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 impossible 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 joyning 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 Reflection on the City of London pag. 3. as a place where Matter is never wanting to exercise plodding Heads Which is so near a kin to the Language of the Faction that in the late Reigns aim'd at the destruction of that Noble Emporium which deserves to be the Mistress of the Universe that we cannot in the least doubt but it proceeds from the same Spirit Of the same nature is his reflection pag. 7. upon the London Subscribers who came in so fast to the Scots Company that he thought himself the happiest man that could get his Name first down in our Books Which is a plain demonstration that those eager Subscribers thought the Design no way prejudicial to the Interest of their Country for upon enquiry it will be found that most of them were such as had zealously appear'd for its Liberty in former Reigns His malicious Reflection in that same Page as if the Company had promis'd 20000 l. to Paterson Smith and Lodg to engage Subscriptions in England and the Hans-Towns is notoriously false they had not one Farthing promis'd them tho to be sure the Company would have rewarded them for their Pains and Service as it was reasonable they should besides it appears by the eagerness of the English and Hamburgers to subscribe until they were prevented by their respective Governments that there was no occasion for such a Bribe to bring in Subscriptions His Reflection pag. 8. of our printing the Address of the Commons at Edinburgh but not the King's Answer admitting it to be true is so far from being criminal that it rather argues the greatest respect imaginable for his Majesty whom we would not lessen in the esteem of the People of Scotland who knew they had a natural Right to claim and expect his Protection His owning in that same Page that the Company 's Books had not been long open'd in Edinburgh till 400000 l. was sign'd and that all sorts of People whom he is pleas'd to express under the scurrilous denomination of poor blind and lame crouded in with their Subscriptions serves to confute his foregoing and following Reflections That the Company was obliged to promise 20000 l. to procure Subscriptions and to go where the Money lay viz to Holland and the Hans Towns especially since he owns himself p. 10 19. That they were baulk'd of their Subscriptions in England and Holland and had not one Groat of the Hamburgers Money His Reflection upon Mr. Paterson pag. 8. whom he blasphemously calls the Man Paterson alluding to the Apostles calling our Saviour the Man Christ is altogether false he always propos'd the paying half the Subscriptions and most of the Subscribers were resolved to pay the whole as it appears they have already a considerable part of it by their having sent away three Convoys and being busy in preparing a fourth His Irreligious and Atheistical temper appears further by his reflecting upon their expecting good Returns by the old Cant of God's Blessing as if it were possible to look for Success in any thing without the Divine Benediction or ridiculous to express our dependency on it But it seems his Suborners are resolv'd that our Nation shall be huff'd banter'd and blasphem'd out of all their Rights as Men and Christians His next Reflection p. 9. of our sending Persons to build six Ships of fifty Guns a piece at Amsterdam and Hamburgh to prepossess the Dutchmen with a kind opinion of the Company and thereby make it appear how willing we were to extend the warm Rays of our Octroy to people who deserv'd it better than our ungrateful Neighbours is malicious to the highest degree He and his Suborners very well know that we could neither build nor buy in England because of the opposition made to us there and since 't is known that they can build cheaper in Hamburgh and Holland than in England our offering first to lay out our Money with our Neighbours and not going beyond Sea till we were compell'd to it is a proof from his own Mouth that we had no other but friendly Intentions towards the English Nation His Insinuation of the Difference betwixt the Kirk and Church Parties about each of them imploying their own Instruments shews more Malice than Wisdom since admitting People of different Perswasions into Companies is practised in all trading parts of the World and particularly in England where the Dissenters have no small share in all their Funds and Companies but by this they may see what fair Treatment they are to expect if H s and his Suborners could get their wills The old Popish Maxim would soon be brought into practice that no man should
of those great Families he threatens in his Dedication AN INQUIRY INTO The Causes of the Miscarriage of the Scots Colony at Darien THE main design of H s and his Suborners is to charge the Miscarriage of the Scots Colony upon their own Country to clear some Gentlemen that perhaps may be found within the Verge of White-Hall from having any hand in it and to evince the necessity of those Proclamations 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 Honor 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 mater 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 misrepresented the Answer they obtain'd from the King and the Prosecution they commenc'd and threatned against English Natives and Scots-men residing in England that should subscribe to the Scots Company In the next place we alledg the English Resident's Memorial at Hamburgh against that Governments suffering any of their Subjects to subscribe to the Scots Company It is likewise well enough known that the Influence and Example of the English Court hinder'd the Subscriptions of our Neighbours in Holland Nor can it be denied but this continued Thread of Opposition from the Court of England must needs hinder the Subscriptions of a great many in Scotland who could not but foresee that a Storm was threatned by so many Clouds To this we may add that the Kingdom of Scotland have not yet forgot the discourting of the Marquiss of Tweddale who was known to be an able Statesman and a true Patriot to his Country because of his touching that Act when he had the Honor to represent his Majesty on the Throne Nor was it the least of our Misfortunes that we lost such an able and faithful Minister of State as Secretary Iohnston and that too upon the account of his affection to his Country in this matter We are very well satisfied that his Majesty who advanc'd him to that Post for his Merit and was so well satisfied with his ability and care would scarcely have parted with a Minister of that Gentleman's Faithfulness and Penetration but by the Intrigues of some People at Court Before we proceed any further with the Narrative of the Opposition made to us we shall obviate one Objection which some Persons may possibly make viz. That all we have said hitherto is nothing to the purpose because it does not regard our Colony but the Company To which we reply 1. That this is so far from being an Excuse to our Opposers that it highly aggravates our Charge against them as being a plain demonstration that they were resolv'd to obstruct our Trade in every respect and whatever it should be without any exception 2. That the opposing of the Company was the direct Method to prevent our ever having a Colony and by the Laws of God and Man those who endeavour to destroy the Embrio are chargeable with a design of preventing the Birth But we shall come closer to the point in a little time and resume the thread of our Narrative after one or two Observations upon what we have said already viz. 1. That the greatest of those Difficulties and Disappointments which H s says in his Book the Company met with as to their Subscriptions Payments c. may justly be charg'd to the account of that opposition made us from the Court of England 2. That there is so little reason to upbraid us that our Efforts were not greater that it is rather to be wonder'd at that the Company was not dash'd to pieces and crush'd in the bud and much more that ever they should have been able to weather out the storm of so much Indignation overcome all those Difficulties find Mony enough to build Ships equip out a Fleet and make a Settlement in America when neither England nor Scots-men residing there Hamburgh nor Holland shall dare to assist them without incurring his Majesty of England's displeasure But to come directly to the Narrative of the Opposition made to our Colony It is well enough known that the Kingdom of Scotland as many other Parts of Europe hath suffered much for three or four years past by bad Harvests which rendred them uncapable of providing Bread for their People at home and much more of sending Supplies to their Infant Colony abroad This was very manifest to some People about White-hall and care was taken we should have none for our Mony from England tho that Nation could have spar'd it and perhaps we might have pleaded it as our merit when in Parliament we voted his Majesty a Standing Army upon his Royal Word that it was necessary tho we had more need to have sav'd the Mony to have bought Bread for thousands of our People that were starving for want afforded us the melancholy prospect of dying by â—â—â—als in our Streets and have left behind them a reigning Contagion which hath swept away multitudes more and God knows where it may end Tho our Country was reduced to this deplorable state that a generous Enemy would have shew'd us compassion yet the malice of our Court Adversaries did not rest here nor with having follow'd us into Holland and Germany but pursues us into America and with angry Proclamations forbids the Subjects there on pain of his Majesty's Displeasure to afford any manner of assistance to the Scots at Darien So that we are starv'd at home and abroad by our Enemies at Court who having by this means dispossess'd us of our Colony at Darien
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 before or that when they find it applied to another use than that which they gave it for they may not reduce it to its 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 Stots And if the People of Scotland met in Parliament agreed upon it as their Interest to have that Act past for incouraging their 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 was obtain'd viis modis but the Falshood and Malice of that Insinuation will appear to the World by the previous Act of 1693. for incouraging of foreign Trade by which it was statuted That Merchants more or fewer may contract and enter into such Societies and Companies for carrying on Trade as to any Subject of Goods or Merchandise to whatsomever Kingdoms Countries or parts of the World not being in War with his Majesty where Trade is in use to be or may be follow'd and particularly besides the Kingdoms and Countries of Europe to the East and West Indies the Straits and to trade in the Mediterranean or upon the Coast of Africa or elsewhere as above Which Societies and Companies being contracted and entred into upon the terms and in the usual manner as such Companies are set up His Majesty with Consent aforesaid did allow and approve giving and granting to them and each of them all Powers Rights and Privileges as to their Persons Rules and Orders that by the Laws are given to Companies allowed to be erected for Manufactories And his Majesty for their greater Incouragement did promise to give to those Companies and each of them his Letters Patent under the Great Seal confirming to them the whole foresaid Powers and Privileges with what other incouragement his Majesty should judg needful These are the very terms of the Act of 1693. and in pursuance of this Act our Nation being willing to form a Company for trading to Africa and the Indies this Act which hath met with so much opposition in the World was past Iune 26. 1695 which was two years after Then with what Effrontery can H s and his Suborners suggest that it was obtain'd viis modis by surprize or in a surreptitious manner But something they must say to justify their unreasonable treatment of us and to blind the Eyes of the World Thus we see then that the Parliament of Scotland went on deliberately to advance their Trade and to make this Act by which it's evident that they who advis'd his Majesty to say that he was ill serv'd in Scotland impos'd upon him have laid a Foundation of division betwixt him and his Parliament which are the two constituent parts of our Government and if they be dash'd against one another the whole frame of it must of necessity be dissolv'd Hence also it is evident that those Counsellors if Scots-men ought by our old Constitution to be call'd to an account by the Parliament according to the 12 th Act of Parl. 2 Iames 4. And if they be Englishmen or Dutchmen we have a right to demand Justice against them as having meddled in our Affairs contrary to the Laws of Nations The Soveraignty of our Nation and the Independency of the K. of Scots upon the Crown of England being tacitely giv'n up by this Answer and the Parliament of England being possess'd by our Enemies with a false Notion of our Design they put a stop to our taking Subscriptions from any Residenters in England tho our offering to take in the English as Sharers was a plain Demonstration of the uprightness of our Intentions towards that Nation This made it apparent that we had no design in the least to supplant them in their Trade but on the contrary to make them Partakers in ours in order to lay a foundation for a closer Union and greater Amity betwixt the two Nations which if it had taken effect our Trade had not been nipp'd in the bud as now it is by the frowns of the Court but might by this time have been improv'd to the advancement of the glory and strength of the Island Whereas by the opposition made to that noble Design the Nations are more alienated from one another than before lessen'd in their Strength and Trade and Scotland for ever lost as to their Friendship usefulness and joining with England on any occasion whatever unless proper Measures be taken to make up the Breach and retrieve our lost Honour and Advantage All that can be said to excuse so false a step in such a wise Nation as England is that they were impos'd upon by those that are Enemies to the true Liberties of both Nations and by some of their Traders and ignorant Pretenders to give advice in matters of Trade who out of a sordid Principle of Self-interest preferr'd their own private Gain to the general advantage of their Country This would have quickly been seen had his Majesty and the Parliament of England instead of that violent opposition which they made to the Scots Act desir'd a Conference betwixt a Committee of the Parliaments of both Nations then it would soon have appear'd what our true Design was and that it was neither our Interest
We leave it then to the impartial Thoughts of the good People of England whether we have not occasion to say that our King is in the Hand of our Enemies since we are thus condemn'd without a hearing and our Nation put to the trouble and expence to send Lawyers out of the Kingdom to defend themselves before those that had already condemned them And since this is a visible effect of the Union of the Crowns by which we are every day more and more oppressed let them speak their Consciences if we have not all the reason in the World to dissolve that Union except the Nations be more closely united and upon a better footing That we were so treated in former Reigns we had no great cause to wonder when the Court was engaged in a Conspiracy against our Religion and Liberties And our Nation being inferior to none in their Zeal for both it was but natural to think that we should be the first Sacrifice But to be treated thus by a Prince who hath ventur'd his Life to save us from Popery and Slavery a Prince who for Courage in War and Conduct in Peace is not to be match'd in Story a Prince who is under God the Great Champion of our Religion and the bold Asserter of Europe's Liberty a Prince whose Family we revere and whose Person we adore a Prince for whom we have so chearfully ventur'd our Lives and lost so much of the best Blood in our Veins to be so treated by such a Prince hath some thing cutting beyond expression and proves that our Disasters are no way to be remedied but either by a total Separation or a closer Union of the two Kingdoms We cannot be so unjust to his Majesty's Character as to think a Prince of his Magnanimity could be guilty of so mean a thing as willingly to subject the Crown of his Antient Kingdom which he received free to that of another We cannot once suffer it to enter into our thoughts that he who dares to out-brave Death in the Field a thousand times a day should act so unworthy a part as first to condemn and then to try us These and all other things of that sort we must needs charge to the account of our Enemies about him who misrepresent us and therefore surprise his Majesty into any thing he does against us As to that positive Sentence of our having acted contrary to the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies we have all the Reason in the World to complain of it Is our Kingdom then become so mean and contemptible that what is transacted according to the Acts of our Parliaments and Patents of our Kings is liable to be annull'd or declared illegal by any Person that has the hap to be made an English Secretary of State Governor of one of their American Plantations or a Member of their Council of Trade If it be so his Majesty's Dignity as King of Scots is well defended in the mean time when it is liable thus to be trampled upon by his own Servants as King of England This does indeed verify what has been said that our Kings since the Union leave their Antient Kingdom to the disposal of their Servants but whether this be agreeable to the Coronation Oaths of our Kings let them determine that are concern'd to enquire and perhaps it may be worth the consideration of our Neighbours whether since we have been govern'd by Servants they have not for the most part been subject to Minions and that the one does naturally pave the way for the other So that they are no great gainers by the Bargain If it be answer'd that the Proclamations are issued by his Majesty's Authority and that therefore our Sentence proceeds from his Bar We answer 1. That there are shrewd Suspitions that a certain Gentleman or two who have affected all along to shew their Zeal against the Scots in this Affair have push'd this matter beyond their Instructions for there 's no man that knows his Majesty's Justice and Wisdom can admit a thought that he would condemn us before we were heard 2. We don 't at all question his Majesty's Authority as King of England to forbid his English Subjects to give any manner of Assistance to the Scots at Darien tho we might say it was unkind but we absolutely deny that he has any Authority as King of England to condemn the Proceedings of the Subjects of Scotland for any thing they transact without the Dominions of England If it be otherwise his Majesty as King of Scots is bound to appear at the King 's Bench-bar in Westminster-Hall for what he hath done as King of Scots upon the Lord Chief Justices Summons and of what Consequence this may be to himself or his Successors may be easily judg'd Had Oliver and the other Regicides bethought themselves of this it had been more for the Honour of England and would have taken off a great deal of the odium that is charg'd upon them for cutting off King Charles had they search'd for something Criminal in his Conduct toward the English Nation as King of Scots and condemned him for that Tho they did not think upon this perhaps others may and then the English will be able to justify themselves as not having cut off their own King but their Enemy the King of Scots as there 's no doubt they would have done by King Charles II. had he not made his escape after the battle of Worcester This may perhaps deserve the thoughts of his present Majesty and others concern'd in the Succession and so much the more that the dependence of the Crown of Scotland upon that of England hath been lately asserted by some English Historians and indirectly hinted at in a pretended Answer to the Defence of the Scots Settlement at Darien p. 24. But to satisfy that Gentleman and others who please themselves so much in vilifying the Scotish Nation they may turn to the Reigns of Edward I. II. and III. and they will quickly find that Sir William Wallace K. Robert Bruce Iames Lord Douglas Thomas Randolph Earl of Murray and others that we could name did so gallantly defend the Soveraignty of Scotland against those bold Pretenders to a Superiority over us that their Successors have had no great stomach to pursue their Claim to it since So that if ever they had any it is forfeited by Prescription Oliver's imaginary Conquest so much insisted on by the dull Answerer of the Scots Defence and others will be of no use to the Faction in this matter since that was no National Quarrel nor did the English pretend to any such thing as a Conquest of us but immediatly withdrew their Forces upon the Restoration So that Oliver's Conquest as he calls it was only the Victory of one Party over another in a Civil War it being well known that he had Friends in Scotland as well as England which if that Wise Author will have Oliver's Victories to be Conquests he
had conquer'd too before ever he came near Scotland We don't insist upon this with any design to derogate from the Valour of the English Nation which is known all over the World but to stop the mouths of those pitiful Scriblers and to give a Caveat to those Gentlemen about Court who talk so big of conquering Scotland upon this present occasion But we wish them to consult beforehand how England in general stands affected to such a Design and how they will justify the Lawfulness of it lest it fare with them as it did with K. Charles I. and his Cabal who not only in Council advis'd TO REDUCE US TO OUR DUTY BY FORCE RATHER THAN GIVE WAY TO OUR DEMANDS as may be seen in the Representation of the States of Scotland in 1640. but rais'd Money and levied a formidable Army to carry on their Design and yet the Hearts of these Bravos fail'd them when they came in view of the Scots who repuls'd them twice with shame the first time when they encamp'd their great Army near Barwick and the next when we charg'd them at Newburn And at last the best of the Nobility and Gentry of England thought fit to put a stop to those dangerous Proceedings and follow'd his Majesty with a Protestation against them as well knowing that if Scotland were once subdued the Liberties of England could not be long liv'd That it is the Interest of England now to prevent the Ruin of Scotland as much as it was then will appear by the following Arguments 1. That the present Juncture of Affairs makes it necessary for the Kingdom of England rather to strengthen themselves by making new Friends than by procuring new Enemies They are not ignorant that they have a controverted Title to their Crown entail'd upon them and that the Pretenders against those in possession are in the French Interest and under their Protection Nor can they be ignorant that to the old National Hatred betwixt France and England the French have added that of the Protestant Religion Of late years they have declared themselves the most implacable Enemies of it and their King in all his Triumphs has that ascrib'd to him as his greatest Exploit that he hath quelled the Monster of Heresy The case being thus it must needs be against the Interest of England to suffer any froward and headstrong Faction to embroil them with Scotland or to ruin that Kingdom the Consequence of which will be the exposing themselves as an easier Prey to the Conquest of the French or any other Enemy That the French had a hand in fomenting our late Civil Wars and made use of their Firebrands in all Parties is beyond dispute and that it is now more their Interest to divide us than ever is so palpable that it cannot be denied Nothing in human probability could have stop'd the impetuous Current of their Arms but the Interposition of Great Britain and therefore it concerns them both in point of Interest and Revenge to dash us against one another and if the ill Usage that we meet with from the Court of England should force us again into a French or other Alliance the World cannot blame us since the Laws of Nature and Nations are for us Put the case that a smaller number of Christians should be unjustly attack'd by a greater whom nothing will satisfy but the utter Ruin of the former Could any man in conscience blame the weaker Party to call in the Assistance of Iews and Pagans to preserve their own Lives Is it not the same case with the Scots have they not ever since the Union of the Crowns been oppressed and tyranniz'd over by a Faction in England who will neither admit of an Union of the Nations nor leave the Scots in possession of their own Privileges as Men and Christians Was it not a Party in England that impos'd upon us first in Matters of Religion Did we send first to oblige them to submit to the Geneva Disciplin as they call it or was it they that first imposed their Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer upon us Was it we who first invaded them with an Army to subvert their Civil and Religious Liberties or did not they first invade us Was it we who first made Acts against their Trade or they who made Acts destructive of ours Did we issue Proclamations against their Colonies or have they done so by ours In the name of God then let them declare what they would have us to do They will not unite with us nor suffer us to live by our selves Nor must we have any share of their Trade or carry on a Trade by our selves Is it not plain then that the Faction oppress us and yet we must not complain of this sort of Treatment 2. If the state of Affairs in Ireland be consider'd it will appear to be such as may make it dangerous to suffer the Scots to be oppressed and provok'd in this manner It is well enough known that the People of Ireland are not very well pleas'd with their Treatment by some in England This together with the great numbers of Scots in the North of that Kingdom who bear a natural Affection to their Country and would be very uneasy to see its Ruin may prove of dangerous consequence in case of a Rupture with Scotland 3. It will further appear to be the Interest of England not to suffer the Scots to be so much run down if they consider the posture of their own Affairs at home The Divisions and Animosities betwixt the several Parties in England are well enough known So that besides the sport it would afford to the common Enemy of our Religion and Country to see those two Nations engaged in War the Enemies of the present Government would be sure to improve it and watch for an opportunity to avenge themselves for what has been done against the late K. Iames and his Friends It is well enough known what hopes they and some People beyond Sea conceive from the Differences that this Treatment of the Scots may probably occasion and as they have an irreconcilable Hatred against our Nation because we declar'd so generally against the late King and are so zealous for his present Majesty there 's no doubt but they will foment our Divisions as much as they can and insinuate themselves with both Parties in order to set them together by the Ears They know that so many as fall in England of those who adhere to the present Constitution and so many as fall in Scotland for supporting the Trade and Freedom of their Country so many Enemies they are rid of therefore there 's no question but they promise themselves a plentiful fishing in such troubled Waters It likewise deserves the consideration of our Neighbours that they don't stand at present in very good Terms as to Matter of Trade with France Holland and Flanders nor is it well known what the Issue of the present Controversy with Spain about regulating their
the Crown of Scotland to its antient Honour We take no notice of his profane and atheistical Banter upon the Religion of our Country as being satisfied that that will do his Cause no good amongst thinking men tho it may please those that he is only fit to converse with As for his malicious charge on Presbyterians that they maintain it as their Principle That Dominion is founded on Grace it 's of a piece with the rest of his Evidence He and his Suborners will be very hard put to it to quote one of their Authors to prove the Assertion and therefore they may well reject it as a slander but we must tell him that if this be the Principle of the Presbyterians they have not well answer'd it by their practice for whenever they had any such thing as Dominion at their disposal they seldom had the good hap to confer it upon those that had Grace enough to answer the ends of it We forbear Instances because it 's too well known both in France and Great Britain We come next to examine his Charge upon our Colony on purpose to render them odious to the English Nation and all the World and shall transcribe it verbatim that the reason of our Observations upon it may be the more obvious His words are these If your Colony has left Darien for Reasons not as yet public to the World '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 Artifices 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 more authority to the thing And by those indirect Manifestos such Profits or rather Plunders were insinuated that if the Government of England had not taken early measures to prevent the ill Consequences it 's to be question'd whether the greatest part of the English West Indies had not e're now quitted their Settlements and been decoyed 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 divide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru amongst the Servants and Adventurers of the Company This indeed is something to the purpose and might deserve the Suborners Mony were there no possibility of proving it false but we shall see anon what ground there is for this bold Accusation after observing That perhaps some Gentlemen at the West end of the Town may find at long-run that their Evidence has blab'd out something more in this Paragraph than it 's for their Interest the World should know We will only ask Mr. H s some civil Questions What are those Reasons not as yet publick to the World for which our Colony left Darien Sir William Beeston's Letter acquainted us that it was for want of Provisions and for fear of the great Preparations by the Spaniards The Letters we have had since from New-York say that it was for want of Provisions and because they were brought to their wits end and did not know what to think of their Case by reason of the English Proclamations Then since the very first of these and much more all of them together were reason sufficient and are publick to the World What other private reasons can Mr. H s give us for it We know he boasts of his Interest in those that are concerned in the Secrets of the West End of the Town Did they tell him then that the Government of England took early Measures to prevent the ill Consequences of our Colony If they did so pray what were those Measures Was the sending of Capt. Long thither to debauch our Men traduce us to the Indians as Pirats and to tell them his Majesty of Great Britain would not protect us one of those early Measures Was not their solliciting a foreign Minister to present a Memorial against our Colony as soon as ever the News of it arriv'd another And was not this the reason why they put it upon that Minister and not upon the Spanish Ambassador that the latter had been forbid coming to Court because his Catholick Majesty would not admit of Schonenburg the the Iew as Envoy from the Dutch Were not the Enemies of the Scots Company so zealous in promoting that Memorial that they could not have patience till orders came from Madrid but put the Envoy upon it of themselves And when a Controversy happen'd about receiving it signed or unsign'd because of the difference betwixt the two Courts did not our Enemies agree to it as an Expedient that one of both sorts should be presented Was not this abominable trifling upon a point of Honour when they were plotting to bereave the Kingdom of Scotland of their Honour Men Mony and Colony all at once Were not these more clandestine and indirect Artifices to destroy our Colony than any he charges upon us to destroy the English Colonies Having ask'd Mr. H s more Questions than he and his Suborners dare positively answer we come next to deny his Charge upon our Colony as being malicious and absolutely false for which their own Declaration shall be our Evidence and is as follows CALEDONIA The Declaration of the Council constituted by the Indian and African Company of Scotland for the government and direction of their Colonies and Settlements in the Indies THE said Company pursuant to the Powers and Immunities granted unto them by His Majesty of Great Britain our Soveraign Lord with Advice and Consent of His Parliament of Scotland having granted and conceded unto us and our Successors in the Government for all times hereafter full Power to equip set out freight and navigate our own or hired Ships in warlike or other manner from any Ports or Places in amity or not in hostility with His Majesty to any Lands Islands Countries or Places in Asia Africa or America and there to plant Colonies build Cities Towns or Forts in or upon the places not inhabited or in or upon any other place by consent of the Natives or Inhabitants thereof and not possest by any European Soveraign Potentate Prince or State and to provide and furnish the aforesaid Places Cities Towns or Forts with Magazines Ordinance Arms Weapons Ammunition and Stores of War and by force of Arms to defend the same Trade Navigation Colonies Cities Towns Forts Plantations and other Effects whatsoever and likewise to make Reprizals and to seek and take reparation of damage done by Sea or by Land and to make and conclude Treaties of Peace and Commerce with Soveraign Princes Estates Rulers Governours or Proprietors of the aforesaid Lands Islands Countries or places in Asia Africa or America And reserving to themselves five per Cent. or one twentieth part of the Lands Mines Minerals Stones of value precious Woods and
will not say that the Subjects of England might not have traded with them for their own advantage provided their Title had been unexceptionable and seeing the Scots had reason to think it so it was no act of unkindness in them to let the English Plantations know that they should be very welcome to trade to Darien and how this could be done so properly and with so much effect as by Declaration our Author would do well to acquaint us The Gentleman and his Friends are very angry that we should have made use of the King of Great Britain's Name to give the more Authority to the thing We would very fain know their Reasons why it is not as lawful for the Scots to make use of that Name as the English and at the same time must take leave to tell the Renegado and his Whitehall Friends that all this Venom they have spit at the Scots Colony is a virulent Invective against his Majesty He impower'd them to do what they accuse them for by Act of Parliament and because our Antagonists have a mind to say that this Octroy as they call it was destructive to the Trade of England they find themselves oblig'd to make an Excuse for the King viz. that the honest Gentleman meant no harm at the granting of it for it is to be believ'd that he could scarce bear what was whisper'd for the noise of the Namur Guns which is in plain English he gave his consent to he knew not what A noble Defence for which his Majesty is oblig'd to them But Banter and Blasphemy they were fully resolv'd on and so they had but a Subject they car'd not what Nor Adam nor David nay nor the Almighty himself shall escape them but his Commission to the Hebrews when they departed out of Egypt must come in to make up the profane Jest thus Heav'n it self shall be charg'd at last with founding Dominion upon Grace and giving the Elect a Divine Right to the Goods of the Wicked after its being first thrown as a killing Reflection at the Heads of the poor Presbyterians H s will needs insist upon it in his Dedication that our Project on Darien was so secretly carried on that it was not known to England till the same Wind that brought the News likewise inform'd the Nation that the Scots were march'd over to Panama and had planted 80 Guns against it but unhappily forgets himself and tells us pag. 7. of his Book that Paterson communicated it to some select Heads in England that were able to bear it And we can tell him further that it was so well known to some in England that they sent Capt. Long the Quaker on purpose to prevent us and to do us all the mischief he could and accordingly he was on that Coast a month before us tho he did not land any Men till afterwards As for the news of the Scots having planted 80 Cannon against Panama it 's the first time we ever heard on 't and therefore must charge it upon the Author amongst the rest of his Forgeries There was indeed a Report brought over by the Dutch Gazetts which we suppose was inserted on purpose by our good Friends in Holland to render us odious that we had plundered Panama but that was a long time after the news of our arrival at Darien and fram'd on purpose as we have reason to believe to justify the Proclamations that some Gentlemen at the West end of the Town had sent to the West-Indies against us for we know they can have what they please put in the Dutch Gazetts and that perhaps may be one main reason why they have been altogether silent as to the matter in their own But that which sufficiently discovers the falshood of this malicious Insinuation as if we had a design to attaque Panama or any other place belonging to the Spaniards is Mr. Paterson's Letter to his Friend at Boston in New-England and sent us thence in print dated at Fort St. Andrew in Caledonia February 18. 1698 9. above fifteen weeks after the arrival of our Colony wherein he acquaints that Gentleman That they had written to the President of Panama giving him an account of our good and peaceable Intentions and to procure a good Vnderstanding and Correspondence The Letter it self is as follows An Abstract of a LETTER from a Person of Eminence and Worth in Caledonia to a Friend at Boston in New-England I Have received your kind Letter of the 26th of December last and communicated it to the Gentlemen of the Council here to whom your kind Sentiments and Readiness were very acceptable Certainly the Work here begun is the most ripened digested and the best founded as to Privileges Place Time and other like Advantages that was ever yet begun in any part of the trading World We arrived upon this Coast the first and took possession the third of November Our Situation is about two Leagues to the Southward of Golden-Island by the Spaniards called Guarda in one of the best and most defenceable Harbours perhaps in the World The Country is healthful to a wonder insomuch that our own Sick which were many when we arrived are now generally cured The Country is exceeding fertil and the Weather temperate The Country where we are settled is dry and rising ground Hills but not high and on the sides and quite to the tops three four or five foot good fat Mould not a Rock or Stone to be seen We have but eight or nine Leagues to a River where Boats may go into the South-Sea The Natives for fifty Leagues on either side are in intire friendship and correspondence with us and if we will be at the pains we can gain those at the greatest distance For our Neighbour Indians are willing to be the joyful Messengers of our Settlement and good disposition to their Country-men As to the innate Riches of the Country upon the first information I always believed it to be very great but now find it goes beyond all that ever I thought or conceited in that matter The Spaniards as we can understand are very much surprized and alarm'd and the more that it comes as a Thunder-clap upon them having had no notice of us until three days after our arrival We have written to the President of Panama giving him account of our good and peaceable Intentions and to procure a good Vnderstanding and Correspondence and if that is not condescended to we are ready for what else he pleases If Merchants should once erect Factories here this place will soon become the best and surest Mart in all America both for In-land and Over-land Trade We want here Sloops and Coasting Vessels for want of which and by reason we have all hands at work in fortifying and filting our selves which is now pretty well over we have had but little Trade as yet most of our Goods unsold We are here a thousand one hundred Men and expect Supplies every day We have been
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 profess'd 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 aggriev'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 further 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 as may be seen in our Histories the Acts of all the Iames's the Protestation of the States of Scotland in 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 hath often occasion'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 effected 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 fit 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
their several Speeches pursuant thereto have bin full of repeated Assurances of his Majesty's good Inclinations for incouraging the Trade and Manufactories of this Nation And whereas accordingly by the 22 d Act of the fourth Session and the 8 th Act of the fifth Session of the said Parliament together with his Majesty's Patent under the Great Seal of this Kingdom our Company is established with such ample Privileges and Immunities as were thought most proper for encouraging both Natives and Foreigners to join in the carrying on supporting and advancement of our Trade we in pursuance and upon the publick Faith thereof not only contributed at home a far more considerable joint Stock than ever was yet rais'd in this Nation for any publick Undertaking or Project of Trade whatsoever but have also had all the promising hopes and prospect of foreign Aid that our hearts could wish till to our great surprize the English Ministers at Hamburgh have under pretence of special Warrant from his Majesty put a stop thereto by giving in a Memorial to the Senat of that City threatning both Senat and Inhabitants with the King 's utmost Displeasure if they should countenance or join with us in any Treaty of Trade or Commerce as by the annexed Copy thereof may appear Upon due consideration whereof we have in all duty and humility addressed his Majesty in Iune last for redress thereof in answer to which Address his Majesty was then graciously pleased to signify by his Royal Letter That upon his return into England he would take into consideration the Contents of our said Address and that in the mean time he would give Orders to the said Ministers at Hamburgh not to make use of his Royal Name or Authority for obstructing the Trade of our Company with the Inhabitants of that City In the full assurance of which we rested secure and took our measures accordingly till to our further surprize and unspeakable prejudice we find by repeated Advices from Hamburgh that the said Resident continues still contumacious and is so far from giving due Obedience to his Majesty's said Order that upon application made to him by our Agent in that City with all the respect due to his Character he declared that as yet he had got no such Order on our behalf which by a further Address we are now to lay before his Majesty But whereas we humbly conceive your Lordships to be more immediatly under his Majesty the Guardians of the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom We think it our duty to represent to your Lordships the Consequences of the said Memorial both with relation to our Company in particular and the Privileges Interest Honour Dignity and Reputation of the Nation in general Your Lordships very well know of what concern the Success of this Company is to the whole Kingdom and that scarce any particular Society or Corporation within the same can justly boast of so solemn and unanimous a Suffrage or Sanction as the Acts of Parliament by which this Company is established So that if effectual measures be not taken for putting an early stop to such an open and violent Infringement of and Incroachment upon the Privileges of so solemn a Constitution 't is hard to guess how far it may in after Ages be made use of-as a Precedent for invading and overturning even the very fundamental Rights natural Liberties and indisputable Independency of this Kingdom which by the now open and frequent Practices of our unkind Neighbours seem to be too shrewdly pointed at And should this Company wherein the most considerable of the Nobility Gentry Merchants and whole Body of the Royal Burroughs are concerned be so unhappy which God forbid as to have its Designs rendered unsuccessful through the unaccountable evil Treatments of our said Neighbours most certain it is that no consideration whatever can hereafter induce this Nation to join in any such other publick Stock tho never so advantageous an undertaking as not doubting but to meet with the like or greater Discouragements from those who give such frequent and manifest Indications of their Designs to wrest our Right and Freedom of Trade out of our hands For which cause we humbly offer the Premises to your Lordships serious Consideration not doubting but you will in your profound Wisdom and Prudence take such effectual measures for redress thereof at present and to prevent the like Incroachments for the future as may be capable to remove those Apprehensions and Jealousies which the bare-faced and avowed Methods of the English do now suggest not only to our Company in particular but even to the whole Body of this Nation in general Signed at Edinburgh the 22d Day of December 1697. in Name Presence and by Order of the said Council General by May it please your Lordships Your Lordships most Obedient and most Humble Servant Sic subscribitur Francis Scot P. And therewith they join'd another to the King as follows To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Address of the Council General of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies May it please Your Majesty BY a former Address of the 28 th of Iune last We have humbly represented to Your Majesty that Your Majesty's Envoy to the Court of Lunenburgh and Resident at Hamburgh did under pretence of special Warrant from Your Majesty give in a Memorial to the Senat of the said City of Hamburgh contrary to the Law of Nations and expresly invading the Privileges contained in the said Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent by which our said Company is established Copies of which Address and Memorial we have for Your Majesty's better information hereto annexed In answer to which Your Majesty was then graciously pleased to signify by Your Royal Letter that upon Your Majesty's Arrival in England You would take the Contents of our said Address into consideration and that in the mean time You would give Orders to Your said Minister not to make use of Your Majesty's Name or Authority for obstructing our Company in the prosecution of our Trade with the Inhabitants of the said City of Hamburgh In the full assurance of which we rested secure and took our measures accordingly till to our further surprize and great disappointment we find by repeated Advices from Hamburgh that Your Majesty 's said Resident continues still contumacious and is so far from giving due Obedience to Your Majesty's said Order that upon application made to him for that effect with all respect due to his Character he pretended that he had never as yet got any such Order on our behalf Which we thought fit in all duty and humility to lay before Your Majesty renewing withal our most humble and earnest Request that Your Majesty would be now graciously pleas'd to take the Contents of this and our said former Address into consideration and in Your Royal Wisdom order some speedy and effectual Redress of our Grievances therein mentioned and a just Reparation of the
manifest Damages which our Company has already sustain'd by reason of the said Memorial And grant us a Declaration under Your Royal Hand to render the Senat and Inhabitants of the City of Hamburgh and all others with whom we may have occasion to enter into Commerce secure from Threatnings and other false Suggestions contained in the said Memorial as well as to render us secure under Your Majesty's Protection in the free Enjoyment of our lawful Rights and Privileges contained in Your Majesty's Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent above mentioned Signed at Edinburgh the 22 d Day of December 1697. in Name Presence and by Order of the said Council General by May it please your Majesty Your Majesty's most Faithful most Dutiful most Humble and most Obedient Subject and Servant Sic subscribitur Francis Scot P. Notwithstanding all this humble Application there was no stop put to that Opposition So that the Hamburghers dar'd not venture to subscribe and the Company after great loss of time and Money and leaving two Ships unfinish'd to the great Dishonour as well as Disadvantage of the Nation were oblig'd to recal their Agents after having spent 30000 l. and not receiv'd one Farthing there tho the Hamburghers were so willing to join that they were sorry there was not room left for subscribing more than 200000 l. The Company finding themselves thus injuriously dealt with made application to the Parliament of Scotland for redress Upon which the Parliament presented the following Address to his Majesty An ADDRESS to his Majesty by the Parliament WE Your Majesty's most Loyal and Faithful Subjects the Noblemen Barons and Burgesses convened in Parliament do humbly represent to Your Majesty That having consider'd a Representation made to us by the Council General of the Company trading to Africa and the Indies making mention of several Obstructions they have met with in the prosecution of their Trade particularly by a Memorial presented to the Senat of Hamburgh by Your Majesty's Residents in that City tending to lessen the Credit of the Rights and Privileges granted to the said Company by an Act of this present Parliament We do therefore in all humble Duty lay before Your Majesty the whole Nations Concern in this Matter And We most earnestly do entreat and most assuredly expect That Your Majesty will in Your Royal Wisdom take such measures as may effectually vindicate the undoubted Rights and Privileges of the said Company and support the Credit and Interest thereof And as we are in Duty bound to return Your Majesty most hearty Thanks for the Gracious Assurances Your Majesty has been pleased to give Us of all due Encouragement for promoting the Trade of this Kingdom So We are thereby encouraged at present humbly to recommend to the more special Marks of Your Royal Favour the Concerns of the said Company as that Branch of Our Trade in which we and the Nation We represent have a more peculiar Interest Subscribed at Edinburgh the 5 th of August 1698. in Name Presence and by Warrant of the Estates of Parliament SEAFIELD I. P. D. P. By all this it is evident 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 their Lives and Liberties as they saw cause We need not go so far back for Evidence to prove this as Eugenius the 7 th 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 Iames III. whose Minions by whose Counsel 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 justified 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 the Author of the Defence of the Seots 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 making his Case better that it makes it ten times worse for if his Affections be captivated we are without remedy except we either sue for a Divorce as in case of wilful Desertion and denying conjugal Duty or withdraw from under his roof and remove to another Family as God and Man will allow one Sister to do that is oppressed and denied the Privileges of paternal Love and Protection whilst another is caressed and dandled and has her Fortune raised by diminishing that of the neglected Sister The Iamaica Proclamation against our Colony at Darien comes next to be considered and is as follows By the Honourable Sir William Beeston Knt. Governour and Commander in chief for his Majesty in the Island of Jamaica and of the Territories and Dependencies of the same and Admiral thereof WHereas I have received Orders from his Majesty by the Right Honourable Iames Vernon one of the Principal Secretaries of State importing that his Majesty was not informed of the Intentions and Designs of the Scots in peopling Darien which is contrary to the Peace between his Majesty and his Allies commanding me not to afford them any Assistance In compliance therewith in his Majesty's Name and by his Order I do strictly charge and require all and every his Majesty's Subjects that upon no pretence whatsoever they hold any Correspondence with the Scots aforesaid or give them any Assistance with Arms Ammunition Provision or any thing whatsoever either by themselves or any other for them nor assist them with any of their Shipping or of the English Nation 's upon pain of his Majesty's Displeasure and suffering the severest punishment Given under my Hand and Seal of Arms the 9 th of April 1699. and in the 11 th year of the Reign of William the 3 d King of England Scotland France and Ireland and Lord of Iamaica Defender of the Faith It contains a heavy Charge against the Scots Company as having settled in Darien without informing his Majesty and having thereby broke the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies As to their not informing his Majesty with their Design there was neither any need of it nor had they reason to do it that there was no need of it is plain enough from the Act of Parliament impowering them to settle any where in Asia Africa or America upon places not inhabited or any other place with consent of the Natives and not possess'd by any European Potentate Prince or State So that they were under no Obligation to acquaint him where they design'd to settle provided they kept to the Terms of the Act. And that they had no cause so to do is evident from that unreasonable opposition that a Faction at Court had prevailed with him to make to them all along which gave them just cause to expect the like treatment in time to come Then as to the Breach of the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies by the Settlement they had no reason to think themselves guilty of any such thing and so much the less that Dampier Wafer and all others that wrote of the Country gave an Account of the Natives being in possession of their Liberty and almost in continual Wars with the Spaniards Besides it was a rul'd Case in England since Capt. Sharp was by Law acquitted in K. Charles Il's time not only for having marched through Darien in a Hostile manner but for attacquing Places that were really in possession of the Spaniards as St. Maria and Panama because he acted by virtue of a Commission from those Darien Princes This together with their not finding a Spaniard or Spanish Garison on all that part of the Isthmus was enough to justify the fairness of the Scots Settlement there and to have put a stop to this hasty Sentence till both sides had been heard But instead of that the Advisers to this Proclamation take upon them in a very Magisterial manner to declare the Scots guilty of a Breach of the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies which is so much the more remarkable that this Proclamation is publish'd in the West-Indies before ever it was known what the Scots could say in their own defence and sent away before the presenting of the Spanish Memorial which was on the third of May 1699. and the Proclamation bears date April 9 th 1699. The unfairness of this Proclamation is evident from this that at the very same time it is publish'd in the West-Indies the Lord President of the Sessions and his Majesty's Advocate for the Kingdom of Scotland were sent for from hence to see what they could say to justify their Pretensions to Darien which they did by such Arguments as have not yet been answer'd
they were granted and call it only by the name of an Octroy which signifies no more than a Patent whereas our Privileges were granted us by an Act of Parliament which are greater and more sacred than all the Octroys in Europe Thus thro Ignorance or Malice they think fit to vilify his Majesty's Conduct and Authority which they pretend to defend Their Malice is further demonstrated by the Parenthesis to be presum'd in the 2 d page of the Decation where they speak of his Majesty's Promise to interpose his Royal Authority to do us right in case of disturbance and that at the publick Charge to be presum'd of his antient Kingdom There might possibly have been some need of their presumption had all Mankind been indow'd with as little Sense and Honesty as H s and his Suborners for no other Body could ever presume it to mean any thing else since our Acts do not oblige England tho if they had presum'd that our Enemies would take care that the said Promise should not be kept the refusal of lending our Company the 3 Men of War built at the Charge of our own Nation would soon have convinc'd the World that they had presum'd too true We have accounted for rejecting Mr. Douglas's Proposal elsewhere nor shall we take notice of H s's scurrilous Reflections on Mr. Paterson which only discover his own Temper but do that honest Man no hurt As to his charging us with squandring away 50000 l. on 6 Hulks at Amsterdam and Hamburgh purely to make a noise of our Proceedings c. we would desire him and his Suborners to reconcile it with what they say from p. 14 to 20. where they own themselves that the Dutch and Hamburgers were both mightily pleas'd with the Design p. 14. That the Dutch were tickled with the Conceit that they should be Sharers in the Scots Trade and p. 16. they say That that which gave the dead stroke to the Scots Design was the East and West-India Companies running open mouth'd to the Lords of Amsterdam shewing what was hatching by the Scots Commissioners in their City to ruine the Trade of the Vnited Provinces P. 17. they tell us That the Hamburgers thought it the more their Interest to embrace the Project the more that the Dutch oppos'd it P. 18. That our Affair was generally favour'd by the Burgers of Hamburg and p. 21. That the Government of England sent the Senate of Hamburgh a Caution by Sir Paul Ricaut to take care how they suffer'd their Burghers to embark with us So that here we condemn them from their own mouths It being plain from those Concessions that we did not idly squander away our Money at Hamburgh and Amsterdam but that both those trading Cities approv'd our Design and would have engag'd in it had not the Court of England and the Dutch oppos'd it and therefore what loss of Mony we sustain'd in those places must be charg'd to their Account so that H s hath verified the Proverb That Liars have need of good Memories This is not the only Instance wherein those of H s and his Suborners have giv'n them the slip for in the 4 th page of the Dedication they upbraid the Company with their blind Project at which the trading part of the World stand amaz'd yet p. 17. they tell us that the Project was reasonable both on the Scots and Hamburghers side and the Reasons they give are these That the River on which that City stands is navigable for 200 Miles up into Germany for flat-bottom'd Vessels of 70 or 80 Tuns which gives them an opportunity of serving all the North Parts of the Empire c. All that they can say to salve this Contradiction is That the Hamburghers knew nothing of Darien but builded altogether on Ships laden with India Goods but that 's a notorious Falshood for the Hamburghers were actually told that our Design was on the Isthmus of America and therefore could not be disappointed in their Expectations of an East-India Trade if they had a mind to have follow'd it since they could not be ignorant that they had thereby an opportunity of shortning the Voyage from Darien to the East-Indies But at the same time it is much to be question'd whether the Hamburghers were so intent upon an East-India Trade as H s alledges since it must visibly prejudice their own Manufacture of Linen We shall conclude this of Hamburgh and Amsterdam with one Observation viz. that he tells us p. 14. That one of the Reasons why the Dutch were so much taken with our East-Indian Trade was our Exemption from Duties for 21 years which serves only to discover his own Folly and Malice since every Body must necessarily know that exemption from Duties was only in the Scotish Ports so that if they were exported from thence into any other Country they must pay the same Duties in those Countries as if they had been directly imported from the East-Indies The Inconsistency of H s and his Suborners is further demonstrated p. 4. by supposing our buying a couple of second-hand Ships in the Thames and dispatching them to India with a sutable Cargo As to the buying of second-hand Ships the Company made that Experiment but found themselves losers by it and that it cost them more to sit up a second-hand Vessel for their purpose than it would have done to have bought a new one But with what Front can they upbraid us with not buying of Ships in the Thames for carrying on an East-India Trade when they own p. 7. that the House of Commons baulk'd us of our Subscriptions and reprimanded the Subjects of England for their foolery How is it possible then that they would have suffer'd our buying Ships in the Thames for carrying on an East-India Trade We have another proof of his Ingenuity and Truth in that same Page where he tells us that if our blind Project meaning that of Darien should miscarry by our own ill Management it is not fair me should snarl at our Neighbours who have no other Hand in our Misfortune than that they would not be accessary to any All which the World might judg Felonious and wherein they could not join without engaging themselves in an unreasonable War and in the end to assist us with Weapons to break our own Heads We wish his Masters much joy of their Advocat and Evidence for we believe they could not have found such another if they had searched through all the Island He just now own'd that our Neighbours opposed our Subscriptions at home and abroad before they knew any thing of what he calls our blind Project and made us squander away 50000 l. to little purpose which certainly must be a misfortune and that wherein our Neighbours had no small hand tho the World could not judg our taking Subscriptions in that Honourable manner to be any way Felonious We have moreover sufficiently proved it elsewhere that they have had a hand in our Misfortune by down-right
opposition and unaccountable Proclamations for which they had no Authority we hope that this will be allow'd to be something more than refusing to be accessary to an Act that neither he nor his Suborners will ever be able to prove Felonious and which we have already told him the Laws of England have in a parallel nay much worse case judg'd to be honest and righteous So that all this Author hath got by his charging us maliciously with Felony is to prove himself a wilful Felon for he tells us at the end of his Book of a long dispute betwixt himself and Sir I. Stewart his Majesty's Advocat for the Kingdom of Scotland about the Title of the Spaniards to Darien and if we may believe H s he baffled the Advocat and prov'd the Right of the Spaniards which proves himself to have engaged in a Design that he thought Felonious for we do not find by his own Relation that he left the place from remorse of Conscience but only on the Account of a Malladie Imaginaire and want of Provisions so that we thank him for telling the World from his own Mouth that his Evidence against us is that of a Felon As to their engaging themselves in an unreasonable War and assisting us with Weapons to break their own Heads we did not desire they should engage in a War for us but think it very unreasonable the English Court should have engaged so far as they have done against us It had been sufficient for them to have denied us their Assistance without having condemn'd us as guilty of breach of Alliance which as all the other parts of the opposition made to us we are satisfied is not the Act of the English Nation and therefore can create no misunderstanding betwixt them and us but perhaps may prove a Weapon in time to break the Heads of H s and his Suborners In the 5 th Page that his Book may be all of a piece he advances a forg'd Obligation upon us from the Union of the Crowns which is that we are thereby deliver'd from the daily Feuds and bloody little Wars that rag'd amongst us for 1900 years which unnatural Massacres our native Princes were unable to suppress c. This is down-right falshood in matter of Fact for those Feuds as he calls them ceas'd in the Lowlands long before the Union but continue still in the Highlands which we can scarcely think is unknown to our Author who was born so near that Country as Dumbarton The Macdonalds have been several times in Arms against the Earl of Argile since the Restoration and there 's a Feud now depending between the Frazers and the Murrays or rather the Family of Athol Nor did we ever hear of any thing that look'd so like an unnatural Massacre in Scotland as that committed since the Revolution upon the Inhabitants of Glenco which had it not been for the Union of the Crowns would not have been suffer'd to go unpunished But admitting it to be true that the Union had deliver'd us from those little Feuds we are no gainers by the Bargain since it hath occasion'd greater particularly that unnatural Feud which rag'd so long betwixt the Episcopal Party and Presbyterians and had its rise altogether from the Union of the Crowns the very prospect of which was the sole cause why the Earl of Morton when Regent set up the first Protestant Bishops in Scotland Into what Couvulsions that Imposition threw the Nation is well enough known and how besides the bringing down K. Charles I. with 30000 Men against our Kingdom and contributing to engage the Nations in a Civil War it occasioned King Charles II. to plunder the West of Scotland first by Sir Iames Turner which gave rise to the Insurrection at Pentland and twice afterwards by the Highland Host which occasion'd that of Bothwel-Bridg And afterwards the Oppression run so high that it forc'd some of the Presbyterians into unaccountable Actions which gave occasion to oppress the whole Party so that it was made punishable by Death for any of their Ministers to preach or for the People to hear them From this indeed we were totally delivered by the Revolution tho our freedom in that respect was partly begun by the late King Iames's Declaration But our Enemies unwilling that our Nation should be long at ease have found other Methods to set our Court against us And because they know that his present Majesty has too great a Soul to persecute any man on the account of Conscience our Enemies have chang'd their Battery and instead of pointing their Cannon at our Religion they level them against our Civil Liberties The Powder they prime their Artillery with is That we are Enemies to Prerogative But because this would not go down with the good People of England who are strenuous Assertors of Liberty and Property they must gild it over with the specious Pretence that we have a design to undermine their Trade and have unjustly invaded the Spanish Dominions This is the Design of H s and his Suborners and therefore they insist so much on our Clandestine Declarations as they call them that we publish'd in the English Plantations on purpose to drain them of their People but unhappily overthrow what they advance at the same time when they tell us That the Jamaica Sloops were Witnesses that we had neither Provisions nor Money for the sustenance of our own People pag. 148. And therefore it cannot reasonably be suppos'd that we had any such design as he maliciously charges us with to draw over the People from the English Plantations since we had not wherewith to support our own but more of this anon Our Author learn'd the Maxim of Calumniare audacter aliquid haerebit when he was a Papist And if he and his Suborners can be any way instrumental to set the Nations together by the Ears by this Method or if that fail if they can but raise Animositys between them they know it will be a good pretence for some People to put his Majesty upon pressing for a Standing Army and perhaps for having it enlarg'd it being necessary say they to overaw the Scots but in reality to protect such evil Counsellors from being brought to Justice that have advis'd to such Measures as visibly tend to the disadvantage of both Nations It may perhaps be worth the Enquiry of our Neighbours whether this be not the real meaning of this intolerable Oppression exercis'd upon our Nation as to their Trade both at home and abroad viz. that knowing our praefervidum Ingenium as they are pleas'd to call it to be impatient under Tyranny the Faction think thereby to provoke us to a resentment that may give occasion for raising an Army against us which if it have the good hap to subdue us or force us to digest our Oppression without any more to do shall be made use of afterwards to chastise themselves and bring them to better Manners then to limit their
exceeding unhappy in losing two Ministers who came with us from Scotland and if New-England could supply us in that it would be a great and lasting Obligation Fort St. Andrew February 18th 1698 9. A farther proof of the Falshood of this Insinuation is Capt. Pennicook's Journal sent to the Company over England and dated Decem. 28 th almost two months before this Letter to New-England wherein they give an account of the Information they had from several hands that the Spaniards were marching with 900 men from Panama to attacque them by Land whilst their Men of War were to attacque them by Sea upon which they did all they could to put themselves in a posture of defence against them so far were they from any design of marching towards Panama The matter being so H s's Suborners have lost their Argument from this Topic also to justify their proceedings against us He goes on to tell us That England had no reason to go to War with the Spaniards on the score of our Company who besides all the Loss of their Trade must throw away more English pounds thrice over than there 's Scotch in our Capital Stock and he will leave it to any Man of half an ounce of Politicks to find out the Iest on 't save this Hot-headed Author of our Colony's Defence Mr. H s and his Suborners may please to know that we neither desir'd nor expected that England should go to War with the Spaniards on the account of our Company and had as little reason to expect that a Faction in England for we will not be so unjust as to charge it upon the Nation should go to War with us on account of the Spaniards before we could be heard in our own defence we mean that Proclamations should have been publish'd in the West-Indies inferring that the King of England has a power to declare that to be a breach of the Peace that is done by the Authority of the King of Scotland that they should thereby forbid their Subjects of England to entertain any Commerce with us refuse us Provisions for Commodities in our distress except we will bring our Ships under the Guns of their Fort at New-York punish their Subjects for entertaining Commerce with us and threatning to lay the Commanders of our Ships in Irons if they offer to put in for Refreshment or to refit after a Storm as they did to Capt. Iamison 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 pretence 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 aswer'd and therefore we shall say nothing farther of it here Our Author and his Friends are pleas'd to call our apprehensions 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 generally wiser than to lay out their Mony upon such Tools as this Author appears to be by his way of arguing 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 given 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 Treasures 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 pass his word for his Majesty that the Scots Crown will receive no blemish or disreputation by his wearing it We
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 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 pretends 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 fit 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
nor Intention immediately to follow an East-India Trade the apprehensions of which did so much alarm the Kingdom of England That it was not our Intention is evident from our rejecting the Proposals of our Countryman Mr. Douglas the East-India Merchant with which H s upbraids us by which at the same time he discovers his own folly and dishonesty his Folly in arguing against the Interest of England which he pretends to espouse and his Dishonesty in proposing our following a Trade which his new Masters who have paid him so well for his false Evidence look upon to be destructive to theirs That it was not our Interest immediately to think of an East-India Trade is evident from this that it would have exported our Mony with which it 's known we do not abound and ruin'd the Linen Manufacture of our Country upon which so many of our Poor depend This we think the City of London may be sensible of in a good measure by the multitudes of their own Silk-Weavers that are starv'd for want of Imployment and also by the unsuccessfulness of their own Linen Manufacture in England by reason of the great quantity of Silks Mullins Calicoes c. brought from the East-Indies from whence some wise Men have been and are still of opinion that an East-India Trade of that sort tends to the general Impoverishment of Europe tho it may enrich particular Persons These Considerations together with some Jealousies that Mr. Douglas might have been put upon making us that Proposal on purpose to divert us from our other Design of an American Trade were the true Reasons of our not hearkening to Mr. Douglas's Advice This our Neighbours might have known had they proceeded with us in such a friendly manner as we had reason to expect when we were so kind as to offer them a share in the Benefits of our Act. And the Government at the same time might soon have been satisfied that the sinking of their Customs by our one and twenty years Freedom from that Duty was a meer bugbear Pretence It is evident that we could not have spent much East-India Goods in Scotland and therefore must have exported them If we had brought them to England they were liable to Customs there If we had 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 he 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 should after this 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 huffing 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 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