Editing Darien scheme (section)

==Reactions to the disaster==
The failure of the colonisation project provoked tremendous discontent throughout Lowland Scotland, where almost every family had been affected. Some held the English responsible, and others believed that they could and should assist in yet another effort at making the scheme work. The company petitioned the king to affirm their right to the colony. However, he declined, saying that although he was sorry the company had incurred such huge losses, reclaiming Darien would mean war with Spain. The continuing futile debate on the issue served to further increase bitter feelings.  An estimated 15-40% of all the actual capital in Scotland was invested in this project.<ref name="eos.org"/>

Hoping to recoup some of its capital by a more conventional venture, the company sent two ships from the Clyde, the ''Speedy Return'' and the ''Continent'', to the [[Guinea]] coast laden with trade goods. Sea captain Robert Drummond was the master of the ''Speedy Return''; his brother Thomas, who had played such a large part in the second expedition, was [[supercargo]] on the vessel. Instead of trying to sell for gold as the company's directors intended, however, the Drummond brothers had exchanged the goods for slaves, whom they sold in [[Madagascar]]. Carousing with the [[buccaneer]]s for whom the island was a refuge, the Drummonds fell in with pirate [[John Bowen (pirate)|John Bowen]], who offered them loot if they would lend him their ships for a raid on homeward bound [[East Indiaman|Indiamen]].

Drummond backed out of the agreement, only to have Bowen appropriate the ships while Drummond was ashore.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}} Bowen burnt the ''Continent'' on the [[Malabar Coast|Malabar coast]] when he decided she was of no use to him, and he later scuttled the ''Speedy Return'' after transferring her crew to a merchant ship that he had taken. The Drummonds apparently decided against returning to Scotland, where they would have had to explain the loss of the ships they had been entrusted with, and no more was ever heard of them.

The company sent out another ship, but she was lost at sea. Unable to afford the cost of fitting out yet another vessel, the company hired the ''Annandale'' in London to trade in the Spice Islands. However, the East India Company had the ship seized on the grounds that it was in contravention of their charter. That provoked an uproar in Scotland, greatly aided by the inflammatory rhetoric of the company's secretary, Roderick MacKenzie, a relentless enemy of the English. Fury at the country's impotence led to the scapegoating and hanging of three innocent English sailors.<ref name="Prebble,pp.1">Prebble, ''Darien: The Scottish Dream'', pp. 1–9 & 308–315.</ref>

In July 1704, [[Thomas Green (captain)|Thomas Green]], the 25-year-old [[sea captain|master]] of the ''Worcester'', an English merchant ship, arrived at [[Leith]]. Mackenzie convinced himself that the ship was an East India Company ship that should be seized in reprisal for the ''Annandale''. He succeeded in getting legal authority and Green, who had been given the command at 21, watched as his ship's cargo was impounded and the sails, guns and rudder were removed over the next three months.

In December, the crew was arrested for piracy. Although many in Scotland were delighted, it soon became clear to the directors of the Darien company that Mackenzie's charges were not supported by any proof, and it seemed the men would be released. However, Mackenzie suddenly claimed to have ascertained from the crew of the ''Worcester'' that Green had drunkenly boasted of taking the ''Speedy Return'', killing the Drummonds and burning the ship. Green and two of his crew, John Madden and James Simpson, were sent for trial in Edinburgh. Mackenzie produced several witnesses including members of Green's crew; their statements contradicted one another and none of them could accurately describe the dates, locations, or descriptions of the supposed victims of the ''Worcester''. The prosecution case, which was made in medieval Latin and legal [[Scots language|Doric]], was unintelligible to jury and accused alike.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}} The defence advocates' objections were dismissed by court officials and they fled after the trial. Some jurors resisted bringing in a verdict of guilty, but the men were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.

[[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|The Queen]] advised her 30 privy councillors in Edinburgh that the men should be pardoned, but the common people demanded for the sentence to be carried out. Nineteen councillors made excuses to stay away from the deliberations on a reprieve, fearing the wrath of a huge mob that had arrived in Edinburgh to demand the sailors be put to death. Even though they had affidavits from London by two of the crew of the ''Speedy Return'', who testified that Green and his crew had no knowledge or involvement in the fate of the ship, the remaining councillors refused to pardon them.

Green, Madden and Simpson were subjected to derision and insults by the mob before they were hanged. Green had complete faith that as an innocent man, he would be reprieved, and he was still looking to the Edinburgh road for a messenger as the hangman placed the hood over his head.<ref name="Prebble,pp.1"/> The remainder of Green's crew were quietly pardoned and released.