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
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 concern'd 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 tyrannizing 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 judg whether the King of England had not less reason to say that he was ill serv'd in Scotland than the King of Scots had to say that he was ill serv'd in England since one single Address from the Parliament of England prevail'd 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 detain'd prisoner in England It is very certain that never any King of Scotland before the Union of the Crowns dar'd 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 remain'd in an undisputed possession of calling their Kings to an account for Male-administration and of disposing of thei 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 Tryal on suspition of having murder'd 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 Bed-Chamber 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 proceedings against Q. Mary whom we dethron'd and in her stead set up her Son so that it is not the principle or practice of any one Party of our Nation tho it has been of late fix'd 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 Perswasion since particularly by the Earl of Morton beforemention'd who was the first that introduc'd 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 aggriev'd and their Privileges torn from them by Violence This Generation has prov'd 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 ceas'd to be King when he refus'd 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 forc'd 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 Soveraignty of his Crown If he did not he would be look'd 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
Monarchy whatever some vitiated and deprav'd Palates perswade you to the Contrary The mask'd 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 cloath the Seven Councellors 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 owe it nothing else I will offer nothing to the Prejudice of it's Ancient Fame But if I point at some Errata's 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 sully'd 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 Reprizal when they could conveniently yet I must put you in mind that they were far better pleas'd 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 'T is 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 frightning 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 mean'd no Harm at the Granting of the Octroy for 't is to be believed that he could scarce hear what was whisper'd 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 publick to the World 't is 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 render'd desolate by the Clandestine Artisices of yours who industriously and tacitely 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 't is to be question'd whether the greatest Part of the English West-Indies had not e'er now quitted their Settlements and been decoy'd into your Colony under a Cover'd Notion that you had a Patent from the King to pick a Quarrel with the Spaniard and to devide 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 inform'd the Nation that the Scots were march'd 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 Proceedings 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 Politicks to find out the Jest on 't save this Hot-headed 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 expell'd 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 secur'd Carthagena when they had it in their Power and a Legal Title to it by their Arms in the Time of a declar'd 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 Wall'd Towns and Garrisons But to leave this unnecessary Dispute And proceed to the oblique Threatnings wherewith he frightens King William to wit the Fate of those Mean-spirited Princes who blemish'd and were unworthy to wear the Imperial Crown of your Nation I 'll espouse His Majesty's Cause no further than to be confirm'd that he has been ill serv'd 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 past 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 Baliols of James the First and William the First any Man without
wall'd Towns and the reach of their Guns or they must be allowed the usual extent round them as all other Collonies 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 asking the D. of Courland's leave On the other hand the Company has settled their Collony in the very Bosom and Centre of the three chies Cities of the Spanish-Indies to wit Carthagena Portobello and Panama the first being about 45 Leagues and the other two not above 30 distant from the Collony besides several smaller Towns and Garrisons which are much nearer viz Sancta Maria Tubaconti c. Nay the Spaniards are at work in their Mines within 12 Leagues of Fort St. Andrew As for the de facto right 't is 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 valed and cover'd after the same fashion the Spanish Women go altho their Men go naked Besides one Paragraph of the Collonies Journal makes this very Spot of Ground where they are settled to be the Propriety of the Spaniard by their acknowledging Captain Andreas to have been a Spanish Captain As for the defences which Batt Sharp adduced on his Tryal of the Indian Emperor there having been no such person on the Isthumes of Darien these hundred years and King Golden Cap and the forg'd Commission he produc'd 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 kill'd 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 Englands 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 hed did not act Legally to be sure the Soveraign heads of those Subjects would long e're now have demanded satisfaction or made reprisal This was the Substance of what I offer'd to Sir J. S. and what use he made of it I never inquir'd after as for that part of the Champions 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 believ'd 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 hob-goblin stories might been an inchanted 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 my self from medling 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 Machin of the Collony 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 ENTITULED 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 Horrour that all honest men conceiv'd 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 concern'd 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 Inter-marriages should be provok'd and trampl'd 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 pleas'd to signalize themselves as much by their hatred to the Scotish Nation as the latter have signalized their Valour and Affection for our common Liberty and Religion have been at pains and expence to save the Libeller 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 entertain'd such a Thought He sold his God in the Last Reign by turning Papist and therefore 't is no great Wonder he should sell his Country in this and solemnly renounce his going Northward for ever provided he might he secur'd 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 judg what credit ought to be given to his Testimony since it appears that he harh giv'n it in to save his Life to gain
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
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 absolv'd from such as require their Allegiance and support of the Soveraign 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 Falshood and Malice The Libeller 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 Mony 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 it self 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 tho minc'd by our Libeller yet ev'n 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 Scribler himself owns P. 17. That the more Opposition the English and Dutch offer'd 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 Scribler 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 Stockins 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 Libeller would rather we had carried Mass Books yet others will be of opinion that 1500 of 'em was no unfit Cargo Our own Colony might have dispens'd 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 our selves 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 prov'd 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 it self could never have been able to withstand such a force when a few undisciplin'd 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 giv'n proofs enough of that in Flanders where no men alive could fight with more Bravery and Zeal than they did for the Common Cause tho 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 refus'd 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 expos'd 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 propos'd 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 wondred 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 despair'd of the design and sent their men to Sea on purpose to perish and on Drummellier that be order'd the Colony to get Mony honestly if they could but be sure to get it and if they came home without it then 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 faid enough already to demonstrate the Honesty of both Company and Colony Had their design been to get Mony without regard to Honesty they would not have been starv'd to death by the Proclamations and other opposition made them at Court they could quickly have possessed themselves of the Spanish Mines which the Scribler 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 Mony much at the same rate he did the Scots Company His Reflection p. 25. that Mr. Stratford was oblig'd 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 Mony in a fortnight or three weeks as the Libeller owns in the same Paragraph shows he had no ill