I hope this is not a red-herring and I stand ready to be corrected about this but I believe that those Scots had to run very hard indeed to recover from the loss of almost all their nation's free-able capital invested in its Darien, Panama, colony in 1695. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darién_Scheme On the return of the (very few) surviving colonists they called at (I think Port Royal Jamaica) and were refused permission to take on water for the voyage over the Atlantic. On their return they demanded of their joint king (William) how some of his subjects could do such a thing to his Scottish subjects. The Scottish nation's financial ruin has been said to have been so dramatic that its own rulers sold the nation to the English and largely personally pocketed the cash. (Scotland took on a proportion of the English national debt so was given a very large cash payment to compensate). Otherwise known as The Act of Union 1707. I guess Scots ships were thereafter able to take on water at Jamaica. And our rulers worry about oil. cheers David On 31 Jan 2008, at 13:00, C.M. Codrington wrote: > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected] > ] > On Behalf Of [email protected] > Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 5:04 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: FW: Bicentenary of Abolition of the Slave Trade > > > > > Hi Tony > > Well this is a rich topic....How many men from Aberdeenshire made it > in > commerce either from locations on West Indian islands or via a wharf > in > Scotland.....or a coffee house in London, Bristol, etc...... snip