In 1698, a Scottish company tried to establish a colony in Darien (Panama). 71% of the colonists died (some 2,000) and this withering experience lived on in memory. In the 1860's David Livingstone was cautioned against trying to start a Scottish colony in Barotseland because of the lessons of the Darien disaster. The author, in an otherwise extremely well-phrased book, calls Darien "an early example of a corporate cock-up on the grand scale." (p.253) The sentence construction in this book is to be wondered at - all the way through. It is easy to read even when one is befuddled by the details of Scottish history. The English, who took mean and determined steps to undermine the Company of Scotland, later paid a bail-out to shareholders that secured the easy passage of the Act of Union in 1707 (which created Great Britain). The book allows one to understand what a Jacobite was. The quote that southern Scotland before union was in the grip of a clerical tyranny like the Taleban is intrigueing. (p.251) ( )