+Source.+--Bishop Burnet's _History of His Own Times_, vol. iv., p.
429. (Oxford: 1833.)
In Scotland all men were full of hopes, that their new colony should
bring them home mountains of gold; the proclamations sent to Jamaica and
to the other English plantations were much complained of, as acts of
hostility, and a violation of the common rights of humanity; these had a
great effect on them, though without these, that colony was too weak and
too ill supplied, as well as too much divided within itself, to have
subsisted long; those, who had first possessed themselves of it, were
forced to abandon it: soon after they had gone from it, a second recruit
of men and provisions was sent thither from Scotland; but one of their
ships unhappily took fire, in which they had the greatest stock of
provisions; and so these likewise went off: and though the third
reinforcement, that soon followed this, was both stronger and better
furnished, yet they fell into such factions among themselves, that they
were too weak to resist the Spaniards, who, feeble as they were, yet saw
the necessity of attacking them: and they finding themselves unable to
resist the force which was brought against them, capitulated; and with
that the whole design fell to the ground, partly for want of stock and
skill in those who managed it, and partly by the baseness and treachery
of those whom they employed.
The conduct of the King's ministers in Scotland was much censured in the
whole progress of this affair; for they had connived at it, if not
encouraged it, in hopes that the design would fall of itself; but now it
was not so easy to cure the universal discontent, which the miscarriage
of this design, to the impoverishing the whole kingdom, had raised, and
which now began to spread, like a contagion, among all sorts of people.
A petition for a present session of parliament was immediately sent
about the kingdom, and was signed by many thousands: this was sent up by
some of the chief of their nobility, whom the King received very coldly:
yet a session of parliament was granted them, to which the duke of
Queensbury was sent down commissioner ... it was further given out, to
raise the national disgust yet higher, that the opposition the King gave
to the Scotch colony, flowed neither from a regard to the interests of
England, nor to the treaties with Spain, but from a care of the Dutch,
who from Curasoe[12] drove a coasting trade, among the Spanish
plantations, with great advantage; which, they said, the Scotch colony,
if once well settled, would draw wholly from them.... In the session of
parliament it was carried by a vote, to make the affair of Darien a
national concern: upon that, the session was for some time discontinued.
When the news of the total abandoning of Darien was brought over, it
cannot be well expressed into how bad a temper this cast the body of
that people: they had now lost almost two hundred thousand pounds
sterling upon this project, besides all the imaginary treasure they had
promised themselves from it: so the nation was raised into a sort of a
fury upon it, and in the first heat of that, a remonstrance was sent
about the kingdom for hands, representing to the King, the necessity for
a present sitting of the parliament, which was drawn in so high a
strain, as if they had resolved to pursue the effects of it by an armed
force. It was signed by a great majority of the members of parliament;
and the ferment in men's spirits was raised so high, that few thought it
could have been long curbed, without breaking forth into great
extremities.