These were laden with a cargo for traffic, with some artillery and military stores; and the adventurers embarking to the number of twelve hundred, they sailed from the Frith of Edinburgh, with some tenders, on the seventeenth day of July in the preceding year.

At Madeira they took in a supply of wine, and then steered to Crab-island in the neighbourhood of St.Thomas, lying between Santa-Cruz and Porto Rico.

Their design was to take possession of this little island; but when they entered the road, they saw a large tent pitched upon the strand, and the Danish colours flying.

Finding themselves anticipated in this quarter, they directed their course to the coast of Darien, where they treated with the natives for the establishment of their colony, and taking possession of the ground, to which they gave the name of Caledonia, began to execute their plan of erecting a town under the appellation of New Edinburgh, by the direction of their council, consisting of Patterson the projector, and six other directors.

They had no sooner completed their settlement, than they wrote a letter to the king containing a detail of their proceedings.