The Darien Scheme

And The Church of Scotland,

written as my Ph.D. Thesis 1949, The University of Edinburgh, Scotland, under the supervision of Dr. Hugh Watt, Principal of New College (a College of the University, considered the leading school of theology for the training of Scottish ministers).

Question: Dr. Ramsay, what was the subject of your thesis and how was it chosen?

Answer: My subject was The Darien Scheme and The Church of Scotland. It was a subject for a thesis, which the Principal of the College wanted to be explored and written by someone from the United States or “New World” as a subject that had never been explored. I agreed that, if the Principal of the College thought it was a good subject to explore, and even if most of the college professors thought it would be impossible to research, I would like to try.

A committee of three people was chosen by the University PhD program to evaluate my work with Principal Watt serving as the Primary Advisor. Dr. Burleigh was the second member of the committee. I was allowed to consult with Dr. Watt or Dr. Burleigh any time I desired and they even would occasionally read a chapter and make suggestions for improvement.

I never met with the “committee of three” and was supposed to never know who the third member of the committee was, though the third person was supposed to be the one the university thought to be the most knowledgeable person available worldwide. The External Examiner was not a part of the University of Edinburgh and was chosen from any location in the world because he/she knew more about the subject to date than any person anywhere. The opinions of the one External Examiner were almost never overridden by the opinions of the two Internal Examiners. A person in the PhD program had to complete at least two years in residence and had five years to submit an acceptable thesis. Should the thesis fail to pass the committee, a scholar might be invited to resubmit. Fortunately I was able to have my first submission accepted and received my degree within the two years residency period, and most fortunately within the time my finances allowed. In fact, finances were so tight that I left before the July graduation (considered a big event held in McEwen Hall) and left Scotland at the end of the classes in May without knowing if I had passed or not. My sheepskin bearing a wax seal crossed the Atlantic and arrived two or three weeks after I was back in this country. It was a day to celebrate. My autobiography, Angel Kisses and My Beating Heart, has more about the tedious process of study I followed, so I will not go into more of that here.

Question: How long were you in the University of Edinburgh and where did you research The Darien Scheme?

Answer: I was a candidate for the degree from September of Forty-Seven until July of Forty-Nine. This was the minimum residence required although up to five years were permissible on the University’s calendar if the student was granted the additional time by Edinburgh University (“Dear Ol’ EU”, as students sometimes said).

Primarily I did the research in the National Archives in Scotland, a building about a hundred yards from the University campus. These were all original manuscripts, not always easy to read. There were two printed books, which I sometimes used to compare my interpretation of the original documents that were too faded to read. I made one trip to Glasglow to check documents in their library. I was afraid I might need to go to Spain because the Spanish side of the Darien Scheme proceedings was so important, but mainly the original documents in the Scottish National Archives proved sufficient for acceptance of the points in my thesis.

Question: What is the Darien Scheme?

Answer: Darien was the name of the area in what was thought to be an unclaimed land that a company in Scotland wanted to establish a colony during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. This area later came to be known as Panama.

Question: What did the Darien Scheme have to do with The Church of Scotland?

Answer: The Church of Scotland became involved when it was determined that Darien would be an opportunity for the Church to reach out to other nations in a missionary effort. The Church gave its wholehearted endorsement to the venture and encouraged some of its ablest leaders to become involved.

Question: Who were the originators of the idea of the Darien Scheme and what was their primary interest?

Answer: It was never an official decision by any government body. It was the idea of The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies. Their interest was worldwide trade.

For years most of the great ships that sailed the world’s oceans had been built in Scotland. At the time of the Darien Scheme, Clydeside near Glasgow on the Clyde was the shipyard where most of the major sailing vessels in the world were constructed. There was interest in adding worldwide trade to worldwide ship building.

In Sixteen Ninety-Eight the first Darien Expedition set forth from Scotland. They sailed to Panama and there proceeded to establish a colony, New Caladonia. They sailed and began colonization without knowing or understanding that Spain claimed this same portion of the world as their exclusive domain. A Second Expedition left Scotland intending to join them the following year. The various chroniclers of the trip and nearly two-year colonization record deaths from what they called the fever or the flux. The first was almost certainly malaria and the second was probably an intestinal disorder caused by eating improperly stored foods. A total of four thousand may have died.

An effort had been made by six Scottish ministers, both young and older, to evangelize the natives but this was done after the colonists had endured untold sufferings and unbelievable hardships. Some got as far as North America. One, ordained with instructions on how he was to win the native people to the Scottish religion, had all but given up. Another, Alexander Shields, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, went as far as a Caribbean Island where he died.

After Seventeen Hundred, the third year of the expedition or scheme, a Spanish Fleet appeared and demanded the Scots surrender. Exhausted Scots, already dwindling in numbers from illness, and with realization that their ships designed for trade were weakened, agreed to give up rather than fight the Spaniards. They were allowed to depart with full military honors. With flags waving high and with permission of the Spaniards, the Scots finally left Darien and began their trip to return to Scotland. Only a few made it back from the two-year venture to the New World.

Question: In your opinion Dr. Ramsay, why was the University interested in assigning you a subject such as “The Darien Scheme”? What was importance of the Darien Scheme?

(Is the scheme just an interesting subject for a thesis, a part of Scottish and Panama history with no impact on the life of Scotland or Panama today?)

In other words, why do you think your professors wanted to research The Darien Scheme?

Answer: The word Darien became a symbol for utter disaster. To the Scots, the word Darien means complete failure. After my Thesis passed the Committee and I was told that the External Examiner recommended that this thesis be published at University expense. This did not happen for a full fifteen years, not until a new wave of interest in Darien took place fifteen years later when Microform of London included Darien in its listings and I became a published thesis author.

I think they wanted to research why so many Scots would put so much into earning an equivalent (pay they expected to receive) and jeopardize their very lives in a Scheme like Darien. In essence they lost their lives, their invested possessions, and while they received coupons for the equivalent the British Company had promised, there was a question as to whether they had received their equivalent, more than a mere coupon. There was even evidence British entrepreneurs had diverted equivalent to other than the intendended recipients, selling them to others below true value.

I think I learned that, while they were excited about a cause they understood as Scots, they needed to know something about the place they intended to colonize. Before attempting such a scheme, they needed to make an effort to establish a relationship with the people who were already there. At least, they needed to learn what those there desired and hoped before going in with thousands of persons to evangelize. Today Darien is remembered in Scotland as a tragic event that could have been avoided with measured understanding.

Questions Answered Jan. 12, 2007