who had never hitherto countenanced the Committee, altho' the Private Burghers were so Resolute to Join.  
Adverse Fortune still attending our Embassy, they thought fit to steer homewards, and make the best of a bad Market, being now fully satisfied that there's no other Body's Money to be Trusted to but their own: And having left me with Legate Stevenson to tend the Ships till farther Orders; they set out from Hamburgh in April.  
The Report of this Mournful Story being made to the Board in Scotland, they found that they had been hatching rotten Eggs for a Twelvemonth bygone: But that which was still worse, 50000 l was sunk into Dutchland on Ships that were neither fit for Merchant's Service nor War, 8500 l sunk in Smith's Pocket, a Cargoe of all sorts of Goods and Materials for a Plantation ready bought, viz. Scotch Cloth 8000 pieces White, ditto Brown 4 or 5000. ditto died and stripped 2000 Sterling Searges 8000 els, Men and women's Shoes 5 or 6000 pair, Slippers about 1500, pair, men's corpse Stockings 4000 pair, women's ditto 2000 pair, Scotch Hats a great quantity, English Bibles 1500, Periwigs 4000 some Long, some Short, Campaigns, Spanish Bobs and Natural ones; and truly they were all Natural, for being made of Highlanders Hair, which is blanched, with the Rain and Sun, when they came to be opened in the West-Indies they looked like so many of Sampson's Fireships that he sent amongst the Philistines, and could be of no use to the Colony, if it were not to mix with their Lime when they plastered the Walls of their Houses. This was all the Merchandable Cargoe, save about 500 l worth of Hamburgh Linen and Holland, and to the same value of little Trincums' bought in Holland for a Guinea or Indian Trade, and about 2 or 3 Hogsheads of Bees-wax. The rest was in Materials for the Colony, viz. Hoes, Axes, Matches, Knives, etc. And for the main Design 1500 spare Buccaneer-Pieces, some Hundreds of Barrels of Powder, Shot proportionable and about 80 or 90 Drums. This Cargoe of Merchandise and Materials for the Colony, amounted to about 19000 l including 25 per Cent. advance, which the Company charged on every Article. So that there was about 74000 of the 100000 l Sunk. The remainder was towards Provisions, Payment of the Sailors and other Servants of the Company, and Discharge of the Company's Civil List: But of this odd Money above 10000 l was deficient in the Payments, to wit, some great Men could not be forced to pay, they Natively thinking their Countenance to the thing to be enough for their share; others were Sick, and a great many stark Dead of the Project, but most of them not able to raise their Quota.  
The Company's Affairs looking now so pale-faced, they were for some time staggering in their Resolutions: And on this Occasion it was proposed to the Board by the Laird of Drummellier, a Topping and Leading Man of the Company, and backed by Robert Watson, a Leading Man amongst the Merchant Directors, that they should send Order to their Agents in Holland and Hamburgh to sell off the Ships, and that their Committee of homeward Improvements should dispose of the foresaid Cargoe to the best Advantage, and the Company to make a Dividend of the Product, amongst the Proprietors of the Stock. This Proposal was Rejected as Inglorious, and they being now in utrumque Parati, were Resolved Seu varsare dolos, and that their Servants, but not themselves, should be the Victims to the Certae occumbere Morti.  
From this Minute they fixed their Resolutions, that since their Ships were built, the Provisions, Cargoe, and other Necessaries already provided, they should not look back, but equip for Sea with all Expedition; if they Perish there, or the Project Miscarry, they could show the World that they drove the Nail so far as it would go, and at last, shift the Miscarriage from off themselves. And to satisfy the World that their Despair was evident; at the signing of the Company's last Instructions to the Colony, This Drummellier would have it added in the Postscript as a Benediction, That they should get Money Honestly if they could, but be sure to get it, and if they came Home without it, than the Devil get them all.  
By the sequel of the Story the Reader may judge whether they did not put this Resolution into Practice. After the Embassy or Committee of Foreign Trade left Hamburgh, nothing Remarkable past there, save that after Mr. Stratford had given them a Splendid Entertainment for their Foy, they went off without bidding him kiss there— and believing that all these Dishes were a Pig of their own Sow, left Instructions behind them that he should not act any longer as the Company's Cashier. Whether this was the True Reason of his being laid aside, or that of his Original Sin, I cannot resolve you; but this I know, that he gave them Credit at their first appearance in Hamburgh, indented with the Builder of the four Ships, with the Rope-makers, Blacksmiths, and other Artificers, to furnish the Company, and bound himself for performance of the several Contracts; and at last he was obliged to Arrest the same Ships (as they were sitting out) for 800 l Flemish, that being the Balance of his Accounts; and they lay in Limbo a Fortnight or three Weeks before this Money could be paid.  
We Sailed with two of these Ships, viz, the Caledonia and St. Andrew from the River of Hamburgh the 10 of November, 1697. (having left the other two behind us, ready Launched and lying to Rot in the Ouse) and arrived in Leith Road on the 20th. to the no small Joy of the Proprietors of the Stock, two Thirds of whom firmly believed for six Months bygone that all was Cheat, and that there was no such Ships in Rerum Natura.  
About the same time the Rising-Sun of 60 Guns, and the Unicorn of 46, were fallen down from Amsterdam to the Texel, in order to join us, that we might make our Parade the more Splendid in Leith Road. These Ships, you must know, had their Compliment of Men bore on them for several Months before, as if they had been ready to Sail; but Archbishop Henderson, their trusty Friend and Agent, having about 3000 l due to him and Partners, did not think it discreet to let both Ships go till he had the Money in his Pocket; several kind Epistles and civil Words passed between the Company and him on this occasion, but to no material purpose; for he was apprehensive that if once they got the Ships in Scotland, his Money might be like Butter in the Black Dog's Hauce, or that they might detain so much of it as came to the Quota of his and Partners Subscriptions, which he and they had no Inclination to. On these Considerations the Archbishop sent home the Unicorn, and brought the Company's Rising-Sun back to the Meridian of Amsterdam, where she being Frozen up, for that Season, was obliged to lie till she Thawed, and for some Months afterwards, till he had his Dutch Gilt again. And indeed I think the Accident was very lucky, for besides the Honour which the Company purchased by entertaining the Czar of Moscovy Aboard while she lay at the Pales of Amsterdam, if she had gone to the West-Indies, she might have set there and never risen again; and so Drummellier would have been disappointed of his Dividend.  
The Hamburgher Ships and the Unicorn, being arrived at Leith, it was resolved to carry them up the Fryth till the hardest of the Winter was over; but the Seamen (a great part of whom had been 11 or 12 Months in the Service, and as void of Faith as Money) would not move an inch till they were paid, altho' several of the Directors came Aboard to Interpose their Authority. This obliged a certain Committee to be appointted for their Payment, who brought down the Money to Leith, and endeavouring to show themselves Good Husbands for the Company, pinched may be 5, 6 or 7 Shillings out of each Man's Wages, (not for Damages, for there was no Goods) which obliged the Sailors to give them a hearty Curse to their Faces, so soon as they had got the Money in their Hats. All that was saved in the Caledonia by this Management was within 40 l And when I told Little Blackwood my Sentiments of it at the Pay-Table, he replied, that it was no matter, every Little makes a Mickle, and the Company had need to save all they can. The Consequence of this was, that when the Company had occasion to fit out their Ships in the Spring, none of these Sailors that were worth the hanging, would List themselves, and we were obliged to take Tag, Rag and Bobtail, and such as no Skipper in the Fryth would Eatertain. The Company indeed depended on their Countrymen who were discharged of the English Service on the Peace, but they were disappointed, for none of them would leave Old England. So that when we came to Sea, we were so feebly Manned, (altho' we had Eaters enough) that if it had not been for the Land Officers and their Men, I am satisfied that our Ships had run away with us.  
In July following, the Ships being ready to Sail, the Seamen were paid off, and for their farther Encouragement, received 2 Months Pay Advance; as for the rest, those who are alive, must catch it if they can, tho' it may be guessed what they have to trust to, by the Defences which the Company makes at this time in Doctors-Commons, in an Action of Sea Wages they are sued for. To wit, that the Company Transferred their Ships, Men and Cargo, over to the Colony; that they are now two distinct Societies, that what Wages were due by the Company, were paid before the Ships went from Scotland; and altho' the Company advanced the foresaid two Months Pay, yet it was not on their own account, but lent to the Colony. This is a pretty honest Evasion of the Company to cheat so many poor Men out of their Wages: I don't know what success such Defences will meet with in their own Courts, but they are now rejected in Doctor's Commons, and the Money ordered to be brought into the Court.  
But before I go any further, I'll give you a clearer View of this Transfer. The Company having laid out a round Sum of Money on this Expedition, thought the most probable way of seeing it again, was to charge the Colony with it, to let them improve it the best way they could, and pay the Company certain Parcels of it at such and such Terms. They valued these three Ships and Cargo, with the two Tenders, (including the Provisions and men's Wages they had already paid) at 70000 l for which they took the Councils Bond to be paid as aforesaid. They were likewise to have certain shares in the Mines, Minerals, etc. and to be free of Duties in the Colonies Ports, whereas Strangers were to pay 2 per Cent. (which was to be applied to the maintenance of the Colonies Forts, and other necessary Uses.) These Gentlemen, who gave their joint Bond for this 70000 l were not worth so many English Pence; and the Transfer was so clandestinely carried on, that if it had been known to the Seamen, or those who expected Wages, there had not one Soul of them gone in the Service. And I dare be positive, that when we arrived in Darien, this Transfer was such a secret, that it was not known to ten Men besides the Councillors.  
The Seamen being thus paid by the Company what was due to them, with the two Months advance, were made believe that when once these Landmen were set ashore, they were to proceed on a Trading Voyage, and return to Scotland to be paid, wherewith they were well enough satisfied. The Landmen were still in worse Circumstances, for they had no Pay, nor none to trust to; only the hopes they were fatened with of picking the Gold off the Leaves of the Trees, which few of them doubted of, that went on that foot. For the more formality of the thing, and to make it of a greater value, there was a kind of Indenture or Contract between the Company and these Landmen. The Soldiers were not to go under that Denomination, but that of Planters. The 60 Officers (12 of them had been Captains in Flanders, and the other 48 subalterns) were termed Overseers, Sub-Overseers and Assistants. The true Mystery of their cramp Names lay here, if I am not mistaken: The Octroy empowered the Company to list and entertain Soldiers for the Service of their Colonies, and to exercise Martial Discipline; but at the same time, what Soldiers they listed in Scotland, must be with the Privy Councils leave first obtained. At the listing and enrolling of these Land-men, the Company thought it in vain to ask the Council that savour, for some weighty Reasons, which I shall not offer here; so took their own way of christening them, designing at the same time to make them answer the same ends, when once they got them between the Tropics; and in the mean time, it was not necessary that these Land Officers, or Planting Soldiers should know the secret of their Infirmity. I must tell you, that Pennycook, and some more of the Council were so ignorant of it, that if it had not been for one who was none of their Number, they had hanged up some of the Land-men at Sea, to try their hand. And after we had been a while in the Colony, and the poor Men so starved, that they were obliged to desert to any body that could fill their Bellies, some 9 or 10 of these were brought back by a party; and since they found they could not hang them, without running the hazard of being hanged themselves for it afterwards, they chained great Weights of Iron to their Legs, and condemned them for a certain number of years to Slavery. These Actings were as unlegal as the other; for if by the Constitutions of the Colony their Port be free, and if these Men be Planters by the Indenture or Contract made with the Company, they are Freemen, and not liable to the lash of Martial Discipline.  
The Terms of these Indentures run thus, That the Planters should be maintained by the Company three Years; and what Ground they cleared in that time, should be disposed of by the Colony, as they should think fit; allowing 50 Acres to each Planter, with a House in the Capital City of 50 foot square; 100 Acres to each Officer, with a House proportionable. And to set the greater value on that rich land, the Councillors themselves, by the Constitutions, could not have above three Portions, to wit, 150 Acres. These poor deluded Fellows had better sold themselves for the time in some of the English or French Plantations, and have got 18 or 20 l by the bargain, without either running the hazard of starving, or of the Spanish Mines. And altho' there had been no danger of either, yet what could a naked man make of this 50 Acres of Ground, or of 500, at the three years' end, if it were not to sow Potatoes, Maez, and Plantains, and live as Adam did.  
This is all the Encouragement these Gentlemen and Planters had to trust to; and altho' most, or all the Officers had been listed 4 or 5 Months before they were shipped aboard, yet they had not a farthing allowed them for their subsistence, but what the 12 Captains or Overseers could pinch out of their Companies; neither could that be much, for their Planters were allowed but 3 d. a day for their subsistence, from the date of their listing, to their going on board; indeed about a Month before we sailed, upon a certain occasion of the Land Officers grumbling, the Directors, out of their Benevolence, or rather to stop their Mouths, ordered 10 l for each Captain, with a Subscription of 100 l in the Capital Stock (which was only 25 l Gift,) and for the Subalterns in Proportion; which generous Gratuity made all things easy.  
The Contract or Charter Party between the Company and Council, was penned before the Councillors were created; but that signified little, for these Candidates would scarce have stuck at the Terms, tho' they had been harder. But to tell you the truth, they were to seek for Persons fit for that purpose, and were glad to take such as they could get. By the Constitutions a 'greed on by Rozy Mackenzie, and the Company, seven Councillors were to be created before the Ships sailed from Scotland, and these were to be invested with a Power to assume to the number of six more, as they should see occasion. I have reason to believe that the design of leaving these six Chairs vacant, was for the Encouragement of such English or French Men of Substance, as should come in and join them from the West India Plantations.  
To give you the Characters at large of these 7 Councillors, would be tedious; wherefore I desire you may accept of this in short. 1. James Cunningham led the Van, he had been a Major in the Scots Forces, and disbanded on the Peace; a Pillar of the Kirk, and never out of Scotland before. 2. Donald Macay, a Scrivener's or Writer's Clerk, newly come out of his Apprenticeship, but a Youth of good Parts. 3.— Veach, a Man of no Trade, but advanced to this Post on the account his Father was a godly Minister, and a Glorifier of God, I think in the Grass-market. 4. Robert Jolly, a jolly Scotch overgrown Hamburger, who was ormerly a Skipper, and used the Shetland Trade, but had for some dozen years been set up at Hamburgh, in quality of Merchant; and after that a Broker, and now a Councillor. 5. Robert Pennycook, formerly a Surgeon in the English Navy, than a Lieutenant, and afterwards Commander of a Bomb; this Gentleman having gained Experience by being 21 years from Scotland in several Trades or Occupations, he was by a Stratagem of an Acquaintance of mine, called home to take this Post upon him, about 6 or 7 Weeks before we sailed, and was advanced by the Interest of the Krak Party, the better to balance that of the Church, and to keep our Dr. M— a reputed Atheist, who would certainly have debauched both. Mr. Pennycook was not only Councillor, but likewise Captain, Commadore, and the very Orford of our Navy. 6. James Montgomrie, whose Designation I cannot well tell, but you may know him by the Story of the bloody Fight he had with the Spaniard, where so many hundred were killed and taken Prisoners, tho' at the same time there was never a Spaniard hurt. This Gentleman was formerly an Ensign in the Scots Guards, but not liking that Office, left it, and carried a brown Musket in another Regiment. The Reasons of his Preferment to this Post, was his Grandfather's being Earl of Eglington; and his own Father, by the Mother's side, being Major General Montgomrie. 7. Robert Pincarton, a good down right, rough spun Tar, never known before by any Designation or State Office, save that of Boatswain to Sir William Phipps, when he was on the Wreck; and now, poor fello●, a Diver in the Spanish Mines at Carthagena.  
These were the seven wise Men, who were to divide Mexico and Peru amongst them. Veach being sick of the Voyage, stayed at home; and on this occasion William Paterson, whom I hinted at before, having come from Scotland with us in quality of Volunteer (for he was in Disgrace some Months before we came off; and his projecting Head growing too big to get out of the Ports of Edinburgh without an Engine, he was at his liberty either to go into the Tolbooth, or on board in this Station, which he pleased) was assumed into the Senate in Veach's Place, after we had got so far as the Maderas on our Voyage.  
I had almost forgot to tell you of our Clergy, with whom I ought, in good Manners, to have begun. Two Ministers with a Journeyman to take up the Psalm, were commissioned by the General Assembly, with full Instructions, I suppose, to dispose of the Bibles among the Indians. One of these was an Extraordinary good Man, but he owed his Education to the Army in Flanders, where the Kirk Rust was rubbed off him. The other was Young Headstrong, as infallible as his Holiness, Saucy and as Impertinent as the Moderator himself. They thought to have established the Scotch Kirk Discipline in America, but having past the Tropic of Cancer, they could find such a sensible Alteration in our Men, nay, in the Major himself, by the Influence of that Zone, that they began to despair of it, and their Heartstrings being quite broke at the Sight of that dear Land of Promise, they just looked upon it and so were gathered to their Fathers. They were not much miss indeed; for the only Time we had Oceasion for the Priestly Office, was the Marriage of Paterson's Wife's Maid, after her Belly had been a Third up, and then her Master happening to be Praeses, or high Priest for the Week, Celebrated it in as much Form, or perhaps more than if it had been done in a Scotch Kirk.  
But before I leave Europe altogether; I must tell you One Passage more, which was a Secret to a great Part of the Court of Directors when we left Scotland, it being managed only by the private Committee, and 2 or 3 more. The Story runs thus, The Companies, or rather private Committees Agents at London, had been for some time in Terms with Lionel Wafer to bring him into the Service, they had no positive Instructions to agree with him at first, but only to sound him as to the Particulars of the Country of Darien. Wafer, it seems, was in Terms with some private Merchants of London, about sending a Vessel thither for Nicaragua Wood, to which he was to Pilot them; and about the same Time he was putting his Journals into the Press. Pennycook, before he left London, went with Mr. Fletcher a Scotch Gentleman and some others designedly to discourse this Wafer, and having treated him at Pontacks, satisfied themselves of his Capacity to serve the Company, they advised him not to be hasty in Publishing his Book, or at least till he heard further from Scotland. There was a Collection of some Guineas amongst these Gentlemen for Wafer, the better to back their Advice. When Pennycook arrived in Scotland he acquainted the private Committee with his Sentiments of Wafer, on which they wrote for Mr. Fletcher by the next Post to secure him for the Companies Service, and to make the easiest Bargain he could.  
Mr. Wafer had stood for some Months bygone at 1000 l but now Mr. Fletcher being in Earnest with him he agreed on the following Terms.  

1. He was to serve the Company for the Space of 2 Years in their Expedition, for which the Company was to pay him 750 l whereof 50 l ready down.  
2. He was forthwith to proceed to Edinburgh, and there to answer such Questions as the private Committee or Committee of Trade should ask him.  
3. In Consideration of 20 Guineas more, which hethens received in hand, he was to put a Stop to the Publishing his Book for the space of a Month; and when he came to Edinburgh, if the Company and he could not come to Terms for the suppressing it altogether, than he was either at Liberty to go in their Service for the foresaid 700 l or to return to England, which he pleased.  
4. You may easily perceive something, Mystical in the wording of these Articles, whereby the Company might shake their Neck out of their Noose, but that Mr. Fletcher meant it so, I will not say, but am rather willing to believe he was sincere and ignorant of the Companies Design on him.   
Mr. Wafer, Pursuant to the Contract, (having ordered his Affairs in England for his Voyage to Darien,) took Post for Scotland, and on the Road passed by the Name of Brown, by the Committees Direction. He was stopped at Haddinton, 12 Miles short of Edinburgh, by Mr. Pennycook, who was ordered to Lodge him at Mr. Fletcher's House, about 2 Miles Wide of that Road, and there he was to stay till the Committee should come to him, lest by his going into Edinburgh he should be seen by Paterson or Lodge, (who at this Time were kept in the Dark as to the Companies Resolutions,) or by any other Person that might know him. The private Committee came to him next Day, and having entered on Business, asked him first, if he had ordered his Affairs so in England that he needed not return. He answered that he had, and was ready to go abroad at 48 Hours warning: To this they replied, that it was very well, tho'by the Sequel of the Story you'll find it none of their Meaning.  
During the first 2 or 3 Days Conferences, the Subject of the Discourse was Darien, of which he unbossomed himself freely. And for their further Encouragement, he engaged to lead them to a Treasure of Nicaragua Wood, whereof 300 Men could cut down so much in Six Months, as should defray the whole Charge of the Expeditinn, which if he did not perform he should forfeit his Title to the 700 l Premium agreed on. The Gentlemen were curious in Informing themselves whereabouts this Treasure was, whither it was near the Sea or any River whence it could be easily Shipped Aboard. Wafer, not suspecting any Design upon him by Persons of so noted Characters, resolved them in every Particular, and pointed out the very Spot of Ground, where it grows, with the Bearings and Distance of it from Golden Island. They now thinking themselves Cocksure of the Treasure, and sufficiently Instructed as to the Country, had no more Occasion for Wafer, and believed that the 700 l Pilotage might be saved, to help to fetch up Smith's Summ.  
Next Night he has brought into Edinburgh under Pretence of a nearer Communication, and was lodged in a private Cell near the Companies Office Three Pair of Stairs high, where he could scarce distinguish between Sun Light and Moon Light; and here he was obliged to keep close lest by being seen abroad the Project should take Air. Wafer was well enough pleased with his Confinement, having still the 700 l in View; but as there's no Certainty in Sublunary Things, so the Pilot missed of his Mark; for in a Day or two afterwards some Gentlemen of the Committee came to him and with abundance of Concern, made him understand, that the Project had taken Wind in England, that Admiral Bembo was lying with a Squadnon at Spithead, to wait their Motion; and that it was resolved that very Morning, in the Secret Committee, to alter their Darien Project. Wafer being somewhat daunted at the News, had but little to say to the Matter: And these Gentlemen to blind him the more, asked him several Questions about the Rivers of Platte and Amazons (both 1000 Leagues wide of Darien,) and whether he could be serviceable to them that way; to which he answered, No.  
Thus they parted from him, showing a great Concern for their own Disappointment, as well as his; telling him withal, That since they could not go in his Darien Project, they would think of a Gratuity sit for him, which he might expect that Evening.  
This Gratuity was the Sum of Twenty Guineas, which he received by the Hand of Mr. Pennycook: And I suppose he was now at Liberty to Print his Book, for I think he was never so much as Communed with about it. I was ordered to see him out of Town, which gave me an Opportunity of having the mournful Story Recapitulated, whereof neither he nor I at that time knew the Draught. It was not necessary to enjoin Wafer to conceal his Scotch Journey from the English, his own Interest obliging him to keep it hush, since the greatest Remedy he could expect was to be laughed at. However, I dare say, he hath acquired so little Knowledge of Edinburgh (except what he learned of the Company,) that if he were to return to that City, he could no more find the Way to his Lodging, than the Company could to the Nicaragua Wood, notwithstanding they thought themselves so sure of it by Directions.  
I was afterwards one of those who went for several Miles along the Coast, in Search of this Treasure, but were obliged to give it over: And in Lieu of this, our Men were ordered to fallen several kinds of strange Trees, which naturally grow in the Colony's Garden.  
These were squared and cut in Ten Foot Pieces, for the easier Stowage, and were to be sent Home by the first Ship, to see if the Company's Virtuoso's could find any Lebanon amongst them.  
When they come, I dare say, they will Puzzle the General Assembly to find Names for them all, for I can scarce think that Old Nunkle trotted so far West to christian them.  
But that I may now take leave of the Company (whom I am unwilling to part with as yet if it were not for fouling too much Paper) and hale my Topsail-sheets home for my Voyage to Darien: I must acquaint you that about 7 or 8 months before we sailed, a Committee was ordered for the dispatch of business, viz. for the victualling and sitting out of the Fleet. I was ordered to assist at two or three meetings of this Committee with my advice in the Victualling part (that for some time before lying within my Province) and they having told me that 900 men was the Compliment they designed for this Expedition, and that they must regulate the daily expense according to the store they had, so as to make it hold out 9 months; this was soon done, and if we had been ready to sail then, the Provisions might have held out according to the calculation: but our Masters being no Witches at their craft a third of their Provisions were expended before we could be ready to sail. There was none to be had in Scotland, and if there had there was no Money to go to Market; the 100000 l being sunk, and the Companies credit not worth two pence, notwithstanding the glorious show our Ships made from the Castle-hill of Edinburgh. And I have reason to believe, that we had stuck there as well as the Rising Sun did in the Pomposse, if it had not been for some few Pillars of the Company who mortgaged their Estates for 4 or 5000 l for which the Company made over the two new Ships at Hamburgh and the Rising Sun at Amsterdam for their security. It was not convenient to let our men know the ill state of our Provisions; but on the other hand, there was such a noise made or our plenty, and of our having a twelve months' store of all kinds for 1000 men, that it was like to have set us all by the ears together before we were long at Sea. This management was principally due to Mr. Robert Blackwood one of that Committee, a little busy-body, who took this part of it upon him, and is now in disgrace for the same. Whether he deserves it altogether himself I will not say; but however, the Company thinks it necessary he should be the Sacrifice, although one half of their Collars is not enough to atone for what so many brave Fellows has suffered.  
Having sailed from Leith about three days I acquainted Mr. Pennycook with my doubts as to the Provisions, and how necessary it was the Council should be satisfied of our store before it were too late. Next day he made the Signal for the Counsellors to repair on board, and the Pursers of the several Ships were ordered to lay an account before them of what Provisions they stood charged with. This done, I was ordered to calculate the whole and make a Report how long the store would hold out at the usual allowance for 1050 men, our Compliment being thereabouts. I could not make above 5 months and a half of any specie except Stockfish, of which we had full 11 months, and that at 4 days of the week, but had not above 4 months' Butter and Oil to it. The Council designed to put into the Orkney's to send an Express to the Company and give them an account of the slate of Provisions, but meeting with thick and bad weather in the passing of them, we were obliged to go on; and having calculated that store to hold out 9 months, our men were forthwith put to that sharp allowance. This occasioned ill blood enough, and I was like to have got my throat cut for being the Author of it. As for our Drink, we had not above ten tunn of Beer in our Navy when we left Leith; but in lieu thereof we were assured by the Company, that we should take in Wine at Maderas, for which they had sent us credit on Mr. Miles, who had Effects in his hands of one William Arbuckles a Director; dut being come thither, we found this to be a mistake, to say no worse on't. Our men now being at such short allowance, and no other Drink to trust to but stinking Water, did not know how to brook it well.  
The Officers and Gentlemen Volunteers, who had brought but little money with them (being in hopes that there was enough before them) were obliged to sell their moveables to Jack Portugueese, such as Scarlet Coats, Clooks and Swords, wherewith they purchased a little Wine for themselves. The Senate was in the same case, for they had no Cash in their Bank, and being under such another necessity as David was when he eat the Shewbread, made bold with the several Ships stock-purses, wherein was only 100 l for each Ship, and 10 l for each Tender, in case they should meet with any disaster at ' Sea and be obliged to be put into a Foreign Port. With this Money, and a few Pipe-staves, they purchased 27 Pipes of Wine, and a small recruit of fresh Provisions. But this would not have gone far, for if it had been served out but at a quarter of a pint a day to each man it would not have held out above six weeks.  
That you may taste a little of our Provisions as well as I, you must know that our Stockfish was the best, if there had been a proportion of Butter or Oil to it. Our Beef was 3 fourth's Irish, and the rest Scotch, both alike sit for a long Voyage. There was about a fifth part of the Irish stall-sed, the rest grass Beef, and the whole about 18 months in salt. As for our Bread, 27000 l weight of it was made up of damnified Wheat which was bought cheap, and the money of it is now in the pocket of a Director, whose Christian Name is Drummellier. This Bread was not sit for dogs to eat, but it was a mercy we had a good many Highlanders in our Legion, who were not used to feed on much of God's Creatures that's hallowed. The Pork was indifferent good, but there being no great store of it aboard we reserved it always for our Sundays dinner. As for Cheese, we had none, by reason, I suppose, that only serves for concoction, or to create an appetite.  
Thus we marched as the Scots Armies did in former days with their 40 days Provisions on their backs against their Enemies; whom if they did not meet before that term was expired they dispersed and went home again. But their case and ours differed in some essentials, these were never far from home, knew what to trust to, and if they happened to be disappointed of the Enemy's Plunder, they could make bold with their Neighbour's Chickens while they were on the Road, and that never reckoned Stealing: But we were sent to the back of God's elbow, where we could see nothing but Death, starving and the Spanish Mines before our Eyes, and although our inclinations were never so strong to borrow any of our Neighbour's goods, yet our power was always deficient.  
But now to proceed on our Voyage, and give you the remarkable Occurrences of it and of our Darien entertainment; you are to know that we left the Edinburgh Fyrth on July the 17th. 1698, and having fetched a turn round the Orkney's we arrived at Maderas about the last of August, and stayed there 5 or 6 days, till we purchased the foresaid 27 Pipes of Wine. Here the Council opened their Instructions, by which they were ordered to Steer to Crabb-Island, and take possession of it in the name of the Company and Nation of Scotland, and leave a small deteachment there. This Island lies to Leeward of St. a Cruz, about 9 Leagues, to windward of Porto-Rico, about 5 Miles and 18 Leagues from St. Thomas a Danish Island. Having made the Island of St. a Cruz, our Senate ordered the Unicorn and one of the Tenders into St. Thomas, to get some pilate's for the Main, and to return to us at Crabb-Island. While the Council sat on this occasion, we drove to the Northward-most end of St. a Cruz, and not being in too much haste to come to an Anchor at Crabb-Island, we fetched a trip to Windward round St. a Cruz, which occasioned the disappointment of our settlement; for our Missioners to St. Thomas having innocently scattered some words there of our Crabb design, the Governor forthwith dispatched a Sloop with ten Men and an Officer to take possession of it in the name of Denmark; so that at our arrival in the Bay, or Road of Crabb-Island, we could see a large Tent ashore with the King of Denmark's Colours flying. Our Senate sent ashore to know the meaning of it, and were made sensible that they came too late. Next day the Unicorn and Tender arrived, having brought with them one Allison, who Commanded a Sloop in that Squadron of Privateers, who had landed at Golden-Island, and marched over the Isthmus, about 18 Years ago. We were glad of such a Pilot, for there was no Man in our Fleet that had ever been on the Spanish Coast. We left Crabb Island the second of October, and having met with Southerly and Westerly winds for 3 Weeks or a Month together, it was the second of November before we came to an Anchor on the Darien Coast. We lay becalmed a Week between Cartagena and Cape Tiburoon (which is the Westermost point of the Gulf of Darien) where for want of any Air, but what was Sulphurous, our Men fell down and died like rotten Sheep.  
We came to an Anchor about 7 Leagues to the Northwest of Cape Tiburoon, and altho' we were close by Golden Island, yet neither our Pilate, nor any person else knew the Land, till the Indians informed us. The Unicorn being the first Ship that came to an Anchor sent her Boat ashore; where having left an hostage with some Indians, who had a Plantation there, two Canous with a few Indians came on board the Ships. The Canou which came to the St. Andrew where I was had Captain Andreas on board, who was afterwards the Companies and Colonies Landlord: They were some hours aboard before we could make them understand us, although a Jew (who was our Linguist) endeavoured it with his Spanish, Portugese, French and Dutch; till once they were got drunk with our Punch and Madera Wine, and then Captain Andreas with his Lieutenant spoke it as fast and much better than our Jew. Having got their load they were not able to go ashore that night; and next day we weighed and came into the Bay within Golden Island, which is about 4 or 5 Miles wide and deep. And having sounded with our Boats along the shore, we found a Lagoon on the Southeast side of this Bay, which runs up within the Land about two Miles and a half; this appearing to be a good Harbour for us, we went into it and Christened it, by the name of Caledonia Harbour. The mouth or entry of this Harbour is a large Mile over, and so steep too on both sides that a Ship may go so near as to throw a Bisket-cake ashore. One side of the Harbour towards the Sea is a vast Mountain and Peninsula, being joined to the Main at the bottom of the Harbour, by a neck of low Land, about 3 or 400 Paces over. The extreme point of this Peninsula, which makes one side of the Harbour's mouth, is a low and flat piece of Sandy ground, containing about 30 Acres, and divided from the Peninsula by another neck of 180 Paces over from Sea to Sea. This was pitched upon as the strongest Sanctuary in case of attacks, as likewise for the convenience of a battery towards the Harbour's mouth: We Christened this piece of ground by the name New Edinburgh, and the Platform of 16 Guns which we made there was called Fort St. Andrew. The neck of Land was cut through to let the Sea encompass the New City and Fort, and part it from the Peninsula, and within the Treneh a breast-work with a Parapet was raised, and a half bastion at each end. On the other side of the Trench the Trees were felled, and the ground cleared for a Musquet-shot round, to give us a fair prospect of the Spaniard, in case of an attack. This piece of ground was the Scotch Colony; as for the Peninsula itself, it might have been fortified with some labour and pains, but not thinking it convenient to part so few men to defend these two Posts, it was resolved by the Council to stick close by this and fortify it to the bestad-vantage. As for the opposite point on the Main, which makes the other side of the entry into the Harbour, it is a high ridge of a Mountain which with a sharp or edged end butts into the Sea, and so crossly contrived that it would puzzle all the Engineers in Europe to plant a Gun on it that could do any Service. So that at best, this Harbour is only a shelter from bad weather, the Platform called Fort St. Andrew being of little use to defend it; the Ships indeed by bringing a Spring on their Cables, and their Broadsides to bear towards the mouth of the Harbour, might serve for so advantageous a Battery, as one Ship within the Harbour might be as good as two that came in to attack them, the nature of which strength may easily be comprehended by any Seafaring men.  
But to return to our Landlord and the other Indians; Captain Andreas' Plantation was amongst the Mountains, about 4 miles from our Harbour; the extent of his Government was from Carrit-bay about 8 or 9 miles on one side of us, and Golden Island about 5 miles on the other side, such a portion of Land being the Lairdship or Kingdom of these Captains whom the Buccaneers, Privateers and Scotch Company would have to be Kings and Sovereign Princes. At our first Landing, Captain Andreas came down and looked on us, and seemed to be well enough satisfied with his new Tenants (he thinking it in vain to appear otherwise, for if he had mustered his whole Clan to oppose us, 6 of our men with fire-arms were enough to conquer him) but what his sentiment was will appear by the sequel. After that Visit he did not come near us for 3 or 4 weeks; and during this time the mighty noise of our Force spreading all along that Shore, and the hopes we gave them of restoring them to their ancient Liberty and Greatness, there came Canous with Indians from all the neighbouring parts to view us: it was our interest to make them welcome, so that they came daily to us without any dread, and having stayed till we were weary of them, went home again with some little presents of Beads, Looking-glasses, or Knives. About the same time Captain Ambrosio came from the Westward to us, with a Periaga full of Indians, to the number of 30, including Men, Women and Children, (for when they travel they carry their whole Families with them) and having come within half a mile of our Ships they set up a Flag of Truce, and lay on their Oars till our Pinnaces went out and assured them that they should be safe. This Ambrosio is one of their greatest Captains, and at present an Outlaw, or if you will, at war with the Spaniard, having murdered 10 of them at the Isle of Pines sometime ago: his Plantation and Government is about 50 miles to Leeward of the Colony, and about half way between and the Samballa's Islands. He was made very welcome, stayed 2 or 3 days, and told us that we were not safe in Captain Andreas' Ground by reason he was a Spanish Captain and a very Spaniard in his heart, and although he seemed to be well enough satisfied with our landing in his Ground, yet he was not to be trusted but came purely with a design to spy us. Captain Andreas absenting himself so long from the Colony added to the same suspicion, and our Senators being resolved to know more of it, 3 of their number went on a Visit to his Plantation, and having entered his Wigwam (or Cage-like house) he sat still on his Seat without saying one word to them, or seeming to know that he ever had seen them before, although he was made hearty drunk at both the times he was on board. Mr. Pennycook and the others having met with this cold Entertainment from Captain Andreas (for they were not offered so much as a Plantain or Callabash of Drink, which is the usual Entertainment the Indians give to their Friends at their first entry) came home again confirmed of what Ambrosio and the other Indians had hitherto said. The next time Capt. Ambrosio came he insisted on the same story, and would needs persuade us to remove from that place and come nearer to him, where we needed not apprehend any betraying design from him by reason his kill of these 10 Spaniards at the Isle of Pines, and taking that Periaga with a brass Pitterara could never be forgiven by them. Our Council met on this occasion, where it was ordered that Pennycook, Montgomery, Macay and Pinparton Counsellors, with Robert Drummond Commander of the Caledonia should go to Ambrosio's, with the Long-boats and Pinnaces manned with 70 Fire-arms, and on their way to sound all the Harbours along the Coast. I was desired by these Gentlemen to go with them, and having stopped the first Night at the Isle of Pines, 6 Leagues to Leeward of the Colony, where Captain Long was riding in His Majesty's Ship the Rupert Prize, we lodged that Night on Board with him. The next day we proceeded on our Expedition sounding the Coast, where we sound some good Harbours that were able to contain all the Navy of England, but they could not be fortified so as to hinder the Enemy from coming in. When we arcived at Ambrosio's little River or Brook we landed, and were Piloted by his Son Captain Pedro to the Plantation, which is about a league from the Sea, and is so cunning and obscure, that without a Guide it is impossible for any man to find the way to it. We crossed one River eleven times, wading always up to the middle, and I believe we could have gone a nearer way if they would, but they do this designedly, that the Path or Road may not be found out by the Spaniard. Being arrived at the Plantation, Captain Ambrosio came out of his Wigwam about 30 Paces and welcomed us, he had a white Cotton Frock on fringed at the bottom, and his Court or Clann behind him (who were all mustered on this occasion) to the number of thirty men besides Women and Children; they were in such Frocks as Ambrosio's, and had short Lances in their hands: He carried us into his Wigwam, and his Wives gave every one of us a Plantain and Callabash of their drink (which is made of Indian Corn, and like unboiled Flummery) this being all the Food we got till the next day at noon we came down to our Boats, except a dish of mined Meat of Wild Hogg, wherein was about two pound of Meat, which served to give us a taste of their finest Cheer. We hung in Hammocks that Night in Ambrosio's Wigwam amongst his and his Son Pedro's Wives, and our men lay without round a large Fire that was made for them. Next morning Ambrosio went out betimes with 3 or 4 of his men to hunt for us, but there being no appearance of his return at noon, and our Belliers crying Cupboard, we did not stay to bid him far well; and his Son Captain Pedro having reconducted us to the Sea side, desired the Linguist to tell Captain Pennycook, that his Father and he expected some Present for that Entertainment. We had brought nothing with us at that time, so told him, that the next time his Father came to the Colony the Council would thank him, and give him something, which afterwards was two pieces of Scotch Cloth, two Firelocks, and some Powder, with a few Shot, wherewith he was mightily pleased.  
Having returned to the Colony, and a Report of the Expedition being made in Council, and the Port where we were reckoned the most secure, it was resolved to remain there, dispatch the Fortification with all expedition, and make the best Bargain with Andreas we could. On the last of November, being St. Andrew's, day, it was managed so (but how I cannot resolve you) that Captain Andreas came aboard the St. Andrew, where was a Festival on the account of the Day, and he being asked by the Linguist, why he was so uncivil to the Counsellors when they came to visit him in his Plantation, he answered, That he meant no harm, and that they must impute it to his Ignorance of the European Customs (altho' this Tale could not come well from one that was bred among the Spaniards) and not to his want of goodwill. He was desired to sit down and share with them, the Linguist telling him the occasion of that Feast.  
After Dinner, the great Bowl of Punch being set on the Table (the sight of which was pleasant enough to Andrea's) the Council was resolved to push the thing home, and told him what Ambrosio and the other Indians said of him; to which he replied almost verbatim, as follows, That he could not deny but that he was a Spanish Captain, and had been so a long time; that the reason of his showing the Colony so little Countenance was, by reason some 
* See History Buchaneers.  16 or 17 years past, the English and French landed in that very Ground, being 12 or 13 hundred in number, and made them believe they were come to free them from the Spanish Yoke, and restore them to their own Country; his Friends and Relations joined and assisted them at the taking of Sancta Maria and other Towns on the South Sea, and likewise served on board their Ships with them in their South Sea Expeditions, till at two years' end they found, that all their design was on the Spanish Plunder, and having got that, lest them exposed to the Cruelty of the Spaniard, who have cut off most of the Indians thereabouts, and that for several Years they were obliged to live obscurely in the Mountains; as for himself and Friends, they were obliged to accept of the Spaniard's Terms; but at the same time, if he thought that the Colony were sincere, and that their Nation could protect him and this Kindred, he was ready to break with the Spaniard and join with them. Few words more were made of it, the Council accepted of his proser, and promised great things enough for the Nation, and the Secretary was ordered immediately to make out a Commission for Andreas. It was made on Parchment with the Colonies Seal and a fine Ribbon affixed to it, the tenor whereof run thus. Captain Andreas having desired Protection from the Colony for himself and the other Indians under him, the Council does hereby take him and them into their Protection, and appoints the foresaid Andreas to be one of their Scots Colonies Captains, to command all the Indians that's already in his Ground, and to fight against and destroy the Enemies of the Colony of what Nation soever. This Commission was wrote in English and read to him by the Jew in Spanish; and for the more solemnity of the thing, the Council gave him one of the Long-Boats Jacks to wear in his Canou, a Fuzee, and a pair of Pistols, and a Basket-hilted Sword, and fired 21 Guns at his Inauguration. In the Evening Captain Andreas went ashore with his Flag flying and the other ensigns of his Honour, except The Commission, which I found the day following crammed into a Locker of the Round-house where empty Bottles lay. What the meaning of leaving his Commission behind him was I could not apprehend, but the next time he came aboard it was given him.  
The Collony's Affair continued thus till Christmas, during which time the Neighbouring Indian Captains came to visit us, to wit, Captain Possigo, young Diego, another Pedro Antonio, and Nicola, who generally used to rail at one another behind their Backs, but all agreed that Andreas was not to be trusted notwithstanding his new Commission. Ambrosio was with us during the Christmas holidays, and having met with Caprain Andreas on Board the St. Andrew (whom he always looked on as his mortal Enemy) reproached him with his Villainy, by telling him, that he was still a Spaniard altho' he took the Collony's Commission: This occasioned some blows between them, and both Parties were going to fall on, if they had not been parted by our Seamen. They were kept asunder till the Evening, and then Mr. Pennycook persuading Ambrosio to be reconciled to him (or at least, to appear so) a Bowl was made and the Friendship made up, they seemed then to be good Friends all that Night, till about the time that they were to go to sleep, poor Captain Andrea's either fellor was tumbled down the main Hatch-way into the Hold, where lighting on a spare Anchor that lay there, he was so bruised that he gave up the ghost soon afterwards. No body could tell how this accident happened, only two things were remarkable in it: That the Hatches of the Hold were always locked down at Nights by reason the sharpness of our Diet made some Men watch all opportunities of getting into the Hold where the Oatmeal and Beef lay, but they were fairly open this Night. The other is, that there was no care taken while he was aboard to bleed him, or give him any thing inwardly to keep the Blood fluid and from settling on the bruised parts, but laid him up till next Day his Wife and Relations carried him ashore double.  
Captain or King Andrea's having made his Exit thus, his Brother-in-Law Captain Pedro, with the interest or advice of the Senate, was Seated on his Throne, and he proved so friendly to the Colony that about 12 days after his Advancement a Party of Spaniards to the number of 26, being sent to view the Scots, came straight to Captain Pedro's or Andrea's his Government, desiring some of his Men to Pilot them to some convenient place where they might view the Scots Fortification and Ships, these Indians engaged it, but advised them to lie closely for a day or two, until they viewed whether or no the Coast was clear and no Scots Parties abroad, So having posted them on the side of a small River, left them and informed the Colony of what they had done: On which Captain Montgomery Detached a Party of a 100 Men, and went round in their Boats, carrying these Indians along with them: as they were rowing up this narrow River, the In lians of a sudden gave the Hollow, that the Scots might know they were upon them, but before they could fee any body by reason of the thickness of the Woods, the Spaniards poured in a Volley of small Shot amongst them, killed one Ensign Sainton, with two more, and wounded 14, and then run as fast as they could, our Men Landed and pursued them, but caught none of them, save this Domingo de la Rada, and two more Common Soldiers, of whom the Proprietors of the Flying-Post have made such a noise these five or six Months past.  
This is the ground of the Companies title to the Isthmus of Darien, and that was the Bloody Fight wherein so many hundreds of Spaniards were killed and taken Prisoners. Our Men being reduced to the forementioned short Allowance, and wrought every day from Sun to Sun in felling of Trees, and Fortifying themselves, and seeing but little appearance of the Riches they were told of, began to be very faint-hearted. Several deserted from the Shore, and some of our best Men from the Ships, no body knew whether; and eight or nine of those who were caught and brought back again confessed that they were going in to the Spaniards, where they might expect more Victuals and less Slavery than what they had there.  
Notwithstanding these general murmur, the Council could not augment the Allowance, without running the hazard of starving a Month or two sooner, for there's no kind of Food to be had in that Mountainous & Woody Country, save Plantains, Bonnano's Potatoes and Indian Corn, which are so scarce by reason of the few Natives, that our Men sold their New Shirts to the Indians for 20 or 24 Plantains a piece, which would not serve a Man above three or four days, and our Council were obliged to give strict Orders that no Man should sell his , else I verily believe our Men had been naked in two months after our Landing. They were obliged to a certain Animal called a Sojour, which is a small Land Crab, that is housed in a shell like that of a Wilk; These Sojours were very plentiful at our first Landing, but they soon failed; and then our Men eat the inner rind of the bark of great Iree, which was not unpleasant to the taste, but it being of no nourishment, and thought to be unwholesome, they were discharged to eat of it. I doubt not but there's plenty of Fish on that Coast, but our Company furnishing us only with a small. Net made of Packthread for each Ship, they could catch no more in a day than what served the Counsellors and Sea Captains; and these Nets soon failed too. We made a shift to make a couple of Turtle Nets out of the store of Lines or small Cord we had aboard, but then we had not a Vessel that was fit to go a Turtling, till after some time, two of the Jamaico Sloops who had brought and sold their Cargo of Provisions to the Colony were hired by them to Turtle for them: These Sloops stayed about a month in their Service, till they had got so many Turtle for them as by contract came to a 100 and odd Pounds, and finding that there was neither Money nor Money's worth to be had in the Colony, they broke off with them, and with much a do could get so much Money as to satisfy them for their Service. They had some dependence on the wreck of a French Ship which wascast away coming out of the Harbour the day before Christmas, she having near 40000 l in Doubloons and Dollars on board, which she had got by trading on the Spanish Coast, but I am told by some persons who are come home since I came, that they could not recover any thing of it, by reason of the continual swell that beats on that shore. Here (in Parenthesi) I was Shipwreck: d, had my Servant drow'd, and lost the few Goods I had with Bag and Baggage, and if it had not been for the little Money which I saved I had not found the way home as yet: As for the Gold and Riches of that Country, I heard enough but saw little of it; I presume if there were such store, the Spaniards would not have left it so exposed. These Kings or Captains who came down to us might bring perhaps half an Ounce or an Ounce at a time with them and sell it for Powder and Shot, and at first for a speckled Shirt, but there came so little of this Commodity amongst us that it would be long time before a Man could load his Pocket with it, much less a Dutch built Ship. What Gold I purchased there it cost me 3 l 10 s. per ounce, and I believe I brought as much of it away with me to England as most of those Counsellors who are come home since, notwithstanding the noise which they made of it.  
I left the Colony the 27th of December, at the same allowance as we were reduced to in July, when we left Scotland; only there was an allowance of Madera Wine after our Landing, to wit, an English Quart to a Mess (being 5 Men) once a Week: Two Quarts to each Captain once a Week, of which these Gentlemen made only one want, and the Night they got their Allowance, they went as merry to Bed as if they had been in their Winter Quarters at Ghent or Brussels, although they were abliged to drink fair Water for a Week afterwards: As for the Subalterns, when I came off, they were not allowed one Spoonful.  
Thus you see how a 1050 Men were sent by the Scotch Company on a blind Project, of getting Riches for them with five or six months' Allowance at most, no Credit, and a ridiculous Cargo, neglected by them, and exposed to Famine Death and the Spanish Mines. How the Company will shake this miscarriage from off themselves I cannot see: However, I will give you a sample of what they will be ready to offer in their own vindication.  
First, Their being balked of their foreign Subscriptions made them lose Time and Money, whereby they could not send out such a number of Men and quantity of Provisions as the Project would have required. But who is to blame for this, why should they trust to another Man's Purse till such time they are sure of it? Why did they prodigally throw away 50000 l in Holland and Hambrough (purely to make a bluster there) when they could have bought 3 Second-hand-Ships as fit for their Project, for the third of the Money? And since their design was to settle a Colony and Forts on the North and South Seas, why did not they apply themselves rightly to it? That which might have been honestly saved out of this 50000 l might have carried over above 2000 Men with 12 months' Provisions of every Specie at good allowance. I have made this appear in Scotland some time ago, and since to some of the greatest Men in the Company.  
The second Reason they will be apt to offer is this, the Ships were Manned, the Seamen and Land-men Listed and on board, no Provisions to be had in Scotland, while more were providing abroad, these aboard still were expending; besides, there was no Money in the Cash-room, nor any more to be had from the Subscribers, till once the Ships were sailed, many being so sick of the Project, that they doubted whether they should ever pass the Bass. If this should be allowed to pass for Current it may reasonably be asked whether five or six months' Provisions should have lasted to this time. If ever they expected to hear any more of their Ships, ought they not to have called in more Money on our departure, and provided Provisions instantly, and had Ships with us by Christmas, or January at farthest; whereas none sailed from Leith till May, which was near two Months after they received the Colonies Packet. If they pretended to be ignorant of our necessity before this Packet came, they had no excuse afterwards, they knew our want, as like wife that they had not sent a Groatsworth of Credit with us to any part of the World, although now when it's too late, they have made a fashion of doing it in New-England.  
The third Reason they will make great use of is this, that at the settling of Barbadoes, and several other West-india Islands, as likewise the American settlements on the Main, the People met with a great many hardships, and the like are to be expected at the beginning of all such Settlements. To this I answer, that at such Settlements the Undertakers and Planters know what they are going about, and what to trust to, which is no ways parallel with the Case of the Company, for those being on an honest design had no more in their view than the Blessings of Heaven, and the Product of the Earth, and what they reaped thereby was for their own use. On the other hand the Gentlemen who went in the Scotch Companies Service, were not born to Work, nor did they design it when they went from their Father's Houses, and this the Company knew full as well as they.  
A fourth reason they will offer is this, that they sent a Cargo with us, which might have purchased Provisions had it not been for the English prohibition. To this 〈◊〉, that the Company having sent us on so dark an Errand, (where they must needs be assured, that not only Spain, but the other Trading Nations would be in our top) should not have trusted to that, unless they contrived it designedly to pick a quarrel with those Nations whose interest it was to refuse us Provisions or Necessaries to support our Colony. As for the Cargo itself, I refer my  to the particulars, and let any Merchant be Judge, whether it was fitted for sale, especially in the West-Indies. The 1500 Fuzzes were the best of the Cargo, but they could not be parted with; the Linen was the next, but I have been assured by Merchants on Port-royal, that 500 l worth of Scorch cloth makes the Commodity a drug there at any time. Besides, altho' we had not been sent on a dark design, yet we could not expect to Trade with Jamaico; our Cloth and other Goods are seizable there, either in our Bottoms, or in their. Sloops. if the Jamaico Men should truck Provisions with us, they cannot carry our goods home with them, neither can they expect to Trade with the Spaniard, on the account of our Settlement. I know very well that the first Sloop which brought Provisions to us, sold them at what rate they pleased, and had our Scotch Cloth in truck at the prime cost, yet they durst not carry it to Jamaico, nor venture to Trade with the Spaniard, but were obliged to leave it behind with Captain Allison, the old Buccaneer, to whom the Sloop was consigned. Lur still this reason of the prohibition will not hold Water, for if there had been Money or market Goods in the Colony. The English prohibition could not have kept Provisions from us. The French and Dutch Islands were not confined by this Prohibition; and I dare say there are so many good Christians at Currassa, that if Redp. and B's story of the Colonies bars of Silver had been true, they would soon have made Provisions a drug in Caledonia.  
Besides, I can't think that the Prohibition had any influence on those four Sloops who went from Jamaico to the Colony laden with Provisions of all kinds, altho' two of them returned without breaking bulk, I am rather apt to believe it was for want of those Silver bars and gold dust, which in the Autumn shakes off the Trees there.  
As to the prohibition in self, whereon the Author of the defence stumbles so oft, and would gladly found the Basis of his quarral. 'Tis believed that his Majesty knew nothing of the Colonies Settlenient at Darien, but what he had at second hand from R—th's Prints, till the Spanish Ambassador told him from his Master, that some of his Majesty's Scotch Subjects had invaded the Spanish Dominions, in his Province of Darien, which he looked upon to be contrary to the Treaty of Peace. If his Majesty stopped the Spaniards mouth for the present, till he inquired into the matter, and forbidden his English Subjects in the West-Indies to have any Communication with these People in Darien, till such time as the Title were concerted, he did no more than what was consonant with the Constitutions and Eslablishment of the English Islands, altho' there had been no Spanish Complaint. Neither could the King imagine that the Company ●…ould ●end out their Ships on to Foreign an Expedition, so unprovided as to depend wholly on the English Plantations. And if the King sorb. d these to supply the Scotch Colony, he did not prohibit the Scotch Company, not Scotch Nation to send them what Provisions, or other necesiaries they thought not. If the Scotch Company took most care to send out Buccaneers Pieces, with great quantities of Powder and Shot, and trusted to what Men they could decoy from the English and French Islands, the design was neither fair, nor honest, and it may reasonably be believed, that both these Nations would have taken measures to bring them back again after they went. And if his Majesty takes care that his Plantations in the West-Indies shall not be reduced to Forests, he can't be blamed, considering the vast Riches they send home to England yearly, and the Customs which come into his Coffers, when on the other hand, all that the Scotch Company can make by such depopulations, will not put one Penny in his Pocket these seventeen years at soon, worth the product of seventeen Hogsheads of Tobaccco.  
Laying aside the Spanish Complaint and admit the Scotch Company to have a legal Title to their Settlement, was it not reasonable that the Government of England, having met with the clandestine Declararations, which the Scotch Colony had spread all over the West-Indies, inviting them over to Darien, etc. Should take suitable measures to prevent the ill consequences of the same, and retain their own Subjects. The Declarations are notorious, and must be penned by some Body belonging to the Company or Colony, and I presume the opposite Proclamation or Prohibition was penned by some Englishman, who had some Interest in the English Plantations. 'Tis very well known that when Captain Pincarton met with the misfortue of being obliged to run his Vessel ashore under the Guns of Carthagena, his Chief Errand was to Barhadoes, and there to make use of the 48 hours (that's allowed to foreigners to Wood and Water) in doing business for the Colony, and leaving Declarations to be spread over that Island; and so from thence to other English and French Islands, making use of the same Pretence of wanting Wood and Water. These sinister deal are not suffered in the Colony of any Nation, and if the English and French Governments take care to prevent such designs, I cannot see how they can be blaimed: 'Tis very well known that those Declarations were so kindly entertained all over the Westindies, that what with the Umbrary use that was made of King William's name, and the hopes of Spanish Spoil, most Men who were not Endued with Real or Personal Estate, were making ready to go over to Darien: Nay the unthinking sort of People about the City of London, on the Coined Rhodomantado News, wherewith the non-authorized Prints were daily stuffed, were pleased and big with the Project, looking no farther into in than Jacks Gold, which they natively believe every body has a right to; when at the same time the knowing Part of the World is sensible that Jack is the common Dradge of Europe, and if the Mines of. Peru and Mexico were in any other bodies hands, wesh uld not get such a good account of either of these Metals.  
By what has been already said, it may easily appear whether or no these Gentlemen have stayed long enough in Darien, and whether the director, of the Company, or they deserve most to be there at this Minuet. As for my part I got my Belly full of the Project, and am now glad to see myself alive here, although I left my Eldest Son (of the first Marriage) behind me in Calidonia.  
Being afflicted with a Malady imaginaire for some Months before I came off: I purchased my Liberty of the Colony with difficulty enough: About the same time the Counsel having resolved to send home one of their Tenders with a Packet to the Company, and a sample of the strange Woods that grow in the Colonies Garden, I thought to have got my Passage in her, but was disappointed by a State Reason, which was thus, Major Cunningham was the chief Instrument incontriving and forwarding the Express, and having brought his marks to bear, so far as that the Vessel was Carreened, Tallowed and fitted for the Voyage, he was sudden'ly afflicted with my Distempar, and it seized him so violently that on the second day of his illness he called a Council (being Prese for the week) and satisfied them that he must leave them and go home to his native Country, for the recovery of his Health. Pannycook and Macay smelling a rat, used both fair and foul means to detain him, but all would not do. Mean while they contrived ways to detain the Vessel till the Major's Preseship was out, and the week following, it was Resolved in Council Nemine Contradicente (except the Major) to take some other way of sending home the Packet, and to convert the Tender into a Fireship: The Major's Talent not lying in Sea Engagements, he could not offer much against the necessity of it. About the same time the French Ship mentioned before, happened to put into our Harbour, as like wise a Holland's Ship, that was trading on the Spanish Coast, and came hither for Sanctuary, the Barlevanto Fleet being on the Carthagena Coast: The French Ship was bound home to St. Malo, 's and I designed to take my Passage in her, but the Major being possessed with some frightful Stories of the French Captains making an Oblation of him to the Governor of Carthagena, would not venture in her. The Ship was cast away going out of the Harbour in fair weather, for want of Wind, and 24 of her Men drowned: I escaped narrowly in Mr. Pennycook's Boat, while he was forced to swim for his Life. A Jamaico Sloop having brought some Provisions to the Colony about the same time, and being bound home, the Mayor and I took our Passage in her.  
We left the Colony the 27th. of December, arrived in Jamaico a fortnight afterward, and in Bristol the 18th of March last, where the Major and I parted, he going for Scotland and I for London: At our parting he would oblige me to write nothing to Scotland in prejudice of the Darien Project, and I promised him that he should have such liberty in telling his own Story there, that for the space of two Months I should not write concerning it, Directly or Indirectly, which promise I kept Religiously, although as it has happened my silence has not been of much service to the Company.  
I was no sooner arrived in London, than at the request of some Scots, Persons of Great Quality, I freely gave them a true account of affairs, and my Opinion of the Project: They had Journals at the same time from the Council of the Colony, but owned that they were better satisfied with my Account than the Journals which were designly da●k in some Essential Points. My relation of Darien and Caledonia, in England, differing from that in Scotland, it was thought necessary for the repose of the Subscribers to stifle my Credit: Nay, one of these great Persons told me afterwards that he had received Letters from some Earls in Scotland, to dissuade him from giving Credit to my relation, it being the pure effects of Prejudice, and that the Colony wanted for nothing. Two thirds of the Scots Nation here in Town were on my Top; and abused me to my Back, like any Beggar. This and some other harsh usage, which I received at the Scotch Companies hands, obliged me to take this way of righting myself: I have no other aim by it, then that their Actions may be laid barefaced before the Scotch World, that some persons of that Nation may be unblinded, and see how far they have been led into a mistake.  
As for the Spanish and Scotch Companies titles to the Isthumes of Darien (on which the Author has fouled, six of seven Sheets of Paper, and said so little to the purpose) I think it is an unnecessary dispute at present, although such a Re-inforcement sailed the 24th of September. I shall only rehearse to you here, what I told Sir J. S. who was sent for in May last from Scotland to Court, on the Companies Affair: At his arrival in London, he sent a Kinsman of his to my Lodging to let me know that he wanted to speak with me; I waited on him the same Evening, and having entr'd on the Subject of Darien, he pulled out of his Pocket a Copy of the Colonies Journal; we soon run over the immaterial Passages of it, and came to that which was like to be the Subject of Debate, to wit, the true little to that Country. He argued in favour of the Company, in some Law Terms, wherein I pretend to no Judgement, farther than my Reason will fathom; and urged that by the Civil-Law no Title to any Country, can be vallid unless it be de Facto as well as Jure, and those he distinguished thus, all the de june right which the Spaniard had to Darien was the Pope's Donation, which is never regarded amongst Protestant Princes; That the Spaniard had no possession de facto of that Country unless he lived on the Spot, or had his Cattle running there.  
To the first I answered, that if the Scots had been in Darien as soon as the Spaniards, and taken possession of it, the Companies Donation might have been as valid as the Pope's, but as these have been masters of that Country by a proscription of years, and their Title thereto never hitherto controverted by any Prince or State till now by the Company. I could not see how at that rate any Colony or Plantation in the Universe can be safe. The Spaniaras must either be confined within their walled Towns, and the reach of their Guns, or they must be allowed the usual extent round them, as all other Colonies in America have. The Company might with the same Justice Land on the North-side of Jamaico, where, for 20 Leagues running there's neither English Man nor Beast to be seen, altho' there are as many, if not more, Wild Negroes in the Mountains of Jamaico, who have deserted their Masters than Indians, on thrice so much ground of the Isthmus of Darien. By the same Title the Company might have seated themselves on the Island of Tobaga (where there's never a Man) without ask the D. of Courland's leave. On the other hand, the Company has settled their Colony in the very Bosom and Centre of the three chies Cities of the Spanish-Indies, to wit, Carthagena, portobelo, and Panama, the first being about 45 Leagues, and the other two not above 30 distant from the Colony, besides several smaller Towns and Garrisons which are much nearer, viz, Sancta Maria, Tubaconti, etc. Nay the Spaniards are at work in their Mines within 12 Leagues of Fort St. Andrew.  
As for the de facto right, 'tis evident that these Captains who are over the Indian Clanns, have Spanish names to distinguish them from the Vulgar, speak Spanish generally, their Wives go vailed and covered after the same fashion, the Spanish Women go, although their Men go naked: Besides, one Paragraph of the Colonies Journal makes this very Spot of Ground where they are settled, to be the Propriety of the Spaniard, by their acknowledging Captain Andrea's to have been a Spanish Captain. As for the defences which Batt. Sharp adduced on his Trial of the Indian Emperor (there having been no such person on the Isthumes of Darien these hundred years) and King Golden Cap, and the forged Commission he produced from that Emperor, it was all trick: Neither was there much pains taken to hang him, or disprove the Forgery. The Privateers indeed gave the title of King Golden Cap to the Indian Captains Son, who commanded these Indians near Golden Island, and he was this Andreas his first Cousin, but killed by the Spaniards after the Privateers left the Isthmus, as those may now be who entertained the Scots so friendly. The Irish admitting some French Troops into their Country does not take away the King of England's Title and Right to that Kingdom.  
The Spanish Title is likewise confirmed by the Concession of all Princes, and Treaties of Peace, whereby the Spaniard does not only cut off the People of all Nations whom he finds cutting Logwood in the Bay of Campechy (a great many Leagues distant from any Spanish Town) but keeps the Barlevento Fleet, and an Armadilla always ranging along that Coast, and makes prize of all Foreigners he finds trading on his Coast, without his Commission; If they have so much as a stick of Logwood, or three pieces of Eight aboard: Which if head did not act Legally, to be sure the Sovereign heads of those Subjects, would long e'er now have demanded satisfaction or made reprisal.  
This was the Substance of what I offered to Sir J. S. and what use he made of it, I never enquired after, as for that part of the Champion's defence describing the Isthumes of Darien, I must tell you that it is calculated in all the matterial passages of it for a Scotch Meridian, as the Darien News were for six Months by the Companies Agents here in Town, who knew that what was Printed here and sent to Scotland was far better believed than the Apocrypha. The Edenbrugh. News-monger was never wanting on his part, for he still had something new from St. Germains to frighten us with the Cabals there, and private meetings between, the late King James and Lovis, but however necessany such hobgoblin stories might been an enchanted Country, yet they never went down within the found of Bow-bel.  
As for the Champions endeavouring to prove the Scots interest by a separation, I will excuse myself from meddling with that part of the Subject, knowing at the same time that the Wisemen of that Country know the benefit of that Union better than this Author, or some more, who make use of the Machine of the Colony to set the two Nations together by the ears, the better to advance their own private Ends. As for his other, fiery Ejaculations, I have no inclination to meddle with them, their being little to be got on either side, by ripping up of such Sores; and it not belonging to me to say any thing on that Head, I'll take my leave of the Company and their Champion at present, and only say that if he is resolved to separate, I would have him pick some quarrel that's honester than this, and the next time he enters the Lists, to advande juster reasons for it, than what he now does for Caledonia Novissima.  
FINIS.   

AN ENQUIRY INTO The Causes of the Miscarriage OF THE Scots Colony at DARIEN. OR AN ANSWER TO A LIBEL ENTITLED A Defence of the Scots Abdicating DARIEN. Submitted to the Consideration of the Good People of England.  
— Paries cum proximus ardet  
Res tua tunt agitur.—  
GLASGOW. 1700.   

The Introduction.  
THE just Horror that all honest men conceived at the harsh and unneighbourly Treatment of the Scots Colony at Darien, laid the Gentlemen who have been most active against it, under a necessity of blackening the Reputation of those concerned in that Settlement. This they thought necessary, in order to prevent any enquiry, that perhaps might be made: Why a Neighbouring Nation united to the Kingdom of England by Situation, Government, Interest, Religion, Affection, and constant Intermarriages, should be provoked and trampled upon in such a manner, contrary to their own Laws and Original Constitution, and which may pave the way in time for Treating our Neighbours in the same manner.  
To prevent any such Enquiry, those Gentlemen that have been pleased to signalise themselves as much by their hatred to the Scotish Nation, as the latter have signalised their Valour and Affection, for our common Liberty and Religion, have been at pains and expense to save the Libeler H—s from the Gallows, by putting a stop to his Trial, and filling his Pockets with Money, on condition that he would bespatter the Reputation of the Scots Colony and their Masters. The Crime is indeed unnatural for a man to turn Renegado and a Traitor to his Country; none but a Monster like H— the Surgeon could have entertained such a Thought: He sold his God in the Last Reign, by turning Papist, and therefore 'tis no great Wonder he should sell his Country in this, and solemnly renounce his going Northward for ever, provided he might he secured against going Westward for once.  
This being the Case of the Doughty Evidence, that the Faction have produced against the Scots Colony; we leave it to the World to judge what credit ought to be given to his Testimony, since it appears that he hath given it in to save his Life, to gain Money, and to give vent to his Malice. The latter he owns in the beginning of his Book, and repeats it again p. 161. where he says he took this way to right himself, because of the Scots here in Town being on his Top, and of some other harsh usage which he received at the hands of the Scots Company.  
The very manner of giving in his Evidence lays him open to the Lash of the English Law; and it is to be presumed that his train of Blasphemies, and constant ridiculing the Text, would have been taken notice of e'er now by a certain Court at the West end of Paul's, but that he is protected by some Gentlemen belonging to a Court at the West end of the Town.  
His envenomed malice is demonstrable, by the sport he makes to himself throughout his Libel at the Calamities and Misery of his Fellow-Creatures and Countrymen; so that never did any man more exactly fill up the Character of a Renegado than himself: for as those Miscreants stab an Image of our Saviour to the Heart, as a proof of having absolutely denied him; H—s hath in the same manner done all he could to stab the Reputation of his native Country, as a certain evidence of his being turned a Monster in Nature; for which even they that employ him must needs abhor him, except they love to see the Image of their own Crimes in his Lovely Features.  
We have not entered upon the detail of his malicious Lies with which he hath stuffed his Book, but have only pointed at the chief of them which are so very notorious, as may well put his Suborners to the Blush, that they should not have either taught him his Lesson better, or have seen he had conned it more exactly; for they are such gross Contradictions either to common Sense or to what he himself has advanced in his Libel, that none but one who had swallowed Transubstantiation could be guilty of the like.  
It's needless to enlarge upon his Character, since it's impossible to conceive a worse Idea of him than all Men of Sense will immediately form to themselves, when they know he is a Traitor to his Country.  
He was was formerly a Surgeon in the Fleet, and made some Interest amongst the Officers, by Female Mediation, which was allowed him by his last Religion (for his Book shows that now he has none.) Hence it is, that he expresses himself so readily in the Dialect of his Office, and talks of Bullying Kings in his Dedication, to show us that he was acquainted with B-dy-house Rhetoric, and they that know his Friends in Little— B— n, say he has conveyed his Libel to the World through a very proper Channel.  
Whilst he was a Surgeon in the Fleet, his ill Nature having condemned him to perpetual Broils, he had the Impudence to draw upon his Captain ashore, who wounded him so as 'twas thought might have put a period to his Infamous Life, upon which his Captain was Confined, but the Wound not being Mortal, the Gentleman was set at Liberty, and returning on Board, a Council of War was held, by which H—s was like to have had an Exit more answerable to his desert, at the Yard-Arm; but that one of our Countrymen who Commanded in the Place, saved him out of Pity, and whilst he was skulking at London to avoid this Prosecution; others of them out of Compassion hired him to go along with their Fleet, for which he hath made his Country such a Grateful Reward, as hath verified the Proverb, That save a R—gue from the Gallows he shall be the first that will cut your Throat. We leave his Suborners to think on't.  
His Captain being thus disappointed of having Justice executed, was forced to content himself with Pricking him Run, that he might not have any claim to his Wages; but since his return from Darien, and engaging in the Honourable service of Reviling and Belying his Country, his Suborners out of their innate Bounty and Gratitude, have got him delivered from all farther Prosecution, entitled him to his Wages, and given him the opportunity to value himself upon his Correspondence at the Court end of the Town, so that now he thinks himself sure of a Patent for Life, and that he shall never be obliged to go up Holborn-Hill except his important occasions call him now and then that way, to enable him to pay his present Debts, when some of his Brethren, pass that Road to pay their last.  
It had been easy for us to have given such a History of his Life as would have put his Suborners to the blush, but we reserve that to make use of as we shall see occasion; what's said is enough to let them know how much they are to trust to his Evidence, if they think fit to make further use of him, either by Libelling his Country, or accusing any of those great Families he threatens in his Dedication.   

AN INQUIRY INTO The Causes of the Miscarriage of the Scots Colony at Darien.  
THE main design of H—s and his Suborners, is to charge the Miscarriage of the Scots Colony upon their own Country, to clear some Gentlemen that perhaps may be found within the Verge of White-Hall, from having any hand in it, and to evince the necessity of those Proclamations published against the Scots in the West-Indies, so as no Person or Party in England may seem justly chargeable with the ruin of that Colony; a certain Evidence that the Crime is very black, and that they are put to a miserable shift, when those Gentlemen are at such expense of Contrivance and Pains to wipe off the Imputation, and so ready to fall in with any Tool that they think can assist them in so doing.  
Enough has been said already to demonstrate that the evidence of such an infamous Person as H— s, and so circumstantiated, would not be admitted in any Court of Judicature in Europe, especially against such an honourable Society as the Company of Scotland for trading to Africa and the Indies, which consists of the very flower of the Nation, and perhaps has more Persons of illustrious Birth, Quality and Merit in it, than any trading Company that ever yet was erected in the World. The Directors particularly, whom H—s and his Masters have condemned to the Halter, p. 46. are most of them Persons of that Quality, Estate, Worth, and untainted Honour, as the Accusation of no one particular Person, though of never so good Repute, could in justice or decency be admitted against them, and much less the malicious Calumnies of a Renegado.  
But to set this matter in a clearer Light: Whereas we have only H H—s's own word for what he asserts in vindication of his Friends and Suborners; we shall demonstrate against him and them too from undeniable matter of Fact, that some People in England are justly chargeable with the ruin of that Colony.  
We shall begin with the opposition made to the Scots Act by the Parliament of England, (to whom the matter was misrepresented) the Answer they obtained from the King, and the Prosecution they commenced and threatened against English Natives, and Scots-men residing in England, that should subscribe to the Scots Company.  
In the next place we allege the English Residents Memorial at Hamburgh, against that Governments suffering any of their Subjects to subscribe to the Scots Company.  
It is likewise well enough known that the Influence and Example of the English Court hindered the Subscriptions of our Neighbours in Holland.  
Nor can it be denied but this continued Thread of Opposition from the Court of England, must needs hinder the Subscriptions of a great many in Scotland, who could not but foresee that a Storm was threatened by so many Clouds.  
To this we may add, that the Kingdom of Scotland have not yet forgot the discourting of the Marquis of Tweddale (who was known to be an able Statesman, and a true Patriot to his Country) because of his touching that Act, when he had the Honour to represent his Majesty on the Throne.  
Nor was it the least of our Misfortunes, that we lost such an able and faithful Minister of State as Secretary Johnston, and that too upon the account of his Affection to his Country in this matter. We are very well satisfied that his Majesty, who advanced him to that Post for his Merit, and was so well satisfied with his ability and care, would scarcely have parted with a Minister of that Gentleman's Faithfulness and Penetration, but by the Intrigues of some People at Court.  
Before we proceed any further with the Narrative of the Opposition made to us, we shall obviate one Objection which some Persons may possibly make, viz. That all we have said hitherto is nothing to the purpose, because it does not regard our Colony, but the Company. To which we reply: 1. That this is so far from being an Excuse to our Opposers, that it highly aggravates our Charge against them, as being a plain demonstration, that they were resolved to obstruct our Trade in every respect, and whatever it should be, without any exception. 2. That the opposing of the Company was the direct Method to prevent our ever having a Colony; and by the Laws of God and Man, those who endeavour to destroy the Embryo, are chargeable with a design of preventing the Birth. But we shall come closer to the point in a little time, and resume the thread of our Narrative after one or two Observations upon what we have said already, viz.  

(1.) That the greatest of those Difficulties and Disappointments which H—s says in his Book, the Company met with as to their Subscriptions, Payments, etc. may justly be charged to the account of that opposition made us from the Court of England.  
(2.) That there is so little reason to upbraid us, that our Efforts were not greater, that it is rather to be wondered at that the Company was not dashed to pieces and crushed in the bud; and much more that ever they should have been able to weather out the Storm of so much Indignation, overcome all those Difficulties, find Money enough to build Ships, equip out a Fleet, and make a Settlement in America when neither England, nor Scots-men residing there, Hamburgh nor Holland, shall dare to assist them without incurring his Majesty of England's displeasure.   
But to come directly to the Narrative of the Opposition made to our Colony. It is well enough known that the Kingdom of Scotland, as many other Parts of Europe, have suffered much for three or four years passed by bad. Harvests, which rendered them uncapable of providing Bread for their People at home, and much more of sending Supplies to their Infant Colony abroad: This was very manifest to some People about Whitehall, and care was taken we should have none for our Money from England, though that Nation could have spared it, and perhaps we might have pleaded it as our merit, when in Parliament we voted his Majesty a standing Army, upon his Royal Word that it was necessary, though we had more need to have saved the Money to have bought Bread for thousands of our People that were starving for want, afforded us the melancholy prospect of dying by shoals in our Streets, and have left behind them a reigning Contagion, which hath swept away multitudes more, and God knows where it may end.  
Tho our Country was reduced to this deplorable state, that a generous Enemy would have showed us compassion, yet the malice of our Court Adversaries did not rest here, nor with having followed us into Holland and Germany, but pursues us into America; and with Angry Proclamations forbids the Subjects there, on pain of his Majesty's Displeasure, to afford any manner of assistance to the Scots at Darien: So that we are starved at home and abroad by our Enemies at Court, who having by this means dispossessed us of our Colony at Darien, and knowing that the good People of England had reason to cry shame upon them, and might perhaps take their own time to resent this inhuman Treatment of their Neighbours in Scotland; therefore they found it necessary to suppress a Book wrote in defence of the Scots Settlement, and to hire a Scots Renegado Surgeon to varnish over the matter, and to represent his Countrymen as Knaves and Fools, that so they might fall unpitied.  
To return again to the Opposition made us in America: It is not enough that we are starved out of Darien, but when we come from thence, and so leave what the Proclamations suppose to be the Dominions of their Allies, yet we must not be supplied in the English Plantations, nor have Provisions in exchange for our effects, though our Men be dying for want, on pain of incurring the Displeasure of the Court; and therefore those who are willing to relieve us, must put their Inventions on the rack to sinned out a way to do that with safety, which common Humanity, and much more Christianity, obliges them to do to a Turk or a Jew in the like circumstances.  
Nay farther, though notwithstanding our distress at home, we make shift to send a Convoy to our Colony abroad, because our future hopes depended so much upon it, they shall not have leave to put in to any English Port to refit, refresh, or stay for any of their Company that may be separated from them by storm; and yet our Friends who were so instrumental in obtaining and publishing those Proclamations, must bribe a Renegado to declare to the World in print, that they were no way accessary to the Blood of his Countrymen that were starved to death at Darien.  
It will appear plain that the Ruin of the Colony is chargeable on the Proclamations, if we consider the Consternation that must needs be among them when they saw themselves condemned, as having invaded the Dominions of his Majesty's Allies; so that they had all the reason in the World to think that they were not only precluded from all possibility of having any further supply or assistance from home, but in danger of being attacked by his Fleet, as they that advised the emitting of those Proclamations must needs think his Majesty was obliged in Honour and Justice to order, if he was of opinion that the Scots had broken the Alliance betwixt him and Spain. Let any reasonable man consider what Anguish and Perplexity these Considerations, joined to their pinching Wants and other Circumstances, must occasion in the minds of those poor men, and whether it might not give a handle to those of them that were unwilling to stay, to mutiny against the rest, and put all into disorder, which might be fomented by other ill persons amongst them; for we are not to suppose that with 11 or 1200 men, there went no other ill man but H— s, since it's not improbable that they who opposed our Company so much from the very beginning, might be prompted by the same Malice to send Spies and Traitors amongst our Men on purpose to defeat their Design.  
If it had not been that they were thus discouraged and brought to their wits-end by those Proclamations, they would certainly have had so much Conduct as to have sent away a great part of their Men to Jamaica, or any of the English Plantations, where they might have subsisted till the arrival of a Convoy from Scotland; and so with those Provisions that were sufficient to carry them as far as New York, and a great deal further if they had not been retarded by Tempests, might have maintained a competent number of their Men to keep possession of the Colony till Supplies had arrived: but the Proclamations disabled them from taking this Method, and by consequence are chargeable with the ruin of the Colony.  
In the next place, it is undeniable that those Proclamations must needs have encouraged the Spainards' and other Enemies in their Opposition against our Colony, and animated them to go on with their Preparations to drive us out. So that had they deserted upon no other account but the noise of the great Preparations making against them by the Spaniards at Carthagena, Porto Bello, &c, as Sir William Beeston seemed to insinuate in his Letter; it makes the Proclamations directly chargeable with the Ruin of the Colony, since they had good reason to remove from thence when their own Prince had forbid all Commerce with them, and when their Enemies were making formidable Preparations against them.  
It is likewise plain that those Proclamations must necessarily prevent their having any Supplies from the Dutch at Curassaw, if they had any to spare: for since the Influence of ours and the Dutch Court prevented our Company's having any Encouragement in Holland, it is reasonable to believe it would have the same influence in reference to our Colony, in the Dutch Plantations.  
We have likewise all the reason in the world to conclude, that the Influence of those Proclamations might hinder the Natives from giving our Colony those Supplies that it was in their power to have done; for there's no doubt but they had information of 'em industriously sent them by some of our Adversaries, when Capt. Long was so malicious as to endeavour at our first arrival to possess them with an opinion that we were nothing but Pirates, and that the K. of Great Britain would disown us; and indeed by the event it would seem he had Instructions so to do. It is true that at first the Natives seeing our Men have a Competency of all sorts of Provisions, might not believe his Report; but they must needs have been confirmed in the truth of it afterwards, when they saw them dying for want, and deceived as to their Expectation of further Supplies; and upon that account might think they had sufficient ground to withdraw their Assistance from them, and not further provoke the Spaniards in favour of a People that they found were not able to do any thing for themselves, and by consequence uncapable to protect them, which was the thing they were to expect from their Alliance.  
Having thus made it evident that the Opposition our Company met with from Court at first, and the Proclamations issued against our Colony at last, are justly to be reputed among the principal Causes of the Miscarriage of that Design, we come in the next place to consider his Majesty's Answer to the Address of the Commons of England on that Head, and the Proclamations issued out against us in his Name in the West-Indies.  
We are sorry that ever there should have been any occasion for such an ungrateful piece of work; but think it a Duty incumbent upon us, and what we own to the Constitution of our Country, which we have reason to believe is industriously concealed from his Majesty, to write freely on this head, that the World may see what just cause we have to complain.  
His Majesty's Answer, That he had been ill served in Scotland, etc. is such, as our Ancestors (if we may believe our Historians) would have thought inconsistent with the Trust reposed in a King of Scots, a manifest Reflection upon the Justice and Fidelity of the Nation, and a discovery of their Arcana Imperii to those that were quarrelling with them. We are not to suppose that his Majesty would give an Answer to an Address of this Importance without Counsel: If he consulted with our Dutch or English Opposers, it was the same as if he had consulted our professed Enemies; if he consulted with Scots-men, and was advised to this Answer by any of them, they are Traitors to their Country, and have betrayed its Sovereignty: for they ought to have advised him to answer, that as King of Scots he was not to give an account to the English for any thing transacted in that Kingdom; but if they found themselves any ways aggriveved, or thought their Trade endangered by the Scots Act, he should be willing to have the matter debated and adjusted by Commissioners of both Nations, as became the Common Father of both. This could not justly have been looked upon by the English as a refractory or stubborn Answer, but must have been imputed to his braveness of Temper, and fidelity to his Trust. But at once to give up the Sovereignty of Scotland, without demurring upon it, argues that his Majesty was advised to this Answer by Enemies to the Scotish Nation.  
Our Parliaments have originally a greater Power than that of England; for what the States of Scotland offered to the touch of the Sceptre, their Kings had no power to refuse; or if they did, the Resolves of the States had the force of a Law notwithstanding. Thus our Reformation was established in 1560, by an Act of the States; and though our Queen Mary then in France, and her Husband the Dauphin, afterwards Francis I. refused to give their Consent, it remained a firm Law; which Q. Mary, when she returned to Scotland, was so far from offering to dispense with, though she was a great Asserter of her Prerogative, that she was obliged to entreat of the States so far to dispense with it themselves, as to suffer her to have Mass in her own Family. We might go farther back to the Reign of Robert II. who was checked by the States for making a Truce with the English without their Consent, it not being then in the power of our Kings either to make Peace or War without the States. But the Truth of that Maxim laid down by our Historian, That the supreme Power of the Government of Scotland is in the States, is so obvious to every one that reads our History, that it cannot be denied; and hence it is that our old Acts of Parliament are often called the Acts of the States, and say, The three States enact, etc. for by our Original Constitution the King is none of the States, but only Dux belli, and Minister publicus; which was well understood by our Viceroy the E. of Morton, and the other Deputies from the States of Scotland, when they acquainted Q. Elizabeth in their Memorial, That the Scots created their Kings on that condition, that they might, when they saw cause, divest them of that Power which they received from the People, which we have now reasserted in making our Crown forfeitable by the Claim of Right at the last Revolution: and perhaps that's none of the least Causes why our Ruin is now endeavoured by the Abettors of a growing Prerogative.  
It were easy for us to enlarge on this, and to show from our Histories and Acts of Parliaments, that our Kings, according to our ancient Constitution (which those Rapes committed on our Liberties in some of the last Reigns can never overturn) were inferior to their Parliaments, who enthroned and dethroned them as they saw cause, made them accountable for their Administration, allowed them no power of proroguing them without their own consent, nor of hindering their meeting when the ardua Regni negotia required it. They could not make Peace or War without them, nor so much as dispose of their Castles, but by their Consent. Their Councils were chosen and sworn in Parliament, and punishable by the States: Nor had they any Revenue, but what their Parliaments allowed them. These and many more were the native Liberties of the People of Scotland, an 1638. and their Representation of their Proceed against the Mistakes in the King's Declaration in 1640. And therefore his Majesty had no reason to say he was ill served by the passing of an Act offered by the States of Scotland.  
The Ignorance of those things have often occafioned our being misrepresented by the English Historians, and other Writers, as Rebels, and what not, when we really acted according to our own fundamental Laws. And not only they, but even our own Princes since the Union of the Crowns, have either been kept ignorant of our Constitution, or so incensed against it by the Abettors of Tyranny, that they have all of 'em, his present Majesty excepted, endeavoured our Overthrow, as well knowing it to be impossible to bring Arbitrary Government to perfection, whilst a People who had always breathed in a free Air, and called their Princes to an account when they invaded their Properties, were in any condition to defend themselves, or assist others against such Princes as designed an absolute Sway. But the Pill being too bitter to be swallowed by itself, there was a necessity of taking Priestcraft into the Composition, and to gild it over with the specious pretext of bringing the Scots to an Uniformity in Religion. The Court knew that this would arm the Zealots against us, and that it could never be aflected without the ruin of our Kingdom, whose Religion was so interwoven with our Civil Constitution, that there was no overturning of the one, without subverting the other. This will appear plain to those that know, that besides the Sanction of Acts of Parliament, the Church of Scotland is defended by a full Representative of the Clergy and Laity of the Kingdom called a General Assembly (which preserves us from being Priestridden, as our Parliaments do from being Prince-ridden) where the King by Law had no negative Voice, no more than he formerly had in our Parliaments. This in effect is the Representative of the Nation as Christians, as the Parliaments are our Representatives as Men; and as to the Laity, many of them are the same individual Persons that sit in Parliament. So that those Assemblies being a second Barrier about our Liberties, it was thought sit to run down the Constitution of our Church, as not suited with Monarchy. The Case being thus, we dare refer it to the thoughts of our neighbouring Nation, who have gallantly from time to time stood up for their own Liberties, whether it were not more generous for them to unite with us than to suffer us to be oppressed and enslaved.  
There's nothing can be objected to this, but that all these glorious Privileges were swallowed up by those Acts of Parliament that exalted the Prerogative to such a height in the Reign of K. Charles II. To which we answer, That the Privileges of a Nation cannot be given away without their own consent; and we are morally certain, that the Constituents even of those packed Parliaments did never give any commission to those that represented them, to give away those Liberties. Slavery is repugnant to human Nature; so that it cannot be supposed the Nation exalted the Prerogative on purpose to put themselves in a worse condition than before, or that when they find it applied to another use than that which they gave it for, they may not reduce it to its ancient Boundary. The necessity of Affairs did sometimes oblige the Romans to entrust their Dictator's with an extraordinary and absolute Power; but when the occasion ceased, they recalled it, and kept to their ancient and rational Maxim, that Salus Populi is suprema Lex. In the like manner the Enemies of our old Constitution may know, if they please, that we have retrieved the main point of making our Crown forfeitable by the Claim of Right; and therefore if they push us too far, it's a thousand to one but we may renew our Demands to the rest, or oblige them to cast them into the bargain.  
But to return from this Digression. Tho we had no such peculiar Privileges belonging to us; why might not we expect that his majesty should be as kind to us as to our Brethren in England? He hath once and again declared to them in Parliament, That he never had, nor never will have an Interest. distinct from that of his People. Then why should not the Interest of the People of Scotland be the same with the Interest of the King of Scots? And if the People of Scotland met in Parliament, agreed upon it as their Interest to have that Act passed for encouraging Kieir Trade, how was it possible that the King of Scots could be ill served by the passing that Act in Scotland?  
Our Enemies, and H H—s's Suborners have put a sort of an Answer to this in his mouth, viz. That the said Act was obtained viis & modis; but the Falsehood and Malice of that Insinuation will appear to the World by the previous Act of 1693. for encouraging of foreign Trade, by which it was statuted, That Merchants more or fewer may contract and enter into such Societies and Companies for carrying on Trade, as to any Subject of Goods or Merchandise, to whatsomever Kingdoms, Countries, or parts of the World, not being in War with his Majesty, where Trade is in use to be or may be followed; and particularly, besides the Kingdoms and Countries of Europe, to the East and West-Indies, the Straits, and to trade in the Mediterranean, or upon the Coast of Africa, or elsewhere, as above. Which Societies and Companies being contracted and entered into upon the terms, and in the usual manner as such Companies are set up— His Majesty with Consent aforesaid did allow and approve, giving and granting to them and each of them, all Powers, Rights and Privileges, as to their Persons, Rules and Orders, that by the Laws are given to Companies allowed to be erected for Manufactories: And his Majesty for their greater Encouragement, did promise to give to those Companies, and each of them, his Letters Patent under the Great Seal, confirming to them the whole foresaid Powers and Privileges, with what other encouragement his Majesty should judge needful. These are the very terms of the Act of 1693. and in pursuance of this Act our Nation being willing to form a Company for trading to Africa and the Indies, this Act which hath met with so much opposition in the World, was past June 26. 1695. which was two years after. Then with what Effrontery can H—s and his Suborners suggest, that it was obtained viis & modis, by surprise or in a surreptitious manner? But something they must say to justify their unreasonable treatment of us, and to blind the Eyes of the World.  
Thus we see then that the Parliament of Scotland went on deliberately to advance their Trade, and to make this Act: by which its evident that they who advised his Majesty to say that he was ill served in Scotland, imposed upon him, have laid a Foundation of division betwixt him and his Parliament, which are the two constituent parts of our Government; and if they be dashed against one another, the whole frame of it must of necessity be dissolved. Hence also it is evident that those Counsellors, if Scots-men, aught by our old Constitution to be called to an account by the Parliament according to the 12th Act of Parl. 2 James 4. And if they be Englishmen or Dutchmen, we have a right to demand Justice against them, as having meddled in our Affairs contrary to the Laws of Nations.  
The Sovereignty of our Nation, and the Independency of the K. of Scots upon the Crown of England, being tacitly given up by this Answer; and the Parliament of England being possessed by our Enemies with a false. Notion of our Design, they put a stop to our taking Subscriptions from any Residenters in England; though our offering to take in the English as Sharers, was a plain Demonstration of the uprightness of our Intentions towards that Nation. This made it apparent, that we had no design in the least to supplant them in their Trade, but on the contrary to make them Partakers in ours, in order to lay a foundation for a closer Union, and greater Amity betwixt the two Nations; which if it had taken effect, our Trade had not been nipped in the bud, as now it is by the frowns of the Court, but might by this time have been improved to the advancement of the glory and strength of the Island: Whereas by the opposition made to that noble Design, the Nations are more alienated from one another than before, lessened in their Strength and Trade, and Scotland for ever lost as to their Friendship, usefulness, and joining with England on any occasion whatever, unless proper Measures be taken to make up the Breach, and retrieve our lost Honour and Advantage.  
All that can be said to excuse so false a step in such a wise Nation as England, is, that they were imposed upon by those that are Enemies to the true Liberties of both Nations, and by some of their Traders and ignorant Pretenders, to give advice in matters of Trade, who out of a sordid Principle of Self-interest, preferred their own private Gain to the general advantage of their Country. This would have quickly been seen, had his Majesty and the Parliament of England, instead of that violent opposition which they made to the Scots Act, desired a conference betwixt a Committee of the Parliaments of both Nations; than it would soon have appeared what our true Design was, and that it was neither our Interest nor Intention immediately to follow an East-India Trade, the apprehensions of which did so much alarm the Kingdom of England. That it was not our Intention is evident from our rejecting the Proposals of our Countryman Mr. Douglas, the East-India Merchant, with which H—s upbraids us, by which at the same time he discovers his own folly and dishonesty; his Folly in arguing against the Interest of England, which he pretends to espouse; and his Dishonesty in proposing our following a Trade, which his new Masters (who have paid him so well for his false Evidence) look upon to be destructive to theirs.  
That it was not our Interest immediately to think of an East-India Trade is evident from this, that it would have exported our Money with which it's known we do not abound, and ruin'd the Linen Manufacture of our Country, upon which so many of our Poor depend. This we think the City of London may be sensible of in a good measure, by the multitudes of their own Silk-Weavers, that are starved for want of Employment; and also by the unsuccessfulness of their own Linen Manufacture in England, by reason of the great quantity of Silks, Muslins, Calicoes, etc. brought from the East-Indies: from whence some wise Men have been and are still of opinion, that an East-India Trade of that sort tends to the general Impoverishment of Europe, though it may enrich particular Persons. These Considerations, together with some Jealousies that Mr. Douglas might have been put upon making us that Proposal, on purpose to divert us from our other Design of an American Trade, were the true Reasons of our not harkening to Mr. Douglas' Advice. This our Neighbours might have known, had they proceeded with us in such a Friendly manner as we had reason to expect, when we were so kind as to offer them a share in the Benefits of our Act. And the Government at the same time might soon have been satisfied, that the sinking of their Customs by our own and twenty years' Freedom from that Duty, was a mere bugbear Pretence. It is evident that we could not have spent much East-India Goods in Scotland, and therefore must have exported them. If we had brought them to England, they were liable to Customs there. If we had offered to run them over the Border, they could as well have prevented that, as the stealing over their own Corn and Wool: and if we had exported them to any other places of Europe, the English by their Draw-backs could have done it in effect as cheap as we. By all which it appears, that there was no solid Foundation for any of those pretended Reasons, why the Government in particular, or the English in general, should have opposed us: and we wish that upon due inquiry it may not be found to be the effect of Dutch Councils; for that People being jealous of their Trade, and Rivals to England on that account, cannot be supposed to have sat still and done nothing, when they saw we had obtained such an Act, and were resolved to take in the English to partake in our Trade, which if suffered to go on, might endanger theirs, and enable the English to outrival them indeed, besides the present loss they foresaw of our Custom, the Scots having most of their East-India Goods from Holland.  
This we have the more reason to suspect, first because though the English have formerly suffered in their Trade by the Encroachments and Intrigues of the Dutch, but never by the Scots; yet they have made no Application to his Majesty, for preventing the like in time to come. If it be said that be is but Stadtholder there, whereas he is K. of Scots: We can easily reply, that it appears: by what has been said already of our true Constitution, that the Kings of Scotland were as much accountable to the States of that Nation as the Dutch Stadtholder is to the States of Holland. The 2 d Reason we have to suspect the Influence of Dutch Councils in this Affair, is this, that 'tis their Interest to keep us and the English from uniting, and if possible of forcing us by that means into an Alliance with themselves, to prevent their own ruin, if England after this should come to fall out with them upon the account of Trade or otherwise, and likewise to have their Privilege of fishing in our Seas continued, which they know to be of such vast Advantage to them, that they are shrewdly suspected of having by Bribes, or other indirect Methods, prevailed with some great Men, to supplant us as to the Benefits we had just reason to expect from the Act of 1661. encouraging our Fishery; the Privileges granted by which, are very considerable, and to continue for ever: nay to put it out of all doubt that they are joined in this matter against us, H—s owns it as beforemention'd.  
Being upon this Subject, we cannot but take notice of the difference betwixt the Spanish Memorials about Darien, and of those late Memorials presented by them to our Court against their meddling with the Succession of that Monarchy, or the cantoning it out into several Parcels in case the King of Spain die without Issue. The former, though insolent and hussing enough, were procured by our Court, therefore calmly digested; and the desire of them effectually answered, to the ruin almost of the Scotish Nation: but the latter was no sooner presented, than the Spanish Ambassadors are disgraced in England and Holland, and forbidden both Courts.  
It may therefore deserve the Inquiry of our Neighbours, what this Regulation about the Succession of Spain, and the dismembering of their Monarchy is, that occasion such outrageous Memorials: for there must needs be something in it that touches the Spaniards more sensibly than the business of Darien, and which they did not complain of till they were put upon it; and in like manner touches our court more sensibly to the quick than any Memorials about that Affair, though they had not been of their own procurement, were capable of doing. Perhaps upon a narrow Scrutiny into this Affair it will be found, that this keen and uninterrupted Opposition made to the Scots Settlement at Darien, does not proceed from any foresight of damage that it could do to the Trade of England, though that be the specious Pretext, but from a Cause which touches some People more nearly, crosses their Project of dismembering the Spanish Monarchy, and of having that important Post to their own share; they know that they have a natural, as well as a political Interest in some great Courtiers, and make little doubt of obtaining the pre-eminence before either of those Nations that compose the Empire of Great Britain. It concerns our Neighbours so much the more to inquire into this, because it is visible from the Resentments of it by the Spanish Court, that this matter is more like to affect the advantageous Trade that England drives with Spain, than our Settlement in America was ever like to do; which though it be made a Sacrifice to his Catholic Majesty, and perhaps on purpose to make him digest the other Project with more ease, is like to be of as little advantage to England, as was the Sacrifice of the great Sir Walter Raleigh formerly, though it may be infinitely more to their damage. If our Neighbours have a mind to be fully informed of this matter, they know who were employed in those Negotiations, and how to speak with them.  
We come next to consider the Opposition made to our Subscriptions at Hamburgh by Sir Paul Ricaut the English Resident there, in conjunction with his Majesty's Envoy to the Court of Lunenburg, who delivered in a joint Memorial to the Senate of Hamburgh, threatening them with the height of his Majesty's Displeasure, if they joined with the Scots in any Treaty of Commerce whatsoever. This we shall not need to make any Reflections upon, the Petitions from the Company to his Majesty and his Privy Council in Scotland being sufficient for that end.  
Their first to the King was dated June the 28th 1697. and is as follows.  

To the King's most Excellent Majesty, The Humble Address of the Council General of the Company of Scotland, trading to Africa and the Indies.  
May it please your Majesty;  
WHEREAS by the 32d Act of the 4th Session, and by the 8th Act of the 5th Session of Your Majesty's current Parliament, as well as by Your Majesty's Patent under the Great Seal of this Kingdom, this Company is established with such ample Privileges, as were thought most proper and encouraging both to Natives and Foreigners to join in the carrying on, supporting, and advancement of our Trade: The most considerable of the Nobility, Gentry, Merchants, and whole Body of the Royal Burrows, have upon the Inducement and public Faith of Your Majesty, and Act of Parliament, and Letters Patent, contributed as Adventurers in raising a far more considerable joint Stock, than any was ever before raised in this Kingdom for any public Undertaking, or Project of Trade whatsoever; which makes it now of so much the more universal a Concern to the Nation.  
And for the better enabling us to accomplish the ends of Your Majesty's said Act of Parliament, and Letters Patent, we have pursuant thereunto appointed certain Deputies of our own number to transact and negotiate our necessary Affairs beyond Sea, and at the same time to treat with such Foreigners of any Nation in amity with Your Majesty, as might be inclinable to join with us for the purpose aforesaid. In the prosecution of which Commission to our said Deputies, vested with full Power and Authority according to Law, We are not a little surprised to find, to the great hindrance and obstruction of our Affairs, That your Majesty's Envoy to the Courts of Lunenburgh, and Resident at Hamburgh, have under pretence of special Warrant from Your Majesty, given in a joint subscribed Memorial to the Senate of Hamburgh, expressly invading the Privileges granted to our Company by Your Majesty's said Acts of Parliament, and Letters Patent, as by the herewith transmitted Copy may appear.  
By the which Memorial we sustain great and manifold Prejudices, since both the Senate and Inhabitants of the said City of Hamburgh are thereby, contrary to the Law of Nations, expressly threatened with Your Majesty's Displeasure, if they or either of them should countenance or join with us in any Treaty of Trade or Commerce whatsoever, which deprives us of the assistance which we had reason to expect from several Inhabitants of that City.  
For redress whereof we do in all Duty and Humility apply to Your Majesty, not only for the Protection and Maintenance of our Privileges and freedom of Trade, but also for reparation of damage conform to Your Majesty's said Acts of Parliament, and Letters Patent. And we further beg leave humbly to represent to Your Majesty, that though by the said Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent, we conceive ourselves legally and sufficiently authorized to treat even with any Sovereign Potentate or State in Amity with Your Majesty for the support and advancement of our Trade; yet we by our said Deputies have only treated with particular and private Merchants of the said City of Hamburgh, without ever making any the least Proposal to the Senate thereof: and this we humbly conceive to be the natural Right and Privilege of all Merchants whatsoever, even though we had wanted the Sanction of so solemn Laws; and without some speedy redress be had therein, not only this Company, but all the individual Merchants of this Kingdom, must from henceforward conclude, that all our Rights and Freedoms of Trade are and may be further by our Neighbours violently wrested out of our hands.  
We therefore, to prevent the further evil Consequences of the said Memorial to our Company in particular, do make our most humble and earnest Request to Your Majesty, That you would be graciously pleased to grant us such Declarations as in your Royal Wisdom you shall think fit, to render the Senate and Inhabitants of the said City of Hamburgh, and all others that are or may be concerned, secure from the Threaten and other Suggestions contained in the said Memorial, as well as to render us secure under Your Majesty's Protection, in the full Prosecution of our Trade, and free Enjoyment of our lawful Rights, Privileges, and Immunities contained in your Majesty's Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent .  
Signed at Edinburgh the 28th Day of June 1697. in Name, Presence, and by Order of the said Council General, by May it please your Majesty, Your Majesty's most Faithful, most Dutiful, most Humble, and most Obedient Subject and Servant, Sic subscribitur, Yester P.   

The King's Answer to the above written Address,  By the Right Honourable the Earl of Tullibardin, etc. and Sir James Ogilvie, Principal Secretaries of State. 
My Lords and Gentlemen;  
WE are impowered by the King to signify unto you, that as soon as his Majesty shall return to England, he will take into Consideration what you have represented unto him; and that in the mean time His Majesty will give orders to his Envoy at the Courts of Lunenburgh, and his Resident at Hamburgh, not to make use of his Majesty's Name or Authority for obstructing your Company in the prosecution of your Trade with the Inhabitants of that City.  
Signed at Edinburgh the 2d Day of August, 1697. Sic subscribitur, Tullibardin. Ja. Ogilvie.   
The Company finding that the said Resident did notwithstanding this Answer continue his Opposition, and deny that he had any orders to the contrary, petitioned his Majesty's Privy Council afresh as follows.  

To the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor, and remanent Lords of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council; The humble Representation of the Council General of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies.  
May it please your Lordships,  
'TIS not unknown to your Lordships, how that in several successive Sessions of this current Parliament, his Majesty's Instructions to his respective High Commissioners, and their several Speeches pursuant thereto, have been full of repeated Assurances of his Majesty's good Inclinations for encouraging the Trade and Manufactories of this Nation: And whereas accordingly by the 22d Act of the fourth Session, and the 8th Act of the fifth Session of the said Parliament, together with his Majesty's Patent under the Great Seal of this Kingdom, our Company is established with such ample Privileges and Immunities as were thought most proper for encouraging both Natives and Foreigners to join in the carrying on, supporting, and advancement of our Trade; we in pursuance, and upon the public Faith thereof, not only contributed at home a far more considerable joint Stock than ever was yet raised in this Nation for any public Undertaking or Project of Trade whatsoever, but have also had all the promising hopes and prospect of foreign Aid that our hearts could wish, till (to our great surprise) the English Ministers at Hamburgh have, under pretence of special Warrant from his Majesty, put a stop thereto, by giving in a Memorial to the Senate of that City, threatening both Senate and Inhabitants with the King's utmost Displeasure, if they should countenance or join with us in any Treaty of Trade or Commerce, as by the annexed Copy thereof may appear.  
Upon due consideration whereof, we have in all duty and humility addressed his Majesty in June last for redress thereof; in answer to which Address his Majesty was then graciously pleased to signify by his Royal Letter, That upon his return into England he would take into consideration the Contents of our said Address, and that in the mean time he would give Orders to the said Ministers at Hamburgh not to make use of his Royal Name or Authority for obstructing the Trade of our Company with the Inhabitants of that City. In the full assurance of which we rested secure, and took our measures accordingly, till to our further surprise and unspeakable prejudice, we find by repeated Advices from Hamburgh, that the said Resident continues still contumacious; and is so far from giving due Obedience to his Majesty's said Order, that upon application made to him by our Agent in that City, with all the respect due to his Character he declared, that as yet he had got no such Order on our behalf; which by a further Address we are now to lay before his Majesty.  
But whereas we humbly conceive your Lord ships to be more immediately, under his Majesty the Guardians of the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom, We think it our duty to represent to your Lordships the Consequences of the said Memorial, both with relation to our Company in particular, and the Privileges, Interest, Honour, Dignity, and Reputation of the Nation in general.  
Your Lordship's very well know of what concern the Success of this Company is to the whole Kingdom, and that scarce any particular Society or Corporation within the same can justly boast of so solemn and unanimous a Suffrage or Sanction, as the Acts of Parliament by which this Company is established. So that if effectual measures be not taken for putting an early stop to such an open and violent Infringement of, and Encroachment upon the Privileges of so solemn a Constitution, 'tis hard to guests how far it may in after Ages be made use of as a Precedent for invading and overturning even the very Fundamental Rights, natural Liberties, and indisputable Independency of this Kingdom, which by the now open and frequent Practices of our unkind Neighbours, seem to be too shrewdly pointed at. And should this Company (wherein the most considerable of the Nobility, Gentry, Merchants, and whole Body of the Royal Burroughs are concerned) be so unhappy (which God forbidden) as to have its Designs rendered unsuccessful through the unaccountable evil Treatments of our said Neighbours; most certain it is that no consideration whatever can hereafter induce this Nation to join in any such other public Stock, though never so advantageous an undertaking, as not doubting but to meet with the like or greater Discouragements from those who give such frequent and manifest Indications of their Designs to wrest our Right and Freedom of Trade out of our hands.  
For which cause we humbly offer the Premises to your Lordship's serious Consideration, not doubting but you will (in your profound Wisdom and Prudence) take such effectual measures for redress thereof at present, and to prevent the like Encroachments for the future, as may be capable to remove those Apprehensions and Jealousies, which the bare-faced and avowed Methods of the English do now suggest, not only to our Company in particular, but even to the whole Body of this Nation in general.  
Signed at Edinburgh the 22d Day of December 1697. in Name, Presence, and by Order of the said Council General, by, May it please your Lordships, Your Lordship's most Obedient, and most Humble Servant, Sic subscribitur, Francis Scot P.   
And therewith they joined another to the King, as follows.  

To the King's most Excellent Majesty, The Humble Address of the Council General of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa, and the Indies.  
May it please Your Majesty;  
BY a former Address of the 28th of June last, We have humbly represented to Your Majesty, that Your Majesty's Envoy to the Court of Lunenburgh, and Resident at Hamburgh, did, under pretence of special Warrant from Your Majesty, give in a Memorial to the Senate of the said City of Hamburgh, contrary to the Law of Nations, and expressly invading the Privileges contained in the said Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent, by which our said Company is established; Copies of which Address and Memorial, we have for Your Majesty's better Information hereto annexed: In answer to which Your Majesty was then graciously pleased to signify by your Royal Letter, that upon Your Majesty's Arrival in England, You would take the Contents of our said Address into consideration; and that in the mean time You would give Orders to Your said Minister not to make use of Your Majesty's Name or Authority for obstructing our Comapny in the prosecution of our Trade with the Inhabitants of the said City of Hamburgh. In the full assurance of which we rested secure, and took our Measures accordingly, till, to our further fur prize and great disappointment, we find by repeated Advices from Hamburgh, that Your Majesty's said Resident continues still contumacious, and is so far from giving due Obedience to Your Majesty's said Order, that upon Application made to him for that effect, with all respect due to his Character, he pretended, that he had never as yet got any such Order on our behalf: Which we thought fit, in all duty and humility, to lay before Your Majesty, renewing withal our most humble and earnest Request, that Your Majesty would be now graciously pleased to take the Contents of this and our said former Address into consideration, and, in Your Royal Wisdom, order some speedy and effectual Redress of our Grievances therein mentioned, and a just Reparation of the manifest Damages which our Company has already fustained by reason of the said Memorial: And grant us a declaration under Your Royal Hand, to render the Senate and Inhabitants of the City of Hamburgh, and all others with whom we may have occasion to enter into Commerce, secure from Threaten and other false Suggestions contained in the said Memorial, as well as to render us secure under Your Majesty's Protection, in the free Enjoyment of our lawful Rights and Privileges contained in Your Majesty's Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent above mentioned.  
Signed at Edinburgh the 22d Day of December 1697. in Name, Presence, and by Order of the said Council General, by May it please your Majesty, Your Majesty's most Faithful, most Dutiful, most Humble, and most Obedient Subject and Servant, Sic subscribitur Francis Scot P.   
Notwithstanding all this humble Application, there was no stop put to that Opposition: So that the Hamburghers dared not venture to subscribe; and the Company, after great loss of time, and Money, and leaving two Ships unfinished, to the great Dishonour, as well as Disadvantage of the Nation, were obliged to recall their Agents, after having spent 30000 l and not received one Farthing there, though the Hamburghers were so willing to join, that they were sorry there was not room left for subscribing more than 200000 l  
The Company finding themselves thus injuriously dealt with, made application to the Parliament of Scotland for redress. Upon which the Parliament presented the following Address to his Majesty.  

An ADDRESS to his Majesty, by the Parliament.  
WE Your Majesty's most Loyal and Faithful Subjects, the Noblemen, Barons, and Burgesses convened in Parliament, do humbly represent to Your Majesty, that having considered a Representation made to us by the Council General of the Company trading to Africa and the Indies, making mention of several Obstructions they have met with in the prosecution of their Trade; particularly by a Memorial presented to the Senate of Hamburgh by Your Majesty's Residents in that City, tending to lessen the Credit of the Rights and Privileges granted to the said Company by an Act of this present Parliament:  
We do therefore, in all humble Duty, lay before Your Majesty, the whole Nations Concern in this Matter: And We most earnestly do entreat, and most assuredly expect, That Your Majesty will in Your Royal Wisdom take such measures as may effectually vindicate the undoubted Rights and Privileges of the said Company, and support the Credit, and Interest thereof.  
And as we are in Duty bound to return Your Majesty most hearty Thanks for the Gracious Assurances Your Majesty has been pleased to give Us of all due Encouragement for promoting the Trade of this Kingdom; So We are thereby encouraged at present, humbly to recommend to the more special Marks of Your Royal Favour, the Concerns of the said Company, as that Branch of Our Trade, in which We, and the Nation we represent, have a more peculiar Interest.  
Subscribed at Edinburgh the 5th of August 1698. in Name, Presence, and by Warrant of the Estates of Parliament. SEAFIELD J. P. D. P.   
By all this it is evideht, that the whole Kingdom of Scotland was unanimous in this matter and proceeded deliberately in it, as that which highly concerned their Interest: yet we see that all their Endeavours were to no purpose; for our Enemies were so resolute in opposing our Trade, that rather than it should succeed they will not only trample under foot the Laws of Scotland, but the Laws of Nations, and exactly follow the Pattern set them by the French, in huffing and tyrannising over their Neighbours, when at the same time they pretend to make War upon Lewis XIV. for practices of the same nature; and whilst they cry out upon the Decisions of the Chambers of Brisac and Mets, and of the Parliament of Paris as tyrannical and unjust for invading the Rights of Neighbouring Princes and Nations, they set up a Cabal at Whitehall to do the like by Scotland and Hamburgh. Then let the World judge, whether the King of England had not less reason to say that he was ill served in Scotland, than the King of Scots had to say that he was ill served in England, since one single Address from the Parliament of England prevailed with their King to forbid all his Subjects to join with the Scots; whereas the repeated Supplications of the Company of Scotland, the Address of their Parliament, and the Authority of Law, and his own Letters Patent could not prevail with the King of Scots to do Justice to his own Subjects. We wish these Gentlemen would consider this, who were so very angry at the Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement, for saying that the King of Scots was detained prisoner in England. It is very certain, that never any King of Scotland before the Union of the Crowns, dared thus to trample upon their Laws, or to oppose the General Interest of the Nation; or if they attempted to do it, they were quickly made sensible of their being inferior to the Law, and the States of the Nation assembled in Parliament, who till the Accession of our Princes to the English Throne, remained in an undisputed possession of calling their Kings to an account for Maladministration, and of disposing of they Lives and Liberties as they saw cause. We need not go so far back for Evidence to prove this, as Eugenius the 7th, who was brought to his Trial on suspicion of having murdered his own Wife, and acquitted upon discovery of the real Murderers; or of James III. whose Minions, by whose Council he governed, were taken out of his own Bedchamber by the Nobles, and hanged over Lauder-bridg; and he himself persisting in those Courses, was killed in flight, after being defeated in Battle by the States, and in the next Parliament was voted to be lawfully slain.  
We have a later Instance, and the Power of our Nation on that Head was largely asserted and accounted for by the Earl of Morton then Regent of Scotland, in that noble Memorial he delivered in to Q. Elizabeth and her Council in defence of our proceed against Q. Mary whom we dethroned, and in her stead set up her Son: so that it is not the principle or practice of any one Party of our Nation (though it has been of late fixed upon the Presbyterians as peculiar to them) but was an Hereditary Right conveyed to us all by our Ancestors, practised by Papists before the Reformation, and justisied by those of the Episcopal Persuasion since, particularly by the Earl of Morton beforemention'd, who was the first that introduced Bishops into our Church after the Reformation.  
Those things are not insisted upon with any Design of applying them to his present Majesty, or of incensing the People of Scotland to do so, but only to inform those that put his Majesty upon such Courses, that they are his greatest Enemies, and do what in them lies to destroy him. It is the common Right of Mankind to be protected by those they set over them, and to complain of Governors when they find themselves aggrieved, and their Privileges torn from them by Violence. This Generation has proved it beyond possibility of Reply, that the greatest Pretenders to submission to Princes, and the most zealous Patrons of Passive Obedience, will resist and dethrone their Kings too, when they find themselves oppressed by them. They that maintain the contrary, are nothing but mean-spirited Flatterers, or such as temporize with Courts, because of their own private Advantage; and be their Quality what it will, are far from being so noble and brave as that poor Woman who told Philip of Macedon, that he ceased to be King when he refused to hear her Petition. Upon the whole it will appear, that he Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement, made the best Apology for his Majesty that could be made, when he said that he was a Prisoner in England, and therefore forced to act thus against the Interest and Dignity of his Crown as King of Scots. It is demonstrated thus: If his Majesty were in Scotland, and another Person upon the Throne of England, it is certain his Majesty would have encouraged the Trade of Scotland, and resented such practices in the King of England, as contrary to the Laws of Nations, and the Sovereignty of his Crown: If he did not, he would be looked upon to be mean-spirited, and not fit to wear it; and if he took part with the King of England against the Dignity of his Crown, and the Interest of his Kingdom, he would not only be looked upon as an Enemy to his Country, but as felo de se. From all which it is plain, that as it is the best Apology that can be made for the King of Scots when he acts thus, contrary to the Honour and Interest of himself and his Country, to say, he is a Prisoner in England; so it is a sufficient Justification of the People of Scotland to refuse Obedience to what he commands by the Influence of the English, or other Councils, in opposition to their Interest, because they are the Commands of a Captive, and not of the King of Scots. If our Enemies say he is no Captive, but at Liberty to go to Scotland if he pleases, it is so far from making his Case better, that it makes it ten times worse; for if his Affections be captivated, we are without remedy, except we either sue for a Divorce, as in case of wilful Desertion, and denying conjugal Duty, or withdraw from under his roof, and remove to another Family, as God and Man will allow one Sister to do that is oppressed, and denied the Privileges of paternal Love and Protection, whilst another is caressed and dandled, and has her Fortune raised by diminishing that of the neglected Sister.  
The Jamaica Proclamation against our Colony at Darien comes next to be considered, and is as follows.  

By the Honourable Sir William Beeston Knt-Governour and Commander in chief for his Majesty in the Island of Jamaica, and of the Territories and Dependencies of the same, and Admiral thereof.  
WHereas I have received Orders from his Majesty by the Right Honourable James Vernon, one of the Principal Secretaries of State, importing that his Majesty was not informed of the Intentions and Designs of the Scots in peopling Darien, which is contrary to the Peace between his Majesty and his Allies, commanding me not to afford them any Assistance: In compliance therewith, in his Majesty's Name, and by his Order, I do strictly charge and require all and every his Majesty's Subjects, that upon no pretence whatsoever they hold any Correspondence with the Scots aforesaid, or give them any Assistance with Arms, Ammunition, Provision, or any thing whatsoever, either by themselves or any other for them; nor assist them with any of their Shipping, or of the English Nations, upon pain of his Majesty's Displeasure, and suffering the severest punishment.  
Given under my Hand and Seal of Arms, the 9th of April 1699. and in the 11th year of the Reign of William the 3d, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, and Lord of Jamaica, Defender of the Faith.   
It contains a heavy Charge against the Scots Company as having settled in Darien without informing his Majesty, and having thereby broke the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies. As to their not intorming his Majesty with their Design, there was neither any need of it, nor had they reason to do it: that there was no need of it, is plain enough from the Act of Parliament impowering them to settle any where in Asia, Africa, or America, upon places not inhabited, or any other place, with consent of the Natives, and not possessed by any European Potentate, Prince or State: So that they were under no Obligation to acquaint him where they designed to settle, provided they kept to the Terms of the Act. And that they had no cause so to do, is evident from that unreasonable opposition that a Faction of Court had prevailed with him to make to them all along, which gave them just cause to expect the like treatment in time to come.  
Then as to the Breach of the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies by the Settlement, they had no reason to think themselves guilty of any such thing, and so much the less, that Dampier, Wafer, and all others that wrote of the Country gave an Account of the Natives being in possession of their Liberty, and almost in continual Wars with the Spaniards. Besides, it was a ruled Case in England, since Capt. Sharp was by Law acquitted in King Charles Il's time, not only for having marched through Darien in a Hostile manner, but for attacking Places that were really in possession of the Spaniards, as St. Maria and Panama, because he acted by virtue of a Commission from those Darien Princes. This, together with their not finding a Spaniard or Spanish Garrison on all that part of the Isthmus, was enough to justify the fairness of the Scots Settlement there, and to have put a stop to this hasty Sentence till both sides had been heard.  
But instead of that, the Advisers to this Proclamation take upon them, in a very Magisterial manner, to declare the Scots guilty of a Breach of the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies: which is so much the more remarkable, that this Proclamation is published in the West-Indies, before ever it was known what the Scots could say in their own defence; and sent away before the presenting of the Spanish Memorial, which was on the third of May 1699. and the Proclamation bears date April 9th 1699.  
The unfairness of this Proclamation is evident from this, that at the very same time it is published in the West-Indies, the Lord Precedent of the Sessions, and his Majesty's Advocate for the Kingdom of Scotland, were sent for from hence to see what they could say to justify their Pretensions to Darien; which they did by such Arguments as have not yet been answered.  
We leave it then to the impartial Thoughts of the good People of England, whether we have not occasion to say that our King is in the Hand of our Enemies, since we are thus condemned without a hearing, and our Nation put tooth trouble and expense to send Lawyers out of the Kingdom to defend themselves before those that had already condemned them. And since this is a visible effect of the Union of the Crowns, by which we are every day more and more oppressed; let them speak their Consciences, if we have not all the reason in the World to dissolve that Union, except the Nations be more closely united, and upon a better footing.  
That we were so treated in former Reigns, we had no great cause to wonder, when the Court was engaged in a Conspiracy against our Religion and Liberties. And our Nation being inferior to none in their Zeal for both, it was but natural to think that we should be the first Sacrifice: But to be treated thus by a Prince who hath ventured his Life to save us from Popery and Slavery; a Prince who for Courage in War, and Conduct in Peace, is not to be matched in Story; a Prince who is under God the Great Champion of our Religion, and the bold Asserter of Europe's Liberty; a Prince whose Family we revere, and whose Person we adore; a Prince for whom we have so cheerfully ventured our Lives, and lost so much of the best Blood in our Veins; to be so treated by such a Prince hath some thing cutting beyond expression, and proves that our Disasters are no way to be remedied, but either by a total Separation, or a closer Union of the two Kingdoms.  
We cannot be so unjust to his Majesty's Character as to think a Prince of his Magnanimity could be guilty of so mean a thing as willingly to subject the Crown of his Ancient Kingdom which he received free, to that of another. We cannot once suffer it to enter into our thoughts, that he who dares to outbrave Death in the Field a thousand times a day, should act so unworthy a part as first to condemn, and then to try us. These and all other things of that sort we must needs charge to the account of our Enemies about him, who misrepresent us, and therefore surprise his Majesty into any thing he does against us.  
As to that positive Sentence of our having acted contrary to the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies, we have all the Reason in the World to complain of it. Is our Kingdom then become so mean and contemptible, that what is transacted according to the Acts of our Parliaments, and Patents of our Kings, is liable to be annulled, or declared illegal, by any Person that has the hap to be made an English Secretary of State, Governor of one of their American Plantations, or a Member of their Council of Trade? If it be so, his Majesty's Dignity, as King of Scots, is well defended in the mean time, when it is liable thus to be trampled upon by his own Servants as King of England. This does indeed verisy what has been said, that our Kings since the Union leave their Ancient Kingdom to the disposal of their Servants: but whether this be agreeable to the Coronation Oaths of our Kings, let them determine that are concerned to inquire; and perhaps it may be worth the consideration of our Neighbours, whether since we have been governed by Servants, they have not for the most part been subject to Minions, and that the one does naturally pave the way for the other. So that they are no great gainers by the Bargain.  
If it be answered, that the Proclamations are issued by his Majesty's Authority, and that therefore our Sentence proceeds from his Bar.  
We answer, 1. That there are shrewd Suspicions that a certain Gentleman or two who have affected all along to show their Zeal against the Scots in this Affair, have pushed this matter beyond their Instructions; for there's no man that knows his Majesty's Justice and Wisdom, can admit a thought that he would condemn us before we were heard.  
2. We done't at all question his Majesty's Authority as King of England, to forbid his English Subjects to give any manner of Assistance to the Scots at Darien (though we might say it was unkind) but we absolutely deny that he has any Authority as King of England to condemn the Proceed of the Subjects of Scotland for any thing they transact without the Dominions of England. If it be otherwise, his Majesty, as King of Scots, is bound to appear at the King's-Bench-bar in Westminster-Hall for what he hath done as King of Scots, upon the Lord Chief Justice's Summons; and of what Consequence this may be to himself or his Successors, may be easily judged. Had Oliver, and the other Regicides, bethought themselves of this, it had been more for the Honour of England, and would have taken off a great deal of the odium that is charged upon them for cutting off King Charles, had they searched for something Criminal in his Conduct toward the English Nation as King of Scots, and condemned him for that. Tho they did not think upon this, perhaps others may; and then the English will be able to justify themselves as not having cut off their own King, but their Enemy the King of Scots, as there's no doubt they would have done by King Charles II. had he not made his escape after the battle of Worcester.  
This may perhaps deserve the thoughts of his present Majesty and others concerned in the Succession, and so much the more that the dependence of the Crown of Scotland upon that of England hath been lately asserted by some English Historians, and indirectly hinted at in a pretended Answer to the Defence of the Scots Settlement at Darien, p. 24.  
But to satisfy that Gentleman and others, who please themselves so much in vilifying the Scotish Nation, they may turn to the Reigns of Edward I. II. & III. and they will quickly find that Sir William Wallace, K. Robert Bruce, James Lord Douglas, Thomas Randolph Earl of Murray, and others that we could name, did so gallantly defend the Sovereignty of Scotland against those bold Pretenders to a Superiority over us, that their Successors have had no great stomach to pursue their Claim to it since: So that if ever they had any, it is forfeited by Prescription.  
Oliver's imaginary Conquest so much insisted on by the dull Answerer of the Scots Defence, and others, will be of no use to the Faction in this matter, since that was no National Quarrel, nor did the English pretend to any such thing, as a Conquest of us, but immediately withdrew their Forces upon the Restoration. So that Oliver's Conquest, as he calls it, was only the Victory of one Party over another in a Civil War, it being well known that he had Friends in Scotland as well as England, which (if that Wise Author will have Oliver's Victories to be Conquests) he had conquered too before ever he came near Scotland.  
We don't insist upon this with any design to derogate from the Valour of the English Nation, which is known all over the World, but to stop the mouths of those pitiful Scribblers, and to give a Caveat to those Gentlemen about Court, who talk so big of conquering Scotland upon this present occasion.  
But we wish them to consult beforehand how England in general stands affected to such a Design, and how they will justify the Lawfulness of it, lest it far with them as it did with K. Charles I. and his Cabal, who not only in Council advised, TO REDUCE US TO OUR DUTY BY FORCE RATHER THAN GIVE WAY TO OUR DEMANDS, as may be seen in the Representation of the States of Scotland in 1640. but raised Money, and levied a formidable Army to carry on their Design; and yet the Hearts of these Bravoes failed them when they came in view of the Scots, who repulsed them twice with shame, the first time when they encamped their great Army near Barwick, and the next when we charged them at Newburn. And at last the best of the Nobility and Gentry of England thought fit to put a stop to those dangerous Proceed, and followed his Majesty with a Protestation against them, as well knowing, that if Scotland were once subdued, the Liberties of England could not be long lived.  
That it is the Interest of England now to prevent the Ruin of Scotland, as much as it was then, will appear by the following Arguments.  

1. That the present Juncture of Affairs makes it necessary for the Kingdom of England rather to strengthen themselves by making new Friends than by procuring new Enemies. They are not ignorant that they have a controverted Title to their Crown entailed upon them, and that the Pretenders against those in possession are in the French Interest, and under their Protection. Nor can they be ignorant, that to the old National Hatred betwixt France and England, the French have added that of the Protestant Religion. Of late years they have declared themselves the most implacable Enemies of it; and their King in all his Triumphs has that ascribed to him as his greatest Exploit, that he hath quelled the Monster of Heresy. The case being thus, it must needs be against the Interest of England to suffer any froward and headstrong Faction to embroil them with Scotland, or to ruin that Kingdom; the Consequence of which will be the exposing themselves as an easier Prey to the Conquest of the French or any other Enemy. 
That the French had a hand in fomenting our late Civil Wars, and made use of their Firebrands in all Parties, is beyond dispute; and that it is now more their Interest to divide us than ever, is so palpable that it cannot be denied. Nothing in human probability could have stopped the impetuous Current of their Arms, but the Interposition of Great Britain; and therefore it concerns them, both in point of Interest and Revenge, to dash us against one another: and if the ill Usage that we meet with from the Court of England should force us again into a French or other Alliance, the World cannot blame us; since the Laws of Nature and Nations are for us. Put the case that a smaller number of Christians should be unjustly attacked by a greater, whom nothing will satisfy but the utter Ruin of the former: Can any man in conscience blame the weaker Party to call in the Assistance of Jews and Pagans to preserve their own Lives? Is it not the same case with the Scots? have they not ever since the Union of the Crowns been oppressed and tyrannised over by a Faction in England, who will neither admit of an Union of the Nations, nor leave the Scots in possession of their own Privileges, as Men and Christians? Was it not a Party in England that imposed upon us first in Matters of Religion? Did we send first to oblige them to submit to the Geneva Discipline, as they call it; or was it they that first imposed their Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer upon us? Was it we who first invaded them with an Army to subvert their Civil and Religious Liberties, or did not they first invade us? Was it we who first made Acts against their Trade, or they who made Acts destructive of ours? Did we issue Proclamations against their Colonies, or have they done so by ours? In the name of God then let them declare what they would have us to do. They will not unite with us, nor suffer us to live by ourselves: Nor must we have any share of their Trade, or carry on a Trade by ourselves. Is it not plain then that the Faction oppress us? and yet we must not complain of this sort of Treatment.   
2. If the State of Affairs in Ireland be considered, it will appear to be such, as may make it dangerous to suffer the Scots to be oppressed and provoked in this manner It is well enough known that the People of Ireland are not very well pleased with their Treatment by some in England. This, together with the great numbers of Scots in the North of that Kingdom, who bear a natural Affection to their Country, and would be very uneasy to see its Ruin, may prove of dangerous consequence, in case of a Rupture with Scotland.  
3. It will further appear to be the Interest of England not to suffer the Scots to be so much run down, if they consider the posture of their own Affairs at home. The Divisions and Animosities betwixt the several Parties in England are well enough known: So that besides the Sport it would afford to the common Enemy of our Religion and Country, to see those two Nations engaged in War, the Enemies of the present Government would be sure to improve it, and watch for an opportunity to avenge themselves for what has been done against the late K. James, and his Friends. It is well enough known what hopes they and some People beyond Sea conceive from the Differences that this Treatment of the Scots may probably occasion; and as they have an irreconcilable Hatred against our Nation, because we declared so generally against the late King, and are so zealous for his present Majesty, there's no doubt but they will foment our Divisions as much as they can, and insinuate themselves with both Parties, in order to set them together by the Ears. They know that so many as fall in England of those who adhere to the present Constitution, and so many as fall in Scotland for supporting the Trade and Freedom of their Country, so many Enemies they are rid of; therefore there's no question but they promise themselves a plentiful fishing in such troubled Waters. 
It likewise deserves the consideration of our Neighbours, that they don't stand at present in very good terms as to matter of Trade with France, Holland and Flanders; nor is it well known what the Issue of the present Controversy with Spain about regulating their Succession may be. The impending differences betwixt the Northern Crowns may perhaps in a little time imbroil them with one or other of them, and affect their Trade also on that side. All which being considered, it would seem to be the Interest of England to assure themselves of the Friendship of the Scots, by treating them in a kind and neighbourly manner.   
4. It will appear in particular not to be the Interest of the Dissenters and sober Churchmen, that the Scots should be thus run down, because their own Ruin will be the unavoidable Consequence of it. This they may soon be convinced of if they will give themselves leave to consider how they were treated in K. Charles the First's time, when the Court did swell with so much Rage against the Kingdom of Scotland for asserting their Liberties then, as they do now. All those Church of England-men that could not conform to the Innovations brought into the Church by Laud and his Party, were treated as Puritans and Schismatics; and those that appeared for the Liberties of the Nation against the Ship-money and other Arbitrary Impositions of the Court, were treated as Rebels and Traitors. If they look into the two last Reigns, it will appear as plain as the Sun, that when Scottand was oppressed, and their Liberties wrested from them, the Dissenters and moderate Churchmen in England were brought under the lash: the former were deprived of their Religion and Liberties, and the latter exposed to destruction by Sham-plots, etc. because of their appearing for the Laws of their Country. We need mention no more Instances to put this out of Controversy, than those deplorable ones of the Earl of Essex and Lord Russel; to which we may add the shameful and barbarous Treatment of the worthy Mr. Johnson Chaplain to the latter, because he so excellently defended with his Pen the Birthright and Freedom of all true Englishmen.   
From all this it will appear that England in general must suffer by the Ruin of Scotland, and that those who have all along stood up for the English Liberties, must lay their Account to come under the lash, if once our Necks come under the Yoke: therefore we dare appeal to the sober Men of the Church of England, Whether it be their Interest that a Nation which agrees with them in all the Articles of their Church, those about Discipline excepted, should be destined to ruin, because we believe with most of the Reformed Churches, that there is no Office superior to that of a Presbyter of divine Institution. Must we be denied the Privileges of Men and Christians, because we think that the Discipline of the Church may be more safely entrusted, and more faithfully administered by the joint Endeavours of the Minister and the Heads of his Congregation, by an Association of neighbouring Ministers, and the Heads of their Parishes, and by Delegates both of the Clergy and Laity of those Associations in a general Convocation, than by another Model? But enough of this Subject. Let any Man peruse the learned Archbishop usher's Treatise of Presbytery and Episcopacy reconciled, and there they will find that the difference is not so great as some People have made it their business to make the World believe. But if nothing less than our destruction will serve those Gentlemen, because our Church is of a different Constitution from that of England, and that our political Principles and original Constitution are diametrically opposite to arbitrary Power, let the Dissenters of England, and all those Churchmen that concurred in the late Revolution, look to it. When their Neighbour's House is on sire its time for them to prepare their Bucket's. If this Digression be thought impertinent, H—s and the Answerer of the Scots Defence must bear the blame of it. They would insinuate to the World that the Affair of our Trade and Colony is a Presbyterian Project, on purpose to render it odious and suspected to the Church of England; therefore it was necessary to obviate that false and malicious Suggestion, and to acquaint our Neighbours that the Company make no difference as to the matter of Persuasion: and let it be put to the Test when they please, it will be found that those of the Episcopal Opinion are as zealous for the thriving of our Trade, and the Honour of our Nation (both of which are concerned in this Affair) as any of the other.  
To wind up this matter, if any Party in England entertain suspicions of us, the better way to prevent us is to treat us kindly, and enter into an Union with us on such Terms as his Majesty and the Parliament of both Kingdoms shall agree, and so as the Civil and Religious Liberties of both People may be preserved. That will be casier and safer than to rely on the Hopes of an uncertain Conquest; or if they don't think fit to do so, it's but reasonable they should leave us in the undisturbed possession of our own Liberties: But if they will do neither, let them no more accuse those that complain of this Treatment as Incendiaries, but seriously examine whether they themselves mayn't with more Justice be accounted Oppressors.   

PART II. Being a more particular Answer to H H—s's Libel.  
WE come in the next place to take a Survey of H— s Libel, entitled, The Defence of the Scots abdicating Darien; and shall speedily show to how little purpose his Suborners have spent their Pains and Money on him.  
The first Line of his Performance is a Banter upon his Majesty, whom he charges with investing our Company with immense Privileges and Immunities by his Octroy of 1695. There's no Man can be answerable for more sense than God has given him; but though H—s understood no better, his Masters at Whitehall, of whom he brags so much, aught to have taken care that he should not run into Nonsense, and an Invective against his Majesty at first dash: To talk of granting us immense Privileges, is to impeach his Majesty's Wisdom, as if he had done a thing without parallel, which is directly to incense the Kingdom of England against him, as some bad People endeavoured to do, when by a Misrepresentation of our Design, they stirred up the House of Commons against it. But had the Surgeon or his suborners looked into the Privileges of 21 Years freedom from all manner of Taxes granted to the Dutch East-India Company by the States of Holland, and the vast Immunities granted by the French King, the Danes and Brandenburghers to their Companies for trading to the East-Indies, or even to those granted to the English East-India Company at first, they would have found there was no reason to charge his Majesty with granting us such immense or unparallelled Privileges, or ascribing it to his not well knowing what he did for the noise of the Guns at Namur, as this petulant Scribbler does. Dedication, pag. 9  
But if H—s and his Suborners exclaim against our Privileges as immense, they are resolved to diminish the Authority by which they were granted, and call it only by the name of an Octroy, which signifies no more than a Patent; whereas our Privileges were granted us by an Act of Parliament, which are greater and more sacred than all the Octroys in Europe: Thus thro' Ignorance or Malice they think fit to vilify his Majesty's Conduct and Authority, which they pretend to defend.  
Their Malice is further demonstrated by the Parenthesis (to be presumed) in the 2d page of the Decation, where they speak of his Majesty's Promise to interpose his Royal Authority to do us right in case of disturbance, and that at the public Charge (to be presumed) of his ancient Kingdom. There might possibly have been some need of their presumption, had all Mankind been endowed with as little Sense and Honesty as H—s and his Suborners; for no other Body could ever presume it to mean any thing else, since our Acts do not oblige England: though if they had presumed that our Enemies would take ear that the said Promise should not be kept, the refusal of lending our Company the 3 Men of War built at the Charge of our own Nation, would soon have convineed the World that they had presumed too true.  
We have accounted for rejecting Mr. Douglas' Proposal elsewhere; nor shall we take notice of H H—s's scurrilous Reflections on Mr. Paterson, which only discover his own Temper, but do that honest Man no hurt. As to his charging us with squandring away 50000 l. on 6 Hulks at Amsterdam and Hamburgh, purely to make a noise of our Proceed, etc. we would desire him and his Suborners to reconcile it with what they say from p. 14, to 20. where they own themselves that the Dutch and Hamburgers were both mightily pleased with the Design, p. 14. That the Dutch were tickled with the Conceit that they should be Sharers in the Scots Trade; and p. 16. they say, That that which gave the dead stroke to the Scots Design, was the East and West-India Companies running open mouthed to the Lords of Amsterdam, showing what was hatching by the Scots Commissioners in their City to ruin the Trade of the United Provinces. P. 17. they tell us. That the Hamburgers thought it the more their Interest to embrace the Project, the more that the Dutch opposed it: P. 18. That our Affair was generally favoured by the Burghers of Hamburg; and p. 21. That the Government of England sent the Senate of Hamburg a Caution by Sir Paul Ricaut to take care how they suffered their Burghers to embark with us. So that here we condemn them from their own mouths: It being plain from those Concessions, that we did not idly squander away our Money at Hamburgh and Amsterdam; but that both those trading Cities approved our Design, and would have engaged in it, had not the Court of England and the Dutch opposed it; and therefore what loss of Money we sustained in those places, must be charged to their Account; so that H—s hath verified the Proverb, That Liars have need of good Memories.  
This is not the only Instance wherein those of H—s and his Suborners have given them the slip; for in the 4th page of the Dedication, they upbraid the Company with their blind Project, at which the trading part of the World stand amazed; yet p. 17. they tell us that the Project was reasonable both on the Scots and Hamburghers side; and the Reasons they give are these, That the River on which that City stands is navigable for 200 Miles up into Germany for flat-bottomed Vessels of 70 or 80 Tuns, which gives them an opportunity of serving all the North Parts of the Empire, etc. All that they can say to salve this Contradiction is, That the Hamburghers knew nothing of Darien, but builded altogether on Ships laden with India Goods; but that's a notorious Falsehood, for the Hamburghers were actually told that our Design was on the Isthmus of America, and therefore could not be disappointed in their Expectations of an East-India Trade if they had a mind to have followed it, since they could not be ignorant that they had thereby an opportunity of shortening the Voyage from Darien to the East-Indies. But at the same time it is much to be questioned whether the Hamburghers were so intent upon an East-India Trade, as H—s alleges, since it must visibly prejudice their own Manufacture of Linen.  
We shall conclude this of Hamburgh and Amsterdam with one Observation, viz. that he tells us, p. 14. That one of the Reasons why the Dutch were so much taken with our East-Indian Trade, was our Exemption from Duties for 21 years; which serves only to discover his own Folly and Malice, since every Body must necessarily know, that exemption from Duties was only in the Scotish Ports; so that if they were exported from thence into any other Country, they must pay the same Duties in those Countries, as if they had been directly imported from the East-Indies.  
The Inconsistency of H—s and his Suborners is further demonstrated, p. 4. bysupposing our buying a couple of second-hand Ships in the Thames, and dispatching them to India with a suitable Cargo. As to the buying of second-hand Ships, the Company made that Experiment, but found themselves loseus by it, and that it cost them more to fit up a second-hand Vessel for their purpose, than it would have done to have bought a new one. But with what Front can they upbraid us with not buying of Ships in the Thames for carrying on an East-India Trade, when they own, p. 7. that the House of Commons balked us of our Subscriptions, and reprimanded the Subjects of England for their foolery? How is it possible then that they would have suffered our buying Ships in the Thames for carrying on an East-India Trade?  
We have another proof of his Ingenuity and Truth in that same Page, where he tells us, that if our blind Project (meaning that of Darien) should miscarry by our own ill Management, it is not fair we should snarl at our Neighbours, who have no other Hand in our Misfortune, than that they would not be accessary to any Act which the World might judge Felonious, and wherein they could not join without engaging themselves in an unreasonable War, and in the end to assist us with Weapons to break our wone Heads. We wish his Masters much joy of their Advocate and Evidence, for we believe they could not have found such another if they had searched through all the Island: He just now owned that our Neighbours opposed our Subscriptions at home and abroad, before they knew any thing of what he calls our blind Project, and made us squander away 50000 l to little purpose, whioh certainly must be a misfortune, and that wherein our Neighbours had no small hand, though the World could not judge our taking Subscriptions in that Honourable manner to be any way Felonious. We have moreover sufficently proved it elsewhere, that they have had a hand in our Misfortune by downright opposition, and unaccountable Proclamations for which they had no Authority; we hope that this will be allowed to be something more than refusing to be accessary to an Act that neither he nor his Suborners will ever be able to prove Felonious, and which we have already told him, the Laws of England have in a parallel, nay much worse case, judged to be honest and righteous.  
So that all this Author hath got by his charging us maliciously with Felony, is to prove himself a wilful Felon, for he tells us at the end of his Book of a long dispute betwixt himself and Sir J. Stewart his Majesty's Advocate for the Kingdom of Scotland, about the Title of the Spaniards to Darien; and if we may believe H— s, he baffled the Advocate, and proved the Right of the Spaniards: which proves himself to have engaged in a Design that he thought Felonious, for we do not find, by his own Relation, that he left the place from remorse of Conscience, but only on the Account of a Malady Imaginaire, and want of Provisions; so that we thank him for telling the World, from his own Mouth, that his Evidence against us is that of a Felon.  
As to their engaging themselves in an unreasonable War, and assisting us with Weapons to break their own Heads; we did not desire they should engage in a War for us, but think it very unreasonable the English Court should have engaged so far as they have done against us: It had been sufficient for them to have denied us their Assistance, without having condemned us as guilty of breach of Alliance, which, as all the other parts of the opposition made to us, we are satisfied is not the Act of the English Nation, and therefore can create no misunderstanding betwixt them and us, but perhaps may prove a Weapon in time to break the Heads of H—s and his Suborners.  
In the 5th Page, that his Book may be all of a piece, he advances a forged Obligation upon us, from the Union of the Crowns, which is, that we are thereby delivered from the daily Feuds and bloody little Wars that raged amongst us for 1900 years, which unnatural Massacnes our native Princes were unable to suppress, etc. This is downright falsehood in matter of Fact; for those Feuds, as he calls them, ceased in the Lowlands long before the Union, but continue still in the Highlands, which we can scarocly think is unknown to our Author who was born so near that Country as Dumbarton. The Macdonalds have been several times in Arms against the Earl of Argile since the Restoration, and there's a Fend now depending between the Frazers and the Murrays, or rather the Family of Athol. Non did we ever hear of any thing that looked so like an unnatural Massacre in Scotland as that committed since though Revolution upon the Inhabitants of Glenco, which had it not been for the Union of the Crowns, would not have been suffered to go unpunished. But admitting it to be true, that the Union had delivered us from those little Feuds, we are no gainers by the Bargain, since it hath occasioned greater; pauticularly that unnatural Feud which raged so long betwixt the Episcopal Party and Presbyterians, and had its rise altogether from the Union of the Crowns; the very prospect of which, was the sole cause why the Earl of Morton (when Regent) set up the first Protestant Bishops in Scotland.  
Into what Couvulsions that Imposition threw the Nation is well enough known; and how besides the bringing down K Charles I. with 30000 Men against our Kingdom, and contributing to engage the Nations in a Civil War, it occasioned King Charles II. to plunder the West of Scotland, first by Sir James Turner, which gave rise to the Insurrection at Pentland; and twice afterwards by the Highland Host, which occasioned that of Bothwel-Bridg: And afterwards the Oppression run so high, that it forced some of the Presbyterians into unaccountable Actions, which gave occasion to oppress the whole Party; so that it was made punishable by Death for any of their Ministers to preach, or for the People to hear them. From this indeed, we were totally delivered by the Revolution, though our freedom in that respect was partly begun by the late King James' Declaration. But our Enemies, unwilling that our Nation should be long at ease, have found other Methods to set our Court against us: And because they know that his present Majesty has too great a Soul to persecute any man on the account of Conscience; our Enemies have changed their Battery, and instead of pointing their Cannon at our Religion, they levelly them against our Civil Liberties. The Powder they prime their Artillery with, is, That we are Enemies to Prerogative: But because this would not go down with the good People of England, who are strenuous Assertors of Liberty and Property, they must gild it over with the specious Pretence, that we have a design to undermine their Trade, and have unjustly invaded the Spanish Dominions. This is the Design of H—s and his Suborners; and therefore they insist so much on our Clandestine Declarations, as they call them, that we published in the English Plantations, on purpose to drain them of their People; but unhappily overthrow what they advance at the same time, when they tell us, That the Jamaica Sloops were Witnesses that we had neither Provisions, nor Money for the sustenance of our own People, pag. 148. And therefore it cannot reasonably be supposed that we had any such design as he malicioufly charges us with, to draw over the People from the English Plantations, since we had not wherewith to support our own; but more of this anon. Our Author learned the Maxim of Calumniare audacter & aliquid barebit, when he was a Papist: And if he and his Suborners can be any way instrumental to set the Nations together by the Ears by this Method; or if that fail, if they can but raise Animositys between them, they know it will be a good pretence for some people to put his Majesty upon pressing for a Standing Army, and perhaps for having it enlarged, it being necessary, say they, to overaw the Scors, but in reality to protect such evil Counsellors from being brought to Justice, that have advised to such Measures as visibly tend to the disadvantage of both Nations.  
It may perhaps be worth the Enquiry of our Neighbours whether this be not the real meaning of this intolerable Oppression exercised upon our Nation as to their Trade both at home and abroad, viz. that knowing our prafervidum. Ingenium, as they are pleased to call it, to be impatient under Tyranny, the Faction think thereby to provoke us to a resentment that may give occasion for raising an Army against us; which if it have the good hap to subdue us, or force us to digest our Oppresslon without any more to do, shall be made use of afterwards to chastise themselves, and bring them to better Manners, then to limit their Monarches in their Grants, and leave them no other Troops but their Garrisons and Guards. It was the Observalton of the Earl of Shastsbury, whom his Enemies will own to have been a great Statesman, that Scotland is a Door to let in Good or Evil upon England; which is verified in the latter at least by the whole Course of our History since the Union: for when K. James I. succeeded in trampling upon us, he quickly began to huff his Parliaments in England; and notwithstanding all the Remonstrances of Church and State, would needs have a Popish Match for his Son, though he should sacrifice the Great Sir Walter Raleigh, his own Daughter the Queen of Bohemia, and her Children, together with the Protestant Interest in Germany, to make way for it. When Charles I. obtained footing for his. Impositions on the Church and State of Scotland, it's well enough known what Methods he took with England, and how he sacrificed the Protestant Interest in France, whilst he eagerly pursued an Arbitrary Sway at home. When Charles II. got his Prerogative exalted, and an Army at his Call allowed him in Scotland, it's too late to be forgotten how he trod under foot the Liberties of England, seized the Charters of their Cities, cut off whom he would by Sham-Plots, and paved the way for Popery and Arbitrary Power. When K. James II. did by his absolute Power and unaccountable Authority cass and annul all the Laws establishing the Reformation in Sootland; it was not long  he suspended the Laws, imprisoned the Bishops, and filled with Papists his Council, Army, and Universities in England. From all which it is evident that our Neighbours have reason to look to themselves when we are oppressed; for in all probability their Acts of Parliament will not be long regarded, when ours are annulled and made void by the Intrigues of the Courtiers, and West-India Proclamations. The very Advocats of Tyranny make use of this as their Herculean Argument, That the People having once resigned their Privileges to the Crown, have no more right to demand them; which though we will not allow to be any ways concluding, yet we may very well make use of it ad hominem, that a pari ratione, when once a Prince has touched with his Sceptre a Law for the benefit of his Subjects, it is not in his power to revoke or counteract it; or if he do, by the same Power that he absolves himself from his Obligation to protect and defend his Subjects, he absolves them from all obligation to pay him any Revenue or Allegiance. This is the Birthright of all Scots-men; and if our Neighbours in England have a mind to sit still, and fee us bereft of it, all the benefit they can expect from it, is to have the Privilege of being devoured last.  
The rest of his Banter upon his native Country serves only to lessen his own credit, and to make even those that set him at work, curse him in thought, not only as a Monster in nature, but as dishonest to them, by depriving them thus of the benefit of his Evidence, for which they have paid him so well; since no body in the world can think a man will have any regard to Truth, that in such an impudent manner breaks thro' all the Ties of Nature; and as a just Judgement for so enormous a Crime, is so far deprived of his reasoning Faculty, that he is not sensible of his cutting his own Throat, by contradicting himself almost in every Paragraph. He upbraids us in one Page with not having dared to descend into the Plains, and that those gallant Men our Ancestors durst not assemble for Worship before the Union, except in a House whose Wall was twelve or 14 foot thick, or to whisper their Prayers or Carols thro' the Cliffs of the Mountains: In the next Page he tells us he has no Inclination to offer any thing in opposition to the Gallantry of our Ancestors; and in some Pages following he impertinently ridicules the Valour of our Country in the Story of Balliol, which he perverts in such a manner, as no man but himself is capable of.  
We don't think it worth while to answer him according to his Folly, but shall once for all let him know, that the most invective of the English Historians, that wrote in the heat of the War, do us more Justice than this unnatural Renegado. There's no Nation in Europe, where we have not given proofs of our Valour, nor is there a Court in Christendom where Scots-men are not valued on that account. Sam. Daniel, one of the best of the English Historians, owns that never any People of the World did more gallantly defend their Liberties than we did in that very instance of Balliol, when we were without a Head; and from thence infers, what was it we could not have done, had we been then under the conduct of such a Leader as K. Robert Bruce. Speed, one of the gravest of the English Historians, does generously own, that few great Actions have been performed in Europe, where the Scots have not been with the first and last in the Field.  
We could easily give a proper Reply to the impertinent Romance which he brings about Balliol, that would tend as much or more to the dishonour of Edward I. II. and III. than any thing that he and his Suborners have suggested can tend to the dishonour of our Nation; but we forbear it, having no design to reflect upon our Neighbours, notwithstanding the rude Treatment and Provocation that we have had from H— s, and others on this occasion. We can, without thinking ourselves injured, own that the English are as brave Men as any in the World, and are satisfied, that such of our Neighbours as are Men of Honour and Reading, will allow us the same Character. We perceive it is the design of this Libeler and others to represent the English Nation as Enemies to us in this matter, on purpose to set us together by the Ears; but we are satisfied of the contrary, as well knowing that not a few of our good Neighbours are much surprised and displeased with our Treatment, and look upon the same to be the effect of such Councils as are destructive to the Interest of both Nations.  
We shall conclude this point with one Observation more upon H H—s's Ignorance and Malice, in denying that the Scots expelled Balliol from the Crown, when such a noble Monument of the truth of it, as the original Letter of the States of Scotland, is still to be seen in the University of Oxford, and exemplifyed by Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Sarum, in his History of the Reformation; and since it is also plain that our Ancestors chose Robert Bruce King during Baliol's Life-time, and that Balliol at last resigned all his Pretensions, confessed his Fault in subjecting the Crown of Scotland to that of England, owned that he was deservedly thrust from the Throne for it, congratulated his Kinsman Robert Bruce's Advancement, and that he had restored the Crown of Scotland to its ancient Honour.  
We take no notice of his profane and atheistical Banter upon the Religion of our Country, as being satisfied that that will do his Cause no good amongst thinking men, though it may please those that he is only fit to converse with. As for his malicious charge on Presbyterians, that they maintain it as their Principle, That Dominion is founded on Grace; it's of a piece with the rest of his Evidence. He and his Suborners will be very hard put to it to quote one of their Authors to prove the Assertion, and therefore they may well reject it as a slander: but we must tell him that if this be the Principle of the Presbyterians, they have not well answered it by their practice; for whenever they had any such thing as Dominion at their disposal, they seldom had the good hap to confer it upon those that had Grace enough to answer the ends of it. We forbear Instances, because it's too well known both in France and Great Britain.  
We come next to examine his Charge upon our Colony on purpose to render them odious to the English Nation, and all the World, and shall transcribe it verbatim, that the reason of our Observations upon it may be the more obvious. His words are these.  
If your Colony has left Darien for Reasons not as yet public to the World, 'tis your fault, Right Worshipful Gentlemen, in undertaking to manage a Project you so little understood, and not of the English Nation, whose Interest it is to abvance and preserve their own Colonies, and to keep them from being rendered desolate by the clandestine Artisices of yours, who industriously and tacitly spread their Declarations over all the English Islands and Plantations, making use of the King of Great Britain's Name, to give more authority to the thing: And by those indirect Manifestos, such Profits, or rather Plunders were insinuated, that if the Government of England had not taken early measures to prevent the ill Consequences, it's to be questioned whether the greatest part of the English West Indies had not e'er now quitted their Settlements, and been decoyed into your Colony, under a covered Notion, that you had a Patent from the King to pick a quarrel with the Spaniard, and to divide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru amongst the Servants and Adventurers of the Company.  
This indeed is something to the purpose, and might deserve the Suborners Money, were there no possibility of proving it false; but we shall see anon what ground there is for this bold Accusation, after observing.  
That perhaps some Gentlemen at the West end of the Town may find at long-run that their Evidence has blabbed out something more in this Paragraph than it's for their Interest the World should know. We will only ask Mr. H—s some civil Questions: What are those Reasons not as yet public to the World, for which our Colony left Darien? Sir William Beeston's Letter acquainted us that it was for want of Provisions, and for fear of the great Preparations by the Spaniards: The Letters we have had since from New-York say, that it was for want of Provisions, and because they were brought to their wit's end, and did not know what to think of their Case by reason of the English Proclamations. Then since the very first of these, and much more all of them together, were reason sufficient, and are public to the World, What other private reasons can Mr. H—s give us for it? We know he boasts of his Interest in those that are concerned in the Secrets of the West End of the Town: Did they tell him then that the Government of England took early Measures to prevent the ill Consequences of our Colony? If they did so, pray what were those Measures? Was the sending of Capt. Long thither to debauch our Men, traduce us to the Indians as Pirates, and to tell them his Majesty of Great Britain would not protect us, one of those early Measures? Was not their soliciting a foreign Minister to present a Memorial against our Colony as soon as ever the News of it arrived, another? And was not this the reason why they put it upon that Minister, and not upon the Spanish Ambassador, that the latter had been forbidden coming to Court, because his Catholic Majesty would not admit of Schonenburg the the Jew as Envoy from the Dutch? Were not the Enemies of the Scots Company so zealous in promoting that Memorial, that they could not have patience till orders came from Madrid, but put the Envoy upon it of themselves? And when a Controversy happened about receiving it signed or unsigned because of the difference betwixt the two Courts, did not our Enemies agree to it as an Expedient, that one of both sorts should be presented? Was not this abominable trifling upon a point of Honour, when they were plotting to bereave the Kingdom of Scotland of their Honour, Men, Money, and Colony all at once? Were not these more clandestine and indirect Artifices to destroy our Colony, than any he charges upon us to destroy the English Colonies?  
Having asked Mr. H— s more Questions than he and his Suborners dare positively answer, we come next to deny his Charge upon our Colony, as being malicious and absolutely false; for which their own Declaration shall be our Evidence, and is as follows.  

CALEDONIA: The Declaration of the Council constitured by the Indian and African Company of Scotland, for the government and direction of their Colonies and Settlements in the Indies.  
THE said Company pursuant to the Powers and Immunities granted unto them by His Majesty of Great Britain, our Sovereign Lord, with Advice and Consent of His Parliament of Scotland, having granted and conceded unto us and our Successors in the Government for all times hereafter, full Power to equip, set out, freight, and navigate our own or hired Ships, in warlike or other manner, from any Ports or Places in amity, or not in hostility with His Majesty; to any Lands, Islands, Countries, or Places in Asia, Africa, or America; and there to plant Colonies, build Cities, Towns or Forts, in or upon the places not inhabited; or in or upon any other place, by consent of the Natives or Inhabitants thereof, and not possessed by any European Sovereign, Potentate, Prince, or State; and to provide and furnish the aforesaid Places, Cities, Towns, or Forts, with Magazines, Ordinance, Arms, Weapons, Ammunition and Stores of War; and by force of Arms to defend the same Trade, Navigation, Colonies, Cities, Towns, Forts, Plantations, and other Effects whatsoever; and likewise to make Reprizals, and to seek and take reparation of damage done by Sea or by Land; and to make and conclude Treaties of Peace and Commerce with Sovereign Princes, Estates, Rulers, Governors or Proprietors of the aforesaid Lands, Istands, Countries, or places in Asia, Africa or America.  
And reserving to themselves five per Cent. or one twentieth part of the Lands, Mines, Minerals, Stones of value, precious Woods, and Fishings, have further conceded and granted unto us, the free and absolute Right and Property in and to all such Lands, Islands, Colonies, Towns, Forts and Plantations, as we shall come to, establish, or possess in manner aforesaid; as also to all manner of Treasures, Wealth, Riches, Profits, Mines, Minerals and Fishings, with the whole Product and Benefit thereof, as well under as above the Ground, as well in Rivers and Seas as in the Lands thereunto belonging; or for or by reason of the same in any sort, together with the right of Government and Admiralty thereof; as likewise that all manner of Persons who shall settle to inhabit, or be born in any such Plantations, Colonies, Cities, Towns, Factories, or Places, shall be, and be reputed as Natives of the Kingdom of Scotland. And generally the said Company have communicated unto us a Right to all the Powers, Properties and Privileges granted unto them by Act of Parliament, or otherwise howsoever, with Power to grant and delegate the same, and to permit and allow such sort of Trade, Commerce and Navigation unto the Plantations; Colonies, Cities, and Places of our Possession, as we shall think fit and convenient.  
And the chief Captains and supreme Leaders of the People of Darien, in compliance with former Agresments, having now in most kind and obliging manner received us into their Friendship and Country with promise and contract to assist and join in defence, thereof, against such as shall be their or our Enemies in any time to come: Which, besides its being one of the most healthful, rich, and fruitful. Countries upon Earth, hath the advantage of being a narrow ISTHMUS, seated in the height of the World, between two vast Oceans, which renders it more convenient than any other for being the common Storehouse of the insearchable and immense Treasures of the spacious South Seas, the door of Commerce to China and Japan, and the Emporium and Staple for the Trade of both Indies.  
And now by virtue of the  Powers to us given. We do here settle, and in the name of GOD establish Ourselves: end in Honour and for the Momory of that most Ancient and Renowned Name of our Mother Kingdom, We do, and will from henceforward call this Country by the Name of Caledonia; and ourselves, Successors, and Associates, by the name of Caledonians.  
And suitable to the Weight and greatness of the Trust reposed, and the valuable Opportunity now in our hands, being firmly resolved to communicate and dispose thereof in the most just and equal manner for increasing the Domimons and Subjects of the King Our Sovereign Lord, the Honour and Wealth of our Country, as well as the benefit and advantage of those who now are, or may hereafter be concerned with us: We do hereby declare, That all manner of Pcople soever, shall from henceforward be equally free and alike capable of the said Properties, Privileges, Protections, Immunities, and Rights of Government granted unto us; and the Merchants and Merchants Ships of all Nations, may freely come to and trade with us, without being liable in their Persons, Goods or Effects, to any manner of Capture, Confiscation, Seizure, Forfeiture, Attachment, Arrest, Restraint or Prohibition, for or by reason of any Embargo, breach of the Peace, Letters of Mark, or Reprizals, Declaration of War with any foreign Prince, Potentate or State, or upon any other account or pretence whatsoever.  
And we do hereby not only grant and concede, and declare a general and equal freedom of Government and Trade to those of all Nations, who shall hereafter be of, or concerned with us; but also a full and free Liberty of Conserence in matter of Religion, so as the same be not understood to allow, connive at or indulge the blaspheming of God's holy Name, or any of his Divine Attributes; or of the unhallowing or profaning the Sabbath Day.  
And finally, as the best and surest means to render any Government successful, durable, and happy, it shall (by the help of Almighty God be ever our constant and chiefest care that all our further Constitutions, Laws, and Ordinances, be consonant and agreeable to the Holy Scripture, right Reason, and the Examples of the wisest and justest Nations, that from the Truth and Right cousness thereof we may reasonably hope for and expect the Blessings of Prosperity and Increase.  
NEW-EDINBURGH, Decemb. 18. 1608. By Order of the Council, Hugh Ross, Secretary.   
We dare refer it to the Scrutiny of the nicest Observers, whether this Declaration infer any such thing as Plunder, or a Patent from the King to pick a Quarrel with the Spaniards, and to divide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru; what clandestine Artifices are here to be found to drain the English Plantations, and wherein does it interfere with the Interest of England, any more than all free Ports must of necessity interfere with their Neighbours? We wish that our Author would inform us how public Declarations according to Act of Parliament can be called clandestine Artisices, and defy him and his Suborners with all their art to find any thing pretended to in this Declaration, but what the Colony has a right to by Act of Parliament.  
The only thing this malicious Scribbler can wrest to his Purpose in the Declaration, is the Colony's publishing that all manner of Persons, of what Nation or People soever, etc. should be equally free, and alike capable of the same Privileges with themselves, etc. which are the express Words of the Act of Parliament; and therefore supposing that the said Declaration should have influenced some People to come over to them from the English Plantations, the Colony could not be any ways blamed for it. Qui utitur jure suo nil damni facit, is a known Maxim in Maw.  
The libeler's Malice is not satisfied with reflecting upon our Colony, but flies on the face of the greatest part of the English in the West-Indies, as if they had so little Honour or Love for their native Country, as to lay their own Plantations desolate, and run over to ours. Indeed if most of them be such Persons as himself, there might be some ground for the Reflection; but till it appears to be so, we must beg Mr. H H—s's leave to have a better opinion of them. No Man of sense can believe that those who found themselves at ease in the English Plantations, would be fond of removing to a new Colony; but if others who are at their freedom had a mind to do so, we know of no reason they should be hindered. The Subjects of England are a free People, and not confined to their own Dominions, but have liberty to trade and live elsewhere, if they find their account in it.  
There's no man can blame the Scots for publishing their Declaration throughout the West-Indies, the thing being absolutely necessary in itself, and the natural Practice of all new Settlements to acquaint the World with the nature of their Design, and on what Terms they may have Commerce with them. We hope our Author and his Suborners will not say that the Subjects of England might not have traded with them for their own advantage, provided their Title had been unexceptionable: and seeing the Scots had reason to think it so, it was no act of unkindness in them to let the English Plantations know that they should be very welcome to trade to Darien; and how this could be done so properly, and with so much effect as by Declaration, our Author would do well to acquaint us.  
The Gentleman and his Friends are very angry that we should have made use of the King of Great Britain's Name to give the more Authority to the thing. We would very fain know their Reasons, why it is not as lawful for the Scots to make use of that Name as the English; and at the same time must take leave to tell the Renegado and his Whitehall Friends, that all this Venom they have spit at the Scots Colony is a virulent Invective against his Majesty. He impower'd them to do what they accuse them for by Act of Parliament: and because our Antagonists have a mind to say that this Octroy, as they call it, was destructive to the Trade of England, they find themselves obliged to make an Excuse for the King, viz. that the honest Gentleman meant no harm at the granting of it; for it is to be believed, that he could scarce bear what was whispered for the noise of the Namur Guns, which is in plain English, he gave his consent to he knew not what. A noble Defence, for which his Majesty is obliged to them! But Banter and Blasphemy they were fully resolved on; and so they had but a Subject, they cared not what. Nor Adam, nor David, nay nor the Almighty himself shall escape them; but his Commission to the Hebrews when they departed out of Egypt, must come in to make up the profane Jest: thus Heav●n itself shall be charged at last with founding Dominion upon Grace, and giving the Elect a Divine Right to the Goods of the Wicked, after its being first thrown as a kill Reflection at the Heads of the poor Presbyterians.  
H—s will needs insist upon it in his Dedication, that our Project on Darien was so secretly carried on, that it was not known to England till the same Wind that brought the News likewise informed the Nation that the Scots were marched over to Panama, and had planted 80 Guns against it; but unhappily forgets himself, and tells us, pag. 7. of his Book that Paterson communicated it to some select Heads in England that were able to bear it. And we can tell him further, that it was so well known to some in England, that they sent Capt. Long the Quaker on purpose to prevent us, and to do us all the mischief he could; and accordingly he was on that Coast a month before us, though he did not land any Men till afterwards. As for the news of the Scots having planted 80 Cannon against Panama, it's the first time we ever heard on't, and therefore must charge it upon the Author amongst the rest of his Forgeries. There was indeed a Report brought over by the Dutch Gazettes, which we suppose was inserted on purpose by our good Friends in Holland to render us odious, that we had plundered Panama; but that was a long time after the news of our arrival at Darien, and framed on purpose, as we have reason to believe, to justify the Proclamations that some Gentlemen at the West end of the Town had sent to the West-Indies against us; for we know they can have what they please put in the Dutch Gazettes, and that perhaps may be one main reason why they have been altogether silent as to the matter in their own. But that which sufficiently discovers the falsehood of this malicious Insinuation, as if we had a design to attaque Panama, or any other place belonging to the Spaniards, is, Mr. Paterson's Letter to his Friend at Boston in New-England (and sent us thence in print) dated at Fort St. Andrew in Caledonia, February 18. 1698/ 9 above fifteen weeks after the arrival of our Colony; wherein he acquaints that Gentleman, That they had written to the Precedent of Panama, giving him an account of our good and peaceable Intentions, and to procure a good Understanding and Correspondence.  
The Letter itself is as follows.  

An Abstract of a LETTER from a Person of Eminence and Worth in Caledonia to a Friend at Boston in New-England.  
I Have received your kind Letter of the 26th of December last, and communicated it to the Gentlemen of the Council here; to whom your kind Sentiments and Readiness were very acceptable.  
Certainly the Work here begun is the most ripened, digested, and the best founded, as to Privileges, Place, Time, and other like Advantages, that was ever yet begun in any part of the trading World. We arrived upon this Coast the first, and took possession the third of November: Our Situation is about two Leagues to the Southward of Golden-Island (by the Spaniards called Guarda) in one of the best and most defence able Harbours perhaps in the World. The Country is healthful to a wonder, insomuch that our own Sick, which were many when we arrived, are now generally cured. The Country is exceeding fertile, and the Wether temperate: The Country where we are settled, is dry, and rising ground, Hills but not high; and on the sides, and quite to the tops, three, four or five foot good fat Mould, not a Rock or Stone to be seen. We have but eight or nine Leagues to a River, where Boats may go into the South-Sea. The Natives for fifty Leagues on either side are in entire friendship and correspondence with us; and if we will be at the pains, we can gain those at the greatest distance. For our Neighbour Indians are willing to be the joyful Messengers of our Settlement, and good disposition to their Countrymen. As to the innate Riches of the Country, upon the first information, I always believed it to be very great; but now find it goes beyond all that ever I thought, or conceited in that matter.  
The Spaniards, as we can understand, are very much surprised and alarmed, and the more that it comes as a Thunderclap upon them; having had no notice of us, until three days after our arrival. We have written to the Precedent of Panama, giving him account of our good and peaceable Intentions, and to procure a good Understanding and Correspondence; and if that is not condescended to, we are ready for what else he pleases. If Merchants should once erect Factories here, this place will soon become the best and surest Mart in all America, both for Inland and Over-land Trade. We want here Sloops and Coasting Vessels; for want of which, and by reason we have all hands at work in fortifying and futing ourselves (which is now pretty well over) we have had but little Trade as yet; most of our Goods unsold. We are here a thousand one hundred Men, and expect Supplies every day. We have been exceeding unhappy in losing two Ministers who came with us from Scotland; and if; New-England could supply us in that, it would be a great and lasting Obligation.  
Fort St. Andrew, February 18th, 1698/9.   
A farther proof of the Falsehood of this Insinuation is Capt. Pennicook's Journal sent to the Company over England, and dated Decem. 28th, almost two months before this Letter to New-England, wherein they give an account of the Information they had from several hands, that the Spaniards were marching with 900 men from Panama to attack them by Land, whilst their Men of War were to attack them by Sea; upon which they did all they could to put themselves in a posture of defence against them, so far were they from any design of marching towards Panama.  
The matter being so, H H—s's Suborners have lost their Argument from this Topic also, to justify their proceed against us.  
He goes on to tell us, That England had no reason to go to War with the Spaniards on the score of our Company, who besides all the Loss of their Trade, must throw away more English pounds (thrice over) than there's Scotch in our Capital Stock; and he will leave it to any Man of half an ounce of Politics to find out the Jest on't, save this  Author of our Colony's Defence.  
Mr. H—s and his Suborners may please to know, that we neither desired nor expected that England should go to War with the Spaniards on the account of our Company; and had as little reason to expect that a Faction in England (for we will not be so unjust as to charge it upon the Nation) should go to War with us on account of the Spaniards, before we could be heard in our own defence; we mean that Proclamations should have been published in the West-Indies, inferring that the King of England has a power to declare that to be a breach of the Peace that is done by the Authority of the King of Scotland; that they should thereby forbid their Subjects of England to entertain any Commerce with us, refuse us Provisions for Commodities in our distress, except we will bring our Ships under the Guns of their Fort at New-York; punish their Subjects for entertaining Commerce with us, and threatening to lay the Commanders of our Ships in Irons if they offer to put in for Refreshment, or to refit after a Storm, as they did to Capt. Jamison at Nevis. That this wants very little of going to War with the Scots, we believe most thinking men are very well satisfied; but whether it be so or not, we will venture to tell the Renegado and his Suborners, that by this kind of Procedure against the Scots, as if we were Servants and Subjects to England, some Gentlemen in and about Whitehall have given the Spaniards just occasion to make War upon England if they were able, or at least to make Reprisals upon the English for the damage they pretend to have suffered from the Scots, whom the English Court by this sort of Treatment have declared to be their Subjects; whereas if they had not invaded the Sovereignty of Scotland, the Spaniards could have had no such pretonce. Now whether men that had been endowed with a quarter of an ounce of Politics would have been guilty of such a false step as this, let our Author's Suborners determine. And besides, we must tell them, that the Men whom Capt. Long had set ashore with Capt. Diego in the Gulf of Darien, committed the first Hostility on the Spaniards, and killed seven of them, with a design, for any thing we know, to trapan us into a War with the Spaniards, since one of the same Fellows came to our Colony afterwards for Powder and Shot, which our Men wisely denied them, and told them they had done what they could not justify.  
The Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement does no where advise the English to a War with Spain on the score of our Company; but gives such Arguments to prove that they had no reason to dread the Effects if Spain should make War with them on that Account, and that it was the Interest of England to have supported the Scots in that Settlement, as have not yet been answered, and therefore we shall say nothing farther of it here.  
Our Author and his Friends are pleased to call our apprechensions of the Places being possessed by the French bugbear Stories, because the French have another Game to play at present with Spain, or might have secured Carthagena when they had it in their Power; and that if France or Holland had any such design, they may go sit down within a League of either side of our Colony with as good a Title as ours.  
But that the French are genetally wiser than to lay out their Money upon such Tools as this Author appears to be by his way of argning, one would be apt to think he had touched some Leuidor's. Does he conceive that the French understood their Interest so little during the War that threatened their Ruin, as to settle a Colony in the West-Indies at a time when they stood in more need of them at home to defend their own Country, and cultivate their Ground and Vineyards? Is it not known that their Design was on the Spanish Plate, in order to enable them to continue the War, and not on the Spanish Plantations, which they were in no Capacity to defend against the Spaniards and their Allies if they had at that time seized any of them? Does our Author and his Suborners think that L. XIV. did not understand his Interest better than to offer at a Settlement in the Spanish West-Indies, especially at a place of such Importance as Carthagena, and thereby have give the English and Dutch an opportunity of settling there themselves by coming to drive him out? Can he think that the two Nations of Europe that have the greatest Naval Force, and were most concerned of any to reduce him to reason, would sit still and suffer him to seize the Spanish Treafures, and by that means enable himself to bring all Europe under his Yoke? It is impossible such a thought could ever enter into his mind; and therefore he had very good reason to forbear keeping possession of Carthagena, since 'twould have been the ready way to have spoiled his future pretensions to the West-Indies in case of the K. of Spain's death, which every body then expected daily. And whenever it happens, if he die without Issue, as there's great odds he will, we stand in need of better Guarantees than H— and his Suborners, that the Fr. King will not seize the Spanish West-Indies and Darien into Boot; against which there are those who have studied Politics as much as our Author, who are of opinion that the Settlement at Darien might have been no contemptible Barrier.  
The Scribbler takes upon him to pafs his word for his Majesty that the Scots Crown will receive no blemish or disreputation by his wearing it. We believe his Majesty will scarcely thank him for his Security, and we are satisfied our Nation will as little rely on it. But at the same time we must tell this Gentleman and his Suborners, that we had as little reason to suspect that K. Charles I. who was a Native of Scotland, would have dishonoured our Crown so far as to order it to be brought to England; and therefore it is not imposfible for Princes to be over-persuaded by ill Council, to do such things as are inconsistent with the Honour of their Crowns. And thus some will venture to say, that the Crown of Scotland was no ways honoured, when the Dutch Troops took place of the King of Scots' Guards; and when the King of England takes upon him to condemn by Proclamations what the King of Scotland has approved by Act of Parliament and Letters Patent.  
The Scribbler comes next to give us a taste of his Skill in the British History he brags of so much, by telling us the Fate of some great Scots Families that swelled beyond their Proportion. His Instances of the Cummins and Goury's sufficiently discover his Ignorance of the Scotish History. The former was indeed a very great Family, but are an inauspicious instance for him and those of his kidney, their ruin not being occasioned by their Greatness, but by joying with the Enemies of our Nation as this Renegado does.  
As for his Application of his Instances, it serves to discover the malicious Designs of himself and Suborners against the two greatest Families that are now left in Scotland. The kind treatment this Author met with from one of these great Men upon his arrival, after having deserted our Colony, would have obliged any but a Monster of Ingratitude to have forborn such a causeless and envenomed Reflection, which nothing but ingrained Malice can suggest.  
We come in the next place to take a view of the Book itself. In the very first Page he owns he is no Friend to the Scots Company, and alleges he has more reason for it than those Skeletons that are starved to death. This we hope is sufficient to show what credit is to be given to his Narrative, wherein though he promises to keep close to matter of Fact, he abounds with blasphemous and impertinent Digressions: One of the first we shall take notice of, is his unmannerly Reflection on the City of London, pag. 3. as a place where Matter is never wanting to exercise plodding Heads. Which is so near a kin to the Language of the Faction that in the late Reigns aimed at the destruction of that Noble Emporium, which deserves to be the Mistress of the Universe, that we cannot in the least doubt but it proceeds from the same Spirit. Of the same nature is his reflection, pag. 7. upon the London Subscribers, who came in so fast to the Scots Company, that he thought himself the happiest man that could get his Name first down in our Books: Which is a plain demonstration that those eager Subscribers thought the Design no way prejudicial to the Interest of their Country; for upon enquiry it will be found, that most of them were such as had zealously appeared for its Liberty in former Reigns.  
His malicious Reflection in that same Page, as if the Company had promised 20000 l to Paterson, Smith, and Lodge, to engage Subscriptions in England and the Hans-Towns, is notoriously false: they had not one Farthing promised them, though to be sure the Company would have rewarded them for their Pains and Service, as it was reasonable they should; besides, it appears by the eagerness of the English and Hamburgers to subscribe, until they were prevented by their respective Governments, that there was no occasion for such a Bribe to bring in Subscriptions.  
His Reflection, pag. 8. of our printing the Address of the Commons at Edinburgh, but not the King's Answer, admitting it to be true, is so far from being criminal, that it rather argues the greatest respect imaginable for his Majesty, whom we would not lessen in the esteem of the People of Scotland, who knew they had a natural Right to claim and expect his Protection. His owning in that same Page, that the Company's Books had not been long opened in Edinburgh till 400000 l was signed, and that all sorts of People (whom he is pleased to express under the scurrilous denomination of poor, blind and lame) crowded in with their Subscriptions, serves to confute his foregoing and following Reflections, That the Company was obliged to promise 20000 l to procure Subscriptions, and to go where the Money lay, viz. to Holland and the Hans- Towns; especially since he owns himself, p. 10, 19 That they were balked of their Subscriptions in England and Holland, and had not one Groat of the Hamburgers' Money.  
His Reflection upon Mr. Paterson, pag, 8. whom he blasphemously calls the Man Paterson, alluding to the Apostles calling our Saviour the Man Christ's, is altogether false: he always proposed the paying half the Subscriptions, and most of the Subscribers were resolved to pay the whole; as it appears they have already a considerable part of it, by their having sent away three Convoys, and being busy in preparing a fourth. His Irreligious and Atheistical temper appears further by his reflecting upon their expecting good Returns by the old Cant of God's Blessing, as if it were possible to look for Success in any thing without the Divine Benediction, or ridiculous to express our dependency on it. But it seems his Suborners are resolved that our Nation shall be huffed, bantered, and blasphemed out of all their Rights as Men and Christians.  
His next Reflection, p. 9 of our sending Persons to build six Ships of fifty Guns apiece at Amsterdam and Hamburgh, to prepossess the Dutchmen with a kind opinion of the Company, and thereby make it appear how willing we were to extend the warm Rays of our Octroy to people who deserved it better than our ungrateful Neighbours, is malicious to the highest degree. He and his Suborners very well know, that we could neither build nor buy in England, because of the opposition made to us there; and since 'tis known that they can build cheaper in Hamburgh and Holland than in England, our offering first to lay out our Money with our Neighbours, and not going beyond Sea till we were compelled to it, is a proof from his own Mouth, that we had no other but friendly Intentions towards the English Nation.  
His Insinuation of the Difference betwixt the Kirk and Church Parties, about each of them employing their own Instruments, shows more Malice than Wisdom; since admitting People of different Persuasions into Companies is practised in all trading parts of the World, and particularly in England, where the Dissenters have no small share in all their Funds and Companies: but by this they may see what fair Treatment they are to expect, if H—s and his Suborners could get their wills. The old Popish Maxim would soon be brought into practice, that no man should have Leave to buy or sell, but he that is of the public Religion.  
His next Story of our Debate about entrusting any man that was fed on English Beef and Pudding with 20000 l for the use of our Delegates abroad, is equally scurrilous and false. We trusted no man but Mr. Paterson with that Money, and did not think it sit that every Subscriber, but that only a special Committee should know how that Money was to be employed. Nor can this be charged upon us as a piece of foolish Confidence in Mr. Paterson, whom the Scribbler owns P. 4. to have been entrusted with laying the Foundation of the Bank of England, though ill rewarded for it. His malicious Calumny, that Mr. Paterson did afterwards form the Darien Project to be revenged on the English Nation, is sufficiently falsified by his and our first Offers to take in the English as joint Subscribers, after the said Project was actually formed, and imparted to some select Heads, as he himself owns P. 7.  
As to Smith's cheating us of 8500 it was our Misfortune, not our Crime, as is manifest from our Diligence in recovering 4500 l of it. This Renedo's saying P. 11. that Smith deservedly bubled us, argues himself to be as great a Cheat as Smith; and there's little reason to doubt, but he defrauded the Company as far as opportunity would allow him, when entrusted as Purser with their Stores from Hamburgh, and elsewhere, which he seems to own himself when he boasts of his bringing home as much Gold-dust from Darien, as any of the Counsellors, P. 149.  
His Assertion P. 14. that Capt. Gibson was cheated of the 2 per Cent Commission Money, is a shameless Falsehood; the Captain was satisfied, and rewarded to his own content.  
The next proof we have of the Ingenuity of this Renegado and his Suborners, is P. 15. where he tells us that Paterson being in Drink, babbled out a Secret of the Company at Camphire, viz. That their Act empowered them to give Commissions to any kind of People (without ask their Nation) to trade to the Indies under Scots Colours; and that such People might dispose of their India Goods where they pleased, providing they made a shame Entry in Scotland. To say that this was a Secret of the Company, and in the same breath to inform the World that Mr. Paterson said, they were impowered to do so by their Act, which was every where public, and in print, is like the rest of the libeler's Inconsistencies: But his Suborners and he were so far transported with Malice, that they resolved to dress our Act of Parliament throughout in the disguise of a Cheat, and charge it upon the Company as secret Intrigues, without ever considering that the Act itself would discover their Falsehood and Malice. The Clause of the Act is as follows: And that the said Company may, by virtue hereof, grant and delegate such Rights, Properties, Powers and Immunities, and permit and allow such sort of Trade, Commerce, and Navigation into their Plantations, Colonies, Cities, Towns, or Places of their Possession, as the said Company shall from time to time judge sit and convenient.  
These being the very words of the Act, the Dutch could not be imposed upon in that manner by Mr. Paterson, if he had been so minded; or had he been drunk, as the Libeler says, when he told the story, they must have been very weak men, that would offer to sign upon the words of a drunken man, without seeing the Act itself. It is not to be doubted but this Clause empowers the Company to allow such a Trade as H—s mentions; and therefore it might be proper enough for Mr. Paterson to urge it as an Argument to engage Subseribers: but that he could do it in these Terms that H—s here sets down, there's no ground to believe; and therefore his Answer to those that would not sign but on that bottom, that the Company had no occasion to make use of that Power at present, was very proper. The Story of the shame Entry in Scotland, paying 3 per Cent. to the Company, and thereby underselling the English and Dutch 17 per Cent. is so void of all sense, that it would seem the Libeler and his Suborners were drunk when they suggested it. The Act does indeed oblige such Ships as were employed by the Company to break bulk in Scotland, but lays no such Obligation upon those that they might empower to trade to their Colony: And considering what has been already said of the Drawbacks', that the Cargo of the said Ships was Custom-free no where but in Scotland, and that by his own concession they were to pay 3 per Cent. at least to the Company, how was it possible they could undersell the English and Dutch 17 per Cent. especially considering the vast Quantities that those two Companies buy at a time, and by consequence were like to have the prime Cost easier than our Infant Company?  
After all this shame Story, he happens to tell the main reason of the Miscarriage of our Design in Holland and perhaps of its doing so in England. The Dutch East and West India Companies, says he, complained to the Lords of Amsterdam that the Scots Commissioners were designing the ruin of their Trade. Which by the way shows that the Project of an American Trade was discoursed of by the Commissioners; which the Libeler, it's probable, would not have mentioned, had not his Memory given him the slip, and that he forgot he had formerly told us that the Darien Project was still kept secret. Why then should the Dutch West-India Company be so much concerned at our taking Subscriptions there, but that they knew we had a design on the Isthmus of America? and therefore their East-India Company knowing also, that we being once Masters of a good Settlement there, it would have abridged the way, and made Voyages speedier to China, Japan, the Philippine Islands, etc. where their Trade lies, they thought it might in time be dangerous for them, if that Isthmus should be possessed by the Subjects of Great Britain. So that there's no reason to doubt but they found Interest enough at the West end of the Town to lay as many rubs in our way as was possible to be done.  
P. 17. The Libelers give us another Evidence of their Candour and Ingenuity, when they tell us, The Hamburghers knew nothing of Darien, but builded altogether on Ships laden with India Goods, whereof their City and Port was to be the Receptacle and Mart, whilst Paterson wanted only Money to raise Forces to overrun Mexico and Peru. But our Author and his Suborners ought to have considered, that since they have told us of the Fears of the Dutch West-India Company, we could easily infer, that the Project of the Isthmus could not be long concealed from the Hamburghers: That the Act itself would satisfy the Subscribers there, that the Company's Ships must break bulk in Scotland; and therefore they could not expect to be the Receptacle and Mart of our Stores: whatever they might hope for as to conveying the Merchandise to the Inland Places of Germany, they could not but think that we had Shipping of our own to carry our Goods to the Ports on the Baltic and Germane Sea.  
In that same Page they give us another hint to confirm our Suspicion that it is more from the apprehensions of our lessening the Dutch than the English Trade, that the Court have so violently opposed us, viz. that the Hamburghers by joining with the Scots had a prospect of worming the Hollander out of a good part of the Germane Trade. Which admitting to be true, the Hollanders had none but themselves to blame for it, since we offered to take them in as joint Subscribers before we made any Proposal to the Hamburghers; nor is it any ways unreasonable in itself that Germans should have the preference of other Nations in trading with Germany.  
After a great deal of profane Banter and ridiculing the sacred Text, he tells us that the Human Reason of our Disappointment was an unnecessary Paragraph in our Octroy, which occasioned a great many English and Holland Speculations, viz. That in case the Company should be interrupted in their Trade, etc. the King had engaged to interpose the Royal Authority to do them right, and that at the public Charge; which, says he, Paterson and the rest insinuated in all Companies; That the King was to assist and defend them with his Ships of War, or otherwise, if there was occasion, and that out of his own Pocket, which they did not question to be English Coin.  
There's no reasonable Man will think it unnecessary that a Prince should protect his Subjects in their Trade, either by his Men of War or otherwise; and therefore this being a Clause of the Act of Parliament, it was no ways unnecessary to be put into the Patent: and we will adventure to tell H— and his Suborners that they who advised his Majesty to refuse our Company the three Men of War built at our own Charge, when they offered to be at the expense of maintaining them, have advised him to act contrary to the Trust reposed in him as King of Scots, and to contravene this very Act of Parliament, and that which ordered those Ships to be built for defence of Trade; than which there cannot be a more false step in Government: for when once People perceive that Princes have no regard to the Laws made for the protection and welfare of the Subject, they will naturally think themselves absolved from such as require their Allegiance, and support of the Sovereign. That Mr. Paterson, and the Scots Company should insinuate from the Octroy that we were to be assisted or defended by English Men of War or Money, is nothing but a mixture of Falsehood and Malice. The Libeler owns that the Words of our Act cannot bear it, and the World knows that our Parliaments never pretend to dispose of English Ships or Money; and therefore no man of sense will believe this Renegado, when he says the Scots Company put that Gloss on the Text for their own advantage, since that had been directly to expose themselves. For we are not to suppose they could think the Dutch and Hamburghers so weak, as not to peruse the Act itself, which would soon have undeceived them: Therefore all those Reflections, which he protends the English Traders to India made upon it, must vanish of course, as having no manner of Foundation.  
Much less can they serve to justify the Memorial given in at Hamburgh by Sir Paul Ricaut against our taking Subscriptions there: Which Memorial, though minced by our Libeler, yet even as he represents it, is against the Law of Nations, and indeed scarcely reconcileable to good sense; in the first place to call our Agents private Men, who acted by the Company's Authority, and according to Act of Parliament; and in the next place to suppose that the Hamburghers could possibly join with us in hopes of English Protection, when the Opposition made to us by the Court of England was known all over Europe: nay the Scribbler himself owns, P. 17. That the more Opposition the English and Dutch offered to the Project, the more the Hamburghers thought it their Interest to embrace it. This is sufficient to convince the Suborners that the next time they hire a Scribbler to belie the Scots Company, they must be sure to pitch upon one that has a better Memory.  
His next Reflections P. 22, 23. That our Ships were neither fit for Trade nor War, that our Cargo was not proper, that our main Design was the Buccaneer Trade, that above 10000 l. was deficient of the first Payments, and most of the Subscribers not able to raise their Quota, are equally false with the rest. The Ships for their Burden and Size, are as fit either for Trade or War as any in Europe. The Cargo of Cloth, Stuffs, Shoes, Stockings, Slippers, and Wigs, must needs be proper for a Country where the Natives go naked for want of Apparel, and fit to be exchanged for other Commodities, either in the English, Dutch, French, or Spanish Plantations. For Bibles we suppose our Libeler would rather we had carried Mass Books; yet others will be of opinion, that 1500 of 'em was not unfit Cargo: Our own Colony might have dispensed with that number in a little time; nor were they unfit to have been put into the hands of such of the Natives, especially of the younger sort, that might learn our language. For Hoes, Axes, Macheet Knives, & c. they were absolutely necessary for ourselves, and a Commodity much valued by the Natives. Fifteen hundred square Buccaneer Pieces, and proportionable Ammunition, was no such extraordinary Store for eleven or twelve hundred men: and whereas he maliciously insinuates that Buccaneering was our main Design, the Event hath proved it to be false; had that been our intent, we might easily have invaded the Spanish Plantations at both ends of the Isthmus; Sancta Maria, nor Panama itself, could never have been able to withstand such a force, when a few undisciplined Buccaneers did so easily take them. It's well enough known there was a parcel of as brave Men that went with our Fleet as perhaps Great Britain could afford, many of 'em inur'd to War and Fatigues, and knew how to look an Enemy in the Face without being daunted. They had given proofs enough of that in Flanders, where no men alive could fight with more Bravery and Zeal than they did for the Common Cause, though some People have since thought sit to starve them. That there was above 10000 l of the 100000 l not paid in, is false; there was not above 2000 l wanting. For those great men that thought their Countenance enough, and therefore refused to pay in their Subscriptions, he shall have our leave to name them; but perhaps his Suborners will not care to have their Friends so much exposed. That most of the Subscribers were unable to raise their Quota, is demonstrably false, by our sending away two Convoys since, the thirds being greater by far than the first, and that we are now preparing a fourth. As to the Companies charging 25 per Cent. advance on every Article of the 19000 l Stock, it's well enough known that so much Advance is thought nothing in a West-India Trade; it was all the profit. the Company was to have, and only charged in the Books by way of Formality, that the Colony might know what they were indebted to the Company.  
His Story, p. 23. of its being proposed in the Company to sell off their Ships and Cargo, and divide the Product amongst the Subscribers, is nothing eul our dishonour, nor at all to be wondered at, considering the unreasonable opposition we had met with from Court. That we rejected it as inglorious, argues still that we are not so mean-spirited as he elsewhere represents us. His base Reflections, p. 24. on the Company, as if they had despaired of the design, and sent their men to Sea on purpose to perish; and on Drummellier, that be ordered the Colony to get Money honestly if they could, but be sure to get it; and if they came home without it, than the Devil get them all, serve only to discover his own Temper, and that he thinks all men act and speak like himself. We have said enough already to demonstrate the Honesty of both Company and Colony: Had their design been to get: Money without regard to Honesty, they would not have been starved to death by the Proclamations, and other opposition made them at Court; they could quickly have possessed themselves of the Spanish Mines, which the Scribbler owns, p. 164. were within twelve Leagues of them, and with much more ease of the 40000 l that was sunk in the French Ship. But he serves the Suborners for their Money much at the same rate he did the Scots Company.  
His Reflection p. 25. that Mr. Stratford was obliged to arrest our Ships at Hamburgh for 800 l Flemish, as they were fitting out, serves only to discover his own malice and folly; Mr. Stratford had very good Security for 800 l Flemish when he had four Ships in Port not yet fitted out; and his receiving his Money in a fortnight or three weeks, as the Libeler owns in the same Paragraph, shows he had no ill Paymasters to deal with. It were well for England if all those that have been employed in the Royal Navy could say as much by his Suborners and their Friends. As for our discharging Mr. Stratford to be any longer our Cashier, there's no need of assigning any other Cause for it, but that Sr. Paul Ricaut's Memorial rendered it needless; and to that same account we must charge the two Ships that were left there to rot in their Ouse. But at the same time we will tell him we had no great reason to be satisfied with Mr. Stratford's Conduct, and believe we have less now than ever since this Libeler defends him.  
His Story p. 26 of Mr, Hendersons arresting another of our Ships for 3000 l is sufficiently answered by himself, when he tells us, that he and his Partners failed in their Subscriptions, which was a just debt due to the Company, and therefore they had reason to demand and expect it, especially he being a Scots-man: yet the Company dealt very kindly with him on that account; and so much the more, that they considered his being a Residenter in Holland, where he was liable both to the English and Dutch Court, to whose account the Libeler must also charge this Affront, and the Loss we sustained at Amsterdam.  
What he says of our Seamen, p. 27, 28. is a manifest untruth. They were immediately paid, extremely well satisfied; and we had such choice of able Seamen who were willing to go in the Expedition, that we turned feveral ashore after they had embarked, as having no occasion for them. As to his Reflection on Mr. Robert Blackwood for pinching them of their Wages, and p. 46. for cheating them as to their Provisions; that Gentleman is now at London, where we leave H—s and him to account for it. We doubt not but Mr. Blackwood may have Justice done him in Westminster-hall if he thinks sit to sue for it; but so much we think ourselves obliged to say in his Vindication during his absence, that he was never charged with any such thing by the Company.  
His next Reflections on the Transfer, p. 29. by which he would impose on the World as if it had been a Trick of the Company to cheat the seamen of their Wages, are so much the less to be credited, that he himself is a Party, and commenced the Suit he talks of in Doctor's Commons; which though that Court may perhaps have determined in his favour, because the Bargain was made with him in London, and those that made it were on the Spot, and for other Causes best known to themselves, it is nothing at all to the matter in hand; our Courts have no reason to take them for a Precedent, and our Company has as little to allow the Libeler any Wages.  
But to come to the Transfer, which he so foully misrepresents. It was so far from being a clandestine practice, that it was agreed on in public Council, and but highly reasonable that the Colony should be accountable to the Company for the Stock they entrusted them with. The Libeler only betrays his own Folly and Malice, and imposes upon his Suborners, when he says the Gentlemen who gave their joint Bond to the Company for 70000 l were not worth so many English Pence; for, admitting they had not been worth one penny of personal Estate, they were entrusted by the Company with 19000 l Cargo, and Ships, Provisions, & c. to make it up 70000 l which was not charged upon them as their personal Debt, but upon the Colony as a Corporation, till the same was paid. What he says as to the Seamen is a malicious Untruth. It was indeed agreed that the Colony should pay them; but if they did not, the Company was to do it: and besides, the two months advance which the Libeler owns was paid them, the Company was to pay to them, or to those that had their Powers, or Letters of Attorney, a Month in six, and have accordingly paid them. As to the Seamens being made believe that assoon as they had set the Landmen on shore, they were to proceed on a trading Voyage, and return to Scotland to be paid, it is equally false, they being to stay out whilst the Company pleased.  
Then as to the Transfer in general, it was so far from being clandestine, or a Trick, that the Company was impower'd to make it by the Act of Parliament which gave them their Original, as any Person may see by turning to the Act itself, which authorises them to transfer their joint Stock, or Capital Fund, or any Estate real or personal, Ships, Goods, etc. belonging to the Company, under such Restrictions, Rules, Conditions, etc. as the said Company shall by writing in and upon their Books, etc. appoint.  
As to the Landmen, whom he will also have to be imposed upon, they knew what they had to relic on, and were very well satisfied with it; and as to the Companies levying Soldiers under the Notion of Planters, without ask leave of the Privy Council, admitting it to be true, they are not at all to be blamed for it, since they had no reason to think that the Faction at Court, which had contravened Acts of Parliament by opposing their Subscriptions, and denying them the men of War built for the protection of our Trade, would allow them to levy Soldiers under that Name. But the truth of the matter is this, they were really designed for ' Planters, and not at all for Military Business; though it was highly necessary the Colony should have as many Officers and disciplined Men as they could, that they might be the more able to defend themselves in case of Attaque: and therefore his railing against the Colony for offering to punish Deserters and other Criminals, pag. 31. only discovers his own ignorance and malice; for by the Act of Parliament they had the whole Power, Civil and Military, conferred upon them, and accordingly might exercise their Power upon all Persons belonging to the Company as they saw cause so that this is again a libelling of the Act of Parliament thro' the Company's sides.  
His Representation of the seven Men chosen for Counsellors, page 34. is false and malicious to the highest degree. The liberty given to add other six to those seven, was not, as he spitefully insinuates, for English or French men of Substance that should join them from the West-India Plantations, but for such of their own number as they might think fit to assume afterwards. It cannot once enter into the thoughts of any man of sense, that the Colony should at first entrust Foreigners, and especially French Papists in their Government, or that the Company had any design they should do so; but he and his Suborners think it their Interest to make us odious to the English and French, by accusing us of a design to drain their Colonies.  
As to Mr. Paterson, whom he hath all along abused he happens now thro' Inadvertency to vindicate him from his own Calumnies; he formerly charged him as being Partner with Smith in cheating the Company of 8500 l and now he tells us that Mr. Paterson was brought to this Dilemma, either to go aboard the Fleet bound for Caledonia as a Volunteer, or to go to Prison at Edinburgh for Debt; which, had he cheated the Company of so much Money as this Libeler pretends there had been no occasionfor, he might have paid his Debts, and gone where he would: and besides, the Scribbler vindicates the Company at the same time from his former Charge of their being bewitched by Paterson's golden Dreams & c. for had they relied so much upon him as the Libeler alleges, they would never have showed that indifference for him which here he ridicules him with. Such has been the hard Fate of the Suborners, that their Tool has not the sense to make his Evidence consistent, but every where cuts his own Throat by Self-contradictions.  
To sum up the Matter according to the libeler's own Evidence. In the Council there were some Men of Quality, that had been bred to the Sword and the Law, others had been Officers both by Sea and Land, and some that had gained Experience in Merchandizing, and several Trades.  
His Banter on the death of the Ministers and Blasphemous abuse of Scripture, P. 37. smell so rank of the Atheist and Libertine, and do so evidently prove that he hath lost all sense of Humanity and Religion, that we are sarissied it will do his Masters and their Cause more hurt than Service; and therefore we pass it over.  
The next Proof we have of his Falsehood and Malice, is his long Story about Mr. Wafer, from Page 38 to 45, wherein he does so blend Truth with Falsehood, as shows he had a mind at any rate to bespatter the Reputation of the Committee of the Company: the said Commitree knew nothing of those Gentlemers treating with Wafer at London, till they acquainted them with it, and it was only upon their Recommendation that they sent for him: As to their Collecting any Guineas at Pontack's for Mr. Wafer, it is altogether false. The Articles were drawn by Mr. James Campbel the Merchant, now in London, and wrote by Mr. Fitz Gerald an Irish Merchant, who both can testify that this Matter is foully misrepresented; for Mr. Wafer had an Alternative proposed to him, which he agreed to, viz. to have so much if the Company thought sit to employ him, and so much for his trouble and pains if they did not; the Company was so far from standing in any need of his Book, that they had a Manuscript of it before ever they saw him, which was altogether unknown to the Gentlemen that treated with him at London this he himself knows to be true, and that to his no small surprise, they repeared several Passages out of it to him, and indeed the Manuscript is more particular than his Book, whatever Cause he hath since had to make any Alterations in it we know not. The Company upon the whole, finding that he could inform them of no thing considerable more than what was in the Manuscript, and that he could do them no great Service, left him at his Liberty to publish his Book when he pleased, gave him about 100 l first and last for his Pains and Expense, with which he was very well satisfied, and hath declared several times since that the Company dealt very honourably with him, though Mr. H—s took a great deal of pains to make him publish a Memoire to the contrary, which by his honest Friend Mr. Fitz Gerald's Advice he desisted from doing. As to the libeler's malicious Insinuation that they had no further Service for him when once he had discovered the place where the Nicaragua-Wood grew, It is absolutely false, for the Manuscript they had was very particular in that. This Mr. Wafer knows to be true, and if he have but a just resentment, he is equally concerned to vindicate himself; for, the Libeler reflects as much upon him as upon the Company, when he charges him with putting a Cheat upon them, as to their Nicaragua-Wood, P. 44. which H—s says he and others went in search of for several Miles along the Coast, but could find none; and yet he magnifies Wafer's Freedom, and being ingenious by informing them so particularly, as to the place where the Nicaragua-Wood grew, P. 41. So perpetually does this malicious Libeler contradict himself.— As to the other parts of his Story of Mr. Wafers being concealed near Haddington, and afterwards at Edinburgh; it was no more than what Prudence would have directed any Men to do in the like Circumstances: the Company not knowing till after having discoursed him whether he could do them any Service or not; it was not their Wisdom to expose him to public View; and having found that he could not serve them, it was equally prudent in them to keep him at an uncertainty as to their design; they being under no obligation to acquaint him with it. As to the Story of Admiral Bembo's waiting their motion; if they did say so, the Event hath made it but too probable; he hath waited so long in those Parts till our Colony hath left Darien: what Orders he had concerning it, or what Part he hath acted in it, Time must determine; but if all that we have heard of large Bills being returned him, and of his Offers by his Sloops to draw our Men from our Colony be true, there's reason to suspect that he was sent thither with no design for our advantage: However that may be we know not; but this we know, that if our Enemies at Court had been as zealous to protect us as they have been to ruin us, the Admiral would certainly have had Orders to have made Reprisals on the Spaniards for detaining Capt. Pincarton his Ship and Men, contrary to Treary with the King of Great Britain, when forced  by a Storm under the Walls of Carthagena.  
He tells us, P. 45, That two thirds of the Provision were spent  the Fleet sailed, that there was none to be had in Scotland at that time, and if there had, there was no Money; the 100000 l being sunk, and the Company's Credit not worth 2 d. and that they had stuck there, had it not been for some few Pillars of the Scots Company who mortgaged their Estates; for which the Company made over three of their Ships to them for their Security.  
That there was no Provisions to be had then in Scotland, will seadily be allowed him, is sufficient to answer all his malicious Clamour against the Company, and to confute his own Objection, P. 155. in defence of his Masters, against the Company, for not sending them Provisions. That there was no Money, and that the Company's Credit was not worth 2 d. is confuted by himself, when he owns that a few of the Pillats raised 5000 l and took three of the Company's Ships for Security. For that a few of the Pillars could raise 5000 l and the Company have three new Ships, one of them of 70 Guns to give for Security; and yet the Company's Credit not to be worth 2 d. is a palpable Contradiction.  
That any of the Company Mortgaged their Estates to raise Money, is false; they advanced it on their own Credit, as they might well do, it being well known there are several of them who have as much yearly Estate as the Sum he speaks of: Nor did they desire the Company's Ships in security, but only a Bond which it was reasonable they should have.  
He comes next to give us an Account of the shortness of the Provisions, P. 46. and of his own Honesty in the mean time, in not acquainting the Commadore with it till they were three days at Sea; perhaps he had embezel'd them himself, or Pocketed some of the Money, for he owns that he had some time before been concerned in the Victualling part, and therefore dared not to say any thing of it on Shore, lest it might have been proved upon him; but however that is, this we are sure of, that the Company had Letters from their Ships at the Maderas, that they had Twelve months' Provisions of all sorts, at sharp Allowance, and that if any thing fell short, it was likely to be their Bread: That they thought this to be true, may be reasonably concluded from his own. Narrative, where he says the Council upon his Representation, designed to send an Express from the Orkneys, to acquaint the Company with the shortness of their Provisions, which to be sure they would have done, had they been sensible that they were so short as he alleges: Besides, he owns they had full Eleven months' Allowance of Stock-sish at four Days in the Week; when do it is probable that they had other things in proportion.  
The Reason why they had no more Beer but Ten Tun, was that the Seamen could not depend on the Beer because it spoils, they had great store of very good Water, and a very great quantity of Brandy which the Libeler takes no notice of. As for the Company's promising them Credit at the Maderas, it is false; nor was there any need of it, they had Pipe Staves and other Goods, which were thought proper for the Maderas, but if it did not answer, so well as 'twas expected, 'twas but the common Misfortune of Merchants, who many times meet with such disappointments. Nor is it to be expected that a Nation of so little Experience in Trade as ours, should at first setting out, be free from Mistakes or Mismanagement, especially since we have such Invective Enemics to deal with who make it their business to get ill Men amongst us every where, on purpose to break our Design.  
His next Reflection is on the small Allowance of Ready Money, which is sufficiently answered when we tell him their Cargo was reckoned instead of it, and as has been already said, must needs be conceived to be very proper for a Country where People go naked for want of Apparel. They had an great deal of Butter, and excellent Beef, of Scots Breed, by which we gained an Experiment contrary to the common Notion; for upon trial it was found to be better than the Irish, and therefore our Men tesolved to keep it last. His Objection as to its having been Eighteen Months in Salt is frivolous. Scamen think nothing of that when they can carry Beef to the East Indies and back again, and keep it good all the while. His Change upon Drummelier as having bought damnified. Wheat for their Bread, and put the Money in his Pocket, is malicious and false: There's no Man but one of the Renegadoes Temper that can suspect that Worthy Gentleman to be capable of any such thing. Besides, the Bread was extraordinary good.  
His Story, p. 50. about Crab-Island, is false; the Company gave no positive Orders to leave any Men there, and it's equally false that the Danes prevented our taking Possession of it, our Men were there before the Danes came from St. Thomas, the Governor of which suspecting our Design, upon the arrival of the Unicorn there, sent an Officer and Fifteen Men to Assert the King of Danmark's Right, after our Men went off from the Place, they saw the Danish Sloop in another Bay of the same Island called Frenchman's Bay, and a Tent ashore with Danish Colours on it; upon which Captain Pennicook Landed again, told them we were Possessed before them, against which they offered their Protest to please the Court of Denmark, but wished with all their Hearts we might settle there, for we should be a good Bulwark to them against the Spaniards of Portc-Rico, who are very troublesome Neighbours.  
It is false what he says p. 54. That Captain Andreas, after looking upon us at first. Landing, did not come near us in three or four Weeks, for he came aboard us at first with some of his Men on the 2d of November, and brought his Travelling Wife with him on the 3d of November, when he came on Board again, and was very well satisfied with us; and on the 10th of the same Month, he and his Son, Wife and Sister, Dined on Board us. And on the 30th of November he was invited on Board, handsomely. Treated, and after having given a Rational Vindication of himself, as to the Matter suggested against him by the other Danien Captains or Princes; and being informed of our real Design, which before he suspected to be Piracy, he desired a Commission from us, which was readily Granted and cheerfully Accepted; and he solemnly promised to Defend us to the last drop of his Blood. That his Commission was left behind him in the Locker of the Round-House, crammed in amongst empty Bottles, we have nothing but this Renegado's Word for it: but admitting it to be so, it does not therefore necessarily follow, that it was left there by Andreas, or his Order; it is not to be supposed that a Person of his Note, could creep into the Round-House undiscovered: and perhaps it may be no unreasonable Conjecture, to think that it was stole from him, and lodged there by this Renegado; for he owns that it was himself that found it, and he knows the Proverb, He that hides knows best where to find.  
His Story about Andreas' Exit, P. 60. That he fell, or was thrown down the Main Hatch-way of the Caledonia in the Night time, after a Quarrel with Ambrosio, the greatest of those Indian Captains, has such an Air of Malice and Falsehood, that it requires better Evidence than that of a self-contradicting Libeler, before it can obtain belief with any Rational Man, or allowing it to be true, that he was actually tumbled down the Hatch-way in the Night time, it looks more like the Practice of such a Quarrelsome ill natured Person as himself, than of any Body else. They that know his Behaviour to his own Captain, when he was Surgeon on Board one of the King's Ships, his quarrelling with Captain Pennicook, Commadore of our Ships that went to Darien, and the whole Tenor of his Conversation, cannot think this any uncharitable Reflection. His unnatutal Rancour against his Native Country, and unbounded Malice against the Scots Company, make it probable enough that he might do such a thing on purpose to render the Natives Enemies to the Colony; which he deserted himself about a Month after: And this is so much the more probable, because he exclaims against those on Board, for not taking care of Andreas, nor letting him blood after his fall, since none was so proper to do it as himself, who was a Surgeon, and on Board the Ship at the time.  
It is needless to insist any further on his Train of Falsehoods and Inconsistencies in his Account of the Country, which being contrary, not only to all that have wrote of it, but also to the Journals and Letters sent from our Colony. We have better reason to say, that his Description is Calculated to the Humour of our Enemies, and his Suborners, than that the Colony's and Mr. Wafer's Accounts were Calculated to the Meridian of the Scots Company. To put this Matter out of all doubt, we shall here subjoin the first Letter sent from Caledonia by the Council of the Colony to the Company, which is the Testimony of six against one.  

Right Honourable,  
OUR Last to you was from the Maderas, of the 29th of Aug. and sent by the several ways of Holland and Pottugal, to the Contents whereof we now refer, and in particular to the State of Provisions therewith sent, and which we now find doth considerably fall short even of what was then computed, by reason of the badness of the Cask. The account of the remaining part of our Voyage, together with the most material Transactions since, you may know by the enclosed Journal or Diary of our Proceed.  
We now send you our Letters and Dispatches by Mr. Alexander Hamilton Merchant, who takes the opportunity of passing to you by the way of Jamaica over England, to whom we desire you would order Forty Shillings Sterling to be paid Weekly, towards his Expenses, during the time he shall stay with you negotiating our Affairs.  
The Wealth, Fruitfulness, Health and good Situation of the Country proves for the better, much above our greatest Expectation, which God Almighty seems to have wonderfully reserved for this Occasion, and now to have prepared our Way, and disposed the Indies to that purpose. In our Passage hither several of our Number have been taken from us by Death (whose Names we have herewith sent you) and whereof the loss of our two Ministers is the most sensible to us. We therefore entreat you would use your utmost endeavours with the General Assembly, for procuring others so supply that great want: As to the Country, we find it very healthful; for although we arrived here in the Rainy Season, from which we had little or no shelter for several Weeks together, and many Sick among us, yet they are so far recovered, and in so good a State of Health as could hardly any where be expected among such a number of Men together; nor know we any thing here of those several dangerous and mortal Distempers so prevalent in the English and other American Islands.  
In Fruitfulness this Country seems not to give place to any in the World: For we have seen several of the Fruits, as Cocoa-Nuts, whereof Chocolate is made, Bonellos, Sugarcanes, Maize, Oranges, Plantains, Mangoe, Yams, and several others, all of them of the best of their kind any where found.  
Nay there is hardly a Spot of Ground here but what may be cultivated: For even upon the very tops and sides of the Hills and Mountains, there is commonly three or four foot deep of rich Earth, without so much as a Stone to be found therein. Here is good Hunting and Fowling, and excellent Fishing in the Bays and Creeks of the Coast; so that could we improve the Season of the Year just now begun, we should soon be able to subsist of ourselves; but fortifying and building will lose us a whole Years planting.  
By the want of Sloops, or final Coasting Vessels, we have hitherto had no opportunity of disposing any part of the Cargo, or doing other needful things.  
Since the loss of the French Ship mentioned in the Journal, we understand that the Captain had an underband Correspondence, in tampering with some of the Natives whom be intended to carry away with him, which heightens our Jealousy that the French have a design upon this Place, or at least to make a Settlement hereabout. And we hearty wish that our Most Gracious King were truly informed of what Consequence it will be both to his Greatness and Security, to countenance and encourage us his Loyal and Dutiful Subjects here, that our Prince and Country be not only deprived of so valuable a Jewel, but least the same should fall a Prey to some of our Rival Neighbours. This will be the Companies part to notice after these Dispatches shall come to hand,  
You have enclosed a List of several Goods and Merchandises vendable and proper for this Place; our Situation being incomparable for the Trade of the Coast, where (besides our Inland Trade) there is commonly but 2 or 3, or at most but 8 or 10 days sail to the best Places of Trade upon the Coast, and to the outmost considerable Islands adjoining. And we desire that particular Merchants in Scotland, and elsewhere, may be encouraged to trade and correspond hither; in which we hope they will sufficiently find their Account.  
We have also sent you a state of what Supplies of Provisions, Stores, and Merchant Goods are absolutely necessary for the present support of the Colony; referring it to the Company to determine what reasonable Consideration they will have for the Sums that shall be advanced for that purpose: And we entreat, that all possible Expedition may be used in sending us these needful Supplies; for without that we shall not only be incapable of making you suitable Returns, but this hopeful Undertaking, together with our selves will run no small risk of being inevitably lost. But however it be (by the help of God) we shall not fail to do our unmost in making speedy and suitable Returns; and shall always account it our greatest Honour to expose our Persons, and all that's most near and dear unto us, in promoting this hopeful Design, as not only promising Profit and Glory to the Company, and all who are concerned with them, but as being the likeliest means that ever yet presented towards the enabling our Countrymen to revive, recover, transmit to Posterity, the Virtue, Lustre, and wont Glory of their Renowned Ancestors: And to lay a Foundation of Wealth, Security, and Greatness to our Mother Kingdom for the present and succeeding Ages. In which we can no way doubt of your most hearty Concurrence and utmost Support. So praying Almighty God would bless and prosper the Company in all their Vndertaksngs. We Remain,  
Right Honourable, Your Most Humble Servants, 

Robert Jolley.  
J. Montgomery.  
Dan. Mackay.  
Rob. Pennicook.  
Rob. Pincartone.  
Will. Paterson.   Caledonia, New Edinburgh, December, 28th 1698.  
P. S.  
We entreat you to send us a good Engineer, who is extremely wanted here. This Place being capable of being strongly Fortified. You'll understand by our from Maderas, the Danger as well as the Tediousness of our Passage North about, so that if the Ships can conveniently be fitted out from Clyd, it will save a great deal of time in their Passage, and be far less bazardous.   
This being from Men who knew the Misrepresentation of the Affair, must needs Issue in their own Ruin, cannot be suspected of disingenuity; and therefore must certainly overbalance the Evidence of a Renegado, who owns that he writes out of Malice.  
The first defence he puts in the Company's Mouthis, their being balked of Foreign Subscriptions, which made them lose Time and Money, whereby they could not send out such a number of Men and quantity of Provisions as the Project would have required. This is literally true, let H—s and his Suborniers answer it if they can. As for his Question, Why did they prodigally throw away 50000 l in Holland and Hamburgh, purely to make a Bluster there; and why did they trust to another Man's Purse till such time as they are sure of it? We shall answer by ask him another Question, viz. Since he pretends to know the Secrets of the West end of the Town, why did our Government oppose our taking Foreign Subscriptions, since they had impowered us by Acts of Parliament, and Letters Patent to take them, and since 'twas such a thing as the like perhaps was never done; what reason had we to suspect being balked of our Foreign Subscriptions? He himself owned that the Hollanders and Hamburgers were fond of our Project, till our Government opposed us; and therefore, by his own Confession, they are to blame for those disappointments. As to our taking Subscriptions in Hamburgh and Holland. We had reason to engage as many of our Protestant Neighbours in the Design as we could, that we might be the more able to defend ourselves in case of Opposition; which is neither ill Policy, nor inconsistent with Honesty.  
The 2d Defence he puts in their Mouth, That their Ships were Man'd, no Provisions to be had in Scotland, more were providing abroad, and no more Money to be had from the Subscribers till once the Ships were Sailed, is such as he and his Suborners will never be able to answer; What could the Company do more, than take care to have Provisions abroad, when none were to be had at home.? And if the Subscribers would pay no more Money till the Ships put to Sea, there was a necessity of Sailing. His Objection as to the shortness of their Provisions, we have answered already, and shall add which he maliciously conceals; That we sent a Ship with Provisions after them, which was cast away in January, for which we cannot be answerable; and he himself owns we sent another Convoy in May; Then since the Colony sent us Advice from the Maderas, dated Aug. 29. That they had still 8 Months large, and twelve Months short Allowance: The Company cannot justly be accused of supine Neglect, when they sent away one Ship with Provisions four Months after this notice, and two more in five Months after that, considering that they had no Provisions in Scotland, as the Libeler himself owns; and that the Colony had a Cargo which might have bought them Provisions either from the Natives, if they had any to spare, which we could not doubt of by Mr. Wafer's Description, or from the English Colonies, had it not not been for the Proclamation, which we had no reason to suspect would be issued at all, and much less in such a manner, in the Name of our own Prince, who was obliged to Protect us.  
To the Causes he assigns for the Sailing of our Fleer without a greater quantity of Provisions, we 〈◊〉! add one more, viz. That we had reason to fear that our Enemies might prevent us; which Captain Long's being on those Coasts a Month before us, shows was not without Ground; no more than our Suspicion, that endeayours were used to surprise us into a War with the Spaniards, by Long's Men killing seven of them, as hath been already mentioned; and of his doing all he could to make us odious to the Natives, by telling them we were Pirates, and disobliging both Ambrosio and Diego, by sordid little Actions of his own, as Captain Pennicook gave us an Accoun in his Journal. A Grave Member of the Committee of Trade can give a more full Account of this, if he pleases; and when his hand is in, he would do well to assign us a Reason why that barbarous Murder committed by Long's Men, was never yet taken notice of by the Spaniards, since they have published such angry Memorials against us, who committed no Hostilities upon them.  
His Objection to the third and fourth Reason relating to the Honesty of our Design, and the Cargoes not being proper, we have answered already. As for that of our Goods being seizable in Jamaica and other English Plantations, by the Act of Navigation, it's one of the Hardships we justly complain of, that was put upon us by the Enemics of our Nation in Charles II's Reign. But allowing it to be reasonable, it cannot have so much Equity in it, as the Laws which make it punishable by Death, to Roband Murder. Yet the Execution of those are many times dispensed with in favour of Criminals, by his Majesty; and indeed a Power to dispense with the Execution of Law sometimes, to save the Life of a Subject, is one of the most Innocent Branches of the Prerogative; but we had much more reason to have expected a Dispensation in this Case, to save the Lives of so many of his Subjects, who had generously ventured them for himself.  
His owning, p. 148. and 154. That a Cargo of Provisions brought by two Jamaica Sloops, was bought by the Colony, besides as many Turtle as came to 100 and odd Pounds. for which he owns the Colony paid 'em; not only contradicts what he says almost in the same breath, That there was neither Money no Moneys worth to be had in the Colony; and that they laid out all their Stock of Ready Money for Wine at Maderas, p. 48. but may, together with their having both Provisions and Money when they came to New York, justly confirm our Suspicion, that there was a Mismanagement of the Provisions; since two Sloop's Cargo of Provision, 27 Pipes of Wine, 100 pounds' worth of Turtle, the Fish Plantains, Bonanoes, Potatoes, Indian Corn, Sojours, or Land Crabs, which he says were plentiful at first ' added to their former Provisions which they owned they had at the Maderas; together with the decrease of their Number of Men by Death was not enough to keep their Colony from starving for Nine Months. We have still the more reason to suspect this, because the Letter from New York, which brought us the first certain Account of the Disaster of our Colony, hinted as if there might be some Work for the Hangman. That there were more ill Men in the Colony than H—s is probable enough: and particularly that Pennicook was bribed to raise Divisions in the Colony, and put all in disorder by his Insolence: which falling in with the Proclamations that were concerted for our Destruction, gave a handle to other ill Men to foment the Divisions, and complete the Ruin of the Colony by a total Desertion.  
His Insinuation, P. 154, That two Jamaica Sloops with Provisions returned from the Colony without breaking bulk, because there was neither Money nor Market Goods there; deserves better Evidence than his own before it obtain Credit. We have indeed heard of one Vessel with Provisions, which insisted on such extravagant Rates, that the Colony would not encourage them to do the like in time to come; and therefore would not deal with them: hoping that their own Convoy might speedily come up; but this was before they knew any thing of the Ploclamation, which cut off all their future hopes, even from Scotland. We have also Letters from New York, that the Government of that Place seemed to intent them no good; of which their desiring our Ships to come and Anchor under the Guns of the Castle, is a clear Proof; and the reason of this unkind Treatment is also explained to us, viz. That they suspected our Men had a design to return back as soon as they got Provisions. Nay, we have had advice, that their Gold Dust was actually refused at Jamaica, because of the Proclamations which we have reason enough to believe: since we cannot think that the It habitants there would be willing to incur the height of His Majesty's Displeasure to oblige the Scots. That our Men had Gold Dust from the Natives for Powder, Shot, and speckled Shifts: the Libeler owns himself, P. 149. and there he brags of it, that he brought off more himself at 3 l 10 s. per Ounce, (how he came by it, is worth the inquiry) than most of the Councillors that are come home since; and by Letters from New York, we have heard there was Money amongst them: By all which 'tis evident, That want of Money or Goods was not the sole Cause of their being deemed Provisions from the English Plantations. His Insinuation, that the French and Dutch Islands would have supplied us if we had had Money or Goods, is ridiculous; when the Government of both those Nations had so expressly declared themselves against us.  
His All gation in that same Page, that His Majesty knew nothing of the Colonies Settlement at Darien, but what he had at second hand, etc. till the Spanith Ambassadur told him from his Master, is so notoriously false, that none but a Person of his Forehead could have advanced it, when the World knows that the Proclamation against us was published in the West-Indies in April, and the Spanish Memorial was not delivered till May following. We should indeed be very glad to find that His Majesty knew nothing of those Proclamations; and that his Name was made use of without his Consent; as some say his Grandfathers was in the Irish Massacre: for than we might reasonably expect speedy Justice upon those bold Offenders, who dared to publish such Proclamations in His Majesty's Name, wherein we are condemned; as having invaded the Spanish D●maniens before ever it was heard what we could say for ourselves, or without giving us any notice of those Proclamations, that we might have taken care to have preserved our Men from being starved to death by them: By which they have made our Prince to act more like our declared Enemy, than one that we had constantly loved and revered as Father of his Country: and that which is yet more cutting; they still prevail to misled him, so as he continues his unnatural Opposition to us: For besides the Proclamations formerly mentioned, another has been since published against us in Barbadoss, dated Sept. 15, which is so much the more unaccountable; considering the Memorial given in by our Precedent and Advocate, justifying our Pretensions which the Spaniards have never yet offered to answer. By means of this Proclamation, the St. Andrew was denied Relief when she fell in with Admirel Bembo, who told her, though they should all starve he could allow them none, and the like answer they had from the Governor of Jamaica, though they offered Goods in Exchange; the like Opposition is also continued against us at home; for though the Company have addressed His Majesty, yet'tis without effect. After a full Representation of their Losses, they did wisely and dutifully desire the Parliament might meet, that being the proporest way to have the sinking Honour of the Company supported; but His Majesty instead of granting their reasonable desires, was prevailed upon by those who are Enemies to our Country, to prorogue it further at the very time when they knew the Address was coming up, and all the Answer thought sit to give them, is, That His Majesty is sorry for the loss of his Ancient Kingdom and of the Company, that they shall have the same liberty to trade to the West-Indies as formerly; and that he will call the Parliament when he thinks the good of the Nation requires it, or to that effect. It may easily be judged, that this Answer could be no way satisfactory to the Company in such a Juncture: nor are we to wonder, if instead of cheering their Spirits, it struck them dumb, and filled them with Amazement. We wish that those who advise His Majesty to such a Conduct towards the People of Scotland, who have never been backward in testifying their Loyalty and Affection to his Person and Government; would consider that this is a downright Violation of our Constitution. It's certain that none are so proper to give his Majesty advice, when a Parliament is necessary as our own Nobility Gentry and Burrowghs, who are most of them concerned in our Company: and therefore their Address ought to haye been more regarded than the advice of any particular Persons.  
This false Method of Government hath ruined many of our Princes, and we wish that those who put his Majesty upon such Measures, may not have his ruin in prospect. It is certain they can be none of his Friends, who put him upon disobliging of the whole Kingdom of Scotland in this manner.  
We come next to the libeler's Defence of the Spanish Title to Darien, p. 163. His first Argument, That the Spaniards Title to that Country was never hitherto disputed by any Prince or State, is a downright Falsehood. The Darien Princes themselves controverted it always, and their Plea was allowed to be good by the Judges of England, as we have been forced to tell this Renegado and his Suborners again and again. The Title of the Spaniards as Conquerors to any part of America, is not only doubted by the Bishop of Cheapo, Don Bartholomew de Los Casas, mentioned in the Defence of the Scots Settlement, but strenuously argued against and maitained to be unlawful, in his Propositions concerning the Title of the King of Spain to America, proposed to the Consideration of the King of Spain himself. In his ninth Proposition he asserts, That when Christian Princes apply their Endeavours to propagate the Faith, they ought to have no Consideration for any thing but the Service of God— Or if they can do any thing for the advantage of their Dominions while they augment the Kingdom of Christ: It ought to be without any considerable prejudice to the Infidels or the Princes that Govern them— Prop. 10. He asserts, They have their own lawful Kings and Princes, who have a Right to to make Laws, & c.— For the good Government of their respective Dominions, so that they cannot beexpelled out of 'em, or deprived of what they possess, without doing Violence to the Laws of God as well as the Law of Nations. Prop. 26. Seeing the Spaniards have not been supported either by the Authority of their Prince, or any lawful Reason to make War against the Indians, who lived peaceably in their own Country, and had done the Spaniard no wrong; all such Conquests that have been or may hereafter be made in the Indies, are to be accounted Unjust, Tyrannical and Null, being condemned by all the Laws of God and Men. It's true he supposes the K. of Spain to have a Title to the Sovereignty of the Indies, by the Popes Grant; but it is with such Restrictions as those he mentions; and in his 16 Proposition says the Pope, has power to revoke it, if it be found prejudicial to the Establishment of the Faith; and he expressly declares throughout his Book, that all the Methods taken by the Spaniards were such, so that here's one strong Evidence of their own against them.— Dominicus de Soto; the K. of Spain's Confessor at the time scems by his summing up the Dispute betwixt this Bishop and Dr. Sepulveda to have been of the same Opinion; and Sepulveda's Books, maintaining the contrary were snppressed by the Emperor Charles V.  
Of the same Opinion, and indeed more express against the Methods, by which the Spaniards acquired their Dominions in the Indies, is, Franciscus a Victoria, chief Professor of Divinity, in the University of Salamanca, (whom the Emperor Charles V consulted in Cases of Conscience, and in this amongst others) as may be seen in his Relectiones, Theologicae, Relectione 5. de Indis where he argues the Point at large, and in Relect. 7. de jure bell, lays down this as a Maxim, That an Injury received is the only just Cause of making War. So that it being plain from Matter of Fact that the Indians did no manner of Injury to the Spaniards; their War upon them must of necessity by this Argumnt be unlawful. More has been said already in Vindication of our Tide, in the defence of the Scots Settlement, than the Renegado and his Suborners can answer; therefore we shall wind up this Matter in a few Words more.  
His alleging we might as well land in Jamaica, where the wild Negroes have deserted their Masters, or in Tobago, etc. serve only to discover his own Folly. There's no unconquered Natives, who have their own Princes to govern them in either of those Islands, nor are the Titles of the English and D. of Curland, to those Places questioned. The Irish having admitted French Troops into their Kingdom is as little to the purpose, since they have had no shadow of Government or Sovereignty, left them for several Ages, have from time to time submitted to the Government of England, and admitted those Troops in defence of the late K. James' Title, which he derives from Hen. II. that Conqnered them. Besides, the Libeler himsselt owns, p. 54. that the Natives themselves were pleased with the hopes of being restored by us to their Ancient Liberty and Greatness; and p. 55. That Ambrosio one of their greatest Captains, was at War with the Spaniards before our Arrival. His alleging that Cap. Andrea's was a Spanish Captain at the time of our Landing, needs better proof than his affertion: that he might be then at Peace with the Spaniards, and have some respect for them because of his being bred among them, as H— says he was, p. 60. all that they then gave him a Commission as a Captain, does not at all argue that he was in the Spanish Interest when we Landed, or any way subject to the Crown of Spain; if he himself promised subjection, it does not divest his Subjects of their Right, and that Andreas' Successlor and they were no Friends to the Spaniards, is evident from the libeler's own Story, that they gave cur Colony motice of the Spanish Party that came to view them, and led them to the place where they were: We have likewise the Testimony of all that have writ of this Place, against the Renegado, besides that of the Journals of our own Colony, which give an Account that An brosio had engaged all his Neighbouring Princes in a League against the Spaniard, before our Arrival.  
FINIS.