An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in AmericaMacLean, J. P. (John Patterson)
History
An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America
MacLean, J. P. (John Patterson)
Scots -- America; Scots -- United States
Meanwhile two trading sloops arrived in the harbor
with a small stock of provisions; but the supply was inadequate; so five
hundred of the party were ordered to embark for Scotland.
The news of the abandonment of the settlement by the first expedition
was first rumored in London during the middle of September, 1699.
Letters giving such accounts had been received from Jamaica. The report
reached Edinburgh on the 19th, but was received with scornful
incredulity. It was declared to be an impudent lie devised by some
Englishmen who could not endure the sight of Scotland waxing great and
opulent. On October 4th the whole truth was known, for letters had been
received from New York announcing that a few miserable men, the remains
of the colony, had arrived in the Hudson. Grief, dismay, and rage seized
the nation. The directors in their rage called the colonists
white-livered deserters. Accurate accounts brought the realization of
the truth that hundreds of families, once in comparative opulence, were
now reduced almost to beggary, and the flower of the nation had either
succumbed to hardships, or else were languishing in prisons in the
Spanish settlements, or else starving in English colonies. The
bitterness of disappointment was succeeded by an implacable hostility to
the king, who was denounced in pamphlets of the most violent and
inflammatory character, calling him a hypocrite, and a deceiver of those
who had shed their best blood in his cause, and the author of the
misfortunes of Scotland. Indemnification, redress, and revenge were
demanded by every mouth, and each hand was ready to vouch for the claim.
Never had just such a feeling existed in Scotland. It became a useless
possession to the king, for he could not wring one penny from that
kingdom for the public service, and, what was more important to him, he
could not induce one recruit for his continental wars. William continued
to remain indifferent to all complaints of hardships and petitions of
redress, unless when he showed himself irritated by the importunity of
the suppliants, and hurt at being obliged to evade what it was
impossible for him, with the least semblance of justice to refuse. The
feeling against William long continued in Scotland. As late as November
5, 1788, when it was proposed that a monument should be erected in
Edinburgh to his memory, there appeared in one of the papers an
anonymous communication ironically applauding the undertaking, and
proposing as two subjects of the entablature, for the base of the
projected column, the massacre of Glencoe and the distresses of the
Scottish colonists in Darien. On the appearance of this article the
project was very properly and righteously abandoned. The result of the
Darien Scheme and the cold-blooded policy of William made the Scottish
nation ripe for rebellion. Had there been even one member of the exiled
house of Stuart equal to the occasion, that family could then have
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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