1699.

the wants and miseries, the difficulties and dan- BOOK IV. gers, they had to encounter, soon disposed them to think more of a deliverance than an establishment. This intelligence was no sooner received in England, than the earl of Seafield, secretary of state for Scotland, who had hitherto abstained from replying to the representations of the company, informed them, by order from the king, "that, there being accounts of the arrival of the ships belonging to the company on the coasts of America, and the particular design not being communicated to his majesty, he therefore delayed to give an answer till he had received certain information of their settlement.” The company on this notified to lord Seafield,

that their ships had reached their destination at Golden Island on the coast of Darien-and had obtained, by treaty with the natives, a tract never before in the possession of any Europeans." But though the Scottish directors had been guilty of the extreme imprudence of attempting a permanent settlement in the centre of the Spanish empire without the permission, it could not be long concealed from the knowledge, of the executive government. And by the positive orders of the king, sir William Beeston, governor of Jamaica, issued a proclamation early in April 1699, importing that his majesty was not informed of the designs of the

1699.

BOOK IV. Scots in relation to Darien; which being contrary to the treaties subsisting between his majesty and his allies, he strictly charged and commanded all his majesty's subjects, that upon no pretence whatever they should hold any correspondence with the Scots aforesaid, or give them any assistance, under pain of sudering the effects of his majesty's severest displeasure. This was a measure, however harsh, very seasonable and necessary; for, in the month of May following, the marquis de Canales, minister residentiary of Spain, presented to the court of London a memorial, remonstrating in the strongest and most resentful terms against the Darien settlement; which, the memorialist declared, "the king his master regarded, not merely as a violation of friendship, but as a rupture of the alliance subsisting between the two crowns. That his catholic majesty could not expect such insults and hostilities to be committed by the subjects of the king of England, without cause or pretext, in the heart of his dominions; and that all the king his master desired was, to have his extreme sensibility of a procedure so unjust represented to his majesty, for he would take such measures concerning them as he should see convenient." To this memorial the orders already sent to the governor of Jamaica furnished a satisfactory reply.

The English parliament, perceiving, doubtless, BOOK IV. the approaching inevitable ruin of the Scottish colony, did not deign in the course of the last session to make it the subject of their animadversion. Nothing but misfortune had attended this ill-fated and extravagant project. Of the ships sent out with stores and reinforcements, one took fire by accident, and a second was wrecked near Carthagena, the cargo confiscated, and the crew sent to prison. Those who reached the destined shore, finding their expectations wholly blasted, were wrought up to a pitch of insubordination and animosity, which utterly disqualified them from adopting any rational means either of subsistence or defence. In fine, seeing their inability to resist the force which the Spaniards were preparing to bring against them, they thought proper to sign a capitulation, and entirely to evacuate the Spanish coast, after the immense expence incurred in the successive equipments and preparations of the company, who were, however reluctantly, at length compelled to open their eyes, when their invincible obstinacy in folly had left them nothing to contemplate but their own beggary, bankruptcy, and ruin.

In the month of September 1699, while they were yet unapprised of the catastrophe of this tragic drama, the company had transmitted an

BOOK IV. address to the throne, complaining of the inju1699. ries they had received, and the mischiefs they had still to apprehend, from the Spaniards; and beseeching his majesty's favour and protection. This being evasively answered, they framed a second address or remonstrance in still stronger terms, complaining "that they were not within the pale of the royal protection. That proclamations had been issued in his majesty's name by the governors of the American plantations, prohibiting all commerce or correspondence with the Scottish colony, which had produced the most fatal consequences to the company.-They entreated that his majesty would take off the force and effect of those proclamations, and allow his parliament of Scotland to meet at as early a period as possible, in order that his majesty might have the advice and assistance of the great council of the nation in such a weighty and general concern." To this lord Seafield was directed to answer, "That his majesty very much regretted the loss which that kingdom and the company had lately sustained-that he would upon all occasions protect and encourage the trade of the nation-and that they should enjoy the same freedom of commerce with the English plantations as formerly. As to the parliament, they were adjourned to March; and he would cause them to meet when he judged that

the good of the nation required it." This an- BOOK IV. swer gave little satisfaction; the national ferment 1699. spread like a contagion, and seemed to threaten the most alarming consequences.

France at

of Madrid.

Notwithstanding the cordiality with which the Intrigues of court of Versailles appeared to concur in the the court treaty of partition, she employed all the arts of her refined and insidious policy to induce the court of Madrid to pronounce an ultimate decision in her favour. The marquis de Harcourt, ambassador from France, insinuated in terms the

most flattering and respectful, "that the only object of the king his master was, to maintain the honor and independency of the crown of Spain-that Philip IV. had doubtless exerted his power too far in transferring the inheritance of the crown to the imperial house against the laws of nature and the constitution of the realm---that the succession lawfully belonged to his daughter's children, and not to his relations four degrees removed that it was far from the wish of the king his master to unite the crowns of France and Spain-but that the duke of Anjou, second son of the dauphin, was yet in very early youth; and if it were deemed expedient to make choice of him as successor to the throne, he might, by a residence in Spain, easily learn to conform himself to the customs and manners of the country--that, supposing the validity of the renunciation