Series 2 > Seafield correspondence from 1685 to 1708

1699]
FIRST EARL OF SEAFIELD
277
carrieing on the same have given noe testimonie of ther
affection to the govermentt. By the nixt post your Lo.
shall have the proclamation in printt; and with my service
to your Lo. is all from, My Lord, Yor Lo. most obedient
and humble sert., Alexr. Ogilvie.
On the 29th of November 1699 the council of the African
company resolved to send Lord Basil Hamilton,1 brother of the
Duke of Hamilton, to London to present an address to the King
on behalf of Captain Pinkerton and other Darien colonists, who
had been captured by the Spaniards at Carthagena and sent
prisoners to Spain. A national address was also extensively signed
in Scotland asking the King to recognise the right of the Scots
to colonise Darien. Next two letters refer to the heat thus caused
in Banffshire.
For THE EARL OF FINDLATER
Edinburgh, 5th January 1700.
My Lord,—By the yesterdays post ther came noe
pacquet, and the reason of it is conjectured to be that the
K. being at Hamptoune Courtt the Secretaries have not
bein returned to London when the post came of. It is
reported here that since the K. will not allow Lord Basil
access,2 his Lo. hath wreat to the company for advice,
whether he shall give the petition to ane other hand to
deliver or how to dispos of it. I have not heard from your
Lo. this great while, albeit I fail’d not to give you the
accounts that were goeing here ; and since there hath bein
so hott service in your countrye it was expected your Lo.
wold have caused wreat the true accounts of it, and by a
footman sent it to the Abdns post, so that comeing
timely here it wold have prevented many reports that were
runing, and hindered your Lo. name from being in the
mouth almost of everie on here, some saying ye hade
subscrived the address, and others not, and your friends
1 Carstares State Papers and Letters, pp. 513, 514.
2 Historical MSS. Commission, Fourteenth Report, App., Part in., March-
mont MSS., p. 152.