of being attack'd by his Fleet as they that advis'd the emitting of those Proclamations must needs think his Majesty was oblig'd in Honour and Justice to order if he was of opinion that the Scots had broken the Alliance betwixt him and Spain Let any reasonable man consider what Anguish and Perplexity these Considerations join'd to their pinching Wants and other Circumstances must occasion in the minds of those poor men and whether it might not give a handle to those of them that were unwilling to stay to mutiny against the rest and put all into disorder which might be fomented by other ill persons amongst them for we are not to suppose that with 11 or 1200 men there went no other ill man but H s since it 's not improbable that they who opposed our Company so much from the very beginning might be prompted by the same Malice to send Spies and Traitors amongst our Men on purpose to defeat their Design If it had not been that they were thus discouraged and brought to their wits-end by those Proclamations they would certainly have had so much Conduct as to have sent away a great part of their Men to Jamaica or any of the English Plantations where they might have subsisted till the arrival of a Convoy from Scotland and so with those Provisions that were sufficient to carry them as far as New York and a great deal further if they had not been retarded by Tempests might have maintain'd a competent number of their Men to keep possession of the Colony till Supplies had arriv'd but the Proclamations disabled them from taking this Method and by consequence are chargeable with the ruin of the Colony In the next place it is undeniable that those Proclamations must needs have incouraged the Spainards and other Enemies in their Opposition against our Colony and animated them to go on with their Preparations to drive us out So that had they deserted upon no other account but the noise of the great Preparations making against them by the Spaniards at Carthagena Porto Bello c as Sir William Beeston seem'd to insinuate in his Letter it makes the Proclamations directly chargeable with the Ruin of the Colony since they had good reason to remove from thence when their own Prince had forbid all Commerce with them and when their Enemies were making formidable Preparations against them It is likewise plain that those Proclamations must necessarily prevent their having any Supplies from the Dutch at Curassaw if they had any to spare for since the Influence of ours and the Dutch Court prevented our Company 's having any Incouragement in Holland it is reasonable to believe it would have the same influence in reference to our Colony in the Dutch Plantations We have likewise all the reason in the world to conclude that the Influence of those Proclamations might hinder the Natives from giving our Colony those Supplies that it was in their power to have done for there 's no doubt but they had information of 'em industriously sent them by some of our Adversaries when Capt. Long was so malicious as to endeavour at our first arrival to possess them with an opinion that we were nothing but Pirats and that the K. of Great Britain would disown us and indeed by the event it would seem he had Instructions so to do It is true that at first the Natives seeing our Men have a Competency of all sorts of Provisions might not believe his Report but they must needs have been confirm'd in the truth of it afterwards when they saw them dying for want and deceiv'd as to their Expectation of further Supplies and upon that account might think they had sufficient ground to withdraw their Assistance from them and not further provoke the Spaniards in favour of a People that they found were not able to do any thing for themselves and by consequence uncapable to protect them which was the thing they were to expect from their Alliance Having thus made it evident that the Opposition our Company met with from Court at first and the Proclamations issued against our Colony at last are justly to be reputed among the principal Causes of the Miscarriage of that Design we come in the next place to consider his Majesty's Answer to the Address of the Commons of England on that Head and the Proclamations issued out against us in his Name in the West-Indies We are sorry that ever there should have been any occasion for such an ungrateful piece of work but think it a Duty incumbent upon us and what we owe to the Constitution of our Country which we have reason to believe is industriously conceal'd from his Majesty to write freely on this head that the World may see what just cause we have to complain His Majesty's Answer That he had been ill serv'd in Scotland c. is such as our Ancestors if we may believe our Historians would have thought inconsistent with the Trust reposed in a King of Scots a manifest Reflection upon the Justice and Fidelity of the Nation and a discovery of their Arcana Imperii to those that were quarrelling with them We are not to suppose that his Majesty would give an Answer to an Address of this Importance without Counsel If he consulted with our Dutch or English Opposers it was the same as if he had consulted our professed Enemies if he consulted with Scots-men and was advis'd to this Answer by any of them they are Traitors to their Country and have betray'd its Soveraignty for they ought to have advis'd him to answer that as King of Scots he was not to give an account to the English for any thing transacted in that Kingdom but if they found themselves any ways aggrivev'd or thought their Trade endanger'd by the Scots Act he should be willing to have the matter debated and adjusted by Commissioners of both Nations as became the Common Father of both This could not justly have been look'd upon by the English as a refractory or stubborn Answer but must have been imputed to his braveness of Temper and fidelity to his Trust But at once to give up the Soveraignty of Scotland without demurring upon it argues that his Majesty was advis'd to this Answer by Enemies to the Scotish Nation Our Parliaments have originally a greater Power than that of England for what the States of Scotland offer'd to the touch of the Scepter their Kings had no power to refuse or if they did the Resolves of the States had the force of a Law notwithstanding Thus our Reformation was established in 1560 by an Act of the States and tho our Queen Mary then in France and her Husband the Dauphin afterwards Francis I. refus'd to give their Consent it remain'd a firm Law which Q. Mary when she return'd to Scotland was so far from offering to dispense with tho she was a great Asserter of her Prerogative that she was oblig'd to intreat of the States so far to dispense with
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 verisy 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 battel 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. III. and they will quickly find that Sir William Wallace K. Robert Bruce James 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 conquerâ—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
for Refreshment or to refit after a Storm as they did to Capt. Jamison at Nevis That this wants very little of going to War with the Scots we believe most thinking men are very well satisfied but whether it be so or not we will venture to tell the Renegado and his Suborners that by this kind of Procedure against the Scots as if we were Servants and Subjects to England some Gentlemen in and about White-hall have giv'n the Spaniards just occasion to make War upon England if they were able or at least to make Reprisals upon the English for the damage they pretend to have suffer'd from the Scots whom the English Court by this sort of Treatment have declar'd to be their Subjects whereas if they had not invaded the Soveraignty of Scotland the Spaniards could have had no such pretonce Now whether men that had been endow'd with a quarter of an ounce of Politicks would have been guilty of such a false step as this let our Author's Suborners determine And besides we must tell them that the Men whom Capt. Long had set ashore with Capt. Diego in the Gulph of Darien committed the first Hostility on the Spaniards and kill'd seven of them with a design for any thing we know to trapan us into a War with the Spaniards since one of the same Fellows came to our Colony afterwards for Powder and Shot which our Men wisely deny'd them and told them they had done what they could not justify The Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement dos no where advise the English to a War with Spain on the score of our Company but gives such Arguments to prove that they had no reason to dread the Effects if Spain should make War with them on that Account and that it was the Interest of England to have supported the Scots in that Settlement as have not yet been answer'd and therefore we shall say nothing farther of it here Our Author and his Friends are pleas'd to call our apprechensions of the Places being possess'd by the French bugbear Stories because the French have another Game to play at present with Spain or might have secur'd Carthagena when they had it in their Power and that if France or Holland had any such design they may go sit down within a League of either side of our Colony with as good a Title as ours But that the French are genetally wiser than to lay out their Mony upon such Tools as this Author appears to be by his way of argning one would be apt to think he had touch'd some Leuidor's Does he conceive that the French understood their Interest so little during the War that threatned their Ruine as to settle a Colony in the West-Indies at a time when they stood in more need of them at home to defend their own Country and cultivate their Ground and Vineyards Is it not known that their Design was on the Spanish Plate in order to enable them to continue the War and not on the Spanish Plantations which they were in no Capacity to defend against the Spaniards and their Allies if they had at that time seiz'd any of them Does our Author and his Suborners think that L. XIV did not understand his Interest better than to offer at a Settlement in the Spanish West-Indies especially at a place of such Importance as Carthagena and thereby have give the English and Dutch an opportunity of settling there themselves by coming to drive him out Could he think that the two Nations of Europe that have the greatest Naval Force and were most concern'd of any to reduce him to reason would sit still and suffer him to seize the Spanish Treafures and by that means enable himself to bring all Europe under his Yoke It is impossible such a thought could ever enter into his mind and therefore he had very good reason to forbear keeping possession of Carthagena since 't would have been the ready way to have spoil'd his future pretensions to the West-Indies in case of the K. of Spain's death which every body then expected daily And whenever it happens if he die without Issue as there 's great odds he will we stand in need of better Guarantees than H and his Suborners that the Fr. King will not seize the Spanish West-Indies and Darien into Boot against which there are those who have studied Politicks as much as our Author who are of opinion that the Settlement at Darien might have been no contemptible Barrier The Scribler takes upon him to pafs his word for his Majesty that the Scots Crown will receive no blemish or disreputation by his wearing it We believe his Majesty will scarcely thank him for his Security and we are satisfied our Nation will as little rely on it But at the same time we must tell this Gentleman and his Suborners that we had as little reason to suspect that K. Charles I. who was a Native of Scotland would have dishonour'd our Crown so far as to order it to be brought to England and therefore it is not imposfible for Princes to be over-perswaded by ill Council to do such things as are inconsistent with the Honour of their Crowns And thus some will venture to say that the Crown of Scotland was no ways honour'd when the Dutch Troops took place of the King of Scots's Guards and when the King of England takes upon him to condemn by Proclamations what the King of Scotland has approv'd by Act of Parliament and Letters Patent The Scribler comes next to give us a taste of his Skill in the Brittish History he brags of so much by telling us the Fate of some great Scots Families that swell'd beyond their Proportion His Instances of the Cummins and Gouries sufficiently discover his Ignorance of the Scotish History The former was indeed a very great Family but are an inauspicious instance for him and those of his kidney their ruin not being occasion'd by their Greatness but by joying with the Enemies of our Nation as this Renegado does As for his Application of his Instances it serves to discover the malicious Designs of himself and Suborners against the two greatest Families that are now left in Scotland The kind treatment this Author met with from one of these great Men upon his arrival after having deserted our Colony would have oblig'd any but a Monster of Ingratitude to have forborn such a causeless and invenom'd Reflection which nothing but ingrain'd Malice can suggest We come in the next place to take a view of the Book it self In the very first Page he owns he is no Friend to the Scots Company and alledges he has more reason for it than those Skeletons that are starved to death This we hope is sufficient to shew what credit is to be given to his Narrative wherein tho he promises to keep close to matter of Fact he abounds with blasphemous and impertinent Digressions One of the first we shall take notice of is his unmannerly
the Help of Spectacles may plainly perceive that he sticks at nothing to advance his Cause either by wresting or perverting the Truth of the History by reason there can be no Parity in the Example between the several Cases of these dead Kings whom he now brings on the Stage and King William nor is there any Colour of Allusion to introduce them here for Scare-crows For the Truth of the Story runs thus After the Death of Alexander the Third Ten or a Dozen far-fetched Relations of the Royal Family standing Competitors for the Scots Crown it was agreed on by the different Parties to prevent the Effusion of Blood that the Trial of their several Claims should be referr'd to Edward the First of England Edward accepting the Office came to Berwick then a Scots Town where after a long time spent in canvassing the several Titles he found Bruce Baliol and Cummin stand fairest for it To make a long Tale short he now found it in his Power to accomplish that which his Predecessors struggl'd for for some Hundred Years before to wit a Submission of the Scots Crown to that of England He felt Bruce's Pulse but it did not beat to his Mind then he sounded Baliol who had more English Blood in him by half than Scotch who easily condescended to his Terms Edward declares John Baliol King of the Scots and the Scots Nobility having swore Allegiance to him in his Presence proceeded to his Coronation That being over the new Scots King with his Nobility came to King Edward to thank him for his Civility at Newcastle where having been splendidly regaled for some time and the English King being to set out for London John Baliol with his Train of Nobles came in a full Body to kiss his Royal Fist where on a suddain King Baliol claps down on his Knee and swore Fealty to Edward as his Sovereign Lord and to hold the Scots Crown for ever of him and his Successors Kings of England Baliol having ended this Ceremony pointed to his Subjects to follow his Example which being needless to dispute on that Ground no Body stumbl'd at it save a peevish Old Gentleman by Name Douglass who was Caged up for the Remainder of his Life for want of good Manners Baliol and his Nobility march'd home to Scotland as chearfully as Half a Dozen Citizens Wives return to their Husbands after they have been decoy'd into a Ramble and kiss'd by strange Fellows and they being all alike Scabby made no Words on 't for some Years and perhaps had not then if a rash Sentence had not been pass'd by Baliol in his own Court in Prejudice of a certain Thane or Earl who thinking himself injur'd appeal'd to Edward as Sovereign Lord King Edward being willing to show his Grandeur summon'd Baliol up to London and being seated on a Throne in his Court of Judicature his Fellow King had the Honour to set by him till such time as the Tryal came on and then he was oblig'd to step down to the Common-Bar and Plead for himself The Gentleman had got so much Scotch Blood in him by his Three Years Government of that Kingdom that he stomach'd the Disgrace and could not tell how to digest it till he went Home and consulted his Nobility who were all alike tardy with himself It was soon agreed on to bid Edward Defiance declaring That their King and they were only trick'd into their Submission by his foul Artifice Both Nations Arm'd but Edward got the Better on 't for having over-run Scotland and made them once or twice swear heartily anew and having caught John Baliol by the Neck would never afterwards trust him with such an Office but kept him Prisoner at London for many Years till at the Intercession of the Pope and French King his Imprisonment was enlarg'd to France where he died a Quondam King Now whether this Fate of John Baliol has any Relation to what your Author designs since 't is plain that Edward both made and unmade him and not the Scots I refer it back to himself to reconcile As for the other Baliol by Name Edward and Son to this John he finding that Robert Bruce was the Second time dead came from France to England and there having Edward the Third's Leave to raise what Men he could to seat himself on his Father's Old Throne found Voluntiers enough who were the Relations of those who were foil'd at Bannocksburn and with those and a few of King Edward's Ships he lands in the Heart of Scotland and set young David Bruce's Crown on his own Head without asking the Scots Leave and kept it till Dâ—vid with the Assistance of his Father-in-Law the French King took it from him again Neither can I see the Paralel in this with King William's Case for Edward Baliol took the Crown at his own Hand nolens volens whereas King William had it press'd upon his Head by the unanimous Consent of the Scots Nation As for the other Two Examples of James and William the First what they did while it was their Misfortune to be Prisoners in England could not stand in Law neither did I ever hear that after their Freedom and Restauration to their Dignities their Scots Subjects did ever reckon it to them for Sin But as there 's no great Advantage or Credit to be purchased by ripping up such old Sores so I am willing to leave tracing this Gentleman's Evidences and rather take Things on his own Authority than foul Paper about it Mean while I 'll be as impertinent as he is with his Earl of Strafford and some others and acquaint you with something that may be nearer the Case It has been observ'd in Scotland in the Course of several Ages that it hath been ever fatal to Families when they became so powerful as to swell beyond their Proportion Witness that of the Cummins in Robert Bruce's Reign the greatest that ever has been in Scotland Witness that of the Gouries of a latter Date And if I should add that of a latter Family within the Reach of our Memory which might have reasonably been reckon'd in the same Class had it not been for the happy Accident of the Revolution I cannot be far mistaken I say most of these Gentlemen being too great for Subjects lost themselves with Jearus in their Flight Some got red-hot Iron Crowns and others Halters but that which was more Tragical their whole Families and Dependants were hung up like Haddocks to dry in the Sun that they might never afterwards rise in Judgment I heartily wish there may no such Examples happen in our Age and that no suspected Persons sit so close to the Machine of your Colony nor wind up its Spring further than it will go least it should snap and the Ingineers get o'er the Fingers End Being sensible that I have trespass'd in the Epidemical Crime of my Fellow-Scribblers by swelling my Dedication beyond its Proportion and perhaps said more than some Persons care
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 Johnston 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 have 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 shoals 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 and knowing that the good People of England had reason to cry shame upon them and might perhaps take their own time to resent this inhuman Treatment of their Neighbours in Scotland therefore they found it necessary to suppress a Book wrote in defence of the Scots Settlement and to hire a Scots Renegado Surgeon to varnish over the matter and to represent his Countrymen as Knaves and Fools that so they might fall unpitied To return again to the Opposition made us in America It is not enough that we are starv'd out of Darien but when we come from thence and so leave what the Proclamations suppose to be the Dominions of their Allies yet we must not be supplied in the English Plantations nor have Provisions in exchange for our effects tho our Men be dying for want on pain of incurring the Displeasure of the Court and therefore those who are willing to relieve us must put their Inventions on the rack to sind out a way to do that with safety which common Humanity and much more Christianity obliges them to do to a Turk or a Jew in the like circumstances Nay farther tho notwithstanding our distress at home we make shift to send a Convoy to our Colony abroad because our future hopes depended so much upon it they shall not have leave to put in to any English Port to refit refresh or stay for any of their Company that may be separated from them by storm and yet our Friends who were so instrumental in obtaining and publishing those Proclamations must bribe a Renegado to declare to the World in print that they were no way accessary to the Blood of his Country-men that were starv'd to death at Darien It will appear plain that the Ruin of the Colony is chargeable on the Proclamations if we consider the Consternation that must needs be among them when they saw themselves condemned as having invaded the Dominions of his Majesty's Allies so that they had all the reason in the World to think that they were not only precluded from all possibility of having any further supply or assistance from home but in danger
it themselves as to suffer her to have Mass in her own Family We might go farther back to the Reign of Robert II. who was check'd by the States for making a Truce with the English without their Consent it not being then in the power of our Kings either to make Peace or War without the States But the Truth of that Maxim laid down by our Historian That the supreme Power of the Government of Scotland is in the States is so obvious to every one that reads our History that it cannot be denied and hence it is that our old Acts of Parliament are often call'd the Acts of the States and say The three States enact c. for by our Original Constitution the King is none of the States but only Dux belli and Minister publicus which was well understood by our Viceroy the E. of Morton and the other Deputies from the States of Scotland when they acquainted Q. Elizabeth in their Memorial That the Scots created their Kings on that condition that they might when they saw cause divest them of that Power which they receiv'd from the People which we have now reasserted in making our Crown forfeitable by the Claim of Right at the last Revolution and perhaps that 's none of the least Causes why our Ruin is now endeavour'd by the Abettors of a growing Prerogative It were easy for us to enlarge on this and to shew from our Histories and Acts of Parliaments that our Kings according to our antient Constitution which those Rapes committed on our Liberties in some of the last Reigns can never overturn were inferior to their Parliaments who inthron'd and dethron'd them as they saw cause made them accountable for their Administration allow'd them no power of proroguing them without their own consent nor of hindering their meeting when the ardua Regni negotia requir'd it They could not make Peace or War without them nor so much as dispose of their Castles but by their Consent Their Councils were chosen and sworn in Parliament and punishable by the States Nor had they any Revenue but what their Parliaments allow'd them These and many more were the native Liberties of the People of Scotland an 1638. and their Representation of their Proceedings against the Mistakes in the King's Declaration in 1640. And therefore his Majesty had no reason to say he was ill serv'd by the passing of an Act offer'd by the States of Scotland The Ignorance of those things have often occafion'd our being misrepresented by the English Historians and other Writers as Rebels and what not when we really acted according to our own fundamental Laws And not only they but even our own Princes since the Union of the Crowns have either been kept ignorant of our Constitution or so incens'd against it by the Abettors of Tyranny that they have all of 'em his present Majesty excepted endeavour'd our Overthrow as well knowing it to be impossible to bring Arbitrary Government to perfection whilst a People who had always breath'd in a free Air and call'd their Princes to an account when they invaded their Properties were in any condition to defend themselves or assist others against such Princes as design'd an absolute Sway. But the Pill being too bitter to be swallowed by it self there was a necessity of taking Priestcraft into the Composition and to gild it over with the specious pretext of bringing the Scots to an Uniformity in Religion The Court knew that this would arm the Zealots against us and that it could never be aflected without the ruin of our Kingdom whose Religion was so interwoven with our Civil Constitution that there was no overturning of the one without subverting the other This will appear plain to those that know that besides the Sanction of Acts of Parliament the Church of Scotland is defended by a full Representative of the Clergy and Laity of the Kingdom call'd a General Assembly which preserves us from being Priest-ridden as our Parliaments do from being Prince-ridden where the King by Law had no negative Voice no more than he formerly had in our Parliaments This in effect is the Representative of the Nation as Christians as the Parliaments are our Representatives as Men and as to the Laity many of them are the same individual Persons that sit in Parliament So that those Assemblies being a second Barrier about our Liberties it was thought sit to run down the Constitution of our Church as not suted with Monarchy The Case being thus we dare refer it to the thoughts of our neighbouring Nation who have gallantly from time to time stood up for their own Liberties whether it were not more generous for them to unite with us than to suffer us to be oppress'd and enslav'd There 's nothing can be objected to this but that all these glorious Privileges were swallow'd up by those Acts of Parliament that exalted the Prerogative to such a height in the Reign of K. Charles II. To which we answer That the Privileges of a Nation cannot be giv'n away without their own consent and we are morally certain that the Constituents even of those pack'd Parliaments did never give any commission to those that represented them to give away those Liberties Slavery is repugnant to human Nature so that it cannot be supposed the Nation exalted the Prerogative on purpose to put themselves in a worse condition than besore or that when they find it applied to another use than that which they gave it for they may not reduce it to its antient Boundary The necessity of Affairs did sometimes oblige the Romans to entrust their Dictators with an extraordinary and absolute Power but when the occasion ceas'd they recalled it and kept to their antient and rational Maxim that Salus Populi is suprema Lex In the like manner the Enemies of our old Constitution may know if they please that we have retrieved the main point of making our Crown forfeitable by the Claim of Right and therefore if they push us too far it 's a thousand to one but we may renew our Demands to the rest or oblige them to cast them into the bargain But to return from this Digression Tho we had no such peculiar Privileges belonging to us why might not we expect that his majesty should be as kind to us as to our Brethren in England He hath once and again declared to them in Parliament That he never had nor never will have an Interest distinct from that of his People Then why should not the Interest of the People of Scotland be the same with the Interest of the King of Scots And if the People of Scotland met in Parliament agreed upon it as their Interest to have that Act past for incouraging Kieir Trade how was it possible that the King of Scots could be ill serv'd by the passing that Act in Scotland Our Enemies and H s's Suborners have put a sort of an Answer to this in his mouth viz. That the said Act
and most assuredly expect That Your Majesty will in Your Royal Wisdom take such measures as may effectually vindicate the undoubted Rights and Privileges of the said Company and support the Credit and Interest thereof And as we are in Duty bound to return Your Majesty most hearty Thanks for the Gracious Assurances Your Majesty has been pleased to give Us of all due Encouragement for promoting the Trade of this Kingdom So We are thereby encouraged at present humbly to recommend to the more special Marks of Your Royal Favour the Concerns of the said Company as that Branch of Our Trade in which We and the Nation we represent have a more peculiar Interest Subscribed at Edinburgh the 5th of August 1698. in Name Presence and by Warrant of the Estates of Parliament SEAFIELD J. P. D. P. By all this it is evideht that the whole Kingdom of Scotland was unanimous in this matter and proceeded deliberately in it as that which highly concern'd their Interest yet we see that all their Endeavours were to no purpose for our Enemies were so resolute in opposing our Trade that rather than it should succeed they will not only trample under foot the Laws of Scotland but the Laws of Nations and exactly follow the Pattern set them by the French in huffing and tyrannizing over their Neighbours when at the same time they pretend to make War upon Lewis XIV for practices of the same nature and whilst they cry out upon the Decisions of the Chambers of Brisac and Mets and of the Parliament of Paris as tyrannical and unjust for invading the Rights of Neighbouring Princes and Nations they set up a Cabal at Whitehall to do the like by Scotland and Hamburgh Then let the World judg whether the King of England had not less reason to say that he was ill serv'd in Scotland than the King of Scots had to say that he was ill serv'd in England since one single Address from the Parliament of England prevail'd with their King to forbid all his Subjects to join with the Scots whereas the repeated Supplications of the Company of Scotland the Address of their Parliament and the Authority of Law and his own Letters Patent could not prevail with the King of Scots to do Justice to his own Subjects We wish these Gentlemen would consider this who were so very angry at the Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement for saying that the King of Scots was detain'd prisoner in England It is very certain that never any King of Scotland before the Union of the Crowns dar'd thus to trample upon their Laws or to oppose the General Interest of the Nation or if they attempted to do it they were quickly made sensible of their being inferior to the Law and the States of the Nation assembled in Parliament who till the Accession of our Princes to the English Throne remain'd in an undisputed possession of calling their Kings to an account for Male-administration and of disposing of thei Lives and Liberties as they saw cause We need not go so far back for Evidence to prove this as Eugenius the 7th who was brought to his Tryal on suspition of having murder'd his own Wife and acquitted upon discovery of the real Murderers or of James III. whose Minions by whose Council he governed were taken out of his own Bed-Chamber by the Nobles and hanged over Lauder-bridg and he himself persisting in those Courses was killed in flight after being defeated in Battle by the States and in the next Parliament was voted to be lawfully slain We have a later Instance and the Power of our Nation on that Head was largely asserted and accounted for by the Earl of Morton then Regent of Scotland in that noble Memorial he delivered in to Q. Elizabeth and her Council in defence of our proceedings against Q. Mary whom we dethron'd and in her stead set up her Son so that it is not the principle or practice of any one Party of our Nation tho it has been of late fix'd upon the Presbyterians as peculiar to them but was an Hereditary Right conveyed to us all by our Ancestors practised by Papists before the Reformation and justisied by those of the Episcopal Perswasion since particularly by the Earl of Morton beforemention'd who was the first that introduc'd Bishops into our Church after the Reformation Those things are not insisted upon with any Design of applying them to his present Majesty or of incensing the People of Scotland to do so but only to inform those that put his Majesty upon such Courses that they are his greatest Enemies and do what in them lies to destroy him It is the common Right of Mankind to be protected by those they set over them and to complain of Governors when they find themselves aggriev'd and their Privileges torn from them by Violence This Generation has prov'd it beyond possibility of Reply that the greatest Pretenders to submission to Princes and the most zealous Patrons of Passive Obedience will resist and dethrone their Kings too when they find themselves oppressed by them They that maintain the contrary are nothing but mean-spirited Flatterers or such as temporize with Courts because of their own private Advantage and be their Quality what it will are far from being so noble and brave as that poor Woman who told Philip of Macedon that he ceas'd to be King when he refus'd to hear her Petition Upon the whole it will appear that he Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement made the best Apology for his Majesty that could be made when he said that he was a Prisoner in England and therefore forc'd to act thus against the Interest and Dignity of his Crown as King of Scots It is demonstrated thus If his Majesty were in Scotland and another Person upon the Throne of England it is certain his Majesty would have encouraged the Trade of Scotland and resented such practices in the King of England as contrary to the Laws of Nations and the Soveraignty of his Crown If he did not he would be look'd upon to be mean-spirited and not fit to wear it and if he took part with the King of England against the Dignity of his Crown and the Interest of his Kingdom he would not only be looked upon as an Enemy to his Country but as felo de se From all which it is plain that as it is the best Apology that can be made for the King of Scots when he acts thus contrary to the Honour and Interest of himself and his Country to say he is a Prisoner in England so it is a sufficient Justification of the People of Scotland to refuse Obedience to what he commands by the Influence of the English or other Councils in opposition to their Interest because they are the Commands of a Captive and not of the King of Scots If our Enemies say he is no Captive but at Liberty to go to Scotland if he pleases it is so far from
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 defence able 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 futing 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 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. 28th 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 Jest 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
as to the Particulars of the Country of Darien Wafer it seems was in Terms with some private Merchants of London about sending a Vessel thither for Nicaragua Wood to which he was to Pilot them and about the same Time he was putting his Journals into the Press Pennycook before he left London went with Mr. Fletcher a Scotch Gentleman and some others designedly to discourse this Wafer and having treated him at Pontacks satisfy'd themselves of his Capacity to serve the Company they advis'd him not to be hasty in Publishing his Book or at least till he heard further from Scotland There was a Collection of some Guineas amongst these Gentlemen for Wafer the better to back their Advice When Pennycook arriv'd in Scotland he acquainted the private Committee with his Sentiments of Wafer on which they wrote for Mr. Fletcher by the next Post to secure him for the Companies Service and to make the easiest Bargain he could Mr. Wafer had stood for some Months by-gone at 1000 l but now Mr. Fletcher being in Earnest with him he agreed on the following Terms 1. He was to serve the Company for the Space of 2 Years in their Expedition for which the Company was to pay him 750 l whereof 50 l ready down 2. He was forthwith to proceed to Edinburgh and there to answer such Questions as the private Committee or Committee of Trade should ask him 3. In Consideration of 20 Guineas more which hethen received in hand he was to put a Stop to the Publishing his Book for the space of a Month and when he came to Edinburgh if the Company and he could not come to Terms for the suppressing it altogether then he was either at Liberty to go in their Service for the foresaid 700 l or to return to England which he pleas'd 4. You may easily perceive something Mystical in the wording of these Articles whereby the Company might shake their Neck out of their Noose but that Mr. Fletcher mean't it so I will not say but am rather willing to believe he was sincere and ignorant of the Companies Design on him Mr. Wafer Pursuant to the Contract having order'd his Affairs in England for his Voyage to Darien took Post for Scotland and on the Road past by the Name of Brown by the Committees Direction He was stopt at Haddinton 12 Miles short of Edinburgh by Mr. Pennycook who was order'd to Lodge him at Mr. Fletcher's House about 2 Miles Wide of that Road and there he was to stay till the Committee should come to him least by his going into Edinburgh he should be seen by Paterson or Lodge who at this Time were kept in the Dark as to the Companies Resolutions or by any other Person that might know him The private Committee came to him next Day and having enter'd on Business askt him first if he had order'd his Affairs so in England that he needed not return He answered that he had and was ready to go abroad at 48 Hours warning To this they reply'd that it was very well tho'by the Sequel of the Story you 'll find it none of their Meaning During the first 2 or 3 Days Conferences the Subject of the Discourse was Darien of which he unbossom'd himself freely And for their further Incouragement he ingaged to lead them to a Treasure of Nicaragua Wood whereof 300 Men could cut down so much in Six Months as should defray the whole Charge of the Expeditinn which if he did not perform he should forfeit his Title to the 700 l Premium agreed on The Gentlement were curious in Informing themselves whereabouts this Treasure was whither it was near the Sea or any River whence it could be easily Shipt Aboard Wafer not suspecting any Design upon him by Persons of so noted Characters resolv'd them in every Particular and pointed out the very Spot of Ground where it grows with the Bearings and Distance of it from Golden Island They now thinking themselves Cock-sure of the Treasure and sufficiently Instructed as to the Country had no more Occasion for Wafer and believ'd that the 700 l Pilotage might be sav'd to help to fetch up Smith's Summ. Next Night he has brought into Edinburgh under Pretence of a nearer Communication and was lodg'd in a private Cell near the Companies Office Three Pair of Stairs high where he could scarce distinguish between Sun Light and Moon Light and here he was oblig'd to keep close least by being seen abroad the Project should take Air. Wafer was well enough pleas'd with his Confinement having still the 700 l in View but as there 's no Certainty in Sublunary Things so the Pilot mist of his Mark for in a Day or two afterwards some Gentlement of the Committee came to him and with abundance of Concern made him understand that the Project had taken Wind in England that Admiral Bembo was lying with a Squadnon at Spithead to wait their Motion and that it was resolv'd that very Morning in the Secret Committee to alter their Darien Project Wafer being somewhat daunted at the News had but little to say to the Matter And these Gentlemen to blind him the more ask'd him several Questions about the Rivers of Platte and Amazones both 1000 Leagues wide of Darien and whether he could be serviceable to them that way to which he answered No. Thus they parted from him shewing a great Concern for their own Disappointment as well as his telling him withal That since they could not go in his Darien Project they would think of a Gratuity sit for him which he might expect that Evening This Gratuity was the Sum of Twenty Guineas which he receiv'd by the Hand of Mr. Pennycook And I suppose he was now at Liberty to Print his Book for I think he was never so much as Commun'd with about it I was order'd to see him out of Town which gave me an Opportunity of having the mournful Story Recapitulated whereof neither he nor I at that time knew the Draught It was not necessary to enjoin Wafer to conceal his Scotch Journey from the English his own Interest obliging him to keep it hush since the greatest Remedy he could expect was to be laught at However I dare say he hath acquired so little Knowledge of Edinburgh except what he learn'd of the Company that if he were to return to that City he could no more find the Way to his Lodging than the Company could to the Nicaragua Wood notwithstanding they thought themselves so sure of it by Directions I was afterwards one of those who went for several Miles along the Coast in Search of this Treasure but were oblig'd to give it o'er And in Lieu of this our Men were order'd to fell several kinds of strange Trees which naturally grow in the Colony's Garden These were squared and cut in Ten Foot Peices for the easier Stowage and were to be sent Home by the first Ship to see if the Company 's Virtuoso's could find any Lebanon
there Notwithstanding these general murmurings the Council could not augment the Allowance without runing the hazard of starving a Month or two sooner for there 's no kind of Food to be had in that Mountainous Woody Country save Plantains Bonnano's Potato's and Indian Corn which are so scarce by reason of the few Natives that our Men sold their New Shirts to the Indians for 20 or 24 Plantains a piece which would not serve a Man above three or four days and our Council were oblig'd to give strict Orders that no Man should sell his Cloaths else I verily believe our Men had been naked in two months after our Landing They were oblig'd to a certain Animal call'd a Sojour which is a small Land Crab that is hous'd in a shell like that of a Wilk These Sojours were very plentiful at our first Landing but they soon fail'd and then our Men eat the inner rind of the bark of great Iree which was not unpleasant to the tast but it being of no nourishment and thought to be unwholesome they were discharged to eat of it I doubt not but there 's plenty of Fish on that Coast but our Company furnishing us only with a small Net made of Packthread for each Ship they could catch no more in a day than what serv'd the Counsellors and Sea Captains and these Nets soon fail'd too We made a shift to make a couple of Turtle Nets out of the store of Lines or small Cord we had aboard but then we had not a Vessel that was fit to go a Turtling till after some time two of the Jamaico Sloops who had brought and sold their Cargo of Provisions to the Collony were hir'd by them to Turtle for them These Sloops staid about a month in their Service till they had got so many Turtle for them as by contract came to a 100 and odd Pounds and finding that there was neither Money nor Money 's worth to be had in the Collony they broke off with them and with much a do could get so much Money as to satisfie them for their Service They had some dependance on the wreck of a French Ship which wascast away coming out of the Harbour the day before Christmas she having near 40000 l in Doubloons and Dollars on board which she had got by trading on the Spanish Coast but I am told by some persons who are come home since I came that they could not recover any thing of it by reason of the continual swell that beats on that shore Here in Parenthesi I was Shipwrack d had my Servant drow'd and lost the few Goods I had with Bag and Baggage and if it had not been for the little Money which I saved I had not found the way home as yet As for the Gold and Riches of that Country I heard enough but saw little of it I presume if there were such store the Spaniards would not have left it so expos'd These Kings or Captains who came down to us might bring perhaps half an Ounce or an Ounce at a time with them and sell it for Powder and Shot and at first for a speckled Shirt but there came so little of this Commodity amongst us that it would be long time before a Man could load his Pocket with it much less a Dutch built Ship What Gold I purchas'd there it cost me 3 l 10 s. per ounce and I believe I brought as much of it away with me to England as most of those Counsellors who are come home since notwithstanding the noise which they made of it I left the Collony the 27th of December at the same allowance as we were reduc'd to in July when we left Scotland only there was an allowance of Madera Wine after our Landing to wit an English Quart to a Mess being 5 Men once a Week Two Quarts to each Captain once a Week of which these Gentlemen made only one want and the Night they got their Allowance they went as merry to Bed as if they had been in their Winter Quarters at Ghent or Brussels altho they were ablig'd to drink fair Water for a Week afterwards As for the Subalterns when I came off they were not allow'd one Spoonful Thus you see how a 1050 Men were sent by the Scotch Company on a blind Project of getting Riches for them with five or six months Allowance at most no Credit and a ridiculous Cargo neglected by them and expos'd to Famine Death and the Spanish Mines How the Company will shake this miscariage from off themselves I cannot see However I will give you a sample of what they will be ready to offer in their own vindication First Their being baulkt of their foreign Subscriptions made them lose Time and Money whereby they could not send out such a number of Men and quantity of Provisions as the Project would have required But who is to blame for this why should they trust to another Man's Purse till such time they are sure of it Why did they prodigally throw away 50000 l in Holland and Hambrough purely to make a bluster there when they could have bought 3 Second-hand-Ships as fit for their Project for the third of the Money And since their design was to settle a Collony and Forts on the North and South Seas why did not they apply themselves rightly to it That which might have been honestly sav'd out of this 50000 l might have carried over above 2000 Men with 12 months Provisions of every Specie at good allowance I have made this appear in Scotland some time ago and since to some of the greatest Men in the Company The second Reason they will be apt to offer is this the Ships were Mann'd the Sea-men and Land-men Listed and on board no Provisions to be had in Scotland while more were providing abroad these aboard still were expending besides there was no Money in the Cash-room nor any more to be had from the Subscribers till once the Ships were sail'd many being so sick of the Project that they doubted whether they should ever pass the Bass If this should be allow'd to pass for Current it may reasonably be ask'd whether five or six Months Provisions should have lasted to this time If ever they expected to hear any more of their Ships ought they not to have call'd in more Money on our departure and provided Provisions instantly and had Ships with us by Christmas or January at farthest whereas none sail'd from Leith till May which was near two Months after they receiv'd the Collonies Packet If they pretended to be ignorant of our necessity before this Packet came they had no excuse afterwards they knew our want as like wife that they had not sent a Groats-worth of Credit with us to any part of the World altho now when it s too late they have made a fashion of doing it in New-England The third Reason they will make great use of is this that at the setling of Barbadoes and
People about the City of London on the Coin'd Rhodomantado News wherewith the non-authoriz'd Prints were daily stuft were pleas'd and big with the Project looking no farther into in than Jacks Gold which they natively believe every body has a right to when at the same time the knowing Part of the World is sensible that Jack is the common Dradge of Europe and if the Mines of Peru and Mexico were in any other bodies hands wesh uld not get such a good account of either of these Metals By what has been already said it may easily appear whether or no these Gentlemen have staid long enough in Darien and whether the director of the Company or they deserve most to be there at this Minuet As for my part I got my Belly full of the Project and am now glad to see my self alive here altho I left my Eldest Son of the first Marriage behind me in Calidonia Being afflicted with a Mallady imaginaire for some Months before I came off I purchas'd my Liberty of the Collony with difficulty enough About the same time the Counsel having resolv'd to send home one of their Tenders with a Packet to the Company and a sample of the strange Woods that grow in the Collonies Garden I thought to have got my Passage in her but was disappointed by a State Reason which was thus Major Cunningham was the chief Instrument incontriving and forwarding the Express and having brought his marks to bear so far as that the Vessel was Carreen'd Tallow'd and fitted for the Voyage he was sudden'ly afflicted with my Distempar and it seiz'd him so violently that on the second day of his illness he call'd a Council being Preses for the week and fatisfied them that he must leave them and go home to his native Country for the recovery of his Health Pannycook and Macay smelling a rat us'd both fair and foul means to detain him but all would not do Mean while they contriv'd ways to detain the Vessel till the Majors Preseship was out and the week following it was Resolv'd in Council Nemine Contradicente except the Major to take some other way of sending home the Packet and to convert the Tender into a Fireship The Majors Tallent not lying in Sea Engagements he could not offer much aginst the necessity of it About the same time the French Ship mention'd before happen'd to put into our Harbour as like wise a Hollands Ship that was trading on the Spanish Coast and came hither for Sanctuary the Barlevanto Fleet being on the Carthagena Coast The French Ship was bound home to St. Malo 's and I design'd to take my Passage in her but the Major being possest with some frightful Stories of the French Captain's making an Oblation of him to the Governour of Carthagena would not venture in her The Ship was cast away going out of the Harbour in fair weather for want of Wind and 24 of her Men drowned I escaped narrowly in Mr. Pennycook's Boat while he was forc'd to swim for his Life A Jamaico Sloop having brought some Provisions to the Collony about the same time and being bound home the Mayor and I took our Passage in her We left the Collony the 27th of December arriv'd in Jamaico a fortnight afterward and in Bristol the 18th of March last where the Major and I parted he going for Scotland and I for London At our parting he would oblidge me to write nothing to Scotland in prejudice of the Darien Project and I promised him that he should have such liberty in telling his own Story there that for the space of two Months I should not write concerning it Directly or Indirectly which promise I kept Religiously although as it has happen'd my silence has not been of much service to the Company I was no sooner arriv'd in London than at the request of some Scots Persons of Great Quality I freely gave them a true account of affairs and my Opinion of the Project They had Journals at the same time from the Council of the Collony but owned that they were better satisfi'd with my Account than the Journals which were design'dly daâ—k in some Essential Points My relation of Darien and Caledonia in England differing from that in Scotland it was thought necessary for the repose of the Subscribers to stifle my Credit Nay one of these great Persons told me afterwards that he had receiv'd Letters from some Earls in Scotland to diswade him from giving Credit to my relation it being the pure effects of Prejudice and that the Collony wanted for nothing Two thirds of the Scots Nation here in Town were on my Top and abus'd me to my Back like any Beggar This and some other harsh usage which I receiv'd at the Scotch Companies hands oblig'd me to take this way of righting my self I have no other aim by it then that their Actions may be laid bare-fac'd before the Scotch World that some persons of that Nation may be unblinded and see how far they have been led into a mistake As for the Spanish and Scotch Companies titles to the Isthumes of Darien on which the Author has foul'd six of seven Sheets of Paper and said so little to the purpose I think it is an unnecessary dispute at present altho such a Re-inforcement sail'd the 24th of September I shall only rehearse to you here what I told Sir J. S. who was sent for in May last from Scotland to Court on the Companies Affair At his arrival in London he sent a Kindsman of his to my Lodging to let me know that he wanted to speak with me I waited on him the same Evening and having entr'd on the Subject of Darien he pull'd out of his Pocket a Copy of the Collonies Journal we soon run over the immaterial Passages of it and came to that which was like to be the Subject of Debate to wit the true litle to that Country He argued in favour of the Company in some Law Terms wherein I pretend to no Judgment farther than my Reason will fathom and urg'd that by the Civil-Law no Title to any Country can be vallid unless it be de Facto as well as Jure and those he distinguish'd thus all the de june right which the Spaniard had to Darien was the Pope's Donation which is never regarded amongst Protestant Princes That the Spaniard had no possession de facto of that Country unless he liv'd on the Spot or had his Cattle running there To the first I answer'd that if the Scots had been in Darien as soon as the Spaniards and taken possession of it the Companies Donation might have been as valid as the Pope's but as these have been masters of that Country by a proscription of years and their Title thereto never hitherto contraverted by any Prince or State till now by the Company I could not see how at that rate any Collony or Plantation in the Universe can be safe The Spaniaras must either be confin'd within their
Money and to give vent to his Malice The latter he owns in the beginning of his Book and repeats it again p. 161. where he says he took this way to right himself because of the Scots here in Town being on his Top and of some other harsh usage which he receiv'd at the hands of the Scots Company The very manner of giving in his Evidence lays him open to the Lash of the English Law and it is to be presum'd that his train of Blasphemies and constant ridiculing the Text would have been taken notice of e're now by a certain Court at the West end of Paul's but that he is protected by some Gentlemen belonging to a Court at the West end of the Town His invenom'd malice is demonstrable by the sport he makes to himself throughout his Libel at the Calamities and Misery of his Fellow-Creatures and Countrymen so that never did any man more exactly fill up the Character of a Renegado than himself for as those Miscreants stab an Image of our Saviour to the Heart as a proof of having absolutely denied him H s hath in the same manner done all he could to stab the Reputation of his native Country as a certain evidence of his being turn'd a Monster in Nature for which even they that imploy him must needs abhor him except they love to see the Image of their own Crimes in his Lovely Features We have not enter'd upon the detail of his malicious Lies with which he hath stuff'd his Book but have only pointed at the chief of them which are so very notorious as may well put his Suborners to the Blush that they should not have either taught him his Lesson better or have seen he had conn'd it more exactly for they are such gross Contradictions either to common Sense or to what he himself has advanc'd in his Libel that none but one who had swallow'd Transubstantiation could be guilty of the like It 's needless to enlarge upon his Character since it 's impossible to conceive a worse Idea of him than all Men of Sense will immediately form to themselves when they know he is a Traitor to his Country He was was formerly a Surgeon in the Fleet and made some Interest amongst the Officers by Female Mediation which was allow'd him by his last Religion for his Book shews that now he has none Hence it is that he expresses himself so readily in the Dialect of his Office and talks of Bullying Kings in his Dedication to shew us that he was acquainted with B-dy-house Rhetorick and they that know his Friends in Little B n say he has convey'd his Libel to the World through a very proper Channel Whilst he was a Surgeon in the Fleet his ill Nature having condemn'd him to perpetual Broyls he had the Impudence to draw upon his Captain ashore who wounded him so as 't was thought might have put a period to his Infamous Life upon which his Captain was Confin'd but the Wound not being Mortal the Gentleman was set at Liberty and returning on Board a Council of War was held by which H s was like to have had an Exit more answerable to his desert at the Yard-Arm but that one of our Country-men who Commanded in the Place sav'd him out of Pity and whilst he was sculking at London to avoid this Prosecution others of them out of Compassion hir'd him to go along with their Fleet for which he hath made his Country such a Grateful Reward as hath verify'd the Proverb That save a R gue from the Gallows he shall be the first that will cut your Throat We leave his Suborners to think on 't His Captain being thus disappointed of having Justice executed was forc'd to content himself with Pricking him Run that he might not have any claim to his Wages but since his return from Darien and engaging in the Honourable service of Reviling and Belying his Country his Suborners out of their innate Bounty and Gratitude have got him deliver'd from all farther Prosecution entitled him to his Wages and given him the opportunity to value himself upon his Corespondence at the Court end of the Town so that now he thinks himself sure of a Patent for Life and that he shall never be oblig'd to go up Holborn-Hill except his important occasions call him now and then that way to enable him to pay his present Debts when some of his Brethren pass that Road to pay their last It had been easie for us to have given such a History of his Life as would have put his Suborners to the blush but we reserve that to make use of as we shall see occasion what 's said is enough to let them know how much they are to trust to his Evidence if they think fit to make further use of him either by Libelling his Country or accusing any of those great Families he threatens in his Dedication AN INQUIRY INTO The Causes of the Miscariage of the Scots Colony at Darien THE main design of H s and his Suborners is to charge the Miscarriage of the Scots Colony upon their own Country to clear some Gentlemen that perhaps may be found within the Verge of White-Hall from having any hand in it and to evince the necessity of those Proclamations publish'd against the Scots in the West-Indies so as no Person or Party in England may seem justly chargeable with the ruin of that Colony a certain Evidence that the Crime is very black and that they are put to a miserable shift when those Gentlemen are at such expence of Contrivance and Pains to wipe off the Imputation and so ready to fall in with any Tool that they think can assist them in so doing Enough has been said already to demonstrate that the evidence of such an infamous Person as H s and so circumstantiated would not be admitted in any Court of Judicature in Europe especially against such an honourable Society as the Company of Scotland for trading to Africa and the Indies which consists of the very flower of the Nation and perhaps has more Persons of illustrious Birth Quality and Merit in it than any trading Company that ever yet was erected in the World The Directors particularly whom H s and his Masters have condemned to the Halter p. 46. are most of them Persons of that Quality Estate Worth and untainted Honour as the Accusation of no one particular Person tho of never so good Repute could in justice or decency be admitted against them and much less the malicious Calumnies of a Renegado But to set this matter in a clearer Light Whereas we have only H s's own word for what he asserts in vindication of his Friends and Suborners we shall demonstrate against him and them too from undeniable matter of Fact that some People in England are justly chargeable with the ruin of that Colony We shall begin with the opposition made to the Scots Act by the Parliament of England to whom the matter was
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 June 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 surprise 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 12th Act of Parl. 2 James 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 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 Muslins 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 own 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
Order on our behalf which by a further Address we are now to lay before his Majesty But whereas we humbly conceive your Lord ships 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 28th of June 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 Comapny 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 fur prize 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 fustain'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 22d 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
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 Jamaica 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 James 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 Nations upon pain of his Majesty's Displeasure and suffering the severest punishment Given under my Hand and Seal of Arms the 9th of April 1699. and in the 11th year of the Reign of William the 3d King of England Scotland France and Ireland and Lord of Jamaica 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 intorming 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 of 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 King 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 9th 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 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 tothe 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
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 Jews 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. James 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 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 Scottand 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. Johnson 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 sire 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 casier 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 2d 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 eare 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 convine'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 Hamburg 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 4th 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. bysupposing 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 losevs by it and that it cost them more to fit 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 we should snarl at our Neighbours who have no other Hand in our Misfortune than that they would not be accessary to any Act 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 won 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 whioh 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 sufficently 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 J. 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 5th 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 Massacnes 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 scarocly 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 Fend now depending between the Frazers and the Murrays or rather the Family of Athol Non did we ever hear of any thing that look'd so like an unnatural Massacre in Scotland as that committed since tho 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 pavticularly 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 James 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 James'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 malicioufly 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 barebit 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 Scors 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 prafervidum 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 Oppresslon 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 Observalton of the Earl of Shastsbury 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. James 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 i'ts 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. James II. did by his absolute Power and unaccountable Authority cass and annul all the Laws establishing the Reformation in Sootland 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 fee 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 sensible 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 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 abvance and preserve their own Colonies and to keep them from being render'd desolate by the clandestine Artisices of yours who industriously and tacitely spread their Declarations over all the English Islands and Plantations making use of the King of Great Britain's Name to give 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
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 Domimons 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 Pcople 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 Conserence 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 Right cousness thereof we may reasonably hope for and expect the Blessings of Prosperity and Increase NEW-EDINBVRGH Decemb. 18. 1608. 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 Artisices 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 Maw 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 of 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 Heavâ—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
a more false step in Government for when once People perceive that Princes have no regard to the Laws made for the protection and welfare of the Subject they will naturally think themselves absolv'd from such as require their Allegiance and support of the Soveraign That Mr. Paterson and the Scots Company should insinuate from the Octroy that we were to be assisted or defended by English Men of War or Money is nothing but a mixture of Falshood and Malice The Libeller owns that the Words of our Act cannot bear it and the World knows that our Parliaments never pretend to dispose of English Ships or Mony and therefore no man of sense will believe this Renegado when he says the Scots Company put that Gloss on the Text for their own advantage since that had been directly to expose themselves For we are not to suppose they could think the Dutch and Hamburghers so weak as not to peruse the Act it self which would soon have undeceived them Therefore all those Reflections which he protends the English Traders to India made upon it must vanish of course as having no manner of Foundation Much less can they serve to justify the Memorial given in at Hamburgh by Sir Paul Ricaut against our taking Subscriptions there Which Memorial tho minc'd by our Libeller yet ev'n as he represents it is against the Law of Nations and indeed scarcely reconcileable to good sense in the first place to call our Agents private Men who acted by the Company 's Authority and according to Act of Parliament and in the next place to suppose that the Hamburghers could possibly join with us in hopes of English Protection when the Opposition made to us by the Court of England was known all over Europe nay the Scribler himself owns P. 17. That the more Opposition the English and Dutch offer'd to the Project the more the Hamburghers thought it their Interest to embrace it This is sufficient to convince the Suborners that the next time they hire a Scribler to belie the Scots Company they must be sure to pitch upon one that has a better Memory His next Reflections P. 22 23. That our Ships were neither fit for Trade nor War that our Cargo was not proper that our main Design was the Buccaneer Trade that above 10000 l. was deficient of the first Payments and most of the Subscribers not able to raise their Quota are equally false with the rest The Ships for their Burden and Size are as fit either for Trade or War as any in Europe The Cargo of Cloth Stuffs Shoes Stockins Slippers and Wigs must needs be proper for a Country where the Natives go naked for want of Apparel and fit to be exchanged for other Commodities either in the English Dutch French or Spanish Plantations For Bibles we suppose our Libeller would rather we had carried Mass Books yet others will be of opinion that 1500 of 'em was no unfit Cargo Our own Colony might have dispens'd with that number in a little time nor were they unfit to have been put into the hands of such of the Natives especially of the younger sort that might learn our language For Hoes Axes Macheet Knives c. they were absolutely necessary for our selves and a Commodity much valued by the Natives Fifteen hundred square Buccaneer Pieces and proportionable Ammunition was no such extraordinary Store for eleven or twelve hundred men and whereas he maliciously insinuates that Buccaneering was our main Design the Event hath prov'd it to be false had that been our intent we might easily have invaded the Spanish Plantations at both ends of the Isthmus Sancta Maria nor Panama it self could never have been able to withstand such a force when a few undisciplin'd Buccaneers did so easily take them It 's well enough known there was a parcel of as brave Men that went with our Fleet as perhaps Great Britain could afford many of 'em inur'd to War and Fatigues and knew how to look an Enemy in the Face without being daunted They had giv'n proofs enough of that in Flanders where no men alive could fight with more Bravery and Zeal than they did for the Common Cause tho some People have since thought sit to starve them That there was above 10000 l of the 100000 l not paid in is false there was not above 2000 l wanting For those great men that thought their Countenance enough and therefore refus'd to pay in their Subscriptions he shall have our leave to name them but perhaps his Suborners will not care to have their Friends so much expos'd That most of the Subscribers were unable to raise their Quota is demonstrably false by our sending away two Convoys since the thirds being greater by far than the first and that we are now preparing a fourth As to the Companies charging 25 per Cent. advance on every Article of the 19000 l Stock it 's well enough known that so much Advance is thought nothing in a West-India Trade it was all the profit the Company was to have and only charged in the Books by way of Formality that the Colony might know what they were indebted to the Company His Story p. 23. of its being propos'd in the Company to sell off their Ships and Cargo and divide the Product amongst the Subscribers is nothing eul our dishonour nor at all to be wondred at considering the unreasonable opposition we had met with from Court That we rejected it as inglorious argues still that we are not so mean-spirited as he elsewhere represents us His base Reflections p. 24. on the Company as if they had despair'd of the design and sent their men to Sea on purpose to perish and on Drummellier that be order'd the Colony to get Mony honestly if they could but be sure to get it and if they came home without it then the Devil get them all serve only to discover his own Temper and that he thinks all men act and speak like himself We have faid enough already to demonstrate the Honesty of both Company and Colony Had their design been to get Mony without regard to Honesty they would not have been starv'd to death by the Proclamations and other opposition made them at Court they could quickly have possessed themselves of the Spanish Mines which the Scribler owns p. 164. were within twelve Leagues of them and with much more ease of the 40000 l that was sunk in the French Ship But he serves the Suborners for their Mony much at the same rate he did the Scots Company His Reflection p. 25. that Mr. Stratford was oblig'd to arrest our Ships at Hamburgh for 800 l Flemish as they were fitting out serves only to discover his own malice and folly Mr. Stratford had very good Security for 800 l Flemish when he had four Ships in Port not yet fitted out and his receiving his Mony in a fortnight or three weeks as the Libeller owns in the same Paragraph shows he had no ill