In short, Patterson probably felt that the Spanish by just smuggling gold and silver across Panama were underestimating its full potential: they were using a very important resource - Panama - in a very inefficient way. Free trade, not smuggling was the best way to utilize Panama's important geographical position. To that end, Patterson wanted to set up a colony in the Darien to show its true potential as a center of free trade. Goods from Asia and goods from Europe would meet in Panama and then be traded across the Isthmus. In the deepest parts of his mind and in his dreams he must have seen huge ships sailing into both the Gulf of San Miguelon the Pacific and Caledonia Bay on the Caribbean; from these two places people would truck their goods across the green jungle hills of Panama to trade with like-minded peoples of all nations. The savings in transportation costs would have been great, or so he might have thought. In his scheme investors from Scotland and England would put up the capital to build the colony. Their money would quickly multiple as trade through the Scottish colony grew.

After leaving the Caribbean and without ever reaching the Darien, Patterson went to back to Europe, but not to England or Scotland but rather to Amsterdam, then on to Hamburg and later to Berlin. This would have been in the 1680s. During his time on the continent of Europe he tried to convince wealthy men to involve themselves in his idea of a colony in the Darien. He was almost able to get the Elector of Berlin to give money to his tropical trading post. Patterson talked in the taverns of Holland and Germany about the incredible beauty of the Darien – it is very beautiful – and what a great place it would be to establish a trading colony. The only problem was that he had never been there and I imagine some people with a keen sense of what the Caribbean was like and who knew the place for themselves would have asked him whether or not he had ever been there. That would have been an uneasy moment for Patterson, especially when he had to confess that he had not.

Patterson did make money while on the continent of Europe. He eventually returned to England, which in many ways was more of a home to him than Scotland: he had left Scotland years before and had no great connection with his homeland. In London he founded a company, a company which stayed in existence for 200 years, which piped water from the Hampstead Hills to north London. He helped found another water company in Southwark; all during this time he was thinking about and talking of his project for the Darien. 

Now a little on Scotland’s role in Patterson’s vision. Scotland at this time was not formally united with England: Scotland was tied to England but it still had autonomy: it had its own Parliament as it does today. But Scotland was poor in comparison with England. The English had established themselves as a major trading nation in the Indian Ocean and Caribbean. They had formed large joint-stock companies, something they learned from the Dutch, that traded around the world. Of course the East India Company would be the most famous of these companies. Scotland had not been able to establish a colony anywhere; they had tried in the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, and in the Carolinas in the American South. The Nova Scotia adventure failed and the French pushed the Scottish out; the Spanish ran the Scots out of the Carolinas. 

It is important to remember that in the two previous failures and the failure in the Darien the English were happy to see the Scots fail and in many ways helped to facilitate their downfall.
 

Patterson decided in 1696-97 to raise capital for a new joint-stock company that would establish a colony in the Darien. Capital was raised in the city of London and in Scotland. Pressure was applied to the English investors by William III, the English King, and by the East India Company, which was suffering losses at this time from raids that were being carried out against its ships by French pirates, to not support the Scottish adventure. The East India Company did not want competition from a Scottish company and the King did not want Scotland to grow more powerful than England or even powerful enough to resist English rule. However, William had granted the Scots in 1693 the right to form a trading company. He did this with the idea that the Scots would never go out and found a colony. The English saw themselves as the masters of the British Isles: they had forced Wales into a union in 1539; later they would force the Scots into a union; and they would colonize Ireland. 

Patterson's Scottish African and Indies Company was created in June of 1695. No one knew where the company planned to establish a colony but the English were upset with the idea. After the English investors pulled out of the Scottish company, the Darien project became a national adventure in Scotland in which the whole country was invested. The company sent Patterson to Amsterdam and Hamburg to have ships built for the journey. 

Patterson entrusted some of the money he was to use to buy ships and provisions with a friend in London who stole the money. Patterson was removed from a position of responsibility after that. The colony would move into the hands of Scotsmen who had deeper roots in Scotland than Patterson, men who were more parochial and more divided among themselves because of the intense competition they had with one another in the affairs of Scotland. But in the context of the Caribbean and especially in Panama they would be lost in a second. The ships were completed and they sailed for the Firth of Forth, the bay that Edinburgh overlooks to the north. 

Advertisements were sent out in Scotland for men to join the colony: many of the men who went to the Darien were from the western Highlands of Scotland. They were from the area between Fort William and Mallaig: highlanders. Many didn’t even speak English. Most knew nothing of life on the open sea. 

For the journey across to Panama the men were divided between seamen and landsmen. All of them were a rough lot, some of them were known for their violence and meanness, some just wanted to get out of Scotland, others jumped ship in the night and stayed in Scotland – all were fearful of what they would find in the Darien. 

They sailed from the Firth of Forth on July 14th 1698; most knew at this point that they would be going to the Darien, but their orders were still sealed and would not be opened until they made it to the Madeira Islands off the coast Portugal. There were four ships St. Andrew, Caledonia, Unicorn and the Dolphin. Patterson was one of the men onboard the Unicorn, but because of what had happened with the loss of money to his London friend, he was in a precarious position: he and his wife boarded the ship, but it must have been a difficult position for both of them as they were now under the direct control of Scotsmen they could of neither liked nor trusted. 

They arrived on Madeira Islands on August 20th. They opened their orders and learned that they were to proceed to the Island of Pines on the Darien Coast and from there they would sail to the Golden Island and from there they would find the bay and begin building a colony. They knew to look for the Golden Island and they knew the lay of the land because they had talked with a pirate in Scotland who had been there, Lionel Wafer. 

Off they went; they stopped in St. Thomas on October 1st; at that time St.Thomas was controlled by the Danish. In St.Thomas Patterson met an old pirate Robert Alliston whom he knew from his younger days in Jamaica. Alliston was old and asked Patterson where he planned to settle the colony. When Patterson told him in the Darien, Alliston said he knew the place well and that it was at that place that he and other pirates had crossed to the Pacific to attack the Spanish. He said he would guide them there. On they went through the Caribbean; after much searching Alliston spotted the Golden Island and on Wednesday November 2nd, they dropped anchor in a bay which they called Caledonia. 

It was a disaster. The Indians came out of the jungle to meet them almost as soon as they arrived. These were the Kuna Indians and they were happy to see what they thought were Englishman pulling into the bay. They hated the Spanish and hoped that the Scots would help them in their fight against the Spanish. The Spanish were hated not only for their cruelty, but also because they demanded that the Indians work in the gold mines of Panama. The Spanish came into the area periodically from Cartagena but they never stayed long as they knew the area was ripe with disease and death. The Kunasinvited the Scots to visit their village in the interior and they did: they got the Indians blind drunk, and they learned about the tensions between different Kuna communities.

The Scots tried to establish a colony, but they were immediately divided between seamen and landsmen: the former stayed on the boats and the latter tried to carve out a colony in the hills and mangroves of the bay. A council was set up to organize the work, but the council quickly deteriorated into a seething bed of competing agendas. The strongest personality in the colony during this period was Thomas Drummond, a highlander, who was the leader of the work crews that were building the lookout posts and forts to protect the colony from the Spanish. But his leadership was questionable as he had been involved in the Massacre of Glen Coe in Scotland in 1692 - he had killed Scots, some of whose family members were part of the colony. Drummond was a unifying force, but at the same time a very divisive figure in the colony. But what really divided the colony was the fact that people began to die almost as soon as the ships pulled into the Bay of Caledonia - moral began to drop quickly after so many fell ill. Patterson’s wife dies almost as soon as they arrive. 

The first boat to arrive in the harbor to trade was an English ship that was searching the waters for sunken gold and silver. It had set sail from Jamaica and was working for his majesty William III. The leaders of the Scottish colony had dinner with the English ship's captain, Richard Long, who dropped anchor off the Island of Pines. He agreed to help the Scots. The colony wanted to trade, but what they had to trade did not interest Long: the Scots wanted to trade wigs and woolens, bibles and stockings - things that were tradable in Scotland, not in the Caribbean. 

The fear and paranoia that the Spanish were coming began to affect the moral in the colony. They heard rumors from the Kuna Indians that the Spanish were near. There was talk of a force being sent from Panama City to drive the Scottish off the Isthmus of Panama. The Conde de Canillas, the President of Panama, did in fact decide to lead a raid on the Scottish from Panama City. He did not want to attack the Scots from Portobello as that was now the most important port for the Spanish on the Caribbean Coast. No he wanted to attack the Scots from Panama City. He planned to sail into the Gulf of San Miguel and from there march up the rivers on the Pacific side and then march down rivers that flowed into the Caribbean: he would attack from the hills behind the colony rather than from the Caribbean in front.

The Scots were able to learn from a Frenchman who was living among the Indians that the Spanish imagined that the Scottish colony was huge, and that the Scottish were planning to run raids from the Gulf of Mexico to Mississippi. The rumor was wrong. Twelve-hundred people had left Scotland and many died on the sail across – most would die. The Scots pushed forward with their work. There was little to show after two months: New Edinburgh was a small village with some huts and three look-out points. A larger fort was being built but there was little to show for the efforts and people were dying: 76 had died between July 23 and Christmas day. 

By January the Spanish had sent out a force to push the Scots out. The force sailed into the Gulf of San Miguel on the Pacific. From there they rowed into the deep interior of the Darien jungle. They abandoned their canoes and marched up the rivers that flowed down from the peaks of the Continental Divide. The rivers were shaded in green jungle and surrounded by wild birds and colorful flora and fauna. The African slaves that lived in the Darien would have followed the Spanish on their ascent - the slaves knew the forest better than anyone. 

After hearing that the Scots had arrived on the Isthmus, the Conde de Canillas had ordered a fort built in the green hills of the Darien jungle. The place was named Toubacanti and it must have been located on a remote hill. This was the point he marched his men to before descending on the Scots. The Spanish imperial colors of blue and gold flew on top of the fort at Toubacanti, a place which must have overlooked the dense green jungle below and Caribbean beyond. The Conde de Canillas himself led the Spanish expedition that was to attack the Scottish. But the Spanish never really met the enemy. They pulled up near the Scottish settlement, but did not try a direct attack; instead the Scots came out to meet the Spanish. They found them in the early morning in a small grove. The Scots were led by James Montgomerie who never saw the Spanish, but could see their fires burning in the hills. When Montgomerie led a march into the Spanish positions all he found were fires burning: the Spanish had disappeared further up into the hills. In fact, the Spanish after Montgomerie’s charge retreated back to Panama City. They left a regiment in Toubacanti to keep an eye on the Scottish but they did not try any offensive actions after that initial push.

The Scots were happy about their victory but they were now left without an enemy and no one was coming into the bay to trade and people were dying everyday. Some of the Scots were sent out to trade in Curacao. They got lost at sea and were captured by the Spanish in Cartagena. Others tried to sail towards Jamaica but they found it almost impossible to reach the open seas. The winds had changed direction since the Scots had sailed into the bay: the winds were now blowing into the bay which meant it was next to impossible to get out to the open sea. And still no one came to trade with the Scots: what they didn’t know was that an order had put out by the English that no one in the English colonies should help the Scots and so they starved from lack of supplies; they survived on sea turtles that they caught off the coast which could feed many men. 

By the middle of June 1999, the Scots had decided it was time to go and they set sail for Scotland. At this point in time Patterson was on the point of death; he was sick with fever and his mind was gone. He would only regain his strength when the ship he sailed on arrived in New York. The Scots abandoned their colony to the jungle – a few Scots who thought they would never survive the trip back to Scotland stayed with the Kuna Indians in the hills above Caledonia Bay. They would be the only ones considered heroes back home in Scotland. The ships St. Andrew, Unicorn and the Endeavor sailed for the open seas. The Endeavor sank out in open waters and her crew was put on the Unicorn. Many of the men were suffering from fever: on the St. Andrew 140 men died on the six week trip from Caledonia Bay to Jamaica. The St. Andrew was not welcome in Jamaica by the English governor when it arrived. The Unicorn made it to Sandy Hook and then New York in nine weeks; she had come ashore in Cuba but was quickly chased off by the Spanish.

The story might have ended there but it didn’t. There was another ship that was being sent from Scotland to the colony except this time it was sailing from Glasgow and it sailed out of the Clyde. It was thought that by starting the expedition in Glasgow this time, rather than Edinburgh, that the sailing would be easier as the ships could sail directly to the Caribbean. It also meant that the ships wouldn’t have to sail around the top of Scotland where the waters were rough, especially around the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

The second expedition was led by the ship Rising Sun; it had been frozen in the icy waters of Hamburg or Amsterdam and was not on the first expedition. She set sail on August 18th 1699; four days after the Unicorn arrived in New York and a month after the St. Andrew arrived in Jamaica. The people that made up the second expedition were very different from the first. These were to be the settlers of the colony; they were to arrive to a well-built and functioning colony, but what they were really going to was nothing, at least in their minds. There were religious people among them; they were to establish a Presbytery in the name of the national church of Scotland. They would bring religion and administration to the colony: something the first expedition could have used in order to have any success: the Scots were not good colonialists.

When the second expedition arrived to the colony there was nothing; they had heard in Montserrat on the way into the Caribbean that the colony had been abandoned; they didn’t listen. When they did arrive the Indians greeted them just like the first expedition, but this time, the Scots didn’t want to get drunk, rather they wanted to talk about religion and avoid intermingling with the locals. There was a man among the Scots who at this point comes into the story; his name was Fonab. 

It didn’t take long for the second expedition to fail. The Spanish wanted the Scots out and so they sent a force by sea. The Scots heard that a Spanish expedition had been sent, but the Scots thought the Spanish would come from the Pacific over the jungle mountains, not from the sea. The Scots under Fonab marched into the mountains with the Indians in order to attack the remote mountain fort of Toubacanti: it was a day's march from the colony.

There was a battle on that hill top somewhere in the Darien jungle: the Scots came out the winners. But when the Scottish force returned to the colony the Spanish had pulled into the Bay of Caledonia from Cartagena and landed on the Golden Island. They didn’t sail into the bay but rather left their ships on the points of the two peninsulas that formed it. There was a battle and in the end the Scots gave up and left the bay under the eyes of Spanish guns. The Spanish burned everything the Scots had built and left as soon as they could - they knew the danger. 

By April 11th, 1700 the Scots had left the Bay of Caledonia and started the long trip back to Scotland. One of the religious men on the second expedition was named Mr. Stobo; he was in one of the boats that sailed back to Scotland, but which crashed in the waters off the Carolinas in the American South. He would stay there and his family would grow and prosper and his lineage would eventually include Theodore Roosevelt: the American president who built the Panama Canal.
 

The Scots didn’t give up on the idea of a colony; they tried something along the Guinea Coast of West Africa; it was unsuccessful. Thomas Drummond, one of the few Scottish survivors of both the first and second expedition, and his brother, took the Scottish company's ships and sailed from West Africa to the island of Madagascar, a place as famous as Panama for pirates and intrigues. Drummond and his brother and their ships disappeared in the Indian Ocean. Scotland would go broke because of the Darien project and it would agree in 1707 to a union with England. The Union with England is still talked about today in Scotland.

Visit To San Blas

Well, I wanted to go to the San Blas for a long time so I was glad when we had a little vacation time to travel and see other parts of Panama that I’d never been to. Panama has many interesting places to visit and many of them I have never seen, so when the chance comes to go somewhere new I’m happy. We were flying to Mamitupo which is farther down the San Blas than Por Venir, a place with more hotels and restaurants. 

The Aeroperlas flight left early in the morning: we had to be at the airport 40 minutes before the flight left so we were there at 5:20. Aeroperlas is one of the local airlines: there are three now, I think. They do a very good job and though the planes are small the flights are short. The flight over was nice because you look down on the Darien jungle which looks like a sea of green cauliflower heads. We landed in the small airport after a 50 minute flight. We stayed at the Dolphin Island Lodge. A small and very pleasant hotel: the only place to stay in in Mamitupo as far as I know. The hotel has water, shower, toilet, and has nice views of the ocean and there is a volleyball court, and hammocks hanging around in the palm trees. The staff of the Lodge is Kuna Indian. The women wear their traditional dress, not out of show, but because that’s the way they like to dress. They cook well. Red Pargo is the best: the meals are set in the hotel: you get what they have caught and cooked that day. The food was good. No alcohol, but you can bring beer or wine, but not hard alcohol and women should wear one-piece bathing suits. We had a room with a cross-breeze and view of the sea.

We arrived early in the morning and so I was tired; we had breakfast in the Lodge and then we were given an idea of what we would be doing for the day. Our guide who was male told us we would go to a nearby village and have the opportunity to buy molas or other crafts the Kunas make. The walk was nice. The wood smoke from the thatched huts made me think of my time in the countryside of Panama: I kept sniffing for the burnt rice people like to eat and the sound of some static laden radio with Panamanian Country music blaring out of it, but the music part never came. We bought some very nice molas and talked a little with the kids in the village: people were nice and relaxed: don’t start firing off camera shots: ask before you take a photo. 

I had told our guide Horacio after breakfast that I wanted to go to the Island of Pines and then to the Scottish colony. He seemed excited: it was a far trip so I knew I would have to pay a good price to see both. The San Blas is expensive because of transportation costs: no road leads there – there is one, but impossible to cross - so gasoline is expensive. We jumped in a small motorized dugout and headed in the direction of the Island of Pines. The sea was calm and the sky was cloudy with rain threatening far off the coast and from the hills of the jungle, which rose up very quickly from the Caribbean coastline. The Island of Pines appeared on the horizon: it looked like a whale as everyone will tell you. I could see an antenna on the top of the island. Off the Island of Pines and further out to sea was a small island that was called Isla Iguana. It looked to have a beautiful beach and the sea around it was rougher and more turbulent than along the shores of the Island of Pines. When you looked at the small island it would sometimes seem to disappear below the water level. 

We approached the Island of Pines and on its western side there was a small village. We docked on a very long pier: we walked up to the village and the sun was shining. We were to go and meet some people at the Congresso. The Congresso was where the problems of the community were solved among the Kunas. It was the place where political decisions were made. The Congressohad a yellow flag flying above it with an insignia. 

We went into a long thatched house, very big – think of a meeting hall-sized structure - which didn't have walls, but which had a roof that angled down to almost the ground, so low was the roof that you could only see the bottom half of people as they moved around outside. A nice breeze blew through the Congresso. I went in and the first thing I noticed were clocks hanging from two poles that held up the roof of the meeting hall. There was no light; the feeling inside the Congresso was dark shade and the floor was cool chocolate earth. The sun and heat of the day felt far away from the center of the Congresso, which was where we sat. There was a bench and some hammocks inside the Congresso and an olderKuna man, who was very aristocratic in the way he moved and spoke, was sitting on the bench, he wore squarish metal glasses and a brown thin shirt and a baseball cap that was old and worn. A clock with the correct time was positioned right above his head and he had his bare feet up on the bench he was sitting on. A young Kuna woman gave me a glass of red kool-aid which was refreshing and felt good on my throat. She returned to a small wooden desk with an oil lamp on it and began to write in a ledger. My guide talked with the Kuna man sitting on the bench; the man looked at me with only a passing glance. 

We then left the Congresso and walked in the direction we had come from. Just before the pier and to the right, we down to a small house and talked with a young guy who had been fixing a wall: he had a hat, a pencil in his ear and he offered us a glass of sweet juice made of sugarcane, or a fruit I've never drank before. My guide said we should pay here in order to walk around the island: I didn't have money: I had left my money at the hotel. My guide was kind enough to let me borrow the money. We paid and walked. 

We visited the beach on the island and saw burial grounds on a hillside that was very peaceful; I liked the way they had things organized at the burial grounds. The forest on the island was immense. The beach was all right. There was a large catamaran off the island that looked nice against the green hills from which wildfire smoke plumed. We walked back past the Congresso and were whistled inside. Now there were more men sitting around and my guide spoke to them and they asked many questions, but in the end they were very kind and let us go on without any delay. 

We walked to the dugout and my guide told me we would go to the island of Tubuala and another island: the Scottish Colony was now off the trip. I waited for an opportunity to change that. 

We jumped into the dugout and passed a few boats that had sailed up from Colombia – the boats had Colombian colors. It looked as though the Colombians were walking around the island we first passed after the Island of Pines; some were climbing to the top of the island; others were near the beach sitting in plastic white beach chairs. 

We came to Tubuala, or so our guide thought; in fact, we pulled into the island of Caledonia. From here I could see the Golden Island and what I thought was the place where the Scottish colony would have been located. My guide was nervous; he told me he had never been this far before. He looked confused and worried. We motored over to Tubuala where we talked with the political officers on the island. They were very serious, but very polite and they listened to my guide who spoke in Kuna. We had to pay to visit the island: they checked some books before giving us the price: $3. Above them were some sports trophies for basketball and there was a basketball court on the island that was being used while I visited. The kids were excellent players.

We headed back to the Lodge. I never made it to the Bay of Caledonia, next time. It took an hour and half to reach the Lodge. The sky darkened after we left Tubuala and the Island of Pines came closer to us. We passed by it on the side closer to the open sea and the noise of the motor pushed us through the rough seas which reflected the dark pearl color of the sky. My ass and legs hurt on the ride back. It was a small boat and the bouncing during the whole trip had taken its toll. We arrived just as darkness fell. Gabi met me at the dock; she had slept all afternoon and read. The staff at the hotel asked me when I wanted dinner and I said in 30 minutes. The only other guests in the Lodge were two Canadian women: one was originally from Haiti; they were touring Panama and seemed to me to be enjoying themselves. Remember, in the San Blas you will meet interesting fellow travelers; this is something that people have always told me about traveling in the San Blas.

We ate dinner and I hit the sack at about 7:30. I woke about 9:30 and took a cool shower. I woke up around 12:00 and couldn’t sleep so I read for a little and bounced around the room and finally fell back to sleep at three. We ate breakfast, which was an omelet with crabmeat and red peppers; we drank juice and coffee. We all jumped in the boat and left the Lodge and headed for the small airport. The plane back to Panama City passed overhead and flew in the direction of a small airstrip down the coast. We were talking with the Canadians about George Bush when the plane landed in the small airport. We jumped in and flew back to Panama City by way of Por Venir and without any turbulence. 

Notes

The URL for the Dolphin Island Lodge is http://www.dolphinlodge.com/

There was a documentary made about the Scottish colony which I think appeared on BBC Scotland; it was very good and if your interested in the story of the Scottish colony try to lay your hands on a copy.

Other articles by the author:

Lost Valley Of Panama ~ Agua de Salud
Santa Catalina And Coiba Prison Island ~ Little Known Frontiers
John Wayne Island ~ In An Imaginary Tropical Western
Hiding Out In Panama - The Hotel Ideal
Interview With Pedro Sarasqueta ~ Answering Questions About Investing In Panama
Vista Mar Resort ~ Living On Panama's Pacific Coast
Travel To Nombre de Dios ~ A Very Famous Unknown Place
Living And Investing In Panama ~ What To Look Out For
Looking At Property On Contadora Island ~ Exploring The History And Landscape Of An Island
Isla Grande ~ The Lost Sides Of Isla Grande.
An Interview With John Carlson ~ Talking With An Old Hand About Investing In Panama
Altos del Maria - Another Look
Carnaval 2003 - Hanging In
Cerro Jefe ~  In An Old Cloud Forest
Daytrips In Panama ~Looking At Real Estate And Passing Through Colon
Deep In Veraguas - Traveling Down Backroads In Panama
El Cope, Cocle ~ And Some Other Ideas
On The Pacific Coast Of Panama - Traveling Through The Mountains And Beaches Of Panama
Up On The Contential Divide And Down In The Desert ~ Hiking And Discovering Panama's Beauty
Playa Grande - The Beauty Of A Remote Panamanian Beach
Italy In Winter - From Rome To Venice
Panama And Costa Rica - Thoughts On Both
The Panama Railroad ~ Panama City To Colon
The Chiriqui Highlands - R&R