come,
that the sums subscribed were withdrawn. Nothing daunted by this failure,
Patterson resolved to engraft upon his original plan one for the
establishment of an emporium on the Isthmus of Darien, whither he
anticipated that European goods would be sent, and thence conveyed to the
western shores of America, the Pacific islands, and Asia; and, in order to
attract notice and gain support, he proposed that the new settlement
should be made a free port, and all distinctions of religion, party, and
nation banished. The project was much liked in the north of Europe, but
again scouted at the English court; when the Scotch, indignant at the
opposition which their commercial prospects experienced from King William's
ministers, which they attributed to a contrariety of interests on the
part of the English, subscribed among themselves L.400,000 for the object
in view, and L.300,000 more were, in the same manner, raised at Hamburg;
but, in consequence of a remonstrance presented to the senate of that city
by the English resident, the latter sum was called in.

Eventually, in 1699, Patterson sailed with five large vessels, having on
board 1200 followers, all Scotch, and many of them belonging to the best
families, furnished with provisions and merchandise; and, on arriving on
the coast of Darien, took possession of a small peninsula lying between
Porto Bello and Carthagena, where he built the Fort of St Andrew. The
settlement was called New Caledonia; and the directors having taken every
precaution for its security, entered into negotiations with the
independent Indians in the neighbourhood, by whom it is believed that the
tenure of the "Scots Company" was sanctioned. The Spaniards took offence
at this alleged aggression, and angry complaints were forwarded to the
court of St James's. To these King William listened with something like
complacency, his policy at the time being to temporize with Spain, in
order to prevent the aggrandizement of the French Bourbons. The new
settlement was accordingly denounced, in proclamations issued by the
authorities of Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the American plantations, and soon
afterwards attacked by a Spanish force. Pressed on all sides, the
adventurers, for a period of eight months, bore up against accumulated
misfortunes; when at length, receiving no succours from their copartners
at home, convinced that they had to contend against the hostility of the
English government, and their provisions be