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
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
Succession may be The impending differences betwixt the Northern Crowns may perhaps in a little time imbroil them with one or other of them and affect their Trade also on that side All which being consider'd it would seem to be the Interest of England to assure themselves of the Friendship of the Scots by treating them in a kind and neighbourly manner 4. It will appear in particular not to be the Interest of the Dissenters and sober Churchmen that the Scots should be thus run down because their own Ruin will be the unavoidable Consequence of it This they may soon be convinc'd of if they will give themselves leave to consider how they were treated in K. Charles the First 's time when the Court did swell with so much Rage against the Kingdom of Scotland for asserting their Liberties then as they do now All those Church of England-men that could not conform to the Innovations brought into the Church by Laud and his Party were treated as Puritans and Schismaticks and those that appear'd for the Liberties of the Nation against the Ship-money and other Arbitrary Impositions of the Court were treated as Rebels and Traitors If they look into the two last Reigns it will appear as plain as the Sun that when Scotland was oppress'd and their Liberties wrested from them the Dissenters and moderate Church-men in England were brought under the lash the former were depriv'd of their Religion and Liberties and the latter expos'd to destruction by Sham-plots c. because of their appearing for the Laws of their Country We need mention no more Instances to put this out of Controversy than those deplorable ones of the Earl of Essex and Lord Russel to which we may add the shameful and barbarous Treatment of the worthy Mr. Iohnson Chaplain to the latter because he so excellently defended with his Pen the Birth-right and Freedom of all true Englishmen From all this it will appear that England in general must suffer by the Ruin of Scotland and that those who have all along stood up for the English Liberties must lay their Account to come under the lash if once our Necks come under the Yoke therefore we dare appeal to the sober Men of the Church of England Whether it be their Interest that a Nation which agrees with them in all the Articles of their Church those about Discipline excepted should be destin'd to ruin because we believe with most of the Reformed Churches that there is no Office superiour to that of a Presbyter of divine Institution Must we be denied the Privileges of Men and Christians because we think that the Discipline of the Church may be more safely intrusted and more faithfully administred by the joint Indeavors of the Minister and the Heads of his Congregation by an Association of neighbouring Ministers and the Heads of their Parishes and by Delegates both of the Clergy and Laity of those Associations in a general Convocation than by another Model But enough of this Subject Let any Man peruse the learned Archbishop Vsher's Treatise of Presbytery and Episcopacy reconcil'd and there they will find that the difference is not so great as some People have made it their business to make the World believe But if nothing less than our destruction will serve those Gentlemen because our Church is of a different Constitution from that of England and that our political Principles and original Constitution are diametrically opposite to arbitrary Power let the Dissenters of England and all those Church-men that concurr'd in the late Revolution look to it When their Neighbour's House is on fire it's time for them to prepare their Bucket's If this Digression be thought impertinent H s and the Answerer of the Scots Defence must bear the blame of it They would insinuate to the World that the Affair of our Trade and Colony is a Presbyterian Project on purpose to render it odious and suspected to the Church of England therefore it was necessary to obviate that false and malicious Suggestion and to acquaint our Neighbours that the Company make no difference as to the matter of Perswasion and let it be put to the Test when they please it will be found that those of the Episcopal Opinion are as zealous for the thriving of our Trade and the Honour of our Nation both of which are concern'd in this Affair as any of the other To wind up this matter if any Party in England entertain suspicions of us the better way to prevent us is to treat us kindly and enter into an Union with us on such Terms as his Majesty and the Parliament of both Kingdoms shall agree and so as the Civil and Religious Liberties of both People may be preserved That will be easier and safer than to relie on the Hopes of an uncertain Conquest or if they don't think fit to do so it 's but reasonable they should leave us in the undisturb'd possession of our own Liberties But if they will do neither let them no more accuse those that complain of this Treatment as Incendiaries but seriously examine whether they themselves mayn't with more Justice be accounted Oppressors PART II. Being a more particular Answer to H s's Libel WE come in the next place to take a Survey of H s Libel intituled The Defence of the Scots abdicating Darien and shall speedily shew to how little purpose his Suborners have spent their Pains and Mony on him The first Line of his Performance is a Banter upon his Majesty whom he charges with investing our Company with immense Privileges and Immunities by his Octroy of 1695. There 's no Man can be answerable for more sense than God has given him but tho H s understood no better his Masters at White-hall of whom he brags so much ought to have taken care that he should not run into Nonsense and an Invective against his Majesty at first dash To talk of granting us immense Privileges is to impeach his Majesty's Wisdom as if he had done a thing without parallel which is directly to incense the Kingdom of England against him as some bad People indeavour'd to do when by a Misrepresentation of our Design they stir'd up the House of Commons against it But had the Surgeon or his Suborners look'd into the Privileges of 21 Years freedom from all manner of Taxes granted to the Dutch East-India Company by the States of Holland and the vast Immunities granted by the French King the Danes and Brandenburghers to their Companies for trading to the East-Indies or even to those granted to the English East-India Company at first they would have found there was no reason to charge his Majesty with granting us such immense or unparallel'd Privileges or ascribing it to his not well knowing what he did for the noise of the Guns at Namur as this petulant Scribler does Dedication pag. 9. But if H s and his Suborners exclaim against our Privileges as immense they are resolv'd to diminish the Authority by which
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
Monarchs in their Grants and leave them no other Troops but their Garisons and Guards It was the Observation of the Earl of Shaftsbury whom his Enemies will own to have been a great Statesman that Scotland is a Door to let in Good or Evil upon England which is verified in the latter at least by the whole Course of our History since the Union for when K. Iames I. succeeded in trampling upon us he quickly began to huff his Parliaments in England and notwithstanding all the Remonstrances of Church and State would needs have a Popish Match for his Son tho he should sacrifice the Great Sir Walter Rawleigh his own Daughter the Queen of Bohemia and her Children together with the Protestant Interest in Germany to make way for it When Charles I. obtain'd footing for his Impositions on the Church and State of Scotland it 's well enough known what Methods he took with England and how he sacrific'd the Protestant Interest in France whilst he eagerly pursued an Arbitrary Sway at home When Charles II. got his Prerogative exalted and an Army at his Call allow'd him in Scotland it 's too late to be forgotten how he trod under foot the Liberties of England seiz'd the Charters of their Cities cut off whom he would by Sham-Plots and pav'd the way for Popery and Arbitrary Power When K. Iames II. did by his absolute Power and unaccountable Authority cass and annul all the Laws establishing the Reformation in Scotland it was not long e're he suspended the Laws imprison'd the Bishops and fill'd with Papists his Council Army and Universities in England From all which it is evident that our Neighbours have reason to look to themselves when we are oppress'd for in all probability their Acts of Parliament will not be long regarded when ours are annull'd and made void by the Intrigues of the Courtiers and West-India Proclamations The very Advocats of Tyranny make use of this as their Herculean Argument That the People having once resign'd their Privileges to the Crown have no more right to demand them which tho we will not allow to be any ways concluding yet we may very well make use of it ad hominem that a pari ratione when once a Prince has touch'd with his Scepter a Law for the benefit of his Subjects it is not in his power to revoke or counteract it or if he do by the same Power that he absolves himself from his Obligation to protect and defend his Subjects he absolves them from all obligation to pay him any Revenue or Allegiance This is the Birth-right of all Scots-men and if our Neighbours in England have a mind to sit still and see us bereft of it all the benefit they can expect from it is to have the Privilege of being devour'd last The rest of his Banter upon his native Country serves only to lessen his own credit and to make even those that set him at work curse him in thought not only as a Monster in nature but as dishonest to them by depriving them thus of the benefit of his Evidence for which they have paid him so well since no body in the world can think a man will have any regard to Truth that in such an impudent manner breaks thro all the Ties of Nature and as a just Judgment for so enormous a Crime is so far depriv'd of his reasoning Faculty that he is not fensible of his cutting his own Throat by contradicting himself almost in every Paragraph He upbraids us in one Page with not having dar'd to descend into the Plains and that those gallant Men our Ancestors durst not assemble for Worship before the Union except in a House whose Wall was twelve or 14 foot thick or to whisper their Prayers or Carrols thro the Cliffs of the Mountains In the next Page he tells us he has no Inclination to offer any thing in opposition to the Gallantry of our Ancestors and in some Pages following he impertinently ridicules the Valour of our Country in the Story of Baliol which he perverts in such a manner as no man but himself is capable of We don't think it worth while to answer him according to his Folly but shall once for all let him know that the most invective of the English Historians that wrote in the heat of the War do us more Justice than this unnatural Renegado There 's no Nation in Europe where we have not given proofs of our Valour nor is there a Court in Christendom where Scots-men are not valued on that account Sam. Daniel one of the best of the English Historians owns that never any People of the World did more gallantly defend their Liberties than we did in that very instance of Baliol when we were without a Head and from thence infers what was it we could not have done had we been then under the conduct of such a Leader as K. Robert Bruce Speed one of the gravest of the English Historians does generously own that few great Actions have been perform'd in Europe where the Scots have not been with the first and last in the Field We could easily give a proper Reply to the impertinent Romance which he brings about Baliol that would tend as much or more to the dishonour of Edward I. II. and III. than any thing that he and his Suborners have suggested can tend to the dishonour of our Nation but we forbear it having no design to reflect upon our Neighbours notwithstanding the rude Treatment and Provocation that we have had from H s and others on this occasion We can without thinking our selves injur'd own that the English are as brave Men as any in the World and are satisfied that such of our Neighbours as are Men of Honour and Reading will allow us the same Character We perceive it is the design of this Libeller and others to represent the English Nation as Enemies to us in this matter on purpose to set us together by the Ears but we are satisfied of the contrary as well knowing that not a few of our good Neighbours are much surpriz'd and displeas'd with our Treatment and look upon the same to be the effect of such Councils as are destructive to the Interest of both Nations We shall conclude this point with one Observation more upon H s's Ignorance and Malice in denying that the Scots expell'd Baliol from the Crown when such a noble Monument of the truth of it as the original Letter of the States of Scotland is still to be seen in the University of Oxford and exemplify'd by Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Sarum in his History of the Reformation and since it is also plain that our Ancestors chose Robert Bruce King during Baliol's Life-time and that Baliol at last resign'd all his Pretensions confess'd his Fault in subjecting the Crown of Scotland to that of England own'd that he was deservedly thrust from the Throne for it congratulated his Kinsman Robert Bruce's Advancement and that he had restor'd
Fshings have further conceded and granted unto us the free and absolute Right and Property in and to all such Lands Islands Colonies Towns Forts and Plantations as we shall come to establish or possess in manner aforesaid as also to all manner of Treasures Wealth Riches Profits Mines Minerals and Fishings with the whole Product and Benefit thereof as well under as above the Ground as well in Rivers and Seas as in the Lands thereunto belonging or for or by reason of the same in any sort together with the right of Government and Admiralty thereof as likewise that all manner of Persons who shall settle to inhabit or be born in any such Plantations Colonies Cities Towns Factories or Places shall be and be reputed as Natives of the Kingdom of Scotland And generally the said Company have communicated unto us a Right to all the Powers Properties and Privileges granted unto them by Act of Parliament or otherwise howsoever with Power to grant and delegate the same and to permit and allow such sort of Trade Commerce and Navigation unto the Plantations Colonies Cities and Places of our Possession as we shall think fit and convenient And the chief Captains and supream Leaders of the People of Darien in compliance with former Agreements having now in most kind and obliging manner received us into their Friendship and Country with promise and contract to assist and join in defence thereof against such as shall be their or our Enemies in any time to come Which besides its being one of the most healthful rich and fruitful Countries upon Earth hath the advantage of being a narrow ISTHMVS seated in the heighth of the World between two vast Oceans which renders it more convenient than any other for being the common Store-house of the insearchable and immense Treasures of the spacious South Seas the door of Commerce to China and Japan and the Emporium and Staple for the Trade of both Indies And now by virtue of the before-mentioned Powers to us given We do here settle and in the name of GOD establish Our Selves and in Honour and for the Memory of that most Antient and Renowned Name of our Mother Kingdom We do and will from hence-forward call this Country by the Name of Caledonia and our selves Successors and Associates by the name of Caledonians And sutable to the Weight and greatness of the Trust reposed and the valuable Opportunity now in our hands being firmly resolved to communicate and dispose thereof in the most just and equal manner for increasing the Dominions and Subjects of the King Our Soveraign Lord the Honour and Wealth of our Country as well as the benefit and advantage of those who now are or may hereafter be concerned with us We do hereby declare That all manner of People soever shall from hence-forward be equally free and alike capable of the said Properties Privileges Protections Immunities and Rights of Government granted unto us and the Merchants and Merchants Ships of all Nations may freely come to and trade with us without being liable in their Persons Goods or Effects to any manner of Capture Confiscation Seizure Forfeiture Attachment Arrest Restraint or Prohibition for or by reason of any Embargo breach of the Peace Letters of Mark or Reprizals Declaration of War with any foreign Prince Potentate or State or upon any other account or pretence whatsoever And we do hereby not only grant and concede and declare a general and equal freedom of Government and Trade to those of all Nations who shall hereafter be of or concerned with us but also a full and free Liberty of Conscience in matter of Religion so as the same be not understood to allow connive at or indulge the blaspheming of God's holy Name or any of his Divine Attributes or of the unhallowing or prophaning the Sabbath Day And finally as the best and surest means to render any Government successful durable and happy it shall by the help of Almighty God be ever our constant and chiefest care that all our further Constitutions Laws and Ordinances be consonant and agreeable to the Holy Scripture right Reason and the Examples of the wisest and justest Nations that from the Truth and Righteousness thereof we may reasonably hope for and expect the Blessings of Prosperity and Increase NEW-EDINBVRGH Decemo 26. 1698. By Order of the Council Hugh Ross Secretary We dare refer it to the Scrutiny of the nicest Observers whether this Declaration infer any such thing as Plunder or a Patent from the King to pick a Quarrel with the Spaniards and to divide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru what clandestine Artifices are here to be found to drain the English Plantations and wherein does it interfere with the Interest of England any more than all free Ports must of necessity interfere with their Neighbours We wish that our Author would inform us how publick Declarations according to Act of Parliament can be call'd clandestine Artifices and defy him and his Suborners with all their art to find any thing pretended to in this Declaration but what the Colony has a right to by Act of Parliament The only thing this malicious Scribler can wrest to his Purpose in the Declaration is the Colony's publishing that all manner of Persons of what Nation or People soever c. should be equally free and alike capable of the same Privileges with themselves c. which are the express Words of the Act of Parliament and therefore supposing that the said Declaration should have influenc'd some People to come over to them from the English Plantations the Colony could not be any ways blam'd for it Qui utitur jure suo nil damni facit is a known Maxim in Law The Libeller's Malice is not satisfied with reflecting upon our Colony but flies on the face of the greatest part of the English in the West-Indies as if they had so little Honour or Love for their native Country as to lay their own Plantations desolate and run over to ours Indeed if most of them be such Persons as himself there might be some ground for the Reflection but till it appears to be so we must beg Mr. H s's leave to have a better opinion of them No Man fo sense can believe that those who found themselves at ease in the English Plantations would be fond of removing to a new Colony but if others who are at their freedom had a mind to do so we know of no reason they should be hinder'd The Subjects of England are a free People and not confin'd to their own Dominions but have liberty to trade and live elsewhere if they find their account in it There 's no man can blame the Scots for publishing their Declaration throughout the West-Indies the thing being absolutely necessary in it self and the natural Practice of all new Settlements to acquaint the World with the nature of their Design and on what Terms they may have Commerce with them We hope our Author and his Suborners
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
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