rom the first it had been clear that England alone could protect his
Company against the enmity of Spain; and it was now clear that Spain
would be a less formidable enemy than England. It was impossible that
his plan could excite greater indignation in the Council of the Indies
at Madrid, or in the House of Trade at Seville, than it had excited in
London. Unhappily he was given over to a strong delusion, and the blind
multitude eagerly followed their blind leader. Indeed his dupes were
maddened by that which should have sobered them. The proceedings of the
Parliament which sate at Westminster, proceedings just and reasonable
in substance, but in manner doubtless harsh and insolent, had roused
the angry passions of a nation, feeble indeed in numbers and in material
resources, but eminently high spirited. The proverbial pride of the
Scotch was too much for their proverbial shrewdness. The votes of
the English Lords and Commons were treated with marked contempt. The
populace of Edinburgh burned Rochester in effigy. Money was poured
faster than ever into the treasury of the Company. A stately house, in
Milne Square, then the most modern and fashionable part of Edinburgh,
was purchased and fitted up at once as an office and a warehouse. Ships
adapted both for war and for trade were required; but the means of
building such ships did not exist in Scotland; and no firm in the south
of the island was disposed to enter into a contract which might not
improbably be considered by the House of Commons as an impeachable
offence. It was necessary to have recourse to the dockyards of Amsterdam
and Hamburg. At an expense of fifty thousand pounds a few vessels were
procured, the largest of which would hardly have ranked as sixtieth in
the English navy; and with this force, a force not sufficient to keep
the pirates of Sallee in check, the Company threw down the gauntlet to
all the maritime powers in the world.

It was not till the summer of 1698 that all was ready for the expedition
which was to change the face of the globe. The number of seamen and
colonists who embarked at Leith was twelve hundred. Of the colonists
many were younger sons of honourable families, or officers who had been
disbanded since the peace. It was impossible to find room for all who
were desirous of emigrating. It is said that some persons who had vainly
applied for a passage hid themselves in dark corners about the ships,
and, when discovered, refused to depart, c