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Book Description
One of the most important events in Scotland's history, which contributed directly to the 1707 Act of Union with England.
Product Description
The word Darien is a scar on the memory of the Scots, and the hurt is still felt even where the cause of the wound is dimly understood. Three hundred years ago the Parliament of Scotland, in one of its last acts before the nation lost its political identity, defied the King and the persistent hostility of the English to establish a noble trading company, to settle a colony, and to recover its people from a century of despair, privation, famine and decay. The site of the colony, Darien on the Isthmus of Panama, was the enduring dream of William Paterson, the erratically brilliant Scot who had helped to found the Bank of England. He called it 'the door of the seas, and the key of the universe', and believed that it would become a bridge between East and West, an entrep-t through which would pass the richest trade in the world. The first attempt to make the Company a joint Scots and English venture was crushed by the English Parliament. The Scots created it by themselves, in a wave of almost hysterical enthusiasm, subscribing half of the nation's capital. Three years later the 'noble undertaking', crippled by the quarrelsome stupidity of its leaders, deliberately obstructed by the English Government, and opposed in arms by 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. It was a tragic curtain to the last act of Scotland's independence. John Prebble's book is the first detailed account of the Darien Settlement, drawn from original sources in the records of the Company, the journals, letters and memoirs of those who tried to turn William Paterson's dream into reality. (20020218)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not aiming for a detailed proper review here, but wanted to offset the reviewer who canned the book after reading a whopping twenty pages! I was fascinated by this book, which tells a story of Scotland that most folks (at least not my fellow Americans) haven't even heard about. I always find colonial era stories fascinating, and Prebble does not disappoint. He inspired much angst, frustration and much head shaking as I read the story of folks that seemed too caught up in personal achievement and pride, putting it ahead of the greater good. The book brings home loud and clear the point that people who took part in historical events were very much real people, with flaws and personalities just like you and I. All to often we make historical figures larger than life, and forget that they, too, worried, had personal biases, and other strenghts and weaknesses possessed by all real people. I enjoy Prebble's writing style, and this is my favorite of his books.
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An excellent book full of good source material and excellent research.All books since John's book have quoted him as an authority on the period in question and certainly others have extended and built on his analysis or have come to other conclusions possibly but a reviewer such as the one star one who reads twenty pages only and throws it in the bin and then has the disgraceful urge and effrontery of wishing to and writing something about the said book does the author of it a tremendous injustice,does no service to Amazon, nor it's sellers nor aspiring readers who wish to be educated about the events,actions, persons etc portrayed, and furthermore does damage to the high standard that other reviewers aspire to such as integrity of judgement,scale and scope of their review and an honest appraisal of the work reviewed.Readers should ignore the one star review here,it is as much a review as a fly is a bumblebee.The Highland Clearances
4 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was looking forward to reading this as my ancestors were involved in the Darien affair. I was disappointed. The book was written in the 1960s but the writing style was more suitable to the 1860s. After twenty pages I hadn't learned anything more than the dust cover had explained. Its in the bin. I have seen a second book on the subject, I will try and find it.
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