of being attack'd by his Fleet as they that advis'd the emitting of those Proclamations must needs think his Majesty was oblig'd 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 join'd 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 maintain'd a competent number of their Men to keep possession of the Colony till Supplies had arriv'd 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 incouraged 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 seem'd 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 Incouragement 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 Pirats 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 confirm'd in the truth of it afterwards when they saw them dying for want and deceiv'd 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 owe to the Constitution of our Country which we have reason to believe is industriously conceal'd 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 serv'd in Scotland c. 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 advis'd to this Answer by any of them they are Traitors to their Country and have betray'd its Soveraignty for they ought to have advis'd 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 aggrivev'd or thought their Trade endanger'd 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 look'd 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 Soveraignty of Scotland without demurring upon it argues that his Majesty was advis'd 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 offer'd to the touch of the Scepter 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 tho our Queen Mary then in France and her Husband the Dauphin afterwards Francis I. refus'd to give their Consent it remain'd a firm Law which Q. Mary when she return'd to Scotland was so far from offering to dispense with tho she was a great Asserter of her Prerogative that she was oblig'd to intreat 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 check'd 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 call'd the Acts of the States and say The three States enact c. 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 receiv'd 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 endeavour'd by the Abettors of a growing Prerogative It were easy for us to enlarge on this and to shew from our Histories and Acts of Parliaments that our Kings according to our antient Constitution which those Rapes committed on our Liberties in some of the last Reigns can never overturn were inferior to their Parliaments who inthron'd and dethron'd them as they saw cause made them accountable for their Administration allow'd them no power of proroguing them without their own consent nor of hindering their meeting when the ardua Regni negotia requir'd 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 allow'd them These and many more were the native Liberties of the People of Scotland an 1638. and their Representation of their Proceedings against the Mistakes in the King's Declaration in 1640. And therefore his Majesty had no reason to say he was ill serv'd by the passing of an Act offer'd by the States of Scotland The Ignorance of those things have often occafion'd 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 incens'd against it by the Abettors of Tyranny that they have all of 'em his present Majesty excepted endeavour'd our Overthrow as well knowing it to be impossible to bring Arbitrary Government to perfection whilst a People who had always breath'd in a free Air and call'd their Princes to an account when they invaded their Properties were in any condition to defend themselves or assist others against such Princes as design'd an absolute Sway. But the Pill being too bitter to be swallowed by it self 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 call'd a General Assembly which preserves us from being Priest-ridden 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 suted 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 oppress'd and enslav'd There 's nothing can be objected to this but that all these glorious Privileges were swallow'd 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 giv'n away without their own consent and we are morally certain that the Constituents even of those pack'd 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 besore or that when they find it applied to another use than that which they gave it for they may not reduce it to its antient Boundary The necessity of Affairs did sometimes oblige the Romans to entrust their Dictators with an extraordinary and absolute Power but when the occasion ceas'd they recalled it and kept to their antient 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 past for incouraging Kieir Trade how was it possible that the King of Scots could be ill serv'd by the passing that Act in Scotland Our Enemies and H s's Suborners have put a sort of an Answer to this in his mouth viz. That the said Act
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 crack'd and turn'd to his Shifts in England This was a pleasant facetious Fellow knew the World exactly and acted his Part in this Tragi-Comedy to a Miracle So much I have offer'd 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 touch'd with the Royal Scepter and for the more Dispatch pass'd thro' the Seals per Saltum they were empower'd 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 engag'd 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 easie to draw a great many of the Male-Contents 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 preach'd 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 Mony 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 baulk'd them and reprimanded the Subjects of England for their Foolery The Companies Books were cary'd 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 follow'd 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 mention'd which confirm'd 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 satisfy'd them as fast as they came that altho' they sign'd 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 open'd in Edinburgh before 400000 l was sign'd 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 prepossess'd 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 deserv'd it better than their ungreatful Neighbours Some warm Debates happen'd on this Occassion 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 endeavour'd to imploy 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 Governour of that Company and Alexander Hendersson alias Archbisshop at Amsterdam who were to draw from Smith's Bank as the Delegates had Occasion This Walloon Banker and Italian Secretary answer'd the Bills punctually till a better half of the Money was extracted about which Time finding the Company baulk'd 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 happen'd 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
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 open'd the East and West India Companies run open mouth'd to the Lords of Amsterdam shewing what was hatching by the Scotch Commissioners in their City to ruine 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 dash'd and none to be expected there On this occasion it was resolved in the Commitee 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 swallow'd the bait to a wish for the more opposition the English and Dutch offer'd to the project confirm'd 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 then 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 joyning now with the Scotch Company they have a prospect of worming the Hollander out of a good part of the German 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 over-run Mexico and Peru. The way being thus prepared by these two Fore-runers the body of the Commitee receiv'd 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 favour'd by the Burghers of this City that at our arrival we printed Placaarts and fix'd them on the Exchange and other publick Places there intimating that the Companies Books were to be open'd 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 enquire further into the Project before they parted with their Money lest they should never see it again These Pamphlets contain'd 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 believ'd all this stuff to be hatch'd in Samaria from whence no good can be expected But that the Scriptures might be fulfill'd 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 occasion'd a great many English and Hollands Speculations viz. That in case the Company should be interrupted in their Trade c. the King had ingag'd to interpose the Regal Authority to do them Right and that at the publick Charge Paterson and the other Agents of the Company to magnifie 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 empower'd to take in Forreigners 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 Proceedings 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 suffer'd 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 countenanc'd the Committee altho' the Private Burghers were so Resolute to Join Adverse Fortune still attending our Embassie they thought fit to steer homewards and make the best of a bad Market being now fully satisfy'd 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 offer'd 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 oppos'd 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 suppos'd to have sat still and done nothing when they saw we had obtain'd such an Act and were resolv'd to take in the English to partake in our Trade which if suffer'd 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 tho the English have formerly suffered in their Trade by the Incroachments 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 't is 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 prevail'd with some great Men to supplant us as to the Benefits we had just reason to expect from the Act of 1661. incouraging 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 join'd 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 tho insolent and hussing enough were procur'd by our Court therefore calmly digested and the desire of them effectually answer'd to the ruin almost of the Scotish Nation but the latter was no sooner presented than the Spanish Ambassadors are disgrac'd in England and Holland and forbid both Courts It may therefore deserve the Inquiry of our Neighbours what this Regulation about the Succession of Spain and the dismembring of their Monarchy is that occasion such outragious 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 tho 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 tho that be the specious Pretext but from a Cause which touches some People more nearly crosses their Project of dismembring 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 preheminence 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 tho it be made a Sacrifice to his Catholick 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 tho it may be infinitely more to their damage If our Neighbours have a mind to be fully inform'd of this matter they know who were imploy'd 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 deliver'd in a joint Memorial to the Senate of Hamburgh threatning them with the heighth of his Majesty's Displeasure if they join'd with the Scots in any Treaty of Commerce whatsoever This we shall not need to make any Reflexions 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 publick 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 publick 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
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 White-hall have giv'n 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 suffer'd from the Scots whom the English Court by this sort of Treatment have declar'd to be their Subjects whereas if they had not invaded the Soveraignty of Scotland the Spaniards could have had no such pretonce Now whether men that had been endow'd with a quarter of an ounce of Politicks 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 Gulph of Darien committed the first Hostility on the Spaniards and kill'd 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 deny'd them and told them they had done what they could not justify The Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement dos 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 answer'd and therefore we shall say nothing farther of it here Our Author and his Friends are pleas'd to call our apprechensions of the Places being possess'd by the French bugbear Stories because the French have another Game to play at present with Spain or might have secur'd 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 Mony upon such Tools as this Author appears to be by his way of argning one would be apt to think he had touch'd some Leuidor's Does he conceive that the French understood their Interest so little during the War that threatned their Ruine 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 seiz'd 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 Could he think that the two Nations of Europe that have the greatest Naval Force and were most concern'd 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 't would have been the ready way to have spoil'd 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 Politicks as much as our Author who are of opinion that the Settlement at Darien might have been no contemptible Barrier The Scribler 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 dishonour'd our Crown so far as to order it to be brought to England and therefore it is not imposfible for Princes to be over-perswaded 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 honour'd when the Dutch Troops took place of the King of Scots's Guards and when the King of England takes upon him to condemn by Proclamations what the King of Scotland has approv'd by Act of Parliament and Letters Patent The Scribler comes next to give us a taste of his Skill in the Brittish History he brags of so much by telling us the Fate of some great Scots Families that swell'd beyond their Proportion His Instances of the Cummins and Gouries 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 occasion'd 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 oblig'd any but a Monster of Ingratitude to have forborn such a causeless and invenom'd Reflection which nothing but ingrain'd Malice can suggest We come in the next place to take a view of the Book it self In the very first Page he owns he is no Friend to the Scots Company and alledges he has more reason for it than those Skeletons that are starved to death This we hope is sufficient to shew what credit is to be given to his Narrative wherein tho 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
they were impowered to do so by their Act which was every where publick and in print is like the rest of the Libeller's Inconsistencies But his Suborners and he were so far transported with Malice that they resolv'd 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 it self would discover their Falshood 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 judg sit and convenient These being the very words of the Act the Dutch could not be impos'd upon in that manner by Mr. Paterson if he had been so minded or had he been drunk as the Libeller 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 it self It is not to be doubted but this Clause impowers 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 sham 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 Libeller and his Suborners were drunk when they suggested it The Act does indeed oblige such Ships as were imploy'd by the Company to break bulk in Scotland but lays no such Obligation upon those that they might impower 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 undersel 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 sham 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 complain'd to the Lords of Amsterdam that the Scots Commissioners were designing the ruin of their Trade Which by the way shews that the Project of an American Trade was discours'd of by the Commissioners which the Libeller it 's probable would not have mention'd 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 abridg'd the way and made Voyages speedier to China Japan the Philippine Islands c. where their Trade lies they thought it might in time be dangerous for them if that Isthmus should be possess'd 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 Libellers give us another Evidence of their Candor 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 Mony to raise Forces to overrun Mexico and Peru. But our Author and his Suborners ought to have consider'd 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 conceal'd from the Hamburghers That the Act it self 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 Merchandize 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 Baltick and German 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 oppos'd us viz. that the Hamburghers by joining with the Scots had a prospect of worming the Hollander out of a good part of the German Trade Which admitting to be true the Hollanders had none but themselves to blame for it since we offer'd to take them in as joint Subscribers before we made any Proposal to the Hamburghers nor is it any ways unreasonable in it self that Germans should have the preference of other Nations in trading with Germany After a great deal of prophane Banter and ridiculing the sacred Text he tells us that the Human Reason of our Disappointment was an unnecessary Paragraph in our Octroy which occasion'd a great many English and Holland Speculations viz. That in case the Company should be interrupted in their Trade c. the King had ingaged 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 advis'd his Majesty to refuse our Company the three Men of War built at our own Charge when they offer'd to be at the expence of maintaining them have advis'd him to act contrary to the Trust repos'd in him as King of Scots and to contravene this very Act of Parliament and that which order'd those Ships to be built for defence of Trade than which there cannot be