Editing Gregor MacGregor (section)

==Poyais scheme==
===Cazique of Poyais===
{{Location map+|Middle America|width=280
| AlternativeMap = Middle America location map.svg|float=right |places=
  {{Location map~|Middle America|label=<div style="position:relative;left:10px;"><span style="background-color:#c6ecff;">"Poyais"</span></div>|position=top|lat=15.2462|long=-84.4269|mark=Cercle rouge 100%.svg|marksize=30}}
  {{Location map~|Middle America|label=<div style="position:relative;top:1px;"><span style="background-color:white;">Belize</span></div>|position=left|lat=17.504722|long=-88.186667|marksize=8}}
  {{Location map~|Middle America|label=<div style="position:relative;top:10px;right:2px;"><span style="background-color:white;">Porto Bello</span></div>|position=left|lat=9.55|long=-79.65|marksize=8}}
  {{Location map~|Middle America|label=<div style="position:relative;bottom:7px;right:3px;"><span style="background-color:#c6ecff;">{{nowrap|Rio de la Hacha}}</span></div>|position=right|lat=11.544167|long=-72.906944|marksize=8}}
  {{Location map~|Middle America|label=<div style="position:relative;left:9px;bottom:2px;">Caracas</div>|position=bottom|lat=10.5|long=-66.916667|marksize=8}}
  {{Location map~|Middle America|label=Amelia&nbsp;Island|position=right|lat=30.704689|long=-81.454461|marksize=8}}
  {{Location map~|Middle America|label=<div style="position:relative;top:10px;right:3px;"><span style="background-color:#c6ecff;">Aux Cayes</span></div>|position=right|lat=18.2|long=-73.75|marksize=8}}
  {{Location map~|Middle America|label=<span style="background-color:#c6ecff;">Nassau</span>|position=right|lat=25.06|long=-77.345|marksize=8}}
  {{Location map~|Middle America|label=<div style="position:relative;bottom:7px;right:3px;">San Andrés</div>|position=right|lat=12.58|long=-81.7|marksize=8}}
  {{Location map~|Middle America|label=<div style="position:relative;right:6px;"><span style="background-color:#c6ecff;">Kingston</span></div>|position=bottom|lat=17.983333|long=-76.8|marksize=8}}
  |caption=Supposed location of Poyais and places relevant to MacGregor's prior exploits
  |alt=
}}

MacGregor's next known location is at the court of [[George Frederic Augustus I|King George Frederic Augustus]] of the [[Mosquito Coast]], at [[Cape Gracias a Dios]] on the [[Gulf of Honduras]] in April 1820.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=107, 221–222}} The [[Miskito people]], descendants of shipwrecked African slaves and indigenous people, shared the historic British antipathy towards Spain, and the British authorities in the region had crowned their most powerful chieftains as "kings" since the 17th century.{{sfn|Dawson|2004}} These were kings in little more than name, with no effective control over the country they ostensibly led; Britain crowned and protected them simply so they could declare the area to be under Mosquito sovereignty and thereby obstruct Spanish claims.{{sfn|Naylor|1989|p=219}} There had been a modest [[Black River (settlement)|British settlement]] on the coast around the [[Sico River|Black River]] (now the Río Sico), but this had been evacuated following the [[Convention of London (1786)|Anglo-Spanish Convention]] of 1786. By the 1820s the most visible sign of prior colonisation was a small graveyard overgrown by the jungle.{{sfn|Hasbrouck|1927|p=441}}

On 29 April 1820, George Frederic Augustus signed a document granting MacGregor and his heirs a substantial swathe of Mosquito territory—8,000,000 acres (12,500 square miles; 32,375 square kilometres), an area larger than [[Wales]]{{sfn|The Economist|2012}}{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=31–37}} — in exchange for rum and jewellery.{{sfn|Dawson|2004}} The land was pleasing to the eye but unfit for cultivation and could sustain little in the way of livestock. Its area was roughly a triangle with corners at Cape Gracias a Dios, [[Cape Camarón]] and the Black River's headwaters.{{sfn|Hasbrouck|1927|p=441}} MacGregor dubbed this area "Poyais" after the natives of the highlands around the Black River's source, the [[Paya people|Paya]] or "Poyer" people (today called the Pech),{{sfn|Hasbrouck|1927|p=440}}{{sfn|Olson|1991|pp=289–290}} and in mid-1821 appeared back in London calling himself the Cazique of Poyais—"[[Cacique|Cazique]]", a Spanish-American word for a native chief, being equivalent in MacGregor's usage to "Prince".{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=8, 32–35}} He claimed to have been created such by the Mosquito king, but in fact both the title and Poyais were of his own invention.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=108, 235}}

Despite Rafter's book, London society remained largely unaware of MacGregor's failures over the past few years, but remembered successes such as his march to Barcelona; similarly his association with the "Die-Hards" of the 57th Foot was recalled, but his dubious early discharge was not.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=26–29}} In this climate of a constantly shifting Latin America, where governments rose, fell, and adopted new names from year to year, it did not seem so implausible that there might be a country called Poyais or that a decorated general like MacGregor might be its leader.{{sfn|Dawson|2004}}{{sfn|The Economist|2012}}{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=289–290}} The Cazique became "a great adornment for the dinner tables and ballrooms of sophisticated London", Sinclair writes{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=26–29}} — rumours abounded that he was partially descended from indigenous royalty.{{#tag:ref||group="n"|name="darienancestor"}} His exotic appeal was enhanced by the arrival of the striking "Princess of Poyais", Josefa, who had given birth to a girl named Josefa Anna Gregoria at MacGregor's sister's home in Ireland.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=29, 36}} The MacGregors received countless social invitations, including an official reception at [[Guildhall, London|Guildhall]] from the [[Lord Mayor of London]].{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=26–29}}

MacGregor said that he had come to London to attend [[George IV of the United Kingdom|King George IV]]'s coronation on the Poyers' behalf, and to seek investment and immigrants for Poyais. He claimed to have inherited a democratic system of government there, with a basic civil service and military.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=29–36}} To those interested MacGregor showed what he said was a copy of a printed proclamation he had issued to the Poyers on 13 April 1821. He therein announced the 1820 land grant, his departure for Europe to seek investors and colonists—"religious and moral instructors&nbsp;... and persons to guide and assist you"—and the appointment of Brigadier-General George Woodbine to be "Vice-Cazique" during his absence. "POYERS!", the document concluded, "I now bid you farewell for a while&nbsp;... I trust, that through the kindness of Almighty Providence, I shall be again enabled to return amongst you, and that then it will be my pleasing duty to hail you as affectionate friends, and yours to receive me as your faithful Cazique and Father."{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=32–35}} There is no evidence that such a statement was ever actually distributed on the Mosquito Coast.{{#tag:ref|This so-called "copy" was probably an original, printed in Britain long after the claimed date.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=318}}|group="n"|name="1821proclamation"}}

So began what has been called one of the most brazen confidence tricks in history — the Poyais scheme.{{#tag:ref|Sinclair calls the Poyais scheme "the most audacious fraud in history",{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=i}} while a 2012 analysis by ''[[The Economist]]'' adjudges it "the greatest confidence trick of all time".{{sfn|The Economist|2012}} "It is true that more recent scams have raised more," the ''Economist''{{'}}s reasoning goes — "[[Bernard Madoff|Bernie Madoff]], a New York-based fraudster caught out in 2008 [[Madoff investment scandal|ran a scheme 20 times bigger]], at $65 billion. In cash terms alone Mr Madoff trumps MacGregor. But fraud is about creating false confidence, and making people believe in something that does not exist. For some, like Mr Madoff, it is the belief in the trickster’s shamanic stock-picking skills. For others, like [[Charles Ponzi]], it is a fail-safe [[Ponzi scheme|mathematical scheme]]. MacGregor was far more ambitious: he invented an entire country."{{sfn|The Economist|2012}}|group="n"|name="greatestfraud"}} MacGregor devised a [[Tricameralism|tricameral]] parliament and other convoluted constitutional arrangements for Poyais, drew up commercial and banking mechanisms, and designed distinctive uniforms for each regiment of the Poyaisian Army.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=319–320}} His imaginary country had an honours system, landed titles, a coat of arms—doubly [[supporter|supported]] by Poyers and unicorns—and the same Green Cross flag he had used in Florida.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=77–78}} By the end of 1821 Major William John Richardson had not only accepted MacGregor's fantasy as true but had become an active ally, providing his attractive estate at Oak Hall, [[Wanstead]] to be a British base for the supposed Poyaisian royal family.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=29–36}} MacGregor gave Richardson the Order of the Green Cross, commissioned him into the Poyaisian "Royal Regiment of Horse Guards" and appointed him ''[[chargé d'affaires]]'' of the Poyaisian [[legation]] at Dowgate Hill in the [[City of London]]—the top representative of Poyais in Britain. Richardson's [[letter of credence]] from "Gregor the First, Sovereign Prince of the State of Poyais" was presented to George IV.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=39}} MacGregor had Poyaisian offices set up in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow to sell impressive-looking land certificates—initially hand-written, but later printed—to the general public, and to co-ordinate prospective emigrants.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=64–65}}

===Land of opportunity===
The consensus among MacGregor's biographers is that Britain in the early 1820s could hardly have suited him and his Poyais scheme better.{{sfn|The Economist|2012}}{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=63}} Amid a general growth in the British economy following the [[Battle of Waterloo]] and the end of the Napoleonic Wars, [[interest rate]]s were dropping and the British [[government bond]], the "[[Consol (bond)|consol]]", offered rates of only 3% per annum on the [[London Stock Exchange]]. Those wanting a higher return invested in more risky foreign debt.{{sfn|The Economist|2012}} After continental European bonds were popular in the immediate post-Waterloo years, the Latin American revolutions brought a raft of new alternatives to the London market, starting with the £2&nbsp;million loan issued for [[Gran Colombia]] (incorporating both New Granada and Venezuela) in March 1822.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=59–60}} Bonds from Colombia, Peru, Chile and others, offering interest rates as high as 6% per annum, made Latin American securities extremely popular on the London market—a trend on which a nation like the Poyais described by MacGregor would be ideally positioned to capitalise.{{sfn|Dawson|2004}}{{sfn|The Economist|2012}}{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=60–63}}
[[File:View of the port of Black River in the Territory of Poyais.jpg|alt=An etching showing a harbour as viewed from the sea, with small boats in the foreground.|left|thumb|An engraving from ''Sketch of the Mosquito Shore'', purporting to depict the "port of [[Black River (settlement)|Black River]] in the Territory of Poyais"{{sfn|Strangeways|1822|pp=8–9}}]]
MacGregor mounted an aggressive sales campaign. He gave interviews in the national newspapers, engaged publicists to write advertisements and leaflets, and had Poyais-related ballads composed and sung on the streets of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. His proclamation to the Poyers was distributed in handbill form.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=64–65}} 

In mid-1822, there appeared in Edinburgh and London a 355-page guidebook "chiefly intended for the use of settlers", ''Sketch of the Mosquito Shore, Including the Territory of Poyais'' — ostensibly the work of a "Captain Thomas Strangeways", [[aide-de-camp]] to the Cazique,{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=68}} but actually written either by MacGregor himself or by accomplices.{{sfn|The Economist|2012}}{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=316–318}}{{#tag:ref|It is unclear whether Strangeways was a real person or another of MacGregor's inventions. The 1825 ''[[Army List]]'' records a Thomas Strangeways as a captain in the 9th Royal Veteran Battalion, with rank dating back to 6 April 1809, but it is not clear if there is a connection.{{sfn|Hasbrouck|1927|p=444}} Sinclair proposes that MacGregor may have appropriated the name from a person unrelated to the fraud, or invented the surname "Strangeways" as a joke on his victims.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=318}}|group="n"|name="strangeways"}}

The ''Sketch'' mostly comprised long, reprinted tracts from older works on the Mosquito Coast and other parts of the region. The original material ranged from misleading to outright made up.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=316–318}} MacGregor's publicists described the Poyaisian climate as "remarkably healthy&nbsp;... agree[ing] admirably with the constitution of Europeans"—it was supposedly a spa destination for sick colonists from the Caribbean.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=65–66}} The soil was so fertile that a farmer could have three [[maize]] [[harvest]]s a year, or grow cash crops such as sugar or tobacco without hardship; detailed projections at the ''Sketch''{{'}}s end forecast profits of millions of dollars.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=66, 73}} Fish and game were so plentiful that a man could hunt or fish for a single day and bring back enough to feed his family for a week.{{sfn|Hasbrouck|1927|p=444}} The natives were not just co-operative but intensely pro-British.{{sfn|The Economist|2012}} The capital was St Joseph, a flourishing seaside town of wide paved boulevards, [[colonnade]]d buildings and mansions,{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=15}} inhabited by as many as 20,000.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=40}}{{sfn|Hasbrouck|1927|p=448}} St Joseph had a theatre, an opera house and a domed cathedral; there was also the Bank of Poyais, the Poyaisian houses of parliament and a royal palace.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=15}} Reference was made to a "projected [[Jews|Hebrew]] colony".{{sfn|Strangeways|1822|pp=8–9}} The ''Sketch'' went so far as to claim the rivers of Poyais contained "globules of pure gold".{{sfn|The Economist|2012}}{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=66}}{{sfn|Strangeways|1822|p=63}}

{{Quote box|align=right|width=29%
|title=The Poyais Emigrant
|quote=
<poem>
We'll a' gang to Poyais thegither,
We'll a' gang ower the seas thegither,
To fairer lands and brighter skies,
Nor sigh again for Hieland heather.
</poem>
|source=Chorus of "The Poyais Emigrant", one of the ballads composed to advertise Poyais{{sfn|Logan|1869|pp=204–208}}|quoted = 1}}
This was almost all fiction,{{sfn|Hasbrouck|1927|pp=441, 445}} but MacGregor's calculation that official-looking documents and the printed word would convince many people proved correct. The meticulous detail in the leather-bound ''Sketch'', and the cost of having it printed, did much to dispel lingering doubts.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=316–318}} Poyaisian land certificates at two [[shilling]]s and threepence per acre,{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=74}} roughly equivalent to a working man's daily wage at the time, were perceived by many as an attractive investment opportunity.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=2}}{{#tag:ref|Until the [[pound sterling]] was [[Decimal Day|decimalised]] in 1971, each pound was made up of 240 [[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|pence]], with 12 pence in a [[shilling]] and 20 shillings in a pound.{{sfn|Robens|Jayaweera|Kiefer|2014|p=74}}|group="n"|name="predecimalmoney"}} There was enough demand for the certificates that MacGregor was able to raise the price to two shillings and sixpence per acre in July 1822, then gradually to four shillings per acre, without diminishing sales;{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=74}} according to MacGregor, about 500 had bought Poyaisian land by early 1823.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=247}} The buyers included many who invested their life savings. MacGregor became, to quote one 21st-century financial analyst, the "founding father of [[securities fraud]]".{{sfn|Straney|2011|pp=33-35}}

Alongside the land certificate sales, MacGregor spent several months organising the issue of a Poyaisian government loan on the London Stock Exchange. As a precursor to this he registered his 1820 land grant at the [[Court of Chancery]] on 14 October 1822. [[Sir John Perring, 1st Baronet|Sir John Perring, Shaw, Barber & Co.]], a London bank with a fine reputation, underwrote a £200,000 loan—secured on "all the revenues of the Government of Poyais" including the sale of land — and offered provisional certificates or "[[scrip]]" for the Poyaisian bonds on 23 October. The bonds were in denominations of £100, £200 and £500, and offered at a marked-down purchase price of 80%. The certificate could be acquired for 15%, with the rest due over two installments on 17 January and 14 February 1823. The interest rate was 6% per annum.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=78–80}}{{#tag:ref|The bonds were due to [[Maturity (finance)|mature]] in 1852.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=78–80}}|group="n"|name="mature"}} If the Poyaisian issue successfully emulated its Colombian, Peruvian and Chilean counterparts, MacGregor stood to amass a fortune.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=45, 246}}

===Eager settlers===
For settlers, MacGregor deliberately targeted his fellow Scots, assuming that they would be [[Affinity fraud|more likely to trust him, as a Scotsman himself]].{{sfn|The Economist|2012}} Their emigration served to reassure potential investors in the Poyaisian bonds and land certificates firstly that the country was real, and secondly that it was being developed and would provide monetary returns.{{sfn|The Economist|2012}} In Sinclair's assessment, this aspect of the scheme "turn[ed] what would have been an inspired hoax into a cruel and deadly one".{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=322–323}} [[Tamar Frankel]] posits in her analysis that, at least to some degree, MacGregor "probably believed his own story" and genuinely hoped to forge these people into a Poyaisian society.{{sfn|The Economist|2012}}{{refn|Sinclair suggests that the Cazique either was "seduced by his own pretensions" and self-removed from reality while perpetrating the fraud, or simply did not care what happened to the emigrants.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=322–326}}|group="n"|name="seducedbydelusions"}} MacGregor told his would-be colonists that he wished to see Poyais populated with Scots as they possessed the necessary hardiness and character to develop the new country.{{sfn|The Economist|2012}} Alluding to the rivalry with England and the Darien episode—which, he stressed, had involved a direct ancestor of his—MacGregor suggested that in Poyais they might right this historic wrong and salvage Scottish pride.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=42}} Skilled tradesmen and [[artisan]]s were promised free passage to Poyais, supplies, and lucrative government contracts.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=80–81}} Hundreds, mostly Scots, signed up to emigrate—enough to fill seven ships.{{sfn|The Economist|2012}} They included a City of London banker named Mauger (who was to head the Bank of Poyais), doctors, civil servants, young men whose families had bought them commissions in the Poyaisian Army and Navy, and an Edinburgh cobbler who accepted the post of Official Shoemaker to the Princess of Poyais.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=76–77, 230}}

[[File:Bank of Poyais-1 Hard Dollar (1820s) SCAM.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A Bank of Poyais "dollar", printed in Scotland. MacGregor bartered these worthless notes to his would-be settlers, taking their real British money in exchange.|alt=A piece of paper headed with a coat of arms and the words "One Dollar, Bank of Poyais", with smaller writing beneath.]]
Leadership of the Cazique's first emigration party was given to an ex-British Army officer, Hector Hall, who was commissioned into the Poyaisian "2nd Native Regiment of Foot" with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and created "Baron Tinto" with a supposed 12,800-acre (20-square-mile; 52-square-kilometre) estate.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=76–77}} Hall would sail with 70 emigrants on {{ship||Honduras Packet|1800 ship|2}}, a vessel MacGregor had encountered in South America.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=75}} MacGregor saw them off from London on 10 September 1822, entrusting to Mauger 5,000 Bank of Poyais dollar notes produced by the [[Bank of Scotland]]'s official printer.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=77–78}} "The new world of their dreams suddenly became a very real world as the men accepted the Cazique's dollar notes," Sinclair writes. "The people who had bought land, and who had planned to take their savings with them in coin, were also delighted to exchange their gold for the legal currency of Poyais."{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=80–81}} After MacGregor spoke briefly to each of the settlers to wish them luck, he and Hall exchanged salutes and the ''Honduras Packet'' set sail, flying the Green Cross flag.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=77–78}}

{{see also|List of ships of the Poyais scheme}}

A second emigrant ship—{{ship||Kennersley Castle|1811 ship|2}}, a merchantman docked at [[Leith]], near Edinburgh — was hired by MacGregor in October 1822,{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=80–81}} and left Leith on 22 January 1823 with almost 200 emigrants aboard.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=3–9}} MacGregor again saw the settlers off, coming aboard to see that they were well quartered; to their delight, he announced that since this was the maiden emigrant voyage from Scotland to Poyais, all the women and children would sail free of charge. The Cazique was rowed back to shore to rousing cheers from his colonists. The ship's captain Henry Crouch fired a six-gun broadside salute, hoisted the supposed flag of Poyais, then steered the ship out of port.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=3–9}}

While claiming royal status as Cazique, MacGregor attempted to dissociate himself from the Latin American republican movement and his former comrades there, and from late 1822 made discreet overtures towards the Spanish government regarding co-operation in Central America. The Spanish paid him little notice.{{sfn|Brown|2006|pp=45–46}} The Poyaisian bonds' price remained fairly steady until they were crippled by developments elsewhere in the market during November and December 1822. Amid the general instability in South America, the Colombian government suggested that its London agent might have exceeded his authority when he arranged the £2&nbsp;million loan. When this representative suddenly died, the frantic buying of South American securities was abruptly replaced by equally restless selling.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=81–84}} The Cazique's cash flow was all but wiped out when most of those who had bought the Poyaisian scrip did not make the payments due in January.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=246–247}} While the price of the Colombian bonds steadied and eventually rose again, the Poyaisian securities never recovered; by late 1823 they were traded for less than 10% of their face value.{{sfn|The Economist|2012}}{{refn|MacGregor had thus far grossed about £50,000.{{sfn|Dawson|2004}} A scathing review of the ''Sketch'', entitled "The Poyais Bubble", was published in Volume XXVIII of the ''[[Quarterly Review]]'' in February 1823.{{sfn|Quarterly Review|1823|pp=158–161}} The author debunked Poyais as a fabrication, identified earlier works reprinted wholesale in the ''Sketch'', and warned investors not to be fooled. A correspondent identified only as "Verax" replied with an [[open letter|open]] "Letter to the Editor of the ''Quarterly Review''",{{sfn|Hasbrouck|1927|p=445}} in which he corroborated the ''Sketch''{{'}}s claims regarding Poyais and the fertility of its soil, and asserted that the author of "The Poyais Bubble" had greatly misunderstood MacGregor.{{sfn|Verax|1823|pp=3, 7}} MacGregor floated a second £200,000 Poyais loan in early October 1823, again with Sir John Perring underwriting the issue, but failed to sell many bonds.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=248–249}}|group="n"|name="poyaisbubble"}}

===Disappointment===
''Honduras Packet'' reached the Black River in November 1822. Bemused to find a country rather different from the ''Sketch''{{'}}s descriptions, and no sign of St Joseph, the emigrants set up camp on the shore, assuming that the Poyaisian authorities would soon contact them. They sent numerous search parties inland; one, guided by natives who recognised the name St Joseph, found some long-forgotten foundations and rubble.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=88–91}}{{#tag:ref|St Joseph had been a real place in the Black River settlement of the 18th century, but had never reached anything close to the level of development described by MacGregor's publicity material.{{sfn|Hasbrouck|1927|pp=441, 445}}|group="n"|name="stjoseph"}} Hall quickly came to the private conclusion that MacGregor must have duped them, but reasoned that announcing such concerns prematurely would only demoralise the party and cause chaos.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=102–104}} A few weeks after their arrival, the captain of the ''Honduras Packet'' abruptly and unilaterally sailed away amid a fierce storm; the emigrants found themselves alone apart from the natives and two American hermits.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=88–91}}{{refn|''Honduras Packet'' had remained anchored off the mouth of the river as the emigrants gradually unloaded their supplies. Some of the provisions and medicines were still in the hold when the ship sailed away; she did not return.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=88–91}}|group="n"|name="honduraspacketsailed"}} Comforting the settlers with vague assurances that the Poyaisian government would find them if they just stayed where they were, Hall set out for Cape Gracias a Dios, hoping to make contact with the Mosquito king or find another ship. Most of the emigrants found it impossible to believe that the Cazique had deliberately misled them, and posited that blame must lie elsewhere, or that there must have been some terrible misunderstanding.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=88-92}}

{{Quote box|align=right|width=39%
|quote=... disease seized upon them and spread rapidly. Lack of proper food and water, and failure to take the requisite sanitary precautions, brought on intermittent fever and dysentery.&nbsp;... Whole families were ill. Most of the sufferers lay on the ground without other protection from the sun and rain than a few leaves and branches thrown across some sticks. Many were so weak as to be unable to crawl to the woods for the common offices of nature. The stench arising from the filth they were in was unendurable.
|source=The Poyais emigrants' situation, as described by Alfred Hasbrouck in 1927{{sfn|Hasbrouck|1927|p=448}}|quoted = 1}}
The second set of colonists disembarked from the ''Kennersley Castle'' in late March 1823. Their optimism was quickly extinguished.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=85–88}} Hall returned in April with disheartening news: he had found no ship that could help and, far from considering them any responsibility of his, King George Frederic Augustus had not even been aware of their presence. The ''Kennersley Castle'' having sailed, MacGregor's victims could count on no assistance in the near future. The emigrants had brought ample provisions with them, including medicines, and had two doctors among them, so they were not in a totally hopeless situation, but apart from Hall none of the military officers, government officials or civil servants appointed by MacGregor made any serious attempt to organise the party.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=95–98}}

Hall returned to Cape Gracias a Dios several times to seek help, but did not explain his constant absences to the settlers—this exacerbated the general confusion and anger, particularly when he refused to pay the wages promised to those supposedly on Poyaisian government contracts. With the coming of the [[Wet season|rainy season]] insects infested the camp, diseases such as [[malaria]] and [[yellow fever]] took hold, and the emigrants sank into utter despair.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=100–102}} James Hastie, a Scottish [[Sawyer (occupation)|sawyer]] who had brought his wife and three children with him, later wrote: "It seemed to be the will of Providence that every circumstance should combine for our destruction."{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=98–100}} Another settler, the would-be royal shoemaker, who had left a family in Edinburgh, shot himself.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=230}}{{refn|Separately from Hall, a small group of settlers attempted to reach [[British Honduras]], about {{convert|500|nmi}} to the north-west, in canoes. The flimsy vessels they built almost immediately foundered, and one man drowned.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=230–232}}|group="n"|name="canoes"}}

The schooner ''Mexican Eagle'', from British Honduras carrying the Chief Magistrate of [[Belize City|Belize]], Marshal Bennet, to the Mosquito king's court, discovered the settlers in early May 1823. Seven men and three children had died, and many more were sick. Bennet informed them that Poyais did not exist and that he had never heard of this Cazique they spoke of. He advised them to return with him to British Honduras, as they would surely die if they stayed where they were. The majority preferred to wait for Hall to come back, hopefully with news of passage back to Britain. About half a week later Hall returned with the Mosquito king, who announced that MacGregor's land grant was revoked forthwith. He had never granted MacGregor the title of Cazique, he said, nor given him the right to sell land or raise loans against it; the emigrants were in fact in George Frederic Augustus's territory illegally and would have to leave unless they pledged allegiance to him. All the settlers left except for about 40 who were too weakened by disease to make the journey.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=232–236}}

Transported aboard the cramped ''Mexican Eagle''—the lack of space necessitated three trips—the emigrants were in miserable shape when they reached Belize, and in most cases had to be carried from the ship. The weather in British Honduras was even worse than that at the Black River, and the colony's authorities and doctors could do little to help the new arrivals. Disease spread rapidly among the settlers and most of them died. The colony's superintendent, Major-General Edward Codd, opened an official investigation to "lay open the true situation of the imaginary State of Poyais and&nbsp;... the unfortunate emigrants", and sent word to Britain of the Poyais settlers' fate.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=236–240}} By the time the warning reached London, MacGregor had five more emigrant ships on the way; the Royal Navy  intercepted them.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=236–240}} A third vessel—{{ship||Skene|1816 ship|2}}, carrying 105 more Scottish emigrants—arrived at the Black River, but on seeing the abandoned colony the master Captain John Wilson sailed on to Belize and disembarked his passengers there.{{sfn|Codd|1824|pp=160–165}} The fourth and last ship to arrive was {{ship||Albion|1800 Whitehaven ship|2}}, which arrived at Belize in November 1823, but which was carrying provisions, arms, and stores and not passengers. The cargo was sold locally at auction.{{sfn|Codd|1824|pp=139–147}} The surviving colonists variously settled in the United States, remained in British Honduras, or sailed for home aboard the ''Ocean'', a British vessel that left Belize on 1 August 1823. Some died during the journey back across the Atlantic. Of the roughly 250 who had sailed on ''Honduras Packet'' and ''Kennersley Castle'', at least 180 had perished. Fewer than 50 ever returned to Britain.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=236–240}}
{{see also|List of ships of the Poyais scheme}}

===Poyais scheme in France===
MacGregor left London shortly before the small party of Poyais survivors arrived home on 12 October 1823—he told Richardson that he was taking Josefa to winter in Italy for the sake of her health, but in fact his destination was Paris.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=240, 248–250}} The London press reported extensively on the Poyais scandal over the following weeks and months, stressing the colonists' travails and charging that MacGregor had orchestrated a massive fraud.{{#tag:ref|The commentators included [[Theodore Hook]], who lampooned the affair in ''[[John Bull (magazine)|John Bull]]'' with a song called "The Court of Poyais", supposedly "by the Poyaisian poet laureate". The first verse included the lyrics "A ''Prince'' or ''Cacique''&nbsp;/ Springs up like a leek;&nbsp;/ ''Protectors'' and ''Presidents'' sprout every week." The refrain went: "Then a fig for King George and his old-fashioned sway!&nbsp;/ And hey for MacGregor, Cacique of Poyais!!"{{sfn|Westmacott|1825|pp=69–72}}{{sfn|Barham|1849|pp=29–33}}|group="n"|name="hook"}} Six of the survivors—including Hastie, who had lost two of his children during the ordeal—claimed that they were misquoted in these articles, and on 22 October signed an affidavit insisting that blame lay not with MacGregor but with Hall and other members of the emigrant party.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=240–243}} "[W]e believe that Sir Gregor MacGregor has been worse used by Colonel Hall and his other agents than was ever a man before", they declared, "and that had they have done their duty by Sir Gregor and by us, things would have turned out very differently at Poyais".{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=240–243}} MacGregor asserted that he himself had been defrauded, alleged [[embezzlement]] by some of his agents, and claimed that covetous merchants in British Honduras were deliberately undermining the development of Poyais as it threatened their profits.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=247–248}} Richardson attempted to console the Poyais survivors, vigorously denied the press claims that the country did not exist, and issued [[Defamation|libel]] writs against some of the British newspapers on MacGregor's behalf.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=260}}{{#tag:ref|Hastie, who returned to Scotland, went so far in his vociferous defence of MacGregor that he published a memoir of Poyais in which he repeatedly stated that the general was not to blame in any way.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=243–244}}|group="n"|name="hastie"}}

[[File:Carte de la Neustrie dressée, ainsi que la carte générale, d'après les cartes de Jn. Purdy, celles de Th. Jefferys, corrigées, etc., etc. - par Desmadryl jeune - btv1b84922923.jpg|thumb|''Carte de la Neustrie'' showing the (fictional) towns of Sidon, Tyr, Asylum, Refugium, Eden and Sertoria]]
In Paris, MacGregor persuaded the Compagnie de la Nouvelle Neustrie, a firm of traders that aspired to prominence in South America, to seek investors and settlers for Poyais in France.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=260}} He concurrently intensified his efforts towards [[Ferdinand VII of Spain|King Ferdinand VII of Spain]]—in a November 1823 letter the Cazique proposed to make Poyais a Spanish protectorate. Four months later he offered to lead a Spanish campaign to reconquer Guatemala, using Poyais as a base. Spain took no action.{{sfn|Brown|2006|pp=46–47}} MacGregor's "moment of greatest hubris", Matthew Brown suggests in his biographical portrait, came in December 1824 when, in a letter to the King of Spain, he claimed to be himself "descendent of the ancient Kings of Scotland".{{sfn|Brown|2006|pp=46–47}} Around this time Josefa gave birth to the third and final MacGregor child, Constantino, at their home in the [[Champs-Élysées]].{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=276}} Gustavus Butler Hippisley, a friend of Major Richardson and fellow veteran of the British Legions in Latin America, accepted the Poyais fantasy as true and entered MacGregor's employ in March 1825.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=259}} Hippisley wrote back to Britain refuting "the bare-faced calumnies of a hireling press"; in particular he admonished a journalist who had called MacGregor a "penniless adventurer".{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=261–262}} With Hippisley's help, MacGregor negotiated with the Nouvelle Neustrie company, whose managing director was a Frenchman called Lehuby, and agreed to sell the French company up to 500,000 acres (781 square miles; 2,023 square kilometres) in Poyais for its own settlement scheme; "a very clever way of distancing himself", Sinclair comments, as this time he would be able to say honestly that others were responsible and that he had merely made the land available.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=264–266}}

Lehuby's company readied a ship at [[Le Havre]] and began to gather French emigrants, of whom about 30 obtained passports to travel to Poyais.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=264–266}} Discarding the idea of co-operation with Spain, MacGregor published a new Poyaisian constitution in Paris in August 1825, this time describing it as a republic — he remained head of state, with the title Cazique—and on 18 August raised a new £300,000 loan through Thomas Jenkins & Company, an obscure London bank, offering 2.5% interest per annum. No evidence survives to suggest that the relevant bonds were issued.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=264–266}} The ''Sketch'' was condensed and republished as a 40-page booklet called ''Some Account of the Poyais Country''.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=291}} French government officials became suspicious when an additional 30 people requested passports to travel to this country they had never heard of, and ordered the Nouvelle Neustrie company's ship to be kept in port. Some of the would-be emigrants became concerned themselves and made complaints to the police, which led to the arrest of Hippisley and MacGregor's secretary Thomas Irving in Paris in the early hours on 4 September 1825. Lehuby's ship never left Le Havre, and his colonists gradually dispersed.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=264–266}}

===1826 acquittal of fraud===
MacGregor went into hiding in the French provinces, while Lehuby fled to the southern Netherlands. Hippisley and Irving were informed on 6 September that they were being investigated for conspiracy to defraud and sell titles to land they did not own. Both insisted that they were innocent. They were taken that evening to [[La Force Prison]].{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=268–270}} 

MacGregor was arrested after three months and brought to La Force on 7 December 1825. He speculated to his confederates that the charges against them must be the result of some abrupt change of policy by France, or of some Spanish intrigue calculated to undermine Poyaisian independence. The three men remained imprisoned without trial while the French attempted to extradite Lehuby from the Netherlands.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=270–273}} Attempting to re-associate himself and Poyais with the republican movement in Latin America, MacGregor issued a French-language declaration from his prison cell on 10 January 1826, claiming that he was "contrary to human rights, held prisoner&nbsp;... for reasons of which he is not aware" and "suffering as one of the founders of independence in the New World".{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=273–276}}{{#tag:ref|MacGregor expressed hope that this statement might be presented at the upcoming congress of the new republics in Panama. It concluded with an announcement that Poyais was hereby under the provisional protection of the [[Federal Republic of Central America|United Provinces of Central America]].{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=273–276}}|group="n"|name="founderofindependence"}} This attempt to convince the French that he might have some kind of diplomatic immunity did not work. The French government and police ignored the announcement.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=273–276}}

[[File:Cour intérieure de la Force en 1840.jpg|thumb|left|[[La Force Prison]] in Paris, where MacGregor was detained from December 1825 to July 1826, before his trial and acquittal|alt=A large, austere-looking stone building.]]
The three Britons were brought to trial on 6 April 1826. Lehuby, still in the Netherlands, was tried ''in absentia''. The Crown prosecution's case was seriously hampered by his absence, particularly because many key documents were with him in the Netherlands. The prosecutor alleged a complex conspiracy between MacGregor, Lehuby and their associates to profit personally from a fraudulent land concession and loan prospectus.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=277–280}} MacGregor's lawyer, a Frenchman called Merilhou, asserted that if anything untoward had occurred, the missing managing director should be held culpable; there was no proof of a conspiracy, he said, and MacGregor could have been himself defrauded by Lehuby. The prosecutor conceded that there was insufficient evidence to prove his case, complimented MacGregor for co-operating with the investigation fairly and openly, and withdrew the charges.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=277–280}} The three judges confirmed the defendants' release — "a full and perfect acquittal", Hippisley would write—but days later the French authorities succeeded in having Lehuby extradited, and the three men learned they would have to stand trial again.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=280–281}}

The fresh trial, scheduled for 20 May, was postponed when the prosecutor announced that he was not ready. The delay gave MacGregor and Merilhou time to prepare an elaborate, largely fictional 5,000-word statement purporting to describe the Scotsman's background, activities in the Americas, and total innocence of any endeavour to defraud. When the trial finally began on 10 July 1826, Merilhou was present not as MacGregor's defence counsel but as a witness for the prosecution, having been called as such because of his links with the Nouvelle Neustrie company.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=283–288}} 

Merilhou entrusted MacGregor's defence to a colleague called Berville, who read the 5,000-word submission in full before the court. "Maître Merilhou, as the author of the address the court had heard, and Maître Berville, as the actor who read the script, had done their work extremely well," Sinclair writes; Lehuby was convicted of making false representations regarding the sale of shares, and sentenced to 13 months' imprisonment, but the Cazique was found not guilty on all charges, while the imputations against Hippisley and Irving were stricken from the record.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=283–288}}

===Return to Britain; lesser Poyais schemes===
[[File:1827-07-02 Poyaisian-Stock-Certificate.jpg|thumb|upright=0.58|One of the bonds issued for the £800,000 Poyaisian loan in 1827|alt=A long, convoluted-looking stock certificate]]
MacGregor quickly moved his family back to London, where the furore following the Poyais survivors' return had died down. In the midst of a serious economic downturn, some investors had subscribed to the £300,000 Poyais loan issued by Thomas Jenkins & Company — apparently believing the assertion of the Cazique's publicists that the previous loans had [[Default (finance)|defaulted]] only because of embezzlement by one of his agents.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=289–292}} MacGregor was arrested soon after his arrival back in Britain, and held at [[Tothill Fields Bridewell]] in Westminster for about a week before being released without charge.{{#tag:ref|It is unclear on what grounds he was detained; no formal charges were brought. Sinclair suggests that his arrest was probably over outstanding debts, and that his quick release may be simply because was able to pay these off.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=292–294}}|group="n"|name="tothill"}} He initiated a new, less ornate version of the Poyais scheme, describing himself simply as the "Cacique of the Republic of Poyais".{{#tag:ref|"Cacique" was the French spelling of "Cazique". The slight change in nomenclature does not seem to have been significant.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=292–294}}|group="n"|name="cacique"}} The new Poyaisian office at 23 Threadneedle Street made none of the claims to diplomatic status the old Poyaisian legation at Dowgate Hill had done.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=294}}

MacGregor persuaded Thomas Jenkins & Company to act as brokers for an £800,000 loan, issued on 20-year bonds at 3% interest, in mid-1827. The bonds, produced at nominal values of £250, £500 and £1,000, did not become popular. An anonymous handbill was circulated in the City of London, describing the previous Poyais loans and warning readers to "Take Care of your Pockets—Another Poyais Humbug". The loan's poor performance compelled MacGregor to pass most of the unsold certificates to a consortium of speculators for a small sum.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=294–297}} Sinclair stresses that the Poyais bonds were perceived as "humbug" not because MacGregor's hoax had been fully unravelled, but simply because the prior securities had failed to deliver profitable returns. "Nobody thought to question the legitimacy of Poyais itself", he elaborates. "Some investors had begun to understand that they were being fleeced, but almost none realised how comprehensively."{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=296–297}}

Other variants on the Poyais scheme were similarly unsuccessful. In 1828, MacGregor began to sell certificates entitling the holders to "land in Poyais Proper" at five shillings per acre. Two years later [[Robert Charles Frederic|King Robert Charles Frederic]], who had succeeded his brother George Frederic Augustus in 1824, issued thousands of certificates covering the same territory and offered them to lumber companies in London, directly competing with MacGregor. When the original investors demanded their long-overdue interest, MacGregor could only pay with more certificates. Other charlatans soon caught on and set up their own rival "Poyaisian offices" in London, offering land debentures in competition with both MacGregor and the Mosquito king.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=297–300}} By 1834 MacGregor was back in Scotland and living in Edinburgh. He paid some unredeemed securities by issuing yet another series of Poyaisian land certificates. Two years later he published a constitution for a smaller Poyaisian republic, centred on the region surrounding the Black River, and headed by himself as president. It was clear, however, that "Poyais had had its day", as Sinclair puts it.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=303–304}} An attempt by MacGregor to sell some land certificates in 1837 marks the last record of any Poyais scheme.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=303–304}}{{#tag:ref|Including all iterations of the Poyais fraud, MacGregor issued certificates covering at least half of the 8&nbsp;million acres covered by the 1820 land grant. King Robert Charles Frederic produced enough documents to sell the same land several times over.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=297–300}}|group="n"|name="samelandseveraltimes"}}