Unwarned by the great outcry, the firm opposition, and insurmountable obstacles, Paterson and the Scots went on. The Scottish people, who conceived the idea of achieving enormous wealth in the golden regions of Central America, regarded themselves as victims of the jealousy of William's favourite Dutch, and of the haughty monopolising spirit of the English, and the whole country was in a ferment. They considered themselves insulted and most perfidiously treated by the king, who had freely sanctioned the Company, and then as unceremoniously disowned and trampled on it. They went on with the subscriptions, and speedily the amount rose to four hundred thousand pounds. The highest and most intelligent of the Scottish nobility, as well as the people generally, were sanguine contributors. Their younger sons saw a new highway to opulence and distinction suddenly opened. Many lords mortgaged all that they could to secure an ample share of the expected benefits. Their tenantry and servants were enthusiastic in their adhesion to it; and the officers whom the peace had left at large, prepared for fresh campaigns and adventures in the golden regions.

The Company had a number of stout ships built in Holland to convey the emigrants and their stores. On the 25th of July, 1698, four of these ships—the St. Andrew, the Unicorn, the Caledonia, and the Endeavour—containing one thousand two hundred men, set sail from Leith. Such was the excitement that all Edinburgh seemed to have poured out to see the departure of the colonists, and hundreds of soldiers and sailors who could not be engaged clamoured to be taken on board. Many contrived to get into the vessels and endeavour to conceal themselves in the hold, and when discovered they clung to the timbers and riggings, offering service without pay.

When the vessels had sailed, the Scottish Parliament unanimously addressed the king on behalf of the Company and the validity of the charter. The Lord President, Sir Hugh Dalrymple, the brother of Lord Stair, and Sir James Stuart, the Lord Advocate, also presented memorials defending the rights of the Company. Paterson committed the error of sailing in the fleet as a private individual. He had incurred the resentment of the Company by having remitted twenty thousand pounds to Hamburg for stores, part of which, through no fault of his own, was embezzled by the agent. The Company, therefore, refused to give him the command of the colony, but appointed a council of seven members without a head. This was certain to entail want of unity of purpose, and consequent failure. Paterson was the only man qualified by his abilities, his experience, and his knowledge of the country to take the command. He is said to have seen and conversed with the celebrated buccaneer Dampier and his surgeon Lionel Wafer on the statistics of Darien; and, if the expedition was sent at all, it should have been under his entire control. Nothing, in the political circumstances, could have insured the establishment of the colony; but Paterson's guidance would have prevented the dire calamities which ensued. He was certain that the vessels were not properly furnished with provisions and stores before setting out, and he in vain urged an examination. When out at sea a few days, he was enabled to get an examination, when there was discovered to be a serious deficiency, but then it was too late. They next sailed for Madeira, where their sealed orders were opened, and they then bore away for the West Indies. They put into St. Thomas's, and there might have obtained plenty of provisions from a ship-captain but for the perverseness of the council. The advice of Paterson was uniformly rejected out of jealousy. On the 30th of October they landed in a fine bay on the coast of Darien, capable of holding one thousand ships, and about four miles east of Golden Island.

The incapable council, in spite of Paterson's advice, would plant their new town in a bog, but the effects on their health soon forced them to remove to higher ground. They erected a fort and threw up defences at Acta, which they named New St. Andrews; and on a hill opposite made a signal-station, where they placed a corps of Highlanders to keep a good look-out for the approach of any enemy.

But the miserable management of the council brought speedy misfortune on the infant colony. The people were suffering from want of everything. Paterson soon lost his wife, and numbers sank under disappointment, insufficient food, and the climate. The natives were friendly to them, but wanted them to go and fight the Spaniards. It was soon found that the mountains and forests offered enormous obstacles to a transit to the shores of the Pacific. The different leaders of the expedition fell to quarrelling, and Paterson endeavoured in vain to reconcile them. They sent out vessels to the West Indian islands for provisions. One they lost, and another endeavouring to get to New York, after beating about for a month, was driven back. Amid the rapidly-sinking colonists and the fatal feuds of the leaders, they received on the 18th of May, 1699, the stunning news that the king had issued a proclamation denouncing the act of the colonists as having infringed his treaty with Spain by forcibly entering the Spanish territory of Panama, and forbidding any of the English governors of the West Indian islands to furnish them with provisions or any necessaries.

The moment Louis XIV. heard of their settling in Darien he had offered to the king of Spain to send ships and forces and drive them out for him. The Spanish Minister at London, the Marquis de Canales, on the 3rd of May presented a remonstrance against this breach of the peace with his master. Dalrymple, who has left much information on this expedition in his "Memoirs," says the Dutch and English opponents were at the bottom of this remonstrance; that Spain had let the affair go on a long time without noticing it; and that the rights of the Company had been debated before William, in presence of the Spanish ambassador, before the colony sailed. All this may be true, for the real destination of the expedition was kept secret till the fleet arrived at Madeira, and Spain protested as soon as she discovered whither it had gone. William, who was just now making treaties with Louis, and anxious to be on good terms with Spain, strictly enforced the orders to deprive the suffering colony of all means of remaining. These measures of the king produced the most fatal consequences in the colony. Every one, says Paterson, was in haste to be gone from it. In vain he tried to persuade them to stay for more positive orders. Pennicook, the captain of the fleet, was reported to be intending to steal away with his ship, on the supposition that they had all been proclaimed pirates, and would be hanged. The poor colonists continued to die off rapidly, and news now came that the Spaniards were marching against them with a strong force.

SCENE AT THE DEPARTURE FROM LEITH OF THE DARIEN EXPEDITION. (See p. [512].)

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