leafe.

"It was not," faid he, fufpicion of the juftice or grati"tude of the company, nor a consciousness that my fervices could "ever become useless to them, but "the ingratitude of fome indivi"duals experienced in life, which "made it a matter of common pru"dence in me, to ask a retribution "for fix years of my time, and £10,000 spent in promoting the eftablishment of the company. But now that I fee it ftanding upon the authority of parliament, and fupported by fo many "great and good men, I release all " claim to that retribution, happy in the noble conceffion made to me, but happier in the return "which I now make for it."

In the mean time the jealousy of trade, which has done more mischief to the trade of England than all other caufes put together, created an alarm in England; and the houfes of lords and commons, without previous inquiry or reflection, on the 13th December of the year 1695, concurred in a joint addrefs to the king, against the establishment of the Darien company, as detrimental to the interest of the Eaft India Company. Soon after, the Commons impeached fome of their own countrymen, for being inftrumental in erecting the company; and alfo fome of the Scots nation, one of whom was a peer, lord Belhaven; that is to fay, they arraigned the fubjects of another country, for making ufe of the laws of their own. Among fix hundred legiflators, not one had the happy ray of genius to propofe a committee of both parliaments, to inquire into the principles and confequences of the establishment; and if these fhould, upon inquiry, be found good,

that the benefit of it should be communicated, by a participation of rights, to both nations. The king's anfwer was, "that he had been "ill advised in Scotland." He foon after changed his Scottish minifters, and fent orders to his refident at Hamburgh to present a memorial to the fenate, in which he difowned the company, and warned them against all connections. with it. The fenate fent the memorial to the affembly of merchants, who returned it with the following fpirited anfwer. "We look upon it

"as a very ftrange thing, that the king of Britain fhould offer to "hinder us, who are a free people,

to trade with whom we please; "but are amazed to think, that " he would hinder us from joining "with his own fubjects in Scot

land, to whom he had lately given fuch large privileges, by "fo folemn an act of parliament." But merchants, though mighty prone to paffion, are easily intimidated : the Dutch, Hamburgh, and London merchants withdrew their subfcriptions.

'The Scots, not difcouraged, were rather animated by this oppreffion : for they converted it into a proof of the envy of the English, and of their confcioufnels of the great advantages which were to flow to Scotland from the colony. The company proceeded to build fix fhips in Holland, from thirty fix to fixty guns, and they engaged twelve hundred men for the colony; among whom were younger fons of many of the noble and most ancient families of Scotland, and fixty officers who had been disbanded at the peace, who carried with them fuch of their private men, generally raised on their own, or the estates of their re

'lations,

lations, as they knew to be faithful and brave; and most of these were Highlanders. The Scots parliament, on the 5th Auguft 1698, unanimously addreffed the king to fupport the company. The lord prefident, Sir Hugh Dalrymple, brother to lord Stair, and head of the bench, and the lord advocate, Sir James Stuart, head of the bar, jointly diew memorials to the king, able in point of argument, information, and arrangement, in which they defended the rights of the company upon the principles of conftitutional and of public law. And neighbouring nations, with a mixture of furprife and refpect, faw the poorest kingdom of Furope fending forth the moft gallant, and the moft numerous colony that had ever gone from the old to the new world. On the 26th day of July of the year 1698, the whole city of Edinburgh poured down upon Leith, to fee the colony depart, amidst the tears, and prayers, and praifes of relations and friends, and of their countrymen. Many feamen and foldiers, whofe fervices had been refufed, becaufe more had offered themselves than were needed, were found hid in the fhips, and when ordered afhore, clung to the ropes and timbers, imploring to go, without reward, with their companions. Twelve hundred men failed in five flout fhips, and arrived at Darien in two months, with the lofs of only fifteen of their people. At that time it was in their power, most of whom were well born, and all of them hardily bred, and inured to the fatigues and dange:s of the late war, to have gone from the northmolt part of Mexico to the fouthmost of Chili, and to have overturned the whole empire of Spain

in the South Seas: but modeft, refpecting their own and their country's character, and afraid of being accufed that they had plunder and not a fettlement in view, they began with purchafing lands from the natives, and fending meffages of amity to the Spanish governours within their reach. And then fixed their flation at Acta, calling it New St. Andrew, from the name of the tutelar faint of Scotland, and the country itfelf New Caledonia. One of the fides of the harbour being formed by a long narrow neck of land, which ran into the fea, they cut it across fo as to join the ocean and the harbour. Within this defence they erected their fort, planting upon it fifty pieces of cannon. On the other fide of the harbour, there was a mountain a mile high, on which they placed a watch-houfe, which in the rarified air within the tropics, fo favourable for vifion, gave them an immenfe range of profpect, to prevent all furprise. To this place, it was observed, that the Highlanders often repaired, to enjoy a cool air, and to taik of their friends they had left behind in their hills, friends whofe minds were as high as their mountains. The first public act of the colony was to publifh a declaration of freedom of trade and religion to all nations. This luminous idea originated with Paterfon.

But the Dutch Eaft India Company having preffed the King, in concurrence with his English fubjects, to prevent the fettlement of Darien, orders had been fent from England to the governours of the Weft Indian and American colonies, to ifue proclamations again giving affiftance, or even to hold correfpondence with the colony;

and thefe were more or lefs harfhly expreffed, according to the tempers of the different governors. The Scots trufting to far different treatment, and to the fupplies which they expected from thofe colonies, had not brought provifions enough with them; they fell into difeafes, from bad food, and from want of food. But the more generous Savages, by

hunting and fifhing for them, gave them that relief which fellow Britons refufed. They lingered eight months, awaiting, but in vain, for affiftance from Scotland, and almost all of them either died out,orquitted the fettlement. Paterfon, who had been the first that entered the ship at Leith, was the laft who went on board at Darien."

THE