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|title_leader=[[List of Scottish monarchs|King of Scotland]]
|title_leader=[[List of Scottish monarchs|King of Scotland]]
|leader1=[[William III of England|William II]]
|leader1=[[William III of England|William II]]
|year_leader1=1650–1702
|year_leader1=1689–1702


|title_deputy=Leader
|title_deputy=Leader

Revision as of 21:13, 13 September 2014

Caledonia
1698–1700
Flag of Caledonia
Flag of the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies
Caledonia on a modern map
Caledonia on a modern map
StatusColony (Kingdom of Scotland)
CapitalNew Edinburgh
Common languagesEnglish, Scots
King of Scotland 
• 1689–1702
William II
Leader 
• 1698–1700
Thomas Drummond
• January – February 1700
Alexander Campbell of Fonab
Historical eraColonial period
• Landfall
November 2 1698
• First colony abandoned
July, 1699
• Second colony established
November 30, 1699
• Second colony abandoned
February, 1700
Population
• 1698
1,200
• 1700
2,500
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Viceroyalty of New Granada
Viceroyalty of New Granada
Today part of Panama

The colonization project that became known as the Darien Scheme or Darien Disaster[1] was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called "Caledonia" on the Isthmus of Panama on the Gulf of Darién in the late 1690s.

From the outset, the undertaking was beset by poor planning and provision, weak leadership, lack of demand for trade goods, devastating epidemics of disease and increasing shortage of food. It was finally abandoned after a siege by Spanish forces in April 1700.

As the Darien company was backed by between a quarter and half of all the money circulating in Scotland,[2] its failure left nobles, landowners – who had suffered a run of bad harvests – as well as town councils and many ordinary tradespeople[2] almost completely ruined and was an important factor in weakening their resistance to the Act of Union (completed in 1707). Although the scheme failed, it has been seen as marking the beginning of the country's transformation into a modern nation oriented toward business.

Today, the site of the colony is called Puerto Escocés, or Port Scotland, located in the Bahia de Caledonia, which is the Bay of Caledonia in English. Despite this, the region is virtually uninhabited owing to its inhospitability and isolation from the more established parts of Panama. A small settlement by the name of Puerto Escocés or Sukunya sits on the site of the ex-colony and is connected to the port town of Carreto – found at the mouth of the Rio Carreto – via a coastal road.

Origins

The late 17th century was a difficult period for Scotland. The country's economy was relatively small, its range of exports very limited and it was in a weak position in relation to England, its powerful neighbour (which it was in personal union with, but not yet in political union).

In an era of economic rivalry in Europe, Scotland was incapable of protecting itself from the effects of English competition and legislation.[3] The kingdom had no reciprocal export trade and its once thriving industries such as shipbuilding were in deep decline. Goods which were in demand had to be bought from England for sterling, the Navigation Acts further increased economic dependence on England by limiting Scotland's shipping, and the navy was tiny.[3]

Several ruinous civil wars in the late 1600s had squandered the country's human and other resources. In the 1690s there were several years of wide-scale crop failure, which brought famine. This period was referred to as the "ill years". The deteriorating economic position of Scotland led to calls for a favourable political union, or at least a customs union, with England. However, the stronger feeling among Scots was that the country should become a great mercantile and colonial power like England.[3]

In response, a number of remedies were enacted by the Parliament of Scotland: in 1695 the Bank of Scotland was established; the Act for the Settling of Schools established a parish-based system of public education throughout Scotland; and the Company of Scotland was chartered with capital to be raised by public subscription to trade with "Africa and the Indies".

The Darien chest, which held the money and documents of the Company of Scotland

In the face of opposition by English commercial interests, the Company of Scotland raised subscriptions in Amsterdam, Hamburg and London for the scheme.[4] For his part, King William III had given only lukewarm support to the whole Scottish colonial endeavour.[a] England was at war with France and hence did not want to offend Spain, which claimed the territory as part of New Granada.[6]

England was also under pressure from the English East India Company, who were keen to maintain their monopoly over English foreign trade.[6] It therefore forced the English and Dutch investors to withdraw. Next, the East India Company threatened legal action on the grounds that the Scots had no authority from the king to raise funds outside the English realm, and obliged the promoters to refund subscriptions to the Hamburg investors. This left no source of finance but Scotland itself.

Returning to Edinburgh, the Company of Scotland for Trading to Africa raised £400,000 sterling in a few weeks (equivalent to roughly £66 million today),[b] with investments from every level of society, and totalling about a fifth of the wealth of Scotland.[7][8] It was, for Scotland, a massive amount of capital.[9]

Scottish-born trader and financier William Paterson had long been promoting a plan for a colony on the Isthmus of Panama to be used as a gateway between the Atlantic and Pacific – the same principle which, much later, would lead to the construction of the Panama Canal. Paterson, who had a huge capacity for hard work, was instrumental in getting the company off the ground in London. He had failed to interest several European countries in his project but in the aftermath of the English reaction to the company he was able to get a respectful hearing for his ideas.[9]

The Scots' original aim of emulating the East India Company by breaking into the lucrative trading areas of the Indies and Africa was forgotten and the highly ambitious Darien scheme was adopted by the company. Paterson fell from grace when a subordinate embezzled from the company. The company took back Paterson's stock and expelled him from the Court of Directors; he was to have little real influence on events after this point.[9]

First expedition (1698)

Darien House, headquarters of the Company of Scotland in Edinburgh, now demolished

Many former officers and soldiers eagerly joined the Darien project, as they had little hope of any other employment. Many of them were acquainted from serving in the army and several – Thomas Drummond, for example – were notorious for their involvement in the Massacre of Glencoe. In some eyes they appeared to be a clique and this was to cause much suspicion among other members of the expedition.[10]

The first expedition of five ships (Saint Andrew, Caledonia, Unicorn, Dolphin, and Endeavour) set sail from the east coast port of Leith to avoid observation by English warships in July 1698,[c] with around 1200 people on board. The journey round Scotland while kept below deck was so traumatic that some colonists thought it comparable to the worst parts of the whole Darien experience. Their orders were "to proceed to the Bay of Darien, and make the Isle called the Golden Island ... some few leagues to the leeward of the mouth of the great River of Darien ... and there make a settlement on the mainland". After calling at Madeira and the West Indies, the fleet made landfall off the coast of Darien on 2 November. The settlers christened their new home "Caledonia".[d]

With Drummond in charge, they cut a ditch through the neck of land that divided one side of the harbour in Caledonia Bay from the ocean, and constructed Fort St Andrew, equipped with 50 cannon, on the peninsula behind the canal. The fort did not have a source of fresh water. They built a watchhouse on a mountain at the opposite side of the harbour.

New Edinburgh

"A New Map of the Isthmus of Darien in America, The Bay of Panama, The Gulph of Vallona or St. Michael, with its Islands and Countries Adjacent". In A letter giving a description of the Isthmus of Darian, Edinburgh: 1699.

Close to the fort they began erecting the huts of the main settlement, New Edinburgh, and clearing land to plant yams and maize. Letters sent home by the expedition created a misleading impression that everything was going according to plan. This seems to have been by agreement, as certain optimistic phrases kept recurring. However, it meant the Scottish public would be completely unprepared for the coming disaster.

Agriculture proved difficult and the local Indians, though hostile to Spain, were unwilling to trade for the combs and other trinkets offered by the colonists. Most serious was the almost total failure to sell any goods to the few passing traders who put in to the bay. With the onset of summer the following year, the stifling atmosphere and other causes[clarification needed] led to many deaths. Eventually, the mortality rate rose to ten settlers a day.[7]

Local Indians brought gifts of fruit and plantains, but these were appropriated by the leaders and sailors who mostly remained on board ships. The only luck the settlers had was in giant turtle hunting, but fewer and fewer men were fit enough for such strenuous work. The situation was exacerbated by the lack of food mainly due to a high rate of spoilage caused by improper stowing. At the same time, King William instructed the Dutch and English colonies in America not to supply the Scots' settlement so as not to incur the wrath of the Spanish Empire.[7]

The only reward the council had to give was alcohol, and drunkenness became common, even though it sped the deaths of men already weakened by dysentery, fever and the rotting, worm-infested food. After just eight months, the colony was abandoned in July 1699, except for six men who were too weak to move. The deaths continued on the ships, and those who survived the journey and returned home found themselves regarded as a disgrace to the country and were even disowned by their families.

Only 300 of the 1200 settlers survived, and only one ship managed to return to Scotland. A desperate ship from the colony had called at the Jamaican city of Port Royal, but it was refused assistance on the orders of the English government, which feared antagonising the Spanish.[7]

Second expedition (1699)

The Bay of Caledonia, west of the Gulf of Darien. New Edinburgh is on the isthmus on the right.

Word of the first expedition did not reach Scotland in time to prevent a second voyage of more than 1000 people. The second expedition arrived on 30 November 1699 and found two sloops there, one with Thomas Drummond from the original expedition. Some men were sent ashore to rebuild the huts, which caused others to complain that they had come to join a settlement, not build one.[14]

Morale was low and little progress was made. Drummond insisted there could be no discussion, and the fort must be rebuilt as a Spanish attack would surely come soon.[14]

Drummond clashed with the merchant James Byres, who maintained that the Counsellors of the first expedition had now lost that status and had Drummond arrested. Initially bellicose, Byres began to send away all those he suspected of being offensively minded – or of being allegiant to Drummond. He outraged a kirk minister by claiming it would be unlawful to resist the Spanish by force of arms, as all war was unchristian. Byres then deserted the colony in a sloop.[14]

The colonists sank into apathy until the arrival of Alexander Campbell of Fonab, sent by the company to organise a defence. He provided the resolute leadership which had been lacking and took the initiative by driving the Spanish from their stockade at Toubacanti in January 1700. However, Fonab was wounded in the daring frontal attack and then became incapacitated with a fever.[14]

The Spanish force – who were also suffering serious losses from fever – closed in on Fort St Andrew and besieged it for a month. Disease was still the main cause of death at this time. The Spanish commander called for the Scots to surrender and avoid a final assault, warning that if they did not, no quarter would be given.[14]

After negotiations, the Scots were allowed to leave with their guns, and the colony was abandoned for the last time. Only a handful of those from the second expedition returned to Scotland.[14] Of the total 2500 settlers that set off, just a few hundred survived.[15]

Reactions to the disaster

The failure of the colonisation project provoked tremendous discontent throughout Lowland Scotland where almost every family had been affected. Many held the English responsible, while believing that they could and should assist in yet another effort at making the scheme work. The company petitioned the King to affirm their right to the colony. However, the monarch declined, saying that although he was sorry the company had incurred such huge losses, reclaiming Darien would mean war with Spain. The continuing futile debate on the issue served to further increase bitter feelings.

Hoping to recoup some of its capital by a more conventional venture, the company sent two ships from the Clyde, the Speedy Return and the Continent, to the Guinea coast laden with trade goods. Sea captain Robert Drummond was the master of the Speedy Return; his brother Thomas, who had played such a large part in the second expedition, was supercargo on the vessel. Instead of trying to sell for gold as the company's directors intended, however, the Drummond brothers had exchanged the goods for slaves, which they sold in Madagascar.

Carousing with the buccaneers for whom the island was a refuge, the Drummonds fell in with pirate John Bowen, who offered them loot if they would lend him their ships for a raid on homeward bound Indiamen. Robert Drummond was initially persuaded, but he finally backed out of the agreement. Bowen simply appropriated the ships while Drummond was ashore. Bowen burnt the Continent on the Malabar coast when he decided she was of no use to him, and he later scuttled the Speedy Return after transferring her crew to a merchant ship he had taken. The Drummonds decided against returning to Scotland, as they would have had to explain the loss of the ships entrusted to them, and nothing more was ever heard of them.

The company sent out another ship, but she was lost at sea. Unable to afford the cost of fitting out yet another, the Annandale was hired in London to trade in the Spice Islands. However, the East India Company had the ship seized on the grounds that this was in contravention of their charter. This provoked an uproar in Scotland, greatly aided by the inflammatory rhetoric of the company's secretary, a relentless enemy of the English named Roderick MacKenzie. Fury at the country's impotence led to the scapegoating and hanging of three innocent English sailors.[16]

Hangings

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Thomas Green was the twenty-five-year-old master of an English merchant ship, the Worcester, which he brought into Leith in July 1704, having been given the command at age twenty-one. Mackenzie convinced himself that the Worcester was an East India Company ship and should be seized in reprisal for the Annandale. He succeeded in getting legal authority and Green watched over the next three months as his ship's cargo was impounded and the sails, guns and rudder were removed.

In December the crew was arrested for piracy. Although many in Scotland were delighted, it soon became clear to the directors of the Darien company that Mackenzie's charges were not supported by any proof and it seemed the men would be released. However, Mackenzie suddenly claimed to have ascertained from the crew of the Worcester that Green had drunkenly boasted of taking the Speedy Return, killing the Drummonds and burning the ship. Despite a total lack of evidence, Green and two of his crew, John Madden and James Simpson, were sent for trial.

The prosecution case, which was made in medieval Latin and legal Doric, was unintelligible to jury and accused alike. The defence advocates seem to have presented no evidence and fled after the trial. There was hardly anyone in Scotland who was disinterested, but some jurors did resist bringing in a verdict of guilty. Nevertheless, the men were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.

The Queen advised her 30 privy councillors in Edinburgh that the men should be pardoned, but the common people demanded the sentence be carried out. Nineteen councillors made excuses to stay away from the deliberations on a reprieve, fearing the wrath of a huge mob that had arrived in Edinburgh to demand the sailors be put to death. Even though they had affidavits from London by the crew of the Speedy Return, who testified that Green and his crew had no knowledge or involvement in the fate of the ship, the remaining councillors refused to pardon the men.

Green, Madden and Simpson were subjected to derision and insults by the mob before they were hanged. Green had complete faith that, as an innocent man, he would be reprieved and was still looking to the Edinburgh road for a messenger as the hangman placed the hood over his head.[16]

Consequences of failure

The failure of the Darien colonisation project has been cited as one of the motivations for the 1707 Acts of Union.[17] According to this argument, the Scottish establishment (landed aristocracy and mercantile elites) considered that their best chance of being part of a major power would be to share the benefits of England's international trade and the growth of the English Empire, so its future would have to lie in unity with England. Furthermore, Scotland's nobles were almost bankrupted by the Darien fiasco.

Some Scottish nobility petitioned Westminster to wipe out the Scottish national debt and stabilise the currency. Although the first request was not met, the second was and the Scottish Pound was given the fixed value of an English shilling. Personal Scottish financial interests were also involved. Scottish commissioners had invested heavily in the Darien project and they believed that they would receive compensation for their losses. The 1707 Acts of Union,[18] Article 15, granted £398,085 10s sterling to Scotland to offset future liability towards the English national debt.

See also

  • Lionel Wafer, a surgeon and buccaneer marooned for four years on the isthmus, who was hired as an adviser by the Darien Company.
  • Gregor MacGregor, a Scottish adventurer who claimed to be a descendent of a survivor of the scheme and cazique of Poyais.

Other Scottish settlements in America:

Notes

  1. ^ On signalling his approval for the creation of the Company of Scotland, the King declared before Parliament: "I have been ill-served in Scotland, but I hope some remedies may be found to prevent the inconveniences which may arise from this Act."[5]
  2. ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  3. ^ Sources vary about the exact date of departure, placing it anywhere between 8 July[11] and 26 July.[12]
  4. ^ "...we do here settle and in the name of God establish ourselves; and in honour and for the memory of that most ancient and renowned name of our Mother Country, we do, and will from henceforward call this country by the name of Caledonia; and ourselves, successors, and associates, by the name of Caledonians." [13]

Citations

  1. ^ Prebble, The Darien Disaster.
  2. ^ a b "The Caribbean colony that brought down Scotland". BBC. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  3. ^ a b c Prebble, Darien: The Scottish Dream.
  4. ^ Prebble, The Darien Disaster, pp. 84–90.
  5. ^ Prebble, The Darien Disaster, p. 48.
  6. ^ a b Insh, Papers, p. x.
  7. ^ a b c d Carroll, "The Sorry Story..."
  8. ^ Hidalgo, "To Get Rich For Our Homeland"
  9. ^ a b c Prebble, Darien: The Scottish Dream, p.90.
  10. ^ Prebble, Darien: The Scottish Dream, p. 103.
  11. ^ New York Public Library, Bulletin, p. 487.
  12. ^ Baynes, Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 360
  13. ^ Prebble, The Darien Disaster, p. 160.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Prebble, Darien: The Scottish Dream
  15. ^ The Week, "How Scottish Independence Vanished..."
  16. ^ a b Prebble, Darien: The Scottish Dream, pp. 1–9 & 308–315.
  17. ^ Brocklehurst, "The Banker who Led Scotland to Disaster".
  18. ^ 1707 Acts of Union

References

Further reading

8°50′02.47″N 77°37′54.47″W / 8.8340194°N 77.6317972°W / 8.8340194; -77.6317972

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