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 hurricane happened on that coast, as that ship lay at anchor, within less than three leagues of Charles Town in Carolina with another Scotch ship called the Duke of Hamilton, and three or four others; that the ships were all shattered in pieces and all the people lost, and not a man saved. The Rising Sun had 112 men on board. The Scotch men that are come hither say that 15 of 'em went on shore before the storm to buy fresh provisions at Charles Town by which means they were saved. Two other of their ships they suppose were lost in the Gulph of Florida in the same storm. They came all from Jamaica and were bound hither to take in provisions on their way to Scotland. The Rising Sun had 60 guns mounted and could have carryed many more, as they tell me." The colonists found a watery grave. No friendly hand nor sympathizing tear soothed their dying moments; no clergyman eulogized their heroism, self-sacrifice and virtues; no orator has pronounced a panegyric; no poet has embalmed their memory in song, and no novelist has taken their record for a fanciful story. Since their mission was a failure their memory is doomed to rest without marble monument or graven image. To the merciful and the just they will be honored as heroes and pioneers. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 13: The Darien Papers, pp. 371-417.] [Footnote 14: "Darien Papers," pp 195, 275.] [Footnote 15: "Documentary and Colonial History of New York," Vol. IV, p. 591.] [Footnote 16: _Ibid_, Vol. V, p. 335.] [Footnote 17: "Darien Papers," p. 150.] [Footnote 18: "Darien Papers," p. 160.] [Footnote 19: "Darien Papers," p. 176.] [Footnote 20: "Documents Relating to Colonial History of New York," Vol. IV, p. 711.] CHAPTER V. THE HIGHLANDERS IN NORTH CAROLINA.