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
as the least Advice that any such Vessels were a-coming to them No certainly I suppose no Man can or will say so And without that they say nothing at all For how mean soever my Opin on may perhaps be of the Colony's Conduct and Resolution not only upon that unlucky Occasion but in other Respects too Yet I have so much Charity as to believe sincerely that if they had expected any such Vessels to have come to them with Provisions in any reasonable time or if they had known that they had any such real Friends and Well-Wishers in the English Plantations as it seems they had or that Supplies and Recruits were so near them coming from Scotland that they would not have come away from Darien at least before they had had some certain and positive Orders from the Company how to behave with relation to those Proclamations But so it is to their own and the Company 's Sorrow as well as the Nations Disgrace whatever may be the Occasion of it away you see they are come as ill Luck would have it Quae volunt Fata non tollunt Vota Upon the Directors having received certain Intelligence of this Tragical and Unexpected Emergency they laid the whole Matter in Writing before the Council-General of the Company who thereupon thought fit in most Dutiful and Humble Manner to represent the same to His Majesty by their Petition of the 29 th of October last wherein they seem to intimat that without some special Testimonies and Evidence of His Majesty's Gracious Favour and Royal Protection as well as the Assistance of a Parliament they could not well expect but that the best of their Endeavours for carrying on and supporting an Undertaking of this Nature must prove altogether vain And therefore their Petition consisted briefly of two Articles 1st That His Majesty would be graciously pleased to take off the Force and Effects of these Proclamations And 2dly That His Majesty would allow the Parliament to meet in November last it being adjourn'd till that time They at the same time Address'd His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council with relation to the Contents of their said Petition to His Majesty But what the Privy Council did therein I know not And as for His Majesty's Answer to the said Petition you have already seen it so I shall not presume to make any Comments upon it However the Council-General of the Company having it seems about the beginning of this Month resolved to Address His Majesty in a most Dutiful Manner upon an other Head And considering that none of their former Addresses or Petitions had such Success as they could have wish'd for and that they were all transmitted in the ordinary way to the Secretary of State in waiting for the time they resolved to send this Address by one of their own Number who should at the same time have particular Instructions with relation to the Contents of their former Petitions and should carry along with him Letters to the Secretaries of State intimating his Business and entreating their Concurrence Whether this Method may produce better Effects than their former I know not but some People are pleased to prognosticat that if in this as well as in former Ages there should happen to be any such Favourites or Courtiers near his Majesties Person as may perhaps endeavour to make a Monopoly of the King's Ear that it will never be pleasing to such to see any Corn pass by their own Mills and that therefore they may readily endeavour to give it a State-Turn But until I see it I shall never suffer my self to believe any such thing for as the King is a Gracious Prince so his Ears will be equally open to all his People I am informed That the West India Merchants or at least their Agents at London are now preparing a Representation to be made if not already done complaining that the Proclamations which were published in the Plantations strictly forbidding them to carry or sell Provisions or other Necessaries to the Scots Colony are contrary to their Rights and Liberties and prejudicial to their Interests and that the Friends of the several Governours who publish'd those Proclamations happening to hear thereof are endeavouring to stiffle these Complaints as much as they can But what Truth there may be in this a little time must shew I am likewise just now told that his Majesty has been graciously pleased to declare that he knew nothing of those West-India Proclamations till he had seen Copies of them come from thence And if indeed it be true that his Majesty has said so as I hope it is I reckon it would be no very hard Matter to name some few Persons who have a great deal to answer for I remember the judicious Montaigne in his political Essays observes it as a Misfortune commonly incident to a Nation that is under the Government of a Prince living in another Country That any Nation so stated is seldom or never Govern'd according to the real Inclination of the Prince or the true Interest of the People so much as according to the Humors Affections and Designs of his Ministers For that he seeing only with their Eyes and hearing but withtheir Ears cannot possibly know the true State Condition and Interest of a Distant Nation nor the Humors and Inclinations of its Inhabitants any thing near so well as if he lived amongst them Seneca in his Treatise of Benefits puts the Question Quid omnia possidentibus deest What can a Man want that has every thing And he answers himself Ille qui verum dicat One that will tell him the Truth And really of all Men living I think Kings and Princes stand most in need of having such Men near their Persons And I wish from my Heart That all those who at any time have occasion to be at the Helm of publick Affairs in any Kingdom or State whatsoever would seriously consider what the Learned and wise Statesman Sir Francis Bacon observes by way of Precaution in his Judicious and Celebrated Essays As for Discontentments says he they are in the politick Body like to Humors in the Natural which are apt to gather preter-natural Heat and to enflame And let no Prince measure the Danger of them by this whether they be Just or Unjust For that were to imagine People to be too Reasonable who do often Spurn at their own Good Nor yet by this whether the Griefs whereupon they rise be in Fact great or small for they are the most dangerous Discontentments where the Fear is greater than the Feeling Dolendi modus Timendi non item Besides in great Oppressions the same things that provoke the Patience do withal mate the Courage but in Fears it is not so Neither let any Prince or State be secure concerning Discontentments because they have been often or have been long and yet no Peril hath ensued For as it is true that every Vapour or Fume doth not turn into a Storm so
same time by a Ship then bound from the Downs to the Leeward Islands and Jamaica a â—ew Councellour for the Colony fully instructed in relation to this Emergency with Orders to go with all possible Dispatch in quest of the Recruits lately sent to the Colony And the better to enable him to execute effectually what was then given him in Commission he carried a Credit of 1000 Pounds Sterling along with him Since which they have in the Month of November last dispatch'd one of the Company 's own Ships full of Provisions and other Necessaries for the Colony from Clyde and sent another Councellour on board thereof with a Credit of 500 Pounds Sterling more And about the same time they freighted another Ship which sail'd from Forth sometime ago to carry Provisions to the Colony And as I 'm inform'd are now upon dispatching forthwith two other Ships with more Provisions after them the one from Forth and the other from Clyde That from Forth being already agreed for and bound by Charter-Party to sail God willing on the 20 th of January next Now this being a short Abridgment of what I understand may be offered in Justification of the Directors Care and Conduct I shall now proceed to give you a short View of what occurs to me at present with relation to the Conduct of those who were intrusted Abroad with the Management and Government of the Colony under the Name of Councellours That the Equippage sent by the Company on their first Expedition for settling a Colony in America was in all Respects superior to any that was ever before sent on the like Account by any privat Society in Europe is what I never heard in the least contraverted And as the Generality of the Men who went on that Expedition gave former Proofs to the World in their respective Stations during the last War of their Fitness for such an Undertaking so it has been agreed upon by all that ever saw them not only when they went away but also after their Arrival and Settlement in America that they were seemingly as hopeful and promising a Set of Men as ever were seen to the Memory of Man in those Parts had they been under the Government and Care of such Heads as were to be wish'd But many People do say that the Council appointed for the Government of the Colony was composed of an odd kind of Mixture of Persons of Heterogeneous Humours and Principles and that few of them were fit for that Station The Truth is whatever may be in this I 'm certain that the Directors were at no small Pains to invite such as they thought most capable for that Station but it not being publickly known where they were design'd to settle there were but very few Candidates and there 's nothing I know better than that those of them who were most strongly recommended as Persons of Capacity Honour and Honesty prov'd to be the least deserving of that Character of all that went under the Denomination of Councellours I was told indeed that there was too much Emulation Jealousy private Animosities and Pique among themselves and that the bad Example thereof gave too much ground to believe that the like Animosities were diffused among the inferior Officers and others as they stood severally affected or engaged more or less to this or that Councellour Yet by the Influence of some few of the discreetest of their number for above Eight Months time together they had so much Prudence as to stiffle those Divisions as much as possible in all publick Concerns for carrying on the common Interest as may evidently appear by the Unanimity and Discretion of all their Advices and Letters to the Directors at Home as well as by their publick Transactions with such as had to do with them in America particularly in all their Transactions with the Indians the President of Panama the Governours of Carthagena and Sancta Maria and the Commander of a French Vessel which happen'd to be Shipwrack'd near their Settlement their Diligence and Care in building of Houses clearing of the Ground and fortifying of their Settlement in such manner that it was look'd upon by all that saw it or had account of it to be almost Impregnable till that about the latter-end of March last by reason of the Absence of some and Indisposition of others so few remain'd that for some Weeks together their Votes run generally split being only two of a side and consequently all Business almost at a stand Yet such was the Excellence of the Constitutions by which they were to Govern that by means thereof and by the Providential Recovery of one of their Number out of a desperate Sickness to cast the Ballance they quickly wrought their own Cure For by the assumption of Three or Four New Councellours and the humorous withdrawing of two of the Old whose Places were thereupon deservedly declared Vacant the Council wrought it self so into one piece that their Actings look'd then like that of one Man And tho the Season had all of a sudden as is said sowred some of their Provisions which continued very Good till the Rains came on in April and tho their Men turn'd afterwards very Sickly upon their Hands yet they were firmly resolved to maintain that Place and Interest to the last as appears by the Letters which they dispatched Home upon that Occasion pressing that Supplies might be sent to them with all Expedition And in the mean time they not only engaged one Captain Ephraim Pilkington of Port-Royal who had been it seems sometime in their Service and was resolved to bring his whole Family to live in Caledonia to return with his Shallop full of fresh Provisions and strong Liquors from Jamaica but sent also a Sloop of their own thither with Money and Goods to purchase Provisions yet neither the one nor the other could have any by Reason of the Proclamation that was published there sometime before And it is very observable that the said Proclamation was for haste 's sake published at Port-Royal in Jamaica upon a Sunday being the 9 th day of April to stop two other Sloops that were ready to sail from thence next Morning with Provisions and strong Liquors for Caledonia And the unhappy News thereof arriving at Caledonia the 18 th day of May together with a Copy of the said Proclamation as also a wicked contrived Story That the Company at home had upon some Occasion or other Petition'd or Address'd the Parliament of Scotland and that their Petition was unanimously rejected and thrown with Disdain over the Bar the Council and Colony were as it were Thunder-struck all at once with those Accounts especially when they consider'd the Treatment which they knew the Company had met with at London Hamburgh and other Places and the malicious Rumors that were industriously spred here before they went away of what the Parliament might possibly be induced to do since it was whispered as if the Commissioner had had
setting up Packet-Boats as a Remedy against the Effects of Proclamations which I may say would have been undutiful in them to have dreaded But yet to let you see the Effects of those Proclamations even in point of bare Correspondence I do assure you that several of the Company 's Packets directed to the Council of their Colony under cover to particular Friends in the English Plantations of America are to this Hour lying in the Hands of those Friends who wrote back hither That by Reason of the Strictness and Severity of those Proclamations they durst not venture to foreward the said Packets to the Colony because if they should happen to be discovered in holding any such Correspondence as Ten to One but they would the least that they could expect was Confinement and to be afterwards sined at the next Grand Session by the Discretion of a Jury and that the Discretion of that Jury would be directed by the degree of Love they bear our Country and the Wishes they have to the Prosperity of an Undertaking of this Nature By which it is plain That the Proclamations have put a stop to the Colony's getting Intelligence from hence and that if no such Proclamations had been issued forth there had been no such indispensible Necessity for Packet-Boats to have been sent directly from hence to the Colony at least before the Directors had an account of their Settlement as some mighty Pretenders will tell us now there was And yet nevertheless it 's evident by what has been already said that the Directors did positively intend to have dispatched a Vessel with Advice and Provisions to the Colony very soon after their Departure from Leith and for that end used all other endeavours by Petition and otherwise to have procured one or two of the small Friggots which are still lying useless in Bruntisland-Harbour as being the fittest they could think of for that Purpose and in regard that the Parliament was pleas'd to order the building of those Friggots for the Security and Advantage of the Trade of the Kingdom and that the Conclusion of the General Peace took away all manner of Occasion for them in the narrow Seas it was thought they could not be otherwise so well imploy'd as in carrying on and supporting the Designs and Interest of this Company especially since the Estates of Parliament by their Address formerly recited were pleased to express a singular Concern for it's Prosperity and Welfare And if the Directors said Petition had been seconded as well as was expected and that they had got the Use of all or any of the said Friggots there had been in all probability no such occasion of Clamour against them as now there is for not having sent any Ships directly from hence to the Colony soon enough with Provisions and Intelligence But nevertheless 't is likewise evident by what has been already narrated that upon the Directors losing Hopes of procuring any of the said Friggots they came to a positive Resolution of dispatching a small Vessel directly from hence to the Colony with Advice and Provisions in the Month of January at furthest tho' as cross Fate would have it she happen'd to be such a Ship as could not well be fitted out for such a Voyage in some Months time thereafter Upon discovery whereof they fitted another small Vessel which sail'd from Clyde in the Month of February but was unluckily Shipwrack'd by a violent Storm on the West-Coast of Scotland as I have formerly narrated Yet still there are some who right or wrong will have the Management bear the sole Blame of all the Mis-fortunes that have happen'd to the Company and Colony and stick not to say too that the Colony's coming away in the manner they did was not occasion'd so much by the Effects of those Proclamations as by the Treachery and Villainy of some of their own Number Well let us for once suppose there was Treachery in the Case does that lessen the Effects of those Proclamations No certainly but rather aggravates For if there was any Treachery in the case these Proclamations gave the Traitors a better Handle to work by than any other Pretence they could have made use of I would gladly know further whether we can suppose there could be Treachery without supposing at the same time that some Person or other must have brib'd the Traitor And if so it seems natural to believe that none would be so ready to do that as some of those who were concerned in issuing forth those Proclamations So that still we are cloven to pieces with a Wedge of the same Timber Nay further what if notwithstanding of those Proclamations the Colony had never budged but remained still in their Settlement in a flourishing Condition and that they had been in such Circumstances that the Proclamations could have done them no Harm Shall any Man therefore mantain that the issuing forth of those Proclamations was a good and harmless Thing Sure no Man has Face enough to say so For their having or not having the design'd Effect could not at all alter the Nature or Intention of them But really for my part I cannot conceive how it could be possible for a Colony consisting of the King of Britain's Subjects to have been in any such good circumstances but that those Proclamations must necessarly have done them a vast prejudice if not ruin'd them For suppose that in the Month of May last when they got the first Copy of the Jamaica-Proclamation they had been all in perfect Health and Vigour and had had plenty of fresh Provisions strong Liquors and all other Necessaries whatsoever lying by them in store What then Must they not have seen at first view and considered that by the said Proclamation they were declared to have actually broken the Peace entred into with his Majesty's Allies by settling at Darien and that therefore they must expect to have been treated as Pyrates Must they not have considered that tho' the said Proclamation was emitted against them in the King of England's Name only that yet the same person was King of Scotland also and that the Matter being so they could have but small Hopes of being vigorously protected by the King of Scotland against the King of England's Proclamations Must they not have considered that their then declared Enemies the Spaniards would undoubtedly be thereby encouraged to pursue their Ends against them with greater Assurance and much more Vigor than perhaps otherways they durst have done Must they not have considered that upon every the least Discontent or capricious Humor of any of their own People this Proclamation would be made use of as a Handle to be very troublesome and uneasy to the rest of the Colony as indeed it has been to their sad Experience Must they not think that since the said Proclamation was published in his Majesty's Name that undoubtedly it must needs have been legally founded upon some positive Law tho' they knew nothing of it And