190 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Laith.
escape by a mast that fell between the wreck and
the shore.
In I 692 Leith possessed twenty-nine ships, having
a tonnage of 1,702 tons.
Six years later saw the ill-fated Darien Expedition
sail from its port on the 26th of July, consis:
ing of four frigates-the Rising Sun, Captain
Gibson ; the Companies? Hope, Captain Miller ; the
HamiZton, Captain Duncan ; the Nape, of Borrowtounness,
Captain Dalling-having on board I, 200
men, exclusive of 300 gentlemen volunteers, with
a great quantity of cannon and other munition of
war. They must have gone ?North about,? as
their final departure to the scene of their valour,
sufferings, and destruction was from Rothesay Bay
on the 24th September, 1699.
In the last year of the seventeenth century the
proprietors of the Glass Works at Leith made a
strong complaint to the Scottish Privy Council concerning
a ruinous practice pursued by the proprietors
of similar works at Newcastle of sending great
quantities of their goods into Scotland. These
English makers had lately landed-it was stated in
the February of 1700-no less than two thousand
six hundred dozen of bottles at Montrose, thus
overstocking the market ; and on their petition the
Lords of the Privy Council empowered the Leith
Glass Company to seize all such English wares and
bring them in for his Majesty?s use.
In July, 1702, a piteous petition from Leith was
laid before the Lords of Council, stating that ?It had
pleased the great and holy God to visit this town, for
their heinous sins qgainst Him, with a very suhden
and temble stroke, which was occasioned by the
firing of thirty-three barrels of powder, which dreadful
blast, as it was heard even at many miles distance
with great terror and amazement, so it hath caused
great ruin and desolation in this place.? By this
explosion seven or eight persons were killed on the
spot, the adjacent houses had their roofs blown 0%
their windows destroyed, and were reduced to
ruinous heaps, while portions of their timber were
carried to vast distances. ?Few houses in the
town did not escape some damage, andall this ina
moment of time ; so that the merciful conduct of
Divine Providence hath been very admirable in the
preservation of hundreds of people whose lives
were exposed to manifold dangers, seeing that they
had not so much previous warning as to shift a foot
for their own preservation, much less to remove
their plenishing.?
The petition alleged that damage had been done
to the amount of A36,936 Scots ?by and attour,?
the injuries done to several back-closes and lofts,
household furniture, and merchants? goods. The
proprietors of the houses wrecked were, for the most
part, unable to repair them ; thus the petitioners
entreated permission to make a charitable collection
throughout the kingdom at the doors of the
churches ; and the Lords granted their prayer.
Two years after the Lords had to adjudicate
upon a case of trade despotism. In the January
of 1704, Charles, Earl of Hopetoun, stated that
during his minority his guardians had built a windmill
in Leith for the purpose of grinding and refining
the ore from his mines in the Leadhills of
Lanarkshire; but the mill had been unused until
now, and was found to require repair. John Smith,
who had set up a saw-mill in Leith, being the only
man able to do this kind of work, was employed
by the Earl to repair his windmill ; but the wrightburgesses
of Edinburgh arose in great wrath, and
with violence interfered with the work, on the
ground that it was a violation of their privileges as
a corporation, although not one of them had been
bred to the work in question, ?or had any skill
therein.?
Indeed, it was shown that some part of the work
done by them had to be taken down as useless.
The Earl argued that it was plainly to the public
detriment if such a work was brought to a standstill;
and the Council, adopting his views, gave
him a protection against the irate wrights of Edinburgh.
In the year 1705 Leith was the scene of those
stormy episodes connected with the execution of
the captain and two seamen of the English ship
Worcester.
The oppressive clauses of an Act of the English
Parliament concerning the proposed union had
roused the pride of the Scots to fever heat, and
tended to alienate the minds of many who had
been in favour of the measure ; and the incidents
referred to occurred just at a time to exasperate the
mutual jealousies of both countries.
The Darien Company, notwithstanding the ruin
that had befallen their enterprise, still traded with
the East, and at this time one of their vessels,
called the Annaadak, being seized in the Thames,
was sold by the English East India Company, to
whom the owners applied in vain for restitution
or repayment.
Shortly afterwards the Worcester, an English East
Indiaman, requiring repairs, put into Burntisland,
where she was at once seized by way of reprisal.
Meanwhile some of her crew, when in liquor, had
let fall in their irritation some unguarded admissions
which led to a suspicion that they had cap
tured a Darien ship in Eastern waters, and murdered
her captain and entire crew; and this suspicion was
