balance of the Trade of the whole Universe into their hands but render himself and his Successors the unquestionable Arbiters of all affairs and transactions within the limits of the European Dominions and give him the glory of saving all Europe from the Deluge and Inundation of a French Conquest Whereunto let me in the next place be allow'd to subjoin that in case Scotland should be able of it self to defend and maintain their Colony against the machinations and assaults of the Spaniards without the assistance and support of England as it is hoped they may that the English will not only lose the Honour and Thanks of it with all the Privileges and Advantages which thro' countenancing and aiding of them they might have been partakers of as well as have been secur'd of the perpetual Friendship of that Nation and upon all occasions experienc'd the happy effects of it so it can give no just offence to such of the Kingdom of England as are endow'd with Wisdom and Understanding to have it plainly laid before them that if Scotland find it self too weak to withstand the Forces of the Crown of Spain and of such as may joyn their Power with that of the Catholick King for dislodging of them and in the mean time find themselves abandon'd by England how that in such a case it is greatly to be fear'd that they may call in some Neighbouring Monarch or State to their Succour and Support tho' the doing it will infallibly be reckon'd and deservedly too a trespass against their Allegiance Fealty and Loyalty And the Scots being naturally a warm People too much verifying the Proverb that Scotorum ingenia sunt fervida which vulgarly goes of them they may the sooner be hurry'd into such an irregular and unlawful course by reflecting that since both the Nations came under one Soveraign they are both much less esteemed by the English and enjoy fewer Privileges in England than in times of Peace between the Crowns they did before Whereof the reason is obvious namely that England being the powerful and opulent Nation and having the King Resident among them they do thereby the more easily influence him to be kinder to them than to the Scots For tho' I hope that they will never be tempted to run into such a Method and do also heartily wish that no provocations may force them upon it yet whosoever will either consider the Nature and Temper of Mankind and make reflections upon Late as well as upon more Ancient Precedents may find matter of apprehension and jealousie administred unto them that it is so far from being impossible they should do so that it rather looks like a moral certainty that it will come to pass There being nothing more natural as well as usual than for Communities and Nations as well as for individual and particular Men when either unkindly treated by their Friends or distressed by their Enemies to seek for succour and relief wheresoever they can obtain it And to cite the Testimonies and Examples that do aver and confirm this would be both to transcribe a considerable part of the Histories of all Ages and to give the Detale and Memoirs of the behaviour of vast numbers of private Persons Nor doth it in such a case come much under Peoples consideration how far such a procedure will be accounted Criminal and the Authors of it held impeachable Interest in such circumstances out balancing Duty and present inconveniencies stifling Fears with respect to what may be future Nor is it unworthy of remark what Mr. Littleton Brother to this present Speaker broadly insinuates concerning Barbados when he as well as that whole Plantation thought themselves severely dealt with by the Government and Kingdom of England namely that it was to be dreaded least under such discouragements they should be tempted to run into Merthods that would be as irreconcilable to their Loyalty as they would be contrary to their Inclinations unless they were forc'd upon them And as it is firmly to be believ'd that the Dutch or any of the Northern Crowns if apply'd unto by the Scots and their aid crav'd would be ready to own and espouse their concern so it is to be apprehended and fear'd in more special manner least under such melancholy menacing and distressful circumstances they should not make their address unto and put themselves under the protection of France Seeing besides the agreeableness in temper and humour between the Scots and the French more than between any two Nations in Europe the old Affinity that was betwixt them and the benefits which redounded mutually to each of them by it are not wholly forgotten For as the Ancient Alliance of Scotland with France and the many brave Troops wherewith upon all occasions they supplyed the French were the unhappy means of the English losing all those Noble Provinces and vast Territories whereof they were once rightfully possessed in France so the Scots are upon every unkind carriage of England towards them but too apt to remember the Honours and opulent Fortunes which divers of them attained unto during their long and faithful league with the French Nor have they reason much to question but should they renew their old Confederacy with France and call for assistance from thence the whole Kingdom of Scotland would be soon reinstated there in all the ancient Privileges and Immunities which were enjoyed by them heretofore and not only such who are chiefly concerned in the business of Darien become liberally rewarded and recompenced for throwing themselves into the arms of the French but such as are of the chief and first Rank of their Nobility would be courted to accept General-Commands Mareschal-Staffs Ducal-Coronets and Annual Pensions answerable to those of Princes of the Blood which their Ancestors formerly had Nor ought it to be over-look'd how the Scots even since their Vnion with England under one and the same King have without the knowledge of His Britannick Majesty sought the Protection of France when they conceiv'd themselves in danger of being Invaded by England It being too well known to admit of contradiction that when King Charles I. was advised and influenc'd to make War upon them for their withstanding what they call'd Invasion upon Church and State how they apply'd themselves unto France for assistance inscribing their Petition and Memorial to Lewis XIII Au Roy. For which tho' they were charg'd both with Treachery and Rebellion by the Court Party yet that Act of the Scots was not so heinously resented by the English as to deserve to be taken notice of and upbraided at the Treaty at Rippon Nor will the Zeal or rather Biggotry of the present French King be of much signification for diverting them from begging his protection in case they see themselves likely to be ruin'd in their present design thro' their being assaulted by Spain and abandon'd by England As knowing that the State Wisdom of Lewis XIV will as much over-rule his warmth for the Faith
and Worship of the Romish Church as it did that of Henry II. of France when the Protestants in Scotland resisted such as they said would Persecute them in the Reign of Queen Mary his Daughter-in-law That King being recorded to have said upon that occasion We must commit the Souls of Scots-men to God for we have difficulty enough to rule the Consciences of such as are French Neither ought it to be pass'd over without observation that the application which the Scots under the Reign of Charles I. made to Lewis XIII was not very long after his having subdu'd his Subjects at Rochel and wrested the Cautionary Towns out of the hands of his Reformed Subjects Which open'd the way to all the Mischief and Ruin that have overtaken them since Nevertheless this must be said in favour of the Scots that it was upon the Motive of Religion and from Indignation against France because of the late and present Persecution of the Protestants there that they did not carry their Resentments higher for the affront put upon His Majesty and the Parliament of Scotland with respect to their Act for a Company to Trade in India and Africa and that they did not warmly express their displeasure in relation to the interposure of His Majesty's Envoy at the Courts of Lunenburgh and his Resident at Hamburgh who by menaces as well as by gentler Methods both deter'd and discourag'd the Hamburghers from contributing to their Stock and Capital and from joyning in the establishment and promotion of the Plantation and Trade which the Scots were about to Settle and Embark in For as it would not but wonderfully surprize the Scots to find their Undertaking and particularly their transaction with the Hamburghers for Subscriptions and Aid not only stil'd The Action of some private Men who neither had Credentials nor were any other ways authorized by His Majesty when they stood warranted in the one and t'other by the King's Charter as well as by an Act of Parliament but to have it represented to the Magistrates and Governors of that Free City That His Majesty would regard all Proceedings with the Scots in that affair as an affront to his Royal Authority and that he would not fail to revenge himself of it so it was matter of the greatest astonishment to the People of Scotland that the said Envoy and Resident persevered to oppose them in all their transactions at Hamburgh until they had frustrated and defeated them in what they were about notwithstanding that Tullibarding and Ogilvis His Majesty's Two Scotch Secretaries had declar'd in a Letter to the Council general of the Company that they stood empower'd by the King to signifie unto them that His Majesty would give order to the said Envoy and Resident not to make use of His Majesty's Name and Authority for obstructing the Scots Company in the prosecution of their Trade with the Inhabitants of Hamburgh Nor ought it to give offence unto any tho' it may possibly alarm a great number of judicious and thinking People to have it represented and publish'd that all the opposition made and given by His Majesty's said Envoy and Resident to the Scots transacting with the Hamburghers was previous and antecedent unto any knowledge they had receiv'd or could possibly attain unto of the Place Territory or Country where the Scots had design'd to Land and to endeavour the establishment of a Colony For as none of the very Directors of the Company had until a long time after come to any fix'd Resolution where they should attempt the beginning and carrying on a Plantation so posteriorly to its having been agreed upon and concerted by those few of them to whom the determination thereof was referr'd by the rest it was so secretly conceal'd and kept faithfully undiscover'd that neither His Majesty nor any of his Ministers were in the least made acquainted with it And consequently that the foresaid Envoy and Resident being altogether ignorant in what part of the World the Company intended to seek and pursue a Foreign Settlement for Trade and Commerce and whether it might not be in some Region or Province that would be both agreeable to the humour of the Spaniards and subservient to the Interest of England their interposing so zealously and industriously with the Hamburghers against the Scots could neither be upon motives of Love and Kindness to the English or of respect and deference to the King of Spain but out of meer disaffection to the Kingdom of Scotland and from an aversion to the welfare and prosperity of that People So that it may be worth those Gentlemens recollecting what heretofore befell Archbishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford for having medled in Scots affairs beyond their Posts tho' with the Countenance and by the Authority of King Charles I. Who notwithstanding their being Persons of incomparable Talents as well as of the most elevated Stations and illustrious Characters of any of the Kingdom of England yet upon the arising of a misunderstanding between that Prince and his English Parliament and thro' the necessity that the latter stood in of having the favour of the Kingdom of Scotland in the difference that sprung up between them and their Soveraign were sacrific'd in order to appease and gratifie the Scots rather than for any treasonable Crimes that they were guilty of I do foresee that it will be here objected that for the English to countenance and uphold the Scots in what they have done will be to enter into a Conspiracy against themselves and a concurring in what will be highly prejudicial not only to the Traffick of the English American Plantations but to the Trade and Commerce of England it self And that not only by reason of the general Share in Trade which the Scots by reason of that Calidonian Company may speedily grow up unto but because of the great Immunities in Freedom from Taxes Customs and all manner of Impositions whatsoever which are granted unto their Company for 21 Years while the English Traffick is by so many Laws and Statutes clogg'd and over-loaded with them To which Exception I shall endeavour to give such a full and sufficient Reply in the few following Reflections that I hope both the frivolousness and indiscretion of it will be made obvious and render'd apparent to every Man that hath but judgment and temper enough to weigh things in equal and just Scales The first thing therefore which I would offer to be consider'd is this namely That the hazard of succeeding in the founding and establishing of a New Colony is so great and the Treasure that must inevitably be expended in order thereunto so large before any considerable reimbursements can be hoped for that it is extremely difficult by any propos'd Immunities and Privileges whatsoever to gain those that have Money and who know how to make other improvements of it to be forward liberal and zealous of entring into and promoting such a Design And if we will but cast our
A JUST and MODEST VINDICATION OF THE Scots Design For the having Established a Colony at Darien WITH A Brief Display how much it is their Interest to apply themselves to Trade and particularly to that which is Foreign Sanctiora sunt Patriae Jura quam Hospitii Corn. Nep. in vit Timoth. Nemo Patriam amat quia Magna est sed quia Sua. Senec. Epist. 66. Printed in the Year 1699. TO THE READER THere being no Dedication of this Discourse a Preface is therefore not only the more allowable but necessary For how vain as well as impertinent soever they are deservedly accounted who think either to recommend or to cover an unseasonable useless and trifling Book from Censure Contempt and Ridicule by their Emitting it under the usurped Patronage of a great Name yet it is to Treat those into whose Hands Authors are ambitious to have their Papers to fall and of whose good Opinion they are covetous with Rudeness as well as with want of Respect not to afford them those previous Advertisements and vouchsafe them the Lights which may let them decently in to what they are invited to Peruse and serve both to obviate Misapprehensions of the Writer and to prevent Groundless and Satyrical Reflections upon his Performance And the endeavouring of the one and the other of these is the more indispensably needful in the present case in that if credit may be given to vulgar Reports there are some advanc'd to Eminent Posts and cloath'd with lofty Characters who from Politicks peculiar to themselves have declar'd their Opinions and oracularly given forth their Decisions concerning the Question hereafter Debated as if they were Partizans of the King of Spain rather than State-Councellors and Civil Ministers of His Britannick Majesty For besides their having in their private Conversations not only question'd but aspersed the Legality and Justice of the late Vndertaking of the Scots at Darien they are by their Friends as well as by their Enemies represented to have given both Encouragement unto aud to have bestowed liberal Rewards upon the unmannerly little and despicable Writer of the Defence of the Scots Abdicating Darien In which scurrilous Pamphlet there are not only those intollerable Invectives against the whole Kingdom of Scotland as well as against the Directors of their Indian and African Company that are more calulated to exasperate that Nation and to run them into disloyalty than any ways adapted to allay their Resentments and to quench their intemperate Heats under that misfortune but there are likewise such insolent assertions and those bottom'd upon Brutal Ignorance in relation to the Legitimacy of the Design to have Setled upon the Isthmus of America that no Spaniard wou'd have had either the effrontery or the ill breeding to have utter'd them For as if it were not enough for the Mercinary Scribler to assume the impudence of affirming that the Motives upon which the Proclamations were emitted in the English West-India Colonies forbidding the Supplying Relieving and Assisting the Scots at Darien or in any parts of America where they should Settle was because the Government of England would not be accessary to an Act which the World might judge to be Felonious p. 4. of his Epist. Dedicat. he takes the boldness to add afterwards in Terms that are most slanderous as well as defamatory p. 7. of the same Epistle that their attempt of Planting on the Isthmus was the Setling a Colony in another Man's Dominions unless by vertue of their Presbyterian Tenet of Dominions being founded in Grace the Scots who are the presumptive Elect pretend a Divine Right to the Goods of the Wicked and so take upon them to cloath the Councellors of their Colony with such another Commission as God gave the Hebrews when they departed out of Egypt Which Language tho' agreeable to the Education Manners Politicks and Inferior Stations of Harris and D 1 to have been the one the Belcher and the other the Voucher of yet it cannot miss being esteemed extremely odd and incongruous that a Person who is not only a Schollar a Gentleman but a Minister of State should be reputed to have both authorized the reproachful Falshood and to have paid liberaly for the inventing and divulging of it But the forwardness express'd by one in an Honourable Office and as is commonly said with Raptures of Joy in the speedy Communication to the Spanish Ambassador that the Scots had abandonn'd Darien would seem not only to insinuate his being possess'd with a greater Picque against the Kingdom of Scotland omitting at present all those further Instances that give evidence of it which occur numerously enough both in the foremention'd Pamphlet and in that other Stil'd The Defence of the Scots Settlement at Darien Answer'd which are Publish'd under the Safeguard of his Countenance as well as Vented and Sold with his Connivance than is reconcileable with the Duty of one in his Post under a Prince who is no less King and Soveraign of that Nation than he is of England but it doth also intimate a warmer concern for the Interest of the Catholick King and for the having his desires and the wishes of his Subjects complied with and gratified than was either prudential for an English Secretary of State or correspondent to the Zeal which a Person in his Station ought to have had for the Success and Prosperity of all and of every one of his Masters People in their Vndertakings to have rendred himself obnoxious to the being charged with Not to add how little and mean it was in it self and what aversion from and disaffection it proclaimed against the Scots to have affected the Pleasure and coveted the Glory of being the first Author and Conveyer of that News to the forementioned Ambassador Especially when transmitted to himself upon no surer Intelligence than that such a Report being arrived at Jamaica the Tydings thereof were dispatch'd hither by one who might be suspected the more credulous in believing it because it was that which out of Enmity to the Caledonian Colony he earnestly longed for and desired Nor is it without a Pointed tho' but tacit Reflection upon a certain Gentleman's Conduct in this Matter that the Writer of the Paris Gazette of Nov. 14. hath inserted in the Paragraph from Madrid of October 22. That il arriva ici le 14 â—n Courier extraordinaire des pesche de Londres par le Marquis de Canales Ambassadeur d'Espagne en Angleterre avec s'avis de l'abandonement de le Colonie de Darien qui avoit este receu par un des Secretaires d'Estat Communique a cet Ambassadeur There had on the 14th an extraordinary Courier come thither from the Marquis of Canales the Spanish Ambassador in England wish News of the abandoning the Colony at Darien which one of the Secretaries of State having received had Communicated to the said Ambassador But there having been a Message delivered since by the same English Minister to the said Foreign
the beginning and promoting of a Foreign Trade Which as they had a Righ and an Inherent and Legal Power to do so they shew'd themselves extreamly Wise and Prudential in opposing and defeating that part of the Scots Projection Seeing shou'd such a Liberty have been either allowed or connived at in the Subjects of England much of that Treasure which is employ'd in their own Traffick and Commerce and especially to the Indies might have been put into the Scots Bank upon the Prospect and Motive of the Profit that would thereby accrue unto them thro' the many Privileges and great Immunities which were granted unto the Scots Company for and during the Term of 22 Years Nor doth he shew himself very prudent in Reflecting so severely as he doth upon the Behaviour of the Scots towards King Charles I. in that the English themselves were not only as Disloyal as they but both tempted them unto and rewarded them for it Seeing besides their Troops being paid with English Money not a few of their Leading Men better'd their Fortunes at the expence of this Kingdom by their being the Fomenters of the first War as well as for being the Instruments of Scotland's joyning to support the Parliament against the King afterwards And whensoever it is seasonable it can be demonstrated from Authentic Memoirs and such as deserve to be Credited that the Scots had neither Marched into England Anno 1638 nor in 1643 had they not been universally Courted and divers Persons of the first Rank bribed thereunto It being undeniable that the Ship-Money and the long Intermission of Parliaments in England influenced such as in that Kingdom were stil'd Patriots which whether they were or not I do not enquire to tempt and draw in the Scots to that bloody and infamous War whereas without Encouragements that I am not willing to Name from them the Scots would have upon no Resentments of their own have run into it how Bigotted soever some of their Clergy might at that time have been And as the Rebellious part fell equally to the share of both the Nations so the Treacherous share both towards God and Man doth distinguingly affect England in that instead of making that King a Glorious Prince as they both Swore and Stipulated provided those things were redressed which had been complained of as amiss in the Administration they not only rejected the Concessions which he made that were more than a wise People would have demanded but they Murder'd him Neither was the Number of those in England who persever'd in their Allegiance to that King and suffer'd with him and for him greater and more numerous in proportion to the People of the one Kingdom and the other then they were who asserted his Interest in Scotland to their Ruine Nor can I imagine for what End that Author recalls those things which ought to be for ever forgotten in such approbrious and aspersive Terms unless it be to fasten an Ignominy and a Reproach upon what hath been since transacted against another Prince tho' not carry'd to the height of the Original Yea were not that Author prodigiously silly and altogether unfit for the Province which he undertook he would not upbraid him whom he pretends to Answer for having shew'd both Vanity and want of Judgment because of his having only said That Scotland turned the Ballance in the late Revolution Whereas it is as Demonstrable as any Problem in Euclid that if the Kingdom of Scotland had Vnanimously Declar'd against the Abdication considering the many thousands in England who in the justifying thereof would have been ready to have seconded them but that both the War in Ireland and that upon the Continent would have been carry'd on with more difficulty than they were and probably have terminated more unfortunately and with less honour than they did Nor is it to be thought impossible but that upon such a Declaration the Scots might have obtained those Terms with reference to their Laws Liberties Privileges and Religion from King James and those so secured from Repeal and Alteration as that they might have been as happy as either at present they are or have reason to hope to be hereafter For however impossible it was as our Author rightly accounts it for the Scots to have remain'd Neutral at the time of the Revolution considering the Party within their Bowels that was headed by Dundee yet all Men who have not lost their Vnderstandings must needs acknowledge that they might at that juncture have taken other Measures than they did Nor can this Writer be any ways thought a Politician who seeks to represent it as a thing too ridiculous to be imagin'd That England could be render'd obnoxious to Dangers thro' the Scots running into a Conjunction with France For tho' I do esteem him a very ill Man that wisheth it yet I cannot avoid reckoning him strangely unacquainted with the State and Ballance of Europe that doth not foresee how mischievous the Vnion of these two Nations together might prove to this Kingdom notwithstanding both its own great Opulency and Power and its having the Dutch for its Allies Of whose wonderful Friendship our East-India Company hath had a late Experiment thro' the Holanders both supplanting them in effect in their whole East-India Trade and in the getting them to be disgracefull Insulted by the Ministers and Officers of the Mogul For whereas that Monarch being provoked by the Hostilities of European Pirates would admit no Europeans to Traffick in his Dominions without their becoming obliged to cover all his Ships and those of Subjects from those Robbers The Dutch in the vertue of Bribes seasonably bestowed have procur'd the protection of the vast Ocean Southward of Surat to be devolv'd upon the English the performance whereof is altogether impracticable especially if the Suborners thereunto should not only Countenance the Piracy of others but think it convenient in order and subserviency to their Interest to practice it on these Seas themselves while the whole which the Dutch have thought fit to charge themselves with is to protect the Commerce to Mocca in the Vndertaking whereof they have also a Prospect of acquiring other advantages over the English But to return to the Author of whose Performances I have been suggesting my Thoughts Would either my Temper or my Principles allow me to judge of another's Desires by Consequences deducible from hasty and unwary Expressions I should be apt to suspect that the Gentleman would be glad to see the Experiment of the one and the other that have been mentioned Whereas I do heartily pray that neither the Scots may be so Traiterous as to be guilty of the first not the English brought into the Circumstances of being expos'd to the trial of the second All that I shall further subjoyn for preparing the Reader to the perusal of the following Discourse is briefly to let him know that I do reckon what will be there met with to be no less either Needful or Seasonable
in the Vertue whereof these things became practicable and have been accomplished For I do reckon there is nothing more demonstrable than that the French King is chiefly indebted to the Profits and Emoluments which have arisen by Manufacture and Trade for all that during the late War he hath been enabled to do both offensively and defensively And while others do amuse and triflingly employ themselves and impertinently and uselessly squander away their time in loading their Memories with naked and insignificant accounts and Memoirs of the Military Facts of that Monarch and of those Confederated against him which were transacted here and there during the late bloody expensive and tedious War I am not ashamed to declare my self one who am rather willing to enquire into represent and to recommend the Springs Originals and Foundations upon which that Potentate was in a condition to support and manage so long a War with so much Reputation to himself and safety to his Territories and People And I do presume to affirm that the main Sources and fundamental means hereof were his former acquisition of Wealth and a continued accession and accruement of new Treasure by Manufacture and Trade It being thereby alone that so large a Quota and Portion of the Gold and Silver dug out of the Spanish Mines of America and of what of the former is gathered in Africa hath either by shorter and more expeditious steps or after longer and wider strides flowed into France and thereupon in the Course of Circulation there hath come at last to be so plentifully lodged in that Princes Exchequer So that it is into Trade and the product thereof that we are principally to resolve the French King 's having been not only able during the last War to cover and protect himself from dishonour and his Kingdom from Ravage and Impoverishment by the irruption of the Troops of the Allies into his Provinces their destruction of his Cities and Towns or the pillaging of his Subjects to a measure and degree that countervailed the attempting and executing any thing of that kind but his having been victorious in several Battles successful in the Conquest of divers strong Holds and Fortifyed places that were thought by some to be impregnable and the rendring himself Master of large and rich Provinces whose Situation and Remoteness were thought Sufficient to have covered them from being insulted and much more to have made it impossible to have subdued them and all this against such a plurality of Confederate Allies and the greatest strongest most numerous and best disciplined united Forces that were ever known in this part of the World to have cemented and Joyned against One Prince and single Kingdom Now I have the more particularly mentioned this not that any should thereby be provoked to complain of or to blame that Monarch because of his employing his Princely solicitude for and exercising his Royal Authority over his People in commanding as well as encouraging their application unto Manufacture and Trade but that his example may be both a Pattern and a motive unto every Nation to enter upon and to pursue the same ways and methods that is any wise qualified for and capable of doing it And especially that they would engage therein with zeal and Industry unto whom upon the advantages which will redound and accrue to him thro' his Subjects improving in Manufactures and in the enlargement and encrease of their Traffick he may be reason of his Neighbourhood become hereafter a more dreadful Enemy than ever he yet was For tho' neither our uneasiness upon the aforementioned Account for the present nor our too Just fears of what may overtake and befall us in time to come can Justify either our being offended with or our speaking undecently of the French King but will only betray and discover our Folly Ill nature and want of Breeding yet it will both become the Wisdom and prove the Interest of the People of England whom He is about Rivalling in Commerce as well as in Naval strength to make it more their care and endeavours to exceed him in each of those And it is and will be every day more and more the great concern of the Scots to emulate and imitate him in these particulars as far and as much as they can And were He at present in actual Hostility with us as who knows how soon he may be yet fas est ab hoste doceri it is both Lawful and commendable to submit to learn of an Enemy and to suffer our selves to be taught by him Nor can it Justly administer offence to any honest and prudent Englishman if I take the Liberty hereupon to subjoyn in a few words that the more the French do cultivate and promote Manufacture and Traffick for which neither his Majesty nor the Parliament of England can righteously quarrel with them nor can attempt to disturb or to obstruct them in their Commerce without some previous Infraction on their part of the Treaty of Reswick The more it should be the Princely care of the King of Great Britain and the sedulous and prudential Study and endeavour of an English Parliament and People that the Scots who being under the same Prince that they are and thereupon so Confederated and linked together as to have the same Friends and Enemies may both have the Advice Councel and Countenance of England to encourage them unto and the Aid and Assistance of their Treasure and Strength and Power to uphold and protect them in Trade For seeing Traffick is the Spring and Fountain of Wealth and that Nations encrease in Riches in proportion to the Kind and Degrees of their Manufacture and the Quality and Extent of their Commerce It naturally followeth that it is both the Interest and Duty of these Kingdoms mutually to further and support one another who being Subjects under one and the same Soveraign are knit and united together by a stronger Cement and by more firm and indissoluble Tyes than Countries under distinct and different Princes are capable of being made by Alliances and Leagues how publickly soever contracted and stipulated and solemnly ratified and confirmed Nor will it I suppose be denyed but that according to the Share which England and Scotland shall acquire and obtain of the Trade of the World the Less will fall to the Portion of the French and the Less vent they will have as well every where for their own Natural and Artificial productions as for what they do Import from Foreign and remote places Nor can it be reasonably contradicted but that Scotland hath been expos'd and stood liable to many Inconveniences and Prejudices by it's having so long and greatly neglected Manufacture and Trade as it hath imprudently and supinely done And had not they of that Nation given undeniable proofs in divers other ways and Instances of their being a Sagacious and Wise and a Laborious and Industrious people such of some other Kingdoms who assume a great Licentiousness in rallying
appeareth from the whole which hath been hitherto said how much the Scots have of late discovered their Wisdom and Prudence and how highly their care and zeal are to be Commended in their having made an Essay and a Beginning for the encouragement and enlargement of Manufacture at home and towards the erection and establishment of a Colony abroad and by that Foundation which they have laid for the settlement and advancement of Trade And this unquestionably they have a plenary right to do as they are a Free and Independant Nation without asking the leave or demanding the concurrence of any Rulers and Countries whatsoever provided they be Countenanced and Authorised thereunto by their own King and that they do nothing therein which is inconsistent with the Laws of Nations nor attempt the settling in any Districts or Provinces from which they stand prohibited and excluded by publick and solemn Stipulations between him that now is their Sovereign or those that have been so formerly and other States Princes and Potentates For that Scotland dependeth upon or is a Province Subordinate to any other Nation and Subjected to the Ordinances Constitutions and Municipal Statutes thereof I suppose none will betray the Ignorance or have the Effrontery to affirm It being a Kingdom that holdeth of none Save of God for their Title unto and Possession of their Country and of their own Swords under his providential Blessing and Aid for the Maintaining and Defending of them For tho' there be a very near and close Conjunction and Union between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland thro' their being under one and the same King rather than in the virtue and force of mutual Contracts and Alliances which I do heartily wish may always continue and that all the secret Caballings and Clandestine endeavours of those may prove abortive unprosperous and miscarry who either from Ancient Piques personal Moroseness Envy and ill Nature or upon any other Motives Prospects and Designs whatsoever shall seek to weaken interrupt and especially to dissolve it Yet England doth not Challenge and lay Claim to the having any Authority over Scotland nor pretend to an Imposing of their own Laws upon that Nation or to a Supervising of such Parliamentary Bills as are prepared and formed there in order to the being Enacted into Statutes But the Scots are absolute within themselves and vested with a Power underived from any Nation and in the exercise whereof they are accountable unto none for the making of Laws and falling upon and pursuing all such Ways Methods and Means which are reconcilable with the Fealty and Loyalty which they owe unto their Prince that may be subservient and usefull to their own Safety and Interest And in Testimony and Evidence of their being a Free State and a Kingdom as entirely Independent upon England as upon any other Dominion whatsoever they both can and do often lay what Customs and Impositions they please upon English Productions and Commodities when carried and Imported thither to be vended and disposed of there And by a Power Inherent in themselves which England cannot reasonably dispute nor lawfully Controul they sometimes do and at all times may Inhibit and Forbid their own People the buying using and consuming such Goods as were either Manufactured in England or brought thither by the English from their Plantations and Colonies elsewhere And as in the Vertue of this independent Freedom Liberty Previlege and Right under the Authority and Power of their Kings they have at all times made legal Provision for the Government of their People at home and pursued that little Trade which they had attained unto with such Nations abroad as were in Peace and Amity with their Princes without their being questioned for or disturbed in it by any save by those that were in Hostility with their Sovereigns and that only in Seasons of actual War so they have by a fresh Exertion of this innate Freedom and inherent and independant Right lately contrived and framed a Bill which they have obtained to be passed into an Act and a Law wherein the People and Subjects of that Kingdom are empowered to erect Societies and Companies for the establishment and carrying on Trade with whatsoever Nations and Countries or Places in Asâ—â— Africa or America which are either not Inhabited or where they have the consent of the Natives and Inhabitants thereof under the Limitation and Restriction that such places are not Previously and Antecedently possessed by European Sovereigns Potentates Princes and States And moreover that they may provide and furnish the said Places Cities Towns and Forts with Magazines Ordinance Arms Weapons Ammunitions and stores of War and by force of Arms defend their Trade Navigation Colonies Cities Towns Forts and Plantations and their other Effects As likewise that it shall be Lawful for them to make Reprisals and to seek and take reparation of Damages done unto them by Sea or Land and to make and conclude Treaties of Peace and Commerce with the Sovereign Princes Estates Rulers Governours and Proprietors of the said Lands Islands Countries or Places in Africa or America In relation to which Act for authorising the Scots to establish a Foreign Trade and their being empowered to settle Plantations in the forementioned Parts of the World in order to the better gaining enlarging and protecting of it the few things which I have to offer under this head shall be briefly these Namely That as the Design of Erecting such a Trade and of Planting Colonies in the Subserviency to the Maintaining Improving and Extending thereof was not rashly and unthoughtfully Undertaken by those of that Kingdom so the Act by which in pursuance of that Projection they stand warranted to do whatsoever is before reported was not surreptitiously obtained of his Majesty nor was he by any undue Artifices misled into the Granting of it For how much foever that Nation might be desirous to have a Foreign Settlement towards the better enabling them for such a Traffick and notwithstanding they sufficiently understood it to be their great and indispensible Interest to embark Vigorously both in Manufacture and Commerce yet their unsuccessfulness heretofore in some attempts of that Nature as particularly in the Plantation of Carolina which they held of the Crown of England antecedently to the English planting there from which they became expelled by the Spaniards thro' want of that protection and of those encouragements which were necessary to the having rendred them safe and Prosperous made them proceed slowly and with great Calmness and Discretion in the Forming Digesting and Maturating what they have at last after an adjusting of all that was Prerequired thereunto put in Execution Nor could the King be Surprized into the giving his Royal Assent to the Bill for the premised establishment seeing as they who served his Majesty at that time under the Characters of Commissioner and Secretary of State were persons as entirely in his Interest and zealous for his Honour and Glory
Subscriptions in order to the raising and constituting a Fund for the setling a Colony and thereby for the promoting of Traffick for which they were allowed by the Act of Parliament from the 16 of June 1695 untill the First of August 1696 were not only Filled Compleated and Perfected long before the elapse of the time that was prefixed by the Statute But whereas it was provided that it should be held a sufficient Compliance with the design and Tenour of that Law if only half the Money that should be Subscribed towards the forming a Stock did Belong unto and were the Proper Cash of such as were Scots and did live within that Kingdom it deserveth to be observed that the whole hath been Subscribed Advanced and Paid in by such as are Scots which is not only beyond what could have been expected but may justly beget Admiration considering what in that Intrim they have been obliged to pay in Taxes for the Maintenance of Troops and what they have been necessitated to carry abroad in specie of their Cash for the purchasing grain to live upon in these late years of extraordinary Scarcity and Dearth which at the modestest Computation may be reckon'd to have exceeded Two hundred thousand pounds Sterling Nor are they meerly Persons of the Middle Rank or of the Mercantile Order that have contributed and put in their Money for the framing of a Bank in order to the foremention'd Ends but they of all Qualities and Degrees have with great liberality and cheerfulness answerable to their several Titles and Figures contributed their shares to that Capital and none with greater Alacrity and in larger Proportions than they of the Grand as well as of the Petite Nobless For none of the greatest Persons of that Kingdom have had the Folly and Pride to excuse and cover themselves from becoming Assistants to the founding and promoting of Trade by pretending it a disparagement to their Garters and Coronets and below the lofty Stiles that they have by Parchments which give them an ascendency above Gentlemen These days of Vanity and Phantasticalness are over and they of the Sublimest Rank do begin to govern themselves by principles of Reason and good Sense and by Maxims of Civil Social and Oeconomical Wisdom and not by the airy whimsical and pernicious Notions of Haughtiness and Luxury Yea even they of the Military order have such of them as were in a condition thro' having acquir'd beyond a naked subsistence during the War readily subscribed and paid in what they could and would have done it more plentifully had they receiv'd all their Arrears and such of that Tribe as were only Subordinate-Officers or private Centinels who are now reduc'd or disbanded that could not bring in Gold and Silver to the encreasing of the Fund and the augmenting of the Capital yet they have with great forwardness offer'd their Bodies and their cold Iron to the Corporation and Company for the protecting of their Traffick and the defending of their Plantation against all such as shall become their Enemies and Assailants And how dangerous soever Men of that Praedicament may be to their Country when kept in too great Numbers regimented at home and how altogether useless they are unto it while they hear Arms under Foreign Princes and States abroad yet they are as capable as any other whatsoever of being serviceable and profitable thereunto when employ'd in the Ways and Methods to which many of them have begun to betake themselves Of whom it will be no presumption nor visionary Dream to add That as they do account their Wages Salaries and Pay to be their Estates so they reckon their Swords and Musquets to be their Title unto it In brief there are few Persons Families or Orders of Men that are of any Consideration or Esteem but who are become associated united and confederated in this Project Enterprise and Design How much distant or different soever Persons are either in their Religions or their Political Principles yet herein they do all of them amicably agree and combine Neither the Bigotry of the Presbyterians nor the resentments of those of the Diocesan Perswasion for the unkind and ill treatment they have met with do in this make any variance or discord between them but herein the Wolf and the Lamb do tamely meet together and the Leopard and Kid do peaceably assemble as in one Field Nor do those great Animosities or late Hostilities which have been between one another about Rights and Claims to the Soveraign Authority and the Royal Jurisdiction occasion any misunderstanding or opposite Sentiments in this but both the Jacobites and the Williamites do shew themselves equally and alike concern'd in the promoting of a National Trade and the setling of a Foreign Colony And which is of very material consideration it deserves to be observ'd That besides what several Persons have in their private Capacities Subscribed towards that Capital not only most of all the Corporations but the Royal Burroughs of the Kingdom have become sharers therein and contributed liberally thereunto out of their Public Revenues From all which I may with great safety as well as with decency and modesty venture to lay open and infer how Mortifying Afflictive and Grievous it will be to that whole Nation to be discourag'd and frustrated of Protection from the King of whom pursuant to the Act and Patent which he hath granted them they expected to be countenanc'd animated and defended Nor dare they entertain such disrespectful and undutiful thoughts of His Majesty as the Proclamations emitted by His Governors over the English West-India Plantations might seem to give occasion and umbrage for Seeing as they have not by their setling at Darien invaded the Territories of any European Prince or State whatsoever nor have been injurious to the Natives in Planting there without their allowance and consent nor in any one particular or circumstance have exceeded the Limits and Regulations prescrib'd unto them by the Act of Parliament and the King's Charter as shall be fully and uncontroulably demonstrated in what is to follow So they have a more engraven and firm belief of His Majesty's Mercy and Justice than to give liberty unto themselves to think that His Majesty's Subjects in the West-India Plantations depending upon and subordinate to England should by an Order Command and Authority from the King be charged and required to hold no Correspondence with the Scots in their Colony at Darien nor to give them any assistance with Arms Ammunitions Provisions or any thing else whatsoever For as much as this is not only inconsistent with and irreconcilable to his Majesty's Goodness Wisdom and Righteousness but directly repugnant to the express Words Terms and Clauses of the forementioned Statute by and wherein his Majesty royally and solemnly promiseth If any of the Ships Goods Merchandize Persons or other Effects whatsoever belonging to the Scots Company trading to Africa and the Indies shall be stopt detained embezled or taken
having seriously Considered and duly Weighed whatsoever could be pretended or alledged against them upon their proceeding to establish a Colony there For the examination whereof they allowed themselves sufficient time in that tho' their Subscriptions were perfected and compleated about the beginning of the year 1696 yet they did not send their Ships from Scotland untill the Month of July 1698 which arrived not in that place until November following And as it is not only hoped but morally certain that great advantages of attaining unto Wealth Power and Honour will thereby accrue and be administred to Scotland so it might easily be Demonstrated that very considerable Benefits will infallibly Redound from thence unto England and that both in times of Peace and of War Seeing as it will be a means whereby in a short time a compendious Way and Passage for Trade to China Japan as well as to the East-Indies may be obtained and rendred secure whereby the English will become qualified and enabled not only to outdo the French who begin to Rival them in Traffick to the latter but to equal the Dutch who do at present far exceed them in it So by the conveniency of the Scots Caledonian Plantation both a great quantity more of the Manufactures of that Kingdom will come to be vented in all the East parts of the World as well as in the Spanish West-Indian Provinces and the expence made less and the returns much Speedier and Surer to and from the latter than they are or ever can be by the way of Cadiz and Malaga And as for the English Plantations in America they will not only have larger and more advantageous occasions of Trading into the Spanish American Colonies but the very Scots of the Calidonian Plantation will will take off and consume abundance of their Commodities and Productions especially theirs of New York and New England for which they will pay in Gold and in Silver and such valuable Goods as the Mines Rivers and Land of Darien do yield and furnish And should a War at any time come to be between the Kings of Great Britain and of Spain as who knoweth what may hereafter fall out Calidonia is and will in that case be found the best Situate place of any in the World from whence and by means whereof to do Hurt and Prejudice to the Spaniards and to yield service to his Britannick Majesty and give his Subjects opportunities of enriching themselves Seeing the Scots Colony there will prove to be not only Posted in the middle and bosom of the Spanish American Ports for Traffick having Carthagena on the East Porto Bèllo on the West and Panama on the South but will be found to stand Situated in the direct way and passage that their Flotas Galleons Armados and Armadilals must go and return to and from Mexico and Peru. Nor on the supposition of such a Hostility arising between these two Crowns as I have mentioned will the English meerly have a larger better and more Fortified Harbour for Ships either of War or Commerce than any of their own West India Plantations do afford But they will have one to Receive Cover and Protect them that is nearer and more adjacent by a hundred Leagues to Porto Bello and Panama than Jamaica and by above three hundred than Barbadoes which of all the English American Colonies are the least distanced from them But seeing I shall have occasion to discourse more fully hereafter of the benefits and advantages which will accrue to the Crown and Kingdom of England by the Scots having settled in Darien and how much upon that account it is both the Interest of the King and of the English Nation that they should be maintained and defended in the possession of their Plantation at Calidonia I shall therefore insist no more upon it under this Head but adjourn what is to be further represented and argued to the foregoing purpose until it will lie more naturally before me in some other Paragraph That which I am then in the next place to advance unto is to Justifie and Prove beyond all possibility of any reasonable Reply that the Scots by their establishing a Colony on the Isthmus of Darien have made no Invasion upon the Rights or Dominions and Territories of the King of Spain nor have therein Acted contrary either to the Laws of Nations or to any Articles of publick Treaties that have intervened or have been Conserted Accorded and Stipulated between the Kings of Great Britain and those of Spain 'T is true his Spanish Majesty hath by several Memorials delivered by his Ministers to his Britannick Majesty or to his Secretaries of State represented remonstrated and complained as if the Scots had thereby made an Infraction of the Peace between the Crowns were become guilty of an Insult and Attempt against his Catholick Majesty and that by settling a Plantation in that place they have posted themselves dansles Souverains le plus Interieur de ces Demaines de sa Majeste In the Soveraign and most Inward Territories of and belonging to his Spanish Majesty And as in case that the matter stood as it is represented and as the complaint doth import the blame thereof ought to be wholly and entirely imputed unto the charged upon the Governours and Directors of the Company erected for Trading to Africa and the Indies and no ways either in the Injury that is done or in the clamours and accusations which arise by and from it to affect his Britannick Majesty in his Justice Veracity and Honour so it would be both requisite and necessary on the foot of Righteousness as well as of Truth that full reparation should be made to his Catholick Majesty if the Fact of the Scots in planting on the Isthmus of Darien were disagreable to Royal and National Treaties and a forceable seisure in times of Amity and Peace of the Lands and Demains of that King Yet I hope it will not be accounted Rudeness or Insolence in me to say that it is both expected and demanded that none will discover and betray themselves to be persons of so little Prudence or Equity as upon the single credit and alone evidence of Memorials to submit unto and to suffer their being either surprised or wheedled or menaced and hectoâ—ed into a belief that the settling the aforesaid Colony in the place abovâ—â—mentioned is therefore Injurious and Criminal in the Scots and to be reckoned an Invasion upon the Sovereign Rights and the Lawful Dominions of the King of Spain meerly because it is alledged and affirmed by his Ministers and in his name to be so And I do reckon my self fully warranted in the requiring and exacting this of every man who desires to escape the censure and reproach of being Imprudent Partial and Iniquous in that it hath very often and upon frequent occasions been the custom and practice of States Princes and Potentates to remonstrate and complain of the proceedings of other Rulers Governours and Soveraigns
between the Crown of Great Britain and of Spain divers of the English Nation finding the Islands of Cateline and Tortuga unpossessed and empty of Inhabitants did thereupon seize and begin to plant Colonies on them giving to the former the name of the Island of Providence and to the latter the name of the Island of Association And which they continuing to inhabit and occupy after the establishment of the Peace betwixt his Britannick Majesty and the Catholick King Anno 1630. the Spaniards became thereat offended not only because of its being an extending and an enlargement of English Settlements in America but by reason of the nearness of those Islands to the Spanish West-India Colonies particularly to those of Cuba and Hispaniola and accordingly complained thereof to King Charles the First by their Ambassador who tho' he was a Prince both of those Morals and Politicks that he would not countenance the least thing that was unjust and Illegal towards and against any and much less in relation to Soveraigns and Potentates with whom he was in Leagues and Alliances nevertheless he gave in Answer to the said Complaint that his Subjects having found those Islands both unpossessed by the Spaniards and uninhabited by any other people whatsoever had thereupon by the Laws of Nature as well as of Nations a Liberty and Right to sit down and to plant there And that they ought not to be therein Obstructed or hindred either because of Jealousies which the Spaniards might entertain on the foot of those Islands being so adjacent to their Territories or by reason of any apprehensions they might have that English Colonies there would prove afterwards inconvenient and prejudicial unto them In which Answer the Spaniards were so far forced to acquiesce at that time as not to reckon that Fact of his Britannick Majesty's Subjects to be any Infraction of Alliances or a Rupture of the Peace Tho' I must withall add that upon the arising of misunderstandings between King Charles the First and his People of England and upon his Subjects of Scotland running into Rebellion the Spaniards made those advantages of our quarrelling here at home among our selves as to assault the English in both the forementioned Islands and were therein so successful as first to drive them out of Tortuga Anno 1634. and afterwards out of Cateline Anno 1640. In the attempt whereof as they acted against all the measures of Law and Justice and to the highest degrees of cruelty and barbarity in the execution of it so it is too well known upon whom both the blame and Infamy are to be charged that those Invasions of the Spaniards upon the Rights Properties and Possessions of the English were not Revenged as they deserved and as they undoubtedly would have been had not King Charles been diverted and hinder'd from it by the unhappy differences which sprung up between him and his People Having then done what I hope will be judged sufficient to obviate and prevent all misconstructions and sinistrous thoughts which might otherwise have risen in the minds of any by reason of the late Memorial presented to his Majesty I do reckon that I have thereby paved my way towards an examination of the Fact of the Scots Company in their setling at Darien whether it ought to be accounted illegal and unjust contrary to the Laws of Nature and of Nations and to interfer with solemn Regal Stipulations or whether it may be esteemed Lawful Righteous and Agreeable to all the rules and measures of Wisdom Amity and Justice as that I may now apply and address my self directly and closely to it without finding the forementioned Remonstrances to remain an Impediment and obstruction in my way And as an Introduction thereunto I cannot but both acknowledge and commend the Fair Honourable and Friendly proceedure of the Catholick King in that he hath by Memorials given in to his Britannick Majesty chosen to assert his pretensions and rights in an Amicable way and so affords an opportunity that the whole World may be satisfied on the Foot and Topicks of Reason Custom and Law that neither the Act and Patent which the King of Great Britain hath granted to his Subjects in Scotland are any ways either disagreeable to Treaties with Spain or dissonant from the received Maxims of Equity and Justice by which States and Princes do govern themselves in their Publick and Political actions towards one and other Nor that the Scots Company have either exceeded the limits prescribed unto them in the Statute and Charter by which they are authorized to Trade to Africa and the Indies and to establish Colonies and Plantations there or that they have done any thing prejudicial unto and Invasive upon the Rights of Spain For hereby instead of putting the decision of this great and important affair upon the Strength Power and Success of Arms and the verdict that should result from Hostility and War it is placed on the amicable foundation of Reason Alliances and Laws and made adjudgeable in the Cabinets and at the Councel Boards of Princes and not immediately referred to a determination by Fleets and Armies on the Ocean and Continent And therefore that this matter may be set and represented in the best and clearest light for an amicable adjustment and composure of it between his Brittanick Majesty and the King of Spain I shall in order thereunto propose and lay down some things in the way of so many Premises which which shall carry that intrinsick certainty and evidence in them as to resemble and be of the Nature of Postulata in Mathematicks and which shall be found as undeniable principles in a discourse that is relative unto and concerning right of property in a Country as the other are acknowledged by all men to be in Geometry Whereof the first is this namely that the Original most Ancient and that which is by all Civilians confessed to be the ground and foundation of the uncontrovertible Title and Right of any people to this or that Country is their having been the Primitive Occupiers and Possessors of it Quod enim est Nullius per occupationem acquiritur ejus Dominium say all Civilians For while the greatest or any part of the World lay wholly Void and Vninhabited and for the Occupation whereof no formal Division had intervened and been agreed upon by those who emitted Colonies for the possessing and planting such and such parts of the Earth assigning to every one of those Colonies there several and respective partitions and districts in that case the right of Title unto and of Property in such a Country and place became primi possidentis his or theirs who were the first occupiers thereof 'T is taken for a dictate of Nature and is that which the Universal reason of Mankind conducted them unto in the first and separated division which was made of this habitable World so far as it was void and uninhabited Vt quod quisque occupasset id proprium haberet
been conversant in Geography or Histories be ignorant of this matter whereof all the Accounts and Narratives which we have of those three parts of the World do so fully and particularly instruct us Neither ought we to think it strange that this should be the form model and manner of Government on the foresaid Isthmus and that the boundaries of supreme Authority and Jurisdiction there should be so narrowly limited confin'd and circumscrib'd if we do but allow our selves to observe how that there is the same Species of Rule and Domination both as to quality and extent to be every where found and met with in Brasile Chili Paragua Florida Carolina Virginia Malabar and the Country which is call'd The Land of the Amazons of which it is particularly remarkable that there are above Fifty different Indian Nations or distinct and independant Septs on the banks of the River that is so call'd Nor was the like heretofore altogether unusual and unexemplify'd in the European parts of the World whereof the several and distinct supreme Principalities of the ancient Britains in England where in Julius Caesar's time there were no fewer than four distinct Kings in Kent alone namely Cingetorix Carvilius Taximagulus and Segonax or as Cambden calls them Reguli vel melioris Notae Nobiles Captains or Persons distinguish'd from the Vulgar by their Power and Figure and whose Territories could not be much larger if of that extent as the Districts of the several Caciques on the Isthmus of Darien are And the like may be said only allowing them greater dimensions of Territory of the Saxons during the Heptarchy afterwards in the same Country as well as of the Scots and Picts in the ancient Caledonia Yea and the distinct and different Soveraignties which were in Spain it self not only both before and after it was a Roman Province but even until less than within these two last Centuries As Leon Arragon Navarre Castile and Portugal under which the Christians in Spain were divided and those of Cordova Sivil Malaga Granada and others under the power of the Moors not to speak of the several independent and absolute Jurisdictions which are at this day both in Italy and some other places do abundantly confirm the same And were not the Bible a Book that some men are little conversant in they would not think it a Banter to have those stiled Independent Absolute and Soveraign Rulers whose Territories are circumscribed and confined within strait and narrow limits Seeing besides many Instances of that kind which are to be met with in divers places of the Sacred History they would find that Joshua subdued no fewer than 31 Kings in Canaan when he conquered the Land in order to settle the People of Israel in it tho' that Country was not much larger in the whole extent and circumference of it than some single Counties of England are not to add that as there were several Kings more whom he did neither drive out nor destroy so most of the primitive Governments of the World were of that sort constitution and complexion But to what hath been already said and represented under this head there is further to be added that whatsoever Possessions the Spaniards have obtained in that American Strait whether thro' their having conquered any of the Caciques that had their Jurisdictions there or by their having contracted Alliances with those Indian Governours and by Agreements with them and the Natives acquired a Liberty to sit down plant and to erect Colonies within the limits and bounds of their little Territories and Principalities or how much soever they may have encroached upon any of these Captains whom they have not wholly subdued and wrested part of their Lands and Jurisdictions from them yet there are still divers of these Caciques over the Native Indians who as neither they their People nor their Territories were ever conquer'd by the Spaniards so they never enter'd into Agreements and Contracts with them nor have at any time granted liberty unto them to settle within the Precincts of their Lands Inheritances and Demesnes but have at all times been in terms of Variance and Hostility with them and for the most part in a state and condition of actual War So that at least within the Boundaries and Jurisdictions of such Indian Governors the Spaniards have no just or legal pretence of Property and Dominion For how weak and mean soever those Natives and their Rulers may be esteemed and represented yet that doth no ways alter the case or any ways enfeeble their right unto and their authority over their own Principalities but they do retain an equal Claim and Title unto and Property in what was anciently and originally theirs and what they have defended from the Invasion and Usurpation of the Spaniards as if their Dominions were as large and their Might and Power as great as those of His Britannick Majesty's are The little Republic of Geneva hath as good right in Law to a Propriety in what they have immemorially possess'd as the Great Monarch of France hath unto the vast and powerful Dominions over which he is Hereditarily King and Soveraign Yea they of San Marino in Italy are no less absolute and independent Proprietors and Governors in and over that poor and despicable Hamlet and Dorp than those who go by the Stile of High and Mighty are over the Dutch Provinces in reference to those Things Matters and Ends for which they became United and Confederated Nor is the Duke of Mirandola whose Territories do not extend themselves to three Italian Miles less absolute and independent over his own small Principality than the Emperor of Germany is with respect of his Austrian and Hereditary Countries For according to the Laws of Nature and of Nations the point of Right and Property is the same in the Poor that it is in the Rich and in the Weak that it is in the Strong And how impotent and contemptible soever those unsubdu'd Caciques on the Isthmus of Darien are in comparison of His Catholick Majesty yet it is enough to justifie their Propriety and Authority in and over what they possess that the Spaniards have not by all their Power and Might been hitherto able to disseize subdue or drive them out but that all along since the Castilians first descended upon the Isthmus and occupy'd several places within that Streight of Darien they have been in a condition either singly by the forces of some one or other of them alone or conjunctively by uniting and joyning their several and respective Powers together to cover protect and defend themselves their Territories and Jurisdictions from being so Invaded as to be over-run and subdued Nor is the extent and dimensions of the Land and Territory so scanty and small or the number of those Captains or their People so few in which and over whom the Spanâ—â—ards have not hitherto been able to obtain Possession and Authority as some who do not give themselves leave to think
Araba and Bonary which are not far distant from that and had also planted in the Island Tabago until driven thence by the French Anno 1677 during the time of that War which commenc'd 1672 between France and Holland By all which many and various Instances of divers European Nations settling within those Provinces Islands and Places of America which they found unoccupy'd by any other European Princes or States and whereof several more examples might be assign'd but that it is needless and would be superfluous of other Potentates and Republics in Europe that have done the like notwithstanding any Claim of Property Right and Title which the Spaniards pretend to have in and unto them and which they have with great confidence heretofore asserted tho' without any foundation either in Reason or Law I say that I hope it will indisputably appear by these Instances and Examples that what the Scots have lately done in the establishing a Colony with the consent of the Natives at Acla on the Isthmus of Darien which was a place never possess'd nor occupy'd by the Spaniards is according to the same measures of Equity and Justice undeniably lawful and demonstratively justifiable and that all who are impartial and unprejudic'd will acknowledge it to be so And whatsoever hath been said in defence and justification of any European Nation 's having a right to settle in such parts of America as were never occupy'd and possess'd by the Spaniards it is of equal validity and force to authorize and warrant the sitting down and planting in any place or places there that may heretofore have been possessed by the Spaniards but which they have since voluntarily relinquish'd as they are known to have done in the abandoning several places both on the Continent and in the Islands of America where they had formerly settled and establish'd Colonies as well as in their forsaking Nombre de Dios and a Plantation which they once had on the River Darien which they left and withdrew from after that they became possessed of Porto Bello and Carthagena For tho' it hath been always acknowledg'd as being grounded upon the Laws of Nature and Nations that they who are the original lawful and uncontroverted Possessors of a Country or Land and have been once in the occupation of it by acts of the Body may and do retain a Right and Title unto it by acts of the Mind after their having Corporally forsaken and left it yet it is far otherwise with respect to a People who are come into a Country not only as Aliens and Strangers but as Invaders and Vsurpers which is the case of the Spaniards in relation to those places on the Isthmus of Darien as well as elsewhere in America where they had at any time heretofore set down and planted but have since departed and withdrawn For being neither the primitive Inhabitants nor having settled there with the leave and consent of the Natives they can stand no otherwise entit'led to any right in and over those places than as they have the actual possession and are Occupiers in Fact Seeing as their forceable and violent entrance into and their sitting down in them by and in the meer vertue of Power and Strength neither did nor could defeat and extinguish the right of those that had been the Indigenae and original Inhabitants so immediately upon their withdrawing from and their relinquishing of those places the Title of the Natives unto them doth revive and take place and becomes again as effectual both for the justifying their own Re-assumption and Re-occupation of them and for their granting a liberty freedom and right to any other Foreigners to settle in those places as shall come among them and desire it as if they had never been at any time either disseized or driven from or disquieted interrupted and rendred unsafe in their occupation of them And how easy were it to multiply Examples and Instances even in Europe where they of one Nation having by Violence obtained Possession of some of the Cities Towns Lands and Territories of another so as either directly to expel and drive away those who had been the Rightful Inhabitants and Proprietors or to beget that fear in them as to cause them to chuse of themselves either to depart and fly from their Possessions in order to escape the rage of those that had invaded them than by continuing in their legal inheritances to become exposed to the Lustful Pleasure and cruelty of their Enemies Yet no man ever thought that the Title of such who upon the foregoing Motive had abandoned or who in the forementioned manner had been thrust out and forced away became thereby Annulled and Extinguished But all do confess and the practice hath been every where and at all times accordingly that upon the withdrawment and departure of them who had been the Invaders and Usurpers the other might in the virtue of their Antecedent and Ancient Title reasume the possession of what they had been either driven from or had abandoned But not to trouble my Readers with Memoirs of that Nature relating to Europe I shall at once evidence and confirm what I have said by two Instances whereof the First shall be in reference to a Country upon the continent of America that was once in the Possession of another European Power than that of Spain and the Second shall be concerning a noted Island in the West-Indies that was heretofore possessed by the Spaniards but both which are now in the rightful occupation of the English The former in brief is this Namely that the French in the Reign of Charles the Ninth and by his Authority as well as by his encouragement having in the Year 1569 Transported 1200 Families together with 300 Soldiers to the Northern part of Florida and having there established a Colony between 32 and 33 degrees N. Lat. which after that Kings name they stiled Carolina but who upon their treating the Natives injuriously and thro' their having settled at places so remote and distant from one another that the dispersed and scattred Planters could neither give nor receive mutual Relief nor Support were in the Year 1573 assaulted and all cut off by the Indians save one Monsieur Chaplain and about 35 more who got timely into a small Ship that lay close by a Fort and therein escaped to the Island Anticosty in the mouth of the River Canada yet that notwithstanding of the settlement there of the French and their having been once possessed of that place the English are now gotten into Possession of it and have erected there a Noble and Flourishing Colony the propriety whereof was in the Year 1661 granted by Charles the Second King of England to several men of Quality and their Associates and whereof the French have never complained as of a wrong and Injustice done unto them And indeed they are a wiser People than to be guilty of so great an Absurdity and they do very well know that such a
and terms as are agreed upon and expressed By neither of which are the Kings of Great Britain or their Subjects shut out debarred or excluded from Sayling into such Ports Havens and places of America and setthing Plantations any where there as either are not inhabited or where the King of Spain is not in possession and occupation But to set this matter yet further in such a clear and distinct light as that they who are the most Prepossessed and Prejudiced may see and be oblig'd to confess that the Scots have proceeded in the whole affair of their Calidonian Settlement and Plantation both according to the measures of Law Justice and Equity and with a full deference and respect unto and an entire compliance with the Articles of the publick Treaties and particularly of that of 1670 I shall call over the Heads of some of the Articles of that Treaty and make those reflection upon them which they do Naturally suggest and offer Whereas then it is Stipulated agreed and provided by the Second Article that there shall be a Firm and Vniversal Peace in America as well as in other parts of the World between the Kings of Great Britain and Spain and between the Kingdoms States Plantations Colonies Forts Cities and Dominions which do belong to either of them and between the People and Inhabitants under their respective Obedience it doth from thence undeniably appear that as both the Kings were set upon an equal foot and did treat for themselves and for the people and Inhabitants that were under their respective Obedience and no further nor for any other so it is from thence no less evident that all matters and things were left untouched and undetermined that did concern and relate unto such places and parts of America as were either wholly void and not at all Inhabited or that were inhabited only by the Native Indians which as that part of the Isthmus of Darien was where the Scots have Landed and are now begun to settle so it doth in the way of necessary consequence from thence undeniably follow that by the said Article it remained Free and Lawful either for them or for any other of his Britannick Majesty's Subjects so to do and therefore that there neither is nor can thereby any Violation or Infraction be made of the Alliances between the Crowns of Great Britain and of Spain For in that the Right Titles and Claims of the Kings of Great Britain and Spain are defined by and circumscribed unto such Regions Territories Plantations Colonies c. as do severally and respectively belong to either of them it is thereby made uncontrolably Manifest that neither of them by that Treaty had any Rights and Claims granted and allowed unto them in reference to any places in America further than as they were possessed of them and save as those places were in and under their actual occupation And consequently that by the chief purport and design and by the whole Tenor of the Treaty it was left free for each or either of them to make new acquisitions and to establish new Plantations in such parts and places of the West-Indies whether upon the Continent or in Islands as were inhabited by the subjects of neither of the two Kings but were either as I have said wholly void or possessed by the Native Indians Moreover whereas it is Covenanted adjusted and provided by the Eighth Article that the subjects of their Britannick Majesties shall not Sail into nor Trade in such Ports Havens c. as do belong unto the Catholick King unless with leave and upon the terms which are there specified it doth from thence evidently and unquestionably follow that they are left at liberty to Sail into and Trade in such other Ports and Places as are not the King of Spain's And therefore that the Port into which the Scots Sailed and where they are establishing a Colony being neither then nor having been at any time since in the possession of the Spaniards they are in their having so done altogether unaccusable of the being guilty of any crime or misdemeanor or of having in the least transgressed against publick and solemn Treaties Further whereas it is concerted and agreed by the same Article that the Subjects of the King of England should not Sail into any Ports or Havens that had Fortifications Magazins or Warehouses possessed by the King of Spain it may from thence be Apodictically Inferred and Concluded that it continued Free and Lawful for them to Sail into Ports and to Trade where there were no Fortifications Magazins nor Warehouses at all and much less any appertaining unto or in the Possession of the King of Spain Both which being unquestionable with reference to Acla and the Creeks Ports Harbours and Places adjacent thereunto it may thereupon be Justly affirmed and solidly concluded that neither the Scots nor any other of his Britannick Majesty's Subjects were by that Treaty precluded and debarred from Landing Trading and Settling there and that the Scots thro' their having sit down and become Planters in that place are altogether innocent of the Infraction of any such Alliances Moreover whereas it is agreed and provided by the tenth Article that in case the Ships that do belong to either of those Kings or to the Subjects of either of them shall by stress of Weather or otherwise be forced into the Rivers Creeks Bays or Ports belonging to the other in America that thereupon they shall be received kindly harbour safely and be treated with all Humanity and Friendship it may from thence be inferred and deduced that as both the Kings are thereby stated upon an equal bottom and foot and the rights of both and of each of them respectively are restricted and determined to particular Rivers Creeks Bays c. so it is also thereby mutually confessed and acknowledged that there are other and of all those several Kinds in which neither of them have any Property Interest or Concernment and that it might be free for the Ships of either of them to Sail into such and there to Anchor and to furnish themselves with what they wanted and the places afforded and to continue there during their own Pleasure and to do in such places whatsoever they should judge to be for their Advantage and Interest without incurring the imputation of being accounted injurious to one another or of becoming liable to a charge and complaint against them of having Violated Alliances And by consequence that the Port Acla being such the Scots might Sail thither land and settle there without either asking leave of the Spaniards or of becoming thereupon censurable by them of having therein done any thing that is either against the Laws of Nations or an Infraction of Alliances and Treaties between the Crowns of Great Britain and Spain Again whereas it is Concerted and Stipulated in the Fifteenth Article that Nothing in the said Treaty shall derogate from any Preheminence Right and Dominion of any of the Confederates in
the American Seas Channels or Waters but that they shall have and retain the same in as full and ample manner as may of right belong to them with and under the provision that Navigation shall not be disturb'd I desire in reference to that Article that it may be observ'd how tho' the Crown of Spain having made a claim of Privilege Pre-eminence and Jurisdiction in and over the American-Seas which was no ways granted and yielded unto them by the Crown of England but the right in and over those Seas left in the same state that it was before yet neither in that Article nor in any other of the said Treaty is there any claim of Jurisdiction Soveraignty or Dominion made by the Spaniards either over such parts of the Continent or of Islands whereof neither they themselves were possess'd nor a right of Property and Dominion in and over them had been claimed by and granted to the English of which omission of the Spaniards there can be no other reason assign'd but that they knew no claim of that Nature would have been allow'd them and that the very mentioning of it would have occasion'd a formal explicite and stipulated Reduction and Restriction of the pretensions of Title and Right in America to the bounds and limits of what is actually occupy'd by them which they were not willing to have decided and determin'd by an express Contract and Stipulation to the making and rectifying whereof there was their own concurrence and consent Tho' in Fact no Nation will grant them a right of Property and Jurisdiction in and over more nor have any European Princes whatsoever hitherto done it I do the rather make this observation in that a Claim of Jurisdiction and Soveraignty over Seas and Oceans is more liable to exceptions than a claim of Dominion over Lands either upon Continents or Islands in that it is universally granted that Princes are capable of having their several just supreme and divided Properties in and over Lands and withal as generally deny'd that any Potentate whatsoever can rightfully claim a sole Property in and Jurisdiction over Seas preclusive of the Rights of other Princes to Sail and Navigate upon them Finally there may be this one thing yet added as an indisputable evidence and a full confirmation that there was no right of Property and Jurisdiction in and over any Lands Territories or Districts in America granted in the Treaties either of 1667 or of 1670 by the King of Great Britain unto the Crown of Spain save so far as the Spaniards were in actual Possession in that the English have since those Treaties sit down upon that part of America which is come to be call'd Pensilvania and have there establish'd large and flourishing Colonies and that without the Spaniards having once offer'd to complain of it as a violation of Treaties and Alliances between the two Crowns Having fully vindicated the Scots Settlement at Darien from the being either against the Laws of Nations or in opposition to publick Treaties and Alliances and having withal justify'd them both as to the Fact and with respect to the Steps and Methods in which they begun and have promoted it I know but of one thing besides what hath been already consider'd that can be reasonably alledg'd against either the Justice or the Equity of it Namely that the Spaniards have not only been esteem'd the Proprietors of that Isthmus by divers European Nations but that they have been declar'd as well as accounted so by the English in two remarkable Instances Whereof the First is That several English Merchants having agreed upon and provided a Fund of settling a Plantation at Port-Royal in the Bay of Mexico in order to the cutting of Logwood were refus'd the support and protection of the Government for carrying it on and only permitted to manage a Trade there at their own hazard and peril And as for the Second which comes closer to the Question which we have been debating It is said that certain English-men having undertaken to settle in Darien and brought the proposal of it before the Council of Trade of England by whom it was laid before the Lords Justices in His Majesty's absence and by them transmitted to the King Himself how that after a mature consideration it was judg'd and pronounc'd to be a Design and Project that would be an encroachment upon Spain and therefore let fall and abandon'd And that the case of the Scots being parallel to that it ought to meet with the like censure and be judg'd invasive upon the Rights of the Spaniards All which tho' it hath been sufficiently both obviated and answer'd in what hath been already said yet in compassion as well as in condescension to the Infirmities and Weaknesses of the greatest part of Mankind who suffer themselves to be impos'd upon and misled in their Opinions and Judgments of Actions and Matters of all kinds by trifling Reasons and Considerations of very little moment especially when their Understandings have receiv'd a wrong byass and are previously too much over-rul'd by prepossessions and prejudices arising from National Pique or particular Envy I shall offer several things in way of Reply to what is alledg'd and bestow several Reflections upon it Whereof some of them shall be more general respecting both the cases and the rest particular relative unto each of them singly and apart And tho' I shall behave my self in the whole with that Modesty and Deference towards His Majesty and them that have either had the universal Administration or any part of it as not to give the least occasion for censure or blame yet I hope I may expect to be so far both indulg'd and justify'd in the Vindication of the legal and righteous Fact of a whole Kindom as not from too much Pusilanimity on the one hand or Sycophancy on the other to suffer that Nation to lie under causeless suspicion of Injustice In the way therefore of a general Reply I desire it may be observ'd that as the sentiments and opinions of no Body of Men whatsoever and much less of a few Individuals are the Measures and Standards of Moral Right and Wrong but that the Laws of Nature and Nations are so the Acts and Proceedings of the People of Great Britain are not to be finally decided and determin'd with respect to their legality or their illegality and their being judg'd lawful or unlawful before Civil Tribunals and at Humane Benches save by the acknowledg'd Laws of Nations and the respective Municipal Laws of the Kingdoms For tho' the projecting or the acting disagreably to the Opinion of this or that Board may in some cases prejudice the Undertakers and Doers yet that singly precisely and abstractedly doth neither render the Design nor the Execution of it at all times unwise and much less at any time unlawful and unjust Nor is it moreover unworthy the being taken notice of That there is a great difference to be made between the discouraging
not assume the Confidence to pronounce any thing positively in reference to the particular grounds and reasons of the Opinion and Judgment of his Majesty the Lords Justices and the Council about it only it may not only be conjectured but affirmed with Confidence that the forbidding all proceedings in that enterprize was upon Motives of State rather than of Justice and that it was done because of the Inconveniencies which at that Juncture might have ensued and not by reason of the illegality of it For as the Proposal was made at a time when we were in Confederacy with the Crown of Spain for the carrying on a War against a Great and Powerful Monarch and as the Spanish Dominions were the chief seats of the War and the Ports and Havens of Spain absolutely needful as well as extreamly useful for the management of our Commerce in the Mediteranean and Levant so the preserving of Spain firmly in the Alliance was upon many other accounts which I shall not enumerate indispensably necessary both for the upholding of the War and in order to the success of it in favour of the Allies in general and particularly of Great Britain So that upon whatsoever political Inducements that proposal was discountenanced and rejected yet I may venture to affirm that it was not upon the foot and motive of the Spaniards having a right and property in and a Soveraignty and Jurisdiction over the whole Isthmus of Darien For as that would have been an acting in direct opposition to the general Foundation and Principle which both the English and all European Nations proceed upon in their establishing of Colonies in the West-Indies and in Justification of the rightful and legal Dominion that they have over the Lands Territories Provinces Islands which they have acquired there Namely that no ones right in that part of the World doth extend beyond possession and occupation so it were to have debarred and shut out the English as well as all other Europeans not only from erecting new Colonies in those places of America where the Spaniards are in the possession and have the Dominion but from settling any New Plantations in such parts of the West-Indies where the Natives are the sole Soveraigns and Occupiers Which is a thing both so absurd in it self and so directly opposite to the Interest Prosperity and Honour of England that it were to entertain an opinion inconsistent with good Manners so much as once to imagine that either the King the Lords Justices or any English Ministers of State should be so weak and imprudent and so neglectful of the Welfare and Glory of Great Britain as either to fall into such a pernicious measure of themselves or to be dup'd into it by others Moreover to have been influenced to reject the foresaid Proposal upon the reasons and motives of the Spaniards having an Universal and a Sole Right in the Isthmus would have been to have acted in the highest way of Injustice to the Natives thro' the ejecting them out of their Property and Jurisdiction in and over those Lands and Territories whereof they are both the legal and rightful owners and the alone occupiers and possessors to a great extent of ground upon that Straight and thro' the vesting the Property and Dominion in the Spaniards who have no Title or Claim to a great part of those Territories either by conquest or the consent of the Indians Nor can any thing more disgraceful and unrighteous as well as undecent and unmannerly be conceived of his Majesty and of those that are in the Administration than that they should act upon an Inducement that would import a robbing of the rightful Proprietosr of their Inheritances and a deposing of hereditary and legal Governours from their Lordships and Jurisdictions to place and settle them in others to whom they do no ways appertain Finally should we suppose his Majesty and the Lords Justices to have Prohibited the foresaid English Merchants and Traders to settle upon the Isthmus of Darien because it would have been an encroachment upon the rights of the King of Spain we must be obliged to add that they therein acted incongruously to the measures of other Princes and civil Ministers who have been both encouraging and endeavouring the Planting of Colonies upon or near to that Isthmus with the consent of the Natives without the least respect had to the Claim and Title of his Catholick Majesty whereof having given an instance before I shall not here repeat it So that having represented and finished whatsoever I account needful to be said for Justifying the Scots Settling a Colony at Darien to be according to the Laws of Nations and agreeable to all the measures of Justice and Friendship and not to be an Usurpation upon the right of the King of Spain nor to interfer with any Alliances between his Britannick Majesties and the Catholick King and having vinvicated that Fact of theirs from all the exceptions which are made either against the lawfulness or the friendliness of it It will now be a piece of prudence as well as of decency to bespeak the favour and assistance of the Parliament and People of England for their being supported and protected in that undertaking Nor shall I so much endeavour to perswade and influence them thereunto upon the Motives of generosity and Kindness as upon the Inducements that they will find the doing it to be greatly for the advantage of the Crown and Subjects of England For as much might be expected to be done in behalf of the Scots by that powerful and opulent Nation upon the reason of their being not only Neighbours to one another upon the same Island and under the Soveraignty and Government of one and the same Monarch but because of the many Offices of Councel and Aid which they have since the Union of the two Crowns mutually render'd to one another and that the Kingdom of Scotland in particular hath espoused the concerns of England in a way of Singular Amity and with extraordinary fidelity and zeal whensoever they have seen them involved under difficulties and dangers so that which is now desired from the English towards the Scots is not near what the Ancestors of the former have render'd unto those of the latter heretofore In that besides their having had the Counties of Northumberland Cumberland and Westmorland several times granted and confirmed unto them to be held in Fee of the Crown of England in recompence for the Services and assistances which they had yielded unto the English in their distresses We are assured by an English Writer that it was provided for in a course of Law under the Reign of Edward the Confessor that the Scots should be held Denizons of England and enjoy the same privileges with themselves because of the Aid which they had render'd to that Kingdom against the Danes and Norwegians But I shall chuse to wave the laying the recollection and consideration of all or of any of these before
War as well as of Trade shall pay to one another wheresoever they come to encounter in Sailing how that thereupon it is become the true Interest of England to have Scotland advanced into such a state and condition as that it may be able to provide Equip and Maintain good Squadrons of Men of War Which as it cannot be done without their attainment unto a considerable Foreign Trade so they may be enabled speedily to effect it by means of their Colony at Darien provided they be supported in it And as Scotland upon their being in a condition to send out a Warlike Fleet of their own will in case of a War against Great Britain save England the trouble and charge of maintaining Men of War on the Coast of Scotland for covering that Nation from Invasion as it hath several times both lately and more Anciently been forced to do so it may with confidence be affirmed that neither France nor Holland will be very forward to quarrel with England when beside their own great Naval Power they will have a considerable Marine Strength from Scotland ready at all times to joyn and assist them And should it so fall out that a War is not with Honour and Safety to be avoided between Great Britain and either of those Nations which is so far from being impossible that it lies within a probable view Scotland thro' having a potent Naval Power of its own will upon a conjunction in that case of its Strength with England give the King of Great Britain such a Superiority over his Enemies in Number and Force of Ships as may in the ordinary course of Providence render him unquestionably victorious which will redound chiefly to the Profit and Glory of England Nor will they only in such case be in a condition both to protect their own Trade and to assist the English with a Squadron of Stout Men of War towards the encreasing of the Royal Navy but they will by reason of the Situation of their Country and the conveniency of their Ports be able to cover and defend the trading Ships of England towards the East and to secure their Navigation to Hamburgh Swedeland Denmark Poland Muscow Greenland c. which is very needful to be kept safe because of the Pitch Tarr Canvass Timber as well as of divers other Commodities which are brought from those Parts whereof several if not most of them are indispensibly necessary for the building repairing and equipping of Ships of all sorts and cannot be so well had in other places Further The more Rich and Opulent that the Scots do grow which they will speedily do by the Gold and Silver which will be dug out of the Mines of Darien and by the Profits that will accrue from such other Productions as that Territory where they are so planted doth afford they will thereby be in the better State and Condition for granting larger supplies to the Crown than they hitherto could and thereupon administer ground as well as occasion for greatly lessening and moderating the Charge which England even in times of Peace but especially of War hath heretofore been necessitated unto And whereas the Scots have been at all times able and thereof given abundant proof during the late War to raise and muster great Numbers of as brave and well-disciplin'd Forces as any Nation of the World can afford yet by reason of their Penury which is a consequence and effect of their want of Foreign Trade and of Colonies in those parts of the Earth from which the great Wealth doth arise and flow into European Countries which their Plantation at Darien will soon cure remedy and relieve them against they could not grant Taxes nor advance Money that would have been sufficient for the Maintaining and Paying of their Troops but there was a necessity of putting them upon the English Establishment which was in part an occasion both of those excessive impositions of all kinds which England became indispensibly oblig'd to fall into the projection and enacting of and of those incredible Debts which it hath contracted doth lye under and cannot speedily redeem it self from For seeing the Kingdom of England how plentifully soever it be furnish'd with Men and able to bring into the Field very numerous as well as admirable Forces could not have rais'd within it self that vast proportion of Military Troops which were thought needful to be kept on foot during the late War which made it to receive and maintain so many thousand of Scots Forces will it not therefore be of great advantage upon any Stress or Exigency of the like Nature hereafter to have the same or a greater proportion of Scots Forces to join them and to come in to their assistance without England's becoming oblig'd either to subsist or to pay them and instead of having them upon Loan and at a great expence of English Treasure to obtain them as a Quota which their Neighbours and Friends will not only at all times be ready to grant and advance but to maintain at their own charges And as it may be affirm'd under all the moral certainty imaginable that the Scots thro' their being upheld and defended in their Calidonian Colony will in a few years be render'd able and will be found ready and forward to come into those Measures of Conjunction and Union of Forces with England in all such Foreign Wars wherein they shall at any time embark so it may from thence be inferr'd that it is the true Interest of the Parliament and People of England to have the Scots not only preserved and protected in the enjoyment of their Plantation in Darien but to give them all the countenance and aid which they can against such whosoever they be that shall attempt either the troubling of them there or the driving them from thence Moreover it might be represented and shew'd at large how much it will be to the advantage of England both with respect to their Plantations in the West-Indies and their own general growth and encrease in Trade and the rendring their whole Traffick and Commerce more secure and profitable than it has been to have the Scots upheld in the possession which they have obtain'd upon the foremention'd American Isthmus and that they be successful and prosperous in the improvement and further extension of their Colony But having said enough in a former Paragraph for the demonstrating of that beyond the being either deny'd or contradicted and the matter being obvious to all Men who are capable of thinking rationally and to any useful purposes and it being withal a Topick which every little and common Writer upon this Subject will not fail thro' inability to enlarge and employ their Conceptions about other things relative hereunto to make their best and utmost of I shall therefore decline the re-assuming the consideration of that Head again here and shall address to the representation of one Medium of Argumentation whereby it will apodictically appear to be the Interest
of England to have the Scots preserved and defended in their Settlement at Darien Namely That the conveniency of that place for an European Plantation being now better understood than it was before and the wonderful Profits and Advantages that will flow from and accrue by it being more fully apprehended and more clearly discerned than ever they were it will thereupon follow and ensue That should the Scots be drove from thence the Subjects of some other Prince or State besides the Spaniards will possess themselves of it Which whosoever it be will be of fatal consequence to England as well as ruinous to Scotland Nor dare I entertain so unworthy and dishonourable an Opinion of the English Nation nor shew my self so ungrateful to a Kingdom unto which I owe more Thankfulness Service and Duty than ever I can be capable of paying as once to imagine that they themselves will be so unjust as well as unkind either clandestinely and by connivance to be accessary to the wresting of that Plantation out of the possession of the Scots or so ungentile as well as unfriendly as singly and alone or in conjunction and confederacy with others to drive and compel them from thence by force Seeing as endeavours and attempts of those kinds would not only appear so shamefully scandalous to all the sober wise and righteous part of Mankind that the greatest part of the World would reproach them for the Treachery and Wickedness as well as for the Imprudence and Folly of it but it would beget that bitter and implacable hatred in the Scots Nation against England as would excite and kindle those Desires and Flames of Revenge as no length of time will ever allay nor the Authority of any Prince entit'led to both the Crowns be able to extinguish or to prevent the fatal consequences of And tho' the Power and Strength of Scotland may be look'd upon with Derision and Contempt when compar'd with the Force and Might of England yet should first Wrath and then War arise between these two Nations it may be easily foretold without pretending to a Spirit of Prophecy that it will be mischievous beyond expression to both tho' in the issue it may prove more ruinous to the one than to the other Nor is it possible to be avoided but that a quarrel rais'd between the Kingdoms upon that motive and account will produce the like if not more dismal effects than the War in the Reign of Edward I. did whereof a judicious Historian hath left this wise and memorable Observation that Angliam vehementer concussit Scotorum nomen fere delevit It wonderfully shook and weaken'd England and almost exterminated the very Name of the Scots And this is so obvious to be foreseen and discern'd by any Man that gives himself the freedom of thinking especially considering the present circumstances of England with respect to its no less potent than envious Enemies about it as well as upon other accounts which I decline the mentioning of that it will neither be undecent nor savour of undue boldness to say that whosoever shall advise the application of the power of England for driving the Scots out of Darien can design no less than either the ruine of the Nations by one another or the making them when divided and weaken'd a prey unto those who long to subdue and destroy both But as England is a Nation of more Honour and Justice than from their own inclination and choice to come into to such a design against the Scots so they are a more sagacious and wise People than either to consent unto or to connive at their being wheedled and drawn into it by others So that the Scots having no ground or reason for apprehensions and fears that the English will directly or indirectly concur and assist to their being expell'd from thence nor I hope supinely and tamely look on until it be effected All the jealousie and dread is that either the French or the Dutch may co-operate and contribute towards it or at least that in case the Spaniards alone should be in a condition to accomplish it thro' the Scots wanting and being refus'd sufficient and seasonable support one of these Nations who are both so potent in Land Forces and Fleets of War should by way of after game make it their business to get into possession of it And under the power of which of these two Nations soever it shall chance to fall it will be of equal but of very fatal consequence even to England For suppose that the Dutch who are a People that do extraordinarily well understand their Interest and who never miss the going into all the Measures and Methods whereby they may promote it witness their Conduct and Management not many years ago at Bantam and if we will believe a sort of ill-natur'd Men among our selves their coming thereupon into the late Revolution here in England not so much out of kindness either to our Religion or Laws as to prevent King James's revenging that action upon them I say suppose that they upon the Scots being expell'd from Darien should find themselves able as undoubtedly they are willing to settle a Colony there the consequences thereof towards England are at present as obvious as they will hereafter be infallibly fatal and ruinous For besides the advantage that such a Plantation will give them of engrossing and monopolizing in a little time unto themselves the whole Trade of the East-Indies China and Japan as well as most of the American Traffick especially that which is mainly profitable of it they will moreover by that addition of Wealth to the Treasure which they have already which the Gold and Silver Mines of Darien will inconceivably and speedily yeild them be not only in a condition to give Laws to all Europe and become the sole Arbiters of Affairs in these parts of the World but they will be able if they have a mind to it and it is neither wise nor will it be safe to lie at their discretion to rob England both of the the Soveraignty of the Narrow-Seas and of the freedom of Navigation into any places of the Baltick the Mediterranean or elsewhere save as they shall be pleas'd to permit and licence them But tho' this be a Subject worthy to be enlarg'd upon and that deserveth to have an ample detale given of it and which withal it were not difficult to do in a manner that might awaken England out of its drousie and lethargical Temper yet for reasons which need not to be told but may readily be guess'd at I shall not at this time nor in this place prosecute it any further However should the Dutch upon Motives which may lie before them and whereof we can have no information decline interposing in that affair either as to the encouraging of the Spaniards to drive the Scots out of Darien or the endeavouring to establish a Colony there themselves in case they should be expell'd yet who