The Darien Disaster

Download or read book The Darien Disaster written by John Prebble and published by London : Secker & Warburg. This book was released on 1968 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1698 the Parliament of Scotland, in one of its last acts before the nation lost its political identity, decided to establish a noble trading company and settle a colony. The site chosen for the colony was Darien on the Isthmus of Panama. Three years later the "noble undertaking", crippled by the quarrelsome stupidity of its leaders, deliberately obstructed by the English Government, and opposed in arms of Spain, had ended in stunning disaster. Nine fine ships owned by the Company had been sunk, burnt or abandoned. Over two thousand men, women and children who went to the fever-ridden colony never returned.