Darien - New Caledonia
The Price of Failure - The 'Equivalent' and the 1707 Act of Union
The failure of two Darien expeditions led to Scotland's financial ruin, the Union of Parliaments, and indirectly the formation of The Royal Bank of Scotland.
The withdrawal of England's support for the Company of Scotland and its Darien expedition forced the closure of the subscription book in London. Without substantial financial backing the project would fail and others were opened in Edinburgh and Glasgow to take its place. Incredibly for a nation on the verge of bankruptcy, £400,000 was pledged, a vast sum, which represented around a quarter of Scotland’s wealth.
In July 1698, three years after the Scottish Parliament had breathed life into the Company of Scotland, and despite English efforts to block them, five ships set sail from the River Forth carrying the hopes of a nation. Only Captain Robert Pennicuik who commanded the expedition and William Paterson knew the final destination. Their secret was revealed to the 1,200 settlers and crew when the ships were at sea.
The holds were crammed with supplies for their voyage but also included a bizarre range of goods with which to trade with, they included thousands of combs and mirrors and boxes of wigs.
They finally reached Darien in early November, 70 people including the wife of William Paterson, had died during the voyage, but as it turned out this was only the tip of the iceberg.
The clambered ashore to ‘New Caledonia,’ to find not a paradise as described by Lionel Wafer, but a mosquito-ridden swamp unsuitable for agriculture or building.
The settlers persevered for eight weeks before moving to a new location where the building of Fort St Andrews began, and within the fort their new capital of New Edinburgh.
By March of 1699 torrential rain had brought disease and over 200 settlers had died. Throughout April the death rate continued at an alarming rate — around 12 a day.
The native Indians, while relatively friendly, were, not surprisingly, uninterested in the goods the Scots were offering in trade. Ships sent out to trade returned with the news that King William had forbidden other colonies in the region to trade with the Scots. The situation was getting increasingly desperate
One settler, Rodger Oswald wrote an account of life in Darien. He said, “They lived on less than a pound of mouldy flour a week. When boiled with a little water without anything else big maggots and worms must be skimmed from the top…”
The final straw was the news that the Spanish planned an attack on the colony. The settlement was abandoned and of the four ships that left for the final time, only one, the Caledonia made it back to Scotland. Of the 1,200 settlers that had originally sailed only 300 returned.
A second expedition left Scotland in August 1699, not knowing the fate of the first, and finding the place abandoned they set about rebuilding it. The Spanish however were certainly not going to tolerate a second attempt at colonising their territory and besieged Fort St Andrews.
The Scots finally surrendered in March 1700, and the survivors were allowed to leave. Some started new lives in the Indies and North America but few made it back to Scotland.
The failure of Darien was a financial disaster for Scotland; the Company had lost over £232,000. Over the following seven years it became increasingly obvious they would not survive economically and in 1707, Scotland was forced to concede to the Act of Union with England.
As part of the Union settlement from England they were offered a sum of 398,000, anEquivalent to pay of the debts of the Company.
The organisation formed to administer the Equivalent became the Royal Bank of Scotland, a name we are still familiar with today.
In essence the ultimate outcome of the Darien fiasco was for most Scots of the time, the unwanted United Kingdom of Great Britain.
