"I did more than preach the Gospel amongst the Caribs, my lords, more than trade and exchange. I used my eyes and my wits. Aye, and my legs. Buccaneer I was not - but I sailed with some who might be so-called. Into places where few Christian men had ever penetrated. And in one I discovered a wonder. Aye, and dreamed a dream which I have never forgot. A dream which it is time was fulfilled. Or so Mr. Fletcher says."
"Mr. Fletcher himself is something of a dreamer, I fear!" the Master of Stair observed, thinly."Much as we all admire him, to be sure."
His father was more tactful towards their host. "Mr. Fletcher's dreams may still serve us well. As to Mr. Paterson's, who knows? But I did not hear him name his projected company of Africa and the Indies? Not of the Carib Sea."
"That, my lord, is but a device." Paterson it was who now did the staring. "A necessary device. To preserve our secret. Your lordships and gentlemen must bear with me when I demand
...
or, forgive me,
request,
your promise of secrecy over what I now would tell you. For if it became known, in London especial, there would be no Scottish company, no Scottish colony, believe me! The territory would be annexed to the
English
crown there and then. Have I your lordships' word?"
Intrigued, men nodded. There was little lounging now round that table.
"I name Africa and the Indies to divert attention. My colony is to be far elsewhere." Paterson leaned forward, to sketch with his finger, dipped in water, on the table. "See you, the Americas, North and South, are joined thus by a great sickle of land, washed on the east by the Carib Sea and on the west by the Pacific Ocean - Central America with the West Indian islands. Spain holds most of this mainland, although there are small Dutch and Portuguese colonies also. But at the very south of this Central America is a narrow isthmus of land, shaped like the letter S. It is little-known or esteemed, for its Carib coast is swampy, flat, with no fair prospects, and there is so much fair land elsewhere for the taking, thousands of miles in every direction. The buccaneers call it Darien and the Carib Indians Panama." The man's dull voice actually quivered with excitement as he pronounced those names, part of this unlikely dreamer's vision.
The excitement notably failed to communicate itself to his hearers.
"Is
this
where you would plant your Scots colony? This small unwanted swamp?" the Secretary of State asked, incredulously.
"Aye, my lord. And for good reason. For I did more than eye that swampy coast. I ventured inland. And found fair country but a few miles beyond the swamps. Fair for cattle, fair for crops and fruits. And a great bay with narrow hidden mouth to lead into it, for anchorage and port. Much excellent land awaiting settlement. Few Indians. But, my lords, more important, I found something else. I found that this isthmus, between the Gulf of Darien and the Pacific shore, is in places a bare thirty miles in width." He paused expectantly, gazing round at them.
Apart from Andrew Fletcher, already in the secret, he perceived scant reaction.
"Do you not see?" he exclaimed, irritation at their ignorance giving him a sort of eloquence at last. "Thirty miles! Between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. No more than from your Forth to Clyde, from Edinburgh to Glasgow-less! Unclaimed by any nation. It is scarcely believable but it is fact. Plant the Scottish flag in Darien, gain a charter from King William as King of Scots, and we hold the key to riches unimaginable!"
Still they did not see it, these men who were amongst the most able in the land.
"You must explain, Will," Andrew said. "We do not all have your understanding of commerce, trade-routes, shipping and the like."
"Aye. Although I would have reckoned it clear enough for any!" The farmer's son's respect for his betters was wearing thin. "Where does the greatest wealth in this world come from? Whence do the nations of Europe draw their prime riches? From the Indies, from the Spice Islands, from
China,
from Peru and the like. Gold, silver, jewels, jade, silks, spices, oils, perfumes - the riches of the Orient and of the West coast of the Americas. And what have all these in common? They are on the Pacific Ocean - and so must be reached for and brought two-thirds round the world - further because of Africa and
India, which must needs be sailed around. To China is thirteen thousand miles, by sea. To the East Indies, eleven thousand. To Peru, sixteen thousand. Yet to cross the Atlantic Ocean is but four thousand from Bristol, less from Spain. Then but thirty miles across land, and all the Pacific is open to the voyager. The journeying less than halved, the storms of the dread southern seas avoided."
At last they began to perceive. Talk broke out everywhere.
Stair summed it up. "You mean, then, that this company should be concerned not only with colonising but with transporting, porterage, Mr. Paterson? Developing the land but also carrying goods from one ocean to the other across this narrow neck of land?"
"Exactly, my lord. At a price. And not only porterage -although that at first. The Dutch are famed for their canals. I have seen great ships floating twenty miles inland from the sea. This isthmus of Darien is flat, flat as Holland. From the profits of the porterage the company could pay Dutchmen to fashion a canal. And then, and then, my lords, ships could sail through from seas to sea, without having to unload. A toll-gate of the oceans. And
we
would hold the key!"
Something like awe was generated around that table as the scale and scope of this conception dawned on men's minds. None now could fail to recognise the possibilities. All there, even the least concerned with matters outwith Scotland, knew of the vast profits of the English East India Company, of the gold and silver treasures of the Spanish Main largely brought from Peru, of the legendary wealth of Cathay, China and Japan - and also of the almost year-long round voyages, the great losses sustained to shipping as the price of laying hands on all that wealth. The potential profit, in more than halving that cost, in time and shipping and risks run, did not have to be argued.
For a while excited talk prevailed.
But there were some supreme realists present, notably John Dalrymple, Master of Stair and Secretary of State. His strong Ayrshire voice presently predominated.
"Mr. Paterson, your project sounds . . . inviting, none can deny. But certain questions occur to me. Firstly, to build such a canal in such a place would demand a vast deal of money. Topay for it, the profits of the porterage which went before would have to be great. Have we reason to believe that such would be forthcoming? That shippers, the Spanish, the French, the Portuguese, the Dutch - aye, and the English for that matter-would indeed use your porterage? It would save them much voyaging, yes - but would mean transhipping, unloading vessels at one side, then cargoes to be carried across the thirty miles and then loaded on to other ships. Double the amount of shipping required and much labour. More costly, perhaps, than the voyaging?"
"No, sir. See you, the shipping is already there. It needs only to be disposed differently. Instead of a voyage from China or the Spice Islands taking, say, six months each way, it could be done in little more than two. So, much shipping would be saved, not at sea for so long. So it would pay well to have Atlantic ships and Pacific ships, pay the porterage dues and still make handsome profit."
"H'mm. I must take your word for that, sir. But one or two other points. This porterage. Are our Scots colonists to till the land or to become mere porters, carrying others' goods, like slaves? I think that few would choose to go to your Darien to such labour."
"Indians, sir, would provide the labour. And blacks. From the Carib islands. With mule-trains and ox-carts. There is no lack of labour already there. Our settlers would be overseers, farmers, planters, cattle-rearers, traders, with the company merchanting their produce, for their profit and ours."
"It sounds notably fine, sir. But will all this profit, from the portage, the land, even the projected canal, not draw others? Will it be left to us? Would not covetous eyes be bent on all? Spanish, French - even English? Will they continue to pay toll to
us!
Having developed it all, others might well step in and take it all from us, by force of arms. In such distant parts."
"That is why I plan both a settled colony
and
the transportage, sir. The one supporting the other. The settlers in the colony would be there to rally and protect the porterage. And with a royal charter we would have a governor, forts, militia. Do not tell me that Scots would not protect their own!"
"Well said, sir," the Secr
etary's father commended. "But
does not much of this great project depend on winning that royal charter? Without that, all would be at risk. Have you reason to believe that King William will grant one? Without the advice of his English ministers? Who, if they learned of it, might well persuade him otherwise and themselves move to take over the project! We all know how jealous they are for their monopolies and colonial and trading privileges."
"That danger I have not overlooked, my lord. But I think that you need have no fear. King William requires my services. As does his Chancellor. For further loans, for this Bank of England project and otherwise. I have aided him in the past. I have already mentioned to him the notion of a Scottish colony. And although he showed little interest, neither did he show any opposition. He is interested, I think, in but one matter -soldiering for the Protestant cause. Charters ever have to be paid for in royal dues. If those dues, from a
Scots
colony and company, are specifically to be paid to the King direct, not to the English Treasury, William will sign it, never fear. And the charter will be for the founding of a colony at Darien and the setting up of the trading company. No details as to the trade need be given, certainly not word of the transportage project, which will be but part of our trading activities."
Patrick Home, now Polwarth, spoke up, briefly. "How much?" he asked - which in itself was indication that he, for one, required no further persuasion as to the scheme's worth and practicality.
"For the setting up of the company, the chartering of the necessary shipping to take out the colonists, provisioning, arming, the first year's trade goods and the like, I estimate between £300,000 and £500,000."
There were some gasps at that.
"All to be raised from Scotland, sir?" Tweeddale demanded.
"Certainly, my lord. You would not have the English let in on this, would you? For most certainly they would seek to take over all."
"No, no. But
...
it is a deal of money, Mr. Paterson. And the country is in a poor way. I do not know whether it could be raised
..
."
"I have promised £1,000. Sterling," Andrew put in quietly.
"And I likewise, £1,000," Johnnie Belhaven supported. "I also," Polwarth added.
"So there is one-hundredth spoke for before it is started . . ."
"A fiftieth - since I myself will invest £3,000 of my own," Paterson added. "In shares of one pound. Each to rank for full interest."
"What interest do you anticipate, sir?" Melville asked.
"Who can tell? The first year, none. The second, little. But thereafter I shall be disappointed not to win twenty per cent."
"Lord - twenty per cent. Each year?"
"Why not, my lord? Once the porterage is established, that will be as nothing to the profits earned, I believe. Have you any notion as to the values of the cargoes coming to Europe each year from the East Indies and Spice Islands alone?
Or
from Peru to Spain? The buccaneers know! They took seven hundred thousand pounds worth of gold and silver from one galleon alone, whilst I was there. A small percentage on the worth of each cargo, for transportage dues, and your investment could be repaid in very short time. And once the canal is built . . ."
After that there was little more debate. Practically every man present subscribed, and although some went no higher than a few hundred pounds, others would have gone well above one thousand. But Paterson said that he would prefer to set that figure as a limit, meanwhile, backed by Andrew. If it was to be a project for the whole Scottish nation, as it should be, opportunity must be offered to all to join in, even the smallest men. It would not do for too much to seem to be taken up by the privileged few.
It was whilst they were busy making lists and writing out notes-of-hand, that a servant brought a mud-spattered courier into the hall and went to speak to Andrew, who nodded and gestured the newcomer to where John Dalrymple, Master of Stair, was sitting.
The courier moved to murmur a few words in the Secretary of State's ear, whereat the latter rose and went with him to a corner of the apartment, where a letter was produced and read. Little or no attention was paid to this by the company, for the
Secretary was of course frequently at the receipt of despatches and official papers. But on this occasion, Dalrymple was evidently much exercised by what was brought, elated even, sufficiently so not to be inclined to keep it to himself.