Paterson now revived the project of Columbus, and persuaded himself and others that it was possible to carry that project into effect in such a manner as to make his country the greatest emporium that had ever existed on our globe.
For this purpose it was necessary to occupy in America some spot which might be a resting place between Scotland and India.

It was true that almost every habitable part of America had already been seized by some European power.

Paterson, however, imagined that one province, the most important of all, had been overlooked by the short-sighted cupidity of vulgar politicians and vulgar traders.

The isthmus which joined the two great continents of the New World remained, according to him, unappropriated.

Great Spanish viceroyalties, he said, lay on the east and on the west; but the mountains and forests of Darien were abandoned to rude tribes which followed their own usages and obeyed their own princes.