Principal Characters
Vessels
Dates
Darien Expedition
As the 17th century drew to a close, Scotland was in
desperate straits due to the famine brought on by seven successive years of crop-failure.
In June 1695, the Scots Parliament passed an act authorizing the establishment of a
Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies. The Marquis of Tweeddale was the
King's Commissioner, and knew his master's disapproving mind, but he bent his ageing and
rheumatic back to the pressure of the Estates, touched the Act with the sceptre, and thus
gave it the royal assent without first giving William the opportunity to read it. The
dream of a Scots merchant colony was not new, and although previous attempts to fulfil it
in Nova Scotia, New England and Carolina had been miserable calamities, the spirit and
challenge of this
'noble undertaking'
inflamed the imagination of the country.
Fletcher said that men and women seemed moved by a Higher Power toward the
'only means
to recover us from our present miserable and despicable condition'.
In its original form, the scheme for the Company had been
drawn by a group of Scots merchants in London and principally by William Paterson, a
Dumfries wanderer whose creative intellect was in advance of his time, and whose
simplicity of faith had scarcely emerged from childhood. He and his companions proposed a
joint Scots and English venture, but this was effectively squashed by the English trading
companies and the impeachment of its founders before the Commons. A following attempt to
enlist the support of the Hanseatic towns was also stopped by the English, and Scotland
went bravely ahead alone. In an atmosphere of feverish enthusiasm, Scots men and women,
burghs, corporations and associations subscribed four hundred thousand pounds toward the
Company, believed to be half the available capital of the nation. Patriotism was married
to profit, and the issue was assured
. 'Trade will increase trade,'
Paterson had
said,
'and money will beget money.'
The Council-General of the Company abandoned
its earlier thoughts of Africa and decided to establish a colony and an
entrep?t
on
the coast of Darien, the most inhospitable and unhealthy part of the Isthmus of Panama. No
one, not even Paterson who had suggested this site from the beginning, had ever been
there. What information there was about it came from the journals and papers of a young
buccaneer-surgeon, Lionel Wafer, and his warning that it was the wettest place in the
torrid zone was blithely ignored.
Ships were bought, built or chartered in Holland and
Hamburg, and the Company's warehouses at Leith and Glasgow were slowly filled with a
bizarre collection of goods which, it was confidently believed, could be exchanged for the
spices, silks and gold of the Orient. All men south of the Highlands wished to share in
the glory and the rewards, offering their purses or their sons as an investment. Alexander
Kinnaird (last Laird of Culbin) was so encouraged by the fires of his son's (William)
enthusiasm, that he decided to go with him. When William was appointed an ensign in Capt.
John Telfer's Company, Alexander secured an overseer's commission for himself. It may be
that, in sharing his son's life, he hoped to restore a tarnished name and a broken
fortune.
'Darien'
, said Paterson, would be the
'door of the
seas, the key of the universe'
, reducing by half the time and expense of navigation to
China and Japan, and bringing peace to both oceans without the guilt of war. This wondrous
scheme was premature, not impossible, and two centuries later men would realize part of it
by cutting the cord of the Isthmus with a canal.
In July, 1698, five ships left Leith upon a great wave of
emotion. They sailed north about and down the Atlantic, made a landfall off the coast of
Darien in November, and claimed it as the Colony of Caledonia. Many of the colonists were
already dead from flux and fever, and their leaders were inefficient and quarrelsome. The
splendid harbour chosen was a trap for vessels that could not sail to windward. Ambition,
pride and envy, aggravated by ignorant stupidity, destroyed the spirit of those who
survived the killing fevers. Paterson's wife died within a few days of the landing, and he
went slowly out of his mind with despair. The town of New Edinburgh was never more than a
few palmetto huts, and the ramparts of Fort St Andrew were washed away by the pitiless
rain. The Spaniards' claim to Darien had been acknowledged by William and the English
government, but their attempt to retake it was repulsed by the Scots in a little jungle
skirmish. When the English colonies of America and the Caribbean were ordered to give no
help to Caledonia, the survivors lost their courage and abandoned the huts, the fort and
the bay. Relief ships from the Forth were welcomed by four hundred lonely graves. Despite
the bitterness of famine, and the shortage of money and supplies, Scotland had assembled
another expedition of four ships, and it was already at sea before the failure of the
first was known. It reached Caledonia in November, 1699, and found only a
'vast,
howling wilderness'
, but the huts were rebuilt and the fort reoccupied. From the
beginning there was jealousy and disunity, fever, desertion and mutiny, and the ministers
sent by the General Assembly violently abused the sick and dying for their
'atheistical
cursing and swearing, brutish drunkenness and detestable mockery'
. Once again the
Spaniards attacked, and were once again thrown back in the green wet mist of the jungle.
When they blockaded the colony by sea and land, advanced their guns and trenches to the
rotting ramparts of the fort, the Scots resisted bravely for a month and then surrendered.
On April 12, 1700, Caledonia was finally abandoned to the
Spanish. In the first week of May, three ships sighted the hills of Jamaica. Two hundred
and fifty souls had died on this voyage to Jamaica. In the following two months, with
little relief and no credit, another hundred died. These included
'....The Laird of
Culbin, Sir Alexander, and his son Ensign William Kinnaird'.
Another source stated
that Alexander did indeed die on this Darien expedition, but that his son actually reached
America, never to return to Culbin.
The Darien venture was perhaps the worst disaster in
Scotland's history, greater than the bloody defeats of Flodden and Dunbar and Worcester.
There had been no glory, no valour, and few nations can withstand the terrible loss of
pride and money. Its exchequer and storehouses were empty, and its challenge to the
mercantile power of England was now a mockery. Nine ships which the Company had bought or
chartered were sunk, burnt or abandoned. A call had been made upon three-quarters of the
subscribed capital, and it was all lost. Only three hundred of the colonists, soldiers and
seamen returned to Scotland. Two thousand men, women and children had been sacrificed to a
national
hubris,
drowned at sea, buried in the foetid earth of Darien, abandoned in
Spanish prisons, or lost for ever as indentured servants in English colonies. The anger of
the people was intense, and was not reduced when the King said that their colony had been
a threat to peace. Nor was his promise to promote their trade, to repair their losses if
possible, more than bitter comfort. Few men blamed the failure of the colony upon the
stupidity of its location, the contentious inefficiency of its leaders, or the blind
ignorance of its promoters. English treachery was responsible. Great men who knew this to
be false, or at least an exaggeration, publicly agreed rather than challenge the outraged
emotions of the nation. Five years after the capitulation of Fort St Andrew, the Privy
Council submitted to a violent mob outside the locked doors of Parliament House and agreed
to the hanging of the captain, the mate and the gunner of the English merchantman
Worcester.
The charge of piracy laid against these young men, of looting and burning a Scots
ship, was the imaginative creation of the Company's embittered secretary, but most men
believed it, and some of the few who did not were glad to see the humbling of English
pride. This squalid judicial murder was Scotland's last gesture of defiance before it
surrendered its political independence.
The writing on the map says: The Bay of
Caledonia lies about 9 leagues west of the Gulf of Darien. We found the ground near Golden
Island very foul and rocky, full of deep holes and uncertain soundings. But within the
rock in the bay is very good anchor ground and here is plenty of excelent good water. Ships
may enter the bay at either side of the rock but the east side is the best, A place where
upon digging for stones to make an oven at B a considerable mixture of gold was found in
them. Wood increases here prodigiously for the many scores of acres we cleared, yet in a
few months after it was so overgrown as if no body had been there.
Click
Map to enlarge
Principal Characters
ALLISTON, Captain Robert, buccaneer. Paterson's friend.
Piloted the first expedition from Crab Island to Darien.
AMBROSIO, Captain. Indian leader on Darien. Ally of the
scots.
ANDREAS, Captain. Indian leader. First to welcome the
Scots and allied to them by treaty.
ANDERSON, Col. John. After the Darien settlement was
abandoned, he was made captain of the
Unicorn
and sailed to New York (arriving 14
August 1699).
ARGYLL, Archibald Campbell, 10th Earl, later 1st Duke of.
Chief of Clan Campbell. The King's servant, but a large share-holder in the Company.
Encouraged the officers and men of his regiment to serve m the Colony.
BALFOUR, James, merchant. Joint-founder of the Company.
Lobbied support for the Act. Served in London as a Director. Ancestor of Robert Louis
Stevenson.
BELHAVEN, John Hamilton, 2nd Baron. Director of the
Company in London and Scotland. Violent supporter of it in the Estates.
BELLAMONT, Richard Coote, 1st Earl of. Governor of New
York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Sympathetic toward survivors of first expedition,
but adhered to the English Proclamation against them.
BLACKWOOD, (Sir) Robert, merchant. Joint-founder of the
Company. Lobbied with Balfour. Served in London as a Director.
BORLAND, the Reverend Francis. Served with the second
expedition as minister, only one of four to return. Wrote an account of the Colony.
BYRES, James, merchant. Councillor of the second Colony,
later deserted it. An enemy of Thomas Drummond. Condemned by the Directors for treachery.
CAMPBELL of Fonab, Colonel Alexander. Councillor of the
second Colony. Won a victory over the Spanish at Toubacanti and strongly opposed
surrender. Later accused the Company of treachery.
CAMPBELL, Captain Colin. Land officer, later appointed to
the Council of the first Colony. Took the
Saint Andrew
to Jamaica after Pennecuik's
death.
CAMPBELL, Colin, seaman volunteer. Apprenticed to
Pinkerton on the
Unicorn.
Kept a journal.
CAMPBELL, James, merchant. The Company's agent in London.
CANILLAS, Conde de. President of Panama. Led an expedition
against the first Colony, retired without fighting. Sent support to Pimienta in the attack
on the second Colony.
CARRIZOLI, Campmaster Don Luis. Commanded the Spanish
militia at Toubacanti. Joined Pimienta in the successful attack on the second Colony.
CHIESLY, James, merchant. Joint-founder of the Company,
took Paterson's scheme to Edinburgh.
CHIESLY, Sir Robert, Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Merchant
and Director of the Company. Paterson's principal correspondent during the attempt to set
up a London Court of Directors.
CUNNINGHAM, Major James. Councillor of the first Colony
which he deserted.
DIEGO, Captain. Indian leader. Allied by treaty with the
Scots.
DRUMMOND, Captain Robert. Commander of the
Caledonia,
which
he brought home from New York. Later commanded the
Speedy Return
on an African
voyage. Brother of Capt. Thomas Drummond.
DRUMMOND, Captain Thomas. Once a grenadier officer of
Argyll's Regiment. Took part in the Massacre of Glencoe. A Councillor of the first Colony,
returned to it from New York.
Quarrelled with and imprisoned by Byres. Sailed to Africa
as supercargo on his brother's ship.
ERSKINE of Carnock, Colonel John. A director of the
Company, and sent with Gleneagles and Paterson to Hamburg to open subscriptions there.
FLETCHER of Saltoun, Andrew. Scottish patriot. Soldier,
writer, supporter of the Company and a friend of Paterson. Asked Lionel Wafer to serve the
Company. Replied to Walter Herries' attack on the Colony.
GIBSON, Captain James. Master of the
Rising Sun
and
Councillor of the second Colony. A Director of the Company and its representative in
Amsterdam. Lost with his ship off the coast of Carolina.
GREEN, Captain Thomas. Master of the
Worcester.
Charged
with piracy against the Company's ship,
Speedy Return,
and the murder of the
Drummonds. Hanged on Leith sands.
GUEVARA, Campmaster Don Melchor de. Spanish officer, led
the first attack on the peninsula. Sent by Pimienta with terms for the surrender of the
Colony.
HALDANE of Gleneagles, John. A Director of the Company,
sent with Erskine of Carnock and Paterson to Hamburg. Discovered James Smith's
embezzlement of the Company's money.
HAMILTON, Lord Basil. Furious supporter of the Company.
Carried its Address to the King in 1700.
HAMILTON, James Douglas, 4th Duke of. Supporter of the
Company in the Estates, led the defence of it in Parliament in 1700.
HERRIES, Walter. Once a surgeon in the English Navy,
accompanied the first expedition to Darien, deserted it and returned to London. Attacked
the Colony in a book. Probably became a paid agent of the English.
HODGES, James, pamphleteer. Probably employed by the Duke
of Hamilton to write a reply to Herries' book. Arrested by the English, but dismissed for
want of conclusive evidence.
JOLLY, Robert, sea-captain and merchant. Councillor of the
first Colony. Quarrelled with and arrested by Pennecuik. Left the Colony and was later
stripped of his office and privileges by the Company.
KINNAIRD, Alexander - Laird of Culbin. Once a Jacobite, an
officer in the Highland Army that had risen against William. His estate on the Moray Firth
had been engulfed by tidal sand, leaving him in debt and a lot of creditors. He secured an
overseers commission on the expedition.
KINNAIRD, William. Son of Alexander, laird of Culbin.
Appointed an ensign in Capt. John Telfer's Company.
LINDSAY, Major John. Probably an officer of Argyll's
Regiment. Ineffectual member of the Council of the second Colony. Died in Darien.
LONG, Captain Richard. Quaker master of the
Rupert.
Sent
by James Vernon to spy on the Scots.
MACDOWALL, Patrick. Supercargo of the relief ship
Margaret.
Found the survivors of the second Colony at Jamaica. A friend of Paterson. Kept a
journal.
MACKAY, Daniel. Lawyer. Sailed with the first expedition
as a Councillor. Returned with dispatches. Followed the second expedition in the
Speedy
Return.
Lost overboard between Jamaica and Caledonia.
MACKENZIE, Roderick. Secretary of the Company, first in
London and later in Edinburgh. A relentless enemy of the English. Served the Company well.
Responsible for the arrest of Green on a charge of piracy.
MACLEAN, Captain Lachlan. Company commander with the first
Colony. Returned to London where he attacked the Company.
MARCHMONT, Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, 1st Earl of. The
King's Commissioner to the Scots Parliament. An opponent of the Company.
MONTGOMERIE, Captain James. A kinsman of the Earl of
Eglinton. Member of the Council in the first Colony, won a skirmish against the Spanish.
Quarrelled with Pennecuik and left Darien with Jolly. Censured by the Company.
MOON, Richard. Jamaican ship-master and friend of
Paterson. Brought provisions to the first Colony.
MUNRO of Coul, Doctor John. Employed by the Company to
equip the expeditions with medicines and supplies. Refused to sail with the second
expedition. Accused of peculation.
MURDOCH, William. First mate and later commander of the
Unicorn.
Took Jolly's side against Pennecuik, and left the Colony in protest.
NANFAN, John. Lieutenant-Governor of New York, and a
kinsman of Lady Bellamont. Refused the survivors of the first Colony anything more than
provisions to take them home, but was outwitted by Thomas Drummond.
OSWALD, Roger. Served in the first Colony as a Volunteer.
Survived, but was disowned by his father. His letters contain a vivid account of life on
Darien.
PANMURE, James Maule, 4th Earl of. Member of the
Council-General of the Company. Jacobite in sympathies.
PATERSON, William. Originator of the scheme for a Scots
colony on the Isthmus of Panama. Drew up the proposals on which the Act establishing the
Company was based. A Director of both the London and Edinburgh Courts. The company's
emissary to Hamburg. Founder of the Bank of England and inventor of the principle of the
National Debt. Disgraced by the Smith scandal. Served in the first Colony as a Councillor.
Became an ardent supporter of the Union of Parliaments.
PATON, Henry. Second mate of the
Unicorn.
Ordered
to come to her assistance in the Caribbean, he deserted her. Later arrested in Jamaica.
PEDRO, Captain. Indian leader and son-in-law of Ambrosio.
Turnbull's friend, fought with him and Fonab at Toubacanti.
PENNECUIK, Captain Robert. Commander of the
Saint
Andrew
and Commodore of the Company's fleet, member of the Council of the first
Colony. Once an officer in the English Navy. Quarrelled with everybody, particularly the
Drummonds. Died at sea after the desertion of the Colony.
PIMIENTA, Don Juan. Governor of Carthagena. Organised the
attack on the second Colony by land and sea. Accepted its surrender.
PINKERTON, Captain Robert. Commander of the
Unicorn
and
a member of the first Council. Aboard the
Dolphin,
he was captured by the Spanish
and was their prisoner for nineteen months.
ROSE, Hugh. Secretary and Clerk to the first Colony. Kept
an official journal of the voyage and landing.
RYCAUT, Sir Paul. English Resident at Hamburg.
Successfully prevented the Scots from opening a subscription book there. Spied on their
shipping.
SANDS, Captain Edward. Jamaican shipmaster, Moon's
colleague. Brought supplies to the Colony.
SEAFIELD, James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater and 1st Earl
of. The King's servant and principal enemy of the Company, as Secretary of State for
Scotland, President of Parliament and Commissioner. Submitted to the mob and agreed to the
hanging of Thomas Green.
SMITH, James. A friend of William Paterson and a
subscriber to the London book. A Director of the Company and sent by it to London, where
he embezzled funds entrusted to him by Paterson.
SHIELDS, the Reverend Alexander. Minister to the second
Colony. Served in Flanders as chaplain to the Cameronians. Resolute Covenanter. Died in
Jamaica, having deserted the survivors.
SPENSE, Benjamin. Sailed with the first expedition as an
interpreter. Captured by the Spanish on Cuba, sent to Spain and imprisoned with Pinkerton.
STOBO, the Reverend Alexander. Minister to the second
Colony. Deserted the
Rising Sun
in Carolina and never returned to Scotland.
TWEEDDALE, John Hay, 2nd Earl and 1st Marquis of. Lord
Chancellor of Scotland. As Commissioner gave the Royal assent to the Act creating the
Company, 1695. Dismissed by the King. Died 1697 and succeeded by his son
TWEEDDALE, John Hay, 2nd Marquis of. Member of the Council
General of the Company and Paterson's patron.
TULLIBARDINE, John Murray, Earl of. Joint Secretary of
State for Scotland, 1696-98. Suspected of Jacobite sympathies, he veered between support
for the Company and opposition to it.
TURNBULL, Lieutenant Robert. Company officer with the
first expedition. Returned to Caledonia with Thomas Drummond from New York. Fought with
Fonab at Toubacanti. Captain Pedro's friend.
VERNON, James. English Secretary of State. Originator of
"Mr. Vernon's Line" and the Proclamation forbidding the American plantations to
give aid or supplies to the Scots Colony. A resolute and cunning opponent of the Company.
VETCH, Captain Samuel. Son of a respected Covenanting
minister. A dragoon officer who became a company commander in the first expedition. Later
a Councillor. Friend of the Dnimmonds and one of their party against Pennecuik. Remained
in New York, and was believed to have appropriated some of the Company's goods.
VETCH, Captain William. Brother of Samuel. An officer of
the Cameronians. Prevented by illness from joining the first expedition as a Councillor.
Sailed with the second. Surrendered the Colony to the Spanish against Fonab's advice. Died
at sea aboard the
Hope.
QUEENSBERRY, James Douglas, 2nd Duke of. King's
Commissioner to the Estates, 1700. Opponent of the Company, and successfully prevented its
party in Parliament from addressing the King. Slept through the Toubacanti Riot.
WAFER, Lionel. Buccaneer surgeon. Lived and worked with
the Indians in Darien. Wrote a book about them and the country, a manuscript copy of which
Paterson gave to the Directors. Was later called secretly to Edinburgh by the Company, but
was dismissed when the Directors had closely questioned him.
Vessels owned or chartered by the Company of
Scotland
The First Expedition
Saint Andrew
(Captain: Robert Pennecuik), launched
at Hamburg and originally called
Instauration.
Abandoned at Port Royal, Jamaica.
Caledonia
(Robert Drummond), launched at Hamburg.
Re-turned to Scotland 1699.
Unicorn
(Robert Pinkerton), originally the
Saint
Francis,
and re-named
Union
by James Gibson when he bought her in Amsterdam.
Abandoned in New England.
Dolphin
(Thomas Fullarton), originally a French
ship, the
Royal Louis,
bought by Gibson in Amsterdam. Lost to the Spanish at
Carthagena.
Endeavour
(John Malloch), bought by Dr. John Munro
at Newcastle. Sunk in Caribbean.
Relief Ships
Ann of Caledonia
,
originally the
Anna,
bought
by Thomas Drummond in New York and sailed back to Caledonia.
Dispatch
(Andrew Gibson), wrecked off the coast of
'slay, February 1699.
Olive Branch
(William Jameson), reached Darien in
August 1699. Burnt in Caledonia Bay.
Hopeful Binning
(Alexander Stark), also reached
Caledonia in August 1699. Retired to Jamaica after the 1055 of the
Olive Branch.
Society
,
chartered at Saint Thomas by Drummond on
his return to the Colony.
The Second Expedition
Rising Sun
(James Gibson), built at Amsterdam.
Lost in a hurricane off Charleston with all hands, August 1700.
Duke of Hamilton
(Walter Duncan), chartered, sunk
by a hurricane in Charleston harbour, August 1700.
Hope of Bo'ness
(Richard Dalling), chartered.
Surrendered to the Spanish at Carthagena, April 1700.
Hope
(James Miller), bought by the Company.
Wrecked off Cuba, August 1700.
Relief Ships
Speedy Return
(John Baillie), sailed from Clyde
with Daniel Mackay, and took Thomas Drummond from Jamaica to Darien. Scuttled on the
Malabar Coast by the pirate Bowen.
Content
(Nirijan Warden), chartered by Thomas
Drummond for his second return to Colony. Bought by Company, lost by fire off the Malabar
Coast.
Margaret
(Leonard Robertson), brought Patrick
MacDowall, supercargo, to Jamaica. Provisions she carried distributed among survivors of
the second Colony.
Other Vessels
Maidstone
(Ephraim Pilington), a Jamaican sloop.
Neptune
(Richard Moon), a Jamaican sloop.
Three Sisters
, a
New England merchantman, sent to
Darien
with
supplies from Scots sympathizers in New York.
Rupert
(Richard Long), English merchantman which
came to spy on the Scots.
Maurepas
(Duvivier Thomas), French ship wrecked in
Caledonia Bay.
Adventure
(John Howell), a Glasgow vessel which
the Drummonds attempted to seize at New York.
San fuan Bautista
(Don Diego Peredo), flagship of
the Spanish blockading fleet.
San Antonio
,
Spanish warship.
El Florizant
,
Spanish warship.
Annandale
(John ap-Rice), merchantman seized by
the English East India Company to prevent it sailing under Scots colours.
Worcester
(Thomas Green), English merchantman
seized in the Firth of Forth by Roderick Mackenzie on behalf of the Company.
Click on the pictures for a better view
Darien Dates
1693
JUNE 14
. Scots Parliament passes
An Act for
Encouraging Foreign Trade.
Companies may be formed to trade with any country not at
war with the Crown.
1695
MAY 9
. At the opening of the fifth session of the
Scots Parliament, Lord Tweeddale announces that the King will approve legislation for the
establishment of a colony, and the formation of a trading company. William Paterson's
draft for such an Act is carried to Scotland by James Chiesly.
JUNE 15
. The Bill is first brought before the Estates
and referred to the Committee for Trade.
JUNE 26
. Lord Tweeddale touches the Act with the
sceptre and gives it the Royal Assent.
AUGUST 29
. First regular meeting of "the
gentlemen concerned with the Company" in London.
NOVEMBER 13
. Subscription book for the Company of
Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies is opened in London. Entire issue of ?300,000
is subscribed.
DECEMBER 3
. House of Lords debate the Scots Act.
DECEMBER 5
. London Directors of the Company are
ordered to appear before the Lords.
DECEMBER 17
. Lords and Commons go to the King,
presenting an Address of protest against the Scots Company. William III declares himself
"ill-served in Scotland".
1696
JANUARY
. The London Directors have been examined by a
Committee of the House of Commons. The House demands their impeachment. Subscribers
withdraw and the English venture collapses. William Paterson leaves for Scotland.
FEBRUARY 26
. The Company opens a Subscription Book in
Edinburgh. Proposed capital for Scotland to be ?400,000. A rush to take up stock.
JULY 23
. Paterson hands over to the Company all his
papers relating to Darien. Proposes a trading
entrep6t
on the Isthmus.
AUGUST l
. Subscription Books are closed. The proposed
capital had been reached, and the first call upon it made.
OCTOBER
. Paterson leaves to open a Subscription Book
in Ham-burg. James Smith embezzles money entrusted to him by Paterson.
1697
JANUARY
. Paterson still in Amsterdam with Erskine and
Haldane. Fail to interest Dutch merchants in the Company.
FEBRUARY
. Paterson and Erskine leave for Hamburg.
APRIL
. Final efforts to open a Subscription Book in
Hamburg are defeated by Sir Paul Rycaut, English Resident.
SEPTEMBER
. Paterson is examined by a special committee
of the Company. He is exonerated, and acquitted of complicity in Smith's embezzlement, but
is stripped of office in the Company.
NOVEMBER
. The Company's fleet assembles in the Forth:
Caledonia,
Saint Andrew
and the
Unicorn,
joined later by the
Endeavour
and the
Dolphin.
1698
JANUARY TO JUNE
. Ships are equipped and loaded.
Councifiors, officers and Planters selected.
JULY 14
. The first expedition sails from Leith,
anchors at Kirkcaldy.
JULY 19
. Fleet sails northward from Kirkcaldy.
AUGUST 26
. All the ships have arrived safely at
Madeira.
SEPTEMBER 2
. Fleet leaves Madeira.
SEPTEMBER 28
. First landfall in the West Indies.
OCTOBER 3
. Council takes possession of Crab Island in
the name of the Company.
OCTOBER 7
. Fleet sails for Darien.
NOVEMBER 2
. First landing in Caledonia Bay.
NOVEMBER 5
. Sick are put ashore. More men land to
clear the ground and build huts.
NOVEMBER 15
. Arrival of Richard Long in the
Rupert.
DECEMBER 4
. Treaty of friendship with Captain Andreas.
DECEMBER 11
. Arrival of the
Maurepas.
DECEMBER 28
. The settlement declared a Colony of the
Company of Scotland.
DECEMBER 29
. Alexander Hamilton leaves for Scotland
with dispatches, journals etc. Major Cunningham also leaves the Colony.
1699
JANUARY
. The Barliavento Fleet anchors at Portobello.
Spanish Governors consider steps to drive out the Scots.
The
Dispatch
leaves Leith with supplies, is wrecked
on the coast of Islay.
FEBRUARY
5
. The
Dolphin,
with Robert
Pinkerton aboard, is driven into Carthagena, strikes a rock and is taken by the Spanish.
FEBRUARY 6
. Montgomerie's skirmish. The Conde de
Canillas, President of Panama, abandons his attack on the Colony.
MARCH 11
. The Council sends Lieutenant Maghie to
Carthagena to protest against the imprisonment of Pincarton and his crew.
MARCH 25
. Alexander Hamilton arrives in Edinburgh.
APRIL 10
. Daniel Mackay leaves the Colony with
dispatches for Edinburgh.
APRIL 21
. Robert Jolly, James Montgomerie and William
Murdoch leave the Colony.
MAY
. The
Olive Branch
and the
Hopeful
Binning
sail from the Clyde with provisions and 800 men and women.
MAY 18
. Colony hears of the English Proclamations
against the Colony. The Council prepares to abandon the settlement.
JUNE 22
. Caledonia is totally abandoned except for six
sick men.
JULY
. The
Endeavour
is sunk soon after leaving
Caledonia. The
Saint Andrew
reaches Jamaica.
AUGUST 4
. The
Caledonia
reaches New York.
AUGUST 14
. The
Unicorn
reaches New York.
AUGUST 18
. Second expedition sails from the Clyde,
anchors again in Rothesay Bay, waiting for a favourable wind.
SEPTEMBER 22
. Daniel Mackay leaves Edinburgh for the
Clyde to join the second expedition. There have been rumours of the desertion of the
Colony which he denies as ridiculous.
SEPTEMBER 23
. Second expedition sails without waiting
for Mackay or extra provisions.
OCTOBER 9
. Rumours of the desertion are now confirmed
by letters from New York.
OCTOBER 12
. The
Caledonia
sails from New
York.Alexander Campbell of Fonab leaves Scotland for England, where he is to find a ship
that will take him to the Caribbean and the Colony. The Council-General of the Company
agrees to ask Parliament to send an Address to the King, asking for his protection. Also
send one in the name of the Company. Daniel Mackay leaves for the Colony on the
Speedy
Return.
NOVEMBER 21
. The
Galedonia
reaches the Clyde.
NOVEMBER 30
. The second expedition arrives at the
settlement. Finds Thomas Drummond there with two sloops.
DECEMBER 4 & 5
. Meeting of the Council and all
officers. Agree to send 500 men and all the women to Jamaica.
DECEMBER 12
. The King expresses his disapproval of all
Addresses to him, and orders his Privy Council in Scotland to make his displeasure known.
DECEMBER 20
. Alexander Campbell hanged for mutiny.
DECEMBER 21
. Thomas Drummond arrested by Byres and
held a prisoner aboard the
Duke of Hamilton.
1700
JANUARY 10
. The King agrees to ask Spain for the
release of the
Dolphin's
crew. Robert Tumbull returns to the Colony from a visit to
the Indians with reports of an imminent Spanish attack.
FEBRUARY 7
. Byres deserts the Colony.
FEBRUARY 11
. Arrival of Campbell of Fonab.
FEBRUARY 15
. Fonab defeats the Spaniards at
Toubacanti.
FEBRUARY 23
. Spanish ships appear off the mouth of the
harbour.
FEBRUARY 27
. Thomas Drummond leaves the Colony.
MARCH 1
. Don Melchor de Guevara lands to the east of
the Isthmus, drives back a Scottish attack.
MARCH 3
. Don Juan Pimienta lands with more men. He
invites the Scots to surrender, and when they refuse, moves forward against the neck of
the peninsula.
MARCH 5
. The
Margaret
leaves Scotland with
provisions and supplies for the Colony. Patrick Macdowall, supercargo, carries letters.
MARCH 18
. Spanish cross the ditch at the neck and
advance on the fort. The Council ask for terms.
MARCH 22
. Truce ended and the fighting continues.
MARCH 25
. In London, four members of the
Council-General of the Company present an Address to the King. He tells them he has said
all there is to say on the matter of the Company's grievances.
MARCH 30
. Pimienta offers to treat with the Scots
again.
MARCH 31
. Articles of Capitulation are signed. The
Scots have two weeks to leave with their ships, guns and supplies.
APRIL 1
. Thomas Drummond returns to the Colony.
APRIL12
. The Colony is abandoned for the second time.
Pimienta takes possession of it. The
Hope of Bo'ness
sails to Carthagena. Her
master surrenders the ship to the Spanish.
MAY
. The
Rising Sun, Duke of Hamilton,
and
Hope
reach Jamaica and anchor off Blewfields.
MAY 24
. The Scots Parliament assembles but the Duke of
Queensberry, Commissioner, prevents the Company's party from pressing for an Address to
the King. He adjourns Parliament on the 30th.
JUNE 20
. News of the victory at Toubacanti reaches
Edinburgh. Rioting breaks out, mob in control of the city that night.
JUNE 28
. Letter from New York informs the Company of
the desertion of the second Colony.
JULY 21/22
. The ships leave Jamaica. The
Hope is
wrecked
soon afterwards off the coast of Cuna.
AUGUST 14
. The
Rising Sun
dismasted in a gale
in the Gulf of Florida, sails on northwards.
AUGUST 20/24
. The
Duke of Hamilton
and the
Rising
Sun
reach Charleston in Carolina.
SEPTEMBER 3
. Both ships are sunk by a hurricane.
SEPTEMBER 20
. Pinkerton and three other prisoners
released from prison in Seville.
OCTOBER 29
. Scottish Parliament reassembles. Company's
party begins its fight to declare Darien a legal settlement, and entitled to Parliament's
protection.
1701
MAY
. The
Speedy Return
and the
Content
are
sent to trade on the African coast.
1703
Late in the year the
Speedy Return
and the
Content,
now in the hands of the pirate John Bowen, are destroyed off the Malabar Coast.
1704
JANUARY 31
. The Company's chartered ship, the
Annandale
is seized in the Downs at the instigation of the East India Company.
AUGUST 12
. The
Worcester
is seized in Leith
Road as a reprisal for the taking of the
Annandale.
1705
APRIL 11
. Thomas Green, captain of the
Worcester,
is
hanged on Leith Sands with his mate and gunner, having been found guilty of pirating the
Speedy
Return.
1707
MAY 1
. The Treaty of Union of the two Kingdoms of
Scotland and England takes effect. By Article XV, the Company of Scotland is dissolved.