DARIEN SCHEME, TIrE, one of the most disastrous speculations on record, and one which caused an unprecedented excitement in Seotland from 1695—in which year the litrien company was established by act of the Scottish parliament, -sanctioned by royal authority—till 1701, when the last of the disappointed adventurers returned borne. The D. S. was projected by William Paterson, the founder of the bank of England. Its object was to plant a colony on the Atlantic side of the isthmus of Panama, and, so. form a corn/n(1081 entrepat between the easter!n and western hem 'spheres. An entire monopoly of the trade of Asia, Africa, and America, for a term of thirty-one years, was granted to the company. At that time, the foreign trade of Scotland had been rained by the English navigation act of 1660, which provided that all trade with the English colonies should be conducted in English ships alone, so that when Paterson opened his subscription-list, the nobility, the gentry, the mer chants, and people, royal burghs, and public bodies in Scotland all hastened to sub scribe. ,t,'400,000 were immediately put down on paper, of which £220,000 were actu ally paid up. Deputies in England received subscriptions to the amount of £300,000; and the Dutch and Hamburgers subscribed £200,000. The English parliament, however, actuated by a feeling of national antipathy, and the jealous 'clamors of trading corpora gave its unequivocal condemnation to the scheme. The British resident at Ham burg, probably with the concurrence of the king (William III.), also made various insinuations against it. The result of this interference was the almost total withdrawal of the Dutch and English subscriptions. It must now be admitted, even by &Scotsman, that there was one fatal objection to the scheme—viz., the danger of settling on "'round claimed by Spain, without coming to a proper understanding with that country &fore hand. Unable, to see any sort of obstacles, incited by the vehement eloquence of Paterson, and dazzled by the magnificent proportions of the scheme, the Scotch hur ried forward their arrangements. Five ships, with 1200 men on board, set sail from Leith for Panama on the 25th July, MS. They reached their destination in four months, and having bargained with the natives for a country which they called New Caledonia, the colonists fixed the site of what was to be their capital city, New Edin burgh, and built a fort in its vicinity, which they named New St. Andrews. Having thus constituted their colony, they issued a proclamation of perfect freedom of trade, and universal toleration in religious matters to all who should join them. According to the act which established all goods imported by them, with the excep-. Lion of foreign sugar and tobacco, were free from all duties and impositions for 21 years; and thus, on the whole, they seemed for the first few months to be on the high way to success. But the climate, which was tolerable in winter, became unbearable in
summer, and many sickened under it; their supplies also failed before they could derive a return from the soil; and on sending to the British colonies in America for provisions, they learned with the deepest indignation and despair that the British American colo nies, having been informed that king William had not given his sanction to the expedi tion. had resolved to hold no intercourse with the new colony at Panama.
Sickly and desponding, they waited long for supplies from the mother country; but the company at home were not aware of their wretched condition, and none came. At length, having waited eight months for assistance, the colony broke up. In the mean time, 1300 colonists, including 300 Highlanders from the estate of rapt. Campbell of Finab, who had charge of the expedition, had set sail from Scotland, but ere they arrived, the pioneers had fled. A. Spanish force of 1500 men, and a squadron of 11 ships, immediately threatened the new-comers. Capt. Campbell marched by night with a body of 200 men upon the Spanish camp, which lie broke, and completely dis persed. On returning to the fort, however, he found it invested by the Spanish squad ron. The ammunition of the colonists had now become exhausted, and they were obliged to capitulate, the Spaniards granting honorable terms to all except capt. Camp bell, who, however, escaped, and reaching New York, obtained a passage to Scotland. The remainder of the colonists, too weak to weigh the anchor of the vessel which was to carry them home, had to be assisted in their departure by the Spaniards. Not more than 30, among whom was Paterson, who was rendered for a time lunatic by his dread ful misfortunes, ever reached Scotland. Of Paterson, who has been regarded by some writers as a swindler, lord Macaulay, in his fifth volume of the History of England, says: " There is not the least reason to believe that he was dishonest. Indeed, he would have found more difficulty in deceiving others, had lie not begun by deceiving himself. His faith in his own schemes was strong even to martyrdom; and toe eloquence with which lie illustrated and defended them had all the charm of sincerity and enthusiasm." In Edinburgh, as the headquarters of the D. S., a building was erected to accommo date the officials, and carry on the business of the company. Known as the Scottish India house, this building, now removed, recently existed in connection with the estab lishment for the poor of the city—a melancholy memorial ofd disconcerted national enterprise. The books and other documents which had belonged to the company are contained in the advocates' library, where they are shown as a curiosity. The most complete account of the D. S. is that by Mr. J. H. Burton, printed by the Bannatyno club.