"HE PLACED THE CHILD UPON THE CHEST, AND HELD HIM THERE THAT HE MIGHT NOT FALL OFF." p. 38.

DONALBLANE OF DARIEN

BY

J. MACDONALD OXLEY,

Author of
"Norman's Nugget," "In the Swing of the Sea,"
etc., etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY W. RAINEY, R.I.

TORONTO:
THE MUSSON BOOK COMPANY, LIMITED.
1902

CONTENTS.

ILLUSTRATIONS

"HE PLACED THE CHILD UPON THE CHEST, AND HELD HIM THERE THAT HE MIGHT NOT FALL OFF." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece

"'YE'VE A GREAT LIKING FOR THE SEA, THEY TELL ME, LAD,' BEGAN MR. BLANE."

"THE RAVENING SWINE WERE GAINING UPON HIM."

"GLARING DOWN UPON HIM ... THE MOST APPALLING EYES HE HAD EVER BEHELD."

"PRESENTLY RAYMON ROSE IN THE BOW, HARPOON IN HAND."

"CHANCED TO OVERHEAR A CONVERSATION WHICH MADE IT CLEAR THAT THEY HAD DESIGNS UPON MR. PATERSON'S LIFE."

DONALBLANE OF DARIEN.

CHAPTER I.

BY WAY OF BEGINNING.

It was not just an ordinary sort of name, but one of those which made you think "thereby hangs a tale." In this case the thought goes to the mark, and the tale in question will be told after a fashion in the following pages.

At the outset a quick glance back to times long past is necessary in order to a fair start, and without a fair start it were hardly worth going ahead.

As the seventeenth century drew to its close there came into prominence in England a remarkable Scotsman named William Paterson, among whose notable achievements was having a large share in the founding of the Bank of England, which subsequently grew to be the greatest monetary institution in the world.

He was a member of the board of directors at the opening of the bank, but appears to have sold out not long after, and with his money in hand to have looked about him for some way of investing it that would be for the public good.

Now, these were the days of vexatious monopolies and irritating restrictions in commerce. The trade of Britain with the distant parts of the globe was divided between two great grasping corporations—the East India Company and the African Company—which, although they were at deadly enmity with each other, heartily co-operated in crushing every free-trader who dared to intrude within the elastic limits of their "spheres of action."

William Paterson was an ardent free-trader, and he became inspired with the noble mission of freeing commerce from the hurtful restraints laid upon it by short-sighted selfishness. With a keenness of instinct that makes it easy to understand his previous success, he surveyed the then known world and put his finger upon the spot best suited for the carrying out of his beneficent design.

The Isthmus of Panama, or Darien, is, beyond a doubt, one of the most interesting, as it