Editing Gregor MacGregor (section)

===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"}}