Permission was given by the crown to Paterson and his associates to fit out men-of-war, to plant colonies, build cities and forts, make reprisals for damage done by land or sea, and to conclude treaties of peace or commerce with princes and governors. They were also allowed to claim the minerals, the valuable timber, and the fisheries in sea or river, and "in the name of God and in Honour and for the Memory of that most Antient and Renowned name of our Mother Kingdom" the country was to be named New Caledonia. The enterprise was under the control of a council of seven,[XXXI‑6] to whom was intrusted all power, civil and military. Paterson was of course one of the members, but from all deliberations he was excluded, and in the final arrangements for the fleet he was not even consulted, his reasonable request that an inventory of supplies be taken before setting sail being refused.
INSANE EXPECTATIONS.
The expedition had been planned and ordered in keeping with the first subscriptions[XXXI‑7] and was the largest and most costly of any that had yet been fitted out for schemes of colonization in the New World. On the 26th of July 1698 twelve hundred men, among them three hundred youths belonging to the best families of Scotland, and many veterans who had been discharged from the British army after the peace of Ryswick, assembled at the port of Leith. A wild insanity seized the entire population of Edinburgh as they now came forth to witness the embarkation. Guards were kept busy holding back the eager aspirants who, hungry for death, pressed forward in throngs, stretching out their arms to their departing countrymen and clamoring to be taken on board. Stowaways when ordered on shore clung madly to rope and mast, pleading in vain to be allowed to serve without pay on board the fleet. Women sobbed and gasped for breath; men stood uncovered, and with choked utterance and downcast head invoked the blessing of the Almighty. The banner of St Andrew was hoisted at the admiral's mast; and as a light wind caught the sails, the roar of the vast multitude was heard far down the waters of the frith. The breeze freshened, and as the vessels were carried seaward, cheer after cheer followed the highlanders, who now bade farewell, most of them, as it proved, forever, to their native land.
SCOTLAND IN DARIEN.
On the 4th of November, having lost fifteen of their number during the voyage, they landed at Acla; founded there a settlement to which they gave the name New St Andrew; cut a canal through the neck of land which divided one side of the harbor from the ocean, and on this spot erected a fort whereon they mounted fifty guns. On a mountain at the opposite side of the harbor they built a watch-house, from which the view was so extensive that there was no danger of surprise. Lands were purchased from the Indians, and messages of friendship sent to the governors of several Spanish provinces.
On the week following the departure of the expedition, the Scottish parliament met and unanimously adopted an address to the king asking his support and countenance for the Darien colony, but no time was lost by the India companies in bringing every means to bear to ensure its ruin; and notwithstanding the memorial of the parliament, the British monarch ordered the governors of Jamaica, Barbadoes, and New York not to furnish the settlers with supplies.[XXXI‑8] To such length did rancor go, that the Scotch commanders who should presume to enter English ports, even for repairs after a storm, were threatened with arrest.[XXXI‑9]
A stock of provision had been placed on board the fleet sufficient as was supposed to last for eight months, but the supply gave out in as many weeks, since those who had been placed in charge of the commissariat department had embezzled the funds. Fishing and the chase were the only resources, and as these were precarious the colonists were soon on the verge of famine. As summer drew near the atmosphere became stifling, and the exhalations from the steaming soil, united with other causes, wrought deadly destruction on the settlers. Men were continually passing to the hospital and thence to the grave, and the survivors were only kept alive through the friendly services of the Indians.[XXXI‑10]
Matters daily grew worse with the colonists. A ship despatched from Scotland laden with provisions had foundered off Cartagena. The Spaniards on the Isthmus looked on their distress with complacency. No relief came nor any tidings from Scotland; and on the 22d of June 1699, less than eight months after their arrival, the survivors resolved to abandon the settlement. Paterson, the first to enter the ship at Leith, was the last to go on board at Darien. Ill with fever and broken in spirit, his misfortune weighed so heavily on him that he became temporarily deranged.[XXXI‑11] Of the rest, four hundred perished at sea.
Eight weeks after Paterson's departure two ships arrived from Scotland with ample stores of provisions and three hundred recruits. Finding the colony at New Saint Andrew abandoned they set sail for Jamaica, leaving six of their number, who preferring to remain on the Isthmus, were kindly treated by the natives, and after they had lived there long enough to satisfy themselves were safely brought away.
Not until several months after the departure of the first expedition did the court of Spain protest against the invasion of her territory. And no better policy could have been devised than to have thus let death do the work; but on the 3d of May 1699 a memorial was presented[XXXI‑12] to William III. by the Spanish ambassador stating that his Catholic Majesty looked on the proceeding as a rupture of the alliance between the two countries and as a hostile invasion, and would take such measures as he thought best against the intruders.