making his Case better that it makes it ten times worse for if his Affections be captivated we are without remedy except we either sue for a Divorce as in case of wilful Desertion and denying conjugal Duty or withdraw from under his roof and remove to another Family as God and Man will allow one Sister to do that is oppressed and denied the Privileges of paternal Love and Protection whilst another is caressed and dandled and has her Fortune raised by diminishing that of the neglected Sister The Jamaica Proclamation against our Colony at Darien comes next to be considered and is as follows By the Honourable Sir William Beeston Knt-Governour and Commander in chief for his Majesty in the Island of Jamaica and of the Territories and Dependencies of the same and Admiral thereof WHereas I have received Orders from his Majesty by the Right Honourable James Vernon one of the Principal Secretaries of State importing that his Majesty was not informed of the Intentions and Designs of the Scots in peopling Darien which is contrary to the Peace between his Majesty and his Allies commanding me not to afford them any Assistance In compliance therewith in his Majesty's Name and by his Order I do strictly charge and require all and every his Majesty's Subjects that upon no pretence whatsoever they hold any Correspondence with the Scots aforesaid or give them any Assistance with Arms Ammunition Provision or any thing whatsoever either by themselves or any other for them nor assist them with any of their Shipping or of the English Nations upon pain of his Majesty's Displeasure and suffering the severest punishment Given under my Hand and Seal of Arms the 9th of April 1699. and in the 11th year of the Reign of William the 3d King of England Scotland France and Ireland and Lord of Jamaica Defender of the Faith It contains a heavy Charge against the Scots Company as having settled in Darien without informing his Majesty and having thereby broke the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies As to their not intorming his Majesty with their Design there was neither any need of it nor had they reason to do it that there was no need of it is plain enough from the Act of Parliament impowering them to settle any where in Asia Africa or America upon places not inhabited or any other place with consent of the Natives and not possess'd by any European Potentate Prince or State So that they were under no Obligation to acquaint him where they design'd to settle provided they kept to the Terms of the Act. And that they had no cause so to do is evident from that unreasonable opposition that a Faction of Court had prevailed with him to make to them all along which gave them just cause to expect the like treatment in time to come Then as to the Breach of the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies by the Settlement they had no reason to think themselves guilty of any such thing and so much the less that Dampier Wafer and all others that wrote of the Country gave an Account of the Natives being in possession of their Liberty and almost in continual Wars with the Spaniards Besides it was a rul'd Case in England since Capt. Sharp was by Law acquitted in King Charles Il's time not only for having marched through Darien in a Hostile manner but for attacquing Places that were really in possession of the Spaniards as St. Maria and Panama because he acted by virtue of a Commission from those Darien Princes This together with their not finding a Spaniard or Spanish Garison on all that part of the Isthmus was enough to justify the fairness of the Scots Settlement there and to have put a stop to this hasty Sentence till both sides had been heard But instead of that the Advisers to this Proclamation take upon them in a very Magisterial manner to declare the Scots guilty of a Breach of the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies which is so much the more remarkable that this Proclamation is publish'd in the West-Indies before ever it was known what the Scots could say in their own defence and sent away before the presenting of the Spanish Memorial which was on the third of May 1699. and the Proclamation bears date April 9th 1699. The unfairness of this Proclamation is evident from this that at the very same time it is publish'd in the West-Indies the Lord President of the Sessions and his Majesty's Advocate for the Kingdom of Scotland were sent for from hence to see what they could say to justify their Pretensions to Darien which they did by such Arguments as have not yet been answer'd We leave it then to the impartial Thoughts of the good People of England whether we have not occasion to say that our King is in the Hand of our Enemies since we are thus condemn'd without a hearing and our Nation put tothe trouble and expence to send Lawyers out of the Kingdom to defend themselves before those that had already condemned them And since this is a visible effect of the Union of the Crowns by which we are every day more and more oppressed let them speak their Consciences if we have not all the reason in the World to dissolve that Union except the Nations be more closely united and upon a better footing That we were so treated in former Reigns we had no great cause to wonder when the Court was engaged in a Conspiracy against our Religion and Liberties And our Nation being inferior to none in their Zeal for both it was but natural to think that we should be the first Sacrifice But to be treated thus by a Prince who hath ventur'd his Life to save us from Popery and Slavery a Prince who for Courage in War and Conduct in Peace is not to be match'd in Story a Prince who is under God the Great Champion of our Religion and the bold Asserter of Europe's Liberty a Prince whose Family we revere and whose Person we adore a Prince for whom we have so chearfully ventur'd our Lives and lost so much of the best Blood in our Veins to be so treated by such a Prince hath some thing cutting beyond expression and proves that our Disasters are no way to be remedied but either by a total Separation or a closer Union of the two Kingdoms We cannot be so unjust to his Majesty's Character as to think a Prince of his Magnanimity could be guilty of so mean a thing as willingly to subject the Crown of his Antient Kingdom which he received free to that of another We cannot once suffer it to enter into our thoughts that he who dares to out-brave Death in the Field a thousand times a day should act so unworthy a part as first to condemn and then to try us These and all other things of that sort we must needs charge to the account of our Enemies about him who misrepresent us and therefore surprise his Majesty
and most assuredly expect That Your Majesty will in Your Royal Wisdom take such measures as may effectually vindicate the undoubted Rights and Privileges of the said Company and support the Credit and Interest thereof And as we are in Duty bound to return Your Majesty most hearty Thanks for the Gracious Assurances Your Majesty has been pleased to give Us of all due Encouragement for promoting the Trade of this Kingdom So We are thereby encouraged at present humbly to recommend to the more special Marks of Your Royal Favour the Concerns of the said Company as that Branch of Our Trade in which We and the Nation we represent have a more peculiar Interest Subscribed at Edinburgh the 5th of August 1698. in Name Presence and by Warrant of the Estates of Parliament SEAFIELD J. P. D. P. By all this it is evideht that the whole Kingdom of Scotland was unanimous in this matter and proceeded deliberately in it as that which highly concern'd their Interest yet we see that all their Endeavours were to no purpose for our Enemies were so resolute in opposing our Trade that rather than it should succeed they will not only trample under foot the Laws of Scotland but the Laws of Nations and exactly follow the Pattern set them by the French in huffing and tyrannizing over their Neighbours when at the same time they pretend to make War upon Lewis XIV for practices of the same nature and whilst they cry out upon the Decisions of the Chambers of Brisac and Mets and of the Parliament of Paris as tyrannical and unjust for invading the Rights of Neighbouring Princes and Nations they set up a Cabal at Whitehall to do the like by Scotland and Hamburgh Then let the World judg whether the King of England had not less reason to say that he was ill serv'd in Scotland than the King of Scots had to say that he was ill serv'd in England since one single Address from the Parliament of England prevail'd with their King to forbid all his Subjects to join with the Scots whereas the repeated Supplications of the Company of Scotland the Address of their Parliament and the Authority of Law and his own Letters Patent could not prevail with the King of Scots to do Justice to his own Subjects We wish these Gentlemen would consider this who were so very angry at the Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement for saying that the King of Scots was detain'd prisoner in England It is very certain that never any King of Scotland before the Union of the Crowns dar'd thus to trample upon their Laws or to oppose the General Interest of the Nation or if they attempted to do it they were quickly made sensible of their being inferior to the Law and the States of the Nation assembled in Parliament who till the Accession of our Princes to the English Throne remain'd in an undisputed possession of calling their Kings to an account for Male-administration and of disposing of thei Lives and Liberties as they saw cause We need not go so far back for Evidence to prove this as Eugenius the 7th who was brought to his Tryal on suspition of having murder'd his own Wife and acquitted upon discovery of the real Murderers or of James III. whose Minions by whose Council he governed were taken out of his own Bed-Chamber by the Nobles and hanged over Lauder-bridg and he himself persisting in those Courses was killed in flight after being defeated in Battle by the States and in the next Parliament was voted to be lawfully slain We have a later Instance and the Power of our Nation on that Head was largely asserted and accounted for by the Earl of Morton then Regent of Scotland in that noble Memorial he delivered in to Q. Elizabeth and her Council in defence of our proceedings against Q. Mary whom we dethron'd and in her stead set up her Son so that it is not the principle or practice of any one Party of our Nation tho it has been of late fix'd upon the Presbyterians as peculiar to them but was an Hereditary Right conveyed to us all by our Ancestors practised by Papists before the Reformation and justisied by those of the Episcopal Perswasion since particularly by the Earl of Morton beforemention'd who was the first that introduc'd Bishops into our Church after the Reformation Those things are not insisted upon with any Design of applying them to his present Majesty or of incensing the People of Scotland to do so but only to inform those that put his Majesty upon such Courses that they are his greatest Enemies and do what in them lies to destroy him It is the common Right of Mankind to be protected by those they set over them and to complain of Governors when they find themselves aggriev'd and their Privileges torn from them by Violence This Generation has prov'd it beyond possibility of Reply that the greatest Pretenders to submission to Princes and the most zealous Patrons of Passive Obedience will resist and dethrone their Kings too when they find themselves oppressed by them They that maintain the contrary are nothing but mean-spirited Flatterers or such as temporize with Courts because of their own private Advantage and be their Quality what it will are far from being so noble and brave as that poor Woman who told Philip of Macedon that he ceas'd to be King when he refus'd to hear her Petition Upon the whole it will appear that he Author of the Defence of the Scots Settlement made the best Apology for his Majesty that could be made when he said that he was a Prisoner in England and therefore forc'd to act thus against the Interest and Dignity of his Crown as King of Scots It is demonstrated thus If his Majesty were in Scotland and another Person upon the Throne of England it is certain his Majesty would have encouraged the Trade of Scotland and resented such practices in the King of England as contrary to the Laws of Nations and the Soveraignty of his Crown If he did not he would be look'd upon to be mean-spirited and not fit to wear it and if he took part with the King of England against the Dignity of his Crown and the Interest of his Kingdom he would not only be looked upon as an Enemy to his Country but as felo de se From all which it is plain that as it is the best Apology that can be made for the King of Scots when he acts thus contrary to the Honour and Interest of himself and his Country to say he is a Prisoner in England so it is a sufficient Justification of the People of Scotland to refuse Obedience to what he commands by the Influence of the English or other Councils in opposition to their Interest because they are the Commands of a Captive and not of the King of Scots If our Enemies say he is no Captive but at Liberty to go to Scotland if he pleases it is so far from
into any thing he does against us As to that positive Sentence of our having acted contrary to the Peace betwixt his Majesty and his Allies we have all the Reason in the World to complain of it Is our Kingdom then become so mean and contemptible that what is transacted according to the Acts of our Parliaments and Patents of our Kings is liable to be annull'd or declared illegal by any Person that has the hap to be made an English Secretary of State Governor of one of their American Plantations or a Member of their Council of Trade If it be so his Majesty's Dignity as King of Scots is well defended in the mean time when it is liable thus to be trampled upon by his own Servants as King of England This does indeed verisy what has been said that our Kings since the Union leave their Antient Kingdom to the disposal of their Servants but whether this be agreeable to the Coronation Oaths of our Kings let them determine that are concern'd to enquire and perhaps it may be worth the consideration of our Neighbours whether since we have been govern'd by Servants they have not for the most part been subject to Minions and that the one does naturally pave the way for the other So that they are no great gainers by the Bargain If it be answer'd that the Proclamations are issued by his Majesty's Authority and that therefore our Sentence proceeds from his Bar. We answer 1. That there are shrewd Suspitions that a certain Gentleman or two who have affected all along to shew their Zeal against the Scots in this Affair have push'd this matter beyond their Instructions for there 's no man that knows his Majesty's Justice and Wisdom can admit a thought that he would condemn us before we were heard 2. We don 't at all question his Majesty's Authority as King of England to forbid his English Subjects to give any manner of Assistance to the Scots at Darien tho we might say it was unkind but we absolutely deny that he has any Authority as King of England to condemn the Proceedings of the Subjects of Scotland for any thing they transact without the Dominions of England If it be otherwise his Majesty as King of Scots is bound to appear at the King's-Bench-bar in Westminster-Hall for what he hath done as King of Scots upon the Lord Chief Justices Summons and of what Consequence this may be to himself or his Successors may be easily judg'd Had Oliver and the other Regicides bethought themselves of this it had been more for the Honour of England and would have taken off a great deal of the odium that is charg'd upon them for cutting off King Charles had they search'd for something Criminal in his Conduct toward the English Nation as King of Scots and condemned him for that Tho they did not think upon this perhaps others may and then the English will be able to justify themselves as not having cut off their own King but their Enemy the King of Scots as there 's no doubt they would have done by King Charles II. had he not made his escape after the battel of Worcester This may perhaps deserve the thoughts of his present Majesty and others concern'd in the Succession and so much the more that the dependence of the Crown of Scotland upon that of England hath been lately asserted by some English Historians and indirectly hinted at in a pretended Answer to the Defence of the Scots Settlement at Darien p. 24. But to satisfy that Gentleman and others who please themselves so much in vilifying the Scotish Nation they may turn to the Reigns of Edward I. II. III. and they will quickly find that Sir William Wallace K. Robert Bruce James Lord Douglas Thomas Randolph Earl of Murray and others that we could name did so gallantly defend the Soveraignty of Scotland against those bold Pretenders to a Superiority over us that their Successors have had no great stomach to pursue their Claim to it since So that if ever they had any it is forfeited by Prescription Oliver's imaginary Conquest so much insisted on by the dull Answerer of the Scots Defence and others will be of no use to the Faction in this matter since that was no National Quarrel nor did the English pretend to any such thing as a Conquest of us but immediatly withdrew their Forces upon the Restoration So that Oliver's Conquest as he calls it was only the Victory of one Party over another in a Civil War it being well known that he had Friends in Scotland as well as England which if that Wise Author will have Oliver's Victories to be Conquests he had conquerâ—d too before ever he came near Scotland We don't insist upon this with any design to derogate from the Valour of the English Nation which is known all over the World but to stop the mouths of those pitiful Scriblers and to give a Caveat to those Gentlemen about Court who talk so big of conquering Scotland upon this present occasion But we wish them to consult beforehand how England in general stands affected to such a Design and how they will justify the Lawfulness of it lest it fare with them as it did with K. Charles I. and his Cabal who not only in Council advis'd TO REDUCE US TO OUR DUTY BY FORCE RATHER THAN GIVE WAY TO OUR DEMANDS as may be seen in the Representation of the States of Scotland in 1640. but rais'd Money and levied a formidable Army to carry on their Design and yet the Hearts of these Bravos fail'd them when they came in view of the Scots who repuls'd them twice with shame the first time when they encamp'd their great Army near Barwick and the next when we charg'd them at Newburn And at last the best of the Nobility and Gentry of England thought fit to put a stop to those dangerous Proceedings and follow'd his Majesty with a Protestation against them as well knowing that if Scotland were once subdued the Liberties of England could not be long liv'd That it is the Interest of England now to prevent the Ruin of Scotland as much as it was then will appear by the following Arguments 1. That the present Juncture of Affairs makes it necessary for the Kingdom of England rather to strengthen themselves by making new Friends than by procuring new Enemies They are not ignorant that they have a controverted Title to their Crown entail'd upon them and that the Pretenders against those in possession are in the French Interest and under their Protection Nor can they be ignorant that to the old National Hatred betwixt France and England the French have added that of the Protestant Religion Of late years they have declared themselves the most implacable Enemies of it and their King in all his Triumphs has that ascrib'd to him as his greatest Exploit that he hath quelled the Monster of Heresy The case being thus it must needs be against the Interest of
A DEFENCE OF THE SCOTS ABDICATING DARIEN Including An ANSWER TO THE DEFENCE OF THE Scots SETTLEMENT there Authore BRITANNO sed Dunensi Vitaret caelum Phaeton si viveret quos Optaret stulte Tangere nollet equos Ovid. de Trist Printed in the Year 1700. To the Right Worshipful THE COURT of DIRECTORS OF THE Scots Affrican and Indian Company The DEFENCE of the Scots Abdicating of DARIEN IS Humbly DEDICATED Right Worshipful GENTLEMEN THE immense Priviledges and Immunities wherewith your present Sovereign and indulgent Father WILLIAM the Second hath invested your Company by that Octroy of the Year 1695 argues his good Inclinations towards you so far that whilst he was in the warmest Trenches of Namure and not sure but that Act might be his last Legacy authoriz'd you and your Successors to Plant and maintain Colonies in whatever Part or Parts of Asia Affrica and America you pleas'd provided these Places or Territories were not the Propriety of such European Princes or States as were in Alliance of Amity with His Majesty and freed you for the Space of Twenty One Years from all Duties on the Product of such Plantations c. You were not only impower'd to defend your Colonies and Trade by Force of Arms but likewise had His Majesty's Promise to interpose the Regal Authority to do you Right in case you were disturb'd in such Legal Possession or Trade and that at the publick Charge to be presum'd of the Ancient Kingdom His Majesty having thus granted you so large and glorious a Patent no to be paralell'd by that of any Company or Society in the Vniverse much less by any of his Royal Ancestors your Native or Vnforeign Kings both the present and after Ages will expect that the same should be transmitted by you the present Directors to your Successors without any Stain or Blemish that may incur the Hazard of a Forfeiture And that by your Management your Children may reap the Benefits of it with the same if not with more Advantages This emboldens the Author who was the first Person employ'd in your Service for your Foreign Expedition and the first who left it to lay the following Sheets at your Feet And he takes upon him to put you in Mind that if you had not misapply'd the Money intrusted to your Management the Want whereof is so much felt at Home by the great Number of needy Persons who expected their Dividends before now And if you had listen'd to the wholesome Advice of Mr. Douglass an eminent and experienc'd Man in India who offer'd himself for your Pilot and his Substance for your Security which was more than the Three best Shares in your Capital Stock and had not been bewitch'd to the Golden Dreams of Paterson the Pedlar Tub-preacher and at last Whimsical Projector you might e'er now have been possest of a good Colony in India where no Body could disturb you And not have run on an Airy Project which altho' you should have met with an Opposition from the Spaniard four times your Capital Stock could not have brought to any reasonable Pitch of Answering the End And had you been Masters of so much Management and Temper as to have sav'd that Fifty Thousand Pounds which you squander'd away on those Six Hulks you built at Amsterdam and Hamburgh purely to make a Noise there of your Proceedings whereby you thought to decoy the innocent Dutch Men or at least their Gelt into your Net and had therewith bought a Couple of Second-hand Ships in the River of Thames and dispatch'd them to India with a suitable Cargoe not of Scotch Cloth Slippers Periwigs and Bibles you might have had such Returns e'er now as would have buoy'd you up so far above Water as you needed not proclaim to the smiling World so many publick Ropings of the Shares of your Capital Stock Sed quos Deus or Jupiter perdere vult eos dementat If you were thus perswaded to run headlong on a blind Project at which the Trading Part of the World stand amaz'd the India Companies of England and Holland laugh at in their Sleeve and the rest of Mankind admire that People in their right Senses should be guilty of And if the same should miscarry by your own ill Management to say no worse on 't 't is not fair you should snarle at your Neighbours who have no other hand in your Misfortune than that they would not be accessary to any Act which the World might judge Felonious and wherein they could not join without ingaging themselves in an unreasonable War and in the End to assist you with Weapons to break their own Heads WILLIAM the Second who as you say in an untainted Line is the 112th King that hath wore your Regal Diadem has wrought and fought sufficiently for the Gift your Nation prudently thought their Interest to make him Or admit it should be true that there was no private Interest consulted by those generous Donators yet it is obvious to the World that by being Subjects of the King of Great Britain you are not only shaded from the Insults of all Nations but by the Authority of your British Sovereign you are freed from the daily Feuds and bloody little Wars which before the Vnion for a Tract of Time not less than 1900 Years were continually raging amongst your selves which unnatural Massacres your Native Princes were so unable to suppress that when the contending Clans or Parties were glutted with one anothers Blood and desir'd the Benefit of the Princely Mediation those were pleas'd to accept of the Office of Vmpires in Patching up the Feuds till such time as the young Fry came of Age to fight it out These Barbarities have been quite turn'd out of Doors since the Vnion and they are now either almost or altogether forgot neither are they to be reviv'd unless it be by this so-much-wish'd-for Separation of Three or Four Months Date Your People now enjoy the Blessings of Heaven and Product of the Earth and Ocean without any interruption and whereas formerly they liv'd on the Mountains and under the Shelter of some strong Rocks or Castles they are now come down to the Plains and can sleep sound in Beds without the least Apprehension of Blood and Rapine And to Crown your Felicity you have now a free Enjoyment of the Gospel in the Fulness and Purity thereof which has ever been reckon'd the chief Care and Blessing of all Political Bodies You are at Liberty to say your Prayers either in Form or out of Form which you please without any Dread of Sophistical Impositions by Romish or Malignant Priests And now you praise your Maker in stately Churches whereas formerly these gallant Men your Ancestors were oblig'd to offer on such Altars as Jacob made and to whisper their Prayers or Carrols through the Cliffs of the Mountains or the Chimney of some House whose Wall was some Twelve or Fourteen Foot thick All these Blessings you owe to Heaven and the British
the Help of Spectacles may plainly perceive that he sticks at nothing to advance his Cause either by wresting or perverting the Truth of the History by reason there can be no Parity in the Example between the several Cases of these dead Kings whom he now brings on the Stage and King William nor is there any Colour of Allusion to introduce them here for Scare-crows For the Truth of the Story runs thus After the Death of Alexander the Third Ten or a Dozen far-fetched Relations of the Royal Family standing Competitors for the Scots Crown it was agreed on by the different Parties to prevent the Effusion of Blood that the Trial of their several Claims should be referr'd to Edward the First of England Edward accepting the Office came to Berwick then a Scots Town where after a long time spent in canvassing the several Titles he found Bruce Baliol and Cummin stand fairest for it To make a long Tale short he now found it in his Power to accomplish that which his Predecessors struggl'd for for some Hundred Years before to wit a Submission of the Scots Crown to that of England He felt Bruce's Pulse but it did not beat to his Mind then he sounded Baliol who had more English Blood in him by half than Scotch who easily condescended to his Terms Edward declares John Baliol King of the Scots and the Scots Nobility having swore Allegiance to him in his Presence proceeded to his Coronation That being over the new Scots King with his Nobility came to King Edward to thank him for his Civility at Newcastle where having been splendidly regaled for some time and the English King being to set out for London John Baliol with his Train of Nobles came in a full Body to kiss his Royal Fist where on a suddain King Baliol claps down on his Knee and swore Fealty to Edward as his Sovereign Lord and to hold the Scots Crown for ever of him and his Successors Kings of England Baliol having ended this Ceremony pointed to his Subjects to follow his Example which being needless to dispute on that Ground no Body stumbl'd at it save a peevish Old Gentleman by Name Douglass who was Caged up for the Remainder of his Life for want of good Manners Baliol and his Nobility march'd home to Scotland as chearfully as Half a Dozen Citizens Wives return to their Husbands after they have been decoy'd into a Ramble and kiss'd by strange Fellows and they being all alike Scabby made no Words on 't for some Years and perhaps had not then if a rash Sentence had not been pass'd by Baliol in his own Court in Prejudice of a certain Thane or Earl who thinking himself injur'd appeal'd to Edward as Sovereign Lord King Edward being willing to show his Grandeur summon'd Baliol up to London and being seated on a Throne in his Court of Judicature his Fellow King had the Honour to set by him till such time as the Tryal came on and then he was oblig'd to step down to the Common-Bar and Plead for himself The Gentleman had got so much Scotch Blood in him by his Three Years Government of that Kingdom that he stomach'd the Disgrace and could not tell how to digest it till he went Home and consulted his Nobility who were all alike tardy with himself It was soon agreed on to bid Edward Defiance declaring That their King and they were only trick'd into their Submission by his foul Artifice Both Nations Arm'd but Edward got the Better on 't for having over-run Scotland and made them once or twice swear heartily anew and having caught John Baliol by the Neck would never afterwards trust him with such an Office but kept him Prisoner at London for many Years till at the Intercession of the Pope and French King his Imprisonment was enlarg'd to France where he died a Quondam King Now whether this Fate of John Baliol has any Relation to what your Author designs since 't is plain that Edward both made and unmade him and not the Scots I refer it back to himself to reconcile As for the other Baliol by Name Edward and Son to this John he finding that Robert Bruce was the Second time dead came from France to England and there having Edward the Third's Leave to raise what Men he could to seat himself on his Father's Old Throne found Voluntiers enough who were the Relations of those who were foil'd at Bannocksburn and with those and a few of King Edward's Ships he lands in the Heart of Scotland and set young David Bruce's Crown on his own Head without asking the Scots Leave and kept it till Dâ—vid with the Assistance of his Father-in-Law the French King took it from him again Neither can I see the Paralel in this with King William's Case for Edward Baliol took the Crown at his own Hand nolens volens whereas King William had it press'd upon his Head by the unanimous Consent of the Scots Nation As for the other Two Examples of James and William the First what they did while it was their Misfortune to be Prisoners in England could not stand in Law neither did I ever hear that after their Freedom and Restauration to their Dignities their Scots Subjects did ever reckon it to them for Sin But as there 's no great Advantage or Credit to be purchased by ripping up such old Sores so I am willing to leave tracing this Gentleman's Evidences and rather take Things on his own Authority than foul Paper about it Mean while I 'll be as impertinent as he is with his Earl of Strafford and some others and acquaint you with something that may be nearer the Case It has been observ'd in Scotland in the Course of several Ages that it hath been ever fatal to Families when they became so powerful as to swell beyond their Proportion Witness that of the Cummins in Robert Bruce's Reign the greatest that ever has been in Scotland Witness that of the Gouries of a latter Date And if I should add that of a latter Family within the Reach of our Memory which might have reasonably been reckon'd in the same Class had it not been for the happy Accident of the Revolution I cannot be far mistaken I say most of these Gentlemen being too great for Subjects lost themselves with Jearus in their Flight Some got red-hot Iron Crowns and others Halters but that which was more Tragical their whole Families and Dependants were hung up like Haddocks to dry in the Sun that they might never afterwards rise in Judgment I heartily wish there may no such Examples happen in our Age and that no suspected Persons sit so close to the Machine of your Colony nor wind up its Spring further than it will go least it should snap and the Ingineers get o'er the Fingers End Being sensible that I have trespass'd in the Epidemical Crime of my Fellow-Scribblers by swelling my Dedication beyond its Proportion and perhaps said more than some Persons care
nothing but Death starving and the Spanish Mines before our Eyes and although our inclinations were never so strong to borrow any of our Neighbours goods yet our power was always deficient But now to proceed on our Voyage and give you the remarkable Occurrances of it and of our Darien entertainment you are to know that we left the Edinburgh Fyrth on July the 17th 1698 and having fetch'd a turn round the Orkney's we arriv'd at Madera's about the last of August and staid there 5 or 6 days till we purchas'd the foresaid 27 Pipes of Wine Here the Council open'd their Instructions by which they were ordered to Steer to Crabb-Island and take possession of it in the name of the Company and Nation of Scotland and leave a small deteachment there This Island lies to Leeward of St. a Cruz about 9 Leagues to windward of Porto-Rico about 5 Miles and 18 Leagues from St. Thomas a Danish Island Having made the Island of St. a Cruz our Senate order'd the Vnicorn and one of the Tenders into St. Thomas to get some Pilates for the Main and to return to us at Crabb-Island While the Council sat on this occasion we drove to the Northward-most end of St. a Cruz and not being in too much hast to come to an Anchor at Crabb-Island we fetch'd a trip to Windward round St. a Cruz which occasion'd the disappointment of our settlement for our Missioners to St. Thomas having innocently scatter'd some words there of our Crabb design the Governour forthwith dispatch'd a Sloop with ten Men and an Officer to take possession of it in the name of Denmark so that at our arrival in the Bay or Road of Crabb-Island we could see a large Tent ashore with the King of Denmark's Colours flying Our Senate sent ashore to know the meaning of it and were made sensible that they came too late Next day the Vnicorn and Tender arriv'd having brought with them one Allison who Commanded a Sloop in that Squadron of Privateers who had landed at Golden-Island and march'd over the Isthmus about 18 Years ago We were glad of such a Pilot for there was no Man in our Fleet that had ever been on the Spanish Coast We left Crabb Island the second of October and having met with Southerly and Westerly winds for 3 Weeks or a Month together it was the second of November before we came to an Anchor on the Darien Coast We lay becalm'd a Week between Cartagena and Cape Tiburoon which is the Westermost point of the Gulph of Darien where for want of any Air but what was Sulphurous our Men fell down and died like rotten Sheep We came to an Anchor about 7 Leagues to the Northwest of Cape Tiburoon and altho' we were close by Golden Island yet neither our Pilate nor any person else knew the Land till the Indians inform'd us The Vnicorn being the first Ship that came to an Anchor sent her Boat ashore where having left an hostage with some Indians who had a Plantation there two Canous with a few Indians came on board the Ships The Canou which came to the St. Andrew where I was had Captain Andreas on board who was afterwards the Companies and Collonies Landlord They were some hours aboard before we could make them understand us altho a Jew who was our Linguist endeavour'd it with his Spanish Portuguese French and Dutch till once they were got drunk with our Punch and Madera Wine and then Captain Andreas with his Lieutenant spoke it as fast and much better than our Jew Having got their load they were not able to go ashore that night and next day we weigh'd and came into the Bay within Golden Island which is about 4 or 5 Miles wide and deep And having sounded with our Boats along the shore we found a Lagoon on the South-East side of this Bay which runs up within the Land about two Miles and a half this appearing to be a good Harbour for us we went into it and Christened it by the name of Caledonia Harbour The mouth or entry of this Harbour is a large Mile over and so steep too on both sides that a Ship may go so near as to throw a Bisket-cake ashore One side of the Harbour towards the Sea is a vast Mountain and Peninsula being joyn'd to the Main at the bottom of the Harbour by a neck of low Land about 3 or 400 Paces over The extream point of this Peninsula which makes one side of the Harbours mouth is a low and flat piece of Sandy ground containing about 30 Acres and divided from the Peninsula by another neck of 180 Paces over from Sea to Sea This was pitch'd upon as the strongest Sanctuary in case of attacks as likewise for the convenience of a battery towards the Harbours mouth We Christen'd this piece of ground by the name New Edinburgh and the Platform of 16 Guns which we made there was call'd Fort St. Andrew The neck of Land was cut through to let the Sea encompass the New City and Fort and part it from the Peninsula and within the Treneh a breast-work with a Parapet was rais'd and a half bastion at each end On the other side of the Trench the Trees were fell'd and the ground clear'd for a Musquet-shot round to give us a fair prospect of the Spaniard in case of an attack This piece of ground was the Scotch Collony as for the Peninsula it self it might have been fortify'd with some labour and pains but not thinking it convenient to part so few men to defend these two Posts it was resolv'd by the Council to stick close by this and fortify it to the bestad-vantage As for the opposite point on the Main which makes the other side of the entry into the Harbour it is a high ridge of a Mountain which with a sharp or edg'd end butts into the Sea and so crosly contriv'd that it would puzzle all the Inginiers in Europe to plant a Gun on it that could do any Service So that at best this Harbour is only a shelter from bad weather the Platform call'd Fort St. Andrew being of little use to defend it the Ships indeed by bringing a Spring on their Cables and their Broadsides to bear towards the mouth of the Harbour might serve for so advantagious a Battery as one Ship within the Harbour might be as good as two that came in to attack them the nature of which strength may easily be comprehended by any Seafaring men But to return to our Landlord and the other Indians Captain Andreas's Plantation was amongst the Mountains about 4 miles from our Harbour the extent of his Government was from Carrit-bay about 8 or 9 miles on one side of us and Golden Island about 5 miles on the other side such a portion of Land being the Lairdship or Kingdom of these Captains whom the Buccaneers Privateers and Scotch Company would have to be Kings and Sovereign Princes At our first Landing Captain Andreas came down
wall'd Towns and the reach of their Guns or they must be allowed the usual extent round them as all other Collonies in America have The Company might with the same Justice Land on the North-side of Jamaico where for 20 Leagues running there 's neither English Man nor Beast to be seen altho' there are as many if not more Wild Negroes in the Mountains of Jamaico who have deserted their Masters than Indians on thrice so much ground of the Isthmus of Darien By the same Title the Company might have seated themselves on the Island of Tobaga where there 's never a Man without asking the D. of Courland's leave On the other hand the Company has settled their Collony in the very Bosom and Centre of the three chies Cities of the Spanish-Indies to wit Carthagena Portobello and Panama the first being about 45 Leagues and the other two not above 30 distant from the Collony besides several smaller Towns and Garrisons which are much nearer viz Sancta Maria Tubaconti c. Nay the Spaniards are at work in their Mines within 12 Leagues of Fort St. Andrew As for the de facto right 't is evident that these Captains who are over the Indian Clanns have Spanish names to distinguish them from the Vulgar speak Spanish generally their Wives go valed and cover'd after the same fashion the Spanish Women go altho their Men go naked Besides one Paragraph of the Collonies Journal makes this very Spot of Ground where they are settled to be the Propriety of the Spaniard by their acknowledging Captain Andreas to have been a Spanish Captain As for the defences which Batt Sharp adduced on his Tryal of the Indian Emperor there having been no such person on the Isthumes of Darien these hundred years and King Golden Cap and the forg'd Commission he produc'd from that Emperor it was all trick Neither was there much pains taken to hang him or disprove the Forgery The Privateers indeed gave the title of King Golden Cap to the Indian Captains Son who commanded these Indians near Golden Island and he was this Andreas his first Cousin but kill'd by the Spaniards after the Privateers left the Isthmus as those may now be who entertained the Scots so friendly The Irish admitting some French Troops into their Country does not take away the King of Englands Title and Right to that Kingdom The Spanish Title is likewise confirmed by the Concession of all Princes and Treaties of Peace whereby the Spaniard does not only cut off the People of all Nations whom he finds cutting Logwood in the Bay of Campechy a great many Leagues distant from any Spanish Town but keeps the Barlevento Fleet and an Armadilla always ranging along that Coast and makes prize of all Foreigners he finds trading on his Coast without his Commission If they have so much as a stick of Logwood or three pieces of Eight aboard Which if hed did not act Legally to be sure the Soveraign heads of those Subjects would long e're now have demanded satisfaction or made reprisal This was the Substance of what I offer'd to Sir J. S. and what use he made of it I never inquir'd after as for that part of the Champions defence describing the Isthumes of Darien I must tell you that it is calculated in all the matterial passages of it for a Scotch Meridian as the Darien News were for six Months by the Companies Agents here in Town who knew that what was Printed here and sent to Scotland was far better believ'd than the Apocrypha The Edenbrugh News-monger was never wanting on his part for he still had something new from St. Germains to frighten us with the Cabals there and private meetings between the late King James and Lovis but however necessany such hob-goblin stories might been an inchanted Country yet they never went down within the found of Bow-bel As for the Champions endeavouring to prove the Scots interest by a separation I will excuse my self from medling with that part of the Subject knowing at the same time that the Wisemen of that Country know the benefit of that Union better than this Author or some more who make use of the Machin of the Collony to set the two Nations together by the ears the better to advance their own private Ends. As for his other fiery Ejaculations I have no inclination to meddle with them their being little to be got on either side by ripping up of such Sores and it not belonging to me to say any thing on that Head I 'll take my leave of the Company and their Champion at present and only say that if he is resolved to separate I would have him pick some quarrel that 's honester than this and the next time he enters the Lists to advande juster reasons for it than what he now does for Caledonia Novissima FINIS AN ENQUIRY INTO The Causes of the Miscarriage OF THE Scots Colony at DARIEN OR AN ANSWER TO A LIBEL ENTITULED A Defence of the Scots Abdicating DARIEN Submitted to the Consideration of the Good People of England Paries cum proximus ardet Res tua tunt agitur GLASGOW 1700. The Introduction THE just Horrour that all honest men conceiv'd at the harsh and unneighbourly Treatment of the Scots Colony at Darien laid the Gentlemen who have been most active against it under a necessity of blackening the Reputation of those concern'd in that Settlement This they thought necessary in order to prevent any enquiry that perhaps might be made Why a Neighbouring Nation united to the Kingdom of England by Situation Government Interest Religion Affection and constant Inter-marriages should be provok'd and trampl'd upon in such a manner contrary to their own Laws and Original Constitution and which may pave the way in time for Treating our Neighbours in the same manner To prevent any such Enquiry those Gentlemen that have been pleas'd to signalize themselves as much by their hatred to the Scotish Nation as the latter have signalized their Valour and Affection for our common Liberty and Religion have been at pains and expence to save the Libeller H s from the Gallows by putting a stop to his Trial and filling his Pockets with Money on condition that he would bespatter the Reputation of the Scots Colony and their Masters The Crime is indeed unnatural for a man to turn Renegado and a Traitor to his Country none but a Monster like H the Surgeon could have entertain'd such a Thought He sold his God in the Last Reign by turning Papist and therefore 't is no great Wonder he should sell his Country in this and solemnly renounce his going Northward for ever provided he might he secur'd against going Westward for once This being the Case of the Doughty Evidence that the Faction have produced against the Scots Colony we leave it to the World to judg what credit ought to be given to his Testimony since it appears that he harh giv'n it in to save his Life to gain
misrepresented the Answer they obtain'd from the King and the Prosecution they commenc'd and threatned against English Natives and Scots-men residing in England that should subscribe to the Scots Company In the next place we alledg the English Resident's Memorial at Hamburgh against that Governments suffering any of their Subjects to subscribe to the Scots Company It is likewise well enough known that the Influence and Example of the English Court hinder'd the Subscriptions of our Neighbours in Holland Nor can it be denied but this continued Thread of Opposition from the Court of England must needs hinder the Subscriptions of a great many in Scotland who could not but foresee that a Storm was threatned by so many Clouds To this we may add that the Kingdom of Scotland have not yet forgot the discourting of the Marquiss of Tweddale who was known to be an able Statesman and a true Patriot to his Country because of his touching that Act when he had the Honor to represent his Majesty on the Throne Nor was it the least of our Misfortunes that we lost such an able and faithful Minister of State as Secretary Johnston and that too upon the account of his Affection to his Country in this matter We are very well satisfied that his Majesty who advanc'd him to that Post for his Merit and was so well satisfied with his ability and care would scarcely have parted with a Minister of that Gentleman's Faithfulness and Penetration but by the Intrigues of some People at Court Before we proceed any further with the Narrative of the Opposition made to us we shall obviate one Objection which some Persons may possibly make viz. That all we have said hitherto is nothing to the purpose because it does not regard our Colony but the Company To which we reply 1. That this is so far from being an Excuse to our Opposers that it highly aggravates our Charge against them as being a plain demonstration that they were resolv'd to obstruct our Trade in every respect and whatever it should be without any exception 2. That the opposing of the Company was the direct Method to prevent our ever having a Colony and by the Laws of God and Man those who endeavour to destroy the Embrio are chargeable with a design of preventing the Birth But we shall come closer to the point in a little time and resume the thread of our Narrative after one or two Observations upon what we have said already viz. 1. That the greatest of those Difficulties and Disappointments which H s says in his Book the Company met with as to their Subscriptions Payments c. may justly be charg'd to the account of that opposition made us from the Court of England 2. That there is so little reason to upbraid us that our Efforts were not greater that it is rather to be wonder'd at that the Company was not dash'd to pieces and crush'd in the bud and much more that ever they should have been able to weather out the Storm of so much Indignation overcome all those Difficulties find Mony enough to build Ships equip out a Fleet and make a Settlement in America when neither England nor Scots-men residing there Hamburgh nor Holland shall dare to assist them without incurring his Majesty of England's displeasure But to come directly to the Narrative of the Opposition made to our Colony It is well enough known that the Kingdom of Scotland as many other Parts of Europe have suffered much for three or four years past by bad Harvests which rendred them uncapable of providing Bread for their People at home and much more of sending Supplies to their Infant Colony abroad This was very manifest to some People about White-hall and care was taken we should have none for our Mony from England tho that Nation could have spar'd it and perhaps we might have pleaded it as our merit when in Parliament we voted his Majesty a standing Army upon his Royal Word that it was necessary tho we had more need to have sav'd the Mony to have bought Bread for thousands of our People that were starving for want afforded us the melancholy prospect of dying by shoals in our Streets and have left behind them a reigning Contagion which hath swept away multitudes more and God knows where it may end Tho our Country was reduced to this deplorable state that a generous Enemy would have shew'd us compassion yet the malice of our Court Adversaries did not rest here nor with having follow'd us into Holland and Germany but pursues us into America and with Angry Proclamations forbids the Subjects there on pain of his Majesty's Displeasure to afford any manner of assistance to the Scots at Darien So that we are starv'd at home and abroad by our Enemies at Court who having by this means dispossess'd us of our Colony at Darien and knowing that the good People of England had reason to cry shame upon them and might perhaps take their own time to resent this inhuman Treatment of their Neighbours in Scotland therefore they found it necessary to suppress a Book wrote in defence of the Scots Settlement and to hire a Scots Renegado Surgeon to varnish over the matter and to represent his Countrymen as Knaves and Fools that so they might fall unpitied To return again to the Opposition made us in America It is not enough that we are starv'd out of Darien but when we come from thence and so leave what the Proclamations suppose to be the Dominions of their Allies yet we must not be supplied in the English Plantations nor have Provisions in exchange for our effects tho our Men be dying for want on pain of incurring the Displeasure of the Court and therefore those who are willing to relieve us must put their Inventions on the rack to sind out a way to do that with safety which common Humanity and much more Christianity obliges them to do to a Turk or a Jew in the like circumstances Nay farther tho notwithstanding our distress at home we make shift to send a Convoy to our Colony abroad because our future hopes depended so much upon it they shall not have leave to put in to any English Port to refit refresh or stay for any of their Company that may be separated from them by storm and yet our Friends who were so instrumental in obtaining and publishing those Proclamations must bribe a Renegado to declare to the World in print that they were no way accessary to the Blood of his Country-men that were starv'd to death at Darien It will appear plain that the Ruin of the Colony is chargeable on the Proclamations if we consider the Consternation that must needs be among them when they saw themselves condemned as having invaded the Dominions of his Majesty's Allies so that they had all the reason in the World to think that they were not only precluded from all possibility of having any further supply or assistance from home but in danger
it themselves as to suffer her to have Mass in her own Family We might go farther back to the Reign of Robert II. who was check'd by the States for making a Truce with the English without their Consent it not being then in the power of our Kings either to make Peace or War without the States But the Truth of that Maxim laid down by our Historian That the supreme Power of the Government of Scotland is in the States is so obvious to every one that reads our History that it cannot be denied and hence it is that our old Acts of Parliament are often call'd the Acts of the States and say The three States enact c. for by our Original Constitution the King is none of the States but only Dux belli and Minister publicus which was well understood by our Viceroy the E. of Morton and the other Deputies from the States of Scotland when they acquainted Q. Elizabeth in their Memorial That the Scots created their Kings on that condition that they might when they saw cause divest them of that Power which they receiv'd from the People which we have now reasserted in making our Crown forfeitable by the Claim of Right at the last Revolution and perhaps that 's none of the least Causes why our Ruin is now endeavour'd by the Abettors of a growing Prerogative It were easy for us to enlarge on this and to shew from our Histories and Acts of Parliaments that our Kings according to our antient Constitution which those Rapes committed on our Liberties in some of the last Reigns can never overturn were inferior to their Parliaments who inthron'd and dethron'd them as they saw cause made them accountable for their Administration allow'd them no power of proroguing them without their own consent nor of hindering their meeting when the ardua Regni negotia requir'd it They could not make Peace or War without them nor so much as dispose of their Castles but by their Consent Their Councils were chosen and sworn in Parliament and punishable by the States Nor had they any Revenue but what their Parliaments allow'd them These and many more were the native Liberties of the People of Scotland an 1638. and their Representation of their Proceedings against the Mistakes in the King's Declaration in 1640. And therefore his Majesty had no reason to say he was ill serv'd by the passing of an Act offer'd by the States of Scotland The Ignorance of those things have often occafion'd our being misrepresented by the English Historians and other Writers as Rebels and what not when we really acted according to our own fundamental Laws And not only they but even our own Princes since the Union of the Crowns have either been kept ignorant of our Constitution or so incens'd against it by the Abettors of Tyranny that they have all of 'em his present Majesty excepted endeavour'd our Overthrow as well knowing it to be impossible to bring Arbitrary Government to perfection whilst a People who had always breath'd in a free Air and call'd their Princes to an account when they invaded their Properties were in any condition to defend themselves or assist others against such Princes as design'd an absolute Sway. But the Pill being too bitter to be swallowed by it self there was a necessity of taking Priestcraft into the Composition and to gild it over with the specious pretext of bringing the Scots to an Uniformity in Religion The Court knew that this would arm the Zealots against us and that it could never be aflected without the ruin of our Kingdom whose Religion was so interwoven with our Civil Constitution that there was no overturning of the one without subverting the other This will appear plain to those that know that besides the Sanction of Acts of Parliament the Church of Scotland is defended by a full Representative of the Clergy and Laity of the Kingdom call'd a General Assembly which preserves us from being Priest-ridden as our Parliaments do from being Prince-ridden where the King by Law had no negative Voice no more than he formerly had in our Parliaments This in effect is the Representative of the Nation as Christians as the Parliaments are our Representatives as Men and as to the Laity many of them are the same individual Persons that sit in Parliament So that those Assemblies being a second Barrier about our Liberties it was thought sit to run down the Constitution of our Church as not suted with Monarchy The Case being thus we dare refer it to the thoughts of our neighbouring Nation who have gallantly from time to time stood up for their own Liberties whether it were not more generous for them to unite with us than to suffer us to be oppress'd and enslav'd There 's nothing can be objected to this but that all these glorious Privileges were swallow'd up by those Acts of Parliament that exalted the Prerogative to such a height in the Reign of K. Charles II. To which we answer That the Privileges of a Nation cannot be giv'n away without their own consent and we are morally certain that the Constituents even of those pack'd Parliaments did never give any commission to those that represented them to give away those Liberties Slavery is repugnant to human Nature so that it cannot be supposed the Nation exalted the Prerogative on purpose to put themselves in a worse condition than besore or that when they find it applied to another use than that which they gave it for they may not reduce it to its antient Boundary The necessity of Affairs did sometimes oblige the Romans to entrust their Dictators with an extraordinary and absolute Power but when the occasion ceas'd they recalled it and kept to their antient and rational Maxim that Salus Populi is suprema Lex In the like manner the Enemies of our old Constitution may know if they please that we have retrieved the main point of making our Crown forfeitable by the Claim of Right and therefore if they push us too far it 's a thousand to one but we may renew our Demands to the rest or oblige them to cast them into the bargain But to return from this Digression Tho we had no such peculiar Privileges belonging to us why might not we expect that his majesty should be as kind to us as to our Brethren in England He hath once and again declared to them in Parliament That he never had nor never will have an Interest distinct from that of his People Then why should not the Interest of the People of Scotland be the same with the Interest of the King of Scots And if the People of Scotland met in Parliament agreed upon it as their Interest to have that Act past for incouraging Kieir Trade how was it possible that the King of Scots could be ill serv'd by the passing that Act in Scotland Our Enemies and H s's Suborners have put a sort of an Answer to this in his mouth viz. That the said Act
England to suffer any froward and headstrong Faction to embroil them with Scotland or to ruin that Kingdom the Consequence of which will be the exposing themselves as an easier Prey to the Conquest of the French or any other Enemy That the French had a hand in fomenting our late Civil Wars and made use of their Firebrands in all Parties is beyond dispute and that it is now more their Interest to divide us than ever is so palpable that it cannot be denied Nothing in human probability could have stop'd the impetuous Current of their Arms but the Interposition of Great Britain and therefore it concerns them both in point of Interest and Revenge to dash us against one another and if the ill Usage that we meet with from the Court of England should force us again into a French or other Alliance the World cannot blame us since the Laws of Nature and Nations are for us Put the case that a smaller number of Christians should be unjustly attack'd by a greater whom nothing will satisfy but the utter Ruin of the former Could any man in conscience blame the weaker Party to call in the Assistance of Jews and Pagans to preserve their own Lives Is it not the same case with the Scots have they not ever since the Union of the Crowns been oppressed and tyranniz'd over by a Faction in England who will neither admit of an Union of the Nations nor leave the Scots in possession of their own Privileges as Men and Christians Was it not a Party in England that impos'd upon us first in Matters of Religion Did we send first to oblige them to submit to the Geneva Disciplin as they call it or was it they that first imposed their Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer upon us Was it we who first invaded them with an Army to subvert their Civil and Religious Liberties or did not they first invade us Was it we who first made Acts against their Trade or they who made Acts destructive of ours Did we issue Proclamations against their Colonies or have they done so by ours In the name of God then let them declare what they would have us to do They will not unite with us nor suffer us to live by our selves Nor must we have any share of their Trade or carry on a Trade by our selves Is it not plain then that the Faction oppress us and yet we must not complain of this sort of Treatment 2. If the State of Affairs in Ireland be consider'd it will appear to be such as may make it dangerous to suffer the Scots to be oppressed and provok'd in this manner It is well enough known that the People of Ireland are not very well pleas'd with their Treatment by some in England This together with the great numbers of Scots in the North of that Kingdom who bear a natural Affection to their Country and would be very uneasy to see its Ruin may prove of dangerous consequence in case of a Rupture with Scotland 3. It will further appear to be the Interest of England not to suffer the Scots to be so much run down if they consider the posture of their own Affairs at home The Divisions and Animosities betwixt the several Parties in England are well enough known So that besides the Sport it would afford to the common Enemy of our Religion and Country to see those two Nations engaged in War the Enemies of the present Government would be sure to improve it and watch for an opportunity to avenge themselves for what has been done against the late K. James and his Friends It is well enough known what hopes they and some People beyond Sea conceive from the Differences that this Treatment of the Scots may probably occasion and as they have an irreconcilable Hatred against our Nation because we declar'd so generally against the late King and are so zealous for his present Majesty there 's no doubt but they will foment our Divisions as much as they can and insinuate themselves with both Parties in order to set them together by the Ears They know that so many as fall in England of those who adhere to the present Constitution and so many as fall in Scotland for supporting the Trade and Freedom of their Country so many Enemies they are rid of therefore there 's no question but they promise themselves a plentiful fishing in such troubled Waters It likewise deserves the consideration of our Neighbours that they don't stand at present in very good terms as to matter of Trade with France Holland and Flanders nor is it well known what the Issue of the present Controversy with Spain about regulating their Succession may be The impending differences betwixt the Northern Crowns may perhaps in a little time imbroil them with one or other of them and affect their Trade also on that side All which being consider'd it would seem to be the Interest of England to assure themselves of the Friendship of the Scots by treating them in a kind and neighbourly manner 4. It will appear in particular not to be the Interest of the Dissenters and sober Churchmen that the Scots should be thus run down because their own Ruin will be the unavoidable Consequence of it This they may soon be convinc'd of if they will give themselves leave to consider how they were treated in K. Charles the First 's time when the Court did swell with so much Rage against the Kingdom of Scotland for asserting their Liberties then as they do now All those Church of England-men that could not conform to the Innovations brought into the Church by Laud and his Party were treated as Puritans and Schismaticks and those that appear'd for the Liberties of the Nation against the Ship-money and other Arbitrary Impositions of the Court were treated as Rebels and Traitors If they look into the two last Reigns it will appear as plain as the Sun that when Scottand was oppress'd and their Liberties wrested from them the Dissenters and moderate Church-men in England were brought under the lash the former were depriv'd of their Religion and Liberties and the latter expos'd to destruction by Sham-plots c. because of their appearing for the Laws of their Country We need mention no more Instances to put this out of Controversy than those deplorable ones of the Earl of Essex and Lord Russel to which we may add the shameful and barbarous Treatment of the worthy Mr. Johnson Chaplain to the latter because he so excellently defended with his Pen the Birth-right and Freedom of all true Englishmen From all this it will appear that England in general must suffer by the Ruin of Scotland and that those who have all along stood up for the English Liberties must lay their Account to come under the lash if once our Necks come under the Yoke therefore we dare appeal to the sober Men of the Church of England Whether it be their Interest that a Nation which agrees with them in all
the Articles of their Church those about Discipline excepted should be destin'd to ruin because we believe with most of the Reformed Churches that there is no Office superiour to that of a Presbyter of divine Institution Must we be denied the Privileges of Men and Christians because we think that the Discipline of the Church may be more safely intrusted and more faithfully administred by the joint Indeavors of the Minister and the Heads of his Congregation by an Association of neighbouring Ministers and the Heads of their Parishes and by Delegates both of the Clergy and Laity of those Associations in a general Convocation than by another Model But enough of this Subject Let any Man peruse the learned Archbishop Vsher's Treatise of Presbytery and Episcopacy reconcil'd and there they will find that the difference is not so great as some People have made it their business to make the World believe But if nothing less than our destruction will serve those Gentlemen because our Church is of a different Constitution from that of England and that our political Principles and original Constitution are diametrically opposite to arbitrary Power let the Dissenters of England and all those Church-men that concurr'd in the late Revolution look to it When their Neighbour's House is on sire it's time for them to prepare their Bucket's If this Digression be thought impertinent H s and the Answerer of the Scots Defence must bear the blame of it They would insinuate to the World that the Affair of our Trade and Colony is a Presbyterian Project on purpose to render it odious and suspected to the Church of England therefore it was necessary to obviate that false and malicious Suggestion and to acquaint our Neighbours that the Company make no difference as to the matter of Perswasion and let it be put to the Test when they please it will be found that those of the Episcopal Opinion are as zealous for the thriving of our Trade and the Honour of our Nation both of which are concern'd in this Affair as any of the other To wind up this matter if any Party in England entertain suspicions of us the better way to prevent us is to treat us kindly and enter into an Union with us on such Terms as his Majesty and the Parliament of both Kingdoms shall agree and so as the Civil and Religious Liberties of both People may be preserved That will be casier and safer than to relie on the Hopes of an uncertain Conquest or if they don't think fit to do so it 's but reasonable they should leave us in the undisturb'd possession of our own Liberties But if they will do neither let them no more accuse those that complain of this Treatment as Incendiaries but seriously examine whether they themselves mayn't with more Justice be accounted Oppressors PART II. Being a more particular Answer to H s's Libel WE come in the next place to take a Survey of H s Libel intituled The Defence of the Scots abdicating Darien and shall speedily shew to how little purpose his Suborners have spent their Pains and Mony on him The first Line of his Performance is a Banter upon his Majesty whom he charges with investing our Company with immense Privileges and Immunities by his Octroy of 1695. There 's no Man can be answerable for more sense than God has given him but tho H s understood no better his Masters at White-hall of whom he brags so much ought to have taken care that he should not run into Nonsense and an Invective against his Majesty at first dash To talk of granting us immense Privileges is to impeach his Majesty's Wisdom as if he had done a thing without parallel which is directly to incense the Kingdom of England against him as some bad People indeavour'd to do when by a Misrepresentation of our Design they stir'd up the House of Commons against it But had the Surgeon or his suborners look'd into the Privileges of 21 Years freedom from all manner of Taxes granted to the Dutch East-India Company by the States of Holland and the vast Immunities granted by the French King the Danes and Brandenburghers to their Companies for trading to the East-Indies or even to those granted to the English East-India Company at first they would have found there was no reason to charge his Majesty with granting us such immense or unparallel'd Privileges or ascribing it to his not well knowing what he did for the noise of the Guns at Namur as this petulant Scribler does Dedication pag. 9. But if H s and his Suborners exclaim against our Privileges as immense they are resolv'd to diminish the Authority by which they were granted and call it only by the name of an Octroy which signifies no more than a Patent whereas our Privileges were granted us by an Act of Parliament which are greater and more sacred than all the Octroys in Europe Thus thro Ignorance or Malice they think fit to vilify his Majesty's Conduct and Authority which they pretend to defend Their Malice is further demonstrated by the Parenthesis to be presum'd in the 2d page of the Decation where they speak of his Majesty's Promise to interpose his Royal Authority to do us right in case of disturbance and that at the publick Charge to be presum'd of his antient Kingdom There might possibly have been some need of their presumption had all Mankind been indow'd with as little Sense and Honesty as H s and his Suborners for no other Body could ever presume it to mean any thing else since our Acts do not oblige England tho if they had presum'd that our Enemies would take eare that the said Promise should not be kept the refusal of lending our Company the 3 Men of War built at the Charge of our own Nation would soon have convine'd the World that they had presum'd too true We have accounted for rejecting Mr. Douglas's Proposal elsewhere nor shall we take notice of H s's scurrilous Reflections on Mr. Paterson which only discover his own Temper but do that honest Man no hurt As to his charging us with squandring away 50000 l. on 6 Hulks at Amsterdam and Hamburgh purely to make a noise of our Proceedings c. we would desire him and his Suborners to reconcile it with what they say from p. 14 to 20. where they own themselves that the Dutch and Hamburgers were both mightily pleas'd with the Design p. 14. That the Dutch were tickled with the Conceit that they should be Sharers in the Scots Trade and p. 16. they say That that which gave the dead stroke to the Scots Design was the East and West-India Companies running open mouth'd to the Lords of Amsterdam shewing what was hatching by the Scots Commissioners in their City to ruine the Trade of the Vnited Provinces P. 17. they tell us That the Hamburgers thought it the more their Interest to embrace the Project the more that the Dutch oppos'd it P. 18. That our Affair was
long before the Union but continue still in the Highlands which we can scarocly think is unknown to our Author who was born so near that Country as Dumbarton The Macdonalds have been several times in Arms against the Earl of Argile since the Restoration and there 's a Fend now depending between the Frazers and the Murrays or rather the Family of Athol Non did we ever hear of any thing that look'd so like an unnatural Massacre in Scotland as that committed since tho Revolution upon the Inhabitants of Glenco which had it not been for the Union of the Crowns would not have been suffer'd to go unpunished But admitting it to be true that the Union had deliver'd us from those little Feuds we are no gainers by the Bargain since it hath occasion'd greater pavticularly that unnatural Feud which rag'd so long betwixt the Episcopal Party and Presbyterians and had its rise altogether from the Union of the Crowns the very prospect of which was the sole cause why the Earl of Morton when Regent set up the first Protestant Bishops in Scotland Into what Couvulsions that Imposition threw the Nation is well enough known and how besides the bringing down K Charles I. with 30000 Men against our Kingdom and contributing to engage the Nations in a Civil War it occasioned King Charles II. to plunder the West of Scotland first by Sir James Turner which gave rise to the Insurrection at Pentland and twice afterwards by the Highland Host which occasion'd that of Bothwel-Bridg And afterwards the Oppression run so high that it forc'd some of the Presbyterians into unaccountable Actions which gave occasion to oppress the whole Party so that it was made punishable by Death for any of their Ministers to preach or for the People to hear them From this indeed we were totally delivered by the Revolution tho our freedom in that respect was partly begun by the late King James's Declaration But our Enemies unwilling that our Nation should be long at ease have found other Methods to set our Court against us And because they know that his present Majesty has too great a Soul to persecute any man on the account of Conscience our Enemies have chang'd their Battery and instead of pointing their Cannon at our Religion they level them against our Civil Liberties The Powder they prime their Artillery with is That we are Enemies to Prerogative But because this would not go down with the good People of England who are strenuous Assertors of Liberty and Property they must gild it over with the specious Pretence that we have a design to undermine their Trade and have unjustly invaded the Spanish Dominions This is the Design of H s and his Suborners and therefore they insist so much on our Clandestine Declarations as they call them that we publish'd in the English Plantations on purpose to drain them of their People but unhappily overthrow what they advance at the same time when they tell us That the Jamaica Sloops were Witnesses that we had neither Provisions nor Money for the sustenance of our own People pag. 148. And therefore it cannot reasonably be suppos'd that we had any such design as he malicioufly charges us with to draw over the People from the English Plantations since we had not wherewith to support our own but more of this anon Our Author learn'd the Maxim of Calumniare audacter aliquid barebit when he was a Papist And if he and his Suborners can be any way instrumental to set the Nations together by the Ears by this Method or if that fail if they can but raise Animositys between them they know it will be a good pretence for some people to put his Majesty upon pressing for a Standing Army and perhaps for having it enlarg'd it being necessary say they to overaw the Scors but in reality to protect such evil Counsellors from being brought to Justice that have advis'd to such Measures as visibly tend to the disadvantage of both Nations It may perhaps be worth the Enquiry of our Neighbours whether this be not the real meaning of this intolerable Oppression exercis'd upon our Nation as to their Trade both at home and abroad viz. that knowing our prafervidum Ingenium as they are pleas'd to call it to be impatient under Tyranny the Faction think thereby to provoke us to a resentment that may give occasion for raising an Army against us which if it have the good hap to subdue us or force us to digest our Oppresslon without any more to do shall be made use of afterwards to chastise themselves and bring them to better Manners then to limit their Monarchs in their Grants and leave them no other Troops but their Garisons and Guards It was the Observalton of the Earl of Shastsbury whom his Enemies will own to have been a great Statesman that Scotland is a Door to let in Good or Evil upon England which is verified in the latter at least by the whole Course of our History since the Union for when K. James I. succeeded in trampling upon us he quickly began to huff his Parliaments in England and notwithstanding all the Remonstrances of Church and State would needs have a Popish Match for his Son tho he should sacrifice the Great Sir Walter Rawleigh his own Daughter the Queen of Bohemia and her Children together with the Protestant Interest in Germany to make way for it When Charles I. obtain'd footing for his Impositions on the Church and State of Scotland it 's well enough known what Methods he took with England and how he sacrific'd the Protestant Interest in France whilst he eagerly pursued an Arbitrary Sway at home When Charles II. got his Prerogative exalted and an Army at his Call allow'd him in Scotland i'ts too late to be forgotten how he trod under foot the Liberties of England seiz'd the Charters of their Cities cut off whom he would by Sham-Plots and pav'd the way for Popery and Arbitrary Power When K. James II. did by his absolute Power and unaccountable Authority cass and annul all the Laws establishing the Reformation in Sootland it was not long e're he suspended the Laws imprison'd the Bishops and fill'd with Papists his Council Army and Universities in England From all which it is evident that our Neighbours have reason to look to themselves when we are oppress'd for in all probability their Acts of Parliament will not be long regarded when ours are annull'd and made void by the Intrigues of the Courtiers and West-India Proclamations The very Advocats of Tyranny make use of this as their Herculean Argument That the People having once resign'd their Privileges to the Crown have no more right to demand them which tho we will not allow to be any ways concluding yet we may very well make use of it ad hominem that a pari ratione when once a Prince has touch'd with his Scepter a Law for the benefit of his Subjects it is not in his power
mention'd in the Defence of the Scots Settlement but strenuously argu'd against and maitain'd to be unlawful in his Propositions concerning the Title of the King of Spain to America propos'd to the Consideration of the King of Spain himself In his ninth Proposition he asserts That when Christian Princes apply their Endeavours to propagate the Faith they ought to have no Consideration for any thing but the Service of God Or if they can do any thing for the advantage of their Dominions while they augment the Kingdom of Christ It ought to be without any considerable prejudice to the Infidels or the Princes that Govern them Prop. 10. He asserts They have their own lawful Kings and Princes who have a Right to to make Laws c. For the good Government of their respective Dominions so that they cannot beexpell'd out of 'em or depriv'd of what they possess without doing Violence to the Laws of God as well as the Law of Nations Prop. 26. Seeing the Spaniards have not been supported either by the Authority of their Prince or any lawful Reason to make War against the Indians who liv'd peaceably in their own Country and had done the Spaniard no wrong all such Conquests that have been or may hereafter be made in the Indies are to be accounted Unjust Tyranical and Null being condemned by all the Laws of God and Men. It s true he supposes the K. of Spain to have a Title to the Soveraignty of the Indies by the Popes Grant but it is with such Restrictions as those he mentions and in his 16 Proposition says the Pope has power to revoke it if it be found prejudicial to the Establishment of the Faith and he expresly declares throughout his Book that all the Methods taken by the Spaniards were such so that here 's one strong Evidence of their own against them Dominicus de Soto the K. of Spain's Confessor at the time scems by his summing up the Dispute betwixt this Bishop and Dr. Sepulveda to have been of the same Opinion and Sepulveda's Books maintaining the contrary were snppress'd by the Emperor Charles V. Of the same Opinion and indeed more express against the Methods by which the Spaniards acquir'd their Dominions in the Indies is Franciscus a Victoria chief Professor of Divinity in the University of Salamanca whom the Emperor Charles V. consulted in Cases of Conscience and in this amongst others as may be seen in his Relectiones Theologicae Relectione 5. de Indis where he argues the Point at large and in Relect. 7. de jure bell lays down this as a Maxim That an Injury receiv'd is the only just Cause of making War So that it being plain from Matter of Fact that the Indians did no manner of Injury to the Spaniards their War upon them must of necessity by this Argumnt be unlawful More has been said already in Vindication of our Tide in the defence of the Scots Settlement than the Renegado and his Suborners can answer therefore we shall wind up this Matter in a few Words more His alledging we might as well land in Jamaica where the wild Negroes have deserted their Masters or in Tobago c. serve only to discover his own Folly There 's no unconquer'd Natives who have their own Princes to govern them in either of those Islands nor are the Titles of the English and D. of Curland to those Places question'd The Irish having admitted French Troops into their Kingdom is as little to the purpose since they have had no shadow of Government or Sovereignty left them for several Ages have from time to time submitted to the Government of England and admitted those Troops in defence of the late K. James's Title which he derives from Hen. II. that Conqner'd them Besides the Libeller himsselt owns p. 54. that the Natives themselves were pleas'd with the hopes of being restor'd by us to their Ancient Liberty and Greatness and p. 55. That Ambrosio one of their greatest Captains was at War with the Spaniards before our Arrival His alleaging that Cap. Andreas was a Spanish Captain at the time of our Landing needs better proof than his affertion that he might be then at Peace with the Spaniards and have some respect for them because of his being bred among them as H says he was p. 60. all that they then gave him a Commission as a Captain does not at all argue that he was in the Spanish Interest when we Landed or any way subject to the Crown of Spain if he himself promised subjection it does not divest his Subjects of their Right and that Andreas's Successlor and they were no Friends to the Spaniards is evident from the Libeller's own Story that they gave cur Colony motice of the Spanish Party that came to view them and led them to the place where they were We have likwise the Testimony of all that have writ of this Place against the Renegado besides that of the Journals of our own Colony which give an Account that An brosio had engag'd all his Neighbouring Princes in a League against the Spaniard before our Arrival FINIS