[XXX‑70] Twelve leagues distant, to the east of Cape Gracias á Dios.
[XXX‑71] The English buccaneers remained for a time with the Mosquito Indians near Cape Gracias á Dios. The greater part of the Frenchmen reached the settlements, but 75 of them who went to Jamaica were imprisoned by the duke of Albemarle, the governor. On his death the following year they were released; but neither their arms nor plunder were returned to them. Burney's Discov. South Sea, iv. 293-4.
[XXX‑72] Lussan, in Bucaniers of Amer., iii. 180; and Journal du Voy., 448.
[XXXI‑1] Paterson, the son of a Dumfriesshire farmer, was born in 1658. There are no authentic records as to his early career. In Francis' Hist. Bank of England, and Strain's Inter. Com., 15, it is stated that he went out as a missionary to the West Indies and afterward joined the buccaneers. The statement is not so improbable as it may seem, for the freebooters while robbing and murdering the Catholic Spaniard imagined they were serving God, as did the Spaniard when he plundered and slaughtered the natives. Wilkes, Hist. Oregon, 48, says he was supposed to have been originally a South American buccaneer.
[XXXI‑2] See Orig. Papers and Letters relating to the Scots Company, 50.
[XXXI‑3] Id., 53. It will be observed that his Majesty's ministers then as to-day were not always very proficient in English grammar.
[XXXI‑4] The anonymous author of 'A Defence of the Scots Settlement at Darien,' Edinburgh, 1699, 3. His nom de plume is Philo Caledon.
[XXXI‑5] The writer of 'A Just and Modest Vindication of the Scots Design, For the having Established a Colony at Darien,' 1699, anon.
[XXXI‑6] In December 1698 the company granted to a council constituted from its members certain rights conferred on them by the Scotch parliament and confirmed by William IV. In An Enquiry into the Causes of the Miscarriage of the Scots Colony, Glasgow, 1700, anon., 67, the full text of the declaration of the council is given. This work was published in answer to a charge that the failure of the company was wholly due to the Scots themselves, and especially to the officers of the company. The English commons declared it 'false, traitorous, and scandalous,' and ordered it to be burned by the common hangman, and the author imprisoned. The Scots were no less incensed and equally clamorous for the punishment of the offender.
[XXXI‑7] English opposition and high prices compelled them to go to Amsterdam and Hamburg, where they ordered six ships with 50 guns each. Darien, Enquiry, 82. Four ships only, one of which was sold before the first expedition started. Burney's Discov. South Sea, iv. 362. The 17th of July 1698 the first expedition, consisting of the three ships, the Caledonia, the St Andrew, and the Unicorn, and two tenders, carrying about 1,200 men, left the frith of Edinburgh. Id., 363. July 26, 1698, and same number of vessels. The expedition sailed from Leith. Winterbotham's Hist. U. S., iv. 124; Strain's Inter-Com., 16. In beginning of Sept. 1699, Seemann's Hist. Isth. 46. The last named is evidently wrong and contradicts himself in later quotations. Winterbotham is probably correct as to date and point of departure.