Scotland's first disastrous overseas colony ....in Panama 1698

Difficult European projects in Central and South America, of interest at least to historians, are not new to this blog. Consider for example the French scandal in building the Panama Canal and the ultimate failure of the Australian socialist utopia in Paraguay. But the story of Scotland’s brave overseas colony in Panama is suddenly very relevant to everyone, given Scotland’s upcoming vote on independence.

Scotland at the end of the C17th was not a happy nation. Decades of warfare and poor agricultural returns caused Scottish citizens to leave the land and to struggle in the cities. Scotland's trade had been crippled by England's continual wars against continental Europe, and its home-grown industries were not doing well. So a peculiar form of Scottish colonialism had evolved. The first documented Scottish settlement in the Americas was of Nova Scotia in 1629.  The colony's legal charter made Nova Scotia a part of mainland Scotland.

Later other colonies mainly inhabited by Scottish settlers had been established in New Jersey (1683) and in South Carolina (1684) . Scottish merchants were also key players in trade with the Americas. There was a concerted effort at Scottish economic expansion into the New World.

Minute book of the Company of Scotland, 1696
The coat of arms reflected the company's broad ambitions and international horizons.
Photo credit: National Library of Scotland

A solution was to be found in The Darién Project. The dream was articulated by William Paterson, a Scottish founder of the Bank of England. Paterson described the Darién colony, situated on the isth­mus of Panama, as a free trade heaven for merchants of all lands.

Scotland would become the major broker of trade across the Pacific Ocean. Dangerous trips around Cape Horn would become unnecessary; goods could be ferried from the Pacific across Panama and loaded onto ships in the Atlantic from there. And the Scottish Company directors would make money from the traffic.

Many Scots subscribed to the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies, founded in June 1695; but it was not going to be easy. Firstly the Spanish felt threatened by the new Company. Secondly the English East India Company, fearing the loss of its monopoly on British trade to the Indies, successfully lobbied the English Parliament. The result was a proclamation, in January 1699, from the English Governor of Jamaica: "His Majesty's subjects are not to hold any correspond­ence with the Scots, nor to give them any assistance of arms, ammunition, provis­ions or any other necessaries." This in turn forced its English investors to withdraw from the new Scottish Company. 

Darién was a hot, humid tropical rain forest, situated to the west of the river Darién in eastern Panama. Nonetheless Scottish families were keen to emigrate.  And the promise of 50 acres of land per man had attracted many potential colonists. Public subscriptions had raised a huge amount of money, enough to fit out five ships which were quickly filled with ex-soldiers, merchants, clerics, sailors, dissatisfied Highlanders and the unlanded sons of the landed gentry.

In July 1698, the fleet set sail from Leith's port and “the hopes of all Scotland sailed with it”. They were carrying 1,200 settlers embarking on a new adventure. When they made arrived at Darién 4 months later, the settlers christened their new home New Caledonia. Sadly the exp­ed­ition met with nothing but chaos. How did they not know about Panama’s heat and intense rain? How did they not underst­and that European-style farming was impos­s­ible in the tropics? Trade was doomed because no supply lines had been established for the colony. And worse, the rations were totally inadequate.

Disease and starvation soon took over. The ships sent out to trade for food returned with news that all English ships and colonies were forbidden to trade with the Scots, by order of the King. Of the 1,200 colonists, a third succumbed to yellow fever and malaria, including William Paterson's household. In June 1699, a little over six months after their arrival, the surviving settlers abandoned Darién and boarded their ships for home. Only one of the fleet completed the voyage.

Back in Scotland little news had been received of the colony, so two relief ships set out in May 1699 with 300 new settlers. By the time the new ships arrived that July, half of the second lot of settlers were already dead of fever and the remainder found Darién deserted. After a hopeless attempt to rebuild the settlement, they set sail for the nearest English colony, Jamaica, and died there of disease. NB that Darién was still cut adrift by England; no supplies could be given to the Scots by English colonies in the West Indies.

Isthmus of Darian and Bay of Panama

in Central America

A third and final expedition sailed in Sept 1699. The largest of the three, with four ships and 1,300 settlers and supplies, the colonists found the site abandoned and some elected to resettle it. Some preferred to cut their losses and set sail for Jamaica. The return voyage of the third fleet was disastrous. The Rising Sun and Duke of Hamilton lost their passengers to disease and then to ship wreck off Jamaica. The Hope was lost with all hands off Cuba and the Hope of Bo'ness was sold as scrap to the Spanish. Only 300 settlers survived. Scotland's colony, on which the hopes of the nation had rested, was a total catastrophe. It had cost the lives of some 2,000 Scots and wasted all the funds invested. Of the 11 ships that left Scotland, only one ever returned home.

A massive Spanish fleet and army besieged Fort St Andrew, which finally surrendered in March 1700. The surviving colonists, the last stragglers, were permitted to vacate the fort on board their remaining ships. Only a handful ever made it back to Scotland. Darién reverted to Spanish rule that same year (in 1700).

Despite poor financial planning at home, administrative incompetence in Panama and Spanish hostility everywhere, the principal cause of the Panama disaster was seen in Scottish minds to be English opposition. There was widespread anti-English rioting in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Yet … yet … Scotland's nobles were almost bankrupted by the Darien fiasco and Scotland was finally incapable of surviving independently. So it is ironic that the Darién Project ultim­ate­ly sped up the eventual union of the two countries. In England the possible consequences of Scotland's continued independence would have been intolerable. For the Scots, they knew that to prosper as a nation, they had to gain access to England's greater trade and capital. Just 7 years after Darien, Scotland was forced to concede to the Act of Union, joining with England as the junior partner in 1707. England paid off Scotland's debts!

And there was another irony. No amount of money could make up for the nation's sense of betrayal, and many Scots continued to believe that their chance of trading success and independence had been deliberate­ly sabotaged by the English. Historians have suggested that the resentment this fostered played no small part in the Jacobite rebellions which were soon to plague the Union (1715 and 1745).

Darien: The Scottish Dream of Empire by John Prebble was published by Birlinn in 2000.