Quote Originally Posted by Ted Crocker View Post
About the end of Darien:
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Characteristically, the Scots still refused to quit. Two more expeditions set out, but neither one did any better. The last one, better armed and provisioned
and with more men, fought the Spanish and the jungle almost incessantly from the day they landed. Finally, in April 1700, they too gave up. The four ships,
crowded with men, according to one eyewitness, "like hogs in a sty," set out for home but ran into terrible storms. The ships scattered, and two foundered.
The other two found refuge in nearby English and Spanish ports, but were seized by authorities. Not one ship returned to Scotland. (29)
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Herman, Arthur. How the Scots Invented the Modern World: the true story of how western Europe's poorest nation created our world and everything in it. New York: Crown Publishers/Random House, 2001.

That's the best I can come up with. Sounds like the English caused more problems than the Spanish...
Well, that has certainly always been my understanding. The Darien scheme wiped out a third of all the cash in Scotland causing a huge economic depression. As result of that depression the Scots were bullied, cajoled, deceived, led (you choose the word) into moving closer to the union of Parliaments. It is no mere coincidence that the decision of the King (William) to cover the Darien losses took place in 1706-1707 and restored a modicum of prosperity to the poorest part of his kingdom, greasing the wheels of the tumbril that rumbled south carrying Scotland's legislative independence to the Palace of Westminster.