Gregor MacGregor (1786–1845) was a Scottish soldier and who fought in the South American struggle for independence.
In 1803, he joined the Royal Navy. He then served in the Spanish and Portuguese armies, after which he returned to Edinburgh. MacGregor heard about the independence movements in South America and in the Captaincy General of Venezuela in particular. He went there in 1811 with the rank of Colonel.
Gregor MacGregor returned to England in 1820 and announced that he had been created cacique (highest authority or prince) of the Principality of Poyais, an independent nation on the Bay of Honduras. According to MacGregor’s story, native chief King George Frederic Augustus I of the Mosquito Shore and Nation had given him the territory of Poyais, 12,500 square miles of fertile land with untapped resources, a small number of settlers of British origin, and cooperative natives. He said he had created the beginnings of a country with civil service, army and democratic government. Now he needed settlers and investment and had come back to the United Kingdom to give people the opportunity.
In Edinburgh, MacGregor began to sell land rights for 3 shillings and 3 pence per acre. The average worker’s weekly wage at the time was about £1, so the price was very generous. The price steadily rose to 4 shillings. Many people willing to have a new start in the new land signed on with their families. On 23 October 1822 MacGregor raised a loan of £200,000 on behalf of the Poyais government.
Also in 1822 MacGregor published a 350-page guidebook entitled “Sketch of the Mosquito Shore, including the Territory of Poyais,” supposedly written by one Captain Thomas Strangeways. It described the Poyais with glowing terms and mainly concentrated on how much profit one could get from the country’s ample resources. Poyais was said to already have infrastructure, untapped gold and silver mines and large amounts of fertile soil ready to be settled. The region was even free of tropical diseases.
MacGregor chartered a ship called Honduras Packet, and contracted with five London merchants to provision the ship with food and ammunition. Its cargo also included a chest full of “Poyais Dollars,” Poyaisian currency MacGregor had printed in Scotland. Many of the settlers had changed their pounds to Poyais dollars. In September 1822, the Honduras Packet departed from London with 70 would-be
settlers. They included doctors, lawyers and a banker who all had been promised appropriate positions in the Poyais civil service. Some had also purchased officer commissions in the Poyaisian army.
In January 1823, another ship, the Kennersley Castle, left Leith Harbour in Scotland for Poyais with 200 would-be settlers. The ship also carried enough provisions for a year. It arrived in March and spent two days looking for a port. Eventually the newcomers found the settlers who had sailed earlier on the Honduras Packet, which had been swept away by a storm. What greeted the settlers was an untouched jungle, some natives, and a couple of American hermits who had made their homes there. “St Joseph” consisted of only a couple of ruins of a previous attempt at settlement abandoned in the previous century. There was no settlement of any kind.
The Kennersley Castle sailed away, and tropical diseases began to take their toll. One settler, having used his life savings to gain passage, committed suicide. In April, the Mexican Eagle, an official ship from British Honduras with the chief magistrate on
board, accidentally found the settlers. Chief magistrate Bennet listened to their story and told them that there was no such place as Poyais. He agreed to take them to British Honduras and 60 went. The other settlers were rescued later.
Of the 240 would-be settlers, 180 had perished during the ordeal. Edward Codd, Superintendent for Belize, sent a warning to London where naval vessels were sent to call back five ships that had departed after the Kennersley Castle. Those survivors who did not decide to settle on the British Honduras or move elsewhere in the Americas returned to London. The next day, city papers published the whole story.
MacGregor himself, however, had already left for Paris. In 1839 MacGregor moved to Venezuela, where he had requested and received a pension as a general who had fought for independence. He died there in 1845.
Phil Robertson, Editor
