Just two months before the voyage, at that point referred to as the Darien scheme, was due to depart from Scotland, the Sutherland Bank made a late decision to invest heavily in what had before been viewed as a fanciful lowland idea. The then chairman of the bank, Lord Niall Sutherland, added significant funds and four additional ships to the five planned. He also appointed Alexander Barton, a man previously accused of piracy but who claimed to have been a privateer, to lead the expedition with Thomas Drummond. The nine ships left in 1698.
There remains much debate about what happened when the ships arrived in what was to become New Edinburgh. It is known with certainty that two weeks after arrival Drummond was dead, and Alexander Barton was declared commander of the remaining group. It was he who made the decision that the previously chosen site of New Edinburgh was inappropriate for the group’s intentions, and that they should move inland. At this point the differing intentions of the original group of five ships sent by the Company of Scotland and the four sent by the Sutherland Bank became clearer. The Company of Scotland had sought to take and hold the land that would allow the passage of goods from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with ports on either side of the narrow stretch, while the Sutherland Bank had given Barton and his chosen crew orders to take much more.
The exact movements of Barton and his men in the months that followed is still unclear, but that they survived by establishing a defensive base further inland while ranging out to pillage local villages seems clear. While the settlers from the original five ships who stayed behind faced starvation and disease in New Edinburgh and saw their numbers dwindle fast, Barton and his men expanded their land grab, and gained new members from the indigenous population. While the stories of the time suggested those local Indians joined with them as a preferred alternative to Spanish rule, there is better evidence, in the form of large graves, to suggest Barton and his men gave them little choice. By the time Barton returned to New Edinburgh he had a small army, well fed and with a stable base inland, which they named Fort Sutherland, and had reached the Pacific coast and founded Port Isobel, named after his own wife. It is not disputed that they could have returned to New Edinburgh sooner with food and supplies, but chose not to. They argued this was impractical and would have put their own success at risk, and by the time they did return the population of New Edinburgh had dropped to fewer than a hundred.
From this point forward the remaining members of the original five ships joined forces with Barton, accepting that his ruthless ways were their only opportunity for survival. The buildup of his army continued until barely a village covering the route from east coast to west wasn’t under their control, as men were pressed into service. The New Edinburgh project, that was to have been the centerpiece of the original plan, was practically abandoned by Barton. He led his group from coast to coast, and although many lives were lost in the jungle it was, many said, fear of Barton that pushed them on. By the time the second expedition arrived, seven more ships, this time all funded by the Sutherland Bank in Challaid, Barton had achieved what he set out to do. On his return to Scotland he was knighted by the King in Edinburgh and lived well, the Sutherland family rewarding him generously. That he was successful only because of his cruelty toward the local population was written out of history at the time.
More ships sailed to Caledonia, bringing more settlers and boosting the population of Scots. New Edinburgh was developed and linked with Port Isobel on the Pacific coast via Fort Sutherland. Towns and villages were built along the line of what would become the Caledonian trade route. Scotland would expand throughout Panama and north into Costa Rica and the south of Nicaragua, creating what we now know as Caledonia. In the centuries since 1698 the bloody role of the Sutherland Bank and Alexander Barton have been romanticized, as has the often shocking behavior of Scottish troops in Caledonia, but the links forged in those early years remain.