CHAPTEE IV. 



History continued — Scottish Darien Expedition — Spanish Measures 

 against it — Its Fate — Boundaries of the Isthmus of Panama — Pop- 

 ulation — Physical Aspect — Geological Observations. 



Matters thus progressed, with varying fortune, ac- 

 cording to the author we have been quoting, till 

 the close of the seventeenth century, when the 

 peace of Ryswick enabled the government of Spain 

 to put forth all its strength in defense of their 

 South American possessions, and a comparative 

 calm ensued in those latitudes. It was about this 

 time that the project and failure of the memorable 

 Scottish Darien expedition occurred. Mr. Paterson, 

 a Scotch gentleman of a remarkably speculative and 

 enterprising turn of mind, conceived the idea of se- 

 curing the " door of the seas" — his own expression — - 

 by establishing a powerful half-commercial, half- 

 military colony to the eastward of Porto Bello, on a 

 line of coast of which he averred the Spanish govern- 

 ment were not the rulers, either de facto or de jure. 

 Mr. Paterson first proposed his scheme to the Eng- 

 lish government, by whom it was coldly rejected. 

 He afterwards, by the zealous cooperation of Fletch- 

 er of Saltoun, obtained the sujjport of the Marquis 

 of Tweedale, then chief minister of Scotland, and 

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