of being attack'd by his Fleet as they that advis'd the emitting of those Proclamations must needs think his Majesty was oblig'd in Honour and Justice to order if he was of opinion that the Scots had broken the Alliance betwixt him and Spain Let any reasonable man consider what Anguish and Perplexity these Considerations join'd to their pinching Wants and other Circumstances must occasion in the minds of those poor men and whether it might not give a handle to those of them that were unwilling to stay to mutiny against the rest and put all into disorder which might be fomented by other ill persons amongst them for we are not to suppose that with 11 or 1200 men there went no other ill man but H s since it 's not improbable that they who opposed our Company so much from the very beginning might be prompted by the same Malice to send Spies and Traitors amongst our Men on purpose to defeat their Design If it had not been that they were thus discouraged and brought to their wits-end by those Proclamations they would certainly have had so much Conduct as to have sent away a great part of their Men to Jamaica or any of the English Plantations where they might have subsisted till the arrival of a Convoy from Scotland and so with those Provisions that were sufficient to carry them as far as New York and a great deal further if they had not been retarded by Tempests might have maintain'd a competent number of their Men to keep possession of the Colony till Supplies had arriv'd but the Proclamations disabled them from taking this Method and by consequence are chargeable with the ruin of the Colony In the next place it is undeniable that those Proclamations must needs have incouraged the Spainards and other Enemies in their Opposition against our Colony and animated them to go on with their Preparations to drive us out So that had they deserted upon no other account but the noise of the great Preparations making against them by the Spaniards at Carthagena Porto Bello c as Sir William Beeston seem'd to insinuate in his Letter it makes the Proclamations directly chargeable with the Ruin of the Colony since they had good reason to remove from thence when their own Prince had forbid all Commerce with them and when their Enemies were making formidable Preparations against them It is likewise plain that those Proclamations must necessarily prevent their having any Supplies from the Dutch at Curassaw if they had any to spare for since the Influence of ours and the Dutch Court prevented our Company 's having any Incouragement in Holland it is reasonable to believe it would have the same influence in reference to our Colony in the Dutch Plantations We have likewise all the reason in the world to conclude that the Influence of those Proclamations might hinder the Natives from giving our Colony those Supplies that it was in their power to have done for there 's no doubt but they had information of 'em industriously sent them by some of our Adversaries when Capt. Long was so malicious as to endeavour at our first arrival to possess them with an opinion that we were nothing but Pirats and that the K. of Great Britain would disown us and indeed by the event it would seem he had Instructions so to do It is true that at first the Natives seeing our Men have a Competency of all sorts of Provisions might not believe his Report but they must needs have been confirm'd in the truth of it afterwards when they saw them dying for want and deceiv'd as to their Expectation of further Supplies and upon that account might think they had sufficient ground to withdraw their Assistance from them and not further provoke the Spaniards in favour of a People that they found were not able to do any thing for themselves and by consequence uncapable to protect them which was the thing they were to expect from their Alliance Having thus made it evident that the Opposition our Company met with from Court at first and the Proclamations issued against our Colony at last are justly to be reputed among the principal Causes of the Miscarriage of that Design we come in the next place to consider his Majesty's Answer to the Address of the Commons of England on that Head and the Proclamations issued out against us in his Name in the West-Indies We are sorry that ever there should have been any occasion for such an ungrateful piece of work but think it a Duty incumbent upon us and what we owe to the Constitution of our Country which we have reason to believe is industriously conceal'd from his Majesty to write freely on this head that the World may see what just cause we have to complain His Majesty's Answer That he had been ill serv'd in Scotland c. is such as our Ancestors if we may believe our Historians would have thought inconsistent with the Trust reposed in a King of Scots a manifest Reflection upon the Justice and Fidelity of the Nation and a discovery of their Arcana Imperii to those that were quarrelling with them We are not to suppose that his Majesty would give an Answer to an Address of this Importance without Counsel If he consulted with our Dutch or English Opposers it was the same as if he had consulted our professed Enemies if he consulted with Scots-men and was advis'd to this Answer by any of them they are Traitors to their Country and have betray'd its Soveraignty for they ought to have advis'd him to answer that as King of Scots he was not to give an account to the English for any thing transacted in that Kingdom but if they found themselves any ways aggrivev'd or thought their Trade endanger'd by the Scots Act he should be willing to have the matter debated and adjusted by Commissioners of both Nations as became the Common Father of both This could not justly have been look'd upon by the English as a refractory or stubborn Answer but must have been imputed to his braveness of Temper and fidelity to his Trust But at once to give up the Soveraignty of Scotland without demurring upon it argues that his Majesty was advis'd to this Answer by Enemies to the Scotish Nation Our Parliaments have originally a greater Power than that of England for what the States of Scotland offer'd to the touch of the Scepter their Kings had no power to refuse or if they did the Resolves of the States had the force of a Law notwithstanding Thus our Reformation was established in 1560 by an Act of the States and tho our Queen Mary then in France and her Husband the Dauphin afterwards Francis I. refus'd to give their Consent it remain'd a firm Law which Q. Mary when she return'd to Scotland was so far from offering to dispense with tho she was a great Asserter of her Prerogative that she was oblig'd to intreat of the States so far to dispense with
Order on our behalf which by a further Address we are now to lay before his Majesty But whereas we humbly conceive your Lord ships to be more immediatly under his Majesty the Guardians of the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom We think it our duty to represent to your Lordships the Consequences of the said Memorial both with relation to our Company in particular and the Privileges Interest Honour Dignity and Reputation of the Nation in general Your Lordships very well know of what concern the Success of this Company is to the whole Kingdom and that scarce any particular Society or Corporation within the same can justly boast of so solemn and unanimous a Suffrage or Sanction as the Acts of Parliament by which this Company is established So that if effectual measures be not taken for putting an early stop to such an open and violent Infringement of and Incroachment upon the Privileges of so solemn a Constitution 't is hard to guess how far it may in after Ages be made use of as a Precedent for invading and overturning even the very Fundamental Rights natural Liberties and indisputable Independency of this Kingdom which by the now open and frequent Practices of our unkind Neighbours seem to be too shrewdly pointed at And should this Company wherein the most considerable of the Nobility Gentry Merchants and whole Body of the Royal Burroughs are concerned be so unhappy which God forbid as to have its Designs rendered unsuccessful through the unaccountable evil Treatments of our said Neighbours most certain it is that no consideration whatever can hereafter induce this Nation to join in any such other publick Stock tho never so advantageous an undertaking as not doubting but to meet with the like or greater Discouragements from those who give such frequent and manifest Indications of their Designs to wrest our Right and Freedom of Trade out of our hands For which cause we humbly offer the Premises to your Lordships serious Consideration not doubting but you will in your profound Wisdom and Prudence take such effectual measures for redress thereof at present and to prevent the like Incroachments for the future as may be capable to remove those Apprehensions and Jealousies which the bare-faced and avowed Methods of the English do now suggest not only to our Company in particular but even to the whole Body of this Nation in general Signed at Edinburgh the 22d Day of December 1697. in Name Presence and by Order of the said Council General by May it please your Lordships Your Lordships most Obedient and most Humble Servant Sic subscribitur Francis Scot P. And therewith they join'd another to the King as follows To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Address of the Council General of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies May it please Your Majesty BY a former Address of the 28th of June last We have humbly represented to Your Majesty that Your Majesty's Envoy to the Court of Lunenburgh and Resident at Hamburgh did under pretence of special Warrant from Your Majesty give in a Memorial to the Senat of the said City of Hamburgh contrary to the Law of Nations and expresly invading the Privileges contained in the said Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent by which our said Company is established Copies of which Address and Memorial we have for Your Majesty's better Information hereto annexed In answer to which Your Majesty was then graciously pleased to signify by your Royal Letter that upon Your Majesty's Arrival in England You would take the Contents of our said Address into consideration and that in the mean time You would give Orders to Your said Minister not to make use of Your Majesty's Name or Authority for obstructing our Comapny in the prosecution of our Trade with the Inhabitants of the said City of Hamburgh In the full assurance of which we rested secure and took our Measures accordingly till to our further fur prize and great disappointment we find by repeated Advices from Hamburgh that Your Majesty 's said Resident continues still contumacious and is so far from giving due Obedience to Your Majesty's said Order that upon Application made to him for that effect with all respect due to his Character he pretended that he had never as yet got any such Order on our behalf Which we thought fit in all duty and humility to lay before Your Majesty renewing withal our most humble and earnest Request that Your Majesty would be now graciously pleas'd to take the Contents of this and our said former Address into consideration and in Your Royal Wisdom order some speedy and effectual Redress of our Grievances therein mentioned and a just Reparation of the manifest Damages which our Company has already fustain'd by reason of the said Memorial And grant us a declaration under Your Royal Hand to render the Senat and Inhabitants of the City of Hamburgh and all others with whom we may have occasion to enter into Commerce secure from Threatnings and other false Suggestions contained in the said Memorial as well as to render us secure under Your Majesty's Protection in the free Enjoyment of our lawful Rights and Privileges contained in Your Majesty's Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent above mentioned Signed at Edinburgh the 22d Day of December 1697. in Name Presence and by Order of the said Council General by May it please your Majesty Your Majesty's most Faithful most Dutiful most Humble and most Obedient Subject and Servant Sic subscribitur Francis Scot P. Notwithstanding all this humble Application there was no stop put to that Opposition So that the Hamburghers dar'd not venture to subscribe and the Company after great loss of time and Money and leaving two Ships unfinish'd to the great Dishonour as well as Disadvantage of the Nation were oblig'd to recal their Agents after having spent 30000 l and not receiv'd one Farthing there tho the Hamburghers were so willing to join that they were sorry there was not room left for subscribing more than 200000 l The Company finding themselves thus injuriously dealt with made application to the Parliament of Scotland for redress Upon which the Parliament presented the following Address to his Majesty An ADDRESS to his Majesty by the Parliament WE Your Majesty's most Loyal and Faithful Subjects the Noblemen Barons and Burgesses convened in Parliament do humbly represent to Your Majesty that having consider'd a Representation made to us by the Council General of the Company trading to Africa and the Indies making mention of several Obstructions they have met with in the prosecution of their Trade particularly by a Memorial presented to the Senat of Hamburgh by Your Majesty's Residents in that City tending to lessen the Credit of the Rights and Privileges granted to the said Company by an Act of this present Parliament We do therefore in all humble Duty lay before Your Majesty the whole Nations Concern in this Matter And We most earnestly do entreat
making his Case better that it makes it ten times worse for if his Affections be captivated we are without remedy except we either sue for a Divorce as in case of wilful Desertion and denying conjugal Duty or withdraw from under his roof and remove to another Family as God and Man will allow one Sister to do that is oppressed and denied the Privileges of paternal Love and Protection whilst another is caressed and dandled and has her Fortune raised by diminishing that of the neglected Sister The Jamaica Proclamation against our Colony at Darien comes next to be considered and is as follows By the Honourable Sir William Beeston Knt-Governour and Commander in chief for his Majesty in the Island of Jamaica and of the Territories and Dependencies of the same and Admiral thereof WHereas I have received Orders from his Majesty by the Right Honourable James Vernon one of the Principal Secretaries of State importing that his Majesty was not informed of the Intentions and Designs of the Scots in peopling Darien which is contrary to the Peace between his Majesty and his Allies commanding me not to afford them any Assistance In compliance therewith in his Majesty's Name and by his Order I do strictly charge and require all and every his Majesty's Subjects that upon no pretence whatsoever they hold any Correspondence with the Scots aforesaid or give them any Assistance with Arms Ammunition Provision or any thing whatsoever either by themselves or any other for them nor assist them with any of their Shipping or of the English Nations upon pain of his Majesty's Displeasure and suffering the severest punishment Given under my Hand and Seal of Arms the 9th of April 1699. and in the 11th year of the Reign of William the 3d King of England Scotland France and Ireland and Lord of Jamaica Defender of the Faith It contains a heavy Charge against the Scots Company as having settled in Darien without informing his Majesty and having thereby broke the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies As to their not intorming his Majesty with their Design there was neither any need of it nor had they reason to do it that there was no need of it is plain enough from the Act of Parliament impowering them to settle any where in Asia Africa or America upon places not inhabited or any other place with consent of the Natives and not possess'd by any European Potentate Prince or State So that they were under no Obligation to acquaint him where they design'd to settle provided they kept to the Terms of the Act. And that they had no cause so to do is evident from that unreasonable opposition that a Faction of Court had prevailed with him to make to them all along which gave them just cause to expect the like treatment in time to come Then as to the Breach of the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies by the Settlement they had no reason to think themselves guilty of any such thing and so much the less that Dampier Wafer and all others that wrote of the Country gave an Account of the Natives being in possession of their Liberty and almost in continual Wars with the Spaniards Besides it was a rul'd Case in England since Capt. Sharp was by Law acquitted in King Charles Il's time not only for having marched through Darien in a Hostile manner but for attacquing Places that were really in possession of the Spaniards as St. Maria and Panama because he acted by virtue of a Commission from those Darien Princes This together with their not finding a Spaniard or Spanish Garison on all that part of the Isthmus was enough to justify the fairness of the Scots Settlement there and to have put a stop to this hasty Sentence till both sides had been heard But instead of that the Advisers to this Proclamation take upon them in a very Magisterial manner to declare the Scots guilty of a Breach of the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies which is so much the more remarkable that this Proclamation is publish'd in the West-Indies before ever it was known what the Scots could say in their own defence and sent away before the presenting of the Spanish Memorial which was on the third of May 1699. and the Proclamation bears date April 9th 1699. The unfairness of this Proclamation is evident from this that at the very same time it is publish'd in the West-Indies the Lord President of the Sessions and his Majesty's Advocate for the Kingdom of Scotland were sent for from hence to see what they could say to justify their Pretensions to Darien which they did by such Arguments as have not yet been answer'd We leave it then to the impartial Thoughts of the good People of England whether we have not occasion to say that our King is in the Hand of our Enemies since we are thus condemn'd without a hearing and our Nation put tothe trouble and expence to send Lawyers out of the Kingdom to defend themselves before those that had already condemned them And since this is a visible effect of the Union of the Crowns by which we are every day more and more oppressed let them speak their Consciences if we have not all the reason in the World to dissolve that Union except the Nations be more closely united and upon a better footing That we were so treated in former Reigns we had no great cause to wonder when the Court was engaged in a Conspiracy against our Religion and Liberties And our Nation being inferior to none in their Zeal for both it was but natural to think that we should be the first Sacrifice But to be treated thus by a Prince who hath ventur'd his Life to save us from Popery and Slavery a Prince who for Courage in War and Conduct in Peace is not to be match'd in Story a Prince who is under God the Great Champion of our Religion and the bold Asserter of Europe's Liberty a Prince whose Family we revere and whose Person we adore a Prince for whom we have so chearfully ventur'd our Lives and lost so much of the best Blood in our Veins to be so treated by such a Prince hath some thing cutting beyond expression and proves that our Disasters are no way to be remedied but either by a total Separation or a closer Union of the two Kingdoms We cannot be so unjust to his Majesty's Character as to think a Prince of his Magnanimity could be guilty of so mean a thing as willingly to subject the Crown of his Antient Kingdom which he received free to that of another We cannot once suffer it to enter into our thoughts that he who dares to out-brave Death in the Field a thousand times a day should act so unworthy a part as first to condemn and then to try us These and all other things of that sort we must needs charge to the account of our Enemies about him who misrepresent us and therefore surprise his Majesty
into any thing he does against us As to that positive Sentence of our having acted contrary to the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies we have all the Reason in the World to complain of it Is our Kingdom then become so mean and contemptible that what is transacted according to the Acts of our Parliaments and Patents of our Kings is liable to be annull'd or declared illegal by any Person that has the hap to be made an English Secretary of State Governor of one of their American Plantations or a Member of their Council of Trade If it be so his Majesty's Dignity as King of Scots is well defended in the mean time when it is liable thus to be trampled upon by his own Servants as King of England This does indeed verisy what has been said that our Kings since the Union leave their Antient Kingdom to the disposal of their Servants but whether this be agreeable to the Coronation Oaths of our Kings let them determine that are concern'd to enquire and perhaps it may be worth the consideration of our Neighbours whether since we have been govern'd by Servants they have not for the most part been subject to Minions and that the one does naturally pave the way for the other So that they are no great gainers by the Bargain If it be answer'd that the Proclamations are issued by his Majesty's Authority and that therefore our Sentence proceeds from his Bar. We answer 1. That there are shrewd Suspitions that a certain Gentleman or two who have affected all along to shew their Zeal against the Scots in this Affair have push'd this matter beyond their Instructions for there 's no man that knows his Majesty's Justice and Wisdom can admit a thought that he would condemn us before we were heard 2. We don 't at all question his Majesty's Authority as King of England to forbid his English Subjects to give any manner of Assistance to the Scots at Darien tho we might say it was unkind but we absolutely deny that he has any Authority as King of England to condemn the Proceedings of the Subjects of Scotland for any thing they transact without the Dominions of England If it be otherwise his Majesty as King of Scots is bound to appear at the King's-Bench-bar in Westminster-Hall for what he hath done as King of Scots upon the Lord Chief Justices Summons and of what Consequence this may be to himself or his Successors may be easily judg'd Had Oliver and the other Regicides bethought themselves of this it had been more for the Honour of England and would have taken off a great deal of the odium that is charg'd upon them for cutting off King Charles had they search'd for something Criminal in his Conduct toward the English Nation as King of Scots and condemned him for that Tho they did not think upon this perhaps others may and then the English will be able to justify themselves as not having cut off their own King but their Enemy the King of Scots as there 's no doubt they would have done by King Charles II. had he not made his escape after the battel of Worcester This may perhaps deserve the thoughts of his present Majesty and others concern'd in the Succession and so much the more that the dependence of the Crown of Scotland upon that of England hath been lately asserted by some English Historians and indirectly hinted at in a pretended Answer to the Defence of the Scots Settlement at Darien p. 24. But to satisfy that Gentleman and others who please themselves so much in vilifying the Scotish Nation they may turn to the Reigns of Edward I. II. III. and they will quickly find that Sir William Wallace K. Robert Bruce James Lord Douglas Thomas Randolph Earl of Murray and others that we could name did so gallantly defend the Soveraignty of Scotland against those bold Pretenders to a Superiority over us that their Successors have had no great stomach to pursue their Claim to it since So that if ever they had any it is forfeited by Prescription Oliver's imaginary Conquest so much insisted on by the dull Answerer of the Scots Defence and others will be of no use to the Faction in this matter since that was no National Quarrel nor did the English pretend to any such thing as a Conquest of us but immediatly withdrew their Forces upon the Restoration So that Oliver's Conquest as he calls it was only the Victory of one Party over another in a Civil War it being well known that he had Friends in Scotland as well as England which if that Wise Author will have Oliver's Victories to be Conquests he had conquerâ—d too before ever he came near Scotland We don't insist upon this with any design to derogate from the Valour of the English Nation which is known all over the World but to stop the mouths of those pitiful Scriblers and to give a Caveat to those Gentlemen about Court who talk so big of conquering Scotland upon this present occasion But we wish them to consult beforehand how England in general stands affected to such a Design and how they will justify the Lawfulness of it lest it fare with them as it did with K. Charles I. and his Cabal who not only in Council advis'd TO REDUCE US TO OUR DUTY BY FORCE RATHER THAN GIVE WAY TO OUR DEMANDS as may be seen in the Representation of the States of Scotland in 1640. but rais'd Money and levied a formidable Army to carry on their Design and yet the Hearts of these Bravos fail'd them when they came in view of the Scots who repuls'd them twice with shame the first time when they encamp'd their great Army near Barwick and the next when we charg'd them at Newburn And at last the best of the Nobility and Gentry of England thought fit to put a stop to those dangerous Proceedings and follow'd his Majesty with a Protestation against them as well knowing that if Scotland were once subdued the Liberties of England could not be long liv'd That it is the Interest of England now to prevent the Ruin of Scotland as much as it was then will appear by the following Arguments 1. That the present Juncture of Affairs makes it necessary for the Kingdom of England rather to strengthen themselves by making new Friends than by procuring new Enemies They are not ignorant that they have a controverted Title to their Crown entail'd upon them and that the Pretenders against those in possession are in the French Interest and under their Protection Nor can they be ignorant that to the old National Hatred betwixt France and England the French have added that of the Protestant Religion Of late years they have declared themselves the most implacable Enemies of it and their King in all his Triumphs has that ascrib'd to him as his greatest Exploit that he hath quelled the Monster of Heresy The case being thus it must needs be against the Interest of
Monarchy whatever some vitiated and deprav'd Palates perswade you to the Contrary The mask'd Champion of your Company whose Tongue is much too big for his Mouth is in Pain because he cannot spurt out all his Venom at one Blast However reasonable it be that the Gentleman's Zeal should atone for his want of Power yet I must acquaint you that his Quarrel with the English Nation is as unjust and groundless as your Settling a Colony in another Man's Dominions unless by Virtue of your Presbyterian Tenent viz. of Dominions being founded in Grace you who are the Presumptive Elect pretend a Divine Right to the Goods of the Wicked and so take upon you to cloath the Seven Councellors of your Colony with such another Commission as God gave the Hebrews when they departed out of Egypt I have no Inclination to offer any Thing in Opposition to the Gallantry of your Ancestors who took so much Care to keep themselves independent of another Nation And altho' I pretend to know the Thread of the Scotish and British Story full as well as the Author of the Defence yet out of Respect to the Country where I drew my first Breath tho' I owe it nothing else I will offer nothing to the Prejudice of it's Ancient Fame But if I point at some Errata's of this Author I do it purely to reconcile Mistakes and to make a Distinction betwixt the Scotch Company and Scots Nation I being so much the Latter's Friend as to wish them not to embrak in so rotten a Bottom as this of your Company until you are on an honester Footing than you appear to be at present that the Honour of the Ancient Kingdom mayn't be sully'd with so notorious a Mistake I shall only say in Answer to this Paragraph that altho' your Ancestors were never sparing of their Blood in defending their Country nay oftimes in making Reprizal when they could conveniently yet I must put you in mind that they were far better pleas'd with enjoying themselves in their old Caledonian Mountains than you are now with both Hills and Plains And I dare say they had such a Value for their Native Blood that they would not have been guilty of sending so many innocent and worthy Gentlemen like Sheep to the Slaughter or Spanish Mines so far from Home on such an April Errand 'T is both hard and unaccountable that this Gentleman who sets up for your Champion should use the English Nation so familiarly and take such Liberty not only of frightning them into an Ague but to Bully a great General who was never hitherto known to be daunted by more formidable Giants than the Quixots of your Company He honest Gentleman mean'd no Harm at the Granting of the Octroy for 't is to be believed that he could scarce hear what was whisper'd to him for the Noise of the Namure Guns And as for this Project of yours to Darien I dare be positive that he knew nothing of the Matter till it was Five or Six Months done and then he had it from other Hands If your Colony has left Darien for Reasons not as yet publick to the World 't is your Fault Right Worshipful Gentlemen in undertaking to manage a Project you so little understood and not of the English Nation whose Interest it is to advance and preserve their own Colonies and to keep them from being render'd desolate by the Clandestine Artisices of yours who industriously and tacitely spread their Declarations over all the English Islands and Plantations making use of the King of Great Britain's Name to give the more Authority to the Thing And by these indirect Manifesto's such Prosits or rather Plunders were insinuated that if the Government of England had not taken early Measures to prevent the ill Consequences 't is to be question'd whether the greatest Part of the English West-Indies had not e'er now quitted their Settlements and been decoy'd into your Colony under a Cover'd Notion that you had a Patent from the King to pick a Quarrel with the Spaniard and to devide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru amongst the Servants and Adventures of the Company This Project and Settlement you know was so secretly carried on that it was not known to England till the same Wind that brought the News likewise inform'd the Nation that the Scots were march'd over to Panama the chief City on the Isthmus of Darien and the Treasury-Chamber of all the Spanish Riches on the South-Sea and had planted Eighty Guns against it These Proceedings were enough to startle this Nation who had heard of no War with Spain and who had no great Reason to suffer their own Subjects to desert their Plantations to advance the Scotch Colony in their own Wrong As for this Nation 's curing into a War with the Spaniard on the Score of your Company who besides their Loss of Trade must throw away more English Pounds thrice over than there 's Scotch in your Capital Stock I 'll leave it to any Man of Half an Ounce of Politicks to find out the Jest on 't save this Hot-headed Author of your Colony's Defence As for these ridiculous and bugbear Stories which both you and your Champion insinuate viz. that if the Scots should lose or be expell'd out of Darien the French will certainly possess themselves of it This Story is so far vain that the French have another Game to play at present with Spain and if they had any such Inclination that Way they know that Coast far better than the Scots and might have secur'd Carthagena when they had it in their Power and a Legal Title to it by their Arms in the Time of a declar'd War Which Fortification is as far before your Fort St. Andrew or any Thing that can be made of it as Dunkirk is before Deale-Castle But still if France or Holland had any such Design as you would make the World believe why mayn't they still go sit down within a League of either Side of your Colony with as good a Title as yours since you will coop the Spaniard up within his Wall'd Towns and Garrisons But to leave this unnecessary Dispute And proceed to the oblique Threatnings wherewith he frightens King William to wit the Fate of those Mean-spirited Princes who blemish'd and were unworthy to wear the Imperial Crown of your Nation I 'll espouse His Majesty's Cause no further than to be confirm'd that he has been ill serv'd by some Persons and I am of Opinion that he does not merit one Half of this ill Language at their Hands Further I dare say so much in his Behalf by what has past already that the Scots Crown will receive no Blemish or Disreputation by his wearing of it altho' he does not think it either sit or just to Countenance an indirect Action of any of his Subjects By the Beacons which your Author sets up to scare him to wit of the Two Baliols of James the First and William the First any Man without
several other West-india Islands as likewise the American settlements on the Main the People met with a great many hardships and the like are to be expected at the beginning of all such Settlements To this I answer that at such Settlements the Undertakers and Planters know what they are going about and what to trust to which is no ways parallel with the Case of the Company for those being on an honest design had no more in their view than the Blessings of Heaven and the Product of the Earth and what they reap'd thereby was for their own use On the other hand the Gentlemen who went in the Scotch Companies Service were not born to Work nor did they design it when they went from their Fathers Houses and this the Company knew full as well as they A fourth reason they will offer is this that they sent a Cargo with us which might have purchas'd Provisions had it not been for the English prohibition To this 〈◊〉 that the Company having sent us on so dark an Errand where they must needs be assur'd that not only Spain but the other Trading Nations would be in our top should not have trusted to that unless they contriv'd it designedly to pick a quarrel with those Nations whose interest it was to refuse us Provisions or Necessaries to support our Collony As for the Cargo it self I refer my felf to the particulars and let any Merchant be Judge whether it was fitted for sale especially in the West-Indies The 1500 Fuzzes were the best of the Cargo but they could not be parted with the Linnen was the next but I have been assur'd by Merchants on Port-royal that 500 l worth of Scorch cloath makes the Commodity a drug there at any time Besides altho' we had not been sent on a dark design yet we cou'd not expect to Trade with Jamaico our Cloath and other Goods are seizable there either in our Bottoms or in their Sloops if the Jamaico Men should truck Provisions with us they cannot carry our goods home with them neither can they expect to Trade with the Spaniard on the account of our Settlement I know very well that the first Sloop which brought Provisions to us sold them at what rate they pleas'd and had our Scotch Cloath in truck at the prime cost yet they durst not carry it to Jamaico nor venture to Trade with the Spaniard but were oblig'd to leave it behind with Captain Allison the old Buccaneer to whom the Sloop was consign'd Lur still this reason of the prohibition will not hold Water for if there had been Money or market Goods in the Collony The English prohibition could not have kept Provisions from us The French and Dutch Islands were not confin'd by this Prohibition and I dare say there are so many good Christians at Currassa that if Redp and B's story of the Collonies bars of Silver had been true they would soon have made Provisions a drug in Caledonia Besides I can't think that the Prohibition had any influence on those four Sloops who went from Jamaico to the Collony laden with Provisions of all kinds altho' two of them return'd without breaking bulk I am rather apt to believe it was for want of those Silver bars and gold dust which in the Autum shakes off the Trees there As to the prohibition in self whereon the Author of the defence stumbles so oft and would gladly found the Basis of his quarral 'T is believ'd that his Majesty knew nothing of the Collonies Settlenient at Darien but what he had at second hand from R th's Prints till the Spanish Ambassador told him from his Master that some of his Majesty's Scotch Subjects had invaded the Spanish Dominions in his Province of Darien which he look'd upon to be contrary to the Treaty of Peace If his Majesty stopt the Spaniards mouth for the present till he inquired into the matter and forbid his English Subjects in the West-Indies to have any Communication with these People in Darien till such time as the Title were concerted he did no more than what was consonant with the Constitutions and Eslablishment of the English Islands altho' there had been no Spanish Complaâ—nt Neither could the King imagine that the Company â—…ould â—end out their Ships on to Foreign an Expedition so unprovided as to depend wholly on the English Plantations And if the King sorb d these to supply the Scotch Collony he did not prohibit the Scotch Company not Scotch Nation to send them what Provisions or other necesiaries they thought nt If the Scotch Company took most care to send out Buccaneers Pieces with great quantities of Powder and Shot and trusted to what Men they could decoy from the English and French Islands the defign was neither fair nor honest and it may reasonably be believ'd that both these Nations would have taken measures to bring them back again after they went And if his Majesty takes care that his Plantations in the West-Indies shall not be reduc'd to Forrests he can't be blam'd considering the vast Riches they send home to England yearly and the Customs which come into his Coffers when on the other hand all that the Scotch Company can make by such depopulations will not put one Peny in his Pocket these seventeen years at soonest worth the product of seventeen Hogsheads of Tobaccco Laying aside the Spanish Complaint and admit the Scotch Company to have a legal Title to their Settlement was it not reasonable that the Government of England having met with the clandestine Declararations which the Scotch Collony had spread all over the West-Indies inviting them over to Darien c. Should take suitable measures to prevent the ill consequences of the same and retain their own Subjects The Declarations are notorious and must be penn'd by some Body belonging to the Company or Collony and I presume the opposite Proclamation or Prohibition was penn'd by some Englishman who had some Interest in the English Plantations 'T is very well known that when Captain Pincarton met with the misfortue of being oblig'd to run his Vessel ashore under the Guns of Carthagena his Chief Errand was to Barhadoes and there to make use of the 48 hours that 's allow'd to foreigners to Wood and Water in doing business for the Collony and leaving Declarations to be spread over that Island and so from thence to other English and French Islands making use of the same Pretence of wanting Wood and Water These sinister dealings are not suffered in the Collony of any Nation and if the English and French Governments take care to prevent such designs I cannot see how they can be blaim'd 'T is very well known that those Declarations were so kindly entertain'd all over the Westindies that what with the Umbrary use that was made of King William's name and the hopes of Spanish Spoil most Men who were not Indu'd with Real or Personal Estate were making ready to go over to Darien Nay the unthinking sort of
was obtain'd viis modis but the Falshood and Malice of that Insinuation will appear to the World by the previous Act of 1693. for incouraging of foreign Trade by which it was statuted That Merchants more or fewer may contract and enter into such Societies and Companies for carrying on Trade as to any Subject of Goods or Merchandise to whatsomever Kingdoms Countries or parts of the World not being in War with his Majesty where Trade is in use to be or may be follow'd and particularly besides the Kingdoms and Countries of Europe to the East and West-Indies the Straits and to trade in the Mediterranean or upon the Coast of Africa or elsewhere as above Which Societies and Companies being contracted and entred into upon the terms and in the usual manner as such Companies are set up His Majesty with Consent aforesaid did allow and approve giving and granting to them and each of them all Powers Rights and Privileges as to their Persons Rules and Orders that by the Laws are given to Companies allowed to be erected for Manufactories And his Majesty for their greater Incouragement did promise to give to those Companies and each of them his Letters Patent under the Great Seal confirming to them the whole foresaid Powers and Privileges with what other incouragement his Majesty should judg needful These are the very terms of the Act of 1693. and in pursuance of this Act our Nation being willing to form a Company for trading to Africa and the Indies this Act which hath met with so much opposition in the World was past June 26. 1695. which was two years after Then with what Effrontery can H s and his Suborners suggest that it was obtain'd viis modis by surprise or in a surreptitious manner But something they must say to justify their unreasonable treatment of us and to blind the Eyes of the World Thus we see then that the Parliament of Scotland went on deliberately to advance their Trade and to make this Act by which it's evident that they who advis'd his Majesty to say that he was ill serv'd in Scotland impos'd upon him have laid a Foundation of division betwixt him and his Parliament which are the two constituent parts of our Government and if they be dash'd against one another the whole frame of it must of necessity be dissolv'd Hence also it is evident that those Counsellors if Scots-men ought by our old Constitution to be call'd to an account by the Parliament according to the 12th Act of Parl. 2 James 4. And if they be Englishmen or Dutchmen we have a right to demand Justice against them as having meddled in our Affairs contrary to the Laws of Nations The Soveraignty of our Nation and the Independency of the K. of Scots upon the Crown of England being tacitely giv'n up by this Answer and the Parliament of England being possess'd by our Enemies with a false Notion of our Design they put a stop to our taking Subscriptions from any Residenters in England tho our offering to take in the English as Sharers was a plain Demonstration of the uprightness of our Intentions towards that Nation This made it apparent that we had no design in the least to supplant them in their Trade but on the contrary to make them Partakers in ours in order to lay a foundation for a closer Union and greater Amity betwixt the two Nations which if it had taken effect our Trade had not been nipp'd in the bud as now it is by the frowns of the Court but might by this time have been improv'd to the advancement of the glory and strength of the Island Whereas by the opposition made to that noble Design the Nations are more alienated from one another than before lessen'd in their Strength and Trade and Scotland for ever lost as to their Friendship usefulness and joining with England on any occasion whatever unless proper Measures be taken to make up the Breach and retrieve our lost Honour and Advantage All that can be said to excuse so false a step in such a wise Nation as England is that they were impos'd upon by those that are Enemies to the true Liberties of both Nations and by some of their Traders and ignorant Pretenders to give advice in matters of Trade who out of a sordid Principle of Self-interest preferr'd their own private Gain to the general advantage of their Country This would have quickly been seen had his Majesty and the Parliament of England instead of that violent opposition which they made to the Scots Act desir'd a conference betwixt a Committee of the Parliaments of both Nations then it would soon have appear'd what our true Design was and that it was neither our Interest nor Intention immediately to follow an East-India Trade the apprehensions of which did so much alarm the Kingdom of England That it was not our Intention is evident from our rejecting the Proposals of our Countryman Mr. Douglas the East-India Merchant with which H s upbraids us by which at the same time he discovers his own folly and dishonesty his Folly in arguing against the Interest of England which he pretends to espouse and his Dishonesty in proposing our following a Trade which his new Masters who have paid him so well for his false Evidence look upon to be destructive to theirs That it was not our Interest immediately to think of an East-India Trade is evident from this that it would have exported our Mony with which it 's known we do not abound and ruin'd the Linen Manufacture of our Country upon which so many of our Poor depend This we think the City of London may be sensible of in a good measure by the multitudes of their own Silk-Weavers that are starv'd for want of Imployment and also by the unsuccessfulness of their own Linen Manufacture in England by reason of the great quantity of Silks Muslins Calicoes c. brought from the East-Indies from whence some wise Men have been and are still of opinion that an East-India Trade of that sort tends to the general Impoverishment of Europe tho it may enrich particular Persons These Considerations together with some Jealousies that Mr. Douglas might have been put upon making us that Proposal on purpose to divert us from our other Design of an American Trade were the true Reasons of our not hearkening to Mr. Douglas's Advice This our Neighbours might have known had they proceeded with us in such a Friendly manner as we had reason to expect when we were so kind as to offer them a share in the Benefits of our Act. And the Government at the same time might soon have been satisfied that the sinking of their Customs by our own and twenty years Freedom from that Duty was a meer bugbear Pretence It is evident that we could not have spent much East-India Goods in Scotland and therefore must have exported them If we had brought them to England they were liable to Customs there If we
and most assuredly expect That Your Majesty will in Your Royal Wisdom take such measures as may effectually vindicate the undoubted Rights and Privileges of the said Company and support the Credit and Interest thereof And as we are in Duty bound to return Your Majesty most hearty Thanks for the Gracious Assurances Your Majesty has been pleased to give Us of all due Encouragement for promoting the Trade of this Kingdom So We are thereby encouraged at present humbly to recommend to the more special Marks of Your Royal Favour the Concerns of the said Company as that Branch of Our Trade in which We and the Nation we represent have a more peculiar Interest Subscribed at Edinburgh the 5th of August 1698. in Name Presence and by Warrant of the Estates of Parliament SEAFIELD J. P. D. P. By all this it is evideht that the whole Kingdom of Scotland was unanimous in this matter and proceeded deliberately in it as that which highly concern'd their Interest yet we see that all their Endeavours were to no purpose for our Enemies were so resolute in opposing our Trade that rather than it should succeed they will not only trample under foot the Laws of Scotland but the Laws of Nations and exactly follow the Pattern set them by the French in huffing and tyrannizing over their Neighbours when at the same time they pretend to make War upon Lewis XIV for practices of the same nature and whilst they cry out upon the Decisions of the Chambers of Brisac and Mets and of the Parliament of Paris as tyrannical and unjust for invading the Rights of Neighbouring Princes and Nations they set up a Cabal at Whitehall to do the like by Scotland and Hamburgh Then let the World judg whether the King of England had not less reason to say that he was ill serv'd in Scotland than the King of Scots had to say that he was ill serv'd in England since one single Address from the Parliament of England prevail'd with their King to forbid all his Subjects to join with the Scots whereas the repeated Supplications of the Company of Scotland the Address of their Parliament and the Authority of Law and his own Letters Patent could not prevail with the King of Scots to do Justice to his own Subjects We wish these Gentlemen would consider this who were so very angry at the Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement for saying that the King of Scots was detain'd prisoner in England It is very certain that never any King of Scotland before the Union of the Crowns dar'd thus to trample upon their Laws or to oppose the General Interest of the Nation or if they attempted to do it they were quickly made sensible of their being inferior to the Law and the States of the Nation assembled in Parliament who till the Accession of our Princes to the English Throne remain'd in an undisputed possession of calling their Kings to an account for Male-administration and of disposing of thei Lives and Liberties as they saw cause We need not go so far back for Evidence to prove this as Eugenius the 7th who was brought to his Tryal on suspition of having murder'd his own Wife and acquitted upon discovery of the real Murderers or of James III. whose Minions by whose Council he governed were taken out of his own Bed-Chamber by the Nobles and hanged over Lauder-bridg and he himself persisting in those Courses was killed in flight after being defeated in Battle by the States and in the next Parliament was voted to be lawfully slain We have a later Instance and the Power of our Nation on that Head was largely asserted and accounted for by the Earl of Morton then Regent of Scotland in that noble Memorial he delivered in to Q. Elizabeth and her Council in defence of our proceedings against Q. Mary whom we dethron'd and in her stead set up her Son so that it is not the principle or practice of any one Party of our Nation tho it has been of late fix'd upon the Presbyterians as peculiar to them but was an Hereditary Right conveyed to us all by our Ancestors practised by Papists before the Reformation and justisied by those of the Episcopal Perswasion since particularly by the Earl of Morton beforemention'd who was the first that introduc'd Bishops into our Church after the Reformation Those things are not insisted upon with any Design of applying them to his present Majesty or of incensing the People of Scotland to do so but only to inform those that put his Majesty upon such Courses that they are his greatest Enemies and do what in them lies to destroy him It is the common Right of Mankind to be protected by those they set over them and to complain of Governors when they find themselves aggriev'd and their Privileges torn from them by Violence This Generation has prov'd it beyond possibility of Reply that the greatest Pretenders to submission to Princes and the most zealous Patrons of Passive Obedience will resist and dethrone their Kings too when they find themselves oppressed by them They that maintain the contrary are nothing but mean-spirited Flatterers or such as temporize with Courts because of their own private Advantage and be their Quality what it will are far from being so noble and brave as that poor Woman who told Philip of Macedon that he ceas'd to be King when he refus'd to hear her Petition Upon the whole it will appear that he Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement made the best Apology for his Majesty that could be made when he said that he was a Prisoner in England and therefore forc'd to act thus against the Interest and Dignity of his Crown as King of Scots It is demonstrated thus If his Majesty were in Scotland and another Person upon the Throne of England it is certain his Majesty would have encouraged the Trade of Scotland and resented such practices in the King of England as contrary to the Laws of Nations and the Soveraignty of his Crown If he did not he would be look'd upon to be mean-spirited and not fit to wear it and if he took part with the King of England against the Dignity of his Crown and the Interest of his Kingdom he would not only be looked upon as an Enemy to his Country but as felo de se From all which it is plain that as it is the best Apology that can be made for the King of Scots when he acts thus contrary to the Honour and Interest of himself and his Country to say he is a Prisoner in England so it is a sufficient Justification of the People of Scotland to refuse Obedience to what he commands by the Influence of the English or other Councils in opposition to their Interest because they are the Commands of a Captive and not of the King of Scots If our Enemies say he is no Captive but at Liberty to go to Scotland if he pleases it is so far from
England to suffer any froward and headstrong Faction to embroil them with Scotland or to ruin that Kingdom the Consequence of which will be the exposing themselves as an easier Prey to the Conquest of the French or any other Enemy That the French had a hand in fomenting our late Civil Wars and made use of their Firebrands in all Parties is beyond dispute and that it is now more their Interest to divide us than ever is so palpable that it cannot be denied Nothing in human probability could have stop'd the impetuous Current of their Arms but the Interposition of Great Britain and therefore it concerns them both in point of Interest and Revenge to dash us against one another and if the ill Usage that we meet with from the Court of England should force us again into a French or other Alliance the World cannot blame us since the Laws of Nature and Nations are for us Put the case that a smaller number of Christians should be unjustly attack'd by a greater whom nothing will satisfy but the utter Ruin of the former Could any man in conscience blame the weaker Party to call in the Assistance of Jews and Pagans to preserve their own Lives Is it not the same case with the Scots have they not ever since the Union of the Crowns been oppressed and tyranniz'd over by a Faction in England who will neither admit of an Union of the Nations nor leave the Scots in possession of their own Privileges as Men and Christians Was it not a Party in England that impos'd upon us first in Matters of Religion Did we send first to oblige them to submit to the Geneva Disciplin as they call it or was it they that first imposed their Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer upon us Was it we who first invaded them with an Army to subvert their Civil and Religious Liberties or did not they first invade us Was it we who first made Acts against their Trade or they who made Acts destructive of ours Did we issue Proclamations against their Colonies or have they done so by ours In the name of God then let them declare what they would have us to do They will not unite with us nor suffer us to live by our selves Nor must we have any share of their Trade or carry on a Trade by our selves Is it not plain then that the Faction oppress us and yet we must not complain of this sort of Treatment 2. If the State of Affairs in Ireland be consider'd it will appear to be such as may make it dangerous to suffer the Scots to be oppressed and provok'd in this manner It is well enough known that the People of Ireland are not very well pleas'd with their Treatment by some in England This together with the great numbers of Scots in the North of that Kingdom who bear a natural Affection to their Country and would be very uneasy to see its Ruin may prove of dangerous consequence in case of a Rupture with Scotland 3. It will further appear to be the Interest of England not to suffer the Scots to be so much run down if they consider the posture of their own Affairs at home The Divisions and Animosities betwixt the several Parties in England are well enough known So that besides the Sport it would afford to the common Enemy of our Religion and Country to see those two Nations engaged in War the Enemies of the present Government would be sure to improve it and watch for an opportunity to avenge themselves for what has been done against the late K. James and his Friends It is well enough known what hopes they and some People beyond Sea conceive from the Differences that this Treatment of the Scots may probably occasion and as they have an irreconcilable Hatred against our Nation because we declar'd so generally against the late King and are so zealous for his present Majesty there 's no doubt but they will foment our Divisions as much as they can and insinuate themselves with both Parties in order to set them together by the Ears They know that so many as fall in England of those who adhere to the present Constitution and so many as fall in Scotland for supporting the Trade and Freedom of their Country so many Enemies they are rid of therefore there 's no question but they promise themselves a plentiful fishing in such troubled Waters It likewise deserves the consideration of our Neighbours that they don't stand at present in very good terms as to matter of Trade with France Holland and Flanders nor is it well known what the Issue of the present Controversy with Spain about regulating their Succession may be The impending differences betwixt the Northern Crowns may perhaps in a little time imbroil them with one or other of them and affect their Trade also on that side All which being consider'd it would seem to be the Interest of England to assure themselves of the Friendship of the Scots by treating them in a kind and neighbourly manner 4. It will appear in particular not to be the Interest of the Dissenters and sober Churchmen that the Scots should be thus run down because their own Ruin will be the unavoidable Consequence of it This they may soon be convinc'd of if they will give themselves leave to consider how they were treated in K. Charles the First 's time when the Court did swell with so much Rage against the Kingdom of Scotland for asserting their Liberties then as they do now All those Church of England-men that could not conform to the Innovations brought into the Church by Laud and his Party were treated as Puritans and Schismaticks and those that appear'd for the Liberties of the Nation against the Ship-money and other Arbitrary Impositions of the Court were treated as Rebels and Traitors If they look into the two last Reigns it will appear as plain as the Sun that when Scottand was oppress'd and their Liberties wrested from them the Dissenters and moderate Church-men in England were brought under the lash the former were depriv'd of their Religion and Liberties and the latter expos'd to destruction by Sham-plots c. because of their appearing for the Laws of their Country We need mention no more Instances to put this out of Controversy than those deplorable ones of the Earl of Essex and Lord Russel to which we may add the shameful and barbarous Treatment of the worthy Mr. Johnson Chaplain to the latter because he so excellently defended with his Pen the Birth-right and Freedom of all true Englishmen From all this it will appear that England in general must suffer by the Ruin of Scotland and that those who have all along stood up for the English Liberties must lay their Account to come under the lash if once our Necks come under the Yoke therefore we dare appeal to the sober Men of the Church of England Whether it be their Interest that a Nation which agrees with them in all
to revoke or counteract it or if he do by the same Power that he absolves himself from his Obligation to protect and defend his Subjects he absolves them from all obligation to pay him any Revenue or Allegiance This is the Birth-right of all Scots-men and if our Neighbours in England have a mind to sit still and fee us bereft of it all the benefit they can expect from it is to have the Privilege of being devour'd last The rest of his Banter upon his native Country serves only to lessen his own credit and to make even those that set him at work curse him in thought not only as a Monster in nature but as dishonest to them by depriving them thus of the benefit of his Evidence for which they have paid him so well since no body in the world can think a man will have any regard to Truth that in such an impudent manner breaks thro all the Ties of Nature and as a just Judgment for so enormous a Crime is so far depriv'd of his reasoning Faculty that he is not sensible of his cutting his own Throat by contradicting himself almost in every Paragraph He upbraids us in one Page with not having dar'd to descend into the Plains and that those gallant Men our Ancestors durst not assemble for Worship before the Union except in a House whose Wall was twelve or 14 foot thick or to whisper their Prayers or Carrols thro the Cliffs of the Mountains In the next Page he tells us he has no Inclination to offer any thing in opposition to the Gallantry of our Ancestors and in some Pages following he impertinently ridicules the Valour of our Country in the Story of Baliol which he perverts in such a manner as no man but himself is capable of We don't think it worth while to answer him according to his Folly but shall once for all let him know that the most invective of the English Historians that wrote in the heat of the War do us more Justice than this unnatural Renegado There 's no Nation in Europe where we have not given proofs of our Valour nor is there a Court in Christendom where Scots-men are not valued on that account Sam. Daniel one of the best of the English Historians owns that never any People of the World did more gallantly defend their Liberties than we did in that very instance of Baliol when we were without a Head and from thence infers what was it we could not have done had we been then under the conduct of such a Leader as K. Robert Bruce Speed one of the gravest of the English Historians does generously own that few great Actions have been perform'd in Europe where the Scots have not been with the first and last in the Field We could easily give a proper Reply to the impertinent Romance which he brings about Baliol that would tend as much or more to the dishonour of Edward I. II. and III. than any thing that he and his Suborners have suggested can tend to the dishonour of our Nation but we forbear it having no design to reflect upon our Neighbours notwithstanding the rude Treatment and Provocation that we have had from H s and others on this occasion We can without thinking our selves injur'd own that the English are as brave Men as any in the World and are satisfied that such of our Neighbours as are Men of Honour and Reading will allow us the same Character We perceive it is the design of this Libeller and others to represent the English Nation as Enemies to us in this matter on purpose to set us together by the Ears but we are satisfied of the contrary as well knowing that not a few of our good Neighbours are much surpriz'd and displeas'd with our Treatment and look upon the same to be the effect of such Councils as are destructive to the Interest of both Nations We shall conclude this point with one Observation more upon H s's Ignorance and Malice in denying that the Scots expell'd Baliol from the Crown when such a noble Monument of the truth of it as the original Letter of the States of Scotland is still to be seen in the University of Oxford and exemplify'd by Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Sarum in his History of the Reformation and since it is also plain that our Ancestors chose Robert Bruce King during Baliol's Life-time and that Baliol at last resign'd all his Pretensions confess'd his Fault in subjecting the Crown of Scotland to that of England own'd that he was deservedly thrust from the Throne for it congratulated his Kinsman Robert Bruce's Advancement and that he had restor'd the Crown of Scotland to its antient Honour We take no notice of his profane and atheistical Banter upon the Religion of our Country as being satisfied that that will do his Cause no good amongst thinking men tho it may please those that he is only fit to converse with As for his malicious charge on Presbyterians that they maintain it as their Principle That Dominion is founded on Grace it 's of a piece with the rest of his Evidence He and his Suborners will be very hard put to it to quote one of their Authors to prove the Assertion and therefore they may well reject it as a slander but we must tell him that if this be the Principle of the Presbyterians they have not well answer'd it by their practice for whenever they had any such thing as Dominion at their disposal they seldom had the good hap to confer it upon those that had Grace enough to answer the ends of it We forbear Instances because it 's too well known both in France and Great Britain We come next to examine his Charge upon our Colony on purpose to render them odious to the English Nation and all the World and shall transcribe it verbatim that the reason of our Observations upon it may be the more obvious His words are these If your Colony has left Darien for Reasons not as yet public to the World 't is your fault Right Worshipful Gentlemen in undertaking to manage a Project you so little understood and not of the English Nation whose Interest it is to abvance and preserve their own Colonies and to keep them from being render'd desolate by the clandestine Artisices of yours who industriously and tacitely spread their Declarations over all the English Islands and Plantations making use of the King of Great Britain's Name to give more authority to the thing And by those indirect Manifestos such Profits or rather Plunders were insinuated that if the Government of England had not taken early measures to prevent the ill Consequences it 's to be question'd whether the greatest part of the English West Indies had not e're now quitted their Settlements and been decoyed into your Colony under a cover'd Notion that you had a Patent from the King to pick a quarrel with the Spaniard and to divide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru amongst
Reflection on the City of London pag. 3. as a place where Matter is never wanting to exercise plodding Heads Which is so near a kin to the Language of the Faction that in the late Reigns aim'd at the destruction of that Noble Emporium which deserves to be the Mistress of the Universe that we cannot in the least doubt but it proceeds from the same Spirit Of the same nature is his reflection pag. 7. upon the London Subscribers who came in so fast to the Scots Company that he thought himself the happiest man that could get his Name first down in our Books Which is a plain demonstration that those eager Subscribers thought the Design no way prejudicial to the Interest of their Country for upon enquiry it will be found that most of them were such as had zealously appear'd for its Liberty in former Reigns His malicious Reflection in that same Page as if the Company had promis'd 20000 l to Paterson Smith and Lodg to engage Subscriptions in England and the Hans-Towns is notoriously false they had not one Farthing promis'd them tho to be sure the Company would have rewarded them for their Pains and Service as it was reasonable they should besides it appears by the eagerness of the English and Hamburgers to subscribe until they were prevented by their respective Governments that there was no occasion for such a Bribe to bring in Subscriptions His Reflection pag. 8. of our printing the Address of the Commons at Edinburgh but not the King's Answer admitting it to be true is so far from being criminal that it rather argues the greatest respect imaginable for his Majesty whom we would not lessen in the esteem of the People of Scotland who knew they had a natural Right to claim and expect his Protection His owning in that same Page that the Company 's Books had not been long open'd in Edinburgh till 400000 l was sign'd and that all sorts of People whom he is pleas'd to express under the scurrilous denomination of poor blind and lame crouded in with their Subscriptions serves to confute his foregoing and following Reflections That the Company was obliged to promise 20000 l to procure Subscriptions and to go where the Money lay viz. to Holland and the Hans Towns especially since he owns himself p. 10 19. That they were baulk'd of their Subscriptions in England and Holland and had not one Groat of the Hamburgers Money His Reflection upon Mr. Paterson pag 8. whom he blasphemously calls the Man Paterson alluding to the Apostles calling our Saviour the Man Christs is altogether false he always propos'd the paying half the Subscriptions and most of the Subscribers were resolved to pay the whole as it appears they have already a considerable part of it by their having sent away three Convoys and being busy in preparing a fourth His Irreligious and Atheistical temper appears further by his reflecting upon their expecting good Returns by the old Cant of God's Blessing as if it were possible to look for Success in any thing without the Divine Benediction or ridiculous to express our dependency on it But it seems his Suborners are resolv'd that our Nation shall be huff'd banter'd and blasphem'd out of all their Rights as Men and Christians His next Reflection p. 9. of our sending Persons to build six Ships of fifty Guns apiece at Amsterdam and Hamburgh to prepossess the Dutchmen with a kind opinion of the Company and thereby make it appear how willing we were to extend the warm Rays of our Octroy to people who deserv'd it better than our ungrateful Neighbours is malicious to the highest degree He and his Suborners very well know that we could neither build nor buy in England because of the opposition made to us there and since 't is known that they can build cheaper in Hamburgh and Holland than in England our offering first to lay out our Money with our Neighbours and not going beyond Sea till we were compell'd to it is a proof from his own Mouth that we had no other but friendly Intentions towards the English Nation His Insinuation of the Difference betwixt the Kirk and Church Parties about each of them imploying their own Instruments shews more Malice than Wisdom since admitting People of different Perswasions into Companies is practised in all trading parts of the World and particularly in England where the Dissenters have no small share in all their Funds and Companies but by this they may see what fair Treatment they are to expect if H s and his Suborners could get their wills The old Popish Maxim would soon be brought into practice that no man should have Leave to buy or sell but he that is of the public Religion His next Story of our Debate about entrusting any man that was fed on English Beef and Pudding with 20000 l for the use of our Delegates abroad is equally scurrilous and false We trusted no man but Mr. Paterson with that Money and did not think it sit that every Subscriber but that only a special Committee should know how that Money was to be imploy'd Nor can this be charg'd upon us as a piece of foolish Confidence in Mr. Paterson whom the Scribler owns P. 4. to have been intrusted with laying the Foundation of the Bank of England tho ill rewarded for it His malicious Calumny that Mr. Paterson did afterwards form the Darien Project to be reveng'd on the English Nation is sufficiently falsified by his and our first Offers to take in the English as joint Subscribers after the said Project was actually form'd and imparted to some select Heads as he himself owns P. 7. As to Smith's cheating us of 8500 it was our Misfortune not our Crime as is manifest from our Diligence in recovering 4500 l of it This Renedo's saying P. 11. that Smith deservedly bubled us argues himself to be as great a Cheat as Smith and there 's little reason to doubt but he defrauded the Company as far as opportunity would allow him when intrusted as Purser with their Stores from Hamburgh and elsewhere which he seems to own himself when he boasts of his bringing home as much Gold-dust from Darien as any of the Counsellors P. 149. His Assertion P. 14. that Capt. Gibson was cheated of the 2 per Cent Commission Money is a shameless Falshood the Captain was satisfied and rewarded to his own content The next proof we have of the Ingenuity of this Renegado and his Suborners is P. 15. where he tells us that Paterson being in Drink babbled out a Secret of the Company at Camphire viz. That their Act empowered them to give Commissions to any kind of People without asking their Nation to trade to the Indies under Scots Colours and that such People might dispose of their India Goods where they pleas'd providing they made a sham Entry in Scotland To say that this was a Secret of the Company and in the same breath to inform the World that Mr. Paterson said
considerable London Merchant The others Name was Daniel Lodge born of Yorkshire Parents in Leith in Scotland per Accident bred a Merchant in Holland but crack'd and turn'd to his Shifts in England This was a pleasant facetious Fellow knew the World exactly and acted his Part in this Tragi-Comedy to a Miracle So much I have offer'd by way of Preliminary that you may have a Glimpse of these dark Pillars by which the Scotch Company was to be lighted down into the Spanish or Darien Mines and over that Isthmus to the Phillipin Islands California China and to Japan it they could turn Dutch Men. The Companies Act being now touch'd with the Royal Scepter and for the more Dispatch pass'd thro' the Seals per Saltum they were empower'd by Virtue of a necessary Clause thereof to take in Foreign Subscriptions to a lesser half of the Capital Stock so that the main Stress of the Project lay in fingering this Money The Three Projectors frankly engag'd to use their Interest with their Correspondents and Friends in England Holland and in the Hans Towns for 300000 l at least in Consideration of which and of the Acquisition and in Token of their Gratitude for the Project the Company was to give the Triumvirate 20000 l So to work all Hands went There being three different Parties in England jarring at that Time about the India Trade and the Old Company having got the Better on 't it was easie to draw a great many of the Male-Contents into the Scotch Companies Net nay the Subscriptions came in so quick that he was the happiest Man that could get his Name first down in their Books For Paterson preach'd up only an India Trade here in England taking no Notice of Darien but to some Select Heads that were able to bear it when once the Mony was in Scotl. they knew how to dispose of it To be short they had now more Money in their View than they knew what to do withal if the House of Commons had not baulk'd them and reprimanded the Subjects of England for their Foolery The Companies Books were cary'd Home with abundance of Secrecy and Care tho' they had as good left them behind there having been never a Groat of the English Money paid in as yet The Projectors follow'd them as the Sons of Levi did the Ark in old Times and when they came to Scotland their chief Business was to preach up the vast Advantages which the House of Commons foresaw to acreu to the Scotch Company and Nation by this Octroy and Trade and to back their Sermons with the greater Authority the Commons Address to the King was printed and reprinted at Edinburgh but not a Syllable of the King's Answer mention'd which confirm'd the whole Country of the Riches they were like to be surfeited with by this Act and Trade To be short they came in Shoals from all Corners of the Kingdom to Edinburgh Rich Poor Blind and Lame to lodge their Subscriptions in the Company 's House and to have a Glimpse of the Man Paterson who satisfy'd them as fast as they came that altho' they sign'd such a Sum for Fashion's sake to give the Company more Reputation Abroad yet the Quarter Part would only be demanded there being no occasion for any more and that they could not lie out of the Use of their Money above 18 Months or 2 Years at most which by that time and the Old Cant of God's Blessing would fetch good Returns and large Dividends The Companies Books had not been long open'd in Edinburgh before 400000 l was sign'd when it will be all paid in the Lord of Hosts knows and it now being high time to shut the Books there and go where the Money lay to wit the 300000 l in Holland and the Hans Towns the Projectors were consulted about it The Result of which was that they might not act precipitately in this Affair it was necessary they should make some real Show of their Resolution and Forwardness by sending a Couple of fit Persons over to Amsterdam and Hamburgh to build half a Dozen of stout Ships of 50 Guns apiece that by laying out their Money in the Dutch Country the Dutchmen might be prepossess'd with a kind Opinion of the Company and thereby make it appear how willing they were to extend the warm Rays of their Octroy to People who deserv'd it better than their ungreatful Neighbours Some warm Debates happen'd on this Occassion what Two Persons should be entrusted with this mighty Affair for by reason the Kirk and Church-money was equally in the Stock both Parties endeavour'd to imploy their own Instruments There were several Meetings on this Affair and it was at long-run amicably concluded that Alexander Stevenson late Kirk-Treasurer or Kirk-Warden of Edinburgh a Zealous and Long-grace Sayer and Capt. James Gibson Merchant and Malignant of Glasco should be the Delegates The next material Thing that came in Course was to lodge a Stock of Cash in London to answer their Delegates necessary Occasions abroad The Sum agreed on was either 18 or 20000 l but what Man to entrust with this Sum that was fed on English Beef and Puddin was another Hesitation The Oracle Paterson being consulted herein sagely responded that his Brother Smith's Business requiring him to go and remain for some time at London he expecting some Ships home from Carolina and New-England wherein he had large Effects he was of Opinion that they could not lodge it safer than in his Hands Smith returns to London and having got the Gelt in his Sack never broke his Rest afterwards about the Project The Company at the same Time had substituted Two other Cashiers abroad to wit Mr. Francis Stratford Mechant at Hamburgh now Governour of that Company and Alexander Hendersson alias Archbisshop at Amsterdam who were to draw from Smith's Bank as the Delegates had Occasion This Walloon Banker and Italian Secretary answer'd the Bills punctually till a better half of the Money was extracted about which Time finding the Company baulk'd of the Holland as well as English Subscriptions he thought it necessary to hold his hand and was passive in suffering a Bill of 200 l of Stratford's drawn on him to be protested at London I shall leave him here for sometime that I may bring the rest along with me and only tell you that Smith now finding himself Master but of 8500 l of the Companies Cash and not sure that he shouldever see so much of it again and looking on this as little more than his Quota for the Project and Subscriptions altho' the Latter happen'd to fail not through any Fault or Neglect of him but by the Frowns of the House of Commons in England and Holland by some surly Dutch Men Proprietors in the East and West-India Companies and Lords of Amsterdam he thought the Premium wrought for sufficiently and that it was but just he should pay himself since his Intention was as honest as if it had succeeded
and if he had anything over his neat Share it was convenient to hold it fast to enable him to go to Law the easier with the Company The Company bit their Lips but endeavour'd to keep it hush for some time that the World might not perceive how they were deservedly bubbl'd Smith knowing their Circumstances never went out of the Way for 15 or 16 Months afterwards and then being sensible that if once the Compan Ships were fail'd there would be no great Occasion to pay him any more Civilities to keep the Project secret and consequently he must expect the Company would be on his Back On these Considerations he was on the Wing for his own Country and was got so far on his Journey as Gravesend when as Luck would had it he was nabb'd with a Capio te at the Companies Instance Some of his own and Wife's Relations were in the Coach with him to see him to Dover when this Accident happen'd But he on this Occasion compos'd himself with more Sedateness of Mind than M. Bousfliers did at Namure and being unwilling to part with the Money so dearly earn'd bespoke Lodgings in the Marshalsea till on the late Revolution of that Sanctuary the Marshal and he went off together on a new Project to Carolina Daniel Lodge was at Edinburgh when the first Bill was protested and had his Papers seiz'd and carry'd to the Campanies Office and a Couple of Centries set over himself but he being Yorkshire Blood Scotch born and Dutch bred it was not easie to fasten any Thing on him Paterson was at Hamburgh on the Embassie when he heard of the Misfortune of Stratford's Bill but all the Mends he could make was to sigh and look dull Nevertheless it was observable that altho' Paterson rail'd at Smith behind his Back there was never an ill Word between them when they met For you are to understand that Smith was one of the Companies Commissioners in Holland and Hamburgh about the Time he suffer'd the Bill to be protested in London But to return to the setting out of this Embassie Stevenson and Gibson being for some time gone over the Water to build Ships and beat the Way for Subscriptions the next Step was to chuse fit Persons to follow and manage this Point Five such were appointed by Name of the Committee of Foreign Trade who were cloath'd with an ample Commission from the Company to take Subscriptions Abroad to appoint Factors to controul the foresaid Two Legates to provide Officers and Seamen and in a Word to do what they thought necessary for the Company 's Service Paterson and Smith were the first Two a Scotch Merchant of London the Third The Laird of Gleneagles for the Church and Colonel John Erskin Governour of Sterling-Castle and Darling of the Kirk made up the Quorum the last Two being both Men of Honour and Worth but altogether Strangers to Trade Two of these were order'd to Holland directly from Scotland and Gleneagles was to pass by London where he was to do some business and take Smith and the other in his way Gleneagles having arriv'd at London and joyn'd with the other two articled with me at Moncreifs Coffee-house in November 1696. By the Articles of our Contract I was to go in the Company 's Service from London to Amsterdam or Hamburgh from thence to Scotland and from thence on a Trading Voyage to either of the Indies as the Company should appoint and thence back to Scotland I was at the same time made tacitly to believe that I was to go to the East Indies and that the Ships would sail next March at farthest The Encouragement if I had been candidly dealt with and honestly paid seem'd to be fair enough in Merchants Service So having order'd my Affairs in England to go to India I went in Company of these Gentlemen to Amsterdam where we arrived about Christmas following Here the whole Committee or Embassy met where having view'd their Ships in that Port to wit one of 46 Guns ready built and another of 60 on the Stocks they apply'd themselves to the business of Subscriptions The Scheme laid down to them was this Henderson formerly mention'd a Scotch Man Cossart a French Man an English Man and a Ducth Man all Merchants of Amsterdam were to subcribe 8500 l amongst them Smiths Summ and were to draw in there Friends and Correspondents for as much as they could In consideration whereof these four were to be the Company 's Factors in Holland and to have 2 per Cent. for what they bought and sold This was easily agreed to and for their further Encouragment they were invested likewise with the 2 per Cent. Commission of all the Money already laid out by Capt. Gibson on the two Ships Canvas Sails Cables Anchors Powder Guns c. in all above 10000 l which Properly was Gibson's right by his Commission from the Company This was the first honest step they made by Vertue of their controuling Power These new Dutch Factors ply'd their Friends all over Holland who generally for some time before were mightily taken with the Scotch East India Trade their Exemption from Duties for 21 years and tickled with the Conceit that they should be Sharers in it But through an ugly accident which happen'd in Camphire at Paterson's and the Collonels Landing the whole Mess of the Companies Pottage was in danger of being miscook d. The Story runs thus These Gentlemen had a rough and tedious Passage from Scotland and it seems the Skipper had not laid in Provisions for his Passengers over plentifully which was the occasion that Paterson at his landing in Camphire and being welcom'd and entertain'd by one Panton a Merchant there tasted more freely of the Creature then he us'd to do for he always set up for a Water-biber which Panton perceiving ply'd him warmly and took the Liberty of pumping him Paterson's Tongue running glib with the Hollands Cannal Water on the Eloginm's of the Octroy happen'd to babble out a Secret of the Company viz That their Act empower'd them to give Commissions to any kind of People without asking their Nation to Trade to the Indies under Scots Colours and that such People might dispose of their India Goods where they pleas'd providing they made a sham Entry in Scotland And if the Company should agree to take 3 per Cen. for the Goods such Ships as Traded with their Commission were able to undersel the English and Dutch full 17 per Cent. Panton was glad of the News improv'd the Story amongst his Friends who design'd to sign in the Companies Books and these run now on this Commission for the 3 per Cent. finding it a safer way of Trading then by putting their Money in the Companies bottom neither would they of Zealand ever afterwards enter on any other Terms We were no sooner come to Amsterdam then we met with this Story fresh in the Coffee-houses there It was too late for Paterson to eat in his words so
generally favour'd by the Burgers of Hamburg and p. 21. That the Government of England sent the Senate of Hamburg a Caution by Sir Paul Ricaut to take care how they suffer'd their Burghers to embark with us So that here we condemn them from their own mouths It being plain from those Concessions that we did not idly squander away our Money at Hamburgh and Amsterdam but that both those trading Cities approv'd our Design and would have engag'd in it had not the Court of England and the Dutch oppos'd it and therefore what loss of Mony we sustain'd in those places must be charg'd to their Account so that H s hath verified the Proverb That Liars have need of good Memories This is not the only Instance wherein those of H s and his Suborners have giv'n them the slip for in the 4th page of the Dedication they upbraid the Company with their blind Project at which the trading part of the World stand amaz'd yet p. 17. they tell us that the Project was reasonable both on the Scots and Hamburghers side and the Reasons they give are these That the River on which that City stands is navigable for 200 Miles up into Germany for flat-bottom'd Vessels of 70 or 80 Tuns which gives them an opportunity of serving all the North Parts of the Empire c. All that they can say to salve this Contradiction is That the Hamburghers knew nothing of Darien but builded altogether on Ships laden with India Goods but that 's a notorious Falshood for the Hamburghers were actually told that our Design was on the Isthmus of America and therefore could not be disappointed in their Expectations of an East-India Trade if they had a mind to have follow'd it since they could not be ignorant that they had thereby an opportunity of shortning the Voyage from Darien to the East-Indies But at the same time it is much to be question'd whether the Hamburghers were so intent upon an East-India Trade as H s alledges since it must visibly prejudice their own Manufacture of Linen We shall conclude this of Hamburgh and Amsterdam with one Observation viz. that he tells us p. 14. That one of the Reasons why the Dutch were so much taken with our East-Indian Trade was our Exemption from Duties for 21 years which serves only to discover his own Folly and Malice since every Body must necessarily know that exemption from Duties was only in the Scotish Ports so that if they were exported from thence into any other Country they must pay the same Duties in those Countries as if they had been directly imported from the East-Indies The Inconsistency of H s and his Suborners is further demonstrated p. 4. bysupposing our buying a couple of second-hand Ships in the Thames and dispatching them to India with a sutable Cargo As to the buying of second-hand Ships the Company made that Experiment but found themselves losevs by it and that it cost them more to fit up a second-hand Vessel for their purpose than it would have done to have bought a new one But with what Front can they upbraid us with not buying of Ships in the Thames for carrying on an East-India Trade when they own p. 7. that the House of Commons baulk'd us of our Subscriptions and reprimanded the Subjects of England for their foolery How is it possible then that they would have suffer'd our buying Ships in the Thames for carrying on an East-India Trade We have another proof of his Ingenuity and Truth in that same Page where he tells us that if our blind Project meaning that of Darien should miscarry by our own ill Management it is not fair we should snarl at our Neighbours who have no other Hand in our Misfortune than that they would not be accessary to any Act which the World might judg Felonious and wherein they could not join without engaging themselves in an unreasonable War and in the end to assist us with Weapons to break our won Heads We wish his Masters much joy of their Advocat and Evidence for we believe they could not have found such another if they had searched through all the Island He just now own'd that our Neighbours opposed our Subscriptions at home and abroad before they knew any thing of what he calls our blind Project and made us squander away 50000 l to little purpose whioh certainly must be a misfortune and that wherein our Neighbours had no small hand tho the World could not judg our taking Subscriptions in that Honourable manner to be any way Felonious We have moreover sufficently proved it elsewhere that they have had a hand in our Misfortune by down-right opposition and unaccountable Proclamations for which they had no Authority we hope that this will be allow'd to be something more than refusing to be accessary to an Act that neither he nor his Suborners will ever be able to prove Felonious and which we have already told him the Laws of England have in a parallel nay much worse case judg'd to be honest and righteous So that all this Author hath got by his charging us maliciously with Felony is to prove himself a wilful Felon for he tells us at the end of his Book of a long dispute betwixt himself and Sir J. Stewart his Majesty's Advocat for the Kingdom of Scotland about the Title of the Spaniards to Darien and if we may believe H s he baffled the Advocat and prov'd the Right of the Spaniards which proves himself to have engaged in a Design that he thought Felonious for we do not find by his own Relation that he left the place from remorse of Conscience but only on the Account of a Malladie Imaginaire and want of Provisions so that we thank him for telling the World from his own Mouth that his Evidence against us is that of a Felon As to their engaging themselves in an unreasonable War and assisting us with Weapons to break their own Heads we did not desire they should engage in a War for us but think it very unreasonable the English Court should have engaged so far as they have done against us It had been sufficient for them to have denied us their Assistance without having condemn'd us as guilty of breach of Alliance which as all the other parts of the opposition made to us we are satisfied is not the Act of the English Nation and therefore can create no misunderstanding betwixt them and us but perhaps may prove a Weapon in time to break the Heads of H s and his Suborners In the 5th Page that his Book may be all of a piece he advances a forg'd Obligation upon us from the Union of the Crowns which is that we are thereby deliver'd from the daily Feuds and bloody little Wars that rag'd amongst us for 1900 years which unnatural Massacnes our native Princes were unable to suppress c. This is down-right falshood in matter of Fact for those Feuds as he calls them ceas'd in the Lowlands
long before the Union but continue still in the Highlands which we can scarocly think is unknown to our Author who was born so near that Country as Dumbarton The Macdonalds have been several times in Arms against the Earl of Argile since the Restoration and there 's a Fend now depending between the Frazers and the Murrays or rather the Family of Athol Non did we ever hear of any thing that look'd so like an unnatural Massacre in Scotland as that committed since tho Revolution upon the Inhabitants of Glenco which had it not been for the Union of the Crowns would not have been suffer'd to go unpunished But admitting it to be true that the Union had deliver'd us from those little Feuds we are no gainers by the Bargain since it hath occasion'd greater pavticularly that unnatural Feud which rag'd so long betwixt the Episcopal Party and Presbyterians and had its rise altogether from the Union of the Crowns the very prospect of which was the sole cause why the Earl of Morton when Regent set up the first Protestant Bishops in Scotland Into what Couvulsions that Imposition threw the Nation is well enough known and how besides the bringing down K Charles I. with 30000 Men against our Kingdom and contributing to engage the Nations in a Civil War it occasioned King Charles II. to plunder the West of Scotland first by Sir James Turner which gave rise to the Insurrection at Pentland and twice afterwards by the Highland Host which occasion'd that of Bothwel-Bridg And afterwards the Oppression run so high that it forc'd some of the Presbyterians into unaccountable Actions which gave occasion to oppress the whole Party so that it was made punishable by Death for any of their Ministers to preach or for the People to hear them From this indeed we were totally delivered by the Revolution tho our freedom in that respect was partly begun by the late King James's Declaration But our Enemies unwilling that our Nation should be long at ease have found other Methods to set our Court against us And because they know that his present Majesty has too great a Soul to persecute any man on the account of Conscience our Enemies have chang'd their Battery and instead of pointing their Cannon at our Religion they level them against our Civil Liberties The Powder they prime their Artillery with is That we are Enemies to Prerogative But because this would not go down with the good People of England who are strenuous Assertors of Liberty and Property they must gild it over with the specious Pretence that we have a design to undermine their Trade and have unjustly invaded the Spanish Dominions This is the Design of H s and his Suborners and therefore they insist so much on our Clandestine Declarations as they call them that we publish'd in the English Plantations on purpose to drain them of their People but unhappily overthrow what they advance at the same time when they tell us That the Jamaica Sloops were Witnesses that we had neither Provisions nor Money for the sustenance of our own People pag. 148. And therefore it cannot reasonably be suppos'd that we had any such design as he malicioufly charges us with to draw over the People from the English Plantations since we had not wherewith to support our own but more of this anon Our Author learn'd the Maxim of Calumniare audacter aliquid barebit when he was a Papist And if he and his Suborners can be any way instrumental to set the Nations together by the Ears by this Method or if that fail if they can but raise Animositys between them they know it will be a good pretence for some people to put his Majesty upon pressing for a Standing Army and perhaps for having it enlarg'd it being necessary say they to overaw the Scors but in reality to protect such evil Counsellors from being brought to Justice that have advis'd to such Measures as visibly tend to the disadvantage of both Nations It may perhaps be worth the Enquiry of our Neighbours whether this be not the real meaning of this intolerable Oppression exercis'd upon our Nation as to their Trade both at home and abroad viz. that knowing our prafervidum Ingenium as they are pleas'd to call it to be impatient under Tyranny the Faction think thereby to provoke us to a resentment that may give occasion for raising an Army against us which if it have the good hap to subdue us or force us to digest our Oppresslon without any more to do shall be made use of afterwards to chastise themselves and bring them to better Manners then to limit their Monarchs in their Grants and leave them no other Troops but their Garisons and Guards It was the Observalton of the Earl of Shastsbury whom his Enemies will own to have been a great Statesman that Scotland is a Door to let in Good or Evil upon England which is verified in the latter at least by the whole Course of our History since the Union for when K. James I. succeeded in trampling upon us he quickly began to huff his Parliaments in England and notwithstanding all the Remonstrances of Church and State would needs have a Popish Match for his Son tho he should sacrifice the Great Sir Walter Rawleigh his own Daughter the Queen of Bohemia and her Children together with the Protestant Interest in Germany to make way for it When Charles I. obtain'd footing for his Impositions on the Church and State of Scotland it 's well enough known what Methods he took with England and how he sacrific'd the Protestant Interest in France whilst he eagerly pursued an Arbitrary Sway at home When Charles II. got his Prerogative exalted and an Army at his Call allow'd him in Scotland i'ts too late to be forgotten how he trod under foot the Liberties of England seiz'd the Charters of their Cities cut off whom he would by Sham-Plots and pav'd the way for Popery and Arbitrary Power When K. James II. did by his absolute Power and unaccountable Authority cass and annul all the Laws establishing the Reformation in Sootland it was not long e're he suspended the Laws imprison'd the Bishops and fill'd with Papists his Council Army and Universities in England From all which it is evident that our Neighbours have reason to look to themselves when we are oppress'd for in all probability their Acts of Parliament will not be long regarded when ours are annull'd and made void by the Intrigues of the Courtiers and West-India Proclamations The very Advocats of Tyranny make use of this as their Herculean Argument That the People having once resign'd their Privileges to the Crown have no more right to demand them which tho we will not allow to be any ways concluding yet we may very well make use of it ad hominem that a pari ratione when once a Prince has touch'd with his Scepter a Law for the benefit of his Subjects it is not in his power
Weight and greatness of the Trust reposed and the valuable Opportunity now in our hands being firmly resolved to communicate and dispose thereof in the most just and equal manner for increasing the Domimons and Subjects of the King Our Soveraign Lord the Honour and Wealth of our Country as well as the benefit and advantage of those who now are or may hereafter be concerned with us We do hereby declare That all manner of Pcople soever shall from hence-forward be equally free and alike capable of the said Properties Privileges Protections Immunities and Rights of Government granted unto us and the Merchants and Merchants Ships of all Nations may freely come to and trade with us without being liable in their Persons Goods or Effects to any manner of Capture Confiscation Seizure Forfeiture Attachment Arrest Restraint or Prohibition for or by reason of any Embargo breach of the Peace Letters of Mark or Reprizals Declaration of War with any foreign Prince Potentate or State or upon any other account or pretence whatsoever And we do hereby not only grant and concede and declare a general and equal freedom of Government and Trade to those of all Nations who shall hereafter be of or concerned with us but also a full and free Liberty of Conserence in matter of Religion so as the same be not understood to allow connive at or indulge the blaspheming of God's holy Name or any of his Divine Attributes or of the unhallowing or prophaning the Sabbath Day And finally as the best and surest means to render any Government successful durable and happy it shall by the help of Almighty God be ever our constant and chiefest care that all our further Constitutions Laws and Ordinances be consonant and agreeable to the Holy Scripture right Reason and the Examples of the wisest and justest Nations that from the Truth and Right cousness thereof we may reasonably hope for and expect the Blessings of Prosperity and Increase NEW-EDINBVRGH Decemb. 18. 1608. By Order of the Council Hugh Ross Secretary We dare refer it to the Scrutiny of the nicest Observers whether this Declaration infer any such thing as Plunder or a Patent from the King to pick a Quarrel with the Spaniards and to divide the Spoil of Mexico and Peru what clandestine Artifices are here to be found to drain the English Plantations and wherein does it interfere with the Interest of England any more than all free Ports must of necessity interfere with their Neighbours We wish that our Author would inform us how publick Declarations according to Act of Parliament can be call'd clandestine Artisices and defy him and his Suborners with all their art to find any thing pretended to in this Declaration but what the Colony has a right to by Act of Parliament The only thing this malicious Scribler can wrest to his Purpose in the Declaration is the Colony's publishing that all manner of Persons of what Nation or People soever c. should be equally free and alike capable of the same Privileges with themselves c. which are the express Words of the Act of Parliament and therefore supposing that the said Declaration should have influenc'd some People to come over to them from the English Plantations the Colony could not be any ways blam'd for it Qui utitur jure suo nil damni facit is a known Maxim in Maw The Libeller's Malice is not satisfied with reflecting upon our Colony but flies on the face of the greatest part of the English in the West-Indies as if they had so little Honour or Love for their native Country as to lay their own Plantations desolate and run over to ours Indeed if most of them be such Persons as himself there might be some ground for the Reflection but till it appears to be so we must beg Mr. H s's leave to have a better opinion of them No Man of sense can believe that those who found themselves at ease in the English Plantations would be fond of removing to a new Colony but if others who are at their freedom had a mind to do so we know of no reason they should be hinder'd The Subjects of England are a free People and not confin'd to their own Dominions but have liberty to trade and live elsewhere if they find their account in it There 's no man can blame the Scots for publishing their Declaration throughout the West-Indies the thing being absolutely necessary in it self and the natural Practice of all new Settlements to acquaint the World with the nature of their Design and on what Terms they may have Commerce with them We hope our Author and his Suborners will not say that the Subjects of England might not have traded with them for their own advantage provided their Title had been unexceptionable and seeing the Scots had reason to think it so it was no act of unkindness in them to let the English Plantations know that they should be very welcome to trade to Darien and how this could be done so properly and with so much effect as by Declaration our Author would do well to acquaint us The Gentleman and his Friends are very angry that we should have made use of the King of Great Britain's Name to give the more Authority to the thing We would very fain know their Reasons why it is not as lawful for the Scots to make use of that Name as the English and at the same time must take leave to tell the Renegado and his Whitehall Friends that all this Venom they have spit at the Scots Colony is a virulent Invective against his Majesty He impower'd them to do what they accuse them for by Act of Parliament and because our Antagonists have a mind to say that this Octroy as they call it was destructive to the Trade of England they find themselves oblig'd to make an Excuse for the King viz. that the honest Gentleman meant no harm at the granting of it for it is to be believ'd that he could scarce bear what was whisper'd for the noise of the Namur Guns which is in plain English he gave his consent to he knew not what A noble Defence for which his Majesty is oblig'd to them But Banter and Blasphemy they were fully resolv'd on and so they had but a Subject they car'd not what Nor Adam nor David nay nor the Almighty himself shall escape them but his Commission to the Hebrews when they departed out of Egypt must come in to make up the profane Jest thus Heavâ—n it self shall be charg'd at last with founding Dominion upon Grace and giving the Elect a Divine Right to the Goods of the Wicked after its being first thrown as a killing Reflection at the Heads of the poor Presbyterians H s will needs insist upon it in his Dedication that our Project on Darien was so secretly carried on that it was not known to England till the same Wind that brought the News likewise inform'd the Nation that the Scots were
for Refreshment or to refit after a Storm as they did to Capt. Jamison at Nevis That this wants very little of going to War with the Scots we believe most thinking men are very well satisfied but whether it be so or not we will venture to tell the Renegado and his Suborners that by this kind of Procedure against the Scots as if we were Servants and Subjects to England some Gentlemen in and about White-hall have giv'n the Spaniards just occasion to make War upon England if they were able or at least to make Reprisals upon the English for the damage they pretend to have suffer'd from the Scots whom the English Court by this sort of Treatment have declar'd to be their Subjects whereas if they had not invaded the Soveraignty of Scotland the Spaniards could have had no such pretonce Now whether men that had been endow'd with a quarter of an ounce of Politicks would have been guilty of such a false step as this let our Author's Suborners determine And besides we must tell them that the Men whom Capt. Long had set ashore with Capt. Diego in the Gulph of Darien committed the first Hostility on the Spaniards and kill'd seven of them with a design for any thing we know to trapan us into a War with the Spaniards since one of the same Fellows came to our Colony afterwards for Powder and Shot which our Men wisely deny'd them and told them they had done what they could not justify The Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement dos no where advise the English to a War with Spain on the score of our Company but gives such Arguments to prove that they had no reason to dread the Effects if Spain should make War with them on that Account and that it was the Interest of England to have supported the Scots in that Settlement as have not yet been answer'd and therefore we shall say nothing farther of it here Our Author and his Friends are pleas'd to call our apprechensions of the Places being possess'd by the French bugbear Stories because the French have another Game to play at present with Spain or might have secur'd Carthagena when they had it in their Power and that if France or Holland had any such design they may go sit down within a League of either side of our Colony with as good a Title as ours But that the French are genetally wiser than to lay out their Mony upon such Tools as this Author appears to be by his way of argning one would be apt to think he had touch'd some Leuidor's Does he conceive that the French understood their Interest so little during the War that threatned their Ruine as to settle a Colony in the West-Indies at a time when they stood in more need of them at home to defend their own Country and cultivate their Ground and Vineyards Is it not known that their Design was on the Spanish Plate in order to enable them to continue the War and not on the Spanish Plantations which they were in no Capacity to defend against the Spaniards and their Allies if they had at that time seiz'd any of them Does our Author and his Suborners think that L. XIV did not understand his Interest better than to offer at a Settlement in the Spanish West-Indies especially at a place of such Importance as Carthagena and thereby have give the English and Dutch an opportunity of settling there themselves by coming to drive him out Could he think that the two Nations of Europe that have the greatest Naval Force and were most concern'd of any to reduce him to reason would sit still and suffer him to seize the Spanish Treafures and by that means enable himself to bring all Europe under his Yoke It is impossible such a thought could ever enter into his mind and therefore he had very good reason to forbear keeping possession of Carthagena since 't would have been the ready way to have spoil'd his future pretensions to the West-Indies in case of the K. of Spain's death which every body then expected daily And whenever it happens if he die without Issue as there 's great odds he will we stand in need of better Guarantees than H and his Suborners that the Fr. King will not seize the Spanish West-Indies and Darien into Boot against which there are those who have studied Politicks as much as our Author who are of opinion that the Settlement at Darien might have been no contemptible Barrier The Scribler takes upon him to pafs his word for his Majesty that the Scots Crown will receive no blemish or disreputation by his wearing it We believe his Majesty will scarcely thank him for his Security and we are satisfied our Nation will as little rely on it But at the same time we must tell this Gentleman and his Suborners that we had as little reason to suspect that K. Charles I. who was a Native of Scotland would have dishonour'd our Crown so far as to order it to be brought to England and therefore it is not imposfible for Princes to be over-perswaded by ill Council to do such things as are inconsistent with the Honour of their Crowns And thus some will venture to say that the Crown of Scotland was no ways honour'd when the Dutch Troops took place of the King of Scots's Guards and when the King of England takes upon him to condemn by Proclamations what the King of Scotland has approv'd by Act of Parliament and Letters Patent The Scribler comes next to give us a taste of his Skill in the Brittish History he brags of so much by telling us the Fate of some great Scots Families that swell'd beyond their Proportion His Instances of the Cummins and Gouries sufficiently discover his Ignorance of the Scotish History The former was indeed a very great Family but are an inauspicious instance for him and those of his kidney their ruin not being occasion'd by their Greatness but by joying with the Enemies of our Nation as this Renegado does As for his Application of his Instances it serves to discover the malicious Designs of himself and Suborners against the two greatest Families that are now left in Scotland The kind treatment this Author met with from one of these great Men upon his arrival after having deserted our Colony would have oblig'd any but a Monster of Ingratitude to have forborn such a causeless and invenom'd Reflection which nothing but ingrain'd Malice can suggest We come in the next place to take a view of the Book it self In the very first Page he owns he is no Friend to the Scots Company and alledges he has more reason for it than those Skeletons that are starved to death This we hope is sufficient to shew what credit is to be given to his Narrative wherein tho he promises to keep close to matter of Fact he abounds with blasphemous and impertinent Digressions One of the first we shall take notice of is his unmannerly
Rob. Pennicook Rob. Pincartone Will. Paterson Caledonia New Edenburgh December 28th 1698. P. S. We intreat you to send us a good Ingineer who is extreamly wanted here This Place being capable of being strongly Fortified You 'l understand by our from Maderas the Danger as well as the Tediousness of our Passage North about so that if the Ships can conveniently be fitted out from Clyd it will save a great deal of time in their Passage and be far less bazardous This being from Men who knew the Misrepresentation of the Affair must needs Issue in their own Ruin cannot be suspected of disingenuity and therefore must certainly over-balance the Evidence of a Renegado who owns that he writes out of Malice The first defence he puts in the Company 's Mouthis their being baulk'd of Foreign Subscriptions which made them lose Time and Money whereby they could not send out such a number of Men and quantity of Provisions as the Project would have required This is litterally true let H s and his Suborniers answer it if they can As for his Question Why did they prodigally throw away 50000 l in Holland and Hamburgh purely to make a Bluster there and why did they trust to another Man's Purse till such time as they are sure of it We shall answer by asking him another Question viz. Since he pretends to know the Secrets of the West end of the Town why did our Government oppose our taking Foreign Subscriptions since they had impowered us by Acts of Parliament and Letters Pattent to take them and since t was such a thing as the like perhaps was never done what reason had we to suspect being baulk'd of our Foreign Subscriptions He himself own'd that the Hollanders and Hamburgers were fond of our Project till our Government oppos'd us and therefore by his own Confession they are to blame for those disappointments As to our taking Subscriptions in Hamburgh and Holland We had reason to engage as many of our Protestant Neighbours in the Design as we could that we might be the more able to defend our selves in case of Opposition which is neither ill Policy nor inconsistent with Honesty The 2d Defence he puts in their Mouth That their Ships were Man'd no Provisions to be had in Scotland more were providing abroad and no more Money to be had from the Subscribers till once the Ships were Sail'd is such as he and his Suborners will never be able to answer What could the Company do more than take care to have Provisions abroad when none were to be had at home And if the Subscribers would pay no more Money till the Ships put to Sea there was a necessity of Sailing His Objection as to the shortness of their Provisions we have answer'd already and shall add which he maliciously conceals That we sent a Ship with Provisions after them which was cast away in January for which we cannot be answerable and he himself owns we sent another Convoy in May Then since the Colony sent us Advice from the Maderas dated Aug. 29. That they had still 8 Months large and twelve Months short Allowance The Company cannot justly be accus'd of supine Neglect when they sent away one Ship with Provisions four Months after this notice and two more in five Months after that considering that they had no Provisions in Scotland as the Libeller himself owns and that the Colony had a Cargo which might have bought them Provisions either from the Natives if they had any to spare which we could not doubt of by Mr. Wafer's Description or from the English Colonies had it not not been for the Proclamation which we had no reason to suspect would be issued at all and much less in such a manner in the Name of our own Prince who was oblig'd to Protect us To the Causes he assigns for the Sailing of our Fleer without a greater quantity of Provisions we 〈◊〉 add one more viz. That we had reason to fear that our Enemies might prevent us which Captain Long 's being on those Coasts a Month before us shews was not without Ground no more than our Suspicion that endeayours were used to surprize us into a War with the Spaniards by Long 's Men killing seven of them as hath been already mention'd and of his doing all he could to make us odious to the Natives by telling them we were Pirates and disobliging both Ambrosio and Diego by sordid little Actions of his own as Captain Pennicook gave us an Accoun in his Journal A Grave Member of the Committee of Trade can give a more full Account of this if he pleases and when his hand is in he would do well to assign us a Reason why that barbarous Murder committed by Long 's Men was never yet taken notice of by the Spaniards since they have published such angry Memorials against us who committed no Hostilities upon them His Objection to the third and fourth Reason relating to the Honesty of our Design and the Cargoes not being proper we have answer'd already As for that of our Goods being seizable in Jamaica and other English Plantations by the Act of Navigation it 's one of the Hardships we justly complain of that was put upon us by the Enemics of our Nation in Charles II's Reign But allowing it to be reasonable it cannot have so much Equity in it as the Laws which make it punishable by Death to Roband Murder Yet the Execution of those are many times dispenc'd with in favour of Criminals by his Majesty and indeed a Power to dispence with the Execution of Law sometimes to save the Life of a Subject is one of the most Innocent Branches of the Prerogative but we had much more reason to have expected a Dispensation in this Case to save the Lives of so many of his Subjects who had generously venter'd them for himself His owning p. 148. and 154. That a Cargo of Provisions brought by two Jamaica Sloops was bought by the Colony besides as many Turtle as came to 100 and odd Pounds for which he owns the Colony paid em not only contradicts what he says almost in the same breath That there was neither Money no Moneys worth to be had in the Colony and that they laid out all their Stock of Ready Money for Wine at Maderas p. 48. but may together with their having both Provisions and Money when they came to New York justly confirm our Suspicion that there was a Mismanagement of the Provisions since two Sloop's Cargo of Provision 27 Pipes of Wine 100 Pounds worth of Turtle the Fish Plantains Bonanoes Potatoes Indian Corn Sojours or Land Crabs which he says were plentiful at first ' added to their former Provisions which they own'd they had at the Maderas together with the decrease of their Number of Men by Death was not enough to keep their Colony from starving for Nine Months We have still the more reason to suspect this because the Letter from New York which
brought us the first certain Account of the Disaster of our Colony hinted as if there might be some Work for the Hangman That there were more ill Men in the Colony than H s is probable enough and particularly that Pennicook was brib'd to raise Divisions in the Colony and put all in disorder by his Insolence which falling in with the Proclamations that were concerted for our Destruction gave a handle to other ill Men to foment the Divisions and compleat the Ruin of the Colony by a total Desertion His Insinuation P. 154 That two Jamaica Sloops with Provisions return'd from the Colony without breaking bulk because there was neither Money nor Market Goods there deserves better Evidence than his own before it obtain Credit We have indeed heard of one Vessel with Provisions which insisted on such extravagant Rates that the Colony would not incourage them to do the like in time to come and therefore would not deal with them hoping that their own Convoy might speedily come up but this was before they knew any thing of the Ploclamation which cut off all their future hopes ev'n from Scotland We have also Letters from New York that the Government of that Place seem'd to intend them no good of which their desiring our Ships to come and Anchor under the Guns of the Castle is a clear Proof and the reason of this unkind Treatment is also explain'd to us viz. That they suspected our Men had a design to return back as soon as they got Provisions Nay we have had advice that their Gold Dust was actually resus'd at Jamaica because of the Proclamations which we have reason enough to believe since we cannot think that the It habitants there would be willing to incurr the height of His Majesty's Displeasure to oblige the Scots That our Men had Gold Dust from the Natives for Powder Shot and speckled Shifts the Libeller owns himself P. 149. and there he brags of it that he brought off more himself at 3 l 10 s. per Ounce how he came by it is worth the inquiry than most of the Councellors that are come home since and by Letters from New York we have heard there was Money amongst them By all which 't is evident That want of Money or Goods was not the sole Cause of their being demed Provisions from the English Plantations His Insinuation that the French and Dutch Islands would have supplied us if we had had Money or Goods is ridiculous when the Government of both those Nations had so expresly declared themselves against us His All gation in that same Page that His Majesty knew nothing of the Colonies Settlement at Darien but what he had at second hand c. till the Spanith Ambassadur told him from his Master is so notoriously false that none but a Person of his Forehead could have advanced it when the World knows that the Proclamation against us was publish'd in the West-Indies in April and the Spanish Memorial was not deliver'd till May following We should indeed be very glad to find that His Majesty knew nothing of those Proclamations and that his Name was made use of without his Consent as some say his Grandfathers was in the Irish Massacre for then we might reasonably expect speedy Justice upon those bold Offenders who dar'd to publish such Proclamations in His Majesty's Name wherein we are condemned as having invaded the Spanish Dâ—maniens before ever it was heard what we could say for our selves or without giving us any notice of those Proclamations that we might have taken care to have preserv'd our Men from being starv'd to death by them By which they have made our Prince to act more like our declared Enemy than one that we had constantly lov'd and rever'd as Father of his Country and that which is yet more cutting they still prevail to mislead him so as he continues his unnatural Opposition to us For besides the Proclamations formerly mentioned another has been since publish'd against us in Barbadoes dated Sept. 15 which is so much the more unaccountable considering the Memorial given in by our President and Advocate justifying our Pretensions which the Spaniards have never yet offered to answer By means of this Proclamation the St. Andrew was denied Relief when she fell in with Admirel Bembo who told her tho they should all starve he could allow them none and the like answer they had from the Governor of Jamaica tho they offer'd Goods in Exchange the like Opposition is also continued against us at home for tho the Company have address'd His Majesty yet'tis without effect After a full Representation of their Losses they did wisely and dutifully desire the Parliament might meet that being the proporest way to have the sinking Honour of the Company supported but His Majesty instead of granting their reasonable desires was prevail'd upon by those who are Enemies to our Country to prorogue it further at the very time when they knew the Address was coming up and all the Answer thought sit to give them is That His Majesty is sorry for the loss of his Ancient Kingdom and of the Company that they shall have the same liberty to trade to the West-Indies as formerly and that he will call the Parliament when he thinks the good of the Nation requires it or to that effect It may easily be judged that this Answer could be no way satisfactory to the Company in such a Juncture nor are we to wonder if instead of cheering their Spirits it struck them dumb and fill'd them with Amazement We wish that those who advise His Majesty to such a Conduct towards the People of Scotland who have never been backward in testifying their Loyalty and Affection to his Person and Government would consider that this is a downright Violation of our Constitution It 's certain that none are so proper to give his Majesty advice when a Parliament is necessary as our own Nobility Gentry and Burrowghs who are most of them concern'd in our Company and therefore their Address ought to haye been more regarded than the advice of any particular Persons This false Method of Government hath ruin'd many of our Princes and we wish that those who put his Majesty upon such Measures may not have his ruin in prospect It is certain they can be none of his Friends who put him upon disobliging of the whole Kingdom of Scotland in this manner We come next to the Libeller's Defence of the Spanish Title to Darien p. 163. His first Argument That the Spaniards Title to that Country was never hitherto disputed by any Prince or State is a downright Falshood The Darien Princes themselves controverted it always and their Plea was allow'd to be good by the Judges of England as we have been fore'd to tell this Renegado and his Suborners again and again The Title of the Spaniards as Conquerours to any part of America is not only doubted by the Bishop of Cheapo Don Bartholomew de Los Casas