The Company remembered that Africa was as prominent in its title as the Indies. Already one small vessel had been sent to the Guinea Coast, but had returned with no more than seventy pounds of gold. Now it was hoped that the prosperity and reputation lost in the west might be recovered from the south. In May the Speedy Return and the Content sailed from the Clyde with barrels of flour and beer, tobacco, bullet-moulds, ivory-handled knives, looking-glasses framed in leather, gilt and silver buttons, worsted hose and scarlet ribbons. Thomas Drummond was the supercargo of the Speedy Return, and Robert was her master. Neither ship was seen again in Scotland.
They lay at anchor off the Madagascar coast some months later, loaded with slaves bought by the cargoes the Directors had hoped would be exchanged for ivory, gold and spices. When they had sold the slaves, the Drummonds caroused with the pirates to whom the island was a refuge and a buccaneering republic. One of them, John Bowen from Bermuda, persuaded Robert Drummond to lend him the Scots ships for a raid on homeward Indiamen, offering the loot in his own ship as payment. Although Drummond later withdrew from the agreement, Bowen sailed with the ships when the brothers were ashore. The Content was lost by fire on the Malabar Coast and Bowen scuttled the Speedy Return in favour of a merchantman he had taken. Neither of the Drummonds thought it wise to inform the Company of the peculiar disposal of its ships, and no more was ever heard of these hard and resolute brothers.
Months of silence were followed by years, and the Company sadly abandoned the ships as lost. A third was wrecked in the Malacca Straits, and having no money to buy or build another the Directors ordered their London agents to hire the Annandale, then lying in the Thames. Her Welsh master, John ap-Rice, agreed to sail to the Spice Islands under the Company's flag and privileges, and to keep the matter to himself until he was at sea, but the Governors of the East India Company heard of the agreement (from Captain ap-Rice himself, it seems) and the ship was seized in the Downs for the contravention of their charter. The anger this aroused in Scotland, sparked and blown upon by Mackenzie's passion, made the hanging of Thomas Green inevitable.
This young man brought the merchantman Worcester into
Leith Road on the last day of July, 1704. She belonged to a Londoner, Thomas Bowrey, and was lately returned from the mouth of the Hooghly. Little attention was given to her at first, although it was believed that she belonged to the East India Company and that she carried a cargo of immense value. Green took lodgings with Mrs. Bartley in Edinburgh, the Scots among his crew went home and the rest idled aboard or in the taverns of Leith. Within a week Mackenzie had convinced himself that the ship was indeed an Indiaman, that she should be seized as a reprisal for the Annandale, and that she had brought her cargo to Scotland in defiance of the Company's privileges. He persuaded the supine Directors to swear out a warrant for her, and joyfully volunteered to serve it himself.
The chief and almost only difficulty that remained with me (he wrote) was how, with secrecy and dispatch to get together a sufficient number of such genteel pretty fellows as would, of their own free accord, on a sudden advertisement, be willing to accompany me upon this adventure, and whose dress would not render them suspected of any uncommon design in going aboard; nor had I power to compel any man.
He found his genteel and pretty fellows, some of them, perhaps, embittered survivors of the Colony. At sunset on Saturday, August 12, four of them were rowed out to the Worcester with Mackenzie, swords and pistols beneath their coats. The officers aboard welcomed them hospitably, and took them into Green's cabin for wine, brandy, lime-juice and cigars. Mackenzie was amused to be taken for a lord, and played the part as if it were a comic theatrical. By dark a second boat had come up on the ship's larboard quarter, and more genteel fellows climbed aboard. Unseen by the watch, now drunk from the punch sent up by Mackenzie, they posted themselves at the gun-room and on the main-deck, quarter-deck and forecastle. A third boat hailed a Scots naval frigate nearby and got her captain's promise of help should it be needed. There was little resistance, however, when Mackenzie's men drew their swords and pointed their pistols across the punch-bowl. A carpenter waved a blunderbuss, but it was taken from him and the Annandale was avenged.
When Green heard of the seizure he at once protested and sent his brother to London with the news. Bowrey protested too, but both were ignored. For twelve weeks Green watched in impotent anger as his ship was stripped of her guns, sails and rudder, her cargo placed under seal, and her master's cabin turned into an ale-house for Mackenzie's "stout, pretty fellows". On December 15 he and his crew were arrested for piracy. His surgeon, who had escaped down the Newcastle road, was brought back with a bloody nose.
Though Scotland had been delighted by the taking of the ship, it soon became clear to the Directors that the charges made against her by Mackenzie were not supported by any valid proof. They might have released her, but by a strange fortuity the Secretary was able to present them with a more terrible charge. From his conversations with the Worcester's steward, he said, from the drunken talk of some of her crew there was no doubt that Green had taken the Speedy Return, killed the Drummonds and burnt the ship. The evidence, where it has any substance, crumbled under the slightest touch of reason, but it hanged Thomas Green, John Madder and James Simpson.
What was left of the Company's honour and nobility died with those men on Leith sands. Two years later it was itself destroyed by Article Fifteen of the Treaty of Union by which one Parliament of Great Britain replaced those of Scotland and England. There were some Scots who would not surrender their noble undertaking without bitter protest. Robert Blackwood urged the Scottish Secretary "to have the nation's just grievances with relation to our Company's sufferings redressed by a suitable recompense, and that our Company's privileges be kept still entire." But the English Commissioners, treating with the Scots in the Cockpit at Westminster, insisted that the security of England and the prosperity of the united kingdoms made this impossible. English gold, which bought the vote of the Estates for the Treaty, also stopped the mouths of those who wished their Company to endure. England agreed to give Scotland nearly £400,000 Sterling for the liquidation of its public debts, for the improvement of its monetary standard, and for the repayment of the capital stock of the Company with interest at five per cent. A special committee of the Commissioners found that the sum due to the shareholders was £232,884 5s 0d.
"This Company," wrote Paterson, "hath rather been calculated and fitted for and towards bringing a Union than for subsisting in an ununited state... no good patriot would have been angry when even the miscarriage of that design hath contributed to the Union." This was perhaps true, and the Treaty removed most of those commercial grievances that had made the Company necessary. By Article Four, the subjects of the United Kingdom now had "full freedom and intercourse of trade and navigation to and from any port or place within the said United Kingdom and the dominions and plantations thereunto belonging." Few good patriots, however, agreed with Paterson, and may be admired for their continued dream of a Scotland independent in government and independent in trade. Within the context of the time both were impermissible, but upon that issue of independence Scotsmen would yet fight and die.
It was two years before Roderick Mackenzie at last put away the Company's ledgers, and locked the great oaken press that had housed them for so long. Most of England's money had been distributed—to shareholders glad to receive what they had thought was irrecoverably lost, to the widows of the dead, to angry and impoverished officers like Turnbull and Colin Campbell, to seamen and soldiers in desperate want, to brewers and bakers, gunsmiths and goldsmiths, to tanners, hosiers, fleshers and printers. Idle in the Clyde, the Caledonia was bought by William Arbuckle. The tall buildings in Milne Square were sold. Within a month of the Treaty being ratified, a committee of Directors drew up an inventory, an Estimate of Plenishings in the Office so that their value might be known. There was a clock and an escritoire, sixty-six chairs, some desks, tables and chests, a bound copy of
the Acts of the Scottish Parliament, a dictionary and a book of maps. Their total value was £22 7s.
Because he held no stock, because his claims were overlooked or forgotten, Paterson received nothing until seven years later when an Act of Parliament granted him an indemnity of £18,000. It came to him when he was in great need, and it eased the last few years of his life.
Darien is now a scar on the memory of the Scots, and the pain of the wound is still felt even where the cause is dimly understood. There is little more. Upon the coast of the Isthmus there is a finger of land that some call Punta Escoces. There is an overgrown ditch where Scottish musketeers once stood, where the descendants of Andreas and Pedro now float their canoes. And the rising sun flies unrecognised in the standard of a Scottish bank
Appendices
Principal Characters
Alliston, Captain Robert, buccaneer. Paterson's friend. Piloted the first expedition from Crab Island to Darien.
Ambrosio, Captain. Indian leader on Darien. Ally of the Scots.
Andreas, Captain. Indian leader. First to welcome the Scots and allied to them by treaty.
Argyll, Archibald Campbell, 10th Earl, later 1st Duke of. Chief of Clan Campbell. The King's servant, but a large shareholder in the Company. Encouraged the officers and men of his regiment to serve in the Colony.
Balfour, James, merchant. Joint-founder of the Company. Lobbied support for the Act. Served in London as a Director. Ancestor of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Belhaven, John Hamilton, 2nd Baron. Director of the Company in London and Scotland. Violent supporter of it in the Estates.
Bellamont, Richard Coote, 1st Earl of. Governor of New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Sympathetic toward survivors of first expedition, but adhered to the English Proclamation against them.
Blackwood, (Sir) Robert, merchant. Joint-founder of the Company. Lobbied with Balfour. Served in London as a Director.
Borland, the Reverend Francis. Served with the second expedition as minister, only one of four to return. Wrote an account of the Colony.
Byres, James, merchant. Councillor of the second Colony, later deserted it. An enemy of Thomas Drummond. Condemned by the Directors for treachery.
Campbell of Fonab, Colonel Alexander. Councillor of the second Colony. Won a victory over the Spanish at Toubacanti and strongly opposed surrender. Later accused the Company of treachery.
Campbell, Captain Colin. Land officer, later appointed to the Council of the first Colony. Took the Saint Andrew to Jamaica after Pennecuik's death.
Campbell, Colin, seaman volunteer. Apprenticed to Pincarton on the Unicorn. Kept a journal.
Campbell, James, merchant. The Company's agent in London.
Canhxas, Conde de. President of Panama. Led an expedition against the first Colony, retired without fighting. Sent support to Pimienta in the attack on the second Colony.
Carrizoli, Campmaster Don Luis. Commanded the Spanish militia at Toubacanti. Joined Pimienta in the successful attack on the second Colony.
Chiesly, James, merchant. Joint-founder of the Company, took Paterson's scheme to Edinburgh.
Chiesly, Sir Robert, Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Merchant and Director of the Company. Paterson's principal correspondent during the attempt to set up a London Court of Directors.
Cunningham, Major James. Councillor of the first Colony which he deserted.
Diego, Captain. Indian leader. Allied by treaty with the Scots.
Drummond, Captain Robert. Commander of the Caledonia, which he brought home from New York. Later commanded the Speedy Return on an African voyage. Brother of
Drummond, Captain Thomas. Once a grenadier officer of Argyll's Regiment. Took part in the Massacre of Glencoe. A Councillor of the first Colony, returned to it from New York.
Quarrelled with and imprisoned by Byres. Sailed to Africa as supercargo on his brother's ship.
Erskine of Carnock, Colonel John. A director of the Company, and sent with Gleneagles and Paterson to Hamburg to open subscriptions there.
Fletcher of Saltoun, Andrew. Scottish patriot. Soldier, writer, supporter of the Company and a friend of Paterson. Asked Lionel Wafer to serve the Company. Replied to Walter Hemes' attack on the Colony.
Gibson, Captain James. Master of the Rising Sun and Councillor of the second Colony. A Director of the Company and its representative in Amsterdam. Lost with his ship off the coast of Carolina.
Green, Captain Thomas. Master of the Worcester. Charged with piracy against the Company's ship, Speedy Return, and the murder of the Drummonds. Hanged on Leith sands.
Guevara, Campmaster Don Melchor de. Spanish officer, led the first attack on the peninsula. Sent by Pimienta with terms for the surrender of the Colony.
Haldane of Gleneagles, John. A Director of the Company, sent with Erskine of Carnock and Paterson to Hamburg. Discovered James Smith's embezzlement of the Company's money.
Hamilton, Lord Basil. Furious supporter of the Company. Carried its Address to the King in 1700.
Hamilton, James Douglas, 4th Duke of. Supporter of the Company in the Estates, led the defence of it in Parliament 1700.
Herries, Walter. Once a surgeon in the English Navy, accompanied the first expedition to Darien, deserted it and returned to London. Attacked the Colony in a book. Probably became a paid agent of the English.
Hodges, James, pamphleteer. Probably employed by the Duke of Hamilton to write a reply to Herries' book. Arrested by the English, but dismissed for want of conclusive evidence.
Jolly, Robert, sea-captain and merchant. Councillor of the first Colony. Quarrelled with and arrested by Pennecuik. Left the Colony and was later stripped of his office and privileges by the Company.
Lindsay, Major John. Probably an officer of Argyll's Regiment. Ineffectual member of the Council of the second Colony. Died in Darien.
Long, Captain Richard. Quaker master of the Rupert. Sent by James Vernon to spy on the Scots.
Macdowall, Patrick. Supercargo of the relief ship Margaret. Found the survivors of the second Colony at Jamaica. A friend of Paterson. Kept a journal.
Mackay, Daniel. Lawyer. Sailed with the first expedition as a Councillor. Returned with dispatches. Followed the second expedition in the Speedy Return. Lost overboard between Jamaica and Caledonia.
Mackenzie, Roderick. Secretary of the Company, first in London and later in Edinburgh. A relentless enemy of the English. Served the Company well. Responsible for the arrest of Green on a charge of piracy.
Maclean, Captain Lachlan. Company commander with the first Colony. Returned to London where he attacked the Company.
Marchmont, Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, 1st Earl of. The King's Commissioner to the Scots Parliament. An opponent of the Company.
Montgomerie, Captain James. A kinsman of the Earl of Eglinton. Member of the Council in the first Colony, won a skirmish against the Spanish. Quarrelled with Pennecuik and left Darien with Jolly. Censured by the Company.
Moon, Richard. Jamaican ship-master and friend of Paterson. Brought provisions to the first Colony.
Munro of Coul, Doctor John. Employed by the Company to equip the expeditions with medicines and supplies. Refused to sail with the second expedition. Accused of peculation.
Murdoch, William. First mate and later commander of the Unicorn. Took Jolly's side against Pennecuik, and left the Colony in protest.
Nanfan, John. Lieutenant-Governor of New York, and a kinsman of Lady Bellamont. Refused the survivors of the first Colony anything more than provisions to take them home, but was outwitted by Thomas Drummond.
Oswald, Roger. Served in the first Colony as a Volunteer. Survived, but was disowned by his father. His letters contain a vivid account of life on Darien.
Panmure, James Maule, 4th Earl of. Member of the Council- General of the Company. Jacobite in sympathies.
Paterson, William. Originator of the scheme for a Scots colony on the Isthmus of Panama. Drew up the proposals on which the Act establishing the Company was based. A Director of bo
th the London and Edinburgh Courts. The company's emissary to Hamburg. Disgraced by the Smith scandal. Served in the first Colony as a Councillor. Became an ardent supporter of the Union of Parliaments.
Paton, Henry. Second mate of the Unicorn. Ordered to come to her assistance in the Caribbean, he deserted her. Later arrested in Jamaica.
Pedro, Captain. Indian leader and son-in-law of Ambrosio. Turnbull's friend, fought with him and Fonab at Toubacanti.
Pennecuik, Captain Robert. Commander of the Saint Andrew and Commodore of the Company's fleet, member of the Council of the first Colony. Once an officer in the English Navy. Quarrelled with everybody, particularly the Drummonds. Died at sea after the desertion of the Colony.
Pimienta, Don Juan. Governor of Carthagena. Organised the attack on the second Colony by land and sea. Accepted its surrender.
Pincarton, Captain Robert. Commander of the Unicorn and a member of the first Council. Aboard the Dolphin, he was captured by the Spanish and was their prisoner for nineteen months.
Rose, Hugh. Secretary and Clerk to the first Colony. Kept an official journal of the voyage and landing.
Rycaut, Sir Paul. English Resident at Hamburg. Successfully prevented the Scots from opening a subscription book there. Spied on their shipping.
Sands, Captain Edward. Jamaican shipmaster, Moon's colleague. Brought supplies to the Colony.
Seafield, James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater and 1st Earl of. The King's servant and principal enemy of the Company, as Secretary of State for Scotland, President of Parliament and Commissioner. Submitted to the mob and agreed to the hanging of Thomas Green.
Smith, James. A friend of William Paterson and a subscriber to the London book. A Director of the Company and sent by it to London, where he embezzled funds entrusted to him by Paterson.
Shields, the Reverend Alexander. Minister to the second Colony. Served in Flanders as chaplain to the Cameronians. Resolute Covenanter. Died in Jamaica, having deserted the survivors.
John Prebble Page 37