The Scots in Early Georgia

[KFCarter]

Here are two relatively new titles on the Darien Colony I found today:

The Price of Scotland

Caledonia's Last Stand

I just put down Prebble's "Darien: the Scottish Dream of Empire." Can't help but feel Lord Belhaven's past words could be applied here too, "Let any Scotsman eat this book and he shall find it as bitter as gall in his belly." What a tortured enterprise, made a little more personal by the fact that there may be a family connection for me to Commissioners William and Samuel Vetch. Their father had spelled the name Veitch, with is the name of one of my immigrant ancestors, although my ancestor, James Veitch, came to Maryland in 1651 long before the Darien scheme, I'll be interested to discover if we're connected "higher up on the tree."

I do not mean to discourage anyone from reading this book, though. It is fascinating. It is good to now know the significance of the fact that Georgia's early Highland settlers chose to change the name of their settlement from New Inverness to Darien... this was a highly symbolic thing for them to do, settling as they were in a sub-tropical American wildnerness with disease at their elbow and a Spanish threat just over the horizon.

I will definitely want to read these other two Darien titles, but I'm going to need a "sorbet" course of something lighter to clean the palate first.

Thanks again, Cajunscot! Keep the titles coming.

best
Ken