Lot 94
Darien - Ferguson, Robert
Rare Books, Maps and Manuscripts
Auction: 29 August 2012 at 12:00 BST
Description
A just and modest vindication of the Scots design, for the having established a colony at Darien. [Edinburgh]: Printed in the year 1699. First edition, 8vo., with the preliminary and final blanks, recent panelled calf, some browning, particularly to the margins, [Wing F742]
Footnote
Provenance: Viscount Strathallan, Stobhall, Perthshire
Note: First edition of a treatise commending and encouraging "the Application of the Scots to foreign trade... and their late Attempt to have setled at Darien". After founding the Bank of England William Paterson conceived the idea of establishing a great trading company for the Scots to equal the prospects possessed by the English in the East India Company. He looked to the west, and sent an expedition to found New Caledonia in the Isthmus of Darien. This enterprise managed to offend the English and the Spanish at the same time, but its rapid failure was due to heat and illness rather than outside opposition. A series of tracts on both sides of the affair appeared in 1699-1700, Ferguson's being one of the more substantial defences.