King of Denmark.
They proceeded on their voyage, having obtained the services of an old
buccaneer who knew the coast of Central America well. Under his pilotage
they anchored on the first of November close to the Isthmus of Darien.
One of the greatest princes of the country soon came on board. The
courtiers who attended him, ten or twelve in number, were stark naked;
but he was distinguished by a red coat, a pair of cotton drawers, and
an old hat. He had a Spanish name, spoke Spanish, and affected the grave
deportment of a Spanish don. The Scotch propitiated Andreas, as he was
called, by a present of a new hat blazing with gold lace, and assured
him that, if he would trade with them, they would treat him better than
the Castilians had done.

A few hours later the chiefs of the expedition went on shore, took
formal possession of the country, and named it Caledonia. They were
pleased with the aspect of a small peninsula about three miles in length
and a quarter of a mile in breadth, and determined to fix here the city
of New Edinburgh, destined, as they hoped, to be the great emporium
of both Indies. The peninsula terminated in a low promontory of about
thirty acres, which might easily be turned into an island by digging a
trench. The trench was dug; and on the ground thus separated from
the main land a fort was constructed; fifty guns were placed on the
ramparts; and within the enclosures houses were speedily built and
thatched with palm leaves.

Negotiations were opened with the chieftains, as they were called, who
governed the neighbouring tribes. Among these savage rulers were found
as insatiable a cupidity, as watchful a jealousy, and as punctilious a
pride, as among the potentates whose disputes had seemed likely to make
the Congress of Ryswick eternal. One prince hated the Spaniards because
a fine rifle had been taken away from him by the Governor of Portobello
on the plea that such a weapon was too good for a red man. Another loved
the Spaniards because they had given him a stick tipped with silver. On
the whole, the new comers succeeded in making friends of the aboriginal
race. One mighty monarch, the Lewis the Great of the isthmus, who wore
with pride a cap of white reeds lined with red silk and adorned with an
ostrich feather, seemed well inclined to the strangers, received them
hospitably in a palace built of canes and covered with palmetto royal,
and regaled them with calabashes of a sort of ale brewed from