THE DARIEN DISASTER Read online

  Paterson was shocked by the news. Erskine and Haldane later described "how much he was surprised and afflicted when he heard of this disappointment, and how earnest and careful he was to get Smith to make a discovery of his effects, to the end the Company might be secured therein." They also believed in Paterson's innocence. A dishonest man they said, with more generosity than logic, would certainly have deserted them and the Company at that moment.

  Throughout December and January, in their lodgings close to Direcksone's shipyard, the three Commissioners sat in melancholy examination of Smith, confused by his changing moods of defiance and abject submission. His guilt, which he seems to have finally acknowledged, was the least of their difficulties, the recovery of the money, or some of it, was primarily important. They also believed that if the affair were made public, so soon after their failure to open a book in Amsterdam, it would do irreparable damage to their hopes of success in Hamburg. It is not clear when they informed Edinburgh, but the Directors also agreed that any public action the Company took against Smith, or Paterson or both, should be postponed until the Commissioners returned to Scotland. They did, however, pass one curious resolution, declaring that "without the help of considerable foreign subscriptions this Company is not at present in a condition to put Mr. Paterson's said design in execution." The said design, of course, was still Darien, and the intent of the resolution may have been to confuse the English, as it must have confused everybody, since a second resolution paradoxically re-affirmed the Company's determination to found a colony in America. More probably it was an oblique warning to Paterson. His future share in the credit for a colony, as much as his present reputation, depended on his success with the Hanseatic merchants.

  In February he and Erskine left by ship for Hamburg, Haldane remaining in Amsterdam to watch the building of the Rising Sun and to subject the wretched Smith to closer and closer examination. What had he done with the money? What were his assets in London and the West Indies? How soon could they be realised and surrendered to the Company? Were there other incriminating papers in the trunk he had left behind at his London lodgings?

  The Hamburg venture was also a failure, more disastrous than Amsterdam because it promised well at the beginning. This time England stretched an arm across the North Sea and snuffed out Paterson's hopes. The inexorable hand at the end of this arm was Sir Paul Rycaut, English Resident at Hamburg, a dry, dull man, a willing civil servant whose letters reveal the spiteful pleasure he got from obeying his master's voice. Since August he had been sending reports about "a certain crew of Scotchmen" who had come to buy and build ships for the India trade. He had not met them, he said, nor did he desire their company. Their leader was an "active and cunning person", and when he and Stevenson came face to face in the house of a mutual acquaintance, the Scot was exquisitely snubbed. Rycaut was delighted to hear—from William Blathwayt, Commissioner of Trade, and Sir William Trumbull, Secretary of State—that the King would be displeased if the Scots established themselves in the Hanseatic ports. With God's help and grace, he said, they would get no footing in his province.

  I have been, and shall be very watchful over all their motions and am very sure and confident that the business is yet gone no farther than to the building of ships.... I do not believe as yet that there have been any motions, the which in all probability may be reserved until the coming over of the Scotch Commissioners, who can never conceal themselves here without my knowledge, nor any of their negotiations without my particular inspection.

  He sent pompous letters to all the Hanseatic towns, threatening them with England's disapproval and King William's anger. He summoned the members of the Hamburg Senate before him to say the same thing in sharper words, and to make trebly sure he ordered his secretary to write another letter, in Latin this time, which was delivered with proper solemnity to the Magnificent and Noble Lords, Great Men and Citizens of Hamburg, Bremen and Lübeck, warning them against any treaties or agreements with the Company. All this "to leave no stone unturned which may defeat the Scotch design."

  He waited like a cat for the arrival of the Commissioners. One of them, he said with thin-nosed contempt, was "the son of a lord, or at least a laird", and the other, Mr. Paterson, was a poor liar who had failed to dupe the Dutch with his promises of riches and a golden age. On Monday, February 13, he was astonished, and probably annoyed, to be told that Erskine and Paterson were at his door, within two days of their arrival in Hamburg. Instead of hiding from him, as he had said they would, they had called to let "me know that out of duty and respect to His Majesty they were come to pay their civilities to me who am his Minister." He turned an ill day into some good by asking them searching questions about their intentions. Paterson declared that he was well affected toward England, and had always believed that Scots and English should be one nation under the name of Britain. He frankly admitted that they intended to open a subscription book for the Company as soon as possible. Rycaut told Trumbull that he did not think they would get far with that, "the merchants not seeming fond of so dark and doubtful a design."

  But, to make sure, he reminded the Hamburg Senators of the warning he had given in October, and he was childishly pleased, three days later, when they sent one of their syndics to assure him that they would permit no treaties or agreements with the Scots without the consent of the King of England.

  In fact, however, the Hansa merchants were willing to listen to Paterson, giving profit its proper priority, and his hopes rose. He and Erskine had told Rycaut that they would not open their subscription book before some of their ships were launched, and now, despite the worst Baltic winter within memory, the Lübeck shipwrights finished two of them on time. They were launched in the second week of March, when there was still snow on the roofs and ice on the shores of Lübeck Bight. Saint Andrew's cross and the rising sun of the Company snapped in the wind above the yard, evergreen boughs hung from the golden galleries of the ships, casks of Canary were broached, and hired trumpeters splintered the frosty air with bright calls of joy. The vessels were called Caledonia and Instauration. Fine names, said Rycaut sarcastically, by which the Scots hoped to seduce the Hamburg merchants into parting with their money.

  The Resident was depressed for some days after this small Scots triumph, and then was cheered by news from Amsterdam. One of the Scots Company called Smith, wrote his correspondent there, had been arrested for embezzlement, and Paterson was rumoured to have been his confederate. "Though there were nothing more to it than a report," Rycaut told Blathwayt, "yet it is sufficient to break the whole credit of the Company in these parts." By which he no doubt meant that he would make it his business to give the rumour the widest circulation.

  And then he was depressed again, alarmed to hear that Paterson was holding "several conferences with the most rich and monied merchants of this city, at which several articles were agreed which as yet are not made public." He was writing this to Trumbull when his secretary informed him that the Scots were at his door again. There were three of them this time, a Mr. Haldane (whose name Rycaut could never spell) having just arrived from Amsterdam. There was a fourth, too, Mr. Smith, but he was wearied from his journey and begged leave to call on the Resident some other day. Rycaut swallowed his curiosity, and did not trouble to explain to Trumbull how a man who was said to be in an Amsterdam gaol one day could the next be asking for an audience with him in Hamburg. He was much more upset by what these troublesome, straight-faced Scots had to tell him. They had finished the articles for the Company's subscription book, and intended to publish them in Bremen, Hamburg, Leipsic, Dresden and Frankfort, as well as other great cities, and that they would employ men there to take up subscriptions. Moreover, they were confident of the support of such eminent men as the Dukes of Cell, Brunswick and Wolfenbüttel.

  Rycaut did not believe a word of that. He was assured by Mr. Cresset, English Envoy to the Court of Lüneburg, that it was all lies and quite contrary to ducal humour, but he decided that this might be the momen
t for another warning blast from an English trumpet. He told his secretary, Mr. Orth, to write, print and distribute a pamphlet in High Dutch, warning the Germans that investments in the Scots Company would be a hazardous venture, with little or no hope of profit. And when Mr. Orth had done that, he was told to do it again, this time in French. For a day or so Paterson thought of writing an answer, but rejected the idea as a waste of time. Instead, the Scots announced that they would open their Subscription Book on Thursday, April 8, in a room above the Hamburg Exchange, and they asked the Senate for permission to place a bold sign above its door: This is the House of the Scots Company. Rycaut was indignant. "I applied myself to the chief Burgomaster, giving him to understand that such a concession would be a downright owning of this Company, against which I have by the order of the King my master given them so many cautions." For once the Senate, tired of his arrogant bullying, refused to say whether the Scots would or would not be allowed to put up their sign.

  On the evening of April 5 Paterson called on Rycaut, apparently expecting dinner, and that without invitation. The Resident received him civilly, or said he did—"as I do all other strangers who come to me"—doubtless thinking that though this way of obtaining information was an irritating embarrassment, it was perhaps cheaper and more reliable than his spies. It is probable that Paterson was making a sincere, albeit naive attempt to enlist the Resident's sympathy, and to assure him that the Scots had no wish to prejudice the interests of the English trading companies in the Baltic. Rycaut reported only the information which Paterson honestly gave him. Erskine, Smith and Haldane (whom Rycaut was now calling Walden of Coneguy) were gone to secure support for the Company's book in Lübeck, Gluckstadt and Tormingen. Whatever was laid on the table, the dinner cannot have improved the Resident's digestion.

  On April 7 he decided that it was time to finish with the Scots. He and Cresset summoned deputies from the Hamburg Senate and bluntly ordered them "not only not to bestow on this new Company any privileges in this city, but not so much as to grant them licence to write over the door any motto for the house." The meeting was followed that afternoon by a memorial to the Senate, written in French and signed by the Resident and the Envoy. It said that the presence of the Scots in Hamburg, the encouragement given to their Company, was an affront to the King of England which he could not fail to resent. The Senate was asked to remedy this unhappy state of affairs before it disturbed the good relations which should exist between the City of Hamburg and the Kingdom of England.

  The arrogant threat was successful. Paterson opened the book but nobody came. A few bolder merchants did subscribe later, but for small sums, and without a wide and generous response their names were a mockery. The Scots remained in Hamburg for another fortnight, watched the launching of two more ships at Lübeck, published a sadly ineffectual reply to Rycaut's pamphlet, and then accepted defeat. Erskine, Smith and Haldane left for Holland on Friday, April 23, followed the next day by Paterson. "I am glad we are quit of 'em," said Rycaut. He heard that they intended to lodge a complaint before the King, against the obedient Mr. Orth, "For writing the German paper... of which they cannot prove him to be the author, yet if they could, he and I are too well satisfied in having done this duty that we are both without fear of having gained His Majesty's displeasure thereby."

  In Amsterdam there was no need now to keep up the degrading pretence that Smith was a trusted member of the Commission. How the others had prevented him from escaping is a mystery, unless he had chosen to be a willing prisoner, hoping to earn some remission. Haldane had him committed to a Dutch gaol, for greater security, and against the day when he could be carried to another prison in London or Scotland. Smith broke down, writing tearful letters to Haldane in which he threatened to kill himself if it were not believed that he had had no intention of cheating the Company. He offered to repay £5,000 over eighteen months, offering his shares in the Hampstead Waterworks as part security, and saying that the rest might be got by fitting out a merchantman for a running adventure in the Caribbean or the eastern seas. But if it were known in London that he was in prison now, he would have no hope of raising a penny. "If you do upon these terms release me, and it should afterwards be disapproved of by those concerned with you, or the Company, I do solemnly promise you to deliver myself up as your prisoner where you shall require, until they are satisfied." Haldane's generous heart relented, and he let the man go to London, to raise what money he could.

  Paterson went home to Scotland with a heavy heart. All things that he had touched, the London Company, Amsterdam and Hamburg, had turned to sour failure. A new ballad, welcoming him from the walls of Edinburgh's coffee-houses, was a bitter irony.

  Amongst the many visiting everywhere, Judicious Paterson, with many more, Fraught with experience, back again do come, Striving to propagate their skill at home.

  He waited throughout summer and autumn for an opportunity to clear himself from the suspicion of fraud. He was rejected and ostracised, and street-rumours soon stopped the flattering tongues of the ballad-writers. Though Haldane had recovered some of the money by a sale of Smith's property, the greater balance of the default was still outstanding. Had all of it been returned it would not have cleared Paterson. In November the Company finally appointed a committee to examine him. It consisted of two Directors only, Robert Blackwood and William Dunlop, the Principal of Glasgow College. Both were reasonable and compassionate men, anxious to help him without dishonouring their obligations. They asked him if he could repay the money, and he said he had no funds at all. He was almost destitute. By leaving his business affairs in London he had lost more than was now owing to the Company. If the Court would release him from service he would endeavour to raise the money in some commercial venture. If he could not be released, then perhaps the Company would take what was owing from the profits of his work. Though he had not himself cheated the Company, he took responsibility for the thief whom he had so highly recommended.

  In their report, Blackwood and Dunlop exonerated him of anything more than stupidity, and they reminded the Council- General of the time when "Mr. Paterson did merit very well at the Company's hands." They generously urged the Company to keep him in its employ, to allow him to go to the colony when it was founded and there work off the debt he had taken upon himself. His knowledge and reputation, his skill and arts should not be foolishly thrown away.

  The Council-General wanted no more of him. He was expelled from the Court of Directors. Though his papers and journals were not returned to him, his share in the Company's stock was withdrawn, and the committee's recommendation that he should be allowed to go to the colony was rejected. He became a shadowy figure on the periphery of great events, and had he turned his back on Scotland few men would have blamed him and many might have been relieved. But he stayed.

  "Scotch hats, a great quantity; English bibles, 1500 ..."

  Edinburgh and London, July 1697 to July 1698

  Summer came, sunless, once more a blighted harvest and bitter hunger. It was the second of seven terrible years. What was now harsh privation would soon be bitter famine. Each year snow would come early and linger late, summer rains would rot the feet of sheep and cattle, blacken the hopeless fields of young grain. Men would sell some of their children to the plantations so that they might buy bread for those who remained. Before the century was out it would be impossible to count those who had died of starvation. Already the diseased and dying, begging in the streets, filled more fortunate men with anger, not against misfortune but against the English from whom they must buy meal to keep alive. In the streets, too, along the highways, were other reminders of a payment made to England and a debt owed in return. The King's war was ended, his Scots regiments disbanded, and home had come the survivors of Strathnaver's Foot, of Leven's, Mackay s and Argyll's. In coffee-houses and taverns, junior officers quarrelled over points of honour and bragged of their conduct in worthless battles. Their men became beggars and thieves, or clung to their coat-tails asking for
bread and employment. Fletcher of Saltoun would remind his countrymen of a great imbalance, of the contribution their sons had made to King William's long war: ten or eleven thousand seamen in the English and Dutch navies, twenty battalions of Foot, and six squadrons of Dragoons. Every fifth man in the King's armies at home or abroad had been a Scot or Scots-Irish. And yet, he said, the English "vilify us as an inconsiderable people, and set a mean value on the share we have borne."*

  * For one hundred and fifty years England fought her wars with armies that were increasingly recruited in Scotland and Ireland. By 1840, according to Sir William Butler (A Plea for the Peasant, 1878), nearly 60 per cent of the infantry rank and file were Scots and Irish. As late as the Crimean War it was still 44 per cent. There was probably no fair balance until the introduction of conscription in World War I.

  As they filled the courtyard of Milne Square, offering their idle swords, the returned soldiers gave a renewed impetus to the Company. In the face of famine, destitution, unemployment and an emptying purse, the Noble Undertaking now seems like a sick man's delirium. To the people then it was hope, it represented their fevered longing for freedom and prosperity, and it symbolised their defiance of England. Roderick Mackenzie fed this feeling with his own hatred of the English, secretly publishing a copy of Rycaut's memorial to the Hamburg Senate, that Scots might know how inexorable was England's determination to destroy their one hope of bread, trade and glory. The King's aging Chancellor, Lord Marchmont, was so incensed by this impudence that he had the printer laid by the heels, and would have sent young Mackenzie to the Tolbooth too, had he dared.