Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A39785
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A short and impartial view of the manner and occasion of the Scots colony's coming away from Darien in a letter to a person of quality.
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Fletcher, Andrew, 1655-1716.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing F1297; ESTC R6209
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27,049
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42
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Hands in this Kingdom could of themselves be able to raise a sufficient Stock for that Purpose the first Offer thereof was made to our Friends at London who in nine days time concluded a Subscription there of 300000 Pounds Sterling and paid in the first fourth Part thereof either in Money Bank-Bills or Notes payable on Demand and further declared their Willingness to Subscribe for as much more if allowed But you know how that Subscription was quickly render'd void by the Measures taken in the Parliament of England The next Attempt you know that the Directors made for strengthning their Stock and Interest was to endeavour the procuring of Forreign Subscriptions for some considerable Sum And in Order thereunto upon repeated encouraging Advices from several Parts beyond Sea but more especially from Hamburgh they sent some of their own Number as Commissioners or Deputees thither with whom soon after their Arrival the Merchants of the said City of Hamburgh enter'd into Contract to joyn at least 200000 Pounds Sterling with the Company 's Stock But you know likewise how the English Ministers there did under Pretence of a special Warrant from His Majesty put a Stop thereunto by giving in a Memorial to the Senat of that City Not only disowning the Authority of the said Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent but also threatning both Senat and Inhabitants with the Kings outmost Displeasure if they should countenance or joyn with the Company 's said Deputees in any Treaty of Trade or Commerce Notwithstanding whereof tho' the Council-General and Court of Directors of the said Company have not only often Address'd and Petition'd the King and Privy Council of this Kingdom but also His Majesty's High Commissioner and the Right Honourable Estates of Parliament at their last Session And likewise that the said Estates were thereupon pleased by their Unanimous Address of the 5th of August 1698 to His Majesty To manifest not only their own and the whole Nation 's Concern in that Matter earnestly entreating and most assuredly expecting that His Majesty would in His Royal Wisdom take such Measures as might effectually vindicat the Undoubted Rights and Privileges of the said Company and support the Credit and Interest thereof But were also pleased in the same Address To recommend the Concerns of the said Company to some special Marks of His Majesty's Royal Favour as being that Branch of the Trade of this Kingdom in which They and the Nation they represent have a more peculiar Interest Yet it seems His Majesty has been all along so taken up with the far greater and more general Concerns of Europe that to this Hour I have not heard of any manner of Redress that has been given in that Matter There were likewise considerable Steps and Advances made by several Merchants in Holland particularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam towards a Subscription there But upon notice had of their Meetings with the Company 's Deputees above-mention'd and of the Success their Negotiations were like to have had the most considerable and Leading Men of those Merchants who had shewed most Forwardness in that Matter were sent for by some of the States and threatned that Measures would be taken to make them repent their Doings if they persisted any further in Treating with the said Deputees or if they would joyn with the Scots Company This I remember happen'd some Months before the Hamburgh-Memorial above-mention'd was presented which I confess makes it seem a Problem to me as well as to many others that have heard of it Whether the English were influenc'd by the Dutch or the Dutch by the English to deal so unkindly by us But in short I think we may truly say with the Prophet The Syrians before and the Philistines behind c. Isaiah 9. 12. But to pass over all these previous Discouragements and Disappointments and to come closely to the Point in Hand The Colony that was first sent away in July 1698 for settling a Plantation in America pursuant to the Instructions then given carried along with them not only abundance of all Necessaries for such an Undertaking but also such a Quantity of Provisions as was calculated for a whole Year and of some Particulars namely Stock-Fish what was computed might have served for near 18 Months And for their further Security in case those Provisions should happen to fall short before Advice could be had of their Settlement and the fresh Supplies of Provisions sent after them there was likewise a Cargo of Sortable Goods to the Value of about 16000 Pounds Sterling prime Cost here sent along with them at the absolute Disposal of the Council for the Colony's Use which Goods were either to be Traded with upon the Coast and American Islands or Barter'd for Provisions and other Necessaries at the Council's Discretion as should best sute with their Circumstances for the time Yet such was the Directors Care of their Welfare and Safety That immediatly after their Departure from Scotland the Directors did upon the Encouragement of the Parliaments Address above-recited apply themselves in a dutiful manner to His Majesty by their humble Petition of the 16th of August 1698 To bestow upon them as a Gracious Mark of His Royal Favour the Use of the two small Friggots then and to this Hour lying useless in Burntiâ—land Harbour with Design to â—it them out as soon as possible with Provisions and other Necessaries for the Colony and appointed a particular Committee to wait upon the Chief-Men in the Government to desire their Assistance in Seconding the said Petition But in a short time thereafter they found it necessary to call a Council-General of the Company which accordingly met on the 5th day of September following And the Directors laying before them a Representation in Writing which contained an Abstract of the then State of the Company 's Affairs together also with their own Opinion what they thought necessary to be done by the Company at that Juncture with relation to a Supply of Provisions and other Necessaries to be sent to the Company 's Colony they thereupon ordered a further Proportion of the Company 's Joint-Stock to be call'd in from the respective Proprietors for that Purpose And upon the 9 th day of November The Court of Directors did upon the Prospect of the Martinmass Payments come to a Resolution that a Ship of near about 200 Tuns burden should be bought forthwith for the Company 's Use and that the buying and fitting thereof as also the buying of the needful Provisions for a Supply to the Colony should be referred to a Committee which was appointed for that End but after enquiry made in several Places about such a Vessel they could find none reported to be so fit for their Purpose as one that lay then in Leith-Harbour exposed to Sale which one of their Number bought with a special Condition to be free if upon Survey she should not be sound fit for the Company 's Use And upon the 14 th day
A Short and Impartial VIEW OF The MANNER and OCCASION OF THE Scots Colony's Coming away from DARIEN IN A Letter to a Person of Quality Quia Veritas propter Taciturnitatem non lucet Mendacio se ingerendi locus est Tacit. Printed in the Year M. DC XC IX My Lord I Am so far from wondring at the extraordinary Concern which you are pleased to express for the late bad News of our Colony's having come away from so Valuable and Impregnable a Settlement as that of which they were Possess'd in the very Navel of the Trading World if I may properly so call it that I should much more Wonder if any Man who carries Scots Blood in his Veins and pretends to have any regard either for the Honour Interest or Reputation of his Countrey should not upon so provoking an Occasion contribute as much as in him lies to retrieve so great a Loss at any Rate and have a just Resentment against the Authors of so Surprising and Unaccountable an Emergency You tell me which is true that several People according to their different Interests and Affections as well as different Capacities to Penetrate into and judge of the true Grounds of so unexpected an Emergency do vent their Opinions and Reflections variously concerning it Some attributing it to the want of due Care in the Directors at home to send Intelligence as well as the needful Supplies of Men and Provisions to the Colony in due time some to the Temerity Imprudence and Incapacity of those who were intrusted abroad with the Management and Government of the Colony some who you say are the far greater Number to the effect of His Majesty's Proclamations issued forth in all the English Plantations of America declaring the said Settlement illegal and strictly intercomuning all Persons thereunto belonging And you are pleased to desire my Sentiments of the whole Matter It may possibly be reckon'd no small piece of Presumption in one of my weak Talent to venture upon setting Pen to Paper upon so Critical an Occasion as this is and how willing soever I might have been at any other time to gratify your Request that way I must Confess I am in so Splenetick a Mood at this Juncture that my Inclinations prompt me but very little to bestow my Time upon Scribbling Yet your Commands being always Indisputeable with me I shall supercede my own Inclinations at this time and freely give you my Thoughts of the Matter with all imaginable Candour as succinctly as I can and commit the whole to your own Discretion being well assur'd that you 'l Advise nothing thereupon but what you are fully convinc'd will be most Suteable to the Honour Interest and Reputation of the Nation which by the by was in my humble Opinion never at a lower Ebb than at present That the Directors of our Indian and African Company at home are no manner of way Chargeable with any Omission or want of due Care in making early Provisions for Supplies to the Colony or with any Mis-managements in taking wrong Measures upon some Occasion or other or with too much Easiness and Credulity as some do alledge in suffering themselves to be Over-perswaded or any otherways imposed upon by mercenary Pretenders who at the same time might possibly have been the Tools for driving on a Forreign Interest for selfish Ends is more than I shall take upon me to maintain too positively in their behalf But sure I am the many Dis-appointments Difficulties and wicked Contrivances which they were all along oblig'd to grapple with both Abroad and at Home made their Part very uneasie and were enough to daunt the Resolutions of any privat Society whatsoever especially finding themselves so openly discountenanc'd by Authority that the Adventurers were thereby discourag'd from paying in their Shares yea in so much that the Directors were not only sheckled from pursuing many reasonable and convenient Measures that they had in View but were also often oblig'd to pawn their own privat Credit for carrying on and doing those things that were indispensibly necessary for supporting the common Interest and wait for their Relief till a better Opportunity should offer But whatever Escapes they may be chargeable with I dare confidently averr in their behalf that they have Directed to the best of their Knowledge and I doubt very much whether the most part of all those who ever yet took the Liberty of Censuring their Actions would have taken half so Rational Measures had they had the same Game to play and the same Difficulties to encounter with For as the Directors were Chosen by the Solemn Election and Suffrage of all the Adventurers in the Joint-Stock of the Company wherein the most considerable of the Nobility Gentry and whole Body of the Royal Burrows are concerned so it must be allowed that the Generality of those in the Direction are Persons of as much known Honour Probity and Integrity and of as much Knowledge too as can be found of any other Set of Men in the Nation But the continued Thwartings that they met with from time to time did not only necessarly retard many of their Measures but made also some of those Measures prove altogether Abortive tho' never so rationally projected And it 's very observable that none have been more busie and meddling in Censuring their Conduct all along and even at this time than some who had little or no Concern in the Stock and others who were ready upon all Occasions to throw Stumbling Blocks in their Way But 't is very easy and no new Thing to either Credulous Fools or Designing Knaves who alas are by far the greatest part of Mankind to Censure the best of Mens Actions without ever considering the Reasonableness of the Measures they take or the Crossness of any Accidents they may meet with And this brings into my Remembrance a Saying of the Renowned Sir Walter Raleigh in his Apology for his Voyage to Guiana As good Success admits no Examination so the contrary allows of no Excuse how reasonable or just soever And indeed the Poet is very just upon that Head Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat Ovid. Epist 3. It is very evident by the Strain of the Acts of Parliament and Letters Patent establishing the said Company that these who projected that Scheme had in View sooner or later no less Desâ—gn than a Trade to both the Indies and to Africa and that by a more immediat and much quicker Communication than was ever before practised by any Society whatsoever In order whereunto those in the Management thought it was not only necessary to establish a Free and Staple-Port in some convenient Place or Places on that Isthmus or Nick of Land situated on the Height of the World between the North and South Seas formerly called Darien or in some such convenient Place but also to raise a Joynt-Stock suteable to the Greatness of such an Undertaking And not imagining that privat