Sm WILLIAM ALBXANDBE. 87 



These two expeditious involved Sir "William iu serious losses. The amount was 

 estimated at ^6,000 sterling, and for its repayment a royal warrant was directed to the 

 exchequer. The failure did not seem to damp his ardour. In the follownug year he 

 issued a small work entitled " An Encouragement to Colonies," accompanied with a map 

 of New Scotland. On this names are given, showing the determination to reproduce the 

 peculiarities of Scotland, even in minor matters. Thus the St. Croix river is named the 

 Twede, while from near its head another is represented as flowing into the St. Lawrence, 

 called the Solway. A river, probably intended for the St John, is called the Clyde, 

 while an inlet of the sea on the coast of New Brunswick is marked as the Forth. 



In this work he traced the history of colonization from the days of the sous of Noah, 

 through the Phenicians, G-reeks and Romans, to modern times. The discovery of 

 America, he maintained, was a call of Providence to Britain to extend her boundaries by 

 occupying the new country. He commended Spanish enterprise as manifested in 

 trans-Atlantic colonization. He celebrated King James's energy in suppressing rebellion 

 and restoring tranquillity in Ireland, and expressed the hope that the dignity of his throne 

 would be further maintained by the plantation of New Scotland. He urged the glory of 

 colonists carrying into unexplored regions the civilizing influences of British culture 

 and the elevating doctrines of the Christian faith. He expatiated in glowing terms on 

 the succe.ss which had attended the founding of colonies in New England and Virginia. 

 He depicts New Scotland as having " very delecate meadowes," " with roses white and 

 red," and " very good, fat earth," as the voyagers in the " St. Ltike" had seen it along the 

 coast, and rich grains, abundance of fowls and fishes, all inviting early occupation. He 

 refers to Scotland as like a bee-hive, yearly sending forth swarms of her people, who had 

 heretofore expended their energies iu foreign war. But now Scotsmen were invited to 

 settle in a new country, where the merchant might prosecute successful commerce, the 

 sportsman enjoy abundant recreation, and the Christian have ample scope for missionary 

 enterprise. 



" Where," he argues, " was eu.er Ambition baited with greater hopes than here, or 

 where euer had Vertue so large a field to reape the fruits of Glory, since any man who 

 doth goe thither of good qualitie, able at first to transport a hundred persons with him, 

 furnished with things necessary, shall have as much Bounds as may serve for a great 

 Man, whereupon he may build a Towne of his owne, giving it what forme or name he 

 will, and being the first Founder of a new estate, which a pleasing industry may quickly 

 bring to a perfection, may leaue a faire inheritance to his posteritie, who shall claime u.nto 

 him as the author of their Nobilitie there, rather than to any of his Ancestours that had 

 preceded him, though neuer so nobly borue elsewhere ? " 



Notwithstanding the glowing prospects held out in this work, it failed to excite any 

 enthusiasm on behalf of the undertaking. The English treasury refused to compensate 

 the author for losses in a matter in which it had no concern. To relieve his embarrassments 

 and carry on the undertaking, therefore, a new method was suggested to him. Since his 

 accession to the English throne James had systematically replenished his royal revenues 

 by the sale of titles. In particular, to promote the colonization of Ulster, he had shortly 

 before established an order of knights baronets, membership in which was conferred on 

 English land-owners on their paying into the exchequer the sum of ^£1,100. In this way, 

 between 1611 and 1622, 205 persons had obtained the new dignity with a profit to the 



