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
Monarchy whatever some vitiated and deprav'd Palates perswade you to the Contrary The mask'd Champion of your Company whose Tongue is much too big for his Mouth is in Pain because he cannot spurt out all his Venom at one Blast However reasonable it be that the Gentleman's Zeal should atone for his want of Power yet I must acquaint you that his Quarrel with the English Nation is as unjust and groundless as your Settling a Colony in another Man's Dominions unless by Virtue of your Presbyterian Tenent viz. of Dominions being founded in Grace you who are the Presumptive Elect pretend a Divine Right to the Goods of the Wicked and so take upon you to cloath the Seven Councellors of your Colony with such another Commission as God gave the Hebrews when they departed out of Egypt I have no Inclination to offer any Thing in Opposition to the Gallantry of your Ancestors who took so much Care to keep themselves independent of another Nation And altho' I pretend to know the Thread of the Scotish and British Story full as well as the Author of the Defence yet out of Respect to the Country where I drew my first Breath tho' I owe it nothing else I will offer nothing to the Prejudice of it's Ancient Fame But if I point at some Errata's of this Author I do it purely to reconcile Mistakes and to make a Distinction betwixt the Scotch Company and Scots Nation I being so much the Latter's Friend as to wish them not to embrak in so rotten a Bottom as this of your Company until you are on an honester Footing than you appear to be at present that the Honour of the Ancient Kingdom mayn't be sully'd with so notorious a Mistake I shall only say in Answer to this Paragraph that altho' your Ancestors were never sparing of their Blood in defending their Country nay oftimes in making Reprizal when they could conveniently yet I must put you in mind that they were far better pleas'd with enjoying themselves in their old Caledonian Mountains than you are now with both Hills and Plains And I dare say they had such a Value for their Native Blood that they would not have been guilty of sending so many innocent and worthy Gentlemen like Sheep to the Slaughter or Spanish Mines so far from Home on such an April Errand 'T is both hard and unaccountable that this Gentleman who sets up for your Champion should use the English Nation so familiarly and take such Liberty not only of frightning them into an Ague but to Bully a great General who was never hitherto known to be daunted by more formidable Giants than the Quixots of your Company He honest Gentleman mean'd no Harm at the Granting of the Octroy for 't is to be believed that he could scarce hear what was whisper'd to him for the Noise of the Namure Guns And as for this Project of yours to Darien I dare be positive that he knew nothing of the Matter till it was Five or Six Months done and then he had it from other Hands If your Colony has left Darien for Reasons not as yet publick to the World 't is your Fault Right Worshipful Gentlemen in undertaking to manage a Project you so little understood and not of the English Nation whose Interest it is to advance and preserve their own Colonies and to keep them from being render'd desolate by the Clandestine Artisices of yours who industriously and tacitely spread their Declarations over all the English Islands and Plantations making use of the King of Great Britain's Name to give the more Authority to the Thing And by these indirect Manifesto's such Prosits or rather Plunders were insinuated that if the Government of England had not taken early Measures to prevent the ill Consequences 't is to be question'd whether the greatest Part of the English West-Indies had not e'er now quitted their Settlements and been decoy'd into your Colony under a Cover'd Notion that you had a Patent from the King to pick a Quarrel with the Spaniard and to devide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru amongst the Servants and Adventures of the Company This Project and Settlement you know was so secretly carried on that it was not known to England till the same Wind that brought the News likewise inform'd the Nation that the Scots were march'd over to Panama the chief City on the Isthmus of Darien and the Treasury-Chamber of all the Spanish Riches on the South-Sea and had planted Eighty Guns against it These Proceedings were enough to startle this Nation who had heard of no War with Spain and who had no great Reason to suffer their own Subjects to desert their Plantations to advance the Scotch Colony in their own Wrong As for this Nation 's curing into a War with the Spaniard on the Score of your Company who besides their Loss of Trade must throw away more English Pounds thrice over than there 's Scotch in your Capital Stock I 'll leave it to any Man of Half an Ounce of Politicks to find out the Jest on 't save this Hot-headed Author of your Colony's Defence As for these ridiculous and bugbear Stories which both you and your Champion insinuate viz. that if the Scots should lose or be expell'd out of Darien the French will certainly possess themselves of it This Story is so far vain that the French have another Game to play at present with Spain and if they had any such Inclination that Way they know that Coast far better than the Scots and might have secur'd Carthagena when they had it in their Power and a Legal Title to it by their Arms in the Time of a declar'd War Which Fortification is as far before your Fort St. Andrew or any Thing that can be made of it as Dunkirk is before Deale-Castle But still if France or Holland had any such Design as you would make the World believe why mayn't they still go sit down within a League of either Side of your Colony with as good a Title as yours since you will coop the Spaniard up within his Wall'd Towns and Garrisons But to leave this unnecessary Dispute And proceed to the oblique Threatnings wherewith he frightens King William to wit the Fate of those Mean-spirited Princes who blemish'd and were unworthy to wear the Imperial Crown of your Nation I 'll espouse His Majesty's Cause no further than to be confirm'd that he has been ill serv'd by some Persons and I am of Opinion that he does not merit one Half of this ill Language at their Hands Further I dare say so much in his Behalf by what has past already that the Scots Crown will receive no Blemish or Disreputation by his wearing of it altho' he does not think it either sit or just to Countenance an indirect Action of any of his Subjects By the Beacons which your Author sets up to scare him to wit of the Two Baliols of James the First and William the First any Man without
that all the Salvo we could make to dash the Story was by saying that this was the Companies sho'el Anchor if every thing else should fail them but that they had no occasion to make use of that Power at present nor that Mr. Paterson meant so when he spoke it But that which gave us the dead stroke in Holland just as the Companies Books were open'd the East and West India Companies run open mouth'd to the Lords of Amsterdam shewing what was hatching by the Scotch Commissioners in their City to ruine the Trade of the United Provinces The Lords gave them satisfaction in the matter and made no noise of it for we were made to understand in a day or two afterwards that our Subscriptions were dash'd and none to be expected there On this occasion it was resolved in the Commitee that Paterson and the Colonel should forthwith proceed to Hamburgh to see what could be be done there the rest being to remain in Holland for some time to give the less Umbrage to the Hamburgh Project The Hamburghers swallow'd the bait to a wish for the more opposition the English and Dutch offer'd to the project confirm'd them the more that it was their Interest to embrace it The River Elve on which Hamburgh stands is Navigable for flat bottom Barges of 70 or 80 Tuns for some 200. Miles up into the Country of Germany which gives them an opportunity of serving all the North parts of that Empire with Goods more conveniently then the Hollanders can And as they have no East India Goods but what they have at second hand from England and Holland or a few from Denmark by joyning now with the Scotch Company they have a prospect of worming the Hollander out of a good part of the German Trade In Parenthesi I must own that this part of the Project was Reasonable on both the Scotch and Hamburgher side if it had been meant as it was told but the Devil on 't was the Hamburgers knew nothing of Darien but builded altogether on Ships laden with India Goods whereof their City and Port was to be the Receptacle and Mart while Paterson wanted only their Money to raise Forces to over-run Mexico and Peru. The way being thus prepared by these two Fore-runers the body of the Commitee receiv'd advice to repair thither at sight all things being ready for Signing and Sealing And I receiving orders to accompany them set out from Amsterdam after we had spent three Mouths there in vain and arrived at Humburgh on Lady-day 1697. Our Affair was so generally favour'd by the Burghers of this City that at our arrival we printed Placaarts and fix'd them on the Exchange and other publick Places there intimating that the Companies Books were to be open'd in the Commercie Kamber the week following for Subscriptions but they were to take notice the best Jest on 't That by the Constitutions of the Company no Man could sign above 3000 l. sterling for himself as likewise that their Books could not admit above 200000 l. in all These Placaarts were no sooner pasted up on the Posts than Pamphlets were crying up and down the Streets full of ill Nature and a great many sad Truths advising the Hamburghers to enquire further into the Project before they parted with their Money lest they should never see it again These Pamphlets contain'd 3 or 4 Sheets and were printed in French High and Low Dutch under the Title of A Letter from a Friend in Amsterdam to his Friend in Hamburgh But the Hamburghers having such a Confidence in Paterson's Phiz and smooth Tongue and by the forward appearance the Company made with their new Ships of 50 Guns all in a row they believ'd all this stuff to be hatch'd in Samaria from whence no good can be expected But that the Scriptures might be fulfill'd by the Elects meeting with Disappointments and Crosses while they sojourn here or on the other hand that of Honesty's being the best Policy either you please the Companies Book was likewise shut up here without getting a Groat of the Hamburgers Money although that City got near 30000 l of the Company 's The human reason of this Disappointment if I am not mistaken was as follows in the Octroy there was a certain unnecessary Paragraph which occasion'd a great many English and Hollands Speculations viz. That in case the Company should be interrupted in their Trade c. the King had ingag'd to interpose the Regal Authority to do them Right and that at the publick Charge Paterson and the other Agents of the Company to magnifie their Charter did insinuate in all Companies That the King was to assist and defend them with his Ships of War or otherwise if there was occasion and that out of his own Pocket which they did not question to be English Coin when at the same time the words of the Act cannot bear it much less That a Scots Act of Parliament should dispose of English Ships and Money But since the Scotch Company would force this gloss on the Text for their Advantage the English Traders to India made as profitable a use of it the other way for say they Was it not enough that the King of Great Britain should pass an Act in favour of his Scots Subjects to Trade to India and exempt them from Duties for 21 years which is an evitable Prejudice to the English Trade since it 's impossible to hinder them from sending their India Goods by stealth over the Border and underselling our Markets by 25 or 30 per Cent. but that they should be empower'd to take in Forreigners to be Sharers with them in this Trade and not only thereby suck the Blood and Marrow out of England for 21 years but that our English Ships of War for the maintenance of which great Taxes and Imposts are laid on our Trade and Goods should defend this Scotch Company 's Trade and these Foreigners who run away with the whole These weak Proceedings of Paterson and the other Agents with the Sentiments the English had of it made the Government of England send to the Senate of Hamburgh a Caution by Sir Paul Ricaut Resident there to take care how they suffer'd their Burghers to embark with private Men the King's Subjects under the hopes of the English Protection which being to the Prejudice of their own Subjects could not be reasonably expected This was the Substance of the Memorial given in to that Senate who had never hitherto countenanc'd the Committee altho' the Private Burghers were so Resolute to Join Adverse Fortune still attending our Embassie they thought fit to steer homewards and make the best of a bad Market being now fully satisfy'd that there 's no other Body's Money to be Trusted to but their own And having left me with Legate Stevenson to tend the Ships till farther Orders they set out from Hamburgh in April The Report of this Mournful Story being made to the Board in Scotland they found that they
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
and the whole Tenor of his Conversation cannot think this any uncharitable Reflection His unnatutal Rancor against his Native Country and unbounded Malice against the Scots Company make it probable enough that he might do such a thing on purpose to render the Natives Enemies to the Colony which he deserted himself about a Month after And this is so much the more probable because he exclaims against those on Board for not taking care of Andreas nor letting him blood after his fall since none was so proper to do it as himself who was a Surgeon and on Board the Ship at the time It is needless to insist any further on his Train of Falshoods and Inconsistencies in his Account of the Country which being contrary not only to all that have wrote of it but also to the Journals and Letters sent from our Colony We have better reason to say that his Description is Calculated to the Humour of our Enemies and his Suborners than that the Colony's and Mr. Wafer's Accounts were Calculated to the Meridian of the Scots Company To put this Matter out of all doubt we shall here subjoin the first Letter sent from Caledonia by the Council of the Colony to the Company which is the Testimony of six against one Right Honourable OVR Last to you was from the Maderas of the 29th of Aug. and sent by the several ways of Holland and Pottugal to the Contents whereof we now refer and in particular to the State of Provisions therewith sent and which we now find doth considerably fall short even of what was then computed by reason of the badness of the Cask The account of the remaining part of our Voyage together with the most material Transactions since you may know by the enclosed Journal or Diary of our Proceedings We now send you our Letters and Dispatches by Mr. Alexander Hamilton Merchant who takes the opportunity of passing to you by the way of Jamaica over England to whom we desire you would order Forty Shillings Sterling to be paid Weekly towards his Expences during the time he shall stay with you negotiating our Affairs The Wealth Fruitfulness Health and good Situation of the Country proves for the better much above our greatest Expectation which God Almighty seems to have wonderfully reserv'd for this Occasion and now to have prepar'd our Way and disposed the Indies to that purpose In our Passage hither several of our Number have been taken from us by Death whose Names we have herewith sent you and whereof the loss of our two Ministers is the most sensible to us We therefore intreat you would use your utmost endeavours with the General Assembly for procuring others so supply that great want As to the Country we find it very healthful for although we arriv'd here in the Rainy Season from which we had little or no shelter for several Weeks together and many Sick among us yet they are so far recover'd and in so good a State of Health as could hardly any where be expected among such a number of Men together nor know we any thing here of those several dangerous and mortal Distempers so prevalent in the English and other American Islands In Fruitfulness this Country seems not to give place to any in the World For we have seen several of the Fruits as Cocoa-Nuts whereof Chocolate is made Bonellos Sugar-Canes Maize Oranges Plantains Mangoe Yams and several others all of them of the best of their kind any where found Nay there is hardly a Spot of Ground here but what may be cultivated For even upon the very tops and sides of the Hills and Mountains there is commonly three or four foot deep of rich Earth without so much as a Stone to be found therein Here is good Hunting and Fowling and excellent Fishing in the Bays and Creeks of the Coast so that could we improve the Season of the Year just now begun we should soon be able to subsist of our selves but fortifying and building will lose us a whole Years planting By the want of Sloops or finall Coasting Vessels we have hitherto had no opportunity of disposing any part of the Cargo or doing other needful things Since the loss of the French Ship mentioned in the Journal we understand that the Captain had an underband Correspondence in tampering with some of the Natives whom be intended to carry away with him which hightens our Jealousy that the French have a design upon this Place or at least to make a Settlement hereabout And we heartily wish that our Most Gracious King were truly informed of what Consequence it will be both to his Greatness and Security to countenance and encourage us his Loyal and Dutiful Subjects here that our Prince and Country be not only depriv'd of so valuable a Jewel but least the same should fall a Prey to some of our Rival Neighbours This will be the Companies part to notice after these Dispatches shall come to hand You have inclosed a List of several Goods and Merchandises vendable and proper for this Place our Situation being incomparable for the Trade of the Coast where besides our Inland Trade there is commonly but 2 or 3 or at most but 8 or 10 days sail to the best Places of Trade upon the Coast and to the outmost considerable Islands adjoining And we desire that particular Merchants in Scotland and elsewhere may be incouraged to trade and correspond hither in which we hope they will sufficiently find their Account We have also sent you a state of what Supplies of Provisions Stores and Merchant Goods are absolutely necessary for the present support of the Colony referring it to the Company to determine what reasonable Consideration they will have for the Sums that shall be advanced for that purpose And we entreat that all possible Expedition may be us'd in sending us these needful Supplies for without that we shall not only be incapable of making you suteable Returns but this hopeful Vndertaking together with our seives will run no small risque of being inevitably lost But however it be by the help of God we shall not fail to do our unmost in making speedy and suteable Returns and shall always account it our greatest Honour to expose our Persons and all that 's most near and dear unto us in promoting this hopeful Design as not only promising Profit and Glory to the Company and all who are concern'd with them but as being the likeliest means that ever yet presented towards the inabling our Countrymen to revive recover transmit to Posterity the Virtue Lustre and wonted Glory of their Renown'd Ancestors And to lay a Foundation of Wealth Security and Greatness to our Mother Kingdom for the present and succeeding Ages In which we can no way doubt of your most hearty Concurrence and utmost Support So praying Almighty God would bless and prosper the Company in all their Vndertaksngs We Remain Right Honourable Your Most Humble Servants Robert Jolley J. Montgomery Dan. Mackay
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
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