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
nothing but Death starving and the Spanish Mines before our Eyes and although our inclinations were never so strong to borrow any of our Neighbours goods yet our power was always deficient But now to proceed on our Voyage and give you the remarkable Occurrances of it and of our Darien entertainment you are to know that we left the Edinburgh Fyrth on July the 17th 1698 and having fetch'd a turn round the Orkney's we arriv'd at Madera's about the last of August and staid there 5 or 6 days till we purchas'd the foresaid 27 Pipes of Wine Here the Council open'd their Instructions by which they were ordered to Steer to Crabb-Island and take possession of it in the name of the Company and Nation of Scotland and leave a small deteachment there This Island lies to Leeward of St. a Cruz about 9 Leagues to windward of Porto-Rico about 5 Miles and 18 Leagues from St. Thomas a Danish Island Having made the Island of St. a Cruz our Senate order'd the Vnicorn and one of the Tenders into St. Thomas to get some Pilates for the Main and to return to us at crabb-Crabb-Island While the Council sat on this occasion we drove to the Northward-most end of St. a Cruz and not being in too much hast to come to an Anchor at Crabb-Island we fetch'd a trip to Windward round St. a Cruz which occasion'd the disappointment of our settlement for our Missioners to St. Thomas having innocently scatter'd some words there of our Crabb design the Governour forthwith dispatch'd a Sloop with ten Men and an Officer to take possession of it in the name of Denmark so that at our arrival in the Bay or Road of Crabb-Island we could see a large Tent ashore with the King of Denmark's Colours flying Our Senate sent ashore to know the meaning of it and were made sensible that they came too late Next day the Vnicorn and Tender arriv'd having brought with them one Allison who Commanded a Sloop in that Squadron of Privateers who had landed at Golden-Island and march'd over the Isthmus about 18 Years ago We were glad of such a Pilot for there was no Man in our Fleet that had ever been on the Spanish Coast We left Crabb Island the second of October and having met with Southerly and Westerly winds for 3 Weeks or a Month together it was the second of November before we came to an Anchor on the Darien Coast We lay becalm'd a Week between Cartagena and Cape Tiburoon which is the Westermost point of the Gulph of Darien where for want of any Air but what was Sulphurous our Men fell down and died like rotten Sheep We came to an Anchor about 7 Leagues to the Northwest of Cape Tiburoon and altho' we were close by Golden Island yet neither our Pilate nor any person else knew the Land till the Indians inform'd us The Vnicorn being the first Ship that came to an Anchor sent her Boat ashore where having left an hostage with some Indians who had a Plantation there two Canous with a few Indians came on board the Ships The Canou which came to the St. Andrew where I was had Captain Andreas on board who was afterwards the Companies and Collonies Landlord They were some hours aboard before we could make them understand us altho a Jew who was our Linguist endeavour'd it with his Spanish Portuguese French and Dutch till once they were got drunk with our Punch and Madera Wine and then Captain Andreas with his Lieutenant spoke it as fast and much better than our Jew Having got their load they were not able to go ashore that night and next day we weigh'd and came into the Bay within Golden Island which is about 4 or 5 Miles wide and deep And having sounded with our Boats along the shore we found a Lagoon on the South-East side of this Bay which runs up within the Land about two Miles and a half this appearing to be a good Harbour for us we went into it and Christened it by the name of Caledonia Harbour The mouth or entry of this Harbour is a large Mile over and so steep too on both sides that a Ship may go so near as to throw a Bisket-cake ashore One side of the Harbour towards the Sea is a vast Mountain and Peninsula being joyn'd to the Main at the bottom of the Harbour by a neck of low Land about 3 or 400 Paces over The extream point of this Peninsula which makes one side of the Harbours mouth is a low and flat piece of Sandy ground containing about 30 Acres and divided from the Peninsula by another neck of 180 Paces over from Sea to Sea This was pitch'd upon as the strongest Sanctuary in case of attacks as likewise for the convenience of a battery towards the Harbours mouth We Christen'd this piece of ground by the name New Edinburgh and the Platform of 16 Guns which we made there was call'd Fort St. Andrew The neck of Land was cut through to let the Sea encompass the New City and Fort and part it from the Peninsula and within the Treneh a breast-work with a Parapet was rais'd and a half bastion at each end On the other side of the Trench the Trees were fell'd and the ground clear'd for a Musquet-shot round to give us a fair prospect of the Spaniard in case of an attack This piece of ground was the Scotch Collony as for the Peninsula it self it might have been fortify'd with some labour and pains but not thinking it convenient to part so few men to defend these two Posts it was resolv'd by the Council to stick close by this and fortify it to the bestad-vantage As for the opposite point on the Main which makes the other side of the entry into the Harbour it is a high ridge of a Mountain which with a sharp or edg'd end butts into the Sea and so crosly contriv'd that it would puzzle all the Inginiers in Europe to plant a Gun on it that could do any Service So that at best this Harbour is only a shelter from bad weather the Platform call'd Fort St. Andrew being of little use to defend it the Ships indeed by bringing a Spring on their Cables and their Broadsides to bear towards the mouth of the Harbour might serve for so advantagious a Battery as one Ship within the Harbour might be as good as two that came in to attack them the nature of which strength may easily be comprehended by any Seafaring men But to return to our Landlord and the other Indians Captain Andreas's Plantation was amongst the Mountains about 4 miles from our Harbour the extent of his Government was from Carrit-bay about 8 or 9 miles on one side of us and Golden Island about 5 miles on the other side such a portion of Land being the Lairdship or Kingdom of these Captains whom the Buccaneers Privateers and Scotch Company would have to be Kings and Sovereign Princes At our first Landing Captain Andreas came down
several other West-india Islands as likewise the American settlements on the Main the People met with a great many hardships and the like are to be expected at the beginning of all such Settlements To this I answer that at such Settlements the Undertakers and Planters know what they are going about and what to trust to which is no ways parallel with the Case of the Company for those being on an honest design had no more in their view than the Blessings of Heaven and the Product of the Earth and what they reap'd thereby was for their own use On the other hand the Gentlemen who went in the Scotch Companies Service were not born to Work nor did they design it when they went from their Fathers Houses and this the Company knew full as well as they A fourth reason they will offer is this that they sent a Cargo with us which might have purchas'd Provisions had it not been for the English prohibition To this 〈◊〉 that the Company having sent us on so dark an Errand where they must needs be assur'd that not only Spain but the other Trading Nations would be in our top should not have trusted to that unless they contriv'd it designedly to pick a quarrel with those Nations whose interest it was to refuse us Provisions or Necessaries to support our Collony As for the Cargo it self I refer my felf to the particulars and let any Merchant be Judge whether it was fitted for sale especially in the West-Indies The 1500 Fuzzes were the best of the Cargo but they could not be parted with the Linnen was the next but I have been assur'd by Merchants on Port-royal that 500 l worth of Scorch cloath makes the Commodity a drug there at any time Besides altho' we had not been sent on a dark design yet we cou'd not expect to Trade with Jamaico our Cloath and other Goods are seizable there either in our Bottoms or in their Sloops if the Jamaico Men should truck Provisions with us they cannot carry our goods home with them neither can they expect to Trade with the Spaniard on the account of our Settlement I know very well that the first Sloop which brought Provisions to us sold them at what rate they pleas'd and had our Scotch Cloath in truck at the prime cost yet they durst not carry it to Jamaico nor venture to Trade with the Spaniard but were oblig'd to leave it behind with Captain Allison the old Buccaneer to whom the Sloop was consign'd Lur still this reason of the prohibition will not hold Water for if there had been Money or market Goods in the Collony The English prohibition could not have kept Provisions from us The French and Dutch Islands were not confin'd by this Prohibition and I dare say there are so many good Christians at Currassa that if Redp and B's story of the Collonies bars of Silver had been true they would soon have made Provisions a drug in Caledonia Besides I can't think that the Prohibition had any influence on those four Sloops who went from Jamaico to the Collony laden with Provisions of all kinds altho' two of them return'd without breaking bulk I am rather apt to believe it was for want of those Silver bars and gold dust which in the Autum shakes off the Trees there As to the prohibition in self whereon the Author of the defence stumbles so oft and would gladly found the Basis of his quarral 'T is believ'd that his Majesty knew nothing of the Collonies Settlenient at Darien but what he had at second hand from R th's Prints till the Spanish Ambassador told him from his Master that some of his Majesty's Scotch Subjects had invaded the Spanish Dominions in his Province of Darien which he look'd upon to be contrary to the Treaty of Peace If his Majesty stopt the Spaniards mouth for the present till he inquired into the matter and forbid his English Subjects in the West-Indies to have any Communication with these People in Darien till such time as the Title were concerted he did no more than what was consonant with the Constitutions and Eslablishment of the English Islands altho' there had been no Spanish Complaâ—nt Neither could the King imagine that the Company â—…ould â—â—end out their Ships on to Foreign an Expedition so unprovided as to depend wholly on the English Plantations And if the King sorb d these to supply the Scotch Collony he did not prohibit the Scotch Company not Scotch Nation to send them what Provisions or other necesiaries they thought nt If the Scotch Company took most care to send out Buccaneers Pieces with great quantities of Powder and Shot and trusted to what Men they could decoy from the English and French Islands the defign was neither fair nor honest and it may reasonably be believ'd that both these Nations would have taken measures to bring them back again after they went And if his Majesty takes care that his Plantations in the West-Indies shall not be reduc'd to Forrests he can't be blam'd considering the vast Riches they send home to England yearly and the Customs which come into his Coffers when on the other hand all that the Scotch Company can make by such depopulations will not put one Peny in his Pocket these seventeen years at soonest worth the product of seventeen Hogsheads of Tobaccco Laying aside the Spanish Complaint and admit the Scotch Company to have a legal Title to their Settlement was it not reasonable that the Government of England having met with the clandestine Declararations which the Scotch Collony had spread all over the West-Indies inviting them over to Darien c. Should take suitable measures to prevent the ill consequences of the same and retain their own Subjects The Declarations are notorious and must be penn'd by some Body belonging to the Company or Collony and I presume the opposite Proclamation or Prohibition was penn'd by some Englishman who had some Interest in the English Plantations 'T is very well known that when Captain Pincarton met with the misfortue of being oblig'd to run his Vessel ashore under the Guns of Carthagena his Chief Errand was to Barhadoes and there to make use of the 48 hours that 's allow'd to foreigners to Wood and Water in doing business for the Collony and leaving Declarations to be spread over that Island and so from thence to other English and French Islands making use of the same Pretence of wanting Wood and Water These sinister dealings are not suffered in the Collony of any Nation and if the English and French Governments take care to prevent such designs I cannot see how they can be blaim'd 'T is very well known that those Declarations were so kindly entertain'd all over the Westindies that what with the Umbrary use that was made of King William's name and the hopes of Spanish Spoil most Men who were not Indu'd with Real or Personal Estate were making ready to go over to Darien Nay the unthinking sort of
Money and to give vent to his Malice The latter he owns in the beginning of his Book and repeats it again p. 161. where he says he took this way to right himself because of the Scots here in Town being on his Top and of some other harsh usage which he receiv'd at the hands of the Scots Company The very manner of giving in his Evidence lays him open to the Lash of the English Law and it is to be presum'd that his train of Blasphemies and constant ridiculing the Text would have been taken notice of e're now by a certain Court at the West end of Paul's but that he is protected by some Gentlemen belonging to a Court at the West end of the Town His invenom'd malice is demonstrable by the sport he makes to himself throughout his Libel at the Calamities and Misery of his Fellow-Creatures and Countrymen so that never did any man more exactly fill up the Character of a Renegado than himself for as those Miscreants stab an Image of our Saviour to the Heart as a proof of having absolutely denied him H s hath in the same manner done all he could to stab the Reputation of his native Country as a certain evidence of his being turn'd a Monster in Nature for which even they that imploy him must needs abhor him except they love to see the Image of their own Crimes in his Lovely Features We have not enter'd upon the detail of his malicious Lies with which he hath stuff'd his Book but have only pointed at the chief of them which are so very notorious as may well put his Suborners to the Blush that they should not have either taught him his Lesson better or have seen he had conn'd it more exactly for they are such gross Contradictions either to common Sense or to what he himself has advanc'd in his Libel that none but one who had swallow'd Transubstantiation could be guilty of the like It 's needless to enlarge upon his Character since it 's impossible to conceive a worse Idea of him than all Men of Sense will immediately form to themselves when they know he is a Traitor to his Country He was was formerly a Surgeon in the Fleet and made some Interest amongst the Officers by Female Mediation which was allow'd him by his last Religion for his Book shews that now he has none Hence it is that he expresses himself so readily in the Dialect of his Office and talks of Bullying Kings in his Dedication to shew us that he was acquainted with B-dy-house Rhetorick and they that know his Friends in Little B n say he has convey'd his Libel to the World through a very proper Channel Whilst he was a Surgeon in the Fleet his ill Nature having condemn'd him to perpetual Broyls he had the Impudence to draw upon his Captain ashore who wounded him so as 't was thought might have put a period to his Infamous Life upon which his Captain was Confin'd but the Wound not being Mortal the Gentleman was set at Liberty and returning on Board a Council of War was held by which H s was like to have had an Exit more answerable to his desert at the Yard-Arm but that one of our Country-men who Commanded in the Place sav'd him out of Pity and whilst he was sculking at London to avoid this Prosecution others of them out of Compassion hir'd him to go along with their Fleet for which he hath made his Country such a Grateful Reward as hath verify'd the Proverb That save a R gue from the Gallows he shall be the first that will cut your Throat We leave his Suborners to think on 't His Captain being thus disappointed of having Justice executed was forc'd to content himself with Pricking him Run that he might not have any claim to his Wages but since his return from Darien and engaging in the Honourable service of Reviling and Belying his Country his Suborners out of their innate Bounty and Gratitude have got him deliver'd from all farther Prosecution entitled him to his Wages and given him the opportunity to value himself upon his Corespondence at the Court end of the Town so that now he thinks himself sure of a Patent for Life and that he shall never be oblig'd to go up Holborn-Hill except his important occasions call him now and then that way to enable him to pay his present Debts when some of his Brethren pass that Road to pay their last It had been easie for us to have given such a History of his Life as would have put his Suborners to the blush but we reserve that to make use of as we shall see occasion what 's said is enough to let them know how much they are to trust to his Evidence if they think fit to make further use of him either by Libelling his Country or accusing any of those great Families he threatens in his Dedication AN INQUIRY INTO The Causes of the Miscariage of the Scots Colony at Darien THE main design of H s and his Suborners is to charge the Miscarriage of the Scots Colony upon their own Country to clear some Gentlemen that perhaps may be found within the Verge of White-Hall from having any hand in it and to evince the necessity of those Proclamations publish'd against the Scots in the West-Indies so as no Person or Party in England may seem justly chargeable with the ruin of that Colony a certain Evidence that the Crime is very black and that they are put to a miserable shift when those Gentlemen are at such expence of Contrivance and Pains to wipe off the Imputation and so ready to fall in with any Tool that they think can assist them in so doing Enough has been said already to demonstrate that the evidence of such an infamous Person as H s and so circumstantiated would not be admitted in any Court of Judicature in Europe especially against such an honourable Society as the Company of Scotland for trading to Africa and the Indies which consists of the very flower of the Nation and perhaps has more Persons of illustrious Birth Quality and Merit in it than any trading Company that ever yet was erected in the World The Directors particularly whom H s and his Masters have condemned to the Halter p. 46. are most of them Persons of that Quality Estate Worth and untainted Honour as the Accusation of no one particular Person tho of never so good Repute could in justice or decency be admitted against them and much less the malicious Calumnies of a Renegado But to set this matter in a clearer Light Whereas we have only H s's own word for what he asserts in vindication of his Friends and Suborners we shall demonstrate against him and them too from undeniable matter of Fact that some People in England are justly chargeable with the ruin of that Colony We shall begin with the opposition made to the Scots Act by the Parliament of England to whom the matter was