he Indians could procure, with a few
fruits, and sailed away. But even now fate was against them. Hardly had
they got out of the harbour before they were becalmed off this deadly
shore for many days, their scanty supply of food diminishing when it was
so much wanted for the long voyage. However, the remnant of about
thirty, survivors of the twelve hundred, at last arrived at
Charlestown, Carolina, in a most miserable condition. Paterson was
himself so worn out that he lost his senses for a time, becoming quite
childish, yet he recovered, to go back to Scotland and ask the Company
for another expedition.

This he urged on the ground that the first had failed simply through the
want of supplies and the action of the English Government. Some were in
favour of still carrying out the project, and these drew up a petition
to the king, giving it for presentation to Lord Hamilton. William the
Third, however, refused not only to receive the petition, but even to
grant an audience to its bearer. Lord Hamilton would not be put off,
however, but watched for his opportunity, and found it one day as the
king was mounting his horse. He laid the petition on the saddle, which
made His Majesty cry out, "Now, by heaven, this young man is too bold,"
adding in a softer tone, "if a man can be too bold in the service of his
country." With that he threw the document from him and rode off,
afterwards, when memorial after memorial came from Scotland, issuing a
Proclamation against the worry of such petitions.

Notwithstanding this refusal, another expedition was sent out, the
management of which was as bad as that of the first. But this time the
Spaniards were on the alert, and hardly had the settlers begun to put
things in order before the enemy was upon them in force. Famine and
sickness again fell upon New Edinburgh, added to the horrors of a siege,
which ultimately led to a capitulation on fair terms. But so weak were
they as the Spaniards allowed them to embark, that their late enemies
out of pity helped to heave their anchors and set their sails.

It was long before the Scotch people forgot or forgave their sister
kingdom for her action in thus frustrating their darling project.
Besides impeding the Union, it is said to have strengthened the Jacobite
feelings in the rebellions of 1715 and 1745. Even as late as the year
1788, when it was proposed to erect a monument in Edinburgh to King
William the Third and the "glorious revolution," the