ing exhausted, the survivors
were compelled to abandon their enterprise and return to Scotland. To add
to their chagrin, a few days after their departure two vessels arrived
with supplies and a small reinforcement of men.

Incensed at the second failure of their favourite scheme, the Scotch
endeavoured to obtain from King William an acknowledgment of the national
right to the territory of New Caledonia, and some reparation for the loss
sustained by the disappointed settlers. Unsuccessful in their application,
they next presented an address to the ruling power, praying that their
parliament might be assembled, in order to take the matter into
consideration; when, at the first meeting, angry and spirited resolutions
were passed upon the subject. No redress was, however, obtained; and thus
terminated the Darien scheme of the seventeenth century, founded, no one
will venture to deny, on an enlarged view of our commercial interests, and
a just conception of the means by which they might have been promoted. In
the state of our existing treaties with Spain, the seizure of territory
possibly was unjust, the moment unseasonable, and the plan, in one respect,
obviously defective, inasmuch as the projectors had not taken into account
the hostility of the Spaniards, and could not, consequently, rely on an
outlet for their merchandize in the Pacific. Had the scheme been delayed,
or had the settlement survived some months longer, the War of Succession
would, however, have given to the adventurers a right of tenure stronger
than any they could have obtained from the English court; for it is to be
borne in mind that, on the 3d of November 1700, Charles II. of Spain died
leaving his crown to a French branch of the House of Bourbon--an event
which threw Europe into a blaze, and, in the ensuing year, led to the
formation of the Grand Alliance.

This short digression may serve to show the spirit of the age towards the
close of the seventeenth century, and more particularly the light in which
the Scotch viewed an attempt, made nearly a century and a half ago, to
establish a commercial intercourse with the Pacific; and, had they then
succeeded, other objects of still mightier import than those at first
contemplated--other benefits of a more extended operation, would have been
included in the results. The opportunity was lost, evidently through the
want of support from the ruling power; but it must have been curious to
see the English governm