Darien, which he reached February 5th, and just in time
to be of active service; for intelligence had reached the colony that
fifteen hundred Spaniards lay encamped on the Rio Santa Maria, waiting
the arrival of an armament of eleven ships, with troops on board,
destined to attack Ft. St. Andrew. Captain Campbell of Fonab, who had
gained for himself great reputation in Flanders as an approved warrior,
resolved to anticipate the enemy, and at once mustering two hundred of
his veteran troops, accompanied by sixty Indians, marched over the
mountains, and fell on the Spanish camp by night, and dispersed them
with great slaughter, with a loss to the colony of nine killed and
fourteen wounded, among the latter being their gallant commander. The
Spaniards could not withstand the tumultuous rush of the Highlanders,
and in precipitate flight left a large number of their dead upon the
field. The little band, among the spoils, brought back the Spanish
commander's decoration of the "Golden Fleece." When they recrossed the
mountains it was to find their poor countrymen blockaded by five Spanish
men-of-war. Campbell, and others, believing that no inequalities
justified submission to such an enemy, determined on resistance, but
soon discovered that resistance was in vain, when they could only depend
on diseased, starving and broken-hearted men. As the Spaniards would not
include Captain Campbell in the terms of capitulation, he managed, with
several companions, dexterously to escape in a small vessel, sailed for
New York, and from thence to Scotland. The defence of the colony under
Fonab's genius had been heroic. When ammunition had given out, their
pewter dishes were fashioned into cannon balls. On March 18, 1700, the
colonists capitulated on honorable terms. It was a received popular
opinion in Scotland that none of those who were concerned in the
surrender ever returned to their native country. So weak were the
survivors, and so few in numbers, that they were unable to weigh the
anchor of their largest ship until the Spaniards came to their
assistance. What became of them? Their melancholy tale is soon told.

The Earl of Bellomont, writing to the Lords of the Admiralty, under
date, New York, October 15, 1700, says:[20]

"Some Scotchmen are newly come hither from Carolina that belonged to
the ship Rising Sun (the biggest ship they set out for their
Caledonia expedition) who tell me that on the third of last month a
hurr