In defiance of the King in the face of the hostility by the English, the Scottish Parliament set out to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Darien in Central America. This, the persistent dream of one man, William Paterson, was to be a panacea for Scotland's economic ills. The first expedition set out in July of 1698. Three years later, the whole enterprise collapsed, two thousand men had died for nothing and with them had been lost half the wealth of Scotland. Its final consequence was the forced union of the broken Scottish nation with England, which had done so much to ensure its collapse. This story of stupidity, incompetence, and corruption is back in print.