he
ground, to which they gave the name of Caledonia, began to execute their
plan of erecting a town under the appellation of New Edinburgh, by the
direction of their council, consisting of Patterson the projector, and
six other directors. They had no sooner completed their settlement,
than they wrote a letter to the king containing a detail of their
proceedings. They pretended they had received undoubted intelligence
that the French intended to make a settlement on that coast; and that
their colony would be the means of preventing the evil consequences
which might arise to his majesty's kingdom and dominions from the
execution of such a scheme. They acknowledged his goodness in granting
those privileges by which their company was established; they implored
the continuance of his royal favour and protection, as they had
punctually adhered to the conditions of the act of parliament, and the
patent they had obtained.

By this time, however, the king was resolved to crush them effectually.
He understood that the greater part of their provisions had been
consumed before they set sail from Scotland, and foresaw that they must
be reduced to a starving condition if not supplied from the English
colonies. That they might be debarred of all such assistance, he sent
orders to the governors of Jamaica and the other English settlements
in America, to issue proclamations prohibiting, under the severest
penalties, all his majesty's subjects from holding any correspondence
with the Scottish colony, or assisting it in any shape with arms,
ammunition, or provisions; on pretence that they had not communicated
their design to his majesty, but had peopled Darien in violation of the
peace subsisting between him and his allies. Their colony was doubtless
a very dangerous encroachment upon the Spaniards, as it would have
commanded the passage between Porto-Bello and Panama, and divided the
Spanish empire in America. The French king complained of the invasion,
and offered to supply the court of Madrid with a fleet to dislodge the
interlopers. Colonna, marquis de Canales, the Spanish ambassador at the
court of London, presented a memorial to king William, remonstrating
against the settlement of this colony as a mark of disregard, and a
breach of the alliance between the two crowns; and declaring that his
master would take proper measures against such hostilities. The
Scots affirmed that the natives of Darien were a free people, who the
Spaniard