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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
country_n	divide_v	part_n	river_n	1,706	5	6.8768	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41175	A just and modest vindication of the Scots design, for the having established a colony at Darien with a brief display, how much it is their interest, to apply themselves to trade, and particularly to that which is foreign.	Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.; Hodges, James.	1699 (1699)	Wing F742; ESTC R21931	134,853	248

Possession of the Natives Nor is there so much reason or cause why the Spaniards should fear the meeting with any thing that may be uncivil or hurtful from the Scots as they had reason to apprehend and dread from the Indians in that the latter are not only a rude and barbarous People but their ancient inveterate implacable and mortal Enemies whereas the former are both a civil generous and Christian People trained up in all the measures of Humanity good Breeding Morality and Religion and governing themselves by the Laws of Revelation as well as of Nations and who withal have never been in War nor are desirous to have any Hostility with them Yea the Alliances between the Crowns of Great Britain and of Spain ought to obviate all Jealousie in the Spaniards of their having any thing that is either undecent or injurious offer'd unto them by the Scots who are Subjects under a Monarch that is in affinity with His Catholick Majesty Whereas thro' want of Leagues and Stipulations between the Spaniards and those Indians into whose Territories the Scots are receiv'd they had ground of being always and justly suspicious that such mischiefs would be done them as the power of those Natives could enable them to attempt and execute Further if the adjacency and nearness of the Scots Plantation unto the Spanish Colonies prove matter of offence unto the latter and of complaint against the former the fault thereof is wholly to be lodg'd upon the Spaniards and therefore the blame ought entirely to fall upon them Seeing whatsoever the Scots are come into the possession and occupation of they have a just and legal Right thereunto from the grant and consent of the Natives who were the undoubted and true Proprietors thereof whereas the whole which the Spaniards do there possess and all the Colonies which they have settled hath not only been done without the leave but against the will of the ancient and rightful Owners So that by reason of the badness of their Title which flows from Usurpation and is built upon their having unjustly invaded what belonged unto others the whole of a reasonable Accusation and of a just Complaint doth lie against them and their Plantations whereas the Title of the Scots proving legal and good thro' their having come to inhabit and settle with the allowance and upon the invitation of the Indians the nearness of their Colony to those of the Spaniards doth not make them or it obnoxious to any just and rational Expostulations or Remonstrances Nor is the case of the Spaniards made better because of their Colonies being establish'd long ago or the condition of the Scots render'd worse by reason of their having but lately begun to sit down and to plant in that the Title of the one is good from the first moment whereas no length of time can ever make the claim of the other justifiable For as all Lawyers do say and particularly Grotius That tempus in se nullam habet vim effectricem that a possession which is acquir'd unjustly at first can never be render'd just by a continuance in the long occupation of it So a Title unto a Place and a Right in a Settlement by the grant and with the consent of the true Proprietors is equally good just and valid in Law the first day as it will be after the having been inherited a Thousand Years Moreover there is not that nearness of the Calidonian Colony to the Plantations which the Spaniards have upon the Isthmus of Darien as some thro' ignorance of Maps and unacquaintedness with Journals may upon a general noise and clamour be inclin'd to imagine seeing none of the Settlements which the Spaniards have and whereof they are in the actual possession and occupation are within less distance than fifteen or sixteen Leagues of the Scots Plantation which is enough not only to silence the report and to put an end to the pretence of the adjacency between the Colonies of the one and the other but for the giving large bounds for determining between their Properties and Jurisdiction and for chalking out limits of division and separation betwixt what can any time resonably arise and come to be their several and respective Claims And as they who would extend their pretence of Right and Jurisdiction fifteen or sixteen Leagues beyond what they are actually possess'd of may as well enlarge it to a thousand so neither do the Titles of Princes unto their various and different Dominions and Territories depend upon the nearness unto or the remoteness of their Lands from each others but upon the legal Property which they have and their being either in the actual possession of them or of Countries Cities Towns or Places upon which they do depend or upon the retaining a claim by vertue of an hereditary Right which they have not renounced But they must not only be strangely unacquainted with Histories as well as with Maps but stand ignorant of what every Traveller can inform them who do not know that even in Europe there are Soveraign Jurisdictions and Principalities surrounded by and inclosed within the Dominions of other Princes whereof among many others Orange and Avignion are undeniable Instances Nor is it possible to be avoided but the Lands and Territories of all Neighbouring Princes whatsoever who do live upon Continents must be Contiguous in some one place or another And tho' the limits of some Princes Countries may in some places be divided from those of other Potentates by ridges of Mountains or by considerable Rivers yet for the most part they are no otherwise distinguished and separated than by a road a hedge a brook or by erected Pillars of wood or by stones which are set up here and there Finally that wherewith the Scots stand charged and whereof they are in this particular accused is no more than what is practised by all European Princes and States in most parts or the World where they have settled Colonies and Plantations and that without the Infraction of the bonds of Amity and Alliances between them or the being thought to trespass against the rules of Decency and Respect which the Rulers of Kingdoms and Republicks are accustomed to render to each other of which it were easy to assign many undeniable instances but I shall confine my self to a few 'T is sufficiently known that all along on the Coast of Africk and particularly on the River Gambe the English French and other Europeans have their settlements intermixed and contiguous without clamouring against or Impeaching of one an other on the score of Adjacency Nor is it to be denied but that as Ceuta Tangier and Mamora do lie in the bosom of the Empire of Morocco so that they have been possessed by and have belonged to different European Potentates without their complaining of one another upon that Motive Neither is it to be in the least contradicted but that the English and French have their several and respective Plantations on the Island of

Commerce in Africa and the Indies how kindly he not only received it but with what both goodness and readiness he referred the consideration of it to my Lord Middleton my Lord Melford Mr. Penn and Mr. Berkley that upon their opinion of the Justice and Equity of it who were all known to be entire favourers thereof He might by his Royal Charter and Patent have empowered the Scots to have proceeded in the Establishing of it and which nothing could have obstructed had not the Accession of his Majesty who was then Prince of Orange in 〈◊〉 England at that time intervened But to proceed unto that which doth in the course of Method next offer it self to be laid open and Discoursed of namely the Situation Nature and Conveniency of the Place where the Scots have pitched their Tents and are about establishing there Plantations which is called the Isthmus of Darien and is a Country very fit and proper for that purpose as well because of the Richness of the Soil as by reason of its Situation for Trade It is the Narrowest part of America and lieth between the Northern and Southern or the Atlantick and Pacifick Oceans and is Justly called an Isthmus as comprehending where it is broadest not above two degrees viz. between eight and ten N. L. and where it is narrowest about but one degree And it is in all probability stiled the Ishhmus of Darien from the great River of that name where with the Northern coast is bounded to the East For beyond that River on the North side the land doth so spread to the East and the North-East and on the South side to the South and South-East that it can no farther be called an Isthmus But as to the narrowest part of this American Isthmus which as I have said doth not extend above one degree upon which the Scots have Setled their Colony and have appointed that the Country shall hereafter be called Calidonia and that themselves Successors and Associates shall be stiled by the Title of Calidonians Wafer doth assign for its Western limits from the Mouth of the River Chagre where it falls into the North Sea to the nearest part of the South Sea Westward of Panama and for its Eastern boundaries from point Garachma or the South part of the Gulph of St. Michael directly Eastward to the forementioned River Darien And all do know that it is circumscribed limited and bounded on the North and South by the two vast Oceans that are so Denominated And as to the particular place where the Scots have pitched their Tents and raised Fortifications it is upon a Harbour called by the Spaniards Acla and by the Natives Schocana and is one of the most Defensible Ports of the World and is Situated about two Leagues from the Golden Island called by the Spaniards Guarda which as it is not further Distanced from the South Sea than what any man may Travel in two or three Days and which the Natives can do in one So it lieth in a Nearness of Eight or Nine Leagues both to the River Darien and Conception upon which Boats may go to the Southern Ocean And as the weather in the place and on all hands where the Scots are setled is exceeding temperate being much the same that is in other places of the Torrid Zone of that Latitude but inclining rather as Wafer says to the wet extreme the Rains beginning usually in April or May and continuing more or less to the latter end of August but with intermixtures even then of fair and dry days for a week together So that the Country is healthful beyond what was commonly believed or could have been imagined unless experienced And tho' the Artificial productions of the District and Territory be few by reason of the sloth and unskilfulness of the Natives to cultivate the Land and to improve and fabrick what it yields yet the ground is unconceivably fertile and rich and might by being well Manured and Agriculted afford both as great Variety and as great Plenty for the comfort and pleasure as well as for the Necessities of Life as any Land in whatsoever part of the World doth However the Natural Productions and what it spontaneously yields as materials of and commodities for Trade and to enrich such as are or shall become engaged and Interessed in the Traffick are divers and great both in the variety of kinds and in the Plenty and Quality of them For besides its being stored with all sorts of Wood proper for Building and Wainscotting and particularly with Cedar it hath also abundance of white wood fit for Cabinets and Interlaying and which is more than all the other it is likewise plentifully furnished with Logwood which the English do now cut upon the Bay of Hunderos not without being exposed to great hazard and danger and if credit may be given to reports it is provided of Nicaragua wood which is a Commodity for Dying of that value as to be reckoned to approach to the worth of Cochenele and which is beyond all other productions whatsoever It affordeth both Silver and Gold Mines as well as large quantities of Gold Dust that is gathered out of the Rivers after that it hath been washed from the Mountains by violent Rains And then for the People they are open frank and good natured and for many Leagues round in an entire Friendship with the Scots having not only received them in a most obliging manner at their first arrival into those American parts and their Captains Supreame Leaders or Caiques who have neither dependance upon any other Prince or State nor upon one another save by Leagues for mutual defence readily and with great chearfulness consented and agreed to permit the Scots to settle among them and to become Inhabitants in their Country but have by stipulations and contracts since Joyned in a Confederacy with them for the defence of them and their Colony against all such as shall in time to come be their Enemies So that for Situation as the Councel constituted by the Indian and African Company of Scotland for the Government and direction of their Colonies and settlements in the Indies have published in their Declaration bearing date at new Edinburg in Calidonia December 28. 1698 it is a more convenient Place than any other in all America to be the Store-house of the unsearchable Treasures of the spacious South Seas the door of Commerce to China and Japan and the Emporium and Staple for the Trade of both the Indies And as it is there that the Scots have settled a Colony and Plantation by and with the consent of the Natives no European Prince or State being thereof possessed or having right of claim thereunto so they did not offer to enter upon that District and Territory without the having a particular and strict regard unto and conforming exactly with all the Regulations Proviso's and Limitations laid down and prescribed in the Act of Parliament and in his Majesty's Patent and the

been conversant in Geography or Histories be ignorant of this matter whereof all the Accounts and Narratives which we have of those three parts of the World do so fully and particularly instruct us Neither ought we to think it strange that this should be the form model and manner of Government on the foresaid Isthmus and that the boundaries of supreme Authority and Jurisdiction there should be so narrowly limited confin'd and circumscrib'd if we do but allow our selves to observe how that there is the same Species of Rule and Domination both as to quality and extent to be every where found and met with in Brasile Chili Paragua Florida Carolina Virginia Malabar and the Country which is call'd The Land of the Amazons of which it is particularly remarkable that there are above Fifty different Indian Nations or distinct and independant Septs on the banks of the River that is so call'd Nor was the like heretofore altogether unusual and unexemplify'd in the European parts of the World whereof the several and distinct supreme Principalities of the ancient Britains in England where in Julius Caesar's time there were no fewer than four distinct Kings in Kent alone namely Cingetorix Carvilius Taximagulus and Segonax or as Cambden calls them Reguli vel melioris Notae Nobiles Captains or Persons distinguish'd from the Vulgar by their Power and Figure and whose Territories could not be much larger if of that extent as the Districts of the several Caciques on the Isthmus of Darien are And the like may be said only allowing them greater dimensions of Territory of the Saxons during the Heptarchy afterwards in the same Country as well as of the Scots and Picts in the ancient Caledonia Yea and the distinct and different Soveraignties which were in Spain it self not only both before and after it was a Roman Province but even until less than within these two last Centuries As Leon Arragon Navarre Castile and Portugal under which the Christians in Spain were divided and those of Cordova Sivil Malaga Granada and others under the power of the Moors not to speak of the several independent and absolute Jurisdictions which are at this day both in Italy and some other places do abundantly confirm the same And were not the Bible a Book that some men are little conversant in they would not think it a Banter to have those stiled Independent Absolute and Soveraign Rulers whose Territories are circumscribed and confined within strait and narrow limits Seeing besides many Instances of that kind which are to be met with in divers places of the Sacred History they would find that Joshua subdued no fewer than 31 Kings in Canaan when he conquered the Land in order to settle the People of Israel in it tho' that Country was not much larger in the whole extent and circumference of it than some single Counties of England are not to add that as there were several Kings more whom he did neither drive out nor destroy so most of the primitive Governments of the World were of that sort constitution and complexion But to what hath been already said and represented under this head there is further to be added that whatsoever Possessions the Spaniards have obtained in that American Strait whether thro' their having conquered any of the Caciques that had their Jurisdictions there or by their having contracted Alliances with those Indian Governours and by Agreements with them and the Natives acquired a Liberty to sit down plant and to erect Colonies within the limits and bounds of their little Territories and Principalities or how much soever they may have encroached upon any of these Captains whom they have not wholly subdued and wrested part of their Lands and Jurisdictions from them yet there are still divers of these Caciques over the Native Indians who as neither they their People nor their Territories were ever conquer'd by the Spaniards so they never enter'd into Agreements and Contracts with them nor have at any time granted liberty unto them to settle within the Precincts of their Lands Inheritances and Demesnes but have at all times been in terms of Variance and Hostility with them and for the most part in a state and condition of actual War So that at least within the Boundaries and Jurisdictions of such Indian Governors the Spaniards have no just or legal pretence of Property and Dominion For how weak and mean soever those Natives and their Rulers may be esteemed and represented yet that doth no ways alter the case or any ways enfeeble their right unto and their authority over their own Principalities but they do retain an equal Claim and Title unto and Property in what was anciently and originally theirs and what they have defended from the Invasion and Usurpation of the Spaniards as if their Dominions were as large and their Might and Power as great as those of His Britannick Majesty's are The little Republic of Geneva hath as good right in Law to a Propriety in what they have immemorially possess'd as the Great Monarch of France hath unto the vast and powerful Dominions over which he is Hereditarily King and Soveraign Yea they of San Marino in Italy are no less absolute and independent Proprietors and Governors in and over that poor and despicable Hamlet and Dorp than those who go by the Stile of High and Mighty are over the Dutch Provinces in reference to those Things Matters and Ends for which they became United and Confederated Nor is the Duke of Mirandola whose Territories do not extend themselves to three Italian Miles less absolute and independent over his own small Principality than the Emperor of Germany is with respect of his Austrian and Hereditary Countries For according to the Laws of Nature and of Nations the point of Right and Property is the same in the Poor that it is in the Rich and in the Weak that it is in the Strong And how impotent and contemptible soever those unsubdu'd Caciques on the Isthmus of Darien are in comparison of His Catholick Majesty yet it is enough to justifie their Propriety and Authority in and over what they possess that the Spaniards have not by all their Power and Might been hitherto able to disseize subdue or drive them out but that all along since the Castilians first descended upon the Isthmus and occupy'd several places within that Streight of Darien they have been in a condition either singly by the forces of some one or other of them alone or conjunctively by uniting and joyning their several and respective Powers together to cover protect and defend themselves their Territories and Jurisdictions from being so Invaded as to be over-run and subdued Nor is the extent and dimensions of the Land and Territory so scanty and small or the number of those Captains or their People so few in which and over whom the Span●●ards have not hitherto been able to obtain Possession and Authority as some who do not give themselves leave to think