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
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
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
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
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
Newfoundland where save in the time of actual War between these two Crowns they live in all friendliness together each of them following carrying on and promoting their several Fisheries in and by which as many Seamen are bred as well as employed and Navigation greatly encreased and Multitudes of Ships advantageously used so with a little cost that is disbursed on Nets and on Diet for Saylers which also turns to a National benefit and gain there is more Wealth floweth annually into the Kingdom or at least might if that Trade were encouraged and cultivated as it deserveth and ought to be than by any one branch of our Manufacture whatsoever to the Fabricking whereof to make it Mercantile there is so much previous expence required The same might be instanced with respect of the Island of St. Christopher's which belongeth half no the English and half to the French tho' neither of their shares be well peopled or Cultivated Whereunto may be also added that the Dutch and Portuguese have their different and respective Plantations on the coast of Brasile without any misunderstanding or quarrel between them on that account and to which the Spaniards do pretend as much Right as they do to the Isthmus of Darien Yea the Island of St. Thomas which is Possessed by the Danes is not far distant from Porto Rico which is in the occupation of the Spaniards as also very near unto St. Thomas lyeth the Crab Island which is pretended unto not only by the Spaniards and the French and particularly by the Danes but likewise by the English who were once Possessed of it and which I do wonder they endeavour not to repossess themselves of seeing as it is now void so it is of very great importance in it self and would be of wonderful usefulness to their Plantations were it in the English hands and secured by a good Military force without which they well be sure to be Murderd in or soon drove out of it by the Spaniards that inhabit Porto-Rico And to conclude this Paragraph with one instance more it is observable that whereas the English as I intimated before upon another occasion were in actual Possession of all the places adjacent to and Snrrounding the Mouhados which lies betwixt long Island and the Main and is sometimes reckoned a part of long Island the Dutch finding it unoccupied either by the English or by any other Europeans sat down and settled a Colony upon it in a time of Peace between his Britannick Majesty and the States of Holland and called their chief Seat and Fortification there by the name of New Amsterdam tho' it was wholly encompassed by and in some places immediately bordered upon the English Colonies without so much as the interposure of a River Whereof the English were so far from complaining and much more from making it a matter and cause of Hostility between the English Crown and the Belgick Republick that even upon breaking out of the War 1672 when all things were alledged that could administer the least shadow for Justifying the commencement of it on the part of the English who were the Aggressors that of the Dutch having settled on the Mouhados was not so much as once mentioned nor in the Treaty of Peace in the year 1677 was it ever brought under Debate in the Congress between the Plenipotentiaries of England and Holland But after the re-entrance of those two powers again into terms of Amity it was by a private capitulation at London in the end of that year exchanged as I have already said for Surinam Now the foregoing Exception made by the Spaniards in relation to the Scots having acted if not unjustly at least very disingenuously and unkindly in the settling of a Colony so near unto there Plantations having been fully considered in the last Paragraph and the weakness and vanity of it so abundantly laid open and Manifested that no man will offer to revive and insist upon it for the future without incurring the forfeiture of his reputation I shall now proceed to examine the Pretension and Allegation of its being an Infraction of the Treaties and Alliances between the Crowns of Great Britain and of Spain for the Scots to have Landed and begun to establish a Colony upon any part of the Isthmus of Darien And I shall the rather bring this to an exact Scrutiny and under a particular and accurate disquisition in that it hath been distinguishingly mentioned and positively asserted in the Memorial that was presented to his Majesty by the command and in the name of the King of Spain In which that Fact of the Scots is stiled La rupture de L'alliance qui a este toûjours entre ces deux Couronnes Laquelle sa Majeste d'Espagne a observée jusques icy observe tousjours fort Religieusement An Infraction of the Alliance which is between the two Crowns which His Spanish Majesty hath hitherto observ'd and will Religiously do so Which Resolution of His Catholick Majesty to keep and withal sacredness to observe the Alliances which he or his Predecessors have made with the Kings of Great Britain as it is Noble Princely and Christian and which I wish the Crown of Spain had better attended and acted more consonantly unto in their procâ—edings since in relation to this affair but which hereafter we shall shew that they have not so it deserveth to be corresponded with and answer'd in the same manner and with the like measures of Friendship Honour Veracity and Religion Nor is there any thing more disgraceful and ignominious in the esteem of Men as well as sinful and criminal in the sight and account of God than for Monarchs to violate their Royal Compacts and Agreements whether with one another or with their own Subjects without provocations administred to them whereby the Confederacies and Covenants do become causally and morally dissolv'd And if it be universally acknowledg'd that Potentates having made Compacts with their own Subjects are bound in Justice as well as in Truth and Honour to perform them much more must it be confess'd that they are oblig'd to keep and observe the Agreements which they have made with Princes and States that have no dependance upon them but are upon an equal foot with themselves Yea if a King cannot without Iniquity violate an Agreement which he hath made with Subjects that had been Rebels so as afterwards to punish them for that Rebellion in reference to which the Stipulation was as being pardon'd by the Tenor and in the vertue of the Treaty much less can he break the Articles of an Alliance with Soveraign Rulers who tho' they may have been Enemies unto him could never have been Rebels Nor are any Persons whatsoever so much concern'd to be exact and punctual in keeping their Faith and in performing of their Promises as Princes are and that upon the Motive of Credit and Reputation as well as by reason of the obligation of Conscience For as Padre Paolo says alluding
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
them which touch upon the head of gratitude and shall think it more advisable to address them by other Topicks namely by those that shall refer to the Benefits of Strength Riches and Honour which will thereby accrue and redound unto the Kingdom of England For how mighty and wealthy soever the Nation must in truth stand acknowledged to be yet it must also be confess'd that under the great variety and plenty of Natural and Artificial productions which their own Country and the Dominions thereunto belonging do afford they have not the advantage of being furnish'd with Gold and Silver Mines which yield the Metal and Bullion that make the Funds of Trade raise the Bulworks of safety administer the Supplies of plenty and pleasure in peace and enableth to muster Armies and equip Fleets in times of War And tho' it is not to be denyed but that by means of their Manufactures and by reason of their Industry and their application unto and skill in the management of a large and universal Commerce they have a great Share of the Treasures of the Spanish West-Indies flowing annually unto them yet it is with great hazard at much expence and after having been long out of their principal that they become possest of it in those methods And it is also demonstrable that a much greater proportion of Gold and Silver will both come into private Banks and into the public Exchequer of England by the Scots having such Mines within the bounds of their Colony of Darien than hitherto hath or ever can in the ways of meer Commerce with the Spaniards Nor ought it here to be omitted that the Mines in the occupation of the Spaniards in that part of Darien which lie nearest to the plantation of Caledonia and in which they work at present do so abound in the very Oare of Gold that every Negro whom they employ is bound to gain daily to his Master as much as doth amount after it is refined to thirty Lewis d'ors whereas such as are employed in the English American Sugar Plantations which are reckoned to be the most profitable of any they have do not after all the expence upon them in their food cloaths and other accommodations earn above one hundred pound Sterling gain a head per annum to their Master which is not near so much in a whole year as the other bringeth in per week And as the Goods and Commodities sent out of England to Spain which bring them returns in Gold and Silver will be transmitted immediately to Darien with more speed and at less expence as well as hazard than they go now to the Spanish Colonies in America by making the Tower of Cadiz Malaga and Sevil and the profit thereupon be much the greater to the English Merchants so a good part of the Treasure which cometh directly into Scotland upon the alone and single account of the Caledonian Company will in divers ways so circulate as to come at last to center in England Seeing besides what must necessarily flow in thither in payments both for what of their own productions and what of Foreign goods that have been first imported to England will be called for and purchased by the Scots it is not to be imagined how much will come to be brought in and spent there in ways of Diversion and Pleasures by all sorts of people of Scotland and especially by the Nobility and Gentry For as it is too well Known that the generality of the Scots whose circumstances do quality them for and allow it have much in them of the humour and even Vanity of Travelling and are inclinable enough to spend in proportion to the quantity of their Cash so thro' London's being the Metropolitical Seat of the Government and the place where the King has his residence the Court is kept and all grand Affairs of State as well as many of the most important concerns of particular men are transacted they will be certain to come thither in far greater Numbers than they now do some out of Courtship and others in complyance with the exigency of their affairs and all of them maintain a Port and live at a Charge answerable to the weight and depth of their pockets Which will not only be of great profit and advantage to the Northern roads thro' which they must go and return and of divers other parts of the Kingdom to which their Pleasure Health or Curiosity may tempt them but especially it will be of great advantage to London seeing besides what they will spend during their Residence and in the making a figure while they are there they will also furnish themselves in that Metropolis with such accoutrements of State and provisions of houshold furniture as they shall esteem to be needful either for their grandeur or their conveniency when they go home Moreover it is not to be questioned but that the English upon very easy and Honourable terms and conditions may be admitted into a Partnership in the Plantation and into a share of Trade with the Scots Which as it will draw a considerable part of all that is either Dug out of Mines or that is otherwise produced within the District of that Colony as well as of whatsoever shall accrue to the Company by a Traffick drove at Darien directly and immediately into England so it will both greatly enlarge the Trade and Commerce of England and mightily encrease their Wealth For as the Scots were so neighbourly and kind upon the enacting of the Law for the establishment of a Company for Trading to Africa and the Indies as to make the first Offer to the English of Joining in the Subscriptions to a Stock and Fund so as to become Partners with them in any Plantation they should settle and in whatsoever they should acquire so it may not only be hoped but confidently affirmed that they will not now be opposite nor averse to the receiving them upon such terms as may be safe and creditable to both Kingdoms Nor can the Parliament of England in their approaching Session fall upon any matter that will be of more National concernment or from which more benefit will arise to the Government and people of England than to consider and advise how the Kingdoms may become so Incorporated with respect to that Colony as that upon a congress between Commissioners authorized respectively by both Nations to treat and agree about it the terms upon which the English shall be admitted sharers in it as well as the degree measure and proportion of Interest in it which they shall be received into may be Adjusted Defined and Stipulated Further it is not unworthy to be observed that the French as well as the Dutch being grown mighty in Naval Power and both of them but especially the latter the Rivals of England not only in Traffick and Commerce but with respect to the prescribing unto others what shall be the terms of Navigating the Seas and what Ceremonies of respect Ships of
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
Eye beyond Sea and look at present into Germany and observe the encouragements propos'd to the Vaudois and the French Refugees in case they will settle in such and such places where they are sure to be protected and at a season when they neither know how to be harbour'd nor to subsist any where else we shall not wonder that His Majesty and the Parliament of Scotland thought the granting of all those Privileges and Immunities needful for the prevailing upon the Subjects of that Kingdom to engage in a design the Scene whereof lay so remote and the Difficulties and Charges would be so great and large towards the bringing it to perfection Yea doth not every Inheritor and Landlord in England allow large favours and advantages both to such as will come and cultivate their waste Lands and to those who will lay out their Money in the building Houses upon their Grounds where there were no Dwellings before And ought it then to be complain'd of that a Nation in order to the extending the Empire and Dominion of their Soveraign and the contributing thereby to the enriching in a little time of all his Kingdoms and Subjects as well as his own Exchequer should have Immunities and Privileges granted unto them for a few years and whereof several were expir'd before they actually enter'd upon the execution of their Design Whereunto may be added that the advantage which will both accrue unto the Government at all times hereafter by an increase of Customs and an ability acquir'd unto Scotland of being more liberal in the Taxes which they shall grant unto His Britannick Majesty than heretofore their Poverty notwithstanding their Zeal for His Majesty's Service would allow them to be and likewise the many benefits which will arise to England in the several particulars whereof I have already given the Detale and which I shall not here repeat will abundantly compensate for the Immunities and Privileges which are vouchsafed the Scots Company for 21 Years whereof Four are already elapsed wherein they have been at great expences without any return in way of Principal or Interest And it being the daily practice of the English themselves and indeed of all Mankind to venture upon Designs and to run into Disbursements where the gains are too often only chimerical and at most times but merely conjectural and very seldom are morally certain should the People of England then make it a matter of quarrel with the Scots that they are embark'd in a design without the English coming into any part of the charge of it from which if it do succeed it is Mathematically demonstrable that the English Nation will obtain great Glory Power and Wealth Moreover it is demonstrable that the Benefits which will redound to the English in the Interim and within that circle of time will greatly overbalance any damages or inconveniencies that can be supposed to arise unto them in their Traffick and Commerce by that short Indulgence granted unto the Scots of being free from Customs and Impositions in relation to their exports unto and Imports from their Colony Seeing besides the Emoluments that will accrue to England and to their American Plantations by the opening unto them a vast Trade unto places where they had none or very little before and by that Necessity as well as occasion which the Scots cannot avoid of taking more off from them both of their Natural and Artificial productions than they could formerly use or know how to dispose of them I say besides this it is provided for and ordained in the very Act by which their Company is established that their Colony shall be a free Port and Market so that the English may carry thither whatsoever they judge vendible either to the Scots or the Natives for which they are like to be paid in Gold and Silver and they may also Traffick there and bring from thence whatsoever is produced within the District where the Calidonian Colony lies and in the Territories occupied by the Indians which are adjoining unto it all which will greatly Countervail and and Outbalance the few supposed inconveniencies that are discoursed by unthinking men as likely to arise unto England and their West-India settlements by the Immunities granted to the Scots for the short forementioned term of years Further that as all the Commodities importable by the Company which are not of the growth of that Country are all excepted from being Custom-free and are made liable to all legal Impositions so nothing of the very productions of that place can be imported by the Scots into England but what they stand bound to pay customs for and are ready in compliance with the Laws of England so to do Yea the Navigation Acts made in England being still in force and never like to be repealed and whereof the conniving at the violation and breach would be of fatal consequence to the English in their Shiping no goods can be imported from Darien directly into England save in English Vessels and thither it is that most of the Dying Wood as well as of Divers other Commodities which the Directors of the Plantation can procure on the Isthmus must be immediately carryed and disposed of So that from the whole which I have laid down in way of reply to the foregoing objection it appears to be made without any solid ground and to proceed from people that neither have nor can take a full survey of this affair nor look round it rather than from persons of any great penetration or who are conversant either in the Philosophy or in the praxis and Mechanism of Trade in the full compass and extent of it The only thing further that I imagine to be alledgable against the English giving countenance and encouragement to the Scots in their present undertaking and to hinder their Joyning in the protection and defence of them is that it may prove prejudicial to the Church of England thro' the giving way unto and concurring to promote the settlement of the Presbyterian Form and Model in that part of the World the Church of England having found trouble and inconveniencies enough from that Scheme of Ecclesiastical Government in the Scots frame and Edition of it while it hath been confined within their own Kingdom This looks so much like Bantering instead of Reasoning that it may be construed for a reproach put upon the Understandings and good Sence of the greater part of mankind to vouchsafe an answer unto it especially in a Kingdom as well as an Age wherein the Jus divinum of this or that Form of Church Government obtains a very slender room in most mens Belief And it were well if all those who are reckoned to have the best natural and acquired parts could be brought to agree in the Essentials of Christianity tho' they continued to differ in Disciplinary points Yea it is to be feared that the Dogmaticalness and the Intemperate zeal of some for things vastly removed from being Fundamentals in our Religion
have rendred too many persons Sceptical in the Material Articles of it And if we could better bear with one another and agree to differ in Religious Matters of less Importance we might thereupon possibly better accord and more second each others endeavours in the defence of the Apostolical and Athanasian Creeds But how strangely are the Scots circumstanced and stated with respect to their Darien Undertaking when those of the Romish Communion are alarmed at and incensed against it upon the Foot that it will be an Introducing of the Reformed Religion into those parts of America where it never was and at the same time some Protestants are the less favourable unto it because it may be attended with the Erection of a Form of Ecclesiastical Government and Discipline there different from those of the Church of England Whereas we should be thankful to God that the Reformed Religion is like to obtain some footing where it never had any And we ought certainly to acknowledge and reckon that this will abundantly compensate for the Inconvenience of Presbyteries going along with it And how much sorry soever I am that there should be so much of what is properly Popery spread among and received by the American Indians within the Spanish Dominions and Provinces in the West-Indies yet I cannot but declare my Joy that the Christian Religion how much soever Sophisticated and Embased as well as Emasculated with and by Romish Errors and Superstitions is nevertheless come to be conveyed unto and planted among them in any Measure and Degree Seeing tho' Popery can save no man yet the Christianity that is in the Papal Religion in that the Church of Rome believeth whatsoever we do believe may be a means of saving every man that is upright and sincere and whose Mistakes Errors and Superstitions are not the Effects either of Wilfulness or of Negligence but of insuperable Ignorance Which as it doth at the least wonderfully extenuate their Crimes and Guilt before God and renders them prepared and qualified Subjects for the Divine Compassion so it should awaken Zeal in such as have love for Souls and are concerned to have the Kingdom of our Lord JESVS Christ enlarged both for the rectifying the Judgments of those poor Indians which have been wofully misled in matters of the Christian Faith and Worship by the Spaniards and for having the Gospel Preached in the purity and simplicity of it among those Native Americans who knew Nothing of it And it is no small disgrace unto Protestant Kingdoms States and Churches that while they of the Romish Church have shewed themselves so forward and industrious and have been at such vast expences to send and maintain Missioners in those parts and in Mahometan Countries for the publishing of the Christian Religion tho' wofully corrupted by superadded Doctrines and Superstitions of their own that none of those stiled Reformed have concerned themselves therein to any purpose save where they have Plantations that will without their Aid subsist and maintain Preachers and these also very poorly supplyed and provided with pious and able Ministers And indeed one would wonder that after the Laws in England for giving Liberty to such there as are Dissenters from the Diocesan Jurisdiction and from the Rites Ceremonies and Modes of Worship of the Episcopal Church it should raise Jealousie Envy and Pique of and against the Caledonian Colony upon the motive that the great body of the Planters and the Governors and Directors of that settlement will be of the Presbyterian perswasion in those Extraessentials of Christianity Whereas for my part were I a Zealot for the English Episcopacy and Liturgy neither of which in my opinion ought to give that offence to Wise Learned and Good men which some pretending to all those Characters have conceived against them yet I should not be sorry to see some of the bigotted Scots Presbyterians to transport themselves thither where I am sure they will do less harm to the Church of England and may be to Religion it self than they have done and still are like to do nearer at hand Tho' even what they are in the very Neighbourhood able to do against the Diocesan Government and the Liturgical Worship will not without a stock of men of more Learning and discreeter Conduct than those men the Church of Scotland is at present furnished with signifie much to the disparaging or supplanting of either further than as Law and Force do interpose And against that Vltima Ratio Ecclesiae as well as Aulae I know no methods that can be lawfully run into save those of Patience and Humility under Violence and Severity from them accompanied with Integrity and Moderation in the firmly keeping and modestly asserting of Episcopal Principles Nor are the Scots at Caledonia like to be so bigotted narrow and peevish with referrence to the extraessentials and circumstantials of Religion as they have been found in Scotland in that the Directors and Overseers of that Plantation have emitted a Declaration wherein they grant Liberty of Conscience to all that will come and settle among them Which as it plainly shews that the denying of it at home is not upon the foot of Conscience seeing on that Foundation they should allow it no where but that the refusing it in Scotland is upon the motive of Domination and worldly Policie so who knows but that this Precedent of theirs in America may prove a leading case to their being more indulgent that way in Europe than hitherto they could be prevailed upon to be And that being no longer restrained by Principles which guide and over-rule Conscience from granting Liberty to such as Dissent from them in lesser matters of Religion the Interest of the Kingdom may in time oversway the peevishness of their Clergy For tho' I do readily acknowledge that no Liberty upon whatsoever pretence of Conscience is to be granted unto any whose principles do not only Authorize them to the disturbing and overturning of Civil Governments but do make the Blaspheming God and the ridiculing of all revealed Religion venial and the living brutishly and sensually Lawful yet in matters that are purely Religious wherein too much rigour and severity have been commonly exerted I do take it to be our Duty to bear with and forbear one another in Love and Peace For I do really believe it to be one of the first Truths dictated to us by Nature that whereupon a person is to venture his Eternal State that therein he should be allowed the liberty and freedom of choosing for himself Finally this exception will prove the more vain as well as surprizing if it be but observed that the Form of Church Government and the Modes of Christian Worship even in some of the English American Plantations are no less dissonant from and may be of worse consequence to the Church of England than what the Scots are supposed resolved to set up and to be in the Practice of in their Colony at Darien of
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
characters it doth very ill accord with and become yet that it is some consolation both to their Company and their whole Kingdom that the Representation a Messrs les primieres Ministres d' Angleterre The memorial or manifest given into the Lords Justices by the Spanish Ambassador in September last was not in the least occasion'd by nor bottom'd upon any thing relative to their Colony upon the American Isthmus So that whatsoever the Consequences of that Memorial and of his Britannick Majesty just Resentment of it may be yet none of them can either now or hereafter be said to have sprung and flowed from any Fact or Enterprize of the Scots And tho' I do not pretend to any knowledge of those Consultations Treaties and Stipulations save as they are there expressed to have been Sur la succession de la couronne d' Espagne sa Division and Repartition about the Succession to the Crown of Spain and the Division and Repartition of that Monarcy wherein His Majesty having been concerned gave occasion and administred ground for that Memorial which was so displeasing unto Him that he thereupon Commanded the Spanish Ambassador who deliver'd it to depart within Eighteen days out of his Kingdom and in that time not to go out of his Gate yet I hope it will neither be accounted Presumption nor an Intrusion upon Secrets and Mysteries of State to say that nothing could have contributed so much to the obviating all such misunderstandings between the two Crowns as should swell into and terminate in a Rupture as the having protected the Scots in their settlement at Darien would have done For as the having a Câ—lony Establish'd in the very Heart and Bosome of the Spanish American Dominions and accomodated with a Defenceable Harbour that is capable of receiving the whole Naval strength of England would unless the Cabinet Resolutions at Madrid be the Results of Passion and Haughtiness rather than of sedate thoughts Political Wisdom and of Debates where arguments derived from safety and interest cast the scale effectually check the Spaniards against falling into rash and hasty Councils and an infallible motive for restraining the Catholick King from emarquing in a War with His Britannick Majesty because of the unavoidable mischiefs that upon our being so Circumstanced and Stated thro' the possession of that place would attend it in relation to the many great and opulent Territories of the Spanish Monarchy in the West-Indies which are both the sources of all that Wealth and Treasure which inable them to defend their Kingdoms and Provinces in Europe and do afford them the means and advantages of supporting themselves in that veneration and esteem which are paid them and rendred unto that Crown in this part of the World so it is not to be doubted should a War Commence upon any inducements and reasons whatsoever whether fancied or real slight or weighty between the King of Spain and the Monarch of Great Britain but that thro' our being so Posted in the midst of their American Plantations they would soon be made sensible of their betaking themselves thereby to a course and method that will unavoidable issue in their Ruine For tho' no Man that pretendeth to good Sense can have the weakness to imagine nor any who are under the Ties of Allegiance and Fealty can have the Disloyalty to suspect that the coldness and indifference of the Court of England in reference to the Scots being encouraged and supported at Darien to say nothing of the measures that have been taken and pursued not only to the Disheartening and Obstructing them in their Design but to the defeating it thro' rendring as far as could be effected without open and direct hostility their continuance in that place impracticable was either in subserviency to the better concealing and covering those Transactions which were then carrying on and are since discovered and divulged concerning the adjusting and determining the Succession to the Crown of Spain or in order at the expence of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Dishonour as well as the Loss sustained by their African and India Company to have the more easily reconciled what was at that time under Consultation and Treaty towards the being Concerted and Stipulated to the Catholick King and his Ministers yet it may both with Modesty and Safety be affirmed that among other means which would have both Advanced His Majesty above the threats and menaces of the Spaniards who endeavour to allarm him that unless all that he hath projected in the foremention'd Affair be promptement arreste viendra un Guerre Funeste universelle dans toute te Europe speedily renounced there will arise a destructive and general War thro' all Europe but inabled him to justify and to make good by his Power and Force what he hath by his great Prudence and Wisdom been Adjusting and Contracting with others in reference to the foresaid matter It would have also been in some degree useful and subservient thereunto if instead of lending his Name and Authority to those who emitted the Proclamations in the English West-India Plantations prohibiting the holding any Correspondence with or the giving any Assistance unto any Person or Persons that had been Fitted out in Scotland with Ships of Force to settle in some part of America he had vouchsaved unto his Subjects of Scotland those Testimonies of his Royal Care and Zeal for their Success in the expedition they went upon and for their prâ—spering in the design in which they were Embarqu'd as might have made them out of Gratitude Ambitious of Sacrificing their Lives in his Service For as it is a great Satisfaction to a Prince and that which gives him a Reputation and at such a juncture and in those circumstances renders him formidable to those who seem inclined and do only covet a favourable opportunity of declaring themselves his Enemies to be universally known to have a firm Tenure in the Affections and Confidences of all his People and to be understood to have their Wealth and Power ready to be surrendred with readiness and chearfulness unto his Disposal and their Lives chiefly valued by them on the foot of having them to venture at his Command and for the exalting as well as for the maintaining his Honour and Glory so it cannot but both extreamly disquiet him and also lessen his Credit and Veneration with those Potentates that Envy the greatness of his Vndertakings and who dread the Wisdom that displayeth it self in his Projections to find the largest Part and Proportion of the whole Body of his Subjects in one of his Dominions highly discontented with and clamorously complaining and as they think not without just reason of the Conduct and Behaviour of those towards them who being in the highest Places of the Exercise and Administration of the Government do vouch his Orders and his Authority for those Actions that are so ill Resented And that these Proceedings of the King's English Ministers of State and
Money to defame a Nation and to throw that Dirt upon Persons of Integrity and Honour which a little scandalous Fellow who had been expell'd some time ago out of His Majesty's Navy for his Crimes and Misdemeanours and who thereupon spoke as scandalously and revilingly then of the English as he hath lately done of the Scots had rak'd and gather'd together The only thing which I shall therefore say for overthrowing the Faith Reputation and Credit of that detractive Miscreant in his many other Fictitious and Romantick Stories shall be to refer those who are not willing to be misled in their Belief of Men and Things by Lies and Fables impos'd with impudence and audacity upon them to Mr. Wafer who can and will assure them that the Aspersions thrown upon the Scots in relation to their Treating of him are as false as they are defamatory So that thro' the Fellow's appearing a Liar in one Case he is to be accounted incapable of having his Testimony receiv'd in all other whatsoever Nor can any without the renouncing of common Sense believe that the Gentlemen employ'd by the Company to Confer and Transact with Mr. Wafer cou'd be guilty of such Weakness and Folly as to reveal and detect unto him their Design upon Darien in that the whole Success of that Vndertaking depended entirely upon its being kept and preserved a Secret However it may not be amiss to take notice of a certain Passage in that Fabulous Book which is to be met with Page 16. namely That just as the Scots Companies Books were open'd at Amsterdam for the Receiving Subscriptions to their Stock and Capital the Dutch East and West-India Companies run open mouth'd to the Lords of that City shewing what was hatching by the Scots Commissioners in their Town to Ruine the Trade of the United Provinces Which I have therefore the rather cited because it is one of the few that have any Truth in them and not to administer occasion unto any Men tho' I fear many will be ready to take it from thence without my leave or allowance for suspecting and much less for concluding that our Councils in England are too much under the influence of the Hollanders and accommodated to such Measures as are subservient to a Dutch Interest For tho' the unthinking Creature who communicated the Story to the Writer and the unwary Statesman and indifferent Politician under whose Countenance as well as Connivance it stands publish'd might no ways design the begetting and fomenting such an Opinion yet it is so adapted to justify an apprehension of that Nature that not only such who are disaffected to the Government but many that place their happiness and do find their Profit in being under it will be ready to fall into the Notion and to imbibe the Sentiment Especially seeing as well the Proceedings here in discouraging the Scots in their American Design as what hath been done and practised in the English West-India Plantations by positive Orders and Injunctions from hence which have proved very Prejudicial if not Ruinous unto them in their Colony thro' appearing very little subservient to an English Interest either here or in America will thereupon be construed by those bold and critical Men who do both usurp a Liberty of penetrating into and a Right of judging and censuring Resolutions and Actions of State which ought to be look'd upon with Reverence and acquiesc'd in with Silence to have flow'd either from a Wisdom in reference to our Concerns Welfare and Prosperity that is indiscoverable and past finding out or to have sprung from Reasons relative to the Satisfaction and Advantage of that Outlandish and Foreign Republick which hath been named And as 〈◊〉 the other Pamphlet call'd The Defence of the Scots Abdicating of Darien Answer'd Paragraph by Paragraph whereof the Author hath written with more Modesty than he did on whom I have been Reflecting tho' at the same time so weakly and triflingly that I cannot bring my self to think that it needs for I am sure it doth not deserve so much as one Stricture or Animadversion bestowed upon it beyond what in the following Discourse will be found applicable thereunto And indeed that Gentleman's Design seems as if playing Booty he had intended the getting a Book to pass unâ—rrested and current under the Vizor and Mask of being Answer'd which thro' its want of that Skreen Cover and Pasport there were endeavours used to have stifled and suppressed Which appears the more evidently to have been the scope of the Answerer in that he doth not only give us the other Book entirely so far as he taketh upon him to Reply unto it which he doth in his manner with reference to the whole that is Argumentative and Discoursive in it but he annexeth without the omission of a word whatsoever occureth in the Book against which he would be thought to set up as an Antagonist a Sheet and a half giving the Description of Darien without the being at the expence of a Syllable to contradict or disapprove it Yea the main Argument upon which he endeavoureth to justify the Opposition unto as well as the Discountenance given by the Government of England to the Scots in their American Vndertaking being taken from a Visionary and Romantick Topick and superstructed upon a known and downright Falshood it doth thereby become manifest to all who are endowed with any measure of discerning that his main purport in Writing was to give a Licence for the safe and publick Sale of a Book which crept about and was here and there vended abroad only surreptiously and by stealth before For whereas he seeks to have it believed that all the late English Proceedings in disfavour and prejudice of the Scots were in pursuance of and Address presented by the Parliament to His Majesty Anno 1695. This is all mere Dream and Imagination and no better than a Bantering of Mankind It being most certain that the Parliament never entertain'd a thought of having Obstruction given to the Kingdom of Scotland as to their Setling a Colony either in the East or West-Indies provided it were not where they were the previous Occupiers and on condition that it prov'd not in ways and by means inconsistent with the Amity that is between the two Kingdoms as they stand link'd together under one Soveraign Neither could they so far forget the boundaries unto which they do at all times circumscribe and confine themselves in their Parliamentary Actings as to attempt it in reference to a Nation over which they claim no Jurisdiction but which they do own to be Absolute within it self and altogether Independent upon them But the whole which the Parliament applyed unto the King about at that time was that he would interpose and exert his Authority for the hindring of his English Subjects from becoming Subscribers to the Stock and Capital which the Scots were about to make frame and establish for the Erection of a West or East-India Plantation and for
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
Commerce in Africa and the Indies how kindly he not only received it but with what both goodness and readiness he referred the consideration of it to my Lord Middleton my Lord Melford Mr. Penn and Mr. Berkley that upon their opinion of the Justice and Equity of it who were all known to be entire favourers thereof He might by his Royal Charter and Patent have empowered the Scots to have proceeded in the Establishing of it and which nothing could have obstructed had not the Accession of his Majesty who was then Prince of Orange in 〈◊〉 England at that time intervened But to proceed unto that which doth in the course of Method next offer it self to be laid open and Discoursed of namely the Situation Nature and Conveniency of the Place where the Scots have pitched their Tents and are about establishing there Plantations which is called the Isthmus of Darien and is a Country very fit and proper for that purpose as well because of the Richness of the Soil as by reason of its Situation for Trade It is the Narrowest part of America and lieth between the Northern and Southern or the Atlantick and Pacifick Oceans and is Justly called an Isthmus as comprehending where it is broadest not above two degrees viz. between eight and ten N. L. and where it is narrowest about but one degree And it is in all probability stiled the Ishhmus of Darien from the great River of that name where with the Northern coast is bounded to the East For beyond that River on the North side the land doth so spread to the East and the North-East and on the South side to the South and South-East that it can no farther be called an Isthmus But as to the narrowest part of this American Isthmus which as I have said doth not extend above one degree upon which the Scots have Setled their Colony and have appointed that the Country shall hereafter be called Calidonia and that themselves Successors and Associates shall be stiled by the Title of Calidonians Wafer doth assign for its Western limits from the Mouth of the River Chagre where it falls into the North Sea to the nearest part of the South Sea Westward of Panama and for its Eastern boundaries from point Garachma or the South part of the Gulph of St. Michael directly Eastward to the forementioned River Darien And all do know that it is circumscribed limited and bounded on the North and South by the two vast Oceans that are so Denominated And as to the particular place where the Scots have pitched their Tents and raised Fortifications it is upon a Harbour called by the Spaniards Acla and by the Natives Schocana and is one of the most Defensible Ports of the World and is Situated about two Leagues from the Golden Island called by the Spaniards Guarda which as it is not further Distanced from the South Sea than what any man may Travel in two or three Days and which the Natives can do in one So it lieth in a Nearness of Eight or Nine Leagues both to the River Darien and Conception upon which Boats may go to the Southern Ocean And as the weather in the place and on all hands where the Scots are setled is exceeding temperate being much the same that is in other places of the Torrid Zone of that Latitude but inclining rather as Wafer says to the wet extreme the Rains beginning usually in April or May and continuing more or less to the latter end of August but with intermixtures even then of fair and dry days for a week together So that the Country is healthful beyond what was commonly believed or could have been imagined unless experienced And tho' the Artificial productions of the District and Territory be few by reason of the sloth and unskilfulness of the Natives to cultivate the Land and to improve and fabrick what it yields yet the ground is unconceivably fertile and rich and might by being well Manured and Agriculted afford both as great Variety and as great Plenty for the comfort and pleasure as well as for the Necessities of Life as any Land in whatsoever part of the World doth However the Natural Productions and what it spontaneously yields as materials of and commodities for Trade and to enrich such as are or shall become engaged and Interessed in the Traffick are divers and great both in the variety of kinds and in the Plenty and Quality of them For besides its being stored with all sorts of Wood proper for Building and Wainscotting and particularly with Cedar it hath also abundance of white wood fit for Cabinets and Interlaying and which is more than all the other it is likewise plentifully furnished with Logwood which the English do now cut upon the Bay of Hunderos not without being exposed to great hazard and danger and if credit may be given to reports it is provided of Nicaragua wood which is a Commodity for Dying of that value as to be reckoned to approach to the worth of Cochenele and which is beyond all other productions whatsoever It affordeth both Silver and Gold Mines as well as large quantities of Gold Dust that is gathered out of the Rivers after that it hath been washed from the Mountains by violent Rains And then for the People they are open frank and good natured and for many Leagues round in an entire Friendship with the Scots having not only received them in a most obliging manner at their first arrival into those American parts and their Captains Supreame Leaders or Caiques who have neither dependance upon any other Prince or State nor upon one another save by Leagues for mutual defence readily and with great chearfulness consented and agreed to permit the Scots to settle among them and to become Inhabitants in their Country but have by stipulations and contracts since Joyned in a Confederacy with them for the defence of them and their Colony against all such as shall in time to come be their Enemies So that for Situation as the Councel constituted by the Indian and African Company of Scotland for the Government and direction of their Colonies and settlements in the Indies have published in their Declaration bearing date at new Edinburg in Calidonia December 28. 1698 it is a more convenient Place than any other in all America to be the Store-house of the unsearchable Treasures of the spacious South Seas the door of Commerce to China and Japan and the Emporium and Staple for the Trade of both the Indies And as it is there that the Scots have settled a Colony and Plantation by and with the consent of the Natives no European Prince or State being thereof possessed or having right of claim thereunto so they did not offer to enter upon that District and Territory without the having a particular and strict regard unto and conforming exactly with all the Regulations Proviso's and Limitations laid down and prescribed in the Act of Parliament and in his Majesty's Patent and the
so closely of thiâ— Affair and to examine it with that accuracy which they ought to do may be inclined and ready to imagine seeing that upon the whole North-side of the Isthmus from the River Darien to the Bastimentos the Spaniards are not in possession of one foot of Ground nor ever were save for a little while at first of Nombre de Dios which they soon relinquish'd And it is against both all the Topicks of Argumentation and all the Measures of Law and Justice that from the Spaniards having made some Settlements on the South-Sea and their having so far as they have obtain'd possession there restricted and confin'd the Natives to narrow bounds to infer and conclude from thence their having a Propriety in and a Jurisdiction over all the Northern Coast. And such a pretence is the more unreasonable and absurd in that the Isthmus of Darien is naturally divided by a ridge of Hills that runneth from East to West Nor can any allegation whatsoever more avowedly offer violence to common Sence and more notoriously attempt the putting an Affront upon the Understandings of Men than from the Spaniards being possessed of and having dominion over one part of Isthmus to deduce and conclude from thence that therefore they must have a Propriety in and a Soveraign Jurisdiction over the whole And from their Title and Right of Prescription upon long Occupation unto some of the Southern Boundaries of that Streight to infer and plead their having in the vertue of that a Title to the Northern parts thereof of which as they were never in possession so the People of the latter are wholly independent upon them of the former and the Rulers of the one altogether Absolute within themselves without deriving the least Authority from or paying any kind or degree of Subjection and Obedience unto the other And for the Spaniards to pretend that thro' their possessing Porto Bello on the South of Darien and Carthagena in a small Island on the North-side of it that therefore and by consequence they ought to be acknowledg'd to have a right of Propriety in and of Jurisdiction over all the adjacent Country which is between two and three hundred English Miles in Dimension and Extent is not to Argue but to Banter and to Ridicule and Lampoon Mankind instead of endeavouring to instruct satisfie and convince them Especially seeing that as all the Settlements and Plantations which the Spaniards have upon or near unto that Isthmus whether upon the Southern or the Northern Oceans were all obtain'd without the consent of the Natives so the Indians who live and inhabit in the interjacent and intervening Countries between the Spaniards Plantations on the South and North-Seas have still preserved the possession of those Territories without the having ever become subject unto or the having any ways acknowledg'd the Soveraignty and Dominion of the Spaniards over them And should we submit to that Way and Method of Reasoning what a Claim would the Kings of France have had long ago to all the Countries Provinces and Dominions which the Catholick King doth possess and bear Soveraignty over in Europe in that all the Spanish Provinces are situated and do lie between the Countries which the French King possesseth upon the Ocean and those which he hath right unto and Soveraignity over on the Mediterranean Nor can any thing carry more intrinsic and self-evidence along with it than that when a People were not the first Occupiers and the original Inhabitants their Title unto and their Tenure and Property in that case in a Country can extend and reach no farther than as they are got into possession of it either by the consent of the Natives or by conquest in a lawful War or by Prescription thro' long Occupation upon an unjust one None of all which do in any manner obtain or hold or can any ways be pleaded by the Spaniards in reference to the Peninsula on the Isthmus of Darien where the Scots are settling and establishing a Colony Moreover to all that is already said under this Head let me further subjoin that no Nations being meerly in actual possession of part of a Country that had not been originally their own hath been accounted sufficient in Equity Law or Justice to preclude and debar others from seeking to settle themselves in such places as those Strangers who had come first to plant there were not in actual possession of whereof it were easie to assign many Instances but it being a matter whereof none that are acquainted with Books of Voyages and Navigations can be ignorant I shall content my self with the mentioning of a few but in the mean time shall be careful that they may be adapted to the case that is under present debate Let it then be observ'd in the first place That notwithstanding the English had planted upon the Continent as well as in several Islands of America and did particularly possess upon the Terra firma from new-New-England to Carolina without the interposition of Colonies belonging to any European Princes or States whatsoever nevertheless the Dutch finding Long-Island that is since come to be call'd New-York and which lyeth within the foremention'd Limits unoccupy'd yet environ'd and surrounded on all hands by English Plantations they did in a time of full and entire Peace betwixt the Crown of Great Britain and the Belgick-States sit down and establish a Plantation upon it which without any disturbance from the English or their quarrelling with them upon that account they continu'd to possess until the Year 1667 when after a Treaty of Peace between King Charles II. and the States General for the putting an end to that War which had commenc'd between those two Ruling Powers Anno 1665 Long-Island was exchang'd by the Dutch for Surinam Moreover whereas the Spanish Plate Fleet must of necessity pass between Florida and the Bahama Islands unto both which the Spaniards do likewise lay claim by challenging a property in and a dominion over them yet notwithstaning of this the English possessed themselves of the said Islands and tho' the Spaniards both complained and did highly resent it and so far as they had strength and power did as well Barbarously as Injuriously treat those English whom they found settled there nevertheless the Spaniards being no ways able to Justifie their Right and Title to those Islands the English continued to assert and maintain the Possession which they had acquired as long as they themselves found there Intrest in it and thought it convenient so to do Yea notwithstanding that the Spaniards plead a right unto and a propriety in Jucatan and if the having over-run a great part of a Country which is above 300 Leagues in compass and the having Massacred a prodigious Number of the Native Indians give them a legal Title unto and a Dominion over all the Territories and Districts of it It must be acknowledged that they had them Nevertheless the English have not only Sailed frequently thither
unto every one that will afford himself time and leisure to view the Treaties and to peruse the Articles concerted and agreed in them that they were meerly declarative of what was confess'd to be in the legitimate and rightful Possession of those two Kings and regulative of what should be the behaviour of their several and respective Subjects towards each other in America as also restrictive with reference to their Claims of any Title or Right to the Provinces Islands and Territories which either of them were in the possession and occupation of but that they were in no ways or manner exceptive of or preclusive from their settling Plantations in such other Conutries Districts and Places as were neither possess'd and occupy'd by them nor by any other European Princes or States And whereas the Treaty of 1670 is that whereby the mutual Interests and Possessions of the Kings of Great Britain and of Spain are provided for and adjusted it may not be amiss to intimate the occasion and reason of those Regulations which were concerted and made by that Alliance Namely that the Crown of Spain having antecedently thereunto laid Claim to all America as of right belonging unto His Catholick Majesty and having accounted all the Settlements of every one else and particularly of the English within that vast Continent as likewise in the American Islands to have been so many Invasions upon their Right it was concerted and agreed by that Treaty that this universal claim and pretence of Title of the Spaniards should be renounc'd and disclaim'd And that the possession of the Crown of England in such Territories and Places where the English had planted should be confess'd and acknowledg'd to be legal rightful and good Which was the sole and alone business that was design'd and compass'd in the foremention'd Treaty For whereas by the Treaty of 1667 there was only a general and perpetual Peace concluded and established between the Dominions and Territories of Great Britain and those of Spain without the particularizing of any thing that respected their several Plantations in America And whereas the Kings of Spain had always question'd the Right of the Kings of England to their American Plantations upon the ground of an universal Title which they claim'd to all the West-Indies and had particularly controverted the Right of their Britannick Majesties to several Plantations which had been made by the English in the American part of the World upon pretences and allegations that the English had forceably drove out the Spaniards and thereupon gotten into possession of several places that had formerly been enjoy'd and occupy'd by them therefore it was that upon these considerations that whole matter came under particular Regulation and Adjustment in the Treaty of 1670 in and by which the Right and Dominion of the King of Spain in those Countries Islands Provinces and Territories whereof he was possessed and so far as they wert in the actual occupation of the Spaniards being confess'd and provision made for their quiet and peaceable enjoyment of them There was likewise a formal and explicite Renunciation of all Claim made by the Spaniards to whatsoever was in the English possession but not one word or syllable so much as once mention'd in that whole Treaty concerning and relative to such parts and places as were not at that season in the occupation of the one or of the other Nor can it in consistency with good Sence and Reason be imagin'd But that if the Right of the King of Spain to all those Territories and Districts in America which were neither in the actual occupation of the Spaniards nor of any other European Princes and States should by that Treaty have been acknowledg'd to appertain and belong to the Crown of Spain their Title thereunto would have been specially inserted and declared with an express exclusion of all others that should afterwards desing to be Planters in those void places of the Continent and Islands of America Nor is it to be doubted that if the Right of the Spaniards had been to be confess'd and own'd in that Treaty to all the parts of the Continent and Islands that were not possess'd by Europeans but that the landing and settling there in order to plant without freedom and liberty previously granted by the Crown of Spain would have been specify'd as an act of Hostility and Infraction of the Alliances So that there having been no such care taken nor provision made in the foremention'd Treaty it is an indispensible evidence that the whole which was thereby design'd was only to adjust and settle Matters in relation to what each of those two Crowns were actually in possession of And that they were left still under an equal freedom of settling in any new Places that were void and unoccupy'd and no more in the hands of the one than of the other Nor can it fall into the thoughts of any who have not lost their Understandings that the English who are a trading People and who finding their Interest and Profit in their West-India Plantations design'd to extend and enlarge them in whatsoever other parts of America they could where Settlements might be made without Invasion upon the Rights of Europeans should by that Treaty be concluded and stak'd down to plant in no other places of the West-Indies save in those where they had Colonies at that time So that the whole which was decided adjusted and stipulated in and by that Treaty amounted only to these two things First That by the 7th Article The King of Great Britain and his Heirs and Successors shall have hold and possess with full Right of Empire Property and Possession all Lands Regions Isles Colonies and Lordships situated in the West-Indies or in any part of America which His Majesty King Charles II. did then hold or which His Subjects did then possess so that no Controversy whatsoever was afterwards to be rais'd or mov'd in reference to that Matter And 2dly That by the 8th Article The Subjects of the said King should abstain from all Commerce and Navigation in the Ports Havens and Places having Forts Castles or Staples for Commerce that is That the Subjects of Great Britain shall not Trade nor Sail into the Ports and Places which the King of Spain hath in the West-Indies nor the Subjects of the King of Spain Trade or Sail to the places which the King of Great Britain doth there possess without Licences mutually and reciprocally given in the words and terms which were specify'd and set down in a Schedule annex'd to the Articles of the Treaty From both which it doth demonstratively appear that all stipulated about and agreed unto in that Treaty was and is that the said Kings and their Subjects shall not only severally and respectively forbear the Invading of such others Territories and the injuring of one another but that they shall not Navigate nor Trade in the Ports and Staples that do belong unto either save under such provisions limitations
a Projection while it is only in proposal and in Embryo and the condemning and rescinding it after it hath been put in Execution Seeing by the first the Undertakers are only advis'd and caution'd whereas by the last they are not only disoblig'd and disgusted but really prejudic'd and injur'd Further There is likewise a great discrimination to be made between what is adviseable at one season and what is justifiable as well as prudential at another For the exigencies which at one time we may be under of having the favour and assistance of a neighbouring Nation may render it impolitick to countenance that which at another time when we stand rescu'd from attendance to any other Measures save those of Law Justice and Truth it were both to abandon and sacrifice our Interest to neglect it Further The inhibiting of the Subjects of England from proceeding in the foremention'd Designs may have been founded upon such Motives and Reasons as do no ways affect that which the Scots have undertaken Nor can the cases therefore be render'd parallel unless the circumstances could be made appear to be equal So that the Kingdom of Scotland being altogether ignorant of the Inducements upon which the Resolutions were taken in the cases of those English-men it is not to be expected that their Cases should have been look'd upon by the Scots as presidents for their conduct or that they should have govern'd themselves by any rules save those of their own Interest and Profit in subordination to the Laws of Nations public Alliances and the Municipal Statutes of that Kingdom Moreover there is a great difference to be made between checking the Inclinations of a few private Men who possibly might be rather designing their own personal advantage than a National good and the crossing the unanimous Desires of a whole Kingdom who as they knew the thing to be lawful in which they were engag'd so they did believe that the pursuing it was indispensably needful in order to their Welfare and Prosperity Finally whatsoever Authority His Majesty stands vested with or whatsoever liberty his Ministers are allow'd to have in reference to affairs previously to Acts of Parliament concerning them or in relation to Matters that do not directly fall under the Regulation of Laws and Statutes yet they do become not only uncontrolable by them but even are not to be superceded by His Majesty after that they are once establish'd by Laws and confirm'd by Charters For such things as are once made lawful by Acts of Parliament are put out of the reach both of the King and of his Council as to their considering afterwards whether they be convenient But having upon anotoer occasion mention'd this before I will not here insist upon it again And as for the particular Reflections which I intend to make upon each of the Cases apart I shall dispatch them with what expedition I can and in the order that the Cases are laid down In reference therefore to the first which was the Council of England's discouraging such English Merchants as had design'd to have settled at Port-Royal in the bottom of the Bay of Campeachy I do say that there is no likeness alliance or affinity between what was intended to have been done by some English there and what is done by the Scots in the Isthmus of Darien In that the Bay of Campeachy lying in the Province of Nicaragua within the Diocess of Stiapa which Dominion and Bishoprick being part of the ancient Empire of Mexico which the Spaniards conquer'd after their usual way of Killing the Inhabitants and converting the Land to their own use and unto which they have been confess'd to have a right by Prescription can be no parallel unto nor bear any similitude with that of the Isthmus of Darien where the Scots have establish'd their Colony of Calidonia seeing as the Isthmus was never any part either of the Mexican or the Peruvian Empires so that particular District of the Isthmus where the Scots have begun to settle a Plantation was never subdu'd by the Spaniards nor did the Natives at any time acknowldege their having Jurisdiction over them So that tho' for the English to have settled in the Bay of Mexico might be accounted an Encroachment upon the Right of the Spaniards yet it can no ways from thence follow that for the Scots to settle at Acla which had never been subdu'd or possess'd by the Spaniards is to be held an Invasion upon any of the Territories or an Encroachment upon the Rights of the Spanish Crown Moreover for the Council of England to have given permission to the English Subjects to Sail unto and to stay and cut Logwood in the Bay of Campeachy without the leave and consent of the Spaniards was a greater encroachment upon the Rights of His Catholick Majesty than it would be to have the Scots authorized and justified in their erecting a Colony on that part of the Isthmus where they landed and are sit down Seeing it is contrary to all the Measures both of Justice and Amity for a Government to connive at an Invasion upon the Dominions of a Prince in whom a Title Jurisdiction and Property are allow'd to stand vested in and over those Territories whereas it interferes with no rules of Law Equity or Friendship for a Government to authorize and empower its Subjects to plant in a place where that Prince was never acknowledg'd nor justly could be to have a Soveraignty or Right Further whatsoever the opinion of the Court and Council of England may have been as to the Spaniards having such a Right to the Bay of Campeachy as doth debar and preclude all others from coming thither without obtaining of leave from the Spaniards yet there are other Courts in the World who have thought that it was free for them to settle in that Bay without a Grant and Concession from the Crown of Spain whereof there needed no other instances to be assigned but that of the French who have several times been endeavouring to have settled on the River de Spiritu Sancto in that Bay and who are at this time designing to establish a Colony on the River Mischasipe upon the Mexican Gulph Finally whatsoever the Council of England might have said to those English Merchants for discouraging their settling at Port Royal in the Bay of Mexico yet it is unquestionably certain that the project of the English for settling and cutting Logwood there obtained and took effect in that they have had for several years Logwood in that place appropriated unto them which they have cut and brought home for the accommodating of English Dyers And as to the Second Case concerning the Prohibition of those English Merchants and Traders to settle in Darien whose Proposals for the establishing a Plantation in that part of America had been laid before the King as well as the Lords Justices I shall in the first place declare that the circumstances of that being wholly unknown to me I shall