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Speaker 1: And it's another episode of a podcast that I do.

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Speaker 1: I have forgotten which one. Sophie, what is my job? You?

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Speaker 1: You you are a professional podcaster you hosted That does

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Speaker 1: not sound right. I know even when I said it,

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Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, you're Robert Evans, the host of

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Speaker 1: Behind the Bastards, a show about the work history and today. Oh,

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Speaker 1: I forgot it because of the head injuries. Um well,

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Speaker 1: then I guess I should read this script that someone

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Speaker 1: has handed me. Uh and the script says that my

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Speaker 1: guest today is Lacy. Mostly script is right. Oh, I

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Speaker 1: love a manufactured Jamaican air horn. It's my favorite. Yeah. Yeah, no,

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Speaker 1: there's no air horn like the one you pretend to

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Speaker 1: make with your mouth. So, Lacy, how's it going. Let's

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Speaker 1: say I assume because it's minutes after we recorded the

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Speaker 1: first episode, it's going good. It's nice to talk to people.

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Speaker 1: Like on days where I have lots of podcasts, I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 1: this is gonna be a long day. But then I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 1: it's just talking to people I like, so then it's great. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, I uh. I don't have many social outlets

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Speaker 1: these days because of the plague and being an introvert.

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Speaker 1: So yes, I too, I too get all of my

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Speaker 1: social life by talking about con men with my friends

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Speaker 1: over the internet. So thank you for being my con

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Speaker 1: man friend. Yes, I love this. Wait were you doing

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Speaker 1: lots of socializing before COVID? I feel like you know. No, no, no,

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Speaker 1: I was mostly hiding in a fortified compact anyway. So

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Speaker 1: when Gregor McGregor traveled back to London in one he

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Speaker 1: brought back with him his wife in a scheme that

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Speaker 1: was on the surface very silly. The land that he

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Speaker 1: had been given was beautiful, but again worthless from a

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Speaker 1: financial perspective. It was a bad place to grow. It

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Speaker 1: was completely uncultivated, so discovering like whatever resources might be

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Speaker 1: there would take lifetime's worth of work. You'd have to

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Speaker 1: cut through miles of jungle to even do anything. There

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Speaker 1: were natives there, but none of the kind of cultivated

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Speaker 1: infrastructure that Europeans looked for in colonial prospects. Remember, the

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Speaker 1: most successful colonies that Europeans took were in places where

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Speaker 1: like locals had been doing ship for a while, like

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Speaker 1: food was growing, like ship was They kind of had

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Speaker 1: to just move in. And this is not that this

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Speaker 1: is like, this is actual uncultivated country. None of this

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Speaker 1: matter to Gregor, obviously, because he had no plan in

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Speaker 1: doing anything employer. His plan was to lie and pretend

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Speaker 1: it was an actual independent nation, filled with riches and

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Speaker 1: fertile land and friendly natives eager to learn from British

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Speaker 1: civil Friendly natives, you know, natives we love when when

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Speaker 1: the Brits come and take all our ship and give

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Speaker 1: us us They love it. Oh that doesn't sound like

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Speaker 1: the British name. More than forty times they did that.

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Speaker 1: Come all, we're here, we we love to see it.

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Speaker 1: So uh yeah. He his plan was to drum up

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Speaker 1: a media frenzy around his new country and Great Britain

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Speaker 1: and sell plots of land back to Global Rubes. And

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Speaker 1: then it wasn't really clear what he planned to do

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Speaker 1: after that, but it was like, if you've seen the

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Speaker 1: monorail episode of The Simpsons, that's kind of what he

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Speaker 1: was going for. It seems like. So as it happened,

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Speaker 1: Gregor landed in London during the best possible time to

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Speaker 1: sell a fake Latin American nation idiots. And I'm going

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Speaker 1: to explain how this scheme got off the ground, but

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Speaker 1: first I'm gonna have to walk you through how stock

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Speaker 1: trading worked in the eighteen twenties. And this is a

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Speaker 1: funner story than you might expect. So the idea of

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Speaker 1: trading stocks is still pretty new in the eighteen twenties.

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Speaker 1: People have not been doing it in like a kind

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Speaker 1: of recognizable modern way for a long time. The whole

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Speaker 1: concept had arisen in London during the time of Queen Elizabeth,

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Speaker 1: the first out of what was called merchant banking, the

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Speaker 1: selling and trading of various commodities. Now this took off

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Speaker 1: in the Aisles because the continent of Europe's but basically

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Speaker 1: the seventeen hundreds and eighteen hundreds fighting a bunch of

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Speaker 1: horribly bloody wars, and the men who profited from those

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Speaker 1: wars did all of their financial gambling in London because

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Speaker 1: London was safe. Right, people aren't getting over to England

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Speaker 1: into when they're fighting. Um, so it's a pretty good

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Speaker 1: place to do your trading. Uh So. It was an

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Speaker 1: English bank that managed the fifteen million dollar loan that

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Speaker 1: let the US by Louisiana, And it was Rothschild's bank

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Speaker 1: that loaned Britain and her allies more than a hundred

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Speaker 1: million pounds during the Napoleonic wars. Now, when those wars ended,

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Speaker 1: the situations kind of like it was for the US

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Speaker 1: and World War Two, where everyone else is devastated and

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Speaker 1: the British are doing all right, um, and they kind

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Speaker 1: of like wind up holding everybody's money at the end

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Speaker 1: of that war. Uh. And so with the fighting over,

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Speaker 1: you had all these rich guys who had more money

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Speaker 1: than ever and they wanted to make even more money

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Speaker 1: with that, because that's the only thing rich guys do

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Speaker 1: with huge piles of money. So they want to do, yeah,

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Speaker 1: their hoarders, and they want to like make more money

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Speaker 1: and they so they want to like gamble on something.

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Speaker 1: And the Royal Exchange had for decades kind of handled

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Speaker 1: that gambling. But by the end of the Napoleonic Wars,

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Speaker 1: there's way too much money for this tiny little exchange

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Speaker 1: to handle and there was no like real regulation and

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Speaker 1: this this had started to become a problem. They were

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Speaker 1: all these frauds and conman and uh, yeah, people were

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Speaker 1: worried that the entire economy was going to collapse under

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Speaker 1: like a whole bunch of giant grifts. And this had

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Speaker 1: happened before, and it kind of happened repeatedly. As soon

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Speaker 1: as people started trading stocks. UH. In seventeen twenty, there

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Speaker 1: was something called the south Sea Bubble. This started when

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Speaker 1: the south Sea Company bribed the British government with millions

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Speaker 1: of dollars in exchange for monopoly and South American trade. UH.

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Speaker 1: The government needed that money for a different war with France,

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Speaker 1: so they passed a bill to make this legal um

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Speaker 1: and suddenly all like the south Sea Company stock rises

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Speaker 1: to ten times its value, and all these Englishmen see

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Speaker 1: like it's like with bitcoin, suddenly like oh my god,

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Speaker 1: that got worth so much more overnight. Something else has

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Speaker 1: got to be like that. What if I invest in

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Speaker 1: something else and then I can get rich too, And

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Speaker 1: so there's like anyway, speculation starts running wild and people

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Speaker 1: start investing in some really stupid ship. And I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: quote from a write up in Historic UK here speculation

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Speaker 1: ran wild, and all sorts of companies, some lunatics, some

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Speaker 1: fraudulent or just optimistic, were launched. For example, one company

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Speaker 1: floated was to buy the Irish bogs. Another was to

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Speaker 1: manage manufacture a gun to fire square cannon balls, and

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Speaker 1: most ludicrous at all quote this was an investment at

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Speaker 1: the time for carrying on an undertaking of great advantage,

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Speaker 1: but no one to know what it is. Yes, that's

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Speaker 1: not how to scam silicon. Then they're like, if we

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Speaker 1: tail you, then somebody's most steal it. But just give

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Speaker 1: us money for the thing that would make it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And of course the bubble burst and the entire economy

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Speaker 1: collapsed and the government had to resign. So like that

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Speaker 1: had happened about a century before, and people saw the

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Speaker 1: same stuff starting to happen again and they got like

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Speaker 1: really worried. Um, So the more level headed citizens in

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Speaker 1: England decided to make a system of rules and regulations

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Speaker 1: to govern the selling of stocks so the country wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be destroyed completely by reckless greed. And this is kind

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Speaker 1: of how the London Stock Exchange came about. And like

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Speaker 1: there's there's a lot more to the history than that,

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Speaker 1: but that's more or less the anyway. So you get

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Speaker 1: this stock exchanged by the eighteen hundreds and it regulates

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Speaker 1: trading and only approved entities could list commodities for sale

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Speaker 1: or sell commercial stock, so fraud was kept to a minimum,

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Speaker 1: which was good for the economy but bad for people

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Speaker 1: who want to get rich quick, bad for fraud, Bad

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Speaker 1: for fraud uh, So the London Stock Exchange worked for

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Speaker 1: a while to keep fraud in check. But then Napoleon

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Speaker 1: loses his war and British, the British wind up with

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Speaker 1: all of the money in the world, and that kind

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Speaker 1: of makes people reckless, so they start looking for schemes

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Speaker 1: that they can't find on the London Stock Exchange because

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Speaker 1: it's vaguely legitimate. And I'm gonna quote from the economist

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Speaker 1: here to explain what happened next. The economy was expanding steadily,

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Speaker 1: driven on by manufacturing. The cost of living was falling,

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Speaker 1: with industrial workers wages rising, Interest rates drifted down with

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Speaker 1: the government borrowing more and more cheaply. The country was

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Speaker 1: in an upbeat mood. The downside to all this was

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Speaker 1: that investing in government debt, a staple place to park

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Speaker 1: spare funds, had become boring. The market rate on the

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Speaker 1: most popular British government bond else steadily between eighteen hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighteen twenty five. The government made the most of this,

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Speaker 1: swapping its existing debt for new bonds that paid rates

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Speaker 1: as low as three percent. All this gave British investors

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Speaker 1: the incentive and the confidence to look for more exciting opportunities.

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Speaker 1: One option was to lend money to governments that paid

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Speaker 1: higher interest rates. Russia, Prussia, and Denmark all had good

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Speaker 1: credit records but offered a five percent return. So this

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Speaker 1: is what how it happens at first, as they start

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Speaker 1: investing in foreign companies that offer more of a return

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Speaker 1: than the government, and foreign bonds weren't traded in the

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Speaker 1: stock exchange, so there's no regulation. Now this is okay

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Speaker 1: when you're investing in like Denmark, because Denmark is a

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Speaker 1: real country and like, you know that your investment is

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Speaker 1: not going to just like fly away. Right Prussia is

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Speaker 1: not going to default on all of its debt. But

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Speaker 1: right at this time, like this, this is it's kind

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Speaker 1: of an open place where a scammer could establish themselves

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Speaker 1: and it's not a scam is maybe the wrong way

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Speaker 1: to put it. But less less set, less safe bets

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Speaker 1: start start being possible. Yeah, it's so all of these

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Speaker 1: South American colonies that we've been talking about had been

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Speaker 1: in the process of fighting wars against their colonial oppressures

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Speaker 1: and winning them. And you start wanding, you start having

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Speaker 1: independent South American states at this point, uh and and

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Speaker 1: these are very new countries and they just finished fighting

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Speaker 1: these horrible wars, so they had a need for a

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Speaker 1: bunch of cash. And all these people in Great Britain

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Speaker 1: are both obsessed with South America and they have too

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Speaker 1: much money. So you get this kind of like perfect storm.

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Speaker 1: And it starts with Colombia, which is the first new

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Speaker 1: nation that comes to the people of Great Britain asking

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Speaker 1: for a loan. They wanted two million pounds and this

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Speaker 1: is uh they offer, and like they're willing to offer

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Speaker 1: a six percent return rate, which was actually illegal in

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Speaker 1: Britain at the time because it's too high. Because it's

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Speaker 1: too high, and the government's like any any anything with

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Speaker 1: the return that high has to be somehow what's sketchy. Um.

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Speaker 1: But people fall for this and they like, they love it,

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Speaker 1: and they invest a shipload of money in Colombia. And

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Speaker 1: the way that Columbia has to like the country to

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Speaker 1: do this is Columbia. So they kind of go to

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Speaker 1: an effort to convince people that they're legitimate, that like

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Speaker 1: they'll be able to pay this back. So they print

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Speaker 1: up all these brochures with lists of like the revenues

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Speaker 1: they expect to make and how good their tobacco market's

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Speaker 1: going to be. And how much gold and silver they're

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Speaker 1: going to be mining as soon as the economy gets

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Speaker 1: off the ground. Uh. So it seems like a stable investment.

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Speaker 1: People go fucking wild for Colombian bonds and the bonds

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Speaker 1: run out almost immediately. Uh, and so people start like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: people are very hungry for another opportunity like that. And

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Speaker 1: so Chile comes up, and Chile is like, well, we

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Speaker 1: like alone too, and then Peru comes up next. And

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Speaker 1: by the time Peru starts offering investments, they're not even

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Speaker 1: telling people what natural resources they have to guarantee they're

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Speaker 1: they're they're just being like, hey, we're fucking Peru. You

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Speaker 1: guys want some of this ship And they guess correctly

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Speaker 1: that like London was, no one was going to factory

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Speaker 1: like we just like Colombia were just like know everything.

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Speaker 1: They said, that's what we're doing too in Peru. Just

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Speaker 1: give us the money. Yeah, we'll which of course we

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Speaker 1: probably have gold probably you don't know, soil, very rich

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Speaker 1: soil the other day. Anyway, give us. Now, these were

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Speaker 1: not necessary, These were not all great investments. Obviously, all

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Speaker 1: these countries do have natural resources, but Latin America was

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Speaker 1: still fighting a whole bunch of civil wars. All of

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Speaker 1: these countries were still fighting, like none of their governments

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Speaker 1: were actually really all that settled at this point. They

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Speaker 1: had no credit history, and nothing was known about the

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Speaker 1: resources of these places or when they would start being

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Speaker 1: the kind of seeing the kind of profits that all

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Speaker 1: these British people were going to expect. And it wasn't

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Speaker 1: even possible to truly vet that all the men claiming

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Speaker 1: to represent these governments were who they said they were,

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Speaker 1: So it's like, who, Yeah, none of these nations are

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Speaker 1: even recognized by the British governments. Now. I don't think

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Speaker 1: that's the only path to being legitimate is being recognized colonizers. However,

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Speaker 1: I do think it's fun that it's like, yeah, we

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Speaker 1: don't know who's going to be in charge tomorrow. We

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Speaker 1: are definitely yeah. And if you are a British and

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Speaker 1: vest and your country doesn't recognize this as a country,

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Speaker 1: that might be a sign that like, okay, this maybe

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Speaker 1: I should be a little bit more. I don't know. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they invested a bunch of money in these places, um,

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Speaker 1: and this is the London that Gregor McGregor, the Prince

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Speaker 1: of Poier, walks into in eighty two. And the only

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Speaker 1: disadvantage he had when he was trying because he he

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Speaker 1: wants to do the same thing with Poier. He wants

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Speaker 1: to put it up for a bond issue and like

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Speaker 1: get a bunch of money from people who are expecting

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Speaker 1: it to be paid back. Uh. And the only disadvantage

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Speaker 1: he has in doing this is that Spain had never

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Speaker 1: owned his country. Um. So one reason British folks were

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Speaker 1: willing to invest in like Columbia or Peru is that

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Speaker 1: the Spanish had fought like hell to hold onto these places.

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Speaker 1: So even though they didn't know exactly what resources these

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Speaker 1: countries had, they figured if the Spanish are willing to

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Speaker 1: fight hard for them, there's gotta be yeah, exactly now.

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Speaker 1: So Poier didn't have that, but it had an advantage

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Speaker 1: that none of the Latin American countries issuing bonds in

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Speaker 1: Great Britain had, which is that its head of state

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Speaker 1: was in London, and its head of state is of

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Speaker 1: course Gregor McGregor. Yeah. So he immediately goes to the

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Speaker 1: press like that's his first thing, and he starts talking

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Speaker 1: about how like basically talking at Poier, is this like

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Speaker 1: utopia with with undiscovered riches and stuff? Uh, and he

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Speaker 1: he has. He hires a bunch of assistants to write

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Speaker 1: newspaper ads and leaflets and ballads to be broadcast by

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Speaker 1: like street singers in London and Edinburgh and Glasgow to

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Speaker 1: try to convince thing. Yeah yeah every day that rhymes

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Speaker 1: we bopping bottles and poier every day. Yeah yeah it

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Speaker 1: is ship yeah funk. That's good. So we have some

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Speaker 1: examples of some of the ads that he hired. This

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Speaker 1: one was published in the Glasgow Sentinel Sentinel and I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna read it now. The climate is remarkably healthy and

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Speaker 1: agrees admirably ably with the constitution of Europeans, many of whom,

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Speaker 1: having become much stabilitated by a long residence in the

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Speaker 1: West Indies, have been completely restored to health by a

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Speaker 1: removal for a short period to the Bay of Honduras.

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Speaker 1: The soil is extreme, the rich and fertile, bearing three

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Speaker 1: crops of Indian corn in the year, and produces not

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Speaker 1: only all the necessities of life and profusion, but is

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Speaker 1: well adapted for the cultivation of all those valuable commodities

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Speaker 1: which have rendered the West Indies so important, especially coffee, sugar, cotton, tobacco,

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Speaker 1: coco etcetera. So everything valuable grows here, and the climate

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Speaker 1: makes you healthier if you're Europeans, right, and everyone's coming

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Speaker 1: here to the island. Here, the land heals the sick.

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Speaker 1: Basically is what you said, Beautiful snake oil heels sick

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Speaker 1: white people, only white people. Don't worry, We'll only heals

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Speaker 1: sick white people. Well, you know, it's it's kind of

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Speaker 1: a thing. After this period, all the places where Europeans

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Speaker 1: are making all of their money by selling and mining

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Speaker 1: commodities kill Europeans and huge quantities because you know, they're

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Speaker 1: giving smallpox to the names, but like they don't have

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Speaker 1: immunity to like any of the local diseases either. So

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Speaker 1: uh yeah, there's a lot of reasonable questions that responsible

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Speaker 1: men asked about this investment scheme. For example, Gregor, how

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Speaker 1: do you pan to plan to repay this loan? And

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Speaker 1: Gregor answered that he had a lot of gold, and

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Speaker 1: it had all sorts of animals that could be hunted,

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Speaker 1: and it had great soil and soon there'd be a

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Speaker 1: bunch of stuff for sale. And so when he said this,

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Speaker 1: people were like, hey, Gregor, if Poyer has all this ship,

300
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Speaker 1: why has no one ever traded with it before, and

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Speaker 1: Gregor's like, well, the locals were too scared of getting

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Speaker 1: the Spanish attention and then Spain would colonize them, and

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Speaker 1: like they didn't want that, and so then they were like, well, well,

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Speaker 1: why why didn't Spain conquered Point, like they were right there.

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Speaker 1: And he was like, well, there's mountains too. There's all

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Speaker 1: these big mountains, huge, biggest mountain you've ever seen. No

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Speaker 1: one could get into it, and a really deep lake,

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Speaker 1: like the deepest lake, and honest, lots of lake currents, sharks,

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Speaker 1: lake sharks, tons of sharks, sky sharks too. Nobody could

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Speaker 1: get it. So these, again are all pretty transparent lies.

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Speaker 1: But nobody was checking him out because people just have

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Speaker 1: money to burn and they want to get in on

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Speaker 1: South America. So the loan that Gregor wound up seeking

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Speaker 1: on behalf of Poer was two hundred thousand pounds, just

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Speaker 1: a fraction of what larger nations had asked for, but

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Speaker 1: enough to make him very rich. It's the equivalent of

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Speaker 1: about like eleven million dollars or elevenillion pounds I guess today. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a lot of money. So if Gregor had been

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Speaker 1: an ordinary con man, he would have focused on just

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Speaker 1: this grift. But by eighteen twenty two, Gregor had gotten

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Speaker 1: good at being a con man and the loan was

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Speaker 1: just his side grift. His real plan was to convince

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Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds and eventually thousands of English and scotsmen

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Speaker 1: to sell their property by land from him and immigrate

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Speaker 1: to Poier to help civilize it. Now, I should note

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Speaker 1: here that there's some debate about whether or not he

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Speaker 1: actually intended to try to settle and govern a new nation.

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Speaker 1: There's some evidence that, like he did on emilya Amelia Island,

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Speaker 1: he wanted to move all these people out there so

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Speaker 1: they could form the core of a private country. Um.

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Speaker 1: But he never actually tried to do this. Uh, And

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Speaker 1: whether or not he intended to try and start a settlement,

333
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Speaker 1: the plan was a con from the beginning, and evidence

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Speaker 1: of this comes from the propaganda booklet he wrote to

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Speaker 1: entice colonists to immigrate. It was titled Poier Sketch of

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Speaker 1: the Mosquito Shore including the Territory of Poier, descriptive of

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Speaker 1: the country with some information as to its productions. Now,

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00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:03,680
Speaker 1: he credited the writing of the book to Thomas Strange Ways,

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Speaker 1: a man who did not exist, but was supposedly a

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Speaker 1: captain in the Poie in military, which also did not exist.

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Speaker 1: That was his fake friend's name, Yeah, Johnny, fake name,

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Speaker 1: my good friend, Jesus. The booklet was a pretty good

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Speaker 1: piece of con art. It opened with an apology that

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Speaker 1: the contents were very dry and serious and wouldn't be

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Speaker 1: entertaining to ordinary readers, because he knew that the intelligent

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Speaker 1: and like serious men who would agree to invest in

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Speaker 1: Poier wanted only the best information. They didn't want it

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Speaker 1: to be flowery and interesting. They wanted serious facts, and

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Speaker 1: that's all he was going to give you. So, like,

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Speaker 1: first off, he's he's being like, oh, if you're not

351
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:53,080
Speaker 1: really if if you're expecting like like a lurid read like,

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Speaker 1: this is for serious people. So like, clearly, if you're

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Speaker 1: into this, you're serious person. Book. Yeah, not for poland

354
00:18:01,119 --> 00:18:04,960
Speaker 1: dumb people, just the very smart. Yeah. So the book

355
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:07,160
Speaker 1: was a bunch of included a bunch of like plagiarized

356
00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:10,520
Speaker 1: descriptions of different plants and like lies about the growing season,

357
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Speaker 1: and also these very elaborate calculations for how much farms

358
00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:17,399
Speaker 1: of different sizes and plantations of different sizes could expect

359
00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:20,160
Speaker 1: to earn and all of this was lies, but he

360
00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:21,800
Speaker 1: he did all like all of the math was laid

361
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Speaker 1: out in a way that like, oh wow, this has

362
00:18:23,840 --> 00:18:26,200
Speaker 1: to be legitimate. He did a bunch of math. There

363
00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:29,760
Speaker 1: are numbers in this leaflet. Yeah, and these calculations went

364
00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:32,640
Speaker 1: next to like things that were a lot less reasonable,

365
00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:35,200
Speaker 1: like claiming that like it had more fresh water than

366
00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:37,720
Speaker 1: anywhere else, and all of the freshwater rivers were also

367
00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:39,679
Speaker 1: just filled with hunks of gold that you could pick up,

368
00:18:39,720 --> 00:18:43,600
Speaker 1: and like it's this mix of like, yeah, it's very fun,

369
00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:48,640
Speaker 1: very fun. One question this point because he did inherit

370
00:18:48,840 --> 00:18:52,520
Speaker 1: land that wasn't there's real land. But there's real land.

371
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Speaker 1: That Poier is the location of the land that he inherited. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know what isn't fake land? Kind of grifted from

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Speaker 1: I don't know, Sophie, I don't know anymore. Let's just

374
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Speaker 1: roll the ads. Don't be sad, Robert. So we're back.

375
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Speaker 1: I missed the ads already, but we get to talk

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Speaker 1: more about Gregor McGregor. So. Thomas's guidebook included lengthy descriptions

377
00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:31,919
Speaker 1: of the local natives, the local poi Aians or the

378
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:37,200
Speaker 1: poi Aians Poiasians. I think, Yeah, Poiaisians, I think is

379
00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:40,920
Speaker 1: the correct way. In his description, the Poisians basically had

380
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:43,359
Speaker 1: no real culture of their own. Their culture was that

381
00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:54,560
Speaker 1: they loved the British. Yeah he knew, he knew how

382
00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:57,000
Speaker 1: to sell this ship. Like he's not dumb, he knows

383
00:19:57,119 --> 00:20:03,320
Speaker 1: his people. Uh. He wrote, quote you yeah, they love

384
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:08,040
Speaker 1: they love you. Yeah, he wrote A tradition has long

385
00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:11,440
Speaker 1: prevailed among them that the gray eyed people, meaning the English,

386
00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:15,320
Speaker 1: have been particularly appointed to protect them from oppression and bondage.

387
00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:22,359
Speaker 1: That's his good grift. All the women are young and

388
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:25,400
Speaker 1: the breasts are right underneath the chin, and all they

389
00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:29,360
Speaker 1: wanted to was marry an old, decrepit British men. Yeah.

390
00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:34,640
Speaker 1: The women won't very young men. They won't anyone under seventy.

391
00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:39,680
Speaker 1: So yeah, he tells them that, like, these people are

392
00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:43,240
Speaker 1: probably descendants of the Aztecs, so they're formerly civilized people

393
00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:47,520
Speaker 1: who needed English help to rescue them from barbarism. Oh god,

394
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:49,760
Speaker 1: he was like, look, they were colonized once and they

395
00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:52,959
Speaker 1: loved it. They were like colonization chef's kiss and they

396
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:58,000
Speaker 1: really wanted you guys to come back. Yeah. So um yeah,

397
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:01,920
Speaker 1: he wrote quote they have repeatedly june An anxious desire

398
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:04,639
Speaker 1: to acquire the arts of Europe as is manifest by

399
00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:08,080
Speaker 1: their repeated invitations to the English to form settlements among them,

400
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:10,440
Speaker 1: as well as by their former offers to seed a

401
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:12,959
Speaker 1: part of their country to Great Britain, there by showing

402
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:15,400
Speaker 1: that their aversion to Spain does not extend to all

403
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:20,480
Speaker 1: other nations of Europe. Yeah, I can't wait for you

404
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:23,320
Speaker 1: white people to get here. They need Yes, they don't

405
00:21:23,359 --> 00:21:27,400
Speaker 1: know how to have a country without Yes, every indigenous population.

406
00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:31,880
Speaker 1: Where are the people? What do they get? But oh

407
00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:34,960
Speaker 1: we've got is this unspoiled country and like a culture

408
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:39,600
Speaker 1: not based on constant toil, and like, ah, you know

409
00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:43,240
Speaker 1: what we really need is some incredibly filthy cities choking

410
00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:45,800
Speaker 1: to death on cold up scott If only we had

411
00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:52,520
Speaker 1: gold up Turlington to pull up, We're ready. So yeah.

412
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:55,479
Speaker 1: He He also goes into length in this book about

413
00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:58,760
Speaker 1: like how how happy the natives are to be hired

414
00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:01,440
Speaker 1: for basically nothing, and how like, oh, you just give

415
00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:03,760
Speaker 1: them ammunition and they'll hunt all the food that you need.

416
00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:07,000
Speaker 1: They love doing it. Like and also you know if

417
00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:08,680
Speaker 1: you if you hire them and pay them, they never

418
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:10,680
Speaker 1: want raises, like they're happy getting pay in the same

419
00:22:10,680 --> 00:22:14,000
Speaker 1: amount forever. They also want to be treated a second

420
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:17,399
Speaker 1: class citizens. Oh, they love it. Can't get enough of

421
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:21,399
Speaker 1: being second class citizens. You know what they said to

422
00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:23,359
Speaker 1: me the other day, They were like, what if we

423
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:27,120
Speaker 1: had a system of segregation here, wouldn't that be grant said?

424
00:22:27,119 --> 00:22:29,160
Speaker 1: They said to me me McGregor, they said, we are

425
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:39,439
Speaker 1: tired of opportunity. So he also lied about the present

426
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:42,960
Speaker 1: extent of European civilization in Poyer, claiming that a forgotten

427
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:45,600
Speaker 1: load of British settlers had already set up like a nice,

428
00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 1: orderly European city in the country that was its capital.

429
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:51,840
Speaker 1: Like there's already a white people city waiting for you.

430
00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:54,400
Speaker 1: All you gotta do is land there. You'll have workers,

431
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,000
Speaker 1: you'll have a nice city with a bunch of comforts.

432
00:22:57,040 --> 00:22:59,840
Speaker 1: Like it'll be fine. All you gotta do is set

433
00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:02,639
Speaker 1: up your your your farms. They're ready to just be

434
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,879
Speaker 1: planted and you can just get start making money. Right McGregor,

435
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:07,960
Speaker 1: you said the city. You said the city is called

436
00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:13,000
Speaker 1: white people city. Yeah, white topia. It's full, full, full

437
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:15,960
Speaker 1: full like nice white people things. It's got. I don't know.

438
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:19,880
Speaker 1: John Mayer is always there. He never leaves White cod forever,

439
00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:26,920
Speaker 1: white conda. Oh, I love it condos as far as

440
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:30,320
Speaker 1: the I can see burritos with no spices at all.

441
00:23:30,359 --> 00:23:32,359
Speaker 1: It's amazing that you thought that. Do you think I

442
00:23:32,359 --> 00:23:38,400
Speaker 1: said condo? Oh? I mean yeah, like Wakonda forever white Condah.

443
00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:42,720
Speaker 1: That's that's better. I thought you were making a comment

444
00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:46,920
Speaker 1: about white people's famous love of condos. Shaking her head.

445
00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:50,959
Speaker 1: So hundreds and hundreds of people sign up and they

446
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 1: all start paying him a ton of money for acreage.

447
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 1: He's he's making money hand over fist for this land

448
00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:59,359
Speaker 1: that these people had never seen. And the bulk of

449
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:03,200
Speaker 1: his volunteer years were Scotsman. Because Gregor finally figures out

450
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 1: how to con his own people. Yeah, um, it's it

451
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:11,080
Speaker 1: starts at home. Yeah. The historians have spent a decent

452
00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:13,400
Speaker 1: amount of time trying to tease out why Scottish people

453
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,119
Speaker 1: were particularly vulnerable to this scheme, and there's an interesting

454
00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:20,040
Speaker 1: paragraph in the BBC on it quote. According to Columbia

455
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:23,199
Speaker 1: University psychologist Tory Higgins, people are usually more likely to

456
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: be swayed by one or or other of the two

457
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:29,080
Speaker 1: motivational lines. Some people are promotion focused they think of

458
00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 1: possible positive gains, and some prevention focused. They focused on

459
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:37,119
Speaker 1: losses and avoiding mistakes. An approach that unites the alpha

460
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:40,359
Speaker 1: with the omega appeals to both mindsets, however, giving it

461
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:43,520
Speaker 1: universal appeal, and it's easy to see how McGregor's proposition

462
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:47,119
Speaker 1: offered this potent combination. He published interviews and national papers,

463
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:49,440
Speaker 1: for instance, touting the perks that would come from investing

464
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,600
Speaker 1: or settling in Ployer. He highlighted the bravery and fortitude

465
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:55,119
Speaker 1: that such a gesture would demonstrate. You wouldn't just be smart,

466
00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:57,919
Speaker 1: you would be a real man. The Scottish Highlanders were

467
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:00,679
Speaker 1: known for their heartiness and adventurous spirit. He out Pier

468
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:03,240
Speaker 1: would be the ultimate testing ground, a challenge and a

469
00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:07,480
Speaker 1: gift all in one. Gotta love toxic masculinity. It's like,

470
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:09,600
Speaker 1: are you going to move to Poier or is your

471
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:14,159
Speaker 1: dick small? And yeah, I'm working on using that griff

472
00:25:14,160 --> 00:25:15,679
Speaker 1: like are you too much of a coward to get

473
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:18,600
Speaker 1: into a gunfight with the FBA, f D A swat team?

474
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:21,200
Speaker 1: Like oh, I mean, if you don't want to get

475
00:25:21,200 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: into a gunfight with the FDA, then don't move to

476
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 1: my compound and die for what's wrong with you? I mean,

477
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:28,399
Speaker 1: that's what's wrong with you? Oh, you're a coward. No,

478
00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:30,320
Speaker 1: that's fine. It's cool to be a coward. That's cool.

479
00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:33,240
Speaker 1: Like you don't have like the cool people are gonna

480
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:35,000
Speaker 1: go die fighting the f d A. You don't have

481
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:37,600
Speaker 1: to because you're not cool. You can live the rest

482
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,960
Speaker 1: of your life knowing that sera mass Yeah yeah, knowing

483
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:45,639
Speaker 1: that you suck so uh. It is also speculated that

484
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,440
Speaker 1: one reason the Scots were particularly interested in this is

485
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:50,159
Speaker 1: that they were jealous of the English and all of

486
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 1: their fancy colonies, and there was also a manner of

487
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,640
Speaker 1: honor at stake here. In the late sixteen hundred hundreds,

488
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:57,879
Speaker 1: the Scots had tried to start a colony on the

489
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,879
Speaker 1: Gulf of Darien near Panama, and it was a poorly

490
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,720
Speaker 1: led ship show and basically everyone either died or were

491
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:07,680
Speaker 1: conquered by Spain, and Scotland invested fully twenty of all

492
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,200
Speaker 1: of its money in the scheme, which kind of destroyed

493
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 1: the entire country for years. So they were bad at

494
00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:19,840
Speaker 1: colonizing them. Yeah, yeah, it is nice about them. I mean,

495
00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,680
Speaker 1: they're good at being the soldiers of colonial oppressors, because

496
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:25,919
Speaker 1: that's how the British did a lot of before. Before

497
00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,360
Speaker 1: they had African soldiers to fight for them. They had

498
00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:31,040
Speaker 1: Scotts to conquer the chunks of Africa and then hired

499
00:26:31,080 --> 00:26:34,040
Speaker 1: African soldiers to fight under Scottish officers. It's this whole

500
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:39,000
Speaker 1: it's the whole thing. Yeah, they're not dumb, so uh yeah.

501
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 1: You would think that having been a part of this

502
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:44,480
Speaker 1: like giant scheme that had crashed the entire economy and

503
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:46,560
Speaker 1: cost a bunch of people their lives would have actually

504
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:49,480
Speaker 1: built like a cultural immunity to schemes in Scotland. But

505
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 1: it just made them feel like they had a shame

506
00:26:51,560 --> 00:26:53,919
Speaker 1: to wipe out. And McGregor took advantage of that. He

507
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 1: pointed out that colonizing ployer would like, this will wipe

508
00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:59,120
Speaker 1: out the shame of Darien, Like nobody's gonna talking about

509
00:26:59,160 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 1: Darien because you're gonna up Poier. People are gonna be like,

510
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 1: oh those Scots, they're so good at colonizing. So gregor

511
00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 1: was flooded with applicants and he happily set to work

512
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,680
Speaker 1: hiring and refitting a small fleet of boats for the journey.

513
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:16,320
Speaker 1: The first one set sail in September with seventy immigrants aboard.

514
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:18,520
Speaker 1: These were to be the vanguard. They were there to

515
00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:21,440
Speaker 1: prepare the way for everybody else now. Gregor, of course,

516
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:23,720
Speaker 1: stayed behind to prepare the next wave of ships, and

517
00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:26,600
Speaker 1: in his stead he promoted the most gullible of the settlers,

518
00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,800
Speaker 1: commissioning a former British Army officer named Hector Hall as

519
00:27:29,840 --> 00:27:33,000
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel of the fictional second Native Regiment of Foot.

520
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:36,679
Speaker 1: Gregor even generously made him the Lieutenant governor to and

521
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,680
Speaker 1: granted him a twelve thousand, eight hundred acre estate that

522
00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:44,360
Speaker 1: again absolutely did not exists. You're king of everything, now

523
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:48,080
Speaker 1: get to work. Now do all the stuff for me.

524
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 1: So the second wave of colonists would depart in November

525
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 1: after their ship was refit to carry two fifty people.

526
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,320
Speaker 1: Uh and while Gregor waited, he designed and printed his

527
00:27:57,359 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: own poiis and currency and started handing it out to

528
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:02,639
Speaker 1: colon in exchange for their gold from the land that

529
00:28:02,680 --> 00:28:05,359
Speaker 1: never was quote. The new world of their dreams suddenly

530
00:28:05,359 --> 00:28:07,639
Speaker 1: became a very real world as the men accepted the

531
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:10,080
Speaker 1: kaseque's dollar notes with the coat of arms the crest

532
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:12,439
Speaker 1: of the Bank of Poier and the promise that on

533
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: demand or three months after sight in the option of

534
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,440
Speaker 1: the government to Poier, one hard dollar will be paid

535
00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:19,880
Speaker 1: to the bearer at the bank office in St. Joseph.

536
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:22,359
Speaker 1: The people who had bought land and who had planned

537
00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:24,359
Speaker 1: to take their savings with them in coin, were also

538
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:27,520
Speaker 1: delighted to exchange their gold for the legal currency of poet.

539
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 1: He loved to print the money, to print money. McGregor,

540
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: didya give me your real money? It's a it's a

541
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 1: good scheme. It's oh, you're you gotta get on a boat.

542
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:42,800
Speaker 1: All that gold is heavy, you know, it's not heavy,

543
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:48,800
Speaker 1: These totally real dollars. Oh yeah, real as hell they are.

544
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 1: So just as the refitting neared completion, disaster struck. See

545
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 1: the financial market that had gotten so bullish and investing

546
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:01,840
Speaker 1: in all these south amera in bonds started to get

547
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:06,320
Speaker 1: a little bit like antsy because the Colombian government basically

548
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:10,240
Speaker 1: basically the Colombian government wrote a letter or something to

549
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 1: England being like, hey, you know the guy who's been

550
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 1: saying he's our representative, Like he didn't actually have the

551
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 1: right to to to ask for a loan. We were

552
00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:23,280
Speaker 1: not really sure what's going on here. So this worries

553
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 1: the people who had invested shiploads of money in Colombia,

554
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:30,239
Speaker 1: and like a panic takes ahold of the market. Uh.

555
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 1: And this spreads to the holders of Chilean and Peruvian

556
00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:34,440
Speaker 1: bonds and they start to be like warnings in the

557
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 1: press that um, people might like, yeah, people might have

558
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:41,760
Speaker 1: might be about to lose all of their money. Um.

559
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,360
Speaker 1: So the bubble bursts and people stopped buying Gregor's bonds,

560
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 1: which he had not sold all of the bonds he

561
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:49,560
Speaker 1: was trying to issue, so he's in a cash crunch. Now,

562
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:52,080
Speaker 1: this didn't halt colonization because he had a bunch of

563
00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 1: money that he had gotten from these people who are

564
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:56,800
Speaker 1: buying fake land from him. Um. But so he had

565
00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:59,240
Speaker 1: to like rush along and send you know, hundreds of

566
00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:02,720
Speaker 1: people off on these two boats uh, and then travel

567
00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 1: back to London to find a way to grift more money.

568
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:06,240
Speaker 1: And it's funny the way he does this. He meets

569
00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 1: this like British Army officer who's like a very rich

570
00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:11,440
Speaker 1: and famous man in London and offers him a place

571
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 1: to stay, and Gregor becomes good friends with him, and

572
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,520
Speaker 1: he's like, hey, I'll make you the ambassador to poi

573
00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:18,680
Speaker 1: A if you like help me get some bank loans

574
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:24,960
Speaker 1: and ship you can be the other king. So while

575
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,680
Speaker 1: he's doing this. The first shipload of colonists land at

576
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: Poier in early and they were immediately surprised by a

577
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:35,120
Speaker 1: couple of things. For one thing, there was no European

578
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:37,280
Speaker 1: style capital right at the edge of the harbor like

579
00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 1: the drawings that Gregor had showed them had depicted. In fact,

580
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 1: there were no signs, no roads, no buildings, no signs

581
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,680
Speaker 1: of what they called civilization at all. And there's also

582
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,080
Speaker 1: no signs of the friendly natives that they've been promised

583
00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:52,720
Speaker 1: were eagerly awaiting them. There's no people that they see

584
00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:55,520
Speaker 1: at first. The first wave of guys splash ashore and

585
00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:57,880
Speaker 1: they're just kind of baffled. The landes beautiful, but it's

586
00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:00,720
Speaker 1: completely undeveloped and there's no way to like there's no

587
00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 1: clear way to make farms there. You'd have to chop

588
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 1: down hundreds of trees and like put in soil and everything. Like, so, yeah,

589
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 1: this would not have been an impossible task. Like obviously

590
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:13,920
Speaker 1: you could have turned this land into land that had

591
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 1: farms and shipped on it if the expedition there had

592
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:20,120
Speaker 1: been filled with people who were like ready to do that,

593
00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 1: like a bunch of experienced woodsmen and young farmers who

594
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,479
Speaker 1: like were were used to hard work and expecting it.

595
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:28,840
Speaker 1: But the party that Gregor had sent to be the

596
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,560
Speaker 1: first people in the poyer consisted of only a couple

597
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,240
Speaker 1: of veteran soldiers and younger farmers with any sort of

598
00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 1: experience with hard work. The rest of the party was

599
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:40,200
Speaker 1: a mix of lawyers, artisans, a banker, and one young

600
00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:42,640
Speaker 1: man who Gregor had promised would be the first theater

601
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:49,600
Speaker 1: director on the island of Poi. Yeah, there's yeah. And

602
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: there were some other farmers, but most of them were

603
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 1: old men who, like had hoped that they'd get to

604
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:56,880
Speaker 1: retire in a place that Gregor had promised that Gregor

605
00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:59,720
Speaker 1: had told them that, like the climate employer extends, the

606
00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: lie was of English people's. And then there were clerks

607
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:08,200
Speaker 1: who were supposed to staff the empty government offices in

608
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 1: a capital that did not exist. So this was not

609
00:32:12,440 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 1: the crew of people you would pick to build civilization

610
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: from the ground up using nothing but hand tools, right Like,

611
00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 1: these aren't the folks who are going to clear cut

612
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:24,760
Speaker 1: forests and start farms from nothing. Oh my god, these

613
00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:29,080
Speaker 1: are the influencer girls. Yeah, these are a lot of influencers,

614
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:31,040
Speaker 1: right Like, there's a lot of people who basically thought

615
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 1: like basically a lot of people who are like middle

616
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:35,120
Speaker 1: class and upper middle class and who were told like,

617
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:37,600
Speaker 1: you want to be aristocrats, you move here, you can

618
00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 1: be like the new aristocracy of this new country. And

619
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,320
Speaker 1: then like, ah, there's no country, sorry, but you are

620
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,680
Speaker 1: still aristocracy. Look, you you can rule that tree. Yeah,

621
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:50,280
Speaker 1: you can rule those leaves. You're the richest guy in

622
00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 1: the woods, according to the fake dollars I gave you

623
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:55,960
Speaker 1: that you can use nowhere. Because there's no one here

624
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:59,800
Speaker 1: you cannot use. So there were people. There were natives,

625
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 1: and some of the natives were friendly, but others weren't,

626
00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:04,160
Speaker 1: and like none of them had any desire to work

627
00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:06,640
Speaker 1: for white people, like because they were doing their own thing.

628
00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 1: They're like, well, like we're fine, we already have lines,

629
00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:13,320
Speaker 1: like what do you guys are all dying, Like we don't,

630
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:15,719
Speaker 1: we don't want to, like nobody wants to take advice

631
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 1: from you. For white people to think that people want

632
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:21,840
Speaker 1: to work for them, like, of course they want to

633
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:26,200
Speaker 1: work for us, but nothing. Well, this is where we

634
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:28,280
Speaker 1: get to the thing about this, that is this a

635
00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 1: beautiful piece of historic irony because all of the white

636
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 1: men here, they weren't particularly bad within sort of the

637
00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:37,280
Speaker 1: context of their cultures. But they all had the same

638
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:39,840
Speaker 1: thing that basically all white Europeans had, which is this

639
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:44,560
Speaker 1: belief that like they inherently knew how to be civilized

640
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:47,280
Speaker 1: in a way that other peoples of the world didn't,

641
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 1: and like, that's why they should take all this land

642
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 1: from these people, is they knew how to civilize it.

643
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,720
Speaker 1: And so finally, a group of these people who believe

644
00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 1: that they were who believed that they were going to

645
00:33:57,640 --> 00:33:59,840
Speaker 1: help a bunch of poor, non white people learn how

646
00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 1: to be civilized, this group of people finds themselves in

647
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 1: a land that's actually truly wild and undeveloped, and so

648
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:10,120
Speaker 1: it was like, okay, guys, like you're here, are you're

649
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:12,839
Speaker 1: gonna make a civilization? Now? Can you do it? And

650
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,480
Speaker 1: of course not. They all completely fucking collapsed because there

651
00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:17,520
Speaker 1: was nothing for them to just take over and steal.

652
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:20,160
Speaker 1: They actually would have had to build civilization from the

653
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 1: ground up, and none of them were ready to do that. Right.

654
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 1: They're like, we did that once and then everything from

655
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:29,560
Speaker 1: everybody else. Yeah, and we didn't, like people like a

656
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:32,480
Speaker 1: thousand years ago did that once, and we've just been

657
00:34:32,600 --> 00:34:35,600
Speaker 1: kind of coasting, Like I'm gonna be honest. We stole

658
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 1: guns from China and it's been easy. So some of

659
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 1: this was the fault of the lieutenant governor who refused

660
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:46,360
Speaker 1: to lead his party to higher ground and build permanent structures.

661
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:48,840
Speaker 1: See midway through the unloading of the equipment, they brought

662
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:50,759
Speaker 1: a storm and hit the coast, and the captain of

663
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:52,719
Speaker 1: the boat that dropped them there used this as an

664
00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:55,320
Speaker 1: excuse to abandon them and sell the rest of their stuff.

665
00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:01,440
Speaker 1: And the governor, Yeah, the governor couldn't believe he had

666
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 1: been abandoned, and he wanted everyone to stay close to

667
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:05,480
Speaker 1: shore because he thought a boat was coming back to

668
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,319
Speaker 1: rescue them, that there had been some mistake. And he's

669
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:10,440
Speaker 1: there is one there is like there is like an

670
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 1: actual town that's like a a several days journey away,

671
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:16,920
Speaker 1: that's where like the actual king of the Mosquito Coast

672
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:20,080
Speaker 1: is based out of. And like there's some civilization you

673
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 1: know by the European terms there, but it's not very big.

674
00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:25,600
Speaker 1: They don't have any interest in taking these people's money.

675
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:28,319
Speaker 1: And they certainly like when they talked to this guy

676
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:31,680
Speaker 1: who suppose has supposedly this king who supposedly made Gregor

677
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:33,879
Speaker 1: prince and He's like, I don't know what the funk

678
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:35,880
Speaker 1: you're talking about. Like I gave that dude some land,

679
00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:38,800
Speaker 1: but like I was not, like nobody, nobody wants you

680
00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:41,000
Speaker 1: all to civilize us, Like what do you what's what?

681
00:35:41,160 --> 00:35:45,560
Speaker 1: What's going on here? Yeah, so they're kind of fucked. Yeah,

682
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: you know who isn't kind of fucked though? The products

683
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:59,040
Speaker 1: and services that support this podcast. Oh we're back. So

684
00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:03,240
Speaker 1: these people have just realized that they've been drifted um,

685
00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:05,799
Speaker 1: and that there's no country for them and that they're

686
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:09,799
Speaker 1: alone in the wilderness with dwindling supplies um. And so

687
00:36:09,880 --> 00:36:12,080
Speaker 1: for months they did very little. They were just kind

688
00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:14,160
Speaker 1: of waiting for the second colony ship and a chance

689
00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:16,719
Speaker 1: to escape. Some of them hunted for meat, others dug

690
00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:20,120
Speaker 1: holes in the sand to collect semi drinkable water. Uh,

691
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:22,239
Speaker 1: they didn't have any rum, which was used to clean

692
00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:25,320
Speaker 1: water back then. So everybody starts getting sick. And eventually

693
00:36:25,360 --> 00:36:27,360
Speaker 1: the second boat does arrive a lot with two d

694
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:30,840
Speaker 1: fifty new colonists, and you know, they realized that something's

695
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:33,160
Speaker 1: gone wrong. But the boat that took them wasn't hired

696
00:36:33,200 --> 00:36:34,919
Speaker 1: to take them back, and they didn't have any money

697
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,280
Speaker 1: because their only money is fake. So they're all stuck

698
00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:41,319
Speaker 1: to um. So I had to try to finess on

699
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 1: that boat up but like y'all whatever is great, y'all

700
00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:47,880
Speaker 1: just go head up that way. Okay, I'm gonna go

701
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:53,000
Speaker 1: to the boat. So they're they're a little fucked um

702
00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:54,680
Speaker 1: with all the new blood that's just come in. They

703
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:57,440
Speaker 1: briefly try to like build permanent structures. They try to

704
00:36:57,480 --> 00:36:59,719
Speaker 1: chop down pine trees and float them on the river

705
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 1: down to their camp, which is a thing that like

706
00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:03,799
Speaker 1: people do. That's how you get big trees. That's how

707
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:06,360
Speaker 1: you moved him in this period, And that would have

708
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:08,400
Speaker 1: been a good idea if they'd known what they were doing.

709
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:10,800
Speaker 1: But you said, you have to drain the pine resin

710
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:12,680
Speaker 1: out of a tree like that before you can float it,

711
00:37:12,719 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 1: because otherwise it won't float. All their logs sink. So

712
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:18,879
Speaker 1: they realized their mistake and they start tapping the resin

713
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:21,640
Speaker 1: out of pine trees, which takes a long time and

714
00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:25,080
Speaker 1: doesn't isn't done before the rainy season, and because they're dumb,

715
00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 1: they throw all the reson away rather than using it

716
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:28,920
Speaker 1: to seal the roofs of the huts that they built,

717
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:31,399
Speaker 1: because again they don't know what the funk they're doing.

718
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 1: So the rainy season comes and they all get soaked,

719
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 1: and they all get sick, and all their kids start

720
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:38,239
Speaker 1: to die, and then the old people start to die.

721
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:41,600
Speaker 1: The guy who got Like one of the real tragedies

722
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: is that there was a guy who Gregor Condon to

723
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,520
Speaker 1: buying his way on, who was a shoemaker and was

724
00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 1: promised he was going to be the first shoemaker and

725
00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:51,880
Speaker 1: all of POI like get to establish Yeah, which he was,

726
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:54,239
Speaker 1: and he shot himself to death when he realized he'd

727
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:57,760
Speaker 1: been gripped um blew his brains out with a musket. Yeah,

728
00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: very sad. So all of the people who were supposed

729
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:04,040
Speaker 1: to be in charge of this endeavor, all of the professionals,

730
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,840
Speaker 1: the former military officers, the civil servants, the kind of

731
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:08,960
Speaker 1: the people who are planning to be the aristocracy of

732
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:12,200
Speaker 1: this new society, completely failed to take a hand in

733
00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 1: building an actual survivable settlement. Instead, they vested all of

734
00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:19,040
Speaker 1: their hopes and the lieutenant governor who made regular trips

735
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:21,000
Speaker 1: to the only settlement Poyer to try to find some

736
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,839
Speaker 1: ship to take them home. They didn't. They just had

737
00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 1: no interest in actually attempting to make the best of

738
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,759
Speaker 1: their circumstances because they didn't know how to bring civilization

739
00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:32,400
Speaker 1: to a place. They just knew how to exploit people

740
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:36,879
Speaker 1: when there was already civilization. David Sinclair writes, quote, they

741
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:38,680
Speaker 1: had been led to believe that they would find homes

742
00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:41,279
Speaker 1: inter near a great city that was essentially European in

743
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:43,920
Speaker 1: style and peopled by men and women like themselves, including

744
00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:46,359
Speaker 1: English and Americans, and the event the only people they

745
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:48,920
Speaker 1: found living in Poyer, aside from the natives, were too

746
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:52,240
Speaker 1: eccentric Americans named Murray and Winship, who had built themselves

747
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 1: a farm in the hills behind the Black Lagoon a

748
00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:56,319
Speaker 1: couple of years earlier. I kind of think those guys

749
00:38:56,400 --> 00:39:00,480
Speaker 1: might have been gay and just like escaping, Well, this

750
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,479
Speaker 1: is just the like we're gay, the world's terrible, Let's

751
00:39:03,480 --> 00:39:05,680
Speaker 1: go live alone in the middle of nowhere on a farm.

752
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:08,640
Speaker 1: Seems like, yeah, yeah, it's a good good I whish

753
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:10,319
Speaker 1: I hope things worked out for them. I don't know

754
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,920
Speaker 1: anything else about them, so it was hardly surprising then

755
00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:16,680
Speaker 1: when the likes of Colonel Hall, the civil servants, the

756
00:39:16,719 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 1: officer class, and the manager of the National Bank of

757
00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:22,480
Speaker 1: Poyer realized that they had been comprehensively duped. Their first

758
00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:25,000
Speaker 1: thought should have been to escape from the inhospitable wilderness

759
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:27,919
Speaker 1: in which McGregor's deception had deposited them. On the other hand,

760
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:29,920
Speaker 1: there can be no doubt that part of the tragedy

761
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:31,960
Speaker 1: of Poier was the failure of the men, who, through

762
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:34,759
Speaker 1: their societal position alone, would have been regarded as the

763
00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:37,440
Speaker 1: national leaders of the group, to adjust the uncomfortable and

764
00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:40,480
Speaker 1: dangerous circumstance created by McGregor's lives, and to show some

765
00:39:40,560 --> 00:39:43,480
Speaker 1: of the capacity for leadership that might have been expected

766
00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:45,880
Speaker 1: of them. Instead, when the conditions they found on their

767
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,520
Speaker 1: arrival did not correspond in any way to those promised,

768
00:39:49,239 --> 00:39:51,600
Speaker 1: they took the view that because the authority conferred upon

769
00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:54,080
Speaker 1: them my McGregor was obviously as bogus as the country

770
00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:56,200
Speaker 1: he described, it was no business of theirs to try

771
00:39:56,239 --> 00:40:01,800
Speaker 1: to compensate for his betrayal. Basically, they totally dropped all responsibility.

772
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 1: When they thought they were going to be in charge

773
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:05,919
Speaker 1: of a country that was already ready built, they were

774
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:08,520
Speaker 1: they were ready to be responsible. When they realized they

775
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:11,120
Speaker 1: were in a dangerous situation, none of them were willing

776
00:40:11,160 --> 00:40:13,680
Speaker 1: to do anything. They took all their badges off through

777
00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:16,080
Speaker 1: the jacket down. No, No, I'm not in charge of ship.

778
00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:18,960
Speaker 1: What are you talking about? Yeah, And there's there's a

779
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,520
Speaker 1: part of this story that kind of reveals how fundamentally

780
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 1: hollow the social structure of the British Empire really was.

781
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:26,960
Speaker 1: These colonists had been left in a bad position, but

782
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:29,279
Speaker 1: not an unsurvivable one. They had a year's worth of

783
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:32,880
Speaker 1: food rations, they had two doctors, medical supplies, tools and guns.

784
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:36,640
Speaker 1: They could have built a survivable community, but they weren't

785
00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:38,719
Speaker 1: to community. They had no desire to be one. There

786
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:40,239
Speaker 1: were a bunch of people who wanted to get rich

787
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:42,440
Speaker 1: quick and make non white natives do all of the

788
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,759
Speaker 1: hard work. As one survival survivor of the expedition, of

789
00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:48,880
Speaker 1: the expedition, James Hasty later noted, I do not wish

790
00:40:48,920 --> 00:40:51,160
Speaker 1: to say anything rashly, but instead of attending to make

791
00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:53,920
Speaker 1: us comfortable, it seemed as if everyone was for his

792
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,760
Speaker 1: own hand, was in it for himself. Even the boards

793
00:40:56,760 --> 00:40:58,600
Speaker 1: and timber used for fitting up our births and the

794
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:02,759
Speaker 1: ship were mostly sold or delivered. Basically like they had

795
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:04,640
Speaker 1: this wood that was used to build births in the

796
00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:06,319
Speaker 1: ship that they took out of the boat when they

797
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:09,399
Speaker 1: landed to build homes with. But instead of building homes,

798
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:11,520
Speaker 1: the people in charge sold It's that they could buy

799
00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:14,640
Speaker 1: some manner of luxuries from the local like they're like.

800
00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:16,799
Speaker 1: Nobody took care of each other. It was just like

801
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:20,279
Speaker 1: this complete. It was every man for himself. Now, A

802
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:22,520
Speaker 1: couple of the braver souls left to make a five

803
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:25,359
Speaker 1: mile journey to a British colony in Honduras to try

804
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:27,279
Speaker 1: to get help. And this was noble for them, but

805
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:29,799
Speaker 1: it meant that like the most decent and competent men

806
00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 1: in the whole expedition weren't there anymore. So by the

807
00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:36,279
Speaker 1: end of April, as James wrote, quote, sick sickness and

808
00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:39,320
Speaker 1: despondency was so general that few were able or willing

809
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:41,759
Speaker 1: to make any exertion. And I am sorry to have

810
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:43,839
Speaker 1: to have to add that many of those who were

811
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 1: still well plundered instead of assisted their sick brethren, and

812
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:50,040
Speaker 1: likewise plundered the public stores of anything they could conveniently

813
00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:54,080
Speaker 1: lay their hands upon. They robbed them. They were planning

814
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:56,600
Speaker 1: to rob other people, they wound up robbing themselves, and

815
00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:58,680
Speaker 1: in the end more than two thirds of them died

816
00:41:59,440 --> 00:42:02,920
Speaker 1: just a couple of months. Yeah, the traumatized survivors were

817
00:42:02,960 --> 00:42:06,440
Speaker 1: eventually rescued by a passing ship, which was fortunate because

818
00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:09,560
Speaker 1: as they were rescued, Gregor had dispatched five more ships

819
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,440
Speaker 1: filled with like a thousand other people men, women and

820
00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:15,840
Speaker 1: children to a colony that had become a graveyard. The

821
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:18,479
Speaker 1: British Navy was thankfully able to recall these boats before

822
00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:24,960
Speaker 1: anyone else died. Sending people over there, of course he was.

823
00:42:25,080 --> 00:42:27,840
Speaker 1: He's a grifter. He ain't done grift. Maybe he thought

824
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:30,360
Speaker 1: the first people would actually just buck up and start

825
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:32,960
Speaker 1: building something so that by the time the other people

826
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:38,000
Speaker 1: got there they saw something in progress that did not happen. Yeah.

827
00:42:38,239 --> 00:42:40,920
Speaker 1: If I keep sending people over, eventually it will be

828
00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:46,000
Speaker 1: true that there's a settlement there. He's not wrong, Yeah,

829
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:51,239
Speaker 1: because they'll die otherwise. Yeah. So, by autumn of eighty three,

830
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:53,480
Speaker 1: the story of what had really happened at Poyer had

831
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:56,880
Speaker 1: hit London, and McGregor's response was to do what McGregor

832
00:42:56,920 --> 00:43:00,759
Speaker 1: did treat. Yeah. He fled to France, where he tried

833
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:02,759
Speaker 1: to do the same trick again and it tried to

834
00:43:02,800 --> 00:43:05,759
Speaker 1: get more colonists to go to Poier. He he got

835
00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:08,880
Speaker 1: about sixty people to sign up and pay him. But

836
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:12,000
Speaker 1: even thankfully, like Paris isn't that far from London, the

837
00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:14,759
Speaker 1: authorities there figured out what was happening, uh, and they

838
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:16,879
Speaker 1: got they got wind of what was going on really

839
00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:19,840
Speaker 1: when French settlers started applying for passports to a country

840
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:24,520
Speaker 1: that wasn't real. So there's an investigation. He gets imprisoned,

841
00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:26,800
Speaker 1: but being McGregor, he's able to kind of get himself

842
00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 1: out of incarceration. But that was his last trick. Um.

843
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:33,040
Speaker 1: He was left in financial debt to his investors, and

844
00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:35,520
Speaker 1: his repeated attempts to find more buyers for his fake

845
00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:39,080
Speaker 1: POI Asian bond failed to sell for some inexplicable reason.

846
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:41,279
Speaker 1: He tried to go back home to Edinburgh, but he

847
00:43:41,320 --> 00:43:43,000
Speaker 1: was caught by some of the people he'd coned and

848
00:43:43,040 --> 00:43:45,359
Speaker 1: he was forced to flee Scotland for the only place

849
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:48,799
Speaker 1: that would accept him Caracas, where he was still a

850
00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:52,880
Speaker 1: war hero and his status is that guaranteed him uh

851
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:55,759
Speaker 1: kind of a place to live basically, but not much more.

852
00:43:55,960 --> 00:44:01,160
Speaker 1: He died penniless in December of eighteen forty five. Wow, Yeah,

853
00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:03,920
Speaker 1: he had come up so much. If you hadn't just

854
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:07,239
Speaker 1: go to that last I'm gonna sell y'all a break country.

855
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:11,320
Speaker 1: He could have just lived his life out rich dollars

856
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:19,399
Speaker 1: are proud like, wow, ye can't stop, won't stop, can't

857
00:44:19,640 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 1: That's that's the scammer thing, right, That's how they all

858
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:25,400
Speaker 1: get caught, because like, you have to be able to

859
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:27,759
Speaker 1: walk away. It's like gambling. You have to know when

860
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:30,960
Speaker 1: you're up. You just gotta. That's how you win at gambling.

861
00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:33,680
Speaker 1: There's no other way to win a gambling but leaving

862
00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:41,840
Speaker 1: deep well, plug your pluggable. Speaking of scams, yeah, it

863
00:44:41,920 --> 00:44:45,200
Speaker 1: would be like robbery. You like company scam got his podcast.

864
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:47,480
Speaker 1: You could buy me a d I V A l

865
00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:52,480
Speaker 1: A c I DVA Lacey on all platforms, Robert, when

866
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:56,640
Speaker 1: they find you, Oh no no, I can't be found Hills.

867
00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:01,000
Speaker 1: That's when I thought, yeah you can. You can. You

868
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:06,320
Speaker 1: can find this podcast at Bastard's pod on all the things. Yeah.

869
00:45:08,080 --> 00:45:19,040
Speaker 1: H h m hm