A Darien Epilogue: Robert Allen in Spanish America, 1698-1707

Abstract

Amanuscript account by a Scots merchant, Robert Allen, of his life in New Spain from 1698 until 1707 has recently come to light. In 1708 Allen sent the three-page memorial to the British secretary of state for the south, Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, outlining his experiences over the preceding decade with the view towards securing employment under the crown in the Americas. Allen began with the year 1698 when he left the Scottish colony at Darien to work for Jamaican merchants on trading voyages in the Spanish West Indies. In 1701 he returned to the coast of Darien in search of Nicaragua wood and, by chance, began six years of residence on the continent. Surviving one Indian massacre, he lived among friendly natives, joined the Jamaican expedition of 1702 which raided the Isthmus of Panama, escaped a second Indian and Spanish massacre, and was taken as a prisoner to Quito where in 1704 he secured appointment as secretary to the fiscal of the audiencia and surveyor general of the province of Quito. When this official was promoted to the Council of the Indies in 1707, Allen accompanied him on the journey to Spain. However, their ship was one of those attacked and sunk by Admiral Wager, who in turn persuaded Allen to return to England and approach the government.