274

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

chap.

XXIV.

iiira.

could endure the labour of breaking clods and carryingburdens under the fierce blaze of a vertical sun. It oughtto have been remembered that such colonists would haveto do for themselves what English, French, Dutch, andSpanish colonists employed Negroes or Indians to do forthem. It was seldom indeed that a white freeman in Bar-badoes or Martinique, in Guiana or at Panama, was em-ployed in severe bodily labour. But the Scotch who settledat Darien must at first be without slaves, and must there-fore dig the trench round their town, build their houses,cultivate their fields, hew wood, and draw water, withtheir own hands. Such toil in such an atmosphere was toomuch for them. The provisions which they had broughtout had been of no good quality, and had not been im-proved by lapse of time or by change of climate. Theyams and plantains did not suit stomachs accustomed togood oatmeal. The flesh of wild animals and the greenfat of the turtle, a luxury then unknown in Europe, wentbut a small way; and supplies were not to be expectedfrom any foreign settlement. During the cool months,however, which immediately followed the occupation ofthe isthmus there were few deaths. But, before the equi-nox, disease began to make fearful havoc in the littlecommunity. The mortality gradually rose to ten or twelvea day. Both the clergymen who had accompanied the ex-pedition died. Paterson buried his wife in that soil which,as he had assured his too credulous countrymen, exhaledhealth and vigour. He was himself stretched on his pallet